A/N: Gah I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update this story! Sometimes life just hits you with a 2x4, ya know? Anyhow, I've missed you guys like crazy, and I'll try not to stay away so long next time.

To make up for the long hiatus, I've got a fair bit of drama for you in this chapter - some good, some bad. It'll definitely propel us forward, that's for sure. And since we were afforded some insight into Josh's background last chapter, I felt it only fair we get a dose of Donna's.

Thank you guys so much for your continued support and feedback, it means the world to me.

TW: implied abuse

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When Donna walks into class one brisk November morning, she's surprised to find Josh already there. It's not unusual for him to slink into class a couple minutes after the lecture has started. As she approaches him, she notices that he looks somewhat nervous.

"Hey. You're early."

"Five minutes before class starts isn't early."

"It is for you."

"Fair enough." He mutters distractedly. He glances down at the desk, which is strewn with papers, highlighted and annotated. "I'm teaching today."

"You're what?"

"Professor Raulston's daughter went into labor yesterday. He's going down to Virginia to meet his granddaughter."

Donna melts. "Aw, that's so sweet! I'm so happy for him. He's going to make a great grandfather."

"Donna."

"What?"

"You're missing the key part of this information."

"What?" She asks blankly.

"I have to teach the class."

"Oh." She starts to smile. "You'll be fine."

"Donna."

"You're in kind of a twist about this, aren't you?"

"I am a terrible teacher."

"No you're not."

"I'm sure that I am. I mean, it's not like I've done it before, but it's been pointed out to me many times over that I'm not the world's greatest communicator. Or the world's most... Patient."

She chokes on a laugh, and he gives her a totally unamused look. "Well, there might be some truth to that, but you're not a bad teacher. You explain stuff to me all the time, and it always helps."

"Really?" He clings to her words like a drowning man might to a life vest. The classroom is starting to fill up.

She tries not to laugh again. "Really." She could also mention that he's incredibly charismatic and captivating, but she thinks now might not be the best time to confess this to him.

"If this goes poorly, can you stage a cardiac episode or something?"

She smiles, and puts one hand on his arm. "You'll be fine." With that, she moves to take her usual seat at the front of the classroom, excited to see how this develops.

After the shuffling has died down, Josh clears his throat awkwardly. He paces the front of the classroom, carried by even more nervous energy than he usually has. He claps his hands together a couple times and gives the class a furtive smile. Donna forces herself not to laugh, completely amused by the spectacle of Josh, usually so cocky and confident, visibly nervous.

He catches her strangled laugh and sends her a distracted glare. She attempts to get herself under control and gives him a thumbs up.

"Okay. So. Um." He comes to a halt in the center of the floor. "Professor Raulston isn't here today, obviously. His daughter is giving birth. Or, I don't know, she could be done by now. Anyway. He's a grandfather."

Some students 'aww' in much the same way Donna had.

"Right. So, you're stuck with me today." Donna can practically sense the class leaning forward in anticipation. Raulston is a tried and true lecturer, and a good one at that, but Josh is far more unpredictable. Their Wednesday has just gotten more interesting. "We'll be talking about the mass media coverage of Watergate and the disintegration of public trust."

The class continues to watch him expectantly. He starts to fidget. He's melting, Donna can tell.

"Right. Um." He glances longingly back to his notes on the desk. If he goes back to read from them, Donna swears she'll start heckling. "So, Tricky Dick." The class titters, and Josh's mouth twitches into a smile. "Incidentally also what they called my freshman year roommate, poor guy." The class laughs more whole heartedly this time, and Donna rolls her eyes. Josh starts to loosen up, remembering this is something he's good at: entertaining.

"Anyway. Our guy Nixon certainly earned his nickname, he was a tricky bastard. Now I know we were all pretty young when the scandal broke - this is where Raulston would've been helpful-" another laugh, "but, how many of you have seen All the President's Men?"

Most of the class raises their hands.

"Great. That's where we're starting. I'll give a little background on Nixon's actions as we go, but if you've done your reading for the week, you should be pretty much set. Our focus is on the media coverage, after all, not the actual scandal. So in 1973, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein..." He glances back toward the blackboard, where Raulston traditionally has Josh scrawl out some notes, and his eyes light up. "Hey, Donna, take some notes for me, would you?"

She gives him a look of amused indignation. "Excuse me?"

