Chapter Six

Morning met Jed and Abbey glumly. It was still dim out and foggy. Dew hung in the air, wetting the dry and drenching the soaked. Jed was up and about unusually early with unheard caution. There was no tripping or knocking over of things while Abbey still managed to sleep restfully. He was dressed and coifed before he conjured up a big disturbance. She snapped awake with an alarmed scramble and promptly hit the ground with a thud. He hurried to her side and assisted her back onto the bed.

She looked around, disoriented and stared at Jed for a long while as she gathered her jumbled thoughts. He fidgeted under her distracted observation. He cleared his thoughts and rose to pace with his fists shoved into the pockets of his jeans. Her eyes followed him like the stem of a pendulum, back and forth. How ironic.

He tucked his errant bang away unconsciously and yawned voraciously at the early hour. He never got up this early. Abbey thoughtlessly admired his ability to be adorable even this soon after waking. Little did she know that she was a sight herself. Her bobbed hair had gone askew during the night and her face had taken on its usual first hour expression: bewilderment. The meant that her head was covered in ruined curls, her eyes were the size of large brussell sprouts, and her face looked like she’d been playing in her mother’s makeup. Still, she was beautiful.

“You hungry?” She shrugged and stretched, comforted some by Jed’s distant nearness. Security without suffocation. “I’m going to take that as a yes. If you don’t want to put your clothes back on, you can wear one of my shirts and I guess my pants too.” He looked her over with a quick eye. “You’re a few sizes smaller than me, I think, but it could work if you wear a belt. You don’t have a preference, do you?” He held up two pairs of pants. “Because we have jeans…and jeans. Or you can wear my slacks if you like, though I was planning on wear them to church. Anyway, doesn’t matter. It’s entirely up to you. I picked this red shirt for you. It’s not my color, but I think it’ll suit you just fine. So, here goes. I’ll be…outside if you need me.” They both knew sensibly that there was nowhere for him to go outside.

“You don’t have to.” But for some reason they both felt the need to make excuses.

“Yeah, you need your privacy. Besides, you need a toothbrush and toothpaste--Well, not that. I have that. But stuff like that.”

“I have all that at the house.”

“You’re not ever going back to that house, Abbey. That man--no, that boy will kill you. No man would ever lay an unloving hand on a woman. Men don’t do that, boys do.” Abbey took up the clothes he’d laid out, nodding along with his declaration.

“I suppose that makes you a man then.” Jed’s face immediately turned beet red and he felt suddenly as though it was his father judging him now. He was just a boy trying to be a man and find out where he should go next. He had no right to dictate even to this woman, whose life seemed to have gone so far off the rails. He felt like nothing again.

With his silence, Abbey realized that she might have insulted him or worse, hurt his feelings. She was in no position to judge a man from a child since she obviously couldn’t tell the difference. But, if she were ever asked, she would say that Jed Bartlet would always be a man in her eyes. He would never lay a violent hand on her.

“I didn’t mean to sound like I was--like I was critiquing you. You’re wonderful. You’ve been wonderful since I met you. I have nothing, but good things to say about you. Jed, you are a man. Do you know how many others would have taken advantage of me here? Or how many would’ve demanded something in return for their generosity? You not only protected me, but you went the extra mile just to help me. You’re more than a man. You’re a good man, Jed Bartlet. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. They‘re lying if they do. They‘re evil if they dare.” Her tirade reaching its end, Abbey took a deep breath. “Now, shall we eat?”

Little more than dumbstruck, Jed nodded.

Half an hour later, Abbey was dressed in Jed’s red shirt and a pair of his jeans belted to the last whole around her waist. She had them rolled up around her ankles. Still she seemed swamped in clothes. Moreover, she walked with a limp and winced at any sudden movement.

The café wasn’t far down the street, but Jed was cautious of forcing Abbey to walk even that far. “We can take my car. I don’t want you walking all that way.”

She sighed exasperatedly. “Jed, I can walk. I need to walk. The more I walk, the sooner I can get used to the pain until it goes away.”

“Will it go away?” Her eyes snapped back to him.

“What?”

“Will it go away?” She looked oddly perplexed. “I mean, are you sure that no permanent damage was done?” She shrugged. “Abbey. It’s important to know that. If you need to go back to Dr. Katz, I can--”

She held up her hand to silence him. “Jed, I’m okay. I’m sore and tired and little bit hungry, but it will go away when I eat.” Her eyes were shooting him subtle clues.

“Right. Let’s go get something.” He snapped up his car keys. “Come on, we’re taking the car.”

“Jeeeedddd.” He smiled with his back to her.

“Yeah, I don’t care. Come on.” She sighed, but followed him anyway. He was so irritatingly concerned. Damn him.

But God bless him, too for caring because it didn’t seem like anyone else did.

Abbey reverted to her more reserved self when they arrived at the diner. She stayed a little behind Jed so that no one could see her battered face. She even hid behind the menu, letting him order for her. When the waitress left, he gently tugged the menu away and sat it to the side.

“Why are you hiding?” She looked around, a little nervous. She was fully expecting Daniel to pop out at any moment and start to rape her again. She shuddered at the thought and gasped as the motion brought certain pains anew. God, she was truly trapped here. Jed was a good guy, but the good had a tendency to die young. And she was sure that Daniel would be the catalyst for such a fact. He would without a doubt kill her good guy. She wasn’t sure she could live with that on her conscience.

