AUTHOR'S NOTES: Here's something I have been just itching to get my hands on. I haven't handled it in my other novel (snort) but I'm going to damned well do it here.

For those of you who may know Madison, Wisconsin, I'll admit right now, I've never been there and don't know a goddamned thing about it. I apologize if I get anything wrong, but I'm pretty sure I've made things generic enough to cover my ass.

Also, let me know if this whole scene seems too shallow. No, not everything is going to be resolved... there are more chapters to come folks!

xxx

Donna Moss was angry. She had spilled coffee on her blouse on the way out of the house this morning and the last minute costume change had made her late for work. She rolled into the office breathless and frustrated knowing her morning was packed with appointments.

"Maddie, I'm so sorry I'm late! I spilled coffee on my blouse and had to change and traffic was awful this morning and the lot was full and I had to wait for the elevator and..."

Maddie Englewood smiled at her boss and laughed. The quick flow of words and never-ending sentences were part and parcel of working for Donna Moss and while it was often tiring, the young red-head was secretly devoted to her employer.

"It's ok, Donna. I covered everything here for you."

Donna sighed heavily and gave the young woman a grateful smile. "I don't know where I would be without you, Maddie. You are a lifesaver."

"You'd be here with a 25-year old male model handling the phones and bringing you coffee. I know you. You're just lucky I came with the job," the red-head joked, knowing secretly that her boss hadn't dated in over a year and that the mere mention of an attractive man made her uncomfortable.

Donna smiled and checked her messages.

"Oh," Maddie exclaimed, "I almost forgot. You have a visitor."

"My 9:30? He's early isn't he?" Donna was still reading her messages and didn't look up from the papers in her hand.

"No. Not your 9:30. Someone from Washington. He wouldn't leave his name. I put him in the conference room."

Donna's head whipped up, "Washington?"

"Yes," Maddie studied her boss and noticed that Donna had suddenly gotten very pale. "Is everything ok?"

Smiling nervously, Donna nodded, "Everything's fine. The conference room?"

Nodding, Maddie watched Donna, still in her coat and carrying her briefcase walk slowly down the hall to the conference room.

xxx

Josh was standing at the window of the conference room with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He still doubted the sanity of this great "plan" that Sam and C.J. had concocted, but it was Sam's call to make and he had agreed to make the trip.

At the sound of the door opening, he took a deep breath and turned around. What he saw was like a fist to his solar plexus and the breath went out of him in one single second.

Donna had always been a beautiful woman, there was no doubt about that. But her time as a political player and the years in the private sector had brought out a maturity Josh had never seen before. In a cream colored overcoat that matched the color of her hair and a slate grey suit that made her skin white and her eyes blue, Josh thought she had never looked more impressive.

"Hey."

She stood and stared at him, a look of incomprehension on her face. The very kinetic energy of his personality hit her like a wave when she walked through the door and every word in her vocabulary seemed to disappear at once. Knowing that she probably looked like an idiot, she walked into the conference room, pulled off her leather gloves and set her briefcase down on the table.

"Hello."

Her voice was distant and cold. Josh didn't know what he had expected to hear when he saw her, but this wasn't it.

"How are you?"

Donna studied him for a moment. The years had not been kind to Josh Lyman. There was grey in his hair and the lines around his mouth were a more pronounced. When they had first met, eleven years ago, he had seemed an adolescent trapped in a man's body. Now, he looked his age and she felt a sharp pain in her heart when she saw the toll the years in Washington had taken on him.

"I'm fine."

He was bouncing on his feet with nervous energy and knew that they needed to move past this incredibly awkward situation or he would get tossed out of this building on his ass faster than he could say "Filibuster."

"Can we go get some coffee somewhere and talk? Somewhere neutral? You know not yours, not mine, not over-run with enemy troops?"

Damn. He had pulled out the dimples and she found herself smiling despite of herself.

"Enemy troops?"

"Sorry. I've been teaching a class on treaties and we're covering the Yalta Conference. World War II and everything."

"Ahhh... I see."

"So what do you say? Coffee? I'll even pick up the tab." He was almost begging and he felt like a fool but he wanted to sit and talk with her so badly he would do anything at this point and make any promise to keep her from turning away.

