Hold Me Now
Part 6
Leo was sitting at his desk looking over some briefings when the phone rang. "Hello?...What?...When did this happen?...How bad is it?...Oh shit…Ok. Let's try to keep it contained as long as possible. Thanks." He hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment before springing into action. A mental list started forming in his mind. He got up and opened his door. "Margaret, find Josh. Have him meet me in the Oval right now. I don't care what he is doing. Make him drop it and get his ass over here."
He didn't wait for her to answer him before shutting the door again. He had another phone call to make before going to the Oval.
Josh wasn't sure why he was being called to the Oval Office or why Margaret looked so spooked but he had a bad feeling about it. He pushed his feeling aside and walked into the outer office, seeing Charlie there. "Hey."
"Hey. You can go right in." Charlie greeted.
"Do you know why I have been summoned?" He asked. .
"No." Charlie shook his head. "I was only told that when you get here, I'm to send you right in."
"Fair enough I guess." He shrugged. When he entered the office, he saw the President standing by the window, staring out with his arms crossed. Leo was in front of the desk with a grim expression on his face. He suddenly knew this wasn't a social visit and his gut feeling was right. His heart dropped as he started imagining all the things that could be wrong.
"Josh, close the door." Leo ordered.
He did as he was told and then took several steps into the office. "What's going on? What happened?" His gut told him there was something wrong with Donna.
"About twenty minutes ago, the car carrying the First Lady and Donna was hit with rocket launcher. The three Secret Service agents who were in the car with them are dead. Both the First Lady and Donna are at the hospital. I don't have any more information about their conditions than that. I'm sorry Josh." Leo explained.
He felt like all of the air had been squeezed from his body and he was frozen in place as his mind raced. She had to be ok. There was no way he could live with himself if anything happened to her. And the baby. He wasn't a doctor but he knew the chances of the baby being ok after an incident like this were slim.
He knew it was a bad idea for her to go to the conference. He tried to tell her.
"Josh!" Leo called out.
He looked over at Leo. "I have to go there. I'm sorry but I can't be here. I have to go."
"I know." Leo nodded sympathetically. "I'm having Air Force One gassed up as we speak. You and the President will be heading to the airfield in a minute."
He looked over and saw that the President was still standing at the window with his back to them. It didn't seem like he had moved an inch this entire time.
"Sir, you and Josh should get going now." Leo said, walking over to the President.
"Yeah, let's go." Jed said quietly, leading the way.
They were finally making their final descent into Vancouver. It was the longest five hour plane ride he had ever been on. He was getting anxious and just wanted to get to the hospital. They had only received one update so far from the hospital. Both the First Lady and Donna were in surgery. They both lost a lot of blood and were in critical condition. That's all they knew right now and it was driving him crazy.
He had watched and listened to the President made condolence calls to the families of the three secret service agents who were killed in the attack. How the President had the ability to focus on something like that when his wife was in surgery was beyond his ability to comprehend. He could barely form coherent thoughts, yet the President was having these incredibly serious, deep conversations and trying to console the families of the dead. It was masterful considering the circumstances.
After the condolence calls came the calls to his children. Hearing him talk to their girls and explain that he didn't know much about their mothers' injuries was rough. He was again impressed with the President's ability to remain composed.
There was a phone call from Leo that came through as well. Leo was giving an update on the info they had about who was responsible for the attack. He was still perplexed about how someone with a rocket launcher could be able to get close enough to hit their car. But he realized it would have been difficult for the Secret Service to secure every building that was on the route from the hotel to the airport.
There wasn't anyone taking credit for the attack yet, but they were still working on finding out who planned it. Unfortunately the news had gotten out to the press about the attack on the First Lady. Toby and Sam were working on a press release for CJ. He felt a twang of guilt for not being able to help. But honestly, there was nothing he would be able to help with right now. His mind was in a different place.
After the President got off the phone with Leo they had a conversation—the only one they had the entire plane ride.
"Leo says that they haven't found the person who fired the rocket launcher. They locked down the area but I'm not sure if they will find them." The President said.
"We need to kill them, sir. We need to find them and kill them. We kill them and then we find out who sent them and we kill them too. You kill the people who did it, the people who planned it. Then you kill everyone who was happy about it."
He surprised himself with his words, but he found he meant them. Whoever did this deserved to die. Neither the First Lady nor Donna were doing anything to hurt anyone. On the contrary they were trying to help others by bringing clean water to those who didn't have access to it. They didn't deserve this.
"I know you are hurting right now." Jed commented. "So I know you don't mean that."
"I do though." He nodded. "They have already killed three people. Both of our wives could die and Donna is…was…"
"Abbey told me about the baby last night." Jed interrupted. "I'm very sorry."
He shook his head and looked out the window again. "Whoever is responsible needs to pay."
Other than the phone calls, things were quiet on the plane. He was certain the President was lost in his own thoughts about his wife, just as he was about Donna.
