Chapter 7
They found Elizabeth's car keys and twenty minutes later they were sitting at an IHOP, eating and fighting sleep. "You look like hell; you've got to get some sleep."
"Why, thank you Josh, what a nice thing to say."
He looked up from his eggs. "What?"
"This is the way you compliment a woman? By telling her she looks like hell?"
He looked at her, confused. "I just meant that you need to get some sleep."
"Because I look like hell," she spit out at him. She wasn't really mad, but she was tired and he didn't need to get on her bad side.
"Hell for you," he said and she narrowed her eyes at him. He took a deep breath and said as if it were a well-known fact, "Donna, if you didn't shower or sleep for a month, you'd still be the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, but your eyes aren't as blue as usual and they've got circles under them. You also have strawberry sauce on your nose, which is actually kind of cute, but you need sleep."
She wiped her nose with a napkin and pouted at him, which was just for show. Only Josh Lyman could give such a huge compliment and not even realize it. "You don't look much better than me. You're hair's sticking up and you keep yawning. Plus, you need a shower."
"Yeah." He leaned his head back and rubbed his hand over his face. "This could go on for a while. We're never gonna make it like this. We've slept, what, eight hours in three days; that's worse than work. We need to start sleeping a little, at least at night."
"We could sleep in shifts," she suggested.
He didn't mention that he didn't really care for that idea; that although this week had been hell, he was enjoying the close proximity to her, especially waking-up with her. "Eventually, one or both of us is going to have to go back to work," he pointed out instead.
She sighed. "I know."
"I don't like her to be alone, but I'm not doing anything here except waiting. In reality, I could wait and work at the same time. And it won't be too long before Leo tells me so."
"What about transferring her to DC?"
He swallowed a bite and said, "Once she's stable, we're going to have to." He paused before continuing, "The papers you put in my bag are her power of attorney, living will, and insurance information. We're gonna have to go through it at some point."
She nodded and took a piece of bacon off his plate. He responded by taking a bite of her waffles. "So," he said after a minute. "What'd you do while I slept?"
She smiled. "You know, typical woman stuff. Cleaning, laundry, snooping."
He laughed and took another bite of her waffles. "Find anything good?"
"You had a dog."
"What?"
"When you were a kid. You had a dog."
"Scruffy. How'd you know?"
"There was a picture of you and Joanie with him."
He nodded and picked up a piece of bacon, but just as he started to put it in his mouth, he froze. Donna smiled, knowing exactly what was going through his mind, and he looked at her and they both laughed. "I told you she has ideas," he said.
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When they arrived back at the ICU, Dr. Bomboy was standing at the nurse's station writing on a chart. "Mr. and Mrs. Lyman, hello. I was just coming to see you."
"How'd it go? Is she back?" Josh asked.
"Well, the EEG showed continued brain activity. She's also healing well from the surgery. Dr. Wolfe did a wonderful job."
"And the swelling?"
The doctor looked at him and smiled. "It's down. Not much, but it's down."
"So, she's…"
"Showing small signs of improvement. That's all I can tell you at this point. It's wait and see until she regains consciousness. We're going to continue the MRI and EEG every morning, but that's really all we can do."
"Thank you, doctor," said Donna, and she and Josh headed down the hall towards Elizabeth's room.
When they got to the room, there was a man and woman sitting next to Elizabeth's bed, talking. Josh looked at Donna and shrugged, and she opened the door the rest of the way and walked in. The woman was talking about some sort of card rules and the man was mocking her.
When the woman heard the door, she looked over and her mouth opened wide. "Donna. You're Donna," she said as she stood up, came over to Donna and gave her a huge hug. Josh stood next to Donna and watched the two of them, not sure if he should laugh at her or rescue her.
"Yes," she said as she hugged the complete stranger back.
"Let me look at you," the woman said, stepping back and taking Donna's face in her hands. "You're even more beautiful than your pictures."
"Thank you," Donna replied, confused.
"And you," she said, looking at Josh. "You look so much like your father. Give me a hug." Josh looked at Donna, who shook her head, and then gave the woman a hug.
"Let go of him, Betty, or he's gonna turn around and fly back to the White House," said the man as he got out of his chair and walked to them.
The woman, Betty, let go of Josh and hit the man on the arm, which made Donna laugh a bit. "Don't mind him," she said to Donna. "He's just grumpy cause he's old. Now, I'm Betty and this is my husband Russell. We play cribbage with Liz every Friday, so we thought we'd move the game over here today." Josh's eyebrows shot up at the term Liz.
"Hi Betty, I'm Donna. But I guess you already knew that."
