Chapter One - Now That Everybody Knows
AN: H'okay so this is my first ever fan fiction so excuse how rusty it is. This is set in a slightly AU season…I'm going with late three early four because I'll be making passing reference to Amy but it's not like she's actually going to be dating Josh. Oh and Sam's still around because I love him. And he's dating Mallory O'Brien because I loved them together, and the first time I wrote this I had just seen Twenty Hours In America Part Two again.
I'm going to shut up now and let you read!
I never screwed my assistant. You pick up the paper tomorrow though, and on every front page in this damn town there is going to be a picture of us, a stupid caption and a story about how sex is the way to make it in politics if you work for the Deputy Chief of Staff. It'll be national news too, this isn't my ego getting the better of me, this story - my story, our story- will be in every paper in the country. Although to be fair it made it onto national television first. Did I forget to mention that I made it onto CNN too? Not to mention three regional shows maybe even more, I don't know. This isn't really about me though, sex sells especially if it has anything to do with politics.
They brought it to CJ first- they aren't stupid, "CJ, CJ? Is there anything behind the rumors about Josh Lyman and Donna Moss?"
CJ played it cool but anyone who knew her well could see that she was fuming, "Define 'rumor' would you Patrick."
"Is it true that they're sleeping together?"
"Where did you get such an idea?" She's not going to make a 'President's Secret Plan to Fight Inflation' type of mistake. After the Hatian incident she has been even more careful around the press.
"I have here a quote from an unnamed White House source that Josh Lyman has, and I quote, 'Been screwing his assistant since the beginning.' The quote goes on to make allegations that Donna Moss was hired because of this."
"Joshua Lyman and Donatella Moss have an extremely professional relationship Patrick, and believe me when I say this, Donna is one of the most competent assistants we have- Yes Joe?"
"I also have this quote, what do you make of the long hours that Donna and Josh spend together? They rarely go home before 11 and when they do Josh often takes Donna home."
"Have you been stalking them?" CJ asks with a smile, I know she's cursing me for being so stupid, "On a more serious note Josh has a very important job, one that requires him to work till late hours. And that's something we all know about."
We're all watching it now, originally only Toby was there but the second the quote was brought up he paged Sam, and Sam paged me and as I came rushing out Leo, who had just been making a trip down to the bullpen, joined me. Out of our group only Donna and the President aren't watching this.
"CJ what about him driving her home?"
"What about it? It's late at night and Donna's car is in the habit of breaking down." She wants to leave it there, we can all see it. Toby's face is unreadable, Sam is trying very hard to look everywhere but at me. And Leo? Leo looks as if he could kill me, right here, right now.
"CJ when the President announced his campaign for re-election Donna came to Manchester with the senior staff, am I correct?"
"You are."
"Did Toby Ziegler's assistant come with you? Or Sam Seabourn's? What about Leo McGarry's?"
"All the assistants attended."
"Donna Moss was also informed of the President's MS before the general announcement was made to the White House Staff and gave evidence in front of Ways and Means. Why was that CJ?"
"Donna Moss is a trusted member of the staff, she had to testify as she complied all the inter-departmental files for the hearings…" CJ really doesn't want to have to work through this, "And in case you were wondering she was told of the President's MS by Toby Ziegler, not Josh Lyman." She sees Leo and Toby signalling to her through the glass and sighs, "That's all for now guys, I'll be back in a few hours and hopefully you'll have some actual stories for me to comment on."
Something tells me I need to make myself scarce, so I quickly make my way back to my office. But first let me explain something: I never screwed my assistant. Screwing is something you do when you're drunk or you don't really like the person. I never screwed my assistant, I had sex with Donna. I had sex with the woman that I love and have loved ever since she stood there, in a white shirt and her hair in those little clippy things women seem to love, trying to persuade me that I'd hired her. I didn't sleep with her when she turned up and demanded a job, I slept with her five years later, after four years of banter and flirtation. I slept with her after four years of pining; a Mandy, an election, an inauguration, a shooting, an MS scandal, an announcement that the President was seeking a second term, a Cliff, half some Amy, a re-election, a Jack, the third worst Christmas of my life and an inauguration ball later. I never screwed her
"Josh?" There she is, the woman I love more than anything, the most beautiful woman I have ever met. She looks worried.
"What?" I ask, although I know what she's about to say.
"Leo wants to see you…us in the senior staff meeting in half an hour."
"Did you see it?"
"See what?" She's biting her lip, even though she doesn't know, you can see that she has a good idea of what's gone on.
"They…someone left a quote…about us." I really don't want to have to say it, "They accused us of having an affair, they said that was why I hired you."
I didn't expect her to react the way she does, "Well we know that's not true, and we knew that somewhere along the line someone was going to say it. I guess we have to go and see Leo and explain ourselves. Did you say anything to them?" she looks at me, she can read my looks by now, "Oh Joshua." she sighs, "You ran away didn't you?"
Why do I feel the need to 'Yes ma'am' her? I have the good grace to hang my head briefly, "I'm sorry, I panicked. I didn't know what to say."
"It had to happen sometime." She says and sinks onto my sofa. "I guess I should resign."
"Why? We haven't done anything wrong." I say, perfectly truthfully, "I wasn't sleeping with you when I hired you, I haven't given you pay rises or promotions because we are in a relationship. We've behaved ourselves professionally at work and, much to my chagrin, we have never so much as kissed in the White House."
She's smiling now. It's a small smile, but it means I'm forgiven. "How do you know I didn't sleep with you because I wanted a promotion?" she asks in true Donna fashion.
"Because." I say as I move over to the sofa with the world's goofiest grin and kneel in front of her, "You. Love. Me."
"Lord help me I do." Donna says and we laugh together. We sit like this for a while before she goes back to her desk. Twenty minutes later she comes back into my office.
"Ready?"
"As I'll ever be." She looks nervous, like she looked before she had to go and testify before Ways and Means or like I assume she looked then. I still feel bad that I felt too angry with her to see her off.
"Well we might as well go down fighting." I stand up and walk over to her, slipping my hand into hers. "I love you and whatever happens now, nothing will change that."
She smiles at me, "I love you too." Then we set off to Leo's office, hand in hand.
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We walk slowly, normally Josh walks much faster than this, so do I. We're not nervous though, the feeling goes far deeper than that. We're dreading this meeting, at best we're going to have to put up with a few articles on us and our 'affair', at worst we could both get fired. It's not an affair though, it's a relationship. I don't want this belittled, this means so much to me and so much to Josh.
Margaret smiles at us as we walk into the office, it's an oblivious smile, a completely Margaret smile. "Leo said Donna would be joining Senior Staff today." She says, apparently completely unaware of anything even though we're holding hands in front of her. Maybe we should stop doing that before we go into Leo's office.
Josh knocks on Leo's door, it's shut. Leo's door is never shut before a Senior Staff meeting, something tells me that the meeting started as soon as the press conference finished. Josh knocks again when no one answers, he still hasn't let go of my hand.
"Josh." I say it quietly but it catches his attention.
"It'll be okay Donna. You know it will…whatever happens you know that I-" then he realizes that Margaret is sitting there and while she doesn't appear to be listening this is Margaret we're talking about, "Well…you know what I mean."
"Maybe it would be better if we stopped doing this."
"Donna!" he looks aghast and I realize what he thought I meant.
"No not that." I hasten to explain, I nod towards my hands, "You know I couldn't stop that."
He smiles and lets my hand drop and just at that moment Leo opens his door. "In. Now."
Well this is going to be my first real Senior Staff meeting, I never thought it would happen like this.
End Chapter One