Donna had caught the waitress's eye and paid the check quickly, hustling Josh out the door without much preamble. He'd started to thank her for lunch, but she'd cut him off with a simple, "Let's go."

They'd run to the car in the rain, and she'd said she wanted to go back to his place. She stared out the window for most of the ride, silent. Occasionally he'd ask if she was okay and she would answer confidently in the affirmative, but would not elaborate. Had it not been for the fact that she'd asked to go to his apartment instead of her own, he would have grown concerned that she was pissed and giving him some sort of silent treatment.

She'd run up the steps in front of him at the brownstone, and said nothing as he unlocked the door. He'd given up trying to talk to her in the last few blocks of the drive, deciding that the best policy was to wait until he knew a little more about what he was dealing with before he accidentally dug himself into a hole.

He didn't have long to wait until he knew exactly what he was dealing with.

She walked in once he'd opened the door, and he'd gone in behind her, turning to close the door and lock it. The catch had no sooner clicked than she had him spinning, shoved him up against the door and kissed him like a woman possessed.

He'd made a sound akin to a surprised whimper when his shoulders hit the door with such force, then froze when she kissed him, needing a few moments for it to process. His keys had slipped from his hand and he'd finally reached up to cup her face as he began to return the kiss.

She opened her mouth, unable to get close enough to him, and he obliged her, but she kept firm control of the kiss. She was aggressive and greedy, fingers sliding confidently into his hair and pulling his face closer to hers possessively.

He wrapped his arms high around her back and reached up to touch her hair, but was reminded once he got there that it was still twisted up into the clip. He settled for brushing the back of his fingers along the exposed skin at the nape of her neck. The unexpected contact caused her to moan into the kiss, which caused him to laugh into the kiss in return.

"Oh, what?" she said exasperatedly, finally pulling half an inch away for air. "What could you possibly find amusing about this?"

"You," he said, kissing the top of her nose affectionately. "You're very cute."

"Cute?" she said, disbelieving. "That wasn't supposed to be cute." She pouted a little.

"But it is," he said. "I like knowing little things about you. I like knowing that you go to sleep on your left side. I like knowing that you enjoy having the back of your neck touched," he brushed his fingers across the spot again lightly and she closed her eyes. "I like knowing that when you kiss me, you put your fingers in my hair." He kissed her gently. "Hell, Donna, I just like knowing that you kiss me at all."

She smiled brightly at him and kissed him again, sweetly but firmly. "I like that you know those things," she said. "But, eventually, you're going to be expected to know more."

"I'm a fast learner," he nodded enthusiastically. "Graduate of Harvard, as a matter of fact. I used to have this really comfortable sweatshirt from there, but something happened to it and—"

"Shut up," she mumbled against his lips. She gradually increased the pressure of the kiss until the back of his head unexpectedly met the door. "And for the record, when I kiss you, I like putting my fingers all sorts of places, so don't get too attached to the hair thing." She ran her hands inside his coat and along his ribs, holding onto his sides and pulling him tighter against her.

Josh smiled but couldn't keep quiet. "What...the hell...has gotten into you?" He asked between kisses.

"That thing, back at the diner, with 'Oh, Donna,'" she said into his ear, "That was the smartest thing you ever did."

"Seriously?" he pulled back in surprise, at least as much as he could pull back considering she had him pinned against his front door. "Because I played you a song?"

"Because of the thought that went into it," she said as she kissed his neck, smiling at the little shudder it caused. "Don't make me explain it. That would take away from the perfect memory I have of it."

Josh nodded, eyes closed, as she continued to work her way down his neck. "No problem," he said hoarsely.

She stopped when her progress became hampered by his coat collar. Without taking her attention off his neck, she reached up and began to peel the coat off his shoulders.

A throaty chuckle interrupted her. She was more annoyed than she wanted to be. "May I help you?" Donna offered.

"Help me do what, strip?" he asked teasingly. "What is this, you buy me dinner and now you expect me to put out?" He kissed her lips softly. "I thought you were different, but it turns out you're just like all the other men out there," he whispered with a smile.

Her annoyance was banished both by his good humor, and by the fact he'd been smart enough not to say "other women." She placed her hands on both sides of his head and kissed him sweetly. "Josh, armed with that statement, there are people whose imaginations would run wild. Not to mention Sam would be able to get you back for every mean thing you've ever said or done to him."

"I'm not mean," he said softly, kissing her neck with a feather-light touch. "He makes himself a target."

