Chapter Seven

Hey, guys! Sorry for the long delay – I had a major case of writer's block and I've been busy sweating my ass off. I hope this isn't too anti-climatic for y'all. Audrey fainting may have taken it a little too far but I did it for dramatic purposes. I don't know how accurate all this medical stuff is. If you know more, please feel free to let me know and enlighten me so I can change it. As always, please review – it makes me giggle in excitement.

Josh Lyman sat side by side with his wife at the Children's National Hospital waiting for any sign as to what was wrong with their daughter Audrey. Katie sat right next to Donna, her head perched on her shoulder, and her hand clutching her mother's. Surrounding them was a cocoon of their closest friends: the Bartlets, the Zieglers and the Seaborns. Without question or hesitation, they left the Convention with the Lymans and hadn't left their side ever since.

Not long after they'd arrived and much to everyone's relief, Audrey's doctor emerged. They all waited anxiously for her to speak, each person straightening up. This is not how everyone pictured their nights to end – clad in their best waiting in the emergency room. It reminded everyone too much of that infamous night at Rosslyn where they had all waited like this first for President Bartlet and then for Josh.

"You can relax, she's doing just fine now, but we do need to talk about a procedure that will need to be done."

They all waited for her to continue, but she paused apprehensively about delivering the news in front of all these people. She recognized former President Bartlet and his wife and many of the other faces seemed familiar.

"Are they all with you?" She questioned the Lymans, assuming they'd want some privacy. The Lymans had no such plan.

"We're together." Josh confirmed. "They'll all find out in two minutes anyway."

"Okay, then. Audrey has a severe case of appendicitis. I imagine it's been bothering her for a few days."

Things stared clicking in Josh and Donna's minds about their daughter's behavior. She'd been so irritable and complaining of stomach pains for almost the last week. She had no way of knowing what it was, but why hadn't they noticed her persistent pains? They were probably too busy being ticked at her.

"We need to remove it immediately, so I really need to go back to the operating room."

"Yeah, do whatever you need." Josh told her. He was still trying to process what was going on. Josh knew that an appendectomy was a relatively simple procedure, but now it was his own daughter they were talking about cutting open.

"Is she awake? Can I see her?" Donna looked up hopefully at the doctor.

"She's really not lucid right now. If we don't get started right away, her appendix could burst and the infection could spread to other places."

Donna desperately wanted to burst through the doors of the operating room and hold her daughter forever. She'd never been so afraid in her life. The face that she'd been so caught up in Audrey's misbehavior to notice that she had a potentially life-threatening condition made Donna sick inside. Maybe this running for election wasn't a good idea after all. Her daughters are still so young and need her even if they don't always show it.

Donna looked over at Katie, who still had fear plastered on her face. Katie's eyes were begging her mother for answers which she could not give. At any other time in Katie's life, Donna did have all the answers. Momma always knew just what to do. She could fix anything. But when Donna looked down at her daughter's frail, lifeless body just minutes earlier, Donna knew she wasn't invincible like she had once thought. This was out of her control. Finally, Donna put her head in her hands, hunched over her knees and began to sob. Josh positioned his body so that his head was level with Donna's and rubbed soothing circles on her back. Katie started crying at the sight of her mother losing it and Abby Bartlet took her into her arms. When Donna seemed uncontrollable, Josh finally led her to stand up and walk outside the waiting room. He knew it wasn't good for their little girl to see her mother like this. Katie cried for Donna when she saw her dad taking her out of the room, but Abby held on to her tight and Ainsley came to sit where Donna was before to help.

As soon as Josh got his wife out of the waiting room, she sank to the floor in exhaustion. Josh kneeled down in front of her, still gripping her wrists from her movement down.

"Donna!" He called her gently. "Donna, sweetheart, you need to calm down. Donna!"

"I can't!" She screamed.

"You can't what?"

"I can't run for election! Look what it's doing to our family, Josh! I should have noticed she wasn't feeling very well!"

"Donna, you cannot blame yourself for this." Josh told her seriously as his hand went to her chin, forcing her to look at him. "We all missed it. There is no way we could have known in between her behavior lately that she had something physically wrong with her."

"If we all hadn't been so busy with my election, we would have noticed, Josh. We were trying to get her to go along with it and all the while she had a freakin' infection in her appendix! What was I ever thinking, Josh? I can't even watch over my own family!"

