Brand New Day

Characters: Josh, Donna, Matt, Helen, Ronna, and some new creations
Pair: Josh and Donna

A/N: Title belongs to Sting. Also, I apologize for anyone who lives in Madison if I get anything wrong. I tried to do my best by looking on the internet, but you know who that goes! Enjoy!

Weddings are stressful. Even for the normal woman in Middle America, weddings are stressful. The wedding party, the guests, the food, the flowers, the parents and aunts and uncles and other such family members, the wedding party gifts, the wedding gifts, the music, the readings and all that stuff – it can be very overwhelming. Just imagine the normal wedding pains multiplied infinitely when the groom is the current Chief of Staff, the sitting President and First Lady are both attendants in the ceremony, and the former First Family are invited guests. No one has any idea how much Secret Service that entails and how many people have vetted the invitation list.

Thank God the Hotel Washington was used to chaos and the Secret Service. Donna had never been more grateful for anyone in her life the week leading up to the wedding than she was for the Special Events Coordinator at the Hotel Washington. Sandra handled everything thrown at her like a pro and never broke a sweat. She turned the Sky Room into the perfect location for Donna and Josh's intimate wedding. Thank the Lord that neither one of them had a lot of family to begin with – kept the task of keeping the wedding small much easier.

Donna wasn't sure how she was going to make it to the wedding day, but she did. The photographer had just finished up with all the individual pictures. CJ told her that Josh was begging to see her, so Charlie and Sam currently had him locked away in another part of the hotel and the Secret Service were under strict instructions from Matt to tackle him if he tries to leave the room.

So, here stood Donna, looking at herself in the full length mirror, trying to remember how she got here, how she managed this life. She giggled as she thought back to that day, the day it all changed. It was her favorite memory and it was so vivid and real that it seemed like it had happened just yesterday instead of nine years ago.

She had walked into the office that just to see, to look around. Margaret walked by and asked if she needed help, to which Donna responded "I was about to ask you all the same thing." That made Margaret laugh, which made Donna feel comfortable.

"Well, just jump on in…"

"Donna. Donna Moss."

"I'm Margaret. I'm in the middle of a thing… just jump on in and I'll find you in a minute."

Donna walked through the desks, looking into the makeshift offices in against the walls. As she walked past one, the phone started to ring. She looked around, waiting to see if someone was going to come answer it. On the fifth ring, the phone was starting to annoy her and Margaret had told her just to jump right in, so she decided to answer it. It's a good thing she took those drama classes – they were paying off now, since she had no idea what she was really talking about.

"Josh Lyman. Uh, no, he's not available right now. This afternoon? Uh, he's got a media session, and then a five o'clock with finance."

She felt a presence in the room as she was finishing up that call. She noticed the man out of the corner of her eye.

"I can get your name and number and give Josh the message when he gets back. Thank you very much."

"Hi."

"Hi." 'Wow' she thought 'volunteers must come in all ages'. She almost said it out loud but he started talking.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Donna Moss, who are you?"

"I'm Josh Lyman." 'Well, I'm glad I didn't say that out loud' she thought to herself.

"Ah.'

"Yes."

"I'm your new assistant."

"Did I have an old assistant?"

"Maybe not."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Donna Moss, I came here to volunteer and the woman assigned me to you."

"Which woman?"

"Becky."

"You mean Margaret?" 'Dammit – that's her name. I'm going to have to get better at this name thing very quickly!'

"Yes."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Donna Moss; I'll be working as your assistant."

"I'm going to talk to Margaret." 'Oh shit…'

"Actually, Josh –"

"Yeah?"

"When I said I was assigned to you…"

"Yeah?"

"I may have been overstating it a little."

"Who are you?"

She wanted to laugh out loud at that look on his face, but she thought better about it when he took off. Thank god she had long legs or she would have never been able to keep up.

"I'm Donna Moss; I drove up here from Madison, Wisconsin?"

"When did your boyfriend break up with you?"

"What makes you think that my boyfriend broke up with me?" 'Holy crap – is he psychic? Is that a prerequisite? Am I going to have to learn to be psychic?'

"Well, you're too old for your parents to have kicked you out of the house." 'Yeah right – that that to my lazy ass cousin who is probably lying on the couch watching All My Children as we speak!'

"I'm here because I want to work for Bartlet. I'm a college graduate, with a degree in Political Science and Government."

"Where did you graduate?" 'Shit…'

"Hmm?"

