AN thanks for clicking I'm really excited about this story because it's inspired by the 36 Questions podcast musical please look it up it's fantastic. The story isn't based on that story- I just like the framework from it (ie two people who did the 36 questions when they first met and then doing it again to try to fix their relationship) I'm also excited about this story because it's a story I might actually be able to finish which like woah who woulda thought

THE SANTOS FOR A BRIGHTER AMERICA CAMPAIGN 2006

I am exhausted. But I can't sleep. I've been staring at the hotel room ceiling for too long. I'm getting antsy. So I make my way down to the Santos war room. My stomach bubbles up with anxiety and I curse myself for it. This is a job. It is an important job. I like this job. I am good at this job. I am an intelligent, strong thirty two year old woman and I'll be damned if I let my old schoolgirl crush on my previously former, now not so former boss control whether or not I go into that room.

Now if I could only make my hand turn the doorknob.

"I'll be right- oh hey, Donna." Bram opened the door suddenly, pulling me from her reverie. "What are you doing up so late? Thought you went to bed." Bram remarks kindly. I smile at him but it doesn't reach my eyes.

"Oh, ya know. Couldn't sleep." I offer. Bram nods and pats me on the shoulder. He walked off and I'm left with no choice but to enter.

There are only a few staffers up at this hour. Of course, Josh was here. Standing at a whiteboard, slightly hunched over, Josh has red bull in one hand and a marker in the other. He is pretending he doesn't notice my presence in the room. That's what he's been doing since Lou had forced us into a room together (and then promptly rushed us off) before the Al Smith Dinner. It's worse than it was in the primary. I want to talk to him about it but Josh being Josh is excellent at avoiding me. I ignore the resentment in my thoughts and forge ahead. I find Edie a little bit away from Josh.

"Hey, anything you guys want help with?" I offered. Edie at least looked glad to see me.

"No." Came Josh's voice to our right. Edie looked confused.

"Of course, there is, Josh. What are you-" Edie began.

"I'm here. Just let me help." I insist, words sliding through my filter. I turn to him and he avoids my eyes by staring at the whiteboard. We both want to ignore the layers of subtext in that for the moment. Right now I just want to be productive. To stop thinking about Josh, to not let myself worry about whether I was still trying to prove myself to him.

"You're communications. Do you see any reporters down here? You see Lou down here?" Josh quipped, capping the marker and picking up a file on the table Edie was standing at. I can't help rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, that's my title but I think I'm still capable of lending a hand where needed, Josh." I try to tamp down my temper.

"Yeah, Josh. Seriously- we could use her on-" Edie starts.

"Fine. I'll be in my room if anyone needs me." Josh states angrily then dropped the file on the table. He finally makes eye contact with me as he exits but it doesn't make me feel any better.

"Wow. Listen, I'm sure it's not personal- he's been uptight since I've got here… Did you really work with him for the whole Bartlet administration?" Edie asks as we watch the door swing close.

"Uh, yeah. And on the campaign before that."

"So what happened with you guys?" Edie asked. I shrug, half feeling like I don't even know the answer to that question. "Sorry- I don't mean to interrogate you with like 21 questions."

A light bulb sparks to life in my head.

"36 questions." I mutters under my breath. Edie looks at her blankly.

"Not following…"

"I, um, I have to go talk to Josh." I run out of the room. I head for the business center and find what I need to print.

Tonight Josh and I are going to hash this out. I'm tired of feeling anxious and bitter and worried for him. I thought quitting would mean I'd move on. But I haven't. Not yet. And tonight something was going to move and in what direction was entirely dependent on Josh and whether Arthur Aron was full of shit.

THE BARTLET FOR AMERICA CAMPAIGN 1998

We're a little bit drunk. Pizza and beer in the war room turned into boxed wine and music in CJ's room. Sam passed out about twenty minutes ago. Josh and I decided to head back to our rooms because I noticed Toby and CJ making eyes at each other. I made an excuse to leave, something about Josh waking me up tomorrow at an ungodly hour so that I can take care of him and his sensitive system.

