Chapter 27
"AJ, open the damn door!" Skye yelled through the door of his room as she rested her head against the thick wood before kicking it in frustration.
"Allow me," Reginald Jennings sighed as he came up behind her, a large key ring in hand.
"Why am I not surprised that you'd have a key to his room?" she muttered as she stepped away from the door and motioned for him to proceed.
"I happen to have keys to all the rooms in the house," he told her as he inserted the key. "Don't worry, I won't be entering yours anytime soon. I tend to just enter the ones where someone might be dying of alcohol poisoning," he deadpanned, as he turned the key in the lock and turned to watch her reactions.
"Gee thanks," she muttered as she smoothed back her hair in a nervous habit.
"Hey, I haven't known you to fall off the wagon yet. That's a first for this family," he shrugged.
"Thanks, I think," she sighed as she leaned against the wall and sized up the family butler. "What's the real reason you unlocked it for me?"
He sighed, "Don't want Ms. Lila getting wind of what's going on. If it was up to me I'd let him lay there and die."
"You're assuming he's drunk."
"With him, it's not much of an assumption," Reginald said in disgust. "You know, for years there's been this unspoken rule: Quartermains screw up, Jennings clean up. I don't think I want to keep cleaning up his bloody messes."
"Then why are you still standing there?"
Reginald shrugged, "hell if I know."
"I'm with you there," she sighed as she shouldered him aside and took a deep breathe as she turned the handle and pushed open the door. "Come on, little brother, it's time to get up, cleaned up, and figure out what we're going to do about this," she said as she breezed in and took in the ciaos of the room. It didn't take her long to realize that he wasn't there. Walking towards the opened balcony doors she cursed under her breathe. "Can't even make it a day," she muttered as she turned to see Reginald in the doorway. "Any guesses?"
"The only place he might get served is Jake's," he told her. "Luke and Mac were here last night. . ."
"And Carly's friends with Donna," Skye sighed as she started towards the door, then paused in the doorway, watching as he made his way towards her grandmother's room. "Reginald. . ."
"Yeah?" he asked as he looked over his shoulder at her.
"Did you see. . ?" she started, not sure how to word her question.
"It wasn't an accident," he answered swiftly.
"You won't. . ."
"Say anything?" he finished for her. "No. Another part of that saying is: Quartermains screw up, Jennings cover up. As far as any one knows, I didn't even see it happen."
Skye swallowed convulsively at his words, the realization of what her brother had done hitting her hard. "Was he at least drunk?" she asked, not wanting to believe that he was cold blooded enough to intentionally throw a woman down a flight of stairs.
"Less so than when he did it to Ms. Spencer, if you ask me. But the drinks he had in toast to her crumpled body. . ." he shrugged, taking in her slight flinch, before changing topics, "I better get back to Ms. Lila."
"Yeah, and I better find my brother before he does anything else we'll regret," Skye said softly, yet she couldn't make herself move as she watched Reginald walk down the hall. Instead, she reached into her pants pocket and took out a cell phone. She quickly dialed a number from memory, waiting for the other party to answer, "Tom, its Skye. You have a couple of minutes. . .No it's not. . . I just, I can't make it to a meeting right now and . . . yeah. . ."
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He stood in the elevator back pressed against the wall in the way his doctor told him would relieve stress. He inhaled and exhaled the way another doctor had taught him, well aware that the Former First Lady was watching him clinically. "I'm not going to crack again. At least not right now," Josh muttered as he opened his eyes slightly and looked at her through the slits.
"Josh. . ." Abbey started in a tone he had learned over the years meant that a lecture about his health was forthcoming.
"I just waited too long to take a pill," he shrugged as he closed his eyes and leaned further into the wall.
"If that was all this was. . ." she let her voice trail off as the elevator chimed and the doors opened. Linking her arm in his she followed members of her detail out of the elevator as a couple waited to walk behind them. "Josh you have to. . ."
