The National Library - A West Wing Fanfiction Archive

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Wired and Sappy

by: Ginny

Category: Post-Ep to Manchester Part I
Pairing: Josh/Donna
Characters: Josh and Donna
Rating: YTEEN
Author Notes: Feedback is always appreciated

It's 2:00 AM and I can't sleep.

Again.

That's been a very familiar occurrence over the last 4 weeks. Not just for me but for all of us.

Of course, the fact that I just ate a package of Yodels and drank a can of Coke could have something to do with my current, uh, wired state.

Donna, on the other hand is sound asleep on the bed, my bed. Sounds good, but actually she feel asleep watching Conan.

The past month has just been one thing after another. I've had too little sleep, too much caffeine and way too little time to just sit and breath.

Donna's been on my case about taking better care of myself. I know she's right so I don't even argue with her. But then again, I haven't exactly been taking care of myself either. Last few blood pressure checks were a little high. And of course, Dr. Griffith just happened to stop by after the last one and see how I was doing. So Donna felt the need to tell her about the high readings. Which I suppose was all my fault anyway. I shouldn't have told Donna in the first place.

But as we all know, I tell Donna everything. Well, at least everything I am at liberty to tell her.

I still can't believe she didn't throw a fit that Toby told her about the President's MS. I guess she understood, she usually does.

Tonight was nice. Getting out to the bar and just hanging out for a while was fun. It was so nice to do something other than work or sleep. Having a chance to put on something other than a suit and tie, or pajamas, was nice too. I think Donna appreciated my jeans. I saw her checking me out. She tried to be discreet but she didn't fool me. Of course, at the time I was checking out her jeans too.

So, you know, I guess we're even.

Or we were even until she started stealing my food. Again. But that's nothing new; she's been doing it for years now. And to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way.

We left the bar around 1:00. I was still hungry, since someone ate half my food, so we wandered around town looking for a mini-mart or something.

Let me tell you, Manchester, New Hampshire is not exactly a happening town, or at least not at half past one in the morning. But we did manage to find an open gas station/convenience store a few blocks away.

She let me buy junk food without spouting information about fat grams and sodium content. I could tell she wanted to but some how she managed to keep her comments to herself.

We walked back to the hotel, down the deserted, dimly lit streets. It was so nice, quiet and very relaxing. We were actually so relaxed that we ended up hand in hand. Not quite sure how that happened, don't know who made the first move. But that didn't matter; what mattered was that it was just us on the street. Not Joshua Lyman, Deputy Chief of Staff and his assistant, Donnatella Moss, but Josh and Donna, two people who are terrified to take the next step, two people who have built up these massive walls of denial for so long that we don't even know how to make our way over them.

When we got closer to the hotel she gave me hand one final squeeze and dropped it, just in case anyone was around. And that was the extent of our physical contact, aside from the usual occurrences of her smacking the back of my head for any number of reasons and me grabbing her arm when I'm trying to make a point and I'm not sure she's listening.

So now here I am, wired from too much sugar and caffeine, watching my beautiful assistant/best friend sleep on my bed. Having a number of thoughts, some totally inappropriate and others, downright sappy. She looks positively adorable. When we got back to the hotel she went to her room to change and she is now currently wearing a pair of red flannel pants with pictures of fried eggs, muffins and coffee cups on them. And a Harvard t-shirt that looks pretty familiar. I know I should wake her up and send her back to her room but I won't. I'll just cover her up and kiss her on the cheek before reluctantly climbing into the other bed. When what I really want to do is to curl up next to her and just hold her. To feel her hair against my cheek, to feel her arms wrap around me.

Oh yeah, now I'm getting sappy. That's been happening a lot lately too. Probably due to too much alcohol, sugar and caffeine in my delicate system. Speaking of which, Donna actually let me have two beers tonight and didn't make any comments about my delicate system. She's slipping.

Either that or she's just as tired as the rest of us and has been too busy looking after me to take the time to look after herself. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that statement is accurate.

Wow, almost 2:30. Have to be up in about 4 hours so I guess I should try and get some sleep.

Donna's stirring on the bed when I get out of the bathroom. I'll just sit next to her for a minute. You know, rub her back, settle her back down. All completely innocent.

Yeah, right.

"Joshua, you need sleep. You want me to go to my room?" she asks sleepily, without even opening her eyes.

"No, stay here."

"Kay" she mumbles into her pillow. And in a second she's fast asleep again.

I crawl into my own bed after giving her a kiss on the cheek. A few deep breaths and I can feel myself start to relax for the first time in days.

THE END

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