Happy Thoughts

Epilogue

Donna stood in Josh's office with him and finished fixing his bowtie for his tux. "There we go." Once she was done, she gave him a quick kiss.

"Thank you." He smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Remind me, how many of these balls is the President going to tonight?"

"Well there are 16 inaugural balls total, but I believe they are only going to 4 tonight." She answered.

"You think we will get a chance to dance at all four of them?"

"I'm counting on it." She informed him, stepping out of his grasp and walking over to her purse. "You ready? I think everyone should be leaving a couple of minutes."

"I'm not sure I want to leave with you looking like that." He chuckled. "You look too good. I'm worried some guy will try to steal you tonight."

"They could try but it won't work." She grinned. "I'm very happy with you and everyone around here knows it."

He held out his arm for her to link hers. "Then let's go celebrate."

As they rode in one of the cars behind the President in the motorcade towards the first inaugural ball of the night, Donna looked out the window. So much had happened in the last several months since she and Josh got back together. They almost immediately moved in together, with her moving into Josh's place.

After that, the campaign started to take off and they didn't have as much time together. He was busy with the campaign and helping to run the country. She was busy trying to get the First Lady's agenda passed and juggling the First Lady's campaign appearances. So far she had been able to get five of the First Lady's initiatives funded, but they still had a long way to go to complete the list.

At least they had four more years in the White House. Although the campaign was close in the beginning, they pulled it around and the President won by a landslide. She was so proud of the team, but especially Josh. She looked over at the space between them in the car. He had grabbed her hand and was tracing small circles on the palm of her hand with his thumb.

Even though they hadn't had a chance to spend as much time together as they would have liked while on the campaign trail, she felt secure with their relationship. It seemed the notes Josh left her after their break up was just the beginning of a whole new 'romantic' side she hadn't seen in him before. He sent her notes on random days, would bring her back some little trinket from a campaign trip and would do things like this with her hand.

Any worries she had about them being able to sustain a relationship long term were sliding away. He was making sure of that.

"Ah." Josh chuckled. "Here we go. Ball number one."

She looked at him and smiled, squeezing his hand. "Let's go."

It had been a long night. They were finally at the fourth and final ball. They were swaying to the music.

"Well we did it." He smiled at her. "We managed to dance at each of the locations."

"Yes we did." She smiled back.

"Do you ever think about what's next?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this…tonight is great. But do you ever think about what's next? Our days of working for the Bartlet administration are numbered. Do you ever think about what's next after this?"

"No." She laughed. "I don't. I mean, who knows where we will be in four years. Who knows where we will be in a year even. It's too far away to worry about right now, especially since his second term just officially started today. An opportunity will present itself in the future and we'll figure it out then."

When she finished her statement, he just grinned at her.

"What?"

"I just like when you say 'we' when talking about the future." He told her.

"It does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?" She smiled as the song ended.

"You know what? Let's go get some air."

She looked at him like he was crazy. "It's January. It's going to be cold out there."

"Just for a moment. Please?" He pleaded.

She relented after rolling her eyes. "Ok."

He led her through the crowd of people to a balcony. One the way he grabbed two glasses of champagne. Once they were out there, she noticed they were the only ones. She chuckled softly. "I guess no one else wants to freeze their butts off out here."

"Actually, I had Secret Service keep everyone away from here." He told her. He put the glasses down before taking off his coat and placing it around her shoulders.

"Why?" She questioned.

"Come here." He grabbed her hand and led her to the edge of the balcony. "The fireworks are going to start."

Sure enough, within a few seconds, fireworks started lighting up the sky. She looked at them for a moment before looking back at him. "Why did you have Secret Service do that?"

"I wanted to be alone with you for a moment tonight." He answered.

"Ok." She wasn't sure what was going on but he was acting weird. It was a nice gesture to have a balcony all to themselves, but she had a feeling there was something else going on. She went back to looking at the fireworks. "It's an impressive show."

"Yeah, it is."

She turned to look at him and saw that he was on one knee. "Josh?"

"Yeah?" He grinned.

"What are you doing?" She whispered. Her heart was beating in her chest. This was not what she expected tonight.

"What does it look like?" He chuckled, pulling out a ring box and opening it.

Inside the box was a beautifully simple just gorgeous diamond ring. She now knew there was no mistaking what was happening. He was going to propose. Of course she had wondered if they would make it this far. She wondered late at night sometimes if she would ever get the chance to become his wife. But she didn't think he was the marrying type. He had never mentioned it and had always seemed like he would be happy never to get married. But now…well apparently she was wrong.

"Donatella Moss…there are so many things I could say about you, so many reasons I could list for why I love you. But then we would be out here way too long and you'd probably catch pneumonia and die. So let me just say that I am completely, hopelessly, and eternally in love with you. You make every day better than the last one. You make me a better man. You make everything in this life worthwhile. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you…"

"Yes!" She interrupted him. "Yes."

He laughed. "You won't even let me finish the question?"

She grinned. "Is it really that important to you to finish the question?"

"Well…yeah. It kind of is." He shrugged.

"Ok." She took a deep breath. "I won't interrupt this time."

"Will you…" He grinned. "Become my assistant again?"

She glared at him and hit him on the shoulder. Of course he would joke around at a time like this. "Joshua Lyman, ask the real question!"

"Ow!" He feigned being hurt. "Ok, ok. Will you marry me?"

"Yes." She nodded as he slipped the ring on her finger. She took a quick look at it before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

"I'm so glad you said yes." He whispered once they broke apart.

"You thought I would say no?" She laughed.

"I wasn't sure." He shrugged. "We hadn't really talked about it."

"I didn't want to spook you." She admitted.

"And I didn't want you to think I was moving too fast."

"I think this is just the right speed." She smiled. "The ring is beautiful."

"CJ helped me pick it out."

"She did a good job."

"I asked her to help right after we came back from Christmas with your family." He explained. "I wanted to make sure I had your father's permission first."

Just when she thought there was nothing else he could do to surprise her, she was proven wrong. "You asked my father?"

"Of course." He nodded. "Isn't that what respectable men do in this situation?"

She smiled. It meant a lot to her that he would subject himself to the litany of questions her father was sure to ask him about marrying her. Knowing how her father liked to question the men in her life, she was certain it wasn't a fun discussion. But he did it for her. "I love you."

"I would hope so since we're getting married." He grinned. "What is the name of the book you got that one visualization exercise from?"

"I don't remember off the top of my head. Why?"

"We should frame it since that exercise was the catalyst for us getting together." He told her, walking away to get the glasses and handing one to her. "If you hadn't come into my office that night and sprouted on and on about why I should be thinking about happy thoughts, who knows how much longer we would have danced around our feelings."

She thought about it and couldn't help but agree. "Then let's drink a toast to happy thoughts."

"To happy thoughts." He grinned.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing/following/reading this story! What started as a 2 part story for a fandom I haven't written about before turned into something totally different than I imagined. I have ideas for a sequel. Please let me know if you'd be interested in reading that. Thanks again!