Hi, thanks for clicking, I'm new to writing West Wing Fanfiction, but not new to reading it. I've literally read nearly every Josh and Donna fanfiction there is (on here, AO3, and national library - when it was fully functional), and after running out of new stuff to read, I decided to try my hand at writing something.

I really hope you like what I've written. Thanks for reading :)

*2009*

For Donna, it had been five years since she had moved back to Madison, five years since she had seen Josh, and five years since she made one of the biggest regrets of her life.

It had been four years since her fiancé had left her, four years since she'd become a single mother and four years since her Mom had died.

It had been three years since she last cried over her situation, three years since she officially moved in with her father to take care of him, and three years since her daughter started taking steps on her own.

It had been two years since she finally graduated university, two years since she could stop working a job that was beneath her, and two years since she tried to call Josh, but been told the service was no longer connected.

It been a month since her Dad died, three weeks since she realised that aside from her daughter she was totally alone, and a week since she decided to change all that.

For Josh, it had been five years since he'd seen Donna. And nothing else seemed as important.

"Come on, Tilly, we got to go," Donna called out to her daughter Matilda. It was hard to explain exactly what was going on to a four-year-old but telling her they were going on an adventure had sufficed. They needed a new life. If they didn't leave now they never would. Matilda would be starting school soon, and Donna would never feel all that comfortable moving her around once she was settled in.

Donna had travelled cross-country before. Sure, she was a lot younger, much greener, and didn't have a child as her main priority. But this time her car wasn't a rust-bucket, it wasn't the middle of winter, and what possibly waited at the end was far greater. And just like last time, she knew this was the right thing to do.

"But Momma, I can't find Dusty," the little girl yelled back.

Donna looked down at the faded brown donkey in her hands. It had been hers when she was a kid, she found it in the attic when they moved in. She gave it a good wash and then immediately Tilly had claimed it as her own.

"Just come here," Donna loudly replied.

Matilda's little feet started down the hall. As she reached the stairs she looked at the stuff toy in her mother's grasp and ran full speed down shouting 'Dusty' as she lunged into Donna's arms. Luckily for the child her mother was able to think quick and catch the flying human before disaster could strike.

"Are we ready now?" Donna asked as she carried Tilly to the front door.

"Yeah," Tilly answered as she cuddled Dusty tightly.

"Good, let's go then," Donna said as she opened the front door and exited the house. The car was all packed, everything she could imagine needing for the trip was neatly organised in the trunk.

She'd been able to rent out her parent's house fully furnished, sold their cars, and had a garage sale for the rest. All that and the money she had been putting aside for the last few years was enough to get by for a couple of months without a job. She just had to stick to a budget, and from experience that was something she was able to do well.

The problem was, once she got out of Wisconsin, she had no idea where to go. The chances of any of her old friends still being in Washington were slim to none. She hadn't kept in touch, something she kicked herself for more than once.

The Democrats had lost the White House after President Bartlet's second term. She knew Sam would still be out in California, as was CJ, if Donna recalled the newspaper articles from a few years ago correctly. She could assume Toby wouldn't want to be found. And she was never close with Will. If she could find Charlie, she would probably be able to find the President. Though if she was looking for Bartlet she'd start at the Manchester farm. She knew approximately where Leo was, however getting answers from him would prove difficult.

But Josh, Josh would be the hardest to find. For the moment she made the decision to find him, she'd been reading the Post and the Washington Times to see if his name showed up anywhere. When she was working for him, you could find his name in the papers at least once a week without looking too hard. However, she's scoured from front to back of multiple copies and his name was no where to be found.

Of course, he could have moved, everyone else had. But as well as she knew him, she couldn't see him leaving the East Coast. He'd lived there his whole life, and he didn't seem like the sun and surf type.

His condo was best place to start. Even if he wasn't there he might have left a forwarding address. And maybe she'd get lucky. Maybe he wasn't in the papers for different reasons, it was possible. She wouldn't have to think about that for at least a couple of days. The trip from Madison to D.C. could be made in just under 14 hours, but she knew Matilda wouldn't and couldn't be couped up for that long. Not to mention this was there first real trip, she wanted to have some fun with it.

