Chapter Seven

It was all too familiar. The sights and sounds were ones that Toby had wished he wouldn't have to experience again. There was a tube running from Sam's chest again, machines hooked up to him again and a look on his face that Toby certainly had never wanted to see again.

"You got a better room this time," Toby noted of the newly painted room which had bright curtains and a brand new television mounted on the wall. "Josh is outside, he's just gone to make some calls." A nurse entered and examined the progress of the chest tube. "I saw Dr Manning while I was waiting. He was going off duty but said he'd pop in to see you before he left." Toby sighed and rubbed a hand across his face. He knew Sam must feel bad and the mask over his face didn't do much to facilitate conversation but he wished Sam would at least acknowledge that he was there. Toby tried again, this time asking a question. "Do you want me to phone your parents?" Toby knew that Sam wouldn't and so was sure that the question would at least make Sam turn to him. It took a few moments but Sam's head eventually turned and his scowl made it very clear that he knew Toby would know that was the last thing he wanted. Toby shrugged, "Well it got you to look at me at least." Sam rolled his eyes and then closed them.

"My batteries are dead!" Josh exclaimed, indignant that batteries would dare die on him.

Sam's eyes opened when he heard his voice and Toby felt Sam's tense. "Go 'way, Josh."

Both men looked at Sam in surprise and the fleeting notion that he had been joking was dispelled by the expression on his face.

"Mean it…don't want…you here."

Josh took a step towards the bed and held his hands out as if to pacify Sam. "Come on, Sam, I know I wasn't around much last time but I wanted to make it up to-"

"Get out!" Sam said despite the pain it caused him. Again Josh started to speak but Toby stood and told him to do what Sam wanted.

"Toby, you were the one who wanted me to try to-"

Again Josh was interrupted as Toby walked towards him whispering something meant for only his ears. He let himself be pushed towards the door and out of the room. "He's just pissed he's back in here, that's all. He wouldn't speak to me until I threatened to call his parents."

Josh nodded at Toby's attempt to make him feel better but he knew, like Toby, that there was something else going on, something that went beyond Sam's falling out with Josh. "I'm not going. I'll sit here until he changes his mind." Josh sat down outside the room, folded his arms and turned away from Toby.

Toby walked back into Sam's room slowly. He looked at Sam who was looking guiltily back at him. "What was that all about?"

Sam looked up at the ceiling and sighed before wincing at the pain the deep breath caused him. He regretted throwing Josh out but then again why shouldn't he act like that? It was Josh's fault. If it wasn't for Josh he wouldn't have been beaten half to death. He looked back at Toby. The last thing he needed was for him to start getting suspicious again and quizzing him about what had really happened. "You're right…sorry…just don't have the energy …deal…right now."

Toby nodded and sat back down beside the bed. "He's waiting outside, said he wouldn't go until you changed your mind."

The news seemed to genuinely surprise Sam but his silence made Toby think Josh's wait would be in vain. "Move on."

"Not that…easy," Sam replied, instantly regretting the words.

"Why? It's like you're blaming Josh for what happened to you. I know that if Josh hadn't said those things to you at the restaurant then you wouldn't have stormed out and you wouldn't have even been anywhere near that damn alley, but that's not Josh's fault."

Relief flooded through Sam. Here was his out. He could blame it all on that, the fact that his argument with Josh had meant he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He could blame it on that and then never have to reveal the truth that he was attacked solely because of Josh's actions. He smiled sheepishly. "You're right…just mad in here again…tell Josh come back in…make him sweat it out…few minutes first though."

Toby smiled at Sam's plan and relaxed back into his chair. He'd give Josh five minutes and then go get him. Maybe tonight was to be the night for reconciliation after all.

Ron was smiling. It made Charlie smile too in the sure knowledge that whatever Ron had come to tell the President would make him start smiling and stop picking on Charlie about his filing techniques, diary keeping skills and general office layout. "You're smiling," Charlie said to Ron as got up from his desk.

"I am." Ron stood and waited for Charlie to tell him he could go in. He smiled again as Charlie came out of the Oval Office and he walked into it.

"Charlie tells me that you're smiling," Bartlet said as he nodded to the sofa and walked over to join Ron.

"I am, sir. The DC police picked up one of the men who attacked Sam."

On hearing the news Bartlet clapped his hands and stood up. "You hear that, Leo?" he said as he walked towards Leo's office. "Ron says they've caught one of the thugs that attacked Sam." Bartlet stuck his head back through the doorway of his office. "Leo's smiling too now, Ron, isn't it great when the legal system comes up trumps like this and makes everyone smile!" He returned to the sofa followed by Leo and both men sat down and waited for Ron to tell them more.

"The guy was careless; mouthing off in some diner about his part in the attack but unfortunately for him doing it in a booth next to three off-duty cops."

"That smile just keeps getting wider," Bartlet said.

"He's been questioned and charged but he's saying he has no idea where the other attacker is. As we thought, he left before the attack was over and argued with the other guy that they'd done what they were meant to do, that's why he left because it was all getting, in his words, 'a bit too heavy'."

Leo's and Bartlet's smiles vanished instantly and Leo sat forward a frown on his face. "Wait a minute, what they were meant to do? So these guys were paid to beat Sam up?"

"That's what he's saying, well he's saying his accomplice was paid and that he didn't know who by or what for but Sam was the intended target. They were going to wait for him to leave the restaurant and follow him home. Sam coming out like that just made their job a whole lot easier."

"Okay," Bartlet folded his arms, "Okay, so this is a whole new thing. Can you get involved now?"

"I always was involved to a certain degree but the DC police were handling the case. Now that we know that a senior staffer has been the victim of a targeted attack my men can get involved with the investigation. I'd also like to heighten security here for the rest of the staff."

