XVII

SATURDAY:

The phone rang, and she jumped. Did she dare to answer it?

Get a grip on yourself, Zoey! Of course she dared to! So what if it turned out to be some idiot reporter? She loved Charlie, and they were engaged. She didn't have anything to be ashamed of.

She just hoped it wasn't her dad.

Zoey picked up the phone. "Hello?" she asked tentatively.

"Morning, sweetheart."

"Mom," she breathed in some relief. At least her mother wasn't out to rip her head off.

Hopefully.

"I hear you've got some news you've been a little slow to share with us," the First Lady observed pointedly.

"Mom, I-"

"I understand, honey," she said, and Zoey let out her relief in a rush of air.

"I'm so sorry, mom," she babbled, "we never meant to-"

"It's okay, it's okay," her mother reassured her. "I know, sweetheart, I know."

"Is dad really mad?" she asked in a little-girl voice.

It was her mother's turn to sigh. "He's calmed down a little since last night, but still-"

"I want to be with Charlie when he goes to see him," she said firmly.

"Zoey, that's not a good idea."

"Mom-"

"I know you want to, but it's not a good idea. You need to give your father a chance to see Charlie as the boy he adores. If you go in there together, he'll only see him as the man who's stealing his daughter."

"You think that'll work?" she asked quietly.

She could picture her mother's wry smile. "Give him time, Zoey, give him time."

"Yeah."

The only problem was, when you were the daughter of the president and your engagement was making the international news, exactly how long could you afford to wait?

Donna gave her boss a sideways glance as they stepped out of the car. "I can't believe you're doing this voluntarily."

He shrugged and smiled. "I keep telling you, it's the new me."

"The new you needs his head examined."

"So did the old me."

"Well, at least you're consistent."

They both turned to flash twin smiles at Donna's mother as she got out of the car with excessive dignity. Josh walked around to open his trunk, and this time picked up the bulging suitcases without bothering to verbalise the offer. Donna noted that Mike made no effort to assist him, so it was left to her and Joletta to grab the two lighter cases.

Her mother had been... quieter, after the events of Friday morning. She'd been shaken rather forcibly out of her favourite position that Donna's job wasn't classy or important enough to justify keeping it. Still, she supposed it had been too much to hope for a complete personality transformation overnight. And besides, her mother still had her second favourite point to fall back on.

"Surely, Donnatella, if you see all these people from day to day there must be some eligible bachelors among them." Apparently politicians were now fair dating game once her mother had realised there was no prising her daughter away from the White House.

"I'm not really looking-"

"Really, Donna, how are you ever going to find yourself a man if you won't make an effort? There must be plenty of young men with good prospects, if you would only take the time to introduce yourself and let them know you're available..."

It was going to be an unbearable wait for the flight to touch down.

Donna eagerly and gratefully accepted the opportunity to duck off into the restroom with Joletta a few moments later. There was a momentary stab of guilt at the idea of leaving Josh to the not-so-tender mercies of Mike and her mother, but she killed it with the thought that he'd only had to put up with her family for a few - admittedly voluntary - hours. She'd been stuck with them her whole life.

She realised as she and Joletta stood side-by-side in front of the mirror that it was the first time in this whole visit that they'd actually been alone together. It was as if her middle sister was barely allowed to exist outside of being an extension of her husband or mother.

Donna knew that if she'd stayed in Wisconsin with her family, the exact same fate would have awaited her. She shot her sister a sideways glance in the mirror. "So how're things going?" she asked softly.

Joletta gave her a smile that had a sad edge to it, but still in some way seemed a little brighter than her expression when she was with Mike. "Oh, you know, the same. Always the same," she said, a little wistfully. "You're so lucky. Doing what you do, meeting all these people..." She shook her head. "I still can't believe my baby sister spends her days running round the White House, giving back talk to the president!"

Donna laughed. "Oh, it's not usually like that," she explained hastily. "I guess the president was just in a playful mood. He gets that way sometimes."

Joletta barked a disbelieving laugh. "Donna, don't you get it? You know him well enough to say what he's usually like!"

She shrugged, embarrassed. "Well, you know, I joined back in the first campaign, and he was just the governor then. And he can be a little scary sometimes, but he's... he's really nice. And so's the First Lady."

"He seemed really friendly," Joletta agreed, and then blushed. "I can't believe he talked to me!"

Donna smiled at her. "Why shouldn't he talk to you, Jo?"

"Because I'm..." she shrugged. "I'm nobody."

