Series: Snapshots of the Past
Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: Man of the House
Chapter 2
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Jed was officially sworn in as a member of the United States House of Representatives; Abbey and the girls shared a tearful goodbye with Jed as they left Washington
Summary: Abbey rushes to get her girls ready for school; Liz begins to see how wrong she was about her mother; Jed tries to iron out the wrinkles in his first week in office
"What are you having for breakfast?" Abbey unknowingly wrapped herself in the phone cord as she scrambled a half dozen eggs on the stove, removed two slices of toast from the toaster, and replaced them with two more.
"Pancakes and fruit salad," Jed replied, a smirk defining his features.
"Seriously."
"Donuts and coffee."
"Jed, I told you - real food. Am I going to have to hire you a cook?"
"I'll grab something on my way to the office."
"A hot dog perhaps?" she asked, disapprovingly.
"Perhaps," he confessed without batting an eye.
Abbey lowered the phone from her mouth to shout upstairs. "GIRLS, if you want to talk to your father, get down here!"
Jed jerked the phone away from his ear, bringing it back only when she was finished. "Assuming their father has an eardrum left after that outburst."
"Sorry."
"I wanna talk to Daddy! I wanna talk to Daddy!" Zoey ran into the kitchen just as fast as her little feet could take her.
"Hurry up." After untangling herself from the cord, Abbey handed Zoey the phone, then looked up to see Elizabeth strolling in. "Good morning."
"Good morning."
"Where's Ellie?"
"She's still asleep."
"What do you mean she's still asleep?" She glanced at her watch. "She's going to be late for school."
"You know how she is in the mornings." Liz opened the drawer that was home to a lime green water gun. "You want your gun?"
"I do." Abbey filled it with water at the sink and turned to the teen to say, "Keep an eye on the eggs" before she slipped out of her heels to prepare for the trek to Ellie's bedroom.
It was often difficult to drag the 10-year-old out of bed early in the morning, but Abbey found that squirting water at her sleeping form usually did the trick. She turned the knob and entered without knocking. Kneeling beside Ellie's bed, she softly sang the song she always sang to lure her girls from bed, the same one her mother used on her when she was growing up.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty; I've come to do my duty; I've come to get you out of bed; wake up, you sleepy head!"
"Not yet," Ellie mumbled.
Abbey brushed her pretty blonde hair off her forehead and whispered, "It's time to wake up, Goldilocks."
"Five more minutes."
"Not five more minutes. Now."
When Ellie turned away from her, Abbey scrambled to her feet and in one quick motion right after another, she peeled back the covers, aimed the water gun at the back of Ellie's head, and began to fire.
Ellie furiously sat up. "MOM!"
"You're going to be late for school," Abbey replied with a few more squirts, this time to her face. "It's time to get up. Come on."
"Do I have to go to school today?"
"Of course you have to go to school today. Your science project is due today. Aren't you excited about it?"
Ellie shrugged with little enthusiasm. "I guess."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
It wasn't like her to be so indifferent about an assignment on which she spent so much time. Ellie didn't just make a half-hearted attempt at a science project just to satisfy the requirements for an "A." Instead of drawing pictures of the rings of Saturn or creating a collage of environmental hazards like some of her classmates, Ellie chose a more challenging theme - how rocket design affects change in performance.
She poured weeks of energy into her research, spent hours sketching her design, and with Jed and Abbey's help, finally purchased the materials and created three separate model rockets to complete her analysis.
Seeing her so hesitant about it now concerned Abbey. "Ellie, what's going on?"
"I'm nervous about the presentation." She slid over to make room for her mother to sit on the bed.
"Don't be. Just get up there and do it the same way you did in front of me and your sisters last night and you'll be fine."
"But this is in front of the whole class."
"Sweetheart, you can do this. Just concentrate on what you learned. You've been working on this project since before Thanksgiving. All that's left now is to show them what you came up with and why you chose to do what you did. Let all that hard work pay off."
"I'd rather go to sleep."
When she threw herself back, Abbey grabbed her arms and pulled her up. "Then you're out of luck. Come on, you have to get ready. It's going to be really cold out, so wear your red sweater. Dad's on the phone if you want to pick up the extension in the hall."
