After lunch, Abbey had been pushed back to her room for a nap and Jed was resting as well. Leo and Stanley had found a quiet room to talk about the miracle Leo considered Stanley had engineered in Abbey's attitude.
"Okay, Stanley. From the beginning."
"Well, when I went into her room, she was lying in the bed, just staring into space. I introduced myself and just started asking routine questions. You know the type, how she was doing, how she was feeling right then, those kinds of things. Sometimes she would answer in one word, sometimes with complete sentences. But with time, she began to open up and we delved into deeper feelings and emotions. Abbey doesn't have anywhere near the emotional barriers the President has. Anyway, it didn't take any time before the main reason for her feelings came out as to why she felt she was the cause of his current medical issues. Now, I'm not going to betray patient confidentiality, but let's just say I was able to make her see that it was not her fault, and her fatigue was clouding her ability to think clearly. And it had been that way for some time. She had left on her trip angry and had never completely resolved that anger."
Leo thought back to his conversation with the President after his phone call with Abbey. Jed sure thought they had resolved the issue.
"So anyway, when he relapsed after she requested the sedative, all that came to the surface and emotionally broke her. A lot of that was subconscious, and she didn't realize what was causing her reaction until we talked about it together."
"Did she explain this to Jed this morning?"
"In a manner of speaking. If it's okay with you, I can go with them to Manchester and continue the therapy for a couple of weeks, individually, and with them as couple. As the President begins to recover his memory, it will really be essential that they settle these issues so they can continue to heal emotionally and physically. Abbey was totally exhausted, but didn't want to admit it to herself. So, when one adds the plane troubles and then the President's health problems, it was bound to happen. And the dam broke last night. I've told you before I specialize in trauma cases. From the perspective of an outsider this might not look like trauma, but when I look at all the pieces of this puzzle, it does look like trauma to me. Trauma doesn't have to be a gunshot or an automobile wreck to be disruptive to one's psyche. I've come to know and respect Jed Bartlet, and now Abbey. I want to help them as a couple."
"But what about your practice in California?"
Stanley paused before he continued. "Leo, maybe you can appreciate this. I am well known in my field. I've been very blessed in my lifetime, so now I can pick and choose what I want to do. Although money and fame are nice, sometimes it's not everything. Sometimes you run across something that you just want to do. Have you ever felt that way?"
Leo smiled. He thought back to that fall in Manchester when he went to the Governor's Office and asked Jed to run for the Presidency. "Yeah, Stanley, I do."