"Please. I meant, you know, please." He turns pleading eyes to her.

She gets out of her chair with a sigh. "I'm the Josh to your Raulston?"

"Precisely. We're both admittedly lacking in some areas, but-" She hits him with her shoulder on her way past him, making him smile and pretend to stumble. She picks up a piece of chalk and starts to take notes for him. "Like I was saying, in 1973, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of the Washington Post..." He turns around to check her progress. "God, your handwriting is terrible, you know that?"

A piece of chalk hits him squarely in the forehead. Needless to say, he has no trouble at all keeping the class entertained for the next hour.

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"I had them at my feet, Donna."

"Yes, yes, we've been over this. You were great, they were awestruck, can we move on?"

"I thought you invited me over tonight to celebrate my victory?"

"And to help plan your next substitute lecture so it isn't quite so off the cuff, but, yes, I did." A mug of coffee appears at his shoulder, dangled over the back of the sofa. "I just wasn't aware the celebrating would involve so much recapping."

"At my feet, Donna."

She smiles. "I know."

He puffs up self importantly as she sinks onto the couch beside him, her hands wrapped around her own mug of coffee. "And you were, you know, pretty good too."

"Gee, thanks." They'd bickered enough that by the time class ended, Ben Murphy muttered "get a room" to Donna with a wink as he slipped out of the classroom. It had made her cheeks grow warm, but not in an altogether unpleasant way, and she smiled as she looked over at Josh, who was fielding questions from a handful of girls who'd been oh so interested in his lecture.

"We make a pretty good team."

"It really shouldn't have been a team effort, given that it's your job, but-"

He places his hand over his heart. "Low blow, Donnatella."

She smiles. "But, you're right. We do make a good team."

He smiles back. "Okay. What are we doing?"

"Well." Her eyes light up. "Class today kind of made me crave All the President's Men. What do you think?"

"A movie? You sure know how to live it up."

"It's either this or we jump straight into lesson prep."

"You have the tape?"

"One of the precious few I brought with me."

"Bring it on." He acquiesces. "I never say no to a good political thriller."

"I figured as much." She gets up to find the tape and put it in the VHS player. Josh watches her, taking in her flannel pajamas, warm socks, and fluffy cardigan.

"By the way, you look..." He trails off, eyes lit with amusement.

She turns around with a slight frown. "It's cold."

"I'm aware."

She returns to the couch and hits his arm as the movie starts playing. "In fact..." She grabs a blanket off the back of the couch and spreads it over both of their laps. "There."

"Um, thanks?"

She takes in his expression. "Don't tell me you're emasculated by a blanket."

"I wasn't cold."

"You're lying."

"I'm not-"

"Men." She says scornfully, shaking her head. "This is why you have shorter life expectancies. All your damn pride."

He bites back a laugh and takes a sip of his coffee. "Okay."

"I might talk during the movie. If that's okay."

"I can't exactly do much to stop you, can I?"

"Probably not."

"It's okay. I've been told I'm a little loud during movies, too."

"You? Loud? I would've never thought."

He pinches her shin, as her legs are curled up next to him, which makes her squirm and smile. "I'm not about to find out that you've got a thing for Robert Redford, am I?"

"Dustin Hoffman, actually."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I wouldn't have guessed."

"Why?"

"I don't know. He's pretty short, and you've shown some sensitivity to that in the past."

She smiles. "Only to bug you."

"But I'm not short."

"See? Got you again."

They spend most of the movie in conversation, and are a little surprised at how quickly it goes by. Over the course of the film they've drifted closer together, one of her legs in his lap and their shoulders pressed decidedly again at each other. Overtop of the blanket, they both still hold onto their coffee mugs, but she balances hers on his arm, her fingers just grazing his skin.

As the credits roll, they both slowly realize that their position has become more than just friendly, and their activities more than just celebratory. Tension creeps into the room, each wondering who will be the first to break it.

It's Donna. "So, um, that lesson plan."

"Oh god, are we still doing that?"

"Buck up. It's only eleven." She tilts forward and places her coffee cup on the table, as does he. To her surprise, when they lean back, they resume their exact same position, minus the coffee cups. This means her hand rests simply on his arm, and both of them stare at it curiously for a moment. She blushes, wondering if she should apologize or remove it. But then, she's halfway in his lap, so her hand isn't even the most offensive part of this.

