HOW TO QUIT YOUR JOB
This is just a one-shot about a different way for Donna to tell Josh she was quitting. Fluffy one-shot only.
DISCLAIMER: Aaron Sorkin is amazing and I intend no disrespect to him or his characters. I hope he doesn't mind that I just borrowed them for a little bit.
Thanks to TurquoiseDragonfly for all her amazing help and encouragement. She's the Best.
Reviews are nice and so are the people who give them.
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Donna entered Josh's office and shut the door. Josh was sitting at his desk studying a file when she told him that his 11am appointment was here. "Ok." When she didn't move he looked up with a slight smirk and a raised eyebrow, "You gonna get whoever it is?" When she just smiled at him, he finally caught on; "You're my next appointment?" He asked with confusion.
He could tell she was nervous. "Yes I am. I need to tell you something and since every time I've tried to talk to you, something always came up, I decided that the best way was to make an appointment. You and I are going to be talking for the next 15 minutes." He opened his mouth to try and cut her off but before he could utter a sound, she continued, "I need you to not interrupt and to listen to me. Don't speak, just nod your head."
Bemused, he nodded his head. She looked him straight in the eyes, took a deep breath in and on the exhale she just blurted it out, "I'm quitting."
His world stopped moving, his brain shut down but his body moved into motion. He jumped out of his chair and came around to the front of his desk. "No", was all he could get out of his mouth.
Donna just rolled her eyes, smiled a little and told him to sit on the sofa. When he didn't move, she finally took hold of his upper arms and pushed him back on to the sofa. "Josh, I'm quitting as your assistant." Before she could get anything else out, he had jumped off the sofa and started to pace his office.
"You can't quit. You just…you can't quit. I won't let you." He sounded matter of fact. No emotion at all; as if just stating it would make it true.
Donna let out a large sigh as she got Josh to sit again. When he started to move as if to get straight back up Donna decided she'd had enough and planted herself on his lap to keep him seated. She wrapped her arms around his neck as if sitting on his lap was something they did every day. Startled and without thought he wrapped his arms around her waist. She watched as what she had done registered in his brain and his eyes dilated, she could feel his heartbeat speed up and his breathing was shallow.
Surprised at her own aggressiveness and with her own heartbeat suddenly racing, she knew she needed to get him back on track. What worked once would work again; she grabbed his earlobe and gave it a tug. "Donna! That hurt."
"Then concentrate and listen to me; Leo will be here soon and we need to finish talking. I can't be your assistant anymore. I'm taking a job working with Ed and Larry."
"Why not?" he whined.
"Because I can't go anywhere in this job; I've outgrown it. The only advancement I have is into your job. And I don't think you will give it up for me and I need more than just making sure your schedule is set and your burgers are burnt."
"But you're leaving me!"
She made sure she had his eyes on hers and that he was focused completely on what she was saying. "No Josh, I'm leaving this job. I'm not leaving you." She felt his arms tighten around her as he buried his face in her neck.
He exhaled into her hair and she felt his shoulders slump as if in defeat before he mumbled "But how will I get along without you here?"
She smiled knowing she had won him over, "I've already trained my replacement; it's Gloria. You like her and know she won't take your crap and will be able to handle the job. I wouldn't leave without making sure you and the work are taken care of."
He took a deep breath, "So how will working for Ed & Larry be different than working for me?"
She was not pleased with his assumption. Forcefully she let him know, "I'm not working FOR Ed or Larry." She continued in a slightly softer voice. "Leo, Ed, Larry and I have talked about it and I'm going to be working on policy and legislative issues with them. They needed the help and even though I don't have the college education, Leo believes I can do this work and I believe so too. I can help you get things done with congress." Then a new thought occurred to her, "Do you think I can't do the work?"
"I know you can do the work! You are amazing, but it won't be the same. I won't see you every day."
"Josh, it's possible that we could still see each other every day. I'll be over in the OEOB but I'm still here if you need me."
He released his hold around her waist and took her face in his hands suddenly feeling desperate. "I need you. I need to see you every day."
Breathlessly, "Josh" was all she said before they started moving toward each other. Their lips never met instead they leaned their foreheads together as Josh realized that he was only losing her as an assistant.
"This actually could be good, huh?" Josh finally let out.
"Yea, it could be very good." Donna replied.
There was a knock on the door and before either of them could move, Leo walked into the office. "Oh Geez you two! Really? You couldn't wait until after work?" His face was screwed up into a stern look with his brow furrowed just long enough for Josh and Donna to regain their composure and realize what position they were in. "So you told him?"
"Yea, I did" Donna answered as she scrambled up from Josh's lap, the bright red color in her cheeks showing how embarrassed she was at having been caught sitting on her boss' lap.
He looked at Josh to see the same bright color in his cheeks. With an internal smirk at the man he considered a son, "You ok with this? 'Cause even if you aren't, it's going to happen anyway."
Josh cleared his throat a couple of times. He finally gave up and got to his feet before answering, "I don't like it, but Donna deserves the chance. She is the best but don't yell at me if I'm not as good as I used to be. Donna always did more for me than set my schedule and make sure my burgers were burnt." Echoing her words from earlier so she knew that he heard what she was saying.
At the implication of Josh's comment about everything she does for him, Donna's eyes got extremely large and a small squeak escaped her mouth. Josh realized what he just said and tried to clear up his comments while looking at the floor, "I mean…I mean…umm work-wise. She IS the best and deserves this chance to really show what she can do."
"Good. Well, don't do what you were doing before in the office again. Save it for after work." With that the gruff old man walked out of the office, a large smile on his face the entire walk back to his own office.
Josh turned to Donna wanting to pull her into a hug but being aware of Leo's warning didn't. Instead he settled for taking her hand in his and giving it a quick squeeze, "I'm taking you out to dinner tonight to celebrate your new job."
"Oh, I like that. Is this a real dinner or take out eaten here?" Donna quarried squeezing his hand in return.
"Real din…nner." The elongated word and the look in his eyes had Donna wondering what was going through his head. Josh continued with a verbal thought said out loud, "Did Leo just say…? Did Leo just give us permis…?" He had a look on his face that one would normally associate with Sam.
When he stopped in the middle of his sentence Donna prompted him, "Did Leo say what?"
"Say that we had his permission to start…? I mean if we wanted to…? Twice he said to save the…" He gestured to the sofa where she had been sitting on his lap and where they had been hugging, "for after work." He looked at Donna wondering if he did read Leo correctly. Did Leo just give them permission?
She smiled with a slight blush gracing her cheeks as she turned and walked towards the office door. She checked her watch, "Your next appointment will be here any minute." She stopped at the door, turned back to him "Hey, Josh?" When he met her eyes, she dazzled him with her full smile, "I'll see you after work" and with that she headed back to her desk to finish her last full day working for Joshua Lyman.