Archive of Our Own

Donna’s been back on the Bartlet for America campaign for three days.

She showed up in New Hampshire with only an overstuffed duffel bag and a sprained ankle, reiterating her commitment to the campaign and ready to work. Josh was stunned by her sudden departure, and their brief conversation in her hotel room while she packed her belongings didn’t exactly clarify her reasons for leaving. It was probably a little unreasonable for Josh to feel the way he did about her return to Wisconsin; after all, he’d barely known her a month, and she was living off of her savings while Leo tried to move some things around to get her on salary.

But there was a slowly simmering feeling of betrayal in his gut, as though she’d left him, personally, and not the campaign. Josh had spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about what it would be like if he ever saw her again. He wondered if he had the guts to tell her how hurt he was when she left, how he was left with more questions than answers, about how the campaign had come to rely on her and she just left everyone (especially him) high and dry.

All those plans went out the window when he heard the front door to the (nearly empty) Bartlet for America headquarters slam shut early one morning. Josh made his way toward the front and saw her hobbling in, favoring her right ankle. She gave him a tentative, nervous smile and unzipped her coat. Her nose and cheeks were tinted pink from the blustery April winds and her lips were slightly chapped. The second Donna’s eyes locked with his, the anger, the feelings of abandonment, the frustrations, and the what-ifs – they all disappeared. “Thank god,” he’d said, “there’s a pile of stuff on the desk.”

Now, he’s determined to keep her here.

It’s for the good of the campaign, of course. At least, that’s what everyone’s led him to believe since she arrived. They’d say things like Donna keeps Josh in line, or I actually think it’s Donna who runs that office, with a hint of teasing in their voice. But it took working without her to realize there was a lot more truth to that statement than he’d admit publicly. They’d become a team – he’d like to think they’d even become friends – and he’s going to keep it that way.

He’s pacing outside of Leo’s office, ignoring the quips from Margaret about how it won’t make Leo arrive any faster. Josh checks his watch and turns on his heel, retracing his steps in the opposite direction. He takes a seat in the chair beside Margaret’s desk for a moment, then resumes his pacing, repeating this process five or six times before he nearly runs into Leo himself.

“What the hell are you doing?” Leo asks, opening the door to his office.

“I need you to find some room in the budget to put Donna on salary,” Josh says, following closely behind Leo.

Leo hangs his coat on the back of the door and accepts a few message slips from a hovering Margaret. “Josh, I told you that’s not gonna happen until we get the nomination,” he says, taking the first message slip and moving it to the back of the stack.

“Leo, you know how important she is to me – to the campaign!” Josh argues.

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I definitely know that after she left you walked around here moping like a four-year-old,” Leo continues, not lifting his gaze from the message slips.

“She’s the reason we got that endorsement from the Attorney General of Wisconsin. She’s also the reason we even got to sit down with Rogers and Brennan. She’s fixed a couple of my screw-ups before they became screw-ups, and I think the fact that I’m admitting that I screwed up in the first place says a lot,” Josh says, ticking the reasons off one by one on his fingers.

Leo walks behind his desk and tosses the slips by the phone. “Margaret, could you get me the guy from the Union-Leader?” he calls, then he turns his attention to Josh. “Josh…”

“Leo, I just – I think she’s done a hell of a job. She’s been working more than full-time since she started. And yeah, I know she left, but I think she’ll prove herself. It’s not gonna be an issue.”

“Line one!” Margaret calls from her desk.

Leo takes a seat at his desk and puts on his glasses. “I’ll look this afternoon and see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” Josh says, turning toward the door.

“I’m not making any guarantees,” Leo warns. “Don’t go making her any promises you can’t keep.”

Josh puts his hands on either side of the doorframe, leaning in toward Leo’s office. “Okay.”

“Seriously,” Leo says.

“I got it, I got it,” Josh brushes him off, tapping the top of the doorframe on his way out.

Four hours later, Leo appears in Josh’s doorway, jerking his head toward the hallway as if to indicate that he wants to speak to Josh privately. Josh follows Leo toward his office, unbuttoning his sleeves and rolling them up to the elbows. “What’d you find out?”

