Author: Jo-Anne Storm
Title: To Court a Lady
Rating: PG-13 for a few choice words
Disclaimer: The West Wing and all its characters are a property of Aaron Sorkin, John Wells Production, Warner Brothers Television and NBC. No copyright infringement is intended.
Spoilers: Up through Season 4.
Summery: After a blow-up, Josh gets permission to date Donna.
Notes: Wow, this is the longest portion yet. Just in case you're wondering, these are pure fluff. You want a plot, go somewhere else.
The stats Jay spouts off are from the National Organ Donation Society. Yes, I did research!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"J!"
Josh looked up from the baked chicken he had been eating at the sound of Amy's nickname for him echoing across the restaurant. He didn't have time to even wave to her as she bustled over and collapsed into the chair across from him.
"How ya doing, J?"
"I'm good," he told his ex-girlfriend. They had parted amicably, which was amazing considering their relationship had never been amicable.
"What are you doing here?"
He looked pointedly at his abandoned lunch and then back up at her.
"So, I'm dating someone new," she said, ignoring his look. "He's actually meeting me here in a few minutes. He's a rising star over at Washington Center; he's a transplant surgeon."
"Not a politician?"
"Nah. I had an epiphany: politicians shouldn't date each other. I mean, just look what happened to us. There's going to be a conflict of interest sooner or later."
"Yeah, problem with that is you live in DC. It's hard to meet anyone who isn't political," he pointed out.
"Not when you work for a doctor who just happens to be political, too. Mrs. B gave a speech at Washington Center, which is where I met Jay."
"Talking about me?" a voice asked from beside Amy.
"Jay!" Amy said, her voice filled full of pleasure. "Jay, meet. Well, J."
"Josh," he introduced himself as he rose and shook the newcomer's hand. The man was tall and blonde, with an open face and wide shoulders. He thought that the man contrasted Amy perfectly.
"How do you do? Are you one of Amy's political friends?"
"Something like that," he murmured.
"We dated awhile," Amy explained. "Josh, mind if we join you? I need to talk to you about the benefit Mrs. B is hosting next week."
Josh nodded his assent and waved to a nearby waiter. One perk he had noticed about his elevated status was that the politically savvy servers immediately recognized him as the second most powerful man in the country and responded accordingly. Sometimes he thought that waiters were the only ones who noticed.
"What about the fund raiser?" he asked after the waiter hurried away to place the orders.
"We want him to come."
"Amy."
"It's an important event," she insisted.
"The First Lady or the staff?"
"Both."
He sighed in resignation and slipped his cell phone from its normal position on his belt. "Hey, Debbie, it's Josh. Yes, I know its lunch time. No, I don't want to talk to him. If I wanted to talk to her I would have called her office. Debbie. Debbie. Yes, I know I was late for a meeting this morning. Debbie!" the last was said in a squeak.
"Listen, Amy Gardner wants him to come to the thing next week. I don't know the name of the thing."
"Humanitarian Medical Relief dinner. It starts at seven next Wednesday," Amy provided.
Josh relayed the information and listened in silence as the President's executive secretary confirmed that he was free.
"Alright, when he has a free moment ask him if he has a preference about going. Yeah. Yeah. No. OK. Debbie."
Josh hung up the phone with little ceremony and glared at his friend. "I'm now on her list, I'll have you know. I'm supposed to tell you that next time you are not supposed to use me as a go-between. Which is perfectly fine by me."
"So he'll be there?"
"He has free time then," Josh acknowledged. "Whether or not he goes is completely up to him."
"He'll be there," she said with a self-satisfied air.
"Can we talk about something other than our jobs now? I actually came to lunch so that I don't have to think about work."
"Works for me," Jay said. "I'm not much for politics anyway."
"You haven't lived here long, have you?"
"Couple of months," the other man said with a shrug.
"Wait awhile," Amy told him as their food arrived. "Politics will get into your blood. Next thing you know you'll be arguing about legislation over drinks."
"Possible, I guess," he said. "As of right now I'm pretty much apolitical with leanings towards Republican."
Josh barely managed not to spit his chicken out. "Republican! Amy!"
Amy laughed and dismissed his unspoken concerns with a wave of her hand. "He's not a politician, Josh."
He stabbed a green bean and shoved it into his mouth, but decided to stay silent on that subject. "What made you decide on transplant surgery?"
Jay laughed. "Are you kidding? Transplant offers fame and a great deal of money. Plastic surgery is probably the only specialty that I could make more money at, but I decided that I didn't want to deal with people who are prettier than me."
Josh personally thought that this was a callous response, but decided to take it as a jest when Amy showed no sign of being offended.
"How did you and Amy meet?" Jay asked.
"Law school. Amy dated my roommate for awhile. We lost touch after I graduated, then hooked up for awhile a couple of years ago."
"You guys dated?"
"Much to our own dismay," Amy quipped. "Why did we do that?"
Josh shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Where you from, Jay?"
"Nebraska originally. I moved around a bit for college and grad school. Washington Center was impressed with my efforts to get more people to donate their organs when they die. Did you know that one person can save the lives of eight people? That doesn't include things like bone marrow and corneas. In 2001 over two thousand kidney patients died while waiting for a transplant. Over 450 heart patients could have been saved. Half of the families who are asked about donation refuse."
"That couldn't be because they're grieving or anything," Josh replied, shrugging uneasily when Amy glared at him.
"Let me ask you this, Josh: if you were in an accident tomorrow, would you want your heart to go to a fifteen year old boy who wants nothing more than to become a teacher?"
"I doubt anyone would want my heart," he said, trying to keep his tone light. "It's a little battered."
"No one cares about emotional scars," Jay replied, misunderstanding Josh's meaning.
"Why don't we talk about something else?" Amy interrupted. "Josh, you hear any good gossip lately?"
"Mary Marsh is in the hot seat with the Christian League again. Apparently she made a few disparaging remarks about Toby and Andy. Caldwell was not pleased."
"She really doesn't like you guys, does she?"
"At least this time she didn't say it to his face," Josh observed. "Last time she insulted him, I thought he was going to deck her right there in the Mural Room. And that was just a remark about being Jewish. I'd hate to see him go off if she insulted the twins to his face."
