TITLE: "A Friend In Need"
RATING: G
DISCLAIMERS: Apparently some guy called Sorkin owns 'em. My bank manager says I'm worth nothing (or did he say I was worthless?) so there's no point in suing me!
SPOILERS: None that I know of
NOTES: The timeline setting for this isn't apparent in the fic, but assume it starts around October 2001.
FEEDBACK: Sure, send it my way
Part 1 of 9
**
Monday Night
"Donna."
"Donna."
"Oh, DONNA," Josh called in a sing-song voice.
"Keep your pants on, Joshua, I'm coming". Donna glanced at the clock on the wall as she rose from her desk – '10:36pm on a Monday night, what a great way to start the week!' she thought to herself.
She stood at the doorway to Josh's office and glared at him.
"What do you want Josh?" He looked up from the array of papers on his desk.
"What's up with you? We are supposed to be working here you know, Donna. If you don't want to do that…"
"I'm just tired Josh. What do you want?" she replied in an exasperated voice.
"Tired? Donna, it's only Monday. You know, we just had a weekend, you should be refreshed." Josh gave her an accusing look.
"Yeah, and I would be refreshed if I'd actually had the weekend off instead of working."
"Well, I was working all weekend too and you don't hear me complaining." There was no anger in Josh's voice, Donna knew he was just trying to bait her.
"Josh, I'll ask once more and then I'm leaving, what do you want?" He pointed his left hand towards the overstuffed bookcase lining one wall of his office.
"Can you get me the law book from over there please," he stated, rather than asked.
"Have you lost the ability to walk or something?" She glared at him.
"No, but I'm kind of in the middle of something here and if I move it'll upset the delicate organization of all this paperwork." He looked at her pleadingly. In return, Donna snorted.
"Delicate organization; yeah, that'll be the day!" Josh just grinned at her and returned his eyes to the paperwork. Donna headed for the bookcase while glaring at Josh, trying to think of ways to repay him for his utter laziness.
Josh looked up as he heard a thud. He blinked as he realized Donna wasn't within his line of vision. As he stood up, he noticed she was lying on the floor in front of his desk.
"Donna, are you ok?" He moved to the front of his desk and knelt down beside her.
"Yeah, I think so." Donna opened her eyes and gave Josh a weak smile.
"What happened? I mean, if it was that much of a bother to get the book, you should have told me." He tried to lighten the mood as he saw pain reflected in Donna's eyes.
"Josh, don't!" Donna's tone wasn't harsh but Josh knew she was in no mood for joking round. "I think I tripped on something." Josh looked to the floor beside where her feet had landed and noticed a big red toy monster truck.
"Ah, yeah…you might have kind of tripped over this." He picked the truck up and showed it to Donna sheepishly.
"I'm not even gonna ask." Josh put the truck on his desk and looked back at Donna.
"Are you ok? Does anything hurt?" The look of concern on his face made Donna smile a little, until she realized that she was actually hurting quite a bit.
"My ankle hurts a bit. I probably just need to walk it off though. Can you help me to stand up?" Josh reached out his arms for Donna to grab onto. Slowly, she managed to get off the floor but, as soon as she tried to put her right foot on the floor to walk, pain shot through her ankle. "Ow. Okay, that hurting a bit thing probably just upgraded to hurting a lot."
Josh guided her to the visitor's chair and again tried to lighten the mood, not being able to cope with Donna being in pain. "So, the person who accused me of having lost the ability to walk, has now done that herself," he grinned.
"Don't get me started, Joshua. What the hell is a toy monster truck doing in here anyway?" She glared at him, her temper beginning to rise along with the pain in her ankle. Josh began to shrug his shoulders, as if to deny all knowledge, until he realized Donna had noticed the remote control device on his desk.
"Ah, yeah. Sam kind of gave it to me to use. It's supposed to be a stress reliever." At Donna's questioning glance he continued, "You know, you ram it into walls and stuff to vent your frustration."
"Oh, so you thought you'd vent your frustration by leaving it somewhere where your overworked, underpaid assistant could trip over it?"
"Well, it's not my fault if you didn't look where you were going." Josh's guilty conscience was making his temper rise - he didn't like admitting that he was to blame for Donna's current predicament.