Josh sat down next to his wife and took her in his arms once again. He knew he'd be feeling the exact same way if it had been him in this same position. It was true that they'd all been caught up in Donna's election, but that didn't put her or any of them at fault. Audrey was at that age when everything was a big deal and everything was dramatic. With all her temper tantrums, the physical issue was overlooked. Josh slowly rocked Donna back and forth on the cold, hospital floor as he waited for her to stop crying.

Back in the waiting room just a few feet away, Katie had finally calmed down and was now laying calmly in Abby Bartlet's arms surrounded by the rest of her family – Ainsley, Jed Bartlet, Sam, Toby, Huck and Molly. Slowly, the calmless and security of these people had taken over her and she suddenly felt like everything was going to be okay. She'd closed her eyes in emotional and physical exhaustion and now finally opened them to see so many sets of eyes looking happy and relieved to see her calm and awake.

"Hi guys." She mumbled, a little embarrassed.

No one said anything, but simply smiled back or gazed at her – not a creepy gaze, but one of a relieved protectiveness. Abby gently stroked her hair back.

"Hi sweetheart." Abby whispered, continuing to stroke her hair.

Katie quickly looked around once more. Her parents were still gone.

"Where's mom and dad?" She asked anyway.

"They're just outside." Sam said. "Your dad's looking after your mom. She'll be okay in a minute.

"Do we know any more about Audrey?" Katie spoke quietly, sounding much younger than she actually was.

"Nothing yet." Abby sighed. She looked over at her husband, who had his fingers laced and seemed to be looking off into the abyss just a few feet away from him on the floor. Abby could tell he was itching to say something.

"I think it must have been my bad storytelling that triggered it, my dear." He finally looked over at Katie with the straightest face. "I don't have the country's finest writing my dialogue for me anymore." Jed glanced over at Toby and Sam who both allowed themselves a small smirk. They'd always waited on him to set the mood and tone of things out of habit and he seemed to think the room needed to loosen up a little bit. They missed having him around.

"Or maybe you accidentally let one rip?" Huck tried. Molly looked straight at her brother with a look of sheer surprise and at the same time admiration.

"Huckleberry Ziegler!" Toby reprimanded him, but allowed himself a little chuckle at the same time.

Sam started cracking up at the sound of Huck's full name.

"What?" Toby demanded, looking at his friend of over 25 years.

"I'm…" He chuckled, "I'm sorry. Huckleberry. I'll never get tired of hearing that. How's Tom doing, my friend?"

More peals of laughter erupted in the room. They all felt a little guilty doing it, but perhaps it was the tension in the room that they all felt needed to be broken.

Just then, Josh and Donna walked back in the room, both looking at ease. They were alarmed to see that everyone was chuckling and they all immediately stopped, not knowing how they'd take it.

"What's going on?" Josh asked when he saw everyone trying to hold their laughter. No one spoke for a few moments, but then Toby took the initiative.

"I'm sorry, guys." Toby started, "We were trying to loosen up a little by making fun of President Bartlet. And my son. Huckleberry. As you know."

They were all half expecting Donna to snap at them all for trying to lighten up such a grave situation when the doctor walked in the opposite door. As she pulled her mask down from her face, they were all relieved to see a smile.

"She's recovering well now." The doctor announced. "You can come see her if you'd like."

Donna's face finally lit up when she finally knew her baby girl was okay. Such relief. Donna bolted from where she was standing and followed the doctor at her heels as she led her to her daughter. Josh followed several paces behind with Katie and everyone else followed suit. They soon reached Audrey's recovery room and Josh, Donna, and Katie piled in. Everyone else stood back to give them privacy. She was still sleeping and looking rather frail in her hospital bed as Donna leaned down close and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Josh went to her other side and held Audrey's arm while Katie stood next to him. On her monitor, they could see that her heartbeat was normal and the doctor reassured them she would be good to go in just a day or so. Seeing their daughter so helpless and frail still took a number on Josh and Donna. All her life they'd protected her, but from this they couldn't.

After several minutes of softly talking to Audrey, hugging and kissing her, Josh finally stood up and went out into the hallway with the doctor.

"So what caused all this? Did we miss the warning signs?" Josh asked her, still confused as to why they'd missed something so serious.

"Her appendix had become blocked and her appendix became inflamed so she was experiencing some pain in her abdomen. It's pretty common to dismiss it just as a stomach ache so there's really no one to blame in this situation."

Josh sighed out and rubbed his eyes with his hand.

"We've all been really busy lately because my wife's running for election. She's feeling really guilty right now because she thinks she wasn't paying attention enough."

