Story: On My Honor
Chapter 17
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Abbey helped Ellie realize she wanted Jed's help with her astronomy hobby (chapter 15); Abbey agreed to coach Jed on the medical aspects of GRID before he talked to the press in response to Elliot Roush's comments; when Jed and Abbey took Zoey to the emergency room, Abbey asked her doctor to wear gloves
Summary: Ellie reaches out to Jed; Mark confronts Abbey about Jed's press interview
The applause that thundered through the room, bouncing off the walls and reverberating through the rows was nearly deafening. Jed and Abbey jumped to their feet. Ellie stood beside her mother, smiling and cheering, while Zoey snuggled up in her father's arms and followed his lead, clapping her tiny hands together just as he had done moments earlier.
Along with the hundreds of fans packed inside the gymnasium, the family descended the bleachers and watched as the teams congratulated one another.
"We won! We won!" Lizzie shouted when she saw them approaching.
"That's was FANTASTIC!" Jed lowered Zoey to the ground and wrapped an arm around his oldest daughter, releasing his hold only when Abbey nudged her way between them.
"Your father is absolutely right," she said as she intervened. "I'm so proud of you, Lizzie."
"Thanks, but I didn't do that much."
"Nonsense!" Jed dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand. "It's because of you the team won."
"I didn't score the basket. Melissa did."
"That wasn't your job," he reminded her. "You're a point guard. Passing the ball to Melissa was exactly what you should have done."
"Yeah, but it would have been better if..." Liz's voice faded into a whisper as Jed shook his head.
"She was in the best position to make the basket and when you play team sports, your primary concern should be what's good for the team. You proved today that it is. Now, if you want to work on your outside shot, we can do that too, but today, you did the best job you possibly could for your team."
"You think so?"
"I know so. And I'm never wrong. You know that, right?" She giggled. "I could swear I didn't hear an answer."
"Yes, Dad, I know that."
The fluent rapport between Jed and Liz never went unnoticed by Ellie. Liz was as close to her father as Ellie was to her mother. Their conversations were effortless. Their bond was indestructible. Occasionally, when she was feeling disconnected from Jed, Ellie envied that relationship.
She struggled to understand her father as much as he struggled to understand her. At times, they both believed they were so far apart on the personality spectrum that nothing could narrow the gap between them. But certain others knew better. Jed and Ellie weren't really that different, Abbey suspected. Liz inherited Jed's determination and fortitude, but Ellie inherited his virtue.
It was that knowledge that provoked her discussion with Ellie days earlier while they were cooking dinner. Turning the Girl Scout badge issue into a conversation about honesty versus dishonesty and morality versus immorality was the ideal way to reach Ellie. Unfortunately, soon after her interference, both she and Jed were so enthralled in the politics surrounding GRID that Ellie never addressed the subject with Jed.
Tension still smoldered between them in the way they awkwardly passed each other up and down the stairway at home, or the way Jed tucked her in at night, reading to her from a storybook instead of sharing original anecdotes and legends he had learned over the years. Ellie's anger stung him and, in response, he buried his vulnerability out of fear of personal rejection.
While Ellie searched for the opportunity to make things better, she wrestled with the first move. Her instincts demanded she approach her father with heartfelt words, but unlike him, words never flowed off the tip of her tongue. So instead, she clutched on to a different form of expression.
For a couple of hours that afternoon, she locked herself in her bedroom to work on the perfect way to convey her message. Frustration loomed around her and several attempts ended with crumpled construction paper nearly overflowing the rim of her trash can. But finally, she smiled sweetly as she pushed the old wooden chair out from her white desk and jogged down the stairs.
"Daddy!" she called out, skipping over the final two steps and jumping onto the bottom landing.
"In the study!" Jed yelled back.
Ellie peeked around the corner before she made herself fully visible. Her hands were folded behind her back, hidden from his view as she walked through the doorway. "I made you something."
"What's that?" She presented him with the card she held tight between her fingers. Jed leaned his back against his desk and pulled his glasses off his face, curiously arching his brow when he accepted it. "It's a beautiful drawing of a star."
"There's more. Open it."
He turned the front flap to see what appeared to be a small spark illuminating the star, then glanced at the other side, practically awestruck at the myriad of red and purple colors that covered the celestial point of light. "Wow."
"See? It's the end of a star's life. A superno..."
"...supernova," Jed finished. "I recognize it."
"So I got it right? It looks like it's supposed to?"
"It looks exactly like it's supposed to." He closed it, but before his eyes wandered from the card to her, they paused on the question mark she had drawn on the back. "What does that mean?"
"All Susie talked about in her project is what happens when a star dies and I don't know what happens after that. Like, does another star replace it or does that corner of the sky stay empty forever?"
"I'm sure we can find out."
"Can we? Because I want to do a whole report on it and I want to see one and I want to write it down so I can show the others and then, maybe in March, I can get the Space Explorer badge." She stopped then and stared directly into his eyes. "Will you help me please?"
