Late Night (Josh & Donna, The West Wing)

[sevendeadlyfun]

Pairing: Josh & Donna

Rating: G

Summary: . When she stops to think about it, it's always late.

A/N: Written for comment_fic prompt What do you want to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night, baby - try to take over the world! for the 11/11 prompt topic of When You're Evil and inspired by my massive constant West Wing rewatch.




It's late. When she stops to think about it, it's always late. If it's not late here, it's late where the President is or is going or just was - it's always late somewhere. She can't remember what an early night feels like. Dinner dates and dentist appointments have to fit in between the cracks of time their hectic 24-hour roller coaster job doesn't fill up.

She tries to make the most of those heady ten minutes a day that actually belong to her.

She can hear Josh rustling in his leather seat - the scream is coming. Some days she makes him wait. Even when she knows its coming and what he'll want, she makes him wait. Their relationship is perverse enough without an "I Dream of Jeannie" syndrome creeping in.

But tonight she's tired and the sooner he makes the world safe for puppies and entitlement programs, the sooner she can go home. Maybe she'll do something wild and crazy, like check her personal email and leave the work ones until the morning.

"DONNA!" The shout echoes through the empty bullpen and she's moving, file in hand, before she even registers the sound.

That's probably not a good thing.

"Donna, do you have the -"

She hands him the file, and the sentence stops mid-stream. He smiles up at her, a full grin that lights up his face. She smiles back before she can stop herself, before she remembers that she's tired and it's one a.m. and she's been here five a.m. yesterday morning. His smiles are like that.

"Thanks." He turns back to the pile of papers in front of him. "We're done here, if you want to go home."

"Yes." The answer comes out a bit more emphatically than she meant it to.

As she turns to leave, she asks "Josh, what were you doing tonight? I mean, what were you doing tonight that meant I had to forgo food and drink and other normal things like going home on the same day I came to work?"

"The same thing we do every night, baby - trying to take over the world!" He answers enthusiastically.

There's an awkward silence. "Yeah, could we just pretend I didn't call you baby? I don't know what - it was just a -- thing?"

"Forgotten," she replies drily. "Seriously, Josh. What's going on?"

"Gearing up for the big Christmas shopping season," he tells her. "The Senate's been nice, the House has been naughty and we are stuck on whether separation of powers means they get separate gifts, or whether, as a unified lawmaking body, they only qualify for one joint gift. It's a quandry, Donna. Really, this was the big one. All hands on deck."

She stares at him and it just doesn't matter. "You know what? I don't care. I'm going home and I'm going to take a hot bath and have a big drink and just pretend I don't know you."

"Okay," he answers nonchalantly. "I've got a breakfast meeting at - "

"6 a.m., I know," she says flatly. "I've got the memo and it's in your briefcase."

"Night," he calls to her retreating back.

As she reaches the door, Josh's phone rings. Two sharp, short bursts of noise and she turns to glare at him. He shrugs helplessly.

"I gotta," he says, in answer to her unspoken demand. "Josh Lyman - what? Yeah. Yeah. No, I can - of course. Donna's here, so we'll just - yeah."

He continues to talk, holding a pen out towards her and gesturing frantically at the papers spread out on his desk.

"You're evil," she informs him. "Just...evil."