When we're done I lay in Josh's arms for a few minutes. It really is fantastic to just be together. God, I love him so much. It really doesn't matter what we do as long as I'm with him. I could lay here forever and just listen to his heart beating.

"I'll golf with you if you'd like."

It surprises me a little as the words come out of my mouth. But I know it's something he likes. I want him to do the things he likes, but I don't really want him to do them without me. Maybe someday when we are old and grey we'll need time apart, but not at this point in our lives.

Josh tightens his arms around me and sits up a little so that he can look down at me a little better. I think I surprised him too.

"I'd like that, but you really don't have to. It's not like golfing in Hawaii where we drove around in the cart."

"I know. But it's something you like to do, so I'll give it another try. This seems like a good place to practice."

"Thanks, baby." He leans down and kisses the top of my head. Another ten minutes go by without either of us making any moves to get up. Unfortunately, I have to pee.

As I'm getting up Josh starts to formulate a plan.

"It's supposed to be in the 80s all weekend. Let's go for a walk now. Then we should probably check in with Matt and Helen. We can golf and swim after lunch."

"Alright, let me just grab a shower and get dressed." I lean over and kiss him. "By the way, thanks for breakfast."

"Anytime, baby, anytime."

When I'm done getting dressed, I find Josh in the living room, reading briefing memos. They just never end. We read a lot of them when he was DCOS, but we split the work. And he still spent a lot of time on the hill and in meetings. Now there are a lot more memos and many of them are on topics that he's not as comfortable with, like foreign policy. But he really is brilliant, and a pretty fast reader so that helps.

He puts his finger on a spot so he doesn't lose his place and then looks up at me. "Almost done with this one. Can I have 5 more minutes?"

"Of course." I sit down next to him and he wraps his arm around me. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't care what we do. I just want to be with him.

He's true to his word and almost exactly five minutes later he closes the memo. I could just keep sitting her like this. I'm perfectly content.

"You can read some more if you want to. I'm good."

"Nah. I'll read some more tonight or in the morning. Let's go for that walk now while it's still relatively quiet around here. I have a feeling it's going to get crazy very soon."

"Okay." I smile happily at him. We haven't really had much chance to be outside since the honeymoon. Just a little bit at Christmas and Easter. I'm really looking forward to this.

"The trail is about 2 miles total. But if we walk down to Laurel Lodge and take the loop then walk back here it would be about a mile. Then if we want to go further we can go the other direction. How does that sound?"

"I'm pretty sure I can handle a mile." He's so protective. I'm sure I could handle several miles.

"Okay but if you get too tired or you want to stop, let me know and I'll call somebody to bring us a golf cart."

"Okay."

As we head out the door, Josh stops and talks to the agent posted outside.

"Donna and I are going to walk the nature trail down to Laurel Lodge and back."

"Very good, sir." He responds. As we walk away, I hear him say into his wrist "Backpack and Bulldog entering nature trail at Witch Hazel."

Josh leads me over to the golf area. "We can pick up the trail back behind this tee."

"What's that about?" I ask him pointing at the agent who has moved so that we are still in his line of vision. He seems to be trailing us but giving us a very wide perimeter. "I thought we didn't have to have shadow agents while we were here."

Josh sighs a bit. "Leo was walking along this trail when he had his heart attack. It was very early in the morning and no one knew he was out here. It was a long time before they found him."

I stop and grab Josh's arm. "We don't have to walk here." Really. I don't want to stir up any memories for him. This weekend is hard enough as it is.

"It's okay. I don't want to avoid it. The last time I was here was not very pleasant. I'd really like to make new memories with you."

We walk in silence for a few minutes. It really is a lovely trail. Green and cool. The sunlight is filtering in through the trees. Little chipmunks scurry across the path as they see us coming.

"I came almost straight from Germany." Josh breaks the silence. "My flight landed and I headed straight to the White House. I was surprised to find Leo still there. I expected him to be here with the President. It was pretty crazy that just a week after the bombing they had managed to pull together a peace summit. Nothing at home could have been a bigger priority."

"Did you sleep on the flight?"

"A little."

"You must have been exhausted."

"Yeah." He admits. "I was. But Leo said he needed me here. So I went home grabbed some clothes and came straight up."

He didn't take care of himself. It must have been a brutal flight. But of course, he would throw himself right back into work. I feel guilty about that. He came over there expecting to declare his love, and maybe even propose, and I threw Colin in his face. Even though I knew Colin was just a one-night stand I let him stay and I let Josh leave believing that I was involved with someone else. I try to force down the self-reproach. We've been over this. I don't know what it gains to do it again. But I'd like to hear about the peace process and I think Josh needs to talk.

"What was it like? Helping with the peace process?"

"It was hard. I was so angry about the bombing. I was still worried about you even though the doctors were convinced you were going to be fine. I mean, how did they know you wouldn't get another embolism? But you had too many people crowding you, and you wanted me to go, so at least I could be where Leo wanted me to be."

The regret comes barreling back. I stop again. I want to throw myself at Josh's feet and beg for forgiveness, but I settle for touching his arm. "I'm sorry."

He looks confused. "What? You don't have anything to be sorry about. It's not like you wanted to get blown up. You didn't even ask to go to the Middle East. I should have found a way to get you on the Brussells trip."

