Donna is laying on the bed still dressed in yoga pants and a sweater. The lights are low. She's got a folded wash cloth covering her eyes. Her hands rest on her stomach.
He can't tell if she's asleep. It's barely 9 o'clock. But she skipped dinner, said she didn't feel well and came back to the room to lay down.
He closes the door lightly and walks over to the bed and just looks at her for a few minutes. His heart swells. God, she's beautiful. After staring at her a minute he realizes that she does look paler than usual. Maybe he should have brought her some food?
He stands there and smiles to himself. Seeing her in his bed just feels so right. He'd like to shout the fact that they are finally together from the roof tops. But as she's told him repeatedly over the last 2 months, the timings not quite right. They can start talking about it after the re-elect.
At least she made the arrangements so that they could have adjoining rooms. That's not nothing.
He decided that she must be asleep, and must need her rest, so he turns and is about to leave when she says "What? No kiss goodbye?"
He grins, turns back to the bed, then leans down and places a gently kiss on her lips. "Time to wake up, sleeping beauty."
She takes the cloth off her eyes and sits up. Then she leans back against the headboard and pats the bed next to her. "So how is Debate Camp going?"
He sits down on the edge. He can stay for a few minutes and talk.
"CJ made me do that which I did not want to do." He says with a grimace.
"You called Amy?" Her stomach rolls. Everything is so new. She feels so uncertain. And when you add Amy into the mix, well, if she wasn't already feeling sick this would do it.
"Yeah, we needed a better answer for the Family Leave question."
"Did you flirt with her?"
"I wouldn't call it flirting."
"You never do."
Even though it's just their normal bantering, something about her tone seems a little off. And given their new relationship, he wants to be honest with her.
"Yeah, I probably did say something stupid. . . . I told her she'd never lose me when she was afraid she'd drop the call if she went inside."
He sees the pain in Donna's eyes. This relationship is still new enough that she's not sure where she stands, and when he says stuff like that to someone else, well yeah, it was a stupid thing to say. How can he make it up to her? How can he convince her it's different with them?
He talks a big breath. He's about to apologize and tell her that old habits die hard, when he notices that she's taken a big breath too. So he waits to see what she has to say.
"Speaking of having a good answer to the Family Leave question. . . we're going to need that soon."
Oh good. She's letting it go. Moving back into work mode.
"It's going to be fine. Amy gave us something to work with, they're tweaking it now. We'll be done with it before the debate."
She takes another deep breath.
"No, I mean WE'RE going to need to figure it out. . . for ourselves, in about 8 months."
His jaw falls open. He's absolutely stunned.
She watches him carefully. And tries to hide her shaking hands under the covers. Will he think she's trying to trap him? Who else gets pregnant the first time she has sex with her boss? How stupid could she be? Getting carried away and not using protection? How cliche.
She drops her eyes. Unable to look at him while he's processing her bombshell.
Finally, they speak at the same time.
"Oh my god."
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
At the same moment that the panic fades, and the sheer joy of Donna having his baby hits him, he realizes that her eyes are downcast, that she's physically shaking, and that she just apologized to him.
She's anticipating anger. And it occurs to him that for as well as they know each other, they don't know each other all that well.
"I'm sorry." She whispers again. Still not making eye contact.
"Donna, I love you. You're having my baby?"
She looks up at him hopefully. He didn't sound angry. More like amazed.
"Yes. You remember the first time we made love?"
His face breaks out in a goofy grin. Does he ever! They spent 20 hours trying to get out of Indiana and then ended up back at his place. He had promised her the longest bath of her life, and his tub is way better than hers. When she'd invited him to share the bed, he hadn't been planning on seducing her. They were both exhausted, neither of them would sleep as well on the couch, and it wasn't like it was the first time they'd shared a bed platonically.
But then in the morning they'd reached for each other, and in a moment everything had changed. It had been perfect. It had been right. He hadn't even thought about a condom.
"We made a baby?"
"Yeah, we did."
He fights back his grin and manages to keep his "I'm da man" comment to himself.
But she interprets it as regret.
"I'm sorry. I know this whole thing is new. And we haven't even figured it out yet, and we haven't told anyone. I swear to god, I'm not trying to trap you. It was an accident. I'm sorry."
He slides closer and takes her hand. "Hey! Stop apologizing. I would never think that you were trying to trap me. And while this is new, and yes while we are keeping it a secret right now, I'm not trying to figure it out. I know exactly how I feel. I love you. I wouldn't want to have a baby with anyone else."
"Really?"
"Donna, I've loved you since the day we moved into the White House."
"No way."
"Yes way. Do you remember that 21 Magazine article that you got duped into?"
"Yeah." She's a bit wary. What does this have to do with anything? "I remember how much you harassed me about it."
"Yeah, well, I remember how you got me back. You sent that guy, Michael was it?, into my office and made me believe he was from the NSC and was revoking your credentials. Did he tell you what I said?"
"He just told me that you bought it hook, line, and sinker. That you lawyered up."
"I told him I'd vouch for you with my life. I refused to discuss it with him and told him that you couldn't talk about it without a lawyer. I wanted to protect you."
"You'd vouch for me with your life?" Her voice is awestruck.
"Yes and I meant it. Here I was, finally exactly where I'd dreamed of being, and I wasn't worried about my job. I was worried about you. And all of a sudden I realized that I loved you."
"You did a good job of hiding it!"
"I know. I'm sorry about that. We could have avoided the whole Cliff/Amy fisasco. I just didn't want to be the older boss hitting on the secretary. I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself that I just loved you like a little sister."
