The ride from his place to Donna's was almost unbearable. He was tired, of course, but then there was...tension. He'd tried to ignore it, but it was obvious. CJ was fishing for something...he just wasn't sure what yet.

"So Josh, who're ya hanging out with these days...you know, with Sam not being around as much and all?" she inquired.

"I talk to Sam all the time," Josh told her. "Whether he's here or not."

"Yeah...but it's not the same," CJ pressed. "You two can't be the great terrible twosome you once were."

"When were we the terrible twosome exactly?" he asked, confused.

"Your friend Brad...is he gonna be your new hang-out friend?" she asked.

"Brad is a guy I knew from college," Josh told her. "I have all the friends I need, I think."

"Yeah...but still...you know...you'll need someone to bounce ideas off of, right? Who'll that be?" she asked.

"I'm done talking," Josh sighed. "You're making no sense."

"I'm just worried about you," CJ said.

"Because Sam's not working down the hall from me," Josh supplied.

"Exactly," CJ smiled.

"You're nuts!" Josh told her. "I'm going to get Donna," he said, getting out of the car once they reached Donna's building.

Once upstairs in Donna's place, waiting for her to grab her keys, he smiled at her. "You know...I meant what I said last night," he told her.

"Josh..." she warned.

"That's all I'm saying," he smiled.

"You were drunk," she told him.

"And yet I remember how good I thought you looked...how about that?" he smirked.

"Joshua," she hissed and poked his arm.

"I also recall telling you how much that drives me crazy," he murmured.

She blushed and grabbed her coat. "CJ's waiting," she told him.

"She is. And she's nuts," he explained.

"Huh?"

"Her and Toby were on me last night about how getting involved with you would be horrible for the Administration and this morning she's wondering who I tell my secrets to?" Josh explained. "It's unnerving!"

"You discussed us being involved?" Donna asked. "Why, exactly?"

"I don't know! I told them we weren't and they just kept on reiterating all the reasons our involvement would be bad," Josh sighed.

"Oh my god," Donna said.

"Huh?" Josh asked. "Does it make sense to you?"

"They think we're like a thing or something," Donna explained. "CJ's been being weird around me, too."

"But we're not," Josh sighed.

"Of course not!"

"Of course not?" Josh asked. "Shouldn't I be offended by that or something?"

"Josh..." Donna sighed as they rode the elevator.

"I mean...I'm not that repulsing," he boasted.

"There's a promotional line!"

"No...you know what I mean," Josh explained.

"I did."

"But if we were to be involved," Josh continued. "I'm sure that we could keep in under wraps from CJ of all people."

"And Toby," Donna reasoned.

"And Sam," Josh smiled. "Sam would have to be kept out of it," Josh continued. "And Margaret too."

"We could be discrete," Donna agreed.

"But we don't have to worry about that," Josh's smile faded as he guided Donna to the car.

"Because we're not together," she murmured, giving him a glance before getting in next to CJ.

----

The shopping trip was worse than Josh could ever had imagined. It was hot, it was crowded and he had to spend large amounts of time waiting around with CJ and CJ's glare.

After about 3 or so hours and six department stores at three different locations, Josh flopped down in the latest selection of waiting chairs next to CJ. "After this, please can we get lunch?" he begged.

"She wanted to get her dress first," CJ explained. "What's wrong? Can't shop with the big girls?" she joked.

"I just need sustenance."

"Uh huh," she smirked.

"She's been in there for like a half hour," he sighed.

"She had a lot to try on," CJ explained.

"She's only come out of like two dressing rooms this whole time. Is there an actual reason for us to sit here and wait?" he wondered.

"She'll come out if it works," CJ explained.

"So far the other ones she thought worked actually kinda sucked," he mocked and earned a slap from CJ.

"You guys? I'm coming out," Donna warned.

"Finally," Josh sighed. "I was about to send in the Secret Service."

"Donna," CJ whispered. "You look lovely!"

