The voices cut into his unconsciousness like super-heated knives. He heard them – the first thing that he had heard in hours – and they were talking about him.
“He’s doing alright for now,” said the female voice. “The reality is, though… well, the reality is…”
The female voice paused. She sounded hesitant, he thought.
“What’s the matter?” asked a rather familiar sounding male voice.
“His… MS has changed to secondary progressive. It’s unlikely that he’ll leave this hospital. In fact, it’s unlikely that he’ll survive the weekend.”
There was silence for a moment. Then, “My God,” the male voice said. “Are you sure?”
It was time to add his input to this conversation. “She’s one of the best doctors in the country, Sam,” Jed croaked, forcing his eyes open. “If she says that I’m going to be dead by Sunday evening, then she’s probably right.”
“Mr. President,” Sam said.
“Mr. President,” Jed replied.
Dr. Cameron rolled her eyes. “Are you boys done?”
Jed and Sam both looked at her, amused. Cameron then realized what she had said.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she gasped, covering her mouth. “That may have been the most disrespectful thing I have ever… no, wait, I’ve said worse to House.”
President Bartlet chewed that one over for a moment. “I’d believe that… although I think there’s plenty you haven’t said to Dr. House.”
Cameron stopped and looked at him. “Excuse me?”
Jed just smiled and laughed weakly. “We’ll discuss it more later, I’m sure.”
“I’m sorry, did I miss something?” President Seaborn asked in confusion.
“No more than the usual, Sam,” Jed replied. “If I’m not mistaken, it took you until you were forty-two to finally pop the question to Ainsley Hayes.”
“Now that’s not fair, sir,” Sam replied. “I was a Democratic Congressman, and she was a Republican lawyer –“
“She was the White House counsel for a Democratic administration. She was as liberal as a Republican could get and still be a Republican.”
The color had begun to return to President Bartlet’s face – it seemed that an argument energized him.
“You liked her. She liked you. You were both Washington insiders; you both understood the sacrifices the other would have to make! But NO, you used that Republican excuse for years until, if I remember correctly, she took you out into Fairfax County, got you naked, and then said she was going to leave you out there unless you had the balls to propose!”
He stopped, out of breath. When he regained it, he gasped, “Damn, I used to be able to go on for a lot longer than that.”
Sam was laughing, despite Jed’s shortness of breath. “That’s not exactly how it happened, sir. We were at a reception at a very nice hotel in Fairfax County, we both got a little drunk and decided to get a room, and then –“
“You got naked and she threatened to leave you there unless you proposed,” President Bartlet finished dryly.
President Seaborn stopped, his mouth gaping open like a fish. Redness crept up his neck into his cheeks, as he abashedly admitted, “Yes, sir, I suppose that’s about how it happened.”
“Oh, stop with the sir,” Bartlet replied, changing the subject as quickly as he’d won the argument. “You’re the President of the United States. I’m not.”
“Yes sir,” Sam shot back quickly, “but you were the President when my political career took off. I worked for you when you were the President. I served at the pleasure of the President of the United States.”
“And now you have a whole staff to serve at your pleasure,” Bartlet replied. “Also, I’m just one of the citizens now. I’d threaten to vote for the other guy in the next election, but it looks like I’m not going to be around for that.”
Sam had begun to prepare a rejoinder to President Bartlet, but when Jed made the last statement, he stopped, unsure of what to say.
A tap on the door interrupted the uncomfortable silence. “Come in,” President Bartlet called, and the door opened. The head of Sam’s detail stepped into the room.
“We need to leave, sir,” he said. “The snowfall is starting to increase at an alarming rate, and they’ve said at the airport that they can’t keep it open much longer.”
“Go,” Jed said. “You’re the President, you need to be in the White House, not in a teaching hospital in New Jersey.”
Sam’s face betrayed confusion, guilt, sadness all at once. He looked around himself, as if not sure what to do. Then, a glimmer of steel appeared in his eyes. “Yes sir,” he replied. “I serve at the pleasure of the people… and the President… of the United States.”
A smile crossed his face as he spoke, but at the same time, a single tear made its way down his left cheek. “Thank you, sir.”
Jed looked back at him. “Good-bye, Sam,” he said, his voice cracking.
“Good-bye, sir,” Sam whispered, afraid his own voice would betray him.
He quickly left the room before his emotions overwhelmed him. He stood outside the door for a moment, collecting his thoughts, when he heard the door click shut behind him.
“Mr. President?”
He had completely forgotten that Dr. Cameron was there.
“Are you alright, sir?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied softly. “It’s just hard… very hard… to say good-bye. After I found out my father had been unfaithful to my mother for so many years… and when my father passed… he was like my father for all those years. He was my start in politics… he told me that I’d be President someday…”
He stopped, his voice choking in his throat.
“I’ll make sure to keep you updated,” Cameron said quietly. “You’ll know everything we do.”
Sam blinked back his tears, and swallowed the lump that had built in his throat. Then he remembered.
“Dr. Cameron,” he said, “I just thought you should know… when I got here and asked about the President… Dr. House said that you were his doctor… and he said that you were by far the best doctor here.”
Whatever Cameron had been expecting President Seaborn to say, it certainly wasn’t that. Shocked speechless, she tried to reply, but found herself so dumbfounded as to not be able to form words.
“Thank you for taking care of him,” Sam said. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
With that, he strode off down the hallway, a phalanx of Secret Service agents around him.
Cameron stepped back into President Bartlet’s room, still unable to think clearly, as House’s words – though they may have come from President Seaborn’s mouth, she could still hear them in House’s voice – rang through her head:
By far the best doctor here.
