Game Changer
by angellwings
Chapter One: The Path Diverges
Amy Gardner had an appointment with Josh. It would be the first time since before Gaza that Donna had seen Amy and she wasn't looking forward to it. Amy would be her usual brash and fearless self and Donna…
Donna looked beaten. Sometimes she felt it too. She didn't know if she'd have the energy to pretend to get a long with Amy. Then there was another issue. Another issue she was trying her hardest not to think about. Watching Josh flirt with Amy would kill her. Okay, not kill her. That was dramatic, but it would sting. More so than usual because—
She paused in her thoughts and glanced over at the pen Josh had given her when she'd gotten back to Washington. She took a deep fortifying breath before she pulled out Josh's schedule again.
He'd dropped everything to be there for her in Germany and he'd stayed for days. He'd been there for her every step of the way. And yet the minute they were both back in the West Wing it was like nothing happened. Nothing at all. Like they were just boss and assistant again. Well, not just boss and assistant. They had never been just boss and assistant. She'd been his caretaker, his confidant, and his best friend but never just his assistant.
She never got what she really wanted though. Women like Amy and Mandy got that. And they didn't properly appreciate it in her opinion.
"Hi, Donna."
She froze as she was turning the page on Josh's schedule and slowly looked up to see Amy smiling at her. She gulped and stood up from her desk to file some unimportant memos. "Hi, Amy."
"He's in, right? I have an appointment," Amy said as she swept a quick glance over Donna. "How are you?"
"Me?" Donna asked. "I'm okay. I'm using the crutches less and less so that's good. Or so I'm told," she answered. "He knows you're coming so you can go in whenever you're ready."
"I know. It won't kill him to wait," Amy said with a smirk. "So, how long is Josh going to keep you here?"
"What?" Donna asked in surprise. A sound bite of a previous conversation with CJ played through her mind briefly.
"I mean, you are way over qualified to pick up his dry cleaning and answer his phones. If I were still with the First Lady's office I would have tried to steal you away by now. I bet you'd kill 'em on the Hill," Amy told her.
Donna gave her a shocked look but grinned slightly. "I—thanks. That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"I saw the notes you took in—" Amy paused for a moment as if she were unsure she should continue.
"Gaza?" Donna completed for her. "It's okay. You can say it. I won't fly into a hysterical fit at the mention of the place."
"Right, sorry. But yes, there. You had some very good observations and I bet some even better ideas on how to help?" Amy asked in a leading tone.
"I'm sorry, is there a reason you're bringing this up?" Donna asked as she opened a nearby filing cabinet.
"Just, I don't know, reminding you how good you are. With all the aftermath around you I could see how that could fall to the wayside. Plus, knowing Josh…"
"Knowing Josh, what?"
"Well, you told me yourself. He doesn't like to leave people behind so I can only imagine how close he'd want to keep you after nearly losing you," Amy said honestly. Donna blinked at her but said nothing.
"Sorry was that overstepping?" Amy asked.
The corner of Donna's mouth turned upward before she responded. "Yes, but you always do, don't you? Why should now be any different? I am surprised though. I…never thought you…well I thought you didn't like me very much."
"It was never you I had a problem with. Not really," Amy told her. "It was…it was how close the two of you were—are. But after you were…he left so fast that I think he broke the sound barrier, Donna. He would have never done that for me."
"He would have," Donna assured her.
"Okay, fine. Maybe he would have, but if, God forbid, we'd both been injured at the same time on opposite ends of the world, who do you think he'd have gone running to first?" Amy asked in a resigned tone that, to Donna's ears, sounded heartbroken.
Donna looked away from her and closed the filing cabinet in silence.
"Exactly," Amy said with a sad smile. "Anyway, you should think about exploring your options. Some people out there would kill to have you on their team."
Without giving Donna a chance to protest Amy turned and marched into Josh's office with a bravado that Donna now questioned. She'd once thought Amy was always nerve wracking and conceited, but then again a lot of people thought that about Josh. He definitely wasn't always Josh Lyman. She knew that first hand. Amy had genuinely surprised her. Now Donna was left to wonder what Amy and Josh could possibly be talking about.
"Amy," Josh said stiffly as she stormed into his office. She smirked and nodded at him.
"J, I see you've got Donna chained to her desk again."
