Chapter Four
Jed drove towards the hospital, sparing a prone Abbey increasingly pensive glances.
She was so still that he had to restrain himself from reaching over to check her pulse. Eventually, he reached the end of
his resolve.
“Abbey?” She didn’t stir. “Sweetheart, are you awake?”
She shifted painfully on the bench seat and unconsciously drifted closer to him. He took one hand from the wheel to wrap an
arm around her. He brushed his lips softly across her brow, but halted as she cried out again. “Oh, honey, what did
he do to you?” His jacket slipped from her slumped shoulders to reveal missing buttons and an angry bruise beginning
to color her throat.
Rage and sorrow surged in his heart and for a moment, Jed saw red. Abbey, being
only partly passed out, immediately sensed the change in him and jarred herself awake. Instinctively, she began to back away
from him towards the passenger door, her chest heaving in a final exhaustion. She had run until she could no longer breathe
and then she had run further still. She had collapsed in the ditch when her legs would carry her no farther. After that, she
had crawled and prayed that she’d cover that precious distance after which Daniel wouldn’t follow her.
She’d come so close to being found by him, excruciatingly close in fact.
She could smell the exhaust from his car and the smoke from his expensive cigars drifting overhead as he drove nearby. Seeing
her nowhere in the distance, he had thankfully turned back, cursing her with every passing mile. And then, Jed had come only
seconds later to find her...and save her.
Remembering this, Abbey relaxed her tense body and released the door handle from
her white-knuckled grasp. Jed was watching her with eyes like silver discs while trying vainly to keep observing the road
in front of him. Her cheeks flamed in mortification. He had just rescued her and she had somehow managed to go completely
postal on him.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered awkwardly.
“No. Oh, no, don’t apologize. Abbey, something awful happened to you
today. You don’t have to tell me what, but I do need to know if you’re hurt.” He looked her over again.
“Well, that’s a stupid question if I’ve ever asked one. I just--I need to get you help, okay? I’m
taking you to the hospital, so that they can look you over.”
“No, please, don’t.” She grabbed his arm in a vice grip. “They’ll
send me back.”
“They’ll call your parents and you can go home with them.”
“I’ve done this before, Jed. They took me back. And he beat me. He
beat me so badly I was in bed for a week. Then, he told people that I had fallen in the tub. They believe him, Jed. No matter
what I say, they believe him. Please don’t take me to the hospital.” He exhaled worriedly and clinched his fists
around the wheel as they hit a tight curve in the deserted road. “Please.” A sob choked her words and she mutely
entreated him to look at her so that he could see the depth of her despair. He turned his head and saw her framed in the dying
sunlight. The auburn highlights of her hair shone against her glistening green eyes and he could see himself in the tears
on her alabaster cheeks. It struck him then that he couldn’t allow her to be surrendered to that monster’s grasp
again. He’d rather die than let that happen. Revenge had not gone cold in his eyes, but it had taken the backburner.
His first priority was her safety. She had to feel safe again. And to feel safe she’d have to trust him.
“I know a doctor,” he said, giving her a sideways look. “He
works out of his home. He’s a friend of my father, but more my friend than so. His wife--she’s a doctor, as well.
I might be able to get you in to see her if that’s better.” She nodded.
“What will you tell them?” He shrugged uncomfortably.
“I was going to tell them that you were my fiancée and that you’d
had a fall, but I just realized that that won’t work.” She turned to him with a raised eyebrow. He smiled despite
himself, but it faded when he realized his only reply. He cleared his throat. “Because, I think that the injuries you
have never would’ve come from a fall...or from me. I won’t tell them anything you don’t want me to, but
I think it’s important that a doctor makes sure that you’re all right. I know you’re hurting in more than
a few ways, but I want you be okay, you know, physically before you have to tackle anything else.” He started to ramble
again, feeling as though he was terribly botching up his attempt at compassion. She shook her head amusedly and took his hand
that still rested across the back of the seat.
“Thank you, so much. You’ve shown more care and compassion to me than
most have recently. I am grateful to have met you.” She wrapped her small hand in his larger one. For some reason, the
sight of their joined hands gave her hope. She laid her forehead on their fingers and thanked God.
‘Not as grateful as I am to have met you,’ he thought to himself.
Everything seemed to come together then. His mission was to serve God, yes. But that wasn’t his only mission. His mission
had been set before him in the form of this woman. This woman who had stood in a life not of her own making filled with nothing,
but hopelessness in place of love and no room for faith. No room for faith in anything, God nor people. He had given her something
to believe in. His mission was to walk beside her in life, to accompany her through her trials and triumphs, to be her touchstone
in all things.
