Title: "As Time Goes By"
Disclaimer, Summary, etc. - As in Part 1
Part 2 of 8
**
"Aren't you going to take it out of the box, Josh?" Donna asked, amused at the expression of wonder on his face.
"Nah, I don't wanna break it."
"Josh, it's a watch. I bought it for you to wear; to do that you need to take it out of the box." Josh slowly nodded and started to remove the watch from its box. "I know your current watch means a lot to you, Josh; I know your parents gave it to you, but it's not exactly reliable. I thought you might be able to keep it as a memento, maybe wear it on special occasions, but you can wear the new one every day." Donna's tone was soft, trying to show that she understood his attachment to his existing watch.
"Yeah," he replied softly, "thanks. You're right, I probably could use another one, I just didn't want to stop wearing the one from my dad to put on just any old watch, you know? This though…this comes from someone just as special, so I can swap them without thinking I'm being disrespectful." Donna felt a lump in her throat when Josh put her in the same league of affection as his much-beloved father. She smiled at him and rubbed her hand up and down his arm, knowing he was finding it a little difficult thinking about his father.
"You do like it, don't you?" Donna asked quietly. Josh was holding the watch in his hands but still not making any attempt to put it on.
He turned to her. "Of course I do. It's just…are you sure you can afford this, Donna? It must have cost you a fortune, you really didn't need to spend this much on me."
"Is this your way of telling me that you bought me a $10 gift again?" she grinned. A look of hurt crossed Josh's face and his gaze dropped to the locket Donna was wearing. "Hey, I know you buy me really nice gifts too, Josh, I was just joking," she said softly, making him look into her eyes again and smile.
"Are you sure you can afford this?" he asked again.
"Yes, just about," she replied. "Don't worry about it, you're worth every cent."
"Yeah, I know I am," he stated, smirking at her and causing her to roll her eyes. "But, you really didn't need to do this, I already have the ultimate gift – you," he said seriously. Donna looked as though she was about to cry again and Josh quickly tried to lighten the atmosphere. "Hey, can I trade this in for a lifetime supply of coffee, hand-delivered by you whenever I request?" he asked, grinning at her.
She rolled her eyes again and shook her head. "You're hopeless, you know that, right?"
"In my defence, I do know that, yes, but what about the coffee?"
"Well, as you said to me about my locket, I can't return it as the inscription won't make much sense to anyone else." Josh turned the watch over and read the inscription on the back. It simply said 'Thank you for being, you know, YOU'. He turned to look at Donna again, feeling a lump forming in his throat and he enveloped her in a huge hug. When they broke apart he removed his old watch, carefully placing it in the box on the table. He held out the new one to Donna, silently asking her to put it on his wrist. She took it from his hands and slipped it onto his wrist blindly, her eyes locked with Josh's. They both let out sighs at the same time, defining how important they each felt the moment to be.
"Now you have no excuse for being late," Donna stated, causing Josh to give her a quizzical look. "It has an alarm on it, and one of those light up functions too," she explained.
"I can't exactly have an alarm go off in the middle of a meeting, Donna," he replied.
"Ah, but it's not just any alarm, Josh. This one can be set so that it vibrates rather than emitting a sound."
He looked from her to the watch and then back to her. "Vibrates, huh? That could be interesting."
Donna rolled her eyes at him again. "So, do I get to open my gift now?" she asked, trying to sound casual, but the excitement in her voice betrayed her.
Josh looked up at the ceiling, pretending to think it over. "That depends."
"On what?"
"Well, is the watch my only reward for being a good boy and eating all my salad?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows at her again.
She laughed at him. "Hmm, well it was going to be but, if I like the present, who knows what other rewards you might receive tonight," she replied seductively.
"Alright, I give in, you can open your present now," Josh laughed, lifting the gift from the coffee table and passing it to her. Donna immediately started to open it, but Josh put a hand on her arm to stop her and looked into her eyes as he spoke slowly and softly. "Before you dive in, I should probably explain about the gift." Donna gave him a quizzical look. "Don't worry, it's nothing bad, I just wanna…look, I'm not exactly known for being a real romantic, but I put a lot of thought into what to get you. I'm not sure if you'll like it or not, I didn't spend a lot of money on it, but I spent a lot of time which, as you know, is in short supply with me. I just…I hope you like it." Donna smiled at him and he removed his hand from her arm, allowing her to open the gift.
