When Abbey walked downstairs at 2am the next morning, she found Leo on the couch in the living room.
"Leo?"
He looked up.
"Abbey. Did I wake you up?"
"No…you're not even making any noise," she answered, suspiciously.
She sat down beside him on the couch and drew her knees to her chest.
"Couldn't sleep?" She asked.
"Thinking about Jenny. You?"
"Just pure insomnia. It's something I get only when I'm pregnant, unfortunately."
"Jed awake?"
"Are you kidding? I could jump up and down on the bed and he still wouldn't wake up."
"Jen's like that," Leo said.
"You and I are the night owls, see. Jenny and Jed are morning people. They need their beauty sleep. We, the workaholics, are naturally gorgeous," she said with a wink. She felt bad for snapping at him earlier. She knew he was in pain.
"I'm sorry you're pissed at me, Abbey."
"I'm not pissed at you, Leo. I'm frustrated and I'm upset. I'm concerned about you. You need to get help."
"I know. But it's hard, you don't know," Leo said.
"I know it's gonna be a helluva lot harder when you lose the support of your family."
"If I go to the meetings, I feel weak, like I can't support my family. Like I'm not enough to take care of Jen and Mallory."
"You're enough. You'll always be enough for them. They love you! But you have to put some effort into it, Leo. This thing isn't gonna beat itself."
"Do you think Jenny'll take me back?"
"If you try to fix this and go back to the meetings, I don't see why not. But after that you're really going to have to reassure her, remind her that she's got a husband. He's flawed, but he's there. You haven't been there, Leo."
"I can't lose her right now, Abbey."
"I know," she said, sympathetically.
"But I can't go back to those meetings."
Her sympathic smile turned into a frown. She stood up.
"It's this or that. One or the other. You go to the meetings, you get your wife back. You let this disease beat you down, and she's gone forever. You decide."
1984
Around 7:30pm, the Bartlet daughters returned home. The house was empty. They weren't expecting their parents to be home until after midnight. Once inside, Ellie immediately ran upstairs to change, having recently decided she didn't like her sweater. Zoey immediately began searching the house for her stuffed animals, Brighton and Triscuit, as she had forgotten to bring them with her to the Smithsonian and was quite incomplete without them by her side. Liz headed into the kitchen to raid the cabinets-it'd been hours since she'd eaten. Once Zoey found Brighton and Triscuit, she moseyed into the kitchen as well. She found Liz standing a few feet from the refrigerator, staring at the ground. Zoey stood next to her and matched her gaze.
"ELLIE!" Liz shouted. "Come down here, now!"
Eight-year-old Ellie ran down the stairs and joined her sisters in the kitchen. Together, they stared at the pool of blood that had nearly dried on the floor.
"Is that blood?" Ellie asked.
"I can't think of anything else it could be," Liz replied.
Zoey grabbed Liz's hand.
"I'm scared."
"What if something happened to Mom and Dad?" Ellie questioned.
"What if? I don't know what if. Let's just…go into the living room."
Liz began to walk out of the kitchen, her little sisters followed.
"What if there's a murderer in the house?" Ellie asked.
"There's no murderer, Ellie."
"How do you know?"
"Because he would have killed us by now!" Liz exclaimed.
At that moment, Leo and Jenny burst through the doors. They were both dressed for the state dinner, wearing a tux and a blue satin gown respectively.
"Oh, thank God you're here," Jenny said.
"What's going on?" Liz asked, immediately.
"Go on upstairs, girls. Pack for an overnight. You're staying at our house night."
A feeling of terror immediately took over the Bartlet girls.
"What happened, Aunt Jenny?" Ellie asked, tearfully.
"We don't know yet, honey. Now go on, get your stuff."
Leo and Jenny sighed and watched sadly as the girls trekked upstairs to do as they were told. He took her hand and squeezed it.
"Should we tell them?" Jenny asked her husband.
"I don't think so. We'll leave that to their parents."
1987
"Abbey. Abbey, come on, honey. You gotta get up now"
Jed walked over and sat down by her on the bed.
"Abbey. It's 6:30. Up."
"What time do I have to be at work?" She mumbled, eyes still closed.
"You've got nine to five today."
"Call 'em and tell 'em I wanna switch to the night shift," she said, pulling the pillow over her head.
"No way. Nine to five is the best shift you can ask for, you gotta get up."
"It's a horrible shift. I'm going back to sleep."
"I want you home tonight, Abbey. You're taking this shift," Jed insisted.
"Why is it so important that I be home?"
"Well, it was going to be a surprise, but if you must know, I was planning to go out tonight."
"No. Not tonight. You know how Zoey gets at restaurants sometimes…"
"No children."
She opened one eye.
"No children?"
He grinned.
"No children."
"Well, in that case."
She propped herself up with a pillow and rubbed her eyes.
"That's my girl," Jed said.
He gave her a quick kiss then stood up and walked into the bathroom.
"So where are we going?" She asked, finally getting out of bed.
"That part will remain a surprise."
She joined him in the bathroom. He was brushing his teeth while she began applying her makeup.
"Aren't you going to take a shower first?" Jed questioned.
"Eh, not this morning. I'll take one before we go out tonight. I don't feel like blow drying my hair. God, I'm exhausted."
"Didn't you get any sleep last night?"
"Hardly any. But I did get a chance to have a nice talk with Leo," she replied, sarcastically.
"Oh? Leo was up?"
"Apparently we're both insomniacs. Quite charming really."
"Did you let him have it?"
"I was going to. But, somehow…I felt bad for him," Abbey admitted.
"Welcome to my world."
"I told him he had to get himself together. Then he told me he absolutely could not lose Jenny right now…but he said he can't go back to AA. I don't think he realizes the severity of this situation. At all."
"He'll get it eventually. Believe me, a few days living with us is motivation enough to go back to AA."
TBC.