Author: Regency
Title: The World Is Over
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jed/Abbey
Spoiler: Disaster Relief
Summary: Tornadoes sometimes strike the same place twice.
Disclaimer: The usual: not mine.
Author’s Notes: None
~~~~
He never saw it coming. Before Ron Butterfield even had time to inquire about the strange noise coming from outside, the car had capsized and it was over.
~~~~
CJ lay in stunned silence on the floor on the floor or ceiling of the overturned limousine, bleeding profusely from a gaping wound in her chest. She couldn’t breath.
So this is what it feels like to die.
~~~
Zoey watched the live coverage on CNN in numb horror. Again and again, they played it, end to end.
It showed a placid image of her father’s motorcade leaving town. That image was, in a matter of moments, destroyed by the start of the loud wailing of a train. Only there wasn’t a train track in sight.
Before so much as a turn could be made, most of the motorcade was swept up into the tumultuous air before being hurled to land three miles away with an earth-shattering crash. The sound would ring forever in her ears. Only two cars had been spared. Her father was in neither of them.
She pushed herself out of her room and down the stairs. Her mother had to know.
~~~
Abbey stared blankly at the pages of the medical journal without much comprehension. That had become the norm over the last few months, but this felt different. She kept getting the strongest urge to call Jed, but every time she’d pick up the phone, she’d get angry all over again and put it back down. If something happened, she’d be called.
She kept an ear out for Zoey heard her as soon as her feet touched the stairs. Zoey walked into the room and stopped as soon as she saw her mother. Zoey could tell from her face that she didn’t know.
“Did you watch the new today?”
“No.” Zoey nodded and stuck her hands in her pockets. Her head was beginning to hurt. So was her heart.
“Dad was on.” Her mother’s expression shuttered, but Zoey paid no further mind. She had to know.
“I’m sure. He is, after all, the President.” The detachment in her mother’s voice left her cold and she wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the chill. Daddy was gone and her mother didn’t know. Would she even care?
Abbey noted her daughter’s silence. “Zoey, is something wrong?” She just nodded. Her throat had closed. “What happened? Is it your father?” She nodded again, barely able to stay standing. “What happened to him?” Zoey opened her mouth to answer, but only a sob escaped. She crumpled into her mother’s arms.
“He’s gone. He’s gone.” She said it over and over again as her mother rocked back and forth on the floor.
He was gone.
~~~
Leo sat silently in his seat on the plane, feeling the weightlessness of the air beneath him. His job was over. The world was over. All he could hear was the headline: President Killed In Natural Disaster! Bartlet Get His. That was Leo heard. Jed didn’t know what hit him.
Neither did Charlie. Or CJ. Or the twenty-odd agents accompanying them on the trip. They never stood a chance.
The world is over. And with that thought, Leo called one of the stewards over and ordered himself a drink. Today was one of those days.
~~~
Zoey stared at her mother, who in turn, stared at nothing. She sat on their bed with her arms wrapped around his pillow. All she could hear were the angry words they’d shared in all of their recent conversations, their last conversations. She’d never gotten to tell him that she still loved him, despite everything. She did. Now, she never would.
The tornado had touched down again. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The Secret Service wouldn’t have even allowed him to come with that threat so imminent. It shouldn’t have happened. But it had. What were the odds?
Some have called it an act of God. Other refer to it as a sad flicker of fate, but just the same, either way, she’d still lost her husband and herself.
“The world is over.” She started when she heard her own hoarse voice. The world is over. And with her lost brand new and stinging, she wept for the loss of her best friend and half of her heart.
The world is over. Her world.
