Characters: Josh and Donna, mainly.
Spoilers: The Al Smith Dinner
It was just something that came to me. A little ficlet if you will. :)
Disclaimer: You have a right to know, I do not own the show nor any characters on TWW, in any way shape or form. But do I wish.
Debating On The Road
Congressman Matthew Santos and Louise 'Lou' Thornton were finished with their regular staffing meeting. Everyone filed out of the room except Santos and Lou. The Congressman was about to leave the empty room, when Lou spoke up.
She stood, "I really don't understand those two."
Matt turned back toward her.
"Who?" he asked.
"Josh and Donna."
Matthew Santos chuckled, "Heh. Join the club."
"I think that we should have them meet us at the debate."
"Why?"
"Because if they are going to work together. They need to be able to be in the same room without throwing each other random glares. I mean they have to come back to the headquarters anyway. This might give them the chance to finally work it out," she explained.
"If you feel this is necessary so we can get through the days, go ahead and set up a rental for them."
"Yes, sir."
Santos left the room and Lou was gathering her stuff while dialing her cell phone.
"Hi. I need to rent a car."
Needless to say they were not too happy with this idea. Santos and the gang piled the bus, while Josh and Donna reluctantly got into the rental. Lou was last to board the bus.
Lou called out before getting on, "See you there! Don't get lost!"
Josh growled. He put on his seatbelt and glanced over at Donna.
"Ready?" he asked.
She nodded.
'This should be fun. She doesn't even want to talk to me,' he thought.
He sighed and started the car.
"Here we go," he said more to himself than anyone.
Ten minutes into the drive and they still haven't spoken a word. Donna continued staring out the windshield, doing whatever she could not to glance his way. Counting down the time before she was able to get out of this car.
"This is ridiculous," he broke the ice.
"What?" she finally looked his way.
"What? You can't even talk to me?"
"You should talk," she retorted.
"Alright that's it," he suddenly veered the car to the shoulder of the road and brought it to a stop.
"What the hell are you doing? We're gonna lose them!"
"I don't care. I'm tired of this, Donna! You've been with this campaign for almost a week now and we've barely said a word to each other," he said angrily.
"For your information, Joshua, it does take two to tango. You're just as guilty," she threw back.
"So you just never want to talk to me?"
"I think our current jobs, prevent that from happening."
"Oh, so only if it's job related?"
"Maybe that's best," she said quietly.
"Fine," he sighed and started up the car again.
'Well, another opportunity missed.' she thought.
It became way too quiet for Donna's taste. So she turned on the radio, hoping that the time would go by faster with some sound. She flipped through all the stations but couldn't find a good one, then she came to one that was doable. She turned up the volume a bit.
"Do we have to listen to country?" he whined.
"It was all I could find. You'd rather it were quiet?"
"No, I'd rather you talk to me. But obviously that's not gonna happen."
She didn't say anything, which pissed him off more. He was really hoping that since he was stuck on this two hour trip that they would have a chance to talk about what they needed to talk about. He wanted to. She obviously wasn't going to start talking so it was up to him.
"You know what, I can't take the silence anymore," he shut off the radio.
"So I give you full permission to say whatever you want to say to me," he finished. He figured that might get her to want to talk.
"Josh, I don't know if that is wise," she said.
"What do you mean?" suddenly concerned.
"Well, I don't want to say anything I might regret later. And since I am stuck in the car with you, I fear you'd throw me out to the curb." she said half jokingly.
"You really think I would do such as thing? Geez, Donna!" he had to know why she would make such a statement.
"No. I know you wouldn't do that. But I'm just not so sure we should speak our minds at the moment."
"You really hate me, don't you?"
"Is that what you think, Josh?"
"Well, you tell me, Donna. You don't want to have a civil conversation with me."
"Fine. You want to talk? Let's talk. Let's have it out right here and now," she exploded.
"Do I need my hands free for this? Should I pull over?" he joked. He glanced over at her only to be met with a glare. He turned serious, "Okay. Go ahead."
"Josh, do you know why I started searching for a job after I recovered from Gaza?"
"Because you wanted to expand in your job. I've heard it before, Donna. I held you back. I don't need you to brow beat me to death with this."
"Wow!"
"What?"
"You really are a cocky son of..."
"Okay!" he interrupted her. "Maybe I deserve that but that wasn't necessary. But carry on."
