Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews guys, I'm very glad that at least some of you are enjoying exploring this version of Donna and Josh. Thanks especially to AuggieDeeksNico ( u/321921/AuggieDeeksNico) for enabling, encouraging, supporting & Betaing this section!

As ever love and kisses to Aaron Sorkin & John Wells … I promise I'll give your characters and world back very soon! x

Donna's pleased. She hasn't seen Josh this buoyant for far too long. The sleep, the sex, and the peace and quiet have brought him back from the edge. She can't pretend she's annoyed with him for long, and before they reach the ocean she's holding his hand. Is it possible he can really do this, run the Santos White House and have a life?

He started the talk but does he know she isn't finished?

She smiles, squeezes his hand. It's her way of thanking him for realising that despite their back to front relationship they can't substitute sex for communication. Not if they want this to be more than a fling.

She still has a lot to say, a lot to discuss, but she's not sure where to start. "Do you think about our future?" It's as good an opening as any.

"Yes. We've had nothing but future for nine years Donna. It's hard to remember what we've never had."

"Did you get past the fantasy though?"

He stops the warm water pooling around their ankles as she turns back to him. "Well, it's possible I spent some time lingering on the fantasy, I had to hope that at least once, instead of tying my tie you'd slam me into the wall and kiss me till my brain, melted, then…"

She can see him fidgeting. "Are you blushing?"

He's embarrassed. "Our relationship was largely oral in nature. It wasn't a huge stretch…"

"I think you mean verbal Joshua, and I was asking if you got past the fantasy." She thinks, "And don't for one minute think you're getting lucky in Leo's office!"

"I heard 'fantasy', I can't help it if you led me there, and it wasn't always me getting lucky, some of those ball gowns made me" a huge grin has replaced his face "curious to investigate 'what lies beneath'."

She's employing the look. The one she hopes will snap him back to the present away from fantasies that could only have ended with them both being marched from the building and striped of their jobs.

He closes the distance between them, looks down to the retreating water at their feet, cocks his head to one side, and speaks. "The future? You mean how do we do this back in the real world?"

"Yes" she pauses "We've not had great role models. We know the West Wing doesn't make for an easy private life."

"The President and Dr. Bartlett?"

"We are not the President or Dr. Bartlett Joshua, and I'd prefer not to have to compromise my career to keep you in a job."

He pulls her into his body, kissing her shoulder. "Unfortunately you aren't in a position to supply me with drugs, or have you been growing pot in your closet to supplement your meagre government wage?"

"Tylenol baby, if you need anything stronger book an appointment with your doctor."

They continue walking along the beach, the waves gently tugging at their footprints.

"I don't know how we do this Donna. I pictured our life after The White House. If I'm honest, I didn't expect to be here at the start of another administration, and, I didn't expect to be running things without Leo to support me."

She reaches for his hand, entwining her fingers in his. Hoping he'll realise he isn't doing this alone.

"Do you know how much better you made me? At my job?"

She does know. She was a very good assistant, but she doesn't mind hearing Josh say it.

"You made it easy to work so hard. You eased my workload, made sure I focused on the things that mattered. You grounded me, stopped my mouth getting us both fired on more than one occasion…"

She's blushing, reminded of his fantasy.

"… you made me explain my decisions, made me understand them, made sure they were the right choices. You were my compass, my north. I could make the right choices with you standing strong beside me."

"I'm still beside you Josh. You have all that still, I just won't be getting you coffee, doing your filing, answering your phones."

"You never got me coffee Donna."

"See, you can't miss me that much. And that's a blatant lie, I got you coffee on more than one occasion, and beer from my mini-fridge."

"Oh god, I'm going to be lost without the mini-fridge. Sitting chatting after a big win with a beer and a beautiful woman. It was even more important after the losses."

"I get an office Josh, it's at the other end of the building, but I'll still be there when you need to bore someone with a detailed account of your brilliance. If you're lucky I may even regale you with the fascinating accomplishments of my day."

