Act 2
INTERIOR - JOSH'S OFFICE
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, 4:30

"The Hazardous Materials team is here, Josh. They need to test your office." Margaret was standing in front of his desk, arms crossed, giving him her best 'don't argue with me' look.

"Now?" It seemed to Josh that every time he finally started to get some work done he was interrupted.

"Yep. They need about 20 minutes." Margaret held firm.

"And they need me to leave?"

"It would probably make things go a little faster."

Josh closed the folder he'd been reading. "Are you insinuating..."

"We don't have time for this," Margaret said with a smile. "Go get yourself a cup of coffee in the Mess
and by the time you get back they'll be done."

Josh headed for the door then turned back. "These guys have proper clearances, right?"

"Yes, Josh," Margaret sighed dramatically. "I'm staying here to keep an eye on them just on case though."

Josh smirked. "So what you're saying is that one of them is cute?"

"Yes. The tall one," Margaret whispered. "Now get out of here so I can work my magic."

CUT TO
INTERIOR-HALL OUTSIDE JOSH'S OFFICE, CONTINUOUS

Josh saw Ron Butterfield standing a few yards down the hall deep in conversation with the head of the HazMat team. As the conversation broke up he approached the tall Secret Service agent. "How much longer are these guys gonna be here?"

"Shouldn't be much longer. Another hour tops."

"Everything look alright so far?" Josh tried to sound casual. Nothing about Ron's demeanor hinted that there was anything to worry about but you could never be too careful in a situation like this.

"Nothing in the air is setting off the monitors," Ron said. "All the mail we took, and the surface swabs,
will have to go to a lab for testing."

"How long will that take?"

"Several hours at least."

"The sooner they can wrap things up the better. We've got a lot going on around here today."

"So I heard. Among other things the grapevine says you're thinking of proposing to Donna."

"No no no, not the grapevine." Josh's eyes got wide. "This can't get back to Donna before I get a chance to...you know...actually pop the question."

"Relax," Ron grinned at Josh's momentary panic. "I overheard you talking about it in your office this morning. Once Margaret realized I'd heard she swore me to secrecy and told me she'd have my head if word leaked out."

"Margaret swore you to secrecy? That's rich."

Ron laughed. "I know. But trust me, I don't want to do anything to incur the wrath of Margaret. She scares me."

"But I don't."

"Not even a little," Ron smiled.

"That sounds about right," Josh conceded. "I'm gonna go for a little walk. Page me if you find anything.

"Will do. And by the way, Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"Women like elegant but understated."

"What the Hell does that mean?" Josh asked. Ron just laughed and walked away. Josh turned the corner, muttering to himself, and was almost bowled over by Otto and Lou coming in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Josh," they said in unison as they slid to a halt.

"Hey," he replied distractedly.

Otto struggled to look nonchalant. "What's up with all the guys with the monitors?"

"The anthrax thing," Josh said leadingly. "They're testing the air. Any of this ring a bell?"

"Oh, that's right." Lou nodded her head. "I forgot about that."

Josh looked at them both like they were losing their minds. "You forgot since this morning? What's wrong with you two?"

"Nothing. Just a lot going on." Lou tried to look casual. When Josh didn't respond she continued. "We're just on our way back from lunch."

Otto smirked. "Lunch, right. We were firming up the education plan section of the State of the Union."

Josh noticed Otto couldn't stop grinning. "Whatever. I just hope you don't crack under the stress before the speech is done."

"Don't worry about that." Otto's grin got wider. "We're taking care of keeping the stress level low."

"Let's go, Junior," Lou said as she grabbed Otto roughly by the elbow and headed back to the Communications bullpen before his silly grinning gave everything away.

CUT TO:
INTERIOR-WEST WING LOBBY

Josh was pacing the hallways, making a mental to do list and waiting for the HazMat team to finish up in his office when he heard the unmistakable voice of the woman he loved. She and Helen were standing in the center of the lobby admiring the gigantic tree and talking happily. As he got closer her words registered and he froze.

"So he's going to propose on Christmas Eve? How exciting." She was practically bouncing.

How could Donna have possibly heard about the ring? The only people in the building who knew were ones you would think should be able to keep a secret.

"I know," Helen said gleefully. "And it's supposed to be a surprise, so remember, don't say anything."

Donna laughed. "Mums the word."

