Next Monday:

"So, what's next?"

"That's it Mr. President." Leo said, closing his folder, but just as he was about to get up Josh held up his hand.

"Uh, Mr. President, some of us have something we'd like to talk about."

"Josh, this is not high school, who is some of us?" Bartlet said smiling.

"Well, all of us except you and Leo."

"What, is this mutiny?" Bartlet said laughing,

"That's what we said." Sam and Toby said in unison and then looked at each other startled that they were starting to speak at the same time…scary.

"Well…what is it you want to talk about?" the President asked and Leo frowned at them all, a little annoyed that they'd gone around him on this.

"Well," Sam started, "It's about what Donna said."

"We've been through this," Leo said through gritted teeth.

"But she's right." Josh said, almost desperately, "We should do something."

"Josh, you know the problems."

"Mr. President, if you recall you told us not to run from battles anymore and that we were going to hit the walls running." Sam said, his voice full of feeling. Bartlet looked at them all, his eyes turned on CJ

"CJ, you agree?"

"Mr. President the press aren't going to be silenced for much longer…and it's the right thing to do."

"Let me think about it" Bartlet said, looking at Leo to see his reaction.

"Are you sure this is a wise thing to do, sir?" he said shocked by what seemed to be happening around him.

"I think they may have a point but I'm not sure, yet" Leo frowned at him and when they finally all left, they had barely got out of the door before Leo growled,

"My office now!" they trudged over to his office and stood as he slowly sat in his chair.

"Why wasn't I informed of this little impromptu get together?" the question hung in the air, no one even daring to look at Leo never mind answer him.

"Well?"

"It was Josh's idea!" Sam piped up,

"Thanks, buddy." Josh mumbled and Sam tried to smile at Josh then looked back down at his feet.

"Josh." Leo started in a much calmer, almost fatherly voice, "I know you miss Donna, we all do but you cannot use your position…"
"I wasn't!" Josh cried, "Donna was right, that's the thing. She's right and we have just been burying our heads in the sand for far too long."

"This is the right thing to do, Leo. The morally right thing to do."

"And what about the President? You know how this will effect him, you know exactly what it will do to our chances of re-election."

"I thought re-election wasn't important!" Josh said, almost shouting, he was angry at Leo, who for once seemed more worried about polling figures than a moral victory.

"Josh…"

"No, Leo I've heard enough. This is something I feel strongly about, and not just because I can't handle life without my assistant but because she's right!" and before Leo could say a word Josh was out of the door and storming back to his office.

"Leo's only worried about the President." Sam said quietly as he looked around Josh's door. He was smiling and was holding two coffees and a couple of doughnuts.

"What flavour?" Josh said nodding at the doughnuts.

"One's jam and I'm not sure what the other is, maybe cream?" Sam said examining the doughnuts as if they were precious artefacts. He sat down opposite Josh and handed him a coffee,

"Thanks, I know Leo's just protecting Bartlet but…I just thought we'd got over playing safe."

"We're politicians remember, we're always playing it safe." Josh laughed slightly.

"Are you guys still with me on this?"

"Of coarse, Leo chewed us all up a bit after you left, but I just think its frustration more than anything. I think he knows we have to do something, he just knows its going to mess up his best friends chances of re-election, all our chances."

"Not necessarily. If people see that Bartlet is putting his own personal stuff aside for the greater good and he's willing to get his feet dirty for the public it might bump us up a few points."

"Wishful thinking?"

"I hope not."

"So you think Bartlet will say yes?"

"Eventually, I hope so."

"Do you still think this might bring Donna back?"

"I don't know, I don't think so. I think she'll probably never come back, too much stuff happened." Josh said quietly, staring away into nothing.

****

"Mom?" I called quietly, tears falling down my face,

"Hey sweetie." she said even more quietly than me, "How are you?" I laughed at the simpleness of the question, one she'd asked me at least a thousand times in my life.

"I'm fine, mom." I looked down at her, she was having trouble breathing, she hadn't been able to walk for three days now and the doctor didn't believe she had much longer. I couldn't help but think that after Josh had left she'd really started to go down hill, we all had. My father was in such a state he couldn't go and see her for hours on end. He just refused to deal with it. My sister busy with her job, I was left to care for my mom and watching her deteriorate was killing me.

"Do you want some more painkillers mom?"

"Please, honey." she said quietly, she never asked for more medication, no matter how much pain she was in, it was her last defiant act against the doctors but when she was asked she never refused. The pain she must have been in but never showed us must have been unbelievable.

"Where's Josh I haven't seen him all day?"
"He went home on Wednesday night remember, last week? Remember?" my mom shook her head at her forgetfulness and then sank back into the pillows and began to fall asleep. Was it only last Wednesday, not even a week ago? It felt like forever ago.

I walked out of the room and down to the porch, it was 10:00 at night but the air was still warm and as I stood on the porch I couldn't help but think about Josh. I wanted to understand, so desperately wanted to understand, help him. He said he'd move mountains for me, and I believed him, or I wanted to believe him so much. But every time I looked in that room and saw what was left of my mother I knew I was right, I knew I had done the right thing, for her if not me. I missed him so much, I missed them all, everything about working in such an amazing place, but most of all him. It was torture to sit and think about what he might be doing, I couldn't watch the news in case he came on. He had been the centre of my world and now he was gone and we both knew it was forever. I had lost him but it was the only thing I could do. It was the right thing to do. At first I had been trying to punish him, but after the last week I realised that that wasn't it, I just couldn't go back, it could never be the same as it was, we would never be the same, he wouldn't be the Josh I had always believed in.

I stood on the porch staring at the stars that were starting to appear in the night sky, when my world was torn apart by the sound of my dad screaming my name,

"Donna!!!!!!" I turned and ran inside the house, I didn't even think, just ran up the stairs to my parents room. I stood in the doorway and couldn't move any further.