"Did that just happen today?"
"No, over the weekend. You were in Indiana with the First Lady."
"I'm surprised I didn't hear about it the second I got back."
Josh shrugged. "She didn't say it on the record or anything, just in front of some prominent politicians she was trying to sway."
"Which means no formal apology."
"True. I would assume she's smart enough to stay out of Toby's way for awhile." Josh glanced over at Jay and noticed that the man looked distinctly uncomfortable. If nothing else, his mother had drilled politeness into him.
"I'm sorry, Jay. It's rude of us to talk about people you don't know."
"It's OK. I'm getting a feel for who's who. You're talking about Toby Ziegler, right?"
"Yeah," Amy confirmed. "He and his ex-wife just had twins. If you two will excuse me, I will be right back."
Jay waited until she was gone before speaking again. "They're a real bunch up there, aren't they? The Vice President had an affair too. Latest I heard was that the Chief of Staff can't keep it in his pants when it comes to his secretary. We should call it the Hot House."
Josh sat back; shocked by the fact that the other man obviously didn't know who he was talking to.
"Where'd you hear that?"
"I was out having drinks with a couple of drinks with some of the other doctors at work and GW. Apparently the guy had a checkup the other day and the broad was all over him. She's supposed to be all legs and blonde hair and half his age."
"His doctor was the one who told you this?"
"Nah, it was some little tech. I'm not even sure why the guy was there. He was probably trying to get above his station."
Josh smiled grimly, which Jay took as agreement to his elitist views.
"Don't get me wrong, sluming's fine every once in awhile. I'm all for showing the masses that we care. But doctors don't have drinks with techs. It would be like the boss actually marrying the secretary."
Josh opened his mouth to verbally assault the idiot when both his cell phone and his beeper when off. Muttering a curse, he fumbled for them both.
"Yeah," he snapped into the phone once he had stopped the beeper's noise.
"Don't snap at me, Joshua," Donna chided him. "They need you in the Sit Room."
"I'm on my way," he told her, making a mental note to apologize to her later for his harsh tone. "Tell Amy that something came up," he told Jay shortly. "And that I'll talk to her later."
Jay nodded and stood with him. "Will do."
Josh threw some bills on the table and turned to go, only to stop a few feet away when Jay once again spoke to him.
"Here's my card. Maybe we can get together one night and watch some football."
Josh took the offered card and strode out of the building with it clenched in his fist. He was trembling when he got into the waiting car, the driver no doubt having been informed by Donna that he was needed.
It was only when he entered the West Wing that he remembered the small piece of cardboard in his hand. He turned to throw it in the garbage when the name on it caught his eye. With a smile that made Republican Congressmen cringe, he carefully straightened the wrinkles out and slipped it into his wallet.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
After he helped the President deal with a small crisis in Africa, a simple matter of posturing and flexing their military muscle, Josh made a circuit of the West Wing, gathering up Charlie, Toby, Will, and Danny. Once he had them all in his office, he told Donna not to disturb them and shut the door.
"I hereby call to order the second gathering of the Snowball Knights. Anyone who doesn't want a part of this can get the Hell out."
"Snowball Knights?" Toby questioned. "We're calling ourselves Snowball Knights?"
"It could be worse," Charlie pointed out. "It could be Team Toby."
"Fair point," Toby conceded and turned to their rather juvenile leader.
Josh took the card Jay had given to him and threw it on the desk. "I had an interesting lunch with Amy and her new man."
"Josh," Danny ventured. "You and Donna have been dating for three months now. Why are you upset over who Amy's dating?"
They all internally winced at the idea of Josh being jealous of Amy's boyfriend and the fall-out that would occur if Donna found out. They weren't afraid of Josh, just Donna's reaction and the chaos that was sure to occur in the wake of her leaving.
"I could care less about who Amy's dating. Except for that guy," he said, pointing at the offending card.
Charlie picked up the card and examined it. "Joshua 'Jay' Haute, M.D., Organ Transplant Surgeon, Washington Hospital Center. Sounds like a smart guy."
"Oh, no. Not him," Josh explained. "He is also known as Dr. Freeride."
Light dawned for the others in the room. They had all heard about the infamous Freeride during the taxi ride to Donna's apartment during the Inaugural Balls. Toby and Danny, who had actually had the displeasure of dealing with Josh for the two weeks Donna had left glared at the card, silently wishing that it would morph into the man who had unknowingly made everyone's live miserable. Beating a business card to within an inch of its life just didn't have the same effect.
"Amy's dating Dr. Freeride?" Will clarified, just to make sure he was on the same page as everyone else.
"What are we going to do?" Toby was the first to jump on this particular bandwagon. All he had to do was think about someone using Molly so badly and his temper flared.
"I'm not sure," Josh conceded. "That's why I need you guys."
"Can I just say," Charlie ventured. "While I'm all for running this guy out of DC, I think we should let Donna know what's going on. While some women claim that they want a guy to swoop in and act all manly, they really don't. In fact, they get a little annoyed."
"His is the voice of experience," Will pointed out.
"Plus," Danny added. "Since Donna is the wronged party here, she should have a say in what we do to the guy."
Josh frowned for a moment, considering the idea. "I suppose we should give Amy a heads up, too. That way she doesn't put us all on her death list."
"It would be appreciated," Toby said. "Amy would talk to Andy, then I'd be sleeping on the couch."
"They'd get CJ in on it and I'd never get a date."
"Zoey would stop talking to me again."
"Amy would tell Elsie and she'd tell my staff. They'd all walk out and I'd have to write everything." Will looked a bit green at the idea but kept his composure.
"Yeah, OK," Josh conceded, wondering if medieval knights had similar problems.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You know," Donna said as they worked the HMR dinner a little over a week later. "Some men might get worried that I'd go running back to him."
"Not me, though," Josh said with a smirk. "For one thing, he's a pompous, elitist ass. Secondly, I wouldn't stop for anything if you were hurt. And third, I'm da man."
"You're very sure of yourself."
"No," he said, kissing the palm of her hand. "I'm sure of you."
