"Donna!"

"I'm coming," she replied softly, popping up.

"Donna! Get in here!"

"I said I'm coming!" She sped across the threshold to his office. He'd been on a rampage all week.

"Yes?"

"Look at this." He pointed to a spot in the middle of the page of the memo he was reading.

She leaned in closer to look. It said... pedeskrians? What's a pedesk- oh. Pedestrians.

"It's a typo, Josh. I'm sorry."

She started to take the memo back from him. "I'll make the correction and print you another copy."

"Serious people are going to read this! I need it to be done correctly. Now, can you handle this or do I need to farm it out to someone on Toby's team?"

She blinked at him, taken aback by his rising levels of irritation. Though, she supposed, she should be. It had been something every day with him for the last week or two.

"I can handle it," she told him somewhat softly, attempting to remain calm.

"Are you sure? Because frankly, Donna, it's not that hard."

"Josh, I- it was a typo. A mistake."

He slammed the folder down on his desk. "I don't have time to be fixing your errors. I hired you to type, Donna! It's not rocket science. Just do it right the first time."

She blinked quickly, trying to convince the tears forming in her eyes not to fall. He continued to root around in his desk.

"Well, why are you just standing there?!" He didn't even look up. "If you're not going to fix my damn memo then you can at least take a second attempt at picking up my correct lunch order. It would be a miracle if you did something right this week."

She couldn't hold it back anymore, standing stock still, unsure of what to do as the tears streamed down her cheeks. She squeezed them shut and tried to take a deep breath. He'd been yelling at her more frequently and with more fury lately but it had never escalated to this before. The tone he generally reserved for wayward Congressman had surfaced earlier that week but this- this was different. The venom in his voice went straight to her heart. What could she have done to deserve this?

His movement finally stilled as he caught a glimpse of her. He'd made her cry. It hit him like a bucket of cold water.

"Donna?"

He was around his desk in a flash, closing the door to his office. He approached her cautiously, honestly afraid to startle her further.

"Oh God. I'm sorry Donna, I don't know what's happening anymore. I didn't mean that." He softly touched her elbow and coaxed her to sit down in his visitors chair as knelt beside her. Josh sat quietly as Donna attempted to compose herself, wiping her eyes and sniffling a bit.

Josh cleared his throat, resting his hand on her knee. "You stay here. I'll go to the mess and get you a bottle of water."

She bit her lip, staring at her hands in her lap, nodding almost imperceptibly.

He stood, hovering over her a moment, trying to think of what to say. He wanted to tell her that she was intelligent and capable and beautiful but he just didn't have the words. He didn't have... any control lately. So he'd leave her alone for a moment. And perhaps he'd bring her a warm cup of cocoa, too.

She was supposed to be pulling herself together but as soon as she heard the door close with Josh on the opposite side she dissolved into sobs.

It had been getting worse all week. He kept apologizing for his actions, swinging an emotional 180 back into her Josh. But then the next day, it's something stupid again and he just keeps snapping at her.

OooooooO

Josh knew that Donna would catch him staring into space more and more frequently. He tried to hide it but nothing really escaped Donna. And though she joked that she was tuned to him, she was at a loss on this one. So was he.

He thumbed through the personnel file she brought him for the third time that day. Robert Cano had seemed to be so perfectly healthy. Didn't anyone care why a 'perfectly healthy' pilot killed himself? The man seemed to have everything- career, health, family. What could have been so wrong?

But something was unsettled inside of Josh. An offhand comment from earlier in the day. Someone had remarked that obviously Robert Cano wasn't perfectly healthy.

And that's where Josh truly saw he resemblance. And it terrified him.

No, it wasn't just the shared birthday. Everyone thought he was perfectly healthy, too. They went on with their busy lives all around him while he was screaming on the inside. Begging to be heard when no one would listen. Leo was on his latest crusade, CJ and Charlie worn their festive pranks, Toby obsessing about the damn music in the lobby, and Donna... Donna wouldn't shut the hell up about Yo Yo Ma.

He wasn't suicidal like Robert Cano. He knew that much. But he'd been living under the guise that this couldn't get any worse for weeks, and the list of things he knew for sure seemed to get shorter every day. And sitting in the dark, quiet office at the end of the another marathon day, the file in front of him seemed to be mocking Josh. The message was loud and clear to him, even if nobody else saw it.

It could get worse. It could get a lot worse.

He just didn't know how to stop it.

OooooooO

Donna sat at her desk, punching the number into the telephone for the fourth consecutive time. "Pick up, pick up, pick up," she muttered a desperate plea.

She could hear Josh banging around in his office. It sounded like he was slamming drawers and closing books haphazardly.

"DONNA! I said I wanted Congressman Fields on the phone 10 minutes ago!"

"I know, I'm trying."

"Well obviously you're not trying very hard or HE'D BE ON THE PHONE!" Josh no longer had the strength to be subtle.

She said nothing in return, instead scanning the room for anyone who'd taken particular notice of the Deputy Chief of Staff's outburst. Fortunately, Donna thought, most of them are at lunch.

"Nevermind. I'll just walk up to The Hill." He grabbed his jacket as be passed by the coat rack, nearly knocking it down in the process as he barreled past Donna. "If I can't count on you I'll just have to do it myself."

Donna stood quickly. She'd become used to his mood swings the last few weeks, but she'd made it her job to contain them while she figured all of this out. She'd just taken it. If she stood in front of the fire maybe she could keep it contained until she figured out what to do. But this can't get out. There would be people who wouldn't understand. It's the only thing she can think of to protect him.

So that being said, she couldn't let him storm to the hill in a blind rage. That wouldn't end well for Senator Fields, Josh, or this administration.

"Wait," she called our, beginning to chase him to the lobby. "Josh, please. Wait."

He stopped walking and whipped around to face her, his jaw firmly set. "What?"

She was, once again, startled by his anger.

He caught a glimpse of fear flicker through her eyes and when he realized that he'd caused it it almost broke what was left of him.

Perhaps hurting her was subconsciously the way he was trying to protect her from himself, but he hated the thought of that.

He'd had moments where he'd realized he'd hurt her and he's sorry for it. He just doesn't know what's happening to him or how to stop it. And she was always the property. Whatever happened to him, so be it, but he wouldn't let Donna get caught up in this mess.

"I- I just- I don't think he's in his office. Come back for a minute and I'll keep trying," she nodded towards his office, hoping he'd follow her back into the bullpen. It was a flimsy excuse but it was all she had.

He grunted, somewhat disapprovingly, and stalked back into his office. "Just tell everyone to keep it down! I can't hear myself think over these damn sirens," he barked at her, slamming the door.

She let out a heavy sigh. It wasn't ideal, but she was doing the best that she could for him.

Wait. Did he just say sirens?