"Josh, I think you should shut up now." Donna tried to lean forward to inspect her ankle but, by bending her knee to do so, it exerted extra stress on her ankle and she screamed out in pain. Josh quickly wheeled his desk chair round and placed it in front of her. He then carefully lifted Donna's legs and placed them on the chair. He grimaced as he looked at her ankle for the first time. Donna caught his look and strained to look herself but Josh stopped her.
"Okay, you probably don't want to look at that. It's…a little swollen. Maybe I should get a doctor?" he offered.
"No, it'll be okay once I get some rest. I've probably just twisted it. I'll go home, get some sleep and it'll be fine tomorrow." Donna knew calling for a doctor would take forever and she just wanted to get home; exhaustion was already threatening to overcome her.
"Okay, well you're not gonna be able to drive like that so I guess I'd better take you home." Josh reached for his jacket then stopped. "Wait, this isn't your way of getting me to leave early, is it?" he smirked.
"Josh, first of all, it's now 10:45pm on a Monday - that is not early! Secondly, I'M IN PAIN HERE!" Donna's temper finally blew and she glared at Josh. He gave her an apologetic look as he put his jacket on and picked up his backpack, for once not even bothering to fill it with files to read over at home. He then went to the bullpen and retrieved Donna's coat and bag, helping her to put her coat on as she leaned forward in the chair.
*
Getting Donna to Josh's car was not easy. She had to put her right arm around his left shoulder and his left arm went around her waist so that he was taking most of her weight on her right side. As they passed Security they were given a few questioning glances, but Josh thought he'd better not ask for help, knowing Donna would not be amused when the stories got around the West Wing of her being carried to his car by Security.
They drove to Donna's apartment in almost complete silence. Josh glanced over at Donna every few seconds to check she was okay, not used to the silence between them. At every stop sign and red light he asked if she was okay, to which she replied "yeah" every time.
*
Josh pulled up right in front of the main door to Donna's apartment building, figuring it would be easier to get his car towed than to have to try and get Donna to the door from the only parking space at the other end of the block.
Donna eased her way out of the car, letting Josh pull her up to a standing position and return his arm around her waist. Slowly they moved to the door and Donna handed Josh her keys for him to open the door.
"Thanks, Josh, I'll see you tomorrow." Donna turned and gave Josh a grateful smile.
"Donna, I'm not going until I've seen you safely up the stairs; I have a feeling you might need a little help."
"Josh, this could take a while so you might as well go home." Donna moved to the handrail on the left side of the stairs and placed both her hands on it. She then proceeded to hop onto the first step, placing her left foot on it and keeping her right foot in the air.
"Donna, wouldn't this be easier if you lean on me again?" Josh questioned, while offering her his arm. Donna shook her head.
"No, I think it will be easier this way," she replied and continued hopping up the steps, pausing between each one to re-adjust her position so that she didn't hit her sore ankle on the way up.
*
It took a full five minutes for Donna to climb, or hop, up the three flights of stairs and she was exhausted when she reached her floor. Gratefully, she accepted Josh's help to move to her apartment door and she leaned on him while he unlocked the door with her keys, which she then took from him.
"Thanks Josh. I'll be fine from here, I'll see you tomorrow." She squeezed his arm and then leaned against the doorframe.
"Are you sure?" When Donna nodded her head, Josh agreed, bid her goodnight and quickly made his way downstairs to his car. He then waited a few minutes until he saw the living room light go off and Donna's bedroom light go on before he drove away.
*
Early Tuesday Morning
"Josh Lyman." A sleepy Josh answered the phone on the 3rd ring.
"Josh, it's Donna." Donna's voice was very quiet and Josh immediately became worried. Glancing at the clock on his nightstand he saw it was only 3:04am.
"Donna, what's wrong? Are you okay?" His voice betrayed his concern and on the other end of the line Donna briefly smiled.
"Actually, I'm not okay. Do you…do you still have a set of keys to my apartment?" a shaky voice asked.
"Yeah, of course I have them; they're on my keychain with the keys to my own apartment. Why?" Josh was growing more confused, and more worried, by the second.
"Could you come over? I got up to go to the bathroom and I fell…I can't get up, my ankle hurts too much." Josh could hear tears in Donna's voice and a lump formed in his throat.
"Donna, where's your roommate, why is she not helping you?" he asked, almost fearing the answer.
"She's in California at a technology conference for the next two weeks. I told you that when she left on Friday, Josh."
"No, you certainly didn't tell me that, Donna, 'cos if you had I would have never left you on your own tonight when you're injured."
