Shipper Manifesto: The West Wing (Donna/Josh)
Fandom: The West Wing
Pairing: Donatella Moss/Joshua Lyman
Shippiness Blurb:
Donatella (Donna) Moss: A Kick-ass White House personal assistant, college dropout, Irish/Italain Wisconsin condo-raised farm-girl, with a quirky sense of humor, a big heart and a fierce loyalty to her boss.
Joshua (Josh) Lyman: President Jed Bartlett's White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Planning, graduate of Harvard and Yale, 2nd generation Jewish American, with no press relation skills, erudite humor, a guilt complex and a soft spot for his younger, inexperienced assistant.
He's older by about a decade, but his child-like enthusiasm probably makes him less mature, in a lot of ways, than she is. They speak in that odd language that most of the characters that inhabit worlds created by Sorkin and Schlamme seem to do, and they seem to even have their own special sub-dialect of it. They know how to bring the banter. For them, words are not just spectacular foreplay, conversation is really fabulous sex!
For seven excruciating seasons, they danced around each other fans watched with baited breath for them to finally get together in canon, which they did... at the very end of the last season!
Fic Rec #1: With or Without You
Author: Christinekh, Yanatya, & Ballyhinich
Link: http://christinekh.dreamwidth.org/14878.html
Rating/Warning(s): Mature
Why This Must Be Read: This story is probably my all-time favorite TWW story. It's written completely as emails, mainly between Josh and Donna, but some are from Sam and CJ. It's an AU set in between the fifth and sixth season and supposes that Donna went home to Wisconsin to recuperate after Gaza.
Josh gets a wake-up call and there is a happy ending, but before that, there's a healthy dose of angst. It's absolutely lovely and if you read only one story that I rec this month, read this one!
Christine also wrote a great little Adult-rated sequel, When Love Comes to Town.
Fic Rec #2 Trip
Author: PrettyPretty
Link: http://theprettypretty.tripod.com/trip.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Donna and Josh head to Wisconsin and Donna's family for Thanksgiving. Her parents are moving out of their condo and she needs to clean out all of her remaining stuff. Josh lends her his SUV and comes along for the ride. Little do they know what their families and Leo has in store for them.
This is a great story with some wonderful original characters, especially Donna's young niece, who is having trouble with a social studies paper, until she's able to site the White House Deputy Chief of Staff on her bibliography! A great read to wrap-up your Thanksgiving break!
Fic Rec #3: Pilgrim's Progress
Author: Just Me
Link: http://www.livejournal.com/users/nnaylime/38686.html
Rating/Warning(s): Young Teen
Why This Must Be Read: Josh's Judaism usually only ever comes up as a way to contrast him with Toby. Josh doesn't practice, and really, are we sure he even believes? Toby not only practices, he sometimes makes a point of throwing up the fact that he does and Josh doesn't in an attempt to "be the better Jew," if you will.
As Just Me writes in her author's notes, this story isn't "...so much a Josh finds religion story as a Josh finds himself story." Set between the fifth and sixth season, Josh heads to Isreal to seemingly make since of the events in Gaza, but finds more than he was looking for.
Fic Rec #4: The Amazing
Author: Macha
Link: http://macha.healthyinterest.net/archives/2001/07/the_amazing.htmll
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: This is Josh and Donna smut the way it was meant to be done. It's full of appreciation for the wonder that is Bradley Whitford's (Josh) body and it has all the banter that makes this couple so attractive.
You should "feel the freedom" to enjoy the hell out of this wonderful story!
Fic Rec #5: Lions and Tigers and Clowns
Author: Bramble
Link: http://bramble4.tripod.com/clowns.html
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: No one does Josh/Donna smut like Bramble. She is so consistently good with bringing the hot between these two. In this story, Josh and Donna are stranded due to the rain and end up having to share a room, in an Adult-Themed Motel! Hilarity and all the sex and dirty banter ensues. Plus, there's clowns!
Fic Rec #6: In a D.C. Hour
Author: Bexatious
Link: http://www.bexatious.com/westwing/fics/iadch.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Young Teen
Why This Must Be Read: This is one of those great stories where the drunk guy says all the things he really wants to say when he's sober. Josh does that a lot in fic, but this story is head and shoulder's above the rest. Donna's voice is spot on in her reactions to his foolishness and some of the dialogue is just hilarious.
This is one of those stories where you'll find yourself sighing and awful lot! Lovely!
And it's sequel, with a suprise twist: Morning Sickness (Adult).
Fic Rec #7: Sticks and Stones
Author: PrettyPretty
Link: http://theprettypretty.tripod.com/sticks.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Usually, Donna is the caretaker in the Josh/Donna dynamic. Not this time. Donna is very sick and calls Josh in the middle of the night to take her to the hospital. She makes it through a heck of an ordeal and Josh realizes that he wants to take care of Donna more than he thought.
A wonderful "comfort" fic, this is one of those stories that is great to curl up with in bed when you aren't feeling well yourself. It rates very high on my re-readibility scale!
