Jed hung up the phone with Leo and stuck his hands in his pockets as he watched Abbey move around emptying her suitcase into various drawers of the executive bedroom.
He rolled back and forth on his feet. "Leo's getting Josh."
She looked up, "So is this how it will be now?"
He lifted his chin, "Hrm? What's that?"
She froze where she stood, propping one hand on her hip, "You're just going to do whatever I say now out of fear I'll leave again?"
He crossed his arms, "That's not what I did."
"It's not?" She smirked knowingly at him.
He frowned and dropped his arms, "You were right. I need to be hearing from everyone right now. Josh is an asset even if he pissed me off a few weeks ago."
She sighed softly, "You really are distracted, aren't you?"
"I'm not distracted." He grumbled and moved around the room, carefully keeping a distance.
Abbey stayed where she was, her focus unwavering from his moving form. "What's been with the phone calls?"
He shrugged, "I told you what they were about."
"Why Jed?" She was insistent.
He sighed, ceasing his fidgeting and returning his reluctant attention back to her.
"The first night, I don't know. I just did. But I was able to sleep relatively soundly for the first time in too long after that."
She looked at him carefully and he shifted, not liking how clearly he was being read.
After too long she turned back to her clothes "You really do need to sleep more Jed."
He sat on the edge of the bed and continued to watch her. "I know."
"I know you know. The problem is not what you know, it's what you do."
Her back was still to him so he felt safe offering a roll of his eyes. He spent an awkward moment casting about for something to say to change the subject until he finally came up with, "So what's the plan?"
She turned around and looked at him steadily, "What do you mean?"
He stood again and paced. "I assume you didn't just suddenly decide to come to Washington because you missed me." Her eyes shot to his and they spent a tense silent moment each willing something from the other. Jed looked away first, releasing a long breath, "I assume Leo called you. Told you I've gone round the bend. You came back either because he guilted you into it somehow or out of some onerous sense of duty. You've been in the war room, heard what they're all thinking. I want to know what you and they or he think the plan is now that you're here."
Abbey sat stiffly into the upholstered chair. "I told you, they wanted to come to you with an offer."
Jed grimaced, "I said…!"
Abbey cut him off. "I know. You said that already. And I said they don't know. They're pretty lost themselves. That's why I figured you all needed some new brain power and suggested Josh,"
Jed dropped on to the sofa, "So what? The new plan is we sit back and wait for Josh to have a brainstorm?" He dragged his hands across his face.
Abbey leaned forward, "Jed. What's going on? You've got a tenuous grasp on some half formed plan in that head of yours but no one is going to be able to help you until you articulate it."
He sighed again and leaned back on the couch, looking up to the ceiling. "Why are you doing this Abbey? Why are you here?"
She took a deep sigh, "I don't really know."
He shifted so he could make eye contact without raising his head, an amused smirk playing on his lips.
She shrugged, matching his grin, "I was asked to help with this. So I figured I'd start with that and see what comes next."
Jed looked away, mulling her words over in his head. After a long time he sat forward again.
"Fine."
She tilted her head in confusion, "Fine what?"
"Let's start with this." He sat up fully and looked Abbey in the eye as he laid out the situation at hand,
"Haffley's gotten too big for his britches and I haven't done anything to stop him or to take a stand on behalf of what's the right thing to do around here. I was elected with 53 million votes across 50 states; he's here thanks to 125 thousand votes in one congressional district yet somehow he's been the one running the show. That's just wrong. I don't like feeling pushed around, certainly not by someone like him and it feels like all that's been happening lately is that I've been allowing people to push me around.
"Add to my frustration that I was tired and agitated, and Roy Ashland picked then to inform me that he's refusing to step down even if he's writing court opinions from a hospital bed because I'm too weak to appoint a satisfactory successor. I guess part of me was looking for a fight but it comes down to I just decided I wasn't going to stand by and play his lame ass game anymore. I just can't surrender to this guy if I have any hope of being able to look myself in the mirror again.
"I know it's not good but I trust the staff, they can spin this to our benefit. They believe in the same things I do, the wrongness of Haffley's arrogance and the irreparable damage that could be done to the social programs and the stability of the economy if we roll over and let them have their way. The staff believes in those things and they can spin what they believe in. But not forever. This needs to end within the week and it needs to end without us being the ones who capitulate. We need Haffley to get more nervous than us. That's where the plan kind of falls apart. So far I kind of figured if I didn't act nervous neither would anyone else and that would freak the Republicans out." He looked at his wife, chagrined.
