AN: Inspired by Bradley Whitford's love of dogs displayed on his social media and media appearances. Please read and review.
For the first time in a long time, Joshua Lyman was happy in both his professional and personal life.
On the professional side, while there was a steep learning curve for certain aspects of his job as Chief of Staff to the President, Josh was finally at the point in his tenure two years in where he didn't feel like he was playing dress up when Josh met with the Joint Chiefs. Enough progress had been made domestically that he didn't have to worry entirely about the House races that were coming to a head in 5 months and instead could focus on potentially flipping some Senate seats.
It had also helped that he finally felt comfortable enough to allow his staff to do their jobs. After basically being alone for the first three-quarters of the campaign trail, it had still taken a good month and a half post-Inauguration Day for him to come to that state of mind with several people in his life being principal architects in this shift.
On the personal side, he had Donnatella Moss in his life, and things couldn't be better. While the trip to Hawaii hadn't fixed everything, it had made things abundantly clear to both of them that this was something they wanted to fight for. Josh had always been a tactile person, but he felt that he couldn't get enough of just holding Donna, especially now that touching her wasn't forbidden. Donna balanced out his quirks and incapabilities with her own, and he did the same, and they communicated with each other what their problems were, whether they were personal or having to do with their relationship. He had also made sure to do better at his work-life balance.
They also took care of each other, especially with both of their nightmares and relationship failures, making sure that they had time spent just being together in silence or doing something. Josh made sure to focus on her leg and try to encourage the return to the physical therapy she quit too soon from. Additionally, he just tried to be there when her anxieties about her inadequacies flared up. Making sure to reassure her that she was more qualified than half of the people who worked in Washington. Josh was also very skilled at making it clear to anyone working in the Beltway who showed her contempt for stupid reasons how he had become such a major league player in politics at a young age and why they had called him a bulldog.
Donna, on the other hand focused on his overall health; he had lost a lot of weight during the campaign and as a result of having to cut costs, had stopped taking his medications, medications that were integral to physical and mental health. She helped him regain his strength, a healthy weight, and guide him away from the ledge that was a severe cardiac event. She also had helped him grieve for Leo and reassure him that his insecurities were just his mind playing tricks with him and that he was the best Chief of Staff Santos could ask for. And she had also pushed him to regain his relationships with C.J. and on a more covert level, Toby.
One thing he didn't like about his new life, however, was the constant Secret Service detail.
He had never felt comfortable with the fact that there was someone who was willing to risk their life for him, even when he was still just the Deputy Chief of Staff and they had only given him an NSC card. Although, he did like the idea that someone was willing to risk their life for Donna as a result of her being in a committed relationship with him, however, that had been a point of contention between the two of them.
However, due to his being Chief of Staff and the situation in Kazakhstan (which had been becoming less and less like a powder keg that was about to explode, but there was still a mass of troops on the ground and hence was still very delicate), he had to have an increased security presence. The two people in his detail were very nice people and he had gotten to know them quite well outside of the protector-protectee dynamic.
This presence also meant that his riding of the Metro wasn't highly appreciated and it resulted in him either driving his car with an agent in front of him and an agent behind him, being driven to the Georgetown apartment he shared with Donna or walking.
Although, as he exited the White House at 1:30 am to find himself in the pouring rain, he decided at that moment that he appreciated the detail. This was due to the fact that he wouldn't have to walk back to his apartment in the rain since he was, unfortunately, much more susceptible to catching a cold or the flu as a result of the shooting. And Donna would not be happy nor sympathetic in two days when she came back from a cross-country trip that she was on with the First Lady to find him sick.
As Josh got in the car and they began to drive off the premises of the White House, he leaned his head against the window trying to his best to stay awake. Donna and the First Lady were in California, and so when he got inside, he wanted to be able to call her and not have to worry about his yawns muffling her regaling him with what happened that day before she went to bed herself. Washington D.C blurred by, and soon he was in front of their apartment.
"We're here, sir. Are you willing to wait here for a minute while we check the premises?"
Josh nodded his assent, familiar with the routine by now, but got out of the car. It had stopped raining and the sooner he could get inside the better so that he could turn on CNN and see what was going on in the other part of the world (events that he knew would be briefed on in the morning or during the night if necessary, regardless).
The agent was making his way down his porch stairs when all of a sudden a clattering sound came from the alley next to his apartment — a point of contention for the Secret Service. The agent on the stairs quickly reached towards his concealed weapon and the agent in the car got out.
The clattering sound got louder and closer.
"Mr. Lyman, please step back into the car for a moment."
Josh sighed exasperatedly, "Roger it's probably a raccoon. God knows what Donna's mom puts in those cookies of hers that makes them inedible to humans but irresistible to raccoons." He slid open his BlackBerry and increased the brightness level. "See nothing human-sized and nothing...hey something is breathing down there..."
"Mr. Lyman, please step back in the car."
"It's small looking, and it's not going to get me. I want to see what it is."