"I know what I have to do, alright?" he asked a touch of anger lacing his vice as he pulled away from her and inhaled sharply, understanding that his actions were belaying his earlier comment. "I mean. . ." he sighed as he ran a hand through his already mussed hair and down his face, trying to rein in his temper and get it back together. "I was stupid and didn't think and I'm paying the price right now, OK? I should've taken the damn medicine earlier. Probably as soon as I got off the phone with Leo. But. . . Sometimes. . . Sometimes I just want to pretend that I'm like every one else. I want to be able to think that I can walk into a hospital . . . that I can hear that someone I lo. . . someone I care about is in the hospital and not fall apart. Not wonder if I'm going to crack. Have some sort of mental break. To believe that I have some control over my own god damned emotions. That those gunmen haven't beaten me. That they didn't take that from me."
"Joshua, it's not easy for any of us to. . . to see someone we care about in a hospital bed," Abbey started.
"Really, I didn't see you falling apart in there. Showing much emotion," he shot back hollowly. "Right now I wish I could cut my emotions off like that."
"No. No, you don't. And let me tell you something, what you saw was professional detachment. You think I don't want to go out there and throttle the guy who did that to Donna? That I didn't cringe when I first saw her?" she asked angrily. "But when I am in that room--- when she's crashing--- when she needs a doctor to focus on her, that's what I am. Later. . . when the tests results are in---when we know what's wrong--- when I don't have to walk into that room as Doctor Bartlett, when I can just be Abbey, or even the Former First Lady, then. . . then it. . . well, it'll be different, Josh," she inhaled slightly and shock her head. "As for the other. You're alive. You're living your life. They haven't won. You haven't let them. You're just a jackass who keeps things inside too long. Who denies what he's feeling because he doesn't want to admit it to any one, much less himself. Be afraid. Be angry. Be worried. Be everything and anything you want to Josh, just don't hold it in. I told you before I don't want broken glass. I'm not going to let it happen again. Donna's not the only one I'm going to be keeping an eye on, do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," he muttered as he looked down at his feet.
"I mean it, Josh. Just like you meant all those things that you just said."
"Ma'am, I. . ."
"Don't worry about it. And stop calling me Ma'am, would you? We're not at 1600 any more," she told him dismissively. "Now, go get settled. Take a shower. We'll be meeting to discuss strategy in about an hour," she added as she gave a slight tilt of her head, and a nearby agent moved across the hall to unlock Josh's door. At the look on her husband's former Deputy Chief of Staff's face she couldn't help but commend: "Come on, Josh, do you think we all didn't know you can't open a hotel door with a pass key?" she asked with a slight laugh, then added, "Don't feel bad. Jed'll probably figure that one out about the same time as an intercom," Josh only shook his head and bit back a groan as he walked into his room, wondering how long he'd have to himself when he realized it adjoined another. "Just as long as it's not Toby and his damn ball, I'll get through this," he thought as he eyed the couple of bags lying open on the bed, undoubtedly due to one agent or another. Shrugging, he walked towards it and started pulling things to take the shower he had been ordered to. . .
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Ned leaned his head against the wall of the shower stall, letting the water wash over him, and hoping it would take away some of his tension. So far it hadn't.
Cursing slightly under his breathe he wrenched the water off, straightened up, and pushed open the frosted glass door. Shaking his head, he groped for a towel, his mind wandering to dozens of places. Unfortunately, more often than not, it was to the scene that had played out on the steps the night before.
Wrapping the towel around himself, he let the questions reappear. Could he have stopped AJ from pushing her? Did she really not make a sound? Why did he bring her up there to begin with? Why couldn't he just accept that he wasn't what she was looking for?
But more important than all of those. Why the hell did the family have to close ranks? Protect AJ? Why the hell couldn't they just let him face up to what he had done for once?
