Author: coffeeplease
Rating: MATURE (sex talk)
Category: post-ep for 2162 Votes
Spoiler Info: Everything up to 2162 Votes
Disclaimer: WB, NBC, John Wells, Aaron Sorkin....
owners. I just lease and try not to stain the carpet.
Lawsuits don’t look good on me.
E-mail address for feedback: jamhandy1@...
Archiving permission: Sure, just tell me first
Notes: Feedback is much, much, much appreciated. A
little funny, a little sappy, this one.
She pulled it out of her bag a few minutes after both
of their tired bodies had crumpled to the ground. They
sat facing each other, backs to the wall, the long
hotel hallway to their right and left. Josh’s beer was
half-filled. Will had gone to his room to pass out,
throw up and weep, perhaps not in that order.
“What’s that?”
She tossed it from one hand to the other. Not very
energetically; there was only so much stamina and
constant coffee could do for a person.
“I put on a rubber band every time I thought we would
lose.”
“Well, you did lose, Donnatella, so that thing should
be visible from space by now.”
He took a slow sip of his beer. The wall felt good
against his back.
“I was trying to be optimistic. Besides, it was either
that or shoot them at the tally board.”
“It’s good to know that the Russell camp was working
hard until the end. Fighting the fair fight and, you
know, making rubber band balls.”
“Do you think this...” Donna held up the ball in the
palm of her hand. “Is why we lost?”
Josh made a face. “I don’t know. Was Will making
paperclip necklaces?”
Donna blinked a couple of times and refocused her eyes
on Josh. She was waiting for it. There had been so
many key moments in the evening when she was sure it
was coming. But Josh was silent, looking at her
blankly and nursing his beer. Finally, she couldn’t
stand waiting for it to come. “Shouldn’t you be
gloating, smirking, boasting, bouncing off the walls
and asking for the finest bagels and muffins in the
land? You know, drinking from the keg of glory?”
“There’s a keg somewhere and all I got were those
bottles?” Josh glanced at his bottle wearily.
“You know what I mean.”
He sighed, smiling slightly. “I don’t want to rub it
in.”
“You always want to rub it in.”
“Not this time.”
Donna rolled the rubber band ball around her hand a
bit, letting it relieve a bit of her stress. “Come on,
you’ve been pissed at me since I left...”
“Let’s not...” Josh replied, looking down the hall
suddenly and biting his lip. “Let’s not go there
tonight, okay?”
“I don’t...”
“Donna,” Josh retrained his eyes back to her. Earlier,
he could barely keep them open but now the threat of
having this conversation had rejuvenated his
batteries. He really, really didn’t want the can of
worms to be opened and sprayed across the hotel walls,
with the tears, blood and guts and everything
spilling.
She just kept tossing the ball back and forth between
her hands.
He began again. “Donna, yes, I’m happy Santos won and,
yes, I’m happy about the V.P. selection and of course,
I am internally gloating and bouncing. But we start
talking about what happened between us and my buzz is
just going to... die.”
Donna smirked slightly. “A buzz kill?”
“I can’t really bring out the verbal after the last
three days. I can barely stand up.”
“Here,” Donna rolled the ball across the hall. Josh
deftly stopped it from knocking over his bottle.
“It’ll help you relieve some stress.”
“Are you feeling less stressed?”
“I’m feeling... tired. And unemployed. And a little
bit of a beer buzz.”
Josh began to toss it between his hands, using a bit
more force than Donna had. “And you say that I have a
sensitive system.”
“I’ve eaten, like, two potato chips in the last three
days, Josh. Of course I’m a little tipsy.”
Wrong thing to say. Josh was now looking at her
sharply.
“Josh...”
“That was definitely a buzz kill, Donna. You... you
gotta eat.”
“How’s your diet been?” She asked sharply.
“Fried and burnt to a crisp.” That, too, was the wrong
thing to say, he realized.
“Great. You worry that I’m going to waste away while
you’re gearing up for a major heart attack before
you’re fifty...”
“Donna...”
“A little broccoli, a few carrots... would it be so
hard, Josh?”
He grinned. “Well, I didn’t have you around trying to
disguise brussel sprouts as pork rinds. While the cat
is away, the mice do play.”
“So I’m the cat in this little scenario.” Donna smiled
back at him.
Josh blushed. It took Donna a moment, but when she
figured it out, she groaned internally. He, however,
recovered quickly enough. “We really shouldn’t go
there either, I think.”
“Why not?” The words left her mouth before her brain
even had a chance to think them.
“Um..” Josh was at a loss. Why not indeed. “We’re out
of practice?” He suggested lamely.
“Huh?”
