It took only three tries to get through to his cell.

"Hey," Josh answered. "How's it going?"

"Any reports on the devastation yet?" Sam asked without pretense.

"A USGS surveillance team was deployed by air about 20 minutes ago," Josh said. "FEMA and the Red Cross are on the ground. We should get an initial report within the hour."

"That's good," Sam replied. "Did you see the eyewitness account?"

"The college kids in the Cessna?" Josh asked with a chuckle. "Boy, are they stupid."

"And, I would imagine, in a lot of trouble."

"I'll say."

"The video footage was good." Sam quickly amended his statement. "I don't mean 'good' good. I just meant..."

"I know what you meant." Josh smiled. "So, you're doing ok?"

Josh knew by the line of questioning and the small talk that something was on Sam's mind.

"I'm trying." Sam sighed.

"Is something wrong?"

"Well, it's..." Sam took a deep breath. "Ainsley's in the shower."

Sam could picture the smirk forming on his friend's face.

"You're not in there with her, right?"

"Josh!" Sam chastised. "It's just a fairly uncomfortable situation."

Josh tried to hide the amusement in his voice. "I don't envy you, buddy."

"I don't know why I agreed to this sharing a room thing," Sam confessed. "I really wish I hadn't."

"Yeah, that probably wasn't your best move, even if it was to make room at the inn."

"Thanks for your support." Sam put a hand on his hip. "Anyway, I should go. Call me when you get the report."

"Will do," Josh said. "Hang in there."

Sam disconnected the call and lolled his head back. He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before deciding to call Lauren. As he dialed her number, the lights in the room flickered a few times.

"Sam!" Ainsley yelled from the bathroom. "Are you toying with me?"

"I swear, I'm not."

The lights flickered a couple more times, then the room plunged into darkness.

"Samuel Norman Seaborn, if this is your idea of some sort of twisted game, I do not want to play along."

He felt his way toward the window and opened the curtains. There was one emergency light on in the parking lot. When his eyes adjusted to the dark, he walked toward the door. Upon opening it, Sam saw emergency lights near the fire extinguisher and the stairwell.

He walked back into the room. "The power's out."

"I am in pitch blackness!" she yelled.

Sam moved toward the bathroom. "Can you grab a towel?"

"I don't even know which direction I'm facing, much less where the towels are located."

Sam put his hands in front of him, feeling for the bathroom door. "I'm going to open the door."

"Ok."

"Can you see anything?" he asked.

"Can you?"

"Fair point." Sam realized he had his cell phone in his hand. "I have a light!"

"Turn it on," Ainsley pleaded.

Sam pressed a button. "Does that help?"

"What in the hell kind of light are you shining?"

"It's my cell phone," Sam replied.

"That thing is about as bright as the South Star."

"I didn't know there was a South Star."

"That's because it's too dim to see from Earth!"

"Oh." He scratched his head.

"It's freezing and it's dark, Sam. Please help me get out of here." She shivered.

"I can't see well enough to make it to the tub," he said in a voice laced with concern. "Can't you just step out?"

"The way things are going today, I wouldn't be surprised if I fell and broke something."

"Ok, I'll be right back."

He walked tentatively into the bedroom and searched for some kind of light. "Didn't Sally Peyton say there's a generator?"

"Yes," Ainsley replied, "but I'm not waiting in the shower, dripping wet and naked for it to come on."

Sam gulped and lost his concentration for a moment.

"Ah ha! I think I've got it." He proceeded back into the bathroom with his bright idea. "How's this?"

"I can sense the light," she said.

Although he didn't want to, Sam looked straight ahead at the shower, expecting to see a very naked, blonde Republican. "Um, Ainsley?"

"Yes?"

"It might not be so dark if you opened the shower curtain."

"I didn't want you to see me," she replied bashfully.

"Yet you expected me to provide some sort of light."

Ainsley sighed. "Will you just hand me a towel, Sam?"

He noticed the stack of towels on the rack above the toilet and pulled one down. "Here."

She blindly reached for it around the curtain. "Thank you."

When Ainsley had the towel securely wrapped around her, she opened the shower curtain fully to see Sam standing there with his laptop open and facing her.

"Tell me you don't want to work in here."

Sam let out a full-blown laugh, and Ainsley couldn't help but to laugh with him.

"Let's get you out of here."

