CJ surveyed the woman sitting on the couch opposite her. She was wearing a tshirt and long, cotton pants, and her legs were folded under her lazily. She would have appeared, to any objective observer, to be relaxed, her wine glass resting procariously on her knee, and her hair falling about her shoulders gracefully. CJ, however, knew better. She had watched Donna for long enough now to know that she was troubled by something. Her hand constantly reached for her cell phone, and flipped it open, checking to see if there was anything new on its screen before snapping it shut again, and looking worried. Until now, CJ had remained detirminely silent on the matter, because though her instincts told her to inquire, her memory told her not to. Finally, unable to stand it any longer, CJ opened her mouth.

"Donna, whats wrong?"she asked, curious, taking another sip of her own white wine, and crossing her legs, peering at her friend. "You've checked that thing about a million times, and it hasn't changed once. Are you waiting for a call?"

Donna shook her head. Then she hesitated. She opened her mouth, as if to speak, and then shut it again, firmly. Finally, she spoke, with a hesitant air about her.

"There's an order to these things, isn't there?" she said, not really asking a question, and silencing CJs unspoken bewilderment by continuing. " I mean, step one you meet a person, then your meant to date, third is you get to know them, and you kiss them, and preferably after that you sleep with them, and number six comes around and your swapping keys to your apartments, and then, eventually, if your lucky, you realise that somewhere in among all that other stuff you've fallen in love?" she asked, her voice fast, and her eyes darting back and forth to the phone. CJ stared back at her, her mind ticking feverishly, trying to think of what Donna was saying while she was listening to her speak.

Then she nodded.

"That, generally, is the order of...well, things." she replied, seeming to strengthen Donna's resolve, for she pointed at her friend.

"Exactly! Exactly. There's a way things are meant to go. But what happens when you mess with that? Is everything ruined? I mean what if you do a 1245367? or a 1523467? Or what if you're so horribly messed up and unconventional that you wind up with a 173645 and 2 is no where to be seen, so you're left with a relationship so undefinable that it cant even be called a relationship because neither of you wants to admit that its anything at all?!"

Donna came to a halt, and then downed the rest of her drink, slammed the glass on the side of the couch, and flipped open her phone, made an aggravated noise, and closed it again.

CJ sat there, for a moment, still, thinking back over their conversation.

"Wait, say the order of those numbers again?"

"No."

"You and Josh finally..."

"Apparently not."

"And what are you going to do about this?" CJ asked, raising her eyebrows, a smile of glee passing over her satisfied face.

"Well, I was thinking that as soon as they got into the White House Id make sure that there was an extremely unattractive yet intuitive intern assigned to liaise between the Director of Leg Affairs and the Chief of Staff, and stipulate that they be present at any meetings that the two operatives have, before retreating to a solitary existence involving me, some ice-cream, and a lot of cats." Donna joked, in a matter of fact monotone.

"Why? Who did they offer Legislative Affairs to?"

"Amy Gardener."

"Right." CJ said with a smirk on her face, before walking into Donna's room, and getting her coat, brining it back out to her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm throwing you out."

"Why?" asked Donna, not quite believing CJ, though her face was serious.

"Because you obviously did the exact same thing as I did tonight, and both of us are idiots. You are going to call a cab, and go to Josh's, because it was Leos funeral today, and obviously your worried about him, and rather than tell me that your rambling about numbers, and that allows me to go and settle a certain 17345 I've got going on, and not have Danny mad at me tomorrow morning."

Donna gave CJ a smile, and looked as though she were about to make a very girly almost squeal.

"You and Danny?"

"Call a cab."

"Why did we have to choose men that can't count?" she joked, as she took her coat from a smiling CJ.

CJ shrugged.

"They have nice hair?"

"Ill take that."