"Oh, don't say that-"

"No, it's true." Joletta flipped back her hair from her forehead and sighed. "You went out there and did what you wanted, Donna, and look at you now, taking over the world. And I just stayed at home and got married to Mike." There was a bitter twist to her mouth as she said her husband's name.

"But you've got Tommy and Susie," Donna pointed out.

"Yeah." Joletta sighed. "I just hope... I look at Tommy some days, and I worry he's just growing up into a mini-Mike. Isn't that terrible? To look at your kids and just find yourself praying they don't turn out anything like their dad?"

"I don't think it's terrible," she said, shaking her head. Joletta shot her a look.

"No, of course you don't. Because you told me right from the start that I should never have married Mike." She sighed. "He think's he's so... he's so important. But you know... I come here, I meet all these people you work with, and they're... they're really important. And they're nothing like Mike, nothing at all."

Donna gave her a cautious smile, unsure of what to say. After a moment, Joletta smiled back.

"Maybe I should give him the boot," she said reflectively, and grinned, suddenly girlish. "Wouldn't that give him a shock?"

"And mom," Donna agreed. Joletta laughed.

"Maybe," she said wistfully. "Maybe..." And for the first time in a long while, Donna allowed herself to be hopeful about her middle sister. Maybe this trip had been just what she needed to open her eyes to what her life was really like.

"We should get back out there and rescue Josh," she said, after a moment.

"Yeah. I like your boss. He seems really nice too," Joletta observed. Donna rolled her eyes as they left the restroom.

"Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are."

She would not have been incredibly surprised to come out and find said boss attempting to throttle Mike, but he was just standing listening to her mother, smiling. Politely, rather than out of any actual enjoyment, but still... for Josh, that was really something.

Oh, God, her mother was still going. "...She needs to find herself a nice young man and settle down. Do you know anyone suitable?"

"I'll get right on that," Josh said wryly.

"Okay, mom, please tell me you're not encouraging my boss to pimp me out to politicians?" she groaned.

Her mother looked disapproving. "Donnatella, must you be so crass?" Josh just laughed.

"This is our flight coming up," Joletta observed. Mike immediately took charge.

"Right, it's-"

"I know where I'm going, Mike," his wife cut him off. She grinned at his startled expression, and Donna gave her a surreptitious thumbs up.

Donna exchanged kisses with her mother and sister, and studiously avoided giving one to her brother-in-law. Hopefully, soon-to-be ex-brother-in-law. She only prayed Joletta would have the confidence to go through with it.

"Call me," she ordered her sister as they waved goodbye. She knew she wouldn't need to extend the invitation to her mother. Still, when your family were in a different state, you could avail yourself of the wonder of technology that was call-screening.

As always, it was Mama Moss who had to get in the last word. "Are you sure that nice Sam Seaborn isn't available?"

Donna just laughed, and waved her family off. Finally, they were out of sight. Thank God.

Josh turned to look at her with a frown. "Sam's not single? When did he get... un-single?"

Oh, boy. How was she supposed to answer that one?

She shifted uncomfortably. "You don't... you don't talk very much to Sam anymore, do you?" she evaded.

Josh looked puzzled for a moment, and then saddened. "Yeah, you're right," he realised. "We haven't really... I should do something about that. I should be a friend."

"You're a great friend, Josh," she said, and meant it. She didn't even want to think about what hell this family visit might have been without him putting himself out to help her.

He smiled, and they shared a brief hug right there in the middle of the airport.

"Family, huh?" Josh said with a smile.

"Yeah. I love 'em to bits... from a distance." Donna gave a relieved grin.

"Apart from your brothers-in-law."

"Would you be scared if I told you Mike is the nice one?" Josh pulled a horrified face, and Donna giggled. "I feel less bad about Derek, though. He and Alexia deserve each other."

"Joletta's a lot like you, kinda," Josh observed.

"Yeah. That's who I would've been, if I'd settled down with a gomer like I nearly did." She sighed. "Still, I'm hoping... I think Jo's beginning to see what she's been missing."

"How could she not?" Josh smiled fondly at her. "When she's got a sister like you to look to for an example?"

Donna pulled away and gave him a sharp look. "'Kay, Josh? There's 'making an effort', and then there's 'freaking the hell out of me'."

He just laughed, and laid a hand on the small of her back as he steered her towards the car. "Come on. Let's get back."

"I hope Charlie's doing okay," she worried, as they headed back to the White House.

"Yeah." Josh looked pensive for a moment, and then shrugged. "Ah, what are we worried about? Zoey and Charlie are perfect for each other. The president might be blowing his stack about it, but he knows it's true."

"Yeah." They drove on in comfortable silence.