DISCLAIMER: See chapter 1

A/N: Thanks so much to kursk for the reviews. As for the whole JoshDonna thing... you'll have to stay tuned until the end to find out.


Chapter 4- Dresses, Dinners, and Dates

The next few weeks, while being relatively stormy at first glance, did not turn out to be all that terrible. Olivia and Alex were able to get into the swing of things at the White House. The Staff accepted them as one of their own, for the most part. Many friendships were built, and things had calmed down.

Olivia was walking through the hallways toward CJ's office. Donna caught up with her and began to walk alongside her. "Are you guys going to pick out your dresses now?" Donna asked.

"Yeah. You should come."

"Nah. I should stay and work. Besides... I can't go to the dinner. I'm only the Senior Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff, which I guess, according to whoever draws up the guest list to these events, isn't important enough to go." Later that week, the English Prime Minister was coming for a diplomatic visit to the United States. There would be a State Dinner while he was there, and the Senior Staff all had invites.

"Apparently, whoever draws up the guest list doesn't spend much time in the West Wing. Otherwise they would know that Josh would be a complete wreck without you."

Donna smiled. "Thanks. Hey, can you tell Alex that Josh wants to see her when she gets back?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks." Donna turned and walked away as Olivia reached CJ's office. She walked through the open door to find CJ and Alex examining a tape of CJ's recent appearance on Capital Beat.

"You guys ready to go?"

"Yeah!," Alex and CJ jumped up enthusiastically.


The three women enjoyed a pleasant lunch at a nice, little café. Afterwards they headed to what seemed like thousands of stores, trying on fancy dresses, shoes, jewelry, and hand purses. They were all so conflicted and had so little time that none of them made their final decisions on what to wear. Of course, they had already procrastinated for a while, and they all knew that they should know what dress they were going to wear. But they didn't care about that. Procrastination was fun.

When they returned to the White House, Alex headed straight to Josh's office. She saw Donna sitting at her desk. "Josh wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. He's at Leo's right now, but he'll be back in a minute. You can wait in his office."

Alex grinned and walked into Josh's office, sitting in the chair in front of his desk. She inspected her nails while she waited. A minute later, she could hear Josh coming down the hallway. "Donna! Get Congressman Traub on the phone. I have to talk to him about the new foreign policy bill."

"Okay. Alex is in your office."

"Thanks." Josh came into the office a second later. "What's up?," he said to Alex.

"I don't know. You wanted to see me."

"How was the dress shopping?" He sat down at his desk and began to sort through papers as he spoke with Alex.

"Fine."

"What are you going to wear?"

"Haven't decided. There are three dresses that I really love, but I can't choose."

"Well, show them to me. I'll decide for you."

"Yeah, because you know so much about fashion and all," Alex said sarcastically. "If it's up to you, I'll show up at this thing looking like Little Bo Peep."

"I heard that she was quite the fashionista."

"How did you know that word?"

Josh shrugged. "I watch entertainment channels when I get bored."

"What are you wearing?"

"A tux."

"That's it? A tux? Where is the tux from? Is there a bow tie? What kind of shoes are you wearing? Are you planning on wearing socks?"

"Okay, I get it. You don't think that I'm very fashionable."

"That's absolutely correct." Alex laughed. "Now why did you want to see me?"

"You know that next week the House is voting on our foreign policy bill?" Alex nodded. "We need to get more guys on our side. I want you to talk to Congressman Daniel Champlin and get him on our side. He'll be at the dinner. He's a Democrat from somewhere in Arizona." Josh handed Alex a folder, but she took it apprehensively.

"Why can't you talk to him?"

"It's complicated." Josh rubbed his eyes.

"He hates you?"

"That's just about it."

"All right. I'll do it." Alex started to browse through the file. She stood up and walked toward the door, but before she reached it, she turned around. "So do you want me to flirt with him a little bit or what?"

"Excuse me?"

"I said, do you want me to flirt with him a little bit? Trust me, a little bit of flirting can go a long way. Not that I flirt with guys all the time to get them to see my way... just when arguing doesn't work. And it says here that he's single so no harm can come of it."