"I did tell you, Josh, but that's beside the point. She isn't here and I'm stuck and need your help. Can you please come over?" Anger was beginning to appear in Donna's voice, a sure sign that she was in pain.
"Yeah, of course I can come over but, if it's that bad, shouldn't you call the paramedics and go to hospital?"
"And how do you suggest they get into my apartment, Josh? Break the door down? And before you say it, I am not calling the Super at 3 in the morning – I couldn't even if I wanted to. It was all I could manage to grab the phone cord and pull the phone onto the floor – there's no way I could make it to the living room to get the Super's number." The anger was growing. Josh scrambled around trying to find some clothes.
"Calm down, Donna. I'm on my way. I'll be there in about twenty minutes. Don't go anywhere." Josh grimaced as he awaited Donna's response to his feeble attempt to lighten the atmosphere.
"Thanks, Josh." Donna choked out a response, and Josh knew the tears were finally falling. She hung up and he quickly pulled on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, sweater and boots before grabbing his keys and jacket and racing out the door.
*
Donna sat on the floor, trying to stop her tears. A few minutes later the phone rang, giving her a shock.
"Hello?" Donna's voice was very quiet as she answered the phone.
"Hey, it's me," came Josh's reply, calming Donna immediately.
"Josh, where are you? You are coming over, aren't you?" The panic started to rise again.
"Yeah, I'm in the car now. I just thought I'd call and keep you company while I drive over."
"Thanks." Josh realized Donna was more fragile at this moment than he'd thought and he once again tried to lighten the mood through banter.
"Hey, Donna, you said you got up to go to the bathroom and then fell. Did you fall before you made it to the bathroom?" he questioned and Donna immediately knew where he was going with it.
"Before, but don't worry, Josh, I can hold it; you won't have to clean anything up when you get here."
"Well, that's a relief," Josh smiled, glad that he could hear Donna's voice returning to normal.
They chatted for a few more minutes as Josh made his way through the streets of D.C. towards Donna's apartment. Suddenly, he heard her take a large intake of breath.
"Donna, you okay?"
"Josh, I gotta go," and she hung up the phone. Josh pressed his foot to the accelerator and broke the speed limit for the final few minutes of his journey.
*
"Donna?" Josh shouted as soon as he opened the door to her apartment. He quickly shut it behind him and ran towards Donna's bedroom, calling out to her again.
"I'm okay, Josh. I just…" Donna didn't say anymore as Josh arrived in her room and saw her. She was half-lying, half-sitting, on a rug on the floor, in a pool of vomit; she started to cry. The sight before him shocked Josh; he wasn't used to seeing Donna so helpless, she was one on the strongest people he knew. Feeling a lump forming in his throat, he dipped his head to try and regain control of his emotions.
"I'm sorry, Josh, I couldn't help it. I couldn't make it to the bathroom," Donna said tearfully. Josh immediately moved to her and knelt down beside her, never taking his eyes from her face.
"Shh, it's okay. It's probably shock from the fall, combined with the earlier one. Anyway, you shouldn't be apologizing to me, this is my fault." He reached out to place his hand on her arm but she moved back, not wanting him to get any of her vomit on his hand. "Okay, let's get you to the hospital." He again reached out and Donna shook her head.
"Josh, I can't go like this. I need to change." Josh quickly realized he wouldn't win the argument.
"Okay, what clothes do you want to change into and where do you keep them?" Donna told him where he would find a shirt and pants and then lowered her voice as she told him she'd also need underwear. Josh retrieved the clothes, grabbing the first bra and panties he could find from her underwear drawer and placing them all on the bed.
"Can you get me a towel? I can wrap it around me so that you don't get covered in this stuff while you help me to stand." Donna pointed out her bedroom door towards the bathroom opposite. Josh nodded, left the room and returned moments later with two large bath towels. He opened one out and handed it to Donna, who wrapped it around herself while Josh laid the other one out on the bed. He had also brought a damp cloth and proceeded to wipe her face and hands to get rid of the mess on them.
Josh bent down and placed his arms around Donna's waist, gently pulling her up. She let out a yell of pain but managed to hold onto his upper arms while he guided her towards the bed.
"Will you manage?" Josh asked, nodding towards the clothes on the bed. Donna nodded in reply and Josh left the room, carefully lifting the destroyed rug from the floor along the way. He partially closed the door behind him, leaving a slight opening so that he could hear her calling.
