Still Standing

by: Allison

Character(s): Josh, Donna
Pairing(s): Josh/Donna
Category(s): Romance
Rating: TEEN
Summary: Sequel to Great Expectations

For a moment the hard banging sound didn't register, but when it did Donna pulled back - ignoring Josh's moan of protest - and looked at him with slightly widened eyes. "Didn't you close the door?" she asked.

Confused and more than a little off-balance, he looked at her blankly while stroking her hair back from her face. Now that he'd started he found it hard not to touch her. "Yeah, why?"

She glanced over, alarmed, at the object in question. "Then how did it just slam?"

Still dazed, he replied absently, "I guess someone must have opened it and then closed it again." His own words sank in and his eyes widened to match hers. "Oh, no."

As one their heads swiveled to look at the door. A tentative knock sounded.

"Yes?" Josh asked after clearing his throat nervously. *Please not Leo, please not Leo, anyone but Leo . . .*

"Josh?"

Both their faces blanched. He looked at Donna in horror. *I was wrong. This is worse than Leo.*

"Yes?" he replied again, trying to keep his voice steady.

"I'm coming in now." There was a long pause. "Okay?" Her accent came through clearer when she was nervous or embarrassed. *She can't be half as much either of them as I am right now.*

"Come in," he sighed, stepping back from Donna, who scurried instantly to the other side of the room. He hated to tell her that it probably didn't much matter at that point.

The door opened a crack and Ainsley slowly leaned her head around it.

"You can come in, Ainsley," Josh said resignedly. "You've given us sufficient warning."

"I would like to point out," the lawyer drawled, tapping a file folder against her thigh and pushing the door closed conscientiously, "that while I did not see anything at all happening in your office just now, if I had I would tell you that it's not illegal but that you should probably avoid doing it in your office just in case I was Leo."

Donna whimpered and buried her face in her hands as she sank onto the couch. Josh looked back from her to Ainsley and said with as much dignity as he could muster, "Thank you for not being Leo. And for, you know, not standing there with the door open before we noticed you."

A wry smile crept across Ainsley's face. "Josh, I think I could have stood there with the door open for twenty minutes and you wouldn't have noticed me."

A strangled groan came from Donna on the couch. Ainsley laughed and tossed the file folder onto Josh's desk before sitting down next to his flushed assistant. "Donna, it's fine. I'm not going to tell anyone."

Donna spoke carefully without removing her hands from her face. "I would like you to know that this has never happened before. I'm not some unprofessional office slut who -"

"I know that," Ainsley replied, still laughing. "It's really okay." She turned back to Josh. "I came to bring you the corrections on the groundwater leakage history - we had one of the acts documented in the wrong year and you know they'd try to kill us with it. So I'm going to leave this folder with you and go back down to my office and leave you to - whatever."

"There will be no whatever!" Josh declared vehemently. "No whatever -"

"Whatsoever?" Ainsley finished, unable to control her sly laughter. "Okay. Just, you know, you might want to consider standing up against the door. Just a thought." She grinned at Donna as she left. "We are so going to talk later."

Donna just groaned again. After a long moment of silence she realized that Josh was - well, too quiet. She looked up and saw him standing with his back flat against the door. "What are you doing?" she asked.

He grinned. "Clearly, I'm standing against the door."

"Josh -"

"She's a smart girl, you know?"

Donna raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think this is a good idea at the moment?"

He frowned for a second, then smiled again. "Can't think of a better one. Come here."

"Don't you think we should talk, or something?" she asked, but she stood up.

"Talk? In my office?" A look of mock horror spread across his face. "Donna! Someone might hear."

She couldn't keep a tiny smile off her face, but she was still concerned. "Still, Josh, I don't think -"

"We will talk," he said, reaching out a hand to take hers and pull her nearer. "Tonight. Somewhere else. But for right now, I was interrupted - by a Republican, no less - and I feel that I need some closure."

"You like her!" Donna said, now grinning broadly. "Josh Lyman likes a Republican. You think she's nice. I never thought I'd see the day."

"Can we not talk about Ainsley right now?"

"I knew it."

"Donna . . ."

"I'm right!"

"Donna . . ."

"I'm not complaining, I think she's nice too."

"Donna . . ."

"I mean, she's always very -" Her sentence ended abruptly with a little smothered sigh.

A long minute later Josh murmured, "Too bad I can't do that out in the bullpen."

"Shut up," she said firmly, pulling his head back down to hers.

"I should have a look at Ainsley's corrections," he said a while later, pulling away from her to kiss her forehead, her eyelids, and the bridge of her nose in careful succession.

"Now who's talking about Ainsley?" she asked, smiling and ruffling the back of his hair with both hands.

"Seriously though," he added, kissing his way distractingly down her neck toward the tantalizing corner of black camisole showing at her unbuttoned shirt collar, "we will talk later."

"Okay," Donna replied, unable to do much other than hold on tightly to his arms and stretch her head back to give him better access.

"Dinner," he said, straightening up after one last lingering kiss to her collarbone. "We'll go to dinner, and then we'll talk."

She nodded. "Okay."

He took her face between both his hands and looked at her carefully. "I don't want to screw this up. Whatever this is."

She looked back at him with a slight smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "Me either."

"Okay." Still holding her face gently, he leaned forward and kissed her again. They separated after just a moment, and then in wordless agreement wrapped their arms around each other in a tight embrace. Josh cupped his hand protectively over the back of her head resting on his shoulder and reflected that an emotional embrace could very often be more intimate than a kiss. Any two people who were attracted to one another could start wrestling on the dance floor in a bar and it would be considered a kiss. But only two people who felt a real affection for one another would want to stand like this, to hold each other this tightly, and be content just to feel the warmth and breathe in the gentle scent of the other. This felt like the ultimate confession. From the way her arms tightened around him before they parted, he would guess she agreed.

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

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