Series: Snapshots of the Past
Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: Man of the House
Chapter 25
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Abbey told Jed she was going with him back to Washington
Summary: Jed and Abbey are apprehensive - for different reasons - about their first congressional gala
Author's Note: I'm doing my best to get these chapters out. It's taking a little longer because I just got engaged (I know, can you believe it?!). My writing partner, Gabriela, is also engaged and both of us are planning spring weddings. Plus, I'm finishing my last year of college and she's finishing up her post-grad work so things are a little crazy right now! Bare with us. I'll keep up as best I can!
"Congressman Blakley?"
"White hat. He'll be the biggest supporter of the minimum wage hike if we can ever get it on the floor."
"Congressman Watkins?"
"Black hat. He's against welfare, gays, and anything that doesn't advance the social status of the upper-class white man with a trophy wife and three-point-two kids."
Abbey stood at the bathroom counter and flipped through the book of congressional photos, quizzing Jed as he showered. On a yellow legal pad, she took notes to help her match the face with a name in preparation for their first congressional gala that night.
"Senator Hawke?"
"Black hat. He's as corrupt as they come. He doesn't vote for anything that doesn't win him favors from the tobacco lobbyists."
"I notice all the black hats are republicans."
"It's politics, babe."
"Are there any republicans you like?"
"Sweetheart, there are 434 representatives in the House, besides myself. Another 100 in the Senate. The real question is, how many republicans do I know?"
"Of the republicans you know, are there any you like?"
"A couple. But hey, it's not just the republicans. There are plenty of democrats I can't stand."
Abbey continued to peruse the pages. "Senator Stackhouse?"
"Case in point."
"What's wrong with him?"
"He's grouchy, aloof, and he's been unapologetically cold to me."
"Jed, I don't know how I'm going to remember all these faces."
"You're a whiz with names and faces."
"Not 535 of them."
"534." He poked his head out from the curtain, his hair wet and tousled. "I assume you already remember my name and my face."
As he ducked back inside, Abbey set the book on down on the counter and quietly stripped out of her pajamas. "What if I run into Tip O'Neill and forget who he is?"
"That's not going to happen. You've seen him dozens of times."
"You know what I mean. I'm nervous."
"I get that. What I don't get is why?"
"What if I wear the wrong dress?"
"Trust me, Sweet Knees, you could prance in there in a potato sac and I'd still be proud to be with you."
"You're so full of it."
"I'm really not."
"It's our first one of these, Jed. I want to make a good impression."
"Making a good impression is something you never have to worry about. When I walk in with you on my arm, everyone's jaw is going to drop."
"So I'm just your glitter girl tonight?" She lowered her panties down her legs and stepped out of them when they pooled around her ankles.
"I didn't say that."
"What are you saying?"
"You know what, I'm not saying anything because anything I say can and will be used against me."
"I'll grant you amnesty."
"Tomorrow, sure. What happens tonight?"
"My thoughts exactly."
"I don't understand why you're so worried. With all the crap you had to memorize in med school, matching up the faces and names of a bunch of suits should be a breeze."
She released her hair from a ponytail and gave it a good shake. "In med school, I had flash cards, and the material made sense. It wasn't random pairings of people I don't know."
"I'll give you the flash cards, but you realize that when you say that anything in med school made any sense, it's laughable to the rest of us, right? I read those lecture notes. No verbs, no punctuation, just a bunch of gibberish strung together."
"And that's different from foreign policy briefing books how?"
"You can't compare the two. My briefing books are written by legislative aides who obsess over every word..."
His voice trailed when Abbey stepped into the tub. Jed eyed her up and down, from the wildly erotic twinkle in her eye to her gorgeous breasts, her tight tummy, slim waist, and the hips she wiggled towards him. She slid her fingers down his shoulders to his arms, following the line of rippling muscles that glistened under the spray of water.
"You have more to say, Mr. Congressman?"
"Not a thing."
