A Life Worth New Bonds
By Heidi H
Disclaimers-These are not my characters and I am making no money off of them.
Ratings-Sam/Donna, a life can take so many unimaginable twists and turns
Sequel to A Life Worth Accepting
Donna was a lucky woman. People had forgotten who she was and had a hard time
recognizing her with the brownish hair and womanly figure. This worked for
her, especially when she heard the latest Washington rumor about Sam Seaborn’s
late wife and her “connections” to the family court system. Donna put two and
two together and suddenly realized why Sam and Josh wanted her to sign the
papers. What they forgot was that Bradley had never known his real mother and
only had his father left in his life. There was no way in hell that Donna
would now go back to court and try to rearrange her child’s life. She cared
way too much about her son to hurt him like that.
Sam was shocked and surprised when Donna called and accepted the offer that he
and Josh had made her. He never expected her to go for it. Donna told him
that she would sign the papers after she made some additional provisions. Sam
asked what she wanted and she told him. She wanted to be able to take the
child on vacations, Sam agreed to put it in the document. Then came the
clincher. Donna wanted Sam to have to tell Bradley the truth about Laurie,
Donna, and the court ruling. Sam thought long and hard about it before
agreeing to the provision. When they were both satisfied, they set up a time
and a place to sign the papers.
A feeling of guilt had settled over the west wing. Many of them felt so
horrible for what they had done to Donna when things were rough. They had all
heard the truth about what Laurie had done. While there was sympathy for Sam
and Bradley, there was only hate aimed at Laurie. There were also many people
who were angry that Sam had been so gullible and let *that* woman destroy
everything.
CJ knew that she had betrayed the sisterhood by not supporting or believing in
Donna. Maybe this was another in a long series of problems that stemmed from
the Curse of Bast. CJ knew that Donna wasn’t in a place to forgive right now,
but she hoped that one day Donna would understand what had happened and why it
had. She picked up the phone and dialed Donna’s home. She wanted to let Donna
know that she was ready to make amends and resume the friendship that they had
had for many years.
Toby hoped that Donna would do the right thing this time for her son. He knew
that Donna took the original family court ruling hard, but decided that Bradley
was the one who needed her to do the right thing. He dialed her phone number
to give her words of advice and encouragement.
Josh felt worst of all. He had fired his dutiful assistant of three years when
things had gone downhill. He had fired the woman who had stood behind and
beside him for so long. It was something that he would never have the chance
to do again, reliving that part of his life. Josh couldn’t believe that he had
also fired a pregnant woman and left her with nothing.
Margaret held the phone in her hand and wondered if it was the right thing to
do, call Donna. They had gotten to know each other very well during the
campaign and had remained friends when they got to the White House. They had
been a springboard for each other when the hearings got to be too much to bear
alone. She made up her mind and dialed the phone.
Ginger wondered if she should contact Donna. They had become good friends and
remained friends until the news of the marriage had leaked out. She knew that
she had distanced herself from Donna on purpose. Ginger knew it was wrong, but
at the time, she was worried about herself and her own job. Things were never
the same after that disaster. The assistants kept to themselves and each other
while the senior staff did the same thing.
Carol was able to find out where Donna was and what she was doing. They became
fast friends, hanging out together when time allowed. She had dropped Donna
like a hot potato after she married Sam. Carol was pissed that Donna had
skipped of to Los Vegas and gotten married. She was one of the very few people
who knew that Laurie was up to something, but had kept her mouth shut and
watched hell break loose.
Bonnie was one of the only people who wondered what Donna was going through
with all these former friends and co-workers wanting to come back into her life
after walking away. She sat down and wrote a letter to her friend, explaining
why things had happened the way they did. Bonnie was careful to tell Donna
that she didn’t expect anything to happen.
Leo stood back and watched everyone around him. The senior staff and their
assistants were acting like zombies over the whole Donna/Sam/Laurie situation.
He hoped that they snapped out of it soon. Yes, the mistake had been made, but
it was time to get out of the mud and move on.
Donna came home from work and shopping to find her answering machine full of
calls from people that she once knew. She simply deleted the calls because she
wasn’t ready to deal with them. Donna needed time to heal and recover before
making any decisions about her future and the people that she wanted in that
future.