Josh looked up and smiled at the sight before him. Donna did in fact look lovely. She had on a tea-length black dress that clung to her body in all of the right place and flowed beautifully in all of the others. It had tank- styled sleeves and the cut was high in the front and an almost non-existent back.

"I was thinking," Donna mused, "That I'd pair it with pearls or something."

"It's perfect," CJ smiled. "Timelessly elegant!"

"Yeah?" Donna asked with a grin as she looked at herself in the mirrors.

"You really do look beautiful," Josh whispered when her eyes fell on his.

"Thanks," she smiled and then they both cast a look at CJ who looked about ready to blow a gasket.

"So...if you're through with this shopping stuff, can we get lunch now? I'm starving!" Josh said, with a laugh.

CJ relaxed a little and went to gather all of Donna's reject dresses to put on the take-back rack. Donna looked at Josh, searching for approval or something. He gave her a full-dimpled smile that made her blush. "Beautiful," he murmured. Then he yelled, "Move it Donna so I can pay for that rag. Then I get to eat!"

"Lunch is on you?" CJ asked hopefully.

"I suppose," Josh relented.

He bought the dress, they ate their lunch, and the trio returned home.

----

"It went as well as could be expected," CJ explained on the phone to Toby later that evening.

"And that means?" Toby asked.

"Normal Josh and Donna flirtation," CJ sighed. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"Okay," Toby sighed.

"I pumped him for friendship information, though," CJ added.

"And?" Toby inquired.

"Nothing," CJ sighed. "He said he's not interested in any new friends and he's happy with Sam and that they are in constant contact or whatever."

"Okay...so we all know that Josh can't keep a secret," Toby explained.

"So true," CJ agreed.

"So we'd know," Toby surmised.

"You'd think," CJ sighed.

"Or at least Sam would know," he said.

"And he'd spill immediately," CJ smiled.

"We're fine," Toby said happily.

----

"How'd dress shopping go, Josh?" Sam asked.

"Good," Josh said.

"What'd you buy?"

"Donna got some dress and I bought everyone lunch," Josh commented, flipping the channels between CNN and MSNBC.

"Was it nice?" Sam pressed.

"Lunch?"

"The dress, you idiot!" Sam laughed.

"It was a black dress," Josh said, uninterested.

"Okay," Sam pressed.

"I don't know what else you want me to say," Josh lied.

"Okay," Sam said. "Have you met Winston?" Sam asked.

"Not quite yet," Josh told him. "Eventually I will get the pleasure to mock Donna's choice in gomers, I'm sure."

"She seems to like him," Sam pressed.

"Donna liked Dr. Freeride," Josh reminded him.

"True," Sam gave in. "I'll be in town next week."

"I know," Josh laughed.

"Yeah, I forgot," Sam laughed. "What are we doing?"

"I don't know...we'll think of something," Josh told him.

"Maybe we could all go out for drinks one night...Donna could bring Winston," Sam tossed out.

"Sure," Josh said calmly, even though the smile had left his face.

"Yeah?" Sam asked, confused by the simplicity of Josh's answer.

"I'll check with Donna and she can talk to Winnie and we'll set a date," Josh promised.

"Okay," Sam smiled, pleased with himself.

"I'm gonna go pick up some dinner," Josh told him.

"Okay," Sam smiled. "Talk to you later."

"Bye," Josh said as he disconnected and smiled at the bag next to his chair. He picked up his phone and dialed Donna's number. "Pick up!" he shouted into her answering machine.

"What do you want?" she whined.

"You want dinner?" he asked.

"You offering?" she smiled.

"I'll be over in fifteen minutes with Chinese," he promised and disconnected. He grabbed his shopping bag and picked up his cell to order their food.

----

He made it to her place in record time. She opened the door in gray sweat pants and an oversized Yale sweatshirt.

"Nice sweatshirt," he smirked as he came in and plopped the bags down on the coffee table.

"I like it as well," she smiled. "Do you need it back?" she asked in a small voice.

