Title: All at Sea

Summary: Post Santos Administration AU. Josh and Donna are married and have a daughter. They are on vacation following Josh having a heart attack and retiring.

Genre: Drama

Pairing. Josh/Donna

Disclaimers: I own nothing.

Part 1.

The gentle action of the water was amazingly relaxing. He wondered fleetingly why he had always resisted when invited to go sailing before. He knew why.

Work.

Always too busy.

Never enough time.

Until now.

Oh yes, now he had the time, time for anything and everything. That is as long as it was not too energetic or stressful. Something that might put pressure on his those fragile blood vessels supplying his heart.

No, he could not go through that again. One heart attack was enough. The pain, the fear and, worst of all, the look on their faces. The two most important people in his life. The two people he would never deliberately hurt. The look of devastation as he collapsed in front of them, clutching at his chest, barely able to breathe. No, he would never do that again if he could help it.

He had made changes, given up his stressful world of politics, began to write a book, and now they were taking a long vacation. On a boat in the middle of nowhere; Sam's idea of course.

He looked to the side at the table and reached out for his wallet he saw lying there. Opening it he smiled, full dimples, as he looked at the picture he had gazed at countless times before. His beautiful blonde wife and his equally beautiful blonde daughter smiled out from the small picture. One with straight hair, the other a head of unruly curls and dimples to match her father's.

"You are meant to be resting." Donna teased as she made room for her slim hips on the bed next to Josh. She took the wallet from him and smiled when she saw what he was looking at. Putting it back on the bedside table she leaned down and gently kissed him on the lips.

He reached up and entwined his fingers in her hair, deepening the kiss. Eventually they pulled apart, slightly breathless, smiling at each other.

"I love you so much Donnatella." He was serious now, needing her to know the depth of his feelings.

"I know honey, just as much as I love you." She replied understanding his need to speak the words.

"Mummy! Daddy! Are you kissing again?" A young female voice questioned as if kissing was not a nice thing to do, well not horrible, but her parents did seem to do it an awful lot especially since daddy came out of the hospital.

"And why can't we kiss Bex?" Donna turned to their six year old daughter Rebecca with raised eyebrows.

"You are always kissing Daddy." Bex climbed on to the bed and curled herself against her father. Her favourite place to be.

"Well I'll have to remedy that won't I young lady!" Josh turned and kissed and tickled his daughter until she screamed for mercy.

The evening was warm and the water like a millpond. Josh was sure he was going to be sick on this trip and he and Donna had been pleasantly surprised when the expected seasickness never materialised; so much for his sensitive system.

He sat tolerating an after dinner decaf and enjoying the feel of Donna sitting between his legs on the deck lounger. Every so often he would lean down and lightly kiss her neck and she would squeeze his hand and sigh contentedly. Bex was asleep in her cabin. The Captain and two man crew were doing their thing. Life was good as they gazed over the water.

He woke to the sound of voices. Angry voices on the deck above. He turned to see if Donna was awake but she was not there. Starting to panic he jumped out of bed and hurried to check on Bex his feeling of unease growing. He met her at her door as she was coming to find him having heard the noise.

"Bex I don't know what is happening but I want you to go and hide in your room and don't come out until I come to get you." She began to protest, but he carried her back inside. "Honey I need you to be brave, please stay here and hide. Will you do that for me sweetheart?" She nodded. He kissed her and made sure she locked the door after he left.

The voices had got fainter and then he heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. He paused momentarily taking a deep breath before making his way carefully to the entrance to the deck. It was took all he had to stop himself running out on to the deck to find Donna, but he had to think of her and Bex.

Slowly he raised his head and looked out hoping to see Donna. Seeing no one, he crept all the way out shielding himself behind some storage containers. He was truly panicking now; he could not see Donna anywhere but some sense within told him that he had to tread carefully. Something was wrong and he prayed that he would not find his precious Donnatella shot.

He made his way round the deck and stumbled across one of the crew who was dead. Josh's heart began to beat faster as he felt the panic and fear rise. He tried to breathe and stumbled on, finding the Captain. He was badly injured and even Josh could tell there was nothing that could be done for him.

"Where's Donna?" Josh leaned down and pulled the dying man's mouth to his ear. "Where is she?" He demanded forcefully.

"Took…her." He gasped.

"Who took her? What do you mean?" Josh was frantic.

"P...pirates. B...blonde women g…get m…money."

Pulling back Josh stared at the man's face. "They're going to get money for her?"

The Captain nodded feebly. "Head s…south w…west. F…follow them. N...not far." Then his head fell to the deck and he was gone. Josh just continued staring at him. Then he realised he had to move. Time was of the essence. Shaking he ran to speak to Bex.

"Hey baby it's Daddy, open the door." She ran into his arms as he scooped her up.

"Daddy what's happening? Where's Mummy?"

"I need you to be very brave. I need you to stay down here while I do something up on deck. Please Bex, just 10 minutes." He ran back up to the deck knowing he had to get rid of the bodies to protect his daughter.

Steeling himself he dragged the bodies and threw them overboard, apologising for the lack of dignity as he did so. Just as he had finished he saw Bex coming out on to the deck.

"Rebecca I told you to stay down below." His tone was sharp as a chill ran down his spine at the thought of what she might have seen a few minutes earlier.

"Daddy I was scared." Tears were falling down her cheeks as she stood at the top of the steps to the cabins.

Swallowing back his own tears Josh went to his daughter and gathered her in his arms. "I'm sorry baby."

"Daddy, where's Mummy?" Bex pulled away to look her father in the eyes.

Gulping Josh considered his answer. "Honey we have to be very brave, the bravest we have ever been. Some men came on the boat and took Mummy with them. We have to go and find her."

"Is she dead?" Bex whispered the last word. Grandma Lyman had died last year, she knew what dead was.

"No honey, but we have to find her. I need your help. We are going to have to be strong and take this boat to her."

"Can you drive the boat Daddy?"

"I guess I'll have to learn quickly." Wondering to himself just how did you 'drive' a boat?

TBC.

Let me know what you think.