"He's a sensitive soul, Josh, and he tries to play if off, but when the two of you gang up on him—"

"Don," he whispered, nuzzling her ear with his nose. "I need us to not talk about Sam when we're doing this." His tongue darted out tentatively toward her earlobe and she moaned.

"'Kay, we're done talking about it for now," she said, pushing at the coat again. "Take this off."

He straightened his arms long enough for her to push the coat off and drop it blindly on the floor beside them. She brought her hands back up to his torso, but he caught them, pulling them gently to her sides and pushing her own coat off her shoulders just as she had done his, all the while never breaking the deep kiss they were engaged in.

Their hands and arms began roaming each other's backs and shoulders, and Josh slowly backed Donna further into the room, away from the draft by the door. She started back on his neck in earnest, kissing her way down to the tip of his shoulder, just visible above the crewneck of his black sweater. She nuzzled her face into the material over his collarbone. "Thank God you finally started wearing shirts that fit."

He laughed into her hair. "What?"

"Here recently, you've finally started wearing casual clothes that fit," she mumbled into the sweater. "You used to wear sweaters and shirts that were a couple sizes too big for you. You're wearing things more fitted now." She ran her hands up his sides and pulled on the close seams of the sweater to make her point. "Looks much better."

Josh furrowed his brow a little. "Better for who?"

"Better for me," she mumbled, kissing her way across his collarbone until she reached bare skin again, just below his Adam's apple. "I don't like it when you hide under bulky layers."

She was almost whining about it, which he found adorable, and for some reason, incredibly sexy. "Why don't you like it when I hide under bulky layers?" he asked, hoping she'd continue the whining.

"Because," she said, kissing her way slowly up the other side of his neck, "for reasons passing understanding, you are incredibly in shape. I mean, you never work out, you eat like a teenager whose parents are on vacation, but you've still got abs that look like...like...I don't even know what." She pulled her fingernails lightly across his ribs and felt him smile against her cheek. "And despite the fact that you never do manual labor of any kind, which includes carrying your own luggage, you've got these cut arms," she ran her hands up to his biceps and tightened her grip on them gently. "And I don't like it when you hide those things. I get a better view this way."

Josh laughed, which interrupted the trail of kisses he was planting along her jaw line. "Then how do I know you don't just want me for my body?" he teased.

"Because I appreciate you," she whispered in his ear. He gave her a dimpled smile and kissed her soundly for that. "And your body," she amended when he'd pulled back. He laughed and she decided to indulge herself. She leaned up and kissed one of those adorable dimples, and was very pleased when she felt it deepen.

"And you women say men are the pigs," he said, wrapping his arms tightly around her back and pulling her against him. "And here you deliver this big soliloquy about how unbelievably hot I am," Donna rolled her eyes. She was gonna regret letting that slip. "And it's been you who has taken Rule Number One and thrown it out the proverbial window today. If you ask me, women are every bit as bad as men."

She pulled back. "FIRST of all, I believe you were a full and willing participant into what was...admittedly...a little bending of Rule Number One. As a matter of fact, if you wanna get right down to it, you were the instigator of said rule-bending!"

"HOW WAS I THE INSTIGATOR?!?" he whined loudly.

"With your song, and your little sheepish smile and how sweet you can be when you try," she said, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You were the instigator. You instigated rule-bending. A level of deception I would expect from a Washington politician."

"No, no, no, no, no, you're not gonna turn this on me," he said, smile belying his tone. "Just because you are WEAK and you can't keep yourself away from my hot body—DON'T try to deny it, you just admitted it!—doesn't mean you can set me up as the scapegoat here. Own up, Donna."

"YOU were the instigator," Donna said, face still flushed from all the kissing. "And I never said anything about you being unbelievably hot. I simply gave you a few wardrobe tips and said that you used to wear your shirts too big."

"That is SO not what you said."

"Are you denying you wore your shirts too big? Are you embarrassed that you would've been a candidate for 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'?"

"I never wore my shirts too big," Josh said putting his hands on his hips. Well, that worked. It got him off the hot body train of thought. "I know how to buy clothes for myself, Donna. I wear them like I like them."

"Which, up until recently, was too big," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Really?" he said, eyes growing wide, eyebrows shooting up. Uh oh. That was not a good tone. "Let's take a close look at the evidence, shall we?"

