A Life Worth Living
By Heidi H
 
Disclaimers-These are not my characters and I am 
making no money off of them.
 
Ratings-Sam/Donna, life works out in the most 
unimaginable ways



Spoilers-2 Cathedrals, anything 
with Laurie
 
Note-this is a sort of depressing fic. I might 
be tempted to write a sequel, but maybe...
 
 
Donna Moss held the marriage license in her shaky 
hands wondering how things had gone from 
wonderful to a disaster.
 
She and Sam had drifted together during the 
hearings. They both needed to find comfort in 
something and that was each other. Sam was there to 
comfort Donna when she was raked over the coals. No 
one else seemed to help her like Sam. She was 
there for him when the prosecutor brought up 
Laurie. They both had jumped in feet first when the 
subject of marriage was brought up. After the 
hearings, everyone had three days off to regroup and 
get their heads back in the game of politics.
 
Sam and Donna whisked away to Los Vegas where an 
Elvis impersonator married them in a small, quick 
ceremony. The married bliss only lasted less 
than a day and it all started with the ringing of 
Sam’s cell phone. 
 
He answered it, only to find Leo on the other 
ending screaming about their marriage making it on 
the front page of every tabloid in town. Leo 
demanded that they both get their asses on the next 
plane and be back in Washington and in his office. 
Sam had tried to reassure Donna that nothing 
would happen and that everyone was just shocked. He 
couldn’t believe he was telling her something 
that even he didn’t believe himself.
 
The scene in Leo’s office was the stuff of good 
television. Leo yelled about trying to keep a low 
profile. CJ yelled about being the first phone 
call. Josh and Toby yelled about the appearance 
of impropriety and the possibility of having to 
appear before the grand jury again. All through 
the “meeting”, Donna was being shot dirty looks 
like she was solely responsible for everything that 
was happening. The meeting ended with Leo 
telling them that changes would be made to make sure 
that things kept running smoothly.
 
The next day, Donna headed for her desk and Josh 
was there waiting for her. He told her to pack 
up her things and find a new office to put them 
in. She couldn’t believe that he was firing her. 
Donna packed up her things in shock. She needed 
to talk to Sam, but decided to wait until he got 
home.
 
Sam found a few changes for him at work too. 
Toby handed him a large stack of papers which were 
speeches for low level speaking arrangements. He 
was not going to be working on any high level 
speeches for awhile, according to Toby. Sam knew 
that this was the punishment for marrying Donna and 
landed them on the covers of tabloids. He sucked 
it up and took his punishment. It wouldn’t last 
forever, Sam kept telling himself.
 
Donna told him what had happened, but not to get 
mad at Josh. That she understood what he had to 
do and why it was for the best. Sam understood 
it too and went to his job everyday and gained the 
respect of his friends back. Donna was able to 
find a job as an administrative secretary for a 
lawyer in town. It wasn’t her old job, but she 
loved it too.
 
Then Laurie came back to town and all hell broke 
loose again. Sam was again on the cover of 
tabloids when he went to lunch with her again. The 
White House was up in arms when a story appeared 
that he was cheating on his wife of less than a 
year. Donna ended up quitting her job because she 
couldn’t stand the pitying looks of her coworkers. 
Sam got more punishment from Toby and Leo and 
accepted it. 
 
Sam came home that night and devastated Donna. 
He told her that their marriage could never work 
because of her former position in the White House 
and his current one. Sam packed his bags, told 
her that he would move the rest of his stuff 
tomorrow afternoon, gave her the numbers where she 
could reach him if needed, and walked out the door 
without ever looking back.
 
Donna was in shock. She would never expected Sam 
to bow down from the pressure. The marriage 
license was in her box and she dug it out. She 
wondered how things could have happened this way. Sam 
had left her unemployed, broke, and with a baby 
on the way. She made the decision in that instant 
to never subject her child to this. Sam would 
never get to see the child and the woman he walked 
out on again. Donna knew that it wasn’t right to 
not tell him that he was going to be a daddy, but 
he made the choice to leave and he would have to 

live with that decision for the rest of his life.

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