Like A Bad Penny

by: Evelyn

Disclaimer: Aaron Sorkins owns everything, except Carolyn Moss, but I’d very happy if he wanted to include her in the show.

Category: Romance, Josh/Donna

Rating: TEEN

Author's Note: : Thank so much to Shelley for her careful, thoughtful, insightful reading of this story - and most especially for her encouragement. Thank you to all those who wrote such lovely feedback for my earlier stories. It is better than Cherry Garcia ice cream! This is a sequel to “Calling the Question.” I wondered what happened to Amy after she left the meeting with Abbey and Josh. Soon we’ll all know :-)

It was a good dream, a very good dream. It had Josh Lyman naked in it. Dreams don’t get much better than that.

So what was interrupting this very, very good dream? Donna swam her way to consciousness and realized it was the phone ringing on the nightstand next to her bed. She fumbled for the receiver.

“‘Lo,” she murmured.

“You’ve got the chain on the door.”

“What? Who is this?” Donna asked struggling to sit up. “Josh?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you?” Donna asked, looking at the clock. It was 4:30 in the morning.

“Outside your door. I was going to use my keys, but you have the chain on the door.”

Donna clambered out of bed, ran to her front door and opened it. There stood one sheepish Josh Lyman, not naked, but definitely looking disheveled and, to his newly minted fiancee, adorable.

“What’s the matter?” Donna asked concerned.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Josh admitted, walking in and putting his arms around Donna, pulling her close. She smiled. “You were almost asleep when I left a few hours ago. I thought you were pretty relaxed,” she grinned.

“I can’t sleep without you next to me,” Josh argued.

Donna put on her slightly stern face. “Let me get this straight. You sleep without me for 40 years, then after two nights together, all of a sudden, you get insomnia if I’m not in the bed with you?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Josh nodded with a grin.

It had been a heady two days - and nights. Donna had unexpectedly been offered and accepted a job as The President’s executive assistant. Once he’d gotten over his shock and dealt with his feelings, Josh Lyman had proposed to Donnatella Moss. He’d finally admitted to himself that even if he could function in the office without the best assistant he’d ever had, he couldn’t envision his life without her. Now, he was standing in her apartment, making it clear that he couldn’t conceive of sleeping in his king-sized bed for even one night without her.

“We talked about this Josh,” Donna began firmly.

“No, Donna, you talked about this and I didn’t get a vote,” Josh interrupted. “I don’t see what the big deal is. We’re engaged now. We’re going to be married. People won’t be surprised that we’re living together,” he said, snaking his hands under Donna’s t-shirt. “I didn’t think you were a prude, Ms. Moss, although I would hardly call what we’ve been doing the past two days prudish,” he added with a grin.

“Joshua,” Donna began, trying to slip out of his grasp because she knew she didn’t think clearly when Josh was touching her. But her fiancee held her close and whispered in her ear, “I just want to hold you while you sleep. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“I think I heard that line in eleventh grade from Tommy Fairgate the night of my Junior Prom,” Donna giggled. She gave Josh a quick kiss and then stepped back.

“I want to be with you too, but let’s go over this one more time.” Ticking off the points on her fingers, she began, “You are deputy chief of staff. There is enough going on in this campaign that we don’t need to add any ammunition to the Republican arsenal. We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to maintain separate apartments until we’re married. We can wait.”

“Maybe you can wait, but I can’t,” Josh said petulantly.

“Josh, I know patience is not one of your greatest virtues,” Donna said with a smile, “but you’ll thank me for this in the long run.”

“I think I heard that line from my mother when I was in fourth grade and she insisted I take ballroom dance lessons,” Josh retorted.

“Can we talk about this tonight? I have to be up in another hour. I want to get to the office by 7:30.” Grabbing Josh’s hand, she started pulling him toward her bedroom. “Come on,” Donna said.

“I thought you just finished saying I couldn’t sleep here,” Josh pointed out.

“Who said anything about sleeping?” Donna answered with a smile.

Chapters - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Sequel - A Few Bumps in the Road

| << back | send feedback | The National Library |