We held on to each other to wobble down the stairs but we didn't let go once on solid ground. We're walking towards Josh's room. I'm not sure what our plan is as of right now.

"Donna?" Josh pipes up, sounding more sober than I thought he was.

"Yeah?"

"I'm really glad you came back." He stops and looks me in the eye. My heart stops. Is he going to kiss me? Is my boss going to kiss me? Not that I would mind. Okay, I would mind. But in the best possible way. Like oh my god please kiss me. He doesn't though.

"I am too." I whisper, hoping breaking the silence might spur him into action. I watch him gulp. He shakes his head a little and I know he's not going to kiss me now.

"Well let's keep the party going! You can't go back to your hotel alone this late anyways!" He plants a smile on his face and takes a step forward. It's like he snapped back into his jovial drunk state. It makes me wonder how much he wears his fool mask.

"Okay, what are we doing for this party?" I laugh to let the moment go.

"Hmm… talk?"

"Just talk? Man, they were right about you, Joshua. You are a party animal!"

"That's right! A democratic party animal!"

"You're a ridiculous man."

"I'm a beatific man, Donna!" He exclaims.

"Are you still trying to prove your 750 verbal?" Josh and Toby got into an argument about Josh's writing abilities earlier in the night.

"Donna!" He looks offended.

"Yes?"

"Seven! Six! Ty!"

"Ah, yes. How could I have forgotten."

"You did that on purpose."

"Oh, you know me so well." I joke, unable to tamp down the grin on my face. Josh stops again suddenly. His face scrunches into a serious expression, like he's trying to do particularly difficult differential equation.

"I don't though. Do I?" Josh says quietly.

"What?" This conversation feels like a tilt-a-whirl at the fair.

"I don't know you that well… We should."

"We should…?"

"We should get to know each other." He says as if this point is obvious. "Listen, I- we work together. Closely. And when we win the election, we'll be too busy to do try to get to know each other so we should take the time now!" I pause, trying to gage the right response. I do have an idea but I don't want to cross any lines.

"There is…" I trail off, feeling unsure.

"What?"

"Don't laugh." I pause again. He schools his expression to the picture of calm- well a Josh style calm. "Okay, there's this experiment I was reading about in The Times. Done by this guy named Arthur Aron. It's called the…" I pause again. I can see Josh is getting impatient with my evasiveness. I'm trying to decide on how much to tell him. A lot can be said about the title. If I go ahead and say that the questions are designed to make you fall in love, Josh will never agree to it and probably think I'm crazy for suggesting it. Josh's impatience wins out and he groans. "Okay. Sorry! You're going to laugh! It's called the Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness. Two people answer a series of 36 questions and it's designed to bring them closer together."

"That sounds perfect! The name is dorky but I wouldn't expect anything less from a guy named Arthur Aron."

"So you want to do it?"

"Yes! Now let's go! We can pull it up on my computer!" Josh pulls me along in his direction. I follow, giggling a little at his exuberance.

I don't know if I need thirty six questions to fall in love with Josh. It's possible it already happened.

THE SANTOS FOR A BRIGHTER AMERICA CAMPAIGN 2006

Paper in hand, I raise my fist to knock on his hotel room. I can hear some scuffling around inside then nothing. I knock again.

"I'm coming, Jesus Christ- there better have been-" And he stopped. His voice was coming from just behind the door. "Donna?" Obviously he had seen me through the eyehole in the door.

"Yeah…" I wait for him to open the door. He doesn't but I can hear begin pacing. "Josh?" There's a pregnant pause.

"What's up?" He finally opens the door, his tone is clipped but at least we're were looking at one another now. He notices the papers in my hand. "Is that the new Iowa stats?" He goes to reach for it but I sidestep him. I know I have to propose this carefully so he will play along. Josh narrow his eyes at me, suspicious.

"They're not the new Iowa stats." I answer. His expression doesn't change much. "Um, wanna invite me in?" I ask, trying to pretend just for a moment that things were normal.

