W.W. –Tuesday lunchtime

"Josh, thanks for seeing me."

Mike Casper was young, with a vanishing hairline and a strong chin, bright eyes and the kind of soft voice that makes women lean forward to listen to him. Either the voice or his eyes, at any rate women liked him.

"Sure, Mike. Hope you don't mind, I had some pastrami Reubens sent up. Still trying to catch up today from my little vacation, you know what that's like." He sat down and lifted the lid off his sandwich container.

"That's not grilled pastrami, Josh. I'd say that looks like tuna on whole wheat." Mike opened his own container. "That, that looks like grilled pastrami with Swiss and sauerkraut."

"Ever the observant G-Man." Josh sighed. "Trade?"

"Sorry." He held up a note that was stuck inside the carton lid. "The penmanship is, um, distinctive, but I'm fairly sure this says, 'He Gets the Tuna.' Or something to that effect."

"Oh, man," Josh sighed. "Relationships. What can you do?" He took a grudging bite of the tuna.

"Hey," he said around his mouthful, "they toasted the bread. My mom used to do that."

Mike put his sandwich down and looked at Josh uncomfortably.

"Josh, about that. Um, I have to ask you a couple of questions, but I need to stress this is not in any official capacity, and off the record. You need to know I am not here as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, I'm just a guy you used to do debates with in college."

"And speeches like that are why we always smoked your ass, Mike. What's up?"

"Tell me what you know about a man calling himself Avi Maxwell."

Josh stopped with his sandwich almost to his mouth. "Calling himself?"

W.W.

"Josh Lyman's office."

"So, I'm hearing that your new job was announced. Congratulations."

"Oh, hello, Ruth," Donna tried not to sigh with relief. "Thanks. I'm actually about to get started on some prep work for that actually. As soon as your son gets back to me on schedule changes, anyway."

"Oh, so he's my son, now is he? What's he done now?" Ruth couldn't keep the smile out of her voice.

"Nothing, sorry. It's been, well you can imagine the day we're having. And he called me after lunch and had me clear the afternoon, but he won't tell me what for and I can't get to anything else. He's holed up in his office, do you want him?"

"Not so much, it sounds like," Ruth answered honestly. "When he pokes his head out, send him my love. And tell him Avi sends best wishes to you both as well."

"I will, oh hang on," she saw Josh sticking his head out, his face an interesting study. "Josh, your mom was just saying she and Avi-"

He dropped a file on her desk and almost dashed back into his office. The door closed quickly behind him.

"Okay Ruth, I better go. We'll talk to you soon." Donna picked up the folder Josh had airmailed to the top of her in box.

"Shalom, baby girl," Ruth said warmly. Donna decided Josh's mom was a lot easier to take now that her son seemed happy and that Ruth herself had a boyfriend.

She opened the folder to see Josh's schedule changes. Her eyes went wide and she could feel the room spin for just a moment around her. Was this some sort of joke?

"What, are you kidding me?" She hadn't meant to stand and face his door, and she certainly hadn't meant to shout like a fishwife. She didn't actually know what a fishwife was, but that's what her father called her mother when she sounded like Donna just had then.

She opened the door, and saw Josh, sitting in his chair with his feet on the bookshelf, staring out the window. On any other day the look on his face would have stopped her cold, but she was a little distracted and not feeling her best.

"What the hell is this? Josh, I don't think it's funny that you would give me this list, just drop this on me. Literally, dropping it on me?"

He didn't look away from the window.

"I'm sorry, Donna," he said softly. "I have some meetings I have to take, and it just worked out that… I'm sorry."

"Josh?" She was trying to calm down. "If you're going to do this to me, you could try a little warning next time, please? I need a few minutes to get myself together here."

"Sure. Sorry." He didn't move.

She turned back to her desk. Maybe a cup of tea, the coffee was starting to get to her today. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Better. Again. Better still.

"Sorry, Donna. I think I'm early." The voice was a drawl, a little nasal, but not inherently annoying. Some might even call distinctive.

"This," Donna thought, "is not happening to me." She opened her eyes. Leaning casually against her desk, as though she owned the building and not just everything in it, was Josh's 1 o'clock.

Donna tried to smile.

"Hello, Amy."

W.W.

"I got your call, J." She was standing in his doorway. He could see her in the reflection of the window. "I was surprised."

"Yeah, have a seat." He forced himself to break way from his thoughts, and turned to face her. She looked good. She looked a little softer, a little less fuck-you-and-what-was-your-name-again then she had when he'd seen her last.

"Thanks. So it's true, you're really leaving."

