Leo put the phone down slowly. It dropped with a click. He took a second to lean his head forward onto the wall, the cool surface a refreshing change to his hot brow.
Kathleen Lyman had done her fair share of shouting. Who was to blame her? Her son had been rushed into hospital with near complete nervous breakdown. The kid nearly died again.
And she was right, it was Leo's fault. First the shooting. Then the PTSD. Now this.
Leo decided it was about clear that he wasn't doing a fantastic job of keeping his promise to Noah.
Lifting his head off the wall, Leo glanced around the corridor, noting only the few agents and the odd nurse lining the hall. The rest of the party had moved into the waiting room. But Leo had one more phone call to make.
He inputted another familiar number and held the receiver to his ear, waiting patiently as the rings woke the person on the other end. A muffled yawn broke the metronomic rings.
"He-Hello?"
"Mallory? It's dad."
"No, you have to follow through, or you won't get the trajectory. Watch me."
Leo put his feet up on the small wall opposite the chair he was sitting on, sipped from his glass of water and smiled. He heard the gasp of awe from his daughter as Josh flung the football across the garden, the 17 year old grinning in his own self-gratification as he exhibited perfect technique.
Mallory laughed at Josh's showing off and chased after the ball, her curly brown locks flowing behind her.
"She's getting better, huh?"
Leo looked up as Noah joined him at the patio table. Leo shook his head quickly as his friend offered him some scotch, regretting it almost immediately.
"Staying off the scotch?"
"Jenny doesn't like Mallory playing too much sport like this. She prefers her doing 'girls sports'," Leo made quotation marks with his fingers, avoiding Noah's previous question, "Not that anyone knows what a girly sport it…"
Noah laughed, "Josh will take any opportunity to prove his sports skills. Even if it is to an 13 year old girl. You don't agree with Jenny?"
"Nah," Leo waved a hand in dismissal, "She can do what she likes, she tends to flit from being the girly-girl to the tomboy anyway. And any father would prefer his to be throwing a football around at 13 than any of the other 5000 things she could be doing that would be reprehensible in one way or another."
"I guess so," Noah agreed, "I'm sure Josh is going to miss her company when he goes off to college, heaven knows he has no luck speaking to girls his own age."
"Aw, leave the kid be. He's fine," Leo commented, "Does he have any acceptances yet?"
Noah shook his head, "Not yet, we're still waiting. To be honest, I think Josh is too nervous himself to even think about it. Perhaps showing off his less-than-spectacular football ability may be just what he needs. The boy has a superiority complex."
As if the forces of nature heard Noah's comment, Mallory's next throw of the football went higher, further and faster than Josh's, dropping to the ground on the other side of the large garden with a thump. Mallory cheered as Leo and Noah laughed; the corners of Josh's mouth twitching before he forced a fake, congratulatory smile.
"May wanna work on the actual superior part though, huh?" Leo mumbled between laughs.
Leo placed the phone down with the same deliberation he did after Mrs. Lyman's call. Mallory would be straight over first thing in the morning. Sighing audibly, Leo semi-regretted placing this on his daughter, but he knew that she was as close to Josh as any of them. Hell, he'd even helped her run away once when Leo said she couldn't have that girly make-up set she wanted.
"She was too young for that anyway…"
"Mr. McGarry? Did you say something sir?"
"Hm?" Leo's gaze shot round to the enquiring agent around 5 feet to his right. He shook his head slowly, "No, it's okay, it's nothing."
The agent nodded cautiously before turning back to his post.
"Wait, Agent…?" Leo queried.
"Pierce, sir."
"Agent Pierce," Leo hesitated, "Would I be able to get a car back to the office?"
"Of course, sir. I'll have one ready for you now."
Toby broke the impenetrable silence as he screwed up the piece of paper he was writing on and threw it across the room. It bounced off the wall and dropped straight into the bin with a clang.
Huffing, Toby picked his feet up and dropped them on the seat opposite him. He rubbed his hands over his eyes and prepared to write once more.
White House Press Statement re Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman
After writing the title, Toby reached the familiar stumbling block. Where do you start? He stared at the blank sheet angrily, denting the paper with his black biro as he continuously underlined the title.
"Toby?" Sam whispered, adjusting where he was sat slightly so as not to disturb Donna, who had laid her head on his lap to sleep, "What are you writing?"
"Press statement," was the blunt reply.
"Do you want me to do it?"
"No."
"Alright…well chuck it over when you're done and I'll have a look."