Before Donna could react, he scooped her up over one shoulder, turning her upside down in the process. She squealed in surprise and held tightly to the back of his sweater, scared of flipping all the way over him and landing on her head. But he held tightly to her legs, turning and striding into the bedroom, setting her right side up again in front of the closet.

He threw the door open and turned the closet light on. "Show me."

She blinked, waiting for the blood that had rushed to her head to leave it. "Excuse me?"

"Show me these crimes against fashion I have apparently committed," he said, a little leer on his face.

She turned and looked into the tiny room, filled with all things Josh. Hmm. She'd never thought about this before. An entire wardrobe and her very own Josh doll at her disposal. She could have some fun with this at a later date. But for now, she'd been issued a challenge. She stepped into the closet and ran her fingers along the sleeves of the hanging shirts at the elbow. She recognized them all, and found she could remember a time when he'd worn most of them...was there something not quite normal about that? She shook her head. This was not the time to analyze her own mind. This was a moment to meet a challenge.

She stopped at a brown sweater with black and white stripes on the polo collar. He'd had it several years. She pulled the hanger off the rod and turned to him.

"What's wrong with that one?"

"Nothing's wrong with it except the size," she said. She held the shirt against him to demonstrate. "The shoulder seams come halfway to your elbow, Josh. See? And the side seams..." she pulled the sweater around him, "are only about 4 inches short of meeting in the back. It's a perfectly nice sweater, but it's for someone about 40 pounds heavier and 6 inches taller than you."

"Ahkay, first of all..." Donna could see him trying to organize his rebuttal. Damn, she was good. "First of all, I think that's a load of hooey."

"Hooey???"

"It's a word," he said. "Second of all, I bought that several years ago, and I was a little heavier when I bought it."

"Okay, so when you bought it, it was only two sizes too big for you instead of three," she pinched his side playfully.

"Third," he said, taking her arms out from around him, men's fashions were different then. People wore things baggy. Pick another example."

"No! I picked one, I don't have to—"

"Pick another example. I do not acknowledge the validity of this example." He was fighting a grin. She could tell.

She hung the brown sweater back in its place. She looked for another moment and reached for an oatmeal-colored crewneck.

"A birthday gift from my mother. Buying them big is her way of telling me she thinks I'm too thin. What else you got?" He leaned against the door frame and folded his arms across his chest.

She continued to search, her eyes dancing across a navy crewneck he'd worn years ago, on a night when they'd talked about anniversaries and accidents and who left who and what each of them would do if the other was in trouble. She ran a finger down the sleeve but skipped over it. Oversized or not, she loved that one.

She found the hooded Wesleyan sweatshirt and knew she'd won. It was huge on him. She looked at him sideways and pulled the hanger out wordlessly.

He smirked at her. "You're gonna be the one to talk to me about oversized sweatshirts that you sleep in? Really? At least that one isn't stolen, which is more than I can say for you, you deviant."

She slammed the sweatshirt back on the rod, trying to cover her laughter with mock disgust. She hit the light and stomped out of the closet. "Oh, bite me, Josh!"

An impish grin crossed his features and he rushed her, arms encircling her. "Yes, ma'am."

Before she could even begin to squirm, his teeth were grazing her neck, nipping just enough to make her go weak in the knees. Literally. They buckled momentarily as she let a low moan escape her lips. He held her up without missing a beat. "Whoa, where ya going?" he said into her neck. "Don't be a poor loser, Donnatella."

The feel of his lips and breath against her skin spirited away any argument she might have tried to make and replaced it with a whimper. She brought her hands up and clutched at his back.

He laughed softly once again. "Weak, weak, weak," he whispered. "A weak breaker of rules."

"Bender of rules," she said breathlessly.

He nodded, moving his attention back up her neck toward her jaw line again. "Bender of rules, who lives her life a slave to her lust for me, the hottest man she has ever known."

She shoved him playfully away from her at that point, toward the bed, but he held onto her, pulling her down on top of him. She kissed him as they lay sideways across his bed, the room lit by only the light coming in the windows from the gray day outside. A subdued clap of thunder punctuated the kiss, and he rolled them onto her back. She let out a tiny moan of disappointment...she'd been enjoying the feel of his heart beating beneath her. But her disappointment faded away quickly when he used the position for better leverage and kissed her passionately, one hand on the back of her head, the other trailing down her arm, then her side, then over her hip and to her upper leg. She arched into him and grinned when that finally elicited a moan from him.

