Story: The Nobel Laureate
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: Jed reaches the height of academic success while dealing with a personal loss
Author's Note: Thanks to all of you readers out there. I appreciate your support more than I cay say! The first few chapters of this story may be a bit sad, but if you can hang in there, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
Feedback is always appreciated!
She slipped effortlessly into a pair of plain black pumps, the gentle slope of the low heel contouring her foot as she spun around towards the mirror. With her pearls clasped in place, she gave her blonde hair a final wave, straightened her black dress, then left her bedroom. Her keys sat abandoned on the coffee table. Next to them, page three of that morning's paper revealed the picture she had highlighted with a red marker around the border.
Jed Bartlet. That was the Jed she remembered. Nearly 20 years had passed since she last saw him and he still looked like the charming young man she met in the 60s. They kept in touch over the years. Letters and postcards were exchanged after she followed her husband to Baltimore and Jed went away to Notre Dame.
He had told her about the woman who stole his heart, and a year later, a piece of paper with the words "Abbey said yes!" scribbled in black ink was attached to a lovely wedding invitation. She had been unable to make it to the ceremony because of a death in the family, but she sent a bouquet of flowers along with a gift.
While in London, Jed sent pictures of baby Lizzie wrapped inside her birth announcement. He sent condolences when she buried her own children, a message of love when her husband passed suddenly, and a note of undying support when she contemplated remarriage. But sometime between London and the move back to the States, they had lost touch. She thought about him frequently, but never put forth the effort to make contact - until now.
He was older now, more mature and accomplished. No longer a student, but a professional. A scholar, college professor, and a candidate for state legislature yet again.
She wondered why everything good in life seemed to be balanced by bad. Just last week, Jed was celebrating his victory over inexperienced challenger, Jake Tillman, in the primary. This week, he was preparing to face a day like no other - one that would surely change his life forever.
It all started on that crisp Thursday morning in September, two days after Jed won his primary. Abbey had taken an overnight shift at the hospital, so it was up to Jed to get the girls ready for school before he left for work. As he, Zoey, and Ellie sat at the kitchen table for breakfast, he quizzed his middle daughter.
"Five!" Ellie yelled in response to the card he flashed in front of her.
"Good!" Jed replied proudly as he presented another card. "What's five times two?"
"Ten!"
"Very good! And five times three?"
"Fifteen!"
"Are you sure you're not cheating?" he teased, provoking a chuckle out of the third grader.
Jed and Abbey had started tutoring Ellie on multiplication tables in the summer to make sure she was ready once school started. They had no idea Ellie would catch on so quickly. While the rest of the class was working on their 2s, Ellie and one other student had managed to work their way to the 5s.
"I don't cheat. I know them all," she assured her father with a smile so wide it made Jed's heart melt.
"We'll just see about that." Matching that infectious grin, he mischievously winked as he presented her with another card. "Five times seven."
"Um." Ellie thought for a moment before blurting out, "Thirty-five!"
"Me too, Daddy! Me! Me!" Zoey always hated being left out.
"Okay, Miss Zoey, what's one times two?"
The toddler scrunched up her features. Remembering the way Ellie counted on her fingers, she did the same, then presented her open palms with all ten fingers up. "This many!"
Jed looked at her with adoration twinkling in his sapphire eyes and said, "That is absolutely correct! You know, I think I may have the smartest daughters of any man on the planet."
Upstairs, Lizzie poked her head around the corner wall before making her descent. Assuming her father was too distracted with her sisters to notice her face, she initially made little effort to hide evidence of her rebellion.
"Good morning."
"We were wondering when you were going to join us," Jed replied.
"Sorry, I got a late start." She turned from him to grab a bowl from the cupboard.
In that instant, he thought he had seen it, but he waited to be sure before tossing out the accusation. "Lizzie?"
"Hmm?"
"Breakfast is already on the table. I made you some eggs."
"I don't feel like eggs today. I want cereal"
When she began to nibble on her cereal at the counter, he continued. "Well, how about you join us at the table at least?"