CUT TO:
INT. OVAL OFFICE

Josh sat on the sofa with his head in his hands. He'd been awake, like the rest of them, for nearly 24 hours. Bram seemed to be the only one who didn't appear tired. Josh wondered if he was afraid to show any signs of weakness after arriving late to the crisis. Lou, for her part, was hanging in there because of a 20-minute power nap some time around one. And the President had bags under his eyes
similar to the days leading up to the election.

"They're ready for you, sir," Ronna called through the intercom.

"Ok, put the call through."

"Good evening, Mr. President," a man said through the speaker. "I'm Tony La Rocca, the director of the ECC. I'm joined by two USGS scientists, Caleb Holton and Nick Breaux, and the head of the FEMA Status One emergency team, Doris Dunford."

"Thank you for talking to us at this late hour," Santos replied. "How does it look out there?"

"I have two reports, sir," Tony began. "One is from the air surveillance team, and the other is from the emergency ground response team. Let me first state that these are initial reports, Mr. President. The final reports won't be complete for another couple of hours."

"I understand."

"We'll start with the FEMA Status One team, which was led by Doris. They were able to venture into the seared zone tonight, and we're hoping they can make it into the channelized blast zone tomorrow."

"How many zones are there?" Lou asked.

"Three," Tony replied. "The 'seared zone' is the outermost fringe of the impacted area. The 'channelized blast zone' is the intermediate area that could extend up to 20 miles away from the volcano. The flow in this area flattened everything in its path, so it's still extremely dangerous. And the last one is the 'direct blast zone.' It's typically no more than eight miles wide at the base of the volcano. Everything, natural or manmade, was obliterated or carried away by the lahars. It'll be at least a couple of days before we're able to send a team there."

Everyone in the room looked uneasy.

"Ok," Santos said. "So the Status One team made it into the outermost zone?"

"That's correct, Mr. President. I'm going to turn things over to Doris."

"Good evening, sir," Doris began. "Before my emergency team was deployed, we had to get official word from the USGS that the eruption had subsided. At that time, I led a team of eight medically trained emergency personnel into the seared zone at approximately 12:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Our goal was to find injured or trapped civilians and to provide treatment."

"Go on."

"Because of the instability of the volcano, the USGS gave us a one-hour window in which to triage the area. We found two individuals alive in an SUV. They were experiencing respiratory problems, and
one was nearly unconscious. Two of our doctors treated them in our medic van while the rest of us continued to search."

"How are they?" the President asked.

"They were brought to the Clark County Medical Center by MedEvac in critical condition."

Santos looked at Josh who visibly tensed. Lou let out a long breath.

"We also found three civilians who perished due to asphyxiation," Doris said in an almost reverent voice.

Josh's head fall back and he ran his hands over his face.

"Any other casualties or injuries?" Santos tried to concentrate on the facts.

"No, sir. We covered six square miles in an hour, so there's still a lot of ground to explore."

"Thank you, Doris." Santos sat back in his chair. "When will another team be deployed?"

"We're hoping to get out there every other hour until daylight. At that time, the USGS should be able to clear a much more extensive rescue and recover effort."

"Let's hope so," Lou commented.

"Caleb Holton and Nick Breaux were in the first USGS surveillance plane that flew into the seared and channelized blast zones," Tony said.

"What's the damage, gentlemen?"

"It's extensive, sir," one of the men replied. "But it doesn't appear to be as bad as the 1980 eruption."

This didn't ease Josh's nerves. He stood and began pacing behind the sofa.

"Keep in mind we weren't able to get into the direct blast zone, and we had to stay mostly South and West of the volcano due to wind patterns and ash," Nick Breaux reported.

"We'll start with the mudflows, or lahars," Caleb said. "It appears that the most destructive lahars occurred in the North Fork of the Toutle River. They also swept down the southeast flank of the volcano along Swift Creek, Pine Creek, and Muddy River."

"What about the Reservoir?" the President asked.

"That's the good news," Caleb said. "The Swift Reservoir was able to save the valley from flooding because the Army Corps of Engineers lowered the water level a couple of weeks ago."

Josh bit down hard on his back teeth and nodded. It was the first piece of good news they'd gotten all night.

"However, the Spirit Lake vicinity didn't fare well. From our vantage point, it appeared that everything within a 10-mile radius of the lake was wiped out."

The President lowered his head. "Is that a heavily populated area?"

"No, sir," Nick responded. "There are two campgrounds near Spirit Lake, but because of the time of year, not many campers venture into the area."

"That's a relief," Santos said. "What else?"

"The two counties most affected by the blast were Cowlitz and Skamania, but the damage appears to be sustainable 30 miles outside of the volcanic ring, meaning parts of those counties were affected but not destroyed."