He let go of her head and it tilted awkwardly on the mattress because of the hair clip. They both chortled softly and it took him a moment, but he figured out how to release the spring-operated clip and ran his hands through her hair, planting an open-mouthed kiss on the left side of her neck, sending chills down her spine. He pulled back momentarily. She was just about to ask what was wrong when she felt his fingertips lightly brush over the healing wound on her shoulder. She snuck a look at his face, which was filled with emotion.

"Josh?"

"Part of me keeps expecting it to be a dream," he said, voice so soft it was almost a whisper. "Every time I've woken up since that night, I keep expecting to find that this has all just been a dream, and you're not OK, and none of the last week has happened. That's it's all been some…I don't know, some delusion I cooked up because I couldn't handle the harsher reality."

"It's real," she said softly.

"How do you know?" he said with a rueful little grin.

"If this weren't real, whether it's my fantasy or yours, and believe me, I've had those thoughts, too...I think we both would have made the last week a hell of a lot easier on me," she said, trailing a finger down his cheek and into one of his dimples, which became even more pronounced when she did so.

"Yeah."

"Yeah. And at the moment, the delusions are my forte, so don't you go off on a nutty, too," she said softly.

He bent down and kissed her shoulder wound gently, chastely, reverently. "You're doing fine, Donna. You're doing so well," he said between kisses. "You're stronger than you give yourself credit for."

"You take care of me," she said sweetly, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.

"I like taking care of you," he mumbled against her shoulder.

She nodded. "So can you just take good care of me instead of putting yourself through the guilt trip over this?"

He pulled back up and looked at her. "What guilt trip?"

"The patented Joshua Lyman Guilt Trip, the one you have every time something bad happens to someone you're close to," she said. "I've seen it flare up a couple of times this week, but I've kinda been… dealing with some things."

He stared at her, trying to formulate a believable denial.

"We're not gonna go into all the other stuff right now. We're not gonna get into your dad, or Joanie, or Rosslyn or Zoey, or any of the other things you wind yourself into knots over. But we do need to talk about the bank, Josh." He averted his eyes to the comforter beside her and she reached up and tilted his chin back toward her. "We said we were gonna talk. We need to talk about me and the bank."

He swallowed hard. "What do you want me to say, Donna? Because I'm still not sure what to say about it."

"I don't want you to say anything. Sorry, I should have said I need to talk to you about the bank." She pulled him a little closer to her. "I am gonna say this just one time, so I want you to pay very close attention. Are you listening?" He nodded silently and she took a deep breath. "What happened to me at the bank Friday didn't happen because I work for you and you work for the President. It didn't happen because you sent me there, and even if you had, it wouldn't have been your fault. It didn't happen because fate is out to get you by hurting the people you're close to, or because you somehow bring bad fortune upon everyone you touch. I walked into a bank robbery. In a million years, I could never…the confluence of events that had to come together in just the right way to…I was at Karim's very early for dinner, he couldn't take my credit card because his modem was down, I didn't have cash, and the walk-up ATM didn't work. The number of things that had to happen to put me in that bank lobby on that day at that moment…it's mind-blowing. I couldn't have planned it that way if I'd tried, and Lord knows I wouldn't have wanted to. It was just…it was bad luck. It was dumb, stupid, terrible luck, Josh. That's all it was."

He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. "I don't know if there's some rhyme or reason to it. I don't know if it was meant to teach a valuable lesson or if everything in life really is coincidence. I'm not that philosophical. What I know is that you're my good luck charm. I want you to stop thinking otherwise. Understand?"

His face softened, warmth radiating from his eyes. But Donna would not be swayed. "Josh?"

He kissed her lightly on the lips. "I understand," he whispered, before going back to nuzzling her neck. She was so relaxed she could have almost drifted off, until he started speaking again. "I think there was a lesson to be learned," he said against her shoulder. "For me anyway."

"What was that?"

"To stop taking you for granted," he said as he kissed her collarbone. "To appreciate you more."

She smiled. "'Kay, but for the record, I could have just told you that years ago."

He laughed against her skin and started kissing his way along the v- neck of her sweater very slowly, alternating between gentle nips and passionate kisses so that she didn't know what to expect next. "That may be the one and only time you didn't make my life easier," he said, a lilt in his voice.

"Yeah," she said, voice a little uneven as he worked his way lower. She ran her fingers through his hair again. "Joshua," she whispered.