Josh stood up. "I can't believe you're asking me this! Of course you can't flirt with him! If anything, it will make things worse! Flirting is a turnoff!"

"Really? So you've never changed your mind about something because a cute girl flirted with you?"

He stammered slightly. "No!"

"You know, I could just start flirting with you right now and you'd totally let me flirt with this other guy."

Donna walked into the office. "Josh... Congressman Traub is on line three." She left. Alex turned to leave as well.

"Don't flirt!" Josh called after her. She held up an okay sign with her hand and walked away.


Olivia walked into her office after the dress hunt. As she went into her office, she found Sam sitting in front of her desk. "This is a lovely surprise." She smiled at him, and then sat at her desk.

"How was the dress hunt?"

"So much fun! We had a blast! I had no idea that there were that many gorgeous dresses in the world."

"Did you find your dress?"

"Yes." Olivia lied. Sam obviously did not pick up on the fact that she was lying, and she smirked to herself.

"What does it look like?"

"Um..." Olivia hesitated. "You're going to have to wait and find out. I'm not going to tell you, you nosy little... person!"

"Okay," Sam said, slightly frightened. "Anyway... can you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"Well the thing is, we're passing our foreign policy bill in the House next week—"

"I thought we all already agreed on the bill."

Sam paused. "No... I meant the House of Representatives. Not the White House."

"Oh! I get it!"

"Everyone wants me to talk to Congressmen Petty and Congresswoman Lobello. And they're both going to be at the State Dinner. The only problem is that they always vote together, and they won't let me talk to each of them separately. So it's going to be two against one, and I was wondering if you would talk to them with me so that it would be... well... two against two."

"Okay. Petty and Lobello?"

"Yeah. And I was thinking... maybe we should rehearse what we're going to say a little bit. I'm sure we can get Josh or Alex or someone to play the parts of Petty and Lobello."

"That's good because it would look really bad if we went in there not knowing what to say and looking like bumbling idiots."

"No... that wouldn't be good." Sam thought about the horrible possibilities. A few seconds later, he jumped back to reality. "Well I should be going. Toby and I have to work on the President's speech for the dinner."

"Don't let Toby kill you." Sam laughed and left the office.


On the day of the dinner, Alex and Olivia had been given the go-ahead to go home to get ready. They both went to Alex's apartment (which was closer to the White House) to get ready. Instead of hiring a professional stylist, the women decided to do their own hair and makeup, while praying to God that it would turn out all right.

They had finally picked their dresses the day before. Olivia would be wearing an emerald green, silk, sleeveless dress that had a high neckline, but exposed most of her back. The color of the dress brought out her eyes and tan skin. Her hair would be worn down in curls around her face, and she was wearing only a slight bit more makeup than usual. Alex had chosen a midnight blue, sparkly, halter-top dress. There was a wrap with it to match. She wore her hair back in an elegant bun, with a curly wisp coming down on each side.

As the women were putting the finishing touches on their makeup, they became as giddy as schoolgirls before their first dance. "I am so excited about this and I don't know why!" Olivia squealed.

"Me too! Oh, I feel like this is prom!"

"Yeah, but we don't have any cool dates to come and pick us up in a limo and that we can brag about." She pouted.

"What about Sam?," Alex asked, slyly.

"What about Sam?"

"Well... I mean... There's obviously some attraction going on there... you should ask him out."

"No way!" Olivia forced a laugh.

"What? You don't like him?!"

"I like him as a friend! Nothing... nothing more." Olivia had suddenly gotten quiet, and she herself couldn't believe how hard it had been to say those words. A thought occurred to her, and she rapidly got her confidence back. "If anyone should ask anyone out, it should be you and Josh!"

"Excuse me?!" Alex cried in disbelief.

"Come on! It is SO completely evident that you like him! It drives Donna and I crazy! You two just need to go out already!"

"That man drives me nuts!" Olivia laughed hysterically. Alex started laughing too. "Forget it! I can't talk to you anymore! I'm leaving!" Alex grabbed her wrap and hand purse and left. Olivia, who was still cackling, soon followed.

