"How is she?" The voice from the doorway caused Josh to jump. It was after visiting hours, so it was quiet. The president had come by a few hours before, Toby had wandered by, C.J. had called, and Sam and Ainsley had sat with him for a few hours. He turned to see Leo in the doorway.
"She lost ten pounds, still dehydrated, beaten, had another seizure before they managed to get her blood pressure and heart rate back under control. Hasn't regained consciousness yet."
Leo frowned. "Margaret wants to come by and sit with her if you need to shower or eat."
Josh nodded. "The report's gotten better during the last couple of hours, so maybe she'll wake up soon. I'm not gonna be away from her…but thank Margaret anyway." Leo nodded and Josh handed him two files. "I'm still working on the speech. Is there anything I need to come into the office for?"
Leo shook his head. "We're managing."
"Did you decide yet?"
Leo frowned. "Decide what?"
"Whether she's going to get fired or not."
Leo frowned, sitting in the other chair Josh had brought in for visitors. "We haven't decided anything yet."
"But it is a possibility."
"Right now, everything's a possibility. But we want to make absolutely sure of what happened before we make any assumptions."
"But the appearance of impropriety…"
"We're going to do whatever we can to be fair by Donna, but our first duty is always to the President…and so should yours be." An awkward silence fell between the two friends and Leo left.
"Don't listen to him, okay? I know you better. I'm not gonna let you go without a fight." He brushed some more hair out of her face. "Just rest." He wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but he couldn't function, in or out of work, without Donna and he wasn't going to let anyone, from her captors to Leo, take her away from him.
*****
He woke up and, just like every morning for three months, she was sitting
there, asleep in the chair next to his bed.
She had a baby blue button-down shirt on, so worn that it was as soft as
a t-shirt, the top two buttons unbuttoned, falling down to her lower thigh, but
leaving the rest of her leg bare. He'd
tried every night to get her to take the bed or, failing that, the couch, but
each morning he woke up with her next to him, holding his hand. The nightmares, what he'd later found out was
part of the PTSD, woke him every night and, every night, she'd held him in her
arms until he went back to sleep, talking softly to him, comforting him. He remembered in the hospital, when he woke
up, the President, Leo, Toby, and Sam had all been with him, but Donna had been
right outside the room, staring though the window, and crying. Her tears had broken his heart and that's
when he'd finally been able to admit to himself that he loved her. He'd even dreamed about her during the
surgery. Other times, when she thought
he wasn't looking, he'd catch her staring at him, like
she was so afraid something else would happen to him. He wanted to reassure her that he was going
to be all right, but knew that nothing he said or did could help her with that,
so when she'd set the rules, he'd followed them to the letter…anything to make
her happy, to make her smile. Those
three months living with her had almost made getting shot worth while and he
knew that there was no way he could have made it through without her. She was a part of him, the best part.
*****
Sam walked into the hospital room the next morning and gently woke Josh
up. "How's she doing?"
"Holding on. A little better." He was surprised that none of the nurses had waked him up during the night.
"Toby called me an hour ago." He paused. "The shooter confessed."
"To the assassination attempt?"
Sam nodded. "Evidently, Donna intercepted a fax to your office that was supposed to go to another number."
"How did that happen?"
"As near as anyone can figure out, the numbers were transposed. Anyway, it had some details about the assassination attempt. She faxed it to the Secret Service office."
"Why didn't the president know about it then?"
"Crossed wires. She had already sent it when they came to the office, looking for it. When she left that night, they grabbed her. She wouldn't tell them what she'd done with it until they'd beaten her for a few hours. After that, they couldn't let her loose to tell what had happened…they had…they had to kill her."
"So they left her there alone in the cold to starve to death." Josh's voice trembled.
"Yeah. I'm sorry."
"At least Leo won't fire her now."
Sam nodded. "You remember that friend of hers, with the father?"
Josh nodded. "Stephanie. Yeah, I remember."
"When I found out about her grandfather, I asked Donna if she understood what the last full measure of fidelity and devotion meant." Josh nodded. He knew Donna knew those things very well. Not only was she the most loyal person he knew, but she loved, with all her heart. She was so gullible that most men took advantage of her, which was why she ended up with losers. "I guess I better go." Josh nodded. He had his speech.