Disclaimer – I don't own any of them, blah blah blah, although I would give a fair amount of money to own Sam. Is it true he is coming back for a few episodes next season? Oh please let it be true!
Thanks to the lovely people who posted reviews, u all rule! Hope u weren't too mad about the cliff-hanger I left, it was 3am and I had writers block so I figured I could just carry it on in the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it!
When Donna pulled back from the kiss, slightly breathless, she looked down at the floor for a moment, trying to get her thoughts together. Josh looked at her, scared to say a word, knowing that he could have just ruined the best friendship that he had ever had in his life. She looked up at him, blue eyes meeting terrified brown ones. She smiled at the look of pure terror that was evident in his eyes.
"Wow!" she said, finding her voice at last, "That was…umm…nice." A relieved smile came over Josh's face.
"You're not mad?" he asked hesitantly, encouraged by the smile that was tugging at the sides of her mouth.
"Why would I be mad?" she replied looking confused, "I just got to kiss Josh Lyman!" she rolled her eyes as his 'I'm da man' expression appeared on his face, along with a slightly smug grin.
"So you enjoyed it?" he asked hopefully, moving his face closer to hers, "would you like a repeat performance!" Donna smiled, and whispered huskily,
"and then some..!" she closed the distance between them and gave him a searing kiss, her tongue flicking at his lips to get him to open his mouth. While the first kiss had been gentle and loving, almost chaste, this one was full of a passion that had built up over the 9 years they had known each other.
Back at the party, CJ was going crazy with impatience, begging Toby every five minutes to creep back down to the boathouse and spy on the couple. After about half an hour, he grudgingly gave in to the constant whining,
"Oh for God's sake CJ! Yes I'll come with you," he exclaimed, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the door, "if only to shut you up" he whispered softly to himself as an afterthought.
"Heard that!" CJ said "And you will pay!" she poked her tongue out at him, grinning cheekily.
"I'm looking forward to it." Toby replied, the sarcasm in his voice giving room to a little bit of sincerity that he hoped CJ wouldn't notice. Which she didn't appear to. They rounded the corner of the house and crept stealthily towards the boathouse when CJ suddenly stopped dead. Toby, not looking where he was going, bumped straight into her and they ended up in a slightly crumpled heap on the ground.
"Toby!" she exclaimed, shifting slightly, to punch him on the arm, "you better hope my dress isn't ruined!"
"Well why did you stop so suddenly like that?" Toby replied irritably, trying to grab hold of her hands to stop her hitting him again.
"Well if you look in the window of the boathouse you will see my reason!" she replied struggling slightly under his body weight. "Uhh Toby? You know you can get off me right!" Toby quickly let go of her hands and pulled himself to his feet, holding out his hand to help CJ up. When she was on her feet again, he turned to face the boathouse and saw what CJ had been talking about. They could clearly see two silhouettes in the window, evidently in the middle of a kiss.
"WE DID IT!" CJ said, a huge smile appearing on her face, "C'mon lets go tell the others! They'll be so excited!"
They turned around and headed back to the house. It was only then that they both realised that they were still holding each others hands. CJ looked down at their joined hands, the blush colouring her face evident even on the dimly lit path. She looked up, and saw Toby staring at her, an unreadable expression on his face. He cleared his throat uncomfortably when he realised he has been caught staring.
"C'mon, lets go spread the news" he said in his usual gruff tone, choosing to ignore the slight awkward air that was hanging around them. CJ nodded, not quite trusting her voice to speak. They carried on upto the house without speaking, but with their hands still intertwined, unsure of what was happening.
"Sam," Mallory whispered in his ear as they danced, "CJ and Toby just walked in holding hands!"
"What!" Sam exclaimed, turning round and scanning the room frantically, "Where?"
"Don't turn round and stare, they are coming towards us. Don't say anything ok?"
"Mal, Sam guess what!" CJ said when they joined the couple and headed off the dancefloor, "our little scheme worked!"
"What?" Sam asked, doing his best not to stare at Toby and CJ's joined hands and failing miserably, a fact that was noticed by Toby who casually dropped her hand, using it to reach for two glasses of champagne of the tray of a passing waiter.
"Donna and Josh are in the boathouse kissing as we speak!" CJ said, a huge smile crossing her face, "we saw them kissing through the window!" she added excitedly, "come on, lets go and tell the others!" She and Mallory headed of quickly in search of Charlie, Zoey, Jed and Abbey with Sam and Toby trailing behind them.
Sam was grinning like an idiot and more than once Toby caught that smile aimed in his direction,
"What are you so happy about?" he asked, scowling slightly. He knew very well what Sam was grinning about, but he wasn't about to say anything just yet.
