Series: Snapshots of the Past

Story: Father of Daughters

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The characters depicted in this story belong to NBC, WB, and Aaron Sorkin. We're just borrowing them for some fun :)

Story Summary: It's a year of milestones for the Bartlets - Jed and Abbey make decisions about their future while Elizabeth explores her own; Zoey begins kindergarten; and Ellie's faith is tested

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Early August 1985

On a breezy summer day in 1985, Jed gave his family a visual tour of the grand Yosemite Valley. The Bartlet clan gathered at the railing at Glacier Point, a lookout that hosted a panoramic view of Yosemite National Park and the jagged peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Out in front of them, as far as their eyes could see, were the rolling creeks and lush green meadows the park was known for, and to either side, several trickling cascades that in the spring were full-force waterfalls, plunged into sunlit-glittering pools. Below them, the rugged trails that criss-crossed the valley were clogged with hikers and horseback riders, and above, there were granite domes, so high and majestic, they were picture postcards, even from 3000 feet.

Legendary Half Dome was of particular interest. The girls, like their parents, had been looking forward to hiking the trail to the top, but the rigorous all-day hike would have surely been too steep for Zoey and maybe even Ellie, so Jed and Abbey were forced to say no to their two younger daughters and that pretty much choked Liz's enthusiasm as well. They all agreed that Half Dome could wait for their next trip to Yosemite and instead, took to shorter hikes, like the one along the Panorama Trail where they headed after satisfying their curiosity at Glacier Point.

"I wanna be the leader!" Zoey jogged up to Jed, passing him to take the lead on the way to the trailhead.

"Wait a second, you don't even know where we're going!"

"I'll figure it out, like Ellie did yesterday."

Ellie had appointed herself chief the day before. She took charge on the way to the lower loop of the Mariposa Grove to see the native sequoias - among them, the upturned base of the famous Fallen Monarch, a few feet from the Grizzly Giant, the grandfather of them all. They later journeyed through the California tunnel tree, an experience that had Zoey talking for hours.

But knowing this hike was going to be more strenuous than the one Ellie led, Abbey stepped in. "How about you walk with me this time, Zoey?"

"No way! You walk too slow!"

Jed snickered at his wife. "Yeah, you're a real slowpoke."

It wasn't that Abbey was a slow hiker - back in New Hampshire, she took the trails at the farm and the ones in the White Mountains by storm - but when visiting the national parks, she was so taken by the beauty around her that she strolled the flatter paths and had a tendency to stop to get pictures at the tops of the steeper ones, much like Ellie who she sometimes called the official Bartlet photographer.

"Slowpoke or not, you're walking with me," she said to her youngest daughter, giving her husband an elbow to the ribs at the same time.

"Ow," he grumbled, rubbing his side.

"Wimp." She rebuked that ploy for sympathy, lashes fluttering. "I barely touched you."

"You don't know your own strength."

The view from the trail was spectacular. The breathtaking mountain crests that dipped into stunning vistas of valley were so incredible that Jed promised to make a dozen slides of Abbey and Ellie's pictures. They stopped every few minutes for a new one, sometimes of the scenery on its own and other times, a group photo, like the one Abbey took of the girls on an open bridge that crossed the Illilouette Gorge or the candid Ellie captured of Jed holding his hand out to Abbey to help her over a rushing stream.

They enjoyed taking their time down the winding dirt path - all but Zoey. The rambunctious little girl heard the sound of water showering the rocks in the distance and spotted the Illilouette Falls before the rest of the family. Excited, she dismissed her mother's objections and challenged her father towards the canyon.

"I'll race you, Daddy!"

"Don't you dare!" Abbey grabbed her arm before she could take off.

"Mommy!"

"I don't want you climbing up those rocks by yourself. You're going to fall and crack your head open."

"But I wanna see the waterfall!"

"We'll get there. Relax."

"Why do I always have to stay with you?"

"Because that's the way it is. I told you that on day one."

"But Lizzie and Ellie don't have to."

"Lizzie and Ellie are older."

"But..."

"Zoey, I'm not going to argue with you. You have two choices - you can either walk with me or I can take you back to camp. What's it gonna be?"

Zoey looked up at her father to stand up for her. "Daddy?"

"Sorry, kiddo. Your mom's right. It's wet and slippery up there."

Rejected a second time, she kicked at the dirt and pouted as she waited for her parents to help her navigate the trail over the rock formation through the fall's mist.

- - -

"Tell me you hired a violinist to serenade me with a tune." Jed was sitting across from Abbey. She and the girls were treating him to a special birthday dinner at the Ahwahnee Dining Room, one of the fancier restaurants in Yosemite Valley.

