How I Met Your Mom - Again

I'm sitting in the living room of Josh's apartment and I can't quite wipe the ridiculous smile off of my face. Josh and I have been together for the past eight months, but yet it feels like forever, I guess in theory it has been. I can't pinpoint the exact moment I fell for Josh, but I think it happened pretty much as soon as I answered his telephone in New Hampshire, during the first presidential campaign. The entire time we worked together, we were always pretty unprofessional around one and other, but then stuff happened between us and, well, it doesn't really matter what happened, thank, God that's behind us.

Anyway, back to Josh and I now, it's really hard to explain; this is something I've wanted for so long, and yet it still feels… Weird. Maybe weird was the wrong choice of word, but even though this is all still incredibly new for us, it just feels really… Right. That's not something I'd say to his face, I know it's something he already knows and I'm comfortable with that. We're not the type of people that sit down and profess our undying love for each other every night anyway; we don't need to hear those words to know that we love each other. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing him say it, but with us, it's just not necessary.

So, as I was saying before I got carried away, I'm sitting here watching Josh pace frantically around his apartment, attempting to tidy the place up. It doesn't matter how long I leave Josh on his own for, he still manages to make the place look as if a natural disaster has taken place here, his office is the same – but that's a different story.

"Josh, calm down, it's not like I haven't met her before." I laugh, as I lean over to straighten the pile of magazines on the wooden coffee table.

"This is slightly different, Donna." Josh explained, as he hastily threw his jacket into the hall closet and closed the door quickly behind him.

"I don't understand. How is this any different to the last few times I've met her?" I ask, walking over to the closet and hanging up his discarded jacket.

"We're, you know… Dating now, it's completely different."

"It's not different at all, Joshua and you know it." I smile. We've spent almost nine years working together, sometimes for twenty hours a day. This," I point between the two of us. "Is exactly the same as it's always been; only now, it's a lot more fun!"

"Donna!!!"

I love it when he uses that high-pitched squeaky voice that he hates so much. I find it strangely attractive.

"Donna, seriously, please don't say anything like that in front of my Mom." He warns me.

"Josh, your Mom knows that I practically live here, she knows that we're sleeping together." At this point I can't help but laugh at him, it's so adorable. He's a grown man worrying about what his Mom will think about his girlfriend staying over for the night.

"It's not that. I'm aware she knows you stay over; it's just, this is weird for me. The last time she saw you, you were working for me, and well… Now you're…"

"Sleeping with you?"

"You're really going to have to stop doing that."

There goes that voice again, it's like he has absolutely no control over it.

XxXxXxXxXxX

We're sitting in Josh's new Audi Sedan on our way to Dulles International Airport to pick up, Rose - Josh's Mom. One of the first things that really drew me to Josh when I first met him was his enormous ego, the way he fights for things he truly believes in and wants… This really is sexy to watch in the office, on the 395 in rush hour, not so much.

I glance over at Mike, Josh's Secret Service agent who's sitting in the front passenger seat. "Josh, seriously, slow down. She doesn't land until six-thirty."

He looks at me through the rear-view mirror. "I know, but I want to make sure we're waiting there when she arrives, plus I need to find a place to park." I can see his hands tightly gripping the steering wheel while we're sitting in traffic. It still stumps me that a man in his position has such little patience.

Once inside the airport, Josh's entire mood changes, he's no longer gripping my hand like a vice. He hasn't seen Rose since the campaign, and I know he's been looking forward to her visit for weeks. I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about her stay. Don't get me wrong, she's a lovely woman, and we get on great, but for the past nine years, it's just been the two of them; and they're extremely close and I don't want to come between that. I haven't brought this up with Josh, because quite frankly, it's not necessary. I'm probably just over reacting as usual (something that Josh likes to poke fun at, which is even more reason to keep this to myself.)

"Bubala!!" I hear Rose's familiar voice echo around the arrivals gate. I must remember to ask her what that means.

