The deafening, chaotic reaction of the crowd to the Santos/McGarry nomination did not surprise them at all- the delegates were all cheering as though they had never considered another candidate on one of the endless ballots over the past few days. The DNC had reached a consensus, and the crowd was going wild. At least, that's how it appeared on television.
Josh sat in in the darkened Russell war room with Donna and Will, watching the crowd on network television as the balloons dropped and President Bartlet clapped for the nominees. He quietly nursed his beer as he watched Donna and Will out of the corner of his eye, hoping that Will would soon tire of Josh's presence and leave the room. Tonight, he wanted to talk to Donna; to resolve all of the issues and questions and thoughts that had propelled him to Gaza, that had made Donna leave the White House, and that had sent them on opposing teams across the country for the past few months. Josh knew that he should be on top of the world tonight, with Santos/McGarry as the nominees- everything that he had worked so hard for. All he wanted was to he able to share the victory with Donna- as he had been doing for years- but this time, the victory was his alone. His win was her defeat- her candidate had lost, and he was not sure how to approach this new territory with her. Thus, he sat in the room, uncharacteristically quiet, mulling over his thoughts and options.
Will glanced malevolently over at Josh, knowing that the other man had won this round and hating him for being with the right candidate. Will had given up a place in the West Wing to work for Russell, but also because Will was never able to reconcile his place on President Bartlet's team with their loss of Sam. All of them- CJ, Toby, Josh, Leo- had been courteous to Will, but they had never really become friends with him. Will envied all of them their closeness and rapport, even while he realized that it was born out of the time that they had all spent together- shared battle scars, wounds, and victories; things that Will was not present for. A large part of Will had wanted to lead Russell to victory in order to prove that he was right in leaving the Deputy Communications director job- not only to himself, but especially to Josh, Toby, Leo and CJ. Right now, Will wondered what had brought Josh down to the Russell room while Santos was taking his victory lap. He looked at Josh contemplatively, sipping one of the beers that Josh had brought with him, and thought for the millionth time about the Donna/Josh rumors.
Donna sat in the Russell war room, drinking a beer and wondering why Josh was sitting in the dark with them. She and Will had been there, not exactly consoling each other, but basking in the feeling that they had wasted the previous months of campaigning, mixed with a sense of relief that it was all over. She knew that Will desperately wanted to be accepted by Josh, Toby and CJ, but that he had no idea how to interact with them, and had jumped at the chance to hire Donna in the thought that he was stealing her from them. Furthermore, she knew that Will found her attractive- but she wasn't quite sure if that was a product of their relative closeness in age and familiarity prior to her joining the Russell campaign, or something more serious. Whatever the motive, Donna had been successful in keeping the tone collegial without ruining their working relationship- and she wanted to keep it that way.