Father Moriarty sat in the same pew he had occupied before Ellie left. When Sister Mary walked o ver to him, he looked up.
"Sister?"
"You have a phone call, Father."
"Yes? Who from?" Father asked.
"Elizabeth Bartlet, Father."
"All right. I'll be right there."
A moment later, he picked up the telephone in the rectory.
"Hello, Elizabeth," he said, jovially.
"Hi, Father."
"How are you?"
"I'm good, thanks, how are you?"
"Fine, thank you. What can I do for you?" Father asked.
"Uh, is my sister there?"
"No, dear, she left here close to an hour ago."
"Oh, she did? Did she mention where she was…"
"The library."
"She said she was going to the library?"
"That's what I inferred, yes," he replied.
"Okay. Thank you very much, Father."
"You're welcome, Elizabeth. Goodbye."
Ellie sat alone at a table in the absolutely silent library. The table was covered by books-books about pregnancy, miscarriage, infancy, and even religion, superstition, and old wives' tales. A large book titled 'Pre-Natal Complications' was open before her. Ellie traced the words with her finger and squinted her eyes as she read. She groaned and pushed the book away from her in frustration, then stomped her feet, below the table, a few times. After her mini-tantrum, she dropped her head onto the book and let her hair cover her face. A few seconds later, she felt a tap on her shoulder and jerked up her head. A young, average-sized blonde woman stood before her.
"Are you all right?"
"Um, yeah. Yeah, fine."
"You've got a lot of books on your table for someone so young."
"I'm doing research. And I can't understand most of it," Ellie admitted.
"Well, what are you researching?"
"A lot of stuff."
"Maybe…I can help you."
"Do you work here?" Ellie asked.
"Last time I checked." She held out her hand. "I'm Rebecca Wright. Becky. I'm a librarian here."
Ellie felt important as she shook Rebecca's hand. It made her feel like an adult.
"Ellie Bartlet."
"Hi, Ellie. Can I sit?"
"Oh. Sure."
"So what do we have here?" Becky asked, lifting up the book to look at it's title. "Pre-Natal Complications, huh? School project?"
"No," Ellie answered, quietly.
"Just…general interest?"
"No."
"Well?"
"My mother's pregnant."
"Oh! Well, that's wonderful, Ellie."
"I'm nervous."
"Why's that?" Becky questioned.
"She's had two miscarriages before. I don't want it to happen again."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. But I'm sure everything will be fine."
"She's too old."
"What?"
"She's forty-one. She's too old to be having a baby," Ellie said.
"Oh, no she's not. It's a little on the late side, but I wouldn't say she's too old."
"How do you know though?"
"Well, my husband's in med school right now. I've spent a lot of time helping him study for his exams. I'd say I'm pretty knowledgable on this stuff. That, and four years of college are a big help."
Ellie nodded.
"My sister's pregnant too."
"Oh, really? That must be interesting, your mother and sister pregnant at the same time," Becky commented.
"My sister's sixteen."
Becky was taken aback at first, then smiled.
"Well, that's different."
"Really different," Ellie agreed.
Becky smiled at Ellie, studying her.
"So, do you think you can help me?" Ellie asked.
"Absolutely, sweetie. Let's get crackin'."
1984
When Jed pulled in the driveway at 6:45pm, he rushed in the house. He was already in his tuxedo.
"Abbey!" He shouted. His voice echoed throughout the house.
"Abbey, come on! We gotta go. The President's waiting!"
He glanced up the stairway to see if she was up there.
"My meeting went over, and gave you forty-five extra minutes to get ready. You've gotta be dressed by now. Damnit, Abbey, where the hell are ya!"
He poked his head into the kitchen and saw Abbey lying on the cold, linoleum floor, unconscious, a pool of blood surrounding her.
"Dear God," he muttered under his breath, rushing to her side.
"Abbey, honey, Abbey, wake up."
When she didn't, he reached for the phone and called an ambulance. He lifted her off the ground, her blood covering him. By the time he got her to the door, the ambulance had arrived and the paramedics took over. Abbey was lowered onto a gurney and Jed followed her into the back of the ambulance. One of the paramedics drove the vehicle, and the other sat in the back with them.
"How far along is she?"
"Five months to the day," Jed replied.
"Why didn't you call an ambulance sooner? She could only have been unconscious a few minutes by the look of it."
"She…she was alone. I…wasn't home," he spoke the last part quietly, with shame.
"Has she had any complications with this pregnancy?"
"No, none."
"Complications with any previous pregnancies?"
"Oh. Uh, yes, she miscarried about six years ago. But her last pregnancy was three years ago and that went fine, no complications."
"All right. She's lost a lot of blood, it looks like, I'm gonna do what I can for now to keep her from going into shock."
"Okay," Jed whispered, staring at his motionless wife, as a strong feeling of guilt washed over him. He should have been there.
1987
After hours of going through the medical books, Ellie and Becky decided to take a break. It was just after 2pm, and Ellie realized she hadn't told Liz where she was.
"I'm gonna go call my sister, okay?"
"Sure, just go on up to the front desk and tell them Becky said you could use the phone."
"Okay."
Ellie walked over to the front desk, did as Becky had told her, and called Liz.
"Hello?"
"Hey."
"Ellie! You are so lucky you told Father Moriarty where you were going," Liz said.
"You called Father!"
"Damn right, I called Father. How was I supposed to know where you were?"
"Well, I'm at the library," Ellie said.
"I know that now. But I didn't before."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah, you are. When are you coming home?" Liz asked.
"I don't know. Maybe you could ask Dad to come pick me up when he gets home from work?"
"I'll consider it."
"Thank you."
"Hey, Ellie. What are you doing at the library, anyway?"
"Uh, just reading."
"Wow. That's…descriptive of you," Liz commented.
"I'm really into this Noel Coward play I'm reading," Ellie lied.
"Into this what play you're reading?"
"Noel Coward. He's a playwright."
"Oh. Well, okay. Fine. Be ready to go when Dad gets there, probably around 5:30pm or something," Liz said.
"I will. Bye."
She hung up and went back to sit with Becky at their table.
"Get a hold of your sister?" Becky asked.
"Yep."
"Everything okay?"
"Mmm hmm."
"Shall we continue?"
"Definitely."
"Where were we?" Becky questioned.
"Understanding and Interpreting Superstition," Ellie replied, referring to the book.
"Right. Let's keep at it then."
After her phone conversation with Ellie, Liz felt much better. She went into the living room and found Zoey sound asleep on the couch with the TV on. She shut it off, then went back up to the attic and sat by the trunk. Then, she picked up the next letter in line.
April 4th, 1967
Dear Jed,
Well, that was fast. You sure don't waste any time. By now, you've already spoken to the dean and your professors-I hope that went well, and I hope you handled the situation with grace and tact as I know you can. Have you decided upon a new major yet? I'm assuming you'll choose something to do with Math or History, but you're too unpredictable, it could be anything. That was sarcasm, by the way.
To answer your question (though I'm sure you don't remember what it was by now), no. I don't think this is just an infatuation, and it hope it doesn't just become one. Contrary to what you may think, I take you very seriously, Jed, despite the fact that I'm always ribbing you. I'm actually quite embarassed that you have to change your major. I feel responsible, like I'm causing trouble for you and your family. I'm afraid you'll regret doing this, and I don't ever want you to resent me. But then, deep down I'm glad. I think this will mean very good things for us, and I can't wait to see how this unfolds. Please update me on how your announcement went!
Yours,
Abigail Bennett
TBC.