Trophy Wife

by ghostlyandcoastly

This is a Trophy Wife x West Wing AU with Josh & Donna (if you're unfamiliar with Trophy Wife it's a sitcom that Bradley Whitford starred in a couple years ago where he's married to a young hot blond born in Canada… and I couldn't resist) It doesn't follow the Trophy Wife cannon exactly but it certainly serves as inspiration.

2. The Coffee Date, The Sick Day, and

Chapter Two: The Coffee Date, The Sick Day, and An Irate CJ

AN hi hi hope you enjoy this! I'm going to go ahead and warn you that this version of Donna is an AU version of her. I felt like the tv show kinda left more to be desired when it came to Kate being fully fleshed out woman of today so I wanted to write this Donna-Kate-OtherPerson hybrid idk if I'm even explaining this well but here we go...

Donna POV

What was I thinking?

Why did I agree to go on a date with this man?

I googled him as anyone living in 2015 would do. He's a successful lawyer working for a company that lobbies for more international aide for education for girls. I stalked his Facebook as well. He didn't have many privacy settings turned on- my guess is he doesn't know how. He had not posted a ton and when he did it was worded oddly, like someone who's in their late 40s who doesn't know the cultural language differences on the internet. About half of his posts were him sharing memes from liberal facebook pages where he went on long diatribes that I skimmed. The others were pictures and posts about his kids and their achievements.

If he were to google me, know what would come up? Not a whole lot. Unless you're talking about the other Donna Moss who had worked in the Clinton White House. I had definitely not done that. Know what I do for living? I'm not a successful lawyer lobbying for the good of the world, shocker, I know. I'm a waitress at a strip club (and while I do not personally strip, the uniform is a wee bit skimpy) and an LPN (which is a basically a low level nurse) at an assisted living facility. The closest I've come to having a family of my own was a pregnancy scare in college.

And now I am going on a coffee date with a man nearly twenty years my senior who has three ex-wives AND FIVE CHILDREN.

"Earth to Donna?" My roommate says as she walks out of her room. I snap my head over to her. I realize I am standing in front of my door, frozen. I'm dressed in the nicest clothes I have that are not specifically for job interviews (not that those are plentiful). I'm in black tights with a burgundy corduroy skirt that I got from the thrift store and off white thin sweater that I actually bought from a department store. I wore this exact outfit to a Christmas party at my co-workers (a nurse, not a stripper). Before I can get too depressed over the state of my wardrobe and finances, I remember that Hana is expected a response.

"Oh, sorry. I'm a little freaked out. I'm going on a date."

"You're freaked out about a date?" She scoffs and wanders to the kitchen. She's right. I've never been freaked out over a date. Dates are easy! And fun! And I like them! And I never feel shaky or like butterflies are having orgasms in my stomach. This guy better be worth it.

Josh POV

I found a spot to park on the street by the coffee shop. I check my messages to see if she's cancelled. I'm freaking out about this.

That night in the bar I was confident. Honestly I didn't expect it to wind up in sex for me. I was hoping for some banter with a woman who I had originally cast as insane in my head. But she was smart and witty and undeniably sexy. And despite the night ending in disaster, the sex was amazing. I had become more friendly with my hand since that night. I couldn't get her out of my head. Wednesday night I had snuck out to my home office that was attached to the garage but far from the bedrooms so I could do it without feeling strange about my children sleeping in the rooms around me. For some reason, having sex with someone I'm married to when my kids are in their bedrooms doesn't seem as pervy as jacking off to someone who I hardly know.

I should stop thinking about this. I should be focusing on this date. I really like this girl and not just because of how much she turned me on. I couldn't explain it exactly but at some point while we were in McDonald's, it was like something clicked into place, like I had found a missing puzzle piece.

I get out of the car and wander as casually as I can into the coffee shop. I don't see her around yet which means I'm not late which helps with my nerves. I try not to bounce on my feet as I wait for her. I am trying to decide whether I should order for her so it'd be ready when she got here- or if that's misogynist to take the decision away from her. Hm. Maybe I should call CJ. That uncomfortable conversation is thrown from my brain as the door opens and in walks a particularly hellish sort of heaven. She's beautiful.