When Alex and Olivia arrived back at the White House, they headed straight for their offices to check on things before heading to the dinner. People bustled about the hallways as usual, though some of the people were dressed up very nicely. The feast had obviously not begun yet.

Alex checked with her assistant to make sure that she had not missed anything important. She checked her watch and found that the event was about to start. Alex left her office and started heading toward the dinner when she accidentally stepped on her dress, causing her to trip and fall face-first onto the floor. She heard a familiar laugh from behind her, and soon found Josh's hands helping her off of the ground. "Good one," he said, with a teasing tone to his voice.

"Thanks," Alex replied dully before turning to face him. As she was about to speak, she noticed Josh staring, transfixed, at her. His jaw had practically dropped to his chest. Alex laughed to herself. "You like?," she asked, spinning and modeling her gown.

"It's... nice." Josh whispered with a parched mouth. He thought she looked incredible.

"Just nice, huh?" Alex giggled. She looked at Josh in his tux. She thought that he looked quite debonair. "You don't clean up so badly yourself... Although, your tie is crooked." Alex approached him and straightened his tie. "Just so you know, I've been studying, and I know exactly what I'm going to say to Champlin."

"And you're not going to flirt with him, right?"

"I'll do whatever I have to, Josh."

"Alex! Listen to me! It's not going to do any good! You could screw up this whole thing! Just talk to him like a normal person! Don't use any of your feminine sexuality or whatever it is on him, okay?!"

"Fine! If you feel so strongly about it I won't do it!"

"Really? Do you promise not to?"

"Cross my heart." Alex drew an X over her heart. "Why are you so defensive over that, anyway?"

"I'm not—" Just as Josh was about to go on another one of his tangents, CJ walked over. She was wearing a baby-blue dress worn off the shoulders.

"Hey Alex! Hey Skippy! You both look nice... Love the dress, Alex. Is that the Armani?"

"No, it's the Versace. I see you got the Armani though."

"Of course! Are you going to the dinner now?"

"Yeah."

"What about you, Joshua?"

"No, I have to finish up a thing."

"Okay, well I'll walk with you, Alex." The women said goodbye to Josh and headed for the dinner.


Olivia was passing through the Communications bullpen on the way to her office, when she noticed Toby in his office. She changed her route and went to Toby's open door. "Knock, knock." Toby turned, gave her a smile, and then returned to his work. "You're not at the dinner yet?"

"No. I'm putting finishing touches on the President's remarks."

"Oh, I see." She paused. "You look nice Toby."

"Thank you... so-so do you."

"Thank you."

Just then, Sam breezed past Olivia and put a paper on Toby's desk. "I finished the paragraph on the US and England's similarities. Here it is, because I know you'll want to change it all." Sam turned and noticed Olivia for the first time. He stopped dead in his tracks. He had never seen anyone look so beautiful in all of his life. "Olivia," he managed to stammer. "You look... wow."

Olivia smiled. "Thank you. You look wow yourself." She thought that he looked absolutely adorable in his tux. "Very James Bond."

Sam grinned brightly. "Thank you. I was just—"

"Excuse me, but could you two take this love-fest somewhere else? There are some people that are trying to get their work done!" Toby bellowed. He was tense and annoyed about the speech.

"Would you step into my office for a moment?" Sam asked Olivia, as he led the way to his office right next-store. Olivia followed. Sam sat down behind his desk.

Olivia sat in front of his desk. "Shouldn't you be working on the speech?"

"Yeah." Sam shrugged. "But I can spare a minute for you."

"Thank you."

"You remember what we're going to say to Petty and Lobello, right?"

"Yeah, I really feel like we're prepared. I mean, we practiced it so many times under so many different scenarios that I don't think anything could go wrong."

"I feel prepared too. I just wish that Josh hadn't kept pretending that no matter what we did, Congressman Petty would take over the world in an evil, diabolical plot."

Olivia laughed at the memory. A few seconds of silence followed. Finally, she decided that it was time for her to go. "Well, I should be going to the dinner now. I'll leave you to your speech-writing. Good luck, by the way."

