Series: Snapshots of the Past

Story: The London Years

Chapter 17

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Previously: Abbey remembered what happened just before she left Jed at the party and returned home. Jed finally came home.

Summary: Jed and Tom have some explaining to do!

Author's Note: The rest of the story will take place in the present

- - -

Present day - July 22, 1970

Abbey's arm stretched out as far as it could as she reached for the knob, but it eluded her as the door swung open. He lifted his head, turning his focus from his keys to her face.

"Jed."

With relief flooding through her, Abbey catapulted herself into his arms, her force so strong it almost knocked him over. She smothered him with kisses, her lips caressing the skin of his face and neck. Without a second thought, Jed wrapped himself tightly around her and returned each and every one of her kisses.

"Hi," he muttered softly.

Tom made his way inside the apartment behind Jed, but wasn't greeted with the same reception from his wife. Lila stood at the opposite end of the room and stared at him as if silently condemning him for the misdeeds she could only suspect.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Abbey whispered with her cheek against Jed's chest, her head tucked under his chin, and a few tears of relief escaping her lashes. Jed opened his mouth to respond when Abbey, suddenly overcome with the reality of the situation, placed both hands on his chest and shoved his body away from her own. "You Jackass! Where the hell have you been? It's 7:30 in the morning!"

Jolted by her unexpected outburst, Jed quickly spoke up. "I can explain what happened."

Abbey raised one brow in anticipation while Jed looked to Tom.

"Well?" Abbey pressured him.

Jed's gaze now turned into a glare, waiting for Tom to say something or at least give him permission to come clean. "Are you just going to stand there?"

"Jed, you were gone all night," Abbey continued. "You didn't even call. I have been worried sick, going through all the nightmare scenarios in my mind, thinking you were stabbed or shot or God knows what else! How can you explain that? How can you give me a good enough explanation that won't make me walk out that door right now?"

"I'm not sure there is an explanation that's good enough," he replied honestly. "I should have called."

At least he acknowledged that.

"Why didn't you?"

Jed's hands slipped into his pocket, his eyes glued to his fidgeting feet. "I couldn't get to a phone."

Abbey tilted her head to lock eyes with him. "You were out all night and you couldn't find your way to the nearest pay phone to call me and let me know you were still alive?"

"That's right."

"I don't buy it. There are phones all over this damn city!"

"Abbey…"

"You know what, Jed, you're mad at me, fine. You want to get back at me for our fight about Ron, fine. You want to make me worry about you, you want to put me through hell as payback, fine, but don't you DARE lie about it! You stayed out all night and you didn't even have the decency to call and check on your baby girl!"

"Abbey, I swear, I didn't do this on purpose. I wanted to call. I swear to you I did. But I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"I just couldn't."

"That's it? You're not going to tell me where you were and what stopped you from calling?"

He turned his back to her and rubbed his forehead, praying for the words to calm the imminent storm that was brewing between the foursome. He took off his jacket and the napkin that slipped out of his pocket and tumbled to the floor brought Tom out of his daze. Both men made an attempt for it, but Abbey was the one who snatched it off the floor and held it out of their grasp.

"What is it?" Lila asked.

"Abbey, it's not what you think," Jed warned.

Abbey faced Jed as she answered the rave-haired woman. "It's a napkin with a phone number on it. Apparently, our husbands met a woman named Jennifer last night."

"Are you going to say anything?" Jed snapped at Tom.

"I don't give a damn what he has to say!" Abbey exclaimed. "You're the one who was carrying the number."

"It isn't mine."

"Give me one damn good reason I should believe you."

"Because I'm telling you!"

She waved her hand at him, allowing the napkin to fall to the floor. "Oh well, that makes all the difference in the world. We all know honesty is your strongest virtue."

"I know you're angry, but don't do this, Abbey." Jed cut off her effort to skirt around him by blocking her path. "Look at me, damn it!" He breathed a momentary sigh when she did as he asked. "Tell me you believe me. Tell me you know I would never do that to you."

The truth was that deep down, Abbey could never deny Jed's integrity. No matter what happened between them earlier that night, he would have never betrayed their wedding vows. But the nagging part of her that still wanted a reasonable explanation prevented her from giving him the reassurance he needed. "Why was it in your pocket?"

"Because he was holding onto it for Tom," Lila said softly, staring at her own husband with steely eyes. "Right?" He didn't respond and she repeated her question, her voice a direct reflection of her temper. "You're going to stand there and let Jed take the blame?"

