Welcoming in the New Year
Jul. 16th, 2009 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
christinekhOrignally posted: 12/01/07
Spoilers: Transition
Rating: PG
Summary: She's not sure what she wanted this New Years to be like, but she knows she didn't want it to be like this.
Disclaimer: None of the characters on which this fic is based belong to me. They belong to Aaron Sorkin, NBC, Warner Bros. and many others. I am only borrowing from them and make no profit.
~~~
She's not sure what she wanted this New Years to be like, but she knows she didn't want it to be like this.
The First Family – First Family in Waiting? First Family Elect? She's ashamed to admit she doesn't know what to call them en masse, so she flounders, trying first one name and then the other, liking neither. Josh laughs at her paltry attempt and suggests she simply call them Ma'am and Sir for the next month. He stops laughing when, in an effort to shut him up, she tackles him to the bed and kisses him senseless.
In any case, they had decided to throw a small party to thank their staff and friends for their unwavering support during the year. Unfortunately, what started as an intimate gathering for twenty or so guests swelled to a gala event with two hundred or more in attendance.
So now here she is, smiling and making small talk with two very prominent congressmen while thinking of all the ways she would have preferred spending the evening – on a starlit beach in Aruba, at a small get together with close friends, cozied up in bed beneath a thick down comforter.
But of course, none of those things is possible. Josh figures prominently into all of those alternate scenarios and there's no way he could have possibly avoided this gala. There's no way she could have either, and she silently curses the fact that both of them are so driven, both of them so dedicated in their service to their country. It's not that she doesn't love her job, or doesn't appreciate how much Josh loves his - it's simply that she wishes they had more opportunities to spend time alone together, without their jobs intruding.
Maybe she could steal just one moment with him…
She escapes from the congressmen, seeking Josh out in the crowd and finally spotting him across the room, charming Senator Stackhouse and his wife. They're deep in conversation, and Donna knows she shouldn't interrupt. Parties like this are where alliances begin to take shape, and Santos needs to start forming some now, not in three weeks when he finally takes office.
As she turns away and nods a polite greeting to one of Justice Lang's staffers, their decision to circulate separately this evening, to spread their political goodwill as broadly as possible, suddenly rankles. While she doesn't harbor any illusions about intimate stolen kisses or hasty trysts in an empty office, she does wish she could steal at least a few moments alone with Josh; it’s New Year's Eve, after all, and this thing between them is still new. She'd have liked to have started this newest chapter in their lives together.
But duty calls, and she continues to chat politely with the Santos' guests, even as the countdown to midnight begins. Fifteen minutes, ten minutes, five… the time trickles down to a paltry sixty seconds and she raises her glass of champagne, a smile plastered to her lips.
This isn't how she wanted her New Year to begin.
But then, as the final seconds of the old year tick away, he is suddenly standing there in front of her, that heart-melting, toe-tingling, knee-buckling smirk firmly in place and she realizes this is exactly how she wants her New Year to begin.
~End~
1
Spoilers: Transition
Rating: PG
Summary: She's not sure what she wanted this New Years to be like, but she knows she didn't want it to be like this.
Disclaimer: None of the characters on which this fic is based belong to me. They belong to Aaron Sorkin, NBC, Warner Bros. and many others. I am only borrowing from them and make no profit.
~~~
She's not sure what she wanted this New Years to be like, but she knows she didn't want it to be like this.
The First Family – First Family in Waiting? First Family Elect? She's ashamed to admit she doesn't know what to call them en masse, so she flounders, trying first one name and then the other, liking neither. Josh laughs at her paltry attempt and suggests she simply call them Ma'am and Sir for the next month. He stops laughing when, in an effort to shut him up, she tackles him to the bed and kisses him senseless.
In any case, they had decided to throw a small party to thank their staff and friends for their unwavering support during the year. Unfortunately, what started as an intimate gathering for twenty or so guests swelled to a gala event with two hundred or more in attendance.
So now here she is, smiling and making small talk with two very prominent congressmen while thinking of all the ways she would have preferred spending the evening – on a starlit beach in Aruba, at a small get together with close friends, cozied up in bed beneath a thick down comforter.
But of course, none of those things is possible. Josh figures prominently into all of those alternate scenarios and there's no way he could have possibly avoided this gala. There's no way she could have either, and she silently curses the fact that both of them are so driven, both of them so dedicated in their service to their country. It's not that she doesn't love her job, or doesn't appreciate how much Josh loves his - it's simply that she wishes they had more opportunities to spend time alone together, without their jobs intruding.
Maybe she could steal just one moment with him…
She escapes from the congressmen, seeking Josh out in the crowd and finally spotting him across the room, charming Senator Stackhouse and his wife. They're deep in conversation, and Donna knows she shouldn't interrupt. Parties like this are where alliances begin to take shape, and Santos needs to start forming some now, not in three weeks when he finally takes office.
As she turns away and nods a polite greeting to one of Justice Lang's staffers, their decision to circulate separately this evening, to spread their political goodwill as broadly as possible, suddenly rankles. While she doesn't harbor any illusions about intimate stolen kisses or hasty trysts in an empty office, she does wish she could steal at least a few moments alone with Josh; it’s New Year's Eve, after all, and this thing between them is still new. She'd have liked to have started this newest chapter in their lives together.
But duty calls, and she continues to chat politely with the Santos' guests, even as the countdown to midnight begins. Fifteen minutes, ten minutes, five… the time trickles down to a paltry sixty seconds and she raises her glass of champagne, a smile plastered to her lips.
This isn't how she wanted her New Year to begin.
But then, as the final seconds of the old year tick away, he is suddenly standing there in front of her, that heart-melting, toe-tingling, knee-buckling smirk firmly in place and she realizes this is exactly how she wants her New Year to begin.
~End~
1
