Authors Notes: Thanks again for reading and thanks to those who review. As always, The West Wing, the characters, all belong to NBC & John Wells, etc.
Chapter 5 – The Sea is High
He stood on the opposite side of the room, watching her every move. Today she was wearing this great outfit and it certainly had his eyes locked on her. He watched her take notes while Leo was speaking, intent on catching every little detail. He watched her put a strand of hair in her face behind her ear. It made him weak in the knees. He almost wanted to jump over the crowds of people and slam her on the ground and kiss her uncontrollably.
His fantasy of her was interrupted by the loud clapping the audience gave the Congressman after his speech. He just realized he had not listened to a single word of the speech. What a good campaign manager he was turning out to be. It didn't matter. Well, yes, yes it mattered indeed. It mattered greatly. But in his heart it did not matter as much as loving Donna mattered.
In his head his brain paused. When did he turn from political mastermind, content on only gaining political victories, to Joshua Lyman, adoring, passionate man. He didn't know when the changed had occurred, but he had a feeling both Donna and the spirit of the Congressman had something to do with it.
He was taken out of his haze again when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and noticed it was Ronna, piled high with papers and other nonsense.
"Josh, can you grab some of this?" she asked him.
He took part of her stack as they maneuvered their way out of the event.
"He did good today," she remarked.
Josh chuckled a bit, considering he hadn't listened to a single word. "Yeah, he did great."
They both headed out of the building with the group of campaign employees. He did not see her any more; it was almost as if she had disappeared out of his sight. He had a nervous flip-flop in his stomach, he couldn't help if he was constantly worried about her and always wanted to see her.
As they reached outside, he could see her blonde hair up amidst the crowd of people. He wiggled through the crowds of those heading to the cars to return back to their campaign base in DC. He wanted to ride in her car and pushed aside at least a dozen people trying to get to her. Alas, his efforts were rewarded when he arrived at her side.
"Hey," he said, announcing himself.
She turned around, her hair blowing in her face as she whipped around. A large smile appeared across her face as she saw he was standing beside her.
"Hi," she replied.
"I figured since we all are going back to the same place… we could, you know, ride together…" he stuttered out.
"Yeah, that sounds nice."
"Good."
"Uh, Josh? You realize you are holding like a massive stack of… well, I'm not quite sure what all those papers are," she said, while trying to suppress some laughter.
He looked down at all the stuff he was holding and just shrugged his shoulders. He remembered Ronna handing them to him, but she didn't say what they were.
"Josh, there you are! You went running off without me. I figured you might want someone else to take all that stuff…" Ronna started screaming to him through the crowd, while trying to clear a path to him.
"Uh, yeah, sorry, I just had to talk to Donna, about something, you know, important…" he replied, covering up his unbelievable actions.
"Here," she said, pulling the papers out of his hands. "You really are something? You know that?"
Donna stepped up next to Josh and put a hand on his shoulder. "You could say that. I remember times when I would have to…"
He stopped her there by lightly punching her upper arm. "Hey now, let's not play be mean to Josh."
Both women laughed and smiled at one another. Ronna moved away from the couple and headed towards another group of staffers. The two moved towards the car they would be riding back to the headquarters in. He stepped forward and opened the door for her, which caused a broad smile across her face.
They were in a car being driven by one of the younger staffers. He was obviously just a college student who was excited just to be a part of the whole process.
The two were the only ones riding in the back of the vehicle and were sitting quite close together.
"So, I was thinking…" he started.
"Oh no, here we go with the thinking again. I told you Josh, it's not healthy!" she replied, laughing while pointing at him.
"Anyway… as I was trying to say, I was thinking that you know, after we kick some ass and win the election, and we have a week or two off before we go back to the White House, you and I, we could… take that trip to Hawaii…"
"Well, aren't we confident?" she replied.
"Very much indeed."
"So, you're thinking… that you and I might take the trip to Hawaii that you've owed me for what? Like 5 or 6 years now?"
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking."
She leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek.
"So, I take that as a yes?"
She grinned, "Of course. A trip to Hawaii on your bill? Of course I'll go!"
"Now you're just using me for my money? You don't even want to spend time with me?" he said, with his usual pouty face.
"Well," she started, placing a hand on his chest, "I can think of one or two ways that I would enjoy spending time with you."
He leaned over and gently started to kiss her. He started to move in to deepen the kiss, but was stopped by the hard breaking of the vehicle. He turned to face the driver of the vehicle, noticing he had his head faced away from the back of the vehicle. She pulled him back from his obvious desire to put a stranglehold on the poor college volunteer.
He looked over at her. He loved this woman, she was everything, and she was kind, most importantly. She could always keep him calm and in check. He turned back in his seat and took a deep breath.
"You know, I don't know what I'd do now if you weren't around. I think I'd probably explode," he honestly told her.
She took his hand in hers and squeezed it ever so gently. She nodded to him, telling him she understood in more ways than one. She could hardly wait until Hawaii.
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