Donna doesn't really care too much for Mandy.

Donna's from Wisconsin, though, and she tries her best the show Mandy her Midwestern Nice.

When Donna first joins the Bartlet for America campaign, everyone is very welcoming. CJ allows her to bunk with her on various campaign stops before she's on salary when she can't afford her own place to stay (and yet she insists on coming with them rather than staying behind in Manchester despite this), Sam always greets her with a smile and a joke and maybe a pastry, Toby… well, Toby doesn't say much but he also doesn't say anything unkind and he seems to feel comfortable speaking freely in front of her as if he trusts her to join their inner circle. Leo keeps an eye on her, makes sure no one takes advantage of her and gives her grunt work they shouldn't. The governor actually remembers her name fairly quickly (in the scheme of things, she's told). Josh is… well, Josh took a chance on her and Josh trusts her even though he really had no reason to do either. Even though Josh had said he can't carry her, she notices how he looks out for her: makes sure she has a room to stay in, how he seems to always order too much pizza or Chinese and shoves the rest her way, how he worries over her ankle when she comes back to the campaign in April with it wrapped in a bandage, how he gets her on salary sooner rather than later.

Mandy, though, pretty much simply co-exists with her. Mandy doesn't say much to her, just occasionally hands her a folder or a file and maybe tells her to do something, usually without the word 'please' attached.

When Donna joins the campaign, she has a lot to learn. She observes everything closely and it doesn't take her long to figure out that her boss and Mandy Hampton have a thing going on (years later, she would know it to be a campaign fling).

She can see why Mandy would fall for Josh, quite honestly – he's passionate about what he does, and he's kind of funny. He's not entirely bad on the eyes, either. Donna has to admit she appreciated seeing him in jeans for the first time on one of their casual campaign events at the farm (not for any particular reason… it was just nice to see him dressed casual and relaxed, obviously). He definitely puts on a tough front, but he has a caring interior. He's easy to talk to. She finds herself able to ask Josh questions about things she doesn't (yet) understand, she's able to take shots at him with sarcasm in a teasing way and he appreciates her humor.

She doesn't get what he sees in Mandy, though. Mandy snaps at him a lot, and she often insults him. Mandy yells at him a lot. Sometimes the exchanges they have make her grimace, reminds her of her ex-boyfriend and how he thought making fun of her was endearing. Mandy seems to get the tough exterior part of Josh, the part that sometimes makes you want to bang your head against the wall and yell at him until your words get through his thick skill – but Mandy seems to not know or appreciate the softer side of Josh that Donna has quickly come to understand.

Mandy's a bad driver, too, from what Donna hears. (Not that that's such a character flaw. Donna has her fair share of parking tickets, but still.)

Josh and Mandy spend more time fighting than anything – but then again, what does she know about what their relationship is like behind closed doors? The Bartlet campaign staffers are used to their dynamic. Sam and CJ exchange knowing looks, Toby will give a roll of his eyes. Others who are less familiar with Josh and Mandy will quickly scurry away awkwardly when the quips begin. Donna usually just continues whatever she's doing, paying them no mind (even as Mandy once screamed "You asshole!" at Josh right over Donna's head as she happened to be seated right between them).

Donna thinks he's too good for her.

So, she's not too broken up when she finds out that Josh and Mandy called it quits on July 9th.

She can feel the tension between the campaign staffer the following day. Josh is unusually snippy, Sam is regarding him carefully, and Toby seems annoyed at whatever is going on because it's pointless drama that's getting in the way of whatever task they have at hand. CJ, for her part, is keeping her distance from all of them.

Donna happens to be standing next to Josh when Mandy appears, giving him a folder and an icy glare that could terrify anyone.

"Trouble in paradise?" Donna teases after Mandy's out of earshot.

"We broke up," Josh says in a monotone, off her look, refusing to meet her eyes.

"Oh," Donna says softly as she tries to ignore the strange feeling that she suddenly feels internally that definitely does not match Josh's melancholy mood. (No, she's not happy they broke up. She's not. She feels bad for Josh, of course.) "I'm sorry," she says carefully.

Josh shrugs. "No big deal. These things run their course, right?" he hands her the papers she's waiting for, but Donna can tell that he's putting on a front.

"Hey, I'll buy the French fries tonight," she says with a grin, referring to the fact that she almost always steals his fries even though she says she doesn't want any. She takes a risk and nudges him gently with her elbow in a playful manner and she feels a jolt of electricity course through her (she ignores it).

Josh chuckles and has a real smile on his face now, closing the folder he's been staring into far too long as a distraction. "I'll take you up on that, Donnatella."

She always hated her full name as a kid. She likes when Josh says it. It has nothing to do with anything, it's just that she likes that he remembers her full name. He has a ton of staffers, he's working a campaign for the presidency, and he still remembers that her name is actually Donnatella, not Donna. And it sounds professional coming from her boss's lips. That's it.

She's not crying any tears when Mandy goes her own way as they head to the White House. Mandy says she has "bigger opportunities," but Donna figures that's just a guise to make a break from Josh once and for all.

When Josh declares that he's taking Donna to the White House with him, she's thrilled because the prospect of going to the White House is beyond her wildest dreams. She never expected when she showed up to volunteer for Bartlet for America that this is where the opportunity might take her. She figured she'd have a couple of months on the campaign – more if she was lucky – while she built up her skills and figured out her next move. She happened to pick the right office, though, because turns out Josh was going to be named deputy chief of staff and he was taking her with him to the White House.

