Story: On My Honor
Chapter 16
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Abbey convinced Ellie she was being unfair to Jed; when the Carmichaels went to the press about Mark, Abbey contemplated fighting back until Jed persuaded her not to jeopardize her career; Elliot Roush publicly proposed controversial action, provoking Jed's involvement in a political debate about GRID
Summary: Jed asks Abbey for help before he talks to the press; when Jed and Abbey take Zoey to the emergency room, Abbey is stunned, yet relieved by what she finds; Jed reassures Abbey
AN: Though this chapter isn't about Leo, we couldn't post anything TWW-related without dedicating it to the man who created a wonderful character and managed to entertain us for the past six and a half years. R.I.P., John Spencer
Jed fidgeted, sighed, and paced. Then, he glanced at Abbey and as their eyes locked in one brief moment, he could see the rage that stirred inside her. She took long, steady breaths, wrinkled her forehead, and opened her mouth, closing it before a single syllable could escape her lips. Her frustration quickly rivaled his.
"Elliot Roush is an idiot," she said, her soft tone a jolting contradiction to the anger that flowed behind the fury in her eyes.
"We always knew that. We always knew he was a bastard, but banning homosexuals? Banning them from practicing medicine, law enforcement...from teaching? Is that what he's really proposing?" Unlike Abbey, Jed's rage flourished rapidly. His voice was booming now.
"He's fueling the hysteria."
"Of course he's fueling the hysteria! That's what he does."
"I don't know what makes me angrier. The fact that the news media consistently ignores GRID, or that when they do cover it, they get it wrong. It isn't the pneumonia Stella Carmichael says Megan caught. The pneumonia is just a symptom of the disease."
"They don't know the difference and neither does the public. That's why we...I...should say something to the press. You need to coach me on the medical side before Roush lashes out with more of his ignorance."
Disgusted, Abbey shook her head. "What is he planning...Roush? Is he thinking that he'll be right in the long run and he's setting himself up for a congressional run in '82?"
"No way. Bradley's got '82 locked up. He'd be crazy to run."
"Then what?"
"Maybe he's eyeing '84. Or maybe this isn't about his political career as much as it is about the fact that the man's a bigot!" Jed growled.
"Awfully brazen of him."
"He's been looking for ways to sideline homosexuals for years. He fought the legislation that finally got rid of the state sodomy laws back in '74. Remember?"
"How could I forget?" Abbey asked with a sarcastic chuckle. "We weren't even living in New Hampshire and it enraged you for a good six months."
"Yeah, well, this is going to do the same. He can't have the last word on this." Jed walked around the sofa, his steely determination apparent in the way he slammed his hands on the back and leaned forward. "I'll take care of Elliot Roush."
"MOMMY!"
The scream came from the dinnertable. So loud and horrific, it physically shook Jed. He leapt to his feet and before he could even turn towards the intruding sound, Ellie ran towards them.
"Zoey tried to eat one of the rolls and she's choking! She can't breathe!"
Abbey dashed around her middle daughter and turned the corner that led to the kitchen table. She gasped when she saw Zoey's mouth hanging open. A rosy blush colored her cheeks and her feet kicked sharply from under her tray as she fought for a breath of air. Liz's trembling fingers coiled around the latch to remove Zoey from her high chair.
"I can't get it!" the thirteen-year-old exclaimed in a tearful plea for help.
"Go call 9-1-1!" Abbey ordered as she pushed her out of the way and released Zoey from the constraint.
Jed held on to her legs while Abbey hoisted her up and then lowered her to the ground. The toddler nearly collapsed then, her tiny frame quivering as Jed yanked her to her feet so Abbey could kneel behind her and wrap herself around Zoey's waist. She positioned a closed fist above the little girl's belly button and thrust her hand upward several times.
In the corner, Ellie covered her hands tightly over her eyes, peeking between her fingers when she wasn't clenching them shut. Frightened and sobbing, she watched her baby sister jerk violently with every thrust.
