Title: Lapse in Time
Author: ScullyAsTrinity
Category: Angst/Romance, Josh/Donna
Spoilers: The Warfare of Genghis Khan, Gaza/Memorial Day
Rating PG-13
Author's notes: I really wanted to write a post-ep about this, but for some reason I couldn't really get super into it like I usually do. I'd get the urge to write and then it would die. Perhaps that's why it's so lackluster. But by all means, read on, tell me what you think, it's much appreciated. Woot to Scarlet... gets all excited when I update. Mahaha, this one isn't too great though.
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Life is composed of moments, which one can either choose to draw on, or let fly by. It's the choice of the individual. Every moment can be wonderful if you derive it from one simple wonderful moment that happens and live in that moment forever. Dreams can be-
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'Ding-dong.'
'Ding-dong.'
'Ding-dong, ding-dong.'
Donna stirred in her sleep, ripped from a dream she was sure she was having, flipped over tangled in her bedsheets and drifted back off.
'Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.'
"Ugh." This time she woke fully, flipped over once more and willed the evil noise to go away. She listened for a moment, heard nothing but silence. She wasn't naive enough to believe that the person-who was she kidding, the person, Josh-had gone away, but she tried to get comfortable again. A faint smile inched up on her face as she settled back into her down comforter. Maybe he had-
'Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing...'
Only Josh, only Josh she thought with distain.
She saw the red light on her answering machine light up before she heard his voice, and braced for the yelling.
"Donna? Donnatella Moss, I know you're home. Pick up the phone... it's important." He threw in to attempt to ply her. She could tell from the tone of his voice that it wasn't important in the least. If it had really been that important he would have just used his key. "Donna...?"
He began again after a moment. "If you don't open the door I'm using my key." And there it was. Even as he said it she could hear the key slide into the lock. "So if I'm interrupting anything, though I pray to god I'm not, I've given you ample warning."
Donna heard the heavy oak door swing open, and braced for the thump of impact as it hit the wall. As she heard the steps coming down the hall, she thought of a plan of attack. Perhaps throw her pillows at him? Maybe just hide under the covers?
Donna groaned once more and tossed herself under the covers, pulling a pillow over her head and covering the rest of her with the heavy comforter. That was her defense, a wall of feathers and cloth.
"Donnatella Moss." He said softly, standing in her doorway. Josh looked at the lump in the center of the bed, smiled, and leaned on the door jamb.
She made an unintelligible grunt that Josh took as a resistance to movement. He almost laughed, but decided that it would be detrimental to getting her out of bed and out the door. "Get up, we have to do something." He said forcefully, shoved his hands in the
pockets of his jacket and rocked back on his heels.
"Josh it's..." She stuck her blonde head out from under the covers to look at the clock and ducked back under the sheets. This time he laughed aloud. "It's one thirty-five in the morning. I stopped heeding to your every beck and call four hours ago."
"Well you work for the White House, you have to be on-call twenty-four hours a day." he said matter of factly, his voice holding a hint of annoyance.
"I highly doubt that you came here on a matter of national emergency." Donna said sarcastically, and threw back the covers. He caught
a glimpse of the simple cotton pajamas she was wearing and his heart clenched at the sleepy, unguarded look she had about her.
"Put something on, you gotta see something." He urged, and rocked on his heels once more.
"Can't this wait 'til morning?" She asked, already at the closet pulling out a sweatshirt. Josh knew she had already made up her mind but humored her anyway. What he didn't know was it was the disheveled look and his dimples that drove her out of bed and to her
closet.
"You can't see it in the morning." Was his reply. He grinned foolishly at her when he realized that she was wearing a Harvard sweatshirt, one that had been missing from his closet for some time. He decided to let it slide. Besides, it looked far better on her than
it had on him. However, he did wonder for a moment if she realized she was wearing it.
"Oh god." She caught on. "Is this somehow going to result in you getting on board a plan to try and get forty billion dollars out of the federal government? If so, I want to take no part in it!"
He looked at her flippantly and walked out of the room, motioning her to follow. "You'd better put on a coat, it's chilly out." And then he left her apartment, leaving her scrambling to find a jacket. Catching up with him on the front stairs to her building, she locked the door and stumbled tiredly down the steps. "This had better be worth it." She mumbled under her breath just loud enough for him to be able to discern the words.
"It is, believe me." He said just as quietly, and could detect a hint of a smile pulling at the corner of her lips.
They drove in silence for awhile, she looking out the window at the passing cars, realizing that they were heading away from the city.
Bewildered, she turned to him. "Josh, you're not taking me to some deserted area and 'doing away with me' are you?" She jabbed, and he put on a mock serious face. "Why no, whyever would I even consider doing that?"
Smiling, Donna turned her attention back out the window and the two fell into a comfortable silence. For a moment, she wondered how hat could be, that the two of them together could be so comfortable, but figured after a moment that it was best not to question it. As the car sped along the highway, Josh became nervous and anticipatory. Part of his brain wondered why he felt so strange, while the other side of his brain battled to come up with some sort of plan of what to say to her when he got there. Or perhaps, he thought, the silence would speak louder than words.