Abbey sank to her knees and looked up at him through her dark, wet lashes. She stroked his shaft first. Jed's hands lost their way in her damp auburn locks and he backed up against the wall as her tongue began lapping at his tip. She nibbled on him gently and when he sucked in his breath, she opened her mouth to take him.
Jed casually strolled through his office later that morning. Lindsay, his deputy chief of staff, heard him humming a romantic melody as she followed him with a stack of files, an itinerary, and a checklist she had put together to get him back into the swing of things after his week of district work.
"We need to talk about the President's call to action regarding the new healthcare budget," she told him.
"It sucks. What else?"
"Congressman..."
"I don't want to talk about the healthcare bill. I vehemently disagree with the measures in the amendment and I'm in no mood to fight about it today."
"Why? What's today?"
"I'm happy. For once, I'd like to go home that way."
Lindsay shut the door to give them some privacy. "About that..."
"Uh oh. You're about to give me some bad news."
"Depends on how you look at it. We had a staff meeting while you were in Manchester. Michael and I think we've been mismanaging things. We think that the best approach to take from here on out is to encourage you to stand up to Congressman Bennett."
The sudden turnaround surprised Jed, until he pieced it together in his mind anyway. "He took minimum wage off the table, didn't he?"
The young woman nodded. "I'm sorry."
He knew that his absence from Bennett's condoms-in-schools vote would have ramifications. He just didn't realize how much pull Bennett actually had. The agenda that had been locked in place in January had now been rearranged, dictated by a man driven by arrogance and greed instead of his faithful oath to civic duty.
Jed paused for a beat, then mumbled softly, "I'm just as responsible as you guys."
"What?" Lindsay had played this scene in her mind several times over the past week and never had she imagined Jed accepting defeat so calmly.
"I'll go a step further and say that I'm more responsible than you guys. I'm supposed to run things around here. I could have overruled you. I could have chosen to disagree with Bennett instead of dodging the vote."
"You followed our advice because we were the professionals."
"I'm not interested in assigning blame. There's been enough of that the past two months. We've all made mistakes. I hope we've all learned from them. I know I have. So let's concentrate on that, shall we?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I'm not going to roll over on minimum wage. It's too important. We need a new strategy." Jed took his seat. "Do I have any allies out there?"
Her sullen expression answered his question before she ever opened her mouth. "Well..."
"I don't, do I?"
"They don't know you yet, Congressman. They will."
"When?"
Lindsay handed him a list of names. "I made a list."
"What is this?"
"The people you want to try to talk to at the gala tonight. They're the ones you need in your corner to overrule Bennett."
"So it's a working gala?"
"Aren't they all? Just talk to them as soon as you get there, get it out of the way so you can spend the rest of the evening with Mrs. Bartlet. I know you hate doing this stuff."
"Has there been much about this process I haven't hated? It's fine. I came here to do a job and I'll do it, whatever it takes."
"I was hoping you'd say that."
"I know you don't know me that well, Lindsay, but you'll learn that even though I go off on rants from time to time about all the garbage we have to deal with to get anything done around here, I'm not one to shirk my responsibility because something gets too ugly or too difficult to handle. We approached things wrong the first eight weeks. Let's start over. We'll do it better this time."
"Yes, we will," she replied with renewed optimism, energized about starting fresh. "I left Christine a memo about..."
"Christine isn't coming back to work." Jed shuffled his papers to avoid looking Lindsay in the eye.
"What? Since when?"
"Since Friday. We'll have to get an intern to pack up her desk."
"But why?"
"It really doesn't matter why. Who's my press secretary again? The sharp guy who writes all the releases?"
"That's Rick."
"Right. Let him handle all communications for a while until we find someone new."
"Christine just quit? Just like that?"
"We can get into the sordid details some other time. Right now, I'd prefer to focus on moving ahead and stirring things up a bit. Deal?"
"I'll call a meeting."
"Lindsay?" He stopped her just as she opened the door to leave. "Thank you...for all your work. Thank you."
Lindsay gave him a nod on her way out.