“Turns out we had someone in advance who quit last month without notice,” Leo says. “They haven’t hired anybody to take the guy’s place, and they seem to be managing okay without him.” They make a sharp right and stop just short of Leo’s office. “Margaret, you got that… give it to Josh, will ya?”

Margaret hands Josh a folder, and Josh opens it. On one side, there’s a stack of employment paperwork for Donna to fill out. On the other is an envelope, one of the envelopes with a window on the front and in the corner, with what looks like a check inside.

“She’s gotta have the stuff filled out by tomorrow morning,” Leo says. “Have her give it to the woman in payroll when she’s done with it. I also managed to swing some back pay for her. It’s not a lot, but it’s something.”

Josh looks up at Leo. “Thanks, Leo.”

“She does good work, Josh. Don’t scare her off this time,” Leo says.

Josh grins. “I won’t.” He heads back toward his office, occasionally glancing down at the paperwork in the folder. Something about the envelope catches his eye, so he pulls it out to take a look. At first glance, the name on the check looks to be incorrect – it’s a lot longer than ‘Donna Moss’. But when he removes the check from the folder to verify the name on the front, he notices something interesting.

The check is addressed to Donnatella Moss.

Donna had told him about her family late one night on the back of the campaign bus. Two brothers, one sister, an obscene amount of aunts, uncles, and cousins. The Mosses are Catholic, Donna had informed him as she popped an M&M in her mouth. Her mom is Italian, and her dad is Irish. The girls got Italian names, and the boys got Irish names.

And suddenly it all makes sense. This is a part of her she’d intentionally kept to herself, one she hadn’t shared with him. For a moment, he wonders if it’s something that embarrasses her – but she hadn’t said that when they discussed it. That surely would have come up.

“You look nervous,” Donna observes the second he walks through the door of his office.

Josh looks up from the paperwork and closes the door. For some reason, this moment feels… momentous. Pivotal, like they’re standing at a crossroads. He’d peeked at the official offer letter on campaign letterhead, and the salary they offered her was almost insulting. Sure, they were on a tight budget, and Josh knew that getting paid something was better than getting paid nothing. But for all the work Donna does, and the invaluable contributions she’s made to the campaign, she deserves so much more.

What if she chooses to walk away? What if she takes her oversized duffel bag, hobbles to the Greyhound station, and heads back to Wisconsin, feeling undervalued and underappreciated? “I… can I talk to you for a sec?”

The color drains from Donna’s face. “Is – is something wrong?”

Josh looks at her – eyes wide, gripping the pen in her hand with white knuckles – and immediately feels guilty. “Oh, no, no, nothing’s wrong. Actually, it’s the opposite. Here.”

He hands her the folder, and she accepts it with a trembling hand. She looks at it, and then at him, and finally opens it. Josh stands in silence while she pulls out the stack of paperwork, taking a few moments to read every word on the first page. He watches a smile form on her face as she reads the offer letter, and Josh can’t help but smile, too. She turns her attention to the small envelope, carefully pulling it out of its place.

When she opens it, her expression shifts – her eyes fill with tears, and her hand moves to her heart. Donna looks at him, dropping the check and the folder on the chair beside her, and closes the gap between them, throwing her arms around him. “Thank you,” she says softly.

Josh wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her closer and burying his face in her shoulder. “It was Leo,” he says, in an attempt to be humble.

Donna pulls back, eyebrows raised but arms still locked around his neck. “Leo, huh? You had nothing to do with it.”

Josh can feel his cheeks flush. “Leo did most of it, but I… may have brought it up at some point.”

She laughs, soft and sweet, and moves her hands down to his arms. “Uh huh.”

“You know, just… tossed it out there.”

“Right,” she says with a nod.

“Casual suggestion.”

“Of course.”

The energy is charged between them; there’s a certain something that settles deep in the marrow of him when he looks at her. It’s a warmth, a safety, a trust that he’s never felt with anyone else. It’s not something he can name, but he knows it’s there, and that’s what matters.

Donna clutches the folder to her chest as they walk toward the designated meeting spot for staff. There’s a dreamy, far-off look in her eye as she bites her bottom lip. “I can’t believe it,” she says, almost reverent. “I work on a Presidential campaign.”