"Josh. I'm sorry I sent you away. I'm sorry Colin was there. I'm sorry I let you believe that I cared more about Colin than you." I feel my eyes starting to fill and take a deep breath. "I was just so confused."

Josh wraps me up in a hug and just hold me for a minute. Then starts murmuring into my ear in a low voice.

"Baby, I'm just so glad you survived. And we survived. We finally got to this point. We've already forgiven each other about the past, right? I'm not upset or angry. It was what it was. Our relationship didn't take any easy path but the fact that we got here after all that just proves to me that we're meant to be."

He leans down to kiss me. Then just holds me for a few more minutes. It feels really good. Maybe we should go back to talking about the peace summit. I am interested in hearing more about that.

"So what did you do when you got here?"

"Toby and Will filled me in. They were pretty frustrated. The parties just seemed so far apart. And it's such an in-grained thing. They were making no progress with either side, even on the small things. And we all knew even if there was progress with the leadership, there wouldn't be any guarantees of peace."

"There are no guarantees about anything, really, though." I mean look at his Dad and Leo and Joanie, and Admiral Fitzwallace and the Congressmen and aide that died. Their lives were all cut short. No guarantee of tomorrow.

"That's true. And at first, I took Leo's position. I tried to remind the President of the downside of the things that were being suggested. I still wanted him to just destroy the people that hurt you. But I ended up sitting in a meeting with Prime Minister Zahavy and Kate, and when there was finally some concessions on both sides, it felt like a small miracle. And all of a sudden the hope of peace bloomed. I mean, isn't that a better tribute to those lost than just more destruction?"

"Yes. Any progress toward peace is better."

"Then it all came down to sending peacekeepers, and that was a very sobering thought. Sending teenagers into a war zone to try to keep the peace. I didn't really like the idea. Leo detested it."

"Really?" I had no idea.

"Yeah. He and Bartlet had words in private. When I came out to check on the status, Leo looked horrible. He was ashen and sweaty. He'd been complaining of indigestion all night. I asked him if he was okay and he said he just needed some air. He sent me back in to monitor what was going on with the discussion. I shouldn't have let him go off on his own. I should have known it was something serious. He walked off into the woods and almost died."

I stop again and force Josh to turn and look at me. The sorrow in his eyes is crushing. I cup his cheek with my hand. "Listen to me. You had no way of knowing." He looks doubtful. I'm not reaching him so I try a different approach. "Are you a doctor?"

"No."

"Had you ever seen anyone have a heart attack before?"

"No."

"Did Leo give you a choice about whether to go back inside?"

"Not really."

"Leo made a choice. You told him you were worried about him. You asked if he was okay. Then you followed your bosses instructions. You are not responsible."

He still has regret and sadness etched on his face. "I know, but I can't help but wish I'd done something different. If I'd sent Abbey out to examine him or something. If he had faster treatment for the first heart attack, maybe he would have survived the second one."

"Or maybe he wouldn't have taken his recovery as seriously and would have ended up having the second heart attack sooner. We'll never know what could have been. That's why we can't dwell on it."

I can see I'm reaching him. He smiles at me sadly.

"I know. I really do. I'm getting better at it. But it's still a sad memory. And I really miss Leo. Not having him or my Dad around to share in all our happiness is really hard."

"I know. I'm sorry they aren't here too. I really wish I could have got to know your Dad. He was really a lot of fun to talk to on the phone."

Josh grins at me for real.

"He liked you so much Donna. He teased me all the time. You should have heard him." He changes his voice a little and I'm amazed at how much he really does sound like his father. "'When you gonna wise up and fire that girl so you can ask her out?"

"He wanted you to fire me?!"

"Not really. Well, yes sort of. He knew I'd never ask you out while you were my assistant. He raised me right. But he thought maybe you could work for someone else on the campaign."

"It had only been a few months. I probably only talked to him 10 times. And you were dating Mandy part of that time!"

"He had a sixth sense about people. Actually, you remind me of him. He was a romantic at heart and loved to play matchmaker. Plus he couldn't stand Mandy and he really wanted grandchildren!"

"Well, I guess that explains why he kept offering me a job at the firm." Josh looks surprised. I guess he didn't know that. "I'm glad I at least knew him a little bit."

"Me too."

We walk in silence for a few more minutes then the lodge comes into sight.

"I'm glad we finally reached the lodge. I need to pee."

Josh just laughs. "Okay."

After our walk, it's close to lunch time.

"Let's take the golf cart, we can drive around and see if anyone is here yet. Then we can go have lunch." Josh suggests.

"Sound good to me. I'm starving!"

"Maybe we should go find some food first? If you are hungry I want you to eat. I don't want you to wait until you're starving."

I can't help but shake my head at him. "It's just an expression Josh. I'm not going to pass out if I don't eat in the next 5 minutes."

But he still looks uncertain. The "non-fainting" incident at Easter really scared him. And he still has monomaniacal tendencies, they are just focused on me and the baby now. I alternate between feeling very loved and slightly smothered.

"Let's compromise. We can drive the long way just to see if people are arriving but not stop to talk to anyone until after we eat."

"Okay. But I'm driving." He announces sliding in behind the wheel.

Of course he is, that way he controls whether or not we stop. I give him a smile and move to the middle of the seat so that I'm pressed up against him.

"Okay. No matter where you go, I'm right beside you."