"So how's that been working out for you then?" Abbey asked in what Jed found to be a shocking impersonation of Mrs. Landingham.
He snorted in amusement while she shook her head at him. She stood and rummaged through her bag and disappeared in to the bathroom. She returned a moment later handing him a glass of water and a small pill.
"What's this?" He looked at her questioningly before he swallowed the pill.
"Pseudoephedrine. For your cold. It will clear you up. The more you talk the more stuffy you sound."
He nodded. "Good, thank you. I hate being hazy."
She smiled as she sat down across from him again. "I know."
He looked at her for a moment, as if to again assure himself that she was really there. "So Doctor, what's next then?"
She pursed her lips and thought carefully. "Josh is going to agree with you and not like the fact that rest of the staff is ready to capitulate. So I imagine there's going to be some fighting going on down there right now."
Jed nodded in agreement.
"So I think we give them all time to sort out themselves. With a new voice in the room different ideas will get floated and old debates will be held in a different perspective. Give them some time to see if anything new gets stirred up. In the meantime I think you need to get a good night's sleep."
Jed raised his eyebrows, "Abbey…" he groused.
"No. Jed, listen to me. Get a good night sleep. The cold medicine I just gave you is going to make you feel drowsy any way…" He grimaced at her but she ignored him "so take advantage of it and get some rest. Start with a fresh mental slate in the morning. After breakfast call Leo and let him know you're coming down. Then you and your advisors sit in that Roosevelt room until they understand you and between all of your big brains someone will come up with something."
"So your advice is to sleep and then talk with my advisors?" He seemed amused.
She glared at him in return. "Mock if you want mister. It may sound simple but you haven't really done either of those in what sounds like a long time so how about we try giving the common sense approach a try, hrm?"
He looked down, properly chastised.
"Good." She stood again. "Now go change in to sweats and I'll see if there is anything good to fall asleep to on television."
After he disappeared into the bathroom she moved about, changing herself and turning down the bed. She paused, confused.
"Jed?"
He padded out of the bathroom, "What?"
"Where are your pillows?"
He shrugged nonchalantly, "I think they're in the other room."
"Why?"
He shrugged again, "I was taking a nap in there."
She raised her eyebrows, clearly telling she knew he wasn't being honest but decided not to push it. "Well I suggest you get them because I'm not sharing."
He didn't move right away, quietly scanning his eyes about the room.
"Jed?"
His gaze rested on her face, "You want me to bring my pillows in here?"
She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. "Uh. Yeah."
He was quiet again, looking down and nearly shuffling.
"Jed?" She was starting to get annoyed with him.
He cleared his throat, "Where are you going to sleep?"
Her eyes widened. She opened her mouth then closed it again. She took a half step toward him but froze still with the bed between them. Quietly she responded "I was planning on here; is that okay with you?" It was the first time she sounded hesitant and unsure since she had arrived like a whirlwind.
He nodded quickly, keeping his eyes down. "Yeah." She could see the muscles clench in his jaw and neck. "I'll be right back."
He turned and left the room.
When he returned Abbey was already in bed, sitting nearly on the edge of her side of the mattress. He paused, allowing her one last chance before he dropped the pillows and settled himself so close to the edge that she was surprised he didn't fall off. He furtively looked over to Abbey.
"Did you find anything good on?"
She glanced over at him, "The Celtics game started a half hour ago. That good for you?"
He nodded, "Yeah."
For a while after she turned on the game she would catch her husband looking at her, in fact she was fairly certain he spent more time watching her than the television set but soon enough his eyes drooped and his head lolled to the side as sleep over took him as she knew it would.
She watched the rest of the game before shutting off the television and moving to shut off the rest of the lights in the room. She paused at Jed's bedside table contemplating adjusting his pillows so he could lie flat. Her fingers itched to touch him; a hand on his chest, a kiss on the forehead…she stopped herself, shut off the light and returned to her side of the bed.
It was several hours later that she final fell to sleep, eyes focused on her husband from across the expanse of the mattress.