Sam sighed as he looked round the darkened room. It was nearly morning now, they'd been in the hospital for around 3 hours. CJ was asleep across some of the chairs in one corner of the room. Margaret was flat out on a chair next to her. Charlie had headed back to the office and Abbey was still in with Josh and the other doctors. Glancing at his watch quickly, Sam mentally noted that Josh's blood should be fully filtered within the hour.
The only ones awake in the room now were him, Toby and the President. It took Sam a number of seconds to realise they were still missing one of their ranks.
"Sir?"
The President was jumped out of his pensive trance with a start, "Yes, Sam?"
"Where's Leo?
The President's brow furrowed as he took a couple of seconds to register Sam's question. He took a quick look round the room, as if to check if Sam wasn't looking hard enough.
"I…don't know, Sam."
Jed stood and opened the door to the waiting room, poking his head out and motioning for the attention of one of the agents.
"Agent, where is Leo?"
"Mr. McGarry, sir? He went back to the offices around an hour ago."
"Really… thank you."
Jed stepped back into the waiting room slowly, meeting Sam's eyes and confirming the younger man had heard the agent.
"Do you want me to go back?" Sam asked. Before Jed could answer, Toby stood quickly.
"I'll go."
"Toby?"
Whipping himself round so he had his back to the pair, Toby brought a hand up to his forehead. He pressed down on the tops of his eyebrows briefly before squeezing the bridge of his nose.
"Toby? Are you alright?" Jed took steps towards his Director of Communications.
"I'll go back to the office. I'll finish this statement, brief the press and check in on Leo."
"Toby, seriously-" Sam started.
"Give me a call on my cell if anything changes with Josh."
"Toby, it wasn't your fault!" Sam raised his voice slightly, concerned he may wake one of the sleeping members of the group.
"Sam, you know that I…" Toby stopped talking as he shrugged with frustration, his hand bouncing off his thigh as he let it drop. He picked up his jacket and flung it over his shoulder, "I'll be at the office."
"Toby…"
The door slammed shut.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Toby stopped chucking the pink ball as he missed the catch. It bounced on the worn-in carpet of his office, stopping a few feet away from his left foot.
Picking up his biro, Toby scribbled down what was left of his press statement and stood up to leave. He took a few steps towards the door before turning back and grabbing his jacket, placing the press statement in the upper right pocket.
The corridors were still empty as Toby checked his watch. 3:45 a.m. Within seconds he walked straight through Margaret's office and into the Chief of Staff's.
"Leo."
Leo looked up from his desk in surprise before pulling his glasses off his nose slowly.
"Toby? Weren't you at the hospital?" Leo asked, his casual tone causing Toby to frown.
"I was… writing the press statement."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah, okay."
"You don't want to see it?" Toby pushed.
"I trust you."
"Oh, come of it Leo."
Leo met Toby's eyes with resolute conviction, despite the early hour.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What are you doing?"
"What?"
"Why are you here?"
"If you haven't noticed…" Leo's tone hardened slightly as he reached for his glasses and looked back down at his file, "I am White House Chief of Staff. I have work to be doing."
"At 3:45 a.m.? With Josh Lyman on death's door at GW?"
Toby immediately regretted pushing that far as he saw Leo's shoulders visibly twitch. The older man's hand was shaking as he placed his glasses back down on the desk, his gaze rising to meet Toby's once more.
"Don't do this to yourself, Leo," Toby decided to get in first, "Go back to the hospital and be with Josh, everyone knows you of all people should be first there."
"His mother should be first there."
"And where is his mother?"
"In Germany. She's catching the next flight over."
"Exactly, meaning you are the top of the people-who-are-closest-to-Josh list."
"Toby…"
"He comes off the thing soon."
"The thing may not have done anything." Toby noted a small crack in Leo's voice, "Fact of the matter is, Toby, the odds that Josh is going to come through this at all are pretty slim. I'm just trying to deal with the fact that he may not be alright at all, especially considering that I had a part to play in all this. I left it too long, and Josh came off the worse for it. I couldn't just sit there in the hospital, knowing I could have done something to stop it."
Toby hesitated before Leo continued.
"And I could ask you why you not at the hospital too. Same reason?"
Leo raised his eyebrows as he waited for an answer from the Director of Communications. Toby bit the inside of his lip as he placed his hand on the cool brass of the door handle, preparing to leave.
"The difference between you and me, Leo, is that I'm not the one Josh will be expecting to see first when he wakes up."