Series: Snapshots of the Past

Story: Endings and Beginnings

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Previously: Jed was cornered, beaten, and knifed on his way to the city council meeting

Summary: Leo and Abbey find Jed

- - -

Uneasiness.

It's the unexplainable feeling in the pit of your stomach that gives you just a twinge of shakiness. You can't verbalize it because it really has no basis or comparable emotion that accompanies it. You can't treat it because it isn't really an illness or ailment. It's just there to grow and manifest itself into a more serious problem, or simply vanish just as mysteriously as it came.

Uneasiness.

Abbey struggled with it all day. It wasn't nerves or indigestion, but it was a feeling that intensified throughout the evening.

Jenny didn't notice. Partly because Abbey didn't want her to. With a polite smile plastered across her face, she pretended her thoughts weren't being held hostage by the tangible notion of doom that gripped her senses. It worked for a while.

The two women sat at the kitchen table, sharing photographs and stories of their daughters. Ellie sat in her cradle on the floor nearby. Nine-month-old Mallory played with crayons and building blocks on the floor with Lizzie.

Suddenly, the girlish chatter fell silent with a gasp from Abbey. Usually, her reaction to a ringing phone wouldn't elicit such a response, but the sharp intake of breath and small yelp as she ran to answer, alarmed both Lizzie and Jenny and caused even Mallory to turn sharply.

"Hello?"

"Abbey."

She took a more steady breathe as she recognized Leo's voice. "Leo, what's up?"

"Where's Jed?"

She stiffened slightly at the question. "Isn't he with you? At the meeting?"

"No, he's not here. He never showed up."

Her pulse raced with his answer. "Where are you?"

"I'm at city hall." He was eerily calm and undisturbed by Jed's absence.

Perhaps it was facade, orchestrated to keep Abbey from worrying. It didn't work. "I'm on my way."

"No, Abbey! Don't come out here. It's a madhouse. I'm sure he just got tied up at work."

"Leo, he called me and told me he was on his way to city hall. If he never arrived then something is wrong. I'm on my way!" In her haste to hang up the phone, she didn't hear the rest of Leo's protest.

"He's not there?" Jenny asked.

"Mommy?" Liz stood up and faced her mother with uncertainty.

"He's okay, Sweetie. He probably just stopped at the library to organize his argument. You know your father. I'm sure everything's fine." She had asked herself many times if it was ever okay to lie to her children? She finally knew the answer.

"They won't hurt him?"

"No, no, no. No one's going to hurt him. I'm going to go get him and bring him back, okay? But in the meantime, I want you to stay here and help Aunt Jenny take care of Mallory and Ellie. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah."

"Good girl." She placed a kiss on Liz's forehead then revealed her more frightened exterior as she turned to her friend. "Jenny, can you..."

"Of course. Call me."

Abbey sprinted out the door, taking on two steps at a time when she reached the front stoop. She never stopped to catch her breath as she leapt onto the train at the T station nearby. Was it a blessing or a curse that she could finally pinpoint the feeling she fought all day? It was Jed. Their close bond has physically alerted her that there was something wrong. And even if it was benign, she was thankful for the warning.

The train stopped every few minutes to load and unload passengers. Her anticipation reached new heights as her fear escalated. Maybe it was just women's intuition -- a phenomenon that Jed mocked unmercifully throughout their married lives -- or maybe she was just overreacting to Leo's phone call. She wouldn't know for sure until she located her husband.

She clutched her wedding ring and twirled it around her finger, leaving tiny indentations of the circular band until the train stopped. She bolted from her car and scurried through the crowds that emptied onto the street outside city hall.

"Leo!" she called as she ran to his side.

"There was a bomb threat just a minute ago. They're abandoning the building."

"Where's Jed?"

"He's not here."

"What happened? Where is he?" She couldn't mask her panic, but fortunately, with Leo, she didn't have to.

"He called you when he left campus, right?"

"Yes. He said he was coming down here and that you and he were going to talk before the meeting."

Leo took her arm and ushered her to a more private corner. "He never arrived."

"Then something happened." Abbey spun around and headed away from the building.

"Where are you going?"

"To find him! He would have gotten off at the T station two blocks from here. I'm going to walk back there. I'm going to hop on the train and take it back to Northeastern until I find him."

"Abbey!" He ran frantically to catch up to her.

"Don't try to stop me, Leo."

"I wasn't going to stop you. I was going to tell you to wait up."

Sirens sounded in the distance. At first, Abbey and Leo assumed they were responding to the bomb threat at city hall. That theory was discarded the second they turned the corner. The crowd that gathered around wasn't chanting. They weren't protesting. A few abandoned signs had fallen to the ground and their owners were frozen in their spots, their eyes ominously looking down.

Abbey looked past them slowly. She scanned the view in front of her, but the vision that captured their attention was eluding hers. She pushed herself through the horde of people and gasped violently at her husband's battered body.

"Jed!" She ran to him, ripping off her coat along the way, her focus so staunch that she didn't even notice the two men crouched down beside him.

They moved out of the way and allowed her room to cover his stomach wound with her coat. Leo volunteered his jacket to keep her warm, but she threw it off her shoulders as she searched Jed's flesh for the source of blood on his arm. Her hands fingered the buttons on her blouse, knowing she needed to immediately stop the exposed opening.

Leo grabbed her hand at her chest and wrapped his jacket around her palm. "Use this."

"It's too thick. I need to keep it tied so I can keep the pressure on his stomach."

He unbuttoned the dress shirt he wore underneath and helped her tie it around Jed's shoulder.

Jed turned towards Abbey. "Abb..." It was a breathless cry, devoid of any power or energy.

"It's okay, Baby. Just lay still. You're okay now."

The sirens grew louder as emergency crews approached, but any amount of relief that washed over Abbey immediately faded when she noticed the color flushing quickly out of Jed's face.

"What's wrong with him?" Leo asked.

"Jed? Jed? Breathe for me. Can you breathe?"

His eyes closed then opened again. He was so relieved to see her. He was so angry that she was seeing him. He would give anything if he could spare her the sight that he knew would haunt her mind forever.

"Jed? ANSWER ME!"

Her words weren't registering. His eyes closed shut and the racing heartbeat she had felt just seconds earlier was quickly winding down.

She removed her legs from under his head and positioned him flat on his back. With his neck arched, she plugged his nose and pressed her mouth to his, blowing two breaths into his limp body.

"Oh God!" Leo looked up for any sign of the ambulance. "They're around the corner. I can hear them!"

His words fell on deaf ears as Abbey continued her rescue breathing. Jed's wounds were sheltered from the air, but it was too late to stop the damage to his lungs.

TBC