Disclaimer - I still don't own these characters. They are still the property of Josh Wells, NBC and the fabulous Aaron Sorkin. Wait, hold on, I do own Dr. Curtis West. Yum. I don't own Damian Lewis, though and that is a true crime against humanity. Anybody got any ideas how I can resolve that little problem???? Just asking!

Rating - PG.

Pairings - Josh/Ellie, Ellie/OC

Spoilers – None

Summary - Josh Lyman meets Eleanor Bartlet during the campaign and falls in love with the young, married medical student. For the purposes of my story, Ellie is several years older in this story and very different than she is on the show.

Josh yawned, tired from a long day of intense meetings. He rounded the corner near his office, running straight into Donna. "You know," he teased, holding on to her arms to right them both, "if you wanted to feel me up you could just ask."

Donna rolled her eyes and grabbed his shoulders, pointing him toward his office. "Ellie's in there," she replied. "And something is wrong. She came in a almost an hour ago, and she's been in there, waiting for you, crying her eyes out, refusing to tell me what's wrong. I'm one of her best friends, Josh, and she won't tell me what's wrong." Donna looked on the verge of tears herself and Josh patted her shoulder.

"Okay," he breathed out, "I'll take care of it." He walked toward his office and hung in the doorway for a moment, watching her. Ellie was inside nervously pacing the floor and chewing on her thumbnail. "Hey, Baby," he said brightly, stepping inside and kissing her on the cheek. "What brings you by?"

"I need to talk to you," she said quietly, resuming her pacing.

"Okay," he answered, perching himself on the edge of his desk. He watched her stalk back and forth across his carpet. "Honey, whatever it is, just tell me."

She stopped pacing and collapsed in the guest chair closest to him. "I'm pregnant," she said quietly.

Josh's eyes were as wide as saucers and he was instantly on his knees in front of her, pressing his hand to her stomach, beaming widely. He swallowed hard and marveled at what she'd just said. "You're pregnant?" he repeated, gazing up at her. The love in his eyes overwhelmed her and she began to cry.

The crying quickly deteriorated into sobbing and Josh was left to wonder why she wasn't happy. "I've made such a mess of everything," she cried. He lifted her from the chair and sat down, cradling her on his lap. She tucked her head beneath his chin and he handed her some tissue from the side table.

"You haven't made a mess of anything, Ellie," he assured her, resting his hand on her abdomen. "We're having a baby."

"That's just it," she sobbed. "Josh, I'm nine weeks pregnant."

He quickly counted back in his head. Nine weeks ago was Ellie's birthday. Nine weeks ago she called off the wedding and they'd made love. "So..." he drawled.

She shifted in his lap to face him. "I don't know how to tell you this," she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "My birthday was Saturday, and we made love many, many times that night, but the Tuesday before..."

The realization hit him suddenly. "Curtis," he replied weakly, closing his eyes to block out the thought. The child she was carrying might not be his.

"Josh," she sobbed, caressing his face with her fingers, "I'm so sorry."

He summoned every drop of strength inside him and clasped his hands over hers. "Ellie, I love you and we'll figure this out. Somehow, someway, it's going to be okay." He kissed her forehead and held her tight while she cried.

"The earliest they can test for paternity is twelve weeks," she told him sometime later, when her crying had lessened to random sniffling.

"How do they do that?" he asked curiously.

"Through an amniocentesis," she explained quietly.

"Isn't that were they stick a huge needle in your belly?"

She smiled weakly. "Something like that."

"And what kind of risk is there for you and the baby?" he demanded.

"There's a risk of miscarriage," she explained. Josh suddenly felt sick and scooped her up, setting her on the floor, taking up her pacing on his own.

"No," he answered emphatically. "No! We're not doing anything that puts the baby at risk, Ellie."

"Josh," she argued gently, "We need to know."

"No," he shot back, glaring at her. "We don't need to know that bad. Even if this baby is Curtis's, it's not going to change anything, Ellie."

'Josh," she tried again. He held his hand up to stop her.

"Ellie, for once in both our lives, I'm putting my foot down." Ellie stared back at him, but Josh's determination remained firm.

"Okay," she whispered.

He gathered her into his arms and kissed her forehead again. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?"

"No," she said quietly into his chest. "Tell me."

"See, the thing is," he explained with a grin she couldn't see, but heard in his voice, "I already love you more than anybody has ever loved anyone in the entire course of humankind, and now I'm going to love this baby just as much. It doesn't matter to me whether I'm the father or if Curtis is, because let's face it, the kid's gonna have red hair one way or the other."

Ellie laughed weakly and slapped his chest playfully. "This isn't funny."

He tightened his grip on her waist. "I know it's not, sweetheart. But the important thing is, I love you and you love me and we're both going to love this baby."

"Even if it's not yours?" she asked seriously.

"Ellie," he answered, kissing her quickly, "it's already mine."

This was, quite possibly, the second worst moment of Josh's entire forty- one years of life. The first was when his sister Joanie died in a fire. Third would be when his father died, but this definitely took the second spot. His beloved Eleanor, the woman he wanted desperately to spend the rest of his life with, was sitting behind his desk, the phone pressed to her ear, telling her former fiancé that she was pregnant, but wasn't sure who the father was. She twirled the phone cord around her finger nervously while she talked. Josh's heart raced as he caught only half of the conversation, being left to wonder what Curtis was saying on the other end of the line.

