Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: Back Home Again
Chapter 4
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Abbey tried to ease Jed's fear of being a disappointment to his daughter
Summary: It's the first day of school for the Bartlets! Abbey begins an eye-opening phase of medical school.
- - -
Outfitted in a white apron embroidered with the words "Kiss The Cook," Jed twirled around the kitchen with a carton of orange juice in his hand. He grabbed Elizabeth's hand and spun her around under his arm, bringing a hearty smile to the little girl's face.
"Do you want to pour the juice?" Her face lit up at the question.
"Yeah!"
With his foot, he inched a step-stool closer to the island and helped her up. She grabbed the carton with both hands and slowly positioned herself in front of the glass her father held on the marble. She poured with ease all the way to the rim.
"That's good! That's good!" he exclaimed as the juice threatened to overflow.
A skillet filled with eggs sat on the stove, steam rising from underneath it. Jed turned off the burner and tilted the pan to one side to allow the eggs to spill smoothly onto the waiting plate. Behind the duo, a breakfast tray complete with toast, jam, sausage links, a single red rose, and now juice teetered slightly off the edge until Abbey snuck up beside it, picked up the glass of juice and took her place behind father and daughter to look on unnoticed.
"Is that enough?" Jed asked the five year old who eagerly nodded in response. "Okay, you lead the way." A quick turn to approach the tray sparked a momentary twinge of panic as a startled Jed came face-to-face with his wife and fumbled the plate, causing it to fall and the tray to tumble after.
Lizzie backed away from the mess and looked up at her mother. "Oops."
"Why the hell do you insist on sneaking up on me?" His voice was sharp, yet gentle.
"I didn't even realize I was sneaking up on you and when I figured it out, the site in front of me was just too cute to pass by," Abbey replied. "Hey, I saved the juice." She held the glass up for his observation.
"I poured the juice!" Liz proudly told her.
"And you did a wonderful job!" Abbey grinned at her pouting husband. "I'm sorry. Really, I am." She walked past him to get to Liz. "Hey, Miss Lizzie! How are you this morning?"
Liz bent down to grab the rose that lay on the floor. She extended her arm towards her mother as she stood back up. "Fine."
"Thank you. That was so sweet." She accepted the flower, pressing it up to her nose for a quick sniff. "Do you have your clothes laid out for school today?"
"Uh huh. Daddy helped me."
Abbey cocked her head back towards Jed. "He did, did he?" After he returned her smile, she rested her hands on her knees and leaned forward to tweak Liz's nose. "Why don't you go get dressed."
"Now?"
"Yep, right now if you don't want to be late."
Lizzie ran towards her bedroom cheerfully as Jed wrapped an arm around Abbey's waist, pulling her up to face level. Abbey turned in his arms to kiss him on the lips before making full contact with her body.
"We wanted to surprise you on your first day of school."
She was definitely touched by the gesture, but confused by the motivation. "It's not exactly my first day."
"It's the first day of this clinical rotation. There's something to be said for that."
"It's Lizzie we should be showering with sweet things this morning. I can't believe she's starting kindergarten."
"Don't think I'm not - showering her with sweet things I mean." He reached up to the cupboard and pulled down a pink Barbie lunchbox. "What do you think?"
"She's only going half days. She won't be eating lunch."
"I know, but she wanted it. I already cleared with her teacher and I'm going to fill it up with an assortment of her favorite snacks she can have while waiting for the bus ride home."
Abbey took the lunchbox from his hands, admiring it closely, as he rummaged around the drawers and placed several bags of candy and boxes of cookies on the counter. "Oh no!"
"Abbey, come on. It's her first day. She may need a little something to get her through."
"She doesn't need all that sugar, Jed. She's excited enough as it is." He tilted his head towards his shoulder and slid his lower lip out in a wordless gesture to convince her. "Give her one candy bar," she conceded. "I'm going to put a banana in there too."
