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

Later Tuesday Morning

8:10am - the ringing phone awoke Josh from his slumber.

"Hello?"

"Josh, where the hell are you?"  Leo’s angry voice asked.  Josh was suddenly wide awake.

"Well, since you called me at home I’m guessing that’s where I am."  Josh immediately regretted the flippant remark.

"Ok, I’ll rephrase the question.  Why the hell aren’t you in my office right now for the staff meeting that was supposed to start 10 minutes ago?"  Leo’s voice got louder and Josh quickly glanced at the clock, grimacing as he noted the time.

"Oh man, I’m sorry, I guess I overslept. I..."  Josh’s attempt to explain was cut off by Leo.

"Yeah, I guess you did.  Now get yourself into the office.  Oh, and do you know where Donna is?  Margaret says she’s not in yet either, which is rather unusual."  Leo’s voice had softened a little.

"Donna’s still asleep.  We’ll be in as soon as we can."

"What the hell do you mean she’s still asleep and you’ll be in as soon as you can?  Josh, this better not be what I’m trying not to think it is!"  Leo’s voice was reaching yelling levels and Josh closed his eyes, trying to gather some strength.

"No, Leo it’s nothing like that.  Donna had an accident last night, we only got out of GW around 5:30am.  We came back here so I could change but I figured we could both use some sleep – it was only meant to be for an hour but I guess... I must have switched the alarm off when it rang and there’s no alarm clock in the guest room."  Josh tried to explain things as clearly as possible; the last thing he wanted was a lecture from Leo.

"What kind of accident did Donna have?  Is she alright?"  Leo’s voice had changed to one of concern and Josh wondered how to explain that he was the cause of Donna’s injury.

"She kind of tripped over something in my office last night and hurt her ankle.  She thought she’d just twisted it and said she’d be okay so I drove her home.  She then called me just after 3am.  She’d fallen in her bedroom and couldn’t get back up because her ankle had gotten a lot worse.  I took her to GW and they x-rayed it and did all the usual stuff.  It’s not broken but she’s torn all the ligaments and is gonna be on crutches for a few weeks."

"And her accident happened in the office?  You’ll need to fill out an accident form when you get in."

"Yeah, I know.  Like I say, we’ll be in as soon as we can.  I need to grab a shower and change."

"Wait.  You said you left GW at 5:30am?"  Leo asked.

"Around then, yeah.  By the time we got back here and Donna managed to climb the steps it was around 6am."

"And Donna called you at 3am.  I checked the security logs for last night when you didn’t appear this morning, you didn’t leave until around 11pm last night.  I’m guessing by the time you dropped Donna off it must have been about midnight by the time you got home?"

"Yeah."  Josh wasn’t really sure where Leo was going with the questioning.

"Well, that means you only had about three hours sleep, and I’m assuming Donna couldn’t have had much either if she was in pain."

"No, she admitted that she’d been sitting on her bedroom floor for about a half hour, trying to figure out a way to stand up, before she gave in and called me."

"Ok, well I have everyone’s schedules in front of me.  Toby and I should be able to cover most of your meetings this morning, and I’ll get Margaret to reschedule the others.  You will need to be here to meet with O’Donnell at 2pm though.  Do you have the notes for that at home?"

"No, they’re in the office."

"Well, you probably only need a half hour to read through them, right?"  Josh confirmed this and Leo continued, "Ok, be here for around 1:30 then."

"Huh?  Leo, what do you mean?"  Josh was clearly confused by Leo’s statement.  He wasn’t used to being told to stay home when he was fit to work.

"I mean take the morning off Josh, both you and Donna.  You need to get some sleep, you’re not much use to me if you’re exhausted and Donna will need a lot of rest if she’s going to be using crutches for a while.  I broke my leg when I was 19 and can still remember how tiring it was having to use crutches to get around."  Leo’s tone was one of concern but Josh knew it was also one not to argue with.

"Ok.  I’m fine to come in but I agree that Donna probably needs the rest.  I’ll see you later."

"Yeah.  Oh, Josh, what exactly did Donna trip on in your office?"

"Leo, you really don’t want to know."  Leo could hear the guilty tone in Josh’s voice.

