Disclaimers: Once again I don't owe anyone, except for Kate. That honor goes to the guys at NBC.
Once again thanks to Jordan.
The weekend
Pt. 3.
After spending the whole Saturday afternoon together they agreed to have dinner together. Neither one really had the desire to sleep alone again in empty apartments, so before heading for her place, they made a swift stop at his place to pick up an overnight bag. After that they shopped for groceries. So after they had eaten they took up residence on the couch, sitting close together, each sipping of a glass of white vine.
"This was such a great day," she announced.
"Indeed it was," he said back.
"And thanks again for the necklace," she said, and touched it as she was putting her head on his shoulder.
"Well, you deserved to get a present," he said as he put his arm around her. He felt her make herself comfortable.
"I didn't mention it to your mom, because I would like it to be a thing between us," she said.
"Kind of like our own little secret, you mean?" he asked her.
"I guess you could say it like that. At least for now," she answered him. "Never in my life would I have imagined this," she began.
"Imagined what?" he asked her.
"That you, my boss, would end up becoming my best friend," she finished.
"Well, right back at you," he said as he tightened his grasp around her. "Except that you are my assistant of course."
"Can I tell you something really personal?" she asked him.
"Yes you can," he answered her.
"I felt closer to you after you had been shot," she said quietly.
"I know," he said just as quietly. "I knew it somehow after you made so much effort, in the months after, taking care of me. Those months made me feel closer to you too." She lifted her head and looked into his eyes as he looked back into hers. He suddenly wanted to kiss her. "I will ask you about something now, and
you are absolutely free, by any means, to say no," he said to her.
"Ask away?" she asked him, but having a feeling what it was all about. She discovered was right after the next thing he said.
"Can I kiss you?" he asked her.
"Yes silly, you can kiss me," she answered him. "Because I want you to kiss me."
The first touch of lips against lips felt like magic. It was also sweet, gentle, held promises… not the least of which promises of their love for one another. As they were kissing both suddenly awoke to the realization that they were in love with each other, and one could not be in this life without the other. It wasn't just about the physical aspect. It was about everything. She had been a gift to him and he had been a gift to her under that election campaign. Even the fact that he was about to turn forty, and she was only twenty-eight… that age gab of twelve somehow wasn't a problem. This could probably be accomplished because she was wise beyond her age in work situations. That fact had made her the youngest second level senior assistant around the White House.
"Well, this took it all to a whole new dimension," he pointed out as he grinned with his charming dimples, took her head between his hands and looked directly into her eyes.
"I know exactly what you mean," she said as she also took his head between her hands and smiled that special smile that always lit up her whole face.
"Because I realized during that kiss, that I'm in love you," he said.
"I realized that I am in love with you too, while we were kissing," she said.
"So what do we do with that?" he asked her smiling. "Cause it changes the whole perspective of our relationship."
"Yes," she said."We need to know if we can handle this new thing. By that I mean if we are able to see each other every single hour of the day. Without getting on each other's nerves. To tell you the truth, my opinion on that matter is that you could never get on my nerves."
"I feel that too," he said. "You could never ever get on my nerves. Seeing you every hour of the day will never bother me. You have always been my best friend. Why do you think that I have made you stay so long almost every night?"
"Probably the same reason why I have never protested, whenever you have asked me to stay late," she
answered him. "I love being around you because you will also always be my best friend. We'll get used to the new development in our relationship in time," she answered him and caressed his cheek.
"I guess we will," he said. "Without a doubt we'll wait until way later to throw the bomb about our new relationship to our friends at the White House," he smiled and winked at her.
"Indeed," she fully agreed with him. "This will surely throw them all for a loop, when we finally tell them."
"Not even Sam will be told," he said. Sam was his oldest male friend. "Even if I am bursting to do so."
"The same goes for me with C.J. or Margaret," she said. "If I tell one of them about it, the whole place would know about it before the end of the day."
"So, our own little private secret for a while," he said to her.
"Our own little private secret," she assured him.
Then she leaned in to kiss him as to seal an uncommon secret bill. He leaned back so he ended up lying on his back, with her sprawled on top of him, still kissing. She still had her hair put in the same ponytail from that morning, so he gently pulled at the hair band to release her long blond hair. It fell around her face and strands of it fell onto his face and tickled him. He removed it and brushed it to the left side, so it wasn't bothering them.
"I guess this thing was long overdue I presume," he said as they parted.
"You got that absolutely right," she said as she scooted down a little. She was now placed between his legs and propped her head on his chest, so they had eye contact. "It suddenly dawned on me, that I haven't seen your scar ever since I took care of you," she said as she caressed the left side of his chest through his T-shirt, Just slightly below the ribs where his scar was.
"You wanna see it?" he asked her. When she nodded yes, he pulled at his T-shirt so the part of his chest where the scar was became visible. "The doctor said the scar would take a years to go away."