"Where did you graduate?" 'Yeah, he's psychic!'

"Okay, when I said I graduated, I may have been overstating a little?"

"Look –"

"I was a couple of credits short."

"From where?"

"University of Wisconsin."

"You majored in Political Science and Government?"

"And, uh, Sociology and Psychology."

"Uh-huh."

"And biology for a while, with a minor in French?"

"Okay."

"And, uh, drama?"

"You had five majors and two minors in four years?"

'I should just shut up right now and shake my head yes'. "Two years." 'Dammit – mouth, you need to LISTEN to me when I tell you something!'

"Okay, listen..."

'Only one way to fix this…' "I had to drop out. I had to drop out."

"Your boyfriend was older than you?"

"I think that question is of a personal nature?"

"Donna, you were just at my desk, reading my calendar, answering my phone, and hoping that I wouldn't notice that I never hired you. Your boyfriend was older?"

"Yes."

"Law student?"

"Medical student."

"And the idea was that you'd drop out and pay the bills till he was done with his residency."

"Yes."

"And why did Dr. Freeride break up with you." 'Hey, that's a pretty good nickname – I need to remember that!'

"What makes you think he broke up with me?" 'Like I'm telling him everything, since he seems to think he's so damn right!'

"Donna, this is a campaign for the Presidency, and there's nothing I take more seriously than that. This can't be a place where people come to find their confidence and start over."

"Why not?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Why can't it be those things?"

"Because –"

"What, is it going to interfere with my typing?"

"Donna, we're picking up today and going to South Carolina. If you want to stay in the Manchester office –"

"I want to come to Charleston."

"I can't carry you, Donna! I got a lot of guys out there not making the trip."

"I'll pay my own way."

"With what?"

"I'll sleep on the floor, I'll sell my car. Eventually, you're going to put me on salary." 'Hell, I've been sleeping in my car the last couple of nights – at least the floor in a hotel will be warmer!'

"Donna."

"Look. I think I might be good at this. I think you might find me valuable."

The phone started ringing again as they stared at each other. Donna wasn't real sure where all this confidence came from, but she knew she had to stand her ground.

"Go ahead."

'And I win!' she thought as she picked up the phone.

"Bartlet for America, Josh Lyman's office. Uh, yes, I think I'm going to have someone from the press office get back to you if it's related to -- yes. Uh, yes."

She just smiled at him as he took off his badge and handed it to her. 'Well, at least I won't get kicked out of the place right away!'

She finished up the call and wrote down the message when she heard him yelling at someone in the office. She glanced at him as he was tossing paper after paper on the floor.

'Pity the woman that gets stuck with him' she thought as she walked around the desk to try to get it in some kind of order.

She smiled at her memory. "I'm sure there is someone out there thinking that about me right now" she mumbled to herself.

"What was that?"

Donna looked into the mirror and saw Helen Santos standing there.

She smiled. "Oh nothing… I was just thinking… about when I started working for Josh and the campaign."

Helen smiled and took a seat. "I'm guessing you didn't answer an ad in the paper."

That made Donna laugh out loud. "Not quite."

"Well, do share, my dear. We've got some time."

Donna crossed the room and sat down on the couch. "Well, to fully understand, I need to start with Michael."

"Who's Michael?"

"My ex… you've probably heard him referred to as Dr. Freeride by my soon-to-be husband."

Helen laughed out loud, having a memory of her own.

Donna was confused. "What?"

"Nothing. Go on."

Donna just smiled as she launched into the story.

Pacing was in Josh's genes. As a kid, he watched his father pace while working on a case. It was something that helped Josh think, burn off stress, or to use when he wanted to annoy people. Today, that's what he was using the pacing for.

"Josh…"

"Samuel…"

"Sit down."

"No thanks."

"Seriously…"

"What?"

"Sit. Down."

"No thanks."

That last no thanks made Sam groan and get out of his chair.

"I'm getting some air."

"You aren't ditching me, are you Samuel?"

"Not yet, but it would probably be best if I got away from you right now!"

Josh smirked and waved his hand at his best friend, who made a quick exit. From across the room, Matt looked up from his magazine and laughed. "How you manage to keep friends around, I will never understand."

Josh gave Matt a strange look.

"What?"

"Should I be concerned that the President is reading an old issue of People?"

