A/N: Here's the next chapter! This chapter has a bit of a twist towards the end and will set up the next couple of chapters. But for now, it picks up a couple of days after the events of chapter 12. I hope you enjoy, please read and review!
Chapter 13: Talk; Boys
It had been two days since Josh and Donna had had their big fight on the evening of the Bartlets' anniversary party, and there was no telling when their issues would be resolved. Ellie, home from school, had to watch as her father went into a depression over the apparent end of his relationship. The fact that Donna was dodging his calls didn't help his mood.
It was early on Monday morning, and Ellie decided to go down to the kitchen and get something to eat for breakfast. She wasn't avoiding the diner, exactly; she just knew that Donna probably wasn't ready to talk. She found Josh sitting at the kitchen table, stirring his coffee with a blank look on his face. Ellie's heart broke: she hadn't seen him this broken up since Mrs. Landingham had died.
"Dad?" She asked quietly.
Josh looked up at her. "Hey, kid."
She smiled softly at him. "Do-do you want me to heat up your coffee for you? It's probably cold."
He nodded slowly. "Sure. Thanks."
As Ellie crossed the kitchen, Josh glanced at his cell phone and said, "She hasn't called me back yet."
"Donna?"
"Yeah."
"Dad, how many messages have you left for her in the last two days?"
He mumbled his answer.
"How many?"
"Eleven." He admitted.
"Eleven?! Dad, you've got it bad."
"Elizabeth, do you realize that this is the first serious relationship I've had since your mother?"
Ellie stopped short. "No, I didn't know that." Now her dad's reaction to his and Donna's fight made a little bit more sense.
She decided to offer her father a bit of advice, in hopes of making his life a little bit easier. Maybe it was unsolicited, but it was coming from a place of love. "Dad, may I offer you some advice?"
Josh looked at her funny, then nodded. "Sure, I guess I could use it at this point. I've never been through a break-up before and you have."
Ellie smiled before sitting down. "You have to let Donna breathe."
"Let Donna…"
"You call her all the time, and you're just confirming that she thinks you're controlling her. She will probably forgive you because you two just seem to be drawn to one another, but you gotta give her time. That's my big advice, Dad. Give her time."
Josh sat back. He knew she was right. "All right. You're right."
Half an hour later, Ellie went to the diner, hoping to swing by before school started. Maybe Donna would be busy with Abbie Jean and she would only have to deal with CJ.
"Hey, kiddo!" CJ greeted from the counter. "How was your weekend?"
"Well, fine, considering my dad's been a zombie who's done nothing but call Donna all weekend."
"Man, Josh has got it bad." CJ chuckled.
"That's what I thought!" Ellie replied. "So...how's Donna?"
"She's fine." CJ said a little too quickly.
"CJ…"
"She's been avoiding the subject all weekend. I think…" CJ trailed off, then continued. "Well, look, it's not for me to say, but if you ask me, your dad and Donna are completely lost without each other."
"You think so?" Ellie asked, hardly daring to hope.
"I hope so." CJ said confidently. "We just have to give them time." She held up a cup. "Hot chocolate?"
Ellie grinned. "Yes, please."
…
Meanwhile, Abbey was fixing lunch at the Bartlet house when Zoey came down. "Hey, Mom. So, what do you think of this for my wedding?"
Abbey turned around, and her eyes widened. Zoey was wearing a wedding dress that was shorter than her knees and clinging to all the wrong places. For not the first time, Abbey knew that her youngest daughter was making a mistake. But she wasn't about to tell her that.
She put on a slight smile. "That's very...nice."
Zoey's face fell. "You don't like it."
"No, no, honey. I love it, it's just...are you sure this is what you want?"
"Mom, I know you think I'm moving too fast, but...I love Jean-Paul. You and Daddy knew you wanted to get married after a few weeks."
Abbey sighed. Zoey did have a point. But honestly, there was something about Jean-Paul that rubbed her the wrong way. Maybe it was the way he was almost always polite in front of them but dripped with condescension whenever he thought he was alone with Zoey. Was Zoey really that blind to him?
"Well, yes, that's true, but…"
"You think Jean-Paul's a bad guy."
"I mean...I don't want to upset you," Abbey asked, treading carefully, "but would I be completely wrong?"
Zoey was quiet. Then, she slowly shook her head. "But, you don't understand. He's only looking out for me."
Abbey scoffed. "Looking out for you? Zoey, listen to yourself!"
"Mom! Just...just leave it!"