"You said you wanted quiet and peaceful," she replied.

"Didn't you throw that request out window when you brought me here?"

"You would have been happy eating out of a tin container on your birthday?"

"I look forward to campfire meals," he said as he handled the stem of his wine glass, bringing the rim to his mouth and pausing before he took a drink to add, "And the irony of this moment isn't lost on me."

Liz shook her head as she cut her veal. "I don't know, Dad. How wise do you think it is to complain after Mom went to all this trouble? Remember, there's no couch out here. If she kicks you out of your 'room,' you're sleeping in the wilderness."

"In all the years we've been married, she's never kicked me out of our room, smarty pants."

"You slept in the guest room once last summer."

"By choice."

"Yeah, but whose choice?"

Jed glared at her. "I'm going to make you eat cabbage for dessert."

"And then send me to my tent before bedtime?" she snarked.

"That's silly, Lizzie," Zoey assured her. "There's no bedtime out here."

"Uh oh, why's Lizzie in trouble?" Ellie, who returned to the table after excusing herself to wash her hands, had heard only the tail end of the conversation and didn't detect the obvious ribbing.

"I'm not."

"Then why's Dad sending you to bed?"

"Never mind," Abbey curtly chimed in. "Your father wanted quiet and peaceful."

"That's just what he said. He didn't mean it."

"I'm never taken seriously around here." Jed was baiting them now. It was true, he enjoyed a good campfire supper with his family under the stars, alone in nature's company, but on his birthday, he didn't mind a little fine dining at a place that boasted the best menu in the entire park.

Ahwahnee was an intimate restaurant with sugar pine trestles and window boxes that stretched from the floor to the ceiling for a view of Yosemite's most historic landmarks. Even if Abbey hadn't brought him here for his special day, he probably would have suggested a visit.

"You're taken seriously when you're being serious," she said. "Just be glad the waiters here don't sing."

"Did you order a cake?"

"She tried, but all those candles were against the fire code or something." Liz smirked fearlessly.

"You know, Elizabeth, I'm not required by law to take you back home with us."

Ellie gestured Abbey for the butter and asked, "When can we give Dad his present?"

"When we get back to camp."

"A present too?" Jed couldn't hide behind that playful tone of disapproval this time.

"The girls went all out." It was typical of Abbey to give her daughters all the credit.

"It was my idea, Daddy!" It was even more typical of Zoey to claim all the credit.

"It was not," Ellie countered.

"Girls," Abbey warned them. "It was a family decision."

"Everyone but me. I suggested something else."

Jed turned his attention to Liz. "What was your suggestion?"

"I can't tell you or else you'll know what we got."

"You could beat around the bush without giving it away."

"Jed."

"Okay, okay." In response to his wife's stare, his eyes wandered over to the daughter with the loose lips. "So Zoey, you say it was your idea?"

"Jed!" Abbey slipped out of the strapless summer sandals she wore to dinner and kicked him under the table with her bare feet.

"You're spoiling my fun, babe."

"Didn't you have something you wanted to tell the girls?"

"A story?" Ellie looked forward to her father's stories. He seemed to know everything about Yosemite, from the legends that haunted the deep canyons and sun-bleached domes to the history of the turquoise waterways that flowed through the woodlands. She always listened closely so that she could scrapbook the stories along with her pictures when they returned to New Hampshire.

"More like a tall tale," Abbey said.

Jed raised his brow. "Since when do I tell tall tales?"

"Since you quoted Paul Bunyan in the sequoia grove."

"That was folklore."

"What's the difference?" Liz asked.

"It sounds better."

Amused, Abbey replied, "You know what, it's your birthday. Tell any tall tale or folklore or flat-out lie you want and I'll do my best to keep the commentary to a minimum."

"Until I break out into a chorus of 'I'm a lumberjack'?" His lips curved to a lopsided smile when he felt her toes wander up his leg.

"Give me a warning. I'd like to get that on tape." She nodded subtly and bowed her head as she noticed the waiter approaching.

"Excuse me, Mr. Bartlet?" the waiter interrupted.

"Yes?"

"There's a phone call for you."

"A phone call?" Jed looked to Abbey. "Who knows we're here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," she shrugged.

