Click for Printer Friendly Version
After another hour spent staring at figures, percentages, polls and positions back at the office, he was now on his way home at just before 1am. The relief of Leo's performance was catching up with him. He'd been so uptight and worried that he hadn't been able to sleep the last two nights, but now he was exhausted. Finally… a night that ended on an up-note, which might lead to some actual honest-to-goodness sleep. Except that he still had one thing on his agenda.
He checked his watch again; she was way past their appointed phone call time. Again he felt the irritation tumble around in his gut, this time it quickly turned from mild irritation to annoyance. But he wasn't sure if he was annoyed because she had apparently ignored his order to check in… or if he was disappointed because he hadn't really talked to her in the last day and a half and he had a strong almost insatiable desire to hear her voice… or if he was worried that there might be a valid, ominous reason that she hadn't complied with his request. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to check and make sure he hadn't missed a message; as if on cue it vibrated in his hand.
Even though he'd been annoyed moments earlier, he couldn't stop the small, involuntary smile that crossed his lips when he realized who it was.
"You're on the plane?" He answered with a voice that was tired, yet still had traces of the earlier debate jubilance.
"Yes."
"You were supposed to call me an hour ago."
"I was?"
"Yes, I asked you to call as soon as you were wheels up."
"You asked me to call when we were on the way back and we're currently on the way back. I'm calling you my first free minute. The Congressman wanted to change tomorrow's schedule—nothing big, he wants to do the Veteran thing— but he wanted to go over everything when we first boarded so he could try and catch a few Zs on our way home."
Josh's gut tightened at the mention of the Congressman overriding his decision on the Veteran thing, without telling him. "How is he?"
"Sneezing."
"Goo-" Josh stopped mid reply. "That's not good."
"Bram sent someone to the drug store for one of those vitamin pack herbal cold remedy things, hopefully that will ward it off."
"You know, you should get him some of that Echinacea… and Vitamin C… and… maybe some Zinc, yeah, have Bram send someone for some Z-"
"Josh." With a deep breath she interrupted his helpful micromanaging. On one hand she honestly loved having the excuse to talk to him, on the other he didn't have time to consume himself with minutia like what was in the Congressman's cold remedy or what the Congressman ordered on his cheese steak.
"Yes?"
"What do you think is in a vitamin pack herbal cold remedy thing?"
"Um… I don't know."
"Turns out its Echinacea, Vitamin C and Zinc among other ingredients."
He paused a moment to let that sink in. "See your way they're all mixed together and diluted, I find that for colds taking the vitamins and herbs in their most pure form is best."
She couldn’t stifle a small laugh. "You do, do you? When is the last time you took any of those things?"
Josh ignored that and changed the subject to the thing foremost on his mind. "Did you watch?"
She smiled to herself before answering. "Watch what?"
"Donna! What do you mean watch what? I'm sorry if this little thing we call a national campaign is distracting you from the MTV beach party you were apparently throwing in Houston, but-"
Rolling her eyes, she looked out the window of the plane into the dark night sky and cut him off, "Do you not even know when I'm messing with you anymore?"
That stopped Josh mid-thought and hit a little too close to home. The truth was he hadn't been able to a get a solid read on her since she started working for Santos/McGarry. As his assistant he'd thought of her as an open book, at least professionally. She was the best assistant imaginable, she took care of him, she was loyal and dedicated and she made him laugh. Or she was loyal and dedicated right up to the minute she was no longer loyal and dedicated and abandoned him with barely a goodbye. He decided he couldn’t address that particular subject, not at the moment.
"Maybe now is not the time for messing. What did you think?"
"I think that the MTV comment was uncalled for." She rummaged in her purse for an aspirin, her head was killing her.
In an instant, Josh felt his blood pressure rise. He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth; this was getting to be out of control. He was the campaign manager, the one in charge; even if she was… was Donna… he deserved some respect, maybe most especially from her. "Don't tell me what's called for-"
She ignored his tone and implored, "She's mortified, Josh. Truly mortified, she wants to crawl in a hole. This is really overwhelming for her, so if maybe she could escape jokes coming from the man running her husband's campaign it would a step in the right direction."
