caz963 | WW Ficlet: Promises, Promises J/D, G

Here’s a little something written for

ww_renaissance, where the episode o’ the week is currently Take This Sabbath Day.

Usual disclaimers – These guys ain’t mine (and oh, how I hate having to say that about Josh!) – they’re Aaron’s.

Thanks to

zinke for the read-through.

Promises, Promises

Josh leaned back in his chair and swung his feet up onto the desk, tucking the phone more firmly under his chin.

“Yeah, I’ll hold.” He pulled a face, looking up as Donna walked briskly into the office, stopped on the opposite side of the desk and leaned over to stick a post-it note on the top of the folder nearest him.

He reached out to pick it up and looked at it, his brow furrowing in confusion. Then he stuck it back on the folder, returning his attention to the phone. “No, it’s fine,” he said into the receiver, drumming his fingers lightly on the desk and frowning again as Donna picked up a haphazard pile of folders and straightened them up somewhat ostentatiously (he thought) - tapping them loudly on the polished wood before setting them down next to his in-tray.

He followed her with his eyes until the person for whom he’d been holding finally made it to the phone. “Yeah – hi,” he said, a little distractedly. “Uh - I just read the revised version of the report and there are some things I - ” and now she was putting away the books he’d left on one of the visitor’s chairs earlier. “Could you just – ? Hang on.” Josh covered the mouthpiece with his hand. “Donna - what are you doing?”

Donna walked round to his computer and switched it off. “I’m tidying up.”

“I can see that, but… no, I’m here…” he said, removing his hand and tilting the receiver towards his mouth again. “Sorry about that. Listen - ” Josh kept talking as Donna lifted his feet from where he’d had them resting on a couple of blue folders, moved the folders and put his feet back down. “You’re going to have to look again at the parts that talk about the new plans for the funding, because I don’t think - ”

He started as Donna snapped shut the folder containing the next quarter’s fiscal projections that had been lying open, precariously balanced on the edge of the shelf behind him.

Rubbing his ear (just to make a point), he looked up, prepared to scowl at her, but she’d already marched around to the other side of the desk. “Yes, I know,” he said into the phone as Donna began to pick up pens and pencils and put them back into the mug he used in lieu of a desk-tidy.

Still watching her as she bustled around, Josh listened to the excuses coming from the person at the other end of the line at the same time as he tried to figure out why the hell Donna was packing up for the day in the middle of the afternoon. He was sure he must be missing – something. He just didn’t know what it was.

He squinted up at her. “No,” he continued, “I understand that, but I’m telling you now, that isn’t going to work. You can’t just - ” Donna picked up a couple of binders he’d left on the floor by his desk and then walked to the bookshelf to put them back in place. “Okay, look, I’m sorry,” Josh scrubbed a hand across his face and sat up. “I’ll call you back.”

He hung up and then rested his elbows on the desk. “Donna – ”

“It’s time to go,” she said airily as she switched off the TV.

He blinked up at her incredulously. “What the…? It’s four in the afternoon.”

She put her hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side. “It’s four on Saturday afternoon.”

“So?”

Donna just stared at him pointedly – then walked out to her desk.

After a second or two, Josh jumped up, grabbed the post-it and followed her.

“This says that you found out whale jolly locust is … what’s that? Slaying?”

“What?” She looked up, puzzled.

“This note,” Josh said, coming to stand next to her. “It says jolly locust is slaying at the … where?”

Donna narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you…? Give me that,” she said irritably, swiping the note from his hand. “It says I found out where Joey Lucas is staying.”

Josh scratched his head and took it back from her. “No, it says … wait; that says Lucas?”

“Yes.”

“Not locust?”

Donna sighed, picked up a couple of folders from her desk and made her way over to the rows of filing cabinets “You know someone called Joey Locust, Josh?”

“No,” he grinned smugly, following her. “But nor do I know anyone called Jolly Locust, so in either case, you’ve given me the address of someone I don’t know.”