"No, I'm not going to leave it!" Abbey snapped. "Because you're my daughter and I care about you. Look, you are sweet, smart, and resourceful. And I know that you may be blinded now, but in time, you will come to see what I see about this man. And when you do, I'll be right here waiting for you." With that, Abbey walked out of the living room, leaving Zoey in shock about the things her mother had just said. But then, she began to consider things. Was she right?
Luckily for two members of the town, the universe was about to right itself. Josh was working in the inn the next morning when he heard someone open the door to his office.
"Not now, Margaret." He said distractedly.
"Josh?"
Josh stopped what he was doing. That voice only belonged to one person he knew. He looked up to see Donna standing in the doorway.
"Donna!" He stood up quickly-almost too quickly-and fell over.
Donna tried very hard to hold back her giggles. "Are you okay there?"
"Yes. Only my pride." Josh said sullenly. Suddenly, he scrambled upward as he remembered who he was talking to. "You're here."
"Yeah. I was...hoping we could talk?"
"Well, sure!" Josh replied. "Here...let's go outside." He could think of a nicer place to have this conversation than his office. He led Donna out back, where there was a small pond with ducks for families to enjoy. A wildflower garden also bloomed nearby.
"It's beautiful out here." Donna commented.
"Thanks. I used to bring Ellie out here all the time when she was little, you know? Kind of reminds of a simpler time."
"And the garden?"
"That was all Mrs. Landingham." Josh said with a sad smile. "That garden was her passion."
"I think I remember seeing her work on it once or twice when I first moved here."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Josh decided to start on a safe topic. "So, how's Abbie Jean?"
Donna just looked at him. "Josh, what are you doing?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're making small talk, and in all honesty, avoiding the elephant in the room."
"The elephant being our fight."
"Yes."
"Yes. Forgive me, but I wanted to ease into the conversation, and not start out fighting. Is that OK?"
"Of course it's OK," Donna said defensively. "That's actually very sweet. But...I did come here to talk about our fight."
"What's there to talk about?"
"Josh…" Donna started.
"No, I was controlling and not letting you follow your dreams. I didn't want you to go because of me, and I didn't want you to stay because of me. How stupid is that?"
"Josh...I didn't take the job." Donna said. She sat forward to look him in the eye. "I wasn't even sure I was going to begin with."
Josh looked up. "Really?"
"Yes. It's a very flattering offer, and that's what I told them. But it's also a big commitment, and I'm not going to uproot my daughter's life for six months if I can help it. And I'm not going to leave you."
"You're not going to…"
"Look, I didn't decide not to take the job because we had a fight."
"And I didn't fight with you to get you to not take the job."
"Josh…" Donna trailed off, then continued. "I love you. I know I haven't said that enough in the last year, but I love you."
"I love you too." Josh said. "I didn't want to lose you, but no matter what happens, I want you to know you have my support. You had it before all this happened, and you'll have it now."
Donna looked up, tears in her eyes. "You mean that?"
"You bet I do." Josh replied. He leaned forward to kiss her, and before he knew it, she kissed him back. Their fight was over, and CJ of course had been right: they really had been lost without each other.
…
It was later that evening, during a dinner with the Bartlets, Josh, Donna, Ellie, and Abbie Jean at the diner, that Abbey received an urgent phone call. She pulled out her cell phone. "Hello?"
At first, the voice on the other end was slurred and the words were difficult to make out. But then, something in Abbey's mind clicked. "Zoey? Is that you, sweetheart?"
"Mom…" Zoey said over the phone, her voice somewhat muffled. "You were right. You were right...about Jean-Paul, about all of it. Just...please help me." Her voice broke off into a round of sobbing.
Abbey's heart leaped into her throat. "Just tell me what happened, honey. What did he do to you?" The last part of the sentence caught Jed's attention, and he moved to stand next to his wife.
"Is that Zoey?" Jed wanted to know.
Abbey nodded.
"Well," Zoey began. "I think he slipped something in my drink. I don't know, he was being mean to me all night, and when I called him on it, he hit me. So, I told him I didn't want to see him anymore. Then, I started feeling woozy, and I realized that he must have put something in my drink."
"Oh, my God." Abbey replied. She quietly filled in Jed. "Zoey, where are you?"
"I'm at a bar, in Hanover, I think. I ran into the bathroom, he ditched me after I broke up with him."
Within twenty minutes of Zoey's call, Jed and Abbey had located the bar where Zoey was. They walked in, and rushed to the ladies' bathroom. Zoey was sitting against the wall, looking deathly pale and obviously sick to her stomach.