He laughed as he approached her, sweeping away the few strands of hair that danced just above her lashes. "I'm proud of you, you know."
With open hands, she placed her palms on either side of his face, gently massaging his skin with her thumbs. "I know. Hey, it's your first day too."
"Nah, I've been keeping office hours for weeks."
"It's the first day of classes. Better?" she asked with a kiss. With his lips still enveloped by hers, Jed picked her up in his arms and sat her on the counter. His fingers began manipulating the buttons on her pajama top and a single finger slid inside the silky fabric until he felt a stinging slap to his wrist. "Jed, Lizzie's in the next room."
"You told her to get dressed all by herself. She'll be in there forever."
She jumped off the counter. "You're right. I should go help her."
"Don't worry. I'll still be here, ready and willing when you get back," he called out to her as he watched her turn her head slightly and laugh as she walked towards Liz's room.
Armed with a handful of paper towels, Jed kneeled on the ground to sweep up the broken glass and messy remnants of food. Breakfast may not have gone exactly as he planned, but at least he was able to reap the benefits of being a thoughtful husband. And truth be known, getting up to get both his girls ready for school was something he planned to do often. There were going to be other opportunities for the close family bonding time he envisioned.
"Jed!" Abbey called out to him.
"Yeah, hang on." He discarded the trash in his hands and approached the doorway to Liz's room. "What's wrong?"
He followed her eyes to their daughter, standing before them in the beautiful white dress he had just bought her the week before.
"Hi, Daddy!" Liz greeted him sweetly.
"Wow, Lizzie, you look just like a little princess." He pulled back a strand of hair that covered her face and tucked it behind her ear.
"She says you told her she could wear it to school today."
"Yeah, she said you told her it would be okay."
"This dress is for Lucy's birthday party, Jed. Look at it, it's a party dress. Does it really look like it's appropriate for school?"
Jed eyed his daughter's outfit from the top down. "I don't know, Abbey. She said she wanted to wear it and that you said it was okay. I said fine."
"Well, that's the first problem. I never said it was okay. In fact, when she asked me if she could wear it for school, I told her no. Didn't I, Lizzie?"
Liz lowered her gaze slightly and nodded her head. "Yes."
A moment of frustration rose within him, but Jed dismissed his feelings and kneeled in front of Liz. "So then you and Mommy pick out another outfit and I'm going to go cook breakfast...again."
"Okay."
"Okay." He stood up and ran his hand over the top of her head on his way out of the room.
Abbey held up her finger, assuring the little girl that she would return immediately after she chased her husband. "So that's it? She lied to you to play us against one another."
"Children do that kind of thing all the time, Abbey."
"Only if you let them get away with it."
He picked up a rag to wipe off the counter. "What are you going to do, punish her? It's her first day of school."
Abbey looked up and sighed in defeat. "I'm just starting to worry about her. She's been doing this kind of thing a lot lately and we always just look at her and think how cute she is."
"It's just a phase."
"No, it isn't. She's testing the limits and we're letting her exceed them."
"Yeah." He put aside the dirty rag and looked at Abbey. "We'll talk to her, okay? Just let her enjoy today."
She was willing to do that. With a nod, she headed back to Liz's room. "Give me a few minutes and I'll help you with breakfast."
- - -
When she was ready, Liz stood in the middle of her parents, now wearing a more suitable pink dress Abbey had allowed her to pick out. She grasped their hands on either side as the three of them walked to the bus stop. At the approach of the enormous yellow bus, Lizzie took a few steps back, her eyes clouded with apprehension.
Jed met her stare in an effort to reassure her. "It's okay, Angel. You're going to have fun."
"That's right and Daddy's going to pick you up right here when you get home," Abbey added.
Liz closed her eyes. "I guess."
"You said you wanted to go to school by yourself, right?" Abbey asked.
"Yeah."
"Have you changed your mind?"
"No. I think I wanna go by myself."
