Title: Beautiful Author: Kelley Rating: R Pairing: J/D Category: A/U Disclaimers: Aaron Sorkin, Warner Brothers, NBC, they all own it. I'm just doing what all great writers do, according to Sam Seaborn: stealing other people's ideas and calling them my own! Feedback: Feedback is my heroin, so please give me a fix! Notes: This story is the third in my "Love" series. It follows Smile and At Last. If you don't want to read those, the basic premise is that Josh and Donna are now married. Donna had a daughter before she joined the Bartlet campaign named Emma that now lives with them and is five. Josh and Donna also have a baby girl named Natalie, who is about two months old. Donna has an older sister named Nicole and a younger brother named T.J.. T.J. is married to Ellie Bartlet and Nicole is in a relationship with Toby. Abbey died of a brain aneurysm about a year ago, which is causing the President to resign soon. Josh is going to run for Senator in Connecticut and this caused a rift to develop between him and Sam. This story starts off at Thanksgiving of 2003, at Josh and Donna's Connecticut home, Langley House.
Langley House: Thanksgiving, 2003

"She's here! She's here! She's here!" Emma shouted as she ran from her room down the staircase, her black Mary Jane shoes clicking against the marble loudly. She skidded up to the front door and swung it open. "Lily! Lily's here!"

"Yes, my little walnut, Lily is most definitely here!" the woman screamed along with the child, scooping her up into her arms and kissing all over her face. She pulled back and looked at the girl, confused. "But who on earth are you, child?"

"I'm Emma," she giggled to her silly, British godmother.

Lily gasped dramatically. "No, no, no," Lily shook her head, "you are most certainly not my most precious godchild, Emma. Emma is a little girl who is always a mess and is as little as a thumbnail. You, on the other hand, are a beautiful, tall, and very clean young lady. Now what have you done with her?" Lily demanded mischievously, shaking Emma a little, not noticing Josh walk into the foyer from the living room.

"We traded her in for this one," Josh winked at Lily as he walked to the open door to bring Lily's bags into the house, kissing his daughter's head on the way there.

"Ah, I see," Lily nodded before giving Emma another big kiss. "Well I suppose this one will do for now." She set Emma down and went over to Josh, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. He did the same and pulled back to look at her.

"You look good," he commented. "For a British chippy that is. New hair, new clothes," He noted her once long brown locks had been sheared to her shoulders and her stylish new wardrobe. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Another new nose."

Lily gasped and lifted her hand up to her nose, trying to cover it. "Donna told you about that? I made her swear to secrecy when I told her last month."

"She sang like a canary," Josh taunted. "That happens after sleep deprivation sets in though, so don't blame her entirely."

"And where is the little bundle of sleep deprivation?" Lily asked him excitedly, practically bouncing on her heels.

Emma crinkled her eyebrows at the adults. "Who is sleep deprivacation?"

"She was talking about your sister, sweetie," Josh smiled at her.

"Ohhhh," Emma proclaimed, smacking her hand against her forehead. "She's in the nursery with Mommy. Come and see her, Lily!" She grabbed Lily and began to pull her up the staircase, while Josh followed with Lily's luggage up to the guestroom. When they reached the top, they turned the corner until they reached the master bedroom and Emma dragged her inside to one of the doors. She opened it slowly and stuck her head into the room to find her mother, standing over the crib in the lightly painted yellow room overflowing with baby necessities and toys.

"Mommy?" she whispered loudly. "Can we come in please? Lily wants to see my sister." Lily peered her head in and grinned at her best friend.

Donna smiled and motioned for them to come in the room. "Sure," Donna replied. "This little princess is just waking up from her nap. Not that she needs the beauty rest or anything." Donna reached into the crib and with the utmost care, lifted a small pink bundle out of it and settled it into the crook of her arm.

"Oh look at her, she's precious," Lily cooed when she got close to them and got her first look at Natalie Philomena Lyman. The infant had a small tuft of brown hair on her head and when she slowly opened her eyes, Lily could see she shared the same sapphire blue as her mother and big sister. When she let out a great yawn, one saw the dimple on her left cheek that her father had bestowed upon her and the same pudgy nose. The rest of her features, her cheeks and her forehead, reminded Lily a little bit of the facial structure of Donna's late mother, Toni. 'A perfect mix,' Lily surmised.