Had Jed waited a moment longer, he might have seen the sly grin that crossed Abbey's face the second he rose to his feet to follow the waiter to the phone. With a cloud of ignorance following him, he put the receiver to his ear and tried repeatedly to reach out to the phantom on the other end of the line. Eventually, he hung up and returned to the table to see a dozen candles blazing atop a three-tier French chocolate cake and Abbey and the girls ready to greet him.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Dad
Happy Birthday to you

- - -

Following dinner, the Bartlets took a twilight stroll before heading back to their campsite. They passed a chain of cottages shaded by dogwoods and pines and a ribbon of water that spiraled the property with a footbridge that crossed the rapids of a creek. Flanked by a small ravine, the trail appealed to Zoey. She walked ahead of the rest of the family, despite knowing that Abbey would try to stop her.

"Zoey, I want you back here with us."

The young girl pretended not to hear her mother's nagging call and instead, leaned over to throw a penny into the water. But when she started to run back to the bridge towards her family, her sneakers hit a slippery patch of mud that caused her to lose her balance and slide down the top of the embankment.

"ZOEY!" Ellie grabbed her with a sturdy yank of her shirt that kept Zoey from tumbling the rest of the way downhill.

In a blink, Abbey was at her daughter's side. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," she said softly, embarrassed.

"Did you hurt yourself?"

"No."

Abbey examined her from head to toe, sweeping her hand over Zoey's soft strawberry hair when she was done. "Why did you ignore me when I called for you?"

"Because you were gonna tell me to stay with you."

"That's right and if you had, this wouldn't have happened. Thank God Ellie was close by. You could have fallen into the creek." Her tone was one of concern more than anger.

"But I didn't."

"That doesn't make it okay. From now on, no more running ahead. Got it?"

"All I wanted to do was throw a penny!"

"And you did. Next time, you wait for us and if you don't, you'll spend the rest of this trip back at camp."

Angry about her lack of independence, Zoey heaved a sigh, then spun around and followed her sisters down the crooked path that would lead them back to their campsite as Jed and Abbey lagged behind. He took her hand, threading his fingers through hers.

- - -

"Ellie, can you get me some more tape for this ribbon?" Liz stood at the picnic table with a roll of the shiny blue wrapping paper they had picked out for Jed's presents.

"You should put the ribbons on right before we give them to him so they won't get wrinkled."

"Okay, but I still need tape."

"Where is it?"

"In Mom and Dad's tent."

"Where?"

"In the same bag as your father's lighter." Abbey returned the silent stares her girls threw her way. "What? Did you think I wasn't aware he snuck his cigarettes on this trip?"

"How'd you know?" Ellie asked on her way into her parents' tent.

"I've been married to him for almost 20 years. I know everything that man does, whether he thinks I do or not."

This was home base - the Yosemite campground in the Upper Pines where the Bartlets were staying. While Jed had gone into the village to pick up more marshmallows for their nightly campfire snack, Ellie and Lizzie wrapped his gifts and Abbey prepared the leftover birthday cake to store in the food locker. Zoey, still in the doghouse with her mother, sat at the picnic table quietly, her palms resting under her chin.

"Here you go." Ellie returned with a roll of scotch tape which she handed to Liz. "Mom, if smoking is so dangerous, why do you let Dad do it?"

"Why do I let him? Have you met your father?"

"You know what I mean."

"I hate to break it to you, Ellie, but even husbands and wives have their own free will. I can't force your dad to quit, no matter how much I'd like to."

"But he'd quit if you asked him to," Liz suggested. "He quit last year when we went to Acadia. Why did he start up again?"

"The campaign," Abbey told her. "It was a stressful campaign."

Ellie couldn't understand that. "If it was so stressful, why didn't he quit that too?"

"It doesn't work that way, sweetheart. You don't give up the fight just because it becomes harder than you thought it would be. He ran a good campaign and he won."

"Is he gonna run again?"

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

"Because we haven't decided yet. It's not a simple yes or no decision. It's something that's going to take time and patience to work through and when we're ready, we'll have a family meeting about it." With the cake ready to go, Abbey turned to face Zoey. "Do you want to help me?"

"No."

"If you help me, I'll let you turn the lock."

"I don't want to."

"I think you have this backwards, Zoey. I'm the one who's supposed to be upset with you." She waited to get a reaction. When she didn't, she continued, "You're mad at me though, huh?"

"Yes," Zoey confirmed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"All right then." Abbey started on her way towards the food locker, disappointment in her voice. "I'll be back."

Once she was out of earshot, Ellie addressed her little sister. "Geez, Zoey, why are you so mad? You're lucky you're not in serious trouble. When I ran off with Mallory last year at Acadia, I was grounded for a week after we got home."

"Mallory almost drowned, El," Liz reminded her. "It's not exactly the same thing."

"Still. You know how Mom is when you don't do what she says."

"But she doesn't let me do anything!"

