A C H I V A L R O U S O U T L A W

Author: Liza C. E-mail address: liza_cameron@yahoo.com Title: A Chivalrous Outlaw Category: sequel to Introductions in Iowa Disclaimer:  This is just some not-for-profit fun done out of love and respect for the characters and those who created and own them. Beta'ed: By Kim Summary: A Sequel to Introductions in Iowa.  Josh and Donna have some fun on the campaign trail.   **She's here.  Right now. Walking in this restaurant.   Brown coat and a ponytail right in front of my eyes.  Not a mirage this time.  And she's coming towards me… no… no she's not.  Damn! Couldn't she have picked a table where I didn't have to shift and twist myself into a pretzel in order to see her?  Uh oh… now I'm a stalker.   No I'm not.  This isn't planned.  I didn’t know she was going to be here.  In fact I thought she specifically wasn't here. I asked yesterday when I checked in if they had a room for her and they said no… okay that might not be helping my not-a-stalker-defense.  I'll keep that to myself in case someone asks. Why does she always have to hang with that whole posse of Bingo Bob buffoons?   She's so much better than that.   At least they aren't traveling with the cardboard cutout himself today.  She looks good.  A little tired maybe, but good.  Really good.   Five days hasn't changed her.  Does she see me?  She's not looking over here.  Why doesn't she look over here?   I'm looking at her.  Look over here, Donna.  Maybe I'll go over there and say 'Hi.'  I wonder if we're okay. I think we're okay.  Why didn't I call her this week?  I should have called her.  Should I have called her?  I really, really wanted to call her.  She could have called me.   She said she was desirous of my friendship in that hall… so it should be her that calls me.  I am so full of shit.  I should have called her... I'll call her now.  Well maybe not now, later.  When she's not in the same room.  It would be weird if I called her and she's in the same room.  Since she is in the same room, maybe I should do something bold.  I could slip the waiter a twenty and tell him to spill something, which would cause a ruckus and then she'd see me and know I was here.  Then she would come to me… hmm could work…** "…after the interview with the local paper we move on to a Q&A at the local VFW, followed by Rotary and then a luncheon with the Downtown Business Leaders…" "That's all before lunch? Did you schedule me bathroom breaks?"   Ronna glanced up from the schedule and dead-panned, "No, but you have two minutes and 15 seconds before the luncheon begins.  That's your own personal time.   What you do with it is your business."   "Excellent, maybe I can take in a show."  He sighed tiredly.  "Why don’t we do the afternoon in the morning?"  Glancing around the table, he asked, "That about it, everybody?" An affirmative chorus sounded from around the table.   From everybody, that is, but the campaign manager. Matt looked at him, but Josh was staring at the other side of the hotel's restaurant.  "Josh." He didn't answer or move, and Matt waited a second as everyone else at the table looked on with amused expressions.  Raising his hand, Matt snapped his fingers in front of his obviously preoccupied campaign manager's face. "Josh!" "Huh… what?"  Josh swallowed roughly and darted his eyes quickly around the table, suddenly overly alert. "Is that everything?  Are these hardworking people free to call it an evening at a decent hour for once?" Josh glanced down at his watch. 9:30pm. Right, they were meeting over dinner. Dinner was over.  Meeting was over. "Sure.  Thanks, everyone.  See you at the regular time tomorrow morning in the Maple Room." "Birch Room," Ronna corrected with an undisguised whisper. "Right.  Regular time tomorrow morning in the Birch Room." With several quizzical glances at one another, the small campaign staff dispersed so that only Josh, Matt and Helen were left. "What… are you finally breaking under the pressure? Maybe you need an early night more than the rest of the staff does," Matt asked with a tone of bemusement. "No…" Josh shook his head.  "No breaking… no pressure.   I'm fine." "Really, because I think you missed the last 15 minutes of that meeting." "I didn't… I heard every word." "Where is lunch tomorrow?" Josh furrowed his brow and finally replied, "Maybe I heard every other word." "Who is she?"  Helen asked with a slightly suspicious smirk. "Who?"  Josh was visibly startled by the question. "The woman you've been staring at across the restaurant, ever since she walked into the room, oh… about 15 minutes ago-- just about the time you stopped paying attention.  Who is she?"  Helen asked again with an inquisitive glance across the room. He shook his head.  "I don't know what you're-" "Josh, you may be a politician, but apparently you're a terrible liar. Because this lying thing you're doing right now… terribly transparent." Matt glanced behind him and surveyed the room; Josh cringed slightly at the rather obvious nature of his inspection.  Matt Santos didn't do things in a small way and his very presence demanded attention.  "Isn't that a table of Russell staffers?" Josh glanced and tried to feign nonchalance. "I'm not really sure." Matt shrugged and turned back around to the table, but Helen didn't let it go.  "Is it the brunette? My bet is it's the brunette." "No! It's not the brunette!"  Josh exclaimed with an indignant and slightly disgusted tone. "A-ha, then it's one of the blondes."  Helen squinted at the table in the corner.  "But I'm guessing it's the blonde with the ponytail, not the blonde with the short spiky hair—short-spiky-hair looks like jailbait, she could definitely get you arrested.  You're not after the one who could get you arrested, are you, Josh?" "Helen, I think you should stop harassing, Josh.  He doesn't know that you're teasing, he thinks you're just punishing him because you find yourself on the campaign trail, staying at a Howard Johnson's." "Nonsense. We're bonding.  And he's running our life, but we don't know anything about his."  She gave Josh a pointed look that made Josh think Matt had a point about the punishment. "Except now we know that when an underage, blonde Bingo Bob supporter enters the room, he suddenly loses all ability to concentrate." "She's not underage." "Ahh, but she is a Bingo Bob supporter… cavorting with the enemy?"  Helen arched a finely shaped eyebrow at him. "She's not the enemy. She's… uh…"  Realizing subterfuge was futile, Josh lowered his head and screwed his palms into his eyes tiredly. "…she's Donna Moss…" Matt furrowed his brow while turning around once again to peer across the restaurant. "Donna Moss…" His voice was thoughtful. "Donna Moss, wasn't she the one…   Gaza…" Josh just nodded in the affirmative.  "That's right, she worked for you." "Oh…" A look of dawning crossed Helen's face and she brought her hand to her mouth. "Of course, how is she doing?" "She's… uh… she's doing okay." Josh ran his hand roughly through his hair. "She was with you for a long time, right?" Matt asked curiously. Josh emitted a resigned huff and then allowed a half- smile.  "Not quite eight years." "Why isn't she with us?"  Matt eyed him curiously.  "She really a big fan of Russell?" "I don't actually think so; I think she's a big fan of not working for me anymore."  He had glanced back across the restaurant so he didn't see the look that passed between the other two at that statement, but Donna was no longer at the table.  He felt a momentary jolt of panic that she'd left and he hadn't had a chance to say hello.   Realizing that he had two people at his table looking at him expectantly, he quickly turned back to them, cleared his throat and continued.  "But she should be working for us. We could use her.  She's good and-" "And… she's headed this way," Helen interrupted. "What?!" Josh almost sprained his neck in his haste to turn back towards where Donna had been sitting moments earlier, only to find that she was indeed walking towards their table, ice cream cone in hand. Josh couldn't concentrate on anything other than the fact that Donna was headed toward them… towards him.  But if he had he would have heard Helen unnecessarily confirm it was Donna.  "…if she's the ponytail one, she's headed this way. And since she's headed this way, I assume she's the one, you've been gazing at." The last few words caught his attention.  "I wasn't gazing." "It looked like gazing." "I'm going to have to agree with my wife on the whole gazing thing, Josh." But Josh had once again stopped listening to them, because Donna had just come to a stop at the edge of their table.  He looked up at her and felt the familiar pull of just being in her presence.  A pull, he ashamedly admitted to himself, that had become all too obvious and more determined once he no longer had the luxury of her constant presence in his life. Donna had noticed him the second she'd walked into the restaurant.  And then she'd noticed that his eyes were glued to her table, and since she was fairly certain he wasn't trying to gain insight into the rival campaign or ogling Will, she decided to take it as a sign and make the first move by walking over.  She'd missed him; it had been less than a week since she'd left him in the hall that night, but ever since then she'd been anxious to see him and try out the whole friendship thing-- with the guy whose world had stopped turning when she'd been hurt.   