She made short work of the wrapping paper and quickly threw it aside, revealing a large, plain looking book. She cocked an eyebrow at Josh but remained silent, returning her gaze to the book on her lap.
"What is all this, Josh?" Donna finally asked, looking from the book to Josh.
"It's a kind of scrapbook. It charts us from the time we first met, right through to now. I thought it was a good way to show how things have changed between us and how much you mean to me. I know it sounds dorky, but I thought you'd appreciate it…" he trailed off.
"Is that your underhand way of calling me a dork?" Donna replied, giving him a mock-glare.
He grinned at her in response. "Just take a look at it," he replied gently. "I've split it into sections at relevant places so it'll make more sense." She did as he requested and looked back down at the book. Josh was sitting very close to her on the couch, his eyes following her every move and reaction. As soon as Donna leaned forward to look at the book more closely, Josh did the same.
The first page had a heading entitled 'The Life-Changing Campaign', written in Josh's handwriting. On the first couple of pages were numerous photos from the campaign, all including either Josh, Donna or both of them. There were photos of them both with the then Governor Bartlet, and with the campaign staff who now formed the White House Senior Staff.
"I wrote where each photo was taken, or at least I attempted to," Josh said, giving Donna a sheepish smile, "I couldn't remember all of them." Donna looked at the notes beside each photo and smiled; he'd gotten most of them right and those that were wrong were written in pencil so that she could erase them and fill them in correctly.
"Where did you get all these?" she asked a little breathlessly, indicating the photos.
"I had some at home and I asked around the rest of the staff. The President has a pretty good collection of stuff from those days, he has his own scrapbook."
"So, everyone knew you were putting this together for me?"
"No, I said my mom wanted to show some of her new friends in Florida, although I had to admit the truth to the President, he didn't buy my story for some reason," he smiled.
Donna smiled back and turned the page, her breath catching a little as she did so. "What…what's this for?" she asked, pointing to an item on the page. It was Josh's ID badge from the campaign, the one he had given to her the first day they had met. She had returned it to him the next day, after she was given her own badge.
"Well, I remembered giving it to you the first day we met and I thought it kind of symbolized something," he replied.
"Yeah, like what?" she asked while raising her eyebrows inquisitively.
"The day I gave you that badge, I kind of gave you a part of me…I gave you my identity. I feel like I've been giving you a new bit of me every day since then and I'm glad that I have. You got under my skin that first day and now I can't imagine my life without you in it." His tone was so sincere that Donna had to fight back tears again.
She leaned over and kissed him gently. "Thank you," she said, not trusting herself to say anymore without her voice breaking. She looked through the next few pages, smiling at the photos of everyone from the campaign and the victory celebration. Finally, she stopped at a photo of the two of them dancing at the Inaugural Ball. "Where did this come from? I don't think I've seen it before," she asked, looking intently at Josh.
"Sam found it as he was going through some of his stuff, looking for other photos for me," he replied, smiling at her. "Do you like it?"
"Yes, I do," she said, tracing Josh's outline in the photograph.
"I'm very photogenic, aren't I?" he smirked. She rolled her eyes in response. "It's funny though…" he trailed off and Donna looked at him questioningly, "looking at that photo now, I can see how right we were together, even back then, but I couldn't see it at the time. We wasted so much time."
"We're more than making up for it now though, aren't we?" she replied gently, covering his right hand with her left and bringing their intertwined fingers down to rest on his right knee. He squeezed her hand and then released it so that she could continue looking through the scrapbook. He wrapped his arm around her instead, pulling her close to him and she moved the book so that it was resting on both their laps.
"Section 2 – Welcome to The White House" Donna read aloud as she turned the page. She smiled as she saw a photo of everyone eating the President's homemade chilli the night he'd forced them all to eat with him when Zoey was in town. She remembered that Josh had been a little off that day, as though he'd been upset about something. She never had found out what had been bugging him, but he seemed to have gotten over it and they'd enjoyed themselves that night, as the photos showed; there was one of them sitting next to each other on a sofa, deep in conversation, with Josh just reaching out to grab Donna's beer.
While Donna was remembering that evening, Josh was watching her intently. He could see the myriad of emotions crossing her face and being reflected in her eyes. He was glad to see that she was smiling and it gave him a warm feeling inside to know that he was partly responsible for her happiness. Donna kept turning pages, looking at photos of the two of them from various White House functions, such as State Dinners, and she laughed at some of the notes Josh had written next to the photos. Some of their colleagues were also in the photos and Josh had taken great delight in writing 'check out Sam's hair' in big letters next to a particularly unflattering photo of Mr Seaborn.