Actually feeling a bit chastised, Josh unclenched his hand and scrubbed it through his hair. He waited a beat before admitting, "My joke wasn't actually aimed at her."
"I know."
"It was aimed at you."
"I know that too… and I don't know how they got it and I'm not going to tell her what kind of underwear she can and can't wear. And I tried, but a snorting bull between the Congressman and the phone wouldn't have stopped him from calling the editor of that paper."
He took a deep cleansing breath, before admitting, "Actually, the tabloid shot… it works for us."
"Yeah and I explained that to her, but I think she found it cold comfort as half of America ogles her gluteus maximus while buying groceries this week." Donna took a deep breath. "I also… Josh, I told her that she might want to start thinking about what kind of first lady she wants to be, and… I told her that I would like to help her with that."
"You did?"
"I did."
"Is that something you think you should have run by, say, your boss before putting out there?"
"You have an objection to me helping Helen define herself, thus becoming a stronger asset on the campaign trail?"
"Well, not when you put it like that, but it's not your decision, you need to run things by-"
"This is me running it by you; that's what I'm doing right now. She needs help and I think I can help her."
As much as it irked Josh that she was making decisions without consulting him, he also knew she was right. She was the right person to help Helen. Which actually irked him even more, because it just reminded him of how much things had change, how she no longer needed his guidance anymore, no longer needed him anymore. And this new Donna often seemed to forget who was in charge. Somewhere in the rational part of his mind he knew that constantly reminding his people that he was the boss, was not a textbook example of leadership. But lately, Josh was having a difficult time thinking rationally when it came to Donna. He was drawn to her, he craved being around her. If she was working on something, he found himself overly concerned with the details. He was crazed with election, but he still made excuses to be around her. Just seeing her or talking to her brought a lift to his heart and a smile to his face. But then she would say something or do something and be the epitome of confidence and poise and suddenly he would realize that she could leave at any minute and be just fine without him. Just like before, and he found himself not knowing whether he was coming or going. If it was possible to be comforted by someone presence and so unsettled by it at the same time… that was Josh's current state when it came to Donna.
He took another deep breath and decided to try and steer the conversation to a safer course. This time he was more specific with the question. "What did you think of Leo tonight?"
She smiled as she sat back in her seat and tried to get comfortable. "Strong, on-message, great on health care, great on education, great on energy… stumbled a bit on Bartlet's record but it wasn't damaging. When I first read it, I was afraid it might backfire, but you obviously made the right choice in leaking it and lowering expectations. He completely blew expectations out of the water."
Josh nodded his head, even though Donna couldn't see him. It pleased him that her analysis was right in line with his. "Actually, the leak… that wasn't me."
"You didn't leak it?"
"Nope."
"Huh…" Donna was silent for a thoughtful moment. "Between that and the Helen thong photo, we're really on top of our message this weekend, aren't we?"
"You're the second person to say something like that to me today." He thought back to Toby's comment and his current strained relationship with his candidate, a candidate who, as of a week ago, had wanted to replace him with his running mate. "I'm beginning to think everyone is in agreement that I'm a raving incompetent." He paused a beat before he continued, "By the way, that wasn't an invitation to agree."
"I didn't agree. Actually, I kinda want to whap you upside the head. Leo won tonight. You won tonight. We all won tonight. Why don't you give it a rest?"
His jaw clenched tight and he felt his eye twitch. "You're lippy lately."
"Am I?"
"Yes, you should really try much harder to not do that."
"I guess it's the new me."
"Can we get the old you back?"
Her face was expressionless as she stared straight forward. She shouldn’t have baited him but she had a headache and she was tired and he was obviously still stubbornly holding on to his resentment towards those who had considered replacing him. He was stressed and it was stressing her out.
"She's back at an MTV beach party doing very important work; I think she's dressed as a German cocktail waitress while following around a fratboy security risk."
Stunned, he waited a moment before questioning tersely, "Is that a little joke?"
"A little one, but it was funnier in my head."
"Do you think it would be wise to keep making those?"
"Unfunny jokes? Probably not, I'll try to restrict myself only to the funny ones."
