I Saved The World Today (Studies In Probability)
Title: I Saved The World Today (Studies In Probability)
Fandom: The West Wing
Pairing(s): Josh/Donna
Word Count: 443
Rating: PG

Summary: There's a list, somewhere in the White House, of possible scenarios for the apocalypse.

Notes: Spoilers up to episode 6:9 - Impact Winter.


There's a list, somewhere in the White House, of possible scenarios for the apocalypse. It probably has a name, the apocalyptogram, or the memo at the end of the world. Josh has been reliably informed that there's a ranking system in place (Margaret's); a list of Things Most Likely To Kill Us, in order of probability.

Donna leaving the West Wing probably isn't on the list. In retrospect, that may have been an oversight.

-

"Good news," he says, and it is good news, especially if you were expecting bad news. Which he maybe should have been; he isn't sure where a giant asteroid hitting Earth is on Margaret's list, but he'd bet it's somewhere near the top. And if the apocalypse ever comes, it will probably be when the President and most of the senior staff are out of the country, when he isn't on the list of names for the bunker but the UPS guy is. It's times like these he wishes he'd kept the card.

But now -

He'd look out across the bullpen, grin at Donna. He'd tell her, see, nothing to worry about, and she'd come back at him with some statistic about the actual probability of a meteor impact he really doesn't need to know right now; he'd lean across the desk and tell her, only pretending to be joking, that he'd take care of her, bunker or no bunker, make some crack about having to repopulate the earth -

Or maybe not, because things have been a little off balance lately, ever since he flew halfway across the world to see the woman he probably loves only to find out he'd been beaten to the punch by some IRA photojournalist hack, and really, where does she meet these guys? (Okay, don't answer that.) And then he'd come back, because he was trying to save the world, okay? - and maybe because Donna's mom kept giving him these looks; the ones all parents give, when are you going to have kids, when are you going to get married, when are you going to tell her -

And then they'd been back here, and everything had been back to normal, mostly, except that he kept avoiding the bit where she tells him she has a new boyfriend or she wants to sit in on a meeting or

(she's leaving)

she loves him or something else he probably doesn't want to hear. And they'd been a little off balance.

But that's okay, because the world isn't ending, and they've got time. So he says, "The world isn't going to end today," and he looks up at where she should be sitting -

-

The world ends.