Work Text:
2009
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“You know if you need to go -“
Josh’s head swiveled, the overlapping voices on the other line became clearer as he pulled his head away.
“What? No -.”
“It’s not like anything’s happening here anyway.”
Josh’s eyebrows creased.
“You’ve been in labor for 12 hours and you, what, want me to go because it’s boring?”
“I’m just laying here. The same thing I’ve been doing for months except with a lovely numbing solution coursing through my spinal cord and an old man checking my cervix every half hour. Don’t -”
She cut him off from the words she knew were itching to come out of his mouth. Heeding from his untimely joke, he went another route.
“I can’t tell if you’re trying to be self-sacrificing for king and country or if the feminists have a ways to go.”
She blew a sweaty strand of hair from her face.
“You’re really gonna question my status in the fight for women while I’m quite literally fighting with nature to get your decrepit child out of my uterus?”
“No. Sorry.” He brushed the strand out of her face. The meeting ranged louder.
“Josh. The hospital is 6 blocks from the White House. If you need -“
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Seriously, it could be days at this point -“
“It won't be days.”
“I read about one woman who was in labor for 72 hours.”
“Was this a parenting book written by Stephen King?”
“Could be a good anecdote to apply to sex education.”
“Yeah, they say fear mongering is the most effective method.”
“Maybe the Republicans are onto something …”
His name broke through the chatter in a muffled call.
Donna looked at him expecting. He unmuted himself.
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you really think it’s worth risking the axillary base?”
“I do sir, yes. Waldrom is gaining more traction by the day. We need something to cool the fundamentalist rhetoric and I think this is it.”
He was quiet for a moment.
“Me too.”
There was more chatter behind the phone.
“And Josh?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Hansen will get you if something is urgent. I don’t want you picking up your phone again unless it’s to call your mother.”