A/N: So, six years since I wrote the rest of this fic. Why not write an epilogue?

Just checking in with Josh and Donna…and Harold. Comments welcome, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Josh shifted uncomfortably. "Well, there may have been a little more to the story…"

Six Years Later…

Fall at the National Zoo brought out the best in the animals, the scenery, and the visitors themselves. Families strolled throughout the exhibits, relaxing and enjoying the antics of the other creatures, both exotic and everyday.

One such family, a woman with long blonde hair accompanied by a man happily pushing a stroller with a curly-haired little girl inside, was making its way through the zoo, aimlessly enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon.

They would have been indistinguishable from any other family on such a day, until the man stopped suddenly, eyes widened in disbelief, mouth parted, one finger raised in a shaking gesture.

"Josh?" Donna paused, rolling the stroller back a few feet. "What's wrong? The Penguin Palace closes at four, and we've got to-"

"It's him," he said simply, still pointing to a spot inside the exhibit's gate.

"Who?" she asked, spinning to search the crowd.

"The…Not the people," he clutched her arm and waved toward the greenery before them. "The bird. I know that bird!"

"What?" Donna's face wrinkled in confusion. All she saw were turkeys, each more or less identical to the others.

"Harold! It's Harold!"

"Josh, you've gotta calm down." Josh was wearing an expression of sheer panic usually reserved for the appearance of one British Ambassador. "What are you talking about? Who is Harold?" Her hand drifted to the little blonde head turned up in confusion.

"The bird!"

"We've got that, Josh. Also, it's a turkey. What about it?" To her daughter she murmured, "It's okay, sweetie. Daddy's just scared of a turkey."

"It's the one! The one from that year at Thanksgiving when you abandoned me to go to Wisconsin! The one we had to chase through the White House! The one that treed Toby to his desk!"

Donna sighed. This, again. "First of all, I was gone for less than three days. You survived. Second of all, no one forced you to try to superglue the feathers back on-"

"-I recall that being more Sam's idea than mine-"

"-after you scared the poor thing half to death. And third of all, there's no way that's the same bird!"

"Read the plaque," Josh directed. He gestured toward a bronzed sign just inside the exhibit's fence.

Donna rolled her eyes, took her daughter by the hand, and knelt down to read. "Following his appearance at the White House, Harold was officially pardoned by President Josiah Bartlet during the Thanksgiving season of two thousand and –"

"I told you!" Josh jumped up and down slightly. The noise and movement flustered the flock roaming only feet away. Josh took a wary step away from the fence.

Turning back to the plaque, Donna continued to read. "Harold is one of the National Zoo's most beloved residents."

"Beloved?" scoffed Josh. "More like homicidal..." He removed his phone from his pocket.

"What are you doing?"

"I gotta tell Sam."

Donna shook her head at her daughter, wrinkling her nose in the process. "Silly daddy." The little girl giggled.

Moments later, Josh hung up with a huff. "Voicemail." He bounced on his toes for a moment. "I'm sending him a picture."

"Do you even know how to work the camera on that thing?"

"Sure," Josh said with confidence. "You just…find the button for the…thing…and then you…" He trailed off, giving his phone a quizzical look. "Surely there's a button…"

"Here." Donna held out her hand. Swiping easily through several screens, she lined up the shot and sent it to Sam. As she reached over to hand the phone back to Josh, she paused. "Wait. This doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't?" Josh asked, still eyeing the turkey suspiciously.

"I thought you and Sam broke into the National Zoo to replace Harold for the pardoning."

Josh squirmed. "Well, technically…"

Donna tilted her head to the side. "You had to replace Harold after you stressed him out and he lost all his feathers!"

"I like to think that was the result of being hunted by the British loon. Or contact with Toby." He peered at Harold, who stared right back. "You know, he looks much better now."

Donna barreled on. "If you swapped Harold for the bird you stole-"

"Borrowed."

"Whatever – Then why does the plaque say he got pardoned?"

Josh shifted uncomfortably. "Well, there may have been a little more to the story…"

"More to the story? More than Harold running through the press room bald and the bird flu rumors and Toby throwing his laptop at the President? How on earth can there be more to that story?"

"In all fairness, Toby was aiming for the bird when he accidently caught the President's shin with the…"

"Josh!"

"Right. Well, it seems that – this is kind of funny, actually – while I was picking you up at the airport after all that…uh…"

"Josh?" Donna began bucking their toddler back into the stroller. People were beginning to stare.

"While I was picking you up," he continued, "PETA apparently found out about the…situation."

"Which part of the situation, exactly?"

"All of it." Josh attempted a cute little grin. He failed. "The PETA thing was Margaret's fault."

"Josh! How were you not fired?"

"Well, a compromise was reached."

"Which was?" Donna rifled through a bag and produced a sippy cup of milk.

Josh took a deep breath and began to explain, a sudden feeling of dread inching through his body. "Well, in order to avoid what Leo called 'a potential sudden and violent end to all our professional lives'…" he winced, "CJ reached a quick agreement with PETA and the President."

"He pardoned a second turkey," Donna realized.

"Yeah…but that wasn't the whole deal…"

Handing down a plastic bag of goldfish crackers to her daughter, Donna braced herself for what else was to come. "What else did the President have to do?"

"Nothing!" Josh quickly explained. "It's just that, well, you know how much he hated to pardon anything…and he'd already done the one turkey…and the pig…"

Donna rolled her eyes. The pig. Right. She'd never been allowed to leave town at Thanksgiving again.

"The President was a little…" Josh's eyes wandered to his wide-eyed daughter, "upset at having to pardon something else. So, in order to save my job and secure the financial well-being of my future family…"

Donna glared.

"I made a deal. With the President." Josh braced himself.

"Josh."

Josh suddenly realized his wife could look very lethal when she wanted to.

"Yes?"

"What was the deal?" She sounded awfully calm. Too calm.

"Uh…You know how we go to Thanksgiving in Nashua with the President every year?" He chuckled nervously. "And how Sam and Toby and Leo always come?"

"Yes, Josh. I can recite the history of the yam in Latin. We all can."

"Yeah…It's not really an option. Thanksgiving with the President, that is. It's actually more of a requirement."

Donna's jaw dropped. "Let me get this straight. We'll be eating Thanksgiving dinner with the President and his yams for…how long do we have to do this?"

"The phrase he used at the time was 'in perpetuity-'"

"-all because you couldn't handle looking after a bird!"

"Well, everything was fine until you went to Wisconsin…"

And they continued on their way, a fully-feathered Harold gobbling cheerfully behind them.

A/N: And that's the end. The real end. Probably. Unless I decide, six years from now, to do this again. Never say never, I've learned. Comments are welcome.