Chapter 15 --- Alternate Ending

Slowly coming into consciousness, she felt his hand lightly roaming her back, his fingers barely touching her. She smiled and turned her head a little, so she could kiss the chest she was laying on. "Morning," she said, looking up at his face.

He looked down at her and smiled. "I thought you'd sleep longer."

"What time is it?"

"Not quite 7," he said, leaning down and kissing her forehead, unable to reach her lips.

"We went to bed 9 hours ago."

"Well, yes. But then we… " he began waiving a hand between them. "And then we woke up a few hours later and… again."

She chuckled at his inability to use words. "Yes, and as I recall, both times were rather enjoyable."

"Extremely enjoyable," he said, pulling her up so they were face to face.

She kissed him full on the lips. "Amazingly enjoyable."

He rolled them so she was underneath him and attacked her neck, biting, licking, sucking on her. When he moved from her neck to her earlobe, she moaned and he laughed lightly. "Well, I am amazing."

She couldn't help laughing at his ego, which she found extremely sexy. Still, she had to keep him in line, so while he was busy with her ear and neck, she let her hands drift down to his butt, raking her fingernails over him lightly. He bit down on her ear and groaned, then pulled back and looked at her like she was pure evil. "I think the amazingness was a joint effort," she said, her eyebrows raised.

"I don't think 'amazingness' is a word," he said in an extremely low sexy voice and kissed her deeply. Their tongues danced together for several minutes as their hands fought to see who could make who moan or jump the most. Donna finally won when she bent her leg at the knee, bringing her thigh in contact with his erection.

Not to be outdone, Josh left Donna's lips and began kissing his way down her body. He spent several minutes on her breasts, one with his hand, the other with his mouth, learning exactly what it was that made her sigh, what it was that made her moan, and what it was that made her arch her back into him. And when he grazed the side of her breast with his fingertips, he even discovered what it was that made her giggle.

He traveled down further, to her bellybutton, which made her giggle more, making him laugh a little himself, and then to her hip bone, where he bit down lightly and her giggling stopped altogether as her moans grew louder. "Josh, as much as I like what you're thinking there, we don't have time for that."

He stopped his movements and looked up at her as if she had just announced that a republican had been elected president. "You tell me this now, after we've… started?" he asked in a very squeaky and she thought not very sexy voice at all. Still, the look in his eyes was of pure desire, which she thought more than made up for the voice.

"I just meant that we don't have time for…" now it was her turn to waive her hands between them, not wanting to say it. He smiled and started kissing the inside of her thigh, higher this time, which made it somewhat difficult to think. "That. We're on a tight schedule, we need to move to the…ahh…"

"Yes?" he asked, innocently, sucking on her skin.

"The main event," she panted out.

"But," he said, nipping at her leg. "This is fun."

Her head rolled back and she closed her eyes. "Very."

He laughed into her leg. "So, I say we make time."

She took several deep breaths before responding. "Yeah, I agree."

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

An hour later, they lay in bed, curled up together like there was no one else in the world, when Josh's cell phone rang. Looking at the caller id, he groaned. "Leo?" Donna asked.

"Yeah, senior staff." Leo told him he could stay with his mom for a while longer, but that starting today, he had to be working from Florida as much as possible, including senior staff by phone.

She kissed him on the nose. "I'm getting in the shower." The thought of Donna in the shower only made him groan again. When she got out from underneath the covers and walked naked into the hallway, he groaned one more time and finally answered the phone.

"Lyman."

"Josh, how's your mother doing?"

Startled by the President's voice, he jumped out of bed and grabbed his boxers. There was no way he was going to have a conversation with the President while he was naked after having sex with his assistant. "Good morning, Mr. President. She, umm, she started therapy yesterday, Sir."

"She's stable, then?"

"Yes Sir. Her doctor's confident that we can move her up there in a week or two."

"Is that going to be a permanent move?" asked Leo over the speakerphone.

"Yeah. Mom's having an MRI this morning followed by five hours of therapy, so Donna and I are using the time to do some packing and find a realtor to sell the condo. If things go as planned, Donna'll be flying back there tomorrow night. I'll probably be here most of the week."