Donna POV

I think we've been staring at each other for hours (though probably like two minutes). We're only jerked from our reveries as the door behind me opens and I need to move out of the new customer's way. Our small smiles from staring at each other drop momentarily but return as we walk towards one another.

He's remarkably good looking man. He's in jeans that I'd probably call outdated if they didn't look so damn good on him and a black sweater with the sleeves rolled up.

"Hey." He says, flashing his dimples. Good lord. Never stop doing that.

"Hi."

"How ya doin?" His tone is a little cocky but I don't think it's on purpose. I think he's just being himself and I like it.

"I'm good. How are you?" I return, feeling awkward in comparison to his suaveness.

"Would it be too cheesy to say good now that you're here?" He says. I can see his amusement in his features but also the words are tinged with honesty that makes me wonder if he feels the same way I do. Like Earth had finally regained gravity, like I'd been without it my whole life.

"It'd be very cheesy. Like a ricotta amount of cheese and fluff." I respond. He laughs and starts to turn us toward the line to order. He places his hand on my back and I want to say screw the coffee, let's go finish what we started the other night. But I don't say that. Because this is different and this is a special man and I want to be special too.

I order an iced green tea and he orders a coffee with cream and three sugars. He also orders us two muffins to share. Two because I wouldn't tell him if I wanted blueberry or chocolate chip on the basis that I was perfectly fine and if he wanted a muffin, he didn't have to share it with me. I really was quite hungry so I was actually glad that he'd managed to pull that one over me. I still glared at him playfully about it. The cashier was over us flirting in about two seconds though. I pretended not to notice as Josh put a rather large tip in the jar.

"So Joshua…" We're tucked into one of the little couches at the back of the shop. It's a little private and secluded and I feel like I could sit here and talk to him for hours. So far we've discussed cartoons of our childhood (I got a couple good digs about his age here), the merits of Obamacare, and the talents of Dolly Parton. As much as I've enjoyed all that, I do have questions. I can see in his eyes he knew this was coming.

"Yup?" His smile isn't as big as before but his dimples are still here for my personal show.

"Three ex wives?" I say, raising an eyebrow. I hope that my tone conveys that I'm not judging. I'm just curious.

"Yeah…" He sighs and sits a little straighter. "I'm not a sleaze, I swear. And I wasn't like an awful husband or anything. But there were… factors."

"I don't doubt that you were a good husband." I admit too honestly. I should be a little more guarded about this. "I know it's like the cardinal sin of dating to discuss your ex's but in your case, I feel like we should… I'm not judging, I swear. It's just… a lot? Just like, what were the factors…?"

"You're cute when you're all rambling. So. Factors. I guess I'll just give you the life story of one Josh Lyman." He rubs his hand over his face and blushes a little. "Really, I'd much rather talk about you but I understand your, ah, curiosity. Especially considering you met the stampede of my family. Sorry about that by the way. We're all close I guess. Even though it's a weird family structure. But it's what works."

"That's actually really lovely. There are just five kids, right?" I ask, slightly choking on the word just.

"Yeah. Life story time! So in college my best friend and I slept together one night because we were both young and dumb and inexperienced and scared about the fact that we were about to start our last semester of college… And then there was Hogan. CJ and I got married of course once we knew. We finished our degrees and got married the same day- her mother was sort of insistent about it happening before Hogan arrived. Once Hogan did, we kind of decided that we were going to do whatever we would have done anyways just plus some rings and a baby girl. We started law school and before we both graduated, well… We just knew that there was nothing beyond friendship between us. So we got a divorce but she's been a basically constant fixture in my life since. For Hogan of course but also we work together. It's been a joke that she's my work wife which I haven't really decided if it's weird or not that my ex wife is my work wife but…" He shrugs.

"And wife number 2?"

"Ah… Madeline. A different story. When we met, I was… a little high on my ego and when I came across Mandy who was in her residency I thought we were like this perfect power couple or something. And she was good with Hogan. And only occasionally things were heated between her and CJ. So I married her. We got pregnant pretty quickly with twins- Warren and Hillary."

