March
The Vice President's Chief of Staff was chronically late to morning meetings.
"Josh!" Sam called through the doorway that connected their offices. "We do in fact have work to do."
"Sam." When he came to door, Sam stopped smiling. He never called him 'Sam' at work.
"What?" His cell phone was still up to his ear, his face was pale.
"I gotta go, Donna's.."
"Go." Sam said quickly turning towards the phone. "I'll meet you there."
"Bonnie? Cancel the day and get my wife on the phone. Donna's having the baby."
Ainsley Hayes-Seaborn was well aware of the situation. She sat in her own Chief of Staff's office holding her hand.
"Donna, we need to go." She told her softly.
"He's coming." She grounded out, her teeth clenched together in pain.
"He can meet us there."
"No!" Donna snapped at her before breaking into a full cry.
"Oh, Thank God!" She exclaimed as Josh rushed around the corner and through the door. Ainsley jumped up to call and check on the car.
"What happened?" He'd just left her two hours ago. "You have three more weeks."
"Your daughter has other plans." She said sweetly reaching for his hand.
He sat down on a small foot stool in front of the couch that Ainsley had vacated.
"How bad are they?" He asked touching his forehead to hers. She was sweaty, this surprised him. He had just left her two hours ago.
"Bad." She whimpered. He put his hand on the back of her neck and held her tight to him. He heard her breath hitch. "Josh?"
"It's okay, Just breathe."
"Josh!"
"Here, get her coat on, it's cold out there." Ainsley said dropping it beside him. He tried to pull his hand back from Donna's but he couldn't.
"Josh."
"Donna. Come on, Baby. We have to get you to the hospital." He was mumbling as Ainsley tried to help him with her coat.
"JOSHUA!" She screamed at him grabbing his shirt with her other hand.
"Donna?" He looked and the pain and panic on her face. It sent a bolt of fear up his spine.
"I-I have to push." She stammered. Her face tightening.
"No. No, no. You can't do that." He told her firmly.
"J-o-sh!" She grunted through closed teeth.
"I'm calling an ambulance." Ainsley decided breaking away from them and going back to her desk.
"Remember what the book said?" His voice was rising. "Blow. Your supposed to blow instead of push."
She blew for a second before screaming his name again.
"I can't. I need to push! I can't stop! Josh, I need to push!" He watched her body bare down. There was no going back now.
"It's okay." He told her. "It's okay, just try and blow next time." He added feebly. The pushing part takes hours right? He thought to himself as he rearranged her. Her body pressed against the back of the couch and she gasped for a breath before moaning his name again. She had both her hands knotted in his shirt now. Her feet pressed against his thighs. Her dress gathered around her knees.
She had taken her panties off after her water broke. He knew this now because he could very clearly see their baby's head. He had only left her two hours ago, he thought again.
"Josh, I have to push!" She screamed at him again.
"Ainsley, I need the paramedics now!" Josh yelled in the direction Ainsley had run. Donna's new secretary, Annie, stood in the door way, awestruck. "Blow." He knew that was a ridiculous request. Her body was on auto pilot now. "Get me some towels." He yelled at the woman in the door.
"Josh." Donna grunted through the push. She looked at him with an eerie certainty. "She's.. I can-." Her words disappeared into the push.
"I know. I know. It's fine. You're doing great." He knew she was in too much pain to hear the uncertainty in his voice. Her pleading eyes met his and he flashed her a smile. "It's almost over." She tried to smile back, but the pain ripped into her body with more force than she thought possible.
He pressed his lips together hard trying not to die from the agony of her voice pleading with him.
"Make it stop! I can't.. I.. Josh!" She screamed as her body pressed forward again into his thighs. He tried to steady her, prying her hands free and pressing them into the back of her knees.
"The only way to make it stop now is to push, Donna." He told her softly touching her face, wiping back her damp hair.
"You told me not to!" She yelled.
"Donna, we are way past that!" He told her sharply.
"Thanks for the memo." Her breath quickened and she looked at him frantically.
"Take a deep breath and push." He tried to channel every medical show he had ever seen in that moment. "10. 9. 8." He brought his hands forward and cradled his daughters head. "Your doing it."
"They just pulled up." Ainsley said coming back into the room.
"Just in time to miss it. Donna push." Josh felt her turn under his hand.
Donna screamed again, her hand coming free and grabbing his wrist.
"Deep breath and push, Donna. Come on, Baby. You can do this!"
"I ca-" She started to protest but her body took over again and she pushed. Vaguely she heard Josh telling her to push harder. She wanted to tell him to shut the hell up, but she did what he said anyway.
"Oh my God." She heard Ainsley whisper from her left.
"Relax, Baby. I've got her now. Relax." Josh's voice hit her ears just before Becca's cry. The paramedics were there, just in time to be too late.
Sam rounded the corner as they clamped off the cord and let Josh lift Donna onto the stretcher. The Vice President looked at his wife holding the baby in one of those yellow papery blankets that you see on rescue shows, while the other paramedic listened to her heart beat.