(She doesn't even acknowledge the split second where she feels a swell of disappointment that comes when she realizes he will be her boss in a high-profile job for years to come, because she will squash this little crush she definitely does not have going on.)

In Manchester, Josh had told her this campaign wasn't a place for people to come and find their confidence and start over. Apparently he was wrong, because she has a whole new life now. She got an apartment with a roommate who has two cats, she bought a whole new professional wardrobe (something she had never had a need for, before), and maybe she'll even change changing her voter registration soon. She lives in Washington, DC now and works in the White House. At first the White House is a little intimidating to all of them, but she finds her footing quickly because she knows Josh by now and being his assistant comes easily to her because she's tuned to him naturally.

They've been in office for a little less than a year when Leo hires Mandy.

Josh, of course, is very against this. For days he keeps on telling anyone who will listen that it can't be Mandy. Donna's astute enough to pick up on the fact that it's absolutely going to be Mandy, despite everyone dancing around Josh. When Josh finds out that it's Mandy, he diverts and insists, instead, that she must answer to him and answer to Toby.

Donna's pretty sure that's not how it will work, either.

Donna doesn't particularly feel like throwing a party, either, at Mandy's reappearance. She tells herself it's because she doesn't want to see Josh tortured over Mandy.

(Certainly, there's no other reason.)

Mandy appears in the West Wing often, hanging around in Josh's office (since, as Mandy claims, she doesn't have an office of her own around here). Donna doesn't pay much mind to her though secretly she loves when she gets to interrupt when Mandy is in Josh's office to tell Josh he's late for a meeting, to bring him a file that he needs, to tell him he has a phone call. Because Donna is important around here and Donna can interrupt Mandy's visits, Donna's power supersedes whatever privacy Mandy is looking for.

She likes that she has the ability to let Mandy into Josh's office or not- which is why sometimes, she lets her in without Josh knowing and conveniently forgets to tell him about it.

Things between her and Josh are a lot different now than they were when she started on the campaign. She eats lunch with him sometimes (none of the other assistants eat with their bosses unless it's a working lunch, but she doesn't care). Josh makes her laugh a lot and she's pleased that she seems to be able to get him to laugh, too. He can be stubborn and loud and boisterous but he's always patient with her (for the most part). She asks him questions about things (because still, she wants to learn more, she wants to be good at this) and he explains in a way she can understand. She can banter with him without worrying he'll think she's being disrespectful. Sometimes he remembers the smallest details about things she's told him and it shocks her and sends a flutter through her, because people don't usually pay that much attention to her.

She walks into his office one day after Mandy's been there and notices a new picture frame on his desk.

"What's this?" she asks curiously, picking up the frame.

Josh shrugs and rolls his eyes, though she can tell he's been thinking about it. "Just something Mandy gave me."

Donna ignores the ire she feels building up when she sees the photo of Mandy with her arms around Josh – she just doesn't think she deserves him, that's all – and instead focuses on the most obscure part of thing whole thing.

"Why is your face crossed out?"

"Isn't that what you women do when you're mad at us?"

Donna frowns, pretending that she takes offense to this. "Only the crazy ones."

Josh smirks and laughs at that and Donna takes pride in being able to make him laugh when Mandy's giving him passive-aggressive gifts.

"Mandy has some pent-up aggression towards me," he says by way of more clear explanation.

"Don't we all," Donna teases and he huffs another laugh at her words. "She never deserved you anyway, is all I'm saying," Donna says as she heads out of his office and back to the bullpen, flashing him a smile over her shoulder. In the brief moment she glances at him she can see the warmth in his eyes.

"Yeah…" Josh says softly even as her form disappears from view.

Mandy eventually leaves her job as media consultant and quietly slips away without much fanfare. She leaves while Josh is at home recovering from Rosslyn and when Josh returns to work it's like Mandy was never there.

It's many years later when Donna is packing up her desk.

She's going to quit her job – this beloved job at the White House – and she's going to do it whether Josh makes time for her or not. He keeps rescheduling her lunch (and she has a whole speech planned in her head that she really needs to just recite so she can set it free) and she's going to pack her desk now so she won't chicken out.

She feels even more sad, yet compelled to follow through with her plans, when Josh doesn't even seem to notice she's packing her desk though he's passed by several times.

She sees the framed picture of her and Josh and her mind goes back to Mandy, all those years ago.

She feels a sadness to realize she and Josh may be breaking up in their own way, too. But at least Mandy got to be with him before she left. Donna only ever got to be his assistant. Donna knows enough by now to be aware of her own feelings for Josh, unable to deny them away any longer as she had in the beginning. All these years later and she still feels a certain envy of Mandy, for getting to have Josh when she didn't really appreciate him.

She leaves the photo behind for Josh, a silent message that even though she's quit and she's pissed off at him for not sitting down and listening to her, she would never cross out his face.

She wonders if the way she's leaving him is any better than Mandy.

(Eventually, Josh asks her if she's ever had a campaign fling. No, she hasn't.

Maybe she never had anything to be envious about, after all, because maybe Mandy was just that: a campaign fling. Maybe that's what he meant by these things run their course.

Donna's not going anywhere; despite quitting and leaving she still has the real power over Josh just like all those years ago.

Donna is, actually, going to be his forever.)