Toby sat outside the courtroom, waiting.

He flipped the pages of the small book in front of him until he found what he wanted.

He who has had long to forgo the counsel of a beloved lord knows indeed how, when sorrow and sleep together bind the poor dweller-alone, it will seem to him in his mind that he is embracing and kissing his liege lord and laying his hands and his head on his knee, as it some times was in the old fays when he took part in the gift-giving. Then he wakes again, the man with no lord, sees the yellow waves before him, the sea birds bathe, spread their feathers, frost and snow fall, mingled with hail.

His mind registered her foot steps before he looked up from his copy of The Wanderer When he did he took her whole figure in. He knew that this may be the last time he would ever see her. Her face turned, meeting his eyes with her own. They were red and swollen from not crying while she testified. Now as they met his the melted. She blinked back the sadness and smiled. He knew she was smiling for him, for his last look. He closed his eyes and let the moment become solid in his mind. Just as Babish lead her away, he smiled back. He saw her burst into tears as the elevator doors closed around her.

Sam had to get to Josh.

That's what he had said, storming out of Santos' living room and out to the car. That's what he had yelled at the secret service agents that had ordered him to wait. That's what he had told Ainsley, as she calmly rubbed the back of his hands, as he waited.

"Sam!" Her cry pierced through his inner haze.

His mind snapped back from it's task as he looked at Donna. She leapt from the chair and rushed into his arms. Sam held her.

"What happened?"

"They don't know what-. I knew it, Sam, I just knew it." She pushed her hair back. "I should have made him get the tests. I should have. They wouldn't let me go with him." He pulled her close again to hush her.

"Donna he'll be okay. It'll be okay." This was because of Roslyn. He knew that much from what CJ had been able to tell Ainsley on the phone. Some freak side effect from his pulmonary resection. Scar tissue, narrowing the artery, was all CJ could say.

"Sam?" It was Abby Bartlett.

"Ma'am?"

"They're all but sure its pulmonary hypertension. They're trying to make sure they rule out everything they can before making the diagnosis."

Sam nodded, looking into Donna's face with sweet concern.

"Thank you. Thank you for staying. I know you have to get back, Dr. Bartlett." He cupped his best friend's fiancee's face in his hands. He was about to ask her if she'd eaten, when the First Lady called back to him.

"By the way, Sam?"

"Huh?" He looked back at her.

"Congratulations." She gestured towards the television. "You're the next Vice President of the United States of America."

Donna and Sam both looked up to see Santos, standing in a sea of balloons and confetti, waving to the crowd. 'Promise of a Brand New Day' came from the speakers, as usual. Sam hated that song.

Sam shook his head slowly, before turning back to Donna's embrace and kissing her head.

"It's going to be all right." He smiled. "Trust me, I'm about to be named the second in command of the free world."

Josh's more frequent less severe panic attacks had a new name, Pulmonary Hypertension. The only thing that they had in common with the PTSD is that they were both caused by the same thing, Roslyn. Well almost, the PHT was the doctor referred to so casually was caused by scar tissue that had been narrowing his pulmonary artery for over five years.

Now he was laying on his back waiting for the anesthesia to take effect for the 'procedure'. They were going to put a collapsible metal tube in his pulmonary artery with a balloon.

Due to the overwhelming influence of the pain medication and anesthesia, he wasn't sure exactly what this was all about. Donna had seemed okay with it. She had seemed to know what they were talking about, she had kept saying things like 'I've read about that'. She was asking long detailed questions, writing things down.

They let Sam and Donna come back in after they had him prepped, before they took him away. She kissed him like she meant it. The medication caused this to make him grin like an idiot.

"You should have done that after Roslyn. I'd have healed faster."

"Who says I didn't." She quipped, looking around the room then back at him. "I told you never to do this to me again." She whined.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He kissed her again, smoothing her hair. Sam put his hand on Donna's back and made a face at Josh.

"I know.. I know.." Josh sang over his half massed eyes. "You told me so."

"I'd never say that, Josh."

"Sam, it's like your favorite thing to say."

"You have me confused with Donna."

"I find that hard to believe." Josh's eyes drifted shut. Sam put his hand on his shoulder. "Sam?" The seriousness his drug filled voice had managed to take surprised him.

"Josh?"

"You'd take care of them right?" He tried to ignore the small lost sound that came to Donna's lips, squeezing her hand in his.

"Always." Sam announced firmly.

"Thanks, man." Josh looked sleepily at Donna, she shook her head back and forth. "Come on Donnatella, after six hours of open heart surgery this'll be nothing. He turned his head to the side and put his hand on her stomach, running his thumb up and down. "Try and keep your Mommy calm, Princess."

The doctors hustled them out of the way, as the wheeled him down the hall for his 'procedure.'

Josh Lyman had realized something today. When he thought he was going to die in that ambulance, his mind had gone to work taking inventory of his life. He'd thought of his friends, his soon to be wife, his baby and his health. What he had not thought about, not once, was the election, the White House or his job. He came to an impromptu decision now, on the way to the operating room. He had always planned on leading a life like Leo's. He was almost shocked to find he no longer wanted to. He was not going to make Leo's mistakes.