She smiled happily at his declaration and turned her attention to the room at large. Her White Knights, she had decided that Snowball Knights was just too silly an appellation to keep, were ranged around the room with their respective ladies fair.
Will, who was escorting his step-sister, was talking to Ed about the latest polling data. Much to Donna's amusement, he didn't notice that Cassie Tatum, Ed's date for the evening, was looking at him as if he hung the moon.
Toby and Andy were surrounded by a group of people admiring the ever present baby pictures. Even across the room she could see the look of pride and joy in Toby's eye.
Danny was hovering around CJ, making jokes, judging by the quirk of her lips.
Charlie was standing tall and proud beside Zoey as she talked to Stanley Keyworth, who had been brought in to deal with the aftermath of her kidnapping. Rumor had it that Zoey had decided to study psychology as a result of her experiences both at Rosslyn and with the kidnapping.
"Amy knows to get here late?" she prodded Josh.
"Yes. She invented a minor emergency in her office. Her assistant called her right after Dr. Freeride picked her up to make it look legit."
"Good. Everyone knows their parts?"
"Yep. They'll get here after dinner is served, unfashionably late, by the way. Amy will go and apologize to President and Dr. Bartlet while Freeride finds his seat. Charlie assures me that all the chicken entrees will have been given out and he'll get stuck with seafood. Since he's allergic, he'll just have to go hungry.
"After dinner, Will plays the bumbler and spills his red wine all down Freeride's tux. I hope it's rented. Elsie will 'help' to mop it up, spreading it around even worse. From what you've told me, he should blow his top around then."
"And if he doesn't?"
"We have back up. CJ will ask him to dance and proceed to mangle his toes. We owe her big for this. Danny will start a conversation with the words 'the Packers suck.' He said to tell you that he did actual research on this."
"Charlie?"
"Charlie is the supervisor on all of this. He's going to keep an eye out and make sure that everything goes smoothly."
"You're sure that you can keep him away from me?" she questioned.
"Reasonably sure. That's part of Charlie's job. He'll run interference if the idiot comes too close. Plus, I'll be with you the whole time. You'll never have to talk to him."
Donna nodded her head, grateful to her friends for pulling together this elaborate scheme but a little wary about it at the same time. If it worked, Jay would be made a laughingstock. She just worried about all the things that could go wrong.
Her fears were not entirely unfounded, she discovered as Josh's beeper went off just as they sat down for dinner. As soon as he stopped the noise, another beeper went off. It continued around the room until all the Senior Staff were making their apologies to their companions and hurrying from the room. Donna followed Josh, knowing that he would more than likely need her and unwilling to stay and endure the sight of her ex without his support.
With only Charlie, Danny, and Elsie left at the dinner, Operation Humiliation was officially off. Donna put it out of her mind as she rushed around her office, gathering files related to earthquake victim relief. The eight point quake that occurred in China was far more important than her petty revenge.
"Donna!" Josh called to her around midnight.
She hurried into his office, carrying the files she knew he would need. "Doctors Without Borders," she said, handing him the first. "UNICEF, and CARE."
"Did you-"
"Yes."
"And-"
"UNICEF is preparing a team, as is the Red Cross. Doctors Without Borders is already in the area. And, no, I won't get you coffee."
"Please?" he whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
She left and came back with a mug of stewing brew and a couple of Tylenol. She handed them wordless to him and he smiled in gratitude.
"I'll take this as a fluke, OK?"
"'Kay," she agreed.
She was leaving when she heard Jay's voice come from the doorway that connected Josh's office to the Oval Office.
"It sure was nice of you to show me around, sir."
"No trouble. No trouble at all," President Bartlet said jovially. "I actually wanted to talk to you a bit. I've known Amy all of her life and while I try not to play the over-protective father figure, I find I do it rather well."
"So this is the Inquisition, sir?"
"Indeed it is. Tell me, where did you go to school?"
"I did my undergraduate work at Nebraska State then moved to the University of Wisconsin for my graduate and residency. From there I moved to San Diego General. I've been at Washington Center for two months."
"You like to move around a lot, do you?"
"Not really, sir. But when someone offers you a better deal you have to go with it."
Donna could tell by the President's "hrmph" that he wasn't at all convinced of that theory.
"You must have a great amount of student loans."
"No, sir, not really."
"Wealthy family?"
"Not at all, sir. I'm an orphan, actually. I've just been lucky to have some help along the way."
"Oh?"
"Yes, sir. During my residency I had a girlfriend who helped to pay the bills."
"Sounds like a nice girl. What happened to her?"
"I'm not really sure, Mr. President. We had a fight and she left. Last I heard she was working for some long-shot political campaign."
The silence from the Oval Office was deafening. "A political campaign?" Bartlet finally asked, his voice holding a new note of ice that Jay didn't catch.
"Yes, sir. I had tracked her down at one point and convinced her to come back, but that only lasted a couple of weeks. In all truth, I think she had fallen in love with the candidate."
Donna blushed at her ex's words. Josh smirked at her from beside her and she resisted the urge to elbow him in the stomach. It wouldn't do any good to be caught eavesdropping on the most powerful man in the country.
"You did your residency at Wisconsin, you said? University of Wisconsin's in Madison, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"This girlfriend of yours, what did you fight about?"
"She seemed to think I was spending too much time with one of the nurses," Jay confessed.
Donna snorted softly. That was one way of describing her reaction to finding him and said nurse in bed together. Josh, who knew the whole story, squeezed her shoulder in support.
"Have you met my Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman? I think he'd be very interested in you."
Josh and Donna quickly moved away from the door as the President poked his head through. He regarded them both for a moment then gave a cold smile.
"Josh, there's someone I think you'd like to meet. Come on in." He nodded in a fatherly way to Donna, the gleam in his eye declaring that he was up to something.
"Josh Lyman, Jay Haute," Bartlet introduced.
"We've actually met before, Mr. President," Josh explained as he calmly gripped Jay's hand. He had seen the look in his boss's eye and knew that the man was plotting. For now, he decided, he'd play along. "He and Amy joined me for lunch last week."
"Hello again, Josh. Have you given any more thought to our talk about organ donation?"
