Chapter Text
In Josh’s defense, he’d knocked. Perhaps he could have knocked louder. Or, actually waited until he heard a verbal response to come in, but he’d knocked.
Also in his defense, before he knocked, he had known that the president had sent his secretaries and body man home and wasn’t expecting any other visitors.
“I’m just going to finish up my stack of briefs in here and then go up to the residence,” Santos had said casually after he’d asked Josh if he’d been needed for anything else. It was a nonchalant exchange held at the doorway that connected the chief of staff’s office to the Oval just after 8 p.m.. Santos hadn’t done or said anything that indicated that Josh was to leave him alone or anything like that. Just, ‘I’m going to finish some reading and head up.’
Josh had nodded and dismissed the president in the way he was accustomed. Both men had spent most of the evening on Air Force One returning from a domestic trip and had plenty to finish up before leaving for the night.
So, when Josh, head down in a file, wandered into the Oval a little later that night, expecting possibly to find an empty office, he was shocked to find that the president did indeed have an unscheduled visitor. Albeit, an unscheduled visitor who lived in the White House with him.
It wasn’t uncommon for Josh to find Helen Santos dropping in on her husband during the day or late at night after she’d put the kids to bed and he still had a few hours’ worth of work to finish up. Although, usually when that was the case, she was scolding him for working too late. As such, Josh had been conditioned to make himself scarce when he knew the first lady was lurking around the Oval in the evening. No matter how many times Donna had assured him that Helen didn’t actually hate him, he was still a little scared of her.
But after this he’s certainly going to look at both of them in a new light.
He couldn’t be sure if he’d gotten close enough to the desk that the occupants could hear him mumbling, or, if he’d gotten close enough to hear them, but when he was about 10 feet from the famous Resolute desk everyone looked up at the same time. And, as he took in the sight before him, his brain seemed to short circuit, he couldn’t move much less look away.
“Josh!” Santos shouted after a beat where no one breathed much less moved.
Josh immediately cleared his throat with a newly mumbled sorry. He fled hastily, even forgetting to close the connecting door to his office. But he couldn’t remain there even to pack up his belongings. Instead, his feet carried him across the West Wing, through the Colonnade, all the way to his wife’s office door where he carried himself right through and in a daze sunk into the chair in front of her desk.
“Josh?” Donna exclaimed, surprised at his sudden entrance.
“Yeah,” he answered vacantly, staring at the blank space of wall just over her left shoulder.
Josh blinked at her then closed his eyes and scrubbed them with his fists, but still be could see the image of the president and first lady that seemed to be burned into his mind’s eye now.
He could see it down to specific details.
“Are you ok?”
Josh nodded slowly but didn’t say anything.
“Do you need to go stand against the wall?”
He shook his head. “I just….saw something that….” He forced the words out, but he couldn’t bring his brain to further explain what he’d seen, which meant that Donna was starting to get concerned that he was having some sort of panic attack.
“Do you need a Xanax? I don’t have any extra with me, but can walk down to the medical office and get you one.”
“No. I’m…it’s ok,” he stumbled over his words.
Donna frowned and came to kneel by where he was sitting. Her pencil skirt and heels made it difficult, but she managed to get down to about eye level with him and ran her hands through his hair in a motherly way.
“I’m just worried about you.”
“I know, I’m sorry, you really shouldn’t be. Really, I’m fine,” he told her then corrected, “I’ll be fine.”
And he was, because what he’d seen had been traumatizing in a way, but also confusing and…well Josh wasn’t ready to go there.
No, he told himself. Instead, he was going to be a professional and go back to his office to pack up his files, then take his own wife home and pretend like what he’d seen had never happened. He was fairly confident that although things would be weird for a few days, no one would have to quit or get fired over it.
“Let’s go home,” he said to Donna with conviction he was struggling to summon.