*
A few minutes later Josh returned to the room to find Donna sitting on the bed, dressed, with her nightclothes and the washcloth wrapped in one of the towels. He took them from her and placed them in her laundry bin before helping her to stand up again. They slowly made their way towards the living room and Josh helped her on with her jacket before opening the door and then locking it behind them.
Donna found getting down the stairs slightly easier than it had been getting up them, but she was still extremely tired when she reached the bottom, and Josh had to half-carry her to his car. Hardly a word was spoken between them as they drove to George Washington hospital; Josh stealing glances at Donna, who was resting her head against the window and had her eyes closed.
They arrived at the hospital a little after 4am. Josh alternated between pacing around the waiting room and sitting in a chair beside Donna, who had been placed in a wheelchair upon arrival, while she filled in the insurance forms. She was finally called to be taken to a curtain area and Josh gave her a questioning look. She nodded and he followed her behind the curtain with the nurse.
*
Later Tuesday Morning
8:10am - the ringing phone awoke Josh from his slumber.
"Hello?"
"Josh, where the hell are you?" Leo's angry voice asked. Josh was suddenly wide awake.
"Well, since you called me at home I'm guessing that's where I am." Josh immediately regretted the flippant remark.
"Ok, I'll rephrase the question. Why the hell aren't you in my office right now for the staff meeting that was supposed to start 10 minutes ago?" Leo's voice got louder and Josh quickly glanced at the clock, grimacing as he noted the time.
"Oh man, I'm sorry, I guess I overslept. I --" Josh's attempt to explain was cut off by Leo.
"Yeah, I guess you did. Now, get yourself into the office. Oh, and do you know where Donna is? Margaret says she's not in yet either, which is rather unusual." Leo's voice had softened a little.
"Donna's still asleep. We'll be in as soon as we can."
"What the hell do you mean she's still asleep and you'll be in as soon as you can? Josh, this better not be what I'm trying not to think it is!" Leo's voice was reaching yelling levels and Josh closed his eyes, trying to gather some strength.
"No, Leo, it's nothing like that. Donna had an accident last night; we only got out of GW around 5:30am. We came back here so I could change but I figured we could both use some sleep – it was only meant to be for an hour but I guess… I must have switched the alarm off when it rang and there's no alarm clock in the guest room." Josh tried to explain things as clearly as possible; the last thing he wanted was a lecture from Leo.
"What kind of accident did Donna have? Is she alright?" Leo's voice had changed to one of concern and Josh wondered how to explain that he was the cause of Donna's injury.
"She kind of tripped over something in my office last night and hurt her ankle. She thought she'd just twisted it and said she'd be okay so I drove her home. She then called me just after 3am. She'd fallen in her bedroom and couldn't get back up because her ankle had gotten a lot worse. I took her to GW and they x-rayed it and did all the usual stuff. It's not broken, but she's torn all the ligaments and is gonna be on crutches for a few weeks."
"And her accident happened in the office? You'll need to fill out an accident form when you get in."
"Yeah, I know. Like I say, we'll be in as soon as we can. I need to grab a shower and change."
"Wait. You said you left GW at 5:30am?" Leo asked.
"Around then, yeah. By the time we got back here and Donna managed to climb the steps, it was around 6am."
"And Donna called you at 3am. I checked the security logs for last night when you didn't appear this morning; you didn't leave until around 11pm last night. I'm guessing, by the time you dropped Donna off, it must have been about midnight by the time you got home?"
"Yeah." Josh wasn't really sure where Leo was going with the questioning.
"Well, that means you only had about three hours sleep, and I'm assuming Donna couldn't have had much either if she was in pain."
"No, she admitted that she'd been sitting on her bedroom floor for about a half hour, trying to figure out a way to stand up, before she gave in and called me."
"Okay, well I have everyone's schedules in front of me. Toby and I should be able to cover most of your meetings this morning, and I'll get Margaret to reschedule the others. You will need to be here to meet with O'Donnell at 2pm though. Do you have the notes for that at home?"
"No, they're in the office."
"Well, you probably only need a half hour to read through them, right?" Josh confirmed this and Leo continued, "Okay, be here for around 1:30 then."
"Huh? Leo, what do you mean?" Josh was clearly confused by Leo's statement. He wasn't used to being told to stay home when he was fit to work.