Josh smiled grimly. "No, but I have thought about a few of the other things you said."
Jay actually had the decency to wince. "Yeah. Sorry about that, I didn't realize who you were, obviously."
"No, it's OK," Josh dismissed casually. "If nothing else it told me that my doctor's office had a leak. Not that I'm ashamed of my relationship with my girlfriend, you understand, but she does get a bit upset about the gossip that goes on."
"No hard feelings, huh?"
"Oh, no. Not about that," Josh said with a predatory smile. Jay obviously didn't notice or else he would have run screaming.
"So, Josh, Jay here was telling me the most fascinating story. I'm sure you would love to hear it."
"Sir?" he asked, playing ignorant.
"Yes, he was telling me about the girlfriend who supported him while he was doing his residency. Must have been a very special girl."
"In all truthfulness, sir, she was rather flakey. She had no self- confidence at all. I wouldn't have even dated her if it hadn't been for her looks."
"She must have been loyal, then," Bartlet pointed out.
"No, sir. If she had been, she wouldn't have run out on me after such a silly fight. You know how women are now-a-days, sir."
"Yes, I do," he agreed. "Tell me, do you believe that a woman's place is in the home?"
"In a perfect world, sir. It is truly a tragedy that women have to work to support their mates."
Bartlet smiled wryly as his wife and her Chief of Staff entered the office. The look on Abbey's face told him that she knew something was up. The look both she and Amy cast in Josh's direction told him that Josh had known exactly who Jay was before this meeting.
"Abbey, Amy, we were just talking about a woman's place in the world," Jed explained, keeping an eye on Jay, who squirmed slightly under the combined gazes of the First Lady and the woman he thought of as a potential girlfriend. "Jay here thinks that a woman's place is in the home."
"Really," Abbey said with an icy smile. "That's an interesting view. Josh, what do you think?"
"Me, ma'am? I know too many strong women to ever presume that I know where they belong. They belong wherever they want to be."
"Damn straight," the First Lady praised.
"He was also telling me about a girlfriend he used to have who helped to pay his tuition expenses out of the goodness of her heart. Isn't that a remarkable woman?"
"Truly."
"It's too bad you lost contact with her. Now that you're becoming successful you could pay her back. Ah well, there's no way to find her now."
Jay shifted nervously as the other occupants in the room stared at him. "Uh. Yes. That really is too bad. I don't know what she'd do with the money anyway," he said, rallying. "No one needs that many shoes."
"I don't know, women need a lot of shoes," Amy quipped.
"Not ten thousand dollars worth," he countered, giving them exactly what they wanted: an estimate of what he owed Donna.
"Oh, I'm sure she could do other things with that money," Josh said, slightly shocked with the figure named. Donna must have worked two or three jobs in order to pay that amount off. "You know, donate it to some no-name Democrat, give it to charity, or finish her own degree."
"No, she'd just squander it," Jay denied, not catching the clue that the group knew more than he thought they did.
"Oh, I'm sure she'd buy a DVD player or something like that. But she'd put the rest of it to good use. Maybe she'd put it in trust for her future children or move to a better neighborhood."
"It's a moot point anyway," Jay pointed out, still not getting the hint. "I have no way of finding her."
"Oh, but I do," Bartlet said, the icy grin back. "How about you just give us her name, we'll take care of the rest."
"I. Uh."
Josh cast a quick look at the President and received silent permission to let himself off the leash.
"You know," he said conversationally, causing Jay to relax slightly, thinking that the conversation had taken a more pleasant turn. It was a more pleasant turn, just not for him. "I don't know whether to hit you or thank you."
"Pardon?" Jay asked confused. He glanced around and saw similar grim looks on each of his companions' faces.
"You see," Josh continued, stalking towards the man who had hurt his Donnatella. "If you hadn't decided to jump into bed with Nurse Betty, Donna wouldn't have joined the Bartlet campaign. Yes," he confirmed, interpreting the look of shock on Jay's face. "So, should I punch you for hurting her or thank you for giving her to me?
"What you are going to do," he snarled, getting right into the taller man's face. "Is pay back every sent you ever took from her. That means the money she paid on your loans and the money you took out of her savings account. You will send it to her care of the White House. If you do not, I'll personally make sure that you are black listed from every social event for as long as I work in politics.
"Now, you could go to the press and accuse us of misusing Presidential Power. But how would your bosses like it if they found out just what kind of man you are? Would you like to have your face splashed across the country with the title of 'user' attached?"
Jay's face was red with anger by this point. Donna, who was leaning against the connecting doorway watching the scene play out, knew that her ex was backed into a corner and would try to get out of it the only way he knew how, by attacking.
"She must give pretty good head for you to be so zealous. I always thought she was rather frigid, myself."
Josh stopped dead, his face bone white from sheer anger. Donna could feel the tremors that coursed through his body as he tried to control his temper. She had never seen him that angry in the six years she had worked for him, and in all truthfulness, it scared her a bit.
Bartlet strode to his desk and hit the button for the intercom. "Debbie, get security in here, please. There's a jackass that needs to be shown out."
As the President hung up, Donna made her way to her trembling boyfriend. She spared only a short glare for Dr. Freeride before laying a calming hand on Josh's arm.
"I think you should leave now, Jay," she said quietly. "You're not welcome here."
Security, showing an amazing sense of timing, appeared at that moment and grasped Jay by the arms. He snarled at them as he was drug from the room. The First Couple and Amy followed them out, Amy speaking softly but earnestly to Jay, no doubt trying to convince him that he had just done a Very Bad Thing.
Once they were alone, Donna bypassed their usual rule about etiquette at work and pulled his trembling body into her arms. After a few minutes Josh pulled away and she looked at him critically. Color had returned to his face and the tremors had stopped. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was still angry, not that she blamed him.
"Hey," she said with a small smile.
"Hey."
"How are you?"
"Donna, he-"
"I know, I heard. It's OK. Nothing he says can hurt me. Not as long as I have you."
He buried his face in her hair for a moment. "I love you," he whispered.
"I know."
He pulled back and glared playfully at her. "You know? That's all you have to say?"
"I'm da man," she answered with a laugh as she led him back into his own office.
