Title: A Man of my Word

Author: Jeanine ([email protected])

Rating: PG

Pairing: Josh/Donna

Spoilers: Everything up to Posse Comitatus to be safe.

Feedback: Makes my day

Disclaimer: If it was in the show, it's not mine.

Archive: At my site The Band Gazebo (helsinkibaby.topcities.com) Anywhere else please ask first.

Summary: Josh proves that he's a man of his word.

Author's Note: Especially for Beks, who wouldn't believe that I don't write Josh/Donna and made the video that gave me the bunny. This is all her fault!

***

My office door slams shut behind me, and I lean back in my chair, allowing a satisfied smile to spread across my face. A long forgotten phrase springs to mind, and I reach over, punching a button on the intercom. "Becki, bring me the finest muffins and bagels in the land please."

There's a moment's pause, then my secretary's voice, doubtful and not a little impatient. "Sir?"

I chuckle to myself, shaking my head. "Never mind. Could you tell my wife's office that I'm on my way over?"

"Sir, you have a meeting with -"

"And I'll be back in time for it," I promise, with a glance at my watch, the watch that keeps perfect time, the watch that does not, under any circumstances, suck. "This won't take long."

I don't intend waiting around for the answer, but I hear Becki's long suffering "Yes Sir," anyway, and I know that later on, she might make me pay for this. Hell, she's definitely going to make me pay for this. Not that I care of course, and I go on my merry way along the halls of the West Wing, my trusty shadows behind me. I nod at people as I walk, but I don't take too much notice, mind only on my destination.

For I have a promise to keep.

A proclamation to make.

Let it here and henceforth be known that I, Joshua Lyman, am, in fact, a man of my word.

Of course, that's something that's already pretty widely known about me. Seriously. Just ask the plurality of Americans who voted me President. They know that when I say I'm going to do something, when I really truly make up my mind about something, there is nothing that will stand in my way of getting it done.

I am resolute.

Steadfast.

Determined.

Immovable.

Adamant.

Unyielding.

Uncompromising.

Relentless.

A man of firm resolve.

760 verbal baby, and I still got it.

My point here, and I do have one, is that when I tell people that I'm going to get something done, I get it done. It's one of the reasons why my approval ratings are so high, one of the reasons why the American people re-elected me to the highest of offices. They knew that they could trust me.

Of course, when I point this fact out to Sam, CJ and Toby, they invariably mock and laugh at me; CJ occasionally rolling her eyes while uttering that old chestnut, "It helps not to know you!"

How many years has she been rolling that one out?

Sometimes it seems as if the only person who doesn't make fun of me when I say something like that is my wife. Which is odd, because she's usually the first person to smack me down if she disagrees with me. On this however, I like to think that it's because I've never let her down.

Of course, that might not be entirely true.

I've let her down plenty of times. The memory of a long night sitting on a cold park bench, counting drops of water falling into a fountain as she sat silently beside me comes immediately to mind, as does the memory of a faded brown leather book and one ill-thought out, ill-timed comment that rent us asunder for a good six months.

There were times that I put her down without meaning to, all the times that I sabotaged her dates, although there are times when I wonder if I didn't do that deliberately on some subconscious level. Then there are the other times when I know I deliberately did it, and it wasn't at all subconscious.

But that last just goes to prove my point. Because the times that I did intentionally sabotage her love life were the times when I'd come to the conclusion that Donnatella Moss was the only woman in the world for me, and I was damned if anybody else was going to swoop in and steal her away while she worked out that she felt the same way about me.

And before anybody starts talking about my huge ego and supreme arrogance, might I just point out that I did end up getting the girl?

I got the girl, and ever since then, I've been hell bent on making up for all the time that we lost when we were too blind to see what was right in front of us. (And if you think those are my words, you're wrong. Everyone from President Bartlet down to Billy the Chef told us at our wedding that they'd seen it coming from the start.)

I have cut down on my working hours, where possible. Of course, it helped that she's always worked right by my side. A true partnership we are, in work and in life.

I have always consulted her on matters of import, be it work or personal. Secrets have hurt us in the past; I don't want that to happen again.

Of course, there have been times when I haven't consulted her on something. But only because I want to surprise her.

Our honeymoon for example. From the moment I popped the question, from before it in fact, I knew where I was going to take her.

She'd been complaining for years that I never took her to Hawaii, so it seemed like the perfect destination.

I ran it by CJ, and she gave me two thumbs up, and even loaned me Carol to make all the arrangements, because she didn't trust me to do it myself. CJ helped me pick the hotel, Carol made the reservations and booked the flights, and I gave the tickets to Donna the afternoon of our wedding, only after she became too impatient to wait until we were leaving, and threatened to deprive me of my conjugal rights if I didn't tell her right then and there.

When she realised what she was looking at, she let out a shriek that had all the dogs in a two mile radius convening on the reception, and threw her arms around my neck, tears in her eyes. She was completely stunned.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a secret from Donna?

I think I deserve some kind of award for that.