"It's okay, Ellie." Jed gently twisted her blonde ringlets, encouraging her to bury her face against his leg and when she did, he reached down to pick her up. "Your mom knows what she's doing."
Suddenly, the uneaten bread hurled across the room and a high-pitched squeal echoed around them as Zoey burst into tears. Abbey pulled on her daughter's shoulders. Her hands extended, Zoey bounced up and down, desperately begging to be held.
Abbey opened her arms wide and lifted her up into an embrace so close that it caused her arms to tingle slightly. "I know it hurt, Sweetheart. I know."
Zoey's gut-wrenching cries eventually melted into faint whimpers after several minutes of her mother's tender strokes across her back. It was only then that Ellie dared to look. "Is she okay?"
"She's okay," Abbey confirmed.
Once he put her down, Jed squatted to dab Ellie's tears with a tissue before making his way to Abbey and Zoey. "See? Your mom always knows just what to do."
"Mom?" Relief washed over Liz's features as well. She held out the receiver, waiting for Abbey's instructions.
"Oh. Cancel the ambulance. Tell them she's fine."
"You're absolutely sure?" Jed questioned.
"Yeah. I am going to take her to the E.R. though, just as a precaution."
"I want to come too," he replied.
"What about the girls? Mrs. Weaver's on vacation this week."
"I can babysit!" Liz volunteered, hanging up the kitchen phone to join her parents. "I'll make sure Ellie does her homework and we won't touch the stove or the oven or anything else. I promise."
"No." Jed had never been comfortable allowing the girls to stay home alone. Any time he considered the possibility, he was hit with a reminder of the firecracker incident from his own youth, a gag devised by his brother Jack - while their parents were out - that permanently instilled in him a fear of fire.
"Jed." Abbey subtly nudged him. "I was 12 when I started babysitting Kate. I think Lizzie can handle it. Besides, Harry's still out at the barn feeding the horses."
He contemplated the idea for a few minutes while Abbey draped Zoey's coat over the young girl's drooping shoulders and managed to finagle her arms into the sleeves. "We're going to call every 10 minutes," he said at last. "If something happens, you get Harry."
Liz's face was beaming with appreciation for the chance to prove she was growing into a mature, responsible teenager. "I will."
With Lizzie's pledge to guard the fort, Jed reluctantly followed Abbey out the door, his thoughts continuously wavering between his two older daughters and his sniffling baby. Zoey was more subdued now, but every effort she made to speak ended with another sob. Her words were still broken by the earlier pain of the abdominal thrusts.
By the time they walked into the hospital, she had relaxed her grip on Abbey's arm and squirmed to scan the bustling emergency room, crying softly when she feared her parents would pass her off to one of the doctors. Jed calmed her with a few comforting strokes of her hair as they took their seats in the waiting room.
Nurses, doctors, and medical personnel crowded around frequently. Each time they passed by, Abbey noticed what she believed Jed was ignoring. The gloves.
Most were wearing them. Every time they scurried from one room into another, she heard the familiar sound of latex snapping around their wrists as they disposed of one pair and slipped on another. Outside the operating room, she had never before seen so many healthcare professionals wearing gloves.
It made sense, she thought. The story had broken locally and what had begun as a health crisis that affected a small number of people around the world, was now invading their quintessential New England town. Of course they were concerned, Abbey told herself. No one knew how to stop the spread of a disease lurking outside the magnifying glass of modern science. A disease none of them could explain nor control.
Hypnotically, her eyes bore into those gloves and for the first time in her career, she felt crippled by the powerlessness that came from admitting she was concerned too.
When they were finally called to an exam room, she cradled Zoey in her arms and waited patiently for the doctor before she sat her daughter on the bed. Doctor Sandra Gray glanced at Zoey's chart and though she had just washed her hands, when she put her bare fingers to Zoey's chin, urging her to open her mouth, Abbey intervened.
"Wait!"