"That's fine, Josh," said President Bartlett. "Now, what's going on with Matt Skinner and this new draft we're supposed to be getting today on the Highway Repair Bill?"

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When Josh got off the phone, he went downstairs, where he found Donna wrapping a picture frame in newspaper and placing it in a box. When he looked around the living room, he saw six other boxes, packed and labeled. "How long was I on the phone?" he asked.

"Long enough for me to call the hospital twice, shower, go to Wal-Mart, call the guy from Century 21 the therapist recommended, and start packing."

"Seriously?"

"Josh, haven't you ever noticed that senior staff meetings either last ten minutes or two hours, but nowhere in between?"

"No, not really." He said, generally surprised.

"Well, they do."

He started poking through the box she was packing and she swatted his hand. "What'd the guy from Century 21 say?"

"He'll be here at eleven. There's Grape Nuts in the kitchen."

"Donna!" he whined. "I hate Grape Nuts."

She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. "I know." He looked at her like a pitiful five year-old, and she started laughing and gave in. "There's Fruity Pebbles too," she said with a sigh.

"You do love me!" He kissed her on the mouth before walking into the kitchen.

"You can't stay in there all day, you have to help pack," she called after him.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The meeting with the realtor was brief and to the point. Josh explained the situation to the man and showed him his power of attorney, proving that he was indeed allowed to sell the condo. He and Donna already had all of Elizabeth's mortgage paperwork ready for him and told him that by the end of the week, the condo would be empty. Within a half hour, they'd set an asking price and had all the paperwork in progress. The realtor was a trusted friend of Elizabeth's physical therapist, and had dealt with situations like this numerous times before. He assured Josh that everything would be fine and was gone by 11:45.

Once he left, they concentrated their packing efforts on Elizabeth's personal items, such as books, pictures, and clothes. Deciding he simply didn't have the time or energy to sell the other things, Josh made a few phone calls and found a battered women's organization that helped women who had run from abuse situations find and furnish homes. Volunteers would be coming the next day to not only take the things Josh was donating to them, but to pack them up, which made for one less thing he and Donna had to worry about. He was donating his mom's Buick to the organization as well, but not until Elizabeth was transferred to DC.

Everything they kept fit into twelve boxes, which fit easily into Elizabeth's car. By 1:00, Josh was taking them to the UPS store to have them shipped to his townhouse. It seemed sad to him that his mother's life fit into twelve boxes, but as hard as it was to admit, he knew she wouldn't need the other things again.

When he got back to the condo, he walked immediately to Donna, who was standing in the entrance to the living room, and kissed her, tipping her back a bit and letting his hand wonder up the front of her shirt. Startled, it took her a minute to respond, and even then, she did so trying not to laugh. Finally, she hit him lightly on the shoulder and pulled away from him. She pointed over his shoulder at Betty and Russell, who were sitting on the couch smirking at him.

"Oh, hi," he said, embarrassed.

"Well, I see you are smart after all," said Betty. "I'd been wondering why we let you run the country."

"You gonna help me out here, Russell?" asked Josh with a smile as he walked up and gave Betty a hug.

"Leave the boy alone, Betty. I don't know what his reasons were for not marrying this piece of heaven the minute he met her, but I'm sure he had them."

"I'm not sure you're helping," Josh said, letting Betty go and shaking the man's hand.

"Sorry, Josh, but look at her. She's gorgeous." They both looked at Donna, who blushed. Then Russell looked at his wife. "Almost as beautiful as my bride," he whispered to Josh, smiling. Josh smiled back and motioned for them to sit down. Donna sat in the chair catty corner from couch and Josh sat on the armrest of the chair, his arm around her shoulders.

"Betty brought us some lasagna over," said Donna, lightly resting her hand on Josh's thigh.

Josh looked at Betty and gave her a huge dimpled smile. "I love lasagna!"

"I know," she said smiling back at him. "We were on our way to the hospital, but Donna said that Elizabeth will be in therapy until three."

"Yeah, five hours a day," he replied.

"Is it ok if we come by later this afternoon?" she asked him.

"Absolutely, I'm sure she'd love it. She… her short term memory is pretty shaky, just be prepared."

Russell nodded at him. "Donna says you're selling the condo, transferring her to DC when the doctors allow it."

