Series: Snapshots of the Past
Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: Changes
Chapter 25
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: On Zoey's 5th birthday, Jed gave her a basketball while Abbey enrolled her in Pony Club, a junior equestrian organization; Liz and Doug ran into each other at the bakery; when Derek found out that Christine took a job on Jed's Washington staff, he worried that she was attracted to Jed; Jed received a gold pen from Leo
Summary: Abbey gets a job offer; the Bartlets have fun on Christmas Eve
Author's Note: Thanks for all the support and feedback for this story. It was a lot of fun to write!
"'Twas the night before Christmas when aaaalllllll through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."
The sound of that familiar voice monopolized Abbey's attention the moment the elevator doors opened. She looked down the hospital corridor and saw her husband sitting on a large red and gold chair, known to the kids who were captivated by his performance as Santa's throne.
Jed had played Santa Claus in the pediatric wing of the hospital on many Christmas Eves and each and every time he did, Abbey found some excuse to sneak upstairs and watch him in action as the hospital's littlest patients, not much older than Zoey, gathered at his feet and sat before him to hear classic holiday tales.
When he finished up The Night Before Christmas, he pulled out his big red bag and uttered the predictable question he always asked, "Who's up for PRESENTS?"
Robert Nolan approached Abbey who was snickering at the enthusiastic little ones. "He's sure got a way with kids."
"I know," she replied without batting an eyelash. Abbey didn't need to be reminded of her husband's talent with children. After all, she had seen him mesmerize each of their daughters from the day they were born. "What are you doing up here?"
"Finishing up a consult. What about you?" Her expression gave her away. Robert shook his head. "You're a sucker for that red suit, aren't you?"
"I can't lie."
He watched her for another moment and realized that 'sucker' was an understatement. "You're thinking naughty thoughts."
Abbey turned to him then, her bottom lip curled under her top and a Cheshire grin plastered on her face. Robert playfully covered his ears.
"You know what, way, WAY too much information."
"You asked the question," she reminded him, amused by his reaction.
"I did, regrettably so," he said. "Big plans for Christmas?"
"We usually do the holiday thing on Christmas Day. Jed's brother and his family, my parents, my sister and her kids are all coming to the farm. Tonight, though, it'll be just the five of us and an early evening mass at church."
"Sounds nice."
"What are you and Karen doing?"
"Her parents flew in from Georgia. They're at the house now."
"You're kidding! They're there now? Why are you here?" It took Abbey a second to remember that unlike Jed and her parents, Robert wasn't close to his in-laws. "Oh, right."
"I'll make it home for dinner, not to worry."
"I didn't say a thing."
"You didn't have to...yet. I wouldn't want to tempt another Abbey Bartlet lecture on the importance of family."
"You know that lecture well by now."
"That, I do." Robert secretly enjoyed the way she constantly teased him about being closer to his relatives. "Anyway, Abbey, I'm glad I ran into you. It seems like you're never out of the O.R. these days."
"I am now. What's up?"
"You know about our new affiliate hospital in Manchester?"
"I heard something about it."
"Well, what you may not have heard is that I'm leaving next month. I've been promoted to Chief of Surgery at the new place."
"Robert." Abbey moved in to give him a hug. "Congratulations."
Robert had been the first person Abbey had met at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the first one who interviewed her for a residency spot during her last year in medical school, the first one to talk her through the process and introduce her to the residency program director.
When she started her internship after graduation, Abbey was terrified. No longer cloaked in the security of the title "medical student," her fear was obvious in every breath she took. Robert reached out to her. He became her mentor, her friend, and her professional confidante.
"I can't believe you're leaving." She was happy about his new endeavor, but she had to admit she'd miss him.
"That's not what I came to tell you. That's just what I had to tell you before I could ask you the other thing."
"What's the other thing?"
"I need to build a full-time staff and you're the best thoracic surgeon I know. So, how about it? Will you let me help you move your practice Manchester?"
"You're serious about this?"
"I wouldn't joke about it. I need a talented surgeon and from knowing you the way I do, I assume you'd be happier working closer to home, especially now that Jed's on his way to DC, right?"
Abbey nodded. "I'd like to be closer to my girls."
"Then say yes and we both win."
It didn't take much prodding to squeeze an acceptance out of Abbey. Practicing in Manchester meant flexibility and convenience in her schedule and at this time in her family's life, those were commodities she couldn't easily reject.
If Jed hadn't been in the middle of handing out Christmas presents to the children, she would have marched over there to tell him the good news. Instead, she settled for leaning back against the nurse's station and watching him in action, unable to stop her mind from drifting to the reality that in one short week, he would be living in Washington without her.