"You… your… this has got to stop. I'm the boss… you're the… whatever you are. I think-"
"And I think that it would not be wise to have this conversation over the phone when we're both exhausted." Donna interrupted flatly.
"You think?" His voice was extremely terse. "I think I say when we have a conversation and-"
"Josh, seriously it's late and I'm tired, you're tired… and cranky. Maybe we could talk after we've both gotten some sleep."
"Fine," A muscle worked in his jaw angrily, "Be in my office at 7:30 tomorrow morning."
"I'll bring bagels." Rolling her eyes, Donna put the phone in its cradle and then settled back to try and find a comfortable position in order to get some rest on the plane.
***
Donna got a full blissful hour of sleep on the plane. Now most people wouldn't have been able to sleep after having such an up and down, contentious conversation with the big boss. But Donna wasn't most people and her boss wasn't most bosses. First off all he wasn't her boss, sure he was above her on the flow chart. Actually, he was above everyone but the Congressman on the flow chart. But she technically worked for Lou, and Lou reported directly to the Congressman. Not that she didn't respect his position, she did; there was probably no one on earth who respected him more. But the man was in desperate need of someone who could smack him around a little. And she had elected herself to the position.
The truth was that she knew she'd been pushing it a bit lately. But he'd been wound into such a tight ball; she was frightened that if she didn't loosen the pressure a little he was going to spontaneously combust. And an exploding campaign manager wouldn't do anybody any good. Besides there was also the fact that sometimes it seemed like he would be perfectly content with going back to their old dynamic, and she had no intention of doing that. She was older now, and wiser, and she knew what she wanted. And slipping back to the place they'd been, that was not it. She would wait until after election before pushing the issue, but in the meantime, she wasn't going to get sucked into the rut again.
***
"Josh…"
In his dream there was an angel… or maybe she was a really hot hooker hallucination—you know random hot chick who stops by for no-stings attached dream sex-- hovering over him saying his name.
"Josh, wake up."
"Wha?" He mumbled through a sleep haze as he squinted up at her. She was really pretty. With one hand he reached up to touch her. Her hair was so silky and golden. Do hallucination hookers have such heavenly hair? It was like she was there, but now he could see more clearly and he knew this wasn't just any old angel or hooker hallucination.
"Donna…" His fingers hit flesh-- warm, soft flesh. Donna. So life like. He slid the pads of his fingers over her lips. They were damp and parted under his touch. There was a jolt deep inside of him; every part of him wanted more. He caressed his palm across her cheek and she leaned into his touch so that soon his fingers feathered into her hair and his palm rested against her ear.
"Josh?" Her voice was barely above a whisper as she sat on the edge of his bed leaning over him. She had things to say. She even had a speech planned and everything, but she currently couldn’t remember any of it. Because of the way he was touching her and looking at her under such drunken heavy lids. It was sexy, even though it was dark in the room and she couldn’t really see where his eyes were focused. Still, his touch made her flutter and her heart skipped a beat at the sensual feel of his fingers on her skin.
"Donna…" It came out as a husky mumble. With growing need he moved his hand farther around so he was caressing her neck. He wanted her and she was here. He was going to have her. In one swift movement-- that was quite impressive for a mostly sleeping man—he slipped his hand around her neck and flipped her towards him.
"Josh! What are you doing?!" She squealed as she tumbled over him and landed on the bed right next to him.
Josh rolled with her momentum; his arm was still around her neck so they ended with her flat on her back and him partially on top of her. Just where he wanted her, feeling her body under him sent another electric jolt to his groin and his body was alert now. Fully alert. And with that sexual alertness, came the beginnings of mental alertness. He stopped and looked down at her. Her blonde hair was fanned out against his sheets and her eyes were wide. Too wide, they looked like they were going to pop right out of her head. She appeared startled and a little frightened as she looked up at him. And then the situation registered, his own eyes went wide and suddenly he was awake. "Donna?"
Wild Monkey Love
by: Liza C.