"Okay, I will in a minute." Abbey got up and once again, Ellie laid back down.
"Ellie, no kidding. I want you downstairs in 10 minutes."
Abbey closed her daughter's door, then headed back to the kitchen where she found Zoey leaning over the table to reach the carton of orange juice Liz had taken out of the fridge. The five-year-old struggled to grasp it until Abbey picked it up and poured her a glass.
"Thank you," she said, taking a sip.
"You're welcome." Abbey turned her attention to Elizabeth who was now on the phone with Jed. "Liz, let me know when Ellie picks up the extension."
"She just did."
"Good."
Liz hung up to join Abbey and Zoey at the table. "The eggs were ready so I turned down the stove. Do you want me to stop by the market after school?"
"No, I'll do it."
"I don't mind." The offer didn't surprise Abbey. Ever since they came home from Washington without Jed, Liz had gone out of her way to help out with household chores, even ones that had never been assigned to her.
"Don't you have Student Government today?"
"Yeah, but I'll go afterwards. I can stop at the store and still make it back here to cook dinner before you get home from work."
"You know, Liz, just because your dad's not here doesn't mean you have to step in for him. You're still the kid and I'm still the parent. The only thing I expect from you is to go to school, do your homework, and do the same chores you've always done - cleaning your room, washing the dishes when it's your turn. Beyond that, enjoy being 16 and let me worry about the adult things, okay?"
"I'm trying to help."
"I know you are and I appreciate it, but there's no need. In the freezer is a lasagna I made last night. The only thing I need you to do is pop it in the oven around 4:30."
"Lasagna, really?"
"Mommy made brownies too!" Zoey proudly declared. She had served as Abbey's little helper - and taste tester - in the kitchen the night before.
"Yes, I did." Abbey chuckled at Zoey's enthusiasm. "Remember what we talked about though? You can have a brownie only after dinner."
"I remember."
"So you made lasagna and brownies?" Liz questioned. "Where was I?"
"Upstairs, doing your homework, which is exactly where I wanted you to be. I've got everything under control, Lizzie. All those things your dad and I used to do together, I'm going to do myself, just like he did when I had to work late."
"You'll tell me if you need me to help?"
"I will." Abbey smiled appreciatively. "In the meantime, quit worrying about all these things. We're going to make this work, even if it's a little difficult from time to time. I'm in the process of moving my practice to Manchester just to make this easier on all of us."
Elizabeth stared warmly at her mother. "You liked working in Hanover, didn't you? You liked DHMC."
"I'm not leaving DHMC. I'm just joining the affiliate hospital."
It wasn't the same and Liz knew it. All the things she had said about her mother just a few months earlier seemed so far from the truth now. She now knew, without a doubt, that her assumptions about her father moving to DC alone just so Abbey wouldn't have to leave her practice were biased and unwarranted.
Sitting at the kitchen table that morning, Liz regretted those hard words and as she watched Abbey return to the stove to dish out the eggs and finish preparing breakfast, she realized just how wrong she was.
It was just after 9 a.m. when Jed sprinted through the halls of the Rayburn House Office Building towards his 4th floor congressional suite. As he burst through the door, somewhat frazzled, he stripped his coat and flung it on the coat rack without noticing his senior staffers waiting in the lobby.
"Jed?" Christine was the first to approach him.
He looked to her, instantly apologetic. "I know we had an 8:00 meeting today. I actually left my apartment early, figuring I'd get some work done before you all got here. That was the plan."
"So what happened?"
"You would think there would be big, glaring signs on the metro ramp, telling you if a particular train is an express going to Arlington, wouldn't you?"
"You went to Arlington?"
"I did not GO to Arlington. I was abducted and taken to Arlington against my will by a train with a mind of its own and a conductor who's really just a phantom that no one can reach." He took a breath and stared at the faces looking back at him. "Who are you guys?"
"Michael Glass, Congressman."
"Oh, right." Michael Glass was the man who would serve as Jed's new Chief of Staff. Though he technically began the job on Monday, Jed hadn't yet met him in person. "It's nice to finally put a face with a voice. Welcome aboard. It's nice to meet you"
"The pleasure's mine."
