Title: Brother Protector
Author: S A Martin
Summary: Toby still feels protective towards Josh.
Characters: Toby
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Post season 5, Memorial Day.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Toby, Donna, Josh and everyone else mentioned here belong to other people.

Toby placed the phone back in the cradle and tried to take in what Josh had told him. Donna had a blood clot on her lung, she was in surgery and it wasn't going well.

He'd called Josh to tell him about the president's Camp David summit, that had just been sprung on them. In fact he'd been trying to call Josh for almost two hours and he was pretty annoyed by the time Josh answered his cell phone. It had taken him a few seconds to notice the catch in Josh's voice, but then he'd known something was very wrong. The summit suddenly seemed irrelevant when heard about Donna.

Donna and Toby had had a strange relationship. At first, back in New Hampshire when she joined the campaign, he could only think of one reason Josh had hired her, and it had nothing to do with her secretarial skills. Of course back then he didn't think that highly of Josh either.

Until Rosslyn Josh and Toby had been work colleagues, nothing more. Toby had come to admire Josh's work, his professionalism, he even occasionally enjoyed going for a drink with him. Neither of them were quick to trust though, and even after two years working together there was no closeness.

Until Rosslyn. The shooting had stopped and no one knew where Josh was. Toby had a bad feeling and had started searching. Finding Josh sitting, bleeding on the steps, the look in his eyes, the feeling of fear when he'd collapsed - those are things that will stay with Toby for the rest of his life. After that he began to feel a, not all together welcome, protectiveness toward Josh. A feeling that had only intensified that Christmas, when Toby watched helplessly as Josh appeared to be crumbling before him.

It wasn't until Rosslyn that Toby truly began to see Donna's strengths, to see what Josh had seen two years earlier.
When he told her Josh had been shot and was in a critical condition, the look in her eyes, as disbelief turned to fear and pain, tore at his heart and he'd had to look away, unsure how much more he could take that night. She'd stayed at the hospital until they'd let her see Josh, and then Mrs Landingham had taken her home. She visited Josh everyday, looked after his mother, made sure there was nothing either of them needed. Once Josh had been released, Donna continued to look after them both. As soon as Ruth Lyman returned to Connecticut, Donna took on the role of protector. Toby wasn't even angry when she banned him from seeing Josh, well maybe a little.

Now Donna was the one who's life hung in the balance. Josh was the one waiting for news. As Toby had talked to him he could imagine the look in Josh's eyes. He could almost see Josh stood running his hands through his hair, could feel Josh's fear and frustration. He'd wished Josh wasn't there alone, he'd go and be with him if he could. But he had to go and see CJ, had to tell her about Donna and then they had to carry on working. They needed to try to sort out the mess the president had just created.

But that protectiveness was still as strong now as it had been four years ago, and he couldn't help worry about what Josh was going through, because he knew how he'd feel if it were Andi.

END