Author's notes: See part 1 for disclaimers, also, it was correctly pointed out to me after I posted chapter 2 that my remedial math skills suck. So to reiterate, the ages of Josh and Donna should be 36 and 23 respectively. I apologise for that error, although all mistakes are mine, as I have no beta. Finally, I was having some verb tense issues, I think I have fixed those mistakes, so from now on the verb tense will be different from the one used in the first two chapters, sorry if that causes any confusion.

Florida is hot.

In other news, water is wet.

Even in February, the heat felt oppressive. Neither of them are used to this weather, not with Donna being from Wisconsin and Josh from Connecticut.

They had arrived only an hour earlier, silently walked to the rental agency and picked up their car.

If a more awkward car ride had ever occurred Donna didn't want to know about it. The hot and sticky air being pumped out through the vents did nothing to help ease the awkward tension between the car's passengers. For a rental car in Florida, one would think that air conditioner would be a standard feature on all models, but apparently not.

Donna tried to distract herself from the sweltering heat by running through the day's schedule in her head, but no matter how hard she tried she could not stop thinking about what had happened in that hotel room only hours earlier. She still wasn't sure what compelled her to kiss Josh. She just wanted to find out why he had kissed her in the first place and when he blamed the whole incident on a lack of square footage in the closet, she was so mad that she wanted to prove that he had kissed her because he wanted to. That idea was immediately confirmed by Josh's tongue in her mouth. But as quickly as she had kissed him, she broke away as sanity restored itself her head.

What had she been thinking?

Her thoughts had involuntarily gone to John, or as Josh so affectionately called him Dr. Free Ride. When Donna found out that John had been cheating on her with a nurse on his rotation it felt like her heart has exploded inside her chest. But John had told Donna it had meant nothing, he just couldn't help himself, it had only been physical attraction between him and the nurse. At the time, Donna thought that explanation was bullshit, but now? For the first time in her life, standing in that hotel room with Josh, she couldn't help herself. Something, something primal maybe, had taken over and the next thing she knew she had pushed Josh against the wall, desperate to feel him against her. Is this what Dr. Free Ride felt towards that nurse? An overwhelming need to be with her? Touch her? God, things must be really messed up in her head because she was beginning to empathise with that bastard.

In her head, she had called that nurse a million horrible names: slut, whore, shank. What kind of woman knowingly starts something with an attached man? What kind of woman? Well, a woman like her apparently. With warning, Donna felt nauseous. She was no better than that nurse. Donna had kissed Josh, had let Josh kiss her knowing that he had a girlfriend. While the one brief exchange between Donna and Mandy had been less than pleasant, Donna knew that Mandy didn't deserve this, no woman did for that matter. So how is she better than the nurse that Dr. Free Ride cheated with? Well, she hadn't slept with Josh...yet. She hoped that if faced with the situation she would say no, but she had this horrible suspicion that if actually presented with an opportunity to be with Josh she wouldn't be able to say no. And for the second time in a matter of minutes she felt sick to her stomach again.

"Hey, are you okay? You look like you're going to be sick. No puking in the rental because I'm sure as hell not going to clean it up."

Yes, this was the man she found so irresistible. Of course, trust Josh to notice another person's feelings now. Why couldn't he just go back to ignoring her like he had for the last few hours.

"I'm fine, probably just hungry. Plus, it is so hot," she answered back, looking out the window. She didn't feel ready to actually look at him yet. She had this irrational fear that he would be able to read everything that she was feeling and thinking if he could see her eyes.

"We're almost at the hotel, but we can stop to get something to eat if you want."

Okay, she can handle rude and abrupt Josh, what she definitely cannot handle right now is sensitive and accommodating Josh.

"No, I'm fine." While a part of her wanted to jump on the invitation, and maybe on Josh as well, what she needed right now was to get into her own hotel room and away from Josh for a while so she could think, not spend more time with him eating lunch.

He looked over at her, trying to meet her eyes, but she was stubbornly focused on the view outside her passenger side window. Splitting his focus between the road and her profile, Josh was unsure of how to proceed. A big part of him wanted to talk about this...thing, for lack of a better word, between them, but there was still a smaller part of him that hoped they could just ignore it and go back to being the unprofessional boss and assistant they were before he had pulled her into that janitor's closet.