"Well, it was either this or the briefing memo from the DOD, but I didn't figure that it would be a good idea to whip out classified information in the middle of a hotel…"

"And they said you still had a lot to learn. Look at ya!"

"Yeah, I know. It's impressive, isn't it!"

Josh sighed and plopped down next to Matt on the couch and started to fiddle with his bowtie. Matt slapped his hand.

"Stop it."

"But…"

"Seriously, I have strict instructions from your mother that if you start fiddling with your tie again that I'm to let her know so she can come strangle you with it."

"But it's not right!"

"Josh, your mom tied it for you five times, which by the way is really weird since you wear tuxes all the time."

"Donna ties them. She's the only one who can do it right. If I could just…"

"No."

"But sir!"

"No."

"If I could just…"

"Ok then."

Josh just looked at his boss. "Really?"

"Sure."

Josh hopped off the couch and made is way toward the door. Just as his hand hit the handle, Matt started talking again.

"But, just so you are fully apprised of the situation, last time I looked, President Bartlet was sitting at the end of the hall and he had trapped Charlie and Ned in a mind-numbing conversation about the Redwoods in California and if you go out there…"

Josh groaned and came back to the couch.

"There we go."

"You're an evil man, sir, evil, evil, evil. You plant him there?"

"Nah, I think Abbey made him take that post."

"Figures."

Matt went back to his magazine and Josh closed his eyes. After a few minutes, Matt put the magazine back on the table and looked at Josh.

"There's something I've wanted to ask you about."

Josh opened his eyes and rolled his head over so he could look at Matt. "Yeah…"

"Yeah, something that Helen and Ronna have been laughing about since Wisconsin. Something about a free ride."

Josh smirked, remembering that incident well. "Sir, it's a who, not a what."

"What?"

"Freeride, or Dr. Freeride as I have come to know him as. He's… well… let's just say that he's the reason that Donna ended up in my office all those years ago."

"An ex?"

"Yeah, an ex. Used her to pay his way through med school and then dumped her after graduation."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"So…"

"What?"

"What did you do to him?"

Josh sat up and got comfortable to tell this story, by far, his favorite story of all time.

It was two months earlier. The President and the Communications staff were starting to circle the wagons for the first Santos State of the Union. They were in Madison that Saturday, for the President's speech to the staff and residents at UW Medical Center and from hospitals across the city, to feel them out about the administrations plans for health care and Medicare.

Donna had begged on the trip so she could go see her family. That's where she currently was as Josh was pacing around the conference room they were using as a staging area.

He was reviewing some last minute notes when Jack Crowe came in the room. Jack is an old friend of Mike Casper's and he hung out with Mike and Josh whenever he got to DC. Josh had called him after he saw the final invitation list for the speech.

Josh looked at him. "He here?"

"Just walked in."

"Excellent!"

Josh exited the room with Jack and was immediately flanked by his Secret Service agents, Joe and Trent.

Just as they reached the door, Josh stopped Jack.

"You sure you're alright with this?"

"Absolutely. Donna's great."

"Yeah, but… I'm a little concerned I'm taking you away from, you know, actual work."

"Nah, the bad guys will be fine for a half hour."

Josh just laughed as Jack opened the door. Josh stood in the back and watched as Jack walked about halfway down the room and stopped. He pointed to someone about 6 or 7 seats in and motioned for him to get up. The man stood up and walked out to Jack, looking thoroughly confused. Jack grabbed him on the forearm and escorted him out of the room.

Josh and his agents walked about 10 paces behind Jack and the other man. They passed Helen Santos and Ronna in the hallway, as they were heading toward the speech.

"What's going on?" Helen asked as Josh walked past them.

"I'll tell you later" he said and kept on walking.

Jack opened the door to a small office. Josh took a seat in the corner and was flanked by an agent on each side. Jack motioned for the other man to sit down at the table. Jack sat across from him and opened the file that had been sitting on the table.

Jack gave the man a skeptical look before talking. "OK, let's just get started."

"What in the world is…"

"This will go a lot faster if you leave the questions to me, got it?"

The other man just shook his head.

"OK, so, you say your name is…"

"Michael Scheper. Dr. Michael Scheper. I'm on staff here at the UW Medical Center."

"So you say. OK, so, Scheper. Is that your real name?"

"Excuse me?"

"A man fitting your description popped on a watch list of those who have made threats against the current administration. We had sources who said that someone would be posing as a doctor today to try to infiltrate the President's speech."

"But I'm not…"

"Yeah."