She didn't know why she said it. But she did. And now she got to watch Josh's face turn that particular shade of crimson that told her he was ready to explode. She'd seen it often enough that it barely intimidated her any more.
"I don't see how that's—"
"Oh shut up," Amy said with a roll of her eyes. "You know exactly what you're doing. You're scared and you're clinging. You almost lost her, realized some pretty heavy things, and now you can't face them because you know, you just know—"
"Know what exactly?"
"That you're losing her all over again," she told him bluntly. "This time to something you can't really help her with. Really, what more can you do for her Josh? Do you have some secret promotion in your back pocket that you're planning to pull out the minute she gets a better offer?"
"I thought you didn't like Donna?" Josh asked in a clipped tone.
"It was never her I didn't like," she repeated. "It was you and her, Josh. That's what I didn't like. Because much like you right now, I knew. I knew I was losing you. I probably never even stood a real chance against—well against that." She said as she waved a hand between him and his, now closed, office door.
"What does this have to do with—what are you doing here, Amy?" Josh asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I'm here because of her," Amy told him as she motioned to the door again.
His brow furrowed. "What?"
"I'm offering her a job."
"She's not going to want to be your assistant—"
"She doesn't want to be yours anymore either, Josh," she said waspishly.
Josh slammed his fist against his desk and glared at her. "Dammit, Amy!"
"And I'm not offering her a position as my assistant. She's better than that. You saw to that."
"You can't just—there are a lot of other people out there who could do—"
"No, there aren't. You know that as well as I do. She's talented, she's smart, she's beyond capable and—"
"She's your mascot," Josh interrupted in a strained voice. "She's the victim of a terror attack who's still recovering and you need the sympathy."
"Excuse me?" Amy asked in an offended tone. "Are you saying that she's not talented, smart, beyo—"
"You know that I'm not saying that. You know that. Of course she's all of those things. She's always been all of those things. But I'm not going to let you use her to muster up sympathy. She's worth more than that and she could do more than that," he said through a tense jaw.
"Then make a counter offer. I'm not asking for permission, Josh. I'm here as a courtesy," she told him sternly. "Have a good day. Oh and if you need any recommendations for a new assistant my office has a list for you." She placed a business card down on his desk and then opened his door.
"Amy! Stop! I don't—why?" He asked loudly. A chair squeaked against the floor outside of his office and they both knew Donna was listening.
"You need motivation to make a damn move and I need help on the Hill. It's a mutually beneficial situation. Either man up or…no you know what, J? Just man the hell up!" Amy yelled before she turned on her heel and walked away from him. He watched in silence as she stopped by Donna's desk and placed a business card in his assistant's hand.
Donna stared after her with a shocked expression and then gave Josh a questioning look. He motioned for her to join him in his office and then slammed the door behind him. Donna flinched.
"So, your meeting with Amy went well then?" She asked with a grin.
"She's going to offer you a job," he stated seriously.
Donna blinked and then looked down at the card in her hand. "What? A job like a serious job?"
"A job with her organization lobbying on the Hill for Women's Issues," he said slowly as he watched her face for a reaction. Her eyes brightened and her lips twitched before she forced a sober expression and shook her head. It took all of a split second but he saw it. He knew he did.
She shrugged as if she didn't care before she spoke. "I'm not gonna take it. Why would I want to work for Amy?"
A silence stretched out between them as he stared at her for much longer than strictly necessary. She shifted her weight to her good leg and fidgeted under his gaze.
"Josh?" Donna asked in concern.
"I think you should do it."
She flinched again but this time it had nothing to do with a slamming door. "What did you say?"
"You should do it. Go work for Amy Gardner and do impressive things for women."
"I—I couldn't. I'm not—I'm an assistant, Josh. I'm not you or Amy," Donna said as she wrung her hands and looked down at the floor.
"No, you're better," Josh said as he took a step toward her. "You're more than an assistant, Donna. You're compassionate and you care about these causes and the people around you. You know how this town works and you're—you're brilliant. There's no reason you can't do what she's asking you to. None what's so ever."
"Do you…want me to go?" Donna asked with a furrowed brow.
He chuckled bitterly before he spoke. "Want? Hell no. I want to keep you right here with me. I want to make sure you're safe. But I'm not gonna be that guy, Donna."
"What guy?" She asked cluelessly.