Looking up at him, she waited a beat and then smiled. "Sure. Just give me a minute."

Walking over to the phone, Donna picked up the receiver and dialed. "Maddie? Yeah. Can you do me a favor? Call Eli Whitton and reschedule for later in the week. I don't care what you tell him, just let me know what it is so I can use the same story... Yeah, I'm going to go out for a little bit... Yeah, just cover the calls. I don't think I'll need to talk to anyone, but I'll have my cell... Oh, and I'm going to leave my briefcase here –can you come take it to my office? Thanks. You are a goddess!"

Turning to Josh, Donna picked up her purse and her gloves and walked to the door. "You coming?"

Dashing around the corner of the table, Josh followed her out into the hallway.

xxx

Madison, Wisconsin is cold in early November. Josh thought New England was cold, but out here in was a different cold. Their breath was heavy in the air around them and they sat on the park bench sipping from their coffee cups as if they were holding liquid heaters.

He kept glancing over at her and marveling at how beautiful she seemed in every surrounding. Her hair was pulled back on her head in a bun and the pearls at her ears screamed elegance. He wondered how he could have let her walk away and mentally kicked himself over and over.

"So, you wanted to talk... Talk." The words were tight and cold, as if she was trying to keep a rein on her emotions.

"I'm sorry about the chicken." Damn. That wasn't exactly what he had wanted to say.

"What?"

"I'm sorry about the chicken. I didn't do it to make a fool of you. You know that, right?"

Donna stared at him incredulously and then started to laugh, "The chicken? You flew all the way out here after three years to tell me you were sorry for the chicken?"

Josh chuckled and put his forearms on his thighs, leaning forward on the bench, "Well, not exactly, but I thought it might be a good start."

Shaking her head and laughing, Donna felt herself soften toward him, "I never thought you did it on purpose just to get at me. It was a good plan and I fell for it."

"Yeah, well, I just had to tell you I was sorry."

Sipping her coffee, she turned to him conspiratorially, "I do have to admit, though. I have difficultly going to the local chicken place in the summer. They always have a guy in a suit out front during lunch and I feel and incredible urge to yell at him."

Josh laughed and realized it had been a very long time since the two of them had shared a laugh. A long time.

Sipping his coffee for a moment and studying the park around them through his sunglasses, Josh knew that the talk had to turn to more serious matters.

"Why did you leave, Donna?"

Donna stopped mid sip and lowered her coffee cup. The topic had never been discussed between them and she wasn't sure how she could do so now.

"I had an offer, Josh. It was a good job."

"Was I that bad of a boss? What did I do?" The frustration was creeping into his voice.

"No. Josh, you weren't. But I needed to do it. I needed to figure out if I could do it on my own."

"I would have helped you, Donna..."

"I tried to ask you, Josh! I tried over and over again and you blew me off. You had more important things to do and more important people to see and it was always like that!"

Josh looked at her and saw the emotions playing across her face. He knew everything she was saying was true and he knew that he deserved whatever she threw at him.

"Will offered me the job and it was something that would let me go and do something without you, Josh. Do you understand what that meant to me? All my life I was defined by the men around me... my father, Kevin, you. It was my opportunity to go and find out if I really needed all of you to tell me who I was or if I could do something on my own."

She was breathing harder now at the effort to get the words out and she felt the tears rise to the surface when she thought of how she had failed at that endeavor.

"And all I did was prove you all right in the end."

"What?" Josh sat with his mouth open, "What the hell does that mean?"

"We lost, Josh. I yelled at a chicken, I fucked up in front of the press, I counseled a man who went on to lose. I proved I wasn't good at it and I failed."

Josh jumped up off of the bench and started pacing, a habit Donna noticed hadn't left him in the years since he had departed the White House.

"You're insane, you know that? You were great, Donna. Great!"

"Josh..."

"No! Listen to me! Bob Russell lost. You didn't lose. Do you know how amazing you were when you handled the press? I would see you on CNN and MSNBC and all the news outlets and I would feel so proud of you. You were amazing!"

It was Donna's turn to be shocked and she knew her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn't control it. Josh was proud of her?

