The flood of relief was so profound that Sam ended up in Harry’s arms sobbing.

He held her until she got it all out.

“Sorry,” she said, embarrassed by her meltdown.

“Don’t be. I was pretty freaked out myself when you said he was unresponsive.”

“Glad it wasn’t just me.”

“It definitely wasn’t just you. You want to see him?”

“Yeah.” The understatement of a lifetime.

“Come on.” He gestured for Angela to join them as they walked through the ER to Nick’s room, where Brant and one of the other agents, whose name escaped her at the moment, were standing watch.

“Good to hear he’s doing better,” Brant said.

Sam nodded in agreement. In the room, a nurse typed on a computer. Nick was asleep, and when she looked extra close, she saw a tad bit more color in his cheeks than he’d had earlier.

Her cell phone rang, but she ignored it to go to him, to run her hand over his face, to brush the hair back from his forehead so she could kiss him there. “How’s his fever?” she asked the nurse.

“It was down to 102.5 the last time we checked it. He’s getting something for that in the IV.”

“Good, that’s really good.”

“He’ll be fine,” the nurse said. “It’s just going to take a day or two.”

Sam’s phone rang again, and since Nick was sound asleep, she looked at the caller ID. Terry O’Connor. She took the call from Nick’s chief of staff. “Hi, Terry.”

“What’s going on? I heard from the Secret Service that he’s in the hospital.”

Sam filled him in on what’d happened.

“Jesus. I was with him when it came on yesterday. Never seen anyone go down that hard or that fast. Scared the shit out of me and everyone else around here.”

“Scared me too. I’ve never seen him with a cold, let alone something like this.”

“The press is going crazy wanting to know what’s wrong with him. What would you like me to tell them?”

“Do we have to say anything?”

“I’d recommend we give them a little something to stop the feeding frenzy. I saw one comment online that people are speculating he was poisoned.”

Sam’s stomach dropped. “For real?”

“Afraid so.”

“Hang on a second.”

To Harry, she said, “Terry wants to say something to the press about what’s going on. How would you describe it?”

“A nasty bout of the flu.”

Sam relayed the information to Terry and gave him the green light to tell the press the vice president had been hospitalized due to the flu.

“Got it,” Terry said. “I’ll take care of it. What else can I do? Anything for you or Scotty?”