"Was Audrey acting out of the ordinary?"

Josh chuckled at thought – what was ordinary behavior for Audrey?

"Well, she's a character. I'll put it that way. Everything's always so dramatic with her, so it's hard to tell when something is major or minor."

"And at this age, that can only be amplified." She reassured the worried father.

"Yeah." Josh said, not sounding at all convinced. The doctor paused before speaking again.

"Mr. Lyman, I suggest that you and your wife take a little time off the campaign if you can and spend a little alone time together with Audrey. She may resist it a little, but I bet that's just exactly what she needs. That's what the doctor is ordering." She smiled.

Josh smiled back and looked down at the floor and then up again.

"Yes, doctor. That's probably exactly what she needs."

Minutes later, Josh made his way down to the cafeteria to pick up some coffee for himself and Donna and a Mountain Dew for Katie. Just as he was putting the cream into his coffee he caught a glimpse of someone familiar out of the corner of his eye.

"Carol?" He asked the woman. "Carol, is that you?"

The woman turned to face Josh and it was indeed Carol Parker, about the last person he was expecting to see today.

"Hi, Josh." She said in a weak voice.

"What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" He walked over to her and put a hand on her arm. She didn't look like she was having a very good evening either.

"Ella's here. She's up in recovery now."

"Why? What happened?"

Carol chuckled and rubbed her forehead in frustration.

"She went to that party she and Audrey were supposed to go to together even after I told her not to. And she was drinking and she's diabetic and then she passed out. Luckily the parents came home and they remembered her condition and rushed her here. Her blood sugar was at 48."

"Oh, God, Carol. I'm so sorry. But she's okay now?"

"Yeah. Well, physically she is." Carol started to tear up a little bit. "I'm still so worried about how what happened with her dad is affecting her. She's been acting out. Nothing I say is helping."

"Let's go sit down." Josh suggested as he lead her to sit down at an isolated table by a window. It was dark outside and starting to rain now at about two in the morning, a stark reminder that neither of them should be here right now; a reminder that some things were really wrong with both their families at the moment. Josh took Carol's hand in his and looked at her straight in the eye.

"You are doing the very best you can right now with your situation, Carol. It's so hard raising daughters and I can't imagine raising one alone. You are doing an amazing job. Ella is a wonderful girl, but she's been through a lot. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you're feeling overwhelmed or if Ella's acting up, I can be over in just a few minutes. I can talk to her. She's probably so scared and angry right now and doesn't know what to do with it. Can you call me if you're having a hard time?"

Carol took back one of her hands and wiped her eyes that had slowly been shedding tears throughout Josh's speech.

"Yes." She said, still staring down. She finally looked up at Josh's concerned eyes. "Thank you, Josh."

"Do not hesitate." Josh patted her hand in reassurance of his promise and got up, pulling her with him. He brought her into a hug and whispered a few more comforting words to her. What a night.

Josh went back to Ella's room with Carol to check on how her daughter was doing. After staying a few minutes, he decided to check back on his own daughter, but promised Carol he would be back later. Josh knew that both him and Donna would probably stay the night with Audrey and Carol would do the same with Ella. They could all be there to reassure each other and provide support.

By the time Josh got back to Audrey's room, the coffee was just warm and the Mountain Dew had lost a little of its fizz. Josh was delighted to see that Audrey had finally woken up from being sedated for surgery. The doctor had started her on a little bit of morphine for the pain. They could hear the rain outside and a light thunder beginning in the wee hours of the morning. Everyone had now come inside and were sitting or standing where they could. Katie was sitting down chatting with Courtney Seaborn and Huck and Molly Ziegler and it seemed she was doing much better now that her sister was okay.

"Hi daddy." Audrey said when she saw Josh enter the room. Donna had been looking at her daughter and turned her head at her daughter's acknowledgement he was back. Josh handed Katie her drink and then stepped over a few people until he was standing next to Audrey.

"Hi sweetheart." He kissed her forehead and then stroked her hair. "I'm glad to see you're awake."

"Did you bring me a Mountain Dew too?" She asked him with a smile. Of course she couldn't have anything like that right now, but it was reassuring to hear her joking around already.

"Yeah, I could unhook your IV fluid and replace it with Dew. How does that sound?"

"That sounds awesome." She joked and started giggling. Toby brought Josh over a stool so he could sit down next to Audrey's bed. Her normally beautiful straight blonde hair looked disheveled and unwieldy. Audrey's normal skin color was returning but she still looked pale and wan.

