Chapter Text
The hotel bar was empty with the exception of the Santos campaign staffers scattered throughout the tables. Josh was in the corner with the Congressman, heavily discussing the strategy for the next couple weeks of the campaign.
Bram sat down next to Otto at a table with Ronna, Lou, and Edie. "Who has an in with the new hot blonde Lou hired?"
"Hey!" Lou pointed at him. "Do not chase away my new great hire with your weird playboy ways. Donna's better at her job than you are yours and I'd fight to keep her on this staff over you."
Bram put his hands up, one holding his beer. "I'm not trying to chase her away! I'm just looking for an introduction. She seems smart from the spin she did for Russell. Plus, she got Josh to reconsider after she spoke about three words to him earlier. I just want to get the opportunity to know her. She's going to be an asset to the campaign. Doesn't hurt that she's tall, blonde, and easy to look at."
Lou rolled her eyes. "Doesn't matter, really. You don't want to go there."
"Because you'll keep her instead of me?"
"Nope. Because I really don't think the boss would be happy about it."
Bram scoffed. "I really don't think the Congressman cares who his staff is slee-"
"Not that boss."
"Josh? Josh cares even less than the Congressman about who staff is sleeping with."
"Somehow," Ronna added to the conversation, "I don't think that will extend to Donna."
All heads turned toward her, but Edie was the one who asked the question. "What do you know that we don't?"
Ronna glanced around the bar, then leaned slightly forward. When she spoke, her voice was slightly lower than it had been before. "I met Donna in New Hampshire. It was early in the campaign. Josh introduced us. It was... awkward, to say the least. There was a clear tension. Then, watching her as Russell's spokesperson, I kept thinking I knew her voice beyond the one-off meeting."
"And?" Edie asked, hungrily accepting every morsel of gossip that came her way.
"I realized watching her do our press today that I'd talked to her before that day in New Hampshire. When I was working as the Congressman's assistant. Because she was Josh's assistant."
Each of her friends let out their own exclamation of disbelief.
"Oh my god," Otto said, remembering. "That's Donna."
"What?" Lou asked.
"When Josh saw her do her first press conference. He called and said 'that's Donna.' Like it would mean something to me. It clearly meant something to him; I just didn't realize it. I thought it was one of his weird Josh things."
"Still," Bram said. "I'm not convinced that makes her off limits."
"Oh, it makes her off limits," Edie told him.
Ronna added, "there were rumors around the Hill. Lots of them. Even if they weren't true, there's no doubt they were close."
"I did know she worked for him. He told me when I hired her and he threw a fit."
"No wonder he's been so much weirder than normal," Otto said, bringing his beer to his lips and taking a drink.
They all turned to look at the campaign manager. He was sitting rigid in his seat, not conversing with the Congressman as intently. He was staring over the other man's shoulder, looking like he'd forgotten how to breathe. The group followed his eyeline and saw Donna standing at the bar. She turned from the bar with a glass of white wine in her hand. She saw them and waved before walking over to the group. She chanced a small look at Josh, who was pretending now not to have noticed her, but she had noticed how the color drained from his face when she entered the bar. She fought the urge to roll her eyes at his maturity and approach to all this.
"Can I join you?" She asked, coming to a stop at the table of staffers.
"Totally!" "Of course!" "Definitely!" Affirmative answers rang out from all five staffers and Donna slid into the only open seat left at the round table. "I'm Donna Moss. I don't think I've met all of you yet." Pleasantries and names were exchanged.
"So," Lou said, "Josh said you used to work for him."
Donna choked slightly on the sip of wine she'd just taken. "I guess he threw a fit when he found out you'd hired me?"
Lou shrugged, spinning the bottom of her whiskey glass in circles on the table. "Josh is a control freak. Sure, he seemed a little more freaky about you but whatever."
Donna smirked. "Yeah. But once he's forced to realize someone else made the right call, he's all in on it. Don't worry about Josh. He'll get over it."
"Believe me, I'm not concerned."
"You really worked in the White House?" Otto asked, seemingly as if the question was fighting to explode out of him.
"Otto!" Ronna admonished, clearly concerned this wasn't something Donna wanted to discuss right out of the gate.
"I did, yeah." Donna grinned encouragingly at the group, inviting the conversation to continue.
"What was the best part?" Edie asked.
"It really depended on the day."
"What was the worst part?" Lou took a sip of her drink.
"It also depended on the day."
Time slipped on and the conversation flowed easily. Donna already felt comfortable with the people on the Santos campaign, even more than she did after months with the Russell staff. She could feel the belief they shared in the candidate and the honor they felt being able to work for him. They had an ease and camaraderie with one another as a group that she hoped she'd soon be part of.
The group was in tears from laughter as Bram and Otto recounted a story from their days as aides to the same senator, whose name they chose not to disclose. Each man was blaming the other for a mishap involving the wrong type of gas being put into a car, causing the senator to miss a reelection campaign event. "But they still go reelected!" Otto insisted.
"No thanks to you two," Ronna said between giggles.
"Sometime," a voice she immediately recognized said from behind Donna, "You should ask Donna about the time she had to get me and Toby Ziegler back to Washington from middle-of-nowhere, Indiana."
"Longest twenty hours of my life." Donna grinned.
"Oh, c'mon. It was kinda fun." Josh had his hands in his pockets and he undoubtedly was hoping he'd ease some of the awkwardness by turning on the boy-ish charm he somehow still possessed in his forties.
"Parts," she conceded.
"This is a story I've gotta hear," Edie prompted.
Donna looked at her watch. "It's a long one. I promise to tell it another time."
"Donna, can I talk to you?" Josh asked her as she stood and picked up her empty wine glass.
She nodded and the table of staffers watched as the pair walked away together, pausing to put Donna's empty glass on the bar, and continued their way out. Josh's hand was glued to the small of Donna's back the whole way. The gesture was so easy and comfortable that it was clearly well rehearsed. Despite the obvious discomfort they shared in the presence of the other, there was a discernible deep connection between the two.
"Oh yeah," Bram said as he finished off his second beer, "Definitely off limits."