She certainly appeared to not want to talk, judging by the way she had shifted her entire body into a pretzel in an effort to turn away from him as much as possible; she was practically molded into the passenger side door.

What did she have to be so nervous about? She was the one who launched herself at him. Not that he was complaining, no, no, no, nooooo; there was nothing in that kiss to complain about. Was she embarrassed now? Did she think that he embarrassed? She must know that although the kiss was unexpected it was not unwelcome; when she had attempted to pull away, he had crushed her to him like a drowning man holding on to a life preserver. Maybe that was it, had he inadvertently scared her by going too far, pushing for more? No, he didn't think so, if he remembered correctly she had eagerly molded her soft body to his, her tongue had met his thrust for thrust.

So what had gone wrong – Ah!

He should really be applauded for his masterful deduction skills, usually he was an idiot when it came to figuring out women, Sam always joked that he missed the obvious signs, couldn't even see what was right in front of him, but not this time; he knew exactly what was bothering Donna or he should say who was bothering her. He wished her could pull out his cell and call Sam right now just to gloat, but he didn't think that Donna would share his enthusiasm concerning his deduction skills.

The problem was obvious; Donna thought that he was still with Mandy. Knowing that Dr. Free Ride had cheated on her, Donna probably thought that Josh was no better. Well, that was a thought he needed to get rid of quickly.

So the question was how could he let it slip that he was no longer with Mandy. Really, it couldn't be that hard, he had help draft important messages for some of the smartest political minds of his generation. Letting Donna know, by slipping into their many daily conversations in a completely nonchalant, natural and organic way that he wasn't seeing Mandy any more should be a piece of cake.

"I broke up with Mandy," he blurted out.

Smooth Lyman, real smooth.

Well at least she was no longer looking out the damn window, at his unprompted declaration Donna's head had snapped around to stare open mouthed at Josh.

"Oh," she whispered.

Not really what he had hoped for, but at least they were making eye contact now.

Dividing his attention between focusing on not driving the car into any inanimate objects and looking at Donna, he was unsure of his next move. Shouldn't she be happier? He wasn't a cheating bastard, when he had kissed her in the closet and later when she had kissed him in the hotel room he was actually a single man. So really they could go on kissing, and doing a lot of other things without feeling guilty, unless -

Unless Donna didn't want to go on kissing him. What if she, despite what he felt during their kiss, had no interest in more kissing. God, he had just told her that he had broken up with his girlfriend; Donna probably thought he had broken up with Mandy so he could start something with her and she was freaked out by it. It must be too much too soon.

Okay, Lyman, this time think about what you want to say before saying it.

"I didn't break up with Mandy for you; I mean to be with you or anything. The relationship wasn't working so I ended it."

Ah, crap again.

But maybe it wasn't all bad news after all because instead of looking relieved, what appears to be a flash of disappointment crosses Donna's face, but Josh can't be 100 percent sure because he had just turned his eyes back to the road. When he turned his gaze back to her again that look was gone, replaced by a now familiar wide eyed, open mouthed gape.

"Oh," she muttered again.

Josh was really starting to hate that one syllable.

She opened her mouth again as if to speak, but no words came out. She repeated this process a few times. She looked like a fish searching for food, it was on the tip of Josh's tongue to tell her she looked like a guppy, but even he knew that wouldn't be a comparison she would appreciate.

Finally she spoke. "I think that right now, being in the middle of the biggest thing we are ever going to do in our lives, having a relationship would be extremely difficult."

Now it was Josh's turn to mouth a small 'oh'. Well, message received loud and clear, Donna had no interest in pursuing anything with him – he looked out the driver's side window, he wondered if he could just pull over the car and walk the rest of the way, no, Donna would probably just follow him. He could just jump out of the car, do a parachute roll and walk away, that seemed to work for people in the movies all the time.

"But," she continued, "Completely hypothetically, I think that people in a relationship should make each other happy, you know. That person should make you laugh; it should be easy to be around them because you like talking to them, bantering with them," she practically whispered those last words with a shy smile on her face. "I think that if a person had a relationship like that then it wouldn't matter that they were in a middle of a campaign or anything, those people would find a way for a relationship to work. Hypothetically speaking, of course."