"But it has healed really well though," she said as she looked at it. It was very white compared to his chest skin. Caressing it she said, "They did a really good job stitching it together."
"They did," he said. "But I guess you had a major part in that too."
"How so?" she asked him.
"The doctors told me that you had done a remarkably good job at changing the dressings, so it didn't catch any infections. And how well you'd cleaned it," he answered her.
"It was a little gross, and I'm not that really good at blood and all that stuff, but someone had to do it after your mom had left," she said. Then she kissed the scar and put her head down over the scar. "So I just pulled myself together every time I had to take care of it."
"Have I ever told you that I am so extremely proud of you?" he asked her as he ran his hand through her thick mane of hair.
"No," she answered him. "But you don't have to. I know that you are."
"Can I pull your top up a little?" he asked her hesitantly.
"You can take it off me if you want to," she said and smiled at him.
"Are you sure?" he asked her again.
"Joshua!" she said and sighed in resignation. "How can you be so bold and sure of yourself at work, and then the total opposite here?"
"I just wanna make sure I'm not overstepping any of your personal boundaries," he said.
"Don't you worry about that. I'll tell you when you do that," she said reassuringly
"Okay," he said as he grabbed a hold of the hem of her shirt. As she sat up on her knees to better his chance, he followed her up to a sitting position. As his hands reached where her bra was, she raised her arms over her head, so he could pull the top all the way over her head and off her. He looked at her stomach and chest and found it as he had expected. Alabaster white skin graced her. Her breasts were just like they should be: Not too large and definitely not too small. They were just perfect in a red lace bra, with spaghetti straps, that made a huge contrast to her skin. The necklace hung gracefully around her neck. "Just perfect," he exclaimed out loud as he removed his own T-shirt.
"Thank you," she said as she secretly enjoyed his admission about her upper body. She herself loved the fact that he had such broad shoulders. They fitted in with his just as well-build chest; complete with chest hair there wasn't too little of or too much off. If you saw him in his shirt and necktie you could easily mistake his stocky body for being slightly tubby, but he actually had a visible six-pack for a stomach. Both his upper- and forearms were like two enormous muscles. Those made her feel ever so safe. He possessed both a great male sensibility and manly masculinity that she found sexy and attractive. "You don't look that bad either." She put a hand on both his shoulders and ran them up and down his arms. "You know, I'm not the kind of woman that needs to feel protected. But you make a difference Josh. I want you to make me feel safe in your arms." She squeezed his upper arms.
"I have never felt the need to protect you Donna." He took her into his arms and in process he caressed her now exposed back.He went down to cup her butt. Lifting her so he could sit better on the couch, he sat her down again so she was straddling him. "Because you are without a doubt the strongest woman that I know. Besides my mom of course." He wasn't sure if mentioning his mom in this situation was appropriate… but his doubts came to rest.
"Of course," she told him. She felt his hands rest on her hips and use his thumbs to caress her belly skin. Grazing her belly button, as well as he could, in the process.
"I just want to see," he said as he held her out a little. He felt her brace herself so he didn't have to hold her. She stretched her body a little. There it was: her belly button! He had to admit that it was the most beautiful thing on her body. He had to kiss it and so he did a few seconds later. He also blew air into her belly button. He felt her stiffen a bit, but then she began to giggle. "Ticklish?"
"I am," She answered him. "But mostly it was such a funny and strange feeling that it made me giggle," she
said when she was done. This caused him to do it once more, which, of course, brought another round of giggling up to the surface. "Stop it!" she pleaded him.
"Okay," he said and stopped. Then he placed his lips on hers and began to kiss her. And she responded back to him.
"How about we go to bed?" she asked him as they parted.
"Lets do that," he agreed.
"Then come on," she said as she moved off him. She pulled him off the couch. "Remember your cell phone. I don't want to have to lie to someone calling me to ask where you could be. Again," she said in a rational manner.
"You are right," he said and went over to his jacket. While he dug out his cell phone, she turned out the light, picking up their clothes on her way, and halted to wait for him to follow her into her bedroom. As he came up to her he embraced her from behind. And together they walked like that all the way into the bedroom.
They were not going to sleep together that night. It came under their agreement of taking things slow and getting used to the other being present in the bed, and the transition from being best friends to being lovers of course. But yet there were promises of a lot more skin contact in the air this night. Sure she had seen his boxers and his naked upper body, but he had only seen her bare arms and naked legs below the hem of her skirts. But tonight he had seen her in her bra and more of her legs. He didn't, for that reason, have any problems of shedding his jeans and socks, so that he was only in his boxers. He didn't either expect her to sleep without a little top that night. She on the other hand had had speculations on that matter, whether to sleep only in her panties or not, because he had never seen her in such a state of nakedness before. In the end though, she came to the conclusion that she better let him see her now and not later. It wasn't the biggest problem for her, to let go of her jeans.