"Uh, yeah. Listen, I need to ask you about Senator Johnson's position on something."

Amy tipped her head a little to the side. "I'm not with Johnson any more. It was just a consulting thing."

"Yeah. I heard, but still, you know her, right? Her staff is good, but they have no imagination." He shrugged. "I assume that's why they needed you."

"You aren't going to ask where I am now." She was tempted to pout, but it was not really a club she had in her bag. She couldn't bring the coy, never had been able to.

"EMILY's List. You're fundraising for Weinstein and Washington." He gave her a hard look. "It's a step away from direct issue advocacy. That was probably smart for you."

"Why am I here, J? It's not to talk about my career arc, is it?"

"No." he took a sip of his coffee. It was tepid, but he drank it anyway.

"You don't look happy." She didn't sound pleased when she said it.

He hung his head. "You can still turn a conversation on a dime, can't you? I am happy, it's just been a day, the kind of day it's been… It's just been a day."

"You never used to separate the two- having a rough day here, and being happy."

He nodded. "I wasn't a very good boyfriend."

She didn't argue. "I figured you were lying to me, and that made it tough to respect you, J. So maybe I wasn't a very good girlfriend."

"I wasn't lying to you." He didn't need to say what they were talking about.

"Just to yourself?" She smiled a small, tired smile. "I thought you were sleeping with your secretary. I don't know if I was more upset as your girlfriend or as a feminist."

"I never… I didn't know. If I had, I would have saved a lot of people a lot of grief." He shrugged, and rubbed his hands through his hair. "Apparently I'm totally oblivious to people, the more I care about them."

"Josh," she said, and she saw him noticing her use of his actual name instead of her nickname, "Josh, I'm glad you're happy. She loves you. Good luck with that."

"Okay. Thanks."

"So, what do you need to know about Johnson?"

W.W.

Donna was looking at the memo in front of her requesting preliminary budgeting for establishing her office in Florida. Despite years of high-level experience in capitol politics, she'd never really done anything like this from scratch before and she wasn't sure where to start.

Amy Gardner. Not only did Josh giver her mere moments' notice, but he'd been in there with her for thirty minutes, talking about God knows what. She looked at the roses in the vase on her desk. Amy Gardner didn't have those, roses from the President of the Untied States. Amy Gardner couldn't even come in to the White House without an invitation.

The door opened, and she tried to remain calm and not jump up. She carefully closed her memo folder and took a calming breath.

"Donna."

"Yes, Miss Gardner?" She stood up. This was not happening. It just was not happening.

"I'm sorry for…" Amy looked down. She didn't have a whole lot of practice saying she was sorry, apparently. "I didn't mean to surprise you today."

"Good." Damn, had she just said that out loud? "I mean, that's okay."

"You see, I thought he was just, that you and he," Amy stopped, and shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't realize he was in love with you."

"Good," she said again. "I, uh. Me neither."

"Yeah, you two are stupid like that." Amy shrugged her coat on and turned to go. "And by the way, the ring is gorgeous."

She walked away, her glossy black high-heeled boots flashing as she wove through the traffic in the halls. Donna watched her go. Just as Amy reached the corner and was almost out of sight, Donna shook herself.

"Thank you!" she called after her.

W.W.

Josh watched from the doorway of his office as Donna shouted her thanks to Amy Gardner in the middle of the West Wing. What were the odds?

"Donna?"

"Yes?" She spun, and her hair fanned out behind her. She was like the Breck girl, a shampoo add come to life in his office. He tried to smile, but managed a single dimple grin.

"I'm going to meet with Leo about something. When my 2 o'clock gets here, send them over?"

"To Leo's? Sure. Can you tell me-"

He interrupted her. "Sorry, I can't. Oh, and my watchband broke. Can you, I don't know, find someone?"

She grinned. "Your watch sucks. Let me get you a new watch."

"I don't want a new watch. Just, call a guy?" He grabbed his folder of notes from his meeting with Amy and handed Donna his watch.

"I don't mind. It might be nice to give you something you actually need." She was holding his watch between her thumb and one finger like it was a piece of suspect fish. "Maybe something more modern, a little more you?"

"Damn it, Donna. Can we not do this?" He was yelling, nearly. He wasn't supposed to do that. It's not like it was her fault. "Don't replace it, don't screw around with it. Just call the guy, and get the damned watchband, could you?"

He realized she wasn't following him when he got clear of the bullpen. He knew he was being an ass, and he didn't want to do that. He tried to get his thoughts in order and calm down. After his meeting with Leo, he'd make it up to her.