"I just think it's great!" Sam replied, still unable to wipe the smile of his face, "that two of our friends have finally realised how mush they mean to one another." He shot Toby a meaningful look.
"Yeah it is great," Toby replied calmly, "It took Josh and Donna long enough don't you think?"
"Damn straight!" Sam replied, grinning happily again, "Hey look they have found the others," he gestured to the corner, where CJ and Mallory were obviously telling the rest of the group the good news, evident from the squeals that were emitted by both of the Bartlett women and the grins on the faces of the men.
"We're the men!" Sam said with a grin as he and Toby joined the little group, "Uh and the women!" he added weakly as he got fixed with death stares by 4 women at one time. I wonder if they practice those stares, he thought rather randomly, smiling at the thought of all the women at the White House meeting up and practicing scowling at photos of people they hate.
"Well I suppose we should go and unlock the door," Abbey said after a second, "It's not like they need to be locked in anymore!"
"Do you think they are going to try and hide it from us?" Jed asked. There was a pause.
"I don't think so sir," CJ replied, "but to make sure, shall we creep down there and open the door quietly and then catch them in the act? I don't suppose they are going to notice us coming down."
"Claudia Jean, you are too sneaky for your own good!" Jed replied, "But I like the idea. Come on everybody, let's go!"
The little group went quietly down to the boathouse, trying not to laugh or give themselves away. The two silhouettes of Josh and Donna weren't visible, although it was possible to just make out the tops of two peoples heads sitting on the sofa in front of the window. At a signal from Jed, CJ crept up and unlocked the door as quietly as she could.
"Josh?" Donna said, lifting her head up from its position on Josh's shoulder to look around the room, "did you hear that?"
"Hear what!" Josh replied, grinning cheekily before adding, "I was too busy being distracted by this beautiful woman sat here on the sofa with me."
"I think they just unlocked the door, we can get out of here!"
"We could," Josh agreed, whispering, "Or we could just do this instead!" he leaned forward and captured her lips with his. Donna moaned her agreement against his lips, deepening the kiss readily.
Everybody crowded quietly around the door, as CJ moved to open it. She took a deep breath and pulled it open before collapsing into laughter at the sight that was laid before them, even though it had been exactly what she had expected. Josh and Donna broke apart from their kiss, blushing and grinning madly like school children.
"It's about time you too!" Zoey yelled, as they all filed into the boathouse to join the couple. She ran over and gave Donna a massive hug, before following suit with Josh, tears of happiness evident in her eyes.
"Here here!" everybody echoed, smiling at the guilty grins on their faces.
"So, Josh, is there anything you want to tell us!" Jed said, causing everybody to start laughing. Josh took a deep breath.
"Yes sir there is. I am completely in love with Donna, and I think she feels the same way." Donna blushed brighter than a beetroot at his words.
"And Donna?" Jed added, turning his attention to the blushing blonde who was now sitting on Josh's lap, "do you love Josh?"
"With all my heart." Donna agreed, eliciting a round of "awwww's" from the group as she leaned up and gave Josh a kiss. Stood at the back of the group, no-one noticed Toby lean over slightly and gave CJ's hand a squeeze before quickly letting go and moving back a step or two.
"Let's get back to the party shall we!" Abbey said, "Josh, I believe you owe this young lady 9 years worth of dances, so you better get started soon!" they all laughed and started to file out of the door. Sam stepped forward and stopped Josh from leaving,
"Hang on a second man, I wanna talk to you." He said. Donna looked up at Sam and nodded at the unspoken request in his voice, letting go of Josh's hand and following Mallory and Zoey out of the boathouse, giggling at the questions they peppered her with the moment they got out of Josh's earshot.
"What's up Sam?" Josh asked as the door closed behind Donna.
"I just wanted to say, since you did the same speech to me when Mal and I got together, that Donna is one of my best friends and like a sister to me. Don't do anything to hurt her or you will have me to deal with." Sam replied, the protective tone evident in his voice.
"Sam, I love Donna with all my heart, I would never do anything to hurt her." Josh replied straight away, "But I understand you had to say it and if I ever hurt her, I want you to beat the crap out of me!" he added with a trademark grin. Sam laughed and gave him a hug.
"I'm glad you guys figured it out at last." He said, grinning happily at his best friend, "Let's go join everyone shall we?" he added, leading the way out of the door.
"By the way," Josh said, "Just whose idea was that plan?"
"Uhh it was everybody's," Sam admitted with a smile, "we thought it was about time you guys were happy."
"Well as mush as I wanna thank you for it," Josh said with a grin, "You do know we are gonna make you guys pay for tricking us right!"
TBC i think! what do you reckon? i have some ideas on how to carry this on, but will you guys read it if i do?