"I love it when you call me Joshua," he mumbled, never letting up on his task.

She smiled, but knew their little festival of rule-bending needed to come to an end. "Joshua," she said again, more insistently. He caught her by surprise when he sucked her skin between his teeth at that moment, and his name came out sounding like a moan, or a prayer.

"Yeeees?" he drawled, cocky grin on his face.

"You know," she said, biting her lip.

"I really don't," he said, dropping a feather-light kiss on her sternum just above the lowest point of the v-neck.

She gasped and grabbed his head by the ears, bringing him eye-to-eye with her. "Talking. Discussion. Table."

"Well, look who's suddenly the very picture of self-control," he smirked. "Where the hell has the table been for the last 20 minutes, Donna?"

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Out for repairs. We took a little recess from the table."

"And the rules," he said.

"But class is back in session now," she said, pushing him away reluctantly. "Now we discuss."

He stayed below her, folding his forearms across her stomach and propping his chin on the back of his hands. "Ahkay. Discuss away."

She smiled down at him, and her fingers began to wander through the hair on the side of his head all on their own. "I already went. You go."

"I thought you had things you wanted to talk about," he said, fingers absently tracing patterns on her stomach.

"I do, but so do you. I just did a thing, now it's your turn," she said, doing her best to ignore the tracing.

He moved his chin down to her hipbone to free his hands and give him more space. "Hmm," he said thoughtfully, eyes fixed on the material of her sweater as his fingers ran across it. "I don't know. There's so MUCH on my mind after all. I don't really know where to start."

"Just pick something, Josh," she said, voice tight.

He grinned. "I can really only think about one thing."

"Go ahead." Her eyes were now fixed on the ceiling. She refused to look at him, hoping that would make ignoring him easier.

"This is the softest sweater I've ever felt in my life," he said, dimples out in full force.

Donna groaned.

"Seriously," he said, placing his hands on her sides and nudging the hem of the sweater up with his nose, dropping a little kiss on her stomach. "It's so soft it's like it's not even there. It's like you're almost touching something, but not quite." Another little kiss, a little further up this time, and her breath hitched.

"It's…cashmere," she said. The tightness had returned to her voice with a newfound vengeance.

He lifted his head, brow furrowed. "Is that what the little scarf thing was?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "That was a pashmina."

"Pashmina. Right," he said, lowering his mouth for another kiss. "I like cashmere."

"Everybody likes cashmere," she said, smiling ear to ear as he picked back up on his tracing pattern with little flicks of his tongue. "They make things in cashmere for men, too."

"Well, if that's true, I'm sure Sam owns the entire collection."

She tugged gently on his hair, just hard enough to let him know she meant business. "I'll lay off him," he said.

"You should lay off everything else, too," she said firmly. "And pick a topic."

"I did," he mumbled.

"A real topic, Josh."

He smiled. "I'm afraid that's the only topic I can think about at the moment. You come up with one. But it had better be a good one, because I don't know if anything can draw my attention from the wonder that is cashmere."

She closed her eyes momentarily, but forced them open again. How the hell could anyone make her stomach feel like the most sexual part of her body? "Well…there are any of a number of topics…"

"Yes," he mumbled against her skin.

"All of which deserve discussing…"

"Yes."

"Not all of which will necessarily be enjoyable…"

"True."

Donna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to get his head back in the game, and if this was gonna scare him off, well, she'd rather do it sooner than later.

"Our jobs." He lifted his head abruptly and looked her straight in the eyes. "If we decided to do this, what would it mean for our jobs?"

He heaved a heavy sigh and kissed the tip of her nose before rolling to the side, lying shoulder to shoulder with her.

"Still distracted?" she asked wryly.

"No," he said, an air of defeat in his tone.

"OK. What would they do? Leo, the President. What would they do if we said we were…what would happen?"

Josh stared at the ceiling for a moment, as if the answer were written on it in very small print, and if he just looked hard enough he'd be able to make it out.

He sighed. "I don't know. Leo's not always that…predictable. It depends on his mood."

"But what do you think?"

He shook his head. "It all just depends on what's going on at the time. How they find out, and I think to some degree what the President's numbers are doing at the time. All of that will color his state of mind, and factor into his reaction. We don't have a lot of control over the situation, unfortunately."

Donna thought for a minute. "Worst-case scenario?"

"They fire both of us," Josh said without hesitation. "But I don't see them doing that unless we were just totally reckless."

