Chapter 4
She was crying. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he drove down the gravel path from the restrooms back to the road. She didn't look at him, at anyone in the van. She just told Josh she was inside and sat with the phone against her ear as she looked out the window towards the pavilion. Why hadn't Josh told him he and the chicken fighter were together, he wondered?
"He wants to talk to you," she said with a flat voice, holding the phone up between the two front seats. He smiled at her in the rearview mirror and took the phone from her. She didn't smile back, he noticed. And she didn't wipe the tears from her eyes. She just stared back at him and watched as he spoke to Josh.
"Josh," he said loudly into the phone.
"Get her out of here. She's gonna try to get you to come back here and get me. Ignore her and get her the hell out of here," Josh shouted.
"Understood. You hold on tight, Josh. We're gonna send someone in there to get you out."
He disconnected and handed the phone back to Donna. She looked at him blankly and took it from him, cradling it between her hands, still crying, still letting the tears fall unapologetically and without embarrassment down her cheeks.
When they got back to the road, police were starting to arrive on the scene. Several were setting up roadblocks along the road, and he put the van in park and stepped out of it, looking for someone who looked remotely in charge.
"Excuse me," he yelled to one of the police officers. They were more than a hundred yards away now, and the noise was still insane.
"Sir, this area's blocked off. You need to get out of here."
"Yes, we're doing that now. But there's…"
"There's someone trapped in that pavilion," he heard Donna shout from behind him. The police officer looked from him to Donna.
He turned around. "Donna. Get in the car, I'll tell them."
"No!" she screamed hysterically. "You just left him there!" She turned back to the officer. "His name is Joshua Lyman and he's trapped in that building! Someone has to get him out of there, now!"
"Yes ma'am. We'll take care of it," the officer shouted to her. "But you need to get in the car and get out of here. This entire area's being blocked off."
"You need to send people in there," she screamed. "Call whoever's in charge. Tell them. Tell them he's in there. Tell them to get him out of there. They have to get him out of there!" The officer looked at Matt who nodded and took Donna by the shoulders, walking her towards the van.
"Come on Donna," he yelled over the noise.
"Let go of me," she screamed, and he held her tighter. Ned got out and helped him while she continued screaming. "His name is Josh Lyman! He's in the pavilion! You have to get him out of there! Josh Lyman! He works for the President, you have to get him out of there!" The officer just nodded at her and pulled out his walkie-talkie.
When they got back to the van, Donna pulled her arm roughly from him and got back inside. She picked her cell phone back up and looked at the display. It didn't show any missed calls, but still she turned to Helen and asked quietly, "Did he call?"
"No," she said, smiling slightly at Donna.
A police officer held the roadblock and let Matt turn onto the road away from the park and Donna looked vacantly out the window. "Where are we going?" Ronna asked.
"I'm taking the three of you back to the hotel. Ned and I will come back here and wait behind the barricades for Josh."
"I'm coming with you," Donna said quietly.
"No you're not. I'm sorry. I know you're upset, but Josh asked me to get you away from here and that's what I'm doing. Ned and I will bring him back."
She didn't turn from the window or show any emotion in her voice when she said, "You left him once, how am I supposed to know you won't just leave him again?"
"We didn't…" Helen started.
"Helen," he cut her off, shaking his head. "We'll bring him back Donna."
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"We have a situation," Toby said as he, Leo, and Cliff walked into the oval office.
"Thank you Toby, I thought it went rather well myself," said the President sarcastically.
"Actually, Sir. It didn't go well at all." Toby was pissed. Pissed that once again, he was being shut out. It was days like this he wished he'd left with Josh to find the next real thing. Of course, he thought, it was days like this Josh probably wished he was still here, being pushed around and ignored by CJ and the President. The President glared at him, but he really didn't care too much anymore. He was long past the point of doing all this for him.
"What is it Toby," CJ asked impatiently.
"A riot broke out at the rally in Miami."
She blinked and looked hard at him. "A riot?"
"Yes. Three minutes before he was scheduled to go on the air. Of course, he went on the air a minute and a half early, which prevented me from stopping him." He looked pointedly at CJ. They were trying to run this place alone these days, and this was just more proof that it wasn't working.
"And the rally was about…" Annabeth broke in.
He spun around to her. "What do you think it was about? It was about Cuba; about Castro. A riot broke out in Miami, the highest Cuban populated city in the country just as the President went on the air and talked about our improving relations with Cuba!" His voice started soft but quickly rose until he was shouting.
"Ok, calm down," Leo said. "It's bad, but it's been worse."