Abbey spent much of that day shopping for a cocktail dress for the gala. She had dipped into her own closet and brought along a couple of suitable choices, but for this event, she wanted something more, something different - the perfect combination of sophistication and elegance, bold enough to grab Jed's attention, yet subtle enough to command respect at a function swarming with prying eyes that were bound to judge her from head to toe.
She returned to the apartment a couple of hours before Jed returned from work. When she heard him jiggling his keys in the lock, she pulled on her skirt and tempered the impish grin that curved the tip of lips.
"Abbey?"
"I'm just about ready," she called.
"It's almost seven." Jed followed her voice to the bedroom, framing himself in the doorway when he saw what she was wearing. "That's for tonight?"
"Yeah. Why? Don't you like it?" She began styling her hair in the mirror.
"Um..." He examined it, the nude colored dress with the sheer, translucent material that, with the exception of her womanly assets which were carefully covered with rhinestones, put her entire body on display.
"Um what?"
"It's see-through."
"No one can see the things that really matter."
"Yeah, but that's not what you're going to wear. I mean, come on, I could use your breasts to guide me home. They're sparkling like headlights, actual headlights on a car."
"And you don't like that?"
"As attractive as it is, I'd prefer we keep that sort of thing in the bedroom."
"Jed, it took me hours to pick out this dress. Now tell me, what's wrong with it?"
"I just told you, it's not right."
"Not right? What does that mean exactly?" If he had looked at her face then, he would have known she was pulling his leg.
"It means..." He continued cautiously, "It's cold out and there's not much material there."
"I'll wear my coat." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and reached for the hairspray.
Jed glanced down at her side, at the narrow band of stones that crossed her hips from her rear to the apex of her thighs. "You're not wearing underwear?"
"I can't. Panty line. I'm going with just hose."
"And a bra?" He knew the answer to that already. Her back was completely bare under the flimsy fabric.
"Packaging tape," she told him as she pulled on the top of her dress.
"I don't know what that means."
"I can't wear a bra with this dress. Everyone would see it. So instead, I used two strips of packaging tape under my breasts to hold them up."
"Ouch! You can do that?"
"Fashion models do it all the time. They also give themselves cleavage by taping their breasts together."
"You don't need any help in that department."
"Not tonight anyway." She saw the disapproving glint in his eyes once again. "Jed, I thought you said that even if I showed up in a potato sac, you'd still be proud to have me on your arm."
So that's what was going on, he thought.
Her outfit was incredible. It provoked wild, lustful thoughts in him. All he wanted at that moment was to throw her on the bed and make passionate love to her for hours and hours. She knew that was the reaction she'd get. It was the reaction she clearly expected, which proved to him that things weren't exactly as they seemed.
Abbey was a sexy woman blessed with a body that could turn the heads of a hundred men at once. But she was also a woman who exuded class and grace, a regal beauty who didn't have to be told what was appropriate. There was zero chance that she would have picked the tawdry dress she was wearing for something as conservative as a congressional gala. She was teaching him a lesson for dismissing her fears of embarrassing him that morning, Jed assumed. That was the only possibility.
He played along for his own amusement. "You know what, you're right. This dress is perfect for tonight. Screw Michael."
"Michael? Your Chief of Staff?"
"Yeah. He went on some rant today when he found out you were in town. He wanted me to sit you down and talk with you about appearances."
"Appearances?" Abbey's face dissolved into an expression wrought with confusion and a bit of anger.
He tweaked a little more. "Michael thinks you need a stylist, someone to completely redo your look. But you know, I say screw him!"
"What's wrong with my look?"
"I don't know. Something about your wardrobe."
"My wardrobe? What's the problem with my wardrobe?"
"He's afraid it's a little too edgy. The polls say you need a stylist."
"You're listening to polls? About what I WEAR?"
"It's part of the gig."
"JED!" She addressed him with exasperation, enough to cause him to break the act. He laughed as she picked up a washcloth from the dresser and threw it at him. "You jackass!"
