Completed:
7/23/08
Rating: R
Summary: Donna and Josh have the
talk while they’re on vacation, kind of. Post-ep to "Transition"
Author’s Notes:
It’s been absolutely ages since I posted a fic, and
this certainly isn’t going to win a Pulitzer, but it was fun to write again.
He kissed her one more time and
rolled off of her, landing on his back on the very corner of the bed and taking
most of the sheet with him. She turned her head to look at him there, disheveled
and panting slightly as he stared up at the ceiling. A few more breaths and he
stretched his arms over his head and looked back at her with a grin. She gave
him a lazy smile in return. “How did you convince me to do
that?”
“Which part?” he asked, wiggling
his eyebrows.
She shook her head at him. “The
staying in bed until almost noon part.”
“Ahh,” he
said, rolling onto his side and running a finger lightly down her arm. “I think
it was the thing I did with my tongue.”
“Which
thing?”
“The second
thing.”
She closed her eyes as a slight
flush came over her cheeks. “Yeah, that was it.”
He leaned over and kissed her neck.
“I could do that again,” he growled into her ear.
She let him kiss her for a few
seconds, contemplating his offer, then pushed herself
away from him with a hand on his chest. “Later,” and she really meant that. “I’m
starving and I want to go check out the beach.”
“We have all week for the beach,”
he said, coming closer again. She smiled, but climbed out of bed before he could
get to her, and he groaned and rolled onto his back. “Next time I’m taking you
to
She looked back at him lying in bed
with a confused look on her face. “
“So there’s nothing to do but stay
in bed.”
“Ahh… of
course.” She leaned over and kissed him quickly. “I’m taking a shower,” she said
before walking naked towards the bathroom.
He propped himself up on his elbows
and watched her. “Why are you showering? We’re just going to get into the
fish-filled ocean.”
“We’re getting food first and I
smell like you,” she shrugged and closed the bathroom door behind her as he
mumbled something about whether or not that was a bad
thing.
She pulled back the shower curtain
and turned on the water, stretching her neck and yawning. When a cloud of steam
started permeating through the bathroom, she climbed inside and sighed at the
feel of the hot water on her back. She tilted her head back and let the water
run over her face and hair. Heaven.
“I’ve figured something out,” she
heard a minute later as Josh walked into the bathroom.
“Close the door,” she said over the
sound of the water.
“What?”
“Close the door. You’re letting out
all the hot air.”
“I’m
what?”
She poked her head out of the
shower curtain. “Would you just close the door?” she asked in an exasperated
voice.
His eyes widened and he closed the
door.
“Thank you,” she said letting the
curtain close.
She was lathering shampoo in her
hair a moment later when he walked over and pulled back the shower curtain,
ogling her wet naked body with a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth.
“Yes?” she asked, resisting the
urge to cover herself.
“Nothing,” he said, staring at her
chest. He stared for another few seconds, then looked her in the eyes and
smirked before walking over to the sink to spit and rinse. “So anyway, I figured
something out.”
“Which frightens
me.”
“We have to make up for almost ten
years of no sex.”
She laughed to herself. “You
haven’t had sex in ten years?” she asked in obviously fake
shock.
“You think you’re
funny.”
“Why in the hell were you with Amy
if it wasn’t for the sex?” she asked, rinsing the shampoo from her hair. “Surely
it wasn’t for the company.”
“Are you having
fun?”
Yes, as a matter of fact, she
was. ”And Mandy?” she continued with a grin on her face that he couldn’t see. “I
always assumed she had to be absolutely incredible in bed for you put up with
her.”
“She was quite something.”
“Hey,” Donna yelled, ripping back
the shower curtain. Men weren’t allowed to say things like that, even if the
woman in question was indeed incredible and the woman asking was only fishing
for information, which she would only partially admit to doing.
He was leaning against the sink
smirking at her. “You done?” he asked with humor in his
voice.
Having lost the battle, she
resisted the urge to stomp her foot and instead stuck her tongue out at him and
closed the shower curtain, going back to her shower.
“Anyway,” he said as if he was
never interrupted. “We have to make up for almost ten years of no sex... with
each other.”
“We have to?” she asked, squeezing
conditioner into her palm.
“Yes, otherwise we’ll be
unbalanced.”
Since he couldn’t see her, she
allowed a smile at his absurdity. “We wouldn’t want to be
unbalanced.”
“No.”