Two days later, Donna was pulling up to the sidewalk of a familiar Georgetown street. She had talked herself out of doing this at least three times since they had started the journey. But before she could find an exit to make the turn back she was reminded why she was doing this.

Donna helped Tilly out her car seat. She would have preferred to do this without her daughter with her, but the alternate was to leave the child in the car, and that was typically frowned upon. As they walked up the stone steps hand in hand, Donna started riffling through her handbag. When she was back at home she'd found her old set of keys, one of which was for the condo. She could have used the buzzer, but if he was still there this was something she thought best explained face to face.

She held Tilly's hand as they made their way down the hall. As they reached Josh's door, Donna couldn't help but think of the last time she had been there. It was five years ago, the very last time she had seen Josh. They'd had a fight. As she left, she stopped on this side of the door, she couldn't remember if she wanted to catch her breath before leaving, or she wanted Josh to chase after her. She did know he was watching her from the peephole.

She was building up the courage to knock. After all this time and the trip, she didn't know what to say, or what she wanted from him. She wanted her friend back. Anything else was a bonus.

After a quick breather, Donna's fist struck the door three times. The wait for the door to open was agonising. She could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer. This was it. This moment was five years in the making.

The door opened and all of Donna's hopes were crushed. It wasn't Josh, but some plump fifty-year-old woman. Of course, Donna knew Josh well, and this was not his type of partner, so it was almost safe to assume this was not his new wife or something like that. She could have been his cleaning lady, but she looked far too comfortable to work there once a week.

"Can I help you?" The lady asked, and Donna almost forgot why she was there.

"Ah yeah. Hi. Does Josh Lyman still live here?" Donna stumbled to say.

"Well as I have no idea who that is, and I've lived here for two and a half years, I'm going to say 'no'," the woman said, and Donna couldn't tell if she was relieved or completely and utterly devastated. But it was one of those two.

"Do you have a forwarding address, or anything?" Donna asked, and Tilly span around in spot still holding onto her mother's hand.

"God, I would have thrown that out a while ago. If I had to think about it, maybe Florida, but I don't know, sorry," she replied.

"No, thank you. Sorry to be a bother," Donna said, as she watched the door close. Seemed like this was a dead end. Sure, she had the clue about Florida, but her gut was telling her that was wrong. He probably sent his mail to his mother's address while he settled somewhere else. She could picture him moving to be closer to his mom but knew that within a month he would have been too antsy and would need to move back. "That was a bust," Donna told Tilly as she started to lead the little girl back down the hall.

She was clipping Tilly back into her seat when she remembered she still had the keys to the apartment. It seemed a bit strange to have access into a stranger's home. "I'll be right back," she told Tilly, before locking the car, and running back across the road.

She found the letterbox that corresponded with the right number and painfully slipped the keys off the ring. She heard the dual clink as they hit the bottom, and just like that it seemed as if this part of her life was officially over.

Of all the years Donna had lived in D.C. she never really took in the monuments or the museums. But in the next two days that was going to change. She looked forward to getting photos of her and Tilly standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial or the Reflecting Pool. She looked forward to seeing the amazement on Tilly's face in the Natural History Museum. But she especially looked forward to the continued feeling of home that had filled her since she arrived back in the District.

Was she home, though? It was where she called home for 6 years, but she'd almost been gone longer than she was there. And wasn't it the people she worked with that made it feel like home? Wasn't it seeing Josh every morning, or getting drinks with CJ and Sam, or doing work that she knew made a difference. Did D.C. really feel like home, or was she caught up reminiscing about old times?

They were going to have to split the sights and days up, they couldn't do everything in one day. Hell, they couldn't do everything in two days, but they couldn't waste time. Josh could be anywhere in the world. He could have moved to England or Australia for all Donna knew, and although Donna wasn't going to follow him halfway around the world, she also couldn't waste all her money on a wild goose chase.

