Donna woke when the door closed, not that she knew what had actually woken her, and when she reached out for Josh and found the pillow next to her empty, she sat up confused and looked around, trying to find him.

She didn't see him anywhere in the bedroom and got up to go look in the rest of the suite. She found a note from him on top of a manila envelope.

'Donna,

I think it's time for the talk, if it's ok with you. There are some things I'd like you to read beforehand, all of which are in the envelope. I hope you'll still want to have the talk after you are through. I have gone for a run and will be back soon.

Josh'

To say that Donna was surprised and a little apprehensive might have been understating it a bit, but she took the envelope with her and put it on the table out on the balcony before going into the small kitchen to make some coffee.

With a coffee cup in her hand, she went back to the balcony and sat down on one of the plush deck chairs. She opened the envelope and took out a rather large stack of papers. The first page was another note from Josh;

'Donna,

You know I have a lot of staff to hire before Inauguration, and some of those are the assistants to the senior staff. I asked for the job descriptions for all those positions and got quite the shock when I read what would have been your old one. Since I know for a fact that you did a lot of other things besides what was in there, I figured it was probably the same with the others.

I therefore asked Margaret, Carol, Ginger and Bonny to write me a kind of CV of what their work had been like the eight years in the White House. I also told them that if they wanted to stay on in either their current jobs or in any other capacity, I would more than welcome their application since we need people who will not be blinded by the light when they step into the building (yes, I know you are calling me Abner in your head right now, Bambi).

What they gave me was not at all what I had expected and I'd like you to read them in the order they are in now and then read the letter I have left at the bottom of the pile, please.

Josh.'

Donna put the letter on the table and picked up Margaret's job description and read first that and then the CV she had written. The two weren't completely identical, but there wasn't that much of a difference either.

Carol, Bonnie and Ginger's CVs, on the other hand, could have been carbon copies of their job description; they did everything on there, and nothing more.

There were only two more things in the pile and the next one was a job description for the Senior Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff, aka Donna's old job. When she read it, she was completely stunned. Not even half of the things she had done as Josh's assistant were on there, only the most basic things like answering his phone, keeping his calendar and pulling research; not reading it and making note cards, just pulling it for him to go over.

If she had only done the things in her job description, she would have been able to go home a lot earlier at night, but she would also have been bored to tears within the first year in the White House.

The last item from the envelope was yet another letter from Josh.

'Donna,

I know that you were not happy with the work you were doing the last months you were working for me, and I'm sorry about that. I wanted you to read these so that you could see that I did in fact give you a lot more than any of the other assistants got, and then I wanted to tell you that there was no way for me to give you any more.

When CJ was named Chief of Staff over me, I was absolutely stunned; I honestly thought that my leaving to go to Germany to be with you had cost me the promotion that should have been mine if the normal chain of command had been followed; I was next in line, after all.

I found out about a year later that Leo had told the president that I would be leaving soon to go look for my own 'Real Thing'. It actually had absolutely nothing to do with my leaving in the middle of an international crisis.

I have to admit that in some very small part of the back of my mind, I probably resented you a little for it when you came back, even if there was absolutely nowhere else I would have been than at your bedside during those days. The fact that Colin had shown up and broken my heart while there didn't really help with the resentment.

You know that CJ was micromanaging everything when she became CoS and you know that she took away the China trip when someone somewhere screwed up, even if it had absolutely nothing to do with me. I had very little pull to keep myself afloat, let alone try to give you more responsibility, even if I did want to.

Not once in all that time did you tell me that you wanted another job, you just kept telling me that you wanted to have more responsibility in the one you had. I know you saw Charlie pass out his resume and you wanted me to push you to do the same thing, but it wasn't the same situation at all.

Charlie had actually spent a lot of years at night school to get his college degree while working all hours for the president, and his job actually had a lot less influence on policy than yours did. Other than that, it really wasn't my job as your boss to push you to get another job; you were invaluable to me in the one you were in. And it really wasn't my job as the man who was in love with you to do so, that would have meant never seeing you with the amount of hours I was working. In the end, you were one of the few things that made me get up and go to work in the morning.

Then there was the fact that you were cold after you came back; you pushed me away and wouldn't let me take care of you like you had done for me after Rosslyn; that really hurt. I really don't know what I did to make you resent me as much as it felt like you did. I thought that you were still with Colin and that was why, but I later learned that you weren't, which actually just confused me more.

Anyway, all this is to tell you that I did give you as much work as I was able to at the time, even if I did know that you were able to do a lot more, and to ask you why you seemed to distance yourself from me when you came home.

I hope we can work all this out, because I don't think we'll ever be able to move forward to where I would like us to be if we don't.

One last thing, I know I should probably tell you this in person for the first time, but I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to, so here goes;

I love you, Donnatella Moss, and I have for a very long time.

Josh'

Tears were streaming down Donna's face when she finished reading the letter and she was grateful that Josh wasn't back yet to see her like that. She went to the bathroom to wash her face in order to calm down a little.

When she came back out, she saw that Josh had returned, looking absolutely mouthwatering with the sweat pouring down his chest that was now bare since he had taken off his t-shirt. He saw her and smiled a little uncertain smile at her and she couldn't help but give him one back.

"I'm just going to grab a quick shower, would you order us some breakfast, and then we can talk?"

He sounded so unsure that she had to give him a kiss on the cheek in order to reassure him.

"Sure, you go ahead, I'll be on the patio when you are done."

He nodded and went to the bathroom while she picked up the phone to call room service.