Chapter Text
The cake had been cut and served. Charlie and Zoey had danced elegantly to Schrodinger’s Pussycats’ rendition of Tom Waits’s “I Want You”, and then the President had escorted his daughter as Dr. Bartlet followed with Charlie while the band played their version of “In My Life” by the Beatles.
There was polite applause when they finished, and Tori invited the rest of the wedding party to come dance. CJ and Kate Harper were waiting on the edge of the floor. Seeing their expressions, President Bartlet gave Zoey a kiss on the cheek and shook Charlie’s hand, and started to follow them in the direction of the West Wing.
Right before he left, however, he turned and looked where Josh and Donna had made their way to the floor. He caught the eye of his former Deputy Chief of Staff and quite deliberately winked.
Josh stood there staring, his mouth slightly agape, unbelieving.
“Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
We never get to stop and open our eyes”
“Josh?” Donna whispered, and he shook his head and realized that the music had started and she was waiting for him.
“Sorry,” he muttered. He reached out and took her hand, and carefully placed his other hand on her waist, staying above her hip. He was moving somewhat stiffly, and his expression was befuddled.
“One minute you're waiting for the sky to fall
The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all”
“Are you okay?” she whispered, between the teeth of a forced smile.
“What?” Josh pulled himself together. “I was just - did you see the President, on his way out?”
“Yes,” Donna said. “It’s terrible that he needs to miss his daughter’s wedding.”
“No,” he replied, “I mean, yes, it is terrible, but it looked like… I guess I must have imagined it.”
“That’s a confidence inspiring thought,” Donna quipped. “Should I include in my morning press briefing that our campaign manager is suffering from hallucinations brought about by exhaustion?”
“Is that your medical opinion, Ms. Moss?” Josh said.
“Just a layperson’s take on it,” Donna said with a hint of a smile. “Although it could be argued that I would be an expert witness in the case of this particular individual.”
Josh started to reply, but his face darkened and his eyes dropped to look at their feet. They danced for a while, listening to Tori sing Bruce Cockburn's words, the tempo adjusted to be more appropriate for the occasion.
“When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime”
“Josh?” Donna had felt his hand on her hip stiffen and he nearly let go of her hand. She didn’t understand - they were just engaged in some light banter, like they used to… and that was it. They’d been skirting around their years together and she just hit him over the head with it. She saw how that meant he was thinking of how that time ended.
“Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight."
“Josh,” she repeated. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
“It’s okay,” he said, “I know, it was just a joke.”
He was willing to let it go, but Donna realized that maybe she shouldn’t.
“What did you see the President do?” she asked. “What did you think you see?”
“Like I said, I imagined it.”
“No,” Donna said, her face serious. “I don’t think you did. What was it? Please, Josh.”
“I said it was…” His angry retort caught in his throat when he saw her, pleading with her eyes. “I don’t see how it matters,” he said in a quieter tone. “I thought I saw President Bartlet wink at me.”
Donna mused at this. “So it went all the way to the top.”
“What went to the top?” he asked, before his brain caught up with hers. “The President was part of Zoey’s plan to get us to be friends again?”
“You’ve almost got it,” she said. “Think about it. Think who’s involved. Where we are. What we’re doing right now.”
Josh frowned, considering the evidence. He thought of the circumstances - being paired as attendants at a high profile wedding. He considered the steps Charlie had taken, and Zoey’s note imploring him to invite Donna. He thought of what Sam had said, and what Leo had told him. “I’m an idiot,” he confessed.
“Often,” she said. “But I’m willing to ignore the available evidence and give you credit for being preoccupied.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That was wrong of them, and completely inappropriate. I would have put a stop to it if I’d known they were trying to play yenta. You shouldn’t have to deal with this sort of idiocy.”
“Yes, maybe they shouldn’t have done it,” Donna said. “But think what it means. All our friends are trying to tell us something. Something I think we’ve both known for quite a while and have been running from or hiding from or just plain ignoring.”
Josh hung his head in defeat. “Look, Donna, I… I tried, okay? I spent years locking it away, telling myself I couldn’t feel that way, not about my assistant, but then Gaza happened, and I know how that came across. I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry if how I felt chased you away and ruined our friendship.”