She wrinkles her nose adorably.
"Yeah, I don't love you like a little sister." He leans over and gives her a long, lingering kiss.
"A baby!?" This time he does grin at her. And she looks back at him in wonder.
"You're happy?" It's slowly dawning on her that he's not reacting at all like she expected.
"Yeah. I really am. When Toby made his announcement, I actually felt a little jealous. Now I'm excited too."
"Wait. What about Toby?"
"He just told us. He and Andy are expecting. Twins!"
"What? They're back together?"
"Well, I guess, sort of. He asked her to marry him, but she's being resistant. . . . Hey! We should get married! Will you marry me?"
She looks bumfuzzled. There's really no other word for it. And that's not the reaction he expected.
"Josh. I don't want you to ask me to marry you because you think you have to."
"I'm not!"
"I think maybe you are. I mean, proposing wasn't on your schedule for this weekend."
"How do you know? Maybe it was." He tries to tease her a little, to lighten the mood, although his heart is pounding with the desperate hope that she'll say yes.
"I know because I'm the one who types up your schedule!"
"Okay, fair point."
He stretches out next to her and places his hand on her abdomen. "Okay, so I didn't plan on proposing this weekend. But I have fantasized about proposing. There have been days when work was just crazy. And as I'd watch you walk out of my office, I'd have the thought that I could follow you, take your hand and we could leave and never come back. I'd be free to declare my love for you, and ask you to marry me, and we could live happily ever after in Witchita."
"Witchita?"
"It's nice."
"They have tornados there."
"Well, where ever. I just want you to know, I have thought about marrying you. A lot. I'm not asking just because of the baby."
Again, she looks at him in wonder. Could this possibly be happening? Could he really feel the same way?
"I've thought about marrying you before too. But this isn't how I imagined it."
Suddenly, it occurs to him that he may be jumping the gun on all of this. She hasn't actually said she's keeping the baby. He's 100% pro-choice. He knows it's her decision. But the thought of her terminating the pregnancy is like a punch to the gut.
"Donna, are you unhappy about this pregnancy? What do you want to do?"
"I don't know. I'm scared. I wasn't sure how you would react. I don't know if I can do this on my own. But the thought of having your baby . . . " She smiles a little, and he relaxes.
"C'mere." He opens his arms so she can roll into them. And he holds her tight.
"You don't have to do this alone. I promise I'll support you. Not just financially. I mean emotionally too. I would like you to have my baby. I would like you to be my wife. I would like to be a family. But it's your choice."
She sighs a little and just lets him hold her. Maybe this will all work out okay after all.
"What do we do now?" She finally asks.
"Well we have an open question to deal with."
"Right. Family leave, you should go deal with that."
"No I meant, the question I asked you before. Marry me?"
"Okay."
"Really?" He's thrilled! Now he really wants to shout it from the roof tops.
"Yes, really. I love you too. This isn't how I'd imagined it happening. And it's a little fast, but I do want to be your wife. I want to have your baby."
His face doesn't feel big enough for the grin he's sporting.
"Let's go tell CJ."
He hops up and holds out his hand. Then he remembers why they are here right now.
"Hey. Are you okay? Is your headache gone? You haven't had any dinner. Let's get something for you to eat."
"Whoa. Slow down." She smiles at him.
Josh in hyperactive mode is exhausting, although sometimes she thinks it's when she loves him the most. Because it's when she feels the most useful, it's when he depends on her. It's when he proves that he trusts her with everything that's important to him.
"My headache is gone. And yeah, I guess I could eat a little. But I'm not sure about telling CJ."
"Why not? She's our first phone call."
"Josh. I don't want to be somebody's PR problem."
"You're not. You're going to be my wife!" He grins again.
He really is convincing her that he's over-the-moon excited about this idea and not just doing the right thing.
"Couldn't we just keep this a secret until after the re-election is over?"
"Donna. I don't want to talk to CJ about strategy. I just want to share our happy news!"
But suddenly she shifts gears. "I don't know, maybe we should talk to CJ about strategy, Josh. I don't want to hurt the President's chances. And let's be honest, if word gets out that two of his Senior Staffers got women pregnant out of wedlock during this administration, the right wing is going to have a field day with it."
"Yes, you're right. . . . We should get married this weekend."
Now he's bouncing on the balls of his feet. He's giving her the dimples, and it's oh so hard to resist him when he's like this. Does she want to resist him?
She does want to marry him. They could still try to keep it a secret until after the re-election. But at least if it comes out, it would give the Republicans less to scream about. And honestly, she'd rather tell her Mother that she eloped than tell her that's she's pregnant.
She gives him a smile that he wants to interpret as a yes.
"Okay. Here's what we are going to do. We are going to talk to CJ and tell her our plan and get some feedback, then WE'LL make the final decision. But here's what I'm thinking. . . . while you're working tonight, I'll order some room service and research how quickly we can get a marriage license. That will probably play a large role in when and where we get married. Getting a marriage license in Washington DC might be asking to be discovered. Are you willing to go somewhere else to try to keep it a secret?"
"I'll fly us to the moon if I need to."
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head, but inside she's thrilled at his response.
"Okay. Get back to work. Try to stay focused. Ask CJ to meet us here when you're done for the night. I'll have a list of options of how to get us married quickly and we'll see what she thinks."
"Can I tell her why I want her to meet with us?"
"Um, yeah, okay. Because if she's going to yell and scream, you can handle that part, I probably don't need that. I only want her help if she's going to be supportive and help us with logistics."
"Don't worry. She'll be Team Josh and Donna. She might even get hats."