A Friend In Need

by: Kerry

Disclaimer: Apparently some guy called Sorkin owns ‘em.  My bank manager says I’m worth nothing (or did he say I was worthless?) so there’s no point in suing me!
Category: Josh/Donna Romance/humour
Rating: CHILD
Spoilers: None that I know of
Summary: Josh's idiocy results in pain for Donna - and a change in both their living arrangements
Author's Note: Big thank you’s to Abby and Jillian for beta reading and providing encouragement (and telling me to hurry up and finish!!).  I should warn you – the fic is long but please stick with it!
FEEDBACK: Pretty please, but be nice, it’s my first ever fic! J

Monday Night

"Donna"

"Donna"

"Oh, DONNA"  Josh called in a sing-song voice.

"Keep your pants on Joshua, I’m coming".  Donna glanced at the clock on the wall as she rose from her desk – ‘10:36pm on a Monday night, what a great way to start the week!’

She stood at the doorway to Josh’s office and glared at him.

"What do you want Josh?"  He looked up from the array of papers on his desk.

"What’s up with you?  We are supposed to be working here you know Donna.  If you don’t want to do that..."

"I’m just tired Josh.  What do you want?"  Donna replied in an exasperated voice.

"Tired?  Donna, it’s only Monday.  You know, we just had a weekend, you should be refreshed."  Josh gave her an accusing look.

"Yeah, and I would be refreshed if I’d actually had the weekend off instead of working."

"Well, I was working all weekend too and you don’t hear me complaining."  There was no anger in Josh’s voice, Donna knew he was just trying to bait her.

"Josh, I’ll ask once more and then I’m leaving, what do you want?"  He pointed his left hand towards the overstuffed bookcase lining one wall of his office.

"Can you get me the law book from over there please."  He stated, rather than asked.

"Have you lost the ability to walk or something?"  She glared at him.

"No, but I’m kind of in the middle of something here and if I move it’ll upset the delicate organization of all this paperwork."  He looked at her pleadingly.  In return, Donna snorted.

"Delicate organization; yeah, that’ll be the day!"  Josh just grinned at her and returned his eyes to the paperwork.  Donna headed for the bookcase while glaring at Josh, trying to think of ways to repay him for his utter laziness.

Josh looked up as he heard a thud.  He blinked as he realized Donna wasn’t within his line of vision.  As he stood up, he realized she was lying on the floor in front of his desk.

"Donna, are you ok?"  He moved to the front of his desk and knelt down beside her.

"Yeah, I think so."  Donna opened her eyes and gave Josh a weak smile.

"What happened?  I mean if it was that much of a bother to get the book you should have told me." He tried to lighten the mood as he saw pain reflected in Donna’s eyes.

"Josh, don’t!"  Donna’s tone wasn’t harsh but Josh knew she was in no mood for joking round.  "I think I tripped on something."  Josh looked to the floor beside where Donna’s feet had landed and noticed a big red toy monster truck.

"Ah, yeah...you might have kind of tripped over this."  He picked the truck up and showed it to Donna sheepishly.

"I’m not even gonna ask."  Josh put the truck on his desk and looked back at Donna.

"Are you ok?  Does anything hurt?"  The look of concern on his face made Donna smile a little, until she realized that she was actually hurting quite a bit.

"My ankle hurts a bit.  I probably just need to walk it off though.  Can you help me to stand up?"  Josh reached out his arms for Donna to grab onto.  Slowly she managed to get off the floor but as soon as she tried to put her right foot on the floor to walk, pain shot through her ankle.  "Ow.  Okay, that hurting a bit thing probably just upgraded to hurting a lot."

Josh guided her to the visitor’s chair and again tried to lighten the mood, not being able to cope with Donna being in pain.  "So, the person who accused me of having lost the ability to walk has now done that herself."  He grinned at her.

"Don’t get me started Joshua.  What the hell is a toy monster truck doing in here anyway?"  She glared at him, her temper beginning to rise along with the pain in her ankle.  Josh began to shrug his shoulders, as if to deny all knowledge until he realized Donna had noticed the remote control device on his desk.

