Disclaimer: Don't own them. John Wells, Aaron Sorkin, WB and NBC please don't hurt me.
"Amy Gardner."
"Mmm-phmm."
"Amy Gardner, Josh."
"Mmm..."
"Amy Gardner is standing twenty-feet away and staring at us, Josh."
Josh ripped his mouth away from Donna's neck and craned his head to see where Donna was looking. Donna, for her part, was beginning to feel this "we don't have to hide anymore, let's practically do it in public" phase of their relationship was about to end. Amy, for her part, was only a bit discomforted. It was always difficult to see an ex make-out with another woman like that. On the other hand, she was definitely not pining for Josh Lyman anymore.
Josh Lyman, for his part, wanted to see what color bra Donna was wearing. Whether it opened in the front or back or was it that black lace number...
The three of them looked at each other blankly for a few moments, then Amy raised her hand and waved slightly, looking somewhat embarrassed. For herself or for them, she wasn't quite sure. Making out backstage at the Democratic convention was a gusty move, she had to concede that to them. Amy was pretty sure that Josh wouldn't have done it if it had been Bartlet on the stage. Sadly, she was also positive that he wouldn't have done it with Amy, either.
Josh and Donna timidly waved back. They whispered something to each other and Josh's face quickly disappeared into Donna's neck. Amy looked away, feeling like an idiot for waving and pretty sure Josh and Donna were both similarly mortified. "Why can't these things ever go smoothly?" Amy thought to herself, as she turned and walked away.
"I'm not upset," she continued to think, unaware that she was muttering it to herself at the same time. "It didn't need to be that awkward. I should have gone over there and said hello, but that would have meant interrupting and..."
She bumped into someone tall, female and familiar. C.J. gave her a slight smile.
"How's it going, Amy?"
"Fine." Amy shut her lips tightly. "Just... watching the convention."
C.J. gave her a smile, a smile Amy could see as slightly pitying. "Not me. I've been watching the Josh and Donna floor show."
Amy crossed her arms. "Yeah, I saw a bit of that."
"I'm sure if they knew you were watching, they'd be more discreet," C.J. waved her hand in the air slightly. "Well, actually, I don't know..."
"Are they always this.. amorous?"
C.J.'s eyes remained glued to Matt Santos. "Its a phase."
"And how long..." Amy wanted to probe for information without being obvious. But this wasn't politics. For some reason, she didn't want it getting back to Josh or Donna that she had asked.
"I actually don't know." Amy wondered why C.J.'s answers were so clipped.
Amy decided blunt was the best tactic to use next. "Are you pissed at me for some reason, C.J.?"
"No." C.J.'s hand moved to her beeper, as if she was about to use it as an excuse. She then sighed deeply. "Amy, Donna and I had a long talk about her and Josh last night."
"Okay."
"You know, girl-talk over gin gimlets. We were waiting for Josh and Toby to... well, that's not important. We talked a lot about the past seven years and the future..."
"Okay." Amy was beginning to feel impatient and wondered if Toby wasn't a better conduit for information. As well as a better conduit for mutual scorn of public displays of affection.
"They're getting married."
Amy perked her ears, but she didn't hear the fat lady singing or the bell tolling. She heard Matt Santos talk about education reform and better training for teachers. He should have taken her advice; he still wasn't using his presidential voice.
Maybe if she paid hard enough attention to Matt Santos' non-presidential voice, she could ignore what she just heard.
C.J. was looking right at her and she knew she was being analyzed. Probably to be giggled at over gin gimlets later. She could practically script what the two of them would say to each other.
Amy smiled tightly. She formulated an answer, knowing it was coming a minute too late. "That's nice. When?"
"Soon. Probably right after the election."
"Did he get down on one knee?" Amy practically snorted.
"No." C.J.'s phase softened. "He did propose to her in his old office, though. Apparently Leo and the President's idea. "
We had sex in that office, Amy grimaced. That office is now Cliff Calley's office, whom Donna had sex with. Out loud, she said, "That doesn't seem too romantic to me."
C.J. smiled. "Well, Cliff and Josh decked the place out. Roses, champagne, campaign badges, which I didn't understand, but Donna assured me was very meaningful for them."
"Cliff Calley helped Josh propose to Donna?" Amy couldn't quite believe that.
"Well, it is his office now. Josh had to get his permission. But Cliff was more than happy to help. I guess Josh's possessive streak doesn't extend to him... probably because it was a long..." C.J. cut herself off and darted her eyes back to Santos.
"...time ago." Amy finished. "So, you knew that they were engaged before gin gimlets last night?"
C.J. was silent for a moment, listening to Santos elaborate on his health care plan for children. When he broke for applause, she answered Amy. "Yeah, I knew."
"Are you happy for them?"