And then something clicked. Justus's words from earlier repeated in his head: "You think I like this any more than you do? Think I don't think it would be best for AJ to have to face up to things for once? Hell, I think even Grandfather thinks it's time, but--- he's worried about Lila. What it will do to her"
Freezing, Ned dropped the towel he had been using to dry his hair as he moved towards the mirror, and wiped away the condensation. As he stared at his reflection he swallowed hard. He didn't like the man he saw there. Not right now. But he wasn't the Gatekeeper right now. Justus was. And unlike him, Justus had made a mistake. He let it be known that the Quartermains might not have closed ranks as tightly as outsiders might have thought.
Jax was right. There was a chance to take AJ down this time. There was a chance to stop there being another victim, And this time, he wouldn't be an enabler.
He might not like how he looked to himself right then, but maybe soon he would.
"Grandfather thinks it's time. . ." Ned muttered. "Junior's going to go down," he laughed hollowly, as his reflection smirked back at him, a voice in his head asking him if it really mattered or if it was too late to. . .
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Carly sat at the bar of the Recovery Room nursing a drink as she waited for the food order to come out, her foot tapping anxiously against the foot rail. "Sorry I kept you waiting," a voice said as the owner slid onto the stool next to her and slipped off his leather jacket. "I got stuck in a meeting."
"I'd have been waiting anyway. You realize how long it takes to get take out?" she asked as she swished the contents in her glass before taking another drink from it.
"Why didn't you just go to. . ." he started as a beer was placed in front of him and then shook his head at the look that crossed her face. "Do I even want to know how bad?"
"Oh, it was bad. . ." she admitted. "Miss Lipgloss said that Donna asked for what happened, so I told her. . ."
"You didn't. . ." he groaned as he coughed on the mouthful of beer he'd been in the process of swallowing..
"That isn't that what people said about people like her," Carly said over him, then looked down at the drink in her hand, "even I can't believe I said it. My comebacks usually aren't so. . ." she shrugged as she took another swallow.
"Yeah. . ." he shrugged as he looked over at her, "so what do you need me to do? Set up a detail in the hospital?"
"Johnny, please don't even let Jax hear you suggest that one, OK?" she asked.
"Why?"
"Because we both know that even if there was one, if they want to do something they can and make it look. . ." Carly shuddered slightly as she pushed her glass aside. "Jax is in overprotective mode right now, OK? As it is he's given Amy an approved visitors list that excludes. . ." she shook her head.
"Who?"
"Her contact person who also holds her alternate medical power of attorney."
Johnny took another mouthful of beer as he tried to understand the reason, not coming up with one he put the glass down and asked: "Why?"
"He doesn't like him," she told him, earning a slight laugh and shake of a head from Johnny. "What? Not good enough? Because I'll tell you, I get a weird vibe off of the man myself. I tried reminding myself that he must be someone important to Donna, and she's a halfway decent judge of character most of the time. Hell, V. even knows him. He's an old friend of her godfather's or something, but. . . Donna never mentioned him and. . . well, V. was acting strange, even for V."
"So you want me to do what, exactly?"
"Run a background check on him and the MPA and the other people they're having Jax fly in." she told him as she pulled a planner out of her bag and then flipped through it to a paper with the names and information she had gotten from a call to Jax. "Just in case. . ."
"In case of what?" Johnny asked as he looked over the names and then up to Carly. "You're kidding me here, right? You want me to run a background check on these people?"
"Just in case. We want to keep our options opened and know who we might be going up against. No telling whose side they might end up on. And yeah. That's why I gave you the list," she shrugged as Ricky put her order in front of her. "I'm going to head back to the hospital. Let me know when you have those background checks," she added as shrugged into her jacket and picked up the bag with her order.
"I'll do that," Johnny said perplexed as he put down the list and scratched his head. "How the hell does she. . . Nay, it has to be a coincidence. . ." he took a swig of beer as he reread the list then shook his head, "Shit's going to definitely be hitting the fan," he laughed as he folded up the list and turned to watch Carly walk out the door. "Oh man, and they have no idea."