But he could not be selfish. If it was not her wont to be with him, then he had
to accept that. One cannot foist their destiny upon another. Though, it seemed that she’d been formed just for him.
He longed to know her outside of this fear and exhaustion. He longed to know the woman who would, one day, graduate from Harvard
at the top of her class. Who would, in time, bring into his world three little girls that he would forever love. Who would,
one day, stand beside him as he was declared the President of the United States.
It is said that behind every strong man, there stands an even stronger woman.
She had to be the one. She was stronger than a dozen Greek phalanxes.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have survived this far.
~~~~
Abbey didn’t realize that they arrived until the calming motion of the car
had slowed to a stop. She awoke to find herself covered with Jed’s jacket again and to find him watching her with an
affectionate expression. She felt mysterious butterflies flutter in her belly and she dropped her eyes coyly.
“We’re here.” She looked out the windshield to see a large house
laid out before her with scant few cars parked nearby. It was a tall house surrounded by acres of rolling hills on either
side. It was intimidating to say the least. The very least.
“They work here?” He looked out his window at the house he’d
been to more than once in his clumsy years.
“And live here. It’s their house.”
“A very big house.”
“Indeed.”
“You’ve been here before?”
“A few times.” He flushed in remembrance. “I’m a bit of
a klutz, to be honest.” She snickered at an image of his riding his bike into a tree that bloomed in her mind just then.
He tipped his head at her and memorized the way her nose wrinkled up when she laughed. Laughter looked so much prettier on
her than fright.
“I thought you were from New Hampshire.”
“I am. My father knows people here, so we come down every now and then.”
“Oh.” She fidgeted a little and waited for what came next. “They’re
good, you think?”
“They’re good. Very nice people. They can barely stand my father,
so that’s saying something.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t...Not for my father. That’s a good character choice
on their part. They like me, so that shouldn’t affect you badly.”
“Okay.” She looked around quietly.
“So, we can go in now unless you want to wait for a little while.”
“Can we...” He reached for his door handle. “Wait for a little
bit? Just a little.” He let it go and settled back to wait. “I don’t know what I’ll say when they
ask what happened. I’m sure they know Daniel’s family. They won’t believe me either.”
“I think that you will be very surprised when you meet them. They are wonderful
people. Give them a chance. You won’t regret it, I promise.”
“I guess.” He pulled out the puppy eyes and that infamous bang of
hair flopped onto his forehead despite the efforts of many hair gels. The figure he cut left her in stitches and she laughed
until only the car door was holding her up. Not exactly the reaction he was looking for, but he could live with it. “Okay,
I’ll trust them. If you say they’re good. I’ll take your word for it. Happy?” He beamed and she shook
her head ruefully. What a beautiful man.
“Are you ready now?” She nodded bravely. He smiled supportively at
her and came around to let her out. He lent her a hand as she stood up and put an arm around her to hold her up when she staggered.
It had been some time since she’d been on her feet. She settled into the embrace and allowed herself to be led slowly
towards the intimidating manor.
Jed opened the door like a gentleman and allowed her to enter first. She stepped
in and saw a girl about her age reading a magazine on a couch. The place was warm, comfortable, homey. She wouldn’t
be hurt here. She already knew that.
Still, she jumped when Jed placed a hand lightly on the small of her back to guide
her to the front desk. She looked down warily, using her shoulders to conceal her battered face. The middle-aged woman behind
the polished oak desk looked Abbey over knowingly. She’d seen girls like her. Girls on their last leg, with nothing
left to lose. She also knew Jed, a kind young man with a soul of pure light. If one man was to be the template of all men,
Josiah Bartlet would be that man.
“You need to see Dr. Katz?”
“Dr. E. Katz, please?” She looked up from the schedule book to see
confirmation in her eyes.
“All right. Sweetheart, I am going to need your name for the medical records.”
“Abbey.” She leaned closer.
“Could you say that again? I can’t hear you.” Her eyes skittered
from person to person.
“Abbey--Abigail. Abigail Ann Barrington.” She wrote it down on a blank
folder.
“Okay, Abbey.” She picked up the phone and pressed the line for patient
room one. “Dr. Katz, it’s Emily. Jed has a friend here to see you. Yes, it does appear serious. Yes, it’s
that Jed. I’m sending her folder back with him. He can show her the way. All right. Thank you, Dr.” She hung up
the phone and handed the folder over. “Jed, could you show Abbey to patient room two? You remember where it is, don’t
you?”
“Of course, Mrs. Rich.” She looked at him over her reading glasses.
“You know you don’t have to call me Mrs. , Jed.”
“Maybe, but it is a show of respect and you deserve nothing less.”
