Brotherly Emotion 3

They picked the meeting back up in the evening, this time armed with Italian food. Josh toyed with his manicotti, surreptitiously looking at Donna out of the corner of his eye. She, unlike he, did not seem to be the worse for wear after their fight—quite the opposite, in fact. She was looking at a folder with Leo, eating her salad and laughing at something Annabeth was saying.

"Right," said Lou, twirling a piece of spaghetti around her plastic fork, "I hereby call this meeting to order."

"Wait a second," Josh said, frowning, "I could have sworn this was my meeting."

"It was," Lou said uncaringly, "But we're going nowhere fast, and I'd like to be done. If you would all turn to page ten, you'll notice some interesting polling numbers on the question of gay marriage. Thoughts?"

"I think we should duck this one," Josh put in, giving up on his food and leaning back in his chair.

"I disagree," said Donna, not even looking at him.

"Of course you do," he said, smiling superiorly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she demanded, finally turning in her seat to glare at him.

"It means," he said, tossing his food in the trash, "That we had a fight this morning—about what, I still can't figure out, mind you—and this is your way of getting back at me."

Donna stacked her folders, laid them on the table and smoothed her hands over them. "We had a fight this morning because I pointed out your complete and utter lack of respect for me—an observation, I might add, not exactly disproved by the fact that I disagree with you, and your immediate reaction is that I'm trying to get back at you for something."

"Right," said Matt, glancing between them, "I agree with both of you. Donna, I'm going to speak in favor of gay marriage at some point, but not right now. Why not now, you ask? Annabeth?"

"Because," said Annabeth, smiling at them demurely, "This is 'National Security Week' and we are trying this week to do something we have, in the past, found insurmountable—and that is?"

"Stay on topic," Leo said, grinning at her fondly.

The meeting continued on, and Josh found himself dwelling more and more on his fight with Donna. Were the things she had claimed—shouted, really—true? They couldn't be true—he respected Donna, had felt dead in the weeks apart from Donna, admired Donna above anyone else, loved Donna. He wasn't stupid—at least, not entirely. He knew without a modicum of doubt that he was completely in love with Donna, and had been for some time. He had even toyed with the idea that she had feelings for him as well. That was over though, surely. The one time he had made any sort of hint or overture, she had run. He winced just remembering it: "And if you don't think I miss you everyday…" God but that had hurt. Knowing that he had been an asshole, but hurting too badly from her initial departure to do anything else, he had stared after her as she ran out of his office. He had made her cry. Again. You don't deserve her, he reminded himself. She deserved someone nice, and modest, and her own age.

Forcing himself back to the present, he noticed that everyone was standing. "So you really cracked a rib?" Leo asked Matt wonderingly.

"So it would seem," he said, shrugging gingerly.

"Almost makes me feel bad for laughing at you," Leo said, smirking.

"I'll bet," Matt returned wryly. Laughing, the two left the room together, arguing half-heartedly about Matt's bone structure. Lou and Annabeth both left with their cell phones plastered to their ears, Annabeth shouting and Lou smiling. And then there were two. He had just mustered the strength to apologize when her phone rang. Not even looking at him, she looked at the caller id, smiled and answered. "William," she said, grinning widely, "How did it go?" She laughed at whatever he said in response.

"I want to hear more later," she said, "But for now I have to go back to my office and actually do some work…okay yeah, I'll see you then…I'm so excited!...Love you too." She smiled fondly as she shut the phone, than noticed him staring. She sighed loudly, "What now Josh?"

"You know," he said, increasingly angry, "I was going to apologize to you, really I was, but it's come to my attention that you lied to me."

"What?" and he had to admit, she did look genuinely puzzled.

"You know," he said, waving his arms wildly to emphasize the point, "With the smiling and the 'I love you'—you told me that you were just friends!"

"We are," she snorted elegantly, "I'm not entirely sure what you're issue is, but get over it fast, Josh."

"I will get over it when I feel like it—which should happen around the time you come clean about whatever—thing you have with Will!" He yanked his hands through his hair, turned away from her and prepared to storm out.

"Josh," she said from behind him, "Though I've pretty much given up ever understanding you, you're making even less sense than you usually do, and I don't like what you're implying!" She grabbed her files from the desk, and marched past him into the hallway.

"Look!" he yelled after her, "Just admit that you're in love with Will!" He strode out after her, slamming the door on his way out, and stopped short and stared. Donna, Matt, Leo, Lou, Annabeth and six members of the Secret Service stared back at him. "Chris?" Annabeth said into her phone, "I have to go. Something's funky's going down here."

Cliffhanger sort of…dum da DUM…