Donna nodded. "Next worse?"

Josh put his hands behind his head. "They ask me to resign."

"Why just you?"

"They're not going to ask the subordinate employee to resign. You'd be reassigned or work for the new guy in my position. If public reaction, or hell, even just their personal reaction is bad enough, my resignation would both serve to make me an example and contain the damage at the same time," he said.

"I can't believe they'd be that vicious."

"Leo and the President? Or the public?"

"Good point."

"Leo would pull some strings, set me up in the private sector," Josh said almost thoughtfully.

"You like public service," Donna said firmly. "And you've worked very hard to build a reputation in Washington—"

He rolled his head to the side. "I like you, too. And your reputation is also on the line, maybe even more than mine, but we'll get to that later. My point is, it wouldn't be the end of the world."

Donna was flabbergasted to hear that. "Seriously?"

"I'm not saying I'd go skipping through the halls afterward, but yeah."

Donna rolled on her side to look at him. "Next worse?"

"They'd transfer you. I mean, for sure they'd transfer you. That's the least that would happen. We can't just announce to the world that we're dating and then go back to…you know, 'Donna, place this call for me.' They'd probably move you to communications. The dividing line between that and operations is pretty clear. Maybe even the East Wing."

"First Lady?" Donna mused.

"She likes you, and she wouldn't want to see it taken out on you," Josh said, staring at the ceiling again. "She'd probably offer you something even better than what you've got now."

She looped her arm around his. "I like what I've got now."

"Me too," Josh said. "But if we go public, that can't stay the same, Donna. I mean, after the administration, it would be different, but… things couldn't stay the way they are now."

Donna nodded sadly.

Josh rolled onto his side facing her, propping his head up on his hand. "Well, it's something to keep in mind anyway."

"Yeah," Donna said, clearly lost in thought.

"Ahkay," he said, rubbing at his face, the way he always did when he was nervous. "I've got one."

Donna smiled and rolled onto her back again, looking up at him. "Okay."

He reached over and laid his hand over both of hers, where they lay folded across her stomach. "We've already talked about it a little bit. And I don't want you to feel like I'm putting you on the spot…"

Donna lifted her top hand and laced her fingers with his.

He breathed out heavily, and settled in a little closer to her. "How're you doing? Feeling, I mean."

She stared at the ceiling, contorting her mouth as she tried to find the right words. "I don't know. Better, I guess. Stronger. More sane. I mean, God, those first few days felt like weeks. Months, even. And I seriously thought…I don't know what I thought. That I'd snapped, maybe. That the experience must have been more than my psyche could take."

She shook her head back and forth slowly at the ceiling. "It was almost like I was afraid in retrospect. When I saw how he was with Patti…you remember Patti, from the cemetery?" Josh nodded. "She was just…she was really emotional, you know, during. In some respects I think he was harder on her because of it. I wanted to try and stay as calm as I could, so I didn't attract their attention. It didn't always work, and I know, it turns out I got their attention anyway. But then for some reason it was like afterward…it just all backed up on me. I mean, it was over, it is over. But it was like the fear just wouldn't let up. You know?"

"Yeah," he said softly, voice filled with understanding. "I do."

She squeezed his hand but continued her self analysis. "I don't…I mean, I don't enjoy it by any means, but I don't think I'm afraid of what happened that night anymore."

Josh nodded, but sensed more was coming.

"It's what might happen that scares the living hell out of me."

"What is it that—"

"Josh, if you'd seen him in action…seen his face, heard his voice. It wasn't like he was some guy forced into this by a lifetime of hardship and an education in the school of hard knocks. I mean, maybe he was, what do I know? But there wasn't…I never saw an ounce of regret, an ounce of restraint, a moment's hesitation. It was…he was enjoying himself. He was almost…entertained by the whole thing." She shuddered and Josh pulled her a little closer. "The thought of somebody with that kind of…that kind of evil inside of them being free to roam the streets is just…he's got to be convicted, Josh. Not only because Fred and his family deserve it, but because it would be dangerous not to. They've gotta make these charges stick. If they don't, if he gets out of it on some technicality…God, I can't even handle the idea of him getting parole right now!"

Josh tilted forward and kissed her forehead lightly. "This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he threatened to come after you?" he asked softly.

"Of course it does, but it's more than that. It's…the idea that he might do this to some other group of people, the idea that we'd even take that chance…I believe in rehabilitation, I do. But this guy wasn't…normal. His brain wasn't entirely in touch with reality, I don't think. And I don't want anybody to have to go through what we went through, is all," she said, turning into his chest a little.

