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MY GUESTBOOK
�I don�t understand. I don�t understand, is�is it serious?
You had never thought much of Donna, to be perfectly honest. She was there, and then she left, and when she came back you were sure it was only going to be a matter of weeks before she left again, but she didn�t and every day she got better and better at what she did until one day you found her explaining electoral math to some of the interns. It took you forever to grasp electoral math. Even then you struggled with it, which is why you always had a cheat sheet in your beaten-up accordion folder. But Donna, a woman who had five majors and two minors in two years, who had no political experience other than running for student body president in high school, knew electoral math backwards and forwards and she was able to explain the complexities to a group of eighteen and nineteen year olds who were, for the most part, only there to pad their resumes.
�Yes, it�s critical. The bullet collapsed his lung and damaged a major artery.� That much you understood from what Dr. Bartlet told you all earlier.
Donna looks very shocked.
�I was just saying, we can�t make you very comfortable here, and the procedure is likely to take 12 to 14 hours. We won�t know anything until morning. I�m sure there are things you�re supposed to be attending to right now, so if you like we can stay in contact with your homes and offices throughout the night,� the doctor says.
As the doctor exits, Donna sinks into a chair and stares into space.
Sam tears a piece of paper out of his notebook hands it to CJ. She says something about briefing after Leo is finished meeting with the Leadership but you aren�t really listening. Charlie says that he�s going to get some things from the Residence for the President and he and CJ stand up and leave together to go back to the White House.
You start fidgeting with your ring, twisting it around your finger over and over again until it slides off your finger, falling to the floor with a pinging clang that makes everyone in the room jump.
It is in that moment that it becomes too much for you. You have to get out of there. Out of the waiting room. Out of the building. Away from the blood and the pain and the worry and everything else that is weighing so heavy on you at that moment.
�I should get back to the White House, too,� you say as you scoop up your ring from the white tile floor.
Sam looks at his watch and nods distractedly. By the time you get back there Leo should be finished what will undoubtedly be the first of many meetings with the Joint Chiefs you will need to work on the message that the White House is sending out. You�re going to need Sam, too, but he won�t be any good to anyone now so you don�t even consider asking him to come with you. He can work from the hospital until there is more news�any news at all.