Sunday July 7, 2002. Cairo – 1.38pm, local time.

Josh arrived at the hotel a little after 1.30pm and called Danny to let him know he was back. Opening the door, he was hit by a welcome blast of icy air and decided he'd never complain about summers in the States again. Tossing the paper onto the table, he dumped the packages on his bed and reflected that he probably should have bought a suitcase while he was at it…

Grabbing a bottle of water from the mini bar, Josh sat down and looked at the list that Ahmed had left for him. There were two more things he needed to do to get his plan up and running – sort out the final changes to his appearance, and get the false documents he wanted. Running his hand over his chin, he could feel three days growth – he hadn't shaved since the morning of the 4th and since then, well he'd had a lot on his mind. And then when the idea for getting Donna out had come to him, he'd left it alone, one more element to his developing alter-ego.

Josh decided it was time to download the e-mails he'd been trying to avoid. His phone was already telling him his message bank was full, but he'd pick those up later. Now he had to face the music and find out exactly what his friends back home had to say.

Josh plugged in his laptop and turned it on, having decided that the fastest way for him to access his e-mails was to log on to the White House server remotely and view them as web mail, then do the same thing to retrieve his private e-mails. After logging into the West Wing gateway Josh tapped in his user ID and password. 75 emails? He blinked a couple of times. That had to be wrong. Only 75 in three days? He never had that few. Over three days he'd expect to have accumulated over a couple of hundred.

Scrolling through the list of incoming messages, Josh began to realize that at last, his friends had come to see that he had been telling the truth about Donna and that he wasn't in the middle of an episode. He was about to start reading when the door handle jiggled and Danny stepped inside.

Josh half-smiled at his friend.

"You look how I feel."

Danny gave him a flat stare.

"You know I'd like this place a whole lot better if I didn't have to change clothes every time I stepped out the door." Danny let his bag slide to the floor next to him as he flopped back on his bed. Laying his arm across his eyes he asked Josh wearily, "Did you get everything done?"

Josh stretched and got up from the table, grabbed another water from the fridge and walked over to tap Danny with it.

"Yeah, most of it. I still have a couple of things I need, and I'm waiting for Ahmed to get back to me with the details of his… contacts… for the rest."

Danny propped himself up on his elbows and squinted slightly. Josh knew that look of old - it was the look that Danny always got just before he went into 'super-reporter' mode.

"You're really getting into this aren't you?"

Josh eyed him warily.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's just strange that you'd drop everything, fly halfway around the world and land yourself in the centre of a mess of potential trouble for someone who's… well… basically, your assistant." Josh felt the muscles in his jaw clench and his teeth grind together. If Danny was aware of it he didn't let on and continued nonetheless. "I mean, I know Donna's been with you for a while and she's … um… special to you, but why not let the State Department handle it?"

Josh's face wore a look that had cowed many a veteran of the House as he frowned at his friend in disbelief and started pacing up and down the room.

"What the…? Danny? You're the one who sent me the information in the first place! You told me where you were staying and that you'd meet me there! You knew I'd be on that plane before you even sent that file. So why the hell are you asking me these questions now?!" He stopped, running his hand over his face when it dawned on him. His eyes narrowed as he turned to face Danny. "You've spoken to someone at the Post today, haven't you?" Danny half shrugged and had the decency to look at least a little sheepish. Josh started pacing again, getting angrier by the second. "And they've told you to get the damn story!"

"Whoa! Hang on!" Danny put up his hands in surrender. "Yes – I spoke to my editor this morning. Yes – he told me to get the story. And I told him he was going to have to wait." Josh flicked a disbelieving glare Danny's way. "Believe what you want, Josh. I only asked to find out if you knew why you were here. You have to admit, you're sticking your neck a hell of a long way out for someone who's only an administrative assistant… if that's all she is to you."

"What? No!" Josh replied instinctively, indignation tainting his words. "It's nothing like that. Where'd you get the idea there was anything between Donna and me?"

The denial was automatic. He was an expert, a master of avoidance, and in any case, he wasn't lying. There was nothing going on between him and Donna. Nothing at all. He'd come here because his friend was in danger and he wanted to help. Lost in his own thoughts for a second, Josh realized Danny was speaking again, and caught the tail end of his next question.

"…. wouldn't you?"

"What?" Josh said, shaking his head.

"I said – but you'd like there to be, wouldn't you?"

Josh felt his throat constrict, as he sharply sucked in a breath.

"You're wrong, I –"

Danny just held his gaze.

"No…. no." Josh said quietly, turning away.

Danny sighed.

"You're an idiot Josh!"

"I'm sorry?" He whipped around to face Danny again.

"I said you're an idiot!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Josh could feel his anger flooding back.

"That," Danny all but shouted, "is supposed to mean, that if you won't admit it to anyone else, at least stop deluding yourself and be man enough to admit it!"

"You think I don't?" Josh yelled back.

Danny was clearly taken back by the ferocity of Josh's reply. Suddenly realizing what he had said, Josh clamped his jaws together, turned abruptly and walked over to the window.

Damn it. Why the hell had he said that?

Because it's true, he argued with himself – you are an idiot!

Danny opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Needing to keep moving, Josh went over to open it.

Ahmed stood in the hallway.

"I've got it for you," he said as Josh stepped back to let him in. Glancing between the two friends Ahmed detected a distinct chill in the air. "What's happened?" he asked with concern.

"Nothing," Josh said with a half hearted wave of his hand. "What do you have for me?"

"I've found a guy in the Rhoda Island district who'll be able to supply you with the documents you want. I've had to run through some pretty crooked back channels but I found someone."

"How much?"

"Ten thousand."

"What?" Danny exclaimed with a yelp, as Josh, without hesitation, asked.

"US?"

"No - Egyptian pounds. If you're paying US, and I'm sure they'd like that, it would be around $1800."

Josh, still bristling from his conversation with Danny, walked over to his carry all and rummaged around in the bottom before pulling out an envelope brimming with one hundred dollar bills. Counting out twenty five, he stuck them in his wallet and turned back to Ahmed.

"When can I see him?"

The question caught Ahmed off guard.

"Uh - we can go now, if you like. I can make a call and the courier will pick us up from the hotel."

"Is that a good idea?" asked Danny. "We don't want to bring someone here who might be known to Darius."

"Sorry, no, not here." Ahmed hurried to reassure him. "I told him we would meet at the other hotel."

"Do we really need someone acting as a go-between?"

Ahmed and Danny exchanged looks before turning towards Josh, who was getting impatient. Danny cleared his throat.

"Josh, I... there's something you should… before I knew that Donna was involved in… this… I had Ahmed working on the story for other reasons. I wanted to break the slave ring open but the underworld element here in Cairo is even more suspicious of outsiders than our guys back home are." He cocked his head towards Ahmed, inviting him to carry on.

Ahmed took up the story.

"It took me three weeks to come up with the name of someone on Darius's staff; it took another week, and several hundred dollars to bribe the appropriate lowlifes to get Darius's name. I'm just saying that you need to be careful – guys like these are fast on their feet. They smell a rat, they'll be outta there like a shot, so you'll have to play it his way – or no way."

Josh shook his head and shrugged.

"I guess it's his way then."

Ahmed nodded.

"I'll get the car and meet you out front."

As the door closed behind Ahmed, Danny reached out and touched Josh on the shoulder. Josh turned his head, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"About before…." Danny started, not knowing exactly what to say. "It was stupid and I'm sorry."

The corner of Josh's mouth twitched into the shadow of a self mocking smile.

"I know."

Danny breathed a little easier.

"C'mon - let's go make you a felon."