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Monday.
“Support for veterans is inoffensive, it’s a bipartisan win, and it’d help people see the First Lady as more than just a figurehead.” Donna was asserting, perched on the edge of her office couch.
“I don’t disagree with you, but it’s just not the right time.” Josh replied quickly, sitting opposite her.
“It’s not the right time to pass a bill to help people?”
“We are helping people, Donna, we’re trying to pass this healthcare bill and honestly, we could use the First Lady’s attention on this.”
“I don’t see why she wouldn’t support her husband’s project, so long as he supports hers.” She retorted with a tauntingly calm tone.
“In time.” Josh sighed, “Congress should be focusing on healthcare right now.”
“I think the greatest democratic governing body in the world is probably capable of multitasking, Josh.”
He rolled his eyes, “It’s about messaging to the press and the public. Two major policy projects at once is confusing and distracting.”
“I don’t think you’re giving the public enough credit here.”
“I don’t think overshadowing our own accomplishments is a good way to keep people rooting for us.”
“The First Lady’s not gonna give this up, Josh.”
“And the President isn’t asking her to. Just to, ya know, hold off for a month or so.”
“A month from tomorrow the President’s flying to Berlin to begin a two-week tour in Europe.”
“It’s Frankfurt, actually.” Josh muttered.
Donna just stared back at him.
“He’s flying into Frankfurt.” He trailed off. Donna didn’t say anything about how irrelevant this detail was, figuring he had defeated himself on that one.
“Wherever he’s going, I’m almost certain you won’t let me pass this bill while the President is out of the country.”
“Fine. It’ll be more like two months.” His eyes were tracking the clock.
“Or he could begin his tour with not one but two-“
“Time!” Josh exclaimed suddenly.
“-legislative accomplishments fresh under his belt-“ Donna continued, as if she hadn’t heard Josh’s interruption.
“ Time! ”
She sighed, reluctantly resigning her pitch, before adding a calm, “You know I’m right.”
“It doesn’t matter what I know because it is 7 p.m. and we are done with this conversation for the next hour.”
“Are you at least gonna let me pick the restaurant tonight?”
“As long as you’re not gonna order from that crappy Italian place.”
“D’Alessio’s is not crappy! And anyway I was thinking we’d do Chinese.”
“ That is a plan I can get behind.”
Tuesday.
Donna’s eyes fluttered open much too early to a condensed block of artificial light pouring into her otherwise still-dark bedroom. In the corner of the room sat a silhouetted Josh, staring intently at his laptop.
“What time is it?” She groggily wondered aloud.
Josh turned around, smiling softly as he noticed her, “Hey you.”
“Hey. What time is it?”
“You look gorgeous.”
She gave a tired smile, warmed by the compliment but not entirely believing him nor entirely interested. A better display of his affections would have been not waking her up with his computer light at whatever early hour it was. “What are you doing up?”
“Just getting some work done.”
She finally turned her head towards her nightstand to read the clock. “Josh! It’s 3:46 in the morning!”
“I know.”
“Come to bed.” She pouted, drawing out her last word.
“Can’t work in bed.”
“Can’t you wait two hours?”
“I’ll go to the kitchen if the light’s bothering you. Sorry.”
“What if I’m cold? I need you in bed with me.”
“You’re cold?”
“No.” She frowned, “But what if I was?”
Carrying his now-closed laptop, Josh stepped across the bedroom to Donna, pressing a kiss into her head before exiting the room.
“I’ll go to the kitchen. Love you.”