A week after she'd called off the wedding, she found a note on her pillow, telling her that he was going back to the Congo and that she knew where to find him if she changed her mind. So far, thankfully, she hadn't. She and Josh had been together ever since he left. Two weeks ago, after she'd told Josh she was pregnant, she moved out of her apartment and into his.

"I agree totally, Curt," Ellie nearly whispered. "The amnio has too many risks," she added for Josh's benefit.

"Things are going fine," she said, offering Josh a loving smile. "How are things there?"

She listened as Curtis detailed the events in the Congo. Motombua, their driver, had been diagnosed as a diabetic and Curtis was having a difficult time getting his insulin levels under control.

"I miss you," he said quietly. "This place just isn't the same without you."

Josh watched painfully as tears sprang to her eyes. She wiped them away with her fingertips. "Curt, I'm so incredibly sorry about all of this. I never wanted to hurt you. You have to know that."

"Ellie, I know," he assured her. "I do love you, though, and that's not going to stop any time soon."

He heard her muffled sobs over the connection. "God, I didn't want to make you cry. I never wanted to be the one to make you cry."

"I have to go, Curt," she barely whispered. "I'm sorry, I just have to go now." She replaced the phone in the cradle and stood from Josh's chair. She was immediately enveloped into his arms and he held her tightly while she cried.

"The worst part is over now," he told her. "Curtis knows, and there's nothing we can do now except enjoy this baby growing inside you."

She sniffled and nodded weakly. "Speaking of the baby, she's hungry."

Josh laughed and wrapped his arm around her waist, already growing accustomed to Ellie's mood swings. She'd be bawling one minute, laughing the next. And, she was always hungry. He led her toward the door and grabbed his backpack along the way. "How do you know it's a girl?"

"I just know these things," she answered slyly. "I have a feeling, that's all."

He stopped at Donna's desk and poked his head around the side of the wall. She glanced up at him and rolled her eyes at his grin. "I'm taking my future wife and apparently, daughter, out to eat. You wanna come with?"

"No thank you," Donna answered politely, knowing all too well what Josh really had planned. "But you three have fun."

"'Kay, bye," he said quickly, leading Ellie out through the West Wing and to his car. He opened the passenger side door for her and then shut it when she was securely inside. He slid into the driver's seat and adjusted his rear-view mirror. "Honey, do you care if we just do a quick drive through? I've got a stop to make."

"The quicker Emma and I eat, the better," she answered dramatically.

Ellie polished off the last of her french fries, finally noticing that Josh had pulled into a car dealership. "What are we doing here?" she demanded as he held the door open for her.

"Come on," he answered with a grin, taking her hand, "I've got a surprise for you."

A tall man with blonde hair was quickly making his way over to them. "Mr. Lyman," he said, extending his hand. "We've got you all ready to go." He nodded toward Ellie and extended his hand to her. "Mike Davis, I'm the manager here, Ms. Bartlet. If you two will follow me."

"What are you up to?" Ellie demanded as they walked toward a warehouse at the back of the lot. Ellie was rendered speechless as she stepped inside. Josh was standing beside her, grinning like an idiot. Before her was a black Chevrolet Tahoe with a huge red bow on the top.

Mike held the driver's side door open and Josh led her over. "I've got the two-seater and you've got a convertible and neither one of those are exactly baby-friendly, so I figured we needed something like this for baby Emma," he explained.

He held his hand out to her, helping her into the vehicle. Ellie hands splayed out over the leather wrapped steering wheel. "Josh," she whispered, her voice hoarse with emotion, "I don't know what to say."

"Why don't you hold that thought for just a second?" he encouraged. "Look up."

Ellie looked up at the visor, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Now over to the right a little," he told her. Her eyes followed his directions and she gasped at what she found. Hanging on a red ribbon from the rear view mirror was the emerald and diamond engagement ring from her dream. She glanced back to where he'd been standing and found that he was gone. The passenger side door opened and Josh climbed onto the leather seat. He removed the ring from the ribbon and held it up.

"I have waited so many years to say this," he began quietly. "Eleanor Rose Bartlet, would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?"

"How did you know?" she asked curiously.

Josh furrowed his brow in confusion. "How did I know what?"

She pointed at the ring in his hand. "Did C.J. tell you about my dream?" she demanded.

"What dream?"

"The dream I had about you and me and a baby and I was wearing that ring," she said, pointing again at the ring.

"How long ago did you have this dream?" he asked, remembering his own, strangely similar dream.

"Right before my birthday," she answered.

"Ellie," he said, taking her left hand in his own and sliding the ring on her finger. "I've had this ring for nearly two years."

Ellie stared at her newly bejeweled hand, thoroughly admiring his taste in jewelry. "Ellie?" he whispered, leaning close to her ear. "You haven't said yes yet."

She turned her face slowly to his and caressed the side of his face with her fingers. "Yes," she whispered back, capturing his lips with her own.

TBC...