Josh cracked his neck from side to side, then sat back down.

"How does the forest look?" Santos asked distracted a bit by Josh's constant movement.

"As expected, there are thousands of acres of charred or destroyed forests extending from Cowlitz to Yakima County," Caleb began. "And there are several roads covered with debris. Interstate-90 was
heavily damaged and State Route 12 and Highway 7 were extensively damaged."

"What about I-5?" Josh asked, fidgeting in his seat.

"It remains closed from Vancouver, Washington, to Tacoma, but during our fly-over, there didn't appear to be any major damage," Nick said. "There's about a 20-mile stretch that's covered in thick ash, but that's all we noticed."

Santos didn't want to ask the next question, but he needed the details. "Can you give us an estimate as to how many homes and businesses were destroyed?"

"Not an accurate one, sir," Caleb reported. "We probably saw 75 to 100, but that's preliminary."

"What was your altitude?" the President asked.

"We hovered around 6,500 feet. In a couple of places, we dipped to 5,500."

He nodded. "Ok. When are you guys headed back up?"

"There will be another surveillance team deployed at first light, Mr. President," Tony La Rocca said. "Until then, we'll have these reports typed up and sent to you within the next couple of hours."

"Thank you, Tony. Thank you all."

"Yes, sir."

They disconnected the call and everyone looked a little relieved to have more information, yet a little disturbed with the results.

Santos rubbed his eyes. "I don't want casualty numbers released until we get an official report."

"When should we brief?" Lou asked.

"Let's see what comes in before nine. If we have definitive numbers, we'll do it then."

"I think that's a mistake, sir," Lou said, lifting her chin a little higher. "We don't have to mention casualties, but we need to let the public know that we're responding to the emergency. We can highlight the rescue operations and tell them that we have hundreds of trained medical personnel who'll be working around the clock."

"You want to brief the press at 4 a.m.?" Santos asked.

"No, sir," she responded. "We should do it first thing in the morning. Seven o'clock."

The President turned his head to the left. "Josh?"

He nodded. "She's right."

"Ok, then. It's been a long night." Santos stood. "I think it's time for everyone to go home and get some sleep. There's nothing more we can do right now."

Everyone stood, thanking the President and wishing him a good night.

"Josh?" he called.

He paused in front of the door leading to his office. "Yes, sir?"

"About earlier..." He took a step closer to his Chief of Staff. "I came down on you pretty hard."

Josh gulped. He kept his eyes trained on the President.

"I don't think there will ever be a time when I trust Toby Ziegler," Santos began. "But I do trust you."

Josh stood a little taller.

"I can't imagine anyone serving as my Chief of Staff more effectively than you." The President looked him square in the eye. "I wanted you to know that."

"Thank you, sir." He gave him a tight lipped smile.

Santos walked behind his desk and picked up his suit jacket. "It's late. You should go home."

"Yes, sir." Josh walked through the connecting door and closed it. He leaned against it, and sighed.

CUT TO:
INT. JOSH AND DONNA'S APARTMENT

They'd discussed the meeting with the emergency team and USGS scientists on the way home, but Donna didn't want to talk about the volcano when they stepped in the door.

She removed her coat and threw her purse on the desk. Josh took off his coat, tie and shoes on his way to the sofa. He plopped down with his feet on the coffee table and his head rolled back.

"C'mon," Donna said, removing her earrings. "Let's go to bed."

He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "I could fall asleep right here."

"Ok."

She slid off her heels, then unbuttoned her blouse. By the time Josh opened his eyes, he could see her lacey black bra peeking through the gap in her shirt. Donna walked into the bedroom, leaving Josh
already semi-hard on the sofa. It didn't take much.

He followed her into the bedroom, removing his own shirt along the way. "That was a trick, wasn't it?"

"No." She grinned, shimmying out of her skirt and pantyhose. "You can sleep on the couch if you want."

"I couldn't sleep out there, knowing you were in here half naked." He smirked.

She removed her bra followed by her underwear. "What about fully naked?"

This earned her a full-dimpled smile. "Definitely not."

Josh crawled on top of her with his pants still on but undone. Donna helped him remove them.

They made out like teenagers in the back seat of a car until Josh nearly drifted off to sleep.

"Josh?" Donna whispered.

"Hmm?" He nuzzled her neck with his nose.

"You did good today."

"You, too, Donnatella." He squeezed her. "You, too."

FADE TO BLACK