Liz lowered her head in a vain attempt to hide her cheeks with the thick strands of her chestnut hair as she walked slowly to the table. "Okay."
It didn't hide anything but her discomfort. Now, he was sure. The red stripes that outlined her cheekbones were too obvious to miss, as was the dark blue eye shadow that escaped the bounds of her lids and stretched as far as her brows, and her natural coral lips that were covered with a harsh red gloss that did nothing to flatter her.
"Lizzie?"
"Lizzie is a little girl's name, Dad. I'm in high school now. I prefer Liz please."
"Elizabeth?" He called her name in a firmer tone this time.
"What?" she snapped.
"Did you fall face-first into Zoey's container of finger paint?"
"That's not funny."
"Neither is the fact that you're wearing make-up when you know you're not allowed to."
"All girls my age wear make-up! It's just for today. Please."
"Why today?" Jed tried to be reasonable about it.
"Just because," Liz answered, intentionally avoiding his glare.
"I'm no expert at putting on cosmetics, but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to have red streaks across your face. The rule in this house is when you're 15, your mother will teach you the proper way to put on make-up. You know that."
"Dad! It's really important to me. Please?"
He could have easily fallen for the sweet plea she directed at him, but he stayed strong. "Go upstairs and wash it off."
"Don't I have any say at all in what goes on around here?"
"Yes, you have a say. You even have a choice in the matter. You can go upstairs and wash it off right now and we won't say another word about it..."
"Or?"
"Or you can wait until your mother gets home and sees you. Keep in mind she's been working all night and she's bound to be tired, so I don't think she'll have much patience."
"She doesn't get off work until after I leave for school." Sure of herself, Liz gave him a confident smile.
Jed returned the expression as he informed her of the truth. "She got off early. She should be home any minute now."
That wiped the smirk right off Lizzie's face. Her eyes smoldering with frustration, she locked into her father's stare for several seconds before shouting on her way upstairs, "I hate that I have absolutely NO rights whatsoever in this house!"
And so began another day at the Bartlets. It was late summer 1982, three days before the start of autumn. Between Ellie's soccer games, Lizzie's preparations for basketball try-outs, and Jed's primary, it had been a hectic few weeks. Both girls were adjusting well to the new school year, though Liz had discovered new ways to challenge her parents, Ellie was already dreading an oral book report due in October, and Zoey's daily frustration revolved around mastering the art of untying her shoe laces.
On days like these, it was Jed's job to get the girls off to class and later, it would be Abbey's job to pick them up. Everyone tried to reunite around dinnertime, but Abbey's long on-call hours, school activities, and Jed's often-congested commute from Hanover sometimes interfered. And even worse, some evenings, fate had other plans.
"Anyone home?" Jed called out when he arrived home just after five.
"I'm here!" Lizzie yelled back as she bounded down the stairs.
"Hey! You don't even have to tell me. That smile tells me all I need to know. You made the team!"
She hesitated slightly. "Well, yeah."
"I am SO proud of you, Lizzie! Ninth grade, new school, you're competing against kids so much older than you and you made it! So what position did you get? Point guard? Forward? Center?" He extended his hand to high-five her.
"Top of the pyramid!" she said, slapping her hand to his.
Confused, Jed narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his forehead. "What?"
"I made the cheerleading squad!"
"What? You were trying out for basketball. How in the world did you make cheerleader?"
"I decided I'd rather be a cheerleader than a basketball player. But I'm still in ninth grade and new to the school and I still competed against girls a lot older than I am. And I made it! Isn't it great?"
It's not that he wasn't proud. It's that he was simply surprised. "It's great, but Lizzie, you never showed an interest in cheerleading."
"Yeah, but my friend Kimberly wanted to try out and she talked me into it! I've taken dance and gymnastics. It's a lot like that. I think I'm really going to like it."
"Why didn't you tell me before you left here today that that's what you were doing?"
"I figured you'd be mad."