“You shouldn’t be around me.” He looked up from his glass of water, seeming confused.

“What? Why?”

“Because, Daniel will come after me and he will kill anyone who gets in his way.” She took his hands urgently. “Please try to understand. You have a future ahead of you and I don’t want you to be hurt, or worse, killed.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because you care, Jed. You care too much about someone you hardly even know. You don’t know me or my life. You don’t seem to get that caring what happens to me is dangerous. Please try to get that.” This couldn’t be happening to him. He was positive that this part definitely had to be a nightmare.

“I don’t get that,” he said softly. “I care about what’s happening to you and you seem to keep hurting me.” She swallowed her disgust at herself.

“That’s what people of the world do, they hurt you. Look what’s happened to me. My family is full of people of the world and all they,” she had to stop to keep from crying. “All they do is hurt me. If that many people think I’m worth hurting, then I must be, right?”

He snorted. “No. You’re wrong. That means that you’re worth belittling because they know that you have the potential to be better than them. A thousand –no, a million times better.” He laid a light hand on top of her folded ones. “You are beautiful and brilliant. You are Elizabeth Blackwell, you are Amelia Earhart, and you are Nelly Blye. You are every woman who ever had to fight to make history. You are Abigail Bart—Barrington and you will be in someone’s history book. You will not stop. You won’t be relegated to the woman who didn’t have a name until her husband beat her to death after thirty years of abuse. You are so much better than that.” She caught his Freudian slip, but didn’t comment. She had to admit to being touched. She was touched. He had touched her.

“I’m just saying that you don’t need to do all of this. It isn’t warranted.”

He gave her an incredulous look and reached up to touch her face. The motion was so sudden that she was expecting him to strike and she turned her head away to shield herself. With a careful hand, he turned her face back to look at him. He looked devastated.

“I will never, ever hit you. I will never strike you in anger or any emotion. You are a human being with a heart, with feelings, with love. I will never treat you like an animal.” He traced the outline of the handprint on her cheek. “Someone who loves you unconditionally will never mark you this way. He branded you, Abbey. He didn’t care who knew, because he could and would get away with it. Marks left in love can’t be seen because they are on the soul or in places that shouldn’t be shown in public.” They both blushed. Jed regained his composure first. “Love shouldn’t make you cry. Not any love worth living for. I won’t let him take you down. That’s what I’m saying and you’d better believe it. Not when there are so many other options to choose from.”

“What options are those?” He shrugged uncomfortably. He had been thinking over the course of the last few days. “What are you thinking?”

“It’s pretty out there, but I haven’t been able to come up with anything else.”

“Oh, good God. What have you come up with?” He smiled triumphantly. “Now, I’m scared.”

“It’s not that bad. It’s just different.” She leaned forward suspiciously. “Well, it’s a little extreme.”

“Come on.”

“You’ll think this is a desperate attempt at…something it isn’t a desperate attempt at.” She cocked her head so that she could see into his lowered eyes.

“Tell me, I won’t judge.”

“Marry me.” She jumped back, pulling her hands away.

“What? I don’t under--Why would you want me t-- What?” Her eyes were large and fearful as though she’d been seeing him wrong all this time.

“Please don’t be frightened. I don’t mean it that way.”

“What way do you mean it exactly?” She was defensive, hiding herself against behind the table between them. Oh, God. Not Jed, too.

“I wanna take you away from here, but I don’t know where.” She narrowed her eyes at him, naturally doubting his motives. “I would take you back to New Hampshire, but if and when you’re reported missing…I could go to jail for kidnapping. And then, I might be going to London. I don’t want to leave you here. That’s why I want you with me. Just until you decide what to do. I don’t want you wandering around with nowhere to be.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“Why shouldn’t you? What do you have to lose?”

“My life.”

“Do you honestly think I’d harm you, kill you?” His face had taken on a slightly panicked expression.

“No.”

“I wouldn’t.” Jed could never hurt anything he’d come to hold as dear as she. She was this treasure he’d encountered in life. He would never hurt her if could avoid it.

“I believe you.”

“You do?” She nodded and drank her ice water.

“Yeah. If you wanted to kill me or whatever it is lunatics do to their victims, you’ve had plenty of opportunity to do it before.”

“Well, I feel bathed in your confidence, Abigail.”

She smiled at him and leaned across the table to kiss his cheek gently. “You are kind. Thank you.” She adjusted her napkin in her lap as their breakfast was set out before them. She munched on her toast and sipped hot chocolate. Jed chewed his eggs and bacon amongst scattered glances at her. She smiled to herself, knowing his nervousness.

Once she’d finished, she wiped her mouth and looked at him despondently pick at his food. She was most tempted to say that his intentions were a little more than that of a Good Samaritan, but his heart seemed to be in the right place.

“Yes.”

He looked up at her confusedly. “Yes?” He was lost.

“Yes, I’ll marry you.” His jaw dropped.

“Hmmm.” He blinked incoherently.

“Are you hard of hearing? I said, yes. Yes, I will be your wife.” This conversation had all the romance of breakfast between strangers. How ironic.

“O - Okay.” He was going to have to cut out the stuttering.

“Okay.” She sipped her water and smirked discouragingly over her glass. He could do little more than choke over his. He had certainly met his match in Abigail. He questioned whether or not he was equal to the task, his own failures aside. He wasn’t sure by any means, but he looked forward to finding out.

This was whole new life now. Dear God, what had he gotten himself into?

Next Part

Last Part