West Wing Fan Fiction: Glimpses of Everything and Nothing 6/7

Title: Glimpses of Everything and Nothing - Part 6/7
Author: Finn AUS
Rating: PG 13 (suggestive comments)
Spoiler Info: NO SPOILERS FOR THE COLD - Vaguely placed somewhere in Season Seven
Disclaimer: WB, NBC, Aaron Sorkin are the masterminds, John Wells is the minor-mind who had the good fortune to co-produce. I have no money, and even less with the US conversion rate so really not worth it.
Archiving permission: Awesome, please let me know so I can go look!
Summary: After a Republican makes suggestions about Donna and Josh's relationship in an attempt to derail the campaign, it forces them both to face the real truth.
Author Note 1: Praise of infinite proportions to Caz - especially her most excellent press release.
A/N 2: Another huge thanks for all the feedbackers. We are sneaking this baby home before the episode that will stop all in their tracks...or at least the West Wing fans.
Feedback: Love it like the upcoming episode goodness.


Lou sat tranquilly at the boardroom table drafting a press release and deciding which few trusted journalists would receive it first. The campaign offices were quiet, even for a Saturday with most of the staff having been given one last weekend off before the final push to election day. The next six weeks would consist of long hours, extensive travel and maybe, if they were lucky, a few hours sleep here and there. And in any case, she really didn’t want another public dissection of Josh and Donna’s complicated relationship.

Lou had immediately noticed the strained atmosphere between the two of them when she’d hired Donna. She’d heard the rumors – they were screwing, they weren’t screwing, they were married, divorced, Donna had Josh’s child early in the first term, and then some were too disgusting to contemplate. She had actually been a little bit apprehensive before meeting Donna – someone who had stayed with Josh Lyman for eight years was clearly either insane or a masochist. But Lou had been surprised, even shocked. Donna was eloquent, intelligent and had obviously gained an enormous amount of experience along the way. Still, Lou had been surprised when she had actually seen them together, however briefly. She’d been expecting some weird, political version of His Girl Friday and instead all she saw was open hostility and acute discomfort in each other’s presence. She could almost believe that maybe they had been together and the tension was the result of a vicious break-up. One day, she’d overheard a staffer saying that the fact that Josh Lyman had a ‘thing’ for his ex-assistant was one of the worst kept secrets in Washington. From what she’d seen recently though, Lou was pretty sure the only people from whom it had ever been a secret had been Josh and Donna themselves. On the rare occasions she was actually interested enough to bother thinking about it, it had amazed her that two such intelligent adults – well, maybe that was being charitable towards Josh, but… whatever - had spent the past nine years in total denial.

Shaking her head in disbelief, she heard the doors swing open and spotted Josh saunter into the office.
Someone got lucky last night, she thought to herself.

Dropping his backpack in his office, he looked around the empty space and spotted Lou in the boardroom.

‘Morning,’ he smiled brightly, wandering in with a fresh coffee.

‘Oh God, Joshua! What are you trying to do to me?’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’ he sat down opposite her.

‘Are you really that stupid? We sat here until the early hours of this morning listening to the two of you telling us there was nothing going on between you and now…’

‘What?’

‘Well, that self-satisfied grin for a start!’

‘I’m not-’

‘Come on, Josh! For the last few months you’ve been a miserable jackass. You yell, you curse, you sleep at the office, you’re cranky and the staff are running a pool to see if you’ll actually smile before election day! Now you stroll in here, bright and early on a Saturday morning grinning from ear to ear!’

‘And this makes me stupid how?’

‘It’s written all over your face. Something’s happened between you and Donna, hasn’t it?’

‘Yes. No – not in the way you mean … technically.’

Lou huffed and sat back in her chair, cocking an eyebrow at him.

‘You know, I really could care less about your personal life, but you’re treading a very fine line here.’

Josh opened his mouth to respond, but Lou silenced him with a look and continued. ‘You gave the Congressman a line to use in which you denied the two of you were romantically involved.’

‘Yes.’

‘But it’s not true!’

‘It was when we wrote it!’

Lou actually threw her head back and laughed.

‘Yeah, well that’s a big help. I’ll just say that shall I? “Josh Lyman and Donna Moss had no romantic inclinations towards each other until 8 hours ago.”’

‘Well that certainly isn’t true,’ Josh muttered under his breath.

Lou glared at him. ‘Not helping, Josh.’

‘Look, I know this isn’t going to be easy but we can do this. You know I’m telling you the truth – nothing inappropriate EVER happened between me and Donna whilst we working at the White House. She was my assistant on the Bartlet for America campaign and she was so…valuable…that I kept her on when we moved into the West Wing. But everything was official and above board – Leo had to sign off on it and you know there’s no way he’d have done that if there’d been any doubts as to her abilities. She worked for Russell, then you hired her – without telling me I might add – so we can refute the insinuations that she got here by …um…’

‘Sleeping with you.’

‘Exactly,’ Josh paused. ‘Anyway, I thought the whole idea was that we weren’t going to be deflected off message – just issue a denial and move on.’

