A/N: Finally, finally I have a chapter done. Sorry it has taken so long. I really had it finished Friday, but I haven't had the time to edit and post it until now. Don't know if it still flows well or if I have been off my mark so long that my tone has changed. Either way I believe I accomplished what I wanted with this chapter. It isn't perfect though, but then again I never think they are.
Thank you again to all who are reading this. If you want, you can check out the new website that Holly and I set up that displays our works. I have this and our collaborations and Holly has a plethora of Buffy fics. A friend of ours has graciously leant us the talent for the graphics and soon I think I might have a couple WW ones to put up. We are working on changing some of the font colors too, but other than that it all is looking good.
Thanks to Holly for that since she has just learned all about the art or website making.
And again thank you to all who read this and I keep my thing about emailing me with criticism on the table…Anyways, have fun and enjoy.
Chapter Twenty
Two and a half weeks. Two and a half weeks. Josh really couldn't tell anyone how he had made it that long avoiding Donna and Sam without someone shoving him into a closet and forcing him to listen to whatever it was they were so keen on telling. But he had.
And it was killing him.
He always knew that he depended on both of them as friends and confidants, but it wasn't until he was estranged from them that he realized just how much. He knew he would have to forgive them no matter how bad it hurt. He had to forgive to keep from losing them completely.
He just wasn't quite ready yet.
But sometimes he just wasn't given an option.
With a sigh, Donna turned off Sarah McLachlan and finished getting ready for work. Even thinking about Sam's teases of how her recent music obsession was going to make her and the baby depressed feminine hormone centers for the rest of their lives wasn't enough to invoke a smile. Knowing how much that Josh despised her helped in making nothing funny.
But like she did every morning, she made her way to work and found herself at her desk within the hour. She bit back her tears as Josh did the same mundane and bitter routine of asking about his schedule and then finding a way to be away from her until after Staff.
Even our fighting has to be within regulation.
But today things drifted from routine.
"Donna!" Josh said in the epitome of routine.
Donna made her way to his office and arched her brows in expectation of command or question.
"Where is the file we made last year on Harding?"
She had to only think for a second before heading over to the one of the cabinets in his office.
Then it happened. Loud and clear.
"Donna?" He asked in between shock an amusement.
"Nothing," she muttered as she tried to hasten her search.
Then again.
"Donna, is the baby trying to eat its way out?"
She found the file and turned to face him, cheeks flushed. "No." A protective hand came to her belly as another gurgle resounded through the room. She had known that she was hungry, but she didn't know that it would quickly become so obvious.
"Have you eaten anything today?" He sounded positively annoyed.
"Yes," she replied as she handed him the folder. "That should be enough for you. There might be a couple more things out in the cabinets by my desk, but that's the bulk of it." With that she turned to walk back to her desk.
"Hold on," he snapped as he tossed the file aside. "What did you eat this morning?"
Flustered she stood there a moment before answering. "Food."
"Well, don't you have to eat enough for two now?"
She almost rolled her eyes until she realized that he seemed worried. "I ate a banana."
"A banana? The substance of growth is being done on a little piece of fruit."
"Believe it or not, Josh, but there has been a couple of studies that have proven bananas and all food in the fruit category have been considered healthy. Mind you that it's still highly controversial but--"
"Shut up," he countered with a shy smile. "I just meant that you should probably eat more."
"I'm a working girl. In order to do that I would need more money, but now I am saving up for when the baby is born. In order to eat more now, I would need a raise."
"Wow," he said with a blink. "You're good. You eat a banana for breakfast and now you need a raise."
She shrugged. "What can I say? I sit up late at night and think of ways to slip it in."
"I bet."
And then they froze. The two of them finally realized that this wasn't their routine anymore. This wasn't what they did now. This was the happiest moment they had had in weeks.
And as all normal and intelligent people, they had to end that quickly.
"I got to get to Staff," Josh said scrambling to grab files and head to the door.
"I have to return a few calls for you to the Hill. They want to see you before the weekend."
"Yeah," he glanced up and accidentally met her gaze again.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"Yeah." With all his inner strength he pulled himself away from that spot and from those eyes and went out the door.
"Yeah," Donna said one final time before going back to work.
Staff just didn't get well for the Deputy Chief of Staff. Starting with the fact that the file her grabbed to go into the Oval Office was completely wrong.
"Josh," Toby called for backup in the middle of a heated debate to get back into the fight on school prayer. "Give the statistics that you got from OEOB."
"Yeah," he said opening the his blue folder. "I have here…" He looked up wish boyish confusion. "The numbers I have here will get you any deal within the city."
"Huh?" CJ asked.
"Pizza, Chinese, maybe a little Italian. That nice deli we like to get delivered here as well."
"Josh?" Toby lowly growled.
He tried to pass it off with a sheepish smile and a shrug. "I grabbed the wrong thing off my desk. I pulled this last night for dinner."
"Okay," Bartlet chuckled. "I wanted to do this later anyways. What's next?"
"That's it,Mr. President," Leo answered.
"Then I am sure that I will see all of you before the day is out in some form of crisis or another," The President added with a flip of his hand gesturing all to leave the room. As they all turned to comply, he tossed out. "You need to check up on Donna, Josh. Never in the first term did she let you get the takeout menus in here."
"Sorry, Sir."
"Apologize to Toby. He's the angry one. Me…" He paused before sticking out his hand. "Leave that here."
Josh furrowed his brows. "Sir?"