Josh dropped his backpack in the car and started to walk towards the alley and the agent on the stairs scrambling to follow him. He could hear Leo in his head sternly reprimanding him for not cooperating with the people in charge of protecting him, but he shook it away. There was nothing to be afraid of.
As he got closer to where the noise had been, the clattering had stopped and been replaced with a whimpering. Whimpering that was coming from underneath a wet cardboard box next to the dumpster.
Josh slowly picked the cardboard box up and immediately saw, what appeared at first glance, to be a scraggly mess of wet fur, petrified eyes, mud-drenched limbs.
It was also the most adorable thing Josh had ever seen.
"Roger? Will? Is my apartment clear? We need to bring this little guy inside."
Josh Lyman had always loved animals.
When he was seven, they had a cat who tended to hiss at him in the morning and then cuddle up to him at night. When Joanie died, the cat gave him lots of comforts. When he was older, his dad got a dog. And while Rebecca Lyman's plan was for the dog to help curb Noah's tendency of yelling at the squirrels on the weekends, it backfired when she saw her husband not only yelling at the squirrels but chasing after them with the dog. And ultimately get chased by the squirrels.
However, he had never had that much time for animals. He had been non-stop since he was 17 and being non-stop meant no time for animals.
Now that life had settled down a bit though, and he knew that life hadn't settled all that much down at all, maybe he could finally have time for them. Besides, he knew Donna loved animals just as much as he did.
So as Josh washed the dog inside the shower using the dish soap that all the commercials on tv said helped with animals after oil spills and the scraggly, adorable mess turned into the simply adorable mess, he knew that there was no way he was giving this dog up. He dried the dog, using a mixture of old towels and Donna's hairdryer, and once he was finished, he felt his heart melt completely.
The female dog, now clean of mud, was a beautiful brown color with a white patch of fur on its chest, white paws that made it look like the dog was wearing socks, and the gorgeous brown eyes. The dog only seemed a year or two old because she was about medium in size and didn't have the puppy face
He picked her up off the kitchen table where he had dried her off, grateful that he still had a few days before Donna got home to clean up.
"Hi sweetheart, you're all cleaned up now, and I bet you're warm too, huh?"
The dog tilted her head at him as if to say she understood him and he smiled. He had been using a baby voice that would make Toby and C.J. laugh hysterically at him, but it seemed to have worked.
"I bet you're hungry too...we don't have any dog food...I guess I can find some tomorrow if I get time for lunch, we're going to have to get a full collar, leash, and the whole shebang. For now, I'll just get you some lunch meat that we have in the fridge."
He got the ham out and placed it on the cutting board, before looking at the cupboard with the bowls and the dog he still held in his hands.
"Okay. Just going to set you down for a minute. Just one minute okay?" Josh set her down and sighed in relief; she had been getting heavy.
He placed the ham in the bowl and groaned as he bent down to put it on the floor. Immediately, the dog's tail began to wag. "Oh, there's that tail wag."
The dog scarfed the meat down, and she looked up to him for more. He smiled and placed more ham in the bowl and saw it quickly be eaten.
She looked much more satisfied and he grinned. "Good girl." He scratched her head and started petting her. She nuzzled up to him, and he smiled. "Come on girl, let's go to the couch and call your mama. I'll turn on the tv and show you who to bark at."
They walked over, and he sat on the couch, where immediately she took a spot on his lap. He laughed at the thought of Donna having to fight the dog for a place next to him. He picked up the house phone and dialed Donna's cell. He couldn't wait to hear her voice. He had called when he took a brief lunch today, but it was never enough.
"Joshua Lyman, it is nearly three am over there. What are you doing up? I know you are going in tomorrow early, so don't even lie to me" was the first thing that came out of the phone.
"I'm doing fine. Thanks for asking and I'm going to go to sleep soon, promise, but first I have to introduce someone to you. But first, how was your day."
"Oh my god, the events were amazing. Mrs. Santos is starting to come into her own, really, and we'll have to have a long conversation when I get back and...wait, introduce who?"
"Donna, we now have a daughter."
"I'm sorry, we what?"
"We have a daughter."
"Josh, is there something you want to tell me?"
"So, I was being driven home, and we got here and y'know how they have to check the apartment."
"Uh-huh?"
"Well, I was waiting outside, and I heard a clatter. Well, I went to check it out and yes I know I should have listened-but I checked it out and it was this beautiful, light brown, and a total sweetheart of a dog. So I cleaned her up and I fed her and so we have a daughter.
"Uh-huh."
"We'll have to name her and oh! Miranda and Peter have been wanting a dog, so they can help us take care of her and I can recreate that Godfather scene when the Republicans come calling. What do you think?"
"Well, you know. You seem to have it worked out and she does sound adorable."
Josh smiled at the dog on his lap who had fallen asleep. "I can't wait for you to meet her." He shifted a little to lie entirely on the couch. He knew that he would fall asleep, and his side would kill him in the morning, but he also felt at peace and knew the dog was at peace.
"So, will you tell me about your entire day now?"
He stroked their dog's fur and listened to her voice.