"Does it still hurt?" Josh asked her.

Audrey shook her head no. "The morphine's taking care of that."

Josh looked at Donna. "How often does she get that?"

"Well, she can take it as frequently as every ten minutes, the doctor said. She just has to press the button attached to her finger."

Audrey held up her right hand and started clicking the little button that allowed her morphine every ten minutes if she wanted it.

"Does it give you medicine every time you click?"

"No, Josh. Even if she clicks it every minute it only gives her medicine

every ten."

"Oh, I see." Josh remembered Donna having a similar contraption after her scare in Gaza when he visited her in Germany.

"And Josh, I wanna let you know she has way too high of a tolerance for it. No effect on her at all for at least an hour." Jed joked.

Josh looked back sarcastically at the former president and rolled his eyes. Though he knew the President was joking around, he never knew just what Audrey was thinking. Audrey really scared him sometimes and he didn't know whether to pull her in tighter or give her space.

At close to three in the morning, Josh and Donna could see that their friends were getting really tired and that the hospital was no place for them. They all wanted to be there for Josh and Donna and their family, but they were exhausted.

"Guys, do you want to go back to our house? You can crash there. Sam your house is so far away and the kids are so exhausted." Donna suggested.

Sam looked down at his two youngest, who were sleeping on his wife Ainsley. Courtney was awake but looking like a zombie alongside Huck, Molly and Katie.

"You don't need to stay here." Josh reinforced. "It's been a long night. Go get some rest."

Toby sighed out and looked at Sam and Jed.

"Are you sure you don't need anything?" Sam asked.

"We're fine. We'll stay here with Audrey."

"Katie, would you like to go home with us?" Ainsley asked the exhausted teenager.

Katie looked up at her parents who reassured her it was okay to leave.

"Okay." She said softly.

"Call us if you need anything at all or for any updates." Jed said as he got up off the chair.

"We will." Josh said. "Thanks so much for staying with us and sorry about your evening."

"Josh." Toby said in a dismissive voice. None of them thought twice about leaving the Convention, no matter how important it was. Audrey was a part of their family.

Slowly, everyone got up and gave reassuring hugs to Josh, Donna and Audrey. Katie was the last one to do so.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" Donna asked her daughter, who was once again looking a little unsure as she hugged her mom.

"Yeah, momma, I'll be fine." Katie said, not sounding too confident.

"Grandpa Jed or Sam or Toby will drive you back over tomorrow but you can call if you need to and I'll come get you, okay?"

"Okay, mom. I love you."

"I love you too, Katie."

Josh gave Katie another kiss and a hug as she left.

Josh and Donna sat back down and looked down again at their recovering daughter Audrey. She was looking sleepy and had been awake for a couple hours now with the company around. Audrey clicked her morphine button four times. She was taking hits every half hour or so.

"Sweetheart, it only works the first time you press it." Donna told her.

"I don't care." She sighed out. In the silence, they could all hear the storm brewing outside that was getting more and more intense by the minute. They could see lightning and hear thunder amidst the loud, pouring rain.

"Could the power go out?" Audrey asked.

"I don't think so, honey." Josh looked at her intently.

"What if it goes out and I can't get my morphine and I'm in pain for hours on end while they try to fix it?"

"I don't think that will happen, Audrey." Josh told her, though he wasn't quite sure how the back-up generators would work. Surely they had this power stuff down in hospitals where lives depended on it.

"Well, I better make sure I take all the morphine hits I can in case the power goes out. Every ten minutes." She proclaimed.

Donna and Josh both chuckled at her logic. It made sense but seemed a little over the top.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, sweetheart." Donna said.

"I better not take any chances."

An hour later, Audrey was getting giggly and ridiculous after taking about 10 hits of morphine in the past hour.

"She's a very kinky girl, the kind you don't take home to mother." Audrey sang, "She will never let your spirits down, once you get her off the street, ow girl! She likes the girls in the band, she says that I'm her all-time favorite. When I make the move to her room it's the right time. She's never hard to please. She's a superfreak! Superfreak! She's a superfreaky yow! Superfreak!"

Audrey was dancing the best she could in her hospital bed, mostly moving her arms to the rhythm. Josh and Donna had been trying not to laugh at the antics their daughter had been displaying for the last 20 minutes, but they could barely stand it.

"Audrey, you're going to wake someone up." Josh said, a little embarrassed but amused at the same time.