"Ah, yeah.  Sam kind of gave it to me to use.  It’s supposed to be a stress reliever."  At Donna’s questioning glance he continued.  "You know, you ram it into walls and stuff to vent your frustration."

"Oh, so you thought you’d vent your frustration by leaving it somewhere where your overworked, underpaid assistant could trip over it."

"Well, it’s not my fault if you didn’t look where you were going."  Josh’s guilty conscience was making his temper rise - he didn’t like admitting that he was to blame for Donna’s current predicament.

"Josh, I think you should shut up now."  Donna tried to lean forward to inspect her ankle but by bending her knee to do so it exerted extra stress on her ankle and she screamed out in pain.  Josh quickly wheeled his desk chair round and placed it in front of her.  He then carefully lifted Donna’s legs and placed them on the chair.  He grimaced as he looked at her ankle for the first time.  Donna caught his look and strained to look herself but Josh stopped her.

"Ok, you probably don’t want to look at that.  It’s...a little swollen.  Maybe I should get a doctor?"  He offered.

"No, it’ll be ok once I get some rest.  I’ve probably just twisted it.  I’ll go home, get some sleep and it’ll be fine tomorrow."  Donna knew calling for a doctor would take forever and she just wanted to get home, exhaustion was already threatening to overcome her.

"Ok, well you’re not gonna be able to drive like that so I guess I’d better take you home."  Josh reached for his jacket then stopped.  "Wait, this isn’t your way of getting me to leave early, is it?"  He smirked at Donna.

"Josh, first of all, it’s now 10:45pm on a Monday - that is not early!  Secondly, I’M IN PAIN HERE!"  Donna’s temper finally blew and she glared at Josh.  He gave her an apologetic look as he put his jacket on and picked up his backpack, for once not even bothering to fill it with files to read over at home.  He then went to the bullpen and retrieved Donna’s coat and bag, helping her to put her coat on as she leaned forward in the chair.

Getting Donna to Josh’s car was not easy.  She had to put her right arm around his left shoulder and his left arm went around her waist so that he was taking most of her weight on her right side.  As they passed security they were given a few questioning glances but Josh thought he’d better not ask for help, knowing Donna would not be amused when the stories got around the West Wing of her being carried to his car by security.

They drove to Donna’s apartment in almost complete silence.  Josh glanced over at Donna every few seconds to check she was ok, not used to the silence between them.  At every stop sign and red light he asked if she was okay, to which she replied "yeah" every time.

Josh pulled up right in front of the main door to Donna’s apartment building, figuring it would be easier to get his car towed than to have to try and get Donna to the door from the only parking space at the other end of the block.

Donna eased her way out of the car, letting Josh pull her up to a standing position and return his arm around her waist.  Slowly they moved to the door and Donna handed Josh her keys for him to open the door.

"Thanks Josh, I’ll see you tomorrow."  Donna turned and gave Josh a grateful smile.

"Donna, I’m not going until I’ve seen you safely up the stairs.  I have a feeling you might need a little help."

"Josh, this could take a while so you might as well go home."  Donna moved to the handrail on the left side of the stairs and placed both her hands on it.  She then proceeded to hop onto the first step, placing her left foot on it and keeping her right foot in the air.

"Donna, wouldn’t this be easier if you lean on me again?"  Josh questioned, while offering her his arm.  Donna shook her head.

"No, I think it will be easier this way."  She replied and continued hopping up the steps, pausing between each one to re-adjust her position so that she didn’t hit her sore ankle on the way up.

It took a full five minutes for Donna to climb, or hop, up the three flights of stairs and she was exhausted when she reached her floor.  Gratefully, she accepted Josh’s help to move to her apartment door and she leaned on him while he unlocked the door with her keys, which she then took from him.

"Thanks Josh.  I’ll be fine from here, I’ll see you tomorrow."  She squeezed his arm and then leaned against the doorframe.

"Are you sure?"  When Donna nodded her head Josh agreed, bid her goodnight and quickly made his way downstairs to his car.  He then waited a few minutes until he saw the living room light go off and Donna’s bedroom light go on before he drove away.

Chapter 2

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