"You know I’m going to read the accident report so you might as well tell me now."

"It was a toy monster truck that Sam loaned me.  I didn’t realize I’d left it in the middle of the floor when I stopped playing with it.  Donna didn’t notice it ‘cos she was busy glaring at me for being lazy." Josh admitted his guilt and could hear Leo’s quiet chuckle on the other end of the line.

"I might have known you’d find a way to bring Sam into this.  See you later Josh, get some sleep." Leo instructed as he hung up the phone.

Josh placed the receiver back in its cradle and got out of bed.  Clad in a T-shirt and boxer shorts he made his way to the guest room and gently knocked on the door.

"Donna?"

"Yeah?"  A sleepy voice replied.  Josh opened the door and stepped into the room.  Donna turned over to look at him, folding her arms over the top of the duvet.  Josh noticed that her arms and shoulders were bare, except for the white straps of her bra.

"Hey.  How are you feeling?"  Josh’s voice was very gentle.

"I’m okay.  A little tired though."  Donna gave him a smile and then looked at her watch.  A panicked look came over her face.  "Josh, do you realize what time it is?  You should have been at the senior staff meeting 20 minutes ago!"

"Yeah I know, Leo called."  As the panic rose on Donna’s face he continued, "he was kind of pissed at me for being late until I told him about your ankle.  He then gave us both the morning off."  Josh felt a slight smirk coming over his face, "See?  You keep asking me for time off and now I’ve granted it."

"Well, next time could you maybe grant it when I don’t have to rest my ankle?"  Donna tried to use a harsh tone but failed, succumbing to the grin spreading over Josh’s face.

"Now where’s the fun in that Donnatella?  Anyway, I just thought I’d let you know that we don’t need to be in the office until 1:30 so you can go back to sleep."

"So, you woke me up to tell me I can go back to sleep?  Sometimes your logic amazes me Joshua!"  Donna grinned at him.

"Hey!  I just didn’t want you waking up, seeing the time and trying to race around getting ready ‘cos it would just make your ankle worse."  Josh used a mock-hurt tone.  "And speaking of getting ready, where are your clothes?  I know you were wearing some when I helped you through here last night."  At Josh’s question Donna looked down and realized that her bare arms were showing.  She quickly pulled the duvet up to her chin, putting her arms underneath.

"I took them off so they wouldn’t get creased.  I’ll need to wear them to the office as I don’t think I could face climbing the stairs to my apartment this morning." Josh seemed to accept the statement.

"Ok, well I’ll let you get back to sleep.  How long will you need to shower and get ready?  I need to know when to wake you up as there’s not an alarm in here."

"I doubt I’ll be able to take a shower as I can’t stand.  I also don’t think I’m supposed to get the bandage on my ankle wet."  Donna replied.

"Well, the bandage thing is easy, you can just wrap a plastic bag around it to protect it.  As for standing, I have a stool that I could place in the shower.  I think I even have some of that bubble-wrap stuff around here that I could put on the stool so it doesn’t get ruined by the water.  Leave it with me, I’ll sort something out and waken you in time to have a shower before we need to leave."

"Ok, I won’t bother to wash my hair so I’ll only need around 20 minutes to shower and dress."

"Ok.  Get some sleep."  Josh smiled and closed the door behind him as he left the room, returning to his own bedroom.  He set his alarm clock for noon so that he would have enough time to shower and organize the stool for Donna before they had to leave to fight the traffic to the Whitehouse.  He then climbed back into bed and quickly fell asleep.

When Donna emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed, she found Josh sitting in the kitchen eating cereal.  He pointed to another bowl on the table and motioned for her to sit down.  Donna shook her head.

"Donna, you need to eat something.  It’s lunchtime and we haven’t even had breakfast yet."  Josh said between mouthfuls.

"No, I’d probably just throw up again, anyway, we’d better go. It’s 12:45 and you know what the traffic is like at this time of day."  Reluctantly, Josh nodded his head, put a final spoonful of cereal into his mouth and stood up.  He collected his jacket from the hook by the door, put it on and then retrieved Donna’s jacket.  He helped her to put it on and then grabbed his backpack and her bag before holding the door open for her.

Chapter 4

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