"How old are they?" I ask. I can see he's worried about talking too much. I imagine he probably does get accused of talking about his kids too much. His eyes light up when he mentions them.

"Thirteen. It's hell. Not as bad as Hogan being seventeen but… The idea of having three teens is mind blowing." He says and then winces, looking to see how freaked out I am. Oddly enough, I'm not.

"And the little ones?" I ask, spurring him on. I genuinely want to know all of this. He was interesting and sweet and funny and his life was crazy and domestic and I craved a little of that. He smiles as he thinks about the little boys.

"Bert and Peter. Bert's eight and he's a little weirdo. God, he's so great, Donna. And Peter is five now which he's very proud of since it uses all his fingers. When Mandy and I… blew up… I met Joey through my work. Joey is my third wife. After Mandy, the whole family man thing I liked and Joey wanted kids and the white picket fence and things were great for a while. But she met Kenny as her new interpreter. And I saw it even before she realized. So we ended it. Though not on bad terms. Even though we had just adopted Peter. It confused everyone for about half a minute but Joey and Kenny make more sense than her and I ever did. But we have Bert and Peter for it so…" He shrugs, looking slightly sheepish and slightly in his own world of love for his kids.

We talk a little bit more about his family then he starts asking me questions. I really like this guy. I don't want to ruin it by telling him about my past. Hell, even my present. I don't want to tell this wholesome family man with the wholesome career about my life as a waitress-nurse with terrible finances and propensity to get into shitty relationships with men before hopping to another.

"Donna?" He asks, pulling me out of my head.

"Yeah?" I respond, fiddling with my cup.

"I asked you about where your from?" He offers awkwardly.

"Oh, uh. Canada."

"Ah, what's it like having healthcare?" He jokes.

"I was only there when I was like younger. We moved Wisconsin when I was like eight." I explained, leaving out any gory details. From there, he makes some cheese jokes and I banter back with him. We move on to subjects like our favorite foods and music tastes and conspiracy theories. The crowd in the coffee shop changes around us but we don't really take notice. A crack of thunder is the only thing that pulls us out of our little cocoon of conversation. We both look outside and realize it's dark.

"Oh, wow. I'm sorry I didn't realize how late it was- did you have somewhere you needed to be?" I ask, feeling a little embarrassed about my lack of awareness.

"Huh, no. I didn't realize either." He pulls out his phone to check his messages. "Nope, we're all good on my front. Did you…?"

I desperately want to smile at him and tell him I have all the time in the world but I have work in two hours. I smile sadly before answering him.

"I don't have a lot of time actually." At his dejected expression, I add, "Not that I want to leave. Trust me. I don't. I'm having a great time and- what?" His grin is back and it looks a little too satisfied.

"You're cute when you ramble." He says in a low tone. I think my mind just goes blank so I kiss him. When we finally come up for air, it's my turn to grin in that self satisfied manner.

"You're sure you have to go?" Josh practically whines, sounding more like a four year old than a man who has a four year old. I laugh a little at his antics.

"Yeah, I have work." I reach for his hand, the motion oddly natural. He watches our hands as he wraps his fingers between mine and turns my hand over, bringing it to his mouth to kiss. My stomach swoons a bit.

"It's 8:30 at night?" He questions. "You didn't tell me what you do, did you?" I take my hand back slowly, not looking him in the eye.

"No, Josh. I did not. And would you like to talk about that more with the limited time we have left or would you rather do this?" I ask, distracting him with my lips again.

When I finally do have to go, I pull away and we make our way out into the rain. He offers me his jacket but I distract him with kissing again and refuse. It takes longer than it should to say goodbye. Neither of us really want to go.

"Donna?" Josh asks as we step back from our embrace.

"Yes Josh?" I ask cheekily.

"I think we should see each other again. And probably again after that, just to be safe." His grin is a little bit dazzling. It makes sense that this man has had a few wives- he's just too easy to fall for.