Donna rolled over onto her side and tried to take advantage of the next hour and fourteen minutes before her alarm would wake her again. Instead, she found herself in the hazy state of fading in and out of sleep, wondering why Josh was working so early. For all of the demands of working in the White House, Josh and Donna had spent the last year navigating how not to allow their careers to swallow up their relationship and the rest of their lives, and things had been working pretty well. 7 p.m. dinners were a staple, of course, and no work conversation was allowed, even though their dinners almost always took place in one office or the other. Both of them made it a goal to never leave work later than 10 p.m., and Donna instituted a ban on going into the office on Sundays. A few months prior, when a staffer’s oversight had forced Donna to spend so long finalizing briefs that Josh had accidentally fallen asleep without her, he had been the one to propose a no-work-policy in the Moss-Lyman household between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. And here he was breaking his own rule, Donna thought, still not fully awake. Only then did she have her epiphany: Oh my god. He’s trying to get ahead of me on this VA bill.
She turned to look at the clock again and this time it read 4:52. Ugh. Her alarm would blare in eight minutes and she’d have to start getting ready for the day anyway. She got up. Maybe I can at least get ahead of him at looking presentable.
Hours later, Josh found himself in the East Wing with a cup of coffee in each hand. Donna’s face lit up as Bonnie let him into her office.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Josh set down one of the coffees and slid it across Donna’s desk towards her.
“ This is to make up for waking you up so early.”
“It’s really fine, Josh.” She assured him. Without meaning to, she let out a slight yawn as she finished her sentence, betraying her words.
He laughed, before leaning across the desk to give her a small kiss.
“I hope this helps, too.”
She smiled and gratefully took a sip of her coffee, hoping he couldn’t tell that she had been hurriedly trying to coordinate a meeting with the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee all morning. He lingered at her desk, not committing to staying long by sitting down, but with more to discuss.
“The President and the First Lady are feuding,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Feuding? Really?”
“They’re not speaking to each other.”
“I know they’re not speaking to each other.”
“They’re feuding.” Josh sighed.
“That’s not a feud.”
“It’s not?”
“A feud is long-standing, and probably public. They’ll be over this soon and it isn’t public.” She said simply, before horror fell over her face, “Right?”
“Right.” Josh replied, matching her seriousness, “Right, it’s not public. God, no.”
“Good.”
“Good, yeah. But they’re not speaking to each other.”
“From what I hear, Matt’s not speaking to Helen.”
“Only because she told him off so severely yesterday that he’s afraid to say anything,” Josh ran a hand over his face tiredly.
“I can’t believe he’s not speaking to her over this bill. It’s a good bill.”
“It’s a bad bill politically.”
“I don’t think that’s true, Josh. It’s a symbol of bipartisanship, of cooperation, it shows the American people that Democrats and Republicans are willing to work together for them.”
“The American public knows Democrats are willing to work for them. Why should we convince them that Republicans are too? Why do their job for them?”
Donna sighed.
Josh raised his eyebrows, a hint of playfulness about him.
“Do you think this is what their arguments sounded like?” Donna asked, only half-joking.
He laughed. “What is it then, if it’s not a feud? A disagreement?”
“No, this ,” she gestured between the two of them, “is a disagreement. They’re fighting.”
“We’re having a disagreement?” He asked gently.
“Oh,” she smiled softly, “Only as Chiefs of Staff.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The difference is, once we get home tonight, and we’re no longer working, we won’t be yelling at each other.”
“No yelling at all?” He asked smugly.
“Josh!” She exclaimed, before a smirk settled on her face, “That’ll depend on your own cooperation skills.”
“Oh, I can be very cooperative…”
Wednesday.
She waited until they had walked through their front door, home for the night and out of hearing range of any Secret Service agents: “I’m gonna kill your boss.”
“Is that a threat on the life of the sitting U.S. President?”
“I waited until we were home,” She offered plainly, kicking her heels off by the door, “But he’s really being a pain in my ass.”
“Yeah, well, frankly I’m not too thrilled with Helen at the moment.”
“You must be hearing different stories than I am. All she’s doing is asking her husband to let her be useful, actually make some positive change. And he doesn’t believe in her!”
“Donna, you know him. He adores Helen.”
“Adoring her and believing she’s politically capable are two different things.”
“It’s not about her at all. It’s about timing, it’s about messaging, it’s very much not about Helen and her political capabilities.”