"I would sit up at night and watch the coverage of your campaign and wish we had you with us. God, Donna, do you know how hard it was to do that campaign without you?"

He sat back down beside her and leaned back against the bench. All this time, the words had been rolling around in his head and he hadn't spoken them to a single soul.

"Every time we had a victory, I'd look around to celebrate with someone and realize it wasn't like the Bartlet campaigns. There wasn't anyone there that I could look at and have them know what I was thinking. It's not that they weren't good people. They were. But they weren't you."

The tears were in his eyes and he took off his sunglasses to wipe them away.

"I'm sorry, Donna. I'm sorry and I don't know what else to do."

Donna stood up and took a few steps away. Her hands were deep in her pockets and her head was lowered. The thoughts were chasing one another through her head and she couldn't begin to pick one out from the other.

"Why are you here, Josh?"

He studied her back, the elegant hair, the sleek clothes, the perfect shoes.

"Sam is running for President."

She whipped her head around, "What?"

"I said, Sam is running for President."

She walked over and sat down next to him, studying his face to see if he was joking. He wasn't.

"But President Santos..."

"The President is not going to run for another term." He let it sink in for a moment and continued before she could ask another question, "The First Lady has breast cancer. It's terminal. The President wants to finish the term and go back to Texas with the family."

Donna's hand flew to her mouth, "Oh my God. Oh, Josh. Those poor children!"

He wasn't shocked that her first thought was for the First Family. After all, she had been the one who had asked of the President's condition when she had been told about the MS. Not of what they were going to do, or what would happen to her, but "How is he?" Ever caring Donna.

"Yeah."

The two sat for a moment in silence. Donna brushed away a tear and took a deep breath.

"Sam is running?"

"Yeah. The President brought him in and told him about... the thing. Asked him if he wanted to run."

"The President suggested he run?" It seemed odd to use the phrase "the President" and not be referring to Jed Bartlet. Donna had never gotten over her discomfort at that fact.

"Yeah."

"And I assume you are running the campaign?"

Josh sat for a moment, "Yeah. Sam asked me."

"Who else?"

"What?"

"Who else is on board?"

Josh looked down at the ground in front of him. "C.J., Toby, Will Bailey. Those are the heavy hitters so far."

Donna nodded. It was a powerhouse team. "Why are you here, Josh?"

Sighing, he looked out over the park and noticed a young couple with their small child on the sliding board and smiled. They look happy, he thought. I think I miss that.

"Josh?"

"Sam wants you to come work with us. He wants you to handle the press."

Donna stood up again and walked away, "No."

"Donna, come on..."

"No, I'm not coming back to work for you Josh. I have a great job here, a great home, I'm happy. I don't need Washington anymore."

"Damn it, Donna!" He was by her side now and had his hand on her elbow. The air between the two was electric and emotions were so close to the surface that they were almost palpable. "Sam needs you. The campaign needs you. I need you!"

She looked up at him, her eyes wide and blue.

"I can't do it again without you, Donna. I need to do this for Sam, but I can't do it without you. You won't be working for me. You'll be working for Sam. Please, Donna. Please come back."

She chewed on her lower lip and looked out away from him. He was begging. All these years, she had wanted him to hurt and he had and now he was begging and it was the most terrifying thing she had ever heard.

"I won't be working for you?"

"No. Absolutely not. It's a team. Sam calls the shots. It's not like last time. You won't be a junior assistant with a borrowed badge."

Turning to look him in the face, she knew he wasn't lying. There was no artifice in his voice or his eyes. He needed her on this campaign.

Pulling her arm out of his grasp, she took a few steps away and pulled out her cell phone.

"Maddie, it's me... Yeah... Look, we need to clear my schedule for the next few days... Yeah, I know, but John can handle those... okay?... And I need you to do me a favor... I need you to get me a ticket to D.C... Yes, Washington, D.C... This afternoon if you can... okay?... Yup, I'll be back in shortly... Thanks, Maddie."

When she turned around, Josh was pumping his fists in a characteristically Josh Lyman way and quietly saying "Yes!"

Smiling, she turned away and said over her shoulder, "Enough celebrating, Chicken Man. We've got a plane to catch."