That afternoon, as Abbey pulled up the gravel driveway towards the farmhouse, she heard the sound of laughter echoing from the distance. She got a closer look when she turned the corner to see Jed caught up in a game of basketball with Ellie, Zoey, and Liz.
Abbey passed by them, then parked the car and got out to approach her family. "Oh, how can you guys stand it? It's FREEZING out here!"
"We're fine," Jed replied. "We're running around. Besides, I made the girls dress in layers and if they get cold, their coats are right over there."
Abbey moved out of the way as Liz and Ellie came dribbling by, clearing a path for Zoey to take over so Jed could raise her up on his shoulders and help her make a basket. The five-year-old gleefully bounced the ball off the hoop, then looked to her father for another shot.
"So, who's got room for one more teammate?" Shedding her coat, Abbey stepped out onto the center of the makeshift court.
"Seriously?" Jed was pleasantly surprised. It was no secret that basketball wasn't Abbey's favorite sport.
"Seriously."
"Mom can be on my team," Liz offered. "Ellie and Zoey can play with Dad."
Jed agreed, though he kept his eye on Liz in a failed effort to overhear what she was whispering to Abbey while he lowered Zoey to the ground and ushered his younger daughters to his side of the court.
"That's all I do?" Abbey asked loud enough to entice her husband's prying ears.
"That's it." Liz nodded. "Ready?"
Jed suspiciously joined Abbey in place for the tip-off. Liz stood between them to throw the ball and as soon as she did, he outjumped Abbey, tipping it to Ellie, who began furiously dribbling towards the basket with Liz hot on her heels.
"Pass it to Zoey! Pass it to Zoey!"
With little time to react, Ellie heard her father's voice and knew she had to get rid of the ball. She threw a bounce pass to Zoey, who caught it in her hands and tried to mimic her big sister in an awkward dribble across the court. Before she lost the ball to her skilled opponents, though, Jed lifted her up to make a basket.
This time, she did.
"Way to go, Zoey!" Ellie greeted her with a high-five that made Zoey proud.
"Two to zip!" Jed announced, smirking, as he joined his girls in their celebration.
"Did we win, Daddy?" Zoey asked.
"Not yet, Sweetheart. But we will."
Over on the other side, the Bartlet ladies geared up for round two.
Liz winked at Abbey, then recovered the ball and dribbled it out from under the basket into a circle around the concrete. Abbey stood right in the center - her feet planted to the ground - while Jed hovered over Liz, guarding her with the intensity of a hawk until Liz, with her back to him, ran him right into Abbey, freeing the teenager to make a bank shot and tie the score.
Mother and daughter established their own victory cheer as Jed watched in disbelief.
"You set a pick," he accused his wife.
Abbey shrugged. "Is that what that is? Lizzie just told me to stand here."
With renewed determination and a good-natured chuckle he couldn't suppress, Jed huddled with Zoey and Ellie to set their next strategy in motion.
"I'm just saying if you were going for a three-pointer, you should have stood further out," Jed argued that evening as he and Abbey dressed for church.
"It's time to let it go, Jethro." Standing in front of the full-length mirror beside the closet, Abbey pulled a white satin slip over her head. "You won the game. Isn't that enough?"
"I'm not complaining. I just want you to learn for next time, when it's me and you against the girls."
"That's not exactly fair, is it?"
"Don't underestimate our daughters. Lizzie's fantastic and Ellie's much better than I thought. Say, why doesn't she ever want to play when I ask her?"
"Ellie?"
"Yeah. I ask her to shoot hoops now and then and she always says no. I figured she didn't want to learn. I didn't realize Liz had taught her."
"Basketball is your thing with Liz. I think Ellie feels like a third wheel."
"That's ridiculous," Jed sputtered while straightening his tie in the mirror.
"When I was growing up, my dad and I had our own traditions. Every Saturday afternoon, we'd go hiking in the mountains behind Lake Champlain, just the two of us. When Kate was old enough to join us, we invited her, but it wasn't as much fun for her."
"Why?"
"Dad and I did it first?"
"So, what, Ellie can't play just because I played with Lizzie first?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying. Things parents do with the older sibling aren't as sentimental for the younger one. Ellie's got it twice as bad. She's the middle child. Zoey's into things she's already outgrown and things you do with Liz just don't matter to her. Anyway, she doesn't enjoy basketball like you and Lizzie do. Soccer is more her sport. Have you picked up a soccer ball lately and asked her play?"
"I'm the one who taught her how to play soccer."
"Yeah, but you haven't played lately. The first weekend you're home, you should take her out to play." Abbey was working hard to clasp her bracelet around her wrist. Eventually, she gave up and cornered Jed for help.
