Author: Regency

Title: Shattered

Spoilers: post-ep White House Pro-Am

Pairing: Jed/Abbey

Rating: G

POV: Jed

Word count: 518

Summary: In the Residence, Jed ruminates on his threat to Abbey.

AN: Tis a Christmas gift for Skye from around 2006. This is gift #2.

Disclaimer: I don’t own any characters recognizable as being from The West Wing. They are the property of their respective producers, writers, and studios, not me. No copyright infringement was intended and no money was made in the writing or distribution of this story. It was good, clean fun. The song “Shattered” belongs to Remy Zero

~!~

                You know, I abhor pop music. In fact, I hate most of the stuff made after the year Abbey was born. It’s like she came into the world and stole every ounce of creativity and inspiration for herself. And it shows. It’s in the rich auburn of her hair and the dazzling whirlpool of her eyes. It lives in her smile, sultry and sly alike. But most often, I see it when she wields her power over me.

                Like in the Oval tonight. I know she was right in some ways, she always is, but I needed her to realize that we can’t be apart here. This place, grand though it is, can tear us apart if we let it. This is the first step: talking to each other from opposite sides of a television camera. We can’t do this. We have to look at each other. We need to be the only people in this marriage. CJ was a mistake; so was the kid.

                And I wasn’t talking out of my ass when I said I’d go to the Hill. I will and if that means putting it in session first, so be it! I will not lose her, not over this. Not over a damned interview, even one for a good cause. I want her to have her opinions and to speak her mind -- I love her best when she does -- but there are things she can’t say now. There’s a time and place for everything. This morning in the Mural Room was neither.

                However -- and this is big -- I was wrong to sic CJ on her and in turn, Sam. It wasn’t fair of me to send in the dogs when all I had to do was say I disagreed. Yes, it may have caused a fight. God knows I hate confrontations, especially with Abbey, but this was a fight that needed to be had. And we had it. It’s over now. It won’t be the last in the next three years, but I pray it’s the worst. We’re strongest when we’re on the same side.

                We’re at our best in love.

                So, I turn up this new song I heard and pour my wife a glass of champagne. She doesn’t know what I’m up to, but she’ll get the idea. I sit down beside her on the love seat and take one of her hands. She narrows her eyes in confusion as some song I doubt she’s heard plays and it isn’t our usual fare. Rock, pop, whatever the hell it is, the chorus speaks to me. And as the speakers draw it out, the lyrics call to her.

                I stroke her hand that holds this ring I placed there before God and family -- not all of whom agreed --and I say, “I would’ve gone to Congress.”

                She touches my chest just where my heart beats and she looks through me again with those eyes. “I know.”

From you one look
Just one look and everything is shattered
From you one word
Towers burn and fall, fall, fall