Torn
by: Rhiannon
Jed walked into his bedroom late that night. It was well after midnight and
he didn't really expect his wife to be awake, so he wasn't surprised to find
her sitting up in their bed, surrounded with paperwork, sound asleep. He
smiled, she had tried to wait up for him.
He walked into the bathroom and changed his clothes quickly. Then he walked
back into the bedroom. Jed cleared away the mountain of papers off his bed.
He crawled on the bed and sat watching his wife for a long moment.
"Are you going to sit there and stare at me or do you actually have a reason
for throwing my stuff on the floor?"
Jed blinked, "How did you know I was staring at you?"
Abbey opened her eyes, "I could feel you watching me."
Jed shook his head, "You're too light a sleeper, you know that?"
Abbey just looked at him, "It's thirty-two years of living with you that
caused it."
"Whatever," Jed replied as he crawled further onto the bed. He got under the
covers and Abbey promptly snuggled into his arms. He held her tightly as she
rested her head on his chest. "Abbey, we've got a problem."
"When don't we have a problem?"
"Tell me about it," Jed muttered. Suddenly, a though roamed into his mind,
"Where's Stevie?"
"She's spending the night with Zoey at the dorms, why?" Abbey replied.
"There's going to be a... thing about her." Jed said, quietly. "About us
adopting an HIV positive child."
Abbey sat straight up in bed, "Are you kidding me?"
Jed shook his head, "I wish I were... CJ brought it to me today."
"When?"
"It's going to print tomorrow," Jed replied.
Abbey could feel the red heat of her anger rising to her face, "What are we
going to tell Stevie?"
Jed shook his head, "I don't know... But we've got to figure it out before
she comes home. I want her to hear this from us ... not from a reporter or a
news show..."
"We'll have to talk to Zoey about it too." Abbey replied, a distant look
gracing her face.
Jed stared at her for a long moment, "You're pretty sexy when you're pissed
off, you know that?"
"So you've told me..." Abbey responded, still half in her thoughts.
Jed sighed, he could tell Abbey was lost in her thoughts... Nothing he could
say or do was going to bring her down out of the clouds... Well, almost
nothing.
Abbey jumped when Jed leapt on her and they went rolling on the bed, "Jed
Bartlet!"
Jed rolled them around so that he was sitting on top of her, restraining both
of her arms with his, "What?"
"What the hell are you doing, you insane man?" Abbey exclaimed, wiggling
around trying to break free of her husband's restraint.
"Trying to get your attention." Jed replied.
"Well, you've got it!" Abbey exclaimed, still trying to wiggle her way free
of her husband's grasp. "What do you want?"
"Stop fidgeting and I'll tell you." Jed responded.
Abbey heaved a big sigh and lay absolutely still, "Better?"
"Much better..."
"Thank you," Abbey replied dryly.
"Now," Jed began. "Stevie is with Zoey, she's fine for tonight. Tomorrow
morning you and I will talk to her and to Zoey... We'll let them know that
the man who's running this story is an ass. And that his opinion means
nothing to us. That we love Stevie very much and we want her as our daughter,
okay?"
"Okay," Abbey agreed. "Now, will you get off me?"
"No."
"No!" Abbey exclaimed. "Why?"
"Because I kinda like having you in a submissive position." Jed replied, a
grin forming on his face.
"You better pray I don't get free, Josiah Bartlet," Abbey growled.
"Yeah, well that's why I'm on top." Jed's grin got even bigger as he leaned
in for a kiss. All of a sudden, his weight shifted and Abbey capitalized on
it. She locked a leg around his waist and rolled them both over.
Abbey looked down at him, "You were saying?"
"How much I love having a kind, loving and forgiving wife." Jed answered
without missing a beat.
"You're going to pay for that."
"I hope so," Jed replied as Abbey leaned down to kiss him.
TBC...