The four of them looked like an old Three Stooges movie, bumping into and tripping over each other as they struggled to get their brains and their bodies working in sync again. They stumbled in a pile out of Josh’s office and into the bullpen, which had long since been empty.

“Where the hell are my car keys?” Josh said to himself as he patted his various pockets.

“Yeah, ‘cause you’re really in a position to be behind the wheel of a two-ton automobile right now,” Toby snapped.

“I’ve got mi—” Sam started.

“Hell, no! Let me be very clear, neither one of you is driving!” Toby shouted.

“Why NOT?” Sam asked, oblivious.

“Why not? 27 seconds ago neither one of you could stand up and you’re asking me why I don’t want to strap myself into a vehicle beside you while we go careening through the streets of DC with you at the controls?” Toby was waving his arms wildly.

“We’ll take mine,” CJ said, trying to head off an argument.

“Okay,” Toby started, then changed his mind. “No, that’s no good. There are four of us, and there’ll be five once we pick up Donna. That’s too many for your car.”

“That is not too many for my car, “ CJ protested. “My car seats five.”

“Yeah, I suppose, if they’re all contortionists,” Toby said. “We are not all piling into your Mustang. I am not a circus clown! Pull my car around.” He tossed her the keys.

“God, are you snotty since you got that Accord!” CJ cried. “Do you think I don’t remember the Dart?”

“Pull the car around, smart ass. I’m gonna go tell Leo,” Toby said.

“Leo! Oh my God, I forgot about him,” Josh started toward Leo’s office.

“Yeah, do yourself a favor and never tell him that,” Sam said as he fell in behind Josh.

“Oh, he’s gonna need to —” CJ started.

“STOP!” Toby shouted. The other three froze instantly.

“You,” he pointed at CJ. “Bring my car around, please. You,” he pointed at Sam, “get him outside to meet CJ.” He gestured toward Josh. “I am going to go give Leo the 30 second version of this story so we can actually, you know, see Donna before sunrise.”

“Okay,” the three of them responded in unison.

Toby glared at CJ for a moment. “I’m going!” she said, as she spun and headed for employee parking.

“I will be back before she gets the car pulled around,” Toby said, backing away, pointing directly at Sam. “Be ready.”

“Yeah,” Sam said. Toby backed through the double doors before turning and walking face-forward.

“Okay,” Sam said, looking at Josh. “Let’s go.”

Josh stared at him for a second. “Yeah, OK.”

They both headed for the Northwest Lobby. “I don’t know why he thinks I can’t walk myself 30 feet to the driveway,” Josh mumbled. “I’m a grown man.”

“I think you should tell him that when he gets back,” Sam said.

“I think I...won’t,” Josh said. They opened the doors and were hit by a blast of winter air from outside, sending both running back in.

“We need coats,” Josh said.

“My coat is back in my office,” Sam said, seemingly concerned.

“Well, go get it, Sam,” Josh said, as he headed back to the bullpen.

Sam shook his head. “Toby said I’m supposed to get you outside to meet CJ.”

“Who the hell is Toby, your mother?” Josh shouted. “Go get your coat, I’ll get mine...once I remember where I’ve left it, and we’ll meet back here.”

“OK.” Sam started toward his office. “Wait, here as in here, or here as in at the car?”

“Here as in here,” Josh said, pointing at the floor. “Although I suppose we could make it at the car if you wanted to.”

“Well, that’s what I was thinking...” Sam said, walking back toward Josh.

Toby burst back through the double doors at that moment to find Sam and Josh standing in the exact same positions he’d left them in.

Both men looked at Toby like the kids caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar.

Toby just stared. “Well done, Princeton.”

“We were doing it, but we’re having a few...outerwear issues,” Sam said.

“How the hell do you even manage to dress yourself in the morning?” Toby asked incredulously.

“Well it’s just that my coat’s back in my office and Josh can’t find —”

“Oh, for God’s sake!” Toby screamed. He approached the two of them. “DO. NOT. MOVE. FROM. THIS. SPOT.”

For once in their lives, Sam and Josh did exactly as they were told. Toby came back 20 seconds later with Sam’s coat and his own. It took him another 15 seconds to find Josh’s coat, which had been left on the coat rack, of all places. Toby herded the two of them out the door as CJ pulled up.

*****************

The initial joy of hearing that Donna was OK had resulted in a kind of mass giddiness that created a momentary euphoria for the senior staff. But once they were in the car, the pace slowed, and the gravity of the night’s events began to catch up with each of them.

“Linden was sure she was OK?” Josh asked Sam across the backseat, breaking the silence.

“The security guard was the only fatality or major injury among the hostages,” Sam said. “He didn’t have specifics, but all other injuries were minor.”