“She’s not being selfish here, Josh, if that’s what you’re insinuating. It’s an objectively good piece of legislation.”
“She might not realize this, but undermining the President’s legislative strategy is selfish.”
“You and Matt determine the President’s strategy. Helen’s been talking about this project for months and has been ignored! Can you blame her for not wanting to sit pretty and actually use her role to do some good?”
“She clearly doesn’t understand politics as well as she thinks she does if she thinks this bill, right now, is doing good.” He scoffed.
“Maybe if he stopped dismissing her ideas, he would see that she actually does know what she’s talking about, Josh!” She blurted.
“He’s the President, Donna! Sometimes he doesn’t have time to entertain her ideas.”
She let out an exasperated sigh and opened her mouth to retort before shutting it again. Instead, she said, “I don’t wanna do this.” She turned and began to head up the stairs.
“Donna,” Josh called, somewhere between pleading and complaining, “Don’t walk away.”
“Why not, Josh?” She asked with a sharp calmness, “So you can tell me more about how little Helen knows and how much of a burden that is for her husband?”
Josh didn’t know what to say. Donna went upstairs. He didn’t follow her. She didn’t want him to. They both knew any further discussion would tear down the thin barrier between talking about their bosses and talking about themselves.
Josh hovered in their bedroom doorway an hour later. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Donna turned from her laptop upon spotting him and simply said, “Hi.”
“I’m sorry.” Josh sighed.
Donna looked at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to continue.
“I’m, I, I’m an idiot,” He stammered as he sat down on the edge of the bed, “I didn’t mean to suggest- I don’t want- Look, you’re a political genius.”
She looked at him and softly exhaled.
“The VA bill was my idea.” She confessed.
“Oh,” Josh breathed, processing.
“Helen has a lot of big ideas, and I want to help her accomplish every one of them. But I convinced her to start with this one because it’s so inoffensive. I wanted to give her a firm legislative foundation with Veterans’ Affairs, so she could actually get a paid maternity leave policy happening a year or so from now.” She explained.
“Mmm.” He said, “That’s really good, Donna. You’re really good.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Well, I expected some pushback on the paid leave part,” she answered with a small smile.
“Oh, yeah, I’m definitely gonna push back on that one.” He conceded.
“And, you know, I wanted to win… fair and square.” She said quietly.
“Fair and square?”
“I wanted Helen to earn it. I wanted to earn it.”
“You’ve earned every win you’ve ever had.” He told her earnestly, eyes narrowed in solemness as he looked in hers.
“Well, I’ve only ever really had wins with you.” She sighed.
At this, Josh’s brow furrowed. He didn’t know what to say. He had always been so proud of the work he and Donna had done together, but he was realizing that to some, his roles both as former-boss and as current-boyfriend diminished Donna’s own accomplishments. In December of 2006, when their still-new relationship had been exposed to the public, Donna was accused of sleeping her way into her Chief of Staff role more times than he could count. He had been horrified for her, and the then-President-Elect had to beg him not to go on cable news and rack up half a million dollars in FCC profanity fines defending her. Donna, though, had held a stiff upper lip. Josh watched her carry on with her job, dismissing any mention of cruel comments with a laugh and an effortless transition away from the topic. He felt like an idiot now, for not realizing how much this probably got to her.
“You’ve rubbed off on me, you know.” He told her.
“Hm?”
“It was gradual, I didn’t even realize it as it was happening. Your optimism, it’s such an asset, and it’s been rubbing off on me as long as I’ve known you. Every time you’d come to me with some little cause, fighting for the little guy, and push me on it until I finally got it. Putting Aquino on a stamp. That carpal tunnel thing. Even a few months ago, getting net neutrality on Santos’ agenda. It’s the way you care about doing good by people, and you always believe we can. I wouldn’t be Chief of Staff if it weren’t for you, Donna, I wouldn’t have hoped I could. I don’t win without you, either.” He assured her, sincerity audible in his voice.