Josh lets go of my hand and makes his way over to his Mom, throwing his arms tightly around her small plump frame. This is the Josh Lyman that no one else sees. He reminds me of a baguette… Bear with me, I promise I'm going somewhere with this. The Josh Lyman the world sees is hard and crusty. Like the outer layer of the baguette, whereas I see the whole deal, including his soft and squidgy inside. It's something I saw occasionally whilst working for him, but ever since we got together, it's a side he's let me see a lot more of.

After a couple of minutes of intense hugging and cheek pinching, Rose makes her way over to me. "Donna, sweetheart. How are you? I hope Joshua isn't causing you too much trouble?" She laughs, as she links her arm through mine.

"Eh, no more than usual." I love teasing him; he knows I'm only kidding when I say this; but he still blushes.

"He's a handful, just like his father. The older Joshua gets, the more of Noah I see in him, it's really lovely to watch." As she says this, she links her other arm with Josh and leads us out to the car, followed closely behind by Mike.

"Are you okay sitting in the back, Mom?"

"I'll be fine, darling." She reassures him as she climbs in the back, patting the seat next to her, indicating for me to sit down.

Josh and Rose make light conversation for the next couple of minutes, discussing the flight and the abnormally cool weather in Florida.

"Joshua, if you carry on like this, you're going to get a ticket." I look over at Rose and we both start laughing. "Stop driving like an old man and put your foot down."

"Hey, I have precious cargo in the back, I was being careful." He tried to defend himself.

"Now you sound like your Grandpa Alfie." She teases him.

That made Josh smile. He looked back at us through the rear view mirror. "Is French okay for dinner tonight, Mom?"

"Oui monsieur" She grins back at him.

God, she reminds me so much of Josh. They share the same warm brown eyes and mischievous dimples when they smile.

We pull in to La Colline, this delicious, but ridiculously expensive French restaurant on Capital Hill, only to find that Josh has hired us a private room overlooking the hill, which may I add, is absolutely beautiful at night.

As we walk in, Josh is holding his Mom's hand, while his other hand rests firmly on the base of my back, guiding me through the busy restaurant. I love it when he does this. I'm not usually the type of woman who enjoys being "looked after" by her man. I'm a fairly independent woman, but this simple gesture makes me feel so safe. I lean over and place a quick kiss on his cheek, he smiles back and blushes slightly when he notices Rose watching.

As we settle in and take a look at the menu Josh starts to laugh.

"Have you seen some of their English translations?" He asks, still laughing. "We could have Poulet Fermier Roti Avec Sa Garniture… Sounds delicious, I know." He jokes. "Apparently in English that means Free-range chicken, roasted with it's set of table linen."

"Are you making this up, Joshua?" Rose asks as she starts laughing.

"No. Have a look." He points out the extremely chewy sounding dish to us. "Or do either of you fancy some Pommes a l'Huile Tiedes?"

"Do I want to know?" I ask, laughing so hard, I swear tears are beginning to roll down my face.

"Mmm, tepid potatoes." He explains as he licks his lips.

"Talking about bizarre sounding food, do you remember that summer where your Dad took us on a little road trip?" Rose asked as she smiled warmly at the memory.

"God, didn't we end up driving all the way around the Midwest looking for a particular frozen custard? Josh laughed as he pulled apart a bread roll that had just been placed on the table.

"Apparently someone had told your father about it, but he couldn't for the life of him remember its name. All I can remember is that it was about 100 degrees outside, and you and Joanie were getting restless."

"I remember Joanie wouldn't play eye spy with me anymore." Josh smiled.

"Well, no sweetie, you'd been playing it for four hours straight and you were very limited on the things you picked out for us to guess. I think we spied 'car' at least three hundred times before we stopped for lunch. " Rose teased.

"Hey, I mixed it up a little."