“We haven’t really, um, you know... flirted... in a
long, long...” He stopped for a moment, eyes glued to
the carpet. “Long time. It has been a long time since
we flirted, Donna. I think maybe even years, at this
point.”
She started to crawl over to him. On her hands and
knees. Josh’s heart was caught in his throat and he
thought that maybe this was the moment. The moment
that could have happened a thousand different times, a
thousand different ways, but never had because...
because it never had. She looked damn sexy, that much
he could comprehend. He wondered if he should close
his eyes and tilt his head or maybe wait until her
lips were on his. Then he’d be able to see it and he
wanted to see it.
Maybe after he slipped her the tongue, he could start
inching his hands down her back. He wondered how many
minutes he would have to wait before he could touch
her breast. He tried to remember how many flights up
his room was and whether he had condoms or whether she
was still on the pill....
All academic, he groaned to himself, as she placed her
lips on the beer bottle, not him. Quickly, she scooted
back to her place against the wall, still clutching
his beer.
“I don’t think its a skill you lose with time, Josh.”
She said playfully, as he ground his hands into the
rubber band ball. Relieve stress, his ass. “I think we
may be able to pick up where we left off in no time.”
“Where’d we leave off?” Josh was still a bit out of
the conversation.
“I think it was something about you in a dog collar.”
“You and your fantasies...”
“My fantasies?”
“Sure, your fantasies, your equipment...”
“You had some fantasies you shared with the class, Mr.
Catholic School Girl’s Uniform.”
“Forgive me, Father, for wanting to see Donnatella in
knee-highs.” He smirked hardily and crawled over to
steal back his beer.
“And the equipment was yours, too. And the East German
cocktail waitress.”
“Its a stocking thing.”
“Really, Josh, all we ever talk about is your
fantasies.”
Josh shrugged, keeping a twinkle in his eye and his
hand around the rubber ball. “Well, my fantasies are
probably a lot better than yours.”
“Oh, you think?” Donna folded her arms.
“I’m sure.” He replied smugly. He cocked an eyebrow at
her. “You do realize that we are now flirting over the
past times we’ve flirted, right?”
“That’s because we have skills, Josh.”
“Ah, yes.”
Donna picked at the hallway carpeting, keeping her
eyes on Josh. “Our flirting is like riding a bike,
Josh. We may not ride for ten years, but we never
forget how to do it.”
Josh took the final sip of the beer. He began to
rummage in his bag for another one. “You know what
else is like riding a bike, Donnatella?”
“Hmm?”
He pulled out a beer and twisted off the cap. He took
a swig. “Sex.”
“Well, we wouldn’t know if we had any skills in that
department, Josh.” Once again her brain and her mouth
were not playing for the same team.
“Let me tell you, Donna, there is no doubt that I have
massive and major skills in that department.
Incredible skills. Women have written poetry and pithy
missives about my skills.”
“You know, I was wondering if you had had some sort of
surgery and had the ego removed. Good to see its still
the size of Texas.”
“My ego ain’t the only thing the size of Texas, baby.”
“I agree. Texas is the size of Texas, in fact.”
“See, I just bumped our flirting training wheels up to
a ten-speed and you’re still peddling like we’re boss
and assistant.”
Donna smirked at him. “I can ride with the best of
them, sweet thing.”
Josh set the rubber band ball back down on the carpet.
Gently, he rolled it back to her. “Ball’s in your
court, Donna. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
She grabbed it and put it in her hand. “Speaking of
riding, did you ever think about us screwing in your
office chair?”
Yes. Of course he had. And on the desk, up against the
wall, in the visitor's chair, in the unisex bathroom
in the basement, in the Steam Pipe Distribution
Center, in the Oval when he was feeling naughty....
Out loud he made a strangling noise.
She smirked again, the battle clearly won. “Whose
Lance Armstrong now, Joshua?”
He found himself afflicted with Donna’s condition,
unable to stop his mouth. “I’ll throw you one better.
I’ve thought about it in the Oval.”
“You’ve thought about us having sex while in the
Oval?”
“Nooo... well, yes, of course.” He took a long drink
of beer and grinned widely. “But I’ve thought the
President’s desk would make an excellent surface
to...”
Donna raised an eyebrow. “That would probably have
gotten us into some trouble.”
“And my office wouldn’t?”
“We’d be sneaky and quiet. Although, I’m rarely quiet
and I doubt you’d be once you were acquainted with my
skills...”
“Uh-huh.” Josh realized, perhaps too late, that they
had drifted into very deep waters. Uniforms and dog
collars were safe ground. Discussing various White
House locals where either he or Donna had fantasized
about... that was new. Very new and now he had to
untuck his shirt.
A move that she naturally noticed. She blushed
slightly and tightened her grip on the rubber band
ball. “You know what’s weird about this conversation
now?”