She peered at him, smiling sheepishly. Josh stared back with a look of amazement, mouth just slightly agape, as if he had realized all over again just how incredible Donna was. He pursed his lips to say more, but decided against it, shutting his mouth a moment later.
“We must be a good pair.” Donna said finally, holding his gaze.
He nodded.
“But,” she sighed, “I’m still gonna try to pass this thing.”
“I’m still gonna try to postpone it.”
“May the best Chief of Staff win?” She smirked, extending her hand for a shake. He put his own hand out, but leaned in to mark the deal with a kiss instead. She kissed back passionately. Moments later, their clothes were on the floor and her hands were in his hair. They both felt like winners.
In the afterglow, Donna rested her head on Josh’s bare chest, his arm extending past her and beneath her pillow.
“Donna?”
“Hm?”
“I think you’re brilliant, you know. It’s why I’ve loved going toe-to-toe with you so much.”
She smiled, her whole body warmed.
“Thanks for saying that. You’re not completely inept, yourself.”
“Not completely?” He grinned.
“No, not totally.” She said with a soft giggle. She reached for his outstretched arm and wrapped it around her, tucking herself into him.
All was well again. For a few hours, that is.
Thursday.
Josh didn’t say a single word when Margaret told him. He launched out of his chair, walked directly out of his office, and barely heard the “Where are you going?” that called after him.
Donna was halfway across to the West Wing, speed-walking, mentally cursing the heels she was wearing and every magazine article and misogynistic gender norm in existence that culminated in her wearing shoes not fit for getting to the other side of the White House in a timely manner.
They spotted each other at the same time and as their panicked eyes met each other’s, they both knew the other knew.
“Margaret just told me.”
“Annabeth told me.”
Josh nodded slightly in the direction he had come and Donna walked quickly with him towards his wing.
“It’s Jonas Palmer.”
“With the Hill?”
“He’s with the Times.”
“ The Times ?” Donna spun her head to look at him.
“I wanna know how the hell he knows about this.”
“You think we have a leak?”
“I don’t have a leak. Do you have a leak?”
“No, I don’t have a leak.”
“How do you know you don’t have a leak?”
“Hold on. I’m trying to think.” Donna exhaled.
“We gotta figure out how to spin this.”
“That’s what I’m trying to think about.” They turned a corner, Josh’s office in sight down the hallway.
“ Can we spin this?”
“What if we don’t have to?” She answered, voice tinted with hope.
“Keep ‘em from publishing it?”
“Give ‘em something else to publish.”
“We don’t have anything to give them.”
“What about an exclusive interview with the First Couple?”
“They’re not speaking to each other.”
“We can fix that.”
“Can we?”
“If we don’t, this fight is about to become a feud.”
Josh nodded, wordlessly agreeing, and got the attention of a young staffer, directing him to get Jonas Palmer on the phone.
“What’s going on, sir?” The staffer, named Connor, asked, looking up from the computer he had been intently staring at.
“The First Couple is feuding.” Josh answered shortly.
“Sir?” Connor repeated, confused.
“The President and Mrs. Santos have been arguing about her wanting to get a Veterans Affairs bill passed. Jonas Palmer is about to publish a story about it.” Donna offered.
Connor stared back at her.
Sensing he needed more explanation, Donna continued, “Which will take attention away from the President’s agenda and make the public feel lied to and we won’t be able to do anything for months because the conversation will be about the First Couple’s marriage and not this administration’s legislative goals. Not to mention it will introduce the question of whether or not Mrs. Santos is a good wife, a question that can never be unasked and will recontextualize any professional work she does as either a submissive effort to appease her husband or a vindictive response to a failing marriage.” She finally took a breath, “So, you know, call Jonas Palmer.”
“Oh shit.” Connor exhaled, before composing himself to add a, “Uh, yes ma’am.”
Oh shit, indeed, Donna thought.