"After Gaza, I started thinking that if I wanted to fully heal, I needed a whole new start. A new plan."
" Why?" he asked.
"Because I survived, when I shouldn't have!"
He looked at her and saw that she was close to tears. And he knew he was part of why they were about to spill over.
"I knew that was my second chance in life and that I wasn't going to be able to grow anymore in the white house," she sniffed.
"Donna, I truly am sorry that I held you back," he meant it.
"It wasn't all you. Before the CODEL I had a chat with C.J. Remember that lockdown?"
"Yeah?"
"What you don't know is that C.J. suggested to me that I should do something that didn't involve you."
"She did what?" his voice started to raise.
"Wait..."
"No. You're saying that C.J. is the reason..."
"No. Yes. But don't..."
"She's the reason I lost you?" he was yelling now.
She sighed. This was not how she wanted this to go.
'I could really kill C.J. right about now. How could she do this to me?' he thought.
"No. Well, not completely. She just mentioned to me that I should consider options that had nothing to do with you. Please don't freak out on her."
"Fine."
"Josh?"
"What?"
"I know you. Promise me you won't say anything to C.J. that we had this conversation," she pleaded.
He sighed, "I won't say anything."
"Josh..."
"I won't say anything to C.J. about this, ok?"
"Good. Anyway, this Russell thing kind of just fell into my lap. I had to take it, you can understand that right?"
"It wasn't that you left. It was your timing. Donna, we were in the middle of a M.S. crisis and you just walked away! That's what hurt the most," he finally was able to say it.
"I know. But you wouldn't listen to me. You wouldn't have a simple lunch with me and set a few minutes aside to talk to me. I had to make a statement somehow. I had to get my point across to you."
"So you up and leave? With no notice!"
"What would you have me do!" she shouted.
"Not leave me," he said quietly.
"Josh. Are you more pissed that I left? Or are you more pissed that I left you with no one to answer your calls?"
At that he pulled over again. He couldn't keep driving feeling this way and they already fell so far behind the bus, it didn't matter anymore.
"You did more than that, Donna. And you know it. You were my savior so many times over. I'd be in the tall grass without you. I was in fact."
"Maybe I did do more but I needed to see if I was able to do more on my own. To see what I was capable of without you being there to bail me out. But I'm sorry I left you like that. I just felt that you were always going to take advantage of me. I didn't know what I could do anymore."
"I know. And I said I would never take advantage of you and blew that promise, didn't I?"
"Dodging me. Yeah."
"Ok, you want to know why I never set time aside for you?"
"Why?"
"Because I knew if I did, you'd have the chance to tell me what I already knew. Ok, I already knew you were itching to get out from under my wing." he finally spilled.
"You knew?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Because I...I just knew," he really didn't want to involve anyone else in this.
"So that whole thing was avoidance?"
"Pretty much. Donna, I couldn't stand that you were looking for a way out. I knew you could get by on your own. I just didn't want to learn that myself. I was an ass and I had selfish reasons to keep you. I couldn't stand that you didn't want to be with me anymore," he had a sadness to his tone.
"Josh."
"I cared about you. I still do."
"And I care about you."
With a catch in his voice, "So why are we acting like we can't stand each other?"
"Anger, frustration," she started.
"Sadness, loneliness," he concluded.
"So what now?"
"How about we start over?" he suggested.
"No."
"No?" he questioned.
"I don't want to do that. I don't want to forget what we had. The good and the bad. Those memories are engraved."
"I don't want to lose that either. But I want to move forward."
"I do too. But I think we can move to a new level."
"A new level?"
"Josh?"
"Yeah?"
"Our relationship is about to change," she undid her seatbelt and scooted closer to him. She traced her fingertips over his lips.
"Why, Donna wha...' he couldn't finish as his lips were preoccupied with hers.
They broke apart. Breathless.
"Um, what was that for?" he asked, still shocked.
"I just wanted to see what it was like," she smiled.
"And, what was it like?" he smiled back.
"This," she met with his lips again. Only this time it was more passionate and much longer.
After they split apart, Josh was gasping for air, "That...that was...that was, well...that...I never experienced that with you before!"
"I know!" she winked at him.
After a few moments of gathering themselves they started the car and got back on the road.
"So? What do we tell the others?" he asked.
"That we worked it out," they looked at each other and smiled.
THE END.