"Yes?" Dr. Gray looked up, astonished by the urgency in Abbey's voice.
Ashamed of what she was about to ask, Abbey whispered, "It's just...would you mind...could you please put on a pair of gloves?"
Jed stared at his wife for several silent moments, then nodded as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. He was surprised by the request only because, lately, Abbey had been so confident in her defense of Mark that she dismissed the paranoia escalating around the country. It was a result of misinformation, she repeatedly told him while she focused on the facts buried in a mountain of CDC reports.
But then he remembered the other Abbey. The one who came to his office the day she had been ambushed by a dilemma so troubling, it took her hours just to confess her thoughts. That Abbey was vulnerable. She was panicked and visibly rattled. That was the Abbey he was seeing now and it was clear in the way she refused his stare that even she was uncomfortable with this side of herself.
So, he didn't try to address the subject. This was something he was certain Abbey would approach when she was ready. And he was right. Once the girls were all tucked in later that evening, she staggered into the bedroom, her face hidden momentarily as she peeled off her shirt.
She crossed to the other side to pick up a pair of silk pajamas he had laid out for her and without hesitation, she began. "You can say it, you know."
"Say what?"
"That I'm a hypocrite." She walked to the edge of the bed and sat down on her side. "You said yourself that it's ignorance that's causing panic throughout the community. I'm not uninformed. I have the facts and I still don't want my little girl seeing a doctor without proper safeguards...without gloves"
"No one has all the facts," he said as he ran his fingernails up and down her bare back just before she slipped her top over her shoulders. "I don't think you're a hypocrite, Abbey. I think you're human. You're just as scared as everyone else."
Twisting at the waist, she turned to face him. "Elliot Roush is scared. I don't see you making excuses for him."
"Don't compare yourself to him. He's singling out one segment of the population so he can expand the scope of his hatred towards gays. That's not what you're doing. That's not what any of the people at the hospital are doing."
"Thank God for that, right?"
Jed sat up as she bowed down to climb into her pants. "I saw them too...the gloves. Most of them were wearing gloves."
Abbey snapped her head and gazed at him over her shoulder. "I didn't think you noticed."
"I did." He tugged on the sheets to cover her when she reclined, sliding her legs underneath. "As many times as we've been to the E.R. with Liz and Ellie, I've never seen that many nurses and doctors wearing latex gloves. It's a scarier world now - for all of us."
Abbey cuddled up against his body. Her head was tucked under his chin and her hand rested on his chest. "If I wasn't there, would you have asked Dr. Gray to wear gloves?"
"Maybe." Jed spun his finger around a strand of her soft auburn hair. "You know what I think though?"
"What?"
"That you saved your daughter's life tonight and there was no way you were going to take a chance, no matter how small, that she would be hurt some other way. The rules change when it's your child."
"Well that didn't help."
"Why?"
She raised her head to look at him. "Because now I'm sympathizing with Megan's mother and I don't want to do that because she's ruining Mark's career for no reason. Mark isn't ill, Jed. He made an appointment to have a full exam just to prove it."
"She's scared too, Abbey. Stella Carmichael is just as scared as you are and it's her daughter we're talking about."
"I know," Abbey admitted, relaxing against him once again.
"When the girls are scared, you tell them it's okay to be afraid. Sometimes, in life, being afraid is a good thing. It's your body's reaction to danger, to risks that are not yet known."
"We're not talking about a monster under the bed."
"No, we're not. We're talking about a monster that's out in the open. If you're looking for a villain in this thing, it's the virus. If you're looking for a human to fight against, it's Elliot Roush. He's the one using this to cause public panic through false facts just so he can further his bigotry."
"I know you're right." Abbey nodded. "And since the hospital has chosen to remain silent instead of standing up for Mark, it's up to us to set him straight."
"I was hoping you'd agree." A small smile peaked the corners of his lips.
"We'll go over the language and medical terminology tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow." Jed dropped a kiss to the top of her head.
TBC