‘Yes, well – that was before I saw your face this morning!’

‘Oh, for the love of …will you give that a rest?’

Lou was silent for a moment.

‘OK, look, I’ve been working on this,’ she pushed the pad she’d been scribbling on towards him. ‘The Congressman gave me some stuff he wanted included, I’ve added all the stuff we talked about last night about elitist Republicans and played down the stuff about you and Donna.’

Pulling out a pen, Josh scanned the closely written pages quickly, occasionally crossing something through, or adding comments here and there. Lou started absently flicking through some of her other files, and they sat there in silence for a few minutes until Josh reached the end of the last page and shuffled the pages together.

‘OK,’ he said, handing them back to her.

Lou flipped through the pages, noting Josh’s scribbled amendments.

‘A real politician’s denial,’ she said, flatly.

‘Yeah, well, I’m a politician, in case you hadn’t noticed.’

‘Hm…’

‘What is it now? Because I’m already pissed enough at the stuff that’s been thrown at us from the other side without it coming from you as well.’

‘As if you care what I think about your personal life.’

‘Well, I do care, much as I don’t want to,’ he admitted, begrudgingly. ‘I just don’t want you to get the wrong opinion of Donna. You already know I’m a jackass but she’s…she’s better than that.’

Lou rolled her eyes. ‘I really don’t think I can handle this sort of talk so early in the morning. At least not without a bucket within reach.’

At that moment Donna cleared her throat, alerting both Josh and Lou to her presence.

‘Sorry, thought it was best I speak up before …well you know,’ Donna entered the room hesitantly, well able to imagine what Josh and Lou must have been discussing.

‘Hi Donna,’ Lou said, a bit too brightly, Donna thought. ‘Josh was about to explain why you and he aren’t having a relationship.’

Donna shot a shocked glance in Josh’s direction.

‘No I wasn’t!’ his voice rose several decibels and at least an octave at the same time.

‘What were you going to say then?’ Lou asked.

‘I thought you didn’t care about my personal life,’ Josh insisted.

‘Personally I don’t. But professionally? I have to. Look you know there have been rumors about you for years, don’t you? So, and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, it wouldn’t make much difference if you had been…you know…’

‘Lou, we weren’t, trust me. You think idiot boy over there would be smart enough to keep that a secret?’ Donna interrupted, pointing in Josh’s direction.

‘Hey!’ Josh whined. ‘I’m sitting right here’.

‘That’s true - undercover isn’t exactly his forte,’ Lou smirked at Donna.

‘I am an undercover genius - stealth is my middle name-’

‘You don’t have a middle name Josh,’ Donna retorted. ‘Listen Lou, Secret Agent Man here is telling the truth. Nothing actually happened until this morning and even that wasn’t much.’ Donna hoped she wasn’t blushing, as a memory of ‘not much’ made her feel suddenly warm.

‘Not if I had my-’

‘Josh!’ Donna scolded.

‘Well then, what the hell have you been doing for the past who knows how long?’ Lou was exasperated, and also a little bit dizzy; the pace of the back and forth between these two was lightening quick, and she could generally keep up with the best of them.

‘Keeping a secret,’ Josh stated.

‘Hang on, what secret have you been keeping for nine years, if you weren’t…you know?’ Lou was completely lost now.

‘That I love her.’ Josh said simply but it was tinged with a sweetness and sincerity Lou had never heard from him.

Donna almost couldn’t believe it either. The sweet side of Josh was normally something he kept well hidden, even from those who knew him best, yet he had just dropped his carefully preserved guard in front of Lou.

‘So you two have just admitted … this, and you pick now to do something about it?’

‘Yeah,’ they both nodded. Lou dropped her head into her hands and groaned – one more problem to worry about.

‘Okay,’ she looked up again, ‘we’ll take this one step at a time – just, for the love of God, don’t go all…you know…’ she waved a hand frantically from to the other.

‘What?’ They asked in unison.

‘Sappy! Don’t go all sappy on me! I really couldn’t handle the two of you being…’ she waved a hand around again ‘you know… sappy for the rest of this campaign!’

Josh sniffed. ‘Fantastic vocabulary skills - so glad you’re my Communications Director. And you can forget sappy. If you don’t think I’m here to win then we’ve got more trouble than worrying about me and Donna.’

‘After last night’s allegations about our so-called relationship affecting our work, you really think either one of us would allow that?’ Donna added.

Lou looked at both of them, noting the determined glare of professionalism etched across their faces.

‘Alright…but I’d better not see any public displays of affection,’ Lou warned.

‘You won’t,’ Donna replied firmly.

‘Really?’ Josh complained.

Leaning into Josh, as Lou refilled her coffee mug from the nearby pot, Donna whispered, ‘You won’t see any private displays of affection, if you don’t shut up.’

Donna was sitting at her desk, absent-mindedly tapping a pencil on the top.  She’d read the statement they were going to issue over and over – so many times that if asked, she could probably have recited it from memory. But she couldn’t let it go – perhaps changing a word here, moving a sentence there might… she sighed and read it through again.