“So your plan
is…”
“We have twice as much sex as
normal for the next ten years,” he said.
Hmm… she was half inclined to read
something into that statement. “Nine years…”
“I’m rounding up. It makes the math
easier.”
“Ok, fine.” She could think of
worse ways to spend the next ten years. Many, many worse
ways.
“Plus I’m going to need ten extra
years of regular sex on top of that.”
“You
are?”
“Yeah. For Calley, Commander Wonderful and Heathcliff,” he said as if it was a
given.
“What?”
“Men that you’ve… I’m gonna need
extra time for that.”
She laughed and rinsed the
conditioner from her hair. “I hate to tell you, but they aren’t
the…”
“Yes they are,” he said abruptly,
cutting her off.
She grinned behind the curtain.
“They are?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, whatever. You need ten extra
years for that?”
“Yes.”
She wasn’t sure they were worth ten
days, much less ten years, but whatever. “Done.”
“Done?”
“Yes,” she said nodding. “But I’m
going to need fifteen years.”
“Fifteen?”
“Mandy, Amy and Joey
Lucas.”
“Joey Lucas?” he
squeaked.
“The intent was there even if you
never found the nerve.”
“There was no
intent!”
She pulled the edge of the curtain
back and looked at him. He was turned towards her, wide-eyed and half-shaven.
“None?” she asks doubtfully.
He tilted his head. “A pondering,
maybe.”
“That counts. Plus Amy counts twice
and was painful to not only you, but to me as well.”
He winced and looked down at the
floor, obviously having nothing to say in response to that. Happy that she’d won
this battle, she let the curtain close and picked up her body wash.
“So… thirty-five years,” he said,
and she figured it was then that he’d realize what he’d been saying this whole
time and start quickly backpedaling.
“Yep.”
“Plus any additional years we need
to add between now and then.”
She froze in the shower. That
wasn’t backpedaling. “Additional years?”
“I’m going to need an extra year
every time a man flirts with you.”
Were they…. Certainly they weren’t
having the talk. Were they? While she was in the shower??? “Well, then…” she
said with uncertainty in her voice. “I’m going to need one every time a woman
flirts with you.”
“That seems
fair.”
She was starting to freak herself
out, so she did the only thing she could think to do. She went for banter. “But
when we reach the end of the deal I’m leaving you cause
you’ll be an old man.”
He pulled back the shower curtain
and leaned in to kiss her, ignoring that one side of his face and shoulder were
pelted with water. “That’s fine. I’ll be too old to care by then anyway.”
Then he walked out of the bathroom
and left her standing there staring at the sage shower
curtain.
**********
She dropped their bag of towels,
sun block, and reading materials down onto a chaise lounge then turned around to
watch him, walking strangely and slowly towards her.
“I don’t know how you’re supposed
to walk through this stuff wearing these,” he mumbled to himself as he reached
her.
“By this stuff you mean sand, and
by these things you mean flip flops?”
“They keep falling off my feet,” he
said, moving the other lounge so it was completely underneath their
umbrella.
“Yesterday you complained because
your gym shoes got sand in them.”
“Yes.”
“So last night we bought you flip
flops.”
“Yes,” he said, sitting down and
kicking off the flip flops in question.
“And yet you’re still
complaining.”
He looked up and waved one at her.
“These have sand in them too.”
“You’re on the beach, Josh. You’re
going to get sand places.”
He looked at his hands in disgust.
“Apparently.”
She shook her head and pulled out a
book from the bag. “Here,” she said, handing it to him.
“Read.”
“I don’t like this
book.”
“Because it’s
fiction.”
“Yes.”
“And you’d rather be reading
something that made some sort of difference to someone somewhere in the
world.”
“You’re mocking me
now.”
“Yes.
Read.”
“Fine.”
She watched as he situated himself
with his feet up and his t-shirt acting as a pillow. Once he was comfortable, he
sighed and opened the book to the earmarked place he left off at the day before.
With him somewhat settled, she stood and took off her cover-up.
“You’re taking that off again?” he
screeched, looking up at her.
“Yes, Josh. I’m taking off the
cover-up.”
“You’re practically naked under
that thing!”
“I’m not practically naked. I’m
wearing a bathing suit. A bathing suit that isn’t the least bit
revealing.”
He gave her a look that said he
disagreed with that statement. “At least cover up your legs with
it.”
“Josh…”
He looked around. “Fine, but I got
two extra years yesterday.”