Tom reluctantly shook his head. "Abbey, Jennifer is a woman we met at a bar. Jed spent the entire night with me to keep me from going home with her. It was me, not him."

"You spent the evening trying to prevent Tom from having an affair?" Abbey asked Jed.

"No," Tom answered. "It wasn't an affair he was trying to prevent. I was drunk and I was being stupid and he refused to leave me alone - not even to call you, even though he said over and over that he wanted to. When he eventually did find a pay phone, I ducked out. He ran after me and we fought over the keys until the bar closed. And then, we just sat there for a while, on the curb in the middle of a some neighborhood. He wanted me to sober up a little before we started walking home."

Abbey kept her eyes on Jed, her expression clearly expressing remorse. But before she could open her mouth to apologize to him, Lila grabbed Tom's arm and turned him around, forcing her to face him.

"You BASTARD!" she shouted just before she slapped him across the face.

Her violent outburst stunned Jed and Abbey, but what shocked them even more was when Tom slapped her back. Jed jumped between husband and wife and extended his hand to restrain Tom while Abbey wrapped her arm around Lila to walk her in the opposite direction.

"I'm not going to touch her!" Tom insisted as he struggled against Jed's hold.

"Fine. Then let's go get some air."

As the two men turned to walk out, Abbey called out to her husband. "Jed?"

"What?"

He's very angry. Please be careful."

Jed nodded, threw his jacket over his arm, and followed Tom outside.

Lila ran tips of her fingers over her bruised cheek as Abbey took a seat next to her on the sofa and held the trembling woman in her arms. She couldn't imagine what Lila must be thinking, what she must be going through after such a nasty fight. In that moment, she thanked her lucky stars for her own husband. Jed may have some faults, but she knew without a doubt he was a good man.

"So now you've seen it for yourself. That's the big secret Tom doesn't want anyone to know. He drinks…a lot. He's a recovering alcoholic who's fallen off the wagon more times than I can count."

"Has he always been abusive?"

Lila pulled back and sat upright, sweeping her hair back out of the way. "That's not abuse. I mean, that was the first time he's ever hit me in the face. It's the first time he's ever hit me in front of others. He usually just grabs me or pushes me, smacks me on the arm now and then. I do the same to him. It's how we communicate."

"How you communicate?" It was a foreign concept to Abbey. "Lila, he slapped you."

"I slapped him first."

"I know, but..."

"It's just how we are, Abbey. It's how we live."

"How can anyone live like that?"

Abbey had known a few abuse victims, including her own husband, but never had she heard a person as resigned to a lifestyle filled with physical explosions of anger as Lila seemed to be. All her perceptions about the wonderful marriage Tom and Lila shared were shattered by the lipstick-covered napkin and the mutual violence between the couple.

"You pushed Jed when he was holding you. It's the same kind of thing."

Abbey understood the words, but she couldn't reconcile the two situations. "I shoved him to get him away from me, and maybe I shouldn't have. But I would never hurt Jed. I could never hurt him. And I know he would never raise his hand to me."

"Tom and I are both hot-tempered."

She took a beat and focused on being a friend instead of handing out the unsolicited advice she really wanted to give. "So who's Jennifer?"

"How would I know? Before the party, my ex called. That's why he was out trolling for a girl."

"Your ex," Abbey repeated, nodding as she remembered the conversation they had just before their husbands came home.

"His name is Richard. He was my lover when Tom and I were married the first time." She chuckled at Abbey's confused expression. "You didn't know that either - that Tom and I were already married and divorced once, that I cheated on him for two years. That's why he left me. Some might say that's why he turned to the bottle again. He ended up going into an alcohol treatment program and a year later, we got back together. Marriage counseling helped for a while…until recently."

"What happened recently?"

"Richard began calling. I met him for dinner one night. It was completely platonic, but Tom had a fit. Things haven't been back to normal since." She wiped her eyes with a tissue. "I guess I can't really blame him. Richard was the guy who took his place for a short time, at least in my bed…in our bed."

"Oh, Lila."

"I told you it wasn't exactly like you and Jed fighting over Ron."

"I don't know what to say."

Both women stared straight ahead, lost in their own thoughts about what had happened just moments before. Lila's temper eventually simmered and her expression held a hint of confusion mixed with an undefined hurt Abbey hadn't seen before.

"I do love him, you know," she said softly.

Neither one of them knew how to circle around the awkward pause that followed. Abbey reached out to touch the quivering hand sitting in Lila's lap. With a tight squeeze and unspoken words, she gave the older woman her support and, once again, found herself counting down the seconds until Jed returned home.

TBC