"Joshua Lyman and Donna Moss have been friends and colleagues for a number of years, since they worked on the ‘Bartlet for America’ campaign in 1998.

They have great respect for each other, and regard themselves as close personal friends, but deny absolutely that there has ever been inappropriate conduct between them, or that they were engaged in a clandestine relationship during the time they worked at the White House.

When Mr Lyman was made Deputy Chief of Staff following President Bartlet’s election, Ms Moss was appointed his Senior Assistant, where she remained until leaving that position to work on Vice-President Robert Russell’s campaign to win the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.

Ms Moss is currently employed as Press Spokesperson on Congressman Matthew Santos’ presidential campaign, having been appointed to that position by the campaign’s Director of Communications, Louise Thornton. The details of Ms Moss’ interview and subsequent appointment are a matter of public record and are available through Ms Thornton’s office. Anyone who has ever met or worked with Ms Moss will know that she is a highly intelligent and capable individual and that her appointments to both the White House and the Santos campaign were made purely on merit."

Donna smiled at that last sentence, remembering the first time she’d read it, scrawled along the bottom of the page in Josh’s familiar handwriting.

"Congressman Santos has expressed himself appalled at the unsubstantiated slur on one of his staffers.
Ms Moss is a highly valued member of my team and to cast aspersions about her based on her lack of formal education is nothing short of scurrilous…"

‘It’s done, stop looking at it.’ Donna spun round at the sound of Lou’s voice.

‘But what about-?’

‘Donna, there are only so many ways we can spin this and I think we’re there. Any more work and it’s going to look like we’re trying too hard.’

Lou was standing impatiently in the doorway of Donna’s office, shrugging her coat onto her shoulders.

‘Seriously, you’ve spent all day working on education debate platforms, Josh has finally managed to access the interview records from the White House, which we can use if needs be – it’s done. Go home.’ As she said this, Josh appeared, backpack thrown over his shoulder, hair skewed in all directions, causing Donna to bite her bottom lip in a reflex effort to avoid smiling.

‘Come on Donna, it’s time to go,’ he called wearily.

‘Alright, I’m going now,’ Lou slung her bag over her shoulder. ‘I don’t want to see or hear from either of you until Monday morning, barring another scandal. Please no more scandals.’

‘Night Lou,’ Donna said as Lou turned to go. ‘And thanks.’

‘Yeah, well…whatever…’ She trudged off down the hall, wanting only a beer, a noisy bar and to indulge in some shameless flirting with a random stranger.

‘You think this will kill it?’ Donna asked hopefully, as she switched off her laptop and gathered some files.

‘Who knows?’ Josh sighed. ‘There’s always going to be questions, especially if ‘half of Washington’ thinks its true,’ he smirked.

‘See - what worries me now, is that a small part of you is proud that half of Washington is talking about you.’ Donna joined him on the walk towards the elevators.

‘I’m disappointed it’s only half! I’m important enough to warrant at least three quarters.’ Donna looked at the huge smirk on his face – and decided, reluctantly, not to avail herself of the easiest way of getting rid of it – at least not here.

‘Good God, you really are amazed by yourself sometimes, aren’t you?’

‘Like I told you, I really am quite something.’ She glared at him as they stepped into the elevator.

‘So,’ he cleared his throat, nervously, ‘you feel like some dinner at my place tonight? I’d also supply wine, which would constitute food and drink; and under the ‘Donna Moss Modern Woman Dating Agenda’, I believe that’s date two.’

‘You call making out in my kitchen having brought coffee and bagels a date?’ she laughed.

‘Yeah - and a damn good one, although I felt the coffee and bagels didn’t really, y’know, add all that much to it.’

‘Do you think it’s such a good idea with this thing breaking right now?’ Donna’s smile evaporated as the elevator doors opened and they began walking towards the parking lot.

‘I don’t think the National Enquirer’s going to be waiting in the bushes!’ Donna grimaced at Josh’s attempted joke.

‘Hey, it could be worse! Sam had a call girl as a girlfriend, remember?’ Donna stopped dead in her tracks, and stared dumbfoundedly at him. He’d gone on a few steps before realising Donna wasn’t beside him any more and then stopped.

Turning back towards her, he registered the look on her face, rapidly rewound the conversation and then - click.

He ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish as he stepped back towards her. ‘Yeah, there’s pretty much no way back from what I just said is there?’

‘Not really, no.’ Donna’s face had clouded over.

‘‘Kay so we’ll just ignore my stupidity. What I was going to say was it doesn’t matter because we’re not doing anything wrong.' Josh continued walking with Donna towards her car, and as they stopped beside it, she turned to face him.

If the story was going to break, there was nothing they could do to stop it and they’d already covered their options for damage control and then some. They’d denied, misdirected and waited for long enough – and she was tired of it.

‘Fine, I’ll be over there in an hour,’ Donna smiled and Josh practically jumped for joy. ‘And you might want to do some limbering up,’ she added.

‘What for?’ Josh grinned.

Dropping her voice to a husky whisper, she leaned towards him.

‘There could be some rolling.’

Continue on to Part 7 *Ratings warning, it gets steamy!