Series: Snapshots of the Past

Story: Back Home Again

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Previously: Leo and Jenny made a surprise visit and announced they're expecting their first child, prompting Jed and Abbey to consider having another baby. Jenny asked Jed to talk to Leo about his drinking.

Summary: Leo dismisses Jed's concern. Jed and Abbey disagree over how to handle Elizabeth's temper tantrums.

- - -

Elizabeth stared at her laced fingers with her hands clasped around one another as her tousled chestnut-colored hair cascaded down her soft skin and gently brushed the side of her naturally flushed cheeks. Her dark lashes extended upward as she opened her big blue eyes and looked across the table at Jenny.

"My Barbie doll?" she asked.

Jenny shook her head. "Nope."

"My bracelet?"

"I don't think so."

Liz lowered her head in deep thought. A renewed sparkle in her eye matched the enthusiastic tone in her voice. "Money?"

Jenny took a sip of her juice as she contemplated the thought. "How much?"

"Umm, I have..." She held out her hands with her palms aimed towards the ceiling and counted her fingers, folding them in one by one. "...six dollars!"

Abbey stepped out of the bedroom and walked into the kitchen with a raised brow, approaching her daughter curiously.

"I don't think that's enough," Jenny told her.

"How 'bout the necklace Daddy gave me for Christmas?"

"You'd give that away?"

Liz wrapped her fingers around the silver chain hanging from her neck. "No," she said while shaking her head.

Jenny laughed and pinched the girl's cheek. Abbey ran her fingers through the back of Liz's hair, attempting to relieve some of the tangles nestled in her straight locks.

"What is she doing?" she asked.

"Bartering for the baby," Jenny answered.

Abbey moved toward the side of Liz's chair with an exasperated expression that caused Liz to bite down on her lower lip in embarrassment. "Lizzie! Leave Jenny alone."

"Abbey, it's fine. She's adorable."

Abbey kept one eye on her daughter and turned slightly to focus on Jed. "You're just standing here, allowing her to try to buy a baby?"

"It's not like Jenny's going to sell the little one," he joked with his back leaning against the stove.

"I want a baby!" Liz whined.

Leo crossed the room and stood next to Jed. "Careful, she's starting young," he teased.

"Shut up," Jed shot back.

Abbey moved her husband out of the way and splattered a spoonful of cooking oil into the skillet behind him while she waited for him to hand her a couple of eggs. "Tell you what, Lizzie, after breakfast, you can come with me and Jenny to Filene's. We'll go take a look at those shoes you wanted."

"It's not the same," Liz replied dryly.

"No but it's better than nothing, right?"

The women's shopping excursion gave Jed a chance to express some of Jenny's concerns to Leo. He assumed it would be a conversation rife with opportunity for conflict, but surprisingly, Leo's agreeable demeanor extinguished any chance of an argument.

With eyes brimming with tears of happiness, his sincerity was unmistakably visible. "Remember what got me through the war? Remember what I held on to in the darkest hours?"

Those words unearthed years worth of memories for Jed. While serving in Vietnam, Leo had often written about his horrific experiences, constantly claiming that in the face of the multitude atrocities and the countless fellow soldiers who dodged enemy fire only to fall prey to their own suicidal thoughts, the single motivating factor in his fight for survival was starting a family with Jenny.

"Yeah, I remember."

"It's finally happening. I'd be an idiot to throw that away."

"Jenny said..."

"I know what Jenny said. I know she's concerned and I knew she would probably bring it up with you. Trust me, it's not a problem. I drink socially, that's it."

"She says it's more than that."

"Because she worries way too much."

"But..."

Desperate to change the direction of the conversation, Leo interrupted. "Doesn't Abbey nag you sometimes?"

"My smoking," Jed sighed.

"Then you know. Look, the most important thing in the world to me is Jenny's health right now. I don't want to cause her any more stress than she's already under. If she wants me to quit drinking, I will."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"You'll tell her that?"

"Of course."

"Okay," Jed replied. "I hope you understand. I was just trying to help Jenny."

"Yeah, I understand," Leo answered with a warm smile that set Jed's mind at ease.

It was easy. Too easy. Jed knew that, but despite his initial suspicions, he believed Leo. Having been by Abbey's side during the nine months of her pregnancy, he saw firsthand the affects of the emotional rollercoaster hormones could spark. A wave of relief washed over him, but the humble grin that came with it disappeared quickly once the door swung open with a disgruntled Liz pouting her way inside. Abbey and Jenny followed, one behind the other, each carrying several shopping bags.

His eyes followed them across the room. "What happened?"

"You know that white dress Lizzie wanted to buy last week?" Abbey started.

"The one for Lucy's party?"

"That's the one."

"Uh oh," Jed mumbled under his breath.

"Well, I decided to go ahead and buy it for her. Unfortunately, they no longer had her size, but that didn't stop Lizzie throwing a fit and staging a mini sit-in right there in the store, claiming she wasn't going anywhere until I bought her another dress."

