The Company Of Women

by: Allison

Character(s): Donna, CJ
Category(s): General
Rating: YTEEN
Summary: Donna seeks CJ's advice. Prequel to Downtime.
Author's Note: This is a take on another relationship that we don't see very much of (if anything at all); but I felt that something had to have happened with them between "The Portland Trip" and "Shibboleth" because they seemed friendlier than I've noticed before. I guess this is kind of also a prequel to my story "Downtime" - at least, they could be seen as existing in the same universe.

Her office was already dark. She had just flipped off the lights and was going by the steady glow from the hallway, collecting her things. Three and a half minutes. That's how long it was going to take to get the heck out of here. Three and a half -

"CJ?"

Fighting the urge to scream, glare, or throw things, she looked up at the person standing hesitantly in her doorway.

"Donna," she said, surprised, "I thought you'd be Carol."

"She went home," Donna said with her usual rapid delivery.

"Oh." CJ really couldn't imagine what Donna was doing in her office.

"Everyone's gone home."

"Okay." She stood behind her desk in the dark for a moment, waiting. "Was there something you wanted?"

"Um..." Donna wandered a half step further into the office.

"Donna?"

She looked up, as if surprised that CJ was talking to her. *Well, you are in my office, honey.* "You needed something?" CJ repeated.

"Right." Donna studied the carpet carefully. "Have you, um, talked to Josh today?"

*Oh, God.* "No, I haven't," CJ responded, a touch of impatience creeping into her voice. "Why?"

"It's just that we..."

"Donna, what have you done?"

"Nothing!" The younger woman looked exasperated but also a bit frightened by the question.

"Right. Stupid question. What has Josh done?"

Ignoring the darkness of her office, Donna sank onto the couch and folded her legs up. "He yelled at me."

"This is unusual?" CJ asked skeptically. "Donna, he yells at you every day. Every day for nearly three years. That's a lot of yelling."

"Not like this," Donna murmured almost to herself.

CJ sighed heavily. Then she turned on the lights, shut the door, and sat down next to Donna. "What happened?" she asked.

Donna's eyes widened, as if she had suddenly realized that CJ was on her way home. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll get out of your hair..."

"No, no." CJ tugged at her sleeve and pulled her back down onto the couch. "I slept on the plane yesterday. Go ahead. Tell me what happened."

Donna frowned for a moment, unused to this kind of attention from the stoic press secretary. "I only thought I'd ask you because I know you're friends, and I thought if I'd done something. . ."

"As Josh's friend I know what a jerk he can be," CJ said dryly. "I also know that he probably didn't mean it. Go on."

"He said I had horrible taste in men," Donna blurted out.

CJ raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Well, that was none of his business."

"I was leaving him to go on a date."

"You were leaving him?"

"I was leaving work," Donna clarified.

"And that made it his business who you date?"

"It wasn't really that..." Donna slumped a bit on the couch and pushed her hair back from her face. "He said - he said that my desire to be coupled up would always drown out 'any small sense of self or self-worth that I might have.'" She took a deep breath and let it out. She looked positively miserable.

She looked up, uncertainly, half expecting to see the older (and in her eyes, infinitely smarter and more confident) woman looking down on her, about to agree with her best friend. She was wrong. CJ looked - livid.

"He said what?" she practically screamed.

Donna winced. "Yeah."

"I think I need to rework my definition of the word 'jerk,'" CJ fumed. "It clearly doesn't cover this man's capabilities."

"The thing is," Donna fretted, "you know, usually he yells at me and I know he doesn't mean it, but this time I kind of think he did mean it and..."

"Donna, you shouldn't let him make you think that you're -"

"That's not it," Donna interrupted. "The thing is, I kind of think he's right. I mean - I mean, I'm not really sure that he's - wrong. That's not what's bothering me."

CJ decided to ignore the first part of that statement for a moment and just let Donna talk. "What is bothering you?"

"That he thinks that."

"But you said -"

"It doesn't matter whether it's right or not," Donna explained. "It's just that I didn't know he thought that badly of me, you know?"

CJ shook her head. *Josh, you colossal idiot.* "Donna, he doesn't think badly of you. I know he doesn't think badly of you. The complete opposite of badly, in fact."

"How do you -"

"I'm his friend, remember? That is why you came to me?" CJ offered her a smile, which Donna tried weakly to return. "Josh - is an idiot. I'm not going to fight you on that one. And who knows what comes out of his mouth sometimes. But he adores you."

"He can like me and still think I'm an idiot," Donna pointed out.

"I'm not talking about liking you," CJ replied. "I'm talking about respecting you, thinking you're brilliant - albeit in a strange kind of way, thinking he couldn't function without you."

For the first time Donna seemed to brighten. "He said that?"

"He did," CJ confirmed. "Face it, Donna, without you the man's up a creek without a paddle."

"I'm his paddle?" Donna asked, smiling just a little.