Title: To Court a Lady
Rating: PG-13 for a few choice words
Disclaimer: The West Wing and all its characters are a property of Aaron Sorkin, John Wells Production, Warner Brothers Television and NBC. No copyright infringement is intended.
Spoilers: Up through Season 4.
Summery: After a blow-up, Josh gets permission to date Donna.
Notes: Wow, this is the longest portion yet. Just in case you're wondering, these are pure fluff. You want a plot, go somewhere else.
The stats Jay spouts off are from the National Organ Donation Society. Yes, I did research!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"J!"
Josh looked up from the baked chicken he had been eating at the sound of Amy's nickname for him echoing across the restaurant. He didn't have time to even wave to her as she bustled over and collapsed into the chair across from him.
"How ya doing, J?"
"I'm good," he told his ex-girlfriend. They had parted amicably, which was amazing considering their relationship had never been amicable.
"What are you doing here?"
He looked pointedly at his abandoned lunch and then back up at her.
"So, I'm dating someone new," she said, ignoring his look. "He's actually meeting me here in a few minutes. He's a rising star over at Washington Center; he's a transplant surgeon."
"Not a politician?"
"Nah. I had an epiphany: politicians shouldn't date each other. I mean, just look what happened to us. There's going to be a conflict of interest sooner or later."
"Yeah, problem with that is you live in DC. It's hard to meet anyone who isn't political," he pointed out.
"Not when you work for a doctor who just happens to be political, too. Mrs. B gave a speech at Washington Center, which is where I met Jay."
"Talking about me?" a voice asked from beside Amy.
"Jay!" Amy said, her voice filled full of pleasure. "Jay, meet. Well, J."
"Josh," he introduced himself as he rose and shook the newcomer's hand. The man was tall and blonde, with an open face and wide shoulders. He thought that the man contrasted Amy perfectly.
"How do you do? Are you one of Amy's political friends?"
"Something like that," he murmured.
"We dated awhile," Amy explained. "Josh, mind if we join you? I need to talk to you about the benefit Mrs. B is hosting next week."
Josh nodded his assent and waved to a nearby waiter. One perk he had noticed about his elevated status was that the politically savvy servers immediately recognized him as the second most powerful man in the country and responded accordingly. Sometimes he thought that waiters were the only ones who noticed.
"What about the fund raiser?" he asked after the waiter hurried away to place the orders.
"We want him to come."
"Amy."
"It's an important event," she insisted.
"The First Lady or the staff?"
"Both."
He sighed in resignation and slipped his cell phone from its normal position on his belt. "Hey, Debbie, it's Josh. Yes, I know its lunch time. No, I don't want to talk to him. If I wanted to talk to her I would have called her office. Debbie. Debbie. Yes, I know I was late for a meeting this morning. Debbie!" the last was said in a squeak.
"Listen, Amy Gardner wants him to come to the thing next week. I don't know the name of the thing."
"Humanitarian Medical Relief dinner. It starts at seven next Wednesday," Amy provided.
Josh relayed the information and listened in silence as the President's executive secretary confirmed that he was free.
"Alright, when he has a free moment ask him if he has a preference about going. Yeah. Yeah. No. OK. Debbie."
Josh hung up the phone with little ceremony and glared at his friend. "I'm now on her list, I'll have you know. I'm supposed to tell you that next time you are not supposed to use me as a go-between. Which is perfectly fine by me."
"So he'll be there?"
"He has free time then," Josh acknowledged. "Whether or not he goes is completely up to him."
"He'll be there," she said with a self-satisfied air.
"Can we talk about something other than our jobs now? I actually came to lunch so that I don't have to think about work."
"Works for me," Jay said. "I'm not much for politics anyway."
"You haven't lived here long, have you?"
"Couple of months," the other man said with a shrug.
"Wait awhile," Amy told him as their food arrived. "Politics will get into your blood. Next thing you know you'll be arguing about legislation over drinks."
"Possible, I guess," he said. "As of right now I'm pretty much apolitical with leanings towards Republican."
Josh barely managed not to spit his chicken out. "Republican! Amy!"
Amy laughed and dismissed his unspoken concerns with a wave of her hand. "He's not a politician, Josh."
He stabbed a green bean and shoved it into his mouth, but decided to stay silent on that subject. "What made you decide on transplant surgery?"
Jay laughed. "Are you kidding? Transplant offers fame and a great deal of money. Plastic surgery is probably the only specialty that I could make more money at, but I decided that I didn't want to deal with people who are prettier than me."
Josh personally thought that this was a callous response, but decided to take it as a jest when Amy showed no sign of being offended.
"How did you and Amy meet?" Jay asked.
"Law school. Amy dated my roommate for awhile. We lost touch after I graduated, then hooked up for awhile a couple of years ago."
"You guys dated?"
"Much to our own dismay," Amy quipped. "Why did we do that?"
Josh shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Where you from, Jay?"
"Nebraska originally. I moved around a bit for college and grad school. Washington Center was impressed with my efforts to get more people to donate their organs when they die. Did you know that one person can save the lives of eight people? That doesn't include things like bone marrow and corneas. In 2001 over two thousand kidney patients died while waiting for a transplant. Over 450 heart patients could have been saved. Half of the families who are asked about donation refuse."
"That couldn't be because they're grieving or anything," Josh replied, shrugging uneasily when Amy glared at him.
"Let me ask you this, Josh: if you were in an accident tomorrow, would you want your heart to go to a fifteen year old boy who wants nothing more than to become a teacher?"
"I doubt anyone would want my heart," he said, trying to keep his tone light. "It's a little battered."
"No one cares about emotional scars," Jay replied, misunderstanding Josh's meaning.
"Why don't we talk about something else?" Amy interrupted. "Josh, you hear any good gossip lately?"
"Mary Marsh is in the hot seat with the Christian League again. Apparently she made a few disparaging remarks about Toby and Andy. Caldwell was not pleased."
"She really doesn't like you guys, does she?"
"At least this time she didn't say it to his face," Josh observed. "Last time she insulted him, I thought he was going to deck her right there in the Mural Room. And that was just a remark about being Jewish. I'd hate to see him go off if she insulted the twins to his face."