Josh wrapped his arm tighter around her. "He'll be convicted, Donna. They'll make it stick."

"Okay," she whispered, and Josh could hear the tears in her voice. "I just wish they'd hurry the hell up, `cause my stress level's like, through the roof over here."

They both laughed quietly. "The sessions with Stanley help?"

She pulled back a little to look at him. "The sessions with Stanley are the most exhausting, backbreaking, heart wrenching…I don't know what I want to do more, kick his ass or give him a hug. I don't know how he does…whatever it is he does, but somehow…he's good. Good doesn't do it justice, actually."

"Yeah, no kidding," Josh said, rolling onto his back and tucking both hands behind his head. "Sometimes I think if I'd just talked to him in the beginning…well, I wonder if I'd have any lingering problems at all."

She looked at him for a moment. "You do all right for yourself."

He smiled lopsidedly. "Sometimes."

She took a deep breath. "And you don't feel like you're getting a handful by getting into this with me?"

"Oh, I know I'm getting a handful," he nodded enthusiastically. "That little demonstration by the door not withstanding."

She pinched his arm gently. "Seriously."

"Because of this?" he asked incredulously.

She nodded.

He shook his head. "No. I think you're gonna be fine. I think you'll surprise yourself with just how fine you'll be. And even if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't care. Because I…you know, I appreciate you, and all that. I'm not gonna ask you for perfection. Who the hell wants to know somebody like that? It just makes things boring."

She leaned forward and kissed him gently, then settled her head on his chest, listening to his heart. That was quickly becoming one of her favorite things to do. It was comforting, and reassuring, on an almost primal level.

"But I think you should talk to Stanley Monday about this obsession you seem to have with me, physically," Josh said.

"You never know when to quit, do you?"

"No."

A comfortable silence began to stretch between them.

"Donna?"

"Hmm?"

"You don't feel like you're gonna have your hands full? With me, I mean."

She smiled and hugged him tightly, never taking her head off his chest. "Only in the best ways, Josh."

*******************

A particularly loud clap of thunder caused her to stir a little, but she settled back down quickly, lulled back toward slumber by the gentle hand stroking her hair. She floated just below consciousness, slowly becoming aware of the sounds around her again. The pounding rain. The soft whoosh of warm air as it came through the vents. Josh's heart beating beneath her head. It was the identification of that last sound that finally caused her to open her eyes.

She tilted her head up and found him staring up at the ceiling, absentmindedly running his fingers through her hair. "Hi."

He looked down and gave her a dimpled grin. "Hey."

She swiped at one of her eyes with the back of her hand. "I guess we fell asleep."

He smirked a little, but it was different from his usual smirk. Softer. Kinder. Gentler. "I guess so."

She looked at him a little closer now. He looked wide awake. And he'd been running his fingers across her hair when she woke up. "How long have you been up?"

"A little while, I guess."

She cocked at her head at him. "Did you even go to sleep, Josh?"

He grinned, looking almost embarrassed. God, that was cute. "I think I drifted off for a few minutes, yeah."

"So it was a little more me than we on the falling asleep."

He kissed her forehead tenderly. "A little."

"Sorry," she mumbled into his sweater.

"I don't recall saying I was upset about it."

She smiled and squinted at the clock on his nightstand. "How long was I..."

He looked at his watch. "Just over two hours."

She startled and grabbed his wrist, looking at the watch herself for confirmation. She groaned. "I can't believe I slept that long."

"You probably needed it," he said, never allowing his hand to grow still in her hair. "So as long as you were sleeping peacefully I was perfectly happy to let you."

She looked at him. "What have you been doing all this time?"

Josh looked up at the ceiling again. "Pondering the meaning of life, Donna. I almost had it, too. But then you woke up and interrupted my train of thought."

She laughed. "And now the world will never know." She stretched gently. "Seriously."

"Just thinking," he said.

"About?"

"Stuff. You know, table stuff."

"Yeah?" She twisted so she could see him better. "Stuff that's ready for discussion?"

"Well, you just woke up, Donna, I hate to put you back to sleep."

She leaned forward and kissed him gently. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Were we talking about something important?"

He smiled at her a little, then shook his head. "No," he said in an amused whisper. "We'd just finished up."

She thought for a second. "Only in the best ways," she repeated.