"Of course," he answered, trying his best to keep his face from breaking into a huge smile.

Well it was a start, a hypothetical start, but a start none the less.

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Even though Donna had complained about Josh's hectic schedule before they even left for Florida, no one on the campaign could have anticipated how frantic their time in Florida would be. If Josh was scheduled to be in three different places at once then the Governor was schedule to be in five. They had been in Florida for 2 days now; the rest of the campaign staff had joined Donna and Josh yesterday.

Although Josh and Donna had come to an understanding of sorts during their car ride from the airport to the hotel, there had literally been no time to discuss or explore the hypothetical conversation or make time to turn the hypothetical into an actuality.

People scurried around the hardware store turned campaign office in a display of organised chaos. Donna was trying to work her magic again by creating a schedule that allowed Josh to maximum his time spent working with the delegates. She had briefly seen Josh once in the morning when he threw a pile of papers on his make -shift desk and took off with Sam for another meeting.

'Ah, this is the life I chose', she thought to herself. She entered his office and attempted to reconfigure his desk so it resembled a workable space again. Finally, content with her efforts, Donna went to find Margaret. Time passed so quickly as she rushed around gathering all the information Margaret needed that she didn't even notice at first that Josh had returned from his meeting.

"DONNA!"

Hmm, maybe if she just ignored him, he'd go away.

"DONNA! I can see you, get in here now."

"Yes, Josh. Did you need something?" She asked calmly.

"I put some files down on my desk before, but now they're gone. What did you do with them?"

"Put, Josh? You did not put the files down; put implies you placed the files with some sort of organised intent. No, you did not put the files down, what you did was throw them willy-nilly so they scattered everywhere. But it is a good thing I'm here, because I already put them away for you."

Josh looked less than impressed. "Why did you put them anywhere, I had them organised the way I wanted them."

"Oh, Josh. Haven't you realised yet that my way is better."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it really is."

"Donna, I don't want to get into a fight about this."

"That's good because you'll lose."

"Damn it Donna, I need those file."

"Oh, you're angry now."

"I was angry before."

"No, before you were amused. You liked my crazy index cards and my unique filing system. But right now, you're angry."

"Well, thank god you're here so you can explain what I'm feeling."

"You're welcome."

"That wasn't meant as a compliment," he exploded in an exasperated tone.

"Josh, you need to relax. It is my job to make sure that you're organised and on schedule. The files are my responsibility. What you need to do is take a deep breath and stop stomping around yelling. Everyone is under a lot of pressure, but you don't see anyone else in a rotten mood – and don't even bring up Toby because angry and ornery is his default mood. So would you like to start this conversation over again?"

They stared at each other for a minute, waiting to see who would break first.

"Donna, my wonderful and organised assistant, I noticed that you rearranged the files I left here earlier, thank you for doing that by the way. While moving the files did you happen to notice where you put the Florida file?"

"Hmm, still a little too much sarcasm in your tone for my liking but it will do." Without even looking, Donna reached into a hanging file folder rack and grabbed the Florida file, and handed it to Josh in one swift movement.

With a quick 'thank you', Josh rushed out the door again, off to another meeting.

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They were supposed to have missed the storm. After all Florida in March is not typical storm weather, but sometimes Mother Nature has different plans. Thankfully, the Governor and the vast majority of the staff had already spent their scheduled three days in Florida and had left for Texas earlier that morning.

The vast majority of the staff, except for Josh and Donna that is. Josh had had an appointment that evening so he and Donna were supposed to fly and meet the campaign bus in Texas tomorrow. Of course, now due to the storm that meeting was cancelled, and there were no flights going out because of the weather, so essentially Josh and Donna were trapped in a hotel room in Florida, well two separate hotel rooms.

Naturally, Donna was nervous and a little scared. Having grown up in the land-locked state of Wisconsin, tropical storms were not something that she gave a lot of thought to. Donna prided herself on being prepared for most things that were thrown at her, but today she could honestly say that she had never thought about how to be prepared for being stuck in a hotel waiting for a tropical storm to pass.