"I mean take the morning off Josh, both you and Donna. You need to get some sleep, you're not much use to me if you're exhausted and Donna will need a lot of rest if she's going to be using crutches for a while. I broke my leg when I was 19 and can still remember how tiring it was having to use crutches to get around." Leo's tone was one of concern but Josh knew it was also one not to argue with.
"Okay. I'm fine to come in, but I agree that Donna probably needs the rest. I'll see you later."
"Yeah. Oh, Josh, what exactly did Donna trip on in your office?"
"Leo, you really don't want to know." Leo could hear the guilty tone in Josh's voice.
"You know I'm going to read the accident report, so you might as well tell me now."
"It was a toy monster truck that Sam loaned me. I didn't realize I'd left it in the middle of the floor when I stopped playing with it. Donna didn't notice it 'cos she was busy glaring at me for being lazy." Josh admitted his guilt and could hear Leo's quiet chuckle on the other end of the line.
"I might have known you'd find a way to bring Sam into this. See you later Josh, get some sleep," Leo instructed as he hung up the phone.
Josh placed the receiver back in its cradle and got out of bed. Clad in a T-shirt and boxer shorts he made his way to the guest room and gently knocked on the door.
"Donna?"
"Yeah?" a sleepy voice replied. Josh opened the door and stepped into the room. Donna turned over to look at him, folding her arms over the top of the duvet. Josh noticed that her arms and shoulders were bare, except for the white straps of her bra.
"Hey. How are you feeling?" Josh's voice was very gentle.
"I'm okay. A little tired though." Donna gave him a smile and then looked at her watch. A panicked look came over her face. "Josh, do you realize what time it is? You should have been at the Senior Staff meeting 20 minutes ago!"
"Yeah, I know, Leo called." As the panic rose on Donna's face he continued, "He was kind of pissed at me for being late until I told him about your ankle. He then gave us both the morning off." Josh felt a slight smirk coming over his face, "See? You keep asking me for time off and now I've granted it."
"Well, next time could you maybe grant it when I don't have to rest my ankle?" Donna tried to use a harsh tone but failed, succumbing to the grin spreading over Josh's face.
"Now, where's the fun in that, Donnatella? Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know that we don't need to be in the office until 1:30, so you can go back to sleep."
"So, you woke me up to tell me I can go back to sleep? Sometimes your logic amazes me, Joshua!" Donna grinned at him.
"Hey! I just didn't want you waking up, seeing the time and trying to race around getting ready, 'cos it would just make your ankle worse." Josh used a mock-hurt tone. "And speaking of getting ready, where are your clothes? I know you were wearing some when I helped you through here last night." At Josh's question Donna looked down and realized that her bare arms were showing. She quickly pulled the duvet up to her chin, putting her arms underneath.
"I took them off so they wouldn't get creased. I'll need to wear them to the office as I don't think I could face climbing the stairs to my apartment this morning." Josh seemed to accept the statement.
"Okay, well I'll let you get back to sleep. How long will you need to shower and get ready? I need to know when to wake you up as there's not an alarm in here."
"I doubt I'll be able to take a shower as I can't stand. I also don't think I'm supposed to get the bandage on my ankle wet," Donna replied.
"Well, the bandage thing is easy, you can just wrap a plastic bag around it to protect it. As for standing, I have a stool that I could place in the shower. I think I even have some of that bubble-wrap stuff around here that I could put on the stool so it doesn't get ruined by the water. Leave it with me, I'll sort something out and waken you in time to have a shower before we need to leave."
"Okay, I won't bother to wash my hair, so I'll only need around 20 minutes to shower and dress."
"Okay. Get some sleep." Josh smiled and closed the door behind him as he left the room, returning to his own bedroom. He set his alarm clock for noon so that he would have enough time to shower and organize the stool for Donna before they had to leave to fight the traffic to the Whitehouse. He then climbed back into bed and quickly fell asleep.
*
When Donna emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed, she found Josh sitting in the kitchen eating cereal. He pointed to another bowl on the table and motioned for her to sit down. Donna shook her head.
"Donna, you need to eat something. It's lunchtime and we haven't even had breakfast yet," Josh said between mouthfuls.
"No, I'd probably just throw up again. Anyway, we'd better go; it's 12:45 and you know what the traffic is like at this time of day." Reluctantly, Josh nodded his head, put a final spoonful of cereal into his mouth and stood up. He collected his jacket from the hook by the door, put it on and then retrieved Donna's jacket. He helped her to put it on and then grabbed his backpack and her bag before holding the door open for her.
**
TBC