Ghosts in the Smoke Part 33

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 33

Georgetown Hospital-Hospital Chief of Staff’s Office

“Ma’am, I must say that this is a real honor to finally meet you. Is there any special reason that you decided to drop by?” Chief of Staff Lucas Hummer asked.

“Mr. Hummer, I would love to be meeting you under less stressful circumstances but I am afraid I need to lodge a serious complaint about one of the doctors that works here.” Abbey began.

“First of all, please call me Luke and tell me a little bit about this doctor that you disapprove of.” Luke began.

“Her name is Dr. Allie Bleuer. She is overseeing the care of one of the members of my husbands staff. But I fear that she is using him more as a way to make history, instead of trying to treat him.” Abbey stated slowly.

“Wow, that is a pretty strong allegation, do you have any proof to back up your claims? Not that I don’t believe you but for legal reasons I have to have a little bit of established misconduct or something that is mostly concrete.” Luke replied.

“She told me in no certain terms that Sam’s case was a case that many doctors wait their whole lives to get and that it was one for the text books. She seemed pretty willing to use him to get fame and to not try and treat him. I have a secret service agent who caught the conversation on tape because of a malfunctioning cufflink radio.” Abbey said as she produced a piece of equipment.

“Malfunctioning how?” Luke asked curiously.

“It didn’t shut off like it was supposed to after he was done transmitting where I was in the building, so the main recorder caught our whole conversation on tape.” Abbey replied.

“I guess that is good enough evidence to at least investigate her a little bit, but I can’t promise anything, I doubt that kind of evidence will hold up in a court of law.” Luke apologized.

“Can you at least assign another doctor to Sam’s case? She makes me totally un-comfortable to have her be Sam’s doctor. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think there was any other way. Please reassign someone to his case, please?” Abbey asked.

“Yes, I can certainly do that for you, since I’m sure you’ve already warned her that you were going do as much.” Luke replied.

“Yes, I have actually, but that didn’t seem to bother her.” Abbey answered.

“Can you tell me exactly what kind of doctor, Dr. Bleuer is? I mean I have heard the name before, but I am a little unfamiliar with every single staff member.” Luke asked.
“Yeah she’s a psychiatrist. Sam has been suffering ill effects mentally as well as physically due to the fire and the guilt that he has over his best friend being more severely injured.” Abbey said quietly.

“I understand the need for the change then. This is obviously a very delicate matter and I will try and get it handled swiftly for you.” Luke stated as he picked up his telephone.

“Thank you.” Abbey replied and she left his office.

Georgetown Hospital-Sam’s Room

“They always lie to me. Josh please don’t hate me. Please don’t haunt me like Matt did. I’m such a failure. I killed you Josh. It’s all my fault.” Sam moaned, as Dr. Bleuer injected his IV with another dose of the experimental drug.

“Such a good boy Sam.” Dr. Bleuer murmured to herself, knowing that Sam was beyond the point of reasoning anymore.

“I deserve to die!” Sam yelled to nothing in particular.

“Not before you give me enough to make me world famous. It’s the least I can do for Mike, before I kill you.” Dr. Bleuer muttered under her breath.

“I deserve to die!” Sam repeated over and over.

“In due time Sam.” She whispered.

Then Dr. Bleuer smiled as she walked towards the doorway. Once she opened the door Toby was waiting for her with an accusing look on his face. She put on a fake worried face hoping that he would buy her little act, but she underestimated Toby.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Toby demanded as he could hear Sam’s screams from the hallway.

“I’m afraid that your visit has upset him terribly.” Dr. Bleuer said shaking her head.

“My visit? I had calmed him down considerably. That is not the same Sam that was there when I left the room! He was fine when I left him, and now he’s acting just as crazy as he was last night!” Toby exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, Mr...” Dr. Bleuer began.

“Toby Ziegler.” Toby angrily supplied.

“Mr. Ziegler in cases like this even visits from friends can set a patient off. I know that you meant well, and that it may have even seemed like Sam was better, but he was just putting on a front for you.” Dr. Bleuer lied.

“You’re lying. Sam was perfectly fine when I left the room. What the hell did you do to him? How can you even stand there and lie to me like that?” Toby practically spat at her.

“I’m sorry that you feel that way, but your friend is a very, very sick man.” Dr. Bleuer apologized with fake sincerity.

“Aren’t you at least going to try and calm him down? That is the least that you could do.” Toby replied.

“Yes, I’m on my way to go and get a sedative now, I just don’t carry them around in my pocket..” Dr. Bleuer lied.

“Since you’ve been doing such a great job of helping him, can I try and help him?” Toby asked.

“If you want but I want to warn you that you probably won’t do much good.” Dr. Bleuer stated gently.

“I want to at least try, and anyway I can’t do any worse than what you have already done to him. I mean oh why am I even explaining myself to you? Like you really give a damn.” Toby stated hastily, as he entered Sam’s room before she could stop him.

Toby entered Sam’s room and he found Sam struggling to break free of the restraints. Toby was outraged at this version of Sam. He knew that Dr. Bleuer had to have done something to him. He wanted vengeance against her, but he figured that he should try and calm Sam down first.

“Sam, it’s okay. The evil doctor is gone now, I’m here to help you.” Toby reassured as he gently laid his hand on Sam’s shoulder.

“You lied to me! You couldn’t tell me that Josh had died. He’s dead and you didn’t tell me. Josh is dead because of me! Why were you so afraid to tell me? Why couldn’t you just tell me the truth?” Sam yelled.

“Sam, I didn’t tell you, because Josh isn’t dead. He’s in a coma right now, but that doesn’t mean that he is dead. He’s not.” Toby replied honestly.

“You’re a liar. You don’t want me to know the truth.” Sam lashed out.

“Sam, I wish that there was a way to make you understand, but Josh isn’t dead.” Toby assured him.

“He was my best friend and all you wanted was to take his place. You couldn’t handle our friendship. You were jealous. I hate you almost as much as I hate myself for killing Josh. Josh is gone, Josh is gone.” Sam kept mumbling.

Sam kept ranting because he wasn’t in any state to hear a word that Toby was saying. Toby leaned over Sam to try and physically hold him down to get him to listen when one of the restraints broke loose from the railing causing Sam’s fist to inadvertently whack Toby in the face. Blood began gushing from Toby’s nose and onto Sam. Sam became hysterical because he thought it was the blood on his hands from Josh’s death.

“Josh, no please I didn’t mean for you to die. I swear that I never meant for you to die. There is so much blood on my hands. Please don’t hate me.” Sam screamed.

Two orderlies arrived at that time to sedate Sam, and they saw Toby’s bloodied nose and how Sam was reacting to it. He had gone even more berserk than before and had managed to break his other arm’s restraint. So when the orderlies tried to calm him down he was punching and clawing at them to. One finally got a chance to sedate Sam but not before being given a bloody nose himself.

“They are going to have to move him to the mental ward now.” The bloody nose orderly murmured.

“That’s the second Dr. Bleuer patient that has gone psycho today.” The other one commented.

“Sir, are you okay?” The first orderly asked Toby.

“He was fine earlier, I swear it.” Toby mumbled angrily.

The three of them had started to turn away from the room when Sam began to thrash on the bed again. They all turned expecting him to be trying to fight the new restraints, but they soon realized that he was having a really bad seizure. As they tried to come to what little aid that they could give a seizure victim, they realized that he wasn’t breathing. As the first orderly ran to get help, Toby could only watch helplessly as Sam’s body moved violently on the bed.

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