Yeah, she'd thought about those words a lot since that night.  In fact, whenever she wasn't working… and even sometimes when she was… it was all she could think about.  Once she reached the table she took a deep breath, met Josh's eye and uttered a soft, "Hi." "Hi." His mouth went dry and he could do nothing but continue to stare up at her.  She was definitely a sight for sore eyes. He knew he'd completely lost concentration when she'd entered the restaurant; now with an even closer proximity, he apparently had lost the ability to speak as well. After several long moments, they were both brought back to the present by the clearing of two throats. "Right." Josh shook his head slightly and looked back to his companions at the table.  "Congressman, this is Donna Moss.  Donna… Congressman Matt Santos and his wife, Helen Santos." Donna had switched her ice cream cone to her left hand and stuck her right one out to shake when she realized it might be sticky from the ice cream.  She withdrew it quickly and wiped it on her jeans.  "Don't you love a Howard Johnson's? Ice cream parlor right in the restaurant."  Smiling nervously, she reoffered her hand.   "It's nice to meet you, Congressman." Matt took her hand and wrapped his left hand around the back of hers, giving her a warm two-handed shake.   "Donna, nice to see you again.  If I remember correctly, when I was a freshman in Congress, you wrangled us for the meet and greet with the President." "Yes, that would have been me.  You have an excellent memory." "Well it helps that everyone on the Hill always knew that in order to get to the Deputy Chief of Staff, they had to go through you." Donna felt a small stab of pride hit her.  Even though she knew she'd stayed too long in her old job, she'd been proud to do what she did and serve the White House. When he let her hand go, Donna turned to Helen. "Mrs. Santos… a pleasure to meet you." "Likewise…" Helen smiled and took her hand. "But please call me Helen." Donna nodded and began to apologize.  "I'm sorry, I don't want to intrude. I just wanted to come over and say hi, and since you were all…" "Staring at you?"  Helen asked matter-of-factly. "No…" Donna shook her head hastily and stuttered, "No… uh… of course not… well, kind of... or maybe you were just sizing up the competition?"  She raised an eyebrow. "No, we were most definitely staring at you.  And you're not intruding.  In fact, Matt and I were just commenting that we needed to check on the kids."  She stood and gathered up her coat and purse. "It was lovely to meet you, Donna. Goodnight, Josh." Matt followed her lead, but stopped and turned back to Donna before exiting. "You look terrific, Donna."  By the look he was giving her, Donna knew he was referencing her injuries in Gaza without actually mentioning them, and Donna smiled gratefully.   "Nice to meet you…"  She trailed off as they made their way from the table.  She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and looked back down at Josh. "I didn't mean to run them off." "You didn't. Our meeting broke up a little bit ago," Josh assured her hastily, before changing the subject. "I didn't know you were going to be here." "We arrived this afternoon.  You?" "Yesterday." He felt a familiar constricting of his chest at being near her again after an absence. They stared at each other, smiling, until Josh shook his head. "Sorry, sit down." "That's okay, I should get back." She glanced at the Russell table where Will was droning on, reading from his notebook.  On second thought, the last place she wanted to go was back to the booth.  And it's not like they needed her, they were just endlessly rehashing stuff they'd already gone over. Josh smirked up at her. "For a minute?  I haven't seen you since… the other night…" Donna blushed and let her gaze drift to the carpet. "It's only been five days." "I know, but… I was hoping to…"  He trailed off, not knowing how to verbalize what he was feeling.  On one hand, they'd gone a long way towards repairing their relationship in that hall in Iowa, but on the other hand, he still had no idea where they stood as far as a personal relationship went.  Especially being on opposing campaigns.  Was she really just seeking his friendship?   Or, like him, was she finally ready for more?   Not having an answer, he changed the subject by motioning to her ice cream cone.   "So what do you have there?" She smiled, realizing he'd chickened out of saying whatever it was he'd been going to say.  That was okay; she had an idea of what he was hoping to do.  Instead of answering, she offered the cone to him. He made a face as he looked at it, wondering what he was expected to do with it. His expression made her giggle. "What? Do you think I have cooties?" "Cooties?"   "Yeah, cooties." "No, I don't think you have cooties."  There was a thread of haughty sarcasm in his voice. "Well, then, here." She pushed the cone towards him again. He took the ice cream and met her eye before taking a bite. "Rocky Road?" "Yeah…" "Mmmm… it's good," he commented before eagerly taking another bite "Hey!" "What?"  He looked at her with wide eyes, feigning innocence. "Share," she demanded playfully. With a dimpled grin, he handed the cone back to her.   "So you're staying at this hotel then, too.  Quite a coincidence." "Nope."  She said licking the ice cream and handing it back to him. "Nope it's not a coincidence or…" "Nope, we're not staying at this hotel." "You're not staying at this hotel?"  She just shook her head. "Wow, the dining options in this town must be worse than I thought if you've come here for dinner…" "I didn't come here for dinner, I came for ice cream." "O…kay."  Josh just shook his head at her logic. She ran her tongue around the perimeter of the remaining scoop and it was an image so erotic that Josh thought he was going to jump right out of his skin… or his pants.  Thankfully, he knew that would not be a good thing to do, especially with a table full of Russell staffers gawking at him.  And gawking they were.  Probably wondering what Donna was doing sharing an ice cream cone with the campaign manager of the upstart candidate.  He knew that they didn't regard Santos as real competition… but they would.  Just a matter of time. Donna failed to notice what her ice cream cone was doing to him and continued matter-of-factly as she handed the cone back to him.  "We're at the Holiday Inn across the street. There is no real restaurant open after lunch, just a Denny's next door; we decided this was the better option." "Oh." Josh took a bite of the sugar cone and then knit his brow.  "But you're just having ice cream? You need to take care of yourself, Donna. I know it's hard on the campaign trail, but you need to eat… and more than just ice cream." She felt her smile start as a small quirk of her lip and grow into a full grin by the time he finished speaking.   He was worried about her taking care of herself; for some reason that made butterflies flit across her tummy.  "You're worried about me?" "I just… I just know how the campaign trail is and I don't want you to…"  He trailed off, high cheeks flushing slightly at the way she was looking at him. "Actually, I had dinner with a donor and he-" Josh snapped to attention instantly and he interrupted heatedly, "A man?"   She smirked slightly.  "Yes, that's usually what the pronoun 'he' indicates." "Will is sending you out to wine and dine men for checks?"  Josh felt the heat rise instantly to his cheeks and an anger flare in his chest.  He pushed back his chair; he would go teach that smarmy bastard a lesson. Donna reached out and grabbed his arm. "Yes… and his wife." "Oh."  Josh relaxed slightly and Donna surveyed his newly sheepish expression quizzically.   After a minute she decided not to press him and instead asked, "You seem a little stressed. When is the last time you did anything fun?" Fun?  What was fun?  He looked at her a second and was about to answer that he didn't know… but instead, a knowing smile appeared. "I just shared an ice cream cone with a pretty girl. That was fun." Donna struggled to maintain her composure, trying not to show how pleased she was at the 'pretty' comment, and while she could control her expression, she couldn't control the blush she felt creeping up her neck.  "Before that?" Enjoying her blush, he shrugged and shook his head. "I remember singing in my office one Monday over breakfast… that was fun, and then everything went to hell in a hand basket by lunch." Donna blushed even harder, before shaking it off. "Well, that's no good.  Remember how much fun we had on the first campaign?" Nodding, he met her eye. "I do.  There was a lot more fun to be had on the first campaign… CJ, Toby, Sam… all of us together…" "Yeah..."  She agreed, before shooting him a sly smile. "I have an idea." "An idea?" "For fun.  You do remember *how* to have fun?" "I have formidable powers of recall, so I could probably figure it out."  He nodded, wondering just what she was up to, but also ready, and more than willing, to find out. "Good.  She stood up and motioned to the papers that were spread on the table, as well as his open backpack on the chair next to him. "Why don't you take your things up to your room and then come across the street.   My room is 354." Josh felt his breathing arrest.  "You want me to come to your room?"  Josh finally asked incredulously.  It wasn't like he hadn't been in her hotel room dozens of times over the years, but this time felt… different.   "Yes."