W.W. –Wednesday night
Josh and Donna stood at the railing of the water taxi, watching the oasis of lights that was the Grand Floridian dock bob closer. They were both tired, as much from laughing and playing as from the walking they had done in the Magic Kingdom. Donna wore a pink Minnie Mouse hat, complete with ears, that had "Donnatella" embroidered on it. It clashed horribly with her outfit but she loved it beyond all reason, and it made Josh happy that she was happy.
Josh had a corresponding black Mickey Mouse hat tucked into his back pocket, with his full first name also stitched in. Donna could be very persuasive, especially when she was licking an ice cream and laughing like a schoolgirl. Josh closed his eyes for a moment and recalled the feeling of her lips, cold and touched with vanilla, running across his as she 'forced' him into buying the hats.
There had been other shopping, of course, for coworkers and family and friends. Josh thanked God that guests of the resort could have purchases delivered directly to their rooms, as he could not imagine carrying everything Donna had picked out. He had paid for it all, gladly, except for his hat. That was a gift from Donna. He opened his eyes again and looked at her.
She had her eyes half closed, probably burned out from trying to take in everything in a 5-hour trip. Her expression was one of rapt concentration but he could tell from the way the corners of her mouth had started to droop along with her eyelids, she was just about worn out. He leaned close to her and spoke softly to her.
"Hey. I had fun today."
She closed her eyes and leaned against him, with a total acceptance of comfort and closeness that would have shocked them both, just a day or two earlier.
"Me too. I never thought I'd say this to you, Josh, but you were really a fun date."
He grinned and put his arm around her. "Is that what this was? Our first date?"
She laid her head on his shoulder and wrapped an arm around him. "Is that so bad?"
"No, I'd say that was just right. Overdue, and inexcusably delayed and complicated, but otherwise just right."
He placed a brief kiss on the top of her head. The boat was almost to the dock, and they had a 10-o'clock call to prepare for once they got back.
"There are a couple things I want to tell you, Donna."
She looked at him. "That doesn't sound so good."
"No, nothing like that. You heard the offer Parker made me today, didn't you?"
She nodded, turning to face him and pulling back a little.
"Well," he continued, "I can't imagine leaving Washington, not any time soon anyway. But it did get me thinking. This job, DCOS, this is probably it for me. I don't have the foreign policy or military background for Chief of Staff, and I've been on the winning side of too many fights to ever run for national office myself. Oh, maybe if Sam had won the California 47th and moved up in the party, he might have made a place for me at the table…" He shrugged. "It's okay, I don't mind the consequences of being good at what I do."
"Very good at what you do, Josh. I know, the President, everyone knows that a lot has happened over the last six years because you helped make it happen."
"Thanks. It's nice to hear you think so. Still, that puts a deadline out there, some time, that I'm going to be looking for what to do next." His eyes scanned the shore, his face unreadable even to her.
"We have a lot of time, Josh. You'll figure out where we go from here."
He frowned, and they were pulling up to the dock. "Donna, that's just it. You could go a lot farther. You could be a career staffer, someone like Margaret, who works in the Wing for a very long time. You could be more: you could run an office, or a campaign. You could probably run for office yourself. I don't know the half of what you could do, I just know it's a lot more than you'll ever do following me."
She snorted and took his hand. "You're the smartest idiot I ever met. I'm not waiting for you because it's all I can do. I'm your partner. You lead and I follow, but you try going off without me, you see how far you get."
She thought for a moment and tried to express herself more fully. "No one ever wondered why Mrs. Landingham didn't do more with her career. She hitched herself to the very best and brightest and greatest man she could find, and then she made him work hard to be even better, every day for decades. There's something to be said for devotion to the right man, Josh."
They started walking towards the hotel.
"You can't let me hold you back, Donna. I'm just saying, you could be more than my assistant if it wasn't for how we feel about each other. You should get the chance."
She smacked him across the back of his head with her open hand.
"Ow!"
"Oh hush up. Let me set you straight. I've had offers. I could have left, and if it were just me, pining away for your love, I would have. I honestly never thought we'd ever have anything, you know, this way. I was used to the idea. But give up our professional partnership? Please." She snorted again.