Abbey went into doctor mode immediately. "Do you have any idea what he gave you?"
"I don't know. It might have been ecstasy, I'm not sure."
Abbey could tell, just from the drowsiness that seemed to be overtaking her, that it was more complicated than that. "Come on, we're going to the hospital."
"Mom…" Zoey muttered. "I'm so sorry."
"Shhh." Abbey soothed her youngest daughter. "Everything's going to be alright."
…
The worried parents took Zoey to the hospital, where it turned out that Zoey's drink had been spiked with (as Abbey had suspected) a date-rape drug. Luckily, after an overnight stay in the hospital, she recovered without any lasting effects. Jean-Paul (if that was his real name) was long gone by the time she got out of the hospital, and as far as Jed was concerned, it was probably just as well.
Life soldiered on over the next several months. Josh and Donna worked out their problems and continued to date seriously, while also spending time on the weekends together with Abbie Jean and Ellie when she was home. Ellie loved watching the relationship between her father and Donna blossom. She could only hope that they would be together for the long haul. And that was made even sweeter by the fact that Ellie had met someone.
Leighton O'Connor was the son of a newspaper magnate and the top party student at Dartmouth. He and Ellie had met on the school paper at Dartmouth and had begun to go out. Josh hadn't met him yet, but he was hoping he would get to meet him soon.
There were other developments in town, too. The inn was expanding like never before, thanks to Josh's leadership. Toby kept creating more events in town and asking Jed for more responsibility in the town's government. It was no secret that Toby still wished for the job of Mayor, even as he had greater responsibility, such as turning around the town's newspaper. Ellie had interned at the newspaper over the summer, and between her and Sam, it was now a burgeoning enterprise.
And speaking of Sam and Ainsley…
Ainsley had discovered she was pregnant shortly before Holly's ten-month birthday, and Sam understandably had freaked out. How were they going to handle two kids under two? However, despite the unorthodox timing of the news, it was greeted with much excitement all over Liberty. And now, just after Christmas, they got the news that Sam had been hoping for.
"It's a boy!" Sam exclaimed, bursting into the diner where several of his friends were present for dinner. "My wife's gonna have a boy, how about that?" His news was met with scattered applause from the townspeople.
Josh jumped up and clapped his best friend on the back. "Congrats, man!"
Ellie, who was still home until the spring semester started, hugged Sam tightly. "That's awesome! You're gonna have one of each!"
"Well," CJ announced, "I say this calls for a celebration. How about a free coffee on the house?"
Sam grinned. "Thanks, CJ." He grabbed a cup and filled it.
Meanwhile, Donna was standing with Josh, excitedly discussing the news. "There are so many babies that have been born in this town over the last few years."
"Yeah." Josh said, putting his arm around her. "Maybe in a couple of years, it'll be our turn."
Donna looked up at him and smiled. "You think so?"
"Yeah." Josh's voice was serious. "I do."
…
Later that night, Josh was working late at the inn when Ellie came in with a twenty-something young man he had never seen before. Josh correctly surmised from their closeness that this must be the mysterious Leighton he had heard so much about.
"Hi, baby." Josh greeted her.
"Hey, Dad," Ellie said, kissing him on the cheek. "Leighton and I were just in the area and I wanted to show him where I grew up."
"It's a very...rustic area." Leighton commented with a smile. "Certainly different than where I grew up."
"You must be Leighton." Josh said with a smile that he felt was forced. Just like Zoey and Jean-Paul, something rubbed him the wrong way about this kid.
"It's very nice to meet you." Leighton replied, shaking his hand warmly. "Ellie's told me so much about you."
"She has, huh?" Josh told him, looking slightly in Ellie's direction. Ellie could read her father's mind like a book. Then why haven't I met this guy before?
"I would've introduced you two before, but this was the first time we both had a weekend free from school." Ellie explained.
Josh nodded. That made sense. Almost too much sense. "Well, would you and Leighton like to go to get something at the diner? I'm sure CJ would like to meet him."
"Oh...um, actually, Dad, Leighton and I have reservations at a place in Hanover."
"Oh, OK," Josh said. "I get that. Maybe we could meet up tomorrow for breakfast?"
"Sure," Ellie said with a genuine smile. "That sounds great. So, we'll see you tomorrow?"
"See you tomorrow." Josh confirmed, watching them leave.
However, something would happen later that night that would change Ellie's life forever. Josh was just getting home from the inn when he saw someone huddled on his front step. He jumped a mile, grabbing a tree branch in his blind panic.
