Characters: Josh, Donna
Spoilers: The Ticket, The Al Smith Dinner
Post Episode: The Al Smith Dinner
A/N: Inspired by those on the JDtalk list at Yahoo who say that these two are just one good fight away from getting their crap together. Here's my interpretation!
It had been a long day – long even in Josh Lyman standards. They had flown back the night before immediately after the Al Smith dinner to start working on prep for the debate. He could throttle the Congressman to agreeing to a debate on Sunday, but Lou reminded him that Secret Service would have him pinned in a heart beat, so he quashed that idea.
Sleep was a luxury on any campaign, but now, well, now they just had to suck it up. Josh let them have from 1-6 AM to sleep before being back at the office. Now, at 10:00, he had just sent everyone home after Bram fell asleep at the conference room table.
He put some files that he had no intention of reading tonight in his backpack and turned off his lights. He had every intention of ordering a pizza, drinking some beer, and catching SportsCenter before crashing on the couch. His mind was racing so he failed to notice that he wasn't alone or that this person was following him through the bullpen toward the lobby and the elevators. Just before he opened the door to the lobby, he was hit square in the back of his head. As his hand shot up to rub the spot that had been hit, he looked down at his feet at the offending object – an empty Starbucks cup. He bent down to pick it up and turned toward the direction from where it came.
He just stared at her. She had her hands on her hips and a blank look on her face, save for the one cocked eyebrow.
"You threw a coffee cup at me!"
Donna huffed and turned on her heel and headed back toward her office. Josh looked at her retreating form, then down at the cup in his hand, and back at where she had just been. Then, he took off after her.
He found her standing behind her desk, packing her own files in her briefcase.
"Donna…"
"You, Mr. Lyman, are an asshole."
"Wait… YOU threw a coffee cup at ME and I'm the asshole."
She stood straight up and glared at him. "Basically."
"And it had to be a coffee cup."
"Hey, just be thankful it was the Styrofoam one. I've got a ceramic one sitting here that I am more than willing to throw at you if that's what you would prefer."
"Yeah, but a coffee cup?"
"It's symbolic and quite therapeutic. Get over it!"
"So, can I ask why you felt you had to throw ANYTHING at me?"
"I wanted to get your attention. I hadn't been able to through conventional means, so I decided to go with a route that I thought would work with you."
"And that was…"
"The childish one."
"Donna, look…"
She slammed her briefcase on her desk and sighed. "You know what, never mind. I don't care. I thought that I… that you… that we… but forget it. Nevermind."
With that, she stormed past him and out the door. He dropped his backpack and whipped around after her. Her long legs had managed to get her to the middle of the bullpen before he got out of her office.
"STOP RIGHT THERE DONNATELLA MOSS!" He was thankful that everyone else had shot out of there like a bat out of hell when he told them all to leave. Last time, Lou had interrupted them just as he had got going, but this time, there was no one around.
He watched as Donna dropped her briefcase and whirled around, her face bright red with anger.
"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT JOSHUA LYMAN!" she screamed right back at him.
"God dammit Donna! You wanted my attention, you've got it."
"I changed my mind."
"Tough!"
"Mature, Josh, really mature."
"Hey, I'm not the one throwing things like a child in the middle of a temper tantrum!"
She snorted. "You really want to talk about childish? Cause I've got a whole arsenal of stuff…"
"Knock it off Donna. You wanted my attention, you've got it. So, now what?"
"Nothing."
"No way, Donna, no way. You don't…"
"Josh, I changed…"
"Tough. You are going to deal with…"
"No, Josh, I'm really not!"
"Yes, Donna, you really are. So just say what you wanted…"
"Like I said earlier, I changed my mind."
"KNOCK IT OFF, DONNA!"
Him yelling at her again was the straw that broke the camel's back. She couldn't take this anymore. She really couldn't pinpoint a date where they had gotten so off track, so hateful. Maybe it was that day in New Hampshire. Maybe it was the day after she left and he was so angry he couldn't see straight. Maybe it was one of a hundred other days they passed each other on the campaign trail. But now, she wanted it done, over with – this tension was killing the two of them, and everyone else was starting to notice.
"FINE" she screamed, taking a step toward him. "YOU aren't a victim here, Joshua, no matter what your warped little mind thinks! You don't get to treat me like this, not you, of ALL people, not you! I was doing my JOB, a job that I was proud of, and you decide that, just because you won, you can be a COMPLETE ASSHOLE to me, treating me like I'm the ONLY ONE who EVER said anything bad about the Congressman during the primaries. Most of all, you don't get to say that you miss me everyday and then treat me like I don't matter, like I'm a no talent hack who can't get the JOB DONE!"
