CJ's Office

She wasn't sure why but after storming out of Josh's office, Kim found herself being drawn into another office in the White House.

"Can I help you?" a red- haired woman asked her.

"No, I uh…Who's office is that?" Kim pointed at the offending office.

"The Press Secretary, CJ Cregg" the woman said, giving her a funny look. "If you want to speak to her she's not doing anything…"

"No, no, it's okay." Kim said hurriedly.

"No, wait here, I'll go and get her for you."

The woman knocked on the door and opened it. "CJ, there's a woman out here, she looks a little lost and I really think you should help her."

"Send her in," CJ said with a tired sigh. She didn't want to help random people but the distraction would do her good. "And Margaret?"

Margaret turned to face her boss.

"Make sure yesterday's suit is ready to go to the launderette for me?"

Margaret smiled, "Already done it, I'll drop it off if you like?"

CJ shook her head 'no'. It was bad enough she had to get Margaret to bring her some clothes in today, she wasn't going to let her wash her clothes too, that was plain abuse of the employer-employee relationship. 'Ooh,' she thought as the words hit her. 'That's good; I might remind them to Josh next time he tries to get Donna to do his washing for him.'

This is what CJ was thinking about when Kim entered her office, Josh and Donna's relationship. They were more than boss and worker but less than a couple, it had always struck CJ as how odd that had been but the minute she saw the woman all thoughts of these kind vanished. Kind of.

"I don't know you," CJ pointed out obviously. "I'm CJ Cregg and you are?"

"Kim Jenkins," she watched as CJ's eyes widened in surprise. "I'm sorry," Kim continued. "I shouldn't be here, I was just on my way out, I'm sorry for bothering you."

She turned to leave but CJ called her back, "Wait."

Kim stopped and faced CJ.

"You're Josh's girlfriend, right?"

Kim nodded sadly and a small tear formed on her cheek. She sat on the couch in CJ's office and let a few tears fall before embarrassment got the better of her. This embarrassment came only when CJ joined her in the couch and put a comforting arm on her shoulder.

"I know Josh can be a pain but you made the choice to go out with him, you can't cry about it," she only half-joked when she said this.

"It's not that," Kim said wiping her tears and taking a deep breath. "I just told him that Donna's in love with him and I know he knew I was right but do you know what he said?"

CJ shook her head, letting the woman release her stresses. "He denied it; he told me she doesn't love him. I know it and he knows it, and I wouldn't mind if he agreed with me, I just wanted him to tell me that no matter what she felt for him it didn't matter because he loved me not her but he didn't. He didn't!"

CJ took a breath, understanding why the woman was so upset. "I don't think he'll be telling you any time soon," she told Kim, trying to be gentle but knowing that there was no easy way to say this.

Kim studied CJ's face intensely before she said anything. "Oh my god. I'm such an idiot," Kim wailed, crying into CJ's shoulder by now.

"No, you're not." CJ told her sincerely. "You don't know Josh and Donna, the history behind them. To people looking in they're just really good friends, to anyone who's spent more than five minutes in a room with both of them at the same time, it's obvious. And lately Donna's been staying out of rooms with him, so you wouldn't have seen."

"I knew she loves him," Kim pointed out.

CJ nodded, "And you probably knew he loves her and just didn't want to admit her." She let out a small laugh, "It's not like you'd be the only one around here with a big case of denial."

Kim paused before answering. "Tell me about them," she told CJ.

CJ frowned, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

"Please?" She asked, something in her eyes told CJ she needed to hear it.

Giving in CJ told her everything, from the minute they'd met up to now, all she knew. It took a couple of hours because of the questions Kim kept asking but by the end Kim knew the truth, and felt better for it. She knew that Josh was so deeply in denial that it was going to take something big to make him get his act together, something bigger than everything that happened so far. Bigger than Gaza even, an event which Kim suspected he hadn't acted further on because he wasn't sure of Donna's feelings and why would he be after he found Donna had another admirer? That was probably what made him slip back into his old ways of not allowing Donna to progress in her job. He thought he would never have her any other way so he needed to keep her close by somehow. Or at least, that's what the psychiatrist part of her was saying.