“Those guys weren’t flirting with
me; they were just looking at me.”
“It still counts.”
“Read.”
“Fine.”
She leaned back, adjusting her hat
to keep the sun out of her eyes. Looking out at the ocean, she took a deep
breath of fresh air and then picked up her book and started to read.
Heaven.
When she hadn’t heard a peep out of
him for almost ten minutes, she looked over at him expecting to see him asleep.
But there he sat, arms propped up behind his head, looking out at the ocean from
behind his sunglasses. She watched him for several seconds until he glanced over
at her and grinned. He didn’t hate this near as much as he wanted her to think
he did. She smiled back at him and went back to her
book.
“You know,” she heard about five
minutes later. “It’s going to be tough to keep up the double sex pace when we
get back to DC and have to work.”
She looked over at him but he was
once again reading. “When we can’t stay in bed until noon?”
“Right. Although… we could schedule
sex in my office a few times a week…”
“Dream on,” she deadpanned.
He looked over at her, lowering his
sunglasses slightly and raking his eyes down her scantily clothed body. “I
imagine I’ll have that dream for years to come, yes.”
She shook her head but couldn’t
help the smile on her face.
“But you just proved my point,” he
went on as went back to his book. “If we aren’t having sex at the office, the
only way we’re going to be able to fit it all in is to be available to each
other pretty much all other times.”
She turned her page and continued
reading. “Mmm…”
“Say you wake up in the middle of
the night and you can’t get back to sleep and so you figure we might as well go
ahead and get some sex out of the way. You’d have to get dressed and get in your
car and drive over…”
“And hope you’re ok with me waking
you in the middle of the night for sex…”
He tilted his head. “Don’t be
ridiculous, of course I’ll be ok with it.”
This made her chuckle. “So that ten
minute drive to your place would be inconvenient, is what you’re
saying.”
“You might have completely lost the
mood by the time you get there,” he said and turned a page. “Unless…” he said
casually. “What if… I don’t know… what if we lived closer to each other
somehow?”
“Closer? How much
closer?”
“Well…” He looked up at the ocean
and then back at his book. “What if we were living in the same
place?”
Her eyes widened and her mouth fell
open. This was… did he just ask her… they were having the strangest
conversations this week. She stared at him for several seconds, but his head was
buried in the book he didn’t even like. Taking a few deep breaths, she told her
heartbeat to slow down. “In the same place…”
On the surface he looked casual,
but she could see his knuckles turning white from holding the book in his hands
so tightly. “I’m thinking that logistically, that would make the most sense,” he
said, his eyes still glued to his book.
“Logistically speaking,” she said
with a shaky voice and a racing pulse. “I guess it
would.”
“And the twitchy chick’s already at
your place...”
She took another deep breath,
slightly worried she might vomit. “Right…”
“So I guess it would make the most
sense to just go ahead and do it as soon as possible.”
“Well…” Holy crap, she was moving
in with Josh. “I mean… we’re not idiots. If that’s what makes the most sense,
that’s what we should do.”
He looked at her then, a huge grin
on his face even as his sunglasses blocked his eyes. It was quiet for a second
and then he stood up and tossed his book in the general vicinity of their beach
bag. “I’m going to find something better than that crap to read.” He leaned over
and kissed her deeply, then walked off through the sand.
**********
It was the first time since they’d
arrived that they’d crawled into bed wearing pajamas, or boxers in Josh’s case.
The day had been long and tiresome and she was glad he was on the same page as
her and hadn’t attempted something that she was too exhausted to participate
in.
But strangely enough, it was a
first for them. It was the first time they’d gone to bed together without having
sex. And when she rolled onto her side facing away from him a few minutes after
they got into bed, it was the first time he followed her and spooned up behind
her. His bare chest against her back and strong arms around her waist were what
she’d been waiting for, she just hadn’t known it. She snuggled back into him a
little and he held her even closer. Heaven.
She was nearly asleep, in that
place where consciousness and dreams meet, when he tangled his legs with hers
and spoke quietly. “You know, it occurs to me that somewhere over the next
thirty-seven years …”
“Thirty-eight,” she
mumbled.
“Yes,” he said with a chuckle and
no doubt a smirk. “She was definitely flirting.”
Donna elbowed him lightly. “And you
did nothing to dissuade her.”
“Why would I? I got an extra year
out of it.”