This whole time, she had been advancing on him so the words 'job done' were reinforced with her poking him in the chest.
"You don't get to treat me like this, Joshua, not after… not after flying to Germany and sitting in the hospital for DAYS while I was in surgery. Not after promising not to take the 'blood donors' for granted anymore. Not after saving me from Cliff and Jack. Not after giving me flowers every year on our not-anniversary. You don't get treat me like this, NOT EVER!"
He was fuming at this point. He was tired of being yelled at and poked in the chest. Just before she was about to start in again, he grabbed her wrist and stilled her arm.
"YOU left ME, Donnatella, not the other way around! Just remember that. And you can say 'it was the job, not you' that you left, but you KNEW EXACTLY how I was going to take you leaving. You knew and you did it anyway, without any warning. Instead of giving me a chance to… I mean, you just up and left during a crisis. It's not like I INTENTIONALLY blew you off that day. I mean, there WERE things going on there were out of my control, Donnatella, but I guess you have conveniently decided to skip over those details in that beautiful little head of yours, huh! You weren't the only one burned Donna, so quit pretending like you are the only one who gets to be MAD! I got hurt, crushed even, so FORGIVE ME FOR BEING PISSED ABOUT IT!"
"KISS MY ASS JOSHUA!"
"SCREW YOU DONNA!"
They both just stared at each other, breathing hard from all the yelling. It was then that they noticed their close proximity – Josh still had hold of her wrist, but during his rant, he had pulled her closer. There was barely any space between the two of them. Josh stared into her angry eyes, then looked down at his hand wrapped around her wrist and then back into her eyes. This time, it seemed the anger was starting to fade away just a bit as she looked down at their close proximity and then back into his eyes. It was that second look that undid him.
He immediately closed the distance between them by pulling her arm up and around his neck while he wrapped his free arm around her waist. He glanced into her eyes one more time before assaulting her mouth.
The kiss was full of passion and fire, just like their fight had been. As he ran his hand down her arm from her wrist to her shoulder, he felt her shudder, and that only made him want her more. He planted his hand on the back of her neck and started to massage the base of her head as she wrapped her other arm around his neck and pressed herself into him as much as she could.
He started walking her backwards – at least he hoped it was backwards, since all he was really focusing on was Donna's mouth and tongue. He really wanted to find the nearest hard, flat surface and he wanted to find it fast.
He lucked out as he felt something hard and flat against his hands. He pushed Donna up against the wall and leaned into her more. She moaned loudly as he ripped his mouth off of hers and attached to her neck, right behind her ear. He ran his hand down her hips to her thigh. He pushed against her as much as he could as he started to lift her leg, but then, his wall gave way.
What Josh had hoped was a secure wall was actually a cubicle wall that gave way. They both looked at the wall that was currently resting on an empty desk and then they looked back at each other. That's when they started to laugh hysterically. He ran his hand back up to her waist as they held onto each other, laughing until they cried.
Once their laughter quieted down, he released his death grip on her and intertwined his fingers with hers.
"Well, Donnatella…"
"Yeah" she said, shyly.
"Can't say that I've ever had an argument broken up QUITE like that before."
She smiled brightly at him. "Really? Cause let me tell you what, sex in the middle of a fight is probably some of the hottest sex that I've ever…"
He groaned. "I'm going to beg you to NOT finish that sentence."
She smiled and sighed, staring at him.
"So, Donna, are we alright?"
"Not quite yet, but we'll get there."
He nodded at her, smiling the biggest, dimple filled smile. She hadn't seen that in quite some time and that smile helped more of her anger and disappointment fade.
He leaned over and whispered "Let's get out of here" in her ear.
She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, but we have to fix this first."
"Yeah yeah yeah" he said, letting go of her for the first time since she approached him during the fight.
Once they had fixed the cubicle and had retrieved their belongings, they headed out into the night.
The streets of DC had started to quiet down at this point during the night. Once they hit the sidewalk, they turned and looked at each other.
"Pizza, Donnatella?"
"You buying the beer?"
"Don't I always?"
"I'm in!" she said, smiling and linking her arm through his. They were far from fixed, but one good fight was all they really needed to start in the right direction.
THE END