Ghosts in the Smoke Part 18

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 18

Georgetown Hospital-Sam's Room

"Sam just calm down. It was just a nightmare." Toby soothed.

"It just seemed so real. I was talking to my former best friend Matt. He told me that Josh was going to die just like him. Where did he go? I have to ask him how he knows. I have to see Matt." Sam whined.

"Matt hasn't been in here, Leo stopped by but I can guarantee that no one named Matt was here." Toby told him.

"I didn't mean that. I know that Matt's dead. I mean he's been dead for a really long time; it's just that I could hear his voice and we had a conversation. He told me that Josh was going to die. It just seemed so real. I haven't thought about him in ages and suddenly he's talking to me about Josh." Sam stated almost in tears.

"Who was Matt?" Toby asked, realizing how little he knew about Sam's life.

"He was my best friend all throughout Junior High and then until Junior year in High School. He was killed in a car accident Senior year on his way to prom. And I haven't really thought about him in forever, but he said that Josh was going to die. Toby, he sounded so sure of it. How does he know? What the hell is the matter with me, why am I listening to ghosts?" Sam moaned.

"You have an infection so I'm sure that your mind was just playing tricks on you. You couldn't have been talking with him if he's dead." Toby told him gently.

"That's not true, Josh thought that he was talking to Joanie. It seemed as if it wasn't the first time that they talked either." Sam protested.

"But he wasn't really talking to her was he?" Toby asked gently.

"No he was talking to me and I was pretending to be her. I thought that if I pretended to be his sister that he would want to live. He just can't die Toby. Donna would be crushed and so would Leo and C.J. I'm sure that even the President would be upset. Oh God I bet they are both mad at us for this. We didn't start the fire this time." Sam moaned.

"They know that you didn't start the fire. They aren't mad at you guys." Toby soothed.

"I just don't want him to die Toby. And Donna, C.J, and Leo…" Sam began quietly.

"I know, I know that they all would be upset too. I don't want him to die either." Toby replied, offended that his name hadn't been included in the list.

"Oh yeah like you really care whether or not he lives or dies. Aren't you the one that wanted him fired for the Mary Marsh thing?" Sam accused.

"Sam, that was a long time ago. And I found a way to help him keep his job. I'm not mad at him anymore." Toby replied.

"Yeah well you got mad at him the other night for the fire." Sam suggested.

"Because he nearly burned the building down, and as I recall I was mad at you too. Sam, despite what you might think, I actually like working with both of you. I enjoy your antics, it really helps to keep me on my toes." Toby answered with a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

"But you hate his antics. You hate anything that disrupts your speech writing. Especially anything that Josh does because you think that he is..." Sam began but Toby cut him off.

"Granted he does get on my nerves sometimes, but then again so do you. Sam, I'm sorry that I am not good at expressing my emotions. I care about the two of you. You guys are like my brothers or something. Please understand that I am not as free with my emotions as you both are. I don't wear my heart out on my sleeve like you guys do." Toby stated.

"We might show our emotions differently than you but is there really any reason to hold it against us?" Sam asked.

"I'm just saying that I know how corrupt the world is, but I get the feeling that you both are a little naive in that area. Josh thinks that he can save the world. But he can't." Toby explained.

"Oh so what he isn't as great as the all-mighty Toby? He is naïve about the world and he wears his heart on his sleeve so that automatically makes him a second-class citizen?" Sam accused angrily.

"I didn't mean it like that. Sam, I don't mean to upset you by talking about him like that. I was the one who realized that he was missing the night of the shooting. I was the one who found him and who held his head in my lap while I waited for help. I was the one…" Toby began.

"That's enough. You know that I feel really bad about not even realizing that he was missing. Why don't you go and rub it in some more? So I guess that makes you so superior because you were the one who was able to comfort him in his time of need. I bet that if he wasn't fighting for his life that it would've shocked the hell out of him." Sam snapped.

"I may have been the one there with him but you were the one that he wanted. He kept talking about that day he went to New Hampshire and how he had to tell you about it. He needed you not me. He could've cared less that I was there." Toby replied.

"And whose fault is that? Aren't you the one who has a permanent scowl on his face? Aren't you the one who never wants to know personal stuff about us? You start to hear what we have to say and then you just tell us to shut up. No wonder he didn't want to talk to you." Sam retorted.

Toby could see that Sam was getting really angry and really worked up about this. He hadn't meant to touch a nerve like that. In fact he had tried to tell Sam that it really did matter to him if they lived or died. Sam hadn't noticed the olive branch that he was trying to hold out.

"Sam, I'm not saying that Josh didn't have the right to talk about you instead of trying to talk to me. What I'm saying is that I shouldn't have built the walls up around me so high. I shouldn't make you guys think that I don't care about you, because I really do. I wouldn't have been here waiting for you to wake up if I didn't." Toby admitted.

"You've got to be kidding me. You where that scowl on your face so much that we've all wondered about changing your name to Oscar? And now you want to come out of your trash can and play with the other kids on Sesame Street? And what you want to become Big Bird instead?" Sam mocked.

"I'm serious here Sam." Toby replied in his normal Toby like voice.

"I highly doubt that there Oscar ole buddy. Wait a minute you aren't just suddenly looking for a friend. You just want to take Josh's place if he dies don't you?" Sam suddenly accused.

"What? Sam, I don't want to take Josh's place." Toby asked.

"There might not be much that I know about you, but I can always tell when you are lying. Get out of my room now." Sam ordered.

"Sam…" Toby tried but the menacing stare on Sam's face was too much for him to take.

"Get out!" Sam yelled again, but this time Toby was halfway to the door.

"Toby's what happened?" C.J. asked as Toby nearly collided with her on his way out the door.

"Sam's a little upset." Toby replied.

"That I can tell. What happened?" C.J. asked as they moved over to a small couch.

"I was trying to comfort him because he had this nightmare in which he was told that Josh was going to die. And then all of a sudden he just got mad at me saying that I didn't care whether Josh lived, and things like that." Toby stated slowly.

"Did he find out about your best friend comment then?" C.J. asked.

"Well, he did kind of make a mention to it, but I swear that I never told him. He could see that I was holding something back so he didn't believe me when I said I wasn't trying to take Josh's place." Toby replied.

"Hence him yelling at you huh?" C.J. theorized.

"Yeah. But then he is a little out of it because of the infection and the drugs." Toby offered.

"Toby, you said yourself that you wanted to take Josh's place as Sam's best friend. I know that you may have meant that tongue and cheekily, but I've never seen you so worked up over something like this before. You're gruff and you're grumpy and that suits you just fine. Why are you all of a sudden worried about not having Sam as a friend?" C.J. asked.

"Because I realize that I need friends." Toby replied.

"Wow, is that Toby Ziegler I hear talking?" C.J. mocked.

"C.J. you aren't funny." Toby replied.

"Sorry. Toby just let him sleep and try to make peace with him in the morning. He's been through hell tonight." C.J. stated.

"Yeah. So how is Josh anyway?" Toby asked.

"He was still in surgery a few minutes ago. I left to try and find Donna but after I realized she's probably rather be alone I decided I'd come and bug you." C.J. answered with a tiny grin.

"And they say that Josh has the ego problem." Toby muttered.

"I heard that." C.J. said as she punched him in the arm.

"Where did the president go?" Toby asked swiftly changing the subject.

"He was in the Observation Room last I knew." C.J. answered as they got up and wandered down the hall to the aforementioned room.

Links

go back to last part
go back to general stories page
go on to part 19
home