"So, um. To work, then?" He turns to look at her, his eyes warm and hesitant.

"Right." She sounds breathless. How did that happen?

"Right." He echoes softly. Neither of them move. That is, until he slowly, daringly shifts his hand from its place in his lap to on top of hers. She freezes. Does this mean what she thinks it means?

But then he gently starts to thread his fingers through hers, and she eagerly allows it, and this definitely means what she thinks. She inhales sharply, surprised but endlessly pleased. She feels a smile start to creep across her face, and she bravely makes eye contact with him. He's smiling slightly, too. He looks almost shy, which makes her heart flutter. She never thought she'd see the day Josh Lyman looked shy.

But then she loses sight of him as his eyes close, and reflexively hers do too. She feels his lips gently brush hers, and she thinks resoundingly, this is it.

Except it isn't. Because someone is pounding on the door.

They jump apart as if they'd been electrically shocked. She looks around blearily. The banging continues. Josh gives her a hazy, confused look, and she shrugs. "Maybe Stella forgot her keys, I'll-"

Awkwardly she maneuvers past him to get to the front door, and throws it open with a glare she hopes says Stella, you have the worst possible timing on God's green earth and tomorrow I'm going to kick your ass like it's never been kicked. She finds herself face to face with the last person she'd expected.

The ghost of last year barges into her apartment without asking. "Donna. I'm sorry I didn't call. I didn't know if you would've wanted to see me, I just... I had to see you. I got your address from your sister, it was on a post card on her fridge, I was in her kitchen asking her about..." He trails off, looking around in confusion. His eyes land on Josh, and narrow considerably. "Who's he?"

Josh stares at him, and then at Donna. "Who am I? Who are you?"

Donna is paralyzed. She feels her hands start to shake. All she can manage is to breathe out, "Roy."

"Donna?" He says hopefully.

She had hoped she'd never see him again. But then, that had been naïve. "What are you doing here?" She says, barely above a whisper. She feels dizzy.

"I need to talk to you. Jesus, Donna, you don't get to ask me that. What are you doing here? You up and left without any warning. Without a goodbye. Without so much as..." He trails off in a labored sigh. "Seriously, who is this guy?"

Josh looks less indignant than before, and more uncertain. He turns his gaze to Donna, brow furrowed, waiting for her to explain.

Her mouth feels dry. How has the best case scenario for tonight turned into the worst, and so quickly? "This is, um, this is Josh, Roy." She runs a hand over her face. "He's, um, he's a friend."

Josh's gaze hardens.

Roy gives him a suspicious look. "I'm Roy. Her boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend, Jesus, Roy, it's been-"

"Says who? Nobody bothered to tell me."

"I tried to tell you, I tried and-"

Roy holds up a hand to cut her off, and Donna appears almost to shrink away. He turns to Josh. "Listen, man, you should probably go. We've got a few things to talk about, obviously."

Josh stares at him incredulously. He casts a glance at Donna, who can't seem to make eye contact. Her arms are folded tight to her body. Something feels off. He's never seen her this way, so timid and overwhelmed. Though he supposes if she'd truly wronged this guy as he said, she might have a reason to be ashamed. Maybe he doesn't know her that well, after all. He sits forward uncertainly. "Donna... Do you want me to go?"

His question only serves to throw her further. No, she doesn't want him to go. Of course she doesn't. But she doesn't want him to have to stay here and deal with Roy's reaction, either. She has no idea what he must be thinking. She feels irrationally embarrassed. She's suddenly too much drama; she's the girl who ran away from her past life and couldn't even bother to get her last boyfriend squared away before taking off for bigger and better things.

He doesn't deserve this, she realizes with a sinking feeling. "I..."

"Donna." Roy urges. "We need to talk. Just talk." He adds, his tone softening.

She looks down, her eyes starting to water. "Josh, you should go."

He clenches his jaw. "Okay. I'll see you."

She doesn't say anything. He closes the door behind him, and as he takes off into the cold night he wonders with an uneasy feeling how he could've misjudged her so seriously.

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Gah I'm so sorry! I pinky swear things won't be bad for long.

Thoughts/feelings/predictions/best late night snack (asking for a friend)?

P.S. Loved all your 80s movie picks! My favorite 80s film has to be Stand By Me.