Diagnosis and Treatment 2?

Summary: Leo and Stanley continue their conversation while Josh is on his way to Germany.

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful feedback, and I hope the wait wasn't too unbearable ;)!

Previously: "But Leo, even the strongest willed person has to eventually fall apart. Did that happen?"

"In spectacular fashion, my friend."

"What happened?"

"Donna had come into the office early one morning; I'd say it was about a month after Josh had been discharged. She had been gathering some files and fielding a few phone calls. Apparently one of the calls went sour and a congressional aide made a rather unfortunate comment regarding Josh and Donna lost it. And I mean she LOST it, Stanley. I had been on my way to see her and I was just outside the office when she blew. She leveled both barrels and cut loose. Now I've heard Donna yell at Josh and Sam before, but never like this. It was worthy of some of my former drill instructors."

"Anyway, she slammed the phone down and the next thing I hear is a loud crash and then the sobs. I went into Josh's office and there's Donna, head in her hands, crying her eyes out. It broke my heart, Stanley."

"What was the crash?"

Leo grinned. "Donna was so furious about the phone call that she picked up the phone and threw it at against the chalkboard. Not only did she break the phone, she threw it so hard that the chalkboard came loose and fell to the floor."

"Ouch." Stanley's eyes widened at Leo's description.

"Yeah, I'll say. You can still see the dent in the office floor."

"The dent? Note to self – never piss off Donna Moss. What happened then?" Stanley asked.

"Nothing for awhile – I just held her until she cried herself out and calmed down. Then we talked about what had happened with the phone call. Seems the aide used a rather unfortunate choice of words and Donna just snapped. Given what was said, I don't blame her one bit. Now, Donna is forever tormenting Josh about the number of times she's had to send 'apology baskets' because he's pissed off some congressman. Well, Donna must have been channeling Josh because her little tirade was worthy of the master."

"Anyway, once she calmed down, I managed to get Donna to tell me how she was doing. She admitted that she was still scared for Josh, apparently Josh's nightmares had just started and as a consequence Donna was getting very little sleep. It was right about then that Abbey showed up."

"What prompted her visit?"

"Well, it turned out that the President was over in the Communications bullpen when the chalkboard fell. He sent Ron Butterfield over to investigate. When Ron reports that "Rolling Stone has popped her cork", the other agent informed the President, who immediately came to see Donna. She was still crying, probably never even knew he was there right then. He called Abbey down and between the three of us, we convinced Donna to go up to the Residence to have something to eat and rest. Abbey was able to talk her into taking a sleeping pill. The next day Abbey gave Donna a thorough physical. The results were not encouraging. Apparently Donna had been so consumed with taking care of Josh that she was ignoring her own needs – she'd lost over 15 pounds since the shooting. As you might imagine, this resulted in the creation of a whole new set of rules, except that this time Donna was the 'enforcee' not the enforcer."

"How did she react?" Stanley had a pretty fair idea, but hearing the reality should prove to be rather entertaining.

Leo chuckled mightily. "Pissed as hell! It took the combined persuasive powers of Jed, Abbey, myself and Mrs. Landingham to bully Donna into cooperating."

"What were some of the rules she had to abide by?"

"She was not to report into the West Wing until 9am, - 11 on weekends, she was to eat lunch with Abbey in the Residence, she was to take a rest in the Residence before she left for the day, and she was not allowed to drive. Ron Butterfield had already assigned a rotation of agents to shadow Donna, so it was a simple thing to adjust the parameters of that detail to have an agent drive her. She never knew about the shadow detail, and she was sensible enough to agree to the driver." Leo explained.

"Shadow detail? What's that?"

"You and I both realize the uniqueness of Josh and Donna's relationship. What is obvious to the rest of us is also obvious to the Secret Service. A few months before Rosslyn, Ron came to me to discuss the situation. It seems he had taken the liberty of assigning agents to follow Josh and Donna home on nights when they had worked late into the night. He told me he felt it was a prudent precaution to take. Since I didn't have a problem with it, I okayed his plan."

"When Rosslyn happened, he informed me that night that several agents who had participated in the previous shadow detail had contacted him to volunteer to shadow Donna 24/7. An agent was always in or near Josh's room. Abbey gave Ron specific instructions as to signs of stress and fatigue to look for. And as soon as Josh was out of danger and Donna was willing to leave the hospital, the President insisted that Donna not drive; they insisted she be driven by an agent and that stipulation was not relaxed until Josh returned to work.

"How did the First Lady manage to supervise all this? She has her own obligations, right?"

Leo nodded his head. "Yup, and one of those obligations was a State Dinner."

"What did she do?"

"Not only did the First Lady cancel all her appearances for a five day period, she also postponed the State Dinner with the Canadian Prime Minister. With the full approval of the President."

"Why?"

"Because Abbey knew that Donna was crafty enough to find a loophole in the rules. Anyone capable of keeping Josh in line and under control is someone you don't take lightly. Donna may be strong-willed, but she also has a tremendous amount of respect for the first lady. She realized that the Bartlets were only looking out for her best interests, so she knew better than to argue."

"And Donna didn't fight this? From what I've come to know about Donna, I find it hard to believe that she acquiesced gracefully." Stanley remarked in disbelief.

"It took about 2 seconds for Donna to agree to the terms. I think she was too focused on Josh getting better and keeping the office running smoothly. Besides she knew the consequences of trying to argue with the First Lady." Leo replied emphatically.

"I take it that arguing with the First Lady isn't something any sane person would attempt?" Stanley quipped.

"I don't recommend that an insane person attempt it, my friend."

"Duly noted."

"Well, from the looks of things everything has worked out pretty well." Stanley observed.

"Until Christmas."

TBC - insert evil grin here!