Disclaimer – I don't own any of these characters – they are the property of NBC, John Wells and the fabulous Aaron Sorkin.

Rating – PG for now

Pairings – Josh/Ellie, Ellie/OC

Spoilers – None

Summary – Josh Lyman meets Eleanor Bartlet during the campaign and falls in love with the young, married medical student. For the purposes of my story, Ellie is several years older in this story and very different than she is on the show.

I've had this story in my head for years, and have finally forged the courage to begin writing. Here's hoping you enjoy it!! The song by Evanescence, "My Immortal" is the soundtrack for the story.

"Fight, Josh," his brain screamed at him. The pain was overwhelming. His chest burned as if it were on fire and his shirt was soaking from the blood gushing from the wound in his torso.

Ellie. The image of her beautiful face popped into his mind. There were so many things they hadn't done, so many things they hadn't said. He knew she loved him, he believed that more than he believed anything else. He had to tell her that he loved her – he needed desperately to actually say the words.

Toby was at his side now, screaming at the top of his lungs for a paramedic. God, it hurts, he thought. Men were treating him now. Josh faded in and out of consciousness, faces of the paramedics and his friends flashing in front of him. The noise was unbearable – the sirens, the screaming. He just wanted it all to stop.

"Hold on," he heard Toby say, "we're taking you to the hospital."

"Ellie," he heard himself say the words in his head, but he couldn't be sure that Toby had heard him.

"She'll be there Josh, I promise," Toby said as the paramedics lifted him onto the stretcher.

"Dr. McGarry!"

Ellie's eyes fluttered open and she saw one of her Secret Service agents standing over her. "Get up, right now," he demanded, ripping the covers off her.

"You better be real glad I'm wearing scrubs, Thompson," she said irritably, standing and stretching. "Why am I up?"

He threw her lab coat at her. "Let's go, right now," he said, holding the door the doctor's sleeping quarters open.

"Ben?" she asked curiously, following the agent out the door while pulling her loose hair into a ponytail with her fingers. The hospital was a flurry of activity, doctors, nurses and men she immediately recognized as Secret Service running around. Ellie's heart dropped into her stomach and she took off at a dead run toward the Emergency Room, with Ben in hot pursuit.

She ran right into the paramedics wheeling Josh through the Emergency Room door on a stretcher. "Josh!" the words escaped her throat in little more than a whisper. "What happened?" she demanded of Toby.

"He was shot, Ellie," the Communications Director spat out, running to keep up with the paramedics break-neck pace.

"I can see that, Toby," she shot back, then stopped in her tracks. "Where's my father?"

"I don't know, he got here a couple of minutes ago," C.J. explained, grabbing Eleanor by the arm to being recounting the evening's events. "We were at Rosslyn..."

"The town hall meeting," Ellie remembered, looking over her shoulder to see where the doctors and paramedics were taking Josh.

C.J. nodded. "There were shooters, we don't know who they were aiming at, but your father..."

"Oh my God," Ellie pressed a hand to her forehead and fought back the wave of nausea threatening to overtake her. She left C.J. were she was standing and began searching rooms for her father. She found him in the second room, with doctors hovering over him and Leo standing just inside the door. She grabbed her father-in-law's arm. "Leo?" she asked weakly.

"The shot went right through, Ellie, the doctors think he's going to be fine," Leo explained, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"They THINK?" she exclaimed.

"They're actually pretty sure," he smiled weakly.

"Leo, they just brought Josh in," Ellie said quietly, tears spilling down her cheeks. "It looks really bad."

He pulled away from his daughter-in-law, holding her at arm's length. Ellie could see the emotion coursing through the older man's eyes. "Where is he?" Leo demanded.

"They were headed to room 3. Please go check on him, Leo," she begged quietly.

"Not a word of this to your father, Eleanor," Leo demanded, turning on his heels to find Josh.

Ellie straightened herself up and took a deep breath. She walked up to where Zoey stood, holding their father's hand. "Look at what you've done, Daddy," she teased. "Not getting enough attention the old fashioned way?"

The President laughed weakly and squeezed her arm. "They woke you up, honey, I'm sorry about that. I'm going to be fine, you can go back to sleep now."

"Not on your life," she answered defiantly, then turned to Zoey. "Is Mom on the way?" she asked.

"Oh man, not your Mother," the President groaned. "She's going to come in here and take over."

"As well she should," Ellie shot back.

"She'll be here in a couple of minutes," Zoey answered softly, stroking her father's hand with her thumb.

"Daddy, I'll be right back, okay?" Ellie said loudly.

"The hole's not in my ear, Ellie, I can hear you just fine," he answered sarcastically.

She smiled weakly and took off, leaving her father and sister in search of Josh. She stood in the entryway to Exam Room 3, knocked over by the scene in front of her. The doctors had entubated Josh and were pumping air in and out of his lungs. Bloody dressings were scattered over the floor. She glanced around the room for Leo but didn't find her father-in-law anywhere. She fought her way past the nurses and doctors crowding around Josh and pulled a stool up beside his head. She donned a pair of latex gloves and sat down, stroking his auburn hair with her gloved fingers.

"I'm here, Josh," she whispered, pressing her lips to his cold forehead. "Please don't leave me," she cried softly. She watched as the doctors worked furiously over him, trying desperately to stabilize him.

"Ellie?" the E.R. attending physician and Ellie's boss, Dr. Mike Toland, touched her shoulder gently. She looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes. "We're taking Josh up to surgery now and your father's already there."

"I want to stay with Josh," she answered, hoping he wouldn't disagree.

"He stabilized when you got here," the doctor explained, "There's no way I'm telling you no. You might be his only hope."

TBC....