Disclaimer: see chapter one.

She fiddled with her hair for the hundredth time in the last ten minutes. She was starting to get impatient. Josh had left her with explicit instructions for the evening. He had been very cryptic all day about what they were doing tonight. All he would tell her was to make sure to wear the 'something nice' he had told her to bring.

She glanced at the clock again – 7:19. She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. "There are only so many times I can touch up my makeup" she said to herself. She was about to rearrange her hair again when she heard a knock on the door. She threw it open and felt all of the air sucked out of her lungs.

He stood there, leaning against the door jam, in a crisp navy blue suit that had to be new, holding a white rose in his hand. He extended his hand out to her – "this is for you" he said as she took the rose from him, sniffing it quickly.

He felt all of the saliva dissipate from his mouth. She looked stunning in the hunter green dress he thought he remembered from a fundraiser a couple of months back. He had been preoccupied with donors that night, so he didn't remember for sure, but he knew she looked stunning now.

"You ready to go?" he said, stepping into the room.

"Let me put this flower in some water" she said, walking back toward the bathroom to fill up a small glass with water. He watched as she glided through the room, placing the rose in the middle of the table and gracefully picking her purse up off the bed.

"Shall we?" he said, extending his arm out of her to take. She smiled as she linked her arm through his. They fell into a comfortable silence as they walked through the mansion. Donna was shocked at what was waiting for them when they walked outside.

"Mr. Lyman?" the man asked, hopping down out of the carriage. Josh nodded and the man opened the door. Donna tightened her grip on Josh's arm.

"Is that our ride?"

"Yeah" he said, smiling.

"Josh, that's a horse drawn carriage."

Josh looked at he carriage sitting in front of them and then back at her. "Is it? Oh my God, your right! What in the…"

"Yeah, ok smartass, thanks for that" she said, regaining her composure. Josh smirked at her and she slapped him on the arm. The driver held out his hand for Donna to take as she stepped up into the carriage and Josh followed behind. He sat down next to her, throwing his arm over her shoulders.

"On to dinner, Mr. Lyman?"

"Yes please."

"OK – oh, and there is a blanket back there in case you all get cold at any point tonight" he said as he pulled on the reigns to get the horses moving.

"Wait, all night?"

Josh looked over at Donna and smirked. "Yeah. He's a friend of Rhonda's. She made a call on our behalf and well… it would seem we have a personal driver for the evening."

Donna turned her head and looked at him. "Josh, what's going on?"

All Donna got in response was a dimple grin and a twinkle in his eyes as he tightened his arm around her shoulder.

They enjoyed a quiet, leisurely – and in Donna's opinion – a very romantic dinner. Who would have thought that after all this time they would have had anything left to talk about, but they did. They stepped out into the night and Donna crossed her arms over her body, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

"Cold?" he asked, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms over hers. She sighed and leaned back into him slightly, relishing in the feel of his body pressed against hers, loving the warmth she could feel through his suit. She turned her head and looked at him. She was about to ask him a question – the question – when they heard the clip-clop of horses coming around the corner.

Josh helped Donna up into the carriage and quickly followed behind her. "Where to Mr. Lyman?" the driver asked. He looked over at Donna, who shrugged. He looked back at the driver and smiled. "How about some good, live music?"

The driver smiled back at them. "I know just the place. Will take about 20 minutes or so to get there."

"Great!" Donna yelled. The driver turned back to the road and they took off. Donna leaned down and grabbed the blanket from under their seat. Josh wrapped his arm around her waist as she leaned back. She spread the blanket out over their legs and leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

They had been at the club for about a half hour, just sitting there and listening to the great music. She watched him finish his beer. He set the empty bottle down on the table and she leaned into him. "I want to dance" she whispered in his ear. He immediately obliged by standing up and offering her his hand. He led them out onto the dance floor.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself flush to his body. He rested his hands on her hips and rested his cheek against hers. A slow, jazzy number had just started. They swayed back and forth to the music.