"What'd I miss?" Sam said looking between Josh and Ainsley. Josh smirked, shaking his head. Sam watched exhaustion over take his best friends face.
"Is she okay?" Donna asked Josh, looking frightened.
"She looks perfect." The paramedic said taking her from Ainsley and handing her down to Donna.
"Hey there you." She said her eyes shining. Sam watched Josh kiss both of them on the head. This is what his life was all about. What he had been meant to do all along. Find Donna, have Becca and live happily ever after. He gave up the White House for this. Sam looked at Ainsley. Her eyes glowing back at him.
The two of them were still standing there when the Lyman's had made it to the ambulance. He put his arms around her.
"You sure you don't want one of those?" He teased, knowing damn well she didn't.
"Especially not after seeing how that one came about." She said burring her head in Sam's shirt.
Joanna Rebecca Lyman was perfect.
Josh sat on the edge of Donna's bed while she slept, holding his daughter with one hand and stroking out her long baby fingers with the other. She looked like him. There was no denying that, from her eyes to her chin she was pure Lyman. Her hair was soft and fine and blonde, but already curling in tiny swirls around her head.
"When did you become so amazing?" Donna's voice startled him from his inspection of their baby.
"Well Donnatella, I've always been amazing. Which act are you referring to specifically?" She smiled at the humor in his voice. His eyes sparkling as he moved the baby close to him.
"I don't know. You just delivered our daughter, on the couch in my office, all by yourself." She told him, reaching out her arms for the baby. He relinquished Becca, to her mother before joining Donna at the head of the bed.
"If I remember correctly you were there too." He kissed her head. "In fact, you did all the work. All I did was catch."
"Josh you were amazing." She told him shaking her head and looking up at him with her clear blue eyes. "I would not have gotten through that without you."
He smiled again, running his finger across Becca's head.
"Yes you would have." He promised her. "But I wouldn't have missed it.. Well... to rule the world."
"Everybody wants to rule the world, Josh." Ainsley said from the door.
"Hey." He waved her and Sam in. "I think I'll leave that to Vice President Seaborn. Sorry I missed Sr. Staff, Sir."
"Don't let it happen again." Sam said stiffly before he started cooing at Becca, who Donna was passing to him. "Next time I expect your babies to arrive, on schedule, in a more timely fashion."
"It won't happen next time, not like that." Donna told them still shaking her head in disbelief.
"They say the second one comes even faster." Ainsley laughed.
"Next time we're checking in to the hospital when she hits eight months." Josh said in all seriousness.
"Next time already, huh?" Sam said looking from Donna to Josh. Josh's grin got wider and he slipped off the bed and walked over to Sam.
"Look at her, Sam." He ordered. "How could I not do this again? She's my greatest accomplishment!" Despite his joking demeanor, Josh was serious, and everyone in that room knew it.
(Six years later)
Things do not always go as planned.
Despite there best efforts, Sam and Ainsley got pregnant anyway.
'Amazing Grace', as she was dubbed by her 'Uncle Josh', was born two months after Noah Samuel Lyman. Donna and Ainsley had already married them off.
CJ and Danny had two girls now. He was leading Sam's speech writing team, waiting to be White House Communications Director in four years. CJ was staying at home with their daughters. She and Toby were thinking about writing a book.
Jed Bartlett died the year after Noah and Grace were born.
After he left office things went down hill pretty quickly.
Josh had walked Zoë down the isle when she married Charlie. The former President had met them at the alter. Charlie had stood behind his mentor, nearly holding him up as he lifted his daughters veil and kissed her on the cheek.
He died before David Josiah Young ever had the chance to meet his Grandfather.
Abby Bartlett had gone back to private practice in New Hampshire, but ended up back in DC after DJ was born. Charlie worked for Sam in the VP's office, never thinking that he would one day be the Deputy Communications Director of the Seaborn Administration.
Josh had thrown himself back into work getting Matt and Sam's second term sewn up. Other than that he'd been happy as Sam's Chief, but the kids would get older and need him around less. It was when Becca started Pre-School that the wheels started turning again in Josh's competitive mind.
Vice President Sam Seaborn made his way back to his office after Santos' six state of the Union. His assistant walked into his office and handed him a piece of paper. He opened it slowly. His eyes wandering over the words
"...Here wealth is fleeting, here friend is fleeting, here man is fleeting, here woman is fleeting-all this earthly habitation shall be emptied."
So the wise man spoke in the heart, sat apart in private meditation. He is good who keeps his word; a man must never utter too quickly his breast's passion, unless he knows first how to achieve remedy, as a leader with his courage. It will be well with him who seeks favor, comfort from the Father in heaven, where for us all stability resides.
-The Wanderer
Sam,
Aren't you glad I made you come along?
Twice.
-Josh
Ps. You're next,
'Mr. President'