Predictably, Josh was no help. Instead of being concerned that a massive gust of wind was going to sweep away the hotel, he focused on the positive, well, the positive according to Josh Lyman, he was excited about all the work they could get done without the normal interruptions that occurred while at the campaign office. To say Donna did not share his enthusiasm at the idea of doing even more work was a huge understatement.

Donna sat, cross-legged, in the middle of the bed in Josh's hotel room. Various files, reports, and memos surrounded her. On the other side of the room, Josh sat in the chair near the desk that accompanied the room, hunched over making notes in the margins of the document he was reading.

Donna was trying to pay attention; she had her index cards in her lap, a pen poised in her fingers ready to jot down any pertinent information she came across, but for the life of her, she couldn't think about anything other than the storm outside.

Finally, she gave up the pretense of doing actual work.

"Josh, how can you work at a time like this?"

"A time like what?"

"Josh, be serious!" She said while waving her hands in the direction of the television, turning up the volume so the anchor's voice could be heard clearly.

"...this storm has the lowest maximum winds, while a Category 5 hurricane has the highest. Storms that meet the 64-knot threshold, but do not possess maximum sustained winds in excess of 83 kn (96 mph; 154 km/h) are classified as Category 1 hurricanes. A Category 1 storm will be upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane if its maximum sustained winds reach 83 knots. Although increasing echelons of the scale correspond to stronger winds, the rankings are not absolute in terms of effects. Lower-category storms can inflict greater damage than higher-category storms, depending on factors such as local terrain, population density and total rainfall. For instance, a Category 2 that strikes a major urban area will likely do more damage than a large Category 5 hurricane that strikes a mostly rural region. In fact, tropical systems of less than hurricane strength can produce significant damage and human casualties, especially from flooding and landslides. Currently the storm passing through Florida is classified as a Category 1, with meteorologists finding no evidence to support an upgrade to Category 2. However, we still encourage all residents to remain in-doors and stay away from all windows."

"See Donna, there is nothing to be worried about. Now, do you have those numbers that I asked for?"

"How can you be so calm about this?" She demanded.

"Because I am a man, and we men possess logical brains, while you women -," he broke off wisely before finishing his thought. "Anyway, if we were in any real danger there is no way they would let us stay in the hotel. We would have already been shipped off to the closest evacuation centre. But as you and I remain comfortably seated in this hotel room, logically I have deduced that we are in no danger. So I repeat do you have those numbers that I asked for."

"Argh!" With that last outburst, Donna threw herself back onto the bed, not caring that she was crushing various papers, what did it matter she thought, she was going to be the one to clean it all up anyway. "You being all relaxed about this is really freaking me out." She said while looking up at the ceiling.

"Would you rather I have a nutty? Weren't you just telling me that I needed to relax, what did you say again, I should 'stop stomping around yelling', but now you want me to freak out? Would that make you feel better?" He asked sarcastically.

"Yes! Yes, it would." She knew she sounded childish, but at this point, she didn't care. "Well, I'm done; I am incapable of doing any work right now. Plus it is nearly 1 in the morning so I feel like I have put in a full day of work." Donna hopped off the bed, careful not to make a bigger mess of the files than she already had.

"You're leaving?" He asked in a panicked voice.

Josh quickly jumped out of his chair and walked over to stand in front of Donna. "You don't have to go. If you don't feel like working that's fine. We could just hang out and watch some television, you know, take advantage of the special channels that are available in hotels."

He didn't really want to watch TV, he was just trying to think of a reason to get her to stay without actually saying that he didn't want her to leave.

Donna raised her eyebrows in mock indignation. "Josh, I'm not sure what kind of girl you think I am, but I am not going to sit down and watch porn with you."

"What? Porn? I didn't mean we should watch porn, I meant HBO. That channel has a lot of great shows; I thought we could find something good for us to watch together. Although, I really think we should revisit this watching porn together idea." He said with a slightly smug grin on his face.

She not sure what's wrong with her, but for some reason when Josh acts all cocky and arrogant she finds it hard not to jump him.

"As tempting as that idea is, I really think I should go back to my own room." She said, although her voice lacked conviction.

"Okay," although the expression on his face illustrated that he thought the idea was less than okay. "But if you change your mind, I'll be right here hard at work."

