Leo waited anxiously for Dr. Sanford to reappear with news about Josh. Just as he saw him coming toward him, he also saw some dark suits come in the Emergency Room entrance along with the Head of Presidential Security.
"Ron, glad you came. I'm just about to find out about Josh. Come on over here and hear the news with me."
Leo introduced the two men and asked Dr. Sanford how his Deputy was.
Dr. Sanford shook his head. "Not good. He's pretty banged up."
"Well, could you give me few more details?"
"I know about his injuries from Rosslyn. There's barely a doctor here that doesn't. Right now, those are not helping him."
Leo was getting really impatient. "Would you just tell me what's wrong?"
"Why don't we sit down?"
The three men sat down in the conference area. Leo was trying to be patient, but he was anxious to hear and this delay was only increasing his anxiety.
"Mr. Lyman has blunt force trauma to his chest which has fractured four of his ribs. Those broken ribs have in turn ruptured two of his lung lobes, which we have reinflated with chest tubes. We are worried that this trauma in some manner damaged the repairs that were done after Rosslyn, but it's too soon to tell. He has a broken pelvis and, where his face hit the steering wheel, both his orbital bones surrounding his eyes are fractured. We have sedated him and inserted an endotracheal tube and placed him on a ventilator. He coded in the ambulance on the way over here, but the EMTs were able to resuscitate him. He needs surgery, but he is so unstable at the moment, we cannot in good faith take him to the OR."
Dr. Sanford could see the older man's face get very pale. He thought maybe the hospital was going to have another patient on their hands.
"Mr. McGarry, are you okay?"
Leo couldn't reply.
"Doctor, Mr. Lyman is Mr. McGarry's Deputy as well as a long-time family friend," Ron answered.
"Oh, I see. Mr. McGarry, do you want to see Mr. Lyman? Normally we wouldn't, but maybe we can make an exception here? We probably will move him to Intensive Care shortly for monitoring with the hope that he will stabilize enough for surgery."
Leo still didn't respond until Ron gently put his hand on Leo's arm. That seemed to bring Leo out of his fog.
"Not yet. I need to call the President and inform him of what's going on. Then I might want to see him."
"That's fine. I'll ask his medical team to wait to move him until after you see him."
"Thank you, Dr. Sanford."
"I'll be around. Just call me." He got up and walked away.
"Ron, I have to call the President. You know he'll want to come, don't you? You might as well start to make arrangements."
"Well, given the fact that whoever planned all this is still out there, I normally would not agree, but I also know that once the President hears about this he won't stop until he gets here. So I'll go make the arrangements. And I'll stand by you when you talk with him."
"Thanks, Ron. How long will it take you?"
"I'll be back in just a few minutes."
"I'll be here."
Leo sat silently, trying to digest all he had heard and what he was going to tell the President.
He was also trying to decide how the West Wing was going to function without their top tier people present for what was going to be probably a significant period of recovery time. If they all recovered. He shook his head. He was not going to think that way. All of them were going to recover. That was all there was to it.
Waiting for Ron to return, he heard "Code Blue Trauma 1, Code Blue Trauma 1". Leo stood up, his heart beating rapidly, praying it wasn't one of the Senior Staff. He looked down the hallway and his heart calmed down. The rush of personnel was not toward the two doors had agents outside them.
'Thank you, God. Please keep them all safe. Please.'