"Don't!" The voice yelled. "It's me, it's Scott! I just-I didn't know where else to go."
Josh lowered the branch in surprise. "Scott, what are you doing here at this hour?" Now Josh could see that there was a suitcase next to him on the front steps, and that 2-year-old Justin, with a mop of brown hair and clad in flannel Thomas the Tank Engine footie pajamas, was sound asleep in his father's arms.
Scott stood up with Justin in his arms. His eyes looked haunted. "You guys were right. You were right about all of it. Amy...Amy left me."
Josh was shell-shocked. "What?" Had history really repeated itself? After everything they had been through together, with Ellie and with each other, were all the terrible things he thought about Amy true?
"I came home with Justin from daycare and she was gone. No clothes, no bathroom stuff, a note, and divorce papers on the kitchen table. She said that she was sorry, but that she just wasn't cut out to be a mother. She claims that she would've left sooner when Justin was less likely to remember her, but she didn't want to hurt me."
"Didn't want to hurt you?" Josh repeated in disbelief. "That sounds like a cop-out if I ever heard one."
"I just don't know what to do now," Scott said, his voice despondent. "I don't have anybody here in New Hampshire-except you guys."
And suddenly, even though he had met this man for the first time only two and a half years ago, and despite not being particularly close to him, Josh found himself wrapping Scott up in a hug. "Whatever happens, it'll be okay." he said. "We'll get you through this."
As expected, Ellie was furious about Amy's departure.
"I will never forgive her!" she seethed to her father. Josh had put Scott and Justin up in their guest bedroom, and when Ellie had returned from dinner with Leighton, Josh had broken the news as gently as he could.
And although Josh had tried numerous times over the years to make sure that Ellie and Amy had some semblance of a relationship, for the first time, he didn't blame Ellie for never wanting to forgive her mother. Because now it wasn't just her she had abandoned. It was her defenseless little brother.
"Does she even realize how many people she's hurt? You, me, Scott, Justin. I don't even know what to say anymore. But I'm done with her. You hear me, Dad? I am done with her. For good."
Josh only nodded. And Ellie noticed.
"What, you're not going to use the 'This is just what she's like, but she is your mother.' card?"
"No. Because I agree with you. This is one step too far."
"Why, Dad? Why did you let her come back?"
Josh was stunned, then heartbroken as he realized that underneath the anger, his daughter was incredibly hurt. And he hated himself for not trusting his instincts and sending Amy packing the second she had shown up in Liberty almost three years earlier.
"I let her come back because it seemed like she had finally turned a corner. She seemed like she was ready to put down roots, and be in your life. I trusted her, El. I trusted her, and that was the biggest mistake of my life. Because I let you down."
Ellie was quiet for a moment, then broke down crying. Because she was beginning to realize the same thing Josh had realized years earlier: that she was never going to change. Josh stood up and went to hug her. She melted into his embrace, but then pulled back.
"Dad, I think I need to be by myself for a while to process this. Is that OK?"
Josh nodded. "Well, yeah, sure. Take all the time you need."
Ellie silently thanked him, then ran out the front door. Josh could see from the window that she was getting into Leighton's car. She must have called him.
When Ellie slid in the car, Leighton smiled a sly smile and said, "Where to?"
"Anywhere to get away from here," Ellie told him. She loved her dad, but she needed to just forget about her home life for a while.
"My parents have a cabin on Pleasant Lake in New London. We could go there for the night."
"Sure." Ellie agreed. And so, she drove off to do something she never would've dreamed of doing three months earlier.
…
"So," Jed said to Scott as both sat in the Mayor's office. "You're looking for a job."
"Yes, sir," Scott replied. "I just need something to provide for my little boy."
"What do you do for a living normally?"
"I'm a carpenter, sir," he explained. "I have a degree in architecture, but I do carpentry to pay the bills."
"A valid career choice," Jed said, nodding sagely. "There aren't many construction jobs out here, I'm afraid."
Scott's heart sunk.
"But I can see you working for me here in the Mayor's office. It just so happens that I am looking for a building inspector, someone who can design businesses for the town. That requires someone with your expertise." Jed proposed. "So what do you say?"
Scott sat there, stunned. It was one thing for the Mayor of a small town to help out an old friend. But it was quite another for him to take a chance on him, a virtual stranger. This was quite the town he was moving into.
"Yeah." He said finally. "That would be great."
A/N: You saw the Amy thing coming, right? This marks the start of a bit of a downturn in Ellie's life, but it will resolve. Please let me know what you thought!
