Author: Aerial312 Rating: PG-13 Category: Humor/Fluff/Angst/Romance (a little of everything)
Spoiler Info: Post Rosslyn.
Disclaimer: I own nothing…I just borrow.
Feedback: Greatly appreciated. Archiving: Sure. Just let me know where its going.
A/N: One scene in here is a chunk transcribed from The Midterms, another is the deleted scene from The Midterms. Visit my archive: http://aerial312. .
"Toby…no, Toby, slow down and listen to me for a second. Okay, I'll read it first thing, and call you back," he hung up the phone. "God."
"Do I have to have a word with Toby this morning?"
"Nah."
"You're worked up."
"He just wants my input on this hate crimes legislation."
"I brought home that brief last night."
"I know, and I read most of it…I just conked out before I finished."
"You needed to sleep."
"I know. I couldn't have read more if I'd tried," Josh sat back dejectedly.
"Your stamina is getting better."
Josh nodded, sadly. "Better's a relative term."
"Well then compare it to your stamina two weeks ago."
"Point taken. If Toby gives you anything new today, can I have it at lunch?"
"We'll see."
"Donna…" he whined.
"We'll see."
"Well, how 'bout this: can you do some cards on it?"
"On the whole thing?"
"I'd imagine you'd jump at the chance to have me rest."
Donna sighed, shaking her head. "If you're not reading, you'll be on the phone debating with Toby."
He smiled.
"No, don't pull that."
He continued to smile, wiggling his eyebrows at her. Despite herself, she smiled back. There was no resisting the dimples.
"Fine, I'll work on it."
"Thank you."
"Uh huh."
"Are you working all day today?"
"I'm bringing you lunch."
"But you're working till 5 again?"
"Yup. Baring any complications of course."
"Okay…"
"What?"
"No, nothing…I'm just trying to plan out my day."
"The physical therapist is coming this morning at 9. Toby will have to wait."
"Yeah, I've got a lot of reading to do in the next two hours."
"Sitting here, nice and quiet."
"Sitting here, nice and quiet."
"Call me when you finish physical therapy."
"Call me after staff."
"You're sure it's okay…"
"Leo said it was fine. I want to know what's going on. You call me right after."
"Got it."
"Leaving?"
"I don't want to be late for staff."
"Go."
"Anything else you need?"
Josh shook his head, and squeezed her hand in his. "I'm fine."
She smiled, kissing his forehead quickly on her way out.
"I need to talk to him about…"
Donna strode into Josh's office, and began to gather things off of the desk. Toby followed her.
"The hate crimes and how to best bring it to the President. He's got the papers you wrote. He's got the materials you sent him. You've talked to him on the phone 93 times a day."
"And I'd like to go to his apartment to talk to him."
"No."
"Donna."
"Maybe if you hadn't said the rules were dumb."
Donna charged past Toby, down the hallway.
"Donna!"
"Hello, Sam."
"Hello!"
"What are you after?"
"Has Josh read the stats on Tom Jordan?"
"They're in his pile."
"Has he read them?"
"I honestly don't know. He's getting a lot of pressure from Toby to plow through that hate crimes stuff."
"Could I--?"
"No."
"You don't even know what I'm going to ask."
"You want to know if you can come over and talk to him."
"No…"
"You're a terrible liar."
"I just want to run the numbers by him, ask him a few questions. I haven't talked to him all day."
"I just told Toby no."
"You could tell me yes."
"Not without Toby getting pissed off."
"Toby's always pissed off about something."
Donna laughed. "I'm not taking chances."
"Donna…."
"He'll get to it."
"But I need to know—"
"I'll make sure he looks at it over lunch. How 'bout that?"
Sam sighed. "You run a tight ship."
"Without guidance, he wouldn't get any rest. He may have already looked at it. He was reading something at 3am."
"Yeah?" Sam cocked an eyebrow at her.
"I don't know what it was. He seemed calm, so I went back to sleep."
"Were you right there?"
"Huh?"
"In his room?"
Donna shrugged. "Yeah."
Sam nodded, unsure how to continue. "Oh."
"He has nightmares sometimes. It's easier that way."
"I see."
"I've gotta get going. I want to be back by 2."
"Long lunch."
"He wants every detail of every meeting."
Donna opened the door to the apartment and made her way to Josh's bedroom. He sat on the bed, sound asleep, with a pile of memos on his lap, and the TV on, droning about physics. She smiled, and moved in, placing his sandwich down on the table beside his bed.
"Hey."
"Hey there," she perched on the edge of the bed, and pulled out a stack of things she needed Josh to sign.
"I was more tired than I thought after physical therapy."
"What did you do?"
"Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs."
"How long have you been out?"
"Since I got off the phone with you?"
"That long?"
"I was watching this—"
"Again."
"I was watching it, but I don't know when I feel asleep."
"You've seen it six times."
He shrugged, and flipped the TV to C-SPAN. "Scientists are close to a model for the Grand Unified Theory. I mean, I don't think anybody but me realizes just how big this news is."
"Well you've always been a visionary, Josh. Eat your sandwich."
"I wanna talk to somebody in Geneva." The phone rang. "Hello?"
"How you doing?" CJ loudly.
"What's going on?"
"Are you wearing the pajamas I bought you?"
"Yes."
"Really?."
"I love them."
"You're wearing that grungy sweatshirt, aren't you?"
"What do you want?"
"Is Donna there?"
"No," Josh looked up at Donna sheepishly. She shook her head and handed him the stack of things to sign and a pen.
"Good cause something's come up and I wanted to run it by you before I took it to Sam, and Donna's getting insane about making sure you're not stressed, and she's sitting right there, right?"
"Yeah."
"I won't bother you then, I'll just take it to Sam."
"Okay," he hung up the phone.
"She'll call back in a half hour," Donna grinned.
"Yeah."
"In the meantime, eat the sandwich."
"Yes, mom."
Donna rolled her eyes, and slid the documents into her folder. "Sam wants to know if you've looked at the numbers—"
"Yeah, last night."
"I thought so."
"I couldn't sleep."
"I noticed."
"I read. Only for like an hour."
"You were calm, so I slept."
"Good."
"Yeah?"
"I hate to keep you up."
"You'll let me know if you want me to stay up?"
"I will."
"Eat that sandwich."
"I'm working on it." He took a few bites of the sandwich.
"You're gonna get a call from a pissed off Toby."
"Yeah?"
"I'm surprised he didn't call yet."
"I was asleep."
"True."
"You wouldn't let him come over?"
"Nope."
"Sam either?"
"Nope."
"Good."
"Really?"
"I didn't get nearly as much reading done as I would have liked, so I'd rather not spend lunch explaining to them why."
"I'm glad you're looking at it that way."
"Are we done with work for this lunch?"
Donna nodded.
"How long've you got?"
"I was hoping to be back by 2."
"Sit up here for a while?"
"I'm—"
"Over here with me."
She smiled, and scooted up to the head of the bed. He extended his arm, and she curled against his old, soft sweatshirt.
"Don't think this means you don't have to finish your sandwich."