His face held the lines of a conflicted man, and his assistant noticed it immediately. She was good at doing that. "What's wrong?" Her voice held a pang of panic in it, and he sensed that she might think that he had somehow gotten them lost.
"Nothing, nothing, just trying to remember if it's the first right or the second right." He lied.
"You're lying." She replied, crossed her arms in a gesture of seriousness and waited for a real answer.
"No, I was... I was just thinking about... you." He said matter of factly, as if that sort of thing was common. As if the thoughts in his head were normal, common, everyday occurrences.
"Oh." She responded in kind, and dropped the matter as Josh took a slow right turn down a dirt road. "Are we in Virginia?" She finally asked. Judging by the time they had driven, she guessed that they were, and that meant that something was up. Josh rarely left D.C.
for fear that once he was gone the world would spin into upheaval.
"Mmm hmm." Josh was concentrating on the road, as it was dark and dusty, the chilly November air drying out the dirt.
That was the thing about November, it made everything look different. It wasn't like October or September, two months that could run right into each other and no one would notice. November smelled of snow and spice, and made the ground crunch differently when you walked on it.
Josh could sense November in the air and smiled.
The car climbed a short hill that lead to an eventual clearing and he slowed it and put it in park. Sitting for a moment, he composed himself and then looked at his assistant. "We're here."
After they had both gotten out of the car, Josh went to the trunk and unloaded a large telescope, one with a bow attached to the top of it.
Donna smirked and raised an eyebrow. "New toy?" Then she smiled, and laughed a bit and Josh was caught so off guard that he forgot to respond. "Josh?"
"Yeah, oh, yeah, she uh, what... NASA gave it to me. You know, hoping it would have some pull over whether or not I would jump into this thing." He replied quickly and then brought the telescope out into the clearing, attempting to avoid eye contact with her.
"Who gave it to you?" She prodded, knowing full well who did but wanting to hear him say it.
"Uh, NASA. Now, there we go. Wait, no there we don't go... what the-?" He fiddled with the knobs as she rocked back and forth on her heels, the air biting at her cheeks. Josh straightened, looked at the device questioningly, and then bent down to the ocular again.
"There we go!" He said triumphantly, and she heard him whisper under his breath, "I'm da man. Got it!"
"C'mere." He said in a way that made her knees want to go out and have the setting change from woods to a dimly lit bedroom, but she did as he asked, and walked slowly over to where he stood, a look of apprehension on her face. "Look." His voice had dropped and become so soft that she barely heard him.
She bent over and looked. Her blonde hair fell down to shield her face from his view. He couldn't have that, not now. He needed to see the awe on her face when she saw a different world. Reaching out a gloved hand, he swept her hair back over her shoulder. Her eyes dropped for a moment, and she flinched. They then returned to the telescope before her.
She saw it. Her face lit up and twisted into a facade of amazement. Donna stared a moment longer, then stood. "That's Mars." She stated. He face broke out in a goofy grin, he couldn't help it.
"Uh huh."
He stood a step closer to her and she looked up at the stars and pointed, the slight breeze from the trees lifting her hair up off of her shoulders and swirling it around.
"That is Mars." Donna said again, her voice disbelieving once more. This only spurred him on. He wasn't quite sure how such a simple change in her facial expressions could have him wrapped up like it did... but it did. So he moved even closer to her, one side of
his brain telling him foolishly that it was just to keep her warm (because, come to think of it, it was quite cold) and the other half of his brain urging his fingers to reach out and touch her.
His grin got wider, and this time he was close enough so that his arms wrapped around her waist. This time, when he touched her, she didn't flinch.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "That is Mars." Taking her eyes away from the stars, she made a move to look down at Josh.
When she did, all semblance of control left his mind and brought his lips in to connect with hers. For a moment, she was still, shocked at how warm his mouth way. Shocked at the lack of composure she now had. Then, her hands came up to cradle his face softly.
This gesture made his lips part, just slightly.
She wondered for a moment if he had planned it, or if it meant less to him that it did to her. But she would feel his whole body shaking, not from the cold, but from the sensation and his nerves and she was struck, oddly, at how different the kiss was than any other she
had experienced. No one had ever been so frightened and willing at the same time that it tore at her heart strings.
He pulled away first, not wanting the moment to be swept up to a point where neither one of them could control it. Her hands slid from his cheeks to link around his neck, their foreheads resting against each other, breath mingling.
"Mars, Joshua?"
"Yes Donnatella."
And he couldn't help it, he kissed her again, there in the clearing in the Virginia woods. It was... it was... perfect.
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But that had been a year ago, a year had passed since that once kiss. And that was the closest he had ever gotten to perfect in his life.
Now, as he stood before the operating room, watching as the doctors tried to stabilize the woman that was slowly slipping away, he wondered if life came only in fleeting moments...
If things were only perfect for a second.