"Where did you find that?" she asked, pointing to the photo of Sam and his bad hair. "It's not often you see a bad photo of Sam, he always looks good."
"Toby gave it to me," Josh replied, grinning wickedly. Donna nodded in comprehension and smiled when she turned to the next page. She hadn't thought it would be possible for Josh to surprise her more than he already had with the ID badge, but he managed it again. This time however, she was completely speechless.
They sat in silence for a few seconds before Josh became worried. "Donna? Are you okay?" he asked, obviously concerned.
She looked at him, blinking back unshed tears and smiled. "Yes," she replied, shakily, trying to find her voice. "Did you really keep this?"
"Yeah, I don't know what made me keep it, but I did," he replied, following her gaze to the sheet of paper adorning one full page of the scrapbook. It was a draft of the note he had written in the 'Art & Artistry of Alpine Skiing' book he had given her one Christmas. The draft had obviously been crumpled into a ball at one point and then flattened out again and it showed the many corrections Josh had made before he settled on the final version.
"I knew you'd put a lot of thought into what you wrote, but I didn't realize it was this much," she said, pointing to some of the corrections on the page in front of her. Josh shrugged his shoulders.
"I wanted it to be perfect," he replied simply and Donna felt her heart melt again. She read the note a few times, smiling to herself as she remembered the hug she'd given him as a thank you for the book. She turned the page again and looked at Josh questioningly.
"I couldn't find the actual Christmas gift list you gave me that year, but I remember some of the stuff that was on it; on all two pages of it I might add," he explained. Donna looked down at the pages again, laughing as she saw the tiny photos cut out of catalogues, which were meant to represent all the stuff on her list.
"How come you didn't keep the original list?" she asked. "I mean, you seem to keep everything else."
"Uh, well, uh…it kind of made its way into the trash can," he admitted.
"Before or after you bought me the book?" she asked pointedly, forcing him to hold her eyes.
"Well, uh…before." He at least had the good grace to sound guilty.
"Did you even read it properly?"
"I didn't need to, you'd already told me everything it contained." She glared at him. "Hey, I did a pretty good job of memorizing it though, didn't I? I mean, I have most of the stuff represented here in photos," he defended.
"Yeah, but the list had specific brands, sizes, etc. whereas these photos have just been cut out of whatever catalogue you found." She tried to sound angry, but failed and ended up grinning at him.
"Yeah, but still, I did get you your wish list, just not in life-size format," he retorted.
"The real ones would've killed you?" she quipped, a smile dancing in her eyes. He smiled in return, giving her a piercing gaze. "These are perfect though, at least the skis won't get lost," she said through her laughter.
"Yeah, and you can't use them as weapons against me," he replied, laughing along with her.
"Don't need to, CJ can do that for me!"
Josh rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, anyway, you can turn the page whenever you want, you know," he said, trying to get away from any thoughts of CJ hitting him. She laughed at him again, but did as he requested, turning the page in the scrap book. Suddenly her hand stilled and her breath caught in her throat.
"You did this?" she asked quietly, pointing to the pages in front of her. Josh merely nodded in response. "Were you…I mean, it wasn't too difficult?"
"No, in fact, it was kind of a cathartic experience," he replied sincerely.
They both turned their gazes to look at the new section of the book. It was simply entitled 'Post-Rosslyn' and contained some newspaper articles and photographs about the shooting and its aftermath. One of the photos showed Donna leaving the hospital with Sam, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, protecting her from the glare of flashbulbs.
"Who gave you the clippings and stuff?" Donna asked gently.
"I had them already," he replied, causing a look of shock to form on Donna's face.
"But how…" Donna trailed off. She had been careful to make sure that Josh never saw much of the shooting coverage in the papers; no-one had been allowed to take newspapers into his room, and the medical staff had been informed of that rule as well.
"I had my sources," he replied quietly, not really revealing anything as he didn't want to get good 'ol Sam into trouble. It had taken a lot of persuading on Josh's part for Sam to defy Donna's rule of no newspapers, but Josh had wanted to see what was being written, it was his way of trying to deal with things.