"I hope I make it till Christmas Eve without spilling the beans."

"You will. I have confidence."

"Thanks."

Josh's heart was beating a mile a minute.

"It's great that they'd already accepted your invitation to spend Christmas here. Can you imagine getting proposed to in the White House? Your niece will be over the moon. Are you sure she doesn't have any idea this is coming?"

Josh clutched his chest and willed his breathing to return to normal. Donna wasn't talking about them at all.

"I don't think so. If she does she's doing a really good job of hiding it. My sister didn't even have any
idea they'd reached that stage of their relationship till Kelly's boyfriend called to ask for their blessing."

"I love that he did that," Donna said with a soft smile. "I know a lot of people think that kind of thing is old-fashioned but I think it's really sweet."

Josh's breath caught. It had never crossed his mind to ask Donna's parents for their blessing. How could he be blowing this whole proposal thing so badly? He was pretty sure they'd say yes. Donna's parents liked him, or at least they always pretended they did. And Donna said they did. So Josh was sure they did. Pretty sure. But maybe they only liked him as a boyfriend. What if they didn't think he was husband material? In a flash he turned back towards his office. He was going to have to call Donna's parents before he did anything else.

CUT TO:
INTERIOR - MARGARET'S OFFICE

"I was just getting ready to page you," Margaret said as Josh entered her office. "Secretary Vinick is on line one."

"Great. Can you give me about 10 minutes and then get me Donna's parents on the phone please," he said as he breezed past her into his office.

"Donna's parents?"

"Yeah." Josh turned back towards her. "Do you have the number?"

"Yes. I just...is everything ok," Margaret asked worriedly.

"Everything's fine. I just need to ask them something."

It only took a second for Margaret to realize what he was saying. Her eyes teared up and her hand fluttered to her chest. "Are you...are you going to ask for Donna's hand?"

"Just get them on the phone ok?" Josh tried to sound stern but couldn't hide the softness in his eyes.

"Right away."

CUT TO:
INTERIOR - JOSH'S OFFICE, CONTINUOUS

Josh flung himself down into his desk chair, picked up the phone and punched line one.

"Mr. Secretary, what the heck is going on over there?" he asked. "How did a simple dinner wind up all over the cable news channels?

"I was only speaking the truth, Josh," Arnie replied. "Humphries is a crotchety old coot."

Josh couldn't help but smile. "You couldn't have waited till your mic was off before you said that?"

"That, I'll admit, was an error in judgment on my part. How bad is it playing?"

"Could be worse," Josh said. "You're lucky we had a few other things break around the same time. You've been relegated to the back burner."

"That's something then."

"But that doesn't mean you're not going to have to issue an apology. One that Humphries will accept. And you'll need to do it in a very public way."

"I've already offered to do that. Twice. But Humphries wants milk this for as long as he can. He told me we could do something for the press tomorrow afternoon."

"Why wouldn't he want to get it over with sooner?"

"Because in addition to being a crotchety old coot he loves the attention being focused on him."

Josh laughed. "Ok, well there's nothing we can do about that till he's willing to cooperate. In the
meantime, are you up to speed on what's going on in Kazakhstan?"

"Yeah. My deputy filled me in."

"I'll have Margaret fax you a call list. If you hear anything, or get any leads, let us know right away."

"Are you calling the Ambassadors in," Arnie asked.

"If we need to."

"Ok, let me get to some of these calls and we'll talk in a bit."

"Goodbye, Mr. Secretary."

As soon as the light on line one went off Margaret popped her head into Josh's office.

"Can you fax the call list Ronna sent over to Secretary Vinick in London right away," he said as soon as he saw her.

"Yep. And Donna's parents are on line three."

"Which one?"

"Both."

"Thanks."

Josh took a deep breath, reached for the phone, then pulled his hand back as if he'd been burnt. He took a few more deep breaths-in through the nose, out through the mouth. He fixed his hair, straightened his tie, then wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. Finally feeling ready, he picked up the phone and punched line three.

"Mr. and Mrs. Moss, hello." Josh thought, considering the circumstances, formal was the way to go.

"Josh? Is everything ok there? Is Donna ok?" The worried voice of Marjorie Moss cut across the miles
between them.

"I tried dialing her with my cell while we were waiting for you to pick up but her phone went straight
to voicemail," Gary Moss said worriedly. "Is she ok?"

