Same day
Josh stayed in his office for another hour trying to avoid the other staffers until. At 11 he finally ventured out ready for his marathon of meetings on the Hill. Slinging his backpack over his shoulder he approached Donna.
"Hey, I'm leaving now."
She looked up at him and half smiled, "okay. You got everything?"
"Um, yeah I think so."
"Okay, so I guess I'll see you later?"
"Yeah, around 5:30 call in our order and I'll pick it up. My last meeting should be over by 5, if not call in a bomb threat or something." He joked with her.
"I don't care how good their Chinese is, I'm not committing felonies just so we can eat on time, Mr. Lyman," she bantered back, "besides how would that look? 'Assistant to Deputy Chief of Staff calls in bomb threat so the Deputy could leave meeting early.'"
"Well granted you'd have a lot of explaining to do, however I think most would understand. In fact you might just win "Assistant of the Year" award."
Donna just shook her head at him and Josh laughed. They clearly were far from being were their relationship was but they were making the effort.
"I'll call you when I'm out."
"Do good Josh." She called to him as he headed down the hall.
"Don't I always?" he turned his head and shot back.
Around 4:30 Donna decided she should start "closing down" for the day so that she'd be ready to leave in an hour. She had one last errand that she had to run. She had to give some research to CJ for the evening press conference.
Donna knocked on CJ's door. CJ on the phone waved her in.
"Yea I Got that Toby…I know…yes I understand to down play our role…yes...look Toby I got it…yes…ok…I'm hanging up now. Bye."
"I've got the research points that
Josh wanted you to have for the evening briefing. He said to make sure that you emphasize the test scores in low
income areas."
CJ stood up and leaning over her desk took the folder from Donna and briefly
scanned the statistics. She looked up
and said, "thanks that's all I need."
"Okay," donna spun around and was almost out the door when she thought she heard CJ say something else.
"I'm sorry?"
"What?"
"Did you say something?"
"No."
"It sounded like you said, 'I hope you know what your doing.'"
CJ signed and sat back down. Looking at Donna she asked, "Well do you?"
"Do I what know what I'm doing?" Donna moved from the doorway back into CJ's office.
"Yea. Your killing him you know."
"CJ it's complicated."
"I'm sure it is."
"Look I'm sorry, I know that you're Josh's friend and you don't want to see him hurt, but really this is none of your business."
"Actually that's specifically why it's our business. Your hurting Josh."
Donna turned around to see Sam standing in the doorway. Blocking her exit path.
"Sam…"
"Donna how can you keep doing this to him? It's bad enough that you spent 4 years flirting with him, tricking him to have feelings for you, but now you leave him and don't have the decency to tell him to his face."
"I had every intention to telling him."
"Sure that's why he found out this morning in Staff from Leo, along with Sam, Toby and myself. Don't you think you should have told him before hand? Instead of ambushing him?"
"What like you two are doing now?"
"But ours wasn't planned Donna. I'm stopping by because Toby wanted me to tell CJ something."
"Oh for the love of god, Tobais," CJ muttered to herself.
"Look I don't know what you two think I am up too. I had planned to tell him, but he was late and had to go straight to staff."
"Okay so that's an easy mistake, but it still hurt him. Don't you see what you're doing to him? Seriously? You broke his heart. Did you ever care about him, even at all?"
Donna was getting angrier and more frustrated as the conversation went on.
"Where do you two get off?" she yelled at them
"Excuse me?"
" You heard me Sam. Where were you two when he was shot and lying in the hospital? At work. Where were you during his recovery? At work. Where were you when he put his hand through the glass? Yes that's right at work. I understand this is an important job and a once in a lifetime opportunity but lets get realistic for a moment. You ask if I even cared about him. Who was there with him? Me. It was me who helped him clean his incision and change the bandages. It was me who helped him when the pain was so bad from just coughing that he threw up. It was me who saw him spiraling out of control and had the guts to do something about it at Christmas time. And don't mistake me I'd do it again if I was given the choice but you say you are his friend? Well where were you then? Where were you when he was struggling and needed you the most? What were you doing that you didn't notice?"
"Donna…"
"No Sam," she turned her gaze to Sam, "I'll tell you where you were. You were chasing a blond republican. " And turning to CJ, "you were busy with a reporter. So don't either of you even suggest that I don't care about him. And yes, I wouldn't agree to enter into a relationship with a man that just broke up with his girlfriend and was lost and confused. I was doing that for both our sakes. He came over hurt and confused, not exactly two traits that one should be feeling when seeking a new relationship. I do love Josh, enough to know that then was not the time for us. I want whatever is going to happen between us to last and if I had said yes that night it was a surefire way for us to crash and burn. So I'd appreciate it if you two would drop the attitude and start treating me with some respect, I think I've earned it."
The room was silent. Donna made her way to the door stopping in front of Sam. She looked up to him and asked, "Please move, I need to get back to my desk."
Sam nodded and stepped away allowing her to pass. Sam entered into CJ's office and Donna heard the door shut behind her. No doubt the two were to talk about what happened. Donna reached her desk to find her phone ringing.
"Josh Lyman's office."
"What took you so long? I thought I was going to have to leave a
voice mail message for myself, which is weird."
"I was in with CJ and Sam," her voice breaking slightly.
"You okay?"
"Yea, actually I'm hungry. You out?"
"Yes you can breath a sigh of relive. I don't need you to commit any felonies today. Although the night is still young."
"True, I'm sure you'll thinking of something. I've been told I'd make a good stalker."
Josh laughed, "I wouldn't bet against that. So you ready to go?"
"Yup I'll call now and see you at your place."
"Great and if you want ice cream or desert you should stop on the way."
"You mean you aren't getting everything?"
"Hey Donna, I'm only one man."
"That's true. God imagine if there were more of you. What kind of world would that be?"
"That's really funny, I'm hanging up now so that you can call. This is costing the tax payers money."
"What do you care? We're democrats we like taxes."
"Good bye Donnatella."
"I'll see you soon Joshua."