"I never have done…"

"Yeah yeah yeah – you realize that that's what the criminals always say when they get busted. But, I'm very good at my job, so how about we just cut the bullshit and you tell me what your intentions are here today!"

Josh had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing. Jack was very good. Mike had said he would be good, but Josh had underestimated his old friend's recommendation.

"My… my… my intentions?"

"Yes."

"To listen to the President talk about health care?"

"No."

"No?"

"No. I think you have ulterior motives for being here today and I need you to tell me what they are!"

"Ulterior motives?"

"Yes."

"I don't…"

"Bullshit. Stop lying."

Josh could see that the surprise was starting to wear off and that indignation and anger were replacing the surprise.

"I'm not lying! How about you tell me what I'm doing here today?"

"Following through with threats you have made about the President and members of the current administration!"

"I never…"

"Once again with the bullshit, huh, Scheper?"

"Seriously. Where are you getting this information from?"

Jack whipped out a mini tape recorder from his jacket pocket and hit play. The tape was from Josh and Donna's machine from about a week earlier. Donna had been photographed with Helen at a fundraiser and the picture made all the networks. That's when the calls started. Usually Donna got the messages, but this one had been left on a Tuesday, so Josh managed to beat her home. When he heard the message, that's when the plan started to formulate in his head.

Michael stared at the recorder as he listened to himself, drunk off his ass, leaving a message for Donna about how he would beat the shit out of Josh if he ever got the chance.

When the message ended, Michael looked back at Jack.

"Is that your voice?"

"Where… how… where did you…"

"I've got my ways. Is that your voice?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Is that you threatening the Chief of Staff of President Santos?"

Michael swallowed and started looking around the room. His eyes landed on Josh and he took a minute to stare at the other man in the room. Josh just smirked at him.

"Wait a minute…"

Josh stood up and crossed his arms. Michael finally recognized the other man and shot out of his chair, completely enraged. Joe and Trent took protective positions in front of Josh.

"YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

Josh just shook his head.

"You pull me out of a conference; embarrass me in front of colleagues, to…"

"Tell you to quit calling."

"You can't…"

"Oh, but I can. I really, really can."

"Where's Donna?"

"DC" Josh said, lying, knowing he was meeting her and her parents for dinner in a few hours.

"What makes you think you can…"

"Because I'm who I am and you are who you are. I'm giving you fair warning – stop calling or you will really see the kind of power I wield."

Without another word, Josh, Jack, Joe and Trent exited the room, leaving Dr. Freeride standing there, mouth hanging open, completely run over by the Lyman train.

As they walked down the hall, Josh looked over at Jack, who was smiling.

"That was fun."

"Tell me about it."

"You gonna tell Donna?"

"Nope and you promised…"

"Yeah."

Josh shook Jack's hand and continued back to the speech. He saw Helen and Ronna standing outside the door, waiting for him to come back.

Helen noticed the smirk and swagger and knew something was up.

"Alright, out with it Lyman, what did you do?"

He laughed and threw one arm around each woman's shoulders. "Well, let me tell you a great little story…"

Matt was howling.

"You gonna be alright there, sir?"

Matt just nodded his head and kept laughing. Josh sat there, smiling, reveling in his triumph over the evil Dr. Freeride when there was a knock on the door and Sam popped his head in.

"It's time."

Josh shot off the couch and made his way toward his best man.

"You coming, Sir?"

Matt got up off the couch and made his way toward the door. As they walked toward the SkyRoom, Matt slapped Josh on the shoulder.

"Remind me never to get on your shit list."

"Will do, sir. I'll have Ronna made a note of it."

Donna was rounding the corner, getting ready to walk toward her new life, her brand new day with Josh. Never did she imagine that she would get here, have this kind of life, with this kind of man, but she knew it was right the minute she looked at the end of the room and saw him standing there, dimple smile on his face, looking completely delectable in his tuxedo. Flanking him were Sam, Matt, Toby and Charlie. Waiting for her was her sister, Helen, CJ, and Stephanie. Justice Lange stood between the two groups, looking regal and happy for this couple.

Donna didn't remember a lot of the ceremony. All she remembered, laying in bed that night, Josh asleep next to her, was that this is how her life was meant to be. No matter who or what had come before, this day, and all the days after, was meant for the two of them, and now, no one could come between that!

THE END (but there may be an epilogue… I'll have to see what I can come up with!)