Gone, out of his room but not quite out of his hotel Donna slipped as furtively as possible around the ficus plant in the lobby of the Howard Houston Inn. She still had no clue what part of town she was in; heck, she could barely remember what town she was in thanks to all the campaign stops in the great US of A. All the rooms looked the same, and all the sheets had the same starchy feeling to them, but somehow last night one of the nondescript rooms became the site of what Donna feared would be the worst mistake of her life. Seems fitting to her that it should happen like this, her barely even able to remember the details of the hotel, only that it was cheap- the same way she felt.

She wished she could just forget it all, but she knew she never could. Josh had come to her door. He had said things to her that were both complimentary and sweet, but now in the morning light she fears he was just trying to hire her back. Donna felt a wave of nausea pass over her as she thought her actions. She had been so lonely, spent so many nights thinking of him and wishing she were near him, and remembering the close moments they had shared in the past. But in all those moments Josh had never blatantly crossed the line of professionalism with her. He had done a lot of things that were unprofessional, but he had never made any sort of sexual advancement towards her, and heaven only knows he had plenty of opportunities.

Then last night out of nowhere when they clearly have been drinking and clearly were exhausted from the rigors of campaign and the fatigue of travel, clearly were not even playing for the same team, she had THROWN herself at him. She remembered the shocked look on his face as she had sat up from her sprawl across her bed and met his lips with force and intensity. At the moment it had seemed so right but now she couldn't remember if he had even kissed her back? She remembers he tried to speak and she shushed him, increasing her advances and pushing her chest into his upper body. Eventually she knows he gave in, he began to tear at her and grasp her closer and harder. Then she had laid back, trying to coax him with her and he had resisted, mentioned his hotel and she had hopped up, indicating that she would follow. Did he seem pleased? She struggled to remember but could not. Donna was convinced that she had made a terrible mistake, convinced she would never be able to get over it.

In her rush to follow him, it was lucky that Donna had remembered her hotel cardkey with Lazy Days Inn printed clearly across the top. Without this vital piece of plastic she would be making an embarrassing phone call to Will Bailey. The idea of anyone finding out about this filled Donna with terror and made her even more eager to get away. She was about to steal across the lobby to the service counter to request a way to get back to her depressing room, apparently at the Lazy Days Inn, when she saw a taxi pull up in the circular drive and a passenger hop out.

"PERFECT!" she exclaimed, as the prospect of escaping this Inn unnoticed seemed to be close at hand. She took off quickly into the center of the lobby with her head down and her legs determined to make it to the cabbie before he took off. That's when it happened, she ran right into Leo McGarry!

"Donna, good morning." Leo's gruff voice showed both genuine surprise and pleasure at literally bumping into the woman. Apparently he had been as focused on a file in hand as Donna was on her escape.

"Hi, Leo," Donna began as the small amount of color she did have drained from her face and she looked as though she had been busted by her parents for coming in after curfew. Donna suddenly became conscious of the bra and underwear she was clutching to her chest and after pulling them into an even tighter grasp, she tried to stand a little taller and pretend like everything was normal.

"I didn't realize both campaigns were staying at one place?" Leo's attempt at small talk sounded like an accusation to Donna. She immediately went into the political mode of spinning a story and shot back with all the poised confidence in the world,

"No, no we're not, I just had a few issues to go over with the Santos staff. I thought the earlier I get them out of the way the better, so I came over here straight away this morning and now I am headed back to the Russell camp to deliver the news!" Donna ended her little speech with a nod of her head and the punching of her fist into the air before her with a determined spirit.

Leo looked extremely doubtful but decided not to push it by simply saying "Well, I hope Russell is paying you well to be sacrificing sleep and personal grooming time to work on his campaign."

Donna continued her confident front and simply added as if she were an old political player catching up with a friend: "Well Leo, we don't go into politics for the money now do we?" She started to chuckle as if she had said something genuinely witty and motioned towards the cab outside- "It was nice talking with you, Leo, but I really do gotta go."

She turned to beeline it out of the lobby when Leo called her name, "Donna?"

"Yeah?" Donna turned around trying to maintain her confidence even though she knew that she stood before Leo looking exactly like someonewho just rolled out of bed.

"It was really nice to see you, a lot of people missed you when you left."

A small smile passed across Donna's face and her shoulders relaxed just a little. "Thanks Leo, I really, really miss everyone too."

They held their gaze for a moment before they both turned and Donna jogged out to the cab that was about to leave the curb.

Leo turned and made his way to the elevator bank. Just as he reached to press the "up button" the elevator doors in front of him parted to reveal a rumpled Josh, bouncing anxiously in the elevator and glancing out to take in the entire lobby. The man was so focused that he didn't even notice that it was Leo he was pushing past until the older man spoke,

"Josh, you just missed her."