Donna continued to look at the assorted clippings and photos, but she didn't read the articles too closely, she didn't like thinking about that time. She smiled, however, when she turned to the next page. There she found a piece of paper stuck to the page, which contained some notes written by Josh, entitled 'Donna's Rules'.
***
'Donna's Rules'
Prevent Josh from having any fun
Prevent Josh from being able to visit with his friends that only care about him and will not get him all worked up because the Senate Majority leader is a putz
Torture Josh by making him do his exercises
Refuse to bring Josh any 'real, manly' food
Try to convince Josh that 'greens are good'
Stop Josh from being able to de-scramble pay-per-view movies
Torture Josh by making him watch 'chick flicks' all night long
Tell Josh repeatedly that he's not an outdoorsman when he really is
Tell Josh that he has a sensitive system, when he's really a manly man
Refuse to go to the bookstore to get the brilliant, suave and debonair Josh Lyman the latest publication of Theoretical Physicists, whose theories may prove to be valuable to the entire human race
Refuse to give Josh a sponge bath even though he thoroughly deserves one
Refuse to be able to read a calendar
REFUSE TO STOP FOR RED LIGHTS
***
"I know they don't all relate to the shooting but I thought I should include them anyway," he said, giving her a shy grin, "they define us."
As Donna turned to the next page, she noticed a photo that she didn't recognize, but she knew the setting.
"Who took this?" she asked, pointing towards the page, but not to a specific photo.
"My neighbor, Roger. He asked if he could take it, remember?" Josh started to remember that night…
*Flashback*
It was the night of The Midterms, after he'd been released from hospital. Donna had finally let him go outside and he, Donna, CJ, Toby and Sam had sat on his front steps drinking beer while they awaited the election results. He had enjoyed himself that night, being able to catch up with his friends and beginning to feel normal again, although he was dressed in overly large pajamas, thanks to CJ.
While they were commiserating over the fact that everything had stayed the same after the Midterms, his neighbor had come out of his apartment. Roger had been having a small get-together with some of his friends and had come out to wave them goodbye.
"Hi, Josh, how are you feeling?" asked Roger once his friends had driven off.
"I'm good thanks," Josh replied. He turned to indicate his companions. "You probably recognize everyone here, right?"
"Yeah, all your faces were plastered over the TV and newspapers after…well, you know," he answered, looking at each one of them in turn.
"I'll bet they were," Josh stated wryly. "Anyway, we're just catching up now that I'm finally allowed outside." He turned to give Donna a glare, but she just stuck her tongue out at him.
"So, this is kind of a celebration?" asked Roger.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Well, do you want something to remember it by?"
"Huh?" Josh asked with confusion.
"I was taking some photos tonight and still have a couple to take before the film is finished," he replied, indicating the camera in his hands, "do you want me to take one of you all?"
"Uh, yeah, that'd be pretty good actually, I can send it to my mom, prove I'm doing okay."
Roger told them all to bunch up and CJ and Donna moved so that they were sitting either side of Josh, with Sam and Toby a couple of steps lower. Everyone smiled, including Toby, which he later claimed was because CJ had been trying to tickle him as the photo was taken. Roger bid them goodnight and started to go back into his apartment, with the rest of them draining their beers and deciding to let Josh go to bed before he fell over from exhaustion.
*End of Flashback*
"No, not that one, I remember that one," Donna replied, pointing to the group shot of them all, "I meant that one, I don't remember it at all." She was now pointing to a photo of her helping Josh up the steps to his apartment. Donna's arm was wrapped around Josh's waist and his arm was around her shoulder to steady himself. They had just reached the top step, a milestone for Josh, and had turned to smile at each other. The photo clearly showed the depth of feeling between them.
"Oh, yeah," Josh said, "Roger took it. He said he'd come back out to see if we wanted another group shot as he still had a photo left on his film. When he saw us climbing the steps he said something just made him take the photo. He gave it to me along with the group one about a week later."
"So, how come I've seen the group one before, but not the one of just the two of us?" Donna asked softly, looking at Josh intently.
"I guess I didn't want to share it," he replied so quietly that Donna only just heard him.
"What's that?" she asked after a moment, pointing to something Josh had written under the photo of the two of them.
"What does it look like?"
"Well, you've written 'Thank You', but what for?" Josh used the index finger of his left hand to turn Donna's face so that he was looking directly into her eyes.