Toby, CJ, and Sam wander into the room one after another, taking their seats around the meeting table. When the three settle in, Josh glances toward Donna, who has taken a seat in the corner of the room and started filling out her employment paperwork. The pen cap hangs out of the end of her mouth and she’s twisting a lock of hair in her left hand as the pen in her right hand glides across the paper.

Josh puts his hands together with a firm clap. “Okay, if I could have everyone’s attention for a moment, please?”

CJ stops her conversation with Toby to turn toward Josh. She lets out a snicker. “Since when are you running this meeting?”

“I’m not running the meeting, I just wanted to say something before we started.”

“It certainly looks like you’re running the meeting,” Sam points out.

“How does it look like I’m running the meeting?”

“You’re standing up and you got everyone to stop talking and look at you,” Sam says with a shrug.

“He doesn’t need to run a meeting to do that,” Donna pipes up from the corner, eyes fixed on the paper in front of her the whole time.

Josh rolls his eyes. “Anyway. I’d like to introduce everyone to our newest campaign staffer, my assistant, Donnatella Moss.”

Donna jerks her head up from her papers, a blush creeping into her cheeks. Her mouth hangs open slightly, and her eyes are wide with shock. “How did you…”

“Wait, Donna works for us now?” CJ asks. “Officially?”

“That she does,” Josh says with a grin.

Sam takes off his glasses. “Better question – Donna’s name is Donnatella?”

“My mother is Italian, Samuel,” Donna says, folding her arms across her chest.

“It’s – it’s a lovely name,” Sam stammers, then clears his throat. “Welcome aboard, Donna.”

Leo and the governor enter the room, effectively cutting off any further discussion of Donna's name, and Josh moves toward the empty seat next to Donna. She quickly closes the folder and shifts the items in her lap so that her notepad is easily accessible. He can’t help but notice that Donna’s cheeks are still flushed, and he worries that he might have embarrassed her. Thus far their dynamic hasn’t given him reason to believe she would be, but… there’s still something that hasn’t quite clicked into place since she returned to the campaign. Maybe there’s something he’s missing.

The meeting is short, and everyone, including Donna, is quick to exit the room as they head toward their next assignment. Josh follows closely behind, gently placing a hand on Donna’s shoulder.

“Donna.”

Donna turns, sticking her pen behind her ear and rearranging the items in her arms, looking at him expectantly. She’s not angry – at least she doesn’t look angry.

“I, uh… I didn’t mean to embarrass you back there.”

The flush returns to Donna’s cheeks. “You didn’t. It’s fine.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s my name. I like it. I don’t usually use it of course. I go by Donna because that’s… you know, what I’ve been called ever since I found out Donnatella wouldn’t fit on a library card. Or on the ‘name’ line of any papers in kindergarten. Or… sorry, I’m rambling. I don’t hate it or anything, is what I mean, I just… people don’t usually call me that. My old boyfriend said it was a mouthful.”

Josh is hit with a lightning bolt of anger at that moment. “A mouthful? Your mom’s Italian. Your Nonna’s first language was Italian.”

“He also wanted to know how the social security administration allowed my birth certificate to be printed with a spelling error.”

“A spelling error?”

“It’s only supposed to have one n, not two,” Donna explains. “At least traditionally. My mom said it looked incomplete, so she added another. Hence the error.” She employs air quotes around the last word, adding an eye roll for effect.

“The only error here was your error in judgment for dating him in the first place.”

“Josh.”

“I guess going back to him was another error.”

“Can we get to work? You have at least a dozen messages to return.”

Josh places his hand on the small of her back, nudging her through the doorway. “I do, Donnatella, I do.”

Donna beams. “Thank you. You know, for…” She trails off for a moment, seemingly trying to find the right words. After a few beats of silence, Donna lets out a soft laugh. “I don’t know, for everything.”

“It’s my pleasure, Donnatella.”

“Okay, if you’re gonna use it, use it sparingly. It’s gonna get old.”

Josh runs his hand through his hair. “No, I don’t think it will.”