Title: My Stupid Mouth

Author: ScullyAsTrinity

Category: Romance/Angst

Rating: PG

Dedication: To a new West Wing pal, Karen, whose series 'Bipartisanship' is just too cute for words! Rock on!!

Spoilers: Anything with Amy really.

Summary: A prequel to make a stand alone story I wrote make more sense. The REAL story will follow it in chapter form. Here, Josh says something that Donna doesn't exactly react well to.

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And I've gone and done it once again. It was one of those moments, you know? When you say something and want nothing more than to snatch it back and force it back down your throat?

Well, when I had realized that that was indeed what I had wanted to do, I had fumbled and lost the chance, and Donna had bounded out of my hotel room, blonde hair all a-flurry.

Yes. It was a-flurry.

'What did I say?' you ask. Oh, that's just, that's just peachy. Make me relive it. Well...

As per usual, Donna was sharing with me a story about how she had met a wonderful man on the Metro that morning and how they had bantered, how they had flirted, how he had given her his number and coyly told her to call. She was blushing, she was excited and she was downright cute.

I was jealous.

But this time, this time I told myself that I had to hold it back. That I couldn't lash out at her, that I couldn't make my feelings know, in any sense whatsoever. So yes, I Joshua Lyman, master of the witty quip, bit my tongue and smiled. This only fueled Donna's fire and she went on to chat about how she was sure that this might be the one guy, because she had just watched 'Serendipity' and was noting all of the similarities between the two situations.

I had to jump in! I had to! You can't be surprised, you know I had to do it, that it's in my blood... for some off reason.

And that, this... whatever is where we join in the story.

"Except one is fiction and one is... well both are fiction." I said, under my breath, grinning like a fool at my wit, at my slyness... at my-wait. Wait, what? I said that out loud? Loud... out loud, which meant that she heard it which meant.

"What?" She asked me, her head whipping around, licking her lips and placing her hands defiantly on her hips.

"I-um, oh fuck. I really like that sweater." The words choked in my throat, I felt so incredibly stupid, but just couldn't help myself. I swear, if I'm ever given a second chance, I'm never speaking up again. Ever.

"Josh, what the hell is that supposed to mean." And then, then, the color flooded into her cheeks and her nose scrunched up and... she was pissed. Like really pissed. Like "May I get you a cup of coffee Mister Lyman" pissed. And yes, I visibly bit my lip, plopped myself on the bed and gave her the upper hand. What else was I to do?

"Fiction? I don't... I just... my dreams... no, too cheesy, hold on!" Donna then put a hand to her head and paced around a bit. The light from the sun lit her hair in a million different colors and I felt the need to frantically search the floor for my comment and chew it up and supplant myself to her, just then in that moment.

"He. Wants. Me, Josh. He hit on me, not the other way around. And it was perfectly respectable. A suit, and a tie, and, and a briefcase. He was reading Josh. He caught my eye while he was reading. Do you know what he was reading Josh? He was reading Dante, Joshua. Dante." She spun around once more then, facing the window and biting on her thumb.

"And he caught me smiling at him, because in my head I was thinking of the words 'Abandon all hope ye who enter here' being posted over the door of your office... and he smiled back." And yes, I was listening, though I had my head down. She spoke again and she was much closer, standing right next to me.

"I smiled at him while I was thinking of you and he gave me his number." She smiled a bit and looked distant and my walls finally crumbled. I stood up, I stood next to her.

So close that I could feel the warmth cascading off of her body. But she just turned away.

"You know what?" She asked, backing away from me and grabbing the coat that she had discarded on my easy chair. Then she was gone.

Me and my stupid mouth.