We make plans for our next date and I dash to my car, running late. But before I'm out of earshot, I hear Josh call my name and I whip around.

"I didn't forget you never told me what you do. I'll bring my guesses to dinner." Josh runs up to me and kisses my cheek before turning and crossing the street. He is so damn charming. I'm definitely not going to tell him what I do.

The next few dates will begin with him bringing ridiculous guesses to my career (including haberdasher, nun, and the CEO of Google) and end with him telling me he didn't forget that I didn't give him an answer with a easy smile and a twinkle of amusement before his face turns more serious, telling me he wants to know more about me- everything. He's too easy to fall for.

Josh POV

I'm pretty sure this is paradise.

It's been two weeks since Donna and I went out for coffee. Since then every time we have free time in our schedules, we've spent it together. Not that it's easy to find time. She works a lot of hours (and still refuses to tell me what exactly it is she does). And I do too plus I have the kids and their schedules.

Which is why we both called in sick today. And are currently wearing very few clothes and lounging on my couch. We were making out, starting to get into it again when my blood turned to ice because…

"Hey dad, mom said you were sick so I brought- AHHHHH!" Hogan's piercing scream physically hurt my ears. Donna is looking at me terrified, just as frozen.

"Shit." I say. Seven. Sixty. Verbal. Baby.

"Oh my god!" Hogan runs away. I hear her lock herself in the bathroom.

"Oh my god." Donna echoes.

"Okay. Uh." Fulbright scholar too.

"GO!" Donna pushes me off the couch, throwing my pants at me. I grab up my under shirt. Donna has wrapped herself in the blanket that was covering her. I can't afford to be distracted but seriously, she's ridiculously hot. I curse as I step in the soup that Hogan had dropped. Jesus. I just traumatized my daughter.

I knock on the bathroom door.

"Hogan? Honey?"

"NO! DON'T!" She yells back. Guilt washes over me.

"Hogan, just come out. It's just me." Donna had retreated to my bedroom. Which added another layer of guilt but it would have to wait.

"Nope. I can never look at you ever again."

"Okay, let's not be dramatic." I say because apparently I've learned nothing in my seventeen years of parenting.

"Dramatic!? Your hand was grabbing some woman's ass!" Hogan says.

"Okay. One, don't curse. Two, listen, come out and talk to me. I'm really sorry you saw that, okay? You can't hide in there forever."

It's been about forty five minutes now and I have not made any headway on getting Hogan to come out. After about twenty minutes of trying to be nice and understanding, I got a little frustrated but decided that it would probably be a bad idea to yell at my daughter, demanding she come talk to me considering she just witnessed a naked woman draped over me. Not that she saw anything of Donna's. But still it was obvious.

I went to go check on Donna. Who was now fully dressed and pacing. I closed the door and leaned back against it.

"So…" Should I mention I went to Harvard and Yale? Because I did.

"I cannot believe that just happened. I'm that girl now." She sounds more upset than I expected.

"'That girl'?" I question.

"Yeah. Ya know, dad's whore. Or whatever. Oh my god."

"Okay. One, that's not who you are. Two, my children would never call you that and if they did, they'd be in a serious amount of trouble for a multitude of reasons with not just me but their staunchly feminist mothers. Three, I know that it was bad but she'll be okay. We'll talk it over. She's a very mature girl."

"Josh, stop it. You have no idea what that would be like." Donna was pacing again.

"And you do?" I asked quietly. Mainly because she was usually so guarded with me about her past. Maybe I didn't have a right to know her that well but every small story I got from her felt like a gift.

I had never been the type of guy who wanted to fix the woman he was dating. That was more Sam- playing the hero and what not. I've mostly fallen for career driven women who are awkward in their personal lives and killers in the professional world. Except Joey, I guess. Joey is good with the whole domesticity thing and balancing that with being a driven woman. But Donna was very different from the women I've been attracted to in the past. And it was more than just the age difference. I liked her unabashed curiosity. I liked her grounded blue-collar esque perspective. I liked her eyes and the way they looked at me. I liked the feel of her against me- for reasons that went beyond sexual.