“A great number of things, but go on.”
“We actually could do it.”
“We really can’t have sex on the President’s desk,
Donna. Maybe when Santos gets in there, but Bartlet
would have us in Siberia picking up Coke cans before I
had a chance to get your bra off.”
“No, I mean...” She had to stop and take a deep
breath. Her heart was alternating between fluttering
and pounding madly. “We could actually have sex. We
could. There’s no conflict of interest or ethical
dilemma anymore.”
He was pounding madly as well, in more parts of his
body than he could name. Breathing seemed at thing of
the past. “Yeah... we could,” he stammered, quickly at
a loss. “We... could... tonight... even.”
“Well.” She tried to think of something to say and
found her mind blank. “Yeah. I mean, we both want to,
right?”
At her words, he sat up quickly and gave her a deep
look. “Has that really ever been in question,
Donnatella?”
She squirmed a bit. “No, I guess not. The question is,
what else is in question?”
“What?”
Not the response she wanted. She tried again. “I’m
talking about the things you don’t want to talk about,
Josh.”
“The things?”
She rolled the ball back to him. “Why I quit, why I
slept with Colin, why you dated Amy and so forth.”
“I don’t know, I don’t know and because I couldn’t
have you. What else?” He practically punctured her
eyes with his. She was floored. She was speechless.
She also knew that it wasn’t that easy.
“Joshua...”
“And, honestly, Donna? I don’t ever want to know why
you slept with Colin or Cliff or Jack. I try my best
to ignore the fact that you did.”
“I try my best to ignore Amy, too.”
He grimaced slightly. “I didn’t make that easy for
you, I know.”
“No, you didn’t.”
He looked bashful. “I’m really sorry. I should have...
been more considerate, I guess. Probably should never
have dated her in the first place. But I needed.... to
try and get over you, I guess.”
Now she was really floored. They were in the ocean,
floating where they had never been before. She tried
not to be afraid of all the dark water underneath
them. “I never... I never guessed that. I never
thought that was the case. I thought you were really
in love with her.”
He bounced the ball on the carpeted floor. “So did I.
But I wasn’t.”
“Obviously, I wasn’t in love with Cliff or Jack or
Colin.”
“It wasn’t all that obvious to me.” Josh looked up at
her painfully.
“I probably should have been more considerate, too.”
“Were any of those guys...” He swallowed loudly.
“...an attempt to get over me?”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
They sat in silence for a few moments. Josh bounced
the ball a few times and they listened to each other
breathe. In and out. The hotel beneath and above them
was very quiet. Everybody staying there was at the
convention or, by now, at one of the many
post-convention parties.
“Did it ever work?” He asked, almost whispering.
“No. Did it work for you?” She felt lightheaded.
“No,” he replied, holding the ball so tightly that his
knuckles were turning white.
He put the ball down and grabbed her eyes instead.
They didn’t nod or signal each other but they both
quickly leaned across the hall, on all fours, to fuse
their mouths together. It was simultaneous and done
without thinking. Josh shut his eyes before their lips
met and Donna raised her hand to cup his cheek.
“Where’s your room?” She whispered when they parted.
“It’s up a few floors. I don’t want... to pressure you
into anything, Donna.”
“You’re not.”
“I mean...” He held her face and looked at her deeply.
“I know we still have a lot to talk about. You know,
the things I don’t want to talk about, but we need
to.”
“I know.”
“I mean...” He kissed her again quickly. “This can’t
just be a one-time thing. It can’t be.”
She was relieved. “I know that, too.”
He had never looked more vulnerable to her or more
boyish. There was nothing smug, no finest bagels or
kegs of glory. “I mean, Donna, I already lost you once
and it was definitely not a pleasant experience to
have my heart shatter in a million pieces like that. I
would like for it not to happen again.”
She closed her eyes and tried not to cry. She felt
horrible, had felt horrible about the way she left for
months now. “I won’t do that again, Josh. I won’t do
that to you again. It hurt me just as much. You’ve got
to believe me.”
He didn’t know if he did or didn’t, but if he was
going to get her back, he didn’t care. “We have to
talk about it. But not tonight.”
“Okay,” she smiled slightly. He brushed a tear off her
face and quickly reclaimed her lips, pushing her
gently against the wall his hands began to roam. A few
minutes later, he pulled away.
“You know why we can’t talk about it tonight?” He
stood up and grabbed his bag and hers, quickly putting
the rubber band ball in his bag.
“Why?”
Instead of answering her he picked her up off the
floor, with strength he didn’t even know he had.
“Because I am drinking from the keg of glory tonight,
Donnatella, my love. Victory is mine, victory is
mine!” He shouted.
She grinned over his shoulder. “Its going to be a
wonderful night.”