"Did that just happen today?"
"No, over the weekend. You were in Indiana with the First Lady."
"I'm surprised I didn't hear about it the second I got back."
Josh shrugged. "She didn't say it on the record or anything, just in front of some prominent politicians she was trying to sway."
"Which means no formal apology."
"True. I would assume she's smart enough to stay out of Toby's way for awhile." Josh glanced over at Jay and noticed that the man looked distinctly uncomfortable. If nothing else, his mother had drilled politeness into him.
"I'm sorry, Jay. It's rude of us to talk about people you don't know."
"It's OK. I'm getting a feel for who's who. You're talking about Toby Ziegler, right?"
"Yeah," Amy confirmed. "He and his ex-wife just had twins. If you two will excuse me, I will be right back."
Jay waited until she was gone before speaking again. "They're a real bunch up there, aren't they? The Vice President had an affair too. Latest I heard was that the Chief of Staff can't keep it in his pants when it comes to his secretary. We should call it the Hot House."
Josh sat back; shocked by the fact that the other man obviously didn't know who he was talking to.
"Where'd you hear that?"
"I was out having drinks with a couple of drinks with some of the other doctors at work and GW. Apparently the guy had a checkup the other day and the broad was all over him. She's supposed to be all legs and blonde hair and half his age."
"His doctor was the one who told you this?"
"Nah, it was some little tech. I'm not even sure why the guy was there. He was probably trying to get above his station."
Josh smiled grimly, which Jay took as agreement to his elitist views.
"Don't get me wrong, sluming's fine every once in awhile. I'm all for showing the masses that we care. But doctors don't have drinks with techs. It would be like the boss actually marrying the secretary."
Josh opened his mouth to verbally assault the idiot when both his cell phone and his beeper when off. Muttering a curse, he fumbled for them both.
"Yeah," he snapped into the phone once he had stopped the beeper's noise.
"Don't snap at me, Joshua," Donna chided him. "They need you in the Sit Room."
"I'm on my way," he told her, making a mental note to apologize to her later for his harsh tone. "Tell Amy that something came up," he told Jay shortly. "And that I'll talk to her later."
Jay nodded and stood with him. "Will do."
Josh threw some bills on the table and turned to go, only to stop a few feet away when Jay once again spoke to him.
"Here's my card. Maybe we can get together one night and watch some football."
Josh took the offered card and strode out of the building with it clenched in his fist. He was trembling when he got into the waiting car, the driver no doubt having been informed by Donna that he was needed.
It was only when he entered the West Wing that he remembered the small piece of cardboard in his hand. He turned to throw it in the garbage when the name on it caught his eye. With a smile that made Republican Congressmen cringe, he carefully straightened the wrinkles out and slipped it into his wallet.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
After he helped the President deal with a small crisis in Africa, a simple matter of posturing and flexing their military muscle, Josh made a circuit of the West Wing, gathering up Charlie, Toby, Will, and Danny. Once he had them all in his office, he told Donna not to disturb them and shut the door.
"I hereby call to order the second gathering of the Snowball Knights. Anyone who doesn't want a part of this can get the Hell out."
"Snowball Knights?" Toby questioned. "We're calling ourselves Snowball Knights?"
"It could be worse," Charlie pointed out. "It could be Team Toby."
"Fair point," Toby conceded and turned to their rather juvenile leader.
Josh took the card Jay had given to him and threw it on the desk. "I had an interesting lunch with Amy and her new man."
"Josh," Danny ventured. "You and Donna have been dating for three months now. Why are you upset over who Amy's dating?"
They all internally winced at the idea of Josh being jealous of Amy's boyfriend and the fall-out that would occur if Donna found out. They weren't afraid of Josh, just Donna's reaction and the chaos that was sure to occur in the wake of her leaving.
"I could care less about who Amy's dating. Except for that guy," he said, pointing at the offending card.
Charlie picked up the card and examined it. "Joshua 'Jay' Haute, M.D., Organ Transplant Surgeon, Washington Hospital Center. Sounds like a smart guy."
"Oh, no. Not him," Josh explained. "He is also known as Dr. Freeride."
Light dawned for the others in the room. They had all heard about the infamous Freeride during the taxi ride to Donna's apartment during the Inaugural Balls. Toby and Danny, who had actually had the displeasure of dealing with Josh for the two weeks Donna had left glared at the card, silently wishing that it would morph into the man who had unknowingly made everyone's live miserable. Beating a business card to within an inch of its life just didn't have the same effect.
"Amy's dating Dr. Freeride?" Will clarified, just to make sure he was on the same page as everyone else.
"What are we going to do?" Toby was the first to jump on this particular bandwagon. All he had to do was think about someone using Molly so badly and his temper flared.
"I'm not sure," Josh conceded. "That's why I need you guys."
"Can I just say," Charlie ventured. "While I'm all for running this guy out of DC, I think we should let Donna know what's going on. While some women claim that they want a guy to swoop in and act all manly, they really don't. In fact, they get a little annoyed."
"His is the voice of experience," Will pointed out.
"Plus," Danny added. "Since Donna is the wronged party here, she should have a say in what we do to the guy."
Josh frowned for a moment, considering the idea. "I suppose we should give Amy a heads up, too. That way she doesn't put us all on her death list."
"It would be appreciated," Toby said. "Amy would talk to Andy, then I'd be sleeping on the couch."
"They'd get CJ in on it and I'd never get a date."
"Zoey would stop talking to me again."
"Amy would tell Elsie and she'd tell my staff. They'd all walk out and I'd have to write everything." Will looked a bit green at the idea but kept his composure.
"Yeah, OK," Josh conceded, wondering if medieval knights had similar problems.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You know," Donna said as they worked the HMR dinner a little over a week later. "Some men might get worried that I'd go running back to him."
"Not me, though," Josh said with a smirk. "For one thing, he's a pompous, elitist ass. Secondly, I wouldn't stop for anything if you were hurt. And third, I'm da man."
"You're very sure of yourself."
"No," he said, kissing the palm of her hand. "I'm sure of you."