"Thanks."

Olivia stood up and tried to walk away but she realized that her dress was caught on Sam's chair. "Crap! It's stuck!" She fiddled her fingers around, trying to release the dress but nothing worked.

Sam stood up and ran over to her. "Here, let me help." Both of them continued to try and tug the dress out. At last, after one big yank, the dress came free, but because she had pulled so hard, Olivia lost her balance and started to fall forward. Sam caught her before she hit the ground. They stood in each other's arms for a moment, in silence. Then, Sam whispered, "I thought you said you were going."

Olivia jumped back to reality. "Oh yeah! Sorry!" She pushed away from Sam and headed to the door. "I'll see you at the dinner, then?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Olivia turned and hustled out of the office. She had been so comfortable in Sam's arms, but it had suddenly gotten uncomfortable, and she had no idea why. Knowing that food would take her mind off of this problem, Olivia went to the dinner.

Olivia walked into the ballroom where the dinner was being held and was amazed. It had been transformed. There was a stage setup where the band was playing welcoming music. Tables and chairs were setup all over, and there was a small dance floor in the center. Flowers and pretty lights had been put around.

As she walked into the room, she was stopped by Leo. "Hey there, kiddo."

"Hi Uncle Leo!

"I can't believe it. You're getting so old... your first state dinner... wow. What do you think?"

"Well, for the ten seconds that I've been here it's been rather nice."

"I thought you'd enjoy it." Leo beamed, broadly. "You look beautiful. Turn around and let me see this dress." Olivia spun around so that Leo could see her dress. He frowned. "Are you sure that that dress isn't too revealing?"

"Uncle Leo... it's fine."

"I just don't want any men taking advantage of my baby sister's baby girl. I know for a fact that I wouldn't let Mallory wear that dress... You might catch a cold."

"Uncle Leo!" Olivia said, warningly.

"All right, all right, I'll back off. But don't say I didn't warn you." Olivia giggled. "I'm afraid that I have to be off, kiddo. CJ is going to announce the President and the Prime Minister soon, and we have to be at our tables when they come in. Have fun. And save a dance for me, will you?"

"I will." Leo walked away. Olivia looked around. She realized that she had absolutely no idea where she was sitting. Luckily, at that moment, Alex came to her rescue. "Alex... do you know where I'm supposed to sit?"

"Yeah. With me. And CJ and Sam and Toby and Josh. Our table is this way." Alex started winding through the tables, and Olivia ensued. They reached a table that was a little to the left of the center table. "This is it." The circular table, with a navy blue tablecloth, was seated for six. There were placards at each seat. Clockwise from Olivia's seat, the following people were to be seated: Sam, Alex, Josh, CJ, and Toby. No one else was at the table yet. Alex and Olivia sat down.

"Where is everybody?" Olivia inquired.

"CJ's getting ready to announce the arrivals of the President and the Prime Minister. Josh, Sam, and Toby should be here any minute."

"So what is happening?"

"Well... we're going to have to stand when each leader walks in. Then they each make a short speech. Then they serve the appetizers, then the entrees, and so on and so forth. We can't go walk around and mingle until after the appetizers are served."

"Where is Leo sitting?"

"With the President and Prime Minister... over there." Alex pointed to the center table. Leo and several other unknown men sat at the table. Four spots were left open, for the leaders and their spouses.

Just then, Josh, Sam, and Toby came over to the table and sat down. Toby looked rather angry. "It was a horrible speech, and the President is going to say it all wrong and make it worse. My career is ruined."

"Don't say that," Sam exclaimed. "It wasn't all that bad. Granted, my paragraphs could have used a bit more polishing, but all in all it isn't the worse speech I've ever written." Sam paused. "Oh God, it is."

"I'm sure the speech is fine." Olivia replied, comfortingly.

"Yeah, and the President is a great speaker... he'll do wonderfully." Alex said.

"Shows how much you know." Toby put his head in his hands.

"Don't try to talk them out of putting themselves down," Josh said to Alex and Olivia. "They always get like this before a speech."

