Title: The Path Which Has Led to the Present (27/35?)
Author: Aerial312
Rating: PG-13. Our friends have bad mouths when they've been drinking.
Category: Humor/Fluff/Angst/Romance (a little of everything)
Spoiler Info: Pre-Series.
Disclaimer: I own nothing…I just borrow.
Feedback: Greatly appreciated. Sure. Just let me know where its going.

A/N: I'd intended to have a new chapter yesterday…but then I got distracted by the fantasy season 8…

Donna's eyes blinked open and she groaned. It felt like there was someone sitting on her head, and they'd stuffed cotton into her mouth. Her whole body felt heavy. What the hell had she been drinking last night? Whatever it was, she must have drunk an awful lot of it. Vaguely, it occurred to her that the memory lapse should concern her, but at the moment she was too busy feeling miserable.

Painfully, she raised her head a bit. Ah, the weight on her torso was identified. Josh was laying across her. His head was on her stomach, and one of his legs was wrapped around hers. They had a knack for ending up completely tangled. Donna patted Josh's head. If she felt this miserable, then he was going to wake up completely useless.

The phone rang. To Donna it sounded a little more shrill than usual. It rang again. She couldn't answer it. It was almost sure to be the wake up call, but there was still a 5 chance it could be someone on the campaign.

"Wake up!"

Josh growled, and nuzzled his head further against her stomach. Damn, that felt nice.

"Josh! Wake up!"

He moaned.

"Answer the phone."

"Wake up call. You get it."

"It could be—"

"Yeah…"

Josh groped blindly for the phone. Donna guided it into his hand.

"Yeah?"

"Good morning."

"You're chipper," Josh grumbled, as he mouthed 'Leo' to Donna. "What's up?"

"Just calling to make sure that you get your ass to the bus, and to your meeting this morning, so that you can get your ass to my meeting on time."

"What time is it?"

"6:30."

"Wake up call was set for 6:45…I think."

"And that's why I'm calling."

"I'm up…I'm up."

"And you'll be presentable?"

"I'll take a shower and I'll be fine."

"Good. Don't forget to get those files from Margaret. She's already up."

"Will do. I'll send Donna in a bit."

"Call me after the meeting, let me know how it went."

"Ay, ay. Bye Leo."

Josh dropped the phone out of his hand, not bothering to hang it up.

"I feel like I'm going to die."

Donna grabbed the handset, and put it on the cradle.

"You're not going to die."

"I think I'm still drunk."

"You wouldn't be hurting yet if you were still drunk."

"Ugh…" Josh groaned.

"You should take an aspirin now, and drink a glass of water."

"I don't want to move."

Donna smiled. His head was still nestled against her stomach. It had ceased to be weird weeks ago.

"I know you don't want to move, I don't especially want to move either, but you'll be thankful for it later."

"What the hell did we do last night?"

"Apparently, we drank an awful lot."

"How much did I have to drink?"

"Josh, I don't even remember how much I had to drink."

"Really?"

"Not a clue. Sam kept buying, I think. I'm a little fuzzy."

"I bet you're adorable when you're drunk."

"I don't get that drunk that often."

"It's a shame I missed it."

"You were there."

"But I wasn't there."

Donna laughed. "Neither was I really. I have no idea if I was adorable or not. CJ and Sam kidnapped me…and then it gets blurry.

"Yeah…I think we beat them at darts."

"Did we? God, I don't do this. I don't drink this much. I don't lose evenings."

"Usually you have to buy your own."

"Very true."

"Geez, I even went to sleep with my clothes on."

"I managed to throw mine on the floor."

Donna laughed.

"We should get up."

"And get on the bus."

"Ugh…I'm going to end up getting sick this morning, I can tell already."

"You can handle it. It's only an hour to Phoenix."

"Why didn't we just drive overnight?"

"We're not staying overnight in Phoenix tonight. We're flying on to St. Louis. It too late an evening to drive last night, and check in another hotel in the middle of the night. So we stayed here."

"And drive far, far too early."

The phone rang again.

"Now, that's the wake up call."

Donna passed the phone too Josh. "Hello?"

"This is your 6:45am wake up call."

He passed the phone back to her and rested his chin on her stomach. "I suppose we should really get up now."

"Do you want me to get ready first so I can go track down those files from Margaret?"

"Nah, I need to check my email…and I'm not going to want to get up anymore in fifteen minutes than I do now."

Slowly, Josh raised himself off of Donna.

"Water and Tylenol!" Donna called, as he trudged to the bathroom.

He turned and grinned at her. "I will."

Donna smiled. She loved those little moments. They still made her heart flutter a little. A really vivid dream was playing in her head. She closed her eyes and replayed the image of Josh kissing her up against the wall. It was a shame it was a dream, but it was a particularly nice one to remember.

"Donna, where is the Tylenol?" Josh came padding out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel.

Donna's eyes opened wide. She'd seen him in a towel before, but it never ceased to make her flush, especially after the memory of the kiss dream."

"Donna?"

"Huh?"

"The Tylenol?"

"In my bag."

"Do I have permission to grab it?"

"Uh, yeah, there's nothing in there for you to be afraid of."

"I'm just asking…I ask…I know better than to go in a woman's purse without permission."

"Did you learn that the hard way?"

"Did I ever."

Donna laughed, and pulled some clothes out of her suitcase.

"How many should I take?"

"Two. You don't want to make your stomach angrier."

Josh swallowed the pills, and lay back on the bed.

"If you're still in that position when I'm done, I'm going to kick your ass."

"I'm moving…" Josh smiled.

He was tempted to continue to lay there just so she would kick his ass. Okay, no, that was a bad idea. If he let that happen, they'd never make the bus. His control was diminishing exponentially, and he needed to try really hard not to put them into that situation, because he knew what would happen. And it wasn't that he thought that Donna would be unwilling, rather she'd be just as willing as he was, but they just couldn't. Could they?

As he gradually became more coherent, it began to worry him that neither he nor Donna could remember the previous evening. But she was fully dressed when they woke up, and he was no more undressed than usual.

Deciding not to tempt fate, Josh stood up and retrieved a suit from his luggage. He'd just finished dressing when Donna came out of the bathroom, her hair still wet.

"I just need to put on my shoes—"

"And dry your hair."

"I'm just putting it in a ponytail. A little too woozy to stand up and dry it."

Donna finished with her hair, and sat on the bed to put on her shoes. Josh came around to her side of the bed, and offered out two pills and the water glass.

"You need this too."

"Thank you," Donna smiled. "You can be sweet when you try."

"Or I'm hungover."

Donna laughed. "You could do it if you were sober too, if you tried."

"You say I don't try…I could try."

"Then try," Donna smiled coyly.

"Maybe I will," Josh grinned, bearing the dimples. Anything for her to smile like that.