Her less rational side was telling her she was a fool for not spotting it earlier and not noticing how like her own life it was. She wasn't angry at Josh, he was using her but he didn't realise he was, he genuinely thought he was in love with her. And Kim didn't fault him one bit, she was doing it herself in a small way. 'This is one mixed-up love triangle,' she thought sardonically.

She rose to her feet, CJ stood with her.

"Where are you going?" CJ asked her caringly.

"I think I need to have a little chat with Josh, don't you?" Kim said boldly. She felt stronger than when she'd first entered the office.

"I guess you do," CJ answered. "If you're ready?"

"No one's ever ready for anything," Kim replied seriously. "We can pretend and think we are, but we never are, especially for something like this."

CJ smiled, this woman in front of her wasn't as evil as she thought she was. In fact, she was quite pleasant; she could understand what Josh saw in her now. "Good luck," she said, giving the woman a quick friendly hug.

Kim nodded and left the room, she smiled at Margaret just to show she wasn't as crazy as she'd acted before and then confidently walked back through the White House to Josh's office.

"Kim," Donna gasped when she saw her. "I thought you'd gone."

"No," Kim said with an odd smile. "Just sorting myself out. Is he busy? Because I think we have some things to talk about."

"No, you can go through," Donna answered. "But Kim? About last night, nothing happen…"

"It doesn't matter," Kim told her. "I know, I understand and I promise you there are no hard feelings." Then she walked into Josh's office without knocking leaving Donna outside to consider her words.

- - - -

Josh was still in his office, his mind perplexed as it thought over what had happened with Kim before. He couldn't understand what had gone wrong but as freaked as he was by events then, it was nothing compared to how he felt the next time he met her, which was a couple of hours later when she barged into his office.

"Do you remember our first date?" Where the first words she asked him as she sat in the visitors chair at the other side of his desk.

"It was only a few weeks ago, of course I remember," he said irritably. He was always like this when he couldn't get his head around a problem, like this one, the one of how radically this woman could change.

"Good," Kim said, ignoring his snappish tones. "Because I want you to tell me what we talked about during dessert."

Josh frowned, "We talked about a lot of things."

"Not during dessert, dessert was given to one topic only, what was it?"

"Um…" Josh said, trying, and failing, to remember.

"I'll give you a clue," Kim rolled her eyes. "It was about a certain beautiful blonde assistant outside who's name begins with 'd' and ends in 'a'."

"We talked about Donna?" Josh asked, more than a little surprised. What kind of person talked about their assistant while on a date? Did he really do it? He began thinking back to dessert.

"Yes, or more particularly something she'd said to you earlier that day."

"That I was like a brother to her," Josh said with an enlightened tone as he remembered what Kim was talking about.

"Exactly," Kim said, giving him a smile. "Remember how you felt?"

"Annoyed," Josh said instantly. "Hurt, disbelief, surprised, confused."

He listed the emotions like they were his weekly shopping list. They came easily and naturally to him, something forgotten but remembered after a catalyst triggered them.

"Right," Kim said, still nodding. "Why?"

Now here was the question he couldn't really answer. He gave the one he'd come up with at the time.

"We've been working together for 6 years and I'd come to think of her as a really close friend but all she saw me as was a brother figure."

Kim gave a noise like a game show buzzer when a contestant got their question wrong. "Nope, try again."

"I…I don't know," he said eventually.

"Alright, what about this then?" Kim asked, giving him her explanation. "You realised a long time that Donna does love you and a lot, but at that moment, as you tried to diminish how much you love her by thinking about the potential of me, you misinterpreted the way she was telling you that she loves you.

"You're sister died when you were young, you've spent most of your life like an only child, you've forgot how strong the love between siblings can be and Donna seems like a person who loves every member of her family more than words can say. When she was telling you she thought of you as a brother she was really saying 'I love you so much Josh, why do you have to be stupid?'"