By nine a.m. Josh and Donna were standing shoulder to shoulder in an ambiguous White House meeting room explaining to the President, the First Lady, and their senior staffs how the First Couple would be sitting down with the New York Times at noon that day for an exclusive interview and three – “no, four,” Donna had to interject, to correct Josh. “I thought we said three?” “I had to concede on that.” “Ok, four.” – accompanying photos. They were to discuss how they were more in love than ever and eager to work together for positive policy change, starting with healthcare, which Matt was to credit Helen with spearheading behind the scenes. This would help the Santos administration get this bill passed, give Helen the legislative footing to build her own future policies on, and – most importantly – keep the New York Times from making their arguments public knowledge and breaking down the trust and adoration of their administration.
They spent the next few hours with their respective bosses, Josh convincing Matt that it wasn’t weak to give his wife credit for the healthcare bill and Donna convincing Helen that it was enough to put her name on her husband’s bill.
At eleven, they met again, and Josh and Donna left the couple to use their last hour before the interview to patch things up as convincingly as possible.
At noon, Jonas Palmer sat down in the Blue Room across from Matt and Helen, as Josh and Donna stood in the back of the room, holding their breath.
Friday.
“It’s up!” Donna cheered, leaning over her laptop, which was resting on the bathroom counter.
Josh, brushing his teeth, mumbled something wholly unintelligible.
“What?”
He spit, then repeated, “It’s already up?”
“Apparently his original story was supposed to go live at 5 a.m. today. He must’ve been up all night trying to get this finished instead.”
“I hope he’s exhausted.” Josh remarked as he moved behind Donna, resting his chin on her shoulder to look over at the laptop screen, too.
“Mm, let’s read.”
“The President and the First Lady… healthcare bill she championed… go to committee… bah bah bah…” Josh skimmed aloud.
“That’s super helpful.” Donna said sarcastically. He just stared at her.
“Noted.” He answered after a beat. They kept reading.
“Oh! ‘Mrs. Santos exhibited a natural political savvy as she explained the expansion of healthcare coverage for children in the bill. She cited her own children as her inspiration to take an active role in promoting this policy.’” Donna read, smile audible.
“That’s good,” He said, turning his head as she turned hers to share a celebratory peck. She scrolled down to reveal the first of four pictures featured in the article, this one depicting Helen with her hand out and her mouth open slightly, in the middle of speaking, while Matt eyed her with a look of admiration.
“Oh, that’s really good.”
Donna kept scrolling as they read silently, occasionally speaking a few particularly good lines of the piece. Towards the end she found this: “Perhaps the legislative harmony of the First Couple can be attributed to their romantically-involved Chiefs of Staff, Joshua Lyman and Donna Moss, respectively.”
Josh winced instinctively, disliking the vulnerability of public recognition of their relationship. Donna met his eyes in the bathroom mirror in front of them.
“You don’t like that our romantic involvement may have contributed to the legislative harmony of the First Couple?” She asked mockingly. He smiled and she spun around to kiss him straight on. He might hate it, but she found it a little bit hot. Just a little.
“I wanna finish reading,” He admitted a few seconds later when he broke the kiss. She turned back to follow along again.
“’Lyman and Moss have coordinated the regular communication and partnership between their two offices,” Josh read aloud, “such that the individualized public priorities and responsibilities of the First Couple often reflect shared ultimate goals, much like a typical modern relationship. The First Lady plans to continue to advocate for children’s access to healthcare and the Senate is expected to vote on Santos’ healthcare bill by early next week.’” He concluded the article.
“That is much better than we thought it would be about twenty-two hours ago.” She said, ducking under his arm to exit the bathroom and get changed into work clothes.
“Mm,” He mused agreeably, lingering to stare at the laptop screen, showing the final of four pictures of the First Couple. They were standing, at the conclusion of their interview, glancing at each other with a laugh. The frame was wide, showing off the Blue Room, and in the corner, barely captured, stood Josh and Donna. It wasn’t a definitionally good picture of them -- they were far away, faces only semi-distinguishable, and both of them were looking at Matt and Helen, not the camera nor each other. But, Josh found himself standing there, in their bathroom, enamored by it. There they were, doing their jobs, side by side. That picture was them, simply, purely, exactly. He loved it.
