Ladies and Gentleman of the West Wing

Disclaimer: Josh, Donna, Sam, Toby, CJ, Danny, Leo, Abbey, Jed, Andi, Amy, Joey, Margaret, Mallory, Alex, Lisa, Cliff, Donald, Jack, Lauri, Freddie, Huck, and Molly don't belong to me? What do you mean? Hmmm… I could have sworn that they did. Wait, that's right, they being to Sorkin. Colleen Concannon and the new on on the way belong to my friend Heather, and anyone else belongs to me.

A/N: Fluff? What is this thing called fluff? It's actually happy? And what is this light? I've been in angstville for way too long. Okay, so this is a sequel of story written by my friend Heather called "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press" and I highly recommend it. It is really, really good. Go and read it now, I'll still be here waiting for you to come back. She is also my kick arse beta, sounding board, and LGW, so give her a hand. Anyway, long story short, we always say how we get ideas from each other's stories and this is the result of that. This is highly AU from season four on, but embrace the AU-ness of it. It really is a beautiful thing. It takes place in an "season six" but it is more like the missing year you know is out there.

Josh knew the second that he heard that Donna was still alive, he was going to marry her. When he honestly thought he had lost her, and he did for several hours, he couldn't think of going on. He couldn't imagine what he was going to do without her. She had become his world and he wasn't aware of it until it was almost to late, and he wasn't going to let that happen again. While he ran back to his office to get his backpack and laptop he decided that he was going to marry Donna. It wasn't really a conscious decision though, it was more like a truth that he finally had the strength to realize and let run over him.

He wanted so badly to ask her to marry him when he first got there. Instead he sat by her bed in silence, praying to the God he had stopped believing in long ago. His silence was his testimony, the greatest indicator of what he felt. He decided that he wasn't going to let fear dictate how he acted anymore. After nearly losing her twice, the fear of the wrath of the administration had little effect on him. Now his only fear was as that she would say that it was too late, that it had been too late anytime after Sam's election, that saying, "I'm sorry, I love you, marry me," wouldn't be enough, and that she was too good for him, all of which was too true. So he waited until one night in her apartment when she was fully recovered. It was brash and bumbling without any preamble.

They were laying on the couch sharing a carton of veggie fried rice when he simply said, "Marry me."

He had meant to say so much more, to say how he knew he couldn't go on when she didn't know what had happened to her, how he regretted every missed moment, how he would think about her even in his dreams, how he was addicted to her in every way and he couldn't live another day without her. He wanted to say how he would understand if she said no, that he was scared that something worse would happen to her if she married him, that it didn't have to get married that night but God knew he wanted to, he would wait forever until she was ready.

However, he didn't get a chance to say anything because she said "Yes."

She didn't know why she said yes, they hadn't dated, they hadn't shared anything more than a chaste kiss, but they had so much more than that. They had a virtual lifetime together.

"What?"

"You just asked me to marry you and I said yes."

"But you said it without thinking."

"Do you really think that I would need to agonize over it? Josh, I've loved you in some way since day one in Manchester. So, yes, Joshua Lyman, I will marry you."

"Really?"

"Really." she murmured, turning into him, settling into the person who knew her, who accepted her, who she knew adored her in a way that no one had ever had before.

"Why do you put up with me?"

"Because you're you, and I'm me and some how it works out to us, and now it is time for us to gather our rosebuds."

"Well, in that case, I have something for you."

Josh shifted and reached into his jeans pocket and concealed what he had pulled out in his hand.

"I, um, I know this isn't the usual ring, but I thought it would mean more." He then proceeded to open his fist to reveal a platinum band covered all the way around with rubies.

"Oh, my God, Josh," she whispered marveling at it. In all honestly she had never seen a ring as stunning as the one he was about to put on her finger.

"So you'll always remember that I'll never, ever stop for red lights."

Years later Donna couldn't remember if he carried her to the bed or they walked or if they even made it off of the couch. All she knew is that she was finally coming home to something that she always known, always felt, and always had faith in. she could remember how he was such a tender lover, how he worshiped her, and she remembered how they drowned in each other, their pasts, their future.

In truth they had been married since Rosslyn, if not before that. They waited to make their announcement until things had settled around CJ's announcement. They didn't want to steal the spotlight, and didn't want to make both the President and Leo go white overnight. So Donna wore her simple and elegant ruby and platinum band on her right hand and waited until things calmed down. If anyone noticed the ring or the couple's elated demeanor, they looked the other way. Sometimes ignorance was bliss, and when it came to Josh and Donna, no one ever really knew what went on with those two. A few weeks after CJ announced her second pregnancy, Donna and Josh walked into Leo's office, their faces almost too serious.