Of course, if she couldn't find Josh, she'd take the next best thing. And the next best thing was CJ. She considered Josh her very best friend, but CJ would be a close second or third. And at least she had leads on CJ.

On day 2, with her camera in hand, Donna laughed as she watched Tilly dance along the edge of a small wall out the front of the Capitol. Donna happily snapped away at the adorable sight in front of her. This part of her life would never be a regret. She loved Tilly with her whole heart and couldn't imagine her life without her.

"Donna?" A voice called out for her. She could recognise the voice, it was one she had heard for most days when they were working in the White House, but she would have to see the face to be sure of who it was.

"Charlie," Donna said as her face broke out in probably one of the largest smiles it had in a long while. Careful not to crush the flowers in his hands, Donna pulled him in for a tight hug. Seeing Charlie meant her time in the White House was real, because for the last few years it had started to feel like a dream. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I work here, what about you? How long has it been?" He asked, as they pulled away from each other. Donna could imagine Charlie as Chief of Staff to the Minority Whip, or something as important. It made her wonder where she would have been if she had stayed.

"We're on a little family road trip," Donna answered and motioned over to Tilly.

"She's yours? She looks just like you," Charlie said, as he looked at the little girl with Donna's blonde hair and blue eyes. "Is your husband here?"

Donna had no idea what to say, so she awkwardly laughed before telling the embarrassing details of her life. "We are no longer together," Donna said, omitting the fact that there was no husband because there was no wedding.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Charlie said solemnly.

"What about you? Hot date?" Donna asked as she pointed to the flowers in his hands.

"Quite the opposite. President Bartlet couldn't make it down this year, so I'm going to go see Leo for him," Charlie explained. "Would you like to come?" He asked bypassing the unease that Donna was no doubt feeling over her flat landing joke.

"Can we?" she asked.

"Sure, why not."

On the way to see Leo, Donna told Charlie about all that he had missed in her life for the last five years. As did Charlie. Donna eagerly waited any mentions of their friends but didn't want to bring the topic of whereabouts up, as it wouldn't come across organically. And she didn't want to tell Charlie the real reason she was on this trip- it was embarrassing.

To an onlooker, Charlie and Donna were walking side by side, but really, Donna was a step behind, not knowing the way to go. "You've not been here?" Charlie asked after he noticed Donna's demeanour change.

"No," Donna said shyly and gripped her hand tightly around Tilly's. "Never had the chance."

"It's the anniversary, you know?" Charlie said, but he knew the answer before Donna said anything. She couldn't believe she didn't know that. She should have known that. Why didn't she know that?

They soon arrived at a tomb stone that read 'Leopold Thomas McGarry'. Just reading the name was enough to make Donna feel all kinds of things. She had tried not to cry when she read about it in the newspaper a few years back. She had wanted to go to the funeral, but her Dad had been recovering from surgery and there had been no one to look after him or Tilly.

By the headstone there was another bunch of flowers. They were a simple white. "Who'd you think they're from?" Donna asked.

"Probably Mallory," Charlie replied. It made the most sense, but Donna was curious to know.

Donna crouched down to look at the note attached to the bouquet. She traced her thumb over the name and could feel a tear forming in the corner of her eye. She quickly blinked it away before Charlie noticed. "It's from Josh," Donna said as she stood back up.

"Huh, I didn't know he was in town," Charlie said as he laid his own flowers next to Josh's.

"It's not his handwriting," Donna replied, she knew what that meant. It meant he had called a florist and asked them for a flower delivery. He had her do it on a number of occasions.

"That makes sense, schools in session," Charlie said as if he hadn't just given Donna her biggest clue.

"What?"

"You didn't know?" Charlie asked, and Donna wanted to scream for him to get to the point.

"Know what?" She kept her face neutral, she didn't want to let Charlie in on her secret.

"He's teaching."

"Where?" She asked. Josh Lyman teaching? That was just a disaster waiting to happen. Though Donna had to admit it was a good fit, he was a good teacher, he had taught her so much, even when it wasn't his main aim, he was always teaching her.

"Yale," he answered.

