Silence.

"Sam?!" Josh screeched, feeling in his best friend's neck for a pulse. It was there, albeit weak.

"...Environmental policy changes-...today..."

"Sam?"

"Oh, God," CJ muttered as she pulled herself weakly to her feet. "Oh, God..."

"What happened?!" Leo demanded, suddenly on his feet.

"Sam?!" Josh's voice was growing increasingly panicked; Sam had said one nonsensical sentence and then fallen silent again. "C'mon, Sam, wake up!"

"Where's the president?"

"Who was hit?"

"What's going on?" All around them, cries rang out.

But inside the small circle they'd self-consciously formed, nothing else mattered. One of their own was hurt. Again. They had no way of knowing if the President was okay.

Jim, one of the Secret Service Agents who'd always been ready to greet them with a stiff smile, unlike most of the very tense agents who were around, leapt over the rope line to the circle of staffers. "Anyone hurt?"

All of them wordlessly looked at Sam, Josh kneeling beside him.

"We need an ambulance across the street from the Law Building," Jim said urgently into his hand-mic. "Now!"

And five minutes later, out of seemingly nowhere, one arrived.

"Since when-...does the president...need to criticize the-...the lynx?!" Samcried out.

"What? What's he talking about?" Josh demanded, looking wildly around.

"...Friends...should have been honest...with each other..."

"What's he talking about?!" Josh demanded again, and Toby and CJ looked sullen. Leo looked down.

"...The environmental drop-in," Toby said quietly.

"...They're not...standing..." He was wheezing and nonsensical, but at least he was alive.

The question was...for how long?

~*~*~*~

It was the average day until lunchtime.

She'd gotten up at the normal time, chosen her clothes from her usual wardrobe, and driven the same rout to school as she always did. She had all the same kids in all the same subjects. The lunchroom had all the same selections when she went down there and bought a salad, and the teacher's lounge was full of all the same people discussing all the same things.

Until Belinda Cash, a fifth grade teacher who was watching the TV, turned to them in awe. "...oh my GOD..." Immediately, she turned up the television and looked to Mallory.

"-...Confirming that just moments ago, the presidential motorcade here in Austin, Texas, was fired upon. We do not know - We don't know yet who if anyone is injured or dead, but that news will be available as soon as-..."

That's when she stopped hearing.

They were showing footage of when the shots had rung out...She could see CJ in all her tallness, be suddenly thrown to the ground in a flash of dark hair and good looks and a dark suit.

"...No..." she whispered wordlessly. Leaping from her seat, she raced to the office and into the small conference room and picked up the phone, dialing every number she could think of.

No one picked up.

~*~*~*~

From his position, he couldn't see very well what had happened - but he knew what had been planned, and it had seemed right.

He chuckled. "...Everything has gone according to plan..." he snickered,trying not to grin widely.