Rating: MATURE
Character(s): Josh Lyman, Donna Moss
Category(ies): Post-Episode
Pairing(s): Josh/Donna
Episode(s): 7-10 Running Mates
Crossover Shows: - No Show -
Summary: Donna and Josh find a way to work out the tension, post Running Mates.
After another hour spent staring at figures, percentages, polls and positions back at the office, he was now on his way home at just before 1am. The relief of Leo's performance was catching up with him. He'd been so uptight and worried that he hadn't been able to sleep the last two nights, but now he was exhausted. Finally… a night that ended on an up-note, which might lead to some actual honest-to-goodness sleep. Except that he still had one thing on his agenda.
He checked his watch again; she was way past their appointed phone call time. Again he felt the irritation tumble around in his gut, this time it quickly turned from mild irritation to annoyance. But he wasn't sure if he was annoyed because she had apparently ignored his order to check in… or if he was disappointed because he hadn't really talked to her in the last day and a half and he had a strong almost insatiable desire to hear her voice… or if he was worried that there might be a valid, ominous reason that she hadn't complied with his request. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to check and make sure he hadn't missed a message; as if on cue it vibrated in his hand.
Even though he'd been annoyed moments earlier, he couldn't stop the small, involuntary smile that crossed his lips when he realized who it was.
"You're on the plane?" He answered with a voice that was tired, yet still had traces of the earlier debate jubilance.
"Yes."
"You were supposed to call me an hour ago."
"I was?"
"Yes, I asked you to call as soon as you were wheels up."
"You asked me to call when we were on the way back and we're currently on the way back. I'm calling you my first free minute. The Congressman wanted to change tomorrow's schedule—nothing big, he wants to do the Veteran thing— but he wanted to go over everything when we first boarded so he could try and catch a few Zs on our way home."
Josh's gut tightened at the mention of the Congressman overriding his decision on the Veteran thing, without telling him. "How is he?"
"Sneezing."
"Goo-" Josh stopped mid reply. "That's not good."
"Bram sent someone to the drug store for one of those vitamin pack herbal cold remedy things, hopefully that will ward it off."
"You know, you should get him some of that Echinacea… and Vitamin C… and… maybe some Zinc, yeah, have Bram send someone for some Z-"
"Josh." With a deep breath she interrupted his helpful micromanaging. On one hand she honestly loved having the excuse to talk to him, on the other he didn't have time to consume himself with minutia like what was in the Congressman's cold remedy or what the Congressman ordered on his cheese steak.
"Yes?"
"What do you think is in a vitamin pack herbal cold remedy thing?"
"Um… I don't know."
"Turns out its Echinacea, Vitamin C and Zinc among other ingredients."
He paused a moment to let that sink in. "See your way they're all mixed together and diluted, I find that for colds taking the vitamins and herbs in their most pure form is best."
She couldn’t stifle a small laugh. "You do, do you? When is the last time you took any of those things?"
Josh ignored that and changed the subject to the thing foremost on his mind. "Did you watch?"
She smiled to herself before answering. "Watch what?"
"Donna! What do you mean watch what? I'm sorry if this little thing we call a national campaign is distracting you from the MTV beach party you were apparently throwing in Houston, but-"
Rolling her eyes, she looked out the window of the plane into the dark night sky and cut him off, "Do you not even know when I'm messing with you anymore?"
That stopped Josh mid-thought and hit a little too close to home. The truth was he hadn't been able to a get a solid read on her since she started working for Santos/McGarry. As his assistant he'd thought of her as an open book, at least professionally. She was the best assistant imaginable, she took care of him, she was loyal and dedicated and she made him laugh. Or she was loyal and dedicated right up to the minute she was no longer loyal and dedicated and abandoned him with barely a goodbye. He decided he couldn’t address that particular subject, not at the moment.
"Maybe now is not the time for messing. What did you think?"
"I think that the MTV comment was uncalled for." She rummaged in her purse for an aspirin, her head was killing her.
In an instant, Josh felt his blood pressure rise. He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth; this was getting to be out of control. He was the campaign manager, the one in charge; even if she was… was Donna… he deserved some respect, maybe most especially from her. "Don't tell me what's called for-"
She ignored his tone and implored, "She's mortified, Josh. Truly mortified, she wants to crawl in a hole. This is really overwhelming for her, so if maybe she could escape jokes coming from the man running her husband's campaign it would a step in the right direction."