Bartlet nodded, "Whatever you need. They've had a detail assigned to them already haven't they?"

"Yes, but only a discreet one. I'd like to assign twenty-four hour agents to senior staff and then as the investigation proceeds, anyone else we think may be a target."

"Anything you want, Ron, and if they start getting funny about it then send them to me."

Ron nodded, thanked the President and left the room. The two friends sat side by side. "I knew, Leo, as soon as I heard about this attack I knew there was more to it."

"Toby thinks Sam's hiding something."

Bartlet turned to his friend and shook his head. "So now we have to worry about not only why they attacked him but what happened when the one attacker stayed with Sam and why isn't he telling us what happened."

Leo let out a huff of annoyed laughter at the situation. "You know, there are many days when I wish I had someone else's job but right now I wouldn't have Ron's job for anything."

"He'll find out what happened. If he doesn't then Toby will shake it out of Sam whether we like the answer or not."

Margaret poked her head around the door to see where Leo had got to but on seeing the two men sitting quietly side by side, comfortable in their companionship, she shut the connecting door between the offices and returned to her desk.

Josh was chatting to one of the nurses when Toby came out of Sam's room thirty minutes after he had been banished him from it. Josh caught sight of Toby and quickly excused himself. "Her name's Betty and she lives in a house with six other nurses!" Josh told Toby.

"Listen, before you go in there, Sam says that he was blaming the argument on him leaving the restaurant and being in the alley when he was."

"You don't believe him?" Josh asked all notions of getting to know Betty forgotten.

Toby rubbed at tired eyes and shook his head. "I don't know what to believe. Just don't go in there like a…"

"Like a what?" Josh asked defensively.

"Like a Josh," Toby said simply.

"Oh, okay." Josh smiled at Toby and despite the circumstances Toby couldn't help smiling back. They'd get through this. They'd been through too much to let it all fall apart now.

"I got a message to phone Leo so I'll see you in there." Toby watched Josh's swagger desert him as he walked the few steps to Sam's door.

He walked into the room taking in the tubes attached to Sam and then did his best to ignore them. "There's a nurse out there called Betty who lives with six nurses," he announced as he pulled up a chair and sat down.

Sam pointed to the tube in his chest. "What am I…supposed to do…about that?"

Josh nodded vigorously, "Good point." He moved his chair closer to the bed and waited for Sam to look at him. "You know, when I was shot I blamed Leo for a while." Sam's eyes widened at the revelation. "He phoned me, just before we walked out and I hung back to talk to him. I couldn't help thinking if I hadn't answered that call I would have been with you and CJ."

"We got…shot…at too," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, but you'd have pushed me down."

Sam frowned, "Not sure…Sam powers let me…let me push two people down."

"You'd have tried," Josh said and the sincerity in his voice made Sam wince inwardly. He may not believe in Josh anymore but Josh still believed in him. "But at the moment, you know, maybe it'd be CJ first."

Sam smiled at the comment. "I don't blame you…not for being…where I was." That much was true at least Sam thought.

Josh sagged visibly with relief and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry I wasn't around much when you were in here the first time."

"That's okay." Sam's reply was quick, too quick. And Josh knew they still had a long way to go. He decided that instead of trying to build any more bridges he'd just simply be there. He told Sam more about Betty. He adjusted the tube that appeared to be a bit tangled much to Sam's alarm that Josh was touching anything connected to his recovery. He pulled the blankets further up because he thought Sam looked cold then pulled them back down when Sam started to sweat again. He felt for the first time in a long time that he and Sam were actually getting somewhere. But then Toby came back into the room.

"Josh, can I speak to you outside? It's just a work thing, Sam, nothing to worry about." Toby held the door for Josh and then closed it behind him. "Leo said they caught one of Sam's attackers." He held up his hand to halt Josh's celebration. "The witness who said he saw one of them leave early was right. This guy is saying that he left the other man when he thought the attack had gone far enough." Again Josh's response was cut short. "There's more, the attack on Sam was targeted but he doesn't know, or isn't saying, who paid them or why." Toby glanced into Sam's room and stared at him while he let Josh digest what he had told him.

"Sam knows," Josh announced and Toby agreed with him. "That's why he's saying he doesn't remember and won't talk to us. It's why he's saying he doesn't remember one of the attackers leaving as well."

"Yeah, well, he's going to have go through all those questions again now and this time there's more than just his version of events to go on."

Josh leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. "God, Toby, what happened that he's not telling us?"

"I don't know and I don't want to even think about it but that other guy was on his own with Sam and whatever happened, Sam doesn't want to talk about it." Josh slowly pushed himself away from the wall and asked Toby if he was coming back in with him.

"I'm going to walk around a little," Toby said and he quickly made for the elevator leaving Josh alone to return to Sam's room and lie about what he and Toby had been discussing.

Toby walked around the front of the hospital and then without realising followed the path to the back of it. He walked past dumpsters and maintenance rooms before stopping at the back of the hospital kitchen. He sat down on some steps and opened the bottle of water that he had forgotten he was carrying. His thoughts had been running wild and as much as he tried to come up with logical explanations for what had happened to Sam he could not. At one stage he managed to convince himself that nothing had happened, the other man had simply run off. He thought about Leo telling him how the man who had been caught had said it had got too heavy though and realised that wasn't true. Now that he'd stopped walking his thoughts were becoming more ordered and for the first time Toby allowed a fear that had been lingering to surface. What if the man had done more than attack Sam? What if too heavy meant something worse than a physical attack? Toby shuddered at the thought but couldn't help but think how Sam's refusal to talk about what had happened and feigned forgetfulness made it seem even more likely. He resolved to let Sam get over this latest setback and then force him to talk or at least set his mind at rest about what had not happened.