Series: Snapshots of the Past
Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: The Nobel Laureate
Chapter 36
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Jed and Abbey agreed to let Liz attend the Nobel dance next door to the banquet hall; Jed delivered his acceptance speech at the Nobel Banquet
Summary: Leo finds it difficult to resist temptation at the Nobel Ball; Jed introduces Leo to a friend from London; Jed and Abbey meet with King Carl Gustaf and Queen Sylvia of Sweden; Jed has a moment alone with his father-in-law
The banquet ended shortly after ten and in strict Nobel tradition, the guests followed the Royal Family up the three-tiered marble staircase to the Golden Hall, a room designed with brilliant Italian mosaics all made of 23-carat gold. Under the arched ceilings and antique crystal chandeliers, the soft sound of classical music hummed in the air as photographers and television cameras documented the beginning of the 1982 Nobel Ball live on Swedish television.
Once the fanfare had somewhat subsided, in a secluded little corner on the outskirts of the candlelit tables, Leo detached himself from the party around him, distracted by a slew of destructive thoughts rumbling through his brain. Everywhere he looked, sparkling amber liquid bubbled in long golden-stemmed flutes. He was hypnotized by it, seduced against his will without the fortitude to war the powerful cravings. He had successfully battled his desire to taste the vintage wine at the banquet, but the air of spontaneity at the ball made it much more difficult to resist.
"Leo?" Jenny nudged him when she sensed his lack of focus.
"Sorry. What?"
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah. I'm good."
"We can leave if you want."
"I'm not ready to leave."
He hadn't yet abandoned his 148 days of sobriety, but on this night, he held special contempt for those who repeatedly told him it would get easier. It wasn't easier. In fact, every day that passed made it just a little bit harder. He could lie to Jenny, who was hovering around him. He could fool Jed, who had been concerned about how he would react to the alcohol at the post-ceremony festivities. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't deny it to himself. He knew what he was doing. He was aware that one slip would unleash a chain reaction that could cost him his family and still, he was unable to stop it.
A stoic expression of control foolishly plastered on his face, Leo reached into his pocket to feel the small baggie he had rolled up earlier. Inside, was one pill - the one that Jed was supposed to take for his back the day Leo accompanied him to his lecture. At the time, Leo simply held it for Jed so Abbey would think her husband had taken his medication, but his mistake was in not tossing it out afterwards.
It was a muscle relaxant, Jed had told him. Not terribly different from the Valium he was given after he returned from Vietnam, Leo had thought. That Valium worked wonders in quenching his need for alcohol with a high no one had noticed all those years ago, and so, he kept Jed's pill for insurance, hoping he wouldn't have to use it, but prepared in case he did.
And now, he knew he had made the right choice. He searched for an excuse to get away from Jenny before he pulled out the baggie. "I'm gonna go call Mallory."
"I called just a little while ago."
"I know, but I didn't get to talk to her. I'll be right back."
Leo had made it halfway across the room when Jed interrupted him mid-stride.
"Leo!"
"Yeah?" He turned to see Jed and another man walking towards him.
"I want you to meet a friend of mine from London."
"Can it wait five minutes? I need to call Mallory."
"I just called. Ellie said they're all having a great time."
"I'd like to check for myself."
"You're a worry wart, you know that?"
"That's a bit ironic coming from a father as overprotective as you. I'll just be a minute." He turned from him then, but Jed grabbed his shoulder to stop him.
"You can check for yourself as soon as you say hello to Lord John Marbury." Jed moved slightly to allow John through. "Lord John, my dear friend, Leo McGarry."
"It's nice to meet you." Leo hastily shook the man's hand.
"Likewise."
"Where's Jenny?" Jed quizzed Leo as he took the drink out of Lord John's hand and set it on the table beside them.
"She's back there, talking, mingling..."
John's gaze followed Leo to the table where Jenny sat with Millie and Richard and asked, "That ravishing creature is with you?"
"She's my wife."
"Really? She's breathtaking." John's eyes still glued on the attractive redhead, he patted Leo on the back. "Well done."
To know John was to love him, but unfortunately, Leo didn't know him. Before he could respond to the way John ogled his wife, Jed interjected. "So John, what's this I hear about an ice storm tomorrow?"
"Pay no attention. Every December, newscasters predict a massive storm to blanket the city. I think it's a way to urge the laureates back home, frankly."
"So you live in Sweden?" Leo asked.
"He's a diplomat," Jed answered.
"Oh. Are you the Diplomatic Attaché?"