"Thank you for ignoring me when I said I could manage by myself," he said sincerely. Donna felt tears welling up in her eyes and she leaned in to kiss him. When they broke apart, Josh held her gaze and continued speaking, "But don't think that means you can ignore me the rest of the time." Donna rolled her eyes and grinned at him before returning her eyes to the scrapbook.
The photo on the next page caught Donna's attention and at first she didn't understand why it was there; however, when she saw what Josh had written next to it she began to realize what he was trying to say. The photo was of Donna standing next to Yo-Yo Ma, and underneath it Josh had written 'Yo-Yo Ma Rules!'. Donna shuddered as she remembered that day; she had spent all day trying to convince Josh to let her go and see the concert that night and had repeatedly said 'Yo-Yo Ma Rules!' to him, very loudly. That was the night Josh had his breakdown and put his hand through a window as a result of PTSD.
She turned to look at him and rested her head in the crook of his neck. He used his right arm to squeeze her shoulder, to show that he was okay, and then he pointed to the other thing he had written on the page.
"Thank you for caring enough to notice I was falling apart and for loving me enough to help put me back together," Donna read aloud, her hands starting to shake. "Oh, Josh." She couldn't say anymore, she just leaned against him even more, as if to prove to herself that he was there and in one piece.
Once she had recovered her composure, she turned the page to reveal a new section entitled 'The Intelligence of a Monster Truck'. She looked at Josh quizzically.
"I thought it should get some credit for bringing us together," he said in answer to her unspoken question. She grinned and then laughed at the photo Josh had put on the first page of the section – it was of the toy red monster truck that Sam had loaned him.
"Josh, this photo looks suspiciously like it was taken in your office," Donna commented.
"So?"
"So, I thought you and Sam were told by Leo that you were never to have that truck in the West Wing again, for fear that someone else would get hurt by your juvenile activities," she replied, raising her eyebrows at him.
"Uh…well…I had to include it in the scrapbook. It does have a starring role in the 'history of us' and my office made the perfect backdrop for the photo," he said feebly, attempting to find an excuse. "Just don't tell Leo, okay? I promise I'll never go near it again." Donna laughed at him.
The rest of the section contained photos taken while she was staying with Josh, after hurting her ankle. The photos taken of the two of them at Shenandoah were there, even though she and Josh both had copies of these already on their respective nightstands. There were also photos from Donna's birthday dinner, taken with the digital camera that her colleagues had bought for her.
Donna turned to the next section, but before she could even read the title, Josh's phone rang.
"Don't worry about it, I'll let the machine get it," he said, but she closed the book anyway, expecting it to be a call telling them to go into the office. The answering machine kicked in and both were surprised to hear the voice of Josh's mom.
"Josh? I'm just calling to see if you managed to get everything I suggested for your dinner with Donna. Since you haven't called me again to beg for more help, I'm assuming that you have remembered everything you learned in your college cooking class and have therefore made the lasagne successfully. I hope Donna enjoys the meal and I hope everything goes well tonight. I thought I would have gotten hold of you at the moment, I expected you to be making the meal by now, but I guess you've got caught up at work again; you really need to learn to prioritize sometimes. Well, anyway, give me a call tomorrow and let me know how it went. I love you, Joshua." The call ended. His mom had hung up before Josh had managed to get up from the couch and grab the phone. He turned to Donna and gave her a sheepish grin.
"I guess I'm busted, huh?"
"Oh, you betcha!" Donna replied with a huge grin on her face.
"Okay, I admit I asked my mom for help planning the menu, but I did make the lasagne myself, you know," he defended.
"Oh, I know, and believe me everyone is gonna know about it tomorrow. You took a cooking class in college?" she asked, a tone of incredulity in her voice almost hidden beneath her laughter.
"Hey! My mom made me take it; she was worried that I wouldn't eat properly or something."
"So, you took a cooking class, but still managed to live off burgers and fries?"
"Yeah, well…I dropped the class after two lessons and I'd have got sick of lasagne every night," he admitted.
"Josh, Josh, Josh…you really are full of surprises, aren't you?" She was grinning at him again.
"That I am, it makes me all the more lovable."
"It certainly does," she responded in a very sexy voice, causing Josh to pull her into his arms again.
After a few seconds, Donna pulled away. "Okay, enough of that…I wanna see what other secrets I can find in here." She grinned and returned her attention to the scrapbook.
**
TBC