"What, you don't like my singing, daddy?"

"No, it's wonderful, sweetheart, but you're getting kind of loud."

"Well, I like to sing so they can get over it. I should start a band. Don't you think I have a great voice?"

"Whatever you want, baby."

"Would like to be my back-up dancers? You could do the robot!"

"I think we'll have to pass on that, Audrey."

Audrey looked at her father with hurt and betrayal.

"Why not, daddy?" She started to tear up.

Josh leaned over and kissed her forehead and tried to hush her.

"Shhhhh, shhhhh, baby. It just may cut into my day job a little."

"Don't you want to spend time with me? Momma?"

Donna stepped in. "Audrey, you're being silly. It's the morphine. You know your father and I can't quit our jobs to be your backup dancers while you sing 'Superfreak'."

"But it would be fun." Her voice was breaking.

"Yes, it would, but we need to pay your tuition and you've got college coming up. We don't know if we'd be quite as successful being dancers. But it's a very good idea."

Audrey stared up at her mother and studied her face closely. She looked intrigued by what her mother had just said. Audrey clicked her morphine button five times.

"Okay, honey, I think that's more than enough morphine for you. The storm's over now so the power won't go out. You need to get some rest."

"But I don't need to sleep. I like talking to you."

Even though she was high on morphine, both Josh and Donna's hearts melted a little bit at her comment. They hoped she really meant it, unlike her wish to become the lead singer of a band.

"I'm glad, sweetheart. We can talk tomorrow, though, when you're rested and feeling better."

Audrey sighed theatrically and pulled her covers up to her chin.

"Okay." She rested her head back and fell asleep immediately.

Josh and Donna looked at each other and smiled. She hadn't fallen asleep that quickly since she was probably five years old.

"Out like a light." Josh commented.

Donna glanced at her watch. "She's been awake for almost twenty hours, excluding the surgery, of course."

She stood up and stretched, feeling exhausted after being at the hospital for almost six hours.

"You need to get some rest, too." Josh told his wife. "Do you want to take those chairs over there?"

"What about you?"

"I'm fine here." Josh had been without sleep many times so it wouldn't bother him to stay up with his daughter. "I didn't get a chance to tell you earlier, but I saw Carol Parker downstairs when I went to get coffee."

This immediately caught Donna's attention and she looked wide awake once again.

"Carol Parker? What was she doing here?"

Josh sighed and rested his head in his hand on Audrey's bed.

"Ella's blood sugar plummeted at that party Audrey was going to go to when she had too much alcohol."

Donna put a hand to her head in aggravation. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine now, but it was pretty low, she said. Apparently Ella hasn't been listening too well lately, so I offered to help if it continues."

Donna's mind instinctively went to her daughter Audrey. She was supposed to be at that party but couldn't at the last minute. Audrey almost definitely would have drank at least a little bit. Or would she and Ella had drawn strength from each other and resisted? They were good kids, but they were starting to get high school friends. Donna suddenly felt guilty and felt she should have let Audrey go because she would've seen the seriousness of Ella's actions, knowing her friend was diabetic. Audrey wouldn't have let Ella drink. Why was she making all these bad decisions? Josh pretty much read his wife's mind as he saw her staring blankly off with her eyebrows crinkled like she always did when she blamed herself for something.

"Donna?" He brought her back from her trance. "Donna, it wasn't your fault if that's what you're thinking. Audrey can't be with her all the time. Ella's been acting out. She would've found a way."

Donna rubbed her forehead, considering her husband's words.

"I don't know."

"Sweetheart, you're exhausted. Go get some rest."

"Josh, I need to stay up in case Audrey…"

"Donna." He cut her off and walked over to her, taking her upper arm. You need to sleep. Josh helped her sit down on the row of four chairs, which were padded but didn't look too comfortable. He reached down and removed her shoes and then swung her legs around so she was reclined.

"Lie down."

"Josh." She moaned in protest as he retrieved an extra blanket from a nearby cupboard.

"Shhhh. You need to sleep." He covered her with the worn fleece blanket he found. Josh leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Sleep tight."

Donna decided to give up and stayed put, but decided that he couldn't stop her from getting up if she heard even a peep from Audrey. Josh turned off all the lights in the room and resumed his place on the stool next to Audrey's bed. He looked back at where Donna was laying and it appeared that she was already asleep. Turning back to Audrey, she looked to be comfortable and sleeping well, which he was immeasurably thankful for. He'd be there in the morning when she finally awoke.