"Where's who, ma'am?" a nurse asked.

"Sam Seaborn, he - he works for the president..."

"Lemme take you to the waiting room with the rest of the staff, okay?" Mallory allowed herself to be led to the waiting room, then practically flew into her father's arms.

"We don't know anything yet...They don't think he'll have too many problems with the leg...Other than that, we won't know for at least 5 or 7 more hours." Mallory nodded weakly, crumbling and starting to sob.

"He's in great hands, Mal...I'd tell you not to worry, but...well..." Abby smiled wanly.

"Abby.." Mallory turned to face her Godmother. "How's the president?"

"He was shot in the neck."

"Oh, God..." she murmured, grasping the back of the chair lest she should fall over. "...I knew there was something..."

"Baby?"

"...I was s'posed to - Sam wanted me to come on the trip, but I couldn't because there's a shortage of substitute teachers, so I told him I couldn't go I...I was supposed to be there..."

"Obviously you weren't SUPPOSED to be there, 'cause if you were, you would've been," Abby said sensibly, trying to calm her down a little. Leo just hugged her tight, trying desperately not to think //What if she HAD been there?//

~*~*~*~

He wasn't sure what the hell was going on.

There was a lot of pain, and a lot of little noises around him - tiny beeps and buzzes, the whirs of...something.

He tried to ask what was going on, but there were tubes in his throat. He finally opted for waving his un-IV-ed hand a little.

"Welcome back, Mr. President," said someone - assumeably a nurse or some such person - from across the room. "I'd ask you how you're feeling, but you can't talk. I know you're probably confused as to what's going on. There was a shooting during the parade through downtown, and you were shot in the neck. We checked it out and removed the bullet, and everything looks good."

The president made a motion like he was writing on his hand, and the nurse brought him a pad of paper and a pen. He wrote hurriedly: Was anyone else hurt?

"Mr. Seaborn was shot in the chest and in the right thigh. He's in surgery."

The president's face fell. He wrote again: How's it look?

"We really don't know anything yet."

Abby?

"Would you like me to go get your wife for you?"

He nodded.

"I'll be right back, sir."

~*~*~*~

//Between Mal and Abby,// Leo thought, //there will be no carpet left in this room.// The two women paced back and forth, looking so much alike it was comical. A nurse walked into the room. "Mrs. Bartlet?"

Abby stopped so abruptly that Mallory nearly ran into her. "Yes?"

"The President would like to see you now."

Her eyes grew wide. "He's awake?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Oh, thank God," she murmured, then caught sight of Mallory and gave her a sympathetic look. Abby was led to the president's room and immediately rushed over and kissed his forehead. "Hey, honey," she whispered, her voice growing thick with unshed tears. "How ya feelin'?"

He scrawled on the pad: I can't talk, sorry - I think a truck ran over me.

Abby laughed. "Pretty close, yeah."

How's Sam?

"We don't know yet."

Yeah, but what do you think? He wrote.

"I think Sam's a tough guy - he'd have to be to work for you - and he's gonna make it the same way Josh did."

~*~*~*~

<Blip...Blip...Blip...Blip...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!>

"Shit, he's crashing!"

"Get the internal paddles!"

"Charge 'em to 300!"

"Charged."

"Clear!"

<Schzack!>

<EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....>