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 than one, in the most unlikely place - a piano bar. But is she everything she claims to be?

Josharrived at Chelsea and Caroline's doorstep promptly at seven o'clock. He was dressed as casually as he was going to get for his first real date with the woman he'd been fantasizing about continuously. He'd argued with Sam all day - finally walking away when he realized he was about to slug his best friend. It didn't matter to him that Caroline was a Republican. It didn't matter to him that she was Arnold Vinick's niece. All that mattered was the way he felt when he was with her - like he could do anything.

Josh took a deep breath and knocked on the door, preparing himself for how gorgeous he knew Caroline would look when she opened the door. But nothing prepared him for what finally did greet him on the other side of the heavy oak door.

"What are you doing here?" Chelsea asked, swiping at her tear stained face with a kleenex before blowing her nose.

His eyes went wide. "I have a date with Caroline?" he said his voice an octave higher than normal and oblivious to the fact that his statement had come out sounding much more like a question.

"Yeah," Chelsea said, shaking her head softly, "but we both thought..." She eyed him suspiciously for a moment before opening the door wide. "Come in."

The apartment was dark as he followed Chelsea inside. He stood near the wall of bookcases closest to the door, completely unsure about what was going on around him. When he'd left the apartment that morning, he had a date with Caroline - and he was pretty sure the living room had been clean. Just a few hours later, he was watching, completely perplexed, as the light from the television illuminated her pajama clad, sleeping form. Strewn around her, and the empty spot on the couch he assumed Chelsea had occupied before answering the door, was a landscape of various Chinese food containers and small empty quarts of ice cream, dotted with the randomly disposed kleenex.

Chelsea bent down beside Caroline and gently shook her shoulder. "Carrie, honey, wake up. Josh is here."

"That's not funny, Chel," Caroline said, her voice both congested and tired.

"You're right it's not, but he is really is here and you look like hell." Caroline bolted upright at Chelsea's words, staring at Josh with wide eyes. He grinned and waved sheepishly at her.

"Oh my God," Caroline said, blinking twice in slow succession and then running a hand through the hair that had escaped from her loose ponytail. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Why do you two keep asking me that?" he asked curiously, crossing over to where she sat, still staring at him like he was a ghost. He knelt down on one knee in front of her. "We had a date, remember?"

"You can't..." she answered, shaking her head in disbelief while her face registered simple horror, "I'll be...right back..." she said, bolting past him and slamming the bathroom door shut.

"Somebody want to fill me the hell in?" Josh demanded, glaring at Chelsea.

"Well," Chelsea shrugged, "I broke up with that loser jackass you call a friend, and we both just assumed that after Sam told you about the Senator, you wouldn't be back."

"You broke up with Sam?" Josh asked incredulously.

"Of course I broke up with him!" Chelsea exclaimed, stalking into the kitchen and retrieving a small trash can. She began picking up the living room as she continued to rant. "Do you have any idea how many guys have found out that she's the Senator's niece and all of a sudden found her way more interesting than they did five minutes earlier? I told Sam because I knew Carrie wouldn't tell you. I told him because I love her and I like you, and I've never seen her look at anybody the way she looks at you. I didn't tell him so that he could forbid you to see her."

Josh cringed and turned his face toward the ceiling. "Please tell me she didn't hear our argument this morning."

Chelsea glared at him. "Josh, the whole freakin' neighborhood heard you and Sam arguing."

"So, that's why you two have been drowning your sorrows in Hagen Daas and Kung Pow Chicken?" he asked weakly.

She rolled her eyes. "I see you're the smart one."

Josh stepped over to the bathroom door and knocked lightly. "Caroline, sweetheart, can you come out here for a minute?"

"Yeah," she said weakly from the other side of the door. "Just...just...hold on."

He leaned against the doorframe. His mother and sister had taught him many lessons, one of which was not to rush women when they were in the bathroom. He could hear the water running and decided to wait patiently for Caroline to emerge. When she finally did, she looked up at him with eyes still rimmed in red from hours of crying. She'd pulled her hair back into a ponytail and was tugging nervously at the hem of her white v-neck t-shirt while biting her bottom lip.

"You know," he began with a grin, "I spent all day imagining what you'd be wearing when I got here tonight. I'll admit I was kind of hoping for a cute, flirty dress with a tiny little sweater, but this," he said, wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling playfully at the flannel fabric of her pajama pants, "is far sexier than anything I had imagined."

She rolled her eyes and swatted his chest. "You're teasing me."

"I am," he agreed.

"I didn't think you were coming back," she said, her voice no louder than a whisper.

Josh shook his head and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair. "Caroline," he said softly, "the President himself couldn't have kept me away."

She relaxed in his embrace and whispered onto his chest, "You're a good guy."

He kissed the top of her head and pulled away to look her in the eyes. "No," he admitted with a shake of his head, "but I always try to be."

Josh cupped her chin with his hand and tilted his head down to kiss her. His lips were just a breath away from hers when Chelsea began to sob. They both turned their heads to look at her.

"That is just..." she cried, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "You are just..."

"Chelsea," Josh laughed.

"Oh fine!" Chelsea said, feigning annoyance with a wave of her hand, "I'm leaving. She breezed past them on her way to her bedroom. "Carry on."

Josh turned his attention back to Caroline, his hand still cupping her chin. "Where were we?" he asked, lowering his lips onto hers again.

"Right about here," she answered, her fingers latching onto the soft fabric of his sweater as he kissed her. They stumbled back toward the couch as the kiss deepened and Josh turned them at the last minute, so that he fell onto the sofa first, groaning in pain as they landed.

"Josh?" she asked, her tone tinged with worry.

"I don't think your couch likes me," he complained, reaching under his back and coming up with a pair of chopsticks, sending Caroline into a fit of laughter, "this morning I have a kink in my neck and tonight, I've got chopsticks in my back."

She buried her head on his chest as they both laughed. "So," Josh asked, tracing her cheek with his fingertip, "you gonna feed me, or what?"

TBC...