Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, but I will miss them like my own family members once they are gone.
Characters: Josh and Donna, for now
A/N: MY ODE TO THE END! I felt sad yesterday when I heard the news, but also a sense of closure - I will miss this show more than anything, but I feel that it is time. I read that Bradley Whitford said that "they had to cancel the show or I would never leave it" which warms my heart. I love me some Josh Lyman and Bradley Whitford can do no wrong in my eyes. I am glad they shared these characters with us and hopefully they will be back soon with new characters to inspire our imaginations (BRADLEY - GO DO SORKIN'S NEW SHOW!)
Donna rolled over and stretched her arms over her head, cracking her eye to see the sun streaming through her window. She rolled over and looked at the clock – 10:15.
"Son of a…" she yelled, shooting up and throwing back the covers before she realized that there was nowhere to hurry off to, no press to deal with today, no strategizing sessions. There was none of that since they had lost – Arnold Vinick was the President-elect.
Leo's death had sent them into a tail spin. Josh and Matt were inconsolable and the country just couldn't justify voting for a man whose running mate had yet to be determined. Josh had been right all those months ago – Matt needed Leo as his running mate, as his Vice President and that was all the more clear now.
Donna wiped the tears from her eyes and got out of bed to take a shower. It had taken all of two days to shut down the Santos offices, which she found amazing considering all of the hours they had poured into the campaign. Matt and Helen had already gone back to Houston to get on with their lives and Josh seemed to crawl into himself. She and Lou had done all the thank you speeches, knowing Josh wasn't up for anything.
Sitting with him three nights ago as the news called state after state for the Vinick campaign – she could tell he was withdrawing and readying himself for the worst. He had done the same thing a week earlier, when Annabeth had come into his office while they were talking, tears streaming down her face, only being able to choke out the words "fatal heart attack" before falling into Donna's arms. She would never forget the look on Josh's face when Annabeth said those words – she had seen it all those years before in Chicago when she had told him about his father. When Bram and Ronna came into the office, Donna passed Annabeth off to them and rounded Josh's desk. He rocketed out of his chair and latched on to her like she was the last thing holding him to the ground. All he had done was hold on to her for the last week – squeezing her shoulder as the tears formed in his eyes during the funeral, wrapping his arm around her shoulder when Leo's casket was placed in the ground at Arlington, crushing her hand when Brian Williams had called the election for the Republicans last night. She wiped the condensation off the mirror and stared at herself, wondering where the tears were still coming from.
She had just shut off the hair dryer when she heard the knock at the door. She glanced at herself in the mirror one more time before heading toward the front door. She threw open the door to see a lost looking man standing there, leaning against the threshold.
"I didn't know what to do today" Josh whispered.
She smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling him into her apartment. He pushed the door shut and let her lead him over to the couch. She pushed him down and stood over him. "You want some coffee?"
"What? Did you just ask me what I think you asked me?"
She smirked, knowing that would get a rise out of him. "Look, I was just offering…"
He held up his hand. "No, I've been up since 6. I think I've already overloaded on coffee today."
"Well, ok then" she said, walking into the kitchen. "Well, how about some food." She pulled open her refrigerator and sighed. "Well, so I don't actually have any food, but I could run to the store and make us lunch and…"
Suddenly, she felt his presence behind her. She sighed as he put his hands on her shoulders and she knew he was smiling when she leaned back into him. The door slipped out of her grasp as she reached up to put her hands on his.
"Let's get out of here" he whispered in her ear.
"Out of my apartment?"
"Out of town. My car is outside with a full tank of gas, an overnight bag with some clothes and U2 already playing in the CD player."
"Josh, we can't just…"
He whirled her around and slid his hands down to her hips. "We can't what, Donna – just up and leave, shirk our responsibilities, call in sick. Donnatella, in case you haven't notice, we are kind of lacking in the responsibility department right now." She was about to open her mouth to respond when he put one hand over her mouth to silence her. "Please, Donna. I feel… I feel like I'm suffocating in this town right now – the looks, the calls, the job offers. I need to just get away for a few days and I really didn't want to go by myself. I don't want to beg, but I will" he said, waggling his eyebrows. She couldn't help but laugh.
"Give me 10 minutes" she said, shooting out of his grasp and running back toward her bedroom. "Pack something nice" she heard him yell as she grabbed a bag out of her closet.
After a quick stop at McDonald's for lunch, Donna soon found herself headed south out of DC. That was strange enough, but what made it even stranger was Josh Lyman sitting next to her, belting out U2's greatest hits.
"You know, Joshua, I don't think Bono ever meant for 'With or Without You' to be sung quite like that."
He glanced over at her and smirked. "It's called creative licensing, Donnatella. You need to loosen up."
She turned toward him and glared. "OK, I'm sorry, I thought I was in the car with Joshua Lyman, perennial pain in the ass, not Mr. Cool and Laid back. I apologize for making that mistake."
Her heart warmed when he graced her with a full-on dimple smile. "You know, Donna that mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble one of these days."
"Spoken like someone that knows" she snarked back.
He smirked back at her and turned his direction back to the road. She took a long sip of her drink and glanced over at him. "So, where are we going?"
"Well, I figured I would let the Audi decide. Seems it wanted to head south, so Charleston is our next destination."
"And if the Audi had wanted to go north?"
"New York" he said, very matter of factly.
"Ahhh" she said, shaking her head and smiling at him
4 hours later, they were driving around Charleston. Josh got to a stop sign and looked one way, then the other.
"I wish you would have stopped so I could have gotten a map."
"And the fun in that would have been, what?"
Looking again, he turned right and drove down the street. She was about to open her mouth again when a beautiful building came into her line of sight down at the end of the street.
"What is that?" she said, pointing.
"Who knows, let's go find out."
Josh stopped the car in the middle of the street and read the sign. "Wentworth Mansion and Bed and Breakfast." He turned back to see the look on Donna's face and the way she was checking out the building. "Pretty, huh?" he said, smirking at her.
She slapped his arm. "Pretty? Josh, will you look at this place. The architecture is…" She stopped talking as he pulled the car into an open spot and turned off the ignition. "I'll be back" he said, jumping out of the car and crossing the street, walking through the front door of the building.
A couple of minutes later, she saw him run back across the street. He round the car and opened her door. He reached his hand out to her and helped her out of the car. He slammed the door shut and pressed something into her hand.
She looked down and saw a key. "What the hell…"
"Well, Rhonda said… sorry, Rhonda is the front desk clerk – sweet girl, voted for Matt. Anyway, I went into ask if we could look around and she recognized me and… well, it would seem that they have a couple of rooms available and viola… here we go."
She stared at him as he walked back to the trunk and started to pull their bags out. "Wait, we're staying here?"
"Well, yeah, Donna, where you been?" he said over his shoulder as he walked back across the street. He hit the sidewalk and looked back over at her. "You coming?" he yelled.
"OK, seriously, the pod people must have invaded last night" she muttered to herself as she crossed the street and walked inside with Josh, all the while glancing at him, wondering where the aliens had entered his body.
TBC….