Series: Snapshots of the Past

Story: Back Home Again

Chapter 12

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Previously: After picking her up from school, John spent the day with Liz; Liz lied to Jed about seeing John

Summary: Jed and Liz help Abbey study for her medical boards

- - -

Elizabeth turned the doorknob and walked inside the apartment carrying a small bouquet of flowers in her arms. Her parents followed closely behind with a look of pride radiating from their speechless bodies.

"That was fun!" Liz excitedly declared, still dressed in a traditional 'Mary' costume from the school Christmas pageant.

"You were the best Mary I've ever seen on stage." Jed's words were sincere. The entire time Liz took center stage, she captivated the audience, not to mention her father's heart, with her sweet, angelic portrayal. His obvious bias notwithstanding, he had never witnessed a more memorable production.

"I wanna do it again!" She was an animated child, like her father, often using large hand gestures to solidify her point, especially when she was happy.

Abbey laughed at those endearing qualities she often saw in Jed. "You'll get to audition for the next play."

"I wanna do it over and over again."

"You want to be an actress when you grow up?"

With an answer already prepared, she replied immediately. "No, Mommy, I wanna be a star!"

Jed picked her up to give her a big kiss. "Lizzie, you can be whatever you want to be, as long as you want it enough to go out and do it. But for now, my little Starlette, why don't you go change into your jammies?" He set her down and patted her back, sending her to her room.

"Jed, did you keep Lizzie out of school last Tuesday?" It was a blunt question that surprised Jed.

"No, why?"

"Her teacher mentioned something to me about her being absent."

"Must have been a mistake. I'll call her about it tomorrow."

"Don't forget, okay?"

"I won't, but relax. It was an error. Last Tuesday they got to finger-paint. Lizzie told me herself."

Still uneasy about the confusion, Abbey questioned Liz when she returned from her bedroom. The fear of being punished had always driven the five year old to fib when it was convenient, but at her tender age, lies weren't remembered easily.

"What did you do in school last Tuesday?" Abbey asked.

Watching Liz struggle to search her memory, Jed jumped in. "Abbey, come on. She doesn't remember. That was the day you got to finger-paint, right, Lizzie?"

"Uh huh." Jarring her memory, the lie still slipped from her lips effortlessly. "And we also got to color."

Abbey lightly smacked Jed's arm for his interference, but accepted her daughter's answer without further inquiry. She reclined on the sofa and visually scrutinized Jed as he pulled a large cheesecake from the refrigerator.

"You know how unhealthy that is?" she sniped.

"Give me a break. We haven't had cheesecake in weeks."

Abbey tapped her feet on the edge of the floor, waiting for him. Her childlike, yet attractive anticipation was an endearing quality he always found hard to resist. So he progressed slowly, eventually leaving the kitchen carrying three plates of the chocolate dish which he placed on the coffee table.

Elizabeth climbed up on the cushion of the loveseat and waited for Jed to hand her a slice. It was a rare treat to eat on the furniture, but on this night, tensions were high causing the three of them to abandon protocol in a blatant disregard for the rules.

As Abbey reached for her plate, she was taken aback when Jed moved it just out of her grasp. "What?"

"I'm willing to overlook your complaint and let you have a piece."

She ignored the presumed conditions attached to his statement. "Good."

With another gesture to reach for the plate, he pulled it further away. "After we quiz you."

"Jed."

"Those are the rules, Abbey. You pass our quiz, you get cheesecake."

"And if I don't?" She asked with a twinge of defiance.

"Then you'll have to sit there and watch as Lizzie and I enjoy our dessert."

An unfair proposition, maybe, but one that was sure to get her juices flowing, her mind working, and all the pent-up knowledge inside of her brewing. He took the seat next to Liz cradling the USMLE textbook in the crook of his arm, shuffling the pages to make her just nervous enough to arouse her motivation, as well as a flash of impatience.

"Well? Are you going to start?" It worked.

"Don't rush me." He skimmed a few pages before finally settling for an acceptable question. "Okay, Abigail, a 32-year-old construction worker arrives in the emergency department after an accident on the job. The tendon of the biceps brachii at the elbow has been severed by a laceration that extends 2 cm medially from the tendon. Which structure is likely to have been injured by medial extension of the laceration?"

Jed leaned in towards Liz and pointed to the page to let her in on the answer. Liz looked up at her mother and covered her lips as a small laugh escaped her tiny body.

Without missing a beat, Abbey answered. "Brachial artery."

"What do you think?" Jed asked Liz.

"Yeah, she got it right!" she exclaimed with the sound of applause echoing form her clapping hands.