Fic Rec #8: Bright Light City
Author: Suzy
Link: http://www.jdficwriter.com/index.php?pr=Bright_Light_City
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Suzy writes wonderful epic tales filled with angst and trajedy, but they always have a happy ending! This one is one of the lighter ones though.
I rec this for the smut folks. The depiction of the "slow" first time between the two is smoldering. And then, when they "visit the time for hard and fast..." well, just have a fire extinguisher handy!
Also, imagine this AU setting, Las Vegas, where Donna deals blackjack and poker and works as a cocktail waitress! Definitely worth the investment to read all 53 chapters!
Fic Rec #9: Popcorn
Author: Bexatious
Link: http://www.bexatious.com/westwing/fics/pop.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Oh my god! This has got to be the hottest smut fic out there! I would say it is my favorite straight ahead, balls to the wall, TWW smut fic. Bex can bring the sizzle, folks.15 stories pa
A newly coupled Josh and Donna go to the movies to see an old movie and sit in the back of the theater, where all the real action then takes place. This story's best part: one of my favorite fic kinks, Josh talks dirty during all the sex. HOTTTT!!!!
Fic Rec #10: Sittin' In Committee
Author: carleton79
Link: http://carleton97.populli.net/committee.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Some of us were lucky enough to have grown up with Schoolhouse Rock. It's a shame if you weren't. This story has Josh singing one of the old Schoolhous Rock favorites and in front of a classroom full of kids, no less. And then to top it off, he has some pretty hot sex in a storage closet with Donna. What's not to love?
I originally found this gem at the now defunct State of the Union Site. The author has gracously allowed me to archive it on my site and to rec it here.
Fic Rec #11: The "A Winning Strategy" Series
Author: Jo & Ryo
Link: http://fwf.healthyinterest.net/aws.html
Rating/Warning(s): A mix of Child, Young Teen, and Mature ratings.
Why This Must Be Read: This series of 15 stories presents a very AU, Josh/Donna-centric view of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three. In the aftermath of the shooting that ended Season 1, during Josh's recovery Donna and he get much closer. They make a big decision to change the nature of their relationship with lingering consequences. With wonderful characterization of both of them throughout the stories, Jo & Ryo give us a world where Josh and Donna remain true to themselves and their jobs, but are finally able to be true to each other, as well.
A sequel series, The Mollyverse, follows!
Fic Rec #12: Having Faith
Author: Carrie
Link: http://national-library.net/stories/carrie/HavingFaith1.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: This story is a bit of an emotional roller coaster--moving from angst to separation to reconciliation and finally a smut-tastic happily ever after. If you like a little bit of turmoil and a whole lot of smut, this is an excellent story for you. Rated high on the re-readibilty meter!
Pairing: Donatella Moss/Joshua Lyman
Shippiness Blurb:
Donatella (Donna) Moss: A Kick-ass White House personal assistant, college dropout, Irish/Italain Wisconsin condo-raised farm-girl, with a quirky sense of humor, a big heart and a fierce loyalty to her boss.
Joshua (Josh) Lyman: President Jed Bartlett's White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Planning, graduate of Harvard and Yale, 2nd generation Jewish American, with no press relation skills, erudite humor, a guilt complex and a soft spot for his younger, inexperienced assistant.
He's older by about a decade, but his child-like enthusiasm probably makes him less mature, in a lot of ways, than she is. They speak in that odd language that most of the characters that inhabit worlds created by Sorkin and Schlamme seem to do, and they seem to even have their own special sub-dialect of it. They know how to bring the banter. For them, words are not just spectacular foreplay, conversation is really fabulous sex!
For seven excruciating seasons, they danced around each other fans watched with baited breath for them to finally get together in canon, which they did... at the very end of the last season!
Fic Rec #1: With or Without You
Author: Christinekh, Yanatya, & Ballyhinich
Link: http://christinekh.dreamwidth.org/14878.html
Rating/Warning(s): Mature
Why This Must Be Read: This story is probably my all-time favorite TWW story. It's written completely as emails, mainly between Josh and Donna, but some are from Sam and CJ. It's an AU set in between the fifth and sixth season and supposes that Donna went home to Wisconsin to recuperate after Gaza.
Josh gets a wake-up call and there is a happy ending, but before that, there's a healthy dose of angst. It's absolutely lovely and if you read only one story that I rec this month, read this one!
Christine also wrote a great little Adult-rated sequel, When Love Comes to Town.
Fic Rec #2 Trip
Author: PrettyPretty
Link: http://theprettypretty.tripod.com/trip.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Donna and Josh head to Wisconsin and Donna's family for Thanksgiving. Her parents are moving out of their condo and she needs to clean out all of her remaining stuff. Josh lends her his SUV and comes along for the ride. Little do they know what their families and Leo has in store for them.
This is a great story with some wonderful original characters, especially Donna's young niece, who is having trouble with a social studies paper, until she's able to site the White House Deputy Chief of Staff on her bibliography! A great read to wrap-up your Thanksgiving break!
Fic Rec #3: Pilgrim's Progress
Author: Just Me
Link: http://www.livejournal.com/users/nnaylime/38686.html
Rating/Warning(s): Young Teen
Why This Must Be Read: Josh's Judaism usually only ever comes up as a way to contrast him with Toby. Josh doesn't practice, and really, are we sure he even believes? Toby not only practices, he sometimes makes a point of throwing up the fact that he does and Josh doesn't in an attempt to "be the better Jew," if you will.