He smiled and remembered throwing it at her when she whined because he had the window open in his office while they were trying to work late one night and she was freezing. That was a while ago. "No," he smiled. "Looks better on you anyway."

"Yeah," she agreed with a sly grin. "What do we have?" she asked.

"Little bit of everything," he told her.

She looked through the various bags and came across one that didn't belong with amongst the paper bags stuffed with cartons. "Josh?" she asked. "What's this?"

"Open it," he told her as they settled on the couch.

She did and inside she found the most beautiful pearl earrings she'd ever seen. "Oh my gosh," she cooed. "Joshua," she whispered. "When did you get these?"

"Eh...sometime after lunch," he told her. "You mentioned to CJ that you were going to dress it up with pearls or whatever," he went on. "I knew you had your necklace, but I thought you might need earrings in pearl."

"Oh my goodness," she cried and threw her arms around his neck.

"Stop with the girly crying and stuff," Josh murmured as he hugged her closer.

"Sorry," she sniffed and pulled away a little.

Their faces were close...too close. Donna tried to pull away entirely but Josh moved his hand behind her head and kept her close.

"Donna," he whispered.

"Stop it, Josh," she warned.

"What? I just said your name," he told her in the same husky voice.

"Yeah, but it's the way you said it," she continued. "All raspy and all. It's not good."

"That's just my regular voice," he tried as he used his other hand to her face to brush out a little stray hair.

"And your hands are where they really shouldn't be," she told him as she tilted her head into his touch.

"God," he sighed. "I really want to kiss you," he whispered. "Just once."

"That would be bad," she told him.

"I know," he agreed.

"Work and all," she murmured, moving closer to him.

"Yeah," Josh agreed. "Leo and Toby and CJ would be pissed."

"Uh huh," she agreed.

"We'd probably get fired," he explained.

"But what if we just did it this once?"

"Just once?" he asked. "That couldn't be too bad, right?"

"Let's find out," Donna told him. "I won't tell if you won't," she smiled.

"What about Winston?" he asked.

"Who?" she murmured as her lips were a whisper away from his.

"The Republican," he told her. "You're taking him to the party in a couple of weeks," he reminded.

"Again...it's just this once," she smiled. "Just this once...you know? You know it can't be more."

"I'm gonna have to kiss you know," he told her with a slight dimpled grin.

"I wish you would," she smiled as his lips came down on hers.

He meant for it to be soft and sweet and innocent. But then, it quickly turned into more. His hands were tangled in her hair and her fingers massaged his scalp. Her mouth angled to give him deeper access and their tongues dueled for control. She tasted sweet, like peppermint. He wanted to drown in her sweetness. She moved sometime during the kiss and she was now sitting on his lap and his hands were on her lower back touching her bare skin. His mouth had moved to her neck and he was trailing a blazing path to her collar bone which was bare due to the shifting on the sweatshirt.

Then he stopped. She sat up straight and shifted to his side. They caught their breath for a moment and no one said a word. Then the phone rang. They both heard the ringing, but no one moved. The ringing persisted.

"Joshua?" she whispered, breaking their silence. "It's your phone," she told him gently.

"Yeah," he said looking at it mocking him on the coffee table.

"Answer it," she told him.

"Donna..." he whined.

"Now," she insisted. "It could be important," she reminded him and he sighed and agreed.

"Yeah?" he asked with a sigh as he answered his ringing piece of metal.

"Josh? What the hell took you so long?" Leo growled.

"I...ah...Nothing," he lied. "What's up?"

"You need to get your ass back here now," Leo told him.

"Yeah," he consented. "I'll be right there," he promised as he disconnected.

"Josh?" Donna asked when he grabbed his coat.

"I gotta get into the office," he told her.

"Okay," she said.

"I don't know what's up, but Leo said it was urgent," he explained further.

"Okay," she said as she started to put away the uneaten food.

"Stay here and eat something," he told her. "It'll be fine I'm sure."

"Josh...you'll need me," she insisted.