Actually feeling a bit chastised, Josh unclenched his hand and scrubbed it through his hair. He waited a beat before admitting, "My joke wasn't actually aimed at her."
"I know."
"It was aimed at you."
"I know that too… and I don't know how they got it and I'm not going to tell her what kind of underwear she can and can't wear. And I tried, but a snorting bull between the Congressman and the phone wouldn't have stopped him from calling the editor of that paper."
He took a deep cleansing breath, before admitting, "Actually, the tabloid shot… it works for us."
"Yeah and I explained that to her, but I think she found it cold comfort as half of America ogles her gluteus maximus while buying groceries this week." Donna took a deep breath. "I also… Josh, I told her that she might want to start thinking about what kind of first lady she wants to be, and… I told her that I would like to help her with that."
"You did?"
"I did."
"Is that something you think you should have run by, say, your boss before putting out there?"
"You have an objection to me helping Helen define herself, thus becoming a stronger asset on the campaign trail?"
"Well, not when you put it like that, but it's not your decision, you need to run things by-"
"This is me running it by you; that's what I'm doing right now. She needs help and I think I can help her."
As much as it irked Josh that she was making decisions without consulting him, he also knew she was right. She was the right person to help Helen. Which actually irked him even more, because it just reminded him of how much things had change, how she no longer needed his guidance anymore, no longer needed him anymore. And this new Donna often seemed to forget who was in charge. Somewhere in the rational part of his mind he knew that constantly reminding his people that he was the boss, was not a textbook example of leadership. But lately, Josh was having a difficult time thinking rationally when it came to Donna. He was drawn to her, he craved being around her. If she was working on something, he found himself overly concerned with the details. He was crazed with election, but he still made excuses to be around her. Just seeing her or talking to her brought a lift to his heart and a smile to his face. But then she would say something or do something and be the epitome of confidence and poise and suddenly he would realize that she could leave at any minute and be just fine without him. Just like before, and he found himself not knowing whether he was coming or going. If it was possible to be comforted by someone presence and so unsettled by it at the same time… that was Josh's current state when it came to Donna.
He took another deep breath and decided to try and steer the conversation to a safer course. This time he was more specific with the question. "What did you think of Leo tonight?"
She smiled as she sat back in her seat and tried to get comfortable. "Strong, on-message, great on health care, great on education, great on energy… stumbled a bit on Bartlet's record but it wasn't damaging. When I first read it, I was afraid it might backfire, but you obviously made the right choice in leaking it and lowering expectations. He completely blew expectations out of the water."
Josh nodded his head, even though Donna couldn't see him. It pleased him that her analysis was right in line with his. "Actually, the leak… that wasn't me."
"You didn't leak it?"
"Nope."
"Huh…" Donna was silent for a thoughtful moment. "Between that and the Helen thong photo, we're really on top of our message this weekend, aren't we?"
"You're the second person to say something like that to me today." He thought back to Toby's comment and his current strained relationship with his candidate, a candidate who, as of a week ago, had wanted to replace him with his running mate. "I'm beginning to think everyone is in agreement that I'm a raving incompetent." He paused a beat before he continued, "By the way, that wasn't an invitation to agree."
"I didn't agree. Actually, I kinda want to whap you upside the head. Leo won tonight. You won tonight. We all won tonight. Why don't you give it a rest?"
His jaw clenched tight and he felt his eye twitch. "You're lippy lately."
"Am I?"
"Yes, you should really try much harder to not do that."
"I guess it's the new me."
"Can we get the old you back?"
Her face was expressionless as she stared straight forward. She shouldn’t have baited him but she had a headache and she was tired and he was obviously still stubbornly holding on to his resentment towards those who had considered replacing him. He was stressed and it was stressing her out.
"She's back at an MTV beach party doing very important work; I think she's dressed as a German cocktail waitress while following around a fratboy security risk."
Stunned, he waited a moment before questioning tersely, "Is that a little joke?"