Josh breezed into Donna’s office at six o’clock on the dot, grinning.
“Wanna go for a walk before dinner?” He asked excitedly.
“Josh?”
“We have to celebrate. The interview.”
“A walk? Don’t you have briefs to review on that assassination in Tajikistan?”
“Turkmenistan.”
“Oh,” she replied, turning away from her computer to face Josh, who was standing in her doorway.
“They can wait.” Josh assured her as she stood up from her desk.
“Can they? The Turkmenistanians?”
“Sure they can. Kasymov will still be dead tomorrow.” Josh replied, extending one of his elbows to her.
“Charming,” she answered, linking arms with him before following him out of her office.
Josh walked them through the halls of the White House towards his own office as Donna picked his brain for information on Turkmenistan. They had learned earlier in the week that the nation’s president, Murgen Kasymov, had been killed after less than a year in office. It had barely made the list of Josh’s priorities for the week, and made up even less of Donna’s concerns. Josh had started making physical lists of his main focuses each week, and this assassination had ended up towards the bottom of the second page. Matt and Helen’s fight had steadily moved up the list throughout the week, peaking as the second priority on early Thursday morning. Josh’s first priority had remained untouchable at the top, and his work on that project was about to culminate.
He led Donna through the Oval Office and out the door into the Rose Garden.
“Aw, you know I love it out here.” She sighed warmly.
“It’s pretty incredible.” He agreed.
They walked in comfortable silence around the edge of the garden for a few moments. When they reached a particularly pretty patch of flowers, Josh stopped walking and turned to look at Donna.
“I’m really proud of us, Donna,” He told her.
She grinned back at him. Things are so good right now. She met his eyes as he gazed back, seeming to get distracted from what he was saying by watching her.
“And, I um…” He flicked his eyes down for a second nervously, trailing off. He seemed to hope she would interrupt, but she didn’t.
“I, uh…” He was shaking his head just slightly.
Oh my god. Suddenly she realized what was happening. The thing it seemed like he wanted to say on Wednesday night. Being on his computer in the early hours of that Tuesday morning, doing what she had thought was work but now realized must have been… planning.
“Josh,” she urged with a pursed smile.
This seemed to immediately cover him with a sense of peace. He felt natural again as he continued, “You’re everything, Donna. You make me so much better, and I really, really don’t know what I did to deserve you, but, um, I never wanna be without you.” He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small jewelry box as he bent one knee to the ground. She was beaming, and she felt like maybe she was flying a few feet off the ground. That doesn’t happen. People can’t fly. Is any of this actually happening? Is this really happening?
“Donna,” he popped the jewelry box open to reveal a ring, “Marry me?”
It is!!! She giggled as she bent down to cup his face in her hands, leading him to stand up and kiss her. She moved one hand from his face onto the back of his head, ruffling through his curls. He wrapped his arms into a hug around her and picked her up as they kissed, spinning her around once.
“Of course,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Yes.” She nodded vigorously.
He brought his hand, still clutching the jewelry box, back around in between them and Donna put out her left hand, letting him slide the ring onto her finger. It featured a large diamond in the center, sat in between two smaller diamonds on a simple silver band.
“It’s so beautiful, Josh.”
He beamed back at her. “The ones on the sides were in Jackie Kennedy’s collection.”
She looked up from her hand at him with amazement, glancing back at the ring and then kissing him again.
“I’m so lucky.” He mused happily.
“I am.”
He kissed her again.
“I’ve been wondering when you’d do this!” She exclaimed happily.
“Should’ve done it a decade ago.” He replied sincerely.
“Better late than never, Joshua.”
“Better late than never.”
For the record, feuds never end in engagements. Disagreements, apparently, sometimes do.