Lord John turned on him, his fiery eyes glowing with contention. "Oh dear." He scoffed, "No, you see when I was first out of University, I was the Diplomatic Attaché from the Court of St. James. Many years and a myriad of international experiences later, I was appointed the British Consulate-General of Gothenburg. That, of course, was just a short time before I was named the British Deputy Ambassador to Sweden."
"The British Deputy Ambassador," Leo repeated.
"That's right," John replied. "It took 20 years of hard work to climb that back-door political chain of diplomacy. Half the time I spent beating down my opposition with both fists while trying to maintain a somewhat respectable decorum and gentle diplomatic presence."
"John, I'm sure Leo, like myself actually, doesn't know all the ins and outs of..."
"I'm sure he doesn't. If he had, I doubt he would have butchered my title so savagely." John took a sip of his champagne. "Leo, is it?"
"Yes."
"You don't look like a Leo. Has anyone ever told you that?"
"No, I can't say that they have."
"Well, first time for everything." He picked up his glass and downed the rest of his drink in one shot.
Leo looked to Jed. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go call my daughter now."
"Yeah, I'll catch up with you later."
"Lord John." He held out his hand to John once again.
"Marbury," John corrected him. "My official title is Lord John Marbury."
"Yes. Lord John Marbury."
"It was a pleasure to meet you...uh..."
"Leo."
"Yes! Leo! I have such a block against that name."
Leo raised a brow as he passed Jed.
"Leo, hang on." Jed followed him. "I'm sorry. He's a little, you know."
"He's a character."
"How are you doing? I mean..."
Leo held up his hands. "I'm fine. No need to worry."
"If you'd rather not be here, I understand."
"Jed, I'm fine. I just want to call Mal, okay?" Leo crossed in front of him.
Jed nodded and waited for Leo to turn from him before he headed back towards Lord John. "So, John, you were saying about the ceremony..."
"Oh yes. It was a lovely ceremony, but my question is, are you expected to split this year's monetary prize with what's his name?"
"Yosh Takahashi."
"Please don't mention his name. Just the sound of it gives me a headache. I've never met a more pretentious man in my whole life."
Jed noted the irony of Lord John Marbury calling someone else pretentious, though in this case, he had to agree with him. "As a matter of fact, yes, we are splitting the prize."
"Incidentally, the monetary prize this year..." Lord John trailed off just as he caught a glimpse of Abbey's sexy sashay. "Abigail!"
"Lord John," she said, extending her hand to him.
John took her fingers and kissed the back of her hand. "You are positively buxom, just like I remember!"
"You haven't changed much yourself."
Jed slipped his hand between the two to get Abbey's attention. "Ready, Sweetheart?"
"I've been ready for a while."
"You'll excuse us, John? We're needed in the Red Hall." Holding Abbey's hand, Jed hurriedly whisked her away.
"Jed, you didn't even give me a chance to say goodbye."
"Like he won't be standing there salivating when we get back."
"He's a charming man."
"Maybe when he's sober. Tonight, he's just a leech." They skirted around a cluster of tables towards a foyer that led to a room tucked in the back of the hall. "Besides, it's not like I made up an excuse. We have a date, remember?"
"I remember." She gave him a warm smile as security ushered them into the private room.
Though they had been waiting for this encounter ever since the Nobel Prize Committee told them it was customary for the King and Queen to arrange a meeting with the laureates and their spouses, that didn't stop a boiling broth of anxiety from roaring in Jed's stomach. Abbey's either for that matter.
"Nervous?" he asked her.
"No," she lied. "Do I look nervous?"
"I'd be nervous if I was the only one in the conversation who didn't know Swedish."
"I'm comfortable with my shortcomings in that regard, thank you very much."
"That's because you trust me to behave like a gentleman."
She rejected the implication. "Your options are limited."
"Really?" He looked around to confirm they were alone. "Där er et stycke av tråd emellan din brösten. JAG trotsa du till sätta fast den."
Confused, Abbey furrowed her brows. "What?"
"I said there's a piece of thread sticking up from between your breasts. I defy you to fix it."
After she glanced at her cleavage and saw nothing there, she turned her smoldering jade eyes to her husband. "Hey, what's the Swedish word for 'jackass'?"
"I believe you're referring to min Älska," he lied.
"That must be it," she said, knowing he had given her the phrase 'my love' instead.
His lips sealed and only the hint of tiny lines crinkling around his baby blues, Jed gave her that mischievous little grin he knew she could never ignore. Abbey fought it every step of the way, but that was the grin that always rendered her helpless against his subtle manipulation. She shook her head and caved with a grin of her own just as she saw the King and Queen approaching, flanked by their security detail.
