Title: Three Questions
Author: pleaseexplain.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: They belong to Mr. Sorkin and Mr. Wells.
Spoilers: Through season 6.
And NBC. And Mr. Whitford and Ms. Moloney.
Feedback: please? sat with her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees. She was hunched over like someone who was lost, who didn't know what to do with themselves, didn't know where their life was going. But she was none of those things. That morning she had been offered a job in the Vice President's office. Press Secretary. She was astounded at the offer, shocked that anyone would bother to take such a chance on her.
Then she though back to almost nine years earlier. People had taken chances on her before. This was no different, Donna realized. Its just one more...something. Its one more step in the road to... no, she though, remembering her first walk-and-talk with Josh, in the Nashua campaign headquarters. This was just one more event in her life. One that, hopefully, would last for the next eight years, and then she could see where she wanted to go from there.
Donna was interrupted from her thoughts by an all too familiar voice.
"Hey." Josh greeted her, as he sat down in the folding-chair next to her. The Inaugural balls that night were really going to be spectacular, but the ceremony that had just taken place had been, in all honesty, boring.
"Hi." she responded to his greeting, trying to sound as excited and cheerful as she felt she should, instead of as gloomy as she did. "Shouldn't you be somewhere?" Josh looked around.
"I'm with you. That's somewhere. What did you think of the speech? Will really outdid himself, for 'the other guys,' you know."
Donna smiled. Will's change in attitude since being hired to work on the Santos campaign was legendary. He had been ten times more enthusiastic about his new candidate than he had been about 'Bingo Bob,' as everyone now affectionately called the outgoing Vice President.
"Yeah, he did." She tried to think of something to say next, but came up blank. I hope I don't have this much trouble talking to the press, she thought to herself, or else this job won't last nearly as long as
I'm hoping. "Hey, really, isn't there something that you are supposed to be doing right now?" She had been wondering who had been taking care of Josh for the past few months, who was supposed to make sure he was doing something useful right now. Did the new person banter with him? Did he put his hand on her back in just the right place that it was comforting, and thrilling to feel it there, but it didn't provoke a scandal. Donna hadn't heard any rumors. She wondered if he had found a new Mandy, someone new to share Inauguration night with.
"I'm supposed to be getting ready for the balls this evening. But I seem to have a... problem." He paused
for a moment to gauge her reaction. "Two problems, as a matter of fact."
Of course he does, she thought to herself. He's left his tuxedo at the dry cleaners and needs someone to go fetch it for him. She hated the way her thoughts toward her old friend had turned so sarcastic and downright mean. She could imagine the hurt look that would have overcome his face and body if she had said that out loud. I'm not his... Her thoughts were interrupted when Josh spoke again. "I need...Donna, I don't have a date for this evening, and the Congressman--President Santos..." Josh paused here, to beam over what he had just said, "I'm supposed to be one of the first people to dance. You know, my wife and I are supposed to be the second couple on the dance floor at the White House ball." She knew this. Donna had seen Leo and Jenny, and then, years later had watched an older man invite Jordan Kendall to join him when the newly sworn-in President and his wife had asked their friend to join them on the dance floor. What she was wondering now was why Josh was telling her.
She was staring off into space now. Donna though over what he had said again. "My wife and I," Josh didn't have a wife. She would have known. They were good friends, once. Less so, now, but she hoped he would still have invited her to a wedding. They hadn't ever been that far apart. Donna looked around for his hands, which she found were incased in a pair of leather gloves that she had bought for him years earlier.
"Is your not having a wife perhaps one of the problems?" She hadn't meant to sound rude, she had meant to bring the banter. He didn't have a wife. Josh was more afraid of commitment than any man Donna had
ever met. Why would he possibly have used the word wife? She wasn't looking at him now. Her eyes were
trained on the stage, where, less than an hour ago, her new boss had taken an oath of office. She felt the adrenaline still surging through her body.
"Donna?" She had been in love with him, once. With her boss. Her old boss, now. Now he was the White House Chief of Staff. The second most powerful man in the world. And she couldn't have been prouder of him. They had grown apart in the last year. It had been longer than that, really, since they had been themselves. Since they had been Josh and Donna, completely in love with each other, but oblivious.
Josh and Donna, boss and assistant. It had been more than a year since he had sabotaged one of her dates,
since they had spent more than eighteen hours in one another's company. Since they had had a real banter-session, a walk-and-talk. Since she had been happy.
If she had been asked, she would have admitted it. She was still in love with him.
"Donnatella?" Donna gasped, sharply. It felt so strange to hear her name on his lips again. His lips... Oh, yeah. She was definitely still in love with him.