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?" CJ cried from the stage. The talking quieted down. "May I present to you the Prime Minister of England, Philip Weston and his wife, Joanna Weston." Everyone stood as the English national anthem began to play. Philip Weston and his wife, both looking quite distinguished, strolled into the hall, nodded to those around them, and took their places at the adjacent table.

When the song was over, CJ spoke again. "Now I present to you, the President of the United States, Jed Bartlet, and the First Lady, Abigail Bartlet." "Hail to the Chief" began to play as Jed and Abbey walked into the ballroom. They smiled and waved as they walked to the table. Once Abbey had taken her spot, Jed and Philip both walked up to the stage. CJ stepped down, and she quickly joined the others at the table as everyone sat down and the Prime Minister began his remarks.

The Prime Minister was a very good speaker. His accent drove the American girls in the room wild. The speech that he delivered was nice, but it was nothing compared to the President's. The President brought a life into the speech that made everyone hang on his every word. And they were good words too. Alex, Olivia, Josh, and CJ were enraptured, while Toby and Sam muttered to themselves.

After the speeches were done, the President and Prime Minister sat back down. There was a few minutes left until appetizers would be served.

"Well done Sam and Toby!" Olivia cried. She started to applaud them quietly and the rest of the table joined.

Sam smiled at the cheers, but Toby scowled. "Apparently you all didn't notice that the President completely floundered paragraph six. It was supposed to be—"

"No it wasn't! It was fine! Now shut up Toby!" Olivia asserted. The other Senior Staffers stared at her in awe. Even Toby didn't know what to say.

"God I'm hungry," Josh moaned. "What're the appetizers?"

Alex prepared for her long explanation. "President Bartlet said that the appetizers were—"

"Please tell me that you didn't let the President go on one of his tangents about the food." CJ wailed.

"We were having a very pleasant conversation about food and this dinner and—"

"Was it really a pleasant conversation or were you listening to him talk while being bored out of your mind?"

Alex paused, but then finally gave in. "He's the leader of this country. He could call fifty Secret Service agents in to kill me at the press of a button. What was I supposed to do? Say, 'Mr. President, you're boring the hell out of me right now. Could you please stop?'"

"No, no, no." Josh sympathized. "What you have to do is suddenly remember an emergency appointment and cut him off."

"Isn't that disrespectful?"

"Yes, which is why none of us ever do it." CJ exclaimed. "Were you hoping that she'd get in trouble, Joshua?"

"I just wanted to see if she'd do it. I would have stopped her before she did."

As CJ and Josh continued to argue, Sam turned to Alex. "You could just do what I do and tune him out."

"And that isn't disrespectful?"

"Not if you do it accurately." Alex laughed as waiters descended on the table, serving the appetizers. People all around them began to mingle. Josh began eat.

CJ stood up. "I finally get to go and hit on that tall, British guy I've had my eye on all week. I think he's like the British Secretary of Defense."

"Are you sure he isn't the butler?" Sam asked, sarcastically.

Ignoring that comment, CJ went on. "Wish me luck." Various, unenthusiastic good luck wishes rang out from the table, and CJ left.

Alex grabbed an appetizer, shoved it in her mouth, and stood up. "Well, I'm off to serve my country." Josh gave her a stern look. "Calm down Josh, I'm not going to do it."

"Do what?" Olivia inquired, but Alex had left and Josh had returned to his food.

Sam glanced at his watch. "We should go too. They'll be in the Mural Room in five minutes."

"Okay." Olivia and Sam stood up and began to walk together toward the Mural Room. "Is it right for me to be nervous?"

"Yeah. I always get nervous before I have to talk people into something."

"Even a great writer like you?"

"Writing and speaking are two different things."

"Right." Olivia took a deep breath to calm her nerves. They walked in silence the rest of the way. Just before Sam opened the door to the Mural Room, Olivia muttered, "Good luck."

"You too."


Sam and Olivia emerged from the Mural Room thirty minutes later with two new votes for the foreign policy bill. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Olivia squealed, "We did it!"

