All characters belong to Aaron Sorkin, John Wells Productions, Warner Bros., & NBC. Written as a trade-off for a C.J./Toby story from Ryo. Standard disclaimers apply. Please send feedback.

Textbook Case
Violet

Resolve is never stronger than in the morning after the night it was never weaker.
- Mike Leigh

He was pretending to be asleep, and she knew it.

He was good at it, having developed the skill in childhood and honed it, she supposed, during the semesters he wasn't making the Dean's List at Harvard. But he'd tried it on her before, late at night in the office, and she'd gotten to the point where she could tell, even in the very early, very dim light.

So she climbed carefully out of the bed, as if she was trying not to wake him, and started to pick her clothes up off the floor. It was just as well, she thought; he was saving them both the awkwardness of morning-after conversation. She couldn't really make herself believe that, though. Her throat felt constricted and her eyes were stinging a little, but she kept quiet.

At least, she kept quiet until she walked into the frame of the bedroom door.

"Ow!" she yelped, a hand flying up to her face.

Josh raised his head from the pillow. "Donna?"

"Mmmph."

"There's a wall there," he pointed out helpfully.

"No kidding."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just--" She stopped abruptly. "I thought you were asleep."

"Nah, I was pretending."

"Oh."

"You knew that," he guessed.

"Yeah." She blushed.

He looked at her frankly. "I never realized you turn red all over."

That was when she remembered that she was still naked, and she held her armload of clothes in front of her defensively.

"I was pretending," he continued, raising himself up on his elbows, "because I thought you might be kind of uncomfortable with this, you know, this morning stuff."

"I'm not--"

"You're not? Donna, you've got a death-grip on your sweater there."

She wrapped her arms around herself tightly. "A little."

He nodded. "So I thought I'd give you the chance to make a dignified exit."

"I kind of ruined it for myself, then."

"Yeah." He tilted his head. "You can still go, if you want to skip the awkward part."

She stared at him. "This hasn't been the awkward part?"

"No, the awkward part is figuring out who gets to shower and brush their teeth first, and who sits in the kitchen fiddling around with instant coffee."

"You don't drink instant coffee," she said automatically.

"You wouldn't make me coffee if I did."

"True." Donna shifted awkwardly, trying to keep herself covered.

Josh shook his head, amused. "You can get dressed if you want to, it's okay."

"You're not uncomfortable?"

"A little," he admitted. "That's why I stayed under the covers."

"That, and it's your apartment."

"Touché." He covered his eyes. "I'm not watching. Go ahead."

She took advantage of the moment to look at him steadily. His hair was ruffled from sleep, his chin vaguely stubbled. He was smiling, and that meant the dimple at the corner of his mouth was showing. Her eyes took in the muscles of his shoulders, traveling slowly down along the pale scar on his chest, toward the sheet that had slipped to his waist. She gave up, and she let her clothes fall back to the floor.

"This is silly," she said.

"You're still here." He lowered his hand. "You're still..."

She placed her hands on her hips. "This is silly."

"You're right," he said.

"We're not strangers."

"Exactly."

"We're not teenagers, either."

"That's right. We're adults, and we can handle this."

"Except..."

"What?"

Her face crumpled. "You're my boss!"

"I thought it was the other way around," he joked.

"I'm serious. This is -- this is such a textbook case."

Josh looked thoughtful. "There ought to be a textbook, in fact. It might take care of that whole instant coffee thing."

"My mother warned me about you!" Donna cried.

He was confused. "She did?"

"Yes. No. Not you personally. But yes."

He raised his eyebrows. "Okay, now we're at the part where I completely lose the thread of what you're saying, so..."

"You!" She stepped forward and pointed a finger at him. "You. The guy who thinks he knows everything, and walks around all clever and arrogant, but comes on with that sweet thing like deep down, you really need me, and it's adorable and I get sucked into it--"

"And then I take all your money and run as soon as I finish medical school?" he interrupted softly.

"Oh." She covered her mouth, and her eyes widened. "Oh, Josh. No."

"I'm not Dr. Free Ride."

"I know that."

"I don't want to use you."

"I know."

"But sometimes, maybe, I do it anyway." He frowned. "You're right. You work for me, and that's a sticky situation anywhere, but in the White House -- this is six kinds of a bad idea."

"Sticky situation?" she repeated, and couldn't help smiling.

He blinked. "Possibly my verbal skills are not their sharpest at five a.m."

"I'd never have guessed."

"We have a problem, Donna."

"You think?" she replied, sounding a bit more hysterical than she'd intended.

"The sensitivity of our positions. I don't just mean our jobs, I mean... Donna, you work for me, and I like it that way."

She hugged herself again. "I like it that way, too."

"Yeah. Hence the problem."

"Right."

"Because you're incredible," he said, his voice casual. "And I never thought about -- I never let myself think seriously about exactly how incredible you are."

She bit her lip. "That's..."

"Last night was a bit of an eye-opener, wouldn't you say?"

"No," she told him truthfully.

"No?"

"I kind of knew." She looked at the floor. "How incredible you were."

"I'm the man," he agreed, with a fleeting grin. "On the other hand, I am also a phenomenal idiot."

"Only sometimes."

"And I don't want to hurt what we already have," he concluded. "Through my phenomenal idiocy."

"Neither do I." She sat down on the edge of his bed. "So here we are."

"Yes." He rubbed his forehead. "This is the awkward part."

"Apparently." Donna sighed. "We have to go to work."

"Yes, we do." He watched her face intently. "Why'd you come home with me last night?"

"Because I'm having my brakes done and you made me miss the late bus," she said. "Why'd you bring me home with you?"

"Because I live closer to work than you, and you've slept here before. I wasn't planning anything, honestly."

"I believe you."

"Yeah." Josh glanced at the clock on his bedside table. "You can have the bathroom, if you like. I'll do the coffee."

"We haven't decided anything," she pointed out.

"What exactly are we going to decide?" He clenched his jaw in frustration. "That we're going to pretend we didn't do this? That one of us is going to quit our job? That we're going to walk around policing ourselves, and be the poster children for denial?"

"David and Maddie," she said to herself.

"What?"

"Nothing. A TV show."

"You think we'd be any good at pretending that?"

"Well, we've done pretty well so far."

"But I don't want to!" he protested, sounding like a little boy.

She stifled a laugh. "I don't know, Josh."

"Well, here's what I think." He sat up straighter and folded his hands. "I think we should get it together and go to work, like we always do. We'll be able to keep our minds on work, and if we're having trouble, I'm sure some obliging Third World country will have a military coup or something."

"Probably. And then what?"

"And then it'll be the end of the day, and we'll go home."

"Home?"

"We'll figure it out as we go along." He reached for her hand. "We've done pretty well so far."

She squeezed his hand uncertainly. "This could really mess us up."

"If you want to say it was a mistake, I'd--"

"It was a mistake."

"Wow." He pulled his hand away. "I gotta say, I was kind of banking on you saying no there."

"It was a mistake," she said. "And we made it, and we have to deal with it. And if we had last night back--"

"You'd leave in time for the bus."

"I'd make the same mistake again."

They were both quiet for a while, as sunlight started to filter in through the window.

"Anyway," Donna said at last. "I should take a shower."

"You could also start the coffee while you're up," he suggested playfully, as she got to her feet.

She shook her head. "And here I thought you were awake, and you've been dreaming all this time."

"It was a pretty wild dream," he said slyly. Just before she disappeared into the hall, he called, "Donna?"

She stopped in the doorway. "Yes?"

"I like that you turn red all over."

And he laughed, because when he said that, she did it again.


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