Jed squeezed her hand a little tighter. "That's right. You're a big girl now, aren't you?"
"I am a big girl." A smile on her face, Liz accepted her father's words.
"And when you get there, Miss Eleanor will be waiting. Remember her? We met her at Parent's Night."
Liz's eyes and attention never left the school bus. "The bus is really big."
Abbey kneeled down and handed her the Barbie lunchbox. "Yes, it is. But guess what - on board there are a ton of other kids just waiting to meet you."
Liz smiled again, just as Abbey knew she would. She was never a shy child and, like her father, one could describe her as an outgoing people person who got the greatest joy out of meeting others.
"Okay," she said, accepting a kiss from both of her parents before taking a few steps towards the open door.
Jed and Abbey watched her climb up the stairs and take her seat, but instead of her face the back of her head was pressed against the window. Right away, they were put at ease, knowing Liz was talking to the young girl sitting next to her.
"She has no trouble making friends," Abbey remarked. "Just like you." She draped one arm over his shoulder and wrapped the other around his waist.
Those were the kindest words she could have said to him. "Thank you," he responded while covering her hands with his own.
- - -
Now that the hard part was over, it was time for Abbey to brace herself for the next phase in her med school education. She was about to begin a year filled with clinical rotations in various medical specialties. One might have expected her to be nervous or scared, but, instead, she met the day with the highest of expectations.
Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed almost immediately by a feeling of inadequacy. After two years of classroom instruction, her test scores and class rank bore testimony to her intelligence and competence, but the first five minutes of her internal medicine rotation managed to erase the self-confidence she had built.
Like the three other third-year students she was teamed up with, Abbey was at the mercy of an egotistical resident physician -- Dr. Kyle Nelson. She knew the only reason Kyle had zeroed in on her was because she was a woman. He pretty much admitted that right away.
With steely determination, she remembered that she had prepared herself for this. After all, knowing only 7 percent of the nation's doctors were women, she expected some roadblocks on her journey to the medical degree she had dreamed about for so long. His timing may have thrown her off, but it didn't deter her entirely. She held her head high, unwilling to let him shatter the unbreakable walls that sheltered her goals.
But unlike Abbey, Kyle had experience at this. "Mrs. Bartlet, Diffuse demineralization of the bone associated with hypercalcemia, anemia, hypergammaglobulinemia, proteinuria, and normal serum alkaline phosphatase is most suggestive of what?"
Abbey took a deep breath then crinkled her eyes in an effort to remember the countless study sessions she spent with Millie. "Multiple myeloma," she blurted out triumphantly.
Her answer wiped the smirk off Kyle's face and riddled him with even more motivation. He circled around her, surprised with her depth of knowledge and unbreakable tenacity.
There's an infamous practice in medical school called pimping in which residents quiz students about various aspects of medicine, usually posing a series of difficult questions to them in front of colleagues. If done with the best of intentions, it's meant to garner a sense of accomplishment in a student while filling in the gaps in her educational knowledge. But when it's done maliciously, it can taunt and humiliate an aspiring physician, sometimes causing her to hang up her lab coat for good.
Kyle's motives were nothing short of malicious. He used the most arcane pieces of historical medical trivia to test her inner strength. When she didn't crumble, the questions became harder, revolving around laboratory research and information to which she hadn't yet been exposed, sparking the inevitable condescension and ridicule when Abbey finally admitted to her ignorance. She felt small and unintelligent, incapable of learning what she assumed most students already knew, and filling her with anxiety and agitation at the mere thought of facing another day of medicine.
She left the hospital that night with glossy eyes, shining with unshed tears that she had controlled for eight hours. With the blink of her eye, she finally allowed a single drop to trail its way down her face. Only a few followed, then it was time to pull herself together before Jed and Liz noticed the fears that threatened to destroy her spirit. The years of textbook study were over and the long hours of memorizing facts and scientific equations gave way to a new facet of med school for which she was ill-prepared.
TBC