"Leave that here. I want to check out what all I can get that I have never had the option of."
With a smile he obliged and walked out.
"Are you happy?"
Josh rolled his eyes and turned to the pissed Communications Director perched on Charlie's desk. "I apologize, but maybe this is a sign for the best. We can't fight this one yet. I said we should save it for the end when we can really pull it off. Or at least midterms."
"Dammit!"
"Toby," Debbie said calmly as she walked in the room. "Please refrain from shouting curses when the President is on the phone next door with delegates from the United Nations."
The man in question simply gave Josh a final glare and walked out. That left Charlie and Debbie to give Josh a look as he stood there staring off at the head secretary for the President's desk.
"Josh?"
"May I take that danish?"
"You have the munchies, Joshua?"
Charlie shrugged. "The President never ceases to remind me about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
"It's…not for me. Donna," he hastily explained before reaching over and picking it up and heading out the door.
"That's fine, Josh," she sardonically replied. "I wasn't planning on doing anything but look at it anyways."
Donna was sitting at her desk typing up the revised version of a memo that Josh wanted sent to Ways and Means when a danish plopped in front of her. She looked up, startled.
"That is breakfast food." And he turned and walked away.
She stared at the pastry in awe before looking to see if he was still in view. After confirming that he wasn't, she reached down and tore off the smallest piece and brought it to her mouth.
She tried not cry at the thought that it was the sweetest thing that he had done in weeks. Even if it was done with a sprit of callousness .
She wondered when the day would turn sour.
Josh practically hid around the corner trying to read her face as she noted that he gave her the gift.
They both knew that he was still angry, but he hoped that she would notice that he finally cracked a little.
And now that he did-secretly as to not give her the satisfaction-he was pleased to watch the emotions wash over her face at the sight of a danish. You would think that I gave the woman another book on alpine skiing.
It wasn't until a couple hours later, long after he had moved away from his covert position, that he realized that what was the catalyst to pull them back together was the thing that had been driving them apart for so long.
But things did go sour. Granted, it took much longer than Donna had assumed, but sour they went. About nine thirty that night.
Josh decided that since he made a tentative truce with his assistant, he could now keep her for the first real late night working since the last big vote on the Hill. And as the man he was, he was going to utilize it to the fullest.
Her stomach churned a little, but she attributed it to the fact that the danish didn't sit well with the pastrami sandwich that didn't sit well with the brownie that didn't sit well with the ultimate nachos that she had ordered for dinner.
"Can you get me the…thing?"
She glance up at him. "Okay. Never thought that I would have to say this, but I didn't follow what you wanted." A pause. "Which thing?"
He shrugged. "I dunno. I just hoped that you would think of something that I need to do and give it to me."
She got up and immediately regretted the speed at which she did. The nausea rolled over her so quickly that she was afraid that she was about to get sick.
"Donna?"
She held up a hand as she took a settling breath. "It's fine," she stated as she took another breath and clenched her stomach. "Really. Just…nachos and pastrami don't mix with danishes and brownies."
He merely wrinkled his nose in disgust. "But you're fine?"
"I will be." She swallowed and then went to retrieve the notebook she wanted. "Here." She said thrusting the binder his direction. "While you wait on that last phone call you can look through here and see if this is how you want the final version of the report to look."
"Excellent." He headed back to his office.
She sat there for a moment as another bout of nausea went on in her system. Then it dawned on her. This was the perfect time to finally settle things with Josh. So tentatively she called for him.
"You don't have to be shy," he yelled. "There's no one here."
"Will you come here?"
He complied. "What is it?" He asked arching a brow.
She took a deep breath. "Sam and I aren't in a relationship and we never have been."
Well it was official. Josh's mouth was gaping wide open. Finally he managed a "…wha?"
"He's been dating Dawnie practically since she moved here." She swallowed down the bitter taste that was filling her mouth.
"So…you and Sam weren't…?"
"No."
She knew that he asked another question, but her mind could concentrate on nothing more but the sudden wave of sickness that overwhelmed her. Instinctively, she knew that this time was for real and took off running.
She didn't realize that there was someone there with her until the second pause between heaves. She felt him gently pulling her hair back and murmuring something about women's bathrooms. Then she felt his hand gently rub her back. Though the most romantic gesture ever, the emotion made her throw up even more.
Several minutes later, she was able to finally pull her gaze away from the toilet. "Oh God," she murmured as she wiped her mouth and the tears from her eyes. "I really don't like that part."
"Neither do I," Josh said in kind. Then his tone warmed as his voice lowered. "Are you okay?"
She smiled at him and neither one noticed that though facing one another, his hand was still on her back. "Yeah. Actually I feel better now than I have all afternoon. Sometimes you need to just start anew."
The face he gave was enough to make her burst out laughing.
Then the mood changed.
Never before had the moment come that they realized the glimmer of desire in the other's eyes. Here and alone, they saw for the briefest moment the lust that they expressed for one another. And they both felt the primal pull to consummate it.
But it seemed right as their lips were within inches of finally touching, reality came and shoved its dagger straight into their guts and consciences. And they both knew it.
"I…I have to go," Donna stuttered as she fumbled her way toward the door.
Josh wanted to protest. He wanted to call her back. But as she fled the room, he found the slightest glimmer of comfort in the fact that he knew that she wanted the exact same thing. And that was enough to floor him to the spot.
"Uhhh…Why are you in the women's restroom?"
Well maybe not to the spot, but Josh was most certainly floored.