She smiled happily at his declaration and turned her attention to the room at large. Her White Knights, she had decided that Snowball Knights was just too silly an appellation to keep, were ranged around the room with their respective ladies fair.
Will, who was escorting his step-sister, was talking to Ed about the latest polling data. Much to Donna's amusement, he didn't notice that Cassie Tatum, Ed's date for the evening, was looking at him as if he hung the moon.
Toby and Andy were surrounded by a group of people admiring the ever present baby pictures. Even across the room she could see the look of pride and joy in Toby's eye.
Danny was hovering around CJ, making jokes, judging by the quirk of her lips.
Charlie was standing tall and proud beside Zoey as she talked to Stanley Keyworth, who had been brought in to deal with the aftermath of her kidnapping. Rumor had it that Zoey had decided to study psychology as a result of her experiences both at Rosslyn and with the kidnapping.
"Amy knows to get here late?" she prodded Josh.
"Yes. She invented a minor emergency in her office. Her assistant called her right after Dr. Freeride picked her up to make it look legit."
"Good. Everyone knows their parts?"
"Yep. They'll get here after dinner is served, unfashionably late, by the way. Amy will go and apologize to President and Dr. Bartlet while Freeride finds his seat. Charlie assures me that all the chicken entrees will have been given out and he'll get stuck with seafood. Since he's allergic, he'll just have to go hungry.
"After dinner, Will plays the bumbler and spills his red wine all down Freeride's tux. I hope it's rented. Elsie will 'help' to mop it up, spreading it around even worse. From what you've told me, he should blow his top around then."
"And if he doesn't?"
"We have back up. CJ will ask him to dance and proceed to mangle his toes. We owe her big for this. Danny will start a conversation with the words 'the Packers suck.' He said to tell you that he did actual research on this."
"Charlie?"
"Charlie is the supervisor on all of this. He's going to keep an eye out and make sure that everything goes smoothly."
"You're sure that you can keep him away from me?" she questioned.
"Reasonably sure. That's part of Charlie's job. He'll run interference if the idiot comes too close. Plus, I'll be with you the whole time. You'll never have to talk to him."
Donna nodded her head, grateful to her friends for pulling together this elaborate scheme but a little wary about it at the same time. If it worked, Jay would be made a laughingstock. She just worried about all the things that could go wrong.
Her fears were not entirely unfounded, she discovered as Josh's beeper went off just as they sat down for dinner. As soon as he stopped the noise, another beeper went off. It continued around the room until all the Senior Staff were making their apologies to their companions and hurrying from the room. Donna followed Josh, knowing that he would more than likely need her and unwilling to stay and endure the sight of her ex without his support.
With only Charlie, Danny, and Elsie left at the dinner, Operation Humiliation was officially off. Donna put it out of her mind as she rushed around her office, gathering files related to earthquake victim relief. The eight point quake that occurred in China was far more important than her petty revenge.
"Donna!" Josh called to her around midnight.
She hurried into his office, carrying the files she knew he would need. "Doctors Without Borders," she said, handing him the first. "UNICEF, and CARE."
"Did you-"
"Yes."
"And-"
"UNICEF is preparing a team, as is the Red Cross. Doctors Without Borders is already in the area. And, no, I won't get you coffee."
"Please?" he whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
She left and came back with a mug of stewing brew and a couple of Tylenol. She handed them wordless to him and he smiled in gratitude.
"I'll take this as a fluke, OK?"
"'Kay," she agreed.
She was leaving when she heard Jay's voice come from the doorway that connected Josh's office to the Oval Office.
"It sure was nice of you to show me around, sir."
"No trouble. No trouble at all," President Bartlet said jovially. "I actually wanted to talk to you a bit. I've known Amy all of her life and while I try not to play the over-protective father figure, I find I do it rather well."
"So this is the Inquisition, sir?"
"Indeed it is. Tell me, where did you go to school?"
"I did my undergraduate work at Nebraska State then moved to the University of Wisconsin for my graduate and residency. From there I moved to San Diego General. I've been at Washington Center for two months."
"You like to move around a lot, do you?"
"Not really, sir. But when someone offers you a better deal you have to go with it."
Donna could tell by the President's "hrmph" that he wasn't at all convinced of that theory.
"You must have a great amount of student loans."
"No, sir, not really."
"Wealthy family?"
"Not at all, sir. I'm an orphan, actually. I've just been lucky to have some help along the way."
"Oh?"
"Yes, sir. During my residency I had a girlfriend who helped to pay the bills."
"Sounds like a nice girl. What happened to her?"
"I'm not really sure, Mr. President. We had a fight and she left. Last I heard she was working for some long-shot political campaign."
The silence from the Oval Office was deafening. "A political campaign?" Bartlet finally asked, his voice holding a new note of ice that Jay didn't catch.
"Yes, sir. I had tracked her down at one point and convinced her to come back, but that only lasted a couple of weeks. In all truth, I think she had fallen in love with the candidate."
Donna blushed at her ex's words. Josh smirked at her from beside her and she resisted the urge to elbow him in the stomach. It wouldn't do any good to be caught eavesdropping on the most powerful man in the country.
"You did your residency at Wisconsin, you said? University of Wisconsin's in Madison, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"This girlfriend of yours, what did you fight about?"
"She seemed to think I was spending too much time with one of the nurses," Jay confessed.
Donna snorted softly. That was one way of describing her reaction to finding him and said nurse in bed together. Josh, who knew the whole story, squeezed her shoulder in support.
"Have you met my Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman? I think he'd be very interested in you."
Josh and Donna quickly moved away from the door as the President poked his head through. He regarded them both for a moment then gave a cold smile.
"Josh, there's someone I think you'd like to meet. Come on in." He nodded in a fatherly way to Donna, the gleam in his eye declaring that he was up to something.
"Josh Lyman, Jay Haute," Bartlet introduced.
"We've actually met before, Mr. President," Josh explained as he calmly gripped Jay's hand. He had seen the look in his boss's eye and knew that the man was plotting. For now, he decided, he'd play along. "He and Amy joined me for lunch last week."
"Hello again, Josh. Have you given any more thought to our talk about organ donation?"