"What do you guys need? I have to get this report to the President within the hour."

"This won't take long." Josh said, sitting down across from Leo.

"Okay."

"What are you doing on February nineteenth?" Donna asked calmly as she played with her ring.

"What is this about?"

"There's going to be a wedding that day, and we want to know if you'd be interested in coming."

"What?"

"Leo, Donna and I are going to get married."

"Margaret!" Leo bellowed

"Yes?" she asked half in the doorway and half out.

"Close the door."

Margaret did as she was told and Leo took a deep breath.

"I need to take you out back and whack you with a two by four! What the hell are you thinking?" Then an idea dawned on him, and his face became withdrawn. "Donna, you aren't pregnant, are you?"

"No! Leo, no, I'm not pregnant."

"Are you guys sure? There's going to be hell to pay from Mary Marsh to this White House not to mention the press corps. I mean we just dealt with CJ and Danny."

"All due respect, this is different. Donna isn't pregnant. We're not hiding anything. If anything, we're being honest."

"Do you guys have any idea what the ramifications are going to be?"

"That's not going to scare us. This is going to be tame after white supremacists and terrorists." Josh said, his voice getting extremely loud.

"Donna, you're going to be accused of being a whore,"

"Leo!" Josh yelled, his anger erupting.

"-and sleeping your way into your posistion. Josh, you're going to be branded as someone with an overdriven secretarial fantasy and as someone who used his power in a way that was way over the line."

"Donna knows that's not the case. I know that's not the case. You know that's not the case... hell, the entire West Wing knows that's not the case!"

"Josh, that was my Chief of Staff speech, relax." Leo beamed a natural smile, the kind that was few and far between in those days. "My old friend of your father speech is it's about damn time."

"Leo? Why are you so calm about this?" Josh asked, still coming down, as Donna slipped her hand in his.

"Because this was a decade in the making. It was inevitable. I'm just glad you two figured it out on your own. Now go and see CJ. She's going to want to know so she can control the story."

"Okay, thanks, Leo."

And so Josh and Donna did just that. After the initial shock, CJ's reaction was much the same as

Leo's. She had known that this day would have to come, although she thought that it would be later

rather than sooner. She had a plan to deal with this for a while, how she would announce to the

corps, how she would spin it, and how she would defend them. CJ then called Toby and Sam into her

office.

"What's up, CJ?" Sam asked, sitting down on the couch

"Can we hurry it up? Sam and I have to work on the thing."

"Well, it looks like we're going to have a wedding." CJ said happily.

"What?" Toby asked, as he put his hand to his forehead.

"Sam, Toby... Josh and I have decided to get married."

"Donna!" Sam leapt up and threw his arm around Donna, picked her up, and spun her around. He then kissed her check and laughed. "That's... just wonderful, Donna! Josh, you do realize that you're marrying up?"

"I do."

"You're what?" Toby repeated, still in disbelief

"They're getting married Toby!" Sam exclaimed, "They're finally getting married!"

"But what about, you know, the press, the public?"

"Toby, if they can deal with me and Danny, they can deal with Josh and Donna. Half of them are convinced that they've been having a passionate love affair from the start."

"Donna, I hate to ask this, but..."

"No, Toby, I'm not pregnant. This isn't something that we're doing to cover anything up. We're doing it because we should have done it a long time before now."

"Josh?"

"Yeah, Sam?"

"Have you two ever been out on a date?"

"No."

While Josh and Sam carried on and Toby observed them, CJ pulled Donna aside.

"He really did it?"

"Yeah, he did."

"So, let's see the ring!"

Donna held out her right hand and CJ couldn't believe what she saw. Part of her wondered where on Earth Josh got enough money to buy it, but the other part of her was too stunned to form the thought fully.

"Donna, thats..."

"Yeah, I know."

"So when is the big day?"

"Feburary ninteenth. The day.."

"You showed up at Manchester?"

"Yeah."

"Very nice."

"We thought so."

"So how are Leena and baby number two doing?"

"They're fine. Colleen starts a playgroup soon, so if she understood what that was, I'm sure she'd be excited. Not that she's not energetic. Let's just say she's a lot like how Hogan was when she was that age."

"That bad, huh?"

"Sleep is a distant memory."

"I know how that one goes..."

To be continued...