A/N: There may be more of these down the road, if the muses are kind, but for now this is the last one. Set not long after "Impact Winter" in Season 6. Enjoy!

angellwings


Tough Love

By angellwings


After Gaza everything changed and CJ ran out of time. Chief of Staff was a twenty-four-seven job. No time to lecture Josh on all the ways he was holding Donna back or Donna on all the ways she was letting him. No time to council Donna on her job search or Josh on the right man for the White House next year.

No time to realize the explosion she predicted was impending. Donna had mentioned she was trying to talk to Josh about something, but she and CJ had been interrupted before she could hear why. When she finally got time to breath, Josh walked through the door.

"Donna quit," he said simply.

CJ's eyes widened. "When?"

"Before I went to Houston."

"You're going to tell me why you went to Houston, right?" CJ asked with a curious look.

"She quit, CJ," Josh said as if she hadn't heard him.

CJ sighed. "So you said."

"She got another job."

"Good for her."

"CJ," Josh said softly. "She left."

"Yes, she did," CJ answered gently. "Josh, did you expect her to be your assistant for the rest of your life? Donna is a capable intelligent woman who wants to make a difference in the world. Surely, you knew she'd eventually want to grow into her own career."

Josh didn't speak. He merely stared at his shoes.

"Is this about her moving on or about her moving on without you?" CJ asked suspiciously.

His silence was answer enough.

"Have you called her?" CJ asked.

"Can't," he said with a sigh.

"Wow, that's a totally new brand of cowardice, Lyman. How did she quit? She said she'd been trying to arrange a lunch with you. How did that go?" CJ asked.

"It didn't. I had to keep pushing it back," he said as he avoided her eyes. "She quit in the hallway as I was leaving for a meeting."

"Because you kept pushing back a lunch with her?"

"I had to. We had a lot going on."

"You would have made time for Donna if you wanted to and you know it," CJ said in a stern tone. "You knew what she was going to talk to you about. You were avoiding it."

"I would never have found a better assistant than her and I don't have time to train one," Josh admitted.

"Assistant? You avoided the lunch before you didn't want to look for another assistant?" CJ asked incredulously.

"Yes," Josh lied.

"That's the story you're sticking with?" CJ asked in disbelief.

He nodded and she chuckled darkly.

"Okay, keep trying to convince yourself of that if you want, but everyone knows that Donna has never been just your assistant. It's about time you faced up to it too."

CJ's office phone rang as she stared Josh down and a minute later Margaret walked through the door.

"The Secretary of State is on the line."

"Put him through," CJ said with a sigh. Josh turned to leave and CJ called after him. "We're not done, Josh. I still need to know about Houston."

People were so dumb sometimes. From her experience telling them the straightforward truth was the best form of tough love.