Chapter Text
i. ladybug
As soon as Donna stepped into the East Wing, she was accosted by five different staffers and the First Lady.
“Hand over that adorable little girl immediately,” Helen Santos said, sweeping Hannah out of Donna’s arms. “Well, hi, honey. You are the cutest ladybug I’ve ever seen.”
Donna laughed as they walked towards the Residence. “I take it Miranda wasn’t a ladybug?”
“A pumpkin,” she said, still staring at the baby in her arms. “So was Peter. Matt overruled me. I thought a strawberry would’ve been cute.”
“Well, I’m sure they enjoy the pictures,” Donna said, trying not to laugh as they approached the West Wing.
“I threatened to send them to the New York Times if they didn’t start picking up their rooms,” Helen said, and looked down at Hannah. “But you won’t need to do that, will you, sweetie? No, because your daddy already told your Uncle Sam that he’s not going to let you grow up and everyone in the West Wing overheard him.”
Donna laughed aloud this time. “Did he really?”
“Oh, yeah. At least three different people told me about that. Now,” she said to Hannah as they entered the Colonnade, “let’s go see your daddy and Uncle Matt. I bet they’ll have a White House Council set up within an hour to make sure you never grow up.”
ii. owl
“She’s pretty sick, Josh,” Donna said, resting the phone between her ear and her shoulder.
“She was sick when I left the house this morning,” he said, and she could hear him shuffling papers in the background. “I didn’t leave anything at home that might be from the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, did I?”
“Kitchen counter next to your coffee mug,” she said, and sighed. “I can’t bring her tonight. I can’t get the President sick.”
“It’s a cold, Donna,” Josh said. “I think the President would be fine. But if you can’t bring her, I should let everyone know I won’t be in tonight.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I’ll think about it, but…”
“Yeah. Now, can you put me on speakerphone? I just want to talk to her.”
“She’s sick, she’s not going to be talking back,” Donna warned, even as she tapped the speakerphone button on her phone.
“Hi, Hannah,” Josh’s voice said from the phone, and Hannah, who had been somewhat preoccupied by one of the ten thousand toys that had taken over their living room floor, looked towards the phone. “Do you remember what today is? We talked about it last night…”
“Ho-ween.”
“Yeah, Halloween,” Josh said from the phone. “And what are you going to dress up as?”
"How-ah!”
Holding the phone and tempted to hang up on her husband, Donna sighed and started making a list of things to bring to the White House’s Halloween celebration to make sure that her toddler didn’t get the White House staff sick as a dog.
iii. alice in wonderland
“Okay,” Josh said, leading his daughter into the Outer Oval Office. “Now, the President said he wanted to see you in your costume before we all go outside, and that was really nice of him, so what are we going to say?”
But Hannah had gotten distracted, looking at the big bowl of candy on Ronna’s desk. “Candy?”
“No, we’re going to say thank you,” Josh said, and then, realizing it was a lost cause, lifted her into his arms. “Can you say hi to Ronna?”
“Hi, Ronna,” Hannah said, smiling. “Candy, Daddy?”
“Here, you like Kit-Kat bars,” he said, plucking a small one out of the basket on Ronna’s desk and unwrapping it for her. “You’re doing good on your R’s, honey.”
“Thank ‘oo,” Hannah said, taking the Kit-Kat and stuffing it into her mouth.
Josh laughed. “Be careful of your dress, honey. You don’t want to get chocolate on your dress.”
“That would be a disaster for you, Alice,” President Santos said as he entered the room, Sam following closely behind, and then stopped short. “Oh! You’re not Alice, you’re Hannah.”
From Josh’s arms, Hannah laughed.
“Now,” President Santos said, grabbing a Reese’s from Ronna’s basket, “if you’re Alice, then who’s Daddy?”
Hannah scrunched up her face in thought.
“Mad Hatter?” she guessed, and to Josh’s chagrin but not surprise, both the President and Sam burst into laughter.
iv. elsa
“I knew we shouldn’t have brought her.”
Josh grinned at his wife. “But look how happy she is!”
“Everyone is going to know all the words to ‘Let It Go’ by the time we go home.”
“And then they’ll have a small slice of what it’s like to live with our daughter,” Josh said, and stepped forward. “Mr. President.”
“Stop hogging my attention, Josh, you’re not working tonight,” Santos said, and crouched down. “Hi, Hannah. You look so pretty in your dress.”
Hannah beamed. “Thank you. I’m Elsa!”
“You’re very welcome, honey. Can you tell me who Elsa is?”
Josh choked back laughter as Donna covered her face with her hands; the brilliant smile slid off Hannah’s face as she looked up at the President incredulously, clearly outraged. “You don’t know who Elsa is?”