"Don't play with me, Hot Pants, unless you want to be played with."
"You're gonna pay for that."
Tugging on his tie, he struggled to regain composure. "It's almost seven. Would you mind putting on what you're really going to wear tonight?"
"Seriously now, what's wrong with what I have on?"
"Abigail."
"You used to have a sense of humor."
"I used to have a lot of things."
"What does that mean?" Abbey retrieved two garment bags from the closet, unzipped them, and held up the dresses.
"Nothing." Jed stripped out of his shirt. "I have to talk to you."
"In a minute. First, tell me which one goes with my hair?"
"Your hair? I don't know what I'm looking for."
"I'm wearing my hair down. I think the neckline on the red one is better served by an up-do. Do you agree?"
"I guess so."
"So the black one then?"
"Yeah. Look..."
"Do you really like the black one or are you just saying that?"
"I like it."
"Because I expected you to say something before I explained about the red. Since you didn't, it makes me wonder if you're just being polite."
"I wouldn't say something just to be polite."
"No?"
"I've been married to you for 18 years. Am I trying to impress you?"
"Good point," she conceded. "So the leather shoes or the satin then?"
"Leather."
"Pump or heel?"
"Heel. Whatever. It doesn't matter."
"It matters to me."
"Who the hell CARES what you're wearing, Abbey? No one! No one cares!"
"I care. You may think it's superficial, but I'm making an impression tonight and it's important to me. When I walk in there, these people are going to size me up, exactly the way they did at the Inaugural ball."
"And? Since when have you been insecure about what other people think?"
"It's not just about what THEY think," she said. "I know you were kidding about the poll."
"I was. I swear I was."
"They do have those polls though, don't they? The thought of being judged like that is something I'm not used to, Jed. I'm not comfortable with it, so if I'm stressing about the little things it's because I don't know what to expect and until I do, I don't want to feel out of place."
Seeing her so vulnerable, he softened his tone. "Abbey, I don't give a damn about polls. I'm never going to ask them to poll what you're wearing and I'm never going to ask you to change anything about yourself because of a silly poll. You believe that, don't you?"
"Of course. I'm going overboard because I'm still adjusting to it all."
"You and me both. I'm sorry I snapped at you, Honey. I like the black dress, I really do. I think it'll look sensational on you."
"Okay, then that's the one I'll wear. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"You're not going to like it." He slipped his pants down his legs. "I'm going to have to work tonight."
"The gala?"
"Yeah, which means you'll be on your own for part of the night."
Abbey tossed her dress on the bed. "Great."
"I know it's not how we planned it."
"No, it's not. I wanted tonight to be about us unwinding and having some fun."
"I was in New Hampshire all last week."
"That's not the point, Jed. One of the reasons I'm here with you is because you said you didn't want to go to this thing alone."
"I don't want to go alone. I had no idea it was going to turn into a political thing. I should have known that everything's politics around here."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"Mingle." He shrugged. "I don't know. I have no choice in this, Abbey. It's part of the game I have to play right now. It's part of what I have to do in order to get things back on track in Washington."
"And what about getting things back on track with us? You're the one who said we needed some time away, just us as a couple, without the kids and all the hassles of every day life."
"I did say that, but you knew before we came up here that I would have work this week."
"During the day. I thought the evenings belonged to us." She picked up her dress, disappointed. "I guess I was wrong."
The idea of a congressional gala in celebration of the 99th Congress didn't excite Jed. He was good at parties and he loved to meet people. Ordinarily, he would have savored the scene - the men dressed in tuxedos and the women in elegant gowns or cocktail dresses, candlelit tables decorated with red, white, and blue confetti lining a magnificent dance floor while an upbeat arrangement of classical and contemporary music played in the background, tempting him to forget everyone in the room and focus solely on Abbey swaying to the beat in his arms. But this wasn't an ordinary party. The more he thought about his task that evening, the more he resented it.