She stopped walking so abruptly that Josh almost bumped into her. “Oh, for the love of God, would you just shut up?”

His grin widened. “Maybe if you trained that spider of yours better - ”

Donna put the folders in a drawer, closed it – somewhat forcefully - and turned around. “She’s staying at the Latham until tomorrow evening.”

Josh nodded and forced his face into a more sober expression. “Right.” Then he frowned again, leaned back against the cabinet and re-examined the note. “Wait. Why am I going to see Joey Lucas?”

Donna rolled her eyes. “Well, for one thing, to convince her that you’re not actually a Neanderthal slob who routinely looks and smells like he slept in a dumpster.”

Josh’s eyebrows shot up. “And for another?”

“The President told you to.”

“Oh. Yeah.” He scratched behind his ear. “That’s - hang on. Why would I want to convince Joey Lucas I’m not normally a slob?”

Donna shrugged and walked back to her desk. “Because you like her.”

Josh snorted. “I - what?”

Donna stuffed a couple of pens into the pot on her desk and reached over to switch off her computer. “You liked her. I could tell. I have an excellent sense about these things.”

Josh pushed himself away from the cabinet and ambled back into Donna’s cubicle. “You have no - ” he began; then thought better of it and cleared his throat. “And anyway, I don’t ‘like’ Joey Lucas. I mean, I didn’t dislike her, but - ”

Donna turned to face him, her arms folded. “You like her, Josh. You like women who argue with you, and she did that - and didn’t take any of your crap.”

“That doesn’t mean - ”

“You like women who argue with you.”

“I do not.”

“You do. You get this look in your eye and - ”

“I don’t.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“I don’t – wait. What look?”

Donna stared at him for a second. “I don’t know. But I know it when I see it, and it was definitely the look you get when - ”

Josh rubbed his eye. “Okay, please - just … stop.”

Donna flashed him a brief smile. “Okay.” She picked up her bag and put it on the desk. “But you like her.”

He glared at her. “Whatever.”

“Anyway, it’s time to go.”

Josh looked at his watch. “Go?”

“Yes. If we go now, you’ll have time to get cleaned up a bit.”

“Didn’t I already - ? What is this – Groundhog Day?”

Donna looked him swiftly up and down. “I’m not being seen out with you, looking like that.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I guess the suit’s still okay, but you need a shower and a shave, Josh.”

“And I need to leave here in the middle of the afternoon to do that because..?”

“Because after you’re cleaned up, we’ll still have time to get something to eat before the stores close.”

“Before the…?”

Donna folded her arms again and looked at him expectantly.

The light dawned, suddenly. “Ah.”

Donna nodded, slowly. “You promised me shoes, Josh. I take those kinds of promises very seriously.”

He sighed. “I can’t stay here, and, you know, run the country while I wait for you to come back, show me what you bought and then pretend to be interested?”

“You mean, you want to stay here, wait for me to come back, show you what you bought and then pretend to be interested?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“But - ”

“Need I remind you that it’s four in the afternoon?” She poked him in the chest. “And that I was here at nine?” He took a step backwards. “On Saturday? And that I had plans for today?”

“Yeah, for shopping,” Josh muttered under his breath.

She heard him anyway. “Exactly. And in return for the fact that I saved you from having to spend the day smelling like a trash can and looking like an idiot, I really think the least you can do is - ”

Josh held up his hands in submission. “Okay, okay,” and walked back into his office. He shrugged on his jacket and coat, patted his pockets until he found his keys and picked up his backpack, emerging to find Donna – coat on and buttoned, bag on her shoulder – waiting just outside the doorway. He switched off the light and closed the door, turning to grin at her as, settling his hand lightly against the small of her back, they began to make their way out of the bullpen.

“Come on then, Imelda.”

End.

If you want to read what happened on the shopping trip,

quaggy_mire wrote a cute dialogue only fic - Shoe Shopping.