They rarely danced together. They were usually working or were there with other people. There had been one dance at a state dinner way back during year one of the Bartlet Administration and their half dance the night of the second inauguration and the one time Helen and Matt had forced them together right after she had started working for the Santos Campaign. Those dances were very formal. They always made sure to maintain a distance from each other. His hand would be on her hip and hers on his shoulder as they danced around the floor.

This dance, here in this club, away from DC was so very different than any dance they had ever shared before. There was no space between their bodies – they were flush from hips to cheeks. Their hips swayed back and forth, in unison. When she tightened her arms around his neck, he wrapped on arm around her waist and moved the other to the base of her neck. The only way to characterize this dance was sensual.

As the song ended, Donna pulled away from Josh ever so slightly so she could look at him. The look in his eyes took her breath away. Granted she had seen this look before, but it usually was there and gone before she knew what it was. This time, it was proudly displayed on his face and there was no hint of it going anywhere anytime soon.

"Josh…" she whispered.

"Not here" he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her across the floor and out onto the deserted patio.

Donna leaned back against the railing, rubbing her hands up and down her arms, watching Josh pace in front of her. He saw that she was cold and immediately took off his suit jacket and gave it to her. She wrapped the jacket around her shoulders and inhaled his scent.

"Josh, what is…"

He held up his hand, effectively silencing her. "Just… I need… just give me a minute." Donna nodded and just watched him. She had forgotten how much she loved watching him move around, watching him think and work out a problem in his head. They were so busy and so far away from each other by the time she had joined the campaign that she didn't let herself fall back into the habit of watching him. She watched as he started to slow down and finally stop in front of her, hands shoved in his pockets and she knew he was ready to say whatever it was he wanted to say.

"Ok, I guess…" he froze for a moment and she was worried he was going to backtrack. She knew this needed to happen – this needed to happen now or it was never going to happen, that was clear.

"Josh…"

It was something inside him crumbled, like that last wall inside of him finally fell. "I was hurt, Donna, hurt for so long. You just… you left and I know that you had good reasons and that you needed to go, but it still didn't take the sting out. I spent so much time being angry, convincing myself that letting someone in like I had let you in wasn't good for me, that it wasn't something I should have ever done in the first place. I decided that from then on, I needed to look out for me so that's what I did. I was so hateful, so mean to you during the primaries, but I thought… I just thought it was for the best. Most of the time I was able to keep it under control, but there were times, like Iowa for instance, where I said screw it and tried to make myself go back, but something always stopped me. Even after the convention and you came to me… I still thought that I needed to look out for me, but I couldn't help myself. I missed you so much, everyday I missed you – I wasn't lying about that. Then, when Lou hired you, I just decided to ignore it, try my best to keep the walls up, but… then…" She could see him getting choked up

"What Josh?"

"Leo died and I felt that… well, that another person left me. It hurt too much. I know I shut down, I know that you and Lou took on most of the work those last few days – you two really saved me, but I guess you've always been saving me since the day we met. The day after the election, I just… couldn't move. It all felt like it was too much, but then…"

"What?"

"Reach into the inside jacket pocket." Donna gave me a confused look as she reached into the jacket and pulled an envelope out of the pocket. Josh's name was scrawled across the front and she immediately recognized Leo's handwriting.

"What is this?" she asked in a whisper, tears in her eyes.

"Mallory showed up the day after the funeral. She must have banged on the door for 10 minutes. I only let her in after she yelled that she was calling Abbey and that the Secret Service were going to come break down my door if I didn't let her in immediately. I really wasn't up for any visitors, but she was very convincing."

"I can imagine."

"Yeah, but anyway, she had promised Leo that if anything happened to him, she would get these letters to the people they were addressed to. She had already been to see CJ, had talked to Sam and had given Andi the letter for Toby. I guess I was last on the list and… well, I guess he did this after the first heart attack, just in case. She thinks he knew something was wrong because she said he called her a couple of days before he died, making sure that she knew were to find the letters."

"What does it say?"