"Very much so." C.J. looked Amy directly in the eye and Amy could feel the heat of her gaze. C.J. was pissed at her. Probably thought she was going to sabotage the whole affair. Show up at the wedding wearing that short red dress and toeless sandals. Amy entertained no such ideas. If Cliff Calley could deck that office in rose petals and help his new good friend Josh woo, then, damn it, she would help pick the gown and push Donna down the aisle herself.
"Don't be pissed at me, C.J. I'm not about to sabotage anything. I'm not about to stand in anyone's way."
"You couldn't if you tried, Amy. He's... they're... I mean, Josh Lyman is getting married and he wants to do it tomorrow. He's ready to elope."
"Probably could get a really good price on an Elvis impersonator."
Again, a wistful smile graced C.J.'s face. Amy wondered what was going on inside her head. "The four of us got pretty wasted last night. Toby said he'd pay for the tickets if we all wanted to ditch this scene and fly to Vegas..."
It sounded like fun, drinking with the four of them. It had never happened when Josh and Amy were together. Amy suspected that Josh might not have wanted Donna and Amy to get drunk together. She knew why. Four beers in the bullpen at the White House and you didn't know what would be flying out of their mouths.
"Amy, when Donna and I talked last night..."
Thunderous applause from the crowd. Amy knew that she and C.J. should really be paying attention to the speech, but a need to know had formed in her gut and she couldn't let it go. It was always difficult to hear that an ex was marrying another woman.
The crowd quieted down again and C.J. continued. "She told me what you asked her the night Zoey Bartlet was kidnapped."
A slight chill washed through Amy. "And she lied to me. Her answer was no."
"You had no business asking the question anyway."
C.J. was pissed, not because Amy was going to show up naked at the Moss-Lyman nuptials, but because of a simple question from years ago. A question everyone already knew the answer to. Amy fought the urge to laugh, but C.J. looked extremely serious and, well, pissed.
"It was just, you know, girl-talk over beers."
"Girl-talk can be dangerous sometimes." C.J. exhaled loudly. "I, too, stuck my nose into their affairs, but I wasn't trying to expose her feelings or hurt her. You were trying to upset her."
"I really wasn't. I wanted to know."
"And you thought you would get an honest response? You, the ex-girlfriend? Amy, you don't know much about girl-talk."
Amy wanted this girl-talk session to end quickly, that much she knew. "She was going on about how you had to "get" Josh and, well, I just wanted to..."
"Push her buttons?"
"She knew more about him than I did, C.J. I guess it bothered me." Amy couldn't remember a time when she had been so emotionally honest in two sentences or even a time when she thought herself capable of that. She was over Josh, that much she was certain, but maybe she wasn't over what the relationship had actually been. She had suspected all along that she was a placebo. That Josh was waiting for someone else, someone who knew that his sister had died in a fire and why he walked so fast. Donna waited patiently for him to tire himself out walking and come back to her. Amy just tried to walk faster than him.
C.J., for her part, let Amy think and smiled a bitter smile to herself. "None of it was a competition, Amy." C.J. let her grin widen. "Good God, you women would be competing for Josh Lyman! Do you know how twisted that is to me?"
Amy chuckled. They watched Santos for another few minutes. Amy then cleared her throat. She could push buttons, she could push Donna's and she could push C.J.'s. "What did you say to Donna?"
"When?"
"When you stuck your nose into their affairs."
The button had been pushed correctly and with the right amount of pressure. C.J. flinched visibly. "I... I told her to go have more fun and do more things. Go to lectures, go on dates... build a life apart from Josh, I guess."
"It was good advice. She needed to become her own woman."
C.J.'s eyes became considerably more haunted. "Yeah, she took my advice. She went to Gaza, had a one-night stand and then almost died. Then she quit and broke my friend's heart."
"His heart apparently has healed."
C.J. didn't seem to hear her. "I was thinking of her, not Josh. The look on his face when I told him... and how he was after she quit..." C.J. composed herself quickly. "It all worked out in the end. That's what I'm telling myself. And I wanted them to be together then and I think it's even better that she did become her own woman."
"You, the press secretary?" Again, Amy couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.
Amy felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at C.J. smiling genuinely at her. "Amy, don't take this the wrong way. Please don't. But everyone, from the President down to the janitor on the graveyard shift, wanted Donna and Josh to be together. We didn't want the Deputy Chief of Staff and his assistant to be together, but Josh and Donna we definitely did."
"Were there meetings about this?" Amy tried, she really did, not to sound snide.
"It was an unspoken thing." C.J. didn't seem pissed at all anymore. Amy guessed C.J. was more mad at herself than she was made at Amy and Amy didn't understand at all. C.J. had given Donna sound advice. Think of herself, not Josh, first.
The President, the janitor and C.J. probably all thought that Amy hated Donna. In all emotional honesty, that was absolutely not true. Amy liked Donna. Always had, always would. You couldn't not respect a woman who drove across the country and hired herself. She had wanted to push her buttons, but she really hadn't wanted to hurt her. Now she was worried that she had.
Looking back at the darkened spot near the stage, Amy was reassured.
Josh and Donna were still making out.
