Title: Gaza
Author: Katie D.
Email: Josh/Donna
Rating: Teen, to be on the safe side.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the people who own The West Wing. I only own
Noah and Jason Lyman.
Synopsis: Josh learns that his wife was in the car bombing in Gaza. This is an alternate universe where Josh and Donna have been married since just before Bartlet took office and have twin boys Noah and Jason who were born in the second season. They would probably be around three years old.
Spoilers: Everything up through Memorial Day is fair game. I've only seen parts of Memorial Day and parts of Gaza. But those episodes got me thinking.
Josh Lyman was heading into his office from a meeting with Leo McGarry when he noticed CJ Cregg coming toward him with her assistant Carol in tow. The look on her face was one Josh had gotten to know well in the five years they had been working together. Something awful had happened and she hated to be the bearer of bad news.
"There was a car bombing in Gaza…"
His heart sunk in an instant. His wife Donna was on that trip. He had sent her to report back on the talks happening over there.
"Donna?"
CJ shook her head. "There is no release yet as to the dead or injured."
"CJ, that is my wife over there!"
"I know. You just have to be patient. Information is sketchy right now. But it will get to us."
A new voice interrupted them.
"Andrea?" asked Toby Ziegler, whose ex-wife and mother of his twin children was also over in Gaza.
CJ just shook her head again. But before she could say anything else, an aide ran over and handed CJ a memo.
"There are two conformed dead and several injured." She stopped and Josh was getting impatient for news of his wife.
"I'm sorry, Josh, Donna was in the car that exploded. She is in critical condition en route to a hospital in Israel. There is no information on Andi as of yet, Toby."
Josh did not wait to hear the rest of what CJ said. He was already halfway back to Leo's office with CJ and Toby struggling to catch up to him.
Leo looked up as his Deputy Chief of Staff stormed into his office. He could already tell what it was that Josh wanted and he had the President's full blessing for Josh to take an extended leave of absence.
"I already have you on the first available flight to Jerusalem. And we will personally make sure that Noah and Jason get up to your mother's."
"They are at the River Park Center."
"How much do you want them to know right now?"
"Just that their mother was seriously hurt but will be fine and she will see them soon."
The Chief of Staff nodded.
"Thank you, Leo. You have no idea how much this means to me. To us."
"Just bring your wife back in one piece."
That said, Josh departed the office, stopping briefly in his own for his backpack and jacket. The operations bullpen was a chaotic mess of people on phones attempting to get any information on exactly what happened. He saw briefly that Andrea Wyatt was on the television and was glad for Toby and their children. CJ turned to see Josh attempting to sneak out of the building.
"You speak to Leo?"
"He's giving me an extended leave of absence. I don't know when we'll be back."
"What about Noah and Jason?"
"Leo's gonna make sure that they get up to my mom's. Margaret is going to pick them up right now."
CJ refocused her attention on the televisions as Josh departed the White House in the back of a car being driven by a Secret Service agent. Thank God for that. Josh would not have been able to drive himself with any sort of decorum. All he could think about was how he had sent Donna on this trip. He could have given the assignment to any junior staffer yet he had chosen to send his wife halfway across the globe to a place where attacks like the one she was in were almost commonplace. What had he been thinking? Would she even live? If she did live, what sort of condition would her mind and emotions be in? She had helped him after he was shot. She had refused to leave his side except to go into work for the three months he was stuck indoors. Donna had almost miscarried their sons by working herself to the bone in an attempt to make up the work Josh was missing. She had given birth two months early, in May, the day before the President gave his address about his MS.
He knew nothing of her condition except that she had been in the car that exploded. CJ and everyone else had promised to keep him informed of any new developments.
Just as the car was pulling up to the departures at National, his phone rang.
"Josh Lyman."
"It's CJ. Donna has been moved to a military base in Germany. There is a flight leaving for Munich in an hour. We got you on that one."
"Do we know anything?"
"The bomb was remote detonated by cell phone. Two Congressmen and Admiral Fitzwallace were killed."
Josh was silent for a moment.
"How's POTUS taking the news?"