Josh fell silent again momentarily. “God, that must have been awful.”

“Which part of it?” Toby asked from the front seat.

“Being in there when the shooting started,” Josh said, his voice sounding very far away. “Having bullets flying all around you in an enclosed space. She may have seen the guy get hit, for all we know.”

“So, the whole trapped in an armed-robbery-gone-bad part of it, Tobus,” CJ said from behind the wheel.

“She’ll bounce back,” Sam said quietly. “Donna bounces back. She’s strong.”

“Yes, she is,” Toby agreed.

“All members of the Sisterhood are quite resilient,” CJ quipped, only half-joking.

“Well,” Josh took a deep breath. “She doesn’t have to be. This time she doesn’t have to be.”

The meaning of that statement wasn’t lost on Sam. He looked over at Josh. “’Cause we’ll ALL be strong for her.”

*****************

“Miss Moss?”

Donna’s mind was a million miles away as a first-year resident examined her shoulder wound.

“Miss Moss?”

“What? I’m sorry. What?”

“Did you lose consciousness at all?”

“No. Well, I think I might have, but it couldn’t have been for more than a few seconds,” she said, remembering the sensation of being moved and coming to with the S.W.A.T. officer.

“Did you hit your head at any point?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Any dizziness, nausea, lightheadedness?”

“I was dizzy a few times during the...during the thing but I think that was really just nerves. I was lightheaded after I woke up but that’s mostly better now.”

“Ok. Are you hearing me alright?”

“Yeah,”  she said, her brow furrowing. “Why?”

“I’ve had a little trouble getting your attention. Sometimes people experience residual hearing loss for a day or two after being exposed to the flash bang. That’s probably what knocked you off your feet, too. You were probably never completely unconscious, but the flash bang is designed to incapacitate a person for a little while,” the resident said as he gently probed the swollen area around her shoulder wound.

“I think what probably knocked me over was the armed robber who was holding on to me when he was shot several times by the S.W.A.T. team,” Donna said, absentmindedly. Flash bang? She didn’t even remember a flash bang. And if there’d been one, if it had worked, it should have stunned everyone for long enough to...so Fred wouldn’t have...Fred. God.

A tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “I know it stings, but it’s better than having to get the stitches without it.”

“Without what?” she said.

“Without the...lidocaine,” he said, holding up the empty syringe. Her face remained blank. The doctor frowned. He’d warned her he was going to have to give her the shot to numb the area before he could stitch the wound closed.

“You’ll need to keep these dry,” he said as began the sutures, then realized she wasn’t going to retain any of it. “Did you call someone to come pick you up?”

Donna shook her head silently. An officer took her contact information and a cursory statement as soon as she got to the hospital. He’d asked a couple of questions: how it all started, where she was during the whole thing, whether the assailants talked to them. Once he’d been able to assess her state of mind, he’d cut off his questioning pretty abruptly, saying he understood she’d had a long day and that someone would follow-up in a day or two. He’d asked if there was anyone he could call for her. She’d said no, that she would call herself. She didn’t want him hearing it from a stranger. But she couldn’t figure out what to say. “Hey Josh, it’s me. Listen, just wanted to let you know I was involved in a bank holdup and fatal shootout today. Do you think I could catch a ride home?” It all just seemed so surreal. When she told him, he’d be nuts. He’d be absolutely nuts. Josh was always moving around anyway, a ball of frenetic energy. And she just wanted to be still, and quiet. Her arms, her legs, her head, they all felt like they weighed 200 pounds a piece. She didn’t have the energy to keep him contained. She knew she had to call him, had to call someone, but she didn’t know what to say once she did.

“You should call someone,” the doctor said, a well-practiced casual air in his tone.

“I...I just don’t know what to say.” She finally admitted. “I don’t even know where to begin, and to be honest, I’m too tired to go into it.”

The resident finished the stitches and taped a square bandage over the wound. He decided to try again with care instructions, “Keep these dry,” he said firmly. “You’ll want to make an appointment with your doctor for a week from now to have them checked. If they heal nicely, he may even remove them then.”

“OK,” Donna said, but she seemed more interested in straightening her shirt, or in staring at the blood on the shirt as she straightened it.

“Let’s take a look at your wrists.”

Donna held them out obediently. The cuts from the cable tie were superficial, but still fairly deep. The doctor set about cleaning them before bringing the conversation back around to the subject.

“Well, I can’t release you into your own care,” he fibbed. Physically, she was OK, but with her obvious state of mental shock, he wasn’t about to let her leave alone. “Hospital policy. I know you don’t want to go into it tonight, but I’ll call someone for you, give them all the details they need, and they can come take you home.”

She stared at her wrists as he tended to them.

