Author's Note: The prompt for this story was "Boo" and this is what happened. I needed a little Bartlet fluff in my life. Enjoy!
Boo
It was very late one night, so late that most students had left the library, even this close to midterms. But a few dedicated stragglers remained. One of them was a very focused and very pretty biology major, hoarding all the books she could get her hands on.
Jed Bartlet entered the library and brushed the early spring snow off his shoulders. He didn't leave his jacket at the coat check; he didn't plan on staying in the library long.
He immediately made his way to the tables in the back corner of the first floor, where he and Abbey usually studied on Friday nights. It was Tuesday, but he figured she'd still be there. And sure enough, there she was. Her long brown hair had been pulled up into a chic bouffant on top of her head. But as he approached her, he noticed that some pieces had fallen out, thanks to the hours and hours she'd spent ignoring the state of her hair. He knew she was too focused on studying for her anatomy exam to notice anything else. And that's exactly why he'd come.
In a spontaneous moment of frivolity, he stood behind her and put his hands over her eyes as he whispered, "Boo."
Abbey leapt out of her chair and yelped, "Jesus!"
"Hey! Language!" he scolded.
"You nearly gave me a damn heart attack!" she hissed back, trying to keep her voice down in the library.
"No excuse to use the Lord's name in vein," he replied, wagging a finger at her as he sat down in the seat beside her.
Abbey just wrinkled her nose at him and stuck out her tongue. Sometimes he still lapsed back into his theology student ways. Slowly but surely, she was trying to break him of those goody-goody habits.
"You'd better put that tongue back before I make you put it to a better use."
Her jaw dropped at hearing his innuendo before she started laughing. "I'm glad you came to see me," she told him with a quick kiss.
"I went to your apartment but Millie said you were still in the library."
She shrugged. "I need to put in long nights if I'm going to memorize everything in time. Tonight is the pulmonary system. Tomorrow is the nervous system. Thursday is the smaller skeletal structures. Not looking forward to that one," she added with a sigh.
Jed chuckled and shook his head. "Is all this really necessary?"
"Of course it is! Do you know how many women get admitted to Harvard Med every year? And even if I get in, I'll need to be at the top of my game to be competitive with all the rest of my classmates. So if I can learn all this now, I might be able to wrangle a small advantage over the others," she explained.
He took her hands in his and kiss the back of each one. "You know this a lot better than you think you do. I bet you could name every bone in the human body in your sleep at this point. And your exam is a week away—"
"Six days!" she corrected.
"Okay, six days. But you need a break."
"Jed…" she whined, looking longingly at her textbooks.
"Abbey, you were supposed to take a break tonight and come to dinner with me. When you didn't show, I had to come looking for you."
Her green eyes went wide with shameful guilt. "Oh my god. It's April fifth!"
"Yes it is."
"Oh Jed, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to forget. I never forget things like this."
"There's a first time for everything, I guess," he said understandingly.
"And this will be the last, I promise. I can't believe I didn't remember that today is our six-month anniversary!" She took his face in her hands and stroked his cheeks with her thumbs. In the midst of her apologetic panic, Abbey couldn't help but smile just to look at him. His face was soft and smooth from diligently shaving each and every morning. His ever-so-slightly crooked nose sat perfectly between his bright blue eyes. His eyes were sparkling as he looked at her. That little twinkle made her stomach do somersaults. There was a slight curve to his lips, a tiny smile he had just for her. His top lip was thin, strangely fuller at the center and almost nonexistent at the edges. But his bottom lip was plump and soft and utterly irresistible. Abbey couldn't help but lean forward and kiss him, sucking slightly on that bottom lip. To think that exactly six months earlier had been the first time she'd gotten to do that. Six months wasn't so very long, but she couldn't imagine living a day of her life without the privilege of kissing him. She wasn't quite sure how she'd lived her life before that.
"Abbey?" His voice was soft, interrupting her reverie.
"I can't quite make it up to you tonight, seeing as we missed dinner. But why don't we celebrate for real after my exam next week?" she suggested.
He nodded. "Sure. Would you like your present now or then?"
She smiled. "My present for you is at my apartment. But if you've got mine here, I'd like it now."
"I figured as much," he said with a laugh. He fished the small box out of his pocket. "Here you go, honey. Happy anniversary."
Abbey opened the small rectangular box. Inside was a pair of vintage earrings. Gold starburst with small diamonds in the center. "These can't be real!" she blurted.
He laughed. "Fourteen karat gold and real diamonds. Half a carat total. I found them at an estate jewelry sale during spring break. Do you like them?"
"I love them!" she gushed. "But Jed, this is far too extravagant! You can't afford to buy me gold and diamond jewelry!"
"I got a very good deal on them. And I worked all through high school and saved up quite a bit of money. Just let me spoil you a little," he requested, happily accepting the kisses the was planting all over his face in her excitement.
"I can't wear these now, but when we do go out next week, I'll plan my whole outfit around them," she promised. "But for now…" Abbey glanced around, thinking for a moment. "I'd like to thank you properly."
"Yeah?"
She bit her bottom lip with a sneaky smile. "Yeah." Abbey closed the box and handed it back to him for safekeeping before standing up and dragging him through the stacks and stacks of library books. When they were safely away from view in the ancient civilizations section, she stopped, faced him, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I figured we could make out in the stacks for a little while."
Jed pulled her close, his arms securely around her thin waist. "Sounds good to me."
They kissed for quite a while, Abbey's hair getting thoroughly ruined in the process. It wasn't until the loudspeaker announced that the library would be closing in ten minutes that they broke apart, breathless and happy.