"Okay, you get one bite of your cake." Jed watched closely as Abbey slanted herself off the sofa and made an exaggerated show of taking only one bite. "Don't get snotty about it," he teased. "Here's another one. In a normal individual, a tube with a transducer at its tip is swallowed and passed an unknown distance down the esophagus. Between swallows it records a pressure of 25 mm Hg. A small amount of water is swallowed. Within 2 seconds, the pressure falls to 5 mm Hg, where it remains until returning to its resting pressure 6 seconds later. In a patient with achalasia, the transducer is advanced to the same location. Between swallows, it records a pressure of 30 mm Hg. After swallowing, the pressure fails to decrease. In which site is the transducer most likely located?"

She closed her eyes tightly, digging deep in her brain. "Esophageal body proximal to the diaphragm?" It was more of a question than an answer.

"Nope, I'm sorry."

"No you're not," she shot back with a slit-eyed glare.

"It's the lower esophageal sphincter." Jed pulled the book to his chest and leaned in to whisper in Lizzie's ear.

Abbey's stare followed her daughter's guilty smile as she crossed the room and bent over the coffee table to take a bite of her mother's cheesecake.

"What's going on?"

Jed couldn't help but snicker at her confusion. "Yeah, that's the penalty for getting an answer wrong. Lizzie gets a bite."

"She has her own."

"Yes she does and she'll eat that too." It was time to rib her a little more, all in a fun and loving way, of course. "You know, all that sugar will keep her up tonight, which means, it'll keep you up too."

"Why is that?"

"You and she are both off tomorrow. I, on the other hand, have to go to work, so, tonight, I get to sleep and she gets to keep you up."

"That's not exactly fair."

"I guess you'll just have to get the rest of the answers right then."

Abbey plopped back against the armrest with an exasperated sigh while Jed continued thumbing through the pages, enjoying every moment of the dubious curiosity visible in her body language. With her knees curled up towards her chest and a blanket thrown carelessly over her naked feet, she used her hand as a pillow and laid her head gently on top.

His glances became more rampant as the questions became more difficult, something she noticed immediately and did her best to encourage. Her fingers wrapped themselves around a few strands of hair and she pretended to twist them absent-mindedly. She always found the most inopportune times to distract him and boy did he love her distractions!

The thought of a young child sitting only inches away would have been completely lost in their subconscious had Jed not looked at his watch. "It's 9:00. You know what that means, Lizzie?"

"I wanna stay up!"

"Sorry. Mommy's doing better than I thought she would, so that means you have to go to sleep."

"But..."

"If you go now, I'll read you a story."

"My tummy's full."

"Really? Or are you just pretending?"

"No, it's really full." Her arms wrapped around her waist and the sad expression on her face caused Jed to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"I'm not surprised with all the cake Daddy let you eat."

"Please. She had two bites of yours."

"Yeah. I wish you were wrong more, Mommy."

"If I was, you'd be feeling a lot worse, Baby Doll. You want some medicine?"

"Uh uh."

Jed rubbed her head gently. "You want to sleep out here for a while?"

She nodded and made herself comfortable, stretching out her small frame on the cushions and resting her head on Jed's lap. Most kids might want their mother's comfort when they don't feel well, but Liz had always gravitated towards her father's. It was that unbreakable bond that formed the second she was born that convinced her she was always safe in Daddy's arms.

For his part, Jed did everything he could to reinforce the belief she held so close to her heart. It gave him joy to feel he was her protector, her safety net, someone she could always turn to and trust with her deepest feelings and strongest emotions. He hoped it was a lesson that she would remember for the rest of her life.

Abbey draped a blanket over her and bent down to kiss her face while Jed played with her soft strands of hair in an effort to lull her to sleep. Watching her husband take such gentle care with their daughter gave her goose bumps. She had grown up extremely close to her own father and reveled in the fact that Liz would do the same. It was obvious early-on that Jed would be a wonderful father, but she sometimes reluctantly admitted that before Liz was born, she wondered if he'd ever allow himself the opportunity.

All her doubts faded away the day she placed Elizabeth in his arms for the very first time. The combination of apprehension and delight at holding someone so small, so dependent, so fragile convinced her that with a little encouragement, Jed was capable of opening his soul to one more person. And though she sometimes criticized his parenting skills, in the same breath, she'd silently thank God for blessing her daughter with such an amazing father.

Later that evening, Jed carried his sleeping daughter to her bed, then joined Abbey in their room. He picked up her textbook on the way and stacked a few pillows under his head to read.

"Jed, it's late."

"Let's just get through a few more pages."

She turned down the covers and slipped underneath, finding his warm embrace more relaxing than the cold sheets. With her head curled up on his chest, he held the book in front of her so they could read together before they drifted off to sleep.

TBC