Turning over, Abbey opened her eyes and noticed the light from the sitting area was on. She raised up to see Jed sitting on the sofa, with his robe on but open, glasses on and reading some kind of paper. "What time is it?" she asked groggily.
"I'm sorry. Was the light too bright?"
"No, Jed. It wasn't. What time is it?"
He glanced at his watch. "About 4:30. Go back to sleep."
She threw back her covers, grabbed her robe, and walked over to where Jed was sitting. "Aren't you sleepy?"
Looking at her, he shook his head. "No. I've been back a couple of hours and I decided to read instead of going back to bed. I'm sorry I woke you."
Sitting down beside him, she took the papers out of his hands and took off his glasses. "What's wrong? You should be asleep. In the bed with me. And you look terrible."
"Well, thanks a lot. Nice to know you care."
"Jed, what's wrong? Have you been sleeping at all?"
Looking into her green eyes, the only thing he could see was the love she had for him. He so wanted to share his burden with her. He had tried the night she had called from Japan but had stopped before it fully come out.
"Is this about your father? And the meeting with Toby when he asked you if you father hit you?"
They both waited in silence. Abbey knew by Jed's silence that she had hit the bullseye. Jed was using silence to try and form a response that really wasn't a response. Not exactly a lie but then not exactly the truth either.
After a minute or so Abbey cupped her hand on her husband's chin and looked directly into his blue eyes. "Tell me the truth. It's easier."
"Okay. The past two nights I haven't slept at all. Both nights I have sat up and thought about my father and our interactions at various times through my life. His words and actions that hurt me so much and the fact that my mother was so unaware of them. All my life she only said that my father loved me but couldn't show it. But hell Abbey. That wasn't love. That was hell. And I couldn't bear to tell my mother what I went through. You met my father. You only knew him for a short period of time. Can you imagine going through that for twenty plus years and not having anyone to step up and defend you? So, I coped the best way I could. I chose to suppress that son of a bitch. To push those memories so damn down deep I didn't have to think about him. And then I have some son a bitch subordinate come into my office and use some psychobabble and tell me that I'm the way I am because my father hit me? How the hell am I supposed to feel?"
Abbey didn't know what to say at that particular moment except to gather her husband in a tight hug and keep him safe. She felt him start to cry, at first just gentle sobs, but soon breaking into gasping ones as the tension of the past few days came out. "Shh, shh, let go. Let it go. Don't keep it in."
She stayed that way until she noticed that the sobs had given way to regular, even breaths. She gently pulled back and noticed that Jed had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep. She leaned him against the back of the sofa and covered him with a nearby afghan.
Looking at the clock, she realized it was only thirty minutes before his usual wake-up call. She walked over to the bed and picked up the phone. She quietly called Charlie's phone and left a message to delay his wake-up call until 8 am. Then she called Leo's phone and left the same message. But she added an additional message. "Leo. I want to talk with you later in the day. It's about Jed."