"Oh yes, dear. Liz talks about the two of you all the time. 'My son' this and 'my son' that, and 'he wouldn't get a thing done without his Donna'." Donna smiled and looked pointedly at Josh.
"So," asked Russell, shaking Josh's hand. "When did you get into town?"
"Tuesday night," replied Josh, looking over the man's shoulder at his mother.
"Give her time, son, give her time," the man said to Josh, patting him on the back.
"Yes Sir, I'm just worried."
"I know, son. And you," he said, looking at Donna. "Betty's right for once in her life. You're stunning."
"Thank you, Sir. Josh recently told me I look like hell, so I appreciate your kind words."
"Better be careful, Josh," said Russell, grinning. "She'll up and leave you for some young buck who drives a Mercedes and doesn't notice that stain on her shirt." Donna looked down at her shirt, and sure enough, there was a strawberry stain on it.
Josh laughed. "Yes Sir, I'll keep that in mind."
"You know dear," Betty said to Donna. "Men only say those things because they don't know how to express themselves. Russell says mean things to me all the time. I know it's his way of telling me he loves me, doesn't stop me from beating him with his cane, though." She looked at Russell and he rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't last a day without me," she said to him.
"That's because you hide my medicine." He tuned to Josh. "She's very controlling."
Josh laughed. "I know the feeling," he said and looked over at Donna. She stuck her tongue out at him.
Betty took Donna's hands in her own. "You do look tired, sweetheart, although you hardly look like hell. When was the last time you slept?"
"We slept yesterday during Elizabeth's surgery."
"Goodness gracious, honey. You need to rest, and you have to make this man of yours sleep too. Men are dumb, they need us to take care of them."
"We don't like to leave her alone," said Josh, ignoring the fact that this woman just called him dumb.
"Well, she's not alone today. We'll be here. Do you two have a hotel?"
"We have a room upstairs the hospital's letting us use."
"Then go, both of you, get some sleep. We'll stay right here with her the whole time."
"But…"
"No buts, Josh," said Russell. "It's easier if you just let them have their way. They eventually use our devotion to get it anyway. We'll stay. We brought books and cards, and the nurse told us she'd bring in a television."
Josh looked at Donna who shrugged. Why not, he thought. Elizabeth wouldn't be alone, and they were both exhausted. And these people seemed to be good friends of his mother's, plus they reminded him of someone, although he wasn't sure whom. "I'll give you my cell number, so if you want to leave for lunch or something, you can call and I'll come back down."
"We're not going anywhere son, we'll be here all day. You two get some sleep," said Russell.
Josh took out a business card and wrote his and Donna's cell numbers on the back. "If there's any change at all, call us. Or have a nurse call us; they have our numbers at the station out there. We're in room… Donna, what room are we in?"
"Seven, just up one floor in the family unit," she said to Betty and Russell. "If you need us, we can be back down here in two minutes."
"Go," said Betty. "Sleep, several hours. And shower, that's an order."
"Yes, ma'am, thank you," said Josh. He put his hand on Donna's back and led her out of the room.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
While Donna showered, Josh checked in with Toby and Leo. Hamilton was dragging his feet on the Education building repairs bill, and although what he wanted was admirable, they had hung enough Christmas trees on the bill to make it topple. He told Toby to offer Hamilton co-sponsorship and the choice to co-write the education legislation that would be coming up in the next session. That should please him. Leo was still dealing with the aftermath of the school shooting. Republicans were pissed that democrats weren't pushing for tighter security in schools, in the form of metal detectors and security guards. Democrats were pissed that republicans made it so easy for kids to get guns. CJ was just pissed that democrats and republicans were so busy arguing that they had seemed to forget that the student killed had a name and a family.
While Josh was in the shower, Donna put on a pair of shorts that said 'sexy' on the butt and a tank top that didn't quite reach the top of the shorts and got into bed. Josh came out of the bathroom wearing boxers and a t-shirt, closed the curtains and got in beside her. She was on her side, facing away from him, and without even thinking about it, he rolled onto his side behind her.
They were both drifting quickly, but just as Donna was about to fall asleep, she heard Josh speak. "I like them."
"Hmm… who?" she asked while letting her eyes drift closed.
He yawned and closed his eyes as well. "Betty and Russell. I like them," he mumbled.
"Mmm hmm. Do they think…" she was having a hard time staying focused.
"Nah," he said, putting his arm around her. "She has ideas, but she's not…" he yawned again, "Delusional."
She leaned back into him a bit and sighed. "What about the contact list?" she asked, barely opening her mouth enough to get the words out.
He could feel himself falling asleep. He mumbled, "She probably thought that by the time she'd need it, we'd already be married."
"Right." She felt herself falling into unconsciousness. "Night."
"Mmm... Love you."
"You too."