"Your Majesties." Jed bowed in their presence. "Det er en är till träffa du."
King Carl Gustaf extended his hand to Jed. "Vi er vännerna. Nej behov för formell."
Abbey leaned in towards her husband when Jed whispered, "I think he wants us to drop the formality."
"Yes, I do," King Gustaf confirmed. "You know Swedish?"
"Just this much." Jed held his fingers an inch apart. "I'm still learning though."
"It's tough studying a new language. My wife speaks nine fluently. I can barely say hello in five."
"Nine languages?" Abbey asked Sylvia.
"That's right," Sylvia confirmed.
Jed wrapped an arm around his wife. "She used to be impressed at the fact that I know four. You guys are raising the bar on me there."
The King and Queen chuckled at Jed's remark and just as the couples moved across the room towards the antique arm chairs that surrounded a gold-trimmed coffee table, the nervous tension seemed to instantly disappear.
Jed expected the conversation to revolve around economics or the Nobel Prize. He expected to hear about Sweden's advances in the medical arena or in research and technology. Instead, King Gustaf abandoned protocol. Inspired by the laureate's banquet speech, the King began talking about his family, specifically his three children.
"My oldest daughter is seven," he said, referring to Crown Princess Victoria. "I read you have a daughter around that age."
"I do. Her name's Ellie."
"Ellie...she's the one you talked about in your speech, the one who asked about Dr. Nobel?" The King, sensing that under all his laureate garb, Jed was as much as a family man as he was, urged him to tell him more about his daughters.
"That's the one. She's curious. She's always asking questions. If she doesn't understand something, she struggles with it until she does."
"She's eight years old?"
"Yeah. Third grade. She's so smart though, she's reading at a fifth grade level."
"Ah, another genius in the making."
"You don't know the half of it. Just like you were saying about Victoria, Ellie's always got her nose in a book. She's so advanced and not just in reading. She just learned all her multiplication tables - every single one - months ahead of the rest of her class."
Abbey listened quietly, her heart swelling with love with each syllable Jed spoke of Ellie's accomplishments. If there was ever a way to pull her husband out of his professional demeanor tailored by years as a college professor, it was to mention to his children. Suddenly, all the warmth and kindness that lived in his soul would emerge, awakening a glimmer of vulnerability along with it.
"You put a premium on education in your house," King Gustaf said.
"How did you know?" Jed asked.
"You make your kids bring news items to the dinner table. Sounds like you've set a standard."
"We want them to be well-read, well-informed, well-educated, but also well-rounded. We want them involved in activities besides academics. Ellie, for instance, is also a Girl Scout and an athlete."
"What sport does she play?"
"What sport doesn't she play? She's always running around doing something. The last few years, it's been primarily volleyball, softball, and soccer. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, she scored TWO goals for her soccer team."
Noticing the emphasis and pride in his voice, Abbey tightened the grip around Jed's waist. "She gets her love of sports from her father."
"Nah, not really." Jed dismissed the notion. "She wouldn't be on that soccer team if it wasn't for the fact that her mother used to play."
"Don't listen to him. She's a lot more like Jed than either of them realize."
Jed treasured that thought. Of course he and Ellie had their differences. When it came to some things, father and daughter were like oil and water. They would never understand the other's position; never expect the other's reaction. But despite his theory that Ellie was his polar opposite, it flattered Jed to think that at least some of her qualities mirrored his.
He stood with Abbey for the next fifteen minutes behind those symbolic antique chairs, and amid the sound of rustling ball gowns and old-fashioned tuxes as well as the chatter of mingling dignitaries right outside that room, the Bartlets reminisced with Sweden's Royal Couple, not as laureate and royalty, but as parents, sharing stories that bridged the differences between them.
"I heard Lizzie and Sven are huddled in a corner, necking," a throaty voice whispered in Jed's ear.
Jed spun around with a fury James barely recognized. "Where?"
James laughed. "Only kidding."
"That's not funny."
"Blame my daughter. She's the one who told me your reaction would be priceless."
"She did, did she?" Jed crossed in front of his father-in-law, scanning the room. "Where is my wife?"
"She'll be back."
"You're a traitor, you know. You're a father. You should be on my side."
"I am on your side. I've been exactly where you are now. The first time Abbey mentioned a boy, I went crazy."
"So I'm not being unreasonable."
"I think you're being fair."
"Tell Lizzie that. I sent Alexander to that dance to keep an eye on her."
"She'll get over it."
"No matter what I let her do, she always wants more."
"She's fourteen. Both my daughters were the same way at that age."
"Yeah, but Abbey...I can't imagine Abbey giving you any trouble."