"Well, good for him," she said as if she wasn't going to rush back to her motel and find the quickest route to New Haven. It was hard to believe that it was possible that in just one short day she could be seeing him again. Of course, she had thought that yesterday as well. But she didn't get her hopes up too high when she went to the apartment. She always knew there was a chance he had moved.

Yale made sense. It checked off everything on her list of what Josh would have been doing. She should have thought of it on her own. Teaching at his alma mater in his home state should have been obvious. Josh took risks, but only if they were calculated. He would have felt secure in his decision in picking Yale.

It was funny. In the end, Leo really did give her the answers.

They stayed in D.C. for the night as planned, mostly because there was no point wasting the money they had already spent on the room. But the next day they left the motel by 8am, and only after one quick stop for food, the toilet and to stretch their legs, they made it to New Haven by half past one.

It was easy to find the campus. It was a college town after all. But before they set forth on their university adventure, Donna and Tilly checked into new accomadation. Donna wanted to get cleaned up. Josh probably wouldn't even recognise her, and she didn't want to look like she'd been driving for the last few hours.

She changed clothes, put on a bit of light make up and ran a comb through her straight hair. She looked presentable. She looked good. And that meant she felt confident. Confident enough to see him again after all this time. It was a good sign.

Donna looked at the office door, it didn't say his name, but it had to be his. She had asked for directions to the Political Science wing and this was where she was pointed. If Josh was teaching anything, it had to be that. She would have asked at the front offices, but she already felt out of place as Tilly was a walking billboard that read 'I don't go here'.

The door was ajar, and there were quite a lot of voices coming from within. But could she hear Josh? She liked to think Josh had a discernible voice, but if he was in there he wasn't jumping out at her, like she thought he would.

"Hey Sweetie, can you sit out here, until I come back," Donna said as she walked Tilly over to a bench across from where they had been standing. She trusted her daughter not to walk off and although she was a chatty little gir,l she also knew not to go off with strangers. Donna took her phone out of her bag and loaded up a child friendly game for Tilly to play. It wasn't great parenting, but it would keep her occupied for a short while.

Donna knocked as she poked her head through the door. At once, she was standing face to face with a bunch of people she did not know, in what looked to be a faculty lounge. "Yes?" One of the women asked after she saw Donna.

"Ah, hi, I'm looking for Joshua Lyman," she said trying to sound more self-assured than she was feeling. God, what was she doing, he wouldn't want to see her. She was just his assistant five years ago, he had probably forgotten about her by now. Who was she kidding, she should just turn away and never look back. She was sure that's what Josh would have done.

"There's no office hours today," the woman said.

"Oh, I'm not a student. I'm a… I'm an old friend from home," Donna replied using the code word very few people knew about. Sure, this time the meaning was literal and not cause for disaster or concern, but it still felt right to use.

"He's in there," a different staff member replied, as he pointed over to a closed office door across the room.

"Thanks," Donna said as she made her way over to where she was pointed. This was it. Only a two-inch piece of wood stood in between them. Her heart started racing at full speed. The words she wanted to say were muddled in her mind, which wouldn't matter as there was a knot in her throat. She could feel her cheeks turning pink, and her mouth was dry.

But she had to do this. She hadn't set out on this journey to chicken out at the very last moment. Her hand unconsciously formed a fist and was coming up to the door. She quickly knocked three times and there was now no going back.

"Yeah?" The muffled and yet familiar voice called out.

Donna slowly opened the door. Just a few feet away stood Josh. All his attention was on the whiteboard he was working on. The Queen of England could have come through the door and he wouldn't have noticed.

"Josh?" Donna said in a near silent whisper, but Josh heard.

He slowly turned from the whiteboard, dropping the dry erase marker as he saw who exactly had said his name. He didn't even think as he closed the distance between them and wrapped Donna up in a hug.

"You took a lot longer to come back this time," Josh whispered in her ear as he held on to her so tight she thought her ribs were going to break, but she didn't care. It was like five years of hugs turned into one.

"But I always come back."

I plan for this to be a multi-chap, so if you want more let me know.

Thanks for reading.

And Please Review :D