"Dr. Freeride, Captain Wonderful…I'm not going to let you give up what you want for me. And you want this—" Donna opened her mouth to speak but Josh continued to talk over her. "Don't tell me you don't because I saw your face when I told you the news. You want this. You need this. You're bored here. You know it and I know it and it's not doing either of us any good to ignore it."
She didn't bother trying to object any more. She sighed and shook her head. "If I leave, Josh—If I leave who's going to handle things here? Who's going to take care of you?"
For the first time since seeing Amy's name on his schedule this morning he smiled. "That's what you're worried about? Donna, I can take care of myself."
She laughed. "No you can't. Maybe you used to be able to. Barely, but you've become far too reliant on me, Joshua. Everyone knows this."
"Everyone?" He asked with a teasing grin.
"Everyone but you."
"No," He said as he took yet another step closer. "I know it. Believe me I know it. It's the reason you've got to take this job."
"What are you talking about?" Donna asked in confusion.
"I almost lost you after Gaza. I'm not going to lose you now," Josh told her before he took a deep breath. "Who am I kidding? I'm already losing you."
"You're not, Josh," Donna said as she took a step toward him.
"If you stay here I will," he told her. "You'll resent me for keeping you here and I can't get you anything else around here. It's not that I don't want to offer you anything, Donna, it's just that I have nothing to give you. And the one thing I could give you turned out to—" He stopped mid sentence and swallowed thickly.
"It wasn't your fault, Josh," Donna told him.
"I sent you there!"
"Yeah, and I asked you to! You sent me there because I asked to do more. If it's anyone's fault that I was there it's—"
"Don't say it," Josh interrupted her. "You can't do that."
"I asked for more responsibility, Josh. You were just being a good boss," She replied with a sigh and a quiet sniffle.
He shook his head. "A good boss would have told you someone from CJ's office was going and you'd have to deal with it. What I did wasn't being a good boss. I wouldn't have done it for anyone else. For any other assistant."
"Josh, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying, I care way too much for you to simply be my assistant and you have to get out of here before I let you talk me into making you Queen of the West Wing or something," he said gently as he reached for the sleeve of her blazer and ran a finger across the buttons on her wrist.
"Queen of the West Wing?" Donna asked with a smirk. "I like the sound of that."
He chuckled and moved his fingers from the sleeve of her blazer to encircle her wrist. Her eyes darted to his hand and she smiled softly at him.
"So, if I take the job…are you still going to be here?" She asked hesitantly. "It's not going to be one of those out of sight out of mind things?"
He grinned at her with an amused expression. "You think when you're out of my sight you're out of my mind? You really think that's how that works? Donna, I couldn't get you out of my mind if I wanted to."
She felt him lace his fingers through hers and beamed at him. "Okay, so I guess I'm talking the job. Are you sure you're okay with that? Me working with Amy?"
He sighed and shrugged. "We'll see how it goes. I'm confident you can handle it. I'm not so sure Amy can handle you. She's only seen your docile side."
Donna laughed and shook her head. "Amy can handle anything. She's…scrappy."
"Nicer word than I'd use," Josh told her. "When are you going to call her?"
"Tonight, I guess. Depending on how that goes I suppose I'll give my two weeks notice tomorrow and then I'll help you find a replacement," Donna said quietly as she tightened her grip on Josh's hand. "Am I really doing this?"
"Yes," Josh said as he took a deep breath. He carefully leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on her forehead. "You're doing this and you're going to be…amazing."
She smiled brightly at him again and held up Amy's business card. "I guess I'd better go. Do you need anything?"
He grinned slyly at the familiar question before answering. "Nothing I can have right now. It looks like I'm going to have to wait a couple of weeks for what I need."
Donna blushed and her smile turned shy. "Oh, okay. Well, I'm gonna go home and call Amy. You're sure you're okay with this? It's your last chance to back out."
"I'm not one of your gomers, Donna. I'm not backing out. Take the job and then take the Hill by storm. I'll stay right here while you do," Josh promised.
"Okay," Donna said with a grin. "But you can go home though. You're not much use to me if you don't shower or eat or sleep."
He grinned at her. "Go home, Donnatella. Call Amy."
She mock saluted him as she turned and left his office. "Sure thing, Boss," She called over her shoulder. "See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," Josh called back with a smile. He was looking forward to it. Tomorrow might feel like a completely different kind of day.