Hey guys, thanks again for the reviews. Sorry this took a while, but I've had regents exams. If you live in New York, you'll know what I'm talking about. So here it is, the part where my story gets incredibly less humorous.

CHAPTER VII

From what CJ figured was a camera-flash induced dizzy blackness, the press secretary emerged to the sound of music. Initially, neither her ears nor her eyes would cooperate, but as her vision refocused she first saw more flashes of light, and could hear a seemingly random voice singing "happy birthday".

CJ was finally able to see again, and she looked out beyond her podium to dozens of empty seats...save one. In the front row was Katie, standing by herself, finishing her lonesome birthday song. Suddenly CJ caught sight of a man walking up the side isle, carrying what seemed to be a cake. Not just a man, she realized as he looked up at her, but her father. The astonished woman stood in joyous shock as she felt someone touch her, someone...

---

Was dragging her out of the briefing room. CJ was barely conscious, but could feel the grip of someone's lifesaving hands now picking her up and setting her down on something firm. She tried to open her eyes, but eventually gave up as she felt her mind succumb to a strange numbness...

---

A secret service agent, dressed in a sharp black suit, was coming up the side aisle behind her father. She could barely make out a fishbowl resting in the man's hands...

---

"CJ...CJ! CJ!" Claudia's eyes fluttered open and above her she could sense the outline of a face, with more refocusing she realized it was the bloody countenance of Josh.

"CJ, can you hear me?"

CJ attempted in vain to open her mouth.

"CJ, if you can hear me, help is on the way. I will be right here with you. I'll be right here." CJ felt a drop of warm liquid fall onto her face, and whether it was blood or saltwater she could not discern, for the press secretary had again unwillingly closed her veteran emerald eyes.

---

Agent Simon Donovan, clutching Gail, and Tal Cregg stood silently next to CJ. She looked at both of their faces, the faces of the two men that she missed to the depths of her heart, and tried to convey a message of love over and over with her soggy stare. Their own kind eyes looked back at her; they seemed to be almost deciding something, CJ would later think, and then her father abruptly opened his mouth as...

---

The injured press secretary leisurely unbolted her eyes. Bit by bit, she was able to comprehend the semi-organized bedlam surrounding her. There were figures moving around, and some faces were staring down at her. Behind the visages were floating blobs of blackness, which seemed to be spread out throughout the room. Gradually she was again able to make out the wounded face of Josh.

"CJ, can you hear me?"

CJ opened her mouth to speak, only half expecting anything audible to come out. Nevertheless, she heard herself straining her words with a small voice. "I can hear you, Sparky."

"Are you in pain? There's an ambulance on the way." Josh's spoke in a quick, adrenaline packed manner.

CJ answered truthfully. "I just feel a little numb, a little shocked. Josh, what happened?"

"There was...there was a bomb ...or something, it was in the podium." Josh braced himself for the next question.

CJ remained in incomprehensible shock. "How?"

Because I pushed the damn button, Josh thought as he sickened himself, I'm an idiot and your hurt because of me, because I pushed the damn button. Josh thought for a second how to respond. He concluded that he couldn't be certain of his suspicions, even after what had happened with Carol. "We don't know, but for some God-given reason, it was weak, the explosion was weak. Only one other person was hurt, CJ."

"You mean Katie." CJ began to feel very tired again.

For just a hair of a second Josh pondered the strangely profound powers of a woman's intuition. "Yeah...CJ..."

Suddenly CJ was lifted and placed on a stretcher. As she was about to be carried off, she called back to Josh. "You got a little cut there, Sparky." Then she was out of earshot.

Josh felt his head, and sure enough, there was blood. He knew there would be burns, but he didn't think there would be blood. He stood still, for a split second, and then looked around. He saw Katie; her eyes finally open, also being carried away. Unexpectedly Toby shuffled up to him.

"Josh, are you okay?"

"Yeah, where's the president?"

"I think he was led to a helicopter right after the explosion," Toby was also in a daze. "Josh, where's CJ? Is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's being taken to the hospital"

"I'm asking because I saw the fire, I heard the explosion, and I saw the-" Seemingly out of nowhere a secret service agent standing rigidly on a desk interrupted Toby.

"Alright, we need everyone outside in the rose garden, now." There were no questions to be asked in light of the look that plastered the agent's stoic face.

As they were being led outside, Josh relayed ro Toby his confounding experience. "Toby, I think I set off the...I think I set if off."