It's been three weeks since we've met. We've been on four dates. I'm not sure what she wants out of this. But I think I'm in love with her. That rattling thought is disturbed by Donna's response.

"Yeah. I do." She says but I wait for her to finish. "Not exactly. I mean. You're a good dad. I didn't- I just don't want to be that girl." She admits, looking small. I wrap her in my arms because I can't help it.

"Was your dad…" I start to ask, not wanting to be insensitive but also having this need to know her intimately.

"He had an ever changing rolodex of women around." She says simply, avoiding my eyes. "I only lived with him for a few years when I was like thirteen but ya know, enough to… make me sympathetic to… that."

"Hey. Being sympathetic is great. But beating yourself up over it? Don't. We are two consenting adults being adults in a private space and there was no reason we could have known that Hogan was coming over. Okay? You're not… you're not my hoe or whatever." I tell her sincerely. Donna laughs a little. "What's funny?"

"You saying hoe. It just doesn't come out of your mouth right."

"Can't say I disagree." I kiss her a little bit before she pulls out of my arms.

"I should probably… head out." She says, grabbing her phone off my nightstand. "Give you guys some space."

"You don't have to-" I stop myself. She's probably right. "Just, uh, text me. Let me know you got home fine and everything."

"Oh, the chivalry." She grins at me. I roll my eyes. I picked her up a few nights ago for dinner. She had tried to insist on meeting me there like we had for other dates. Her part of town was not good. And the apartment complex she lived in seemed sketchy as all hell. I at least wanted to know when she was safe inside. She picks up her purse.

We kiss for a minute longer before I walk her to the door. She cringes as we sneak past the still closed hall bathroom door. I whisper goodbye to her and she squeezes my hand before letting go.

"Hogan. You can come out now. Seriously. Donna just left. Just come talk to me." I plead at the door.

"Go away!"

UGH.

I proceed to try bribing. She's immune to my promises of ice cream now. I try annoying her out of there. I played Justin Bieber and sang along outside the door. She hates when we play Justin Bieber, reminding her of her fangirl days of like two years ago- eons ago for her, just yesterday for me. I did resort to threatening grounding at one point. It was pointless. I was just about to give up when Hurricane CJ comes through my door, looking pretty pissed off. Hogan must have texted her. I'm so done.

"Shit. Hogan! Tattle tale-" CJ cuts me off by grabbing my ear and dragging me into my own damn kitchen.

"WHAT were you thinking!?" She whisper yells.

"I had no idea she was going to walk in! No one was supposed to be around!" I defended myself.

"Josh Lyman, you have five kids. You lost the delusion of privacy years ago. What the hell is wrong with you?" I roll my eyes a little.

"Claudia-Jean, I am an adult man. I am allowed to engage in-"

"Don't finish that sentence if you want to able to engage in anything ever again." She sighs. "You realize she's going to hate you for a little bit, yeah?" It's my turn to sigh.

"Yup."

"Oh no."

"What?"

"You're doing the whole guilt thing!" CJ whines.

"What?"

"Josh, you're impossible when you get all guilty and sweet. Dammit, you idiot boy." CJ hugs me. I hug her back. It is odd how much our relationship has changed. In some ways, she's my work wife. In others, she's my sister. But she's also the mother to my first child.

"Mom?" Hogan called, still inside the bathroom.

"She's a teenage girl, Josh. She'll be fine. Most people have stories about walking in on their parents… oh and don't think you're getting out of telling me about whoever this woman is." She looks at me mischievously before going to get Hogan.

Ten minutes later, Hogan and I hug and exchange slightly awkward goodbyes. I watch her pull out of the driveway- still terrified that my baby can drive now. I turn back inside once she's out of sight. CJ has pulled out the wine.

"So. Spill."

I resisted and obfuscated for all of five minutes before I did exactly that. Once I had told her everything (save the more vivid sexual details), she looked at me with her eyebrows raised and said, "Oh boy. You're a goner."

"I know." I put my face in my hands. "It's not my fault! She's too easy to fall for."