CJ laughed and covered her mouth with her hand to stifle it. "Okay, stupid metaphor. What do you want, it's late."

"I should go," Donna said, thinking that was her cue.

CJ laid both her hands over Donna's, pulling her back down again. "Look. I don't know what made Josh talk to you the way he did. I'm guessing there was something going on in his head that neither of us will ever understand -"

"You can say that again," Donna muttered.

CJ's eyes gleamed. "Not that that means we can't punish him for it."

Donna laughed. "How do you usually do that?"

"'Psychics at CalTech' ring any bells for you?"

Now Donna had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing so that anyone still lingering in the bullpen could hear her.

"Come on," CJ said. "You didn't think that was a real mistake? Donna! Give me some credit."

"Sorry."

Before CJ could reply, the door swung open. "Oh, sorry!" Carol, CJ's assistant apologized. "I thought you'd gone home."

"We thought you'd gone home," CJ replied.

"Forgot my keys," Carol said sheepishly. "They're on your desk." She looked suspiciously from CJ to Donna as she crossed the room to retrieve her car keys. "Something going on?"

"No," Donna said, sounding hopelessly guilty.

CJ rolled her eyes. "Just girl talk, Carol."

"Oh." The dark-haired assistant still looked as if she thought something was up, but she didn't press it. "How was your date, Donna?"

"How did you know I had a date?"

Carol leaned against the wall casually. "Ginger overheard your boss talking to the Congressman."

A look flashed between CJ and Donna. "What did he say?" Donna asked, trying not to sound too eager or too curious.

Carol frowned. "Something about that you were going out with a guy you had no future with."

"Oh," Donna said, sounding dejected all over again.

"Yeah, and Ginger said then the Congressman asked him why no future, and Josh said, 'Because I say so.'" Carol shrugged. "Men."

CJ's eyes, meanwhile, were wide as saucers. "Good-night, Carol," she said, striving to keep her voice under control.

"Good-night you guys. See you Monday."

The second she was gone CJ turned to the younger women, eyes still wide. "Donna."

"What?"

"Have you talked to Josh today? I mean, you're here on a Saturday - did he come in?"

Donna looked confused. "Well, yeah. I called him this morning like always, and he asked if I could come in and help assemble the material on the marriage definition thing - something about wanting to get a position memo written now so we'd have it on file later?"

For once the issue of the day held no interest for the press secretary. "How was he acting?"

Donna frowned again. "Weird, come to think of it. He was really nice all day, but he seemed kind of distracted."

"He was nice?" CJ asked, eyebrows lifted. Josh was frequently nice when they were alone, but not at work and generally not to his assistant. He and Donna just didn't have that kind of relationship. Their roles were firmly set in banter mode.

"Yeah," Donna replied. "He - he wasn't joking with me like he usually does. He hasn't been that serious since he was sick."

CJ knew that "sick" was a euphemism for "recovering from a gunshot wound," but she didn't push what she knew was a difficult subject. "I think you should forgive him, and stop worrying about what he said because he really didn't mean a word of it."

Donna eyed her skeptically. "He sounded like he meant it."

"He didn't," CJ insisted. "Trust me on this one."

"Then why did he..."

"Same reason lots of people do stupid, irrational things," CJ explained. "Jealousy."

Now Donna's eyebrows shot up almost into her hairline. "Jealousy?"

"'She has no future with him because I say so?'" CJ quoted. "Does that sound a mite possessive to you, there, Donna? Because that's how it sounds to me."

Donna clapped her hand to her mouth. "You think?" she mumbled around it.

CJ spread her hands in the universal sign for, 'Yes, stupid!'

"Oh, God," Donna said quietly. "Oh, God. Oh. God."

"Donna..."

"I didn't think it would actually work."

"Donna!" CJ exclaimed.

Donna looked horrified. "Did I just say that out loud?"

"Yes, you did, and you've got some explaining to do," CJ said sternly. "I thought we were here because you were afraid your boss thought you were an idiot, and now it seems we're here because you were deliberately trying to make your boss, for whom you work at the White House, jealous!"

"I wasn't trying to make him jealous," Donna protested. "I mean, it's not like we think of each other that way..."

"Then exactly how would you say you think of each other?" CJ asked. "Because it's looking awfully 'that way' to me right now."

Donna stared at her lap. "I just - I don't know. It would be nice to have a little attention for a change, you know?"

CJ looked at her for a long moment. "Yeah, I know," she said finally. "I definitely know." She got to her feet slowly. "I think we could both use some sleep." She looked at Donna again and added, "Forgive him, and move on. It'll be okay."

Donna sighed and nodded, trying to look more like herself.

CJ headed for the door, then turned back. "You tired?" she asked.

Donna shook her head, her brow furrowed. "Not really."

The older woman smiled. "Self-pity drinks are on me."

An answering smile spread across Donna's face as she stood to follow CJ. "Okay."

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