"It's late," he told her. "Stay here...get some sleep."

"Are you sure?" she asked, coming to stand directly in front of him.

"Yeah," he smiled and pressed a light kiss on her forehead. "I'll call ya if I need you to come in."

"Promise?"

"Yeah...thanks for...you know...everything and all," he stammered.

She smiled at him through her tear pooled eyes. "Okay," she nodded and he left.

----

Josh had been at the office for about three hours or so when he got his first chance to catch his breath. He collapsed behind his desk and closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them quickly when he heard Donna's voice.

"Josh?" she asked. "You okay?"

"What's wrong?" he asked her. "Why're you here?" he wondered.

"I wanted to help and I thought you might be hungry. We didn't exactly get to eat anything earlier," she smirked. "What's going on?"

"There were some more bombings in the Middle East," he explained with a sigh. "Some Americans were killed and others were taken hostage."

"Wow," she sighed and sat down in his visitor's chair and dumped the bags of food on his desk.

"Yeah," he agreed and smiled at her briefly. "So...how's your night been going?"

She laughed. "Well," she began. "A charming fellow bought me beautiful earrings, brought over more Chinese Food then I thought humanly possible, then left suddenly after kissing me senseless. Then I sat at home alone with a table full of food and silence. So...I came here. For the noise."

"Donna..." he sighed.

She smiled. "No big deal," she brushed off. "I like working late on Sunday nights. It builds stamina."

"Donna?" CJ asked as she walked past Josh's door. "What the hell are you doing here so late?"

"Josh'll need help with something," Donna smiled at CJ. "And I brought some Chinese Food!"

"Donna...you don't need to stay," CJ said, glaring at Josh. "Your boss is a overbearing ass if he makes you."

"He is in fact an ass. But...it's too late to change him now," Donna surmised. "Go tell Toby about the food. I think he likes the Grandfather Chicken."

"Kay," CJ said and trotted off to tell Toby of their newly found food.

"So...about earlier," Josh started once CJ was long gone.

"Yes?" she asked.

"That was...wow...I mean...that was..." he stammered.

"Nice," she smiled. "It was really nice."

"I was going to say hot or something...but we could go with nice if need be," he mumbled.

"I'm glad we did it," Donna smiled.

"Yeah..." Josh sighed.

"But we can't let it happen again," Donna continued.

"Exactly," Josh agreed, weakly. "That would be....wrong?"

"Yes," she confirmed.

"Because...." he trailed off.

"Because we'd provide the press with more ammunition to use against the Administration for starters. And we'd lose our jobs. There'd be an investigation which wouldn't be pretty for anybody. And Winston wouldn't be happy," she explained, sort of detached.

"Yeah," agreed unconvincingly as he moved to the front of his desk. He leaned back directly in front of Donna and smiled. "Good points."

"Right," she said with a firm grin. She got up and moved toward his door. "I'm gonna go," she said.

"Yeah," he said, following her to the door.

"Okay...so I am just going to start up the computer and all and I'll gather all the AP reports and stuff and look through tomorrow's schedule to see who I can move so you can have some time for this latest crisis," she told him.

"Good idea," he murmured as he stood too close behind her.

She had almost reached the door and she turned around. His face was right in front of hers. "Yell if ya need me," she said, but made no effort to move.

He used both of his hands to move her hair behind her ears and his foot to close the open door to his office. Within seconds Donna's back was pressed firmly against the hard wood of his door and her lips were being crushed by his. Their kiss continued for a moment and then Josh pulled away and rested his forehead on Donna's. Their eyes remained closed and their breathing slowed. "I just needed to kiss you just now," Josh offered as explanation.

"Yeah," Donna smiled.

"Is that okay?" he asked.

"Probably not," she told him.

"Because?" he asked.

"See the previous list," she told him. "And especially not with Nancy Drew and half of the Hardy Boys on their way back for food."

"Yeah," Josh agreed. "Not my smartest move."

"But very well executed," Donna grinned at him.