"The first weekend I'm home," he scoffed. "I hate the sound of that."
"The days are going to fly by before you know it," she said, strolling towards the closet when Jed finished clasping her bracelet. "Robert Nolan offered me a job today."
That was an unexpected detour. "What?"
"At DHMC's new affiliate hospital in Manchester. He's the new Chief of Surgery."
"Really?"
"He wants me to move my practice. I'll still have privileges in Hanover, of course, but the bulk of my patients will be here."
"So you already said yes?"
Abbey shot him a quizzical stare. "Shouldn't I have?"
"Yes, of course. I mean, if that's what you want, yes, you should have. That's great news."
"He said one of the reasons he thought I'd take it is that he knew I'd want to work closer to home now that you'll be living in DC during the week."
Jed was touched by the sentiment. "He's a good friend."
"He is. We have a lot of people trying to make this easier on us. My parents offered to watch the girls so I can come to you any weekend you can't make it down."
"They're assuming there's going to be a weekend I won't come home?" He zipped up her dress when she struggled with the back zipper.
"You can set them straight at dinner tomorrow." Abbey laughed at his stubbornness. He refused to believe, for even a minute, that his schedule might not always be his own in Washington.
"Damn right I will," he said with lighthearted determination.
"The point is, this is going to work, Jed. Everyone's in our corner." She turned towards him to straighten the tie he had never quite straightened. "You look tired."
"It's been a long day."
"It's going to be an even longer night."
"I know. We still have to put together the stockings, Ellie's bike, Lizzie's..."
Abbey rubbed her lips along his earlobe and whispered, "That's not what I meant."
The implication of what was to come was clear in her seductive tone.
"No?" Jed replied flirtatiously.
Abbey shook her head slowly. "Uh uh."
"What the hell are we waiting around for? Let's get this show on the road!"
Laughing, she slipped her hand into the crook of his arm as they headed out of their bedroom, called for their daughters, and left the house to attend Christmas Eve Mass.
"Hurry, Ellie! We'll miss Santa!"
"Okay, okay."
After the family returned from church, Ellie and Zoey camped out in Ellie's room, peeking out through a crack in the door to ensure the coast was clear before they tiptoed downstairs.
Though Ellie suspected the truth about Santa Claus, she wouldn't dare utter a word of it to Zoey. Playing along, she quietly shut the door and led her sister down the steps. They turned at the bottom landing, practically sprinting towards the den, home to the traditional six-foot Christmas tree standing beside the fireplace.
Along the way, Zoey pointed to the empty plate and glass they had filled with cookies and milk before going to bed. "Santa came ALREADY!"
"Yeah, he did."
"We missed him!"
"He's good at disappearing before kids can see him."
Her tone was empathetic, though not for the reason Zoey assumed. Ellie was disappointed that she had scanned the sea of presents under the tree and realized that she didn't get the bike she wanted for Christmas.
Little did she know that Jed and Abbey had heard the girls giggling upstairs. Instead of tying a bow on the bike, they decided to only leave out the smaller gifts so that Ellie, Zoey, and Lizzie could have their fun - like they did every Christmas Eve - without spoiling the big surprise for morning.
"You know if Santa catches you," Elizabeth whispered from behind them. "he'll take all his presents back."
"Lizzie! You scared us! Why are you down here?"
"I had to bring Mom's presents down."
It was well known in the Bartlet house that if they dared to set Abbey's gifts under the tree a moment too soon, she'd be unable to resist them before Christmas. So, rather than tempting her, Lizzie hid the presents upstairs until her mother had retired for the evening.
"What are you guys doing?" the teen asked her sisters as she placed the gifts on top of the others.
"We came to see Santa, but he already came," Zoey answered.
"So now we wanna look inside our stockings!" Ellie continued.
Five stockings hung from the mantle - a green one for Jed with his name embroidered in the fur along the top in the center of two miniature rattling bells. Abbey had dropped a giftwrapped Rolex watch inside when he wasn't looking.
Next was Abbey's, a cream-colored stocking with her name spelled out in festive red Christmas ribbon. She was busy organizing the stocking stuffers for the kids to notice Jed slipping a diamond and ruby necklace in the pouch.
The pink stocking was Lizzie's, her childhood nickname sparkling in light pink jewels along a dusting of snowflake trim across the middle. The white one beside it was Ellie's and the burgundy one next to that belonged to Zoey. Both names were scripted with gold satin ribbon on a bed of plush velvet fabric and their stockings, along with Lizzie's, were overflowing with candy and gifts.
"You want a Hershey's Kiss, Zoey?"