"That she is," Donna agreed adoringly. She leaned over slightly to hug Lily and give her a welcoming kiss. "Do you want to hold her?" Donna asked as they pulled apart.

"I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't, after all I've been flying for about eight hours now and you never know what kind germs are on those planes," she contemplated seriously before gave Donna giant grin. "Give me the kid," she ordered, going over to sit in the rocking chair near the window. Donna placed the baby in her arms when she was settled and Lily held her, entranced.

"Be careful with my sister," Emma warned possessively, coming up to hug her mother's side and look seriously at Lily. "You have to support her head and not jost.jost.shake her at all cuz it could hurt her."

"I won't, I promise," Lily told Emma reassuringly. She lifted one of her fingers to the baby and laughed out loud when Natalie latched onto it with one of her own. "You like that don't you, Miss Natalie?" Lily baby-talked to the infant. "Oh, Donna, I can't get over how gorgeous she is. She is a stunner."

"She's the most beautiful baby in the whole world," Emma answered for her mother, her face shining with pride and love as she gazed down at her baby sister's face. "And she's smart too. Like yesterday, I was playing with my cat, Lulu, and Natty was in her bouncy seat and I threw Lulu's cat toy to her but it landed on Natty's tray and she threw it right back at Lulu when I didn't even tell her to! Right Natty?" she smiled at her sister. Natalie responded with a happy gurgle that seemed to voice her agreement. Just then the doorbell rang and Emma ran over to the window to see who it was.

"CJ's here" she cried, "with presents!" Emma scampered over to leave but turned back when she got to the door. She came over to her mother and pulled her down for a kiss. She went over to Lily and repeated the action then leaned down to place a gentle kiss on Natalie's head. "Be good for Lily, Natty. I'll be back real soon," she instructed and left the room to greet CJ.

Lily smiled at her retreating figure. "Could she be any more adorable?" she gushed to Donna, who leaned against the changing table.

"I know," Donna approved happily. "I admit I was so worried that she was gonna be one of those horror stories of an older sibling that you hear about but she's so crazy about the baby it still surprises me sometimes. Between her and Josh, I'm amazed I get to hold this child at all."

"Well I don't see how anyone could not fall in love with this little angel." Lily looked down at the baby again, who was sucking on her thumb, and sighed wistfully. "It almost makes a girl wonder what the hell she's doing with her life."

"Hey!" Donna scolded, lightly kicking her in the shin.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me. It almost makes a girl wonder what the heck she's doing with her life," Lily corrected herself sarcastically, remembering Donna's constant insistence that no one swear around the baby intentionally so not to expose her to anything harmful at such a young age. That rule was the reason that Nicole had ended being Natalie's godmother, after Donna still had to work to this day to correct the damage in her vocabulary that Lily had caused with Emma.

"Thank you and you're not doing anything wrong with your life. You're just going about it differently than other people are."

"Oh please, Donna, I'm almost thirty years old and I'm still running around, fornicating with complete strangers like an eighteen year-old. Of course there's something wrong with me."

"I'll concede that there are many things wrong with you," she ragged Lily. "But your lifestyle isn't one of them as long as you're happy. And when I called you no more than two days ago, you were perfectly content to go around and deflower nineteen year-old bellhops."

"Well I'll give you that one. But I don't know, lately it feels like something's missing in my life."

"Lily, everyone feels that way at one point or another."

"Yeah what about you? You seem like you've got everything you want wrapped up in a nice little package with a bow on top."

"Well I'm happy of course, but that doesn't mean I still don't long for things," Donna clarified.

"Like what?"

"Like a career for instance, a real one not just as a politician's wife. I wanna be like Mena is and like my mom was before she died. I want to do something with my life that'll make my daughters' proud of me one day."