Sitting on her bed, he saw as she took off her jeans. Her red silky panties, with a touch of lace, matched her bra, of course. Then her alabaster white legs came in sight. He couldn't do anything but stare. They were just as perfect as her upper body, and she had a cute little butt to go with the whole context. "Beautiful, just beautiful," He thought to himself. Then she came over to him. Turning her back to him and moved her long hair aside. "She wants me to take off her bra," he realized as he got up from the bed. As he reached up he ran his hands all the way up her arms, as to tell her that he appreciated her trusting him enough to do that. Then he reached for the hook of the bra and opened it carefully. When the bra was piled on the floor, he embraced her from behind and kissed her exposed neck, feeling her shiver a little from it.
When she had made the decision for him to remove the bra, she had known by instinct that it had been the right thing to do. He had done it with care and wrapped his arms around from behind. Perhaps to let the newest feeling of skin, with no barriers, fully sink in with them both. He had yet to even touch her breasts, because his arms were only wrapped around her waist, just below her breasts. She felt him kissing her bare neck, and that caused her to shiver. She started to slowly turn around in his embrace to face him, exposing herself fully to him. But first she ended up with her breasts crushed into his chest. After a few seconds she leaned back so she could let him have a look at her.
"You are just so beautiful," he told her, amazed"But, of course you always are," he said as he tilted her head up by her chin to look into her gorgeous eyes.
"And you are always gorgeous," she told him back. "You will always be that to me," she said looking back into those brilliant eyes of his. She tilted her head to one side as she leaned into a kiss. She felt his hands come up to her neck, and begin to remove her necklace… then he kissed her back.
"We better look after this," he said as he held up the necklace in front of her.
"I guess we should," she said as she took it from him and placed in on a shelf before she pulled him down with her onto the bed. They scooted under the covers, facing each other.
The next morning at around 11 am he awoke to an empty bed and the smell of fresh coffee coming through the open door. The night had been spent talking and kissing, nothing else until both fell asleep. He got out of bed and put on his T-shirt before heading out to the kitchen. She was standing at the counter.
"Good morning beautiful," he said as he came up to her and embraced her from behind. He took in how she smelt in the morning and it was the best. He could get more than used to this.
"Good morning to you too, gorgeous," she said back as she felt his arms around her. She clasped her hands around his arms to get him closer to her, sensing the morning scent of him surround her. She then turned in his arms and put her own around his neck. "How about a morning kiss?" she asked him and smiled.
"Okay," he said as their lips met and he tightened his grasp around her.
They never heard the key in the lock. That was her roommate, Kate, coming home earlier than expected. They first noticed her as she was closing the door shut. They broke their kiss and saw that Kate stop in her tracks, looking surprised at the two of them as they let go of each other.
"Oh hi," Kate began, as she looked from Donna to Josh. "Don't mind me," she said as she wanted to retreat to her bedroom, a little chocked to see boss and assistant in that state.
"Hi Kate," he greeted her, a little bit embarrassed. "I guess I will go put on those sweat pants, so please just stay," he said and left the two roommates alone.
"I leave you alone for the weekend, and then come home to find you and your boss in such a liplock!" Kate almost whispered as she came up to Donna. Smiling, she asked, "So, what has happened this weekend, Donna?"
"A whole lot of stuff has happened, Katie," Donna answered her. "I'll tell you later," she said as Josh came back into the kitchen. Now wearing the said sweat pants that had, in their own strange way, started this weekend's adventure. He wandered over to her and put his arm around her.
"So, how you doing Kate?" he asked her now that he was a bit more properly dressed.
"Oh I'm fine," Kate answered him. "And you, Josh?" she asked him but kind of knew his answer.
"I'm fine too," he answered her. He then smiled his perfect dimple smile.
"I gather that," Kate remarked dryly as she looked at them. "I'll leave you two alone now. I have some unpacking to do. Then I will be going over to my boyfriend's," She said, grabbed her overnight bag and retreated to her bedroom.
When the darkness fell over the capitol that night, after they had spent all of Sunday together, they agreed to spend the night alone. Not that they wanted to, but it was for the best. They had to come into work the normal way the next day, after all. So at 10 p.m. they were standing on the stoop outside her building telling each other goodbye.
"So we'll see each other in the morning," she said to him.
"That we will without a doubt," he reassured her.
"I love you Joshua," she told him.
"I love you too Donnatella," he told her back.
She hurled herself into his arms and he put his arms around her, as she did the same. They shared a long goodnight kiss before slowly letting go of each other. The last touch was fingertips against fingertips. Then he got into his car and left her on the steps.
These three chapters, were originally one very long fanfic, which I broke down into these three pieces, since I realized it were way to long to publish, in it's original state.
This will be it for a while for "The Weekend",since the freaking floppy disc, on which I have the next chapter, won't let me have it. Strange, since I was able to get to it yesterday, buttoday it's trapped "nicely" on that freaking disc. And I don't know why.Grrr!!!So until I have re-written chp 4 from memory, that would be from scratch,there won't be more up until then.
But please do review on what you can.