Author: Catgurl83
Title: Time
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Before they'd surfaced from their grief enough to even try to circumvent the damage, they'd lost.
Rating: Child
Spoilers: Through Election Day part one. Speculation for future episodes.
Author's notes: This was written for the Women of Sunday Night Fic-a-thon for Kali81.
Thanks to Megan for beta reading this for me.
'Three years,' Donna mused as she climbed out of bed, being careful not to wake her sleeping husband.
It had been three years since the day that everything in her world, in their world, had changed. That day had begun so well. Phenomenally well. She and Josh had been talking, Josh teasing her about the election, reminding her to be careful when she voted this time. One moment they were laughing and the next kissing. They'd made love that day for the first time.
Things had become tense as the polls opened around the country, and Josh, as he did with every election he was a part of, found himself at a loss. For the first time in a year he had nothing pressing that he needed to do, no candidate to bolster, no event organization to oversee. Nothing but wait.
She grinned as she peeked into the bedroom across from her own and then quietly headed toward the stairs. Josh did not wait well. The average two-year-old had more patience than that man. When Josh had to wait he became more fidgety and more grouchy than usual.
Lou and the others had appointed her to be his keeper that day, to keep him from going completely insane. They hadn't known about the change in her and Josh's relationship, or maybe they had. Not that Donna and Josh had slept together. She was almost positive that the others on the campaign hadn't known that. But about their feelings for each other. About the depth of feeling that had existed between them for years. CJ claimed that that had been transparent, impossible for anyone who was around them not to see.
She had found him and they'd ended up back in his room upstairs, in bed again. They'd been watching CNN coverage of the election when the news had come. First came the urgent pounding on the door, the calling of Josh's name in such a strained voice that they'd both sat up in bed alarmed. Then Josh's cell phone had begun to ring.
Donna had reached for her robe while Josh grabbed the phone, resigned to the others finding out about their relationship right then. She'd stopped halfway to the door, frozen in place by the sound of Josh's voice. The desolation in his voice as he'd asked the person on the other end of the phone (Annabeth she'd found out later) if they were sure, if there was some way they could be wrong.
She'd turned in time to see Josh sink back down on the bed, the phone still clutched in his hand. Without thinking about whoever was out in the hall, she'd gone to Josh, whispering his name until he looked up at her.
"He's gone," he'd whispered and for half a second she'd forgotten the time and place and was back at the night of the Illinois primary during President Bartlett's first campaign. That night he'd said those same words to her, about his father.
"Who?" she had asked after bringing herself back to the present. She'd gently taken the phone from him, and set it on the night stand.
He'd said the name and it had been a moment before she'd really been able to process it. Leo had had the heart attack but she'd thought he was okay now. They all had. He'd been examined at the start of the campaign and had been given a clean bill of health.
"A heart attack," Josh had whispered. "Another one. We should have known this would be too much for him. We shouldn't have asked. I shouldn't have asked." He'd lost it then, actually breaking down and crying as she held him. He hadn't cried for his father, or he hadn't trusted her to see him cry then. But with Leo he hadn't been able to stop himself.
Donna set the coffee pot and turned back toward the staircase.
The news of Leo's death had reached the public before the polls on the west coast closed. Before they'd surfaced from their grief enough to even try to think of a way to circumvent the damage, they'd lost. In one day they'd lost so much.
As she reached the top of the stairs she caught sight of one of the pictures hanging on the wall. In the photo she wore a long cream colored sheath and white sandals. Josh wore khaki pants and a loose fitting white dress shirt.
They'd been married that day, on the beach at his mother's house just days after Vinick was inaugurated. Only those invited to the ceremony had known of its existence. Her parents, brother, and sister, CJ who had surprised them all by bringing Danny Concannon, Toby, Andi, and the twins who had served as Ring Bearer and Flower Girl, President and Dr. Bartlett, Zoey and Charlie, Will, Kate, Lou, Sam and Ainsley, Mallory, Annabeth, and the Santos'.
They had handed the invitations out themselves to everyone they could. A few had had to be mailed out of state. She grinned as she remembered the reactions. With all that had happened they hadn't told anyone about their relationship before handing out the invitations. There just hadn't seemed to be an appropriate time. The invitations were a bit of a surprise as Congressman Santos had put it. President Bartlett had been a more blunt saying that it was 'about damn time for some good news.'
Her bedroom door was open and Josh's was no longer there. She found him across the hall.
She'd worried about him, after Leo's death and the loss of the election. Josh didn't deal well with loss and she'd had no idea how he was going to cope with being out of politics, for a short time at least.
In the nursery, Josh was rocking six-month-old Thomas, softly telling the baby a story about his namesake, as he often did.
He'd adjusted to the changes in his life, Donna thought with a smile. Adjusted very well.
After their honeymoon they'd moved to Florida to be close to his mother. Donna had returned to school to finish her degree, choosing to major in psychology, while Josh lectured at colleges around the country and wrote a book.
They'd kept in contact with their friends from their time in DC of course but for the first time in nearly a decade their lives had been different, removed from those of most of their friends. She'd loved the reprieve from the pace of Washington, DC.
Josh turned, his dimples dancing as he smiled down at his son.
After three years it was time to go back.