“Mmm…”
she said doubtfully. “It didn’t have anything to do with her…”
His left hand began to drift up her
stomach. “Her what, Donna?” he asked teasingly.
“You know very well
what.”
The traveling hand cupped one
breast from below. “I like yours better,” he said in that gravelly voice of his
that made her a little woozy even though he was being a
pig.
She buried her head a little deeper
into her pillow. “Good, cause you’re stuck with them for the next thirty-eight
years.”
His hand drifted back down to her
stomach and stayed there, his thumb brushing circles over her tank top, quickly
lulling her to sleep.
“But I’m thinking,” he mumbled into
her shoulder. “That somewhere over the next thirty-eight years, we might have…
it’s possible, probable even…” he stopped and took a deep breath. “There may be
some sort of birth control mishap.”
Her eyes popped open and she was
suddenly wide awake. It took her several seconds to find her voice. “Umm… well…
that’s… pretty realistic, I guess.”
He shifted behind her. “And that
wouldn’t… be the end of the world, I guess. Would it?”
She started to turn to look at him,
but he tightened his arms around her, keeping her where she was. “No,” she said,
imagining a blonde curly-headed little boy wearing a baseball mitt running
circles around her while she tried to make dinner. “It wouldn’t be the end of
the world.”
“There wouldn’t be too many mishaps
though, right?” he asked with a hint of panic to his
voice.
She smiled slightly at that, the
edge to his voice easing her own nerves. “I wouldn’t think so, no. How many…
mishaps… would you estimate we’ll have?”
There was a lengthy pause before he
answered and she wished she could see his face. But she’d finally figured out
that there was a reason these conversations were happening with some sort of
barrier between them and if he needed that little bit of protection, she could
go along with it. So instead of looking back at him, she put her hand over the
one he had on her stomach and laced their fingers together.
“One… maybe two?” he finally
said.
She relaxed even more. “That sounds
about right. We’re moderately intelligent people. I think we should be able to
keep from having more mishaps than that.”
She could feel him exhale against
her neck. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” And then an evil thought
occurred to her. “There are doctors you can visit to help ensure no more than
one or two mishaps.”
“Doctors?”
“Sure. A few
snips…”
“Donna!” She started laughing then,
she couldn’t help it. He flipped her onto her back and stared down at her with
an appalled face. “You’re an evil person!”
She picked her head up and kissed
him, still laughing. The discussion, she thought, warranted a kiss.
“You’re distracting me!” he
accused, pulling back from her. “Snips???”
She shrugged. “You’re in, you’re
out. No big deal.”
He flopped down onto his back next
to her and looked down at his lap for a good minute, his face going from fear to
disgust to defiance and finally to resignation. He sighed loudly. “Ok, but I’m
going to need five more years if I’m going to …” he stopped and gulped heavily.
“Get
snipped?”
“Don’t say it out loud like
that!”
She couldn’t wipe the smile off her
face. “Five more years, huh?”
He turned his head and looked at
her. “You’re getting off easy with five years, Donna,” he said
sternly.
She grinned. “Ok, it’s a deal.”
He nodded crisply and gave her a
quick chaste kiss.
“You know,” she said in a low voice
while tracing his ear with her finger. “I’m not as tired as I was when we got
into bed.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Donna, we
were just talking about snipping. My guy’s down for the
night.”
She didn’t respond except to throw
a leg over him and straddle his waist. She smiled seductively and then kissed
his neck before starting her way down his chest and
stomach.
“Donna, I really don’t think…” he
hissed as her teeth grazed his pelvic bone. “Well, maybe he can be
persuaded.”
**********
They were walking along a string of
stores in the main shopping area after lunch when he grabbed her hand and
started pulling her towards a souvenir shop. “Let’s go in
here.”
“This one just has t-shirts and
stuff,” she said as they walked in the door. “Let’s go over to the outdoor
market with the local crafts and the art.”
“We need to get Sam a t-shirt,” he
said, walking further into the store. He stopped in front of a bunch of snow
globes and grinned like a kid. “Or a sailboat snow
globe.”
“A sailboat snow globe? That
doesn’t seem a bit ironic to you?”
“Sam likes sailboats.”
“In the snow,” she
finished.
He picked up one and pointed to it.
“It says
“And nothing says thanks like a
sailboat snow globe,” she teased.
“Who says I want to thank him?”
She studied him for a few seconds.