"Go ahead" Josh said, motioning for her to open the letter. Donna flipped the envelope over and pulled the piece of paper on it. She unfolded the paper and felt the tears start to slip down her face as she read the one line letter - Josh, don't grow up to be like me. Leo

Josh moved in front of her, putting his hands on either side of her on the railing she had been leaning on. Donna looked up at him, confused. "Josh, I don't understand. What…"

"I knew, as soon as I read that, I knew. I couldn't end up like him, barely any family to speak of, living for the job and that's it, having a heart attack on a tarmac headed toward the next random city. He knew it too; he wanted more for me than how his life turned out. There was actually a second letter that he had told Mallory to read to me."

"What did that say?"

Josh smirked. "Well, it was quite lengthy, but the gist was that I needed to do something outside of the box and whatever it was I decided to do, I also needed to make sure you were with me when I did it."

She couldn't speak anymore. She folded up the letter and put it back inside Josh's jacket and looked back at him.

"Donna, I just…" he was getting flustered and choked up. She put her hands on his cheeks. "Go ahead, Josh."

"I was so lost. I've spent the last year and a half feeling lost, feeling like it's me against the world, but I know now why I felt like that. We got so far away from each other – that's why I felt so lost, you weren't there anymore. But, you stuck by me through the funeral and the election when you had no reason to."

"I had reasons, Josh. I had lots and lots of reasons."

He smiled at her, leaning into a little more. "You're my anchor, you always have been. You keep me grounded, keep me focused… and I don't mean in the assistant kind of way. I always worked that much harder because you were around. When you weren't around, it hurt too much to think about. But, us, in DC, was always too hard. That's why I wanted to get us out of DC, away from the eyes and the gossip mill. I wanted it to just be us, me and you, to see if…"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "To see if what, Joshua?

"To see if you and me… I mean, we… could be a different version of us, I guess."

She laughed and looped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer so that his body was flush to hers and his lips were millimeters away. "I'd about given up hope on you, Joshua Lyman."

"You had?" he said, seeming genuinely concerned.

"No, not really. I would never give up on you; I don't think I would know how."

They would never know who kissed who first. They finally decided that it was mutual, that they met each other half way that night. They both had spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like to kiss the other – what the lips would feel like, what would be going through their minds, but none of the thoughts and fantasies touched the real life experience.

It was like they had been kissing each other for years – they feel into a pattern with ease. As Donna wound her fingers through his hair and turned to deepen the kiss, Josh ripped his hands off the rail and wrapped his arms around Donna's waist. Josh leaned her back against the rail and held onto her with all his might. He tried to convey everything he had felt since that fateful day in Manchester all those years ago through this kiss.

When the need for oxygen overpowered both of them, they pulled apart. He would have sworn that Donna was glowing.

"Wow" she whispered.

"Yeah. Donna, that was…"

"Let's do that again" she said as she pulled him back to her lips.

The first kiss had been soulful and healing. It had been the promise of tomorrow, a promise of a life-altering change. This kiss, this kiss had none of those things. This kiss was primal across the board. He plundered her mouth with tongue as she ran her hands up and down his back until they have to rest on his lips. She proceeded to pull his hips into her and started to sway back and forth against him. He moaned as she ripped her lips from his and started to kiss her way down his neck. He knew they were quickly spiraling out of control and, while neither one of them wanted to stop, he knew they needed to move to a different location, preferably one with a door and a large bed.

He grabbed her face and placed a light kiss on her lips. "Donna, we need to…"

"Get the hell out of here" she said. He nodded and pushed off of her, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the front entrance.

The carriage had just pulled up as they tumbled out the front door, fused together at their lips. They broke apart when the carriage driver cleared his throat. Donna jumped up into the carriage and leaned back against the seat, crossing her legs and smiling at him seductively. Josh jumped up behind her and tapped the driver on the shoulder.

"If you can get us back to the mansion as quick as humanly possible, there's an extra $25 in it for you."

The driver glanced behind him and saw the couple. He quickly turned back and nodded. "Yes, Mr. Lyman." As he pulled away from the club, Josh pulled Donna into his lap to continue what had been started in the club.

TBC….