Christine continued the introductions. "This is Lindsay Griffith, Michael's deputy, you've already met Rick Page, the new press secretary I hired, and our receptionist Madeline Holland. The legislative director is at a meeting down the hall. You can meet him later."
"Are people going to be filtering in throughout the week? I don't mind. I just want to know what to expect."
"Probably. This is what happens during the transition time. By next week, everyone will be settled and you'll start to get used to them."
"Just so you know," Jed addressed all his new staffers. "I'm terrible with names, so if I ask you for your name in about 10 minutes, please don't take it personally."
"Congressman, if I may ask," Rick interjected. "Why are you taking the metro anywhere?"
"I figured it'd be faster than walking."
"We need to get you a driver."
"A driver?" Jed scoffed. "Forget it. I don't need a driver. I'm not some international diplomat or ritzy millionaire."
"No, you're a United States Congressman."
"That's right and I'm fine taking the subway, like everyone else."
Rick silently glanced at Michael, who then glanced at Christine. She had a history with Jed. She knew how to communicate with him to get her point across without insulting him.
"I think what Rick is saying is that you can't just take the metro everywhere," Christine delicately began. "I mean, what are you going to do, show up at the Inaugural Ball next weekend in your tux climbing a flight of stairs up from underground? Congressman, you need a car and a driver."
"I'll take care of it," Lindsay offered.
"Fine...for now. I'll use a driver for important things and we can revisit this issue later. Let's just get this meeting started."
"We can't," Michael told him. "You're needed on the floor for a vote."
"I thought we weren't voting on anything until after Inauguration Day."
"Well, technically that's true. But you're not voting on a bill this morning. You're voting on whether or not to vote on a bill. It's the new education initiative that got lost in the shuffle last session. It's not going to fall by the wayside so it doesn't really matter how you vote."
"You're telling me I have to go down there to vote on whether or not we should take a vote? And that in doing so, my vote won't even make a difference one way or the other?"
"That's right," Christine confirmed.
"Well, thank goodness I spent all those years in school and in local government studying the legislative process or I might not have been adequately prepared for the intricacies facing me in the United States House of Representatives." Jed sighed. "For God's sake, I'll be back after my vote."
"I got to vote on whether or not to vote today." Jed had tucked himself under the covers in his bed that evening, snuggled up with the phone as he and Abbey shared a late-night call.
"What?" she asked, sliding her legs under the comforter and laying back against her pillows in the master bedroom back at the farm.
"I'm serious. I stood on the floor of the House and I cast a vote about whether or not we should vote on the education bill that fell through the cracks last year."
"They do that? I mean, you do that? You vote on taking votes?"
"Apparently, that's where our tax dollars go. Comforting, isn't it?"
"Just roll with the punches, Jed. Soon, you'll get to do some actual governing."
"Yeah." He rolled onto his back and propped his arm under his head. "What are you wearing?"
"What do you wish I was wearing?" Her voice held a hint of seductive flirtation.
"That black lace teddy I got you for Christmas."
"Then that's what I'm wearing."
"You are a master at bluffing," he grinned. "I'm still trying to recover from the purple futons you promised me were coming when, in fact, you ordered the same furniture I would have ordered myself."
Abbey enjoyed tricking her husband. "It got you all worked up though, didn't it? You can't blame me for adding a little spice to your life."
"Hot Pants, you ARE the spice in my life. Which brings me back to my original question, what are you wearing? I want to picture you in my mind where all my lascivious thoughts live."
"You gonna dream about me tonight?"
"Don't I every night?"
"I'm wearing my sheer pink nightgown." She wasn't lying this time. "What about you?"
"I'm naked."
"It's too cold to be naked."
"Not here it's not." He didn't want to admit it, but she was right. Jed was actually dressed in boxers and a long-sleeved T-shirt. "I'm completely naked and wishing you were lying here next to me."
"I wish I was too. You have no idea how much." Abbey curled up on her side, the phone still cradled at her ear.
"Abbey?"
"Yeah?"
"How are we going to do this for two years?"
TBC