Abbey was thinking the same. He could read it on her face when they walked in. She looked so beautiful standing next to him in her black beaded cocktail dress with her sexy auburn waves falling just below her bare shoulders. He knew she would have given anything to dance with him at that moment, and for the second time that evening, a pang of guilt stabbed his heart.
This time, though, Abbey surprised him by squeezing his hand and smiling her support as she whispered in his ear, "Go."
"Just give me a little while," he asked her.
"As long as you promise me a dance later." She leaned in to kiss him, then tenderly wiped his mouth of her lipstick.
"You got it."
She set her purse down on one of the tables, watching as Jed approached a crowd of congressmen and senators who were gathered in the corner. She regretted being angry with him for doing what he had to do. Back at the apartment, she had told him that she was still adjusting to life in Washington, so was it really so unforgivable that he was doing the same?
"Need a mingle buddy?" a stranger's voice asked from behind. "Mrs. Congressman Bartlet, I presume?"
Abbey turned to see a man holding out his hand to her. "You presume correctly. I'm Abbey." She shook his hand. "And you are?"
"At these things, I'm usually referred to as Mr. Congresswoman Harmon. You can call me Richard."
"Nice to meet you."
"You too. I didn't expect to see so many spouses here tonight."
"Why is that?"
"Look around. Our husbands and wives are congregating amongst themselves. That's how it always is at the first gala. That's why most of the better halves skip it altogether."
"Are all the social functions like this?"
"Nah. Middle of the session, things start to get a little more laxed and by the Christmas party at the end of the year, all the wheeling and dealing is pretty much over."
"So in the meantime?"
"It's like a club. You and I don't know the secret handshake so we get to troll the room awkwardly and watch them screw each other from the sidelines."
"Are you kidding?"
Richard noticed her pained expression. "Believe me, it's not as bad as it sounds. After a while, we get a few betting pools going and it actually gets to be fun. Come on, I'll introduce you to some of our cohorts."
Abbey smiled tightly as she hesitantly joined him.
Political strong-arming wasn't a tactic Jed Bartlet liked using. It wasn't in him to force others to vote the way he wanted them to by enticing them with favors. In fact, it sickened him to think that representatives chosen by the citizens would stoop to such extremes to get what they wanted; that is, until he found himself doing it.
Congressman Bennett had blocked Jed's proposal on increasing the minimum wage out of spite. That was made crystal clear. It was a warning of sorts, a dirty shot taken by a man who had been so corrupted by the power entrusted in him that he relished bullying his freshman colleagues.
Jed felt his only recourse was to manipulate the balance and inch his way closer to others who had been burned by Bennett's strategy in the past. That night, he abandoned his idealistic standards and embraced a maneuver that had become all too popular in Washington.
By promising his vote for new highway improvement legislation, he secured the support of three representatives. A pledge to stand up in favor of an environmental amendment earned him another four. And it wasn't wrong, what he was doing. That's what he told himself. These were issues he could defend in good conscience, so as long as he didn't compromise his beliefs to get votes, his moral compass would still be intact, and his reputation would be spared. Or so he said.
"Congressman?"
Jed looked up to see Tip O'Neill standing before him. "Mr. Speaker. How are you?"
"Good, thank you. I hear you've been working the room tonight. Congressman Thompson says you're making some outstanding points regarding the minimum wage proposal rumbling through the halls."
"It's been sandbagged in committee."
"Bennett?" O'Neill knew Bennett all too well to think that anyone else was behind stonewalling a piece of legislation they all endorsed.
"Yeah. I'm trying to curry favor with some of the others."
"And you're not feeling too good about it, are you?"
Jed cast his eyes down. "I'm fine. It's how it works, right?"
"You're a principled man, Jed. I like that. The longer you're here, the easier it gets."
"The easier what gets?"
"The detours. You don't have to change who you are to get what you want."
"It sounds like that's exactly what everyone's expecting me to do."
The Speaker shook his head. "Don't get me wrong, there are times when you have to pick your battles. You may have to vote for something you don't much care about to get something back in return. You might have to sacrifice bills you want, vote for things you disagree with because in the long run, it's the best thing for everyone. You have to keep your eye on the big picture, look for the greater good."