"Donna...I know we agreed just that one time," Josh sighed.

"Yeah...and look how well we kept to that!" she laughed as her hands cradled his face. "We'll figure this all out."

"We will?" he asked.

"Of course," she told him. "Our friendship is too precious for us not to work through this."

"And you don't want to ruin the friendship," Josh deducted.

"Do you?" she asked.

"I'd be interested in seeing other options, possibly," Josh admitted.

"Josh," Donna warned. "That's a bad...I repeat...bad idea."

"I know," he told her.

"Yet you don't mind throwing it out there," Donna sighed.

"Apparently not," Josh smiled. "Is that okay?"

"I don't think it is," Donna told him honestly.

"But yet you're not opposed to investigating the possibility?" Josh asked hopefully.

"Josh! Open the damn door. I heard you have food," Toby growled.

"Saved by the bell," Josh whispered as Donna moved herself to the other side of the room and began riffling through Josh's files. Josh opened the door and CJ and Toby barged in, plates in hand. Josh laughed at their obvious hunger and Donna smiled at them as she made her way out of the room.

"I'll be at my desk," she mumbled and shared a look with Josh. He nodded his consent and they continued their night.

----

"We're going," CJ called as her and Toby moved through the Operations' Bullpen. "It's late and we have an early start in the morning."

Donna looked up from her spot on the floor where she had piles of papers spread out around. "What time is it?"

"3 AM," Toby told her.

"Uh...we have to be in here when tomorrow?" Donna winced as she was asking.

"Six or so," Josh chimed in coming out of his office with his jacket on and Donna's in his hand. "We should head out as well."

"Let me finish up," Donna sighed.

"You want us to wait?" CJ asked, shooting a look at Toby.

Josh looked at CJ and Toby and then glanced at Donna. "You know? I'll wait for this one," he pointed to Donna. "Go on without us. She should be done in a minute."

"Sure?" Toby asked.

"Yeah..." Donna smiled. "I'm almost done."

"See you both in a few hours," CJ smiled. "Don't stay here too long," she warned.

"Yeah," Josh sighed.

"Bye," Donna smiled.

"Good night," Toby sighed.

"Alone at last," Josh smiled once he was sure that they were both gone.

"And I'm all done," Donna giggled as she gathered her stuff and grabbed her coat out of Josh's hands. "Shall we go?"

"Hey...I thought that maybe we could..." Josh stuttered and he wiggled his eye brows.

"Yeah...I gathered that," Donna smirked. "But it's late...I'm tired and it's the freaking West Wing!"

"It is," Josh sighed. "It is all of those things."

"And we're not doing this," Donna told him.

"We're not?" Josh asked.

"No...remember? We talked about this!" Donna told him.

"I know...we did...but then we...we did in fact do...stuff," Josh went on.

"Joshua," Donna warned.

"It's late," Josh smiled. "We should get you home."

Donna smiled as well and followed Josh out to the parking lot. "You're not really giving this whole idea up, are you?" she asked as she opened her car door.

"I like a challenge," he smirked. "And this," he said as his hand pointed between the two of them, "is a challenge."

"And if you win?" she asked.

"Not if, my dear, when. When I win," he stated.

"If," she over emphasized, "if you win, the grand prize is what? The unemployment line? The biggest political scandal of the decade?"

"Well...I was gonna go with sex with the most interesting woman I know, but I guess your stuff would be in play as well," he muttered.

"And what about Winston? And Amy?" she asked clearly reaching.

"I haven't slept with Amy for like a year," he whined back. "And Winston's a Republican!"

"Real mature, Josh," she spat back. "Republicans are people too."

"Has that been proven?" he asked with a grin.

"You're incorrigible."

"You're exquisite," he smiled and came closer to her.

"Josh," she whispered and pointed to her left. "Security cameras."

"Damn," he sighed in frustration.

"I'll see you in a couple of hours," she told him.

"Be careful driving," he told her.

"You too. Night, Josh," she smiled and got in her car.

"Night, Donna."