“Yes you did. ‘I spy with my little eye, something beginning with blue c, red c, yellow c.’ were many of the ways in which you kept us guessing.” She grinned as she stole a piece of bread.

"Anyway, I told your father that we would stop off at the next travel plaza and grab some food. Well for once, Noah listened to me, and we pulled over at the next stop and found somewhere to eat. We'd been on the road for a while, so you kids were famished. It was only when I sat down and saw the slogan on the menu 'From your grill to ours,' did I realize that we’d walked into a road kill café. The look on your Dad's face was priceless. But it was what happened next, that to this day, still makes me smile. You were sitting on my lap and all of a sudden you started pointing at something. I turned around and saw this man walking towards the counter with what looked like a baby rabbit in his hand. I carried on helping Joanie decide what she was going to have, when all of a sudden you started to cry. I looked over and they had begun skinning the rabbit, right there in front of us. You looked over at your dad and said 'Daddy, make them put the rabbits clothes back on… Please Daddy.' It was very cute, need I say that we left without ordering anything to eat."

"Ah, so that explains why you don't eat rabbit." I say, as I look across at Josh, it all makes sense now.

In the end, we all opted for lamb chops, green beans and sautéed potatoes – which may I add, were only mildly warm and not tepid. We finished the meal off with some mouth watering Crème Brulee – which was described beautifully as "burnt cream."

The car ride back to Josh's apartment was pretty quiet, it was getting late and we were all pretty full from dinner. As we drove past the White House, Rose reached over and held my hand tightly. "I can't believe my son's Chief of Staff to the president of The United States." She said proudly. "Your father would be so proud of you, Joshua."

Josh said nothing, but I knew that comment meant the world to him, especially coming from his Mom.

XxXxXxXxXxX

While Rose is sharing stories from Josh's childhood, I'm sitting on the couch, with a large glass of wine, cuddling up next to Josh – God, he smells really good tonight – it's a mixture of aftershave, coffee, soap and… Josh, they should really market this smell, I'd probably be the only person who would buy it… Well, the groupies he's collected over the years would probably want some as well. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I'm sitting on the couch in Josh's living room, listening to Rose talk about Josh when he was a little boy. Josh has his arm draped loosely around my shoulder. Every time I try and snuggle closer, he stiffens up. How can a forty-two year old man be so embarrassed about showing his girlfriend some affection in front of his Mom?

"I remember taking Joshua and Joanie to the doctor's once, and there weren't any chairs together, so we all sat down where we could find a seat. Joshua was only about three and a half years old at the time, so I sat him down where I could see him. I couldn't see who was sitting next to him, but he was happily chatting away to whoever it was. As the lady got up, I saw that she was a nun and she seemed to be walking towards me. I remember thinking, 'Oh, God, what's he said to her?' as she got closer, I could see she was smiling at me. 'What a lovely little boy you have, but please, don't tell him I'm not a penguin." Rose started to laugh as she remembered this moment fondly.

"Josh, that is the sweetest thing I have ever heard." I giggle, as I down the last of my Chardonnay."

"Yeah, he was pretty sweet. Apparently he asked her what else she ate apart from fish." You could tell she loved talking about when Joanie and Josh were little, I suppose she doesn't have that many people who know about her family in Florida.

Josh finished off his beer, lay his head back on the couch and yawned, the poor thing had been up since five thirty this morning, trying to tie everything up before he left the office for a couple of days. Still, this didn't stop us from having our fun with him.

"Donna, sweetheart. I hope you're not keeping Joshua up too late at night." Rose asked - sounding genuinely concerned. I love this woman. As soon as I'd told her of Josh's reluctance to show affection around her, she thought it might be fun to play with him a little.

"Okay, I'll let you kid's get on with it… Oh and don't worry about making too much noise, I've brought my earplugs with me." Rose informs us as she walks over and places her wine glass in the sink.

His head snaps to attention. "Mom!" I can't help but smirk a little as he yells this, his voice dropping the usual couple of octaves.