Liz joined Zoey at the picnic table. "Let me tell you something about Mom, Zo. She's overprotective but she's reasonable. If you think she's being unfair, then you have to tell her. She'll compromise."

"She will?"

"Yeah. She doesn't like being mad at us any more than we like being mad at her."

Abbey heard Liz's words from a distance. "Is this the start of a conspiracy?"

"Zoey wants to say something." Liz nudged her.

"Are you her lawyer?"

"Unofficially."

Abbey neared the table and sat opposite her two daughters. "Well?"

Heeding Liz's advice, Zoey began, "I don't think it's right that you don't let me do anything. You let Lizzie and Ellie do whatever they want, but not me. It's not fair."

Abbey acknowledged the statement with a nod. "I'm open to the possibility that I haven't been even-handed. When you don't listen to me, Zoey, you don't get much freedom. Just ask Ellie how much more freedom she had before the incident at Acadia."

"But I didn't listen to you BECAUSE you don't let me do anything."

"You know better than to use that as an excuse. And by the way, what are these things you want to do? Run ahead of us up a hill of wet rocks?"

Reacting to Zoey's grunt of frustration, Liz spoke on her behalf. "Zoey admits she was wrong about that."

"Good."

"And in the future, she'll do whatever you say."

"Yeah?" That question was directed at Zoey

"Yeah," the five-year-old answered.

Liz pushed further. "Would you consider letting her lead a hike as long as she promises she'll follow the rules?"

Abbey played along. "Am I supposed to be responding you or your client?"

"Either of us."

She looked Zoey in the eye. "You ignored me on the trail when I was trying to warn you how slippery it was."

"I'm sorry," Zoey sheepishly replied. "I won't do it again."

Abbey softened her tone. "I want you to have fun. But I want you to be careful too. The terrain out here is tricky. It's unfamiliar to all of us and I just don't want you to get hurt. So how about you promise me that you won't be so careless and that you'll listen to me from now on and I promise you that I'll back off a little. Is that a deal?"

"Will you let me lead a hike?"

"If I have your word on those two things, we'll plan a hike before bed tonight. We'll even practice with the compass. Deal?"

"It's a deal!" That was all it took to make Zoey's night.

As mother and daughter shook on their agreement, Jed strolled up the dirt path towards the campsite.

"I've got marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate bars!" he proudly shouted out to his family.

"Jed, I said no S'mores tonight."

"It's not camping unless we have S'mores."

"The kids have already had cake. They're going to go insane with the amount of sugar you plan to give them. They'll never get to sleep."

"They will if we get started right away." Opening the bag of marshmallows, he threw a big, fluffy one to Abbey.

- - -

Some time later, the Bartlets sat around the campfire, laughing and teasing each other, with their usual snack of roasted marshmallows and gooey milk chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers. This was the best part of camping as far as Jed was concerned. He watched the faces of his lively children and their enthusiastic expressions when bantering back and forth. His eyes then rested on his wife, the fire crackling around her like a halo highlighting her auburn waves as she helped Zoey pull her toasty marshmallow out of the flame and deliver it to the waiting cracker.

Once she had a grip on the tasty treat, she whispered something in her mother's ear and Abbey replied by nodding and asking Lizzie to help. The sisters disappeared inside their tent without a hint of what they were up to while Jed helped Ellie strap his binoculars around her neck and stand to scan the valley through the lens.

"You're gonna be disappointed," he warned.

"Maybe you're wrong."

"Me, wrong about a moonbow? Highly unlikely."

Jed had told her all about the beautiful rainbows that formed by way of the refraction and reflection of light from the moon. Nowhere was it more spectacular, he said, than in Yosemite National Park. It was one reason that Ellie couldn't wait for the trip. He had also told her that spotting one took patience. They wouldn't be visible from the campgrounds and if they did see one, it would be during a moonlit hike to the falls. Still, Ellie had her hopes up.

"I can't see anything good through these things!" she complained, tearing the binoculars off her eyes and joining her parents back by the fire. "I want to see one so badly."

Jed offered her a marshmallow and offered the seat beside him. "I told you, you can't see it from here. We'll take a hike tomorrow night and we'll check it out."

"What if we don't see one? They're not out every night."

"Then we'll go up to Glacier Point at sunset on Saturday and we'll look all over the park. Believe me, Ellie, before we leave, we will see a moonbow. Count on it."

"If we don't..."

"We will."

"Okay, but if we don't, can we stay longer?"

"Longer than a week? I don't know that your mom and sisters would be excited about that."

"Can't they go home while we stay?"

Abbey interjected, "I have to tell you, I definitely feel the love."

