Kursk -- Donna will slowly find out how much Josh has and so will you. I promise.

Ryanne -- I thought that since you sign with your name you might like it. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Please keep coming back for more!

Caia -- I was debating on what Josh should get Donna and then I saw the episode where Maui is brought up and I thought that it would be prefect.

Miss Jasadin -- Laughs are good. I hope you laugh more as you read further.

Thunder -- Thank you for the complement. Glad to see I'm doing something right,

Scififreakmi -- Heather really did a wonderful job on that one, didn't she? I'm glad that you're enjoying my side of the story as well.

AN -- Giving Heather a break, so all the errors are mine. Yes, I really do need her because she tears everything I write apart and hands it back to me because she is awesome like that. Please keep reading and enjoying. Feedback is like crack, so please feed my addiction!

"CJ, you like fine."

"No, no I don't. I look very, very pregnant."

"And to think that you'll be standing up in my wedding the day before you're due."

"Oh, God. I'm going to be huge. I wasn't this big with Coll, right?" CJ sighed, turning in the mirror so she could observe herself from a different angle.

Donna tried to remember.

"Um, no, but you're carrying a boy and boys are carried lower than girls."

"Thanks."

Donna and CJ were out shopping for dresses for the wedding. Donna had decided on having three attendants, her older sister, Nicola, was going to be the matron of honor and her best friend from childhood on, Jessie, was going to be a bridesmaid along with CJ. She had wanted to have more friends, but with the Secret Service involved, it was headache enough with three. That wasn't to say that she wasn't content, Donna was quite happy, but still, there were others she wanted in her party.

"Come on, CJ, you look beautiful. Danny isn't going to be able to take his eyes off of you. Hell, I don't think Josh, Sam or Toby will be able to either."

CJ did look quite stunning in her gown. It was in periwinkle, the color Donna had chosen for the wedding, and complimented everything from her hair to her baby belly. It was strapless and fell to the floor in soft folds, making soft swooshing sounds as she moved.

"Danny had better keep his eyes on me. Josh, however, is going to be staring a hole right though you from the second you walk into the church."

"Toby though…"

"Donna, I'm married, I have a toddler and I'm pregnant. No one, not even dear Tobias, is going to be making eyes at me."

"I wouldn't be so sure..." Donna never did understand quite what was between those two. They had a history, that was evident enough, but there were times when she wondered what had happened between them fifteen years ago. Still, that was indeed the past, and her and Danny were the present, and they where happier together than Donna had ever seen her with Toby.

"Says she who has men lined up around the block."

"What?" Donna asked, genuinely surprised.

"They guy from the Post Intelligencer, Joe Qunicy, Colin, Jack, Cliff, Sam..."

"Sam?"

CJ realized that now she was getting in dangerous waters, and decided to walk it back.

"So why do you start tying on gowns? I think this is the only one that I'm going to be able to fit into."

"I don't know. My mom and nonna have been giving me grief about doing the dress shopping myself. They are convinced that they have to be there for it and then drag me to twenty two different stores after I find the one I want, just to make sure."

"Sounds fun."

"I was seventeen when Nicola got married and Nonna nearly went crazy over the dress. I think she even yelled at the seamstress in Italian over a droopy bead or two." Donna smiled at the memory. She hated the whole process, being told this and hat when her mind was on getting ahead in her English class so that Mrs. Morello would be able to get her started on the next novel before she went to Italy for Christmas.

"Sounds like my grandmother. She would yell in Swedish when my bothers would steal cookies from the cookie jar," CJ reminisced, Grandma Elin was something else.

After leaving the dress with the sales clerk, CJ guided Donna over to where the wedding gowns were in the store. CJ now wished that she had gotten a lovely white dress like the ones that lined the racks. Instead she got a pretty champagne colored cocktail dress that was cute, elegant, and seemingly appropriate at the time. However, she realized that she was being ridiculous about the whole thing, that she wasn't beholden to any tradition about dress colors. She was part of the sisterhood, she was sassy, she was confident, she wasn't the stereotypical wife in the stereotypical relationship. Still, she heard Grandma Elin's voice in the back of her head and went against her better judgment.

"CJ?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think that we have to go any further."

"You found it?"

Donna was still too entranced by the dress to do anything more than nod. She gently caressed the fabric, enjoying how it felt cool against her fingertips.

"Earth to Donna. Try it on."

And try it on she did. Between the sales clerk and CJ, Donna got into the dress, all the tiny buttons in the back taken care of. As she stood standing in the mirror looking at her reflection, her eyes began to well. She saw more than the dress, more than the smile on CJ's face or the look of satisfaction in the sales clerk's face. She saw a promise being kept, a promise made with a million different moments, and a hope being realized that had borne the storm and had survived.