Of course, I got the biggest reward that anyone could that day - I married her, didn't I?

I swore to myself that day, as we stood in front of all our friends and family, not to mention the nation's media, that I would never do anything to hurt her. That I would do my best to make all her dreams come true. I like to think that I've lived up to that; certainly if the smile in her eyes every time she looks at me is any indication, I've done that.

We have a wonderful life, a happy marriage, and, just like the couple we've sought to emulate, three beautiful daughters, all of whom, I'm happy to say, are the image of their mother.

We've come a long way from the harassed senior political director of the Bartlet for America campaign and the college dropout who walked into his office and hired herself. I became the White House Deputy Chief of Staff before going on to mastermind Sam's first Senate run, before deciding to enter the political arena myself. I never expected to run for President; always fancied that as Sam's role. But he didn't want that for himself and gave me his full endorsement instead. I tried to get him to be my Vice-President, but he turned that down too, telling me that he'd rather stay in the Senate where he was. I'm trying to get him to change his mind, to run so that he can take over when I eventually vacate the Oval Office, but so far, no dice.

Donna meanwhile, went from a college dropout to the assistant to the third most powerful man in the West Wing. The President knew her name, even traded inane trivia with her. Those eight years built up her self-esteem after years of it being knocked down by Doctor Freeride, and by the end of the administration, she was being headhunted by every Senator and Congressman in Washington. She turned them all down; went to Georgetown University to finish her degree, graduating near the top of her class.

And somewhere along the line, we ended up dating, which turned to marriage, and the happiest years of my life.

I said before that when I set my mind on something that I always see it through, that I always keep my promises. That's true. But it's also true that some of the best decisions I've made have come when I've followed my heart in a moment of spontaneity.

That's what convinced me to book train tickets to Nashua to hear Jed Bartlet speak, knowing that that was what sons did for old friends of their father's.

That's what convinced me, sitting in a dingy VFW hall, eating rubber chicken that I thought would give me listeria, to quit my job with Hoynes and join the Bartlet for America campaign.

That's what convinced me to hire a young blonde slip of a girl who turned up in my office one day and talked herself into a job.

That's what convinced me to ask her to join me at the Caps game when Sam couldn't make it, having been called back to California on urgent business. We had a great time that night, although I was quite shocked just how much about hockey Donna knew. We shared junk food, we yelled at the players, and when I drove her home, she invited me up to her apartment for coffee. I went, not thinking anything of it, because we'd done that a thousand times in the course of our working relationship. Except that night, we were standing in her kitchen, laughing over some story or other that she was telling me, and I remember looking at her and thinking that this was something I wanted to do every night for the rest of my life. Stand there with Donna and laugh over some stupid story. I don't know what came over me, why it happened then instead of some other night, but I leaned over and I kissed her. It was a quick kiss, but I swear I heard fireworks, and when I pulled away, she just looked shocked. I was almost afraid that she was going to haul off and slug me, but she just smiled that Donna smile of hers and pulled me back to her again.

We've been together ever since, but I like to tell her that we were together way before that. We just didn't know it at the time.

She's seen me through some of the worst times in my life - my father's death, Rosslyn, that Christmas, the MS announcement, my disastrous love life before her - but she's also been there for the best ones. The two nights that we got President Bartlet elected. Our wedding day. The birth of our children.

I bless the day that this incomparable woman wandered into my cubicle, because I can't imagine my life without her.

That thought leads me here, to the door of her office, and her assistant nods to me as I stride in, not giving her any greeting, save to place something on her desk in front of her, with all the pomp and ceremony I can muster without the National Guard. She frowns as she looks at me, then down at what I've placed in front of her. When she realises what it is, her hand goes up to her mouth, barely stifling her gasp, and she looks back up at me with tears shining in her eyes.

"Oh Josh…" is all she says, and I join my hands behind my back, shrugging my shoulders, not even trying to keep a pleased grin off my face.

"It's a little late," I tell her. "And you have to share the honour. But it was the soonest I could get it done."

She picks up the sheet of paper, studying closely the fruits of the special project I've had Charlie overseeing for the past few months. Hey, I had to do it when I was Deputy Chief of Staff, why shouldn't he? He's chosen well even if I do say so myself, and Donna finds herself looking at five small rectangular pictures.

Edith Wilson.

Eleanor Roosevelt.

Jacqueline Kennedy.

Abigail Bartlet.

Donnatella Lyman.

"I can't believe you remembered…" Her voice is very soft as she come around the table to stand in front of me, her gaze still on the paper.

"I remember everything Donnatella," I whisper, and she looks up at me then, placing the paper down on the table and stepping into the waiting circle of my arms. I'm reminded of that Christmas so many years ago, when I gave her a book and wrote an inscription inside it just for her, and she hugged me just like this in the middle of the bullpen.

"You put me on a stamp," she murmurs into my shoulder, not showing any signs of wrapping her head around this.

"I said I would," I remind her, and I did, a long time ago. And it might have taken me longer than I expected to get around to it, but I did it. After all, I'm a man of my word.