She said it so softly, apprehensive almost, as if she was scared to hear his response. But Jed barely hesitated. He treasured the question. His heart warming with a tingle, he took a deep breath before he spoke. "Yes. I will definitely help you."
In the hall just steps away from the study, Abbey heard the calm, happy voices. She suspiciously furrowed her brows as she approached and when she gently opened the door and poked her head around the frame to spy on father and daughter, the corner of her lips curved with a smile and her cheeks rose, wrinkling the delicate skin under her lashes.
Jed had lifted Ellie onto his shoulders so she could pick out her favorite astronomy book from the top shelf of the bookcase. "Got it?"
"Yeah," Ellie answered. "But do I have to get down?"
"You having fun up there, are you?" Jed bounced slightly, thwarting her effort to grab another book.
"Daddy!" Ellie chuckled.
"Is this a private party?"
Jed spun around towards Abbey's voice. "Hey."
"You're going to break your back."
"She's not heavy," he insisted at first, surrendering the fight only moments later when he kneeled to the floor to help Ellie down.
"Daddy's going to help me while you go to work."
"He is?" Abbey grinned at her husband. It was a grin he knew so well, one he was eager to return.
"Could I talk to you for a minute?" he asked.
"Certainly." She followed him out into the hall. "Did you see the smile on her face? She's thrilled you're helping her, Jed."
"Yeah, thanks to you, right? You told her to come to me." His head was turned to the side and not a hint of contempt escaped his stare as he looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.
"I had nothing to do with this." A lie told so boldly that Jed almost believed her. But then, he reminded himself that this was Abbey and that she did this sometimes. If a fib gave him some comfort, she'd tell it. If, with a bluff, she could protect his feelings, she'd do it.
"Okay," he replied simply, a wink and a single nod letting her know he wasn't fooled. "Whatever you did or didn't do...thanks."
"Jed, I told you..."
He silenced her with his index finger pressed against her soft pink lips. "I know what you told me," he replied just as he tilted his head to kiss her.
Her gaze never left him when she eventually broke the kiss. "I have to go to work."
"I know that too."
"I'll try to be home before midnight."
"I'll wait up."
She turned from him then and as she swung her coat over her shoulders and began to button it all the way down, her anxiety piqued with thoughts of the hospital. Jed's press interview hit the local paper that morning. His response to Elliot Roush's short-sighted proposal and bigoted comments about gays extended beyond political jargon and danced just outside the bubble that separated a lay person's medical knowledge from a doctor's.
She realized her colleagues might suspect she had a something to do with her husband's facts and statistics, but she was wrong when she figured their suspicions would fester in silence.
"Are you out of your mind?" Mark greeted her as she exited the fourth floor elevator.
"Not usually, no," Abbey answered.
"What's this?" The newspaper had been folded into a narrow rectangle. The side he waved in front of her was marked with a yellow highlighter.
"It looks like today's paper." She attempted to skirt around him, but he walked beside her without an inch of personal space.
"Abbey, everyone is going to know you gave this interview."
"I did no such thing."
"Jed may have been the one speaking, but many of these words are yours. It's hospital policy to route all press inquiries through the Communications and Public Relations Department, especially when the hospital has already chosen not to go on the record. You know that. So why in the world would you go to a reporter? Why would you criticize the hospital? And why on earth would you criticize the staff?
"Are you seriously naive enough to believe that my husband is my microphone? Jed said what he wanted to say. Okay, yes, I coached him on the medical aspects of the disease, but the words and the sentiment...they're his and last time I checked, this hospital has no control over what local politicians can or can't say. If they did, they would have - and should have - exercised that control over Elliot Roush."
"So you don't agree with what Jed said?"
"I didn't say that. Everything he said is the truth and I agree with him one-hundred percent. That doesn't mean he said it because I told him to. He's his own person, Mark. He has his own thoughts, his own opinions, and he has every right to share them. "
"Yeah well, Hathaway went through the roof. You could have been in serious trouble."
"I won't be."
"No, you're right. You won't be," Mark replied, rounding the corner with her towards the staff lockers. "That's because Rob Nolan spent all morning in his office, pleading Jed's case and denying your involvement."
"Robert?" Dr. Nolan had been her ally for years, but never had she been so grateful for his friendship.
"He's pretty pissed at you."
"Robert or Hathaway?"
"Both. But Rob's the one who wants to see you ASAP. Hathaway buys the possibility that you had nothing to do with the article. Rob and I know you better."
"There was nothing in that article that wasn't true. All Jed did was point out that this hospital owes it to one of their best doctors to defend him when it's obvious he's being railroaded. You took a medical exam, Mark. You passed. There's no reason whatsoever for anyone to sit on the fence about this. Hathaway should have cleared you. He should have stood behind you and encouraged everyone to stop pointing fingers and move on so we can concentrate on rallying for..."
"...money from the federal government to fund adequate research and determine what caused Megan Carmichael's illness," Mark finished, reading Jed's quote from the paper.
"Jed said it right."
Mark agreed with a nod as he rested his head on the wall next to her. "A couple of newborn babies in the Bronx may have it."