“Listen, believe it or not, I see this a lot,” he said. “What with this being, you know, an emergency room.” Donna didn’t smile at the joke. “Patients’ loved ones are never as upset as they think. They’re usually just relieved that the person they care about is OK. Why don’t you let me call?”

Donna couldn’t keep another tear from sliding down her cheek. “OK.”

The doctor wrapped thin bandages around her wrists gently.

She continued to stare at them. “God, I look like a failed suicide attempt.”

The doctor didn’t respond. “Who do you want me to call?”

Donna sighed heavily. “Josh L— no. Wait. Call Sam Seaborn. He’s a friend. When you talk to him, ask him to tell Josh.” Better Josh hear it from Sam than from a stranger. That way, at least, he wouldn’t be alone.

The doctor jotted the names and number on the corner of Donna’s chart.

“I’m going to send you home with a couple pills for the pain. It will probably help you sleep,” he said. “I’ll give you a prescription for a few more; you can have it filled if you need it. In the meantime, I want you to lie back and close your eyes for a little while.”

Donna nodded her head again and the doctor stepped out into the hallway, pulling the curtain closed behind him.

*********************

Half a block before CJ turned into GW, Josh was craning his neck to try to see some sign of Donna. Fidgety didn’t even begin to describe his demeanor properly.

“Josh,” Toby finally said from in front of him.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have some kind of high-power zoom x-ray vision you’ve never told me about?”

“Look —”

“No, listen, you’re so jumpy you’re practically sitting in my lap. We will be there in a few seconds and I can assure you, you will survive until then,” Toby said. “In the meantime, sit still or I’m making you ride in the trunk on the way back.”

Josh decided it wasn’t worth it to respond.

Sam startled in the backseat beside Josh. “What?” Josh said.

“I’m...vibrating,” Sam said, feeling for his phone. Josh went back to looking out the window, this time without craning his neck.

“Sam Seaborn,” he answered.

“Mr. Seaborn, my name is Marcus Bennett. I’m a doctor at George Washington Hospital.”

Sam cast his eyes sideways at Josh and forced his face to remain neutral. If something had gone wrong...oh, God.

“Yes,” he said out loud.

“I’m calling at the request of Donna Moss,” Dr. Bennett said.

“Yes,” Sam said again. If she was requesting the call be made, it couldn’t be that bad, unless...why wouldn’t she call herself?

“She’s a friend of yours?” Dr. Bennett asked.

“That’s right,” Sam said, being careful not to say anything that might belie the subject of the conversation to his friends in the car.

Dr. Bennett cleared his throat. “Mr. Seaborn, I don’t know if you’ve seen the news tonight or not, but —”

“I know,” Sam said. “I saw it.”

“You saw...that there was a hostage situation at a bank on E Street earlier this evening?”

“Yeah,” Sam said, growing impatient and nervous, but unwilling to panic Josh.

“Well, Miss Moss asked that I call you, and let you know — she’s fine, she’s not seriously injured, but...she was involved in the incident.” When Sam didn’t say anything, Dr. Bennett continued, “She was brought here to GW to be checked out. I didn’t want to send her home alone. Someone should come pick her up.”

“But she’s alright? Nothing new has happened?” Sam said, dropping any pretense. Josh looked over at him, his brow furrowed.

“Yes, sir, she’s going to be fine. A little worse for wear, I think, but...we can go into details when you — or someone — gets here. How soon could someone make it?” he asked.

Sam smiled tiredly. “I’m pulling into the parking lot right now.”

“The parking lot...here at the hospital?” Dr. Bennett asked.

“Yeah,” Sam said.

“Okay,” Bennett said. “Come in the ER entrance. Oh, she asked that I tell you that you should let someone know, a Josh.”

“Got it covered,” Sam said. “We’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Understanding suddenly why Sam had been tight-lipped, Dr. Bennett nodded to himself. “See you then.”

“What’s going on?” Josh said.

“Nothing,” Sam said. “Doctor from the hospital, wanted to make sure we knew what had happened and that Donna was involved.”

Josh nodded, his mind on too many different things to wonder why Sam had received the call. “How is she?”

“She’s fine, Josh. He said she’s fine.”

“Let’s go see for ourselves,” Toby said as CJ pulled into the emergency entrance. He stepped out of the front passenger seat and pulled Josh’s door the rest of the way open, but put his hand on Josh’s elbow to keep him from charging inside.

“Stay here,” Toby said before Sam could climb out of the car. “The two of you together can’t get anything done. Go with CJ to park the car, I’ll handle...” he nodded his head in the direction of the ER doors. Sam nodded and pulled the car door closed.

He let go of Josh’s arm and he took off in an all-out sprint. Toby was one step behind him.