A Handmaid's Tale (TWW, MATURE) COMPLETE

[Kzinti_Killer]

A Handmaid’s Tale
Show Canon: The West Wing
Rated: Mature - A few harsh words.
Summary: Post-ep for “The Ticket” in which Will and Josh go head to head over Donna's interview. Unless you're up to date with the show, up to at least the current season's premiere episode, this story will make no sense at all.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, if I did the show wouldn't have slumped so badly the last two years.

Author's Note: This is an odd little short story that just came rolling out of my cranky muse and onto my hard disk; just the way you see it. It’s about Donna, but Donna isn’t in it.

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Will Bailey’s Office….

“Mr. Bailey?” He still hadn’t gotten his assistant to call him by his first name. She was old school, considered it disrespectful.

“Yes, Sophie?”

“Mr. Lyman is on the phone for you.”

Will glanced at his watch. Right on time. “Okay. I’ll take it.”

“Line one.”

“Thank you, Sophie.”

Will picked up the phone. “This is the presidential shoulda been’s office.”

“You set her up, didn’t you?”

Bailey smirked a little, but only a little. “I have no idea what you’re talking about Josh.”

“You’re a prick, Bailey. She just left here looking like the end of the world, and you set her up. You used her as a kamikaze. You put her out front on your campaign because you knew she had something to prove, so she wouldn’t exercise caution with the press. You let her dig herself into a hole that I can’t hire her out of.”

Will’s face hardened. “My, my Lyman, aren’t you the sore winner.” It was significant that he made no attempt to dodge Josh’s accusation.

“You can kiss my ass. You deliberately sabotaged her career,” Josh snarled. “Once I win this election, you’d better run for your life back to sunny California, because I plan on making a personal project out of you. As far as national politics are concerned, you’re done.”

“Josh, if you want to go mano y mano, right now, I’m game, but you need to understand something, you self-absorbed jerk. I did what I did to help her, not hurt her.”

Josh laughed bitterly. “You call keeping her from working for the Democratic candidate for president helping her? What do you call execution by lethal injection? Sleep therapy?”

“No, I wasn’t keeping her away from Santos, I was keeping her away from you, you jackass.”

There was silence on the other end of the line, so Will plunged on.

“I put her out front because she’s talented as hell. And yes, she did need to prove something, as much to herself and to you as to anyone else. I knew that if we lost she’d be looking for work. Her contract here is up in a couple of weeks. And I knew that you’d be the one doing all the hiring in our line of work.”

Josh cleared his throat, and sounded a little hoarse when he spoke. “You admit that you didn’t want her working for me, and you don’t call it sour grapes?”

“Josh, when she came to me her résumé was, in a word, stunning. She’d outgrown that desk that you had her chained to a long time ago. Did you expect her to wait on you, hand and foot, forever?”

“I tried to give her more…”

“Bull shit,” Will said evenly. “She needed to be out of that job two years ago, and you wouldn’t give her the one thing that she really needed. Her freedom. You could have done so much for her. You could have encouraged her to spread her wings, but you didn’t. She should have been my deputy this time around, but she wasn’t, because she hadn’t gained enough of a reputation away from you for anyone to take her seriously in that slot….because you held her back.”

“She has the reputation now,” Josh responded. “And it’s keeping me from hiring her.

“Yes, she does, but the last thing that she needs is to step back into your shadow, Josh. She needs to find her own way. I’m sure that she can, but it can’t be following in your wake anymore. I’m sure that she’ll end up in the administration, if you can beat Vinick, and there will be other elections, but for this one you’ll have to do without each other. Anything else would be bad for her. It goes without saying that I don’t really give a damn whether it’s bad for *you* or not.”

Josh snorted. “Now there are the sour grapes I was looking for.”

“Stuff it Lyman. Yes, I’m a little bitter. You won, I lost. But it doesn’t change the essential truth. You don’t deserve her, you never did.”

“And I suppose you think that you do?” Josh snapped back.

“Ah, there it is!” Will, said with a laugh.

“There what is?”

“The green-eyed monster that that’s always been the monkey on your back where Donna is concerned,” Will answered.

There was silence for a moment. “So I miss her.” Josh was trying to sound nonchalant, and failing miserably.

Will closed his eyes at the wealth of pain and loneliness in Josh’s voice. “I know you do, and I think that you should think about what that means to you. Because I know that she’s missed you.”

“She talked to you…?” Josh began, but Will cut him off.

“No, she didn’t talk about you at all. It’s like she was afraid that I’d gain some insight into you if she did. I know because, everywhere we went during the campaign there was a book of the Art and Artistry of Alpine Skiing in her room.”

“How did you know about that?”

“Easy, I read the inscription in the front of the book one time when I was in her room for a conference call, and she was in the bathroom.”

Josh was silent.

“Those weren’t exactly the sort of sentiments I’d expect from a deputy chief of staff to his assistant. That was less a testimonial than it was just short of a love sonnet.”

Josh sighed. “It’s complicated.”

“Not anymore it isn’t, not unless you let it be.”

“Where does that leave Donna?” Josh queried, and then he hastened to clarify. “Professionally I mean?”

“Well,” Will drawled, “half of the West Wing has been bled of staff to drive the campaign. Communications in particular is really hurting. Toby needs a deputy or he’s going to lose his mind. This leak and the resulting investigation are driving him up the wall.”

Josh paused. “Well, I’m not exactly CJ’s or Toby’s favorite person right now, but I still have some juice. You push while I pull?”

“How about you push while I pull?” Will shot back.

Josh laughed softly. “You’re still a prick, Bailey.”

“And you’re a bigger jerk than ever, Lyman.”

“Yeah, but you’re my kind of prick,” Josh answered.

“Ditto.”

“Do you think she’ll take my call?”

“About what?” Will answered, feigning ignorance.

“You know.”

“Yeah I do know. This won’t be an easy fix for you Josh, and it shouldn’t be. I’m going to enjoy watching you grovel.”

“It’s what I do,” Josh answered, sounding better than he had at any other point in the conversation.

“What, grovel?”

“No, you idiot, I fix things. And I don’t care if it’s hard, no one as valuable as she is should be an easy fix.”

Will grinned. “Well, all right then. I have work to do. It’s a tough job soothing Bingo Bob’s wounded ego.”

“Ah ha!” Josh crowed. “I knew it! I knew you really didn’t believe in him!”

“Shut up and go get our next president elected…and order some flowers, lots of flowers, before you call her.”

“Ah-kay. I’ll talk to CJ after she cools off a bit. Tonight, I promise.”

Will nodded to himself. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow morning.”

“I should still punch your lights out for putting her through this. For putting me in a position to hurt her like that.”

Will laughed. “That will be kind of tough to explain to your first kid, won’t it? How you punched out the man that he’s named after?”

“In your dreams, Bailey.”

Will shook his head. “Nope, in yours, Lyman. Talk to you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.”

The End