"AJ, open the damn door!" Skye yelled through the door of his room as she rested her head against the thick wood before kicking it in frustration.
"Allow me," Reginald Jennings sighed as he came up behind her, a large key ring in hand.
"Why am I not surprised that you'd have a key to his room?" she muttered as she stepped away from the door and motioned for him to proceed.
"I happen to have keys to all the rooms in the house," he told her as he inserted the key. "Don't worry, I won't be entering yours anytime soon. I tend to just enter the ones where someone might be dying of alcohol poisoning," he deadpanned, as he turned the key in the lock and turned to watch her reactions.
"Gee thanks," she muttered as she smoothed back her hair in a nervous habit.
"Hey, I haven't known you to fall off the wagon yet. That's a first for this family," he shrugged.
"Thanks, I think," she sighed as she leaned against the wall and sized up the family butler. "What's the real reason you unlocked it for me?"
He sighed, "Don't want Ms. Lila getting wind of what's going on. If it was up to me I'd let him lay there and die."
"You're assuming he's drunk."
"With him, it's not much of an assumption," Reginald said in disgust. "You know, for years there's been this unspoken rule: Quartermains screw up, Jennings clean up. I don't think I want to keep cleaning up his bloody messes."
"Then why are you still standing there?"
Reginald shrugged, "hell if I know."
"I'm with you there," she sighed as she shouldered him aside and took a deep breathe as she turned the handle and pushed open the door. "Come on, little brother, it's time to get up, cleaned up, and figure out what we're going to do about this," she said as she breezed in and took in the ciaos of the room. It didn't take her long to realize that he wasn't there. Walking towards the opened balcony doors she cursed under her breathe. "Can't even make it a day," she muttered as she turned to see Reginald in the doorway. "Any guesses?"
"The only place he might get served is Jake's," he told her. "Luke and Mac were here last night. . ."
"And Carly's friends with Donna," Skye sighed as she started towards the door, then paused in the doorway, watching as he made his way towards her grandmother's room. "Reginald. . ."
"Yeah?" he asked as he looked over his shoulder at her.
"Did you see. . ?" she started, not sure how to word her question.
"It wasn't an accident," he answered swiftly.
"You won't. . ."
"Say anything?" he finished for her. "No. Another part of that saying is: Quartermains screw up, Jennings cover up. As far as any one knows, I didn't even see it happen."
Skye swallowed convulsively at his words, the realization of what her brother had done hitting her hard. "Was he at least drunk?" she asked, not wanting to believe that he was cold blooded enough to intentionally throw a woman down a flight of stairs.
"Less so than when he did it to Ms. Spencer, if you ask me. But the drinks he had in toast to her crumpled body. . ." he shrugged, taking in her slight flinch, before changing topics, "I better get back to Ms. Lila."
"Yeah, and I better find my brother before he does anything else we'll regret," Skye said softly, yet she couldn't make herself move as she watched Reginald walk down the hall. Instead, she reached into her pants pocket and took out a cell phone. She quickly dialed a number from memory, waiting for the other party to answer, "Tom, its Skye. You have a couple of minutes. . .No it's not. . . I just, I can't make it to a meeting right now and . . . yeah. . ."
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He stood in the elevator back pressed against the wall in the way his doctor told him would relieve stress. He inhaled and exhaled the way another doctor had taught him, well aware that the Former First Lady was watching him clinically. "I'm not going to crack again. At least not right now," Josh muttered as he opened his eyes slightly and looked at her through the slits.
"Josh. . ." Abbey started in a tone he had learned over the years meant that a lecture about his health was forthcoming.
"I just waited too long to take a pill," he shrugged as he closed his eyes and leaned further into the wall.
"If that was all this was. . ." she let her voice trail off as the elevator chimed and the doors opened. Linking her arm in his she followed members of her detail out of the elevator as a couple waited to walk behind them. "Josh you have to. . ."