As Just Me writes in her author's notes, this story isn't "...so much a Josh finds religion story as a Josh finds himself story." Set between the fifth and sixth season, Josh heads to Isreal to seemingly make since of the events in Gaza, but finds more than he was looking for.
Fic Rec #4: The Amazing
Author: Macha
Link: http://macha.healthyinterest.net/archives/2001/07/the_amazing.htmll
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: This is Josh and Donna smut the way it was meant to be done. It's full of appreciation for the wonder that is Bradley Whitford's (Josh) body and it has all the banter that makes this couple so attractive.
You should "feel the freedom" to enjoy the hell out of this wonderful story!
Fic Rec #5: Lions and Tigers and Clowns
Author: Bramble
Link: http://bramble4.tripod.com/clowns.html
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: No one does Josh/Donna smut like Bramble. She is so consistently good with bringing the hot between these two. In this story, Josh and Donna are stranded due to the rain and end up having to share a room, in an Adult-Themed Motel! Hilarity and all the sex and dirty banter ensues. Plus, there's clowns!
Fic Rec #6: In a D.C. Hour
Author: Bexatious
Link: http://www.bexatious.com/westwing/fics/iadch.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Young Teen
Why This Must Be Read: This is one of those great stories where the drunk guy says all the things he really wants to say when he's sober. Josh does that a lot in fic, but this story is head and shoulder's above the rest. Donna's voice is spot on in her reactions to his foolishness and some of the dialogue is just hilarious.
This is one of those stories where you'll find yourself sighing and awful lot! Lovely!
And it's sequel, with a suprise twist: Morning Sickness (Adult).
Fic Rec #7: Sticks and Stones
Author: PrettyPretty
Link: http://theprettypretty.tripod.com/sticks.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Usually, Donna is the caretaker in the Josh/Donna dynamic. Not this time. Donna is very sick and calls Josh in the middle of the night to take her to the hospital. She makes it through a heck of an ordeal and Josh realizes that he wants to take care of Donna more than he thought.
A wonderful "comfort" fic, this is one of those stories that is great to curl up with in bed when you aren't feeling well yourself. It rates very high on my re-readibility scale!
Fic Rec #8: Bright Light City
Author: Suzy
Link: http://www.jdficwriter.com/index.php?pr=Bright_Light_City
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Suzy writes wonderful epic tales filled with angst and trajedy, but they always have a happy ending! This one is one of the lighter ones though.
I rec this for the smut folks. The depiction of the "slow" first time between the two is smoldering. And then, when they "visit the time for hard and fast..." well, just have a fire extinguisher handy!
Also, imagine this AU setting, Las Vegas, where Donna deals blackjack and poker and works as a cocktail waitress! Definitely worth the investment to read all 53 chapters!
Fic Rec #9: Popcorn
Author: Bexatious
Link: http://www.bexatious.com/westwing/fics/pop.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Oh my god! This has got to be the hottest smut fic out there! I would say it is my favorite straight ahead, balls to the wall, TWW smut fic. Bex can bring the sizzle, folks.15 stories pa
A newly coupled Josh and Donna go to the movies to see an old movie and sit in the back of the theater, where all the real action then takes place. This story's best part: one of my favorite fic kinks, Josh talks dirty during all the sex. HOTTTT!!!!
Fic Rec #10: Sittin' In Committee
Author: carleton79
Link: http://carleton97.populli.net/committee.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: Some of us were lucky enough to have grown up with Schoolhouse Rock. It's a shame if you weren't. This story has Josh singing one of the old Schoolhous Rock favorites and in front of a classroom full of kids, no less. And then to top it off, he has some pretty hot sex in a storage closet with Donna. What's not to love?
I originally found this gem at the now defunct State of the Union Site. The author has gracously allowed me to archive it on my site and to rec it here.
Fic Rec #11: The "A Winning Strategy" Series
Author: Jo & Ryo
Link: http://fwf.healthyinterest.net/aws.html
Rating/Warning(s): A mix of Child, Young Teen, and Mature ratings.
Why This Must Be Read: This series of 15 stories presents a very AU, Josh/Donna-centric view of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three. In the aftermath of the shooting that ended Season 1, during Josh's recovery Donna and he get much closer. They make a big decision to change the nature of their relationship with lingering consequences. With wonderful characterization of both of them throughout the stories, Jo & Ryo give us a world where Josh and Donna remain true to themselves and their jobs, but are finally able to be true to each other, as well.
A sequel series, The Mollyverse, follows!
Fic Rec #12: Having Faith
Author: Carrie
Link: http://national-library.net/stories/carrie/HavingFaith1.htm
Rating/Warning(s): Adult
Why This Must Be Read: This story is a bit of an emotional roller coaster--moving from angst to separation to reconciliation and finally a smut-tastic happily ever after. If you like a little bit of turmoil and a whole lot of smut, this is an excellent story for you. Rated high on the re-readibilty meter!