"You're their mother, they're gonna be proud of you and love you no matter what you do. That is something I, personally, wouldn't have a problem with experiencing one day." As she said this, Natalie let out a wail, indicating that while everyone else was going to wait a few hours to eat, she wanted her dinner right away. Lily handed the baby to Donna and traded places with her. Donna undid a few buttons on her blouse and pushed her bra aside so Natalie could have her meal.

"So why don't you?" Donna inquired as Natalie suckled at her quietly. "You can be a mom now; you don't necessarily need a husband for it."

Lily shrugged. "Maybe but how do I know I'd be good at it?"

"Oh Lil," Donna scoffed good-naturedly.

"I'm serious, Donna. I'm not like you," Lily argued. "I'm a selfish, egotistical, foul-mouthed playgirl who likes her booze to be old and her men to be young! You're telling me I should just conveniently forget to slap a condom on the next valet parker I shag in the back of my car?"

"Of course I'm not!" Donna laughed. "All I'm saying is, if you really want to be a mother you can be, when you're ready. You don't need to wait for the right guy. I believe I'm living proof of this theory."

"Touché." They two halted their conversation while Donna disengaged the baby from her breast and transferred her to the other. "Speaking of the son of Satan," Lily continued. "Has he given you any problems with the adoption?"

Donna gave her a half grin. "We haven't even heard from him. I was so scared after I did the article for 'People' that he'd come looking for me but no one seems to know where he is. It's almost like he just dropped off the face of the planet or something."

"From your mouth to God's ears, luv." She looked at Donna carefully. "You didn't honestly expect to hear from him, did you?"

"This is Ben we're talking about; I never expect him to do anything and the moment I let my guard down, he always seems to do exactly what I don't want him to do."

"I still don't understand why you have to wait six more months before you can finalize Josh's adoption of Emma. You two have been married for almost a year now and she considers him her father. Why do you have to go through the trouble of terminating Ben's parental rights?"

"Because," Donna sighed, hating to go into this for what seemed like the hundredth time, "since I technically kept custody of Emma and no adoption ever took place, Ben's rights were never legally taken away. He only signed the consent to the adoption when he filled out the paperwork; he never signed away his parental rights, making him what Wisconsin's legal community terms as an absentee father. Meaning that the Honorable Judge Lawrence Fairfax has decided to give him six months in case he wants to reclaim custody of his daughter before allowing any adoption proceedings to take place. I swear our lawyer had to literally shove a pen into Josh's hand to keep him from attacking the judge when he heard the ruling. Can you hand me that washcloth?"

"At least the judge seems a little bit sympathetic towards you two," she replied as she handed Donna the cloth to wipe Natalie's face with. "I had this single friend out in LA that adopted a little boy, raised him as her own for five years, and then had to give him back when the birth father proved he never gave consent for the adoption."

"You see," Donna said getting up and raising Natalie to her cloth-covered shoulder to burp her, "its stories like that that makes me think I can never be too careful when it comes to this. I'm not going to tempt fate in any way; I'm just going to keep my mouth shut about this for the next five months, fourteen days, and eleven hours." She rubbed Natalie's back in small circles and was rewarded with a tiny belch. "Yeah, you agree with Mommy, don't you?" she fussed, kissing Natalie's satiny cheek.

"Hey Donna," Josh said, entering the room. "We actually have other company that wants to see you and Natalie besides the one without American citizenship. Can you maybe pull yourself away for a couple of minutes to put in an appearance?"

"Watch the mouth, Joshua or the only thing my breasts will be used for around here are nourishment for the baby," Donna challenged superiorly. Josh's eyes bugged out his head and Lily didn't even bother to hide her grin. "We'll be down in a minute," she continued more sweetly.

"All right," he responded. "Can I at least have the baby? I think CJ's gonna claw my eyes out if I don't have her with me when I go back down."

"Here you go, sweetie. Go see Daddy," she murmured to Natalie as she was given to her father. Josh in turn settled her in his arms and kissed her admiringly. Donna got a kiss for herself as well, despite her partially opened case of wise ass. "CJ's here as are Leo, Charlie and Zoey, and Margaret, Carol, and Ginger. And Nicole called a little while ago to say they're stuck in traffic but she and Toby will be here soon." He shook his head, still not quite used to the fact that his sister-in-law was sleeping with one of his best friends.

