From The Official Companion:
In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part IIt’s a matter of minutes after the shooting. The President’s limo speeds over the Arlington Memorial Bridge at eighty miles an hour. Inside, Butterfield tells Bartlet that Zoey’s safe but he can’t speak to her, she’s vomiting in her car. The men are stunned and expressionless, breathing hard. The President asks if anyone died and the agent doesn’t think so. Bartlet just noticed that Butterfield has a blood-soaked handkerchief wrapped around his hand. He tells the driver to get to a hospital but Butterfield says he has to secure POTUS in the White House. Suddenly, Butterfield sees blood on the President’s mouth. He reaches around the back of the President’s coat to check him out. He looks at his hand and it’s covered in blood. Butterfield shouts to the driver, “GW! Blue! Blue! Blue!”
Outside the Newseum, the chaos has subsided but only a little. Witnesses are giving statements and paramedics attend the wounded. C.J. hit her head; she says someone pulled her down to the ground. Sam tells her Bartlet’s on his way back to the White House. Gina talks to the ID agent. She says there were two shooters and they got them from the roof. But there was a signal from the ground. That means someone’s still out there. She describes a white male, twenty to twenty-five, five foot ten with a baseball cap. The agent needs to know what kind of cap but for the life of her, Gina can’t describe it. The agent barks orders: fix a perimeter, close the airports, get the harbor control and the Coast Guard.
Toby’s looking for Josh. Charlie thinks he got in a car with Leo but Toby says he didn’t. Finally Toby sees Josh sitting to the side, leaning against a low wall. Toby asks, “Did you hear me shouting for you?” Toby gets closer. When he’s in front of Josh he sees why he hasn’t answered. His chest is covered in blood.
In the George Washington University Hospital Emergency Room it’s a fairly light night. The phone rings, the duty nurse picks it up but there’s no one there. She sees it’s not the ER phone but the second phone, a special red one with a single line. When she picks it up, Butterfield says, “We’re coming in.” The nurse is asking if it’s a drill when motorcycles roar outside in a scream of sirens. It’s not a drill. She hangs up the phone and shouts, “Blue, blue!” Staff and Secret Service agents flood the ER. Eagle’s two minutes away.
Blissfully unaware, Hoynes is doing a photo op with the USC women’s volleyball team when an eight-man Secret Service detail just about kidnaps him.
The President is wheeled into the ER. He’s been shot in the abdomen. Entry and exit wounds are visible. Vitals are read off: BP 134 over 78, pulse 108, pulse ox 98. Bartlet has to talk to Leo before he’s given any anesthesia. He runs down the drill: Get the cabinet and the Security Council together and suspend trading on the stock exchange. Bartlet knows the next hours are perilous.
Abbey Bartlet is told about the procedure and finds the anesthesiologist.
ABBEY: There are fourteen people in the world who know this, including the Vice President, the chief of staff, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. You’re gonna be the fifteenth. Seven years ago my husband was diagnosed with a relapsing-remitting course on MS. (beat) When this is over, tell the press or don’t tell the press. It’s entirely up to you.
Leo sees Gina standing by herself in the ER. She’s beating herself up because she can’t tell the troopers and field agents what they’re looking for. Leo tries to help, saying Gina did her job by getting Zoey into the car. Josh is brought in. He’s in much worse shape than Bartlet. A bullet collapsed his lung. Josh is losing pressure and he might be delirious.
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It’s a flashback to three years before and Senator John Hoynes of Texas is conducting a big strategy meeting with about eighteen staffers, one of whom is Josh. Hoynes doesn’t want to talk about Social Security thirteen weeks before the New Hampshire primary. Josh is a lone voice in the room who thinks he should. Hoynes pulls Josh aside. He says Josh has been pissed off at every meeting for a month. Josh says Hoynes is the prohibitive favorite for the nomination; he has $58 million in a war chest, but “I don’t know what we’re for.” Hoynes says they’ll run a good campaign and Josh is going to have a big role in the White House. Until then he should cheer up and get off his ass about Social Security.
