The Only Way I Know

I very recently got into the West Wing and watched the entire series in a little over the month. Now I'm watching it again for, what I anticipate, will be many, many times; this may very well be among my favorite is my first fanfic outside of the Flashpoint fandom and though I have lots of ideas for West Wing stories, I'm not sure that they're worth writing. I'd love some feedback to see how I do on this one and see if I should keep writing. I (very obviously) don't own any of the characters here. Picks up in the first part of ISOTG.

The world abruptly emerged from darkness to chaos. There was a ringing in the air where gunshots just were, an eerie sort of quiet, just for an instant, before the screaming came back into focus. There were feet around him, running and shuffling, and he couldn't figure out how everything turned upside down. He felt, more than saw, a Secret Service agent leaning over him as he laid on the warm pavement, glass shards surrounding him.

"Mr. Seaborn!" The agent yelled over the sounds around him. He turned his head and suddenly all the pain in his body came into abrupt focus. He couldn't identify where the pain was or what was worse, the pounding of his head here it hit the ground, where some shattered glass had fallen and penetrated the unprotected skin in the back and side of his neck, his aching shoulder that he had landed awkwardly on and now wondered if it was dislocated…he closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath to steady himself. The agent's hands were running down his body, looking for a bullet hole that Sam knew wasn't there. The thought jarred him immediately from his thoughts though as he shot up into a sitting position with some help from the agent.

"The president?" He demanded, his tone posing the question he didn't have the consciousness to form. The Agent, Jerry…or maybe Jamie, Sam couldn't remember and thinking hurt...there was too much to think about...The Agent paused and considered how much to disclose but he nodded.

"He's in the car, on the way to the White House. Zoey is alright too and we just got Mr. McGarry into a car." He spoke quickly while assessing the rest of the casualties and chaos around them. Sam was doing the same, though he was looking for his friends.

"Go, do your job." Sam offered as he got himself standing and rolled his shoulder around to test the joint. "I'm fine." The Agent nodded and jogged off in another direction, soon lost in the crowd. Sam used all of the will power he had to remain standing, remain focused on finding his friends and getting back to the White House. He had to fight a wave of intense dizziness that overcame him when he tried to take his first step but he stayed upright despite the tilt in the ground. He blinked away whatever spinning was overtaking him though as he saw CJ, only a few yards away, sitting on a police car with paramedic's hovering around her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, noticing for the first time the slight quiver in his voice. She didn't hear him though and he had to repeat the question and explain what he'd just heard from the Secret Service about the President being okay. He and CJ had just turned to find the others when he heard Toby shouting for help. His heart must have stopped for a moment. He'd never heard Toby sound like that and, before he knew what was going on, he was running towards him. He didn't know what could be wrong but it didn't stop him from pushing his way past bystanders and up a short staircase. He saw Toby kneel and catch Josh before his head hit the ground and Sam couldn't breathe for a minute.

The world slowed down as Toby and Josh both turned their eyes towards Sam and the slightly trailing CJ. Sam felt paralyzed. Blood had never made him queasy but in this moment he needed to vomit and cry and curl up in a ball all at the same time but none of that happened. CJ saw what was happening and reacted first, running off to physically drag a medic to their location. The Secret Service had also realized something was wrong and began to swarm their position. Sam didn't know how he got on his knees holding Josh's head in his lap as Toby applied pressure to his wound. Josh was trying to talk and Sam was trying to get him to save his energy, telling him not to say anything, that everything would be okay but before he knew it, he was being pushed out of the way by medics and agents and suddenly Toby was holding his arm forcefully, keeping him back. He didn't remember Toby dragging him to a car that immediately took off after the ambulance but in the car things became a little less groggy. No one spoke on the way to the hospital. They were all in shock and Josh didn't look good. Sam couldn't help but watch as Toby tried to get the blood off his hands.

When the car stopped, Sam tried to bound out of the car like Toby and CJ but his movements were clumsy. The adrenaline was messing with him but he knew he had to get close to his best friend. Everything was a blur moving through the corridors of the hospital. He heard Leo's voice stand out among the crowd but Josh's whispers weren't making any sense and he was giving the doctors a hard time moving around. He said the only thing he could think of to try and calm Josh down.

"You went to New Hampshire. We both did. You came and got me." And, at that, Sam was pushed away from the bed as the doctor spoke quickly about a chest tube. He and the rest of the Senior Staff ended up outside the room, looking in as the doctors and nurses worked frantically. It was only a few minutes before they pushed him out the doors and away, deeper into the hospital. It felt simultaneously like it had been ten seconds and ten hours since the gunshots sound. It felt like an decade since the morning's stresses, the news of the successful landing of the space shuttle. And now, in the confines of the waiting room, each person stuck in their own head, waiting for word on the President and on Josh, a minute felt like another passing eternity.

A shorter chapter than I usually post but I haven't written in quite a while so more of substance will come soon. Please let me know what you think!