"Why?"

"We need to talk."

"We tried that. Didn't go so well." Josh replied, referring to the conversation when Lou first hired me.

"I know. But we shouldn't give up that easily."

"That's ironic, Mary Ann Summers. But I really don't have time for this."

"Yes, you do. And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Donna, I'm the campaign manager. I'm busy, believe it or not! And it means! That you're one to talk about giving up!" Josh was getting louder. I either needed to leave or get him inside the room before any curious eyes and ears dropped in. I level my gaze at him and glare for a minute. Josh realizes how loud he must have gotten and looks up and down the hall, looking both relieved and disappointed no one was around to hear- or to interrupt.

"Five minutes. You give me five minutes. I gave you six and a half years, give me five minutes."

"Fine." Josh turns his back but holds the door open for my reaching behind himself. He contorts his body so that no part of me touches him. That's just fine for now. I want to keep a clear head.

His hotel room is a disaster zone. I hadn't expected anything else. I also didn't expect him to walk over the microwave and start it for five minutes.

"Time's started."

"Always the flare for the dramatics."

"You'd know- you were a thespian in college, right?" I rolled my eyes at his dig at my amalgamation of majors in college. "Clock's ticking."

"Okay…" I take a steadying breath. I start to pace but stop when I catch his wry expression. "I have a proposal."

"Four minutes aaaand twenty three seconds- no, twenty two-"

"I get it! Just give me. Just give me a minute." I want to strangle him. "Okay. We're currently stuck in limbo."

"... Wanna expand on that?" Josh was getting impatient.

"We are going to be working together. I know you don't like it. But I'm good at this. And I like this. And I believe in Santos-"

"Sure, now you do." He raised his voice.

"I always did. I just didn't want to be at your beck and call Josh!" I yell back. There is a pause where we're just eyeing each other up.

"Three minutes forty two-"

"STOP! Okay. What I'm saying is! I can't work like this. And you shouldn't want to either. And I can help this campaign. And like you said, you're the campaign manager and I know how important this is to you. So tonight, we're going to work this out."

"Listen, Donna…" He rubbed his hand down his face. "This'll be fine. We probably won't even be at most campaign events tog- and you report to Lou who reports to me-"

"Fine, Josh. I get it. You don't think it's necessary for us to interact but it's not just the campaign." I want to backpedal. That's a routine I know well. One of us says something too close to the truth, too personal and we sprint back into safety. But I quit and I won't do that routine anymore. I may just not have the stamina for it anymore. "And I don't have a solution for this. And I know it scares you to not have a gameplan. But you can't just avoid me without… coming to a decision."

"A decision?" Josh looks uneasy.

"After tonight, after you agree to my proposal and after we follow through… if you decide that's it, that's it and this is what it'll be. We can give up on fixing this." I gesture between the two of us.

"... That's a pretty vague ultimatum." Josh quips. I wait- I can see the gears turning in his head. "What's this proposal?"

"We are going to do the 36 questions." I laid it out. Josh takes his sweet sweet time looking at the floor.

"Think we can do that in two minutes you have left?" He tries to joke, gesturing at the microwave.

"The stipulations are only that we have to answer honestly. Without holding back. And nothing said in this room leaves it." I sprint through his hesitation. Josh finally looks up at me. I feel the worry and insecurity seep in. Maybe he'd just tell me no. That it was a stupid idea. That he was too busy. That he didn't care enough. That there really was nothing to fix.

Then he stands up and turns off the microwave timer. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding in.

"I'll play along. But I'm adding a stipulation. We can tap out anytime during the first two sets."

"... Not the third?"

"At the point, if we haven't murdered each other, well…" I try not to let this comment bother me too much. He's agreeing to my plan after all. It's not like I didn't expect his snark or his need for a safety net.

"Okay." I sit in the desk chair and turn around. "Are you… ready?" He gulps and for a second, I can see that he cares still, that he might not hate me and the ground I stand on.

"Yeah. I'm ready, Donna."