“You look five years younger than you did a week ago, you got some much-needed
vitamin D from the sun, you ate leisurely healthy meals, you haven’t even
mentioned Barry Goodwin, and you’ve gotten more sleep this week than you did all
of last year. I think you want to thank him.”
He pulled her in front of him and
rested his chin on her shoulder. “Please?” he asked in a puppy dog
voice.
She tried but failed not to smile.
“Fine. You can get the sailboat snow globe. But we should look for something
else too. Something his fiancée might not have to hide in a
closet.”
He kissed her neck. “He can keep it
in his office.”
She turned around in his arms and
gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. “Cause nothing says serious political
operative like a sailboat snow globe.”
“Right,” he said, grabbing her hand
and walking towards the cash register.
“Happy now?” she asked a few
minutes later as they walked out of the store.
“Yes,” he said idly while trying to
shove the shopping bag down into her purse.
“Hey, let me carry that for you,”
she deadpanned.
Once the bag was safely in her
purse, sticking out of the top and making it impossible to zip, he laced their
fingers and started walking again.
“Let’s go to the market now,” she
said in an excited voice.
“In a little bit,” he said as they
walked down the street. “I want to go into a few more stores here
first.”
“Josh…” she pouted. “It’s our last
day. I want to go to the market.”
“Just a few more. Then we can go to
your precious market and I won’t even complain.”
“Yeah, right,” she huffed. “What
else do want to buy over here anyway?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.
Stuff.”
They wandered idly down the street
with the few tourists who were there on the non-port day. It was quiet and nice
and she found herself looking out at the ocean where the cruise ships normally
docked. Occasionally, they’d stop at a window and Josh would look inside, but
she didn’t pay much attention. It was just nice to walk slowly with him for
once.
“Do you think the mishaps could get
confused some day?”
She looked over. “I’m sorry. Was
that English?”
“The… you know,” he said with a
head tilt. “The mishaps. Once we have them…”
“Once we have them,” she said with
a chuckle, “I’m not sure we should refer to them like that.”
“So noted, but I still think there
might be some confusion.”
“We’ll teach them about the
constitution,” she said, putting her head on his shoulder as they walked. “It’ll
be fine.”
“No, although yeah, we will have to
do that. But… what about our names. Don’t you think our names might confuse
them?”
She stood up straight again. “Our
names?”
He stopped walking and turned to
face her. “My last name is Lyman, yours is Moss. That could confuse a…
mishap.”
Her eyes widened to the point of
almost falling out of her head and she was glad he wasn’t the only one wearing
sunglasses. “I uh…” and her voice was shaking, damn it. “I guess it
could.”
And he must’ve heard it in her
voice, because suddenly he was grinning at her. “If only there was something we
could do which would change one of our last names to match the other. Some sort
of legal action we could take to make sure we all have the same last
name.”
There was a joke there somewhere
about him changing his last name… or something along those lines, but she was in
a daze and couldn’t think of it. “We all…”
He picked up her hand. “You, me,
the mishaps…”
“Right.” She took a deep breath.
They were going to be a family.
“Donna,” he said
quietly.
“You’re wearing sunglasses,” she
blurted out. She wasn’t sure why, but she needed to see his eyes.
He was still for a second and then
took them off. “Donna…”
“Yes?” she breathed
out.
“I know what else I want to buy
before we go to the market.”
What?
“What?”
He smirked at her confusion. “Let’s
go look for something in there,” he said, nodding towards a store behind
her.
She stared at him for another
second, eyebrows knitted together, then turned around and looked. They were
standing in front of a jewelry store; a really nice looking jewelry store. She
slowly turned her head back to him. “You want to…?”
He nodded. “Would that be ok with
you?”
“I uh…” she turned around and
looked at the store again as a tear slipped out of her eye and down her cheek.
“Sure,” she said weakly, turning back to face him again. “I could… I could look
for something in there.”
He pulled her sunglasses off her
pink nose. “You’re sure?” he whispered, wiping her cheek with his
thumb.
She nodded several times, a slow
smile coming over her face even as another tear slid down her cheek. “Yeah, I’m
sure. But… I think I’m gonna need five more years.”
He laughed then and leaned down to
kiss her. “Five more years, huh? For what?”
She kissed him again, lingering
softly against his lips, then pulled him into a hug and buried her face in his
neck. “No reason. I just want them.”
“Ok,” he sighed into her hair.
“They’re yours.”