"I know what I have to do, alright?" he asked a touch of anger lacing his vice as he pulled away from her and inhaled sharply, understanding that his actions were belaying his earlier comment. "I mean. . ." he sighed as he ran a hand through his already mussed hair and down his face, trying to rein in his temper and get it back together. "I was stupid and didn't think and I'm paying the price right now, OK? I should've taken the damn medicine earlier. Probably as soon as I got off the phone with Leo. But. . . Sometimes. . . Sometimes I just want to pretend that I'm like every one else. I want to be able to think that I can walk into a hospital . . . that I can hear that someone I lo. . . someone I care about is in the hospital and not fall apart. Not wonder if I'm going to crack. Have some sort of mental break. To believe that I have some control over my own god damned emotions. That those gunmen haven't beaten me. That they didn't take that from me."
"Joshua, it's not easy for any of us to. . . to see someone we care about in a hospital bed," Abbey started.
"Really, I didn't see you falling apart in there. Showing much emotion," he shot back hollowly. "Right now I wish I could cut my emotions off like that."
"No. No, you don't. And let me tell you something, what you saw was professional detachment. You think I don't want to go out there and throttle the guy who did that to Donna? That I didn't cringe when I first saw her?" she asked angrily. "But when I am in that room--- when she's crashing--- when she needs a doctor to focus on her, that's what I am. Later. . . when the tests results are in---when we know what's wrong--- when I don't have to walk into that room as Doctor Bartlett, when I can just be Abbey, or even the Former First Lady, then. . . then it. . . well, it'll be different, Josh," she inhaled slightly and shock her head. "As for the other. You're alive. You're living your life. They haven't won. You haven't let them. You're just a jackass who keeps things inside too long. Who denies what he's feeling because he doesn't want to admit it to any one, much less himself. Be afraid. Be angry. Be worried. Be everything and anything you want to Josh, just don't hold it in. I told you before I don't want broken glass. I'm not going to let it happen again. Donna's not the only one I'm going to be keeping an eye on, do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," he muttered as he looked down at his feet.
"I mean it, Josh. Just like you meant all those things that you just said."
"Ma'am, I. . ."
"Don't worry about it. And stop calling me Ma'am, would you? We're not at 1600 any more," she told him dismissively. "Now, go get settled. Take a shower. We'll be meeting to discuss strategy in about an hour," she added as she gave a slight tilt of her head, and a nearby agent moved across the hall to unlock Josh's door. At the look on her husband's former Deputy Chief of Staff's face she couldn't help but commend: "Come on, Josh, do you think we all didn't know you can't open a hotel door with a pass key?" she asked with a slight laugh, then added, "Don't feel bad. Jed'll probably figure that one out about the same time as an intercom," Josh only shook his head and bit back a groan as he walked into his room, wondering how long he'd have to himself when he realized it adjoined another. "Just as long as it's not Toby and his damn ball, I'll get through this," he thought as he eyed the couple of bags lying open on the bed, undoubtedly due to one agent or another. Shrugging, he walked towards it and started pulling things to take the shower he had been ordered to. . .
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Ned leaned his head against the wall of the shower stall, letting the water wash over him, and hoping it would take away some of his tension. So far it hadn't.
Cursing slightly under his breathe he wrenched the water off, straightened up, and pushed open the frosted glass door. Shaking his head, he groped for a towel, his mind wandering to dozens of places. Unfortunately, more often than not, it was to the scene that had played out on the steps the night before.
Wrapping the towel around himself, he let the questions reappear. Could he have stopped AJ from pushing her? Did she really not make a sound? Why did he bring her up there to begin with? Why couldn't he just accept that he wasn't what she was looking for?
But more important than all of those. Why the hell did the family have to close ranks? Protect AJ? Why the hell couldn't they just let him face up to what he had done for once?