"I'm trying."
"And sooner or later, it'll occur to you that there are many ways to work the system. On minimum wage, you don't have to go through Bennett."
"I don't?"
"In three weeks, the President is going to be doing his radio address on the prospering economy. I'd like you to handle the Democratic response."
"You're asking me to represent the party and publicly respond to the President?"
"I'm asking you to use those Nobel Prize-winning brains of yours to tell people the truth as an economist. This is your field. You're the expert. Here's your chance to reach a broader audience and convince them of the need for a minimum wage hike. Once you get a little more public support, Bennett won't have a leg to stand on."
For the first time since he got to Washington, Jed finally felt that he brought something to his role as a lawmaker. The fact that he was needed to make things happen instead of being told to stand idly by and watch the big boys work, ignited his fire and as soon as Speaker O'Neill left, he rushed to share the news with Abbey. Scanning the tables, he found her sitting, talking, and laughing with a man he had never seen before.
Intrigued, he wandered towards them. "Hey."
"Hi." Abbey rose to her feet. "This is Richard Harmon."
"Congresswoman Harmon's husband?" Jed shook the man's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," Richard replied. "Your wife's been keeping me company."
Jed took Abbey's arm, grinning lightheartedly. "If you don't mind, I'd like to have her back for a while. I promised her a dance and they're playing our song."
Abbey cocked her brow. "Twenty bucks says you can't even name the song."
"Are you challenging me?"
"That's exactly what I'm doing."
Richard held up his hand to interrupt. "Before this gets ugly, I think I better go. I'll see you guys later."
"Charming man," Jed scoffed while leading Abbey to the dance floor. "What are you laughing about?"
"You still get jealous."
"I do not get jealous."
"Of course you do. You get jealous and your ears do that thing they do."
"What thing?"
"They get red."
Jed touched his ear. "Okay, now you're just making things up."
"Hon, they do. It happens whenever you get jealous."
"Get over here." He grabbed her at the waist.
"Richard and I were just talking."
"I didn't say a word."
"Most of it was about you, about how much I love you."
"I'm still not saying a word."
"You're thinking it."
"You know what I'm thinking?"
"What?"
"That I am the luckiest man in the room because I have you by my side."
She stroked his back. "How'd it go tonight?"
"Better than I thought it would. I'll tell you all about it later. Right now, I want to concentrate on you."
"Now that's what I've been waiting to hear."
As they began to dance, the music changed. Jed pulled away slightly to say, "Dean Martin. And this is 'Sway.' Don't tell me I don't know the song."
"Shut up and dance with me."
'Sway' was one of Jed and Abbey's favorite selections. It was fun and cheerful, yet laced with an undercurrent of sexual innuendo that always seemed to encourage their most provocative steps on the dance floor. Tonight was no exception. They stared deep into each others eyes, flirting like teenagers as they prepared to glide to the music as if their bodies were made move to this song.
"By the way..." He twirled her around and pulled her in so her back was to his front.
"Yeah?" Abbey moved her hips in a smooth, controlled rhythm that spun her back around.
"Have I told you how gorgeous you look tonight?"
"Yes, you did, but I never tire of hearing it."
His right hand gripped hers tightly while his left fell to her waist. "That dress you had on earlier...the nude one that left virtually nothing to the imagination?"
"What about it?" Her heels clacked on the floor, her steps in harmony with his.
"You're not taking it back, are you?"
"I don't think so."
"Good." Jed meshed his body against hers until he closed the space between them.
"You're thinking dirty thoughts."
His eyes, brimming with unspeakable desire, locked into hers. "In your presence, I just can't help myself."
She dug her fingers into his back. "When can we leave the party?"
"Now. For God's sakes, let's go NOW!"
TBC
The song Sway is by Dean Martin. It's one of my favorites so if you want to check it out on Youtube, here it is: /watch?vYsgL35RCGcc