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

Josh juggled his backpack, Donna’s bag and her suitcase and garment bag up the front steps to his apartment building door, amazingly waiting patiently for her to join him at the top and holding the door open for her.  He unlocked the door to his apartment and ushered Donna inside, dropping his backpack and her bag on the floor just inside the door.

"I’ll put these in your room."  He said, indicating the suitcase and garment bag.  "There’s plenty of space in the closet, it’s only my winter stuff in there.  The desk has a couple of empty drawers in it if you want to put...whatever, in there."  He started to become a little flustered when he was obviously referring to her underwear and Donna smiled.

"Thanks Josh.  You couldn’t do me a favor and hang up the stuff from my garment bag, could you?  It’ll save me having to stand to do it."  Josh nodded and moved off to the guest room.  Donna followed behind and sat on the bed as he unzipped the bag and hung up it’s contents – thankfully Carol had used the individual clothes hangers inside the bag, rather than the ones that were fixed inside it, making it easy for Josh to remove them.

"I guess it’s just as well I did a big ironing on Sunday."  Donna mused.  Josh turned to face her.

"Huh?"

"Well, if I hadn’t I would have a bit of a problem trying to stand to iron everything now, wouldn’t I?"  She said, pointing towards her bandaged ankle.

"I’d have done it for you."  Josh stated.

"Josh, your idea of ironing is to drop off a huge pile of clean laundry at an ironing service and collect everything a couple of days later, all ready just to hang up."

"Well, yeah."  Josh admitted, "but, I would still have done yours for you or, you know, dropped yours off with mine."  He smirked.  He finished hanging her clothes up and zipped up the garment bag and placed it inside the closet, before turning to her.  "Will you be ok unpacking everything else?"  Donna nodded.  "Ok, well, I’m gonna go change before the food gets here."

Josh emerged from his bedroom, clad in jeans and a T-shirt, just in time to hear the buzzer sound signaling the food’s arrival.  He let the delivery guy inside the building and grabbed his wallet.  Once he’d paid for the food and taken it to the kitchen he called Donna to tell her it was ready.

When Donna arrived in the kitchen Josh noticed she hadn’t change out of the shirt and pants she’d worn to work.  He guessed that she had been too busy unpacking.  He placed the cartons of food on the table and they both sat down, helping themselves to some of everything.  Although Josh always ordered Chicken in Black Bean Sauce and Donna ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken, they always ended up sharing.

They ate in relative silence, talking a little about some of the meetings Josh had attended during the day.  When they finished eating it was nearly 9:45pm.  Josh rose from the table and started to clear it, putting the plates in the dishwasher and the cartons in the trash.

"Do you want some coffee or something?"  He asked.

"No, if you don’t mind I think I’m just gonna go to bed.  I’m really tired."

"Of course I don’t mind, do you need anything?"  He asked gently.

"No, I’ll be fine.  Thanks.  Goodnight Josh."  Donna pushed herself up from the table and grabbed her crutches, making her way towards the bathroom.

"Night Donna."  Josh finished clearing up and went into the living room, grabbing his backpack and removing some files from it, deciding he could get a little work done since it was still early for him.  A few minutes later a thought occurred to him.  He went to the kitchen and poured a glass of water before going to the guest room and knocking gently on the door.  He heard Donna telling him to come in and he opened the door.

"Hey, I thought you might need a glass of water so you can take your pain medication."  He motioned to the glass in his hand.

"Oh, thanks.  I just took some pills in the bathroom but leave the water anyway, I might need to take more during the night."  Josh placed the glass on the nightstand and noticed that she had placed her bottle of pills from the hospital there.  He also noticed an alarm clock.

"Where did the clock come from?"

"Carol packed it.  I mentioned this morning that there wasn’t one in here, which is why we slept in.  I guess she figured that if I relied on you to wake me, we’d be late every morning."  She grinned at him, and Josh grinned in reply.