Zoey had been contemplating opening one of her own kisses, but since Liz was offering her one, she decided to save hers and take her sister's. "Thank you."
"Here, El." Liz tossed another one out of her stocking.
"Thanks!" Ellie began to unwrap the treat. "Can I have a peanut butter cup too?"
"Only if you let me have your chocolate Santa."
Soon, all three girls poured out the contents of their stockings. They sat on the floor beside the coffee table, exchanging candy and trading Christmas secrets about what each parent had bought the other. Then, Lizzie returned the stockings and grabbed the three bags of candy she had bought earlier that day - one for her and one for each of her sisters - so they could fill their parents' stockings.
When they finished, they brought over the annual Bartlet family Christmas picture, in a sterling silver frame with the year 1984 engraved on the side, and set it on top of the mantel.
"This one's much better than last year's," Ellie said, referring to the beautiful holiday colors she and her sisters had chosen for their Christmas dresses.
All three were smiling broadly in that photograph, blissfully oblivious to the red blush that colored their mother's face, a result of their father pinching her rear right before the camera flashed.
"I think so too," Lizzie agreed. "It's my favorite."
On the tree, personalized ornaments dangled off the needles, the name of each family member shining just as bright as the crystal angel on top. Underneath, so many presents crowded the stand that Liz found it nearly impossible to reach for the switch to turn on the lights.
"Look, Lizzie!" Ellie grabbed a box addressed to her sister. "I bet you got those boots you wanted!"
"I bet I did too, but I also bet they're not in that box."
"How do you know?"
"Because Mom always does her best to try to conceal the gifts. You see that big box in the corner? Five bucks says those are my boots and the box that actually looks like the boot box is probably something totally different, like a pair of earrings or something."
"That's sneaky," Zoey laughed.
"Mom knows all the tricks." Liz flipped the switch and once the lights were on, she laid down flat on her back, her head resting on the skirt of the stand just below the branches.
Ellie and Zoey put away the presents they were inspecting and joined her. They, too, slid in on their backs with their heads under the tree, staring at the ornaments above lit by the glow of flickering holiday lights.
"You know what we forgot to do?" Liz asked.
"What?"
"Remind Dad to share the legend of the Christmas tree."
Like all holidays, Jed never let a Christmas go by without a historical lecture.
"He can tell us the story tomorrow."
"He's supposed to do it on Christmas Eve. He always does."
"We always remind him. Why didn't we remind him?"
"We forgot too."
"Then we'll remind him tomorrow."
"He has to finish packing tomorrow. He's already brought one suitcase downstairs." Liz had seen the bags when she followed her sisters down.
"Already?" The news surprised Ellie. "But he's not leaving until the day after Christmas."
"Lizzie?"
"Yeah, Zo?"
"How far is Washington?"
"Not too far."
"Can you drive us there?"
"I won't have to. He'll be home a lot. And guess what?"
"What?"
"Have you heard of that new station on cable - CSPAN?"
"No," the younger girls answered in unison.
"Well, they broadcast things from Congress so we can watch Dad on TV if we want."
That got Ellie's attention. "All the time?"
"I don't know, but my history teacher was talking about it. They show all kinds of stuff."
"I wanna see Daddy on TV," Zoey replied.
"Do you still want us to move to Washington, Lizzie?" Ellie hadn't been blind to the tension between her sister and her mother.
"No. This is the way it has to be."
"Because this is how politics is?"
"Yeah. But it's gonna be so cool, you guys. Just wait and see."
After a brief pause in the discussion, Zoey scooted out from under the tree and sat up to address her sisters. "If we don't tell Mommy and Daddy, can we open presents now?"
Liz rejected the idea. "Mom will know. She always does."
"And she'll be mad that we didn't wait," Ellie added as Zoey laid back down, disappointed. "Sorry, Zoey. But I'll tell you guys what I got you if you tell me what you got me."
"No way, El!" Liz protested. "You're just as sneaky as Mom. Last year, you made me tell you, then you lied to me about my gift."
"I didn't lie," the ten-year-old claimed. "I told a little fib because I wanted you to be surprised."
"Yeah, well, this year, I'm not falling for any 'little fibs.'"
"Come on, Lizzie! What letter does my present start with?"
"An X!"
"That's not even a fib! That's a lie."
"It is not."
"My present doesn't start with an X!"
"Yes, it does. Doesn't it, Zo?"
"Uh huh." Zoey's giggle supported Ellie's doubts.
"You guys are tricking me."
"No, we're not," Liz insisted. "It starts with an X."
"Fine. If it's not a xylophone, I'm gonna be really mad."
The End
To Be Continued in Man of the House