Friday
March 8, 2002
Edgewater, Maryland

Sherry walked down the steps onto the dock. After spending most of the day inside, not wanting to be seen by the neighbors, she needed to get out of the house. It was a little before midnight now and the marina was quiet save for the sound of the waves rocking a boat tied nearby. Sherry wrapped her sweater around her and stared out at the vast blackness beyond the edge of the dock.

She couldn't believe David would betray her like this.

When he told her that she wasn't fit to be First Lady, that she had forgotten how to be a friend and a wife, Sherry assumed he was blowing off steam. David was always more emotional than he should be. After everything they had been through that day and the lack of sleep it was understandable that he would he would be upset. She thought that after some rest he would realize his mistake and call her.

This afternoon she received a phone call from Nicole. She found out from her daughter that David considered this time apart a separation. The prelude to their divorce.

He must be a fool if he thought he could toss her aside like this.

After she heard that she was livid and tried calling David who was unreachable. He was on the campaign trail. He was only fooling himself if he thought he had a snowball's chance in Hell of winning. He couldn't survive without her. She had made him what he was, when no else believed in him Sherry had been there for him. She had given up everything for him. Sherry had given him everything she had. She'd given him her love, her intelligence, her strength, her determination, her body had carried his children. She had given him thirty years of her life and he thought he could just walk away from her.

Sherry knew she had made mistakes, she was willing to admit that. She knew using Patty and trying to entrap David was wrong. She understood that he was upset that she had kept the truth about Keith a secret. She should have been more supportive when he wanted to go public with the truth. She should never have gone to the press after the bomb exploded.

However, David had to understand though that everything she had done had been for him. Sherry had only been trying to protect him and the life they had tried to build together. She could admit that she had gone too far but he had to realize that she only had his interests at heart. Sherry was willing to give him the space he wanted but David had to realize that he needed her.

He'd never make it to the White House without her.

Sherry felt a shudder pass through her body as the anger and hurt bubbled up inside.

How dare he get on his high horse and tell her she had forgotten how to be a wife! Sherry knew that using Patty to seduce her husband was...extreme but she would never have attempted it if she didn't think it would work. Did he think she was stupid, did he think she hadn't seen what was going on between them? There was an attraction there and it wasn't only from Patty's side. She had watched for months as her husband had basked in the attention Patty gave him, he had soaked up every compliment. She had seen the way David's eyes would light up around Patty and the admiring glances he gave the younger woman when he thought no one saw.

Sherry had noticed everything.

David had a lot of nerve doing this to her, brushing her aside and insulting her on top of it. She had forgotten what it meant to be a mother, had she?

While he had been off building his career she had been the one taking care of their children. When that whole business with Lyle Gibson happened it was she who had spent time with Nicole. Oh sure David had been there in the beginning but in a few weeks, after things had settled down a bit, he was back at work. Nicole, always so eager to please them, told him she was fine. David, of course had believed her because it was what he wanted to hear -- that his happy little family was happy again.

But it was Sherry, not her husband, who had spent time with Nicole for the next several months. She had gone to therapy with Nicole and stayed up nights with her daughter when she was having problems sleeping.

It was a similar story with Keith. David had been content to believe that everything was fine and to never look below the surface. Just as with Nicole he had thought therapy would fix all of Keith's problems and had never seen how much their son was hurting. It was her who had taken the steps to protect her son not David.

No, David had been content to throw her son to the wolves. He was so wrapped up in his ideals it didn't matter if his own son was hurt in the process. He had said to her that the only thing that mattered was the truth -- not the election. How could he have honestly believed that? Sherry knew her husband was every bit as ambitious as she was whether he admitted it or not. If he wasn't as wrapped up in his image and in winning his campaign he would have allowed Kingsley to release the story but instead he decided to play a riskier game and gamble with their son's future.

David was just lucky that the public had been forgiving.

But her husband, arrogant as always, still continued playing games. Despite nearly being killed earlier in the day he had insisted upon going after the lunatic agent who had almost murdered him. Worse, David had helped the man! Minutes after the agent had brought some sort of explosive device into their hotel, after nearly killing David a second time, he was demanding that her husband help him. While Sherry hadn't intended to be cruel to the man she couldn't believe her husband was willing to help him. They didn't even have proof that he was telling the truth and yet David was willing to risk everything that they had worked for by valuing the word of a stranger over common sense.

It was almost funny that her husband thought he could still win. He was always naive but this was downright delusional. Even now, his poll numbers had dipped a bit and once word got out that "family man" David Palmer was getting a divorce it would be over for him. The Democratic Party wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole.

He had to come back to her, he had to. He had to know that what she had done was in their best interests, that she had always put him first. He couldn't make it without her, he needed her.

She had to make David understand, he was only preparing himself for a disaster without her by his side.