The news jolted her. Abbey's hand remained frozen on the handle to her locker while she spun her head to the side. "You're kidding."
"No."
"Newborns? How?"
"No idea. I got that from my pal at the CDC. The doctor who called him believes the babies have all the signs, but the rest of the hospital is denying it, kind of like they are here."
"Because of the public panic."
"Well...yeah. It's not just the public. One of the ICU nurses in Boston quit on the spot when Megan was brought in. She was scared to treat her."
Revulsion clear in the way she scrunched up her face, Abbey sighed. "She's a little girl."
"With a fatal disease. No one knows how she got it or who she could give it to."
The thought wasn't foreign to Abbey. She lowered her head as she recalled her own fears just days earlier. "Jed and I took Zoey to the E.R. in Manchester a few days ago. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I took comfort in the fact that everyone there was wearing gloves."
"That's nothing to be ashamed of. Who could blame you for being scared? Besides, I've seen a few of the nurses wearing gloves around here too. It's quickly becoming part of the basic precautions now," Mark told her. "It makes sense, right?"
"Of course it does. But how are we supposed to heal the patients when we're so worried about catching what they have? Doesn't that bother you?
"Safety first. You know that. The only time the gloves bother me is when the staff puts them on just because they're around me. It's like they're afraid that just because I'm gay I could give it to them if I accidentally brush up against them."
"Mark..."
He interrupted her by walking over to sit on the small bench by the corner lockers as he muttered, "I'm leaving, Abbey."
"What?"
"Kevin got a job with a law firm out west and I'm going with him. I have an interview at a hospital outside of Seattle in a couple of weeks."
"Did Hathaway fire you?" Her passionate green eyes momentarily dulled with disdain and she moved in front of him. "Did he seriously fire you?"
"No, no. It's not that," Mark assured her. "It's just...I liked that no one knew I was gay. I stayed in the closet for a reason. Now that everyone knows, even the ones who don't think I'm responsible for Megan, either don't talk to me, or they ask a million questions."
"Questions?"
"I know they're not all prejudice. I'm sure I'm being hypersensitive, but it feels like they're trying to figure out why I am the way I am, what went wrong in my childhood to make me this way."
"That'll go away." She took a seat beside him. "They're just surprised right now."
"You have no idea what it's like. I've been here before, Abbey. I moved to New Hampshire to get away from the prying and the nosiness...and the bigotry."
"And you're running away again?"
Defensively, he twisted his entire body to face her. "No. I'm not running away. I'm choosing to remove myself from a potentially ugly situation. I'm choosing to protect my sanity as well as my right to privacy. Surely you can understand that."
Abbey nodded. Of course she could understand, but her displeasure at losing such a dear colleague was multiplied by guilt. "I'm sorry I told you to go to the CDC."
Mark shook his head. "This isn't your fault."
"You weren't sick. You told me you weren't sick."
"You were right about that. Telling the CDC was the right thing to do, legally and ethically. Besides, it wasn't the CDC guy who leaked it to the press." He supportively wrapped an arm around her drooping shoulder. "It's not your fault."
"I just wish this wasn't happening."
"Hey, they're getting close. Maybe by next year, they'll have a new name for this thing since it seems to be affecting more than just the gay community now."
"I hope so. Once they know how it's transmitted, the fear will die down a little."
"I think so too."
"In the meantime..." She took his hand in hers. "You'll keep in touch?"
"Of course. You've been a really good friend to me over the years, Abbey. Both you and Jed. Thank you."
"Hey, you got me through most of my residency. You helped me blend back in after I left for a year. I'm the one who should be thanking you."
"You already have. That was one hell of an article."
"It really was all Jed. He's quite the speaker, isn't he?"
"He certainly is that. Pass on my thanks to him," Mark replied. " gotta go see Dr. Nolan before you start your shift, you little rebel."
Abbey chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I do. He's really pissed?"
"Half-pissed and half-proud."
"You're telling me that to make feel better, right?"
"Sort of." He stood up and offered his hand to help her to her feet. "I'll go with you."
"Don't you have a mountain of paperwork to finish?"
lpig"Not at the moment. I'd rather watch you go head-to-head with Rob."
"You just like a good fight."
"Who doesn't?"
She led the way down the corridor and just as she pushed the elevator call button, her cheerful smirk faded. "Newborns?"
"Yeah. And there's some question about whether or not an elderly woman in Los Angeles has it too."
Abbey nodded somberly as they entered the elevator. "It just gets worse every day, doesn't it?"
It would be another year before the first rumors would rumble through communities, lifting the veil off a disease that was already claiming the lives of hemophiliacs, infecting newborn babies, targeting I.V. drug users, and killing Megan Carmichael.
Both Abbey and Mark knew Megan's medical history. But without the other pieces needed to complete the puzzle, no one yet believed the root of her illness could be traced back to the botched appendectomy and subsequent blood transfusion two years earlier. Like the babies in New York, the elderly woman in California, and many other patients around the world, Megan fell victim to something no one predicted - a contaminated blood supply.
TBC