"Mmmmmm, you get walls baby."

"Not in Leo's office, definitely not in my office! And do you realise you'll have some decidedly hunky secret service guys cramping your style, very soon?"

"There's no need to look so happy about that Miss Moss. I've been perfectly capable of cramping my own style for years without any assistance from the secret service."

They walk in silence for a while, listening to the whisper of the ocean.

She remembers what worries her. "I need to know you'll talk to me. Listen to me. I know it isn't going to be easy, I know you'll need to stay late, although I hope it won't be to keep your beautiful assistant chatting past her bedtime. I know there are going to be late nights, weekends and times we'll be apart, but I need to know that we will remember to talk, remember to listen to one another. Remember that sometimes there are things more important than work."

He squeezes her hand. "I hated not talking to you, while we were apart. I wanted to call you so many times. You were in the same hotel once, across the corridor. I couldn't bear it. Being so close, but so far. I just wanted to chat, lay on the bed like I used to, listening to you talk about the day, telling me all the things I missed, all the things I should have done. Ranting at the late night news coverage. Laughing at the clueless pundits. Ending the day together."

"Iowa. We were in Iowa Josh."

He turns to face her. "I nearly knocked on your door."

She grins, "I nearly opened it."

She breaks eye contact, chuckles to herself, laughs at him, her hands on his chest, laughing at the absurdity of it all. He's joining in, or maybe chuckling at her mania. There's nothing they can do about the past but laugh at their absurdities.

When they calm down he talks. "We'll talk Donna. We'll rant, we'll shout, we'll laugh, we'll cry. And we'll remember that sometimes… sometimes…" He raises his voice to the Pacific. "… there really are things more important than work."

She chuckles again "I don't think the rest of Hawaii need convincing, just make sure I don't need to remind you too often."

She's thinking, silent, pensive. She can feel the tears at her eyes. She's suddenly angry. "God Josh, it's not that easy." She walks up the beach and collapses into the sand, head on her knees.

He sits beside her, leaning back on his arms. "I know. We, we could wait, until we've settled into this administration."

She's chastising the sea. "The first 100 days, midterms, re-election. I'm not a fucking martyr Josh. I've been a martyr for long enough, I've done my waiting, this is my time."

"I didn't ask you to wait."

"Get your head out' your ass."

"I didn't want this."

Oh god, this is what a broken heart feels like. Her body fights for oxygen.

"I mean I thought about our future, growing old together, watching our kids grow up, grandkids, white picket fence, swing on the porch."

She can breathe again, but she's far from mollified. "Great, why don't I just sit at home, wait for you to nose dive your political career so we can move to the suburbs and die slowly."

"It wasn't my name on the ticket."

"Don't pretend you're that naïve. God Josh, did you really not think about the future? Did you think the democratic party would die with Bartlett? I chose this. I wanted to win."

"I wanted to win..."

"I wanted to win so we could govern Josh, not to prove I had the biggest balls. I didn't fall into this. I chose to be part of a democratic future."

"I chose a good man. I wanted him to govern. I have to do this."

"You chose the next President of the United States. You don't have to stand beside him, but you will, unless you can think of someone better for the job. God Josh, times change, we are the democratic party. You, Sam, Lou, Ronna, me, Annabeth, Will, Bram, hell even Amy. This is ours to screw up."

"Ours?"

"One man cannot run the country, not the President, not the Chief of Staff."

"You chose this?"

She looks around, trying not to smile at him lounging back in the sand. "Sometimes you really are a democratic jackass. I didn't stick around for nine years because of your winning smile and a desperate need to get in your pants. I'm a democrat Josh, and this is my White House."

He runs a teasing finger up her spine. "Are you sure? I seem to remember you voted Republican last time."

"I'm sure Joshua. I'm not giving up the White House and I'm prepared to fight for us. Now what do you choose? Do you choose me? Do you choose the White House? Do you choose to accept the help and support of your friends and colleagues?"