"The Ride of Sybil Ludington"
A fan fiction in five parts
Summary: J/D. Donna's first week back to work is much different than she imagined. (basically it's all squishy Donna love. I can't help it; I love that plucky heroine.)
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters; they belong to Aaron Sorkin, Warner Bros, et. al. I just like to borrow them sometimes. They are my literary Barbie dolls. Which reminds me: This fic is rated PG-13, I suppose, for language and sexuality.
Feedback: always appreciated.
Spoilers: Through Season 5 Finale. I've thrown references from all throughout the 5 seasons in here.
Timeline: This story takes place well into Season Six; Donna's out of the hospital and almost done with recovery; the situation in Gaza is but a recent memory.
Prologue:
Two men sat across from each other in a secluded booth at the Hawk and Dove bar. Two old friends, now powerful men, thrust apart by duty and circumstance. It would take an explosion in Gaza City and a few months' worth of needed phone calls to get Josh Lyman and Sam Seaborn back together again, face to face, breathing the same air in the same timezone.
For Sam, though, it was the last phonecall between them that truly got him on that plane to D.C. Josh never had a good poker face, and this time around it was so bad Sam could practically hear it through the phone: Josh was ensorcelled again.
They'd spent the entire drive from Dulles Airport to Georgetown in endless conversation, the story of one giving way to the tale of another, a round-robin marathon of catching up. But now, after sitting at their tiny table for hours, their talking finally rested to a lull.
It was time for Sam to go in for the kill.
"So, Josh, are you going to tell me about it, or do I have to go another twenty rounds of 'did you hear who Senator Cahill married'?"
"Tell you about what?"
"You and Donna."
"What about me and Donna?"
"Oh, come on. Not to quote a Dusty Springfield song here, but 'the look of love is in your eyes."
"Ok, you're cut off."
"Josh, I know you. You've been distracted all night. Remember, guys like you.."
"You're one of them?" Josh smirks.
"Yeah."
Josh stubbornly shakes his head. "It's nothing. There's nothing."
"Josh, you called me at 3am last week to talk about some pork barrel bill on car emissions."
"Hey, now, that was a serious issue that required immediate.. It was 3am?"
"Pacific time, yeah."
"Oh. Then I'm really sorry about that. I was just a little bit.."
"Distracted? Yeah, I got that. And I'm betting this bar tab that it has to do with Donna."
Josh narrows his eyes. "How did you figure.."
"Gaza." Sam answers quickly. He looks at his friend. "The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back."
"Ok, not so much with you and the phrasing." Josh was smirking again, but he could see that he was cornered. Sam wasn't going to back down.
Josh takes a swig of beer and begins studiously tugging at the bottle's damp wrapper.
"The truth is, I don't know what's going on with me. She's different. Or, I'm different. It's.. different. Ever since that day, the day of the.. You know. I mean, there was an entire hour of that day when I thought she was dead. I thought I'd lost her, and I was all by myself, and that was it. And then, in the hospital, with the surgery, I thought I'd lost her all over again. I mean, how many times could that happen? How many times do I need the shit scared out of me? It was surreal. You know," Josh brakes his ramble for a moment to smile to himself, "I remember this one time, in the hospital waiting room, when I was totally unable to help her, and I had this thought where I wanted to hold her. I just wanted her in my arms. And then I remembered thinking, 'Whoa, Josh. The hell kind of thought was that?' "
Josh takes another swig of beer as Sam nodded at him from across the table.
Josh takes a deep breath and begins again. "The last time I called you, I was.. Okay, let me back up. Everyone at the office was busy trying to get candidates sorted out to replace Korb and DeSantos. And Donna, you know, is still on leave, recovering, but she kept calling me because she wanted to help, she wanted to be involved. So I brought some stuff over to her place after work for us to go through. Vetting files, stuff like that. And I'm sitting on the couch with her, and I'm reading something, and then I look over, and," Josh chuckles, "she's asleep. She'd fallen asleep right in the middle of a Congressional binder."
Sam grins upon hearing this.
"So," Josh continues, "I say to myself, I say, 'I'll just tuck her in and let myself out," right? No problem. And I carry her upstairs and I put her in bed, and as I turn to leave, she reaches an arm out and asks me to stay there with her." Josh pauses, concentrating on his beer bottle. "And I don't know if this is the painkillers talking or what. But, the truth is, I wanted to stay. And that scared me. So I crawled into bed with her and I held her. I spent the entire night watching her sleep, and I was terrified. I mean, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what I'm going to do."
Sam raises his brow. "What happened in the morning?"
"I got called in to work. She was still asleep, so I just left her there. I don't even know if she realizes I was with her that night."
"And that's the day you called me," Sam muses.
Josh nods. "Yeah. I called you in the car when I left Donna's."
Sam gives him a small laugh. "I could tell something was up."
Josh grins. "I needed to talk without having to say anything."
"You said plenty," Sam replies. "For you, anyway."
"So what am I going to do? I have no game on this. Not that I ever had game, really, but, there is no strategy for me. This isn't just some woman I met from some thing somewhere. It's Donna."
The harsh tingy tones of Josh's cellphone makes both men jump a little. Josh reaches into his pocket and raises his eyebrows as he reads the caller ID screen. "It's Donna," he squeaks.
"How does she do that?" Sam ponders as Josh hits the talk button and puts the phone to his ear.
"Hey," Josh says, half-blushing.
Sam bursts into laughter, and Josh shoots him a look of death. "Yeah, that was Sam. We're at the Hawk and Dove just catching up. What, right now? Donna, it's almost eleven. Aren't you tired? Yeah, okay. Hold on," Josh puts the phone to his chest and looks at Sam again. "She wants us to come over. She wants to see you."
"Is she sure she's up for that?"
Josh shrugs. "She says she's been sleeping all day."
Sam nods. "Well, in that case.. Sure, why not? This should be fun to watch."
Josh gives him another evil glare. "You're a sadistic bastard," he says before placing his ear back to the phone. "Donna? We'll be over in about a half hour."
The President pours two drinks in the residential bedroom and then pauses, thinking about what his wife just proposed.
"Do you think she's ready for it?" he calls to Abby Bartlet, who was walking towards him from the bathroom as she wrapped a bathrobe around herself.
"Well, Max wasn't ready because he was under-qualified. Amy wasn't ready because she was overqualified. Considering the position is currently occupied by Casper the Friendly Ghost, I figure there's nowhere to go but up." She took one of the drinks from her husband.
"Good point." The president settles down next to his wife one of the couches. "But what about Josh?"
Abby blinks. "What about him? Josh can take care of himself," Abby pauses, adding under her breath, "Maybe now he'll take his head out of his ass. Jackass."
"What was that?" The President looks over at her.
"Nothing," Abby bats her eyes. Her tone suddenly becomes softer, more sincere. "Donna is right for this, Jed. I can feel it."
After only a few quick taps on the door, Donna pulls open the latch to see two friendly faces staring back at her. She grins at them, flirtatiously pulling her chin down. "Hello, boys," she coos.
Josh's stomach jumps, ever so slightly. Sam realizes with increased enjoyment that Donna is wearing the infamous too-big pajamas that CJ had gotten for Josh years earlier. Sam would learn later that lending them to Donna was Josh's idea; they were his "lucky get-well-soon Pjs." Naturally, Donna wears them constantly.
She pulls her door open further and shepherds the two men into her living room, making sure to envelop Sam in a huge hug before he can enter too far into her domicile. "I've missed you," she says into his shirt.
Sam sighs as they pull apart. "It's so good to see you. You look so great."
"Doesn't she?" Josh grins proudly as he closes the door behind them.