For weeks now he'd been trying to think of the 'perfect way'. The way he could have it all, Donna, their family, his sanity and his job. Now he realized their was no way the four of those things could ever work together. He didn't have eight more years to give up. He didn't want Donna to have to wait eight years for the husband she deserved.

He didn't want the job.

Huh, he thought, ironically to himself, as he finally lost his slim grip on consciousness. I bet nobody saw this coming.

"How's Josh?" Jed Bartlett asked when his Chief of Staff walked into the residence.

"He's doing better, Sir. He had some kind of angioplasty thing. Charlie just talked to them, everything went okay. It looks like he'll be good as new now."

"They've chosen our replacements, Claudia Jean." He said pointing to the screen.

"Yes, Sir."

"Tell me about this Sam Seaborn character." He joked.

"Cute guy, has a thing for republicans though." He chuckled at her description. He gestured for her to sit beside him. She had to resist the urge to flop down on the sofa. She sat, leaning back slowly until her head hit the back.

"What are you going to do in two months, Claudia Jean?" He asked her honestly.

"Marry Danny." She sighed, truthfully. "Maybe have some babies."

"Really?" He asked in surprise.

"Looks like it." She tilted her head towards him. He smiled at her in the fatherly way he sometimes did.

"He's a good man." Jed nodded as he said this.

"Yes, Sir." She smiled.

"He's waited a long time for you." Bartlett looked down his nose.

"Yes, Sir. He has." Thank God.

"Smart man, your worth it." Jed watched the smile on her face widen. Her head turned away.

"Thank you, Sir."

They sat there in the silence of her announcement for a minute.

"What about you, Sir?"

"I'm going to go home, CJ. I'll sit back and do nothing. Maybe with all of my extra time, I'll get War and Peace and give it a go."

She grinned again as they slipped back into comfortable silence.

"CJ?" His serious tone broke out a few minutes later. She looked back at him. "About Toby." Her face fell and she looked away.

"What about him, Sir?" She knew what.

"CJ."

"I won't ask you to do it, Sir." She was trying to keep the tears out of her voice and failed. "It's your right, not mine." She took a deep breath and looked at him. "Sir, Toby brought me here. If not for him, I would still be a PR rep for some two bit company or celebrity somewhere. Toby served this office well for almost seven years. He was a good public servant and a good friend to you. He made one awful mistake for emotionally torturous reason." She swallowed hard. "There is no excuse for it Sir, but there were reasons."

Jed said nothing.

"He is also my best friend, Molly and Huck's father, and a brilliant, stubborn, bitter, lovable man. Who, I feel, has given enough of himself and enough of his life to this country, to get something in return. Even if it's a get out of jail free card."

The two of them looked at each other for a long time before CJ rose to her feet and whispered her goodnight.

Donna's pregnant body took up most of the hospital bed. Josh had his back smashed against the guardrail. He fingered his leads carefully trying to make sure they were all still okay. Sam had finally gone back to his apartment, with his newly increased team of Secret Service following closely behind. Josh chuckled. His best friend was the Vice President Elect.

"Hey you." He'd said to Donna as he blinked back into the moment.

"Hi." She'd said simply, like he'd just walked into her office.

"Hey look who's up."

"Sam?" He'd vaguely remembered Sam being there. It hadn't seemed odd at the time. Sam was there when he went to surgery after Roslyn. It had only seemed fitting that he had been there this time too.

"That's Vice President Elect Seaborn, to you." Donna had smiled widely, gesturing at Sam.

"Why aren't you in Texas?" Josh had barked when he saw his best friend.

"I was in Texas six hours ago. Now I'm in DC." He had looked at Josh, shaking his head. "See, now you look better. I told you that you looked like hell." Josh had let his head drop back onto the pillow.

"Sam I-." He'd stopped, looking from Sam to Donna. "What did you call him?" Donna and Sam had exchanged smirks.

"Vice President Elect." He had snickered. "From now on, you have to call me 'Sir'."

Josh had looked at Donna, she smiled at him.

"You won, Josh."

His phone had started to ring in her pocket when she said this. She laughed, holding up the screen for him to see.

"Mr. President Elect?" He'd laughed, as he answered the phone.

"Josh? How are you? What the hell happened?" Matt Santos' voice had sputtered into his ear.

"It's a long story that started in Roslyn five years ago." Josh laughed. "Congratulations, Mr. President Elect. You did it."

"You did it, Josh. You did it."

For the hundredth time that day, he thought of Leo.

He looked at Donna. Stretching out his hand he traced the curve of her abdomen. He thought about the baby again for about the thousandth time that day. He ran his had up her side and to her face. Donna. Even in her sleep her eyebrows twitched and furrowed, deep with concern. He brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers and ran his thumb across her lips. He saw her smile flicker.

"Hey." She breathed into the darkness. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep." He looked at her sweet face.

"Does it hurt?" She tried to sit up, he softly pressed her back into the bed.

"No. I'm fine." She smiled again when he said this, he watched her eyebrows scrunch up in concern. He realized, that lately, he had given her a million reasons not to believe him when he said that. "I am. Donna, I promise. Go back to sleep."

"I can't do this with out you, Josh." She pulled his hand back to her stomach.

"You won't." The directness of his tone made her eyes slip open. "You won't." He repeated looking into her. Her eyes drifted closed again and stroked her hair as she fell back asleep. "I love you." He told her then.