"Donna..." CJ whispered, also taken aback by how beautiful Donna looked, how a look of contentment had taken over her face.

"Yeah," Donna answered.

"This is it."

"I know."

Donna slowly turned around admiring the gown from all angles. It was strapless and simple, devoid of all beading and other decorations save for a flowing side drape in the softest ivory to trail a few inches behind her.

"How's Nonna going to take it?"

"I'm more worried about Josh. I mean, I want to not have him drop dead of a heart attack..." Donna replied, a sly smile on her face. She knew, for better or for worse, what he liked, and this was definitely it.

"I wouldn't be too sure, Donna."

"Sam is going to have to get him to breathe you know. Toby too, I have to imagine."

"Bummer if he's dead before the honeymoon."

"I think he's going to have to restrain himself from grabbing me right there in front of the alter."

"Nonna wouldn't like that?"

"Not so much."

"Hmmm."

"You like saying "nonna" don't you?"

"Yes. Yes, I do."

Donna turned in the mirror once again and admired the gown. It was only now, in the dress, she felt like she was actually getting married. In her mind, Josh and her had been married in more ways then one since the first, and the whole wedding thing was just making it legal, official, known to everyone else. However, now Donna could see herself as a blushing bride, making her way down the aisle to her husband to be and to a whole new chapter of existence.

Later that night, Donna was sitting at the kitchen table looking though a catalogue when Josh came back from the market.

"I got the pretzels and peanut butter."

"You are amazing, dearheart, you really are."

"And she says this before we go to bed," Josh quipped as he set the back down on the counter.

"Just for that, you aren't getting any."

"We'll see."

"Give me the peanut butter."

"Fine. Although I don't know how you're going to fit into your wedding dress if you live off of peanut butter and pretzels."

"Joshua Aaron!"

"Uh-oh."

"Yeah, uh-oh. You're going to go on a very, very long dry spell for that comment."

"Donnatella," Josh whined. "I'm sorry…"

"Glad to hear it, but you're still not getting any for a long time."

"That means you won't either."

Donna realized at that moment that Josh had a point.

"I can live with that. I have my peanut butter and pretzels."

Josh, realizing that the battle was hopelessly lost, decided to change the subject.

"So whatcha working on?"

"I'm looking at table favors. What do you think of these?"

Donna pointed to what she wanted to have sitting at each place setting in the reception hall. They were little silver boxes tied with all different colors of ribbon each containing a small piece of various kinds of fudge.

"Sure."

"I mean they would be tied up in periwinkle bows, so they would match the rest of the decorations."

"Sounds good," Josh replied with great lackluster, reaching across the table to get a handful of pretzels.

"You couldn't care less, right?"

"Right."

"And you're pouty because you're in trouble, right?"

"Right."

Donna just rolled her eyes at him and continued to page through the catalogue after she had gotten a bowl of pretzels and peanut butter. By the end of the evening she had picked out the gifts for everyone in bridal party. For the bridesmaids she picked out monogrammed lipstick holders, the groomsmen multi-tools, Leena, the flower girl, a little jewelry box, and for the ring bearer, Nicola's son Felix, a soccer ball shaped bank with his name engraved. She thought that Kit Lyman would like a basket of all sorts of fancy teas and a very nice teacup. For her own mother, Giovanna, Donna picked out a basket of expensive soaps, and for her father, Clay, a gold tie clip with his initials on it.

"I'm going to bed," Donna announced when she had finished ordering from the catalogue.

"I'll be there in a minute," Josh called from the family room, "I just want to see the end of the period."

"Suit yourself."

Donna hated falling asleep when Josh had a game on in the bedroom since he was always yelling something or another at the TV. They tried it once and the next morning Donna declared that there would be no games on the bedroom TV while she was in there.

"When is my first meeting tomorrow?"

"Six twenty with Senator Neil."

"Which means we have to be up by…"

"Yeah, four thirty."

"On second thought, I won't watch the Capitals getting whomped by the Wings."

"Good choice."

"Thank you."

"Now come to bed."

"I thought you said no sex."

"I did. But it is so damn cold in here I want to be under the blankets next to a warm body."

With that imagine in his head Josh quickly shut off the game, turned off the lights in the family room and kitchen, and walked with Donna back to his bedroom. Once they were under the covers Donna scooted next to Josh and laid her head on his chest. She loved to listen to his heart beating, it was the sweetest sound she thought she ever could hear. As the steady thub-lub lulled her to sleep, she thought of how thankful she was to hear it.