"Not well. And Toby's grouchy because he has been fielding calls about who is going to fill the two empty seats when we should be more concerned about mourning the dead."
"The DNC actually called Toby a mere hour after we received confirmation? They have balls, got to give them that."
"Get on the plane, mi amour. And tell Donna that we all miss her and cannot wait for her to get back."
"I will. Talk to you soon." Josh hung up the phone and dialed Leo's number.
"Leo McGarry."
"How are the boys?"
"They're understandably shaken up. Your mother is coming down here. We all felt it would be best if we tried to keep things as normal as possible for now."
"Good. Tell them that I love them and cannot wait to see them."
"Just as long as you bring their mother back her whole."
"Will do." Josh ended the call and waited for the plane to take off. They had gotten him a First Class seat for the long plane ride to Munich for which he was grateful. He would have gone crazy in a Coach seat. Or maybe he was more used to flying Air Force One with all of its perks. He leaned his head against the leather seat and prayed to God that his wife would pull through and live. And he silently prayed for the families of the three people who had died this day. He wasn't as familiar with the two Congressmen as with Fitzwallace. None of them had deserved this. All three had chosen to serve their country in some form and for their reward, they were blown up by a people that could never even think of peace.
What kind of world was he bringing his sons into? White supremacist groups targeted him for being Jewish, saying his entire family should have been gassed in the concentration camps and he was shot by two boys aiming for The President's aide for the simple reason that he was black and dating the President's daughter. His wife was nearly blown up just because she got into the wrong car. What kind of world were his sons inheriting?
A military policeman met Josh as soon as he exited the gate. The soldier could give no more information on Donna than Josh had gotten during the flight. There was damage to her lung along with numerous facial lacerations from the glass and the doctors were worried about possible brain damage from when she hit her head on the roof of the vehicle as it flipped in midair. She was still unconscious and in critical condition. The MP was silent for the duration of the trip to the base hospital. A doctor in a white lab coat identified himself as Doctor James Gordon, the critical care specialist in charge of his wife.
"Mr. Lyman, we are taking very good care of your wife but the next several hours will show whether she lives or not. Were you aware that your wife was pregnant, Mr. Lyman?"
The sharp turn of the head was all Gordon needed for confirmation.
"We have twin three-year-old boys at home but we weren't actively trying to get pregnant. Did she lose the baby?"
Gordon nodded sadly.
"She was roughly a month along. I doubt even she knew or even suspected. But the bombing severely damaged her reproductive system. It is highly unlikely that Donna will be able to carry another child. I'm terribly sorry. Donna's room is just down that hallway. I must see to another patient but will return shortly."
Josh shook the good doctor's hand.
"Thank you for everything, Doctor. This woman is my entire life." Gordon turned and walked away, leaving Josh at the doorway of his wife's hospital room. He had never liked hospitals and had vowed that, after being shot, the only time he would enter a hospital was to help his wife deliver their children safely. There would be no more children from Donna. Noah and Jason were the only children they were to have. Josh felt a sense of loss.
There had been discussions about more children, possibly a daughter. Josh wanted a little girl with her mother's honey blonde hair and eyes like sapphires. A little girl that would grow into a graceful young woman, just like her mother. She would attend Harvard and Yale and be a Fulbright Scholar and an actual lawyer. But there would be no daughter.
He entered the room and his heart nearly gave out. Lying on the sterile bed was the beautiful Donnatella Lyman, formerly Moss. Her blonde hair was dull and dirty, evidence that it had not been washed in a couple days. She was flat against the mattress; the only indication that she was alive was the rhythmic bleeping of the machines and the rise and fall of her chest, the tube going down her throat breathing for her. Her face was marred by some minor cuts, nothing very serious.
Did he look like this after he was shot and out of surgery? Was he as almost lifeless and surreal?
There was a chair next to the bed and he sank into it, gratefully. He took her right hand in both of his, the diamond from his engagement ring shining in the late afternoon sun coming in through the blinds.