Donna laughed. She couldn’t help it. She stopped dancing for a moment and just… laughed. She recovered quickly, and began moving with him again. “It’s always about you, isn’t it?”
He stared at her uncomprehending.
“It never occured to you that this little plot was directed at both of us, did it? You don’t think I’ve been hiding my feelings behind sass and banter and innuendo for eight years? Don’t you know that for all I’ve accomplished, for all I’ve learned, this has been one of the hardest years of my life, because you weren’t there with me? Do you know how many times I turned around to tell you something, and you weren't there? Or how many times I pulled up your number on my phone and had to stop myself from calling?”
Josh blinked several times. He glanced around, seeing all the eyes on them now. Sam and Mallory, dancing a couple yards away, trying to capture furtive peeks. Charlie was trying to hide it, but Zoey was openly staring, with a little self satisfied smirk on her lips. He saw Abigail Bartlet in the crowd, and Leo and Annabeth, and both the Congressman and Helen Santos.
He struggled to find his voice. “I’m not sure I understand what’s going on right now. Are you saying...?”
“Yes, Josh, I’m saying.”
“Wow,” he setting, letting out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding in.
“Eloquent,” Donna said, smiling. “You really didn’t know?”
Josh considered it, searching his memories. “Not in a long time. Probably not since the night I hired Joe Quincy and we had that little back and forth going about how handsome and powerful I was.”
“You would remember that part,” she laughed, quieter this time. “You still are, you know.”
“Powerful?”
“And handsome.” With that, she let go of his hand, reaching up with both of hers to wrap around his neck. She leaned forward, and gave a slight tug on his shoulders, but he’d already gotten the hint. Their lips met in the middle, a soft, hesitant kiss. They pulled back and looked into each other’s eyes, their respective gazes a mixture of vulnerability and desire. They moved together again, and this time there was only passion in their embrace.
The song had ended, and they could hear the little squeak of excitement from Zoey’s direction. There was a buzz around the hall, and they pulled apart, slightly embarrassed but with big grins on their faces.
Donna looked over at Zoey, who gave her permission to leave with a quick hand wave shooing them off. She took Josh by the hand and they left the East Room, moving quickly through the crowd. There would be gossip tomorrow, almost certainly, but tonight there was just this, them, together after all this time.
A few minutes later, they found themselves seated on a bench in the Rose Garden. Josh’s arm was around Donna’s shoulder, and their free hands were joined between them.
“We still…” Josh began
“Yes, we still need to talk,” Donna said, “about a lot of things. But I think that won’t be as bad as you fear.”
“You don’t?”
“I think,” she said, “we will find that a lot of what happened over the last year was because we couldn’t have this. It was never going to happen when we both worked here…”
“No,” he confirmed, “it couldn’t.”
“And I did need to go - not the way I did! I know how badly I hurt you, leaving that day, but I really did need to leave.”
Josh surprised her, leaning in and resting his head against hers. “Yeah. I saw. You were incredible. It almost hurt more watching you grow away from me than it did when you left, but eventually I got it.”
“All by yourself?” she asked, a wry smile on her lips.
“Sam and Leo may have helped a bit,” he admitted. “I know I haven’t expressed it very well, but I am so glad you’re with us now. But Donna?”
She lifted her head and turned to look at him. “Yes?”
“I think… I think I’m even more glad to have you here, with me, right now.”
“Me too.”
They kissed again.
When they stopped, she could make out his lopsided grin full of dimples. “I think I found something better for us to do tonight.”
Donna giggled. “Okay.”
“But tomorrow - don’t think you’re getting out of trying to come up with a midwest strategy with me. All day. As long as it takes us.”
“Is that so?” she asked, giving him her most sultry look.
“Well,” he coughed, “we probably will need to take a break. A few breaks. Meals. Lunch. Dinner. That sort of thing.”
“I think I’d like that,” Donna said. “But we can worry about that tomorrow.”
“Yes,” Josh said, “we can. Because today we have something far more important to do.”
“Oh?”
“Well, we seem to have missed out on eight years of kisses," Josh said, the seriousness of his tone betrayed by a waggle of his eyebrows. "So I think we better start catching up.”
Instead of a verbal response, Donna leaned in again and proceeded to kiss him senseless.