"Yeah? Sorry I'm just...Tired, I guess. From the campaign." And now she was rambling. She didn't know what to say to him. Had they been talking about something? Looking into his eyes she saw that he was beginning to worry about her. The years of studied protectiveness in her couldn't let him be thinking about her, worrying about her, on his day of jubilee. "Hey, did you... I mean, did you need to... Were you saying something?" She fumbled. She couldn't believe that it was this hard to talk to him. What had happened to them?
"Donnatella, I want to ask you a question. Well. Three questions, actually. And would it be okay... I
mean, can you just answer them one at a time and not... Yes or no answers. Is that okay?"
She sighed. She had been used to his ridiculous requests, once. But she was beginning to feel her heart pump, a little, at his inquiry. "Yes." She responded, with the slightest hint of a smile gracing her lips. She saw him start to smile too. Not a smirk, not a grin, but a real Joshua Lyman smile, dimples and all. "Go for it."
"First: Donna, would you be my date for the ball this evening?"
Donna replied without even having time to fully process the question she had been asked. "Yes." And then she did process it, and her eyes grew wide, and her heartbeat sped up a little bit more. "Next?" Now she was anxious.
"Will you please tie my bow tie for me when I come to pick you up before the ball?" There it was! His infamous smirk. She was shocked at how much she had missed it. Josh had been far too tired from the campaign the few times she had seen him before last November, and since the election, she had been working at the Vice Presidential headquarters, while he had been working with President-Elect Santos. And so she had missed his smirk. Which was out now, in full force, because he knew how much she had always loved his bow tie. Donna had tried to keep her love for this activity a secret from her boss, but clearly, now, she had failed miserably. She knew he had always known how to do it himself, but she loved the moments near him, and so, with an ever growing smile, she answered his second question.
"Yes."
Josh began to get up, out of his chair next to her. She felt herself missing the heat from his left leg, next to her right on the little chairs. "Isn't there another question, Josh?"
"Hm?"
"You said you had three questions. There was another..." Donna trailed off, not knowing where to go
from there.
He turned to face her. "Yeah."
"And it is...?" She could feel her heart rate speeding up. Just having him look at her could do that. Where was he going?
"I have to explain first, and then I can ask you my question, and then you can answer. Your not gonna say anything 'till I finish, right?" She nodded, and clasped her hands together in her lap, to stop their
shaking. If Josh was nervous, this must be a big deal. Josh was never nervous. She thought back, remembering times when she had been nervous. Times when Sam and CJ and Will and Charlie and Toby and even Leo and President Bartlet had been nervous. Never Josh. An image of him from when she was in the hospital in Germany flashed through her mind, but she found herself unable to place the emotion in his eyes in the picture in her head. Concern, maybe. Worry, all-out fear, even. Love, she hoped. Not nervousness. Never that. Josh's calm voice brought her back to reality. Impressive, she though, that he can sound like that even when he is nervous.
"Justice Lang is going to be around for a few more minutes. She's talking to President Santos and Vice
President McGarry now, and I asked her if she would wait for a minute, so that she could," he paused, unsure of what to say next. His smile had faded, slightly, and the dimples were gone. "I've asked her a
favor. You see, I have this gorgeous, amazing, perfect date to the ball this evening." He looked at her.
Donna wouldn't have been surprised if he could hear the pounding in her chest, even through the heavy coat she was wearing in the 'crisp' early January air. "The thing is, its our first date. But I really don't know what to do. Dating is just a way for people to get to know each other. But I know her. And I know that I've been in love with her since the day I met her." Josh paused. Looking directly into her very blue eyes, he contented. "And I want to spend the rest of my life with her." He pulled a ring box out of his pocket, opened it to look inside, closed it and put it back. He took out a different ring box, repeated his
actions, and smiled. Josh then proceeded to get down on one knee, open the box, and hold it up to her.
"Donnatella, will you marry me?"
Donna's eyes filled with tears, her heart rate increased to what seemed to her a dangerously fast pace, and she felt ready to jump out of her skin. Seeing her hesitation, Josh added, "Please?" With a smile and his irresistible dimples.
Donna opened her mouth to respond, but instead found herself winding her arms around his neck. Josh stood up and hugged her around her middle, before lifting her feet off the ground and spinning her around and around in his arms, the ring forgotten in his pocket.
When Josh finally put her down, the tears had spilled from her eyes, but she didn't even notice them. The
smile on her face was beginning to hurt her cheeks. Slowly Donna nodded.
"Yes."