"Sorry Mom. It's just that you don't like astronomy."

"What makes you say that?"

"Whenever I ask you a question about the stars or the galaxy, you never know the answer."

Astronomy was a hobby of both father and daughter. Jed piqued Ellie's interest in the subject after he introduced her to the constellations when he took her Girl Scout troop camping four years earlier. That interest grew stronger when she spent a week with him at Space Camp in July.

"Just because I don't know the answer doesn't mean I don't like astronomy." Abbey maintained. "I like it very much."

"Do you like stargazing?"

"Mmm hmm. I like the comfortable version."

"What does that mean?"

"What I'm doing now, sitting back and looking up at the sky. It's not important to me to know exactly what I'm looking at, just that it's out there and it's pretty incredible."

"But if you knew what they were, you'd think it was even more incredible!"

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then you can teach me."

"Really?" Ellie beamed.

"Sure. By next summer, I want to know all about astronomy. Teach me everything you learned about the constellations and about space exploration in general."

"Cool!"

"Hey now," Jed elbowed his wife. "I feel like someone's invading my turf."

"It's okay, Dad, you can help me. We'll both teach her." Ellie turned to her mother. "You know what's super neat? NASA is sending a teacher up to space this year, right? They chose that lady from New Hampshire - Christa Mc.."

"McAuliffe," Abbey finished, remembering all the articles and news reports she had heard about the famed high school teacher from Concord. She had been chosen as part of a NASA project to allow teachers to teach lessons from space.

"Yeah. Anyway, Dad's gonna get to meet her in congress and he's gonna see if I can come too."

"Really? When?"

"We don't know yet," Jed replied. "She's going to be in training for a while, but the New Hampshire delegation has invited her to Capitol Hill before her shuttle goes up in January."

"I can't wait!" Ellie's expression lit up even more when she saw her sisters approaching. Liz was carrying three gift-wrapped boxes and Zoey was carrying one - the important one.

The preschooler charged towards him. "Happy Birthday, Daddy!"

"Will you look at that?" Jed accepted the boxes. "I don't think I've ever seen such beautifully wrapped gifts in all my life."

"Just wait till you see what's inside," Ellie teased.

"A lot of thought went into this, Jed. Take your time opening them."

"I will." To appease Abbey, he detached the tape one flap at a time until he heard a round of sighs from the girls. Speeding up, he tipped the lid of the first box to find a book. "Inside the Valley of the Kings."

"We thought you'd like it," Liz said.

"You thought right!" Jed set it aside to open the next gift she handed him. Another book. "Beyond the Pyramids: A Guide to Ancient Egypt."

"There's more." Liz gave him yet another box.

"I'm detecting a theme here." Already happy with the presents, Jed was suspicious where it was all going as he opened another box to find a leather-bound travelogue. "Oh wow, this is beautiful."

"You like it?"

"It's gorgeous," he replied, turning it over and running his fingers over the soft leather. "Do I dare get my hopes up about what's in that last box?"

"Open it."

And he did, gasping with delight as he lifted a travel agency brochure and five tickets. "We're going to Egypt? Ah, you've gotta be kidding me!"

"Nope" Abbey told him. "You're always saying we don't travel overseas as much as you'd like. We thought Egypt would be perfect, not just for you but for all of us." She looked over at Liz. "Well, most of us."

"Lizzie wanted a shopping spree in Paris," Ellie informed her father.

"How are you my child?" Jed threw the crumpled up wrapping paper at his eldest daughter.

"HEY! I didn't say shopping spree. That's just what Ellie assumed. The truth is, I wanted to tour all of France, to visit the museums, to see all the impressionist paintings and the sculptures at the Musee d'Orsay, to spend some time on the Riviera, tour the castles and the French Cathedral, stuff like that."

"You're so full of it."

"It's the truth. Of course I wouldn't have minded shopping a few Parisian boutiques, but I planned to soak up the culture. I always wanted to speak French."

"You can speak it without going to France."

"I yearn to use my knowledge with others. I want to speak French with the French."

"I'll warn them you're coming. They might need earplugs."

Liz rolled her eyes at him, adding sarcastically, "You're hilarious, Dad."

Zoey grabbed her father's attention. "Did you really like our present, Daddy?"

"Like is an understatement, my dear. I can't wait! I think we should start on the itinerary tonight!"

Abbey shook her head at her husband's predictability, then snuggled up beside him as he opened up the travelogue to read the inscription - a birthday wish from his wife and daughters - while Liz and Ellie thumbed through the books and Zoey tore through the brochures looking for whatever caught her eye.

TBC