10: The Adventures of Jessica, Spanky and Pokey

"I really am fine, by the way. If you care. Which, obviously, you don't." The doctor ignored him and continued poking and prodding him and checking reactions. Finally he hunkered down to actually look Sam in the eye.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Sam. Seaborn. With a Norman in the middle." Josh snickered, and Donna gave him a firm elbow to the ribs to shut him up.

"And what day is it?"

That one stumped him. "Um... Tuesday, possibly?"

"There's no guarantee he'd know that normally," Josh put in. The days all tended to bleed together in the West Wing, especially when things were hectic enough to have them working all weekend.

"Okay, then. Can you remember what you did today?"

"Sure. Um, I went to work, I grabbed breakfast in the mess, President Bartlet started giving me a pop quiz on the origin of waffles-"

The doctor was starting to look concerned, but fortunately Josh stepped in. "Bizarrely enough, that actually happened." The doctor gave him a look, and Donna flashed her White House ID at him.

"Okay." The man started to note something on his clipboard, paused, and looked up. "Waffles?"

"The president likes to encourage his staff to build up a store of general knowledge," Josh elaborated.

"And some not-so-general." Sam squinted, the bright lights still bothering him a bit. "Can I go home now?"

"Well, Mr. Seaborn, you don't appear to have done yourself any damage. However, I'd really prefer it if you stay overnight for observation, just in case."

Sam just wanted to go home and crash on his couch. "I really don't think-"

"Sure, he'll stay," Donna cut him off.

He frowned at her. "When did you become my legal guardian?"

Josh patted him on the shoulder. "Accept it, my son, you're going nowhere."

"'My son'? Okay, I think you guys have just appointed yourselves my substitute parents, and that's... weird on entirely too many levels." Though he wouldn't have admitted it, he was feeling more than a little bit blurry.

"Yeah." Dazed or not, Sam was sure the slightly guilty look Josh threw Donna's way was more than his imagination. "You know what? I'll go call the others."

"Oh, Josh, c'mon-" Sam groaned. The last thing he wanted was more people crowding around to fuss over him.

"Sam. You, barely able to stand up. CJ, in full health and screaming mad about not being called. Who am I more afraid of?"

"Coward," said Sam, but it was with a sigh of resignation. There was no escape.

* * *

Toby was the first to arrive at the waiting room, his usual scowling self. "You didn't get the box?" he asked brusquely.

"No." Donna didn't take offence, and answered the question she knew he really wanted to ask. "But Sam's gonna be fine. The doctors just want to keep him in just in case."

Toby muttered something into his beard about the deplorable clumsiness of his deputy, but Donna wasn't fooled.

"Josh is in with him, if you wanna go ask about the demons that attacked us," she suggested. Of course, she could answer those questions herself just as easily, but Toby always needed a cover story before he could do anything that might be taken as caring.

Toby mumbled something else, and stomped off. No doubt he would glare at Sam and tell him off for being an idiot, and nobody would be fooled on that end, either.

CJ arrived soon after. "Hey, Donna." Donna saw her visibily relax as soon as she saw the casual way Donna was sitting out in the waiting room. "How's our Spanky doing?"

"He's gonna be fine." She couldn't quite hold in a giggle. "Josh called him that earlier," she confided. "I guess it was a term of endearment."

CJ pumped her fist triumphantly. "At last, a nickname adopted! Who am I, the name lady? I've been throwing those things out for ages waiting for one of them to take hold. It takes imagination, you know." She grinned wickely. "Incidentally, is Pokey here?"

"He's in with Spanky and Jessica." They traded smirks.