Disclaimer - I don't own the West Wing Characters, sadly they belong to Aaron Sorkin, John Wells, NBC and blah, blah, blah. The greater crime is that I don't own Brad Whitford either. What a babe. However, I reserve the right to write myself into this story, so I can at least have him for a little while.

Pairings - Josh/OC

Rating - PG

Summary - Josh meets his match (in more ways that one) in the most unlikely place - a piano bar.

Her song mercifully over, Caroline McTerin eased her way through the crowd, accepting the praise of those who applauded her and whooped as she passed them, silently vowing to somehow, some way exact her revenge on her so-called friends. She laughed as she passed a group of fraternity boys, who bowed playfully to her. She stepped up to the edge of the bar, and rested against it.

"The woman of the moment!" Chelsea teased, already having grabbed a bottle of Caroline's favorite beer out of a large tub behind the bar.

"Shut up," Caroline laughed, accepting the Corona from her friend, who then grabbed her arm and whirled her around. She nearly fell into the lap of man whose face she immediately recognized. They'd met, if you could call it that, just once, many, many months before.

"That's Josh," Chelsea said, struggling to be heard over to roar of the audience, "Now that you're practically sitting in his lap, I thought you should know his name."

Oh, she knew his name all right. Josh Lyman, Deputy White House Chief of Staff. Dear Lord in heaven, she thought, as she righted herself again, it's really him.

"And this," Chelsea said, flirtatiously draping her arm over Sam's shoulder, "is Sam."

"Ah," Caroline replied, recognizing the name of the man her roommate had been talking about for over a week.

"Sam Seaborn," Chelsea clarified, patting Sam on the back.

"White House Deputy Communications Director," Caroline said, extending her hand to him.

"I think you have a fan," Josh teased.

Sam shook Caroline's hand, and then stood from his chair, offering it to her. "I've got to..." he said, pointing in the general direction of the restrooms, "Keep my seat warm for me?"

"Sure," Caroline answered, fighting a nagging wave of anticipation slowly building in her gut. She climbed onto the high stool and took a swig of her beer. Her heart beat furiously in her chest. She was sitting right next to...

"Josh Lyman," he said, leaning over slightly to make himself heard, interrupting her thought.

"I know," she answered with a nod.

Josh smiled - a wide, toothy grin that made him look like a little boy and left her weak in the knees. "I'm sorry, have we met?"

"We have actually," Caroline said with an embarrassed laugh, knowing full well the brilliant politician sitting opposite her certainly wouldn't remember a lowly campaign volunteer he'd briefly shaken hands with as their respective candidates unexpectedly passed each other on the street.

"That's not possible," he replied, somewhat startled by her answer. "I forget a lot of things, just ask my boss. But I don't make it a habit to forget incredibly beautiful women."

"Super Tuesday," she explained sheepishly, blushing at his compliment, "Ohio."

His brow furrowed in confusion and he shook his head. "You worked for Bartlet?"

"No," she answered.

"Hoynes?" he questioned.

"No," she replied, hoping she wouldn't really have to give him an honest answer. She was proud of the work she'd done on the Presidential campaign, she truly was, but she had also developed a bit of a crush on Joshua Lyman that day, demanding of her friends any and all information they knew about him. There was something about him - something she'd never quite been able to put her finger on - something about the power he wielded mixed with a boyish, playful charm.

"Caroline," he said with another mega-watt grin, "believe me, the only way I could not have noticed you was if you worked for..."

As his last sentence began to trail off, Caroline could almost see the lightbulb going on over Josh's head.

"For who?" she asked innocently.

"Collins," he said, his eyes wide with shock. "You're a Republican."

"Yep," she conceded with a nod, "card carrying member."

"Holy crap," was his only response. She watched him as he stared at his beer bottle for a moment, absent mindedly spinning it on the bar while the wheels in his brain processed this new information. "So," he said after a few moments, "how do you know Chelsea?"

"She's my roommate," Caroline explained, happy to have had the subject changed, "we met at Georgetown."

"Undergrad or law school?"

"Law school," she answered, after taking a quick sip of her beer. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she didn't want her being a Republican and him being a Democrat to end their conversation.

"Where'd you go to college?" he asked.

"Harvard," she answered with a smile, knowing full-well he'd gone there as well.

"Me too," he laughed, resting his arm on the bar and turning his body in towards hers. "Did you ever have Professor Kaufman?"

"Professor Cough-it-up-already?" she said with an eye roll, then lifted her beer bottle in salute. "Yes, I'm a proud survivor of Kaufman's U.S. Government class."

Josh clinked his bottle against hers. "A fellow veteran, glad to make your acquaintance, Miss Caroline Smith Jones Adams."

"McTerin," she corrected him, offering her hand. "Caroline McTerin."

TBC....