"A little one, but it was funnier in my head."
"Do you think it would be wise to keep making those?"
"Unfunny jokes? Probably not, I'll try to restrict myself only to the funny ones."
"You… your… this has got to stop. I'm the boss… you're the… whatever you are. I think-"
"And I think that it would not be wise to have this conversation over the phone when we're both exhausted." Donna interrupted flatly.
"You think?" His voice was extremely terse. "I think I say when we have a conversation and-"
"Josh, seriously it's late and I'm tired, you're tired… and cranky. Maybe we could talk after we've both gotten some sleep."
"Fine," A muscle worked in his jaw angrily, "Be in my office at 7:30 tomorrow morning."
"I'll bring bagels." Rolling her eyes, Donna put the phone in its cradle and then settled back to try and find a comfortable position in order to get some rest on the plane.
***
Donna got a full blissful hour of sleep on the plane. Now most people wouldn't have been able to sleep after having such an up and down, contentious conversation with the big boss. But Donna wasn't most people and her boss wasn't most bosses. First off all he wasn't her boss, sure he was above her on the flow chart. Actually, he was above everyone but the Congressman on the flow chart. But she technically worked for Lou, and Lou reported directly to the Congressman. Not that she didn't respect his position, she did; there was probably no one on earth who respected him more. But the man was in desperate need of someone who could smack him around a little. And she had elected herself to the position.
The truth was that she knew she'd been pushing it a bit lately. But he'd been wound into such a tight ball; she was frightened that if she didn't loosen the pressure a little he was going to spontaneously combust. And an exploding campaign manager wouldn't do anybody any good. Besides there was also the fact that sometimes it seemed like he would be perfectly content with going back to their old dynamic, and she had no intention of doing that. She was older now, and wiser, and she knew what she wanted. And slipping back to the place they'd been, that was not it. She would wait until after election before pushing the issue, but in the meantime, she wasn't going to get sucked into the rut again.
***
"Josh…"
In his dream there was an angel… or maybe she was a really hot hooker hallucination—you know random hot chick who stops by for no-stings attached dream sex-- hovering over him saying his name.
"Josh, wake up."
"Wha?" He mumbled through a sleep haze as he squinted up at her. She was really pretty. With one hand he reached up to touch her. Her hair was so silky and golden. Do hallucination hookers have such heavenly hair? It was like she was there, but now he could see more clearly and he knew this wasn't just any old angel or hooker hallucination.
"Donna…" His fingers hit flesh-- warm, soft flesh. Donna. So life like. He slid the pads of his fingers over her lips. They were damp and parted under his touch. There was a jolt deep inside of him; every part of him wanted more. He caressed his palm across her cheek and she leaned into his touch so that soon his fingers feathered into her hair and his palm rested against her ear.
"Josh?" Her voice was barely above a whisper as she sat on the edge of his bed leaning over him. She had things to say. She even had a speech planned and everything, but she currently couldn’t remember any of it. Because of the way he was touching her and looking at her under such drunken heavy lids. It was sexy, even though it was dark in the room and she couldn’t really see where his eyes were focused. Still, his touch made her flutter and her heart skipped a beat at the sensual feel of his fingers on her skin.
"Donna…" It came out as a husky mumble. With growing need he moved his hand farther around so he was caressing her neck. He wanted her and she was here. He was going to have her. In one swift movement-- that was quite impressive for a mostly sleeping man—he slipped his hand around her neck and flipped her towards him.
"Josh! What are you doing?!" She squealed as she tumbled over him and landed on the bed right next to him.
Josh rolled with her momentum; his arm was still around her neck so they ended with her flat on her back and him partially on top of her. Just where he wanted her, feeling her body under him sent another electric jolt to his groin and his body was alert now. Fully alert. And with that sexual alertness, came the beginnings of mental alertness. He stopped and looked down at her. Her blonde hair was fanned out against his sheets and her eyes were wide. Too wide, they looked like they were going to pop right out of her head. She appeared startled and a little frightened as she looked up at him. And then the situation registered, his own eyes went wide and suddenly he was awake. "Donna?"