He was sitting at the bar by himself, a glass of amber liquid in front of him and too many thoughts swirling in his head for him to concentrate on any one for more than a brief moment, when she slid onto the stool next to him.

"Josh."

"Congresswoman," he acknowledged.

"Have you looked at what Toby has written for the address?" Andy asked as she set her bag down and signaled the bartender.

Josh ducked his head and took another sip of scotch. "Some."

"The entire basis of his argument is 'they'll like us when we win.'"

He glanced at her, a cocky smirk forming on his lips. "They won't?"

Sighing, she took a sip of wine and narrowed her eyes at him. "Josh."

"The speech is what it is, Andy," he told her, his expression getting serious. "Do I like it? No. But it cleared State, and it cleared the NSA, and it's what the President wants."

"The President or Toby?" she pressed.

"Andy�"

"He'll listen to you, Josh. If you talked to him."

"I don't know if you've been paying attention these last few years, but Toby rarely listens to anyone."

"I know." Her pause was barely noticeable before she continued, "But maybe if you �"

He shook his head. "No."

"I work for the people of Maryland and �"

"You work for the President of the United States," he reminded her.

"But first and foremost, the people of Maryland and the people of this country," she insisted, taking a sip of her wine. "I didn't come over here to argue with you about this."

"What did you come over here to talk to me about then?" he asked curiously.

"The reporter in the Congo. How is he?"

"Confirmed dead." Josh sighed. "CJ told the wife. She was� understandably upset."

"And you?" she asked.

"Barely knew him," Josh said. "Why?"

"Because you look like you've lost a best friend tonight," she commented.

He shook his head and took another drink. "No. Not quite. But Donna got offered another job tonight. A lucrative one. Issues director for some little no-name dot.com."

Andy looked at him, surprised. "Is she going to take it?"

"I don't know."

"She'd excel in that kind of position."

He turned to look at her. "She doesn't have a college degree, you know," he scoffed.

"She's more than paid her dues as a senior assistant at the White House."

Josh shrugged, not quite willing to admit aloud that his assistant deserved more, even if he couldn't help but admit it to himself. "Can we talk about something else now?" he asked.

Andy swallowed another sip of wine. "We can talk about anything you want," she said, offering him a sympathetic smile. "Or we can talk about nothing at all."

~~~

He could almost pretend she was someone else. The hair was the same length, the limbs long and slender, the skin pale and perfect.

She was hot and wet and sleek, and she wanted him. Him, not some faceless gomer, not some prestigious job, not power and position, not some elusive thing that he could barely fathom, never mind possibly give her. No, she wanted him. Just him. He couldn't kiss her hard enough or take her fast enough to satisfy either of their needs.

But then she sighed his name, and her voice was too low, too husky, too� something� and he was jerked back to reality.

She wasn't the woman he wanted writhing beneath him. And he'd lay odds that he wasn't the man she wanted inside of her either. They belonged to other people, whether legally or otherwise, and they shouldn't be here together. The loyalties he had to Toby alone should have stopped him. And if that wasn't enough, there was Amy, who deserved so much more than he was willing � or able � to give.

But he hadn't been able to resist the allure, not when Andy'd looked at him with those warm, understanding eyes. Nor when she'd taken the glass of scotch from his fingers and offered to drive him home.

When they'd gotten there, he had insisted she come in for coffee, so that he didn't have to be alone with his thoughts in the cold, dark apartment and� it hadn't been planned. It had just happened.

~~~

"I still love him, you know," she said in the still silence afterwards.

He turned his head to look at her, but her eyes were focused on some distant point beyond the window and even when he spoke, she refused to meet his eyes. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. It wasn't� we didn't split up because we stopped loving each other. It was because of a lot of things, but it wasn't because of that."

"He's never stopped loving you either," Josh told her.

"I know."

She was silent after that, and part of Josh wanted to reach out to her, to hold her, to tell her that everything would be ok. But he knew that his words would be nothing but empty promises. So he settled for stretching out a hand and pushing her hair from her face in a tender gesture.

She blinked and pulled her attention away from the window, back to him, and she smiled. Josh didn't think he had ever seen anything quite so beautiful and sad as that smile.

"What about Donna?" she asked quietly.

He shrugged, turned away, not ready to delve that deep quite yet. "What about her?"

"Do you love her?"

He blinked in confusion. "You mean Amy?"

"No. Donna," Andy repeated, her voice soft and soothing in the dim room. "Do you love her?"

He was going to protest, say that it had never been about love with Donna, but he couldn't lie to her, not after she'd been so honest about Toby. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

Her lips quirked up in a sad half smile, and she sat up, reaching for her discarded blouse at the end of the bed. "I should go."

"Because I said I loved Donna? Or because I mentioned Amy?" he asked, propping himself up on an elbow to watch her dress.

"Both. Neither. Because we shouldn't have let this happen in the first place," she corrected, leaning over and giving him a long, tender kiss.

When she finally pulled away, he was speechless.

She chuckled, a low, throaty sound. "Stop staring. It's not very becoming."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? What exactly is becoming in a man like me?"

She paused, seriously considering the question. "Loyalty. Honor. Friendship."

His head fell to his chest in remorse, all the guilt at sleeping with his friend's wife coming to the fore. "I failed at those tonight."

Softly, she tucked a finger beneath his chin, and raised his face to hers. "No, you didn't. You offered another friend solace. Thank you."

With another soft kiss, she slid away from him to finish dressing. He watched as she located her underwear, then her slacks, then everything else they'd tossed to the side in their haste to be naked.

"Are you going to tell him?" he asked.

She shook her head, her red hair swinging against her shoulder. "No. This was just between us, a one time thing."

He nodded. "Yeah." He paused a moment before asking, "You ok getting home?"

She nodded and then came back to the bed to brush her lips against his forehead. "I'd say let's do it again some time, but..."

He reached out and grabbed her hand, before she had a chance to step away. "Andy?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For� not for this," he said, indicating the rumpled sheets, "But for� you know. The rest."

"I know," she said softly. "Goodnight, Josh."

"Goodnight. Drive safe."

"I will," she answered as she slipped out the bedroom door.

Josh listened until he heard the click of the main door shutting, then sank back down against the pillows and let the subtle scent of her perfume sooth his senses as he drifted off into a fitful sleep.

~The End~