The departing crowd was extremenly loud. Toby craned his ear in front of Josh's mouth. "Josh, what was that, I couldn't hear you."

Josh reluctantly repeated himself in a harsh whisper. "I think I set off the explosion."

The overwhelmed communications director forcefully took Josh off to the side, near a bed of tulips. "You what?"

Josh took in a few deep breaths, and then proceeded to speak. "As we were all getting situated, I went over to Carol to ask if she had the cake. She said it was in her car, and she asked me to do something for her in case she wasn't back in time."

Toby's eyes glazed over with the force of thousands of thoughts trotting through his mind. He noticed that Josh had taken a sudden interest in the nearby flowers, and so he pressed the tired man further. "Josh, what did she ask you to do? It's okay, just tell me."

"Toby, she gave me a...a remote, and said to press the yellow button when CJ approached the podium, she said it would turn on a radio which would start playing music to cue the press to sta..." Josh was cut off by Toby's sudden bellow to the crowd beyond.

"I need to speak to an agent! I need to talk to someone!"

Josh was speechless. Did Toby suspect him? There's no way, he thought, no way...

In a flash an agent unknown to either man approached Toby. "What is it Mr. Ziegler?"

"I need you to find Carol Fitzpatrick. Josh thinks she might have something to do with this."

The agent looked grave. "Thank you, Mr. Ziegler." He then looked over to Josh. "Mr. Lyman, your head looks pretty bad, you should probably head over to the emergency room."

Josh stammered. "No, its fine, it just a..."

The agent interrupted. "On second thought, you are going to the emergency room." The agent craned his head around to the throng of dazed souls. "I need a paramedic!"
---

Elizabeth Westin looked back at her son in the rear seat, hoping that in the boredom created by the stagnant traffic he wouldn't start asking questions. Gus sat in the back seat, absently staring out the window.

"Mom?"

"What honey?"

The six-year old paused for a moment. "Are you okay?"

The first daughter of the first family did not look behind her. She knew what her innocent son had meant; it was the same thing that Annie, when she picked her up, would probably inquire about directly. Flipping down the mirror, she inspected the bruise under her left eye. She could still observe it plainly, even after applying numerous layers of make-up. Without warning, the red raging eyes of her husband again pierced her consciousness. "I'm fine, honey."

"Look, mom, a police officer!"

Sure enough, Elizabeth saw the culprit of the bottleneck up ahead, conversing with each car thoroughly. As she pulled up, she made sure she was the first one to speak, being fairly certain that she would be instantly recognized. "Officer, can you tell me what's going on? We're at least eight blocks away from the white house, and..." Elizabeth stopped when she witnessed the officer's face turn noxiously pale.

"Uh, Mrs. Westin, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but there's been an incident at the White House."

Elizabeth froze. "What sort of incident?"

The officer looked very uncomfortable, and glanced at the line of cars waiting beyond. "I'm sorry, but you will probably get more out of the media than you will out of me. I'd recommend turning on the radio."

With that, Elizabeth silently pulled ahead to take her place in the traffic jam. After glimpsing back at her son, who seemed blissfully ignorant, she turned on the radio. She didn't have to switch channels, because they were all broadcasting the same thing.

Yes...hello? Dan? I'm sorry, it seems that we've lost our connection with

Our white house correspondent, Dan Stewart. What we can tell you is

That there has been an unconfirmed explosion at the White House. Our

Current sources place the explosion somewhere around the White House

Briefing room. We are currently unaware of the strength of the blast, or

Of any casualties. Again, breaking news out of Washin—

Elizabeth had heard enough. She looked out the window, up to the line of cars ahead. They weren't going anywhere anytime soon. Rapidly reaching a verdict, she pulled over and parked very illegally at the side of the road. Turning back to Gus she struggled to articulate her message in the composed voice of a good mother. "Honey, we're going to go for a walk, Okay?"

Gus's eyes looked wide with fright. "Is Annie okay? Mommy, is Annie okay?"

Elizabeth tried her best to calm her son. "I'm sure she's fine. Come on, out of the car." Elizabeth exited the car with her son and began walking through the lawn, in the direction of where the white house would appear several blocks later. She grabbed Gus's hand, ostensibly speeding up with each stride toward her family, and with each step one thought plagued her shock-ravaged mind; Annie could be dead, and it's all my fault.