"I should take offence at that, but I guess you have a point.  We need to be in the office for 7:30 tomorrow so set your alarm for around 6am.  Anyway, I’ll let you get some sleep.  Night."  He moved towards the door.

"Night Josh.  Don’t work too late."  Josh didn’t even bother to ask how she knew he was still working, Donna always knew these things.

Josh had set his alarm for 5:30am, determined to prove to Donna that he could get himself up without relying on her.  The fact that she usually phoned him in the morning to wake him was beside the point, he could manage when he had to.  He took a quick shower and was back in his bedroom getting dressed when he heard Donna’s door open.  He grinned to himself, picturing her expression when she saw that the shower walls were damp and the bubble-wrapped stool was back in place, proving he was already up.

Josh was in the kitchen, reading over some notes when Donna appeared.  He pushed some toast over to her but she shook her head.

"Donna, we’re not going to go through this every morning.  Eat some toast.   Breakfast is the most important meal of the day you know."

"Yeah, and how often do you actually eat breakfast Joshua?"

"When you call me early enough so that I have time to make it." He stated.  "Now, I went to the bother of making this so please eat it." She realized he wasn’t going to take no for an answer so she sat down at the table and ate a slice of toast, smiling as Josh placed a cup of coffee in front of her.

"You know, I could get used to this."  She smirked at him as she pointed to the coffee.

"Yeah, well I’m counting the number of cups I bring you and will present you with a tally once you’re off the crutches.  You can then bring me double the amount of cups in return."  Donna snorted.

"Like that’s gonna happen."  Josh grinned and ate another slice of toast.  Finally they finished their breakfast and headed towards the door, Josh again helping Donna on with her coat.

Wednesday morning flew past, with Josh running out to the bullpen every so often to collect files from Donna, before rushing off to yet another meeting.  He had a lunch meeting scheduled on the Hill and headed straight for that from a meeting with Toby so Donna couldn’t ask him to bring her back a sandwich.  However, at 1pm CJ appeared in front of her.

"Donna, why don’t you come along to my office and eat lunch with me?"

"Thanks for the offer CJ but I don’t have anything with me.  I’m gonna call Josh later and ask him to bring me something back."

"You don’t need to, there’s food in my office."

"CJ, I can’t eat your lunch.  I’ll be fine."

"It’s not my lunch, it’s yours, well ours actually."  Donna gave her a quizzical look.  "Josh called me from the Hill to ask me to get you something, he realized you wouldn’t be able to go downstairs to the mess. Carol went out and got food for the three of us and Josh is going to pay for it when he returns.  Come on Donna, it’s not every day Josh offers to pay for our food, take advantage of it."  Donna laughed and rose from her chair.

CJ, Carol and Donna caught up on each other’s gossip over lunch, although Donna noticed that neither Carol or CJ asked her what it was like staying with Josh.  When they finished eating Donna made her way back to the bullpen, noticing that Josh was back.  She went into his office to ask how his meeting went.

"It was fine.  Did you get lunch ok?"  He asked, looking at her intently.

"Yeah, I ate with CJ and Carol.  Apparently you owe Carol $50."

"50 bucks, what did you eat, caviar?"

"Josh, there were three of us."

"Wait, I paid for CJ and Carol’s lunches too?  I didn’t agree to that." 

"I’m sure you’ll get over it Josh.  Now, according to your schedule we can leave here at 6pm, is that still correct?"  She looked at Josh and saw his eyes glance down to his desk.

"Erm, no, I’m afraid it’s not."  He looked back up at Donna and saw her disappointed look.  "I’m sorry but we need to meet with O’Donnell again.  He’s wavering on a couple of issues.  I set up a meeting in Houlihans at 6:30pm."

"Why do I have to be there?"

"Because, I figure if you come he’ll take pity on you and keep the meeting short."  Donna glared at him.  "Also, I need you to take notes.  I also thought we could get something to eat there after he leaves."  Donna’s face brightened at his last comment.

"Ok, but you’re paying."  She left his office and returned to her desk and didn’t see the wistful smile on Josh’s face.

Chapter 7

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