Ghosts in the Smoke Part 15

Disclaimer: I don’t own these lovely characters, Aaron Sorkin and his friends do.

Sam and Josh are caught in a hotel fire.

Spoilers: Everything up through The Leadership Breakfast (set two days later)

Archive: Anywhere you want, just please e-mail me Partnrpal@aol.com

Ghosts in the Smoke

By Mer

Part 15

Georgetown Hospital- Emergency Room

Jed Bartlet stepped out of the elevator and was followed closely by Leo, Donna, and C.J. along with a couple of secret service agents. The ER got really quiet once the nurses noticed that they were in the presence of the President. They all went up to the admission’s desk.

“Is there any word on Josh Lyman yet?” Jed asked quietly.

“He’s in Trauma One, Mr. President.” A nurse replied shakily as she pointed over to where that was.

“How bad is he?” Jed asked calmly.

“I wouldn’t know…” The nurse’s voice shook with fear.

“It’s okay, we aren’t going to lynch you for not knowing.” Jed soothed.

“I’ve just never thought that I would meet the President this way.” She replied.

“Believe me he’s not as scary as he looks.” C.J. joked.

“I take offense to that.” Jed jokingly protested.

“You already scared the poor woman to death, no need to show her your whimpy side.” Leo commented.

“I am not a whimp!” Jed protested.

“Sir, do you remember…” Donna began.

“Okay, so I’m a whimp. But I think we had better go and check on Josh.” Jed said his voice losing all of the laughter it held a moment earlier.

“Mr. President.” The nurse called after him.

“Yes?” Jed asked as he turned back around.

“Trauma one is that way.” She replied pointing in the opposite direction than he was heading.

“See I told you.” Leo mumbled.

“Following simple directions isn’t his strong suit.” C.J. commented.

“There’s a quality you like to hear about your president.” The nurse grumbled.

“She was only kidding.” Leo replied nudging C.J. in the ribs.

“Yes, I was only kidding.” C.J. replied as she smiled back at the nurse.

Her smile faded though once they reached the door to Trauma One. Doctors were working frantically on Josh and it was all too familiar for C.J. She gasped and Donna caught her as she fainted. Donna wasn’t in much better shape, but she was strong enough to catch her friend before she hit the ground.

Leo helped Donna led C.J. to a couch in a vacant waiting room. Jed stood vigil at the doorway of the Trauma Room. He began to mutter things that he was glad no one else could hear. It broke his heart to see them work on Josh with such fury, just like it broke his heart to know that Sam could still lose his leg.

“Do you know anything?” Leo asked once he came back over.

“I’ve been too afraid to go in and ask. But I suppose that makes me a whimp.” Jed sighed.

“No, that would mean that C.J. is a whimp for fainting, and frankly I don’t blame her either.” Leo replied.

“You know I think of both of them as the sons I never had. Josh is like the rebellious one who is always getting himself into trouble, and Sam is like the good natured son.” Jed replied as he turned away from the window for a moment.

“Well, I would have to disagree with the rebellious part…” Leo began but stopped once he saw the devastated look on his best friend’s face.

“Leo, what are we going to do if…” Jed asked purposely letting his words trail off.

“We will deal with that when it comes to that. I highly doubt that either Sam or Josh would want us to give their jobs away.” Leo stated softly.

“Yeah they might be a little mad.” Jed replied as the Trauma Room door burst open and out came the gurney carrying Josh.

Josh looked extremely pale. His eyes were open but it was obvious to both men that he wasn’t capable of focusing them on anything. Leo went to pat him on the forehead but pulled his hand away once he noticed how hot Josh’s forehead was.

“He’s being taken to surgery now. He’s in shock and he has lost a lot of blood. He is also having some trouble breathing due to smoke inhalation and what we believe is a aggravation of an old injury. We have gotten him as stabilized as we can.” A doctor explained after they had watched them hurry Josh to the elevator.

“Is he going to be alright?” Leo asked quietly.

“It’s not good. If I can be frank for a moment, I think that the other guy has a better chance of keeping his leg than that one does of surviving.” The doctor replied.

“Thank You, Doctor.” Jed said with a hint of bitterness in his words.

“I’m sorry, sir. They are doing everything that they can, but frankly it’s a miracle that he has survived this long.” The doctor said as he turned and walked away.

“How dare he.” Jed commented as he watched the doctor walk away.

“Let it go.” Leo begged.

“Can I get his license revoked?” Jed asked with all seriousness.

“No, I don’t think that falls under your jurisdiction.” Leo replied.

“Well, it should.” Jed mumbled as they walked to the waiting room.

Georgetown Hospital-Sam’s room

Toby had continued to sit by Sam’s bedside even after Sam had fallen back to sleep. He knew that he should probably go downstairs but he didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to leave Sam alone.

As Toby had been sitting there images of the shooting had been coming back to him. He had cursed them and tried to brush them off, but then wondered if Josh had tried to do the same. The thing that bothered him the most about that night still, was that it took them a long time to figure out that Josh was shot. He figured that Josh must have felt so alone, and he wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to Sam.

Toby was still contemplating this when he heard a few alarm bells start going off. It didn’t bother him at first, because he thought that they were in another room, but then it dawned on him that they were and that scared him. He noticed that Sam had begun to thrash wildly on the bed.

Before he could do anything some medical personnel came in and they pushed him out of the room. All Toby could do was stand helplessly outside the room and wait. He could hear the muffled sounds of the people working on Sam and even though he didn’t understand the lingo, he knew that Sam was in trouble.

After a few minutes the voices in Sam’s room quieted down. And the staff began to slowly filter out of the room. Dr. Andrews was the last one out and he walked slowly over to Toby.

“What the hell just happened in there?” Toby asked once the doctor was in talking range.

“Despite our best efforts to prevent it, he has an infection. The infection is partly what just caused the seizure he just had.” Dr. Andrews replied slowly. “What does that mean?” Toby asked.

“It means that we need to try and get the infection under control. The longer the infection remains that greater the possibly that we will have to amputate his leg.” Dr. Andrews replied.

“And what damage did the seizure have on him?” Toby asked after taking a deep breath.

“None right now. The seizure was just a warning sign that he has an infection. However, if he gets any more there is a possibility that he could receive some brain damage.” Dr. Andrews said slowly.

“So he could lose his leg and have brain damage? Why didn’t you say this before?” Toby demanded.

“Because there wasn’t any reason to worry you before.” Dr. Andrews replied.

“I don’t believe this.” Toby exclaimed angrily.

“I’m sorry, but Sam is resting comfortably right now. All we can do is wait for the drugs to take their course.” Dr. Andrews replied.

“That sounds like a great idea to me.” Toby muttered.

“You can go back in and see him if you would like. Sometimes it helps to calm the patients down further.” Dr. Andrews said as he saw Toby’s hesitation to go back in.

“If anything happens…” Toby warned.

“Then we will come running just like we did this time.” Dr. Andrews replied and walked away.

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