"We did do it, didn't we?" Olivia jumped into Sam's arms, and he lifted her off of the ground and twirled her around. After he put her down, he said, "This calls for a celebration. Champagne... on me."

"Drinks are free here."

"I know. That's why they're on me." Olivia laughed as they walked back to the ballroom. "You know what? I am feeling the need to dance. I think that I'm going to have to ask you to dance with me."

"Sam..." Olivia said apprehensively, remembering Sam's previous dance moves. "Do you really want to dance in front of all of these people?"

"Why not?"

Olivia could think of no delicate way to put it. "You're going to make a fool out of yourself."

Sam contemplated her words as Leo came over. "Hey Olivia. Hey Sam. The speech was magnificent."

"Thank you."

"Were you about to dance with my niece or can I steal her away for a few minutes for a dance?"

"She didn't want to dance with me. She said that I would make a fool out of myself."

"That's not very nice," Leo scolded Olivia.

"But it's true Uncle Leo!" Olivia whined.

"I don't doubt it. Now... may I have this dance?"

"Of course!" They waved at Sam as Leo led Olivia onto the dance floor. Sam smiled and watched, not being able to rid his mind of the fact that he and Olivia had hugged twice in one night.


Alex crept slowly into the ballroom after her meeting with Congressman Champlin. She looked around the room very carefully for Josh. The coast was clear. If there was one person she didn't want to see at that moment, it was Josh.

"Hey!," came Josh's voice from behind her. Alex cursed under her breath, put on her best fake smile, and turned around to face him. "How'd the meeting go?"

Alex looked around nervously. "Um... can I talk to you out there?"

"What the hell did you do, Alex?! How on earth did you screw this up?!" Josh shouted.

"Josh—"

"I gave you the simplest job I could think of... that I thought you were capable of... and what do you do?! Screw it up—"

"Josh! Can I PLEASE talk to you out there?! You are making a scene!"

Josh looked around at all of the people who had stopped what they were doing and were staring at the fight. He sighed, "Fine!" He and Alex quickly hurried out of the ballroom. They didn't say a word to each other until they had reached the hallways of the west wing. "How the hell did you screw this up?! Is he suddenly a Republican now?!"

"No."

"Is he suing us?!"

"No."

"Is he voting 'nay' on the bill?!"

"No."

"Did you accidentally kill him?!"

"No."

"Then what did you do?!" Josh was fuming. Alex knew that she couldn't put off the truth any longer. She stared at her feet and mumbled something inaudibly. "What?!"

"I said..." Alex sighed. "Dan asked me out on a date." She finally looked up to Josh. He looked like a fish out of water. His mouth was wide open, his eyes were stuck on her, and apparently his brain had stopped working because he wasn't showing any signs of life.

"Did you say yes?" He said so quietly that it scared the living daylights out of Alex. She cautiously nodded. Josh seemed to explode. "Why?! Why would you do that?!"

"He's a sweet guy, Josh—"

"No he is not! He is a stupid, lousy, worthless politician!"

"Kind of like you?!"

"No! This one thinks he's smart! I'm actually smart!" Alex sneered. "He's a Congressman! You shouldn't be going out with a Congressman!"

"There's no law against it!"

"You're going to leak important White House information to him that he's going to use against us!"

"No I won't! I think I know where the line between my professional life and personal life is, and I definitely know that you are crossing it!"

"If I'm crossing some sort of line that you didn't want me crossing, then why did you tell me about this in the first place?!"

Alex paused. Why did she tell him in the first place? "Why do you care so much?! He's a Democrat! And it's only one date!"

"One date can lead into two dates, two dates can lead into three dates, and three dates can lead into... more stuff."

"Oh that's soooooo articulate of you!" Alex retorted, sarcastically.

"Just shut up! I'm not talking to you anymore!"

"Oh yeah?! Well I wasn't talking to you first!"

"No! I wasn't talking to you first!"

"I wasn't talking to you first!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Alex turned on her heel and stomped back toward the ballroom. She and Josh continued to yell at each other until she had left the west wing.

Donna, who had been lurking in the bullpen, walked up to Josh, shook her head, and said, "Real mature."