Chapter 6



Leo looked over to Jax as he disconnected his call with the former First Lady. "Now, once again. What the HELL happened last night?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Then I'll spell it out for you," Leo said through gritted teeth. "I just got a phone call from a friend saying he heard from a reliable source that what happened last night wasn't an accident. That someone tried to kill Donna."

"It's being ruled an accident," Jax sighed.

Leo glared at that, "what is it, exactly, that you seem to be hiding?"

"I'm not hiding anything."

"Right," Leo said with a roll of his eyes.

"It's just complicated," Jax defended. "You wouldn't understand."

"Somehow I doubt you have the ability to judge my intellectual abilities," Leo shot back before looking at the phone in his hand. "But, hey, you want to keep the information from me, well, go right ahead. I have ways of finding it out on my own."

"I just haven't digested it enough myself to be able to explain it. We're all trying to figure out what's going on."

"Well, you better figure it out," Leo sighed. "In the meantime, I'm going to call some people who need to be informed about this, as well as figure out how to get them here."

"I'll arrange for it."

"Will you now?"

"I have a couple of planes at my disposal. If that's not enough, I'm sure Ned Ashton will be willing to lend us one of his family's. All things considered, helping to get some of the people that care for Donna here is the least they could do," Jax replied uncomfortably.

Leo only nodded at that as he took out a small phone book and looked up the number of the first person he had to call.

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Sam Seaborne paced his office reading the draft of his opening statement for what was to be one of the biggest cases of his career. Ocasionally he stopped to change a word or two or take a sip of coffee. It was during one of these breaks that his secretary stepped into his office. At the sound of his name, he looked up and frowned. "I thought I told you I didn't want to be disturbed."

"You did, it's just. . .There's a call for you. They won't be put off."

Sam raised an eyebrow at that as he looked up from the draft. "Who is it?"

"Leo McGarry. He saids it's urgent."

"Everything's urgent with Leo," Sam sighed flippantly. "Put him through," he added as he sat down and turned to look out of his window to the skyline, his eye catching the picture of the group of them that sat on a bookcase under it. "Leo my secretary said you needed to speak to me."

"I'm afraid I have some bad news," Leo started, trying to choose his words as carefully as possible.

"It's not. . ."

"No," Leo sighed. "Sam, it's Donna. She's in critical condition."

"What? No. Leo, she can't be. I just spoke to her yesterday. She was pissed because I canceled meeting her for the weekend, but she's fine," Sam said in disbelief.

"She took a fall down a flight of stairs. It's being ruled an accident, but. . ."

"It was that jerk who was harassing her, wasn't it?" Sam demanded, trying to get a hold on things.

"What jerk?" Leo asked confused.

"I don't know. Some guy who had been giving her trouble for a while now. I told her to go to the police. To try to get a restraining order. . ." Sam cursed. "I should've gone up there and helped her. I just. . . this case. . ." he shook his head.

"It's not your fault, Sam," Leo tried to reassure him.

"Yeah," Sam sighed, not quite believing it. "She told me he was backing off after she filed the paperwork."

"Did it go through?"

"I don't know," Sam admitted. "I didn't get the chance to ask her when I spoke to her yesterday. I was working on my opening statement. Questions. . ."

"You couldn't have known, Sam," Leo sighed, then paused. "Look, we're going to need you here. They're coming in. . . Someone called one of Toby's people."

"I'll figure something out," Sam sighed, then thought of something. "Has anyone told Josh yet?"

"He's my next call."

"Leo, I don't think he knows about the harassment. In fact I don't think she told anyone else. I got the feeling she only told me because she wanted to know what she needed to try to get him off her back."

"We'll figure that all out when everyone's here," Leo sighed. "Sam, if you need help with the arrangements. . ."

"I'll have my secretary book a shuttle now. I'll give the opening and then turn things over to the second chair. She has all my notes, questions, ect. I'll keep in contact with her over the phones when you and Toby don't have me working on speeches or something."

"You know us too well."

"Yeah, well I figured it was either that or rein Josh in."

Leo chuckled a little at that, "Probably a bit of both," he admitted. "Listen, call me with the details, I'll work on getting us all a place to stay while we're here. Oh, and let me know if they give you a hard time about taking off. I might still have some pull."

"Thanks Leo," Sam sighed before hanging up, his demeanor decidedly more morose as he called his secretary in and started issuing orders before heading out to talk to the Senior partners in the firm. They wouldn't be thrilled with this development, but they would have to deal with it.