No matter what he tried to think about, his thoughts were drawn back to Donna though. He couldn't lose her. He was under no illusions about the baby surviving and would grieve that later. But he couldn't lose Donna too. She was everything to him.
He briefly wondered if she was this worried about him after he was shot at Rosslyn. They weren't together then so he couldn't blame her if she wasn't as wrecked as he was right now. But if she was upset even a fraction of how much he was now, then he felt bad for her.
The irony of both of them being injured while working for this administration wasn't lost on him. She always said she was willing to put her blood, sweat and tears into whatever job she held. The sweat and tears were already given. Now came the blood.
He stared out the window and remembered the conversation they had a long time ago about the car accident she had during the couple of months where she went back to her old boyfriend, Dr. Freeride.
"I'm just saying if you were in an accident I wouldn't stop for a beer."
Without missing a beat she replied. "If you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop for red lights.
He wasn't going to be stopping for red lights either since he would be riding with the President. He knew that the secret service detail was going to be breaking as many driving laws as possible to get them to the hospital quickly.
It didn't take long to reach the hospital. He followed behind the President as they entered the hospital. They were immediately greeted by two men.
"Mr. President, Mr. Lyman. My name is Dr. Ross and this is Dr. Petty." One of the men spoke. "Dr. Petty, why don't you take Mr. Lyman to fill him in on everything with his wife. I will fill in the President about the First Lady."
"Come right this way please."
He followed the man who apparently was Dr. Petty. As he walked away, he looked back at the President. He couldn't hear what Dr. Ross was saying, but he could tell by the President's face that it didn't look like good news.
"Mr. Lyman, please have a seat." Dr. Petty pointed to a chair by the window.
He sat down. Although he had been waiting impatiently for a briefing from Donna's doctor to know what was going on, he couldn't help but be anxious about it.
"Your wife suffered a head injury, which gave her a concussion. We are monitoring it but it doesn't look like she will have any significant side effects from that other than perhaps a headache when she wakes up. She came in with a collapsed lung or pneumothorax so we had to insert a needle around the rib cage area to remove the excess air."
He groaned at the explanation of the procedure.
"Are you alright?" Dr. Petty asked.
"I just get squeamish about procedures and stuff." He explained. "Please…go on."
"Alright. The collapsed lung should fix itself within 48-72 hours now that we have the air removed. The most serious injury she received was to her wrist. There was a large piece of metal that got lodged in her wrist during the accident. It punctured the artery and a couple of the muscles. We went in and did surgery to repair the artery and to start repairing the muscles but she will likely need at least one of two more surgeries on her wrist in the near future. It's possible she won't get full range of motion and full use back from her wrist, but we're doing everything we can to make sure that she recovers fully. She lost a lot of blood from the arterial injury. It put a lot of stress on her body, which has unfortunately caused her to have a miscarriage. We have given her a couple of blood transfusions and we feel optimistic about her recovery though. We have every reason to believe she will be fine. We've even upgraded her condition from critical to serious."
He felt queasy from the explanations of her injuries. He was also devastated to get confirmation that she lost the baby, but it wasn't a surprise. He was a little worried about her wrist injury. But at least she was going to be alright. He had to try and focus on the positives. He wasn't going to lose her. "Can I see her now?"
"Of course." Dr. Petty nodded. "Come with me."
He got up and followed the doctor down a long hallway, briefly wondering what the President was learning about the First Lady. He would have to go find out later. He also needed to call her parents and let them know about her condition. But he needed to put eyes on Donna and make sure that she was actually ok. He had to see it for himself.
"Here is her room. We've given her morphine to dull the pain so she will be extremely groggy if she wakes up. But honestly-given the trauma, the anesthesia from the surgery and now the morphine I would be surprised if she wakes up at all before tomorrow morning." Dr. Petty announced. "Please let me know if you need anything."
"Thanks." He took a deep breath before entering her room. Once inside, his eyes zeroed in on her immediately. She was laying in the hospital bed connected to a ton of wires and machines. He looked at the monitors of the machines but didn't know what he was looking at so he wasn't sure if the numbers were good or bad.
He focused on Donna. There were small cuts marking up her face. Her right wrist was bandaged and then put in a sling. She looked so pale and fragile right now. He grabbed a chair and moved it closer to the bed. He knew he needed to call her parents to give them an update. They were just as worried about her as he was and he would definitely call them soon. But for now he needed a moment with her. He grabbed her left hand in his and leaned forward, lightly resting his hand against their joined hands.
It was then that he started to cry.
It started as a few silent tears that left his eyes. Then it turned into sobs that made his whole body rock back and forth. He cried as way to release the stress of not knowing if she would be alright, the stress of losing the baby, the guilt of not making sure she skipped the conference. He knew there was too much danger surrounding this conference, but she didn't want to listen to him. She was stubborn, believing that she was right about there being no danger.
In this instance he hated being right.
He knew he had to get all of the tears out now, before she woke up. Once she woke up, he vowed he would be strong for her. He would be the rock she needed to get through this. But right now, this one time, he could let himself fall apart.