Josh was silent as Kim's words sunk in. "Really? You're giving me your honest professional opinion and telling me that I'm in love with Donna and was annoyed with her for seeing me as a brother because I misunderstood her."

"Well, no," Kim admitted. "It's not my professional opinion, or even my personal one for that matter, my professional and personal opinions involve a lot more words and things you would never understand but think about what you just said. How easy was that for you to say? You just said you're in love with Donna and you didn't fumble over the words, you didn't try and refute a word I said. You just said it. Granted it was in a context but try it now. Close your eyes and say the first thing that comes into your head."

What was she, crazy? She seriously wanted him to tell her that he was in love with another woman? Still, he closed his eyes and opened his mouth. "I love Donna," the words came out quietly, as though afraid she were listening on the other side of the door and would hear him. His eyes opened in a dramatic style and a shocked look came over his face. He looked at Kim, as though to gauge her reaction. She didn't look shocked; in fact she looked quite smug.

"I knew it," she said simply. "Don't worry, I don't expect you to still go out with me, you've got a woman you really love outside waiting for you to tell her."

"Kim…" He began but she put out a hand to stop him.

"Don't bother, I understand," that was all she had to say on the matter.

"I have a meeting in five minutes and then I'm done for the day. Go to my apartment, Donna will drive you, and make sure both of you stay there, I'll be there within the hour."

"Josh," Kim said with a frown, was he regressing? Did he think they would still be together?

"Relax," he said, seeing her face. "I want to talk to you both, get you to understand but this isn't the place."

"It's not necessary, I already do."

"But I'd feel better, hold on…Donna!" He shouted this last word making his assistant appeared within fifteen seconds.

"What?" She asked him impatiently but worriedly as he said nothing and just looked at her curiously.

Her words shook him out of his trance though and he spoke, "Take Kim to my place, stay with her until I get there, please?"

Donna huffed but did as she was, that was what she did after all, what she would always do. Obey Josh's every wish and command.

- - - - - - - -

Donna drove her car in silence and Kim was making no attempts to start a conversation with her, which suited Donna just fine. Except it didn't because it was an awkward silence and awkward silences were the only kind Donna didn't like.

"Look," she said, looking away from the road and towards Kim. "I just wanted to say –"

"Look out!" Kim shouted as she pointed out of the window beside Donna.

Donna turned too late to stop as her car passed the red light only to be hit by another car going across the cross junction of the roads. Brakes squealed, glass smashed and smoke filled the air, these were the last things Donna noticed before everything went black.

A/N: Ok, so no one mentioned it and I forgot (since I haven't watched and only read about Season 6) but Leo shouldn't be here yet since he's meant to be recuperating and CJ doing his job. For this reason I'm gonna redo chapter 3 so that instead of Leo it's the President and Margaret is Debbie, that's all that'll change, the names so don't feel you need to reread it, it's just for any new readers. That's all I think…Oh, and there were no responses last chapter because I split it in two, this is the second part so here's the responses…

kursk Well, Josh has finally "woken up" but is he too late to do anything about it now? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Caia Josh isn't blind...he's just a little…unseeing! Alright, so he's blind, but he's cute with it :D

Miss jasadin Thanks. I can never write drunken characters, they always just sounding like idiots. I was impressed with the way Donna came out. And I'm glad you liked what happened, what about now? You're not going to hurt me because Donna got hurt are you? Oh God, I'm going to have to hide from a legion of Donna-lovers aren't I?

JDfanatic well, now you've seen it…Please don't hurt me. And why do so many people seem surprised that Josh is an idiot? I've only just noticed how many do, but he's Josh, he's meant to be!

Nicole10 Hmm…I wonder why chapter 4 was the best part…lol. Glad you liked the song, one of my friends said it was dead good and then I wrote this and they seemed to fit together so I wanted to put it in, this was the only way I could get it in.

Yoshielf Thank you, that was the main bit I was worrying about with this story, if I wrote the characters well, you saying I have just gives me confidence hugs