"I'm here, Donna." He paused to collect his thoughts. "I never should have sent you to Gaza. We both knew the dangers and still I sent you. I wanted you to get experience with the diplomatic corps. Don't worry about Jason and Noah. Mom's coming down to stay with them. You just concentrate on getting better. I am not going anywhere. Leo gave me an extended leave of absence to take care of you." He brushed the hair away from her face.
"God, Donna, please. Please, whatever you do, don't die. I don't know what I'd do without you. Ever since I came back from that meeting and found you answering my phone, my life has never been the same. You gave me purpose. Previous to you, my life was all about running for Congress before I was forty. I gave no thought to being a husband or a father. But then you answered my phone and all I could see was you. Mandy broke up with me for thinking about you too much and not her. And then we kissed in Charleston at sunset and you were everything I never knew I always wanted."
Josh felt the tears come but made no move to stop them.
"And you came back with me for Dad's funeral. You were waiting for me as Governor Bartlet talked to me. You helped me grieve. I proposed the night he won the election and we were married in D.C. We were married on a Wednesday. You wanted Saturday but Jewish weddings are not permitted on the Sabbath. You were so good about incorporating Jewish and Christian traditions."
Josh was beginning to break down. Could it really have been twenty-four hours since he had slept last? The flight was long enough with a stopover in London. Eleven hours he had been flying. There was little sleep on the plane. He kept in constant contact with the White House the entire time.
"And then you told me you were pregnant, on a sweltering October day. I was so elated, I couldn't see straight. You were giving me the best gift I could ever ask for. You were giving me life, not just the babies but love and life outside the office."
Josh began to sob thinking about what came next. His two little boys, born premature. They had been in the neonatal intensive care unit for another three months, struggling to survive. He hadn't wanted to leave Donna's side but he was needed at the press conference. The press conference had appeared so insignificant next to his sons fighting for life but Josh went anyway. But he practically lived in the hospital over the summer. Josh could not have cared less about keeping his job and testifying to the special prosecutor.
"Donna, Donna, please, please, please, don't die. 'Cause if you die, then I die and our beautiful babies will be orphans." And Josh completely and utterly broke down into incoherent sobs for the first time since his father had died.
Josh slept in Donna's room for two nights and only exited the room to make calls or while nurses and doctors performed procedures. It had been two days and the respirator was still allowing her to breathe and continue living. He glanced over at the framed photo he had placed on the bedside table. It was of all four of them, taken at a picnic held in the Rose Garden by the President and First Lady for the senior staff and their families just over six months ago. Noah and Jason were sitting on a bench, Josh to the left and Donna to the right.
The boys were identical twins born premature one minute apart. The only way to tell them apart was by a small birthmark on Jason's neck. They both had their father's brown hair, though straight like Donna's. Their eyes were a combination of blue and brown. And yet for how alike they were in appearance, they had almost complete opposite personalities. Noah preferred reading books on politics and policy while Jason was the more active of the two. He had also inherited Josh's ego, claiming on more than one occasion that he didn't need anybody's help, he could do things better by himself. Noah was more tidy and organized while Jason could not remember to put his toys away when he was finished with them.
Sure, they were only three years old but he could tell already that they were going to have their hands full once the boys reached their teen years.
A sudden groan from the bed and he was at Donna's side in an instant. The doctor had removed the breathing tube just a few hours ago, confident that Donna could breathe on her own just fine.
"Donna?"
Another groan and her eyes opened and Josh was never happier to see her blue eyes. She focused on Josh and attempted to smile. The attempt failed miserably.
"Josh? Where am I?"
A nurse entered and smiled to see Donna awake and speaking. She handed a cup of water and instructed her patient to drink through the straw as her throat would be sore from the tube being in for a time.
"You're in Germany."
"This doesn't look like Germany."
The nurse smiled again. "You're in a military hospital outside Munich."
"She," Donna continued, indicating the nurse, "doesn't look German."
"I'm not. I'm American, same as you. I'll let the doctor know that Sleeping Beauty awoke without the need for a kiss from her prince." She smiled again and exited the room.
"She smiles too much."
Josh looked down for a moment then back at his wife.
"Donna, what do you remember?"
"I remember talking to this photojournalist with a crush on me and then talking to Andi before getting into the car. Fitz was in the front seat. Nothing after that."