"I wouldn't be mad about that if it's what you really wanted to do. At the very least, I would have been prepared for when you came home today and announced you'd be at the top of the pyramid. And, by the way, exactly how safe is something like that? I'm not sure I like the idea of it."
"It's safe, Dad."
"We'll see about that. Have you told your mother this?"
"I told her as soon as I got home and she said if it's what I want, then she's happy I made it."
"We'll see about that too. I bet you sugar-coated the whole thing. No way would she think it was safe for her little girl to be hoisted into the air like a rocket."
"It's not that bad. Just come to one of our practices."
"Oh, don't worry. I plan to be at every practice."
"Oh no." She rolled her eyes.
"And if one of those girls teeters even a little bit, I'm gonna run out there to catch you."
"You're joking."
"Only partly. Look, my job is to keep you safe and I'm still not convinced..." He trailed off when the door opened with such force that it jolted both him and Liz.
"I HATE math and I'm never going to school EVER AGAIN!" Ellie shouted on her way to the sofa to join her sister.
"Um, Ellie?" Jed began.
"Don't bother," Abbey warned him, walking in with Zoey in tow. "You can't reason with her. She's too upset."
"What happened?"
"Her teacher was so happy with her progress on the multiplication exercises, she gave her and one of the boys in her class a worksheet to do on the six tables, then had them exchange papers to grade each others work. Ellie missed quite a few."
"And Joshua made fun of me! And he told everyone at recess too!"
Jed turned to his wife, his face red with anger. "Who is this kid? Do we know his parents?"
"I've been trying to handle it a different way." Abbey sat down between Ellie and Liz and wrapped an arm around her middle daughter. "I think it's wonderful that Ellie is so far ahead of the rest of the class that it really doesn't matter if she doesn't know her sixes yet. That's what her mom and dad are here for. We're going to work with you, Sweetheart, until you know them all."
"I'll help too if you want, El," Liz offered.
"I don't wanna go back. I just wanna stay home from now on."
"Well, I don't think that's going to happen, Kiddo," Jed replied. "But your mom's right. We are going to make sure you know your sixes by tomorrow and by next week, we'll get to work on the sevens. And, we're also going to make sure this boy never bothers you again."
As the pep talk continued, Abbey rushed to answer the ringing phone. "Hello?" After a few seconds, she pulled the receiver down from her mouth to address Jed. "It's your brother."
"Uncle Jack?" Liz leapt to her feet. "I wanna talk to him!"
"Maybe you can explain to him how come you let me pay a fortune for you to go to basketball camp last month when you had no intention of trying out for the team." Jed's response was laced with sarcasm.
"See? I knew you'd be mad!"
"I'm not mad. I just think it was dishonest. You had all summer to break this news."
"Dad, here's the 4-1-1. I didn't make the decision to go out for cheerleading until last week."
"Here's the 4-1-1? Who talks like that?"
"Dad!"
"Lizzie, you should have told me. You've been walking around here pretending you wanted to be on the basketball team. I just don't understand why you didn't tell me. And anyway, didn't they give you some kind of permission slip for your parents to sign before you tried out for cheerleading?"
"You signed it."
"I did no such thing!"
"It's a generic winter activities permission slip. Since you signed it for basketball, it covers cheerleading too."
"Would you two please knock it off?" Abbey pleaded, lowering the phone to her shoulder. "Lizzie, do me a favor, Sweetie, and get Ellie started on her homework."
"I'm not doing homework tonight." Ellie defiantly folded her arms in front of her chest.
"Yes, you are. Lizzie, please?"
"Yeah, okay, but I also want to talk to Uncle Jack."
"You will. Later. In the meantime, take Zoey with you as well."
Zoey? Zoey wasn't allowed to distract them during homework. Liz knew something was wrong and Abbey's serious expression only confirmed her suspicions. "What's wrong?"
"Please," Abbey repeated.
The teenager nodded as she ushered her younger sisters upstairs.
Sensing the urgency in his wife's voice, Jed approached her. "Abbey?"
Abbey kept the phone cradled in one hand and she reached out to Jed with the other. "Honey, it's about your father."
TBC