Leo McGarry has come to see Josh, and from the way Josh calls him “Mr. Secretary,” it’s evident they’re not pals. He wants Josh to come to Nashua to hear Jed Bartlet speak, but Josh, who works for Senator Hoynes, wonders why he should bother. “‘Cause that’s what sons do for old friends of their fathers,” says Leo.
JOSH: Leo, the Democrats aren’t going to nominate another liberal academic governor from New England. I mean we’re dumb, but we’re not that dumb.
LEO: (he smiles) Nah. I think we’re exactly that dumb.
A few states away, Sam Seaborn is working on a deal to acquire oil tankers for a client. A dozen lawyers and executives sit around the table in a conference room at the law firm of Gage Whitney Pace. Sam’s job is to limit the client’s liability with a shield that masks the assets behind a wall of debt, and although it’s not his dream job, he seems set. He’s making partner in a month and getting married in September. Sam returns to his office to gather some paperwork and finds Josh standing forlornly in the hallway. The old buddies greet one another, and Josh gets right to the point. He wants Sam to quit the law firm to write speeches for Hoynes. Sam’s not convinced: he doesn’t think Hoynes is the real thing.
JOSH: If I see the real thing in Nashua, should I tell you?
SAM: You won’t have to.
JOSH: Why?
SAM: You’ve got a pretty bad poker face.
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A doctor tells Abbey that Bartlet’s going to be fine, but a bullet lacerated Josh’s pulmonary artery. Abbey tells the staff, who’ve gathered at the hospital, what’s going on.
Leo’s in the Situation Room. Fitzwallace isn’t there – he was on his way to Manila but his plane has turned around. Hoynes comes in and some of the military have to be reminded to come to attention. Hoynes says he wants the shooters’ accomplice in an hour or he’s federalizing the National Guard. There’s more. National Security Advisor Nancy McNally (Anna Deavere Smith) says satellite pictures show Republican Guard movement in Iraq. Leo’s not worried; they do this every few months. But McNally says they’re headed south and it’s only been hours since Iraqi airspace was invaded rescuing the F-117 pilot. She recommends that Fitzwallace put the Thirty-second Tactical on ready alert and take them to Def Con 4. Leo says the President’s under anesthesia and they have time. McNally says they don’t.
There’s silence as everyone looks to HOYNES . . .
HOYNES: (beat) Nancy, we’re gonna follow Leo for the moment.
Leo wants to get a message to Iraq: “Don’t mess with us tonight.”
Josh’s procedure is going to take twelve to fourteen hours, and the doctor suggests the staff leave. Donna’s just arrived and she sensed something was badly wrong when she came in. Toby tells her Josh was hit. She can’t believe it; the horror silently takes hold of her.
Everyone with any kind of credentials is jammed into the press briefing room. Danny asks C.J. is there’s been any discussion of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. C.J. says, “No, the President’s wounds are relatively superficial.” She won’t answer questions on the shooters or about a manhunt. Someone asks why the President was allowed to exit a building in the open air with no tent or canopy. She won’t talk about that, either.
After the briefing, C.J. realizes she’s lost her necklace in the chaos of the past few hours. She’s trying to remember what happened last night. Danny says the President’s been under anesthesia for an hour and there’s been no use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, so who’s in charge? C.J. can’t answer.
In Leo’s office, McNally is arguing for Def Con 4. She says there was more than one shooter, plus a signaler on the ground. They have to assume they’re under attack. Leo says counsel is advising that Hoynes might not be able to order the alert, because the President has to sign a letter handing over power to the vice president and he didn’t.
NANCY: Absent the Twenty-fifth, the Constitution doesn’t give it to him unless the President’s dead.
TOBY: He’s hemorrhaging, he’s supposed to draft a memo?
Toby tells C.J. to hold off Danny, who’s like a dog digging for a bone with his questions. She says she was asked about the canopy but she’s not going to answer questions on protection procedure. Toby gives Ginger a big hug and asks if she’s okay.
*******