"Really," Toby said calmly. "Has it been? Josh and Donna are trapped there in two separate buildings. Russell left her, Santos left him and they can't get to each other. Has it been worse than that? I mean, I guess it has been since he was shot and she was blown to hell in Gaza, but never both of them on the same day, so I'm not really sure if it's been worse or not."
"Toby. That's enough," CJ said sternly.
"Yeah. They're not our problem anymore," he said in the same voice, looking straight at her.
"Point taken, Toby," the President said, shutting everyone up and causing them to shift and look at him. "Call the police in Miami. Make sure they know we're missing them. Use the White House card to get them out of there first priority."
"I already did."
"Fine. Then tell us what else we know."
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
He disconnected from Matt and put his phone in his pocket, closing his eyes for a second, just thankful she was ok. Matt would get her out of there and she'd be fine. He took a deep breath and let a few tears of relief fall down his face. Donna was ok. It was going to be ok.
He opened his eyes and looked at his watch. Eight minutes. It had still only been eight minutes. He wondered how long it would take the police to get there and break the mess up. He looked at the door to the pavilion. It looked to be about a hundred years old and there was a big gap at the bottom, near the floor. The lock was old and rotting out. If anyone wanted in, that door wasn't going to keep them out for long. He sighed and pushed a picnic table up against it, then went to the kitchenette to look for something to use to… he didn't even know what.
The kitchenette proved useless. The white metal drawers and cupboards were empty except for one plastic cup. He reached over to the sink and turned the water on. Great, he thought. I can pour water on someone if they try to get in. Maybe they'll melt. And then he started wondering why no one had tried to get in. He shook his head clear, not wanting to tempt fate, and went into the small restroom.
He flipped on the light and looked around at the chipped tile and lopsided toilet, hoping the restroom Donna had been in was better than this one. In the metal cabinet under the sink he found a toilet brush and wondered when it had been used last. He stood up and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. His eyes went wide and he looked down at his pants leg. It wasn't sweat after all. He grabbed some toilet paper and wiped his face. He'd deal with it later.
He went back into the main room and tried to wedge the handle of the toilet brush between the door handle and the wall. After a few unsuccessful tries, he started laughing sarcastically at himself. He had no survival skills whatsoever. He could solve the world deficit problem given the chance, but he couldn't keep a bunch of pissed-off Cuban Americans from breaking in a door and killing him. Then he looked at the door again and realized it opened inwards, the toilet brush wouldn't have helped anyway. Pathetic.
He put the toilet brush on the picnic table propped against the door, thinking better safe than sorry. That was the closest thing to a weapon he had. Then he started walking around the room. There were Russell flyers and other paraphernalia on the table next to the kitchenette and he flipped through them, scoffing at the complete stretching of the truth about the Vice-President's involvement with the current administration. He picked up the flyer and sat down; might as well get a little opposition research in while he waited for the cavalry.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
She couldn't see the park anymore, but she continued looking out the window in that direction. The tears had mostly stopped, and the congressman's wife had discreetly handed her some tissues to wipe her nose with. She had mumbled a thank you, but then went back to watching out the window.
No one was talking in the van. She wanted to believe it was because they were afraid she'd run off and tell Russell everything she heard. She wanted to think that so she wouldn't have to think of them as people. Certainly not as good people who had helped her simply because Josh had asked them to. They couldn't be good people. Not if they left him. Not if they'd do that.
Matt Santos… not allowing her to go back to the park with him. She'd almost laughed at him when he said that; she had no intentions of asking his permission. If he wouldn't take her back, she'd catch a cab and figure out how to pay for it later. She'd tried to get out of the van at the first red light they'd come to, but he'd been watching her in the rearview mirror and hit the power locks just as she reached for the handle. She'd glared at him again and he'd offered her a small sympathetic smile. Bastard.
She still cradled her cell phone between her hands and when it rang, she hit talk without looking at the screen. "Josh?"
"Donna?"
"Will?"
"Hey, when we get out of this traffic nightmare, the Vice-President and I are getting on the bus. We need to talk about these other three speeches with Santos. The Vice-President wants to cancel; we need to talk about repercussions. Who's been working on publicizing them? You?"
"When you get on the bus," she deadpanned.
"You haven't noticed we're not there? That we're in the car with the secret service? We're stuffed in here like sardines, it's…"
She cut him off. "Josh is stuck in the pavilion at the park."
"Really?" he asked in a distracted voice. "Then maybe he'll want to cancel the speeches too."
Her voice held no emotion when she said, "You're a son of a bitch. I quit."