Donna had been in the middle of a strategy session on the Vice President's education platform when the call from Helen Santos came in. As soon as she noticed the caller id, her heart began racing and the old ache filled her stomach. The ache that was directly related to Joshua Lyman.
As soon as she could sneak out of the meeting, she listened to the voice mail, expecting to hear him ribbing her on one of "Bingo" Bob's latest foibles. Instead, she heard a message that made her blood run cold. As vague as Helen Santos's message was, there was only one thing it could mean. Something had happened to Josh. Donna ran back into the campaign offices to find Will. The meeting had broken up while she was out of the room and he was standing near the phone banks talking to some volunteers. She caught his eye and he excused himself discreetly.
"Donna, what's up?" he asked with concern lacing his voice, noting the sudden pallor of her complexion and building terror clear in her wide blue eyes.
"I have to go. Something's happened to Josh. Helen Santos just left a message on my voice mail." Donna's voice carried a note of panic and tears were threatening to pool in her eyes. Will noticed this, and felt a stab of anger and jealousy.
"Donna, we're kind of in the middle of something here. You aren't Josh's assistant anymore, you don't have to run off to his beck and call." He said sharply. At her sudden intake of break and piercing glare, he took an unconscious step back.
"Will, I'm going. He needs me."
"Yeah, well this campaign needs you too. Let his new assistant take care of him. For all we know this is another stunt, like the chickens, to get to you." Will remarked cynically.
"Josh would never do something like that and certainly not to me. Not everything is about politics, Will." Donna lashed out angrily, picking up her purse and sprinting out the door to her car. As soon as she got in, she dialed the number Helen Santos had left for her.
"Hello?" a female voice answered uncertainly.
" What's happened to Josh?" Donna demanded much more forcefully than she would have under normal conditions.
"Is this Donna?" Helen Santos asked quickly.
"Yes, I'm sorry I should have identified myself. This is Donna Moss. Has something happened to Josh?" Donna asked a little more calmly, though the edge of panic in her voice remained.
"He's having some kind of cardiac problem right now. They took him in for testing quite a while ago. I just got to the hospital and haven't seen the doctor myself. Matt said something about an arrhythmia, but wasn't really sure." Helen responded quietly, knowing very well how frightening those words can be.
"Ok, I'm on my way there. Did you call his mother yet?" Donna asked nervously, knowing how worried Sylvia Lyman would be about her only son.
"Josh has a mother? He had you listed as his emergency contact in the personnel files we have for the campaign. We didn't know who else to call." Helen answered somewhat sheepishly.
"Ok, I'll call Sylvia after I talk to a doctor. Is Dr Newman the one treating him?" Donna asked quickly.
"I don't know. Should he be?"
"Well he's been Josh's cardiologist since Rosslyn. Can you ask them to page him? I should be there in a few more minutes."
"Ok, we'll see you when you get here. Um… how will we know it's you?" This entire conversation made Helen feel like a world class idiot, but she was also sure she wouldn't be able to pick Donna Moss out of a line up.
"I'm tall with long blonde hair and I'm wearing a navy blue pant suit." Part of Donna was surprise Mrs. Santos didn't know who she was. While her role as spokesperson was relatively recent, she had been in the press quite a bit when news of John Hoynes latest sex scandal broke.
"Ok, I'll let the nurse at the front desk know too in case Josh gets moved before you get here. See you soon."
"Thanks for calling me, Helen. Bye." Donna disconnected the call and did her best to focus on the drive to GW and ignore the many questions and regrets swirling in her mind.
The whole drive to GW, Donna berated herself for not being sure there was someone to watch out for Josh on the campaign trail. Each time she had run into him he had looked worse than the time before. She knew he wasn't seeing his physician as frequently as needed, that his blood pressure was undoubtedly through the roof and that the pharmacy of pills that kept his repaired heart functioning were probably not being taken with the regularity needed.
More than anything, she regretted the last six months of silence and stiltedness between them. The hurt pride and hurt feelings that kept them from even speaking for two months, and still reared its ugly head at odd times in the few phone calls they exchanged since the stem cell vote.
There was also a small voice in the back of her head telling her the exact opposite. That she was crazy to drop everything to rush back to Josh's side. A voice that sounded suspiciously like Will's kept asking what it was going to look like for the Russell campaign spokesperson to be racing to the bedside of Santos' campaign manager. The same voice reminded her of how far she had come in finding her own way in national politics, becoming someone important in her own right, not just an assistant. By rushing to Josh's bedside, all of that could be lost. If propriety had held her back from expressing her love for him when she worked for him, now it should be paralyzing her.
Instead, she barreled through another red light, just as she'd promised so many years ago she would do. Because whether it was appropriate or not, whether she was making an enormous mistake or not, she had to be with him now.