And then something clicked. Justus's words from earlier repeated in his head: "You think I like this any more than you do? Think I don't think it would be best for AJ to have to face up to things for once? Hell, I think even Grandfather thinks it's time, but--- he's worried about Lila. What it will do to her"
Freezing, Ned dropped the towel he had been using to dry his hair as he moved towards the mirror, and wiped away the condensation. As he stared at his reflection he swallowed hard. He didn't like the man he saw there. Not right now. But he wasn't the Gatekeeper right now. Justus was. And unlike him, Justus had made a mistake. He let it be known that the Quartermains might not have closed ranks as tightly as outsiders might have thought.
Jax was right. There was a chance to take AJ down this time. There was a chance to stop there being another victim, And this time, he wouldn't be an enabler.
He might not like how he looked to himself right then, but maybe soon he would.
"Grandfather thinks it's time. . ." Ned muttered. "Junior's going to go down," he laughed hollowly, as his reflection smirked back at him, a voice in his head asking him if it really mattered or if it was too late to. . .
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Carly sat at the bar of the Recovery Room nursing a drink as she waited for the food order to come out, her foot tapping anxiously against the foot rail. "Sorry I kept you waiting," a voice said as the owner slid onto the stool next to her and slipped off his leather jacket. "I got stuck in a meeting."
"I'd have been waiting anyway. You realize how long it takes to get take out?" she asked as she swished the contents in her glass before taking another drink from it.
"Why didn't you just go to. . ." he started as a beer was placed in front of him and then shook his head at the look that crossed her face. "Do I even want to know how bad?"
"Oh, it was bad. . ." she admitted. "Miss Lipgloss said that Donna asked for what happened, so I told her. . ."
"You didn't. . ." he groaned as he coughed on the mouthful of beer he'd been in the process of swallowing..
"That isn't that what people said about people like her," Carly said over him, then looked down at the drink in her hand, "even I can't believe I said it. My comebacks usually aren't so. . ." she shrugged as she took another swallow.
"Yeah. . ." he shrugged as he looked over at her, "so what do you need me to do? Set up a detail in the hospital?"
"Johnny, please don't even let Jax hear you suggest that one, OK?" she asked.
"Why?"
"Because we both know that even if there was one, if they want to do something they can and make it look. . ." Carly shuddered slightly as she pushed her glass aside. "Jax is in overprotective mode right now, OK? As it is he's given Amy an approved visitors list that excludes. . ." she shook her head.
"Who?"
"Her contact person who also holds her alternate medical power of attorney."
Johnny took another mouthful of beer as he tried to understand the reason, not coming up with one he put the glass down and asked: "Why?"
"He doesn't like him," she told him, earning a slight laugh and shake of a head from Johnny. "What? Not good enough? Because I'll tell you, I get a weird vibe off of the man myself. I tried reminding myself that he must be someone important to Donna, and she's a halfway decent judge of character most of the time. Hell, V. even knows him. He's an old friend of her godfather's or something, but. . . Donna never mentioned him and. . . well, V. was acting strange, even for V."
"So you want me to do what, exactly?"
"Run a background check on him and the MPA and the other people they're having Jax fly in." she told him as she pulled a planner out of her bag and then flipped through it to a paper with the names and information she had gotten from a call to Jax. "Just in case. . ."
"In case of what?" Johnny asked as he looked over the names and then up to Carly. "You're kidding me here, right? You want me to run a background check on these people?"
"Just in case. We want to keep our options opened and know who we might be going up against. No telling whose side they might end up on. And yeah. That's why I gave you the list," she shrugged as Ricky put her order in front of her. "I'm going to head back to the hospital. Let me know when you have those background checks," she added as shrugged into her jacket and picked up the bag with her order.
"I'll do that," Johnny said perplexed as he put down the list and scratched his head. "How the hell does she. . . Nay, it has to be a coincidence. . ." he took a swig of beer as he reread the list then shook his head, "Shit's going to definitely be hitting the fan," he laughed as he folded up the list and turned to watch Carly walk out the door. "Oh man, and they have no idea."