"Yes Sir, I think that's best, at least for now."

The room got quiet for a minute. "Well," said Betty, cheerfully. "I'm sure she'll like it there once she's got a grandchild to hold." Donna's mouth dropped open and her hand flew up to cover it as her face turned ten shades of red. Josh just looked down and shook his head, smiling at how much this woman was like his mother.

"I whipped Donna at cribbage Friday night. She was begging for mercy," he said, changing the subject.

"Excuse me?" asked Donna, turning her head and looking at him like he was crazy.

"What? I won fair and square."

"I was begging for mercy?"

"That's the way I remember it."

She looked back to Betty. "He won by six after I beat him seven times in a row."

"Well…yes," he said. "But after that game, she begged to stop playing. She knew I had mastered the game and her winning streak was over."

Donna looked back at him, trying not to smile at his ego. "I was sick to death of playing and it was becoming hard not to beat you in the head with the cribbage board."

He leaned down and kissed her. "Sure, whatever."

She kissed him back and then looked at Betty. "Do you have any advice for me on this?" she asked, hooking her thumb at Josh.

Betty smiled. "Don't worry about it dear. He knows he can't live without you. That gives you all the power." Donna smiled back and nodded her head, she liked the idea of that.

"Now," said Russell. "What can we do to help? Packing, cooking, making phone calls?"

"No," said Josh. "You guys have already been great. I can't ask you to do anything else."

"You didn't ask, we offered. Now tell us, what do you need?" Betty said in a tone that dared him to back talk.

Josh looked at them both for a minute. "Well, Donna's going back to DC tomorrow night, and I'm probably going back by the end of the week. If you could… I don't know, maybe spend some time at the hospital with her once I'm gone. I'd feel better knowing she wasn't alone all the time."

"Consider it done. If we can't make it ourselves, we'll have someone there everyday after therapy," Russell said.

"Thank you, I appreciate it."

"She's a good friend, we're happy to help."

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The next night, he stood outside the security checkpoint, holding Donna's hand and kicking the overnight bag by his feet. "My plane boards in ten minutes. I need to go."

"How am I supposed to sleep at night without you here?" he asked, still looking down at the bag.

She smiled at him. "You're 42 years old. You've managed fine so far."

He shrugged. "It's different now," he said, still not looking at her.

She looked at him and her smile faded. "Yeah, it is," she whispered. "It's only for a few days, if all goes well."

"Yeah," he said, quietly, picking his chin up and looking at her shyly. "Can I come over when I fly in Thursday night?"

She couldn't help smiling at him again. "Of course."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Can we move all your things to my place this weekend?"

Her eyes shot up. "What?"

"Move in with me," he said, smiling so big his dimples were showing.

"Why?"

"So you can change the townhouse into something I barely recognize and re-stock the bathroom with your girly stuff. So there's not enough closet space left for my clothes and I'm forced to buy another dresser. So Sunday football will pretty much be out of my life for good and I'll only be allowed to stock light beer in the fridge…"

"Josh."

"What do you mean, why? So I can fall asleep holding you every night and wake-up holding you every morning. I want every part of you in my life and I want to share every part of my life with you. I love you, that's why."

She couldn't help smiling at him. "Well, that's a pretty good answer."

"So you'll move in with me?"

She nodded. "I will. But… we're going to talk to CJ first. And if she wants us to wait…" he started to object and she held up her hand. "If she wants us to wait a reasonable amount of time for PR reasons, we will."

He looked at her for a minute, looking for a flaw in her argument. He finally agreed. "Fine, but I have a say in what is regarded as a reasonable amount of time."

"Deal." She looked at him another minute. "I have to go."

"I know," he said, pulling her close and kissing her lightly, but lingering on her lips. When they broke apart, she picked up her bag and walked to the checkpoint. He watched as she went through the metal detector and picked her bag up on the other side. She was still only about ten feet from him. "Donna?" he called out all of a sudden.

She looked back over her shoulder at him. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

She hitched her bag up on her shoulder. "For what?"

He shrugged. "For being here. For helping with my mom. For loving me."

She smiled that thousand-watt smile that he adored. "See you in two days," she said, before turning around and walking down the corridor to her flight.

The End