I haven't decided if this is going to be a multi chapter fic. Depends on feedback and whether I come up with a good enough idea for where to go with it. So send me some reviews and we'll see what happens!
He's certain that whatever Donna wants to talk about, he's not going to like it. If it were something benign, they could have discussed it at the office, but she specifically asked him to set aside time for lunch with her.
The walk over isn't filled with their usual easy banter. He can feel a heavy weight in his stomach. A twisting feeling as he ponders everything she could possibly want to talk about.
She makes small talk when they sit down and pick up their menus. Or what Donna considers small talk, which is rattling off ridiculous facts a mile a minute. Josh can't even focus on what she's saying because he's so fearful of the main event, and when they're halfway through their meals, he discovers the worst case scenario is reality.
She's leaving him.
He tries really hard to separate his assistant Donna from his friend Donna. He knows mentally that she's not leaving him. She's right; she needs a job where she can grow and have more responsibility, something he'd secretly hoped she wouldn't chase until the end of the Bartlet administration. She's leaving her job, not him.
But there's still that twisting feeling in his gut. It's the same feeling he had when his Dad died. When Leo had his heart attack. When Sam decided to run for Congress. He would never admit it to anyone, but he lives in constant fear of losing the people he loves, and as he looks across the table, he realizes that maybe there is something he can do to prevent losing her. Maybe he can change their fate.
"Do you have a job lined up yet?" He asks, interrupting the speech she'd obviously prepared for this moment.
Donna shakes her head. "I didn't want potential employers to feel like they were poaching me…"
Poaching her? "Donna, seriously? You're just quitting without a safety net ––?"
"I can't be your lapdog anymore, Josh!" She cries out, gripping her fork in her hand. She hasn't taken a bite since they started this discussion, but she starts stabbing at her salad aggressively. "I've gotten a lot of offers over the last few years," she explains. "But I never took them because I didn't want to leave you. I love working with you. I've learned so much from you that most of the time I don't even care that I didn't finish college." She sighs and puts her fork back down without taking a bite. "But I don't want to be an assistant for the rest of my life, and as long as I stay with you, that's all I'm ever going to –– "
"Three days," he blurts out.
"What?"
"Give me three days. If I can't offer you something more by Christmas, I will write you a… a stunning recommendation to anyone and everyone you want to work for. You can keep working in the White House during your job search, and I'll even pilot the secret plan to get Donnatella Moss a new job," he half-teases.
"Josh –– "
"Three days, Donna…please."
He watches her consider his offer for what feels like an eternity, and she opens her mouth in protest but then closes it with a sigh and a nod. "Hopefully it's better than your secret plan to fight inflation." She smirks and picks up her fork, taking a bite of her salad, and he's glad that there's a sign of their easy banter coming back.
A genuine smile creeping onto Josh's face. "I hope we won't need it," he admits.
For the rest of the day, he's very conscious of everything he asks Donna to do, trying not to give her menial tasks, instead doling those out to the rest of his staff and only giving her the important jobs. She's appreciative of that, but he knows it's not enough. That alone is not going to keep her from leaving or even prove he values her more than he ever thought possible.
But he has no idea what will.
It's not like he has anywhere to promote her to. He thinks about asking CJ to move her up to Press Secretary, but he knows it's too much. She has no experience in dealing with the press beyond reading the occasional statement. Plus he's still got a little bit of a complex about CJ getting promoted to Chief of Staff over him. If he were Chief of Staff, he would have just made Donna his deputy and they wouldn't be having this problem. She can do his job nearly as well as he can, after all.
It's not until later when he's talking to Leo that the idea strikes him.
It doesn't finish, Josh. It keeps going.
He walks behind her chair and leans over her shoulder. "Come to my office," he murmurs before heading there himself. It's only a short moment later that she follows him and he closes the door to the bullpen. He has to pitch this to her the right way to get her to say yes, and he can't do that if people can just wander into the room. "The other day you told me I have a year to convince you not to vote for Arnie Vinick."
"Yeah," she replies with a nod. She doesn't want to vote for a Republican, but having been raised in a Republican family and considering Vinick is incredibly moderate, she could reconcile it with herself.
"You don't like any of the current Democratic candidates."
"At the moment, no, not particularly."
"What if there was someone else into the race?" He suggests. "Someone like President Bartlet. Someone who isn't afraid to give the tough answers and fight for what this country really needs?"
"I mean that would be ideal, but where are you going to find a candidate like that?" She asks. Candidates like Josiah Bartlet don't come around every day. They were lucky eight years ago.
"Houston."
The blonde furrows her brow in confusion before it dawns on her. "Congressman Santos?" She asks, and he swears he sees a little glimmer of hope in her face. Josh has been badgering the congressman to run again for weeks, but it wasn't until he talked to Leo that he thought about the bigger picture. "Josh, we both know it's going to be Hoynes or Russell," she replies, seeming a little dejected.
"It doesn't have to be," he insists, stepping closer and taking her shoulders in his hands. "Bartlet for America was a dark horse campaign with practically no backing, and we won. And then on the tail of the MS problem, we won again."
She sighs. "Josh, I don't want to end up being your assistant again –– "
"You won't," Josh swears, finding her gaze intently. "You won't be answering my phones or getting me coffee –– "
"I never got you coffee."
" –– or keeping my schedule," he barrels through, grinning at her little jibe. "I promise you'll be doing something more. Anything you want to do. You name it."
"There's just one little problem," she points out.
"What's that?"
"He doesn't want to run for office anymore!" Donna pulls away from him and walks in a little circle. "He wants to go build hospitals or something back in Texas."
"I think I can convince him to run for President," he tells her urgently, running his fingers through his hair the way he does when he's nervous or frustrated, and she has to stop herself from reaching up and smoothing out a piece that's now sticking straight up. "We can't just put John Hoynes or Bingo Bob up there and let the Republicans run the table in November. Donna, we've gotta put someone out there who stands a chance against Vinick... and I think Matt Santos is that guy."
The blonde takes a deep breath. She doesn't want to leave him. She loves working with Josh. And if she can work with him in a setting where she has more responsibility, she'd prefer that over any job the DNC could offer her, but she worries about being stuck in Josh's shadow for the rest of her career. "Josh…"
"Look," he breathes. "I'm going to Houston to try to convince him him. I've got a rough plan for how to get him the nomination, and I'll work through the details on the plane. I think that you could be a major asset –– I know you would be. Just…think about it?"
He gives her a little grin before turning away, heading out into the bullpen. "Laura, get me a ticket to Houston," he tells one of the assistants.
"Two tickets."
Josh turns around to see Donna standing a couple feet away with a slight grin playing at her lips. His own face splits into a wide smile as he maintains eye contact with her and repeats to Laura, "Two tickets."