"The car you were in had a bomb in it and it exploded. Fitz and two senators were killed in the explosion."
He watched her expression change from shock to horror to grief. She turned her head away for a minute then back to him.
"Was Andi?"
"Last I heard, she was back in the States, berating Toby for not spending enough time with his children."
"What about Noah and Jason?"
"Mom came down to take care of them until you can be released. And several of our friends have stopped by every day to help out."
"How are they?"
"I talked to them a couple of hours ago. Jason found a few bugs he wants to keep as pets and Noah proudly recited the first couple paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence with only a few errors in pronunciation."
"What do they know?"
"Just that you were hurt and are getting better every day. They miss you like crazy."
"What about work?"
"The President gave me an extended leave of absence. Don't worry about it right now."
Just then Josh's cell phone went off and he gave his wife an apologetic look as he answered the call.
"Josh Lyman."
"It's CJ."
Donna glanced up at him.
"I don't want to talk to them right now." Josh nodded in response and headed out into the hallway.
"How is she?"
"She's awake."
"That's good news. You just make sure that she gets healthy and back here. Sam's staffing the President and going crazy. Toby is threatening to lock Andi in her apartment. Your mother is too old to actively take care of two three-year-olds. Donna's parents are calling every couple of hours to get updates and are demanding that we send her home immediately. Not just home to Washington but home to Wisconsin. You need to talk to them. They're pretty upset."
"Yeah, I will." Josh stopped listening as a tall man with glasses and a camera around his neck came down the hall.
"Yeah, I gotta go. I'll call you later." He hung up.
"Can I help you?"
The man nodded. "I'm looking for Donnatella Lyman. I'm Colin Ayers. Is this her room?"
"I'm Josh Lyman, her husband." Josh extended his hand which Colin shook. "How do you know Donna?"
"I've been showing her around Gaza and the area."
Josh just stared him down. The man had a sort of Irish-British accent and was tall with dark hair.
"I just wanted to visit her and give her these flowers."
"Go ahead in. She's still pretty groggy though." Josh followed Colin into the room. Colin handed the flowers to Josh and stood on the far side of the bed.
"Hey."
Donna gave a tiny smile. "Colin. Hey. I thought you were going to be in Gaza for a few more months."
"I wanted to see if you were okay."
Donna searched his face. "I almost died. Two senators and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs were killed but I lived."
Josh jumped in so his wife would not have to get hostile so soon after regaining consciousness.
"Colin, why don't you return in a few days? My wife just woke up and learned that three people that she got to know and liked died. Just give her some time."
The other man got the hint as Josh showed him to the door.
"You are a very lucky man, Mr. Lyman. You have a beautiful, caring, gentle wife who loves you with her entire being. If she hadn't been married, I could have easily fallen for her." He paused for a second. "I was there when it happened. They had just gotten into the cars and were heading for the border. I turned my back for a second and then it happened. The black SUV exploded, flipped and landed upside down. I rushed to get there to help but the soldiers wouldn't let me get close."
Josh nodded and waited for the guy to continue.
"The scene was a complete disaster. But Donna was semi-conscious when they pulled her out. She was moaning your name."
"Thank you for telling me that. But this isn't the first time that innocent bystanders have been injured and killed just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The delegation was targeted. But it could have been anyone who was injured or killed."
"Did you know any of the deceased? I'm just asking because I want to know."
Josh took a deep breath. "I knew Admiral Fitzwallace pretty well. The two senators I didn't know. But the ex-wife of a friend was in the delegation and could have been killed or seriously injured."
"I'll stop by in a few days if she is up for visitors."
Josh nodded. "Thanks for coming by anyway. You really moved Donna with what you showed her."
"It was my pleasure." Colin turned a corner and was gone. Josh reentered the hospital room to find Donna sleeping with her head turned toward the far wall. He brushed a lock of hair away from her face and just thanked God that she was alive and safe and on the way to recovery. As he watched her sleep, Josh reflected for the zillionth time that it could have easily been her body in a bag along with the other three. He was going to do whatever it took to make sure that Donna was happy and healthy and a good mother to their children.