She rolled her eyes but waved him past her.
“Oh, go on. Charmer,” she muttered as they passed.
“She loves me.” She clung to his arm and nodded her ascent absently.
“Naturally.” He led her down a short hallway, decorated with in a
classic floral wallpaper with brass wall accents and mahogany hall tables. It didn’t feel like any clinic or doctor’s
office she’d ever visited before. They came to a white door with a gold nameplate that said patient room two in bold
black letters. He gave her the folder and waffled between remaining and going outside to wait. He checked his watch and shifted
on his feet.
“I’m gonna go...you know, out there. I’ll be here.” He
whistled and plodded sluggishly back the way they came.
She hesitated before calling after him. He turned back as though he’d been
hoping she’d stop him and lingered. “Could you stay with me until the doctor comes?” He squelched his gladness
at her asking him to stay and settled on a solemn and mature nod. He leaned on the wall behind him and reddened in embarrassment
as a brass candy dish fell mutely from a side table to the antique runner on the floor, spilling its contents all over the
place. So much for the dissolution of that damnable clumsiness.
“You are a little clumsy, huh?” She got down to help him pick up the
mess while stifling her laughter. For a man so terribly adorable, she could definitely see him walking into a locked door.
Someday, he’d be an incredible father. She looked forward to that day. She stopped dead in the face of such a startling
notion. ‘Why would I be there for that,’ she inquired of herself. She had her whims, but could think of
no answer she would admit out loud within the hearing of any living person, under pain of death. In spite of her circumstances,
Abbey was a woman of pride and as such a woman, she wouldn’t submit to being the stereotypical damsel in distress. Yes,
he had come to her aid and yes, he was helping her now. However, by no means did that make it mandatory for her to fall in
love with him.
His klutziness, his charm, that darling smile, not to mention the compassion that
had brought them here. That alone . But his bumbling care sold her. As he haphazardly gathered the small, plastic-wrapped
candies into his large hands, she came to the conclusion that she was in no state of mind to be in love. She could be gracious;
she could be indebted, and God knows she was grateful. But she couldn’t be in love.
Since Jed, like every man she’d ever known, had the capacity to let her
down, had the capacity to hurt her. She’d be damned if she’d be hurt again. She would no longer stand for allowing
life to happen to her; she had to happen to life. This was her strongest moment yet.
She snapped out of her troubled stupor and found that she had become the center
of attention. Jed was eyeing her warily while notably keeping his hands in view. The tall woman in the white lab coat, who
she assumed was Dr. E. Katz, seemed to be cataloguing her from head to toe, from her expression to the way she pressed her
hand against her side guardedly as she began to rise. Abbey couldn’t help but feel that this woman already had her pegged.
“Hi, Abbey.”
She cleared her throat inelegantly. “Hi.”
She held out a well-weathered, well-manicured hand. Abbey stared at it briefly
before taking it and shaking it primly. The good doctor rewarded her with a soft and maternal smile that immediately put Abbey
at ease.
“I’m Dr. Katz, Elizabeth Katz. I guess I’ll be seeing you today.”
“I guess.” Jed lurked anxiously by the door to the waiting room, hoping
to be dismissed since he could be of no real help now. This was Abbey’s battle. A man could only help so much. Eventually
faith did have to play a role.
Dr. Katz looked over Abbey to Jed and gave him a similar smile. “Jed, why
don’t you go see Neil? I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up on. I think I have it from here.” He backed
away uncertainly. “Go on, honey. You’ll see Abbey later. I promise. You know me.”
“Yeah, okay. Later.” He inclined his chin towards her. “Later.”
She pursed her lips and tried not to look guilty.
“Later.” He withdrew stiffly and shut the door behind him. A feeling
of anxiety covered him in the like a death shroud. She said she’d see him later, but she hadn’t looked him in
the eyes when she’d said it. She had no one’s poker face and the pitch of her voice was telling.
She said she’d see him later, but he wondered if he’d ever see her
again. With a heavy heart, he thought, probably not. Suddenly, the Priesthood didn’t seem like such a detestable idea.
If he couldn’t help her, maybe he could lend a hand or an ear to others like her. Though, contentment, now, seemed like
little more than a distant flight of fancy, he knew that time would pass and hopefully the memory of this girl named Abigail
would fade until she was just a pair of eyes that he’d never forget. And he 'never' would forget them.
Yet, as he was greeted raucously by Dr. Neil Katz, he began to inwardly pray for
right in whatever would come next. Only God would know. The future had seldom been more uncertain.
There was one thing, though, that he was certain of: Something was different.
He was different...and he’d never be the same again.
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