"Are you watching the turkey?" Donna asked as Josh headed out the room.

"Yes I am. This meal is going to be exquisite, don't you worry your pretty little head of about it."

"Yes, Donna don't worry about it," Lily joined in. "I'm sure that at least one Chinese food restaurant will be delivering today."

"Oh if I didn't mention it before, can I just say again Lily? Love the new nose; it goes so well with the silicon in your breasts."

"Wanker!" Lily shouted as he left the room.

"Pinocchio!" Josh shot back, heading back downstairs with the baby.

"Urgh," Lily stuck her tongue out at the door. "I don't know how you put up with him. I mean, I'll concede that he has his moments of not being a complete asshole but they don't seem like that many."

"He does have that tendency," Donna told her. "But what he lacks in emotional maturity he makes up for with sweet words and a surprisingly limber body for someone his age." She grinned at Lily before getting serious again. "He loves me. He doesn't say it that often but I know he'd do anything for me. And he's such a great father."

Lily wrapped her arm around Donna's shoulder and gave her a squeeze. "Everything will work out. Don't worry about it. Just do what Bobby says."

"Bobby? I thought you're shrink was Ivan?"

"He is, or was, until his wife walked in on one of our sessions." Donna rolled her eyes at Lily. "I wasn't referring to a shrink; I was referring to the singer and telling you to do as he says."

"And that would be.?"

"Don't worry," Lily sang, perfectly on-key. "Be happy. Don't worry, be happy man. Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh."

"Okay, thanks for the advice," Donna laughed as she and Lily left the room to join everyone else in the den.

When they got downstairs, Donna greeted all her family and friends eagerly while Lily gave casual hellos to everyone. Soon, dinner was ready and despite Lily's predictions, looked highly edible when it was set out before them all.

"So who wants to say grace?" Donna asked as she put the baby in her high chair. "Toby?" she turned to the man at the opposite end of the table. "Would you please do the honors for us?"

"Sure," Toby said in his usual gruff manner. Everyone bowed their heads and waited for him to begin. When everyone was ready he started. "Bless this food oh, silently fill in your proper deity. We thank you for bringing us all together here on this day in which we celebrate the historic meal between the original caregivers of this land and the Euro-centric, addle- minded individuals who stole their land after they killed most of them off and pushed the rest into exile."

"Toby," Josh coughed, motioning his head towards a wide-eyed Emma.

Toby lowered his head again and continued. "Anyways, we thank you for allowing us all to be in good health and here today surrounded by people who annoy us less than others. We take this opportunity to ask you to let us continue living our lives prosperously and peacefully. And." He trailed off after that sentence and rested his chin in his hand, brow furrowing slightly.

"What is he doing?" Lily whispered to Donna from her place across the table after a minute.

"He's trying to come up with a phrase to finish the blessing with," Toby answered her, not moving from his spot. "Something meaningful yet casual. Something magnetic yet subtle. Something as complicated as it is simple. Something like."

"Let's eat," Leo cut in, reaching over for the bowl of sweet potatoes.

"Works for me," Toby concluded, stabbing some meat onto his fork and pacing the plate to Ginger. Everyone busied themselves, putting food on their plates and pacing dishes around.

"So how's the campaign going, Josh?" Margaret asked as she organized the food on her plate by calorie amounts.

"Pretty good so far," Josh replied, cutting some meat on Emma's plate. "We've got a lot of donations coming in and we've got favorable readouts from the first poll we put in after the announcement. Though you'd get a different story if you talked to my campaign manager."

"It could have been better," Toby, said campaign manager, disagreed.

"Toby, how could it have been better?" Josh argued with him for no less than the tenth time since two weeks ago when Josh had announced his candidacy at an event at the University of Connecticut. "We've got a thirty- eight percent approval rating from males 18-49, a thirty-five percent among women 52-76, and a forty-two percent approval rating with females 18-49. These are numbers most senatorial candidates don't see in a primary let alone an announcement. Please tell me how it could have been better."