"So after a few minutes, Abbey picked her up and Lizzie began screaming. Two security guards heard the commotion and rushed over," Jenny added.

"With the way she was carrying on, I think they may have doubted I was even her mother."

Jed let out a small laugh, but quickly straightened his posture and wiped the smile off his face when Abbey responded with a stern, scolding look. "Sorry."

"Do you want to know what happened when they asked her what was going on?" Abbey faced her daughter. "Go ahead and tell Daddy what you told them."

"I told them what you told me..."

Liz trailed off and buried her face in her hand. Unable to resist the vulnerability of the young the girl, Jed picked up her up then looked to Abbey for the conclusion of the story.

"So she looked the officer right in the eye and said her Daddy told her that in America, no one has to do what they don't want to do."

"Adult translation - the art of protest," Jenny finished.

The smirk on Leo's face disappeared with the guilty glance Jed threw his way. "Okay, so I told her about a couple of sit-ins I participated in. It was the 60s...there were protests all over the country."

"And she certainly listened."

"I didn't expect her to stage a coup at the department store."

"Jed..."

"Abbey, it doesn't matter. I can end this whole thing right now." He lowered Liz to the ground and popped into the coat closet where he pulled out a plastic garment bag used to shelter the familiar white fabric peeking out of the edges.

"You didn't."

Jed nodded and unwrapped the dress, handing it to an excited Liz. "I picked it up on my way home from work a few days ago."

"We agreed to wait until the end-of-summer sales."

"I know, but I was afraid they would all be gone by then and I knew how much she wanted it."

His eyes glittered with pride, his smile widening as he watched Liz untangle the lace from around the hanger and hold it up to her small body. At Leo's urging, she left the room to slip on her new dress as Abbey's gaze focused on Jed with frustration rising within her.

"Is that her reward for her tantrum?" she asked.

"What?" he replied, genuinely surprised by the disapproving look she was shooting across the room. "You were going to buy her the dress anyway."

"Yes, I was, before she threw herself on the ground and kicked and screamed her way out of the store."

"Come on, Abbey. She's a child. She's going to throw tantrums." He turned to Leo for support. "Right?"

Leo put his hands up in an act of neutrality. "I'm staying out of this one."

"Chicken," Jed teased.

"I don't want her thinking that she can have her way if she whines and pouts," Abbey continued.

"I don't either, but at the same time, I'm her father. If she wants something, it's my job to get it for her. Isn't that what your father did?"

"Not when I behaved the way Lizzie did today."

Jenny argued Abbey's point a step further. "Neither did mine. I don't want to overstep..."

"No, go ahead," Abbey insisted. "You were there. You saw the whole thing."

"I just think children need to know the boundaries. They need to know what's acceptable and what isn't and giving her what she wanted only proves to her that what she did today was acceptable, at least by you, Jed," Jenny concluded.

"He bought his daughter a dress she's obviously crazy about," Leo interrupted. "I don't understand what's wrong with that."

Jenny folded her arms and aimed her stare at her husband. "I thought you were staying out of it."

"That was before you championed Abbey's cause."

"So is that what you're going to do with our kid?"

"Maybe. It depends on the situation."

Abbey jumped in just as Leo finished. "The situation here is that Lizzie just learned a lesson in manipulating her father."

"Hey! She didn't manipulate me," an insulted Jed replied.

The conversation came to a standstill as the four turned their heads to capture a sight of Liz framed in her bedroom doorway. The hem of her dress barely scraped her knees and the lacey fabric showed off a white, shimmery underlay that naturally rippled before dipping in at her waist. Her short sleeves covered the very top of her arms with a small hint of glitter interweaved in the mini cutouts that extended to the high collar.

She held the belt behind her with her hands. Her chin rested on the top of her chest as her fingers fumbled with the material. "I can't tie it."

Abbey's lips curved with a smile at her beautiful daughter. "Come here."

She pulled Liz's arm and sat in a chair behind as she tied the thin pieces of lace in the back of the dress. Liz tilted her head backwards and rolled her eyes up to get a look at her mother.

Once she was finished, Abbey leaned forward and kissed the top of Liz's head. "There you go, Baby Doll."

Lizzie turned around and shrugged at her mother. "I'm sorry I made you mad."

Abbey returned the smile and nodded, pulling her up to her lap. Jed nudged Leo as Liz rested her head against her mother's chest. When he witnessed such loving scenes between mother and daughter, he thanked God for Abbey.

He couldn't help but reflect on his own childhood - a childhood filled with fear and helplessness, knowing his feelings would never be taken seriously, a childhood where anything he wanted was ridiculed and scorned, where every tantrum was met with a beating and every apology with cynicism, a childhood he was determined to forget and in the process, prevent little Lizzie from ever facing.

TBC