"Think again, Jed. I used to have hair before Abbey hit her teens. Her favorite trick back then was sneaking off in the middle of the night."
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not. She and her girlfriends used to pack into this old beat-up car that belonged to Millie's brother and go cruising at warp speed around the hills and mountains outside Montpelier."
"Lizzie would be grounded for the rest of her life if she did that."
"Abbey was too. Against my objection, her mother made the foolish mistake of lifting the punishment when we moved to Boston two years later."
Jed was visibly amused. "And how old was she then?"
"Seventeen. If it was up to me, she would have been grounded even through college."
"Well, can I say on behalf of someone who met her during those college years, I'm glad her mother won that fight."
"In some ways, so am I." James stared fondly at his son-in-law.
"You're looking at me funny."
"I was just thinking. You know what it's like being a parent. You teach them well, you raise them to have morals and self-respect, and still, you fear what's waiting for them outside your house. You're there to patch up those skinned knees when they're young, there to offer support when they fight with their friends over the latest middle school drama, there to dry their tears the first time they get their heart broken in high school, and through it all, you pray that one day, when she's much, much, MUCH older, she'll meet someone who will take care of her the way she deserves to be taken care of. You pray for someone who will be kind to her, who will love her with all his heart and soul. And if you're lucky, your prayers are eventually answered."
"Prayers I can do. I've never been big on luck."
"I wasn't either...until Abbey married you."
Abbey once told Jed that her father hated sappy conversation. James Barrington kept his tender side well hidden, she said, and only under special circumstances would he betray that sentiment and reveal a spectacle of emotions in a look unique to him, a look that conveyed joy, love, and utter pride. Jed had seen this expression before - once on their wedding day, once again when he first held baby Lizzie in his arms and then when he held Ellie and finally, the day he met Zoey - but he didn't expect to see it tonight.
Touched, Jed was speechless.
"There you are! Leo said you were out on the terrace." Abbey brushed up against him as she intruded on the two men. "Am I interrupting something?"
"No. I was just filling Jed in on some of your teenage adventures."
"I want a chance to defend myself against whatever he told you."
Jed held out his hand to her, chuckling. "Come on."
Abbey accepted. "You're not taking me out on the terrace."
"It's a beautiful night."
"It's 20 degrees."
"The stars have never been brighter."
"Jed -"
"Relax, Hot Pants. I just want to dance with you." He pulled her onto the dance floor and with his left hand, he held her by the small of her back and laced the fingers of his right hand around hers. "We barely danced tonight."
Abbey sank into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his waist as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Leo's in a much better mood."
"Was he in a bad mood before?"
"Jenny said he was a little grumpy."
"I knew he'd have a hard time with all the alcohol being served tonight."
"Well, it looks like everything's fine now."
"Good."
"So what were you and my father really talking about?"
"He told you the truth. We were talking about you and your rebellious ways."
"Please. I was never a rebel."
Jed lifted their arms and spun her around underneath. With her back to him, he closed his eyes as he took in the sweet smell of her hair, the feel of her silky skin against his chin. From behind, he whispered softly in her ear. "Not what I hear."
"Everything he told you was fabricated." She turned in his arms, affectionately stroking the part of his cheek that had been slightly stained by her lipstick.
"You know what I love?"
"What?"
"That after all these years, I'm still finding out new things about you."
"Even if they are lies."
"Let's see. You or your dad. Who do you think I'm more likely to believe?"
"Shut up and dance with me, min Älska."
He unsuccessfully tried to suppress his laugh as she cuddled up to him. "My pleasure."
"By the way, the word is åsna."
Jed pulled away. "What?"
"The Swedish word for jackass."
"How did you know that?"
"I looked it up several weeks ago."
"You did?"
"I figured seven days in Sweden, I'd use that word at least once."
"So just now when you said min Älska, you knew?"
"Of course I knew. I know all."
"Except the proper way to pronounce åsna."
"You're pushing your luck."
"I'll be quiet now."
He touched her again. His strong hand swallowed hers in a firm grasp and his other hand rested along the curve of her tiny waist as they began the elegant steps of the Viennese Waltz. The gentle breeze of their movements fanned the wispy strands that had fallen from her beautifully upswept auburn locks. The skirt of her strapless blue chiffon and silk ball gown flowed all around as they gracefully twirled from one end of the dance floor to the other.
Even as guests started to filter out of the Golden Hall, Jed and Abbey maintained their rhythm. Their eyes locked into each others, they danced the intimate dance of lovers until the first streak of sunlight called an end to the magic of the Nobel Ball.
TBC