"In your announcement speech, you could have included your firm stance on welfare reforms and new funding for social security," Toby countered. "Yet you felt that telling the story about registering the goldfish for college credits would inspire more confidence in your ability to represent the people of Connecticut as opposed to your consistent record of supporting Democratic beliefs and causes."

"It was a college campus, Toby. For the last time, I was trying to relate to them. Were you not there two weeks ago on that stage when I spoke about increasing financial aid for college and education grants?" Josh asked, getting aggravated.

"Were you not there eight months ago in the White House when I said unequivocally you should be running for a House seat instead of pandering to your own ego by running against a five-term, Republican Senator who hasn't lost an election since 1972?" Toby barked, pointing his fork at Josh.

"Well if that's the way you feel, maybe you should just."

"Josh," Donna said, reaching over and squeezing his hand, trying to get him to relax before he said something he'd regret later.

He took a deep breath, as did Toby, before he continued. "We'll put the welfare initiatives in the speech at the elementary school. Okay?"

"Fine," Toby sighed, taking a sip of some wine. "Sorry."

"Me too," Josh replied before he went back to his meal.

"So," Donna tried, wanting to ease the obvious tension "how are things in the White House?" Josh had quit as Deputy C.o.S that summer in order to devote his full attention to his campaign and his family, at least that was the line they fed the press. In truth, Josh hadn't been able to focus on work there since Sam had left.

"Good, all things considered," CJ said. "We got the healthcare reform bill passed so the President's happy about that. Everything else, we're just trying to get done now or put on the backburner until Hoyne's steps in."

"When is he gonna make the announcement?" Lily questioned, being privy to certain matters of national importance, including this one.

"January sixteenth," Leo informed her, still adjusting to the fact that they were now running under the clock. "Probably a live television address, Hoyne's will get sworn in that morning and that'll be that."

"In all honesty," Zoey added, "my dad's kind of wanted to just do it now, get it over with. But my sisters and I want him to go out gracefully, you know?"

"Yeah speaking of which, how's Ellie?" Nicole inquired. "T.J.'s so sick of Donna and I pestering him about the baby he stopped picking up when he sees our numbers on the caller ID." T.J. and Ellie were spending their first Thanksgiving as husband and wife at the Bartlet family farm with the President and the oldest Bartlet daughter, Elizabeth and her family. Zoey and Charlie were flying up tomorrow morning to enjoy the rest of the long weekend.

"She's great," Zoey told her. "For someone who's four months along and working twelve hour shifts on her residency."

"Can't she cut back her hours?" Carol asked concerned. "She shouldn't be working that hard."

"Carol, you ever try telling a Bartlet woman she couldn't do her job?" Charlie responded. "It's easier said than done, trust me." That elicited a laugh from everyone and they went back to their food before Leo brought up something else.

"Well speaking of workaholic feminists, Josh, how's you're mom doing? Is she still in Africa?"

"That she is and you have no idea how angry she is at me for giving her not one but two grandchildren and a daughter-in-law while she was away," Josh answered, still remembering the grief his mother had given him about it.

Josh's mother, Dr. Rachel Lyman, was a professor of sociology at the University of Florida and had taken two years off to study a previously undocumented tribe in the African jungle. She called or emailed at least once a week and Emma already had a healthy adoration for her new grandmother. Rachel was equally addicted to both Emma and Natalie and had been emailed at least a thousand pictures of the girls. Donna and Rachel had established their bond long before she and Josh were involved with one another and the whole family was eagerly awaiting Rachel's return in the spring.

"What about Mena? What's she doing for the holidays?" Lily asked.

"What she always does," Nicole replied. "Pack up the house and go to the Caribbean until April."

"An ideal way to spend any holiday indeed," Margaret said.

"I don't know," Josh whispered to Donna as he surveyed their table full of family and friends, his daughters on either side of him. "This isn't so bad." She smiled at him and leaned over to give him a long kiss while the rest of the table let out a great moan before going back to enjoying each other's company on Thanksgiving.