"No, no," Josh tired to calm them down. "Everything's fine. Donna's fine. That's not why I'm calling."

Josh could hear both Donna's parents breathe an audible sigh of relief.

"We were watching the news and we saw the anthrax scare..." Marjorie said.

Josh berated himself for not realizing they may have seen the reports.

"And then your assistant called in the middle of the day...and the last time we got an unexpected call like this from you...." Gary picked up where his wife left off.

"I'm really, really sorry for worrying you," Josh said sincerely. "I promise you everything is fine. Donna is fine."

"And you?"

"I'm fine," Josh assured them.

"Good. Good," Marjorie said. "I think my heartbeat is almost back to normal now. Give me a second. OK, what do you need Josh?"

"Hmm?"

"What were you calling for," Marjorie asked.

"Oh...it was nothing," Josh said. He couldn't ask for Donna's hand now, not after he had scared them both so badly and dredged up bad memories of Gaza.

"It must have been something, dear," Marjorie said.

"You know what. I can't do this now. It's all wrong. I messed it up...."

"No, Josh, it's fine," Gary said. "Go ahead."

"No, no. I want this call to be perfect."

Gary Moss wrapped an arm around his wife and smiled. They shared a look as each realized why Josh was calling.

"If that's what you think is best," Donna's father said calmly. "But if you want to do it now...we're orry we jumped to a bad conclusion."

"It's completely my fault. I'll call back in a little bit," Josh said, confident he was making the right decision. "Would that be ok? We can try this from scratch."

"That'll be fine, dear," Marjorie said sweetly. "We'll talk to you then," Gary added. The Moss's smiled indulgently.

"Ok, bye," Josh said. He placed the phone back on it's cradle and ran his hands through his hair. "That could have gone better."

CUT TO:

INTERIOR - OVAL OFFICE

"Come on in, Josh," Matt said as Josh knocked softly and poked his head into the Oval. "Anything new on the explosion?"

"Not yet, Sir. Secretary Vinick is working the phones. Hopefully we'll have something soon." Josh moved into the office and stood in front of the President's large desk.

"You talked to Arnie?" Matt raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"What's up with the Humphries thing?"

"Arnie says he was just speaking the truth," Josh smiled. "They're gonna do an apology for the press but Humphries wants to drag it out till tomorrow."

"Doesn't he realize he's not the top news story in the world right now? How much attention does he think he's getting?" Matt shook his head.

"I have no idea," Josh chuckled. As a rule it was never a good idea to be caught calling a foreign dignitary names on an open mic but as those situations went this one was pretty funny.

"Anything new on the anthrax," Matt asked.

"Ron says we should have a final report in a couple of hours," Josh replied, rubbing his face. "All the preliminary tests look like it was a false alarm though."

"Good. Any decisions yet on the proposal thing?"

"Sir," Josh sighed.

"Come on, Josh. We have time to kill." Matt was clearly enjoying Josh's discomfort.

"I'm sure we can find something to do."

"But not something this fun."

"Fun for who?"

"Me."

"Of course." Josh knew his boss wasn't going to let this one go.

"Spill."

"I was seriously considering Lou's Christmas Eve idea but it looks like your niece already has a lock on
that date and I don't want Donna to have to share the spotlight."

"Two proposals in one day might send Helen over the edge." Matt agreed.

"Sam is still pushing the nature thing hard. And Ron thinks understated but elegant."

"Are either of them married?"

"Sam isn't, though he does have some experience with proposals. And Ron...I honestly have no idea."

"Me either come to think of it." Matt pondered for a moment. "Be that as it may...we know I'm married so I think my word should carry a little extra weight. Take it from me. Women like grand gestures."

"Did you propose to Helen with a grand gesture?"

"No. And I get reminded about it once a month. At least. All these years later I still have to hear about it. I didn't go with a grand gesture and I'm paying for it. I'm just trying to save you the same pain."

"How did you propose?" Josh was suddenly interested.

"That's not important."

"It's important if I want to make sure I don't repeat the same mistakes."

"Fine. If you must know-I proposed over the phone."

"Over the phone?" Josh couldn't hide his smile.

"Don't start."

"I'm just saying, Sir, over the phone?"

"Yes. And neither my wife nor my in-laws will ever let me forget it. Take my advice Josh-grand gestures are the way to go."

"I'll keep that in mind."