For a significant amount of time, Josh felt as if the world was standing still. His eyes had glazed over and he was again looking but not seeing anything in the room. He had ended the call with Donna's mother but the phone was still stuck to his ear. His mouth was slightly agape and he watched by the door as Will tenderly approached and touched the side of Donna's bed.
"Well of course it's Will Bailey" Josh thought to himself. How many times had he seen the two of them out to dinner? How evident was the concern in Will's voice when he spoke of Donna's "sickness" that forced her to leave the campaign trail? How else would Will have know to show up here this morning? The whole thing made sense in Josh's tired and overwrought brain and he stood frozen and upset until Will's voice broke the silence.
"What happened?" Will questioned with genuine concern evident in his voice.
"She…she's going to be fine…the baby is going to be fine." Josh was forcing his voice to speak, forcing the facts to come out like when Tony had first called him and he had called Donna's mother moments ago. He felt like a robot and more than anything he felt like he was intruding in this family's moment.
"I'll leave you two alone." Josh heard his voice but couldn't believe what he was saying. He had only been standing in the room with Will for about 45 seconds but in that time he had already formulated a plan to punch Will, grab Donna and the baby and drive to his Mom's house for safekeeping. He had already realized how badly he wanted that to be his family. As he stood in the room, however, convinced that Donna and Ava were Will's family, and that his little plan would bring certain shame to the Santos campaign, all he could do was tell himself to give it up and force his legs to move towards the door and out into the hall. He heard Will calling after him but Josh forced himself to keep going. He made surprisingly quick time down the hall not even glancing in the direction of the nursery where Ava slept contently. He was looking down at his feet when the elevator opened and he got on so quickly that he almost knocked over the other occupant inside.
"Well, fancy seeing you here." He heard the familiar voice say.
Josh was breathing so heavy at this point that he thought he must have imagined the statement over his gasps. However as his eyes peeled themselves from the elevator floor he sure enough found he was looking into the eyes of none other then Leo McGary.
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Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews and encouraged me to keep going, I am sorry it took me so long to update. I hope no one is upset by my use of Leo in the story. I had always planned for him to be sort of the "savior" of the piece and I thought it was a fitting tribute to John Spencer. I had this transitional scene written since before the news of his death and I decided I am just going to stick with it.