"Glad to see you remember."

"It's important stuff," she said, leaning forward and kissing him again. "I'm not gonna forget, even if the flesh is so weak it feels it needs to stop us mid-conversation for naptime."

"You were out like a light," he laughed. "I was tempted to check and see if you'd been hit by some kind of a tranquilizer dart."

She rolled away from him sheepishly. "I don't wanna get up," she drawled sleepily.

He rolled on his side and wrapped his arms around her from behind. "Don't."

"We have to get ready for Sam's thing soon," she said, regretfully.

"What's there to get ready for?" he said, fishing for something that was jabbing him in the side. "You show up, you eat, you drink, you make fun of Sam, you leave as quickly as possible so you can, you know, discuss things and bend Rule Number One some more."

She sat up and folded her legs beneath her, reaching forward to tug on the leg of his pants. "You don't go to Galileo in jeans."

"I'll bet you 500 dollars that if I show up in jeans, no one's going to say a word." He finally pulled the hair clip out from under him and looked at it closely.

"They'd be thinking it," Donna said pointedly, tilting her head back and trying to untangle her hair.

"This thing is bizarre," Josh said, pressing on the handles of the clip, causing it to open and close. "It looks like a big set of teeth." He turned it toward Donna and opened and closed the teeth a few times. "How in the world does this have a practical application?"

"Like this." Donna twisted her hair up and extended her hand for the clip. Josh gave it to her dutifully and she snapped it into her hair and let go. Her hair fell into the original up do from that morning. She held her hands out in sort of a "ta-dah" gesture.

"Yeah, it goes right back to what I was saying. Women are weird."

She pinched his side before leaning over to kiss him. "This weird woman has to go back to her apartment and get ready."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her down on top of him. "Wear the cashmere tonight. I like the cashmere."

"You're easily fascinated, you know that?"

He shook his head. "Not so easily. You should be very impressed with yourself." He reached up and kissed her again.

"Josh?" she said against his lips after a minute.

"Hmm?"

"I...have...to...go!" She twisted out of his embrace and slid off the bed.

He followed her to the door, missing her already in spite of himself. They'd exchanged embarrassed glances when they'd picked their coats up off the floor. Donna had put hers on again while still fighting the blush that was threatening her cheeks.

"I'm not wearing a tie," Josh said.

"You don't have to," Donna said. "You can wear that, just change into some khakis or something. It doesn't have to be date attire, Josh, but you know you can't just show up in jeans for dinner at Galileo."

"I really think I could, but we'll go with your plan," he said, leaning forward and giving her a peck on the lips. "And you trust me to dress myself?"

She heaved a heavy sigh. "Well, Josh, we've got to learn to trust in each other sometime. I'm taking my big leap now."

"Your confidence in me moves me in ways I hadn't thought possible, Donnatella."

"You're welcome." She played with her gloves for a moment, folding them over each other. "Stay with me again tonight. With the table still in effect. Stay with me again tonight. We can do more of the discussion. You know what a fan I am of the discussion."

"So, you'll be getting a solid 8 hours, then, is what you're saying."

She smiled, but dipped her chin to watch her hands as they fidgeted with her gloves again. "Stay with me tonight."

"Twist my arm."

She leaned forward and took hold of his right arm at the wrist, gently moving it around behind him. She leaned against him and kissed him sweetly.

"Alright, you talked me into it."

"I'm very persuasive," she said with a grin.

He leaned down and kissed her again. "That you are. I'll drive you back to your place."

"No, thank you," she said. "I'll take a cab home and I'll see you at the restaurant in a couple hours. Don't be late."

"I'll pick you up, Donna."

"Not necessary," she said. "And besides, it would look better if we—"

"There's a difference between not doing anything different and going out of our way to make things appear a certain way, Donna," he said pointedly.

She nodded. "I know. But I'm not ready to be under CJ and Carol's microscope just yet. Any further under it, anyway. I'll see you there."

"Count on it." He kissed her one last time, then opened the door before his resolve broke down and he asked her to stay.

She backed out into the hallway, studying his face. "See ya."

He smiled. "See ya."

He closed the door slowly after she started down the steps. Once she was sure she was out of sight, Donna leapt the last 6 steps to the sidewalk with an excited squeal. She remembered to put her umbrella up after a moment, hailed a cab at the corner, and glanced back at the building once as it pulled away, feeling warm inside despite the biting cold that enveloped the city.