Josh smiled grimly. "No, but I have thought about a few of the other things you said."
Jay actually had the decency to wince. "Yeah. Sorry about that, I didn't realize who you were, obviously."
"No, it's OK," Josh dismissed casually. "If nothing else it told me that my doctor's office had a leak. Not that I'm ashamed of my relationship with my girlfriend, you understand, but she does get a bit upset about the gossip that goes on."
"No hard feelings, huh?"
"Oh, no. Not about that," Josh said with a predatory smile. Jay obviously didn't notice or else he would have run screaming.
"So, Josh, Jay here was telling me the most fascinating story. I'm sure you would love to hear it."
"Sir?" he asked, playing ignorant.
"Yes, he was telling me about the girlfriend who supported him while he was doing his residency. Must have been a very special girl."
"In all truthfulness, sir, she was rather flakey. She had no self- confidence at all. I wouldn't have even dated her if it hadn't been for her looks."
"She must have been loyal, then," Bartlet pointed out.
"No, sir. If she had been, she wouldn't have run out on me after such a silly fight. You know how women are now-a-days, sir."
"Yes, I do," he agreed. "Tell me, do you believe that a woman's place is in the home?"
"In a perfect world, sir. It is truly a tragedy that women have to work to support their mates."
Bartlet smiled wryly as his wife and her Chief of Staff entered the office. The look on Abbey's face told him that she knew something was up. The look both she and Amy cast in Josh's direction told him that Josh had known exactly who Jay was before this meeting.
"Abbey, Amy, we were just talking about a woman's place in the world," Jed explained, keeping an eye on Jay, who squirmed slightly under the combined gazes of the First Lady and the woman he thought of as a potential girlfriend. "Jay here thinks that a woman's place is in the home."
"Really," Abbey said with an icy smile. "That's an interesting view. Josh, what do you think?"
"Me, ma'am? I know too many strong women to ever presume that I know where they belong. They belong wherever they want to be."
"Damn straight," the First Lady praised.
"He was also telling me about a girlfriend he used to have who helped to pay his tuition expenses out of the goodness of her heart. Isn't that a remarkable woman?"
"Truly."
"It's too bad you lost contact with her. Now that you're becoming successful you could pay her back. Ah well, there's no way to find her now."
Jay shifted nervously as the other occupants in the room stared at him. "Uh. Yes. That really is too bad. I don't know what she'd do with the money anyway," he said, rallying. "No one needs that many shoes."
"I don't know, women need a lot of shoes," Amy quipped.
"Not ten thousand dollars worth," he countered, giving them exactly what they wanted: an estimate of what he owed Donna.
"Oh, I'm sure she could do other things with that money," Josh said, slightly shocked with the figure named. Donna must have worked two or three jobs in order to pay that amount off. "You know, donate it to some no-name Democrat, give it to charity, or finish her own degree."
"No, she'd just squander it," Jay denied, not catching the clue that the group knew more than he thought they did.
"Oh, I'm sure she'd buy a DVD player or something like that. But she'd put the rest of it to good use. Maybe she'd put it in trust for her future children or move to a better neighborhood."
"It's a moot point anyway," Jay pointed out, still not getting the hint. "I have no way of finding her."
"Oh, but I do," Bartlet said, the icy grin back. "How about you just give us her name, we'll take care of the rest."
"I. Uh."
Josh cast a quick look at the President and received silent permission to let himself off the leash.
"You know," he said conversationally, causing Jay to relax slightly, thinking that the conversation had taken a more pleasant turn. It was a more pleasant turn, just not for him. "I don't know whether to hit you or thank you."
"Pardon?" Jay asked confused. He glanced around and saw similar grim looks on each of his companions' faces.
"You see," Josh continued, stalking towards the man who had hurt his Donnatella. "If you hadn't decided to jump into bed with Nurse Betty, Donna wouldn't have joined the Bartlet campaign. Yes," he confirmed, interpreting the look of shock on Jay's face. "So, should I punch you for hurting her or thank you for giving her to me?
"What you are going to do," he snarled, getting right into the taller man's face. "Is pay back every sent you ever took from her. That means the money she paid on your loans and the money you took out of her savings account. You will send it to her care of the White House. If you do not, I'll personally make sure that you are black listed from every social event for as long as I work in politics.
"Now, you could go to the press and accuse us of misusing Presidential Power. But how would your bosses like it if they found out just what kind of man you are? Would you like to have your face splashed across the country with the title of 'user' attached?"
Jay's face was red with anger by this point. Donna, who was leaning against the connecting doorway watching the scene play out, knew that her ex was backed into a corner and would try to get out of it the only way he knew how, by attacking.
"She must give pretty good head for you to be so zealous. I always thought she was rather frigid, myself."
Josh stopped dead, his face bone white from sheer anger. Donna could feel the tremors that coursed through his body as he tried to control his temper. She had never seen him that angry in the six years she had worked for him, and in all truthfulness, it scared her a bit.
Bartlet strode to his desk and hit the button for the intercom. "Debbie, get security in here, please. There's a jackass that needs to be shown out."
As the President hung up, Donna made her way to her trembling boyfriend. She spared only a short glare for Dr. Freeride before laying a calming hand on Josh's arm.
"I think you should leave now, Jay," she said quietly. "You're not welcome here."
Security, showing an amazing sense of timing, appeared at that moment and grasped Jay by the arms. He snarled at them as he was drug from the room. The First Couple and Amy followed them out, Amy speaking softly but earnestly to Jay, no doubt trying to convince him that he had just done a Very Bad Thing.
Once they were alone, Donna bypassed their usual rule about etiquette at work and pulled his trembling body into her arms. After a few minutes Josh pulled away and she looked at him critically. Color had returned to his face and the tremors had stopped. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was still angry, not that she blamed him.
"Hey," she said with a small smile.
"Hey."
"How are you?"
"Donna, he-"
"I know, I heard. It's OK. Nothing he says can hurt me. Not as long as I have you."
He buried his face in her hair for a moment. "I love you," he whispered.
"I know."
He pulled back and glared playfully at her. "You know? That's all you have to say?"
"I'm da man," she answered with a laugh as she led him back into his own office.