Josh wished they would bring the baby in.
"Ava" he said aloud to himself and smiled. It didn't feel as akward to him when she was in the room. Now he just stood frozen at the end of Donna's bed watching her chest rise and fall and listening to the steady beat of her heart monitor. He must have stood there, eyes locked on her, looking but not really seeing, for over 40 minutes. They still hadn't brought the baby in. He had an overwhelming feeling of déjá vu, only he knew his memories were real, knew that he had once spent days waiting by her bedside. It was a whole other country, yet the hospital sounds and smells all seemed the same. That was the only thing that was the same.
He wasn't sure at which time in his life he had been more confused. That time in Germany was only a little while ago, but it felt like a decade. He thought to that scene, and many others that had played out between them.
"What am I doing here?" he wondered. He was awakened from his meditative state when her pain medication dispensed with a loud beep.
The answer came to him: "The nurse said she shouldn't be alone."
Josh realized that he needed to call her mom now.The thought filled him with discomfort and he realized that he couldn't really believe the situation. Just last night he had been conducting a strategy meeting when he got the call on his cell.
"Josh Lyman" he answered with his typical rushed voiced.
"Mr. Lyman, this is Tony Harris and I wanted to make you aware that we have Donnatella Moss in our ambulance in transit to the hospital."
That is how the phone conversation began. There was no warning to take a seat, no mention that this was a call regarding emergency information: it was just the facts. Josh remained on the phone with Tony answering in only one-word responses and sometimes nodding his head silently as if Tony could see him over the phone. When he hung up about a minute and half later, the entire room was focused on the now pale and rigid campaign manager.
"I have got to go" he stated barley above a whisper, "family emergency".
Josh was down the hall and out of the building before anyone had time to blink much less question the call. He sped to the hospital, not stopping for lights, and waited on the maternity floor as Donna went into surgery. He spoke with the doctors and listened to the updates, he allowed himself to be led to her room. It all happened on instinct. He had no real thought of his own, just simply his brain (and heart) telling him to make sure Donna was ok.
When his brain did return to full function, he knew he should call her mom, but he had no idea what to say, especially since the first time he thought of it was at 3:30 am and he did NOT want to wake up her sleeping family at home with this type of news. He was hoping she would wake up and be able to do it herself. In fact, that was Josh's plan, stay in the room until she was awake, put the cell in her hand and leave. Just as she had left him time and time again.
At that thought his anger and hurt returned and Josh felt the urge to walk out and leave her to wake up alone. After all, he reasoned bitterly to himself, the doctors had said she would be fine and she probably didn't want him there to begin with. It was possibly a mistake that he was listed in her contact info. He felt that she had been pretty clear that she wanted nothing to do with him.
He turned on his heels and made a move to the door but was met by an elderly nurse wheeling the baby in. There are few words to describe the emotions that overtook Josh at that moment. He tiptoed to crib where the baby lay as if he were on hallowed ground. The nurse, who must have assumed he was the father, asked how mom was doing and if he would like to hold the baby. This nurse must have dealt with a lot of first time Dads because she ignored his lack of response and gently led Josh over to the rocking chair, sat him down and handed him the baby, all the while disregarding the look of bewilderment on his face.
Josh felt his eyes well up with tears as he thought back to how wonderful Donna's daughter felt in his arms. She was such a delight and he spent an hour exploring how her tiny toes and fingers looked exactly like her mom's. When she started to get a little fussy, he got up from the rocker and moved around the room. He wasn't super familiar with babies, but for some reason this felt so right. He even began singing, which he assumes might have been what woke Donna.
He glanced back to her face now, and realized that he was going to need to go ahead and make that phone call. Rummaging through her bag he found her cell. He was a bit taken aback when he saw his number pop up on speed dial one, but then he assumed it was just by oversight, the same part of her brain that had forgotten to remove him as her emergency contact. He knew for sure that she was still on his speed dial one, not that he had any plans of calling her.
"Removing someone is just too much effort", he had thought to himself. "She'll come off when I get a new phone."
He finally found the number for the Moss residence in Wisconsin and hit send. Luckily Mrs. Moss was up. She answered the phone and Josh found himself delivering the news to her in much the same detached manner as Tony had given it to him. There were no pleasantries exchanged, he just got right down to it. He would pause as Mrs. Moss repeated the information to her husband; he tried not to hear the overwhelming worry and confusion in her voice. It was resolved that she would be on the next flight out there and right when Josh was about to hang up the phone he heard the room door open behind him.
Josh turned to see Will Bailey stick his head in the room with worry evident on his face.
Josh's eyes grew round with surprise and his silence caught Mrs. Moss off guard.
"Josh, Josh are you still there?"
He heard the voice in his ear and as he nodded to Will that he should come in Josh returned his attention to the phone.
"Yeah…yeah I am right here, maybe I will see you soon."
"Ok Josh, I just have one question for you, is the Father there?" Mrs. Moss hadn't asked a lot of questions but it suddenly occurred to her that this one was a good one.
Josh answered with the same amount of uncertainty with which she had asked the question: "Yeah, I think so… I think he just showed up."
He closed the phone and he and Will, who had wandered over by Donna's side, locked eyes.