"What, Bubee? I just thought you and Donna might want to stay up and talk for a bit." She explained, winking not so subtly at me.

"Oh, right, yeah." The look on his face is priceless; I have never seen him look quite so uncomfortable before, it's strange how a mother can have that effect on her child, even as a grown up.

"Why, what did you think I meant, dear?" Rose asked innocently.

Sheer terror crossed Josh's face and he began to stutter slightly, something I have never seen from him before. "No… Nothing. Sorry, go to bed."

Once Rose is safely in her room for the night, I curl myself around Josh, lean over and place soft kisses on/along his face, as I reach his neck, I feel his whole body tense up beneath me.

"I think we should maybe… Go to bed." He mumbles quietly, pushing himself up from underneath me.

I think my smile must have scared him, because he quickly corrects himself. "I mean, I think we should go to sleep."

"If you say so." I reply, making my way over to his bedroom door."

"I'll probably just sleep out here." He enlightens me, as I watch him manoeuvre himself uncomfortably on the couch.

"Josh, stop being so ridiculous and come to bed." I say, laughing a little at his odd behaviour.

"But..." He tries to argue, it's getting late, and I'm really not in the mood.

I hold my hand out to help him up. "Josh, just come to bed."

He takes my hand and gives it a light squeeze. "We're just sleeping tonight, okay?"

"I'll try to keep my hands off of you." I tease as I pull him to his feet.

XxXxX

I finish brushing my teeth and start to pull my hair back in to a lose ponytail. I watch Josh getting ready for bed in the reflection of the mirror for a couple of minutes before he notices me.

"What?" he asks, as he pulls down the comforter and climbs into bed.

"Nothing." I smile, as I turn off the bathroom light.

"Well stop staring, you promised you'd keep your hands off of me." He whispers.

"I haven't even touched you."

"You're mentally undressing me, Donna." He grins, as he pats the bed next to him. "Get in, it's cold."

I was going to leave the teasing for tonight and come right out and tell him that Rose and I had been messing with him, but he asked for it, thinking I can't keep my hands off of him for one night… I admit it is hard lying next to him when he's wearing that tight white t-shirt that does nothing but enhance every muscle on his back… But he doesn't have to know that, right?

"I'm coming" I say, as I run towards the bed and throw myself towards him at full speed. As I land on the bed, the headboard bangs against the wall causing me to squeal. I can see the look of horror on his face as I land next to him.

"Donna!" Josh hisses, as he ran his hand through his hair. "Stop it, my Mom's going to think we're having sex."

I can't help but laugh out loud at the look of utter disgust on his face.

"Josh, we've been messing with you." I try and explain, which is difficult when you're trying to stop yourself from laughing.

He looks confused. "What?"

"I told your mom about how uncomfortable you were with this, and…"

"Donna…" He tries to interrupt me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it just slipped out, but once I'd told her, she thought it would be funny to mess with your mind a little." I explain, suddenly feeling rather guilty.

"MOM!"

Seriously, why must he always bellow? The poor woman is only in the room next door.

"Yes, dear?" A rather smug looking Rose walks into the room.

"I can't believe you two." He says. His arms folded stubbornly across his chest, but you can tell he isn't really angry as a small smile begins to appear.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I just thought it would be funny." Rose explains, as she sits on the edge of the bed next to Josh.

"Ha ha, you're both very funny. I was just trying to be respectful and keep my hands off of my girlfriend while you were here."

"Oh for goodness sake, Joshua. I know all about sex, where do you think you came from?" Rose asks, laughing at the look on her son's face. "Now goodnight." She said as she kissed him goodnight. "I'll see you both in the morning."

And with that she was gone, but not before she not so subtly winked at me.

"Did my mom just wink at you?"

"Go to sleep, Joshua."

The End!

Please review, as I’d love to know what you thought of my first West Wing fic )