They reached the hotel and collected some messages at the desk before heading upstairs.
Josh decided to try one more time.
"I just don't know what else I have to offer you, Donna."
The elevator doors closed.
"Kiss me." She closed her eyes and stood in front of him.
"Excuse me?" He looked at her in nervous disbelief.
"Come on, you idiot, kiss me," she said, eyes still closed, swaying slightly as the elevator started up.
"Here? Donna!"
"If you don't kiss her, you're the idiot she says you are," said the woman standing across the elevator from Josh and Donna. "Don't you think?" she asked her husband.
"Easily. For Christ's sake, man, kiss the girl." He was a little older, and his voice sounded just a bit like the actor, Wilford Brimley.
"Yes, sir," Josh said, confused. He leaned forward to kiss Donna on her cheek, but without bothering to open her eyes, she captured his face in her hands. She kissed him, firm and not at all tentatively. He soon forgot himself and was kissing back.
The elevator stopped, and the other couple sidled around them and left. The wife said, "That's a good boy," as she passed and patted Josh's shoulder on the way out.
The kiss continued, and broke only when the doors opened at the top floor and Donna regretfully pulled back. Her skin was flushed and her eyes were blinking rapidly.
"Wow," she cooed.
"Um, yeah." He was swaying like, well, like Josh Lyman with two drinks in him.
"Come on, Josh," she said, taking him by the hand and leading him to the room.
"Um, yeah." He followed, licking his lips and running a hand through his hair randomly.
"You said that," she told him as they went into the suite. There was a huge stack of gift boxes and bags across the table and one of the sofas.
"I guess I should get this put away before your 10 o'clock," she said, laying out his briefing binder and starting to move the packages to the bed in her room. "You're taking the call out here, right?"
Josh stood, knees locked, hair ruffled, watching her distractedly.
"Um, yeah."
She cocked her head at him. "760 verbal, you tell me. Hmmm." She took off with an armload into the back bedroom.
Josh sat at the cleared spot. He closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair.
"Um, yeah," he said one last time to himself, then grabbed his memo book and the phone, shaking himself and trying to focus.
As he talked to the junior senator from Florida, her aide, and the mayor of Tampa, he noticed Donna moving the small mountain of packages to the bed in the back bedroom. About twenty minutes later, he looked up and realized the door was closed and the light was off in the back.
Once the call wrapped up, he finished his notes and looked at the schedule. It was 11:30 and there was nothing tomorrow before 10:30 AM. This trip wasn't work: it was a vacation with the odd meeting or two to break up the day. Not that he was complaining, for a change.
He went to Donna's bedroom door, trying to decide if he should go in, or knock, or just go to bed.
"Donna," he called softly, "Are you still up?" He was afraid to wake her since he really didn't have anything to say, not anything that could be said briefly anyway. There was no response.
"Sweet dreams, Donnatella," he whispered. He pressed his lips to his fingers, and then pressed them gently to her door. He turned out the light and went to his own bedroom.
When he opened his door, he immediately noticed a few things. First, Donna's pink Minnie hat was on one nightstand next to the king sized bed. His Mickey hat, which he did not recall taking out of his pocket, was now on the other nightstand.
On the same side of his bed, over his covers, was laid out some of his sleepwear. It was his second oldest, second most broken in and comfortable Harvard t-shirt and a clean pair of Joe Boxer boxer-briefs. On them was laid an index card, with his assistant's notable scrawl: "You could offer me your love, you idiot. You already have mine. –D"
On the other side of his bed, under his covers, was laid out Donna Moss. She was already asleep, and was wearing his first oldest, first most broken in Harvard t-shirt. He wondered if she was wearing his boxers too, and laughed softly.
He managed to brush his teeth and take care of some other sundries without waking her, and slipped into bed beside her. He reached one hand out to let his fingertips touch her shoulder and rest there. He didn't want to wake her up, but he needed to be touching her at least a little. It wasn't as close as being on the bunk on the train, but over all, it was pretty damned good. He watched her sleep until his own eyes drifted closed and he slipped into dreams.