"Sure." Donna hesitated for a fraction of a second when she reached the door. With a quick glance back at Josh, she made her way down the hallway to her room. The logical part of her knew she had made the right decision, but unfortunately, the not so logical areas of her body were less than pleased with her choice.

Donna let herself into her hotel room, struck by how dark and lonely it was. She silently walked across the carpeted room and flicked on the light in the bathroom. Quickly undressing, Donna blindly grabbed a random t-shirt and a pair of baggy jogging shorts to sleep in. She crawled into bed, snuggling down into the mattress, trying to find a relaxing position. Her thoughts went back to Josh in his hotel room, was he in bed too or did he stay up to watch TV as he had suggested? No point wondering about it now, she thought, she had made her choice. Within minutes her breathing evened out, she had fallen asleep, her body giving way to the exhaustion of the day.

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She jerked awake at the sound of the wind and rain battering against the hotel room's window. She wasn't sure how long she had slept for, but she was definitely awake now. She told herself to calm down. Sometime during the night, she had gravitated towards the edge of the hotel bed. She braced one hand on the wooden headboard and the other against the wall. She knew it was impossible but she swore she could actually feel the pounding of the storm against her hand that was placed on the wall.

Suddenly overcome with an urgent need to go to the washroom, Donna slid out of bed and softly padded her way to the bathroom. She would never know what caused her to whip around to look out of the window, a flash of something, she could never be sure, but the combination of her head looking in one direction while her body was trying to go in another caused her to lose her balance. She fell violently; banging her head on the desk nestled in the corner of her hotel room.

"Damn it," she cursed aloud, gently rubbing her temple.

Bracing herself against the wall, her head still pounding, she stood to reassess her surroundings. The clock on the nightstand next to her bed was flashing 12 o'clock so at some point during the night the power must have gone off. Donna slowly made her way to the bathroom and picked up her wristwatch, although the light provided by the moon was dim she was pretty sure it was 2:30 in the morning, so she hadn't been asleep that long. She wondered if Josh was still working or if he had gone to bed as well.

Without thinking, Donna grabbed the extra room key and she exited the bathroom. She opened the door to her hotel room, entered the dimly lit hallway, and made her way down to Josh's room. She stood before the door, contemplating her next move. She didn't need to knock, she had an extra key card, Josh insisted she have a copy as well because he was always losing his, so she didn't need to knock to gain entry.

She knew what would happen if she opened the door, she knew what she wanted to have happen and she was sure that Josh felt the same. But wasn't it too soon? She has only known the man for a month and he was technically her boss, although anyone could see they didn't have the normal boss-assistant relationship. God, she wished she was one of those girls from that new show everyone was talking about, what was it called 'Sex and the City' or was it 'Sex in the City'? Donna wasn't sure, she had never watched it, but apparently it was about these women in New York who were strong independent career women who didn't worry about things like being in a committed relationship before sleeping with a guy. She wished she could be that type of girl just this once. Unfortunately, Donna knew wishing never made it so. She was the type of girl who needed to be emotionally involved before she could even think about becoming physical with a guy, which explained why at 23 she has only slept with 2 guys: her first (a nice boy named Freddie) and Dr. Free Ride.

Unexpectedly she was overwhelmed by a new fear, what if she wasn't any good in bed. Josh was 13 years older than she was; he had probably slept with tons of women and expected his partner to bring a certain amount of experience to the table, so to speak. However, from the way she caught Josh looking at her sometimes she didn't think he would mind a lack of experience on her part, and what was that old saying, 'practice makes perfect'.

Suddenly her choice didn't seem so hard after all.

She slid the key car into the slot and pushed open the door. When she walked into the room she looked up to see Josh laying in bed, a file folder open against his thighs, one eyebrow lifted as her looked back at her.

"Hello," he said, amusement dripping from his voice.

TBC...

Author's Notes: I had this chapter outlined a while ago, but was reluctant to post it given the current weather situation in the southern states. The storm used in this chapter was for plot purposes only; I needed a way for Josh and Donna to be trapped away from the rest of the campaign. I would never want to make light of a serious situation such as a hurricane or a tropical storm.

Note 2: All the information about tropical storms came from Wikipedia, so its accuracy may not be spot on.