Rating: PG
Pairing: Will/Donna, Josh/Donna, Josh/Amy
Spoilers: Nothing major, but everything to be safe
Word Count: 996
Feedback: Makes my day
Disclaimer: If it was in the show, it's not mine.
Archive: At my site The Band Gazebo Anywhere else please ask first.
Summary: It didn't have to be this way…
Author's Note: For the LiveJournal FirstLines1000 challenge number 10

It didn't have to be this way. Donna knows that, just like she knows how easily things could have worked out differently. After all, all the signs had been there, from their first meeting in the campaign headquarters in Manchester. She'd been talking herself into a job, at her most charming, and then he'd handed her his badge and her new life had begun.

She remembers feeling a spark between the two of them, though she told herself at the time that it was just plain old gratitude; that, or some kind of Cinderella complex, Josh as her Prince Charming, her knight in shining armour. She tried to forget it, tried to ignore it, and most of the time she succeeded. Every so often though, it flared up again.

His writing in an old book reducing her to tears, leading her to throw her arms around him, being mildly surprised when he hugged her back.

Driving to GW hospital, not stopping for red lights, her worst fears confirmed with three words from Toby.

The look in his eyes when he told her how good she looked in a little red dress.

Christmas Eve spent sitting at her desk, playing Solitaire at her computer as she waited for him to finish his first meeting with Stanley Keyworth.

Kneeling in his office when she told him why she didn't want to be reminded of their not-anniversary.

She'd told herself that nothing could ever happen, had tried to go on with her life, allowed Ainsley to set her up with Cliff, and what a disaster that had been. It had led to her worst fight ever with Josh, and it wasn't lost on her that that was when Amy Gardner reappeared in his life. She told herself she wasn't jealous, even if she didn't exactly shed any tears when they broke up. She did know, however, that Josh wasn't entirely over Amy, wanted to get back together with her, which made it easier for her to date Jack, wonderful Jack with his wonderful uniform.

She'd noticed that Josh was exhibiting signs of jealousy, and she'd blithely ignored them all, until there was the newspaper article, and that magical moment where they were standing in the snow in front of her apartment and he told her she looked amazing.

Like the Prince in her own personal fairy tale, he took her to the ball, and they even managed a dance before the President summoned them to a private room, appointed Will Deputy Communications Director before ordering them all back to work.

She'd been hopeful then, so hopeful that something would happen between them, but it hadn't.

The Khundu thing had happened, then Zoey, then the Shareef story had become news, and their personal lives had had to take second place. Somewhere along the line, Josh got back together with Amy, broke up with her again, then got back together again, and now they are swaying in the middle of the dancefloor together, every eye in the room on them.

Donna's happy for them, really, but she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't thinking that it didn't have to be this way, that it could have been her

Then there's a light touch to her elbow, fingers warm against her skin, and she tears her eyes away from the newlyweds to the equally warm gaze of the man at her side, the man who is watching her with a concern in his eyes that his glasses are doing nothing to hide. His touch lingers, an unspoken question, and she knows that he knows what she's thinking. He frowns almost imperceptibly, blinks once, but he doesn't speak, and nor does she when she gives him her answer.

Instead she smiles, a bright smile that she hopes tells him that she's ok, that he has nothing to worry about, and the worry disappears from his eyes instantly. His hand moves, closes over her arm and he smiles back at her as she leans into his touch, and they stay like that until the song is over.

As they do, Donna's able to keep smiling, and she's not thinking about the well-meaning if somewhat socially inept Deputy Chief of Staff who she could have ended up with. Instead, she's thinking of the well-meaning, if somewhat socially inept Deputy Communications Director that she ended up with. A lawyer like Cliff, but not a disaster, a man with a uniform, like Jack, but a different uniform for a different kind of man, a man who's not going to let her down.

She never would have thought that she would have ended up with Will, not when she first met him and made a big show of not remembering his name, just another way of hazing him. She had to like the way that he just kept plugging away, doing his job, refusing to let things get him down, and little by little, she'd grown to really like him. They'd become friends, trading intern stories, his tales of the Robert Palmer girls making her laugh, hers of Ryan making him roll his eyes. When she'd heard of his prowess at poker, she'd idly mentioned that she was terrible at cards, and he'd offered to teach her, on condition that he be able to see Josh's face when she whupped him at cards.

It had been on a night like that when she'd kissed him for the first time, and while she was surprised, as was he, they've been together ever since.

Will's not like any of the other men who have been in her life, something she's very glad of suddenly, and when the song finishes playing, when he takes her hand and leads her on to the dancefloor, she goes willingly, resting her forehead against his, and it's like they're the only two people in the room.

It didn't have to be like this, she tells herself again.

But it is, and she's glad.