TITLE: Connected - Part 4 - Inevitable
AUTHOR: Jacinta
SUMMARY: Something new, yet not entirely unexpected, happens
SPOILERS: Anything up to S4
CHARACTERS: Ensemble
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMER: Most certainly not mine.
Josh is washing his mug when Donna returns to the kitchen. "I meant what I said," she tells him. "I had a good time. And I was sorry it ended when it did."
"The music?" Josh asks with a smile.
"No, not the music." Donna's watching Josh carefully. "If it had been anyone but Leo who interrupted us, I'd have told them to leave us alone."
"If I'd have known you felt like that I'd have told Leo myself." Josh had almost yelled at Leo when he interrupted them, until he remembered where they were. "So it wasn't just the drink then?"
"I'd only had three glasses of wine. Also, I have a confession about the flight home. I wasn't asleep most of the time, I was just enjoying lying against you."
Josh grins. Donna was enjoying lying against him. She wanted him to kiss her. This is huge. This is a whole other thing, but he has no idea what she wants him to do next.
"I just wanted you to know that," Donna tells him, wondering why she suddenly feels so shy.
Josh places his mug on the counter and walks over to her. "Maybe we should carry on from where we were interrupted?"
Donna glances at Josh across the breakfast table and smiles. "Well that's never happened before."
"No," Josh agrees with a grin, "though I'm not sure it was entirely unexpected."
"No, not entirely," Donna agrees.
Josh sighs, "I suppose we should get dressed then."
"Why?" Donna asks. "Do you have somewhere to be? Somewhere you'd rather be?" she smiles.
"Nowhere at all. Do you have any suggestions for the day then?"
"Yeh," Donna smiles. "I love spending Sunday vegging in front of the TV, eating junk food and doing nothing at all."
"Nothing at all?" Josh asks.
"Well, maybe something will spring to mind." Donna smiles as she stands and goes to make another coffee. "I can't believe I did that last night, by the way," she admits. "It's not something I've ever done before, you do know that?"
"So you don't normally seduce men who've kindly let you stay the night?" Josh teases.
"As I recall you didn't take too much seducing," Donna laughs. "And Millicent Griffith is right."
"I should eat more healthily?" he grins as he walks over to her.
"Well yes, obviously, but that's not what I meant." She places her hand on Josh's chest. When she'd taken his top off last night she'd felt him tense slightly and she knew why. She hadn't seen his scar for three years and it's faded from the angry red line she remembers. She wants him to know that he really shouldn't be embarrassed by it, especially not in front of her. "It is a beautiful scar."
Josh looks at Donna like she's a little mad, "How can any scar......?"
"It saved your life," Donna smiles.
"Yeh," Josh agrees with a faint smile. He takes her hand in his and leads her back to the bedroom.
The door buzzer drags Josh and Donna back to reality around 4.30. Luckily they're watching TV at the time, although they haven't bothered to dress yet. Josh answers the intercom. "Hello?"
"Hey, Josh."
"Toby, come in." Josh presses the button. Donna dashes to the spare room to get dressed while Josh quickly pulls a pair of jeans and a t-shirt on and opens the front door. "'Sup?" he asks.
"Nothing, I was bored."
"Thanks," Josh replies, trying to look happy to see Toby.
"What you doing?"
"Watching TV and doing nothing else really."
"Hey, Toby," Donna smiles, as she walks into the living room.
"Hey, I didn't know you were here."
"Yeh, I've hijacked his spare room. There's no power in my apartment, but my super neglected to tell me until I got back last night."
Toby watches Josh and Donna and wonders, just for a second, if he interrupted something, but decides not. An opinion that's confirmed when Donna adds.
"Why don't we phone the others and all do something?"
"Okay," Toby agrees, not noticing the scowl that Josh gives Donna.
Three hours later, with Toby, Will, CJ and Charlie watching sport in the living room, Donna manages to get Josh on his own the kitchen. "Okay," she begins. "They're my friends too, you know that right?"
"But you wish they'd leave," Josh grins.
"Yes. What the hell was I thinking?"
"Misdirection," Josh supplies.
"What are you two up to?" CJ asks from the doorway.
"Trying to decide on food," Donna tells her.
"Chinese?" Josh holds out the menu.
"Good idea," CJ smiles as she takes it off him.
Josh and Donna give each other a resigned look and follow CJ back into the living room.
What would normally be a pleasant evening for Josh and Donna is dragging by very slowly. Both of them have spent most of the time trying to work out how they can get rid of the others without it being obvious or rude, although Josh is serious considering that rude would be fine as 10.30 approaches with no sign of anyone leaving.
"Has all the food gone?" Will asks.
"Two hours ago," CJ laughs. "I can't believe we've found someone who gets drunk easier than Josh."
"I'm not drunk," Will protests as he stares at his empty beer bottle. "Actually I may be a little. I think I need the bathroom....." he stands and makes a dash to the bathroom.
"And I think it could be time to leave," CJ tells Toby.
Charlie looks hopefully at Josh. "Do you know how hard it is to find a cab that'll go to my place at this time of night?"
Josh automatically asks, "You wanna stay on the sofa?"
"Please."
"We'll take Will home," CJ tells them.
"We?" Toby asks.
"He's your deputy."
"Yeh," Toby sighs.
After the others have gone and Charlie's in the shower, Donna corners Josh in the living room. "Why did you do that?"
"What?"
"Ask Charlie to stay over."
"You don't like Charlie?"
"Of course I like....... how can we spend the night together if Charlie's asleep on the sofa?" she whispers.
"Oh yeh," Josh looks dismayed for a second, before he grins. "He wouldn't care. It'll mean he could have the spare room."
Donna stares questioningly at Josh.
"Yeh," Josh agrees. "Dumb idea. Sorry."
At 5.20 the following morning Charlie's woken by Josh turning the kitchen light on. He looks at his watch and groans. "Do you always get up this early?"
'There's not much keeping me in bed' Josh thinks. "Sorry," he offers, "you want a coffee?"
"Yeh please, I should go and get ready for work anyway."
Twenty minutes later Charlie's left and Josh and Donna are sat in silence eating breakfast. "Okay," Donna says, "what's going on?"
"I don't know," Josh admits. "Is this going to be awkward. At work I mean?"
"I don't want it to be. You still think if anyone knew what we did it'd cause problems?"
"Yeh, I would think, given our jobs and where we work, it'd cause massive problems."
"So we should forget Saturday night?" Donna asks.
"No, I don't want to forget it," Josh tells her. "But I think that if we want to carry on working together then we can't have a relationship," he reluctantly adds.
"I know. I just don't know how easy that's going to be."
"Can it be any more difficult than it has been?"
Donna doesn't have to ask what he means by that. "No, I don't suppose it can. So we just carry on as before then. We both date other people and act as if nothing happened?"
"You think you can do that?"
"No."
"Me either, but it's that or we tell Leo and one of us gets moved."
"By 'one of us' you mean me," Donna sighs.
"Probably. God this sucks."
"But we have to try, because I don't want either of us to be moved."
"Yeh," Josh reluctantly agrees.