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Author: Regency
Title: Three Years Time
Spoilers: None; AU
Rating: PG for language only
Pairing: Leo/Abbey; Jed/Abbey
Summary: Abbey’s had all that she can take of Leo’s neglect. Someone out there loves her.
Author’s Notes: I’m one of the only authors who’s pursued the whole ‘switched’ scenario of Abbey with Leo, but in love with Jed. Except for the author of ‘Rapture.’ Very proud of them. That’s my shout-out.
Disclaimer: I own no one. No infringement intended.
~~~~
Abbey waited in the Outer Office for the Staff Meeting to end. She had to talk to Leo. Finally, the Senior Staff trickled out and past her.
"Hey, Dr. Mac." She smiled as Josh sauntered past her.
"Hey, Josh."
"Good morning, ma'am."
"Good morning, CJ."
"Mrs. McGarry."
"Hello, Sam."
"Ma'am."
"Toby." She grinned at him just to see what he'd do. His eyes flitted about oddly before he couldn't resist smiling back. She had that affect on people. The rest of the staff snickered at him and he glared darkly at them. He wouldn't be able to live it down for the rest of the day.
"Ma'am, the President's waiting for you. He only has a few minutes before his next meeting, so I'm going to have to cut it short. I'm sorry. If there was any way--"
"Don't worry about it, Charlie. I only need a few minutes, if that long." Abbey stepped into the Oval and watched as Leo perused whatever documents lay strewn across his desk. Leo looked up and smiled when he saw Abbey. Abbey smiled back softly. She still loved him, but how much was the feeling returned? "Leo, I know you only have a few minutes and I just need to ask you a question. Just answer, don't think about it." He nodded. "Would you say the Presidency was the most important thing in your life? Don't think, just answer." He took a deep breath.
"Yes, I would."
"Would what?"
"I would say that."
"You would say that the Presidency is the most important thing in your life?"
"Yes."
"More important than me, than our marriage?"
"Yes, Abbey, for the four years that I'm doing this, it is more important than my marriage."
"It's eight years."
"What?"
"It's eight years. You've been doing this for five and you'll be doing it for three more. It's eight years."
"Right. But Abbey--” Charlie opened the door and stuck his head in. He winced when he realized that he must have interrupted something important.
"I'm sorry, sir, ma'am. Your next appointment just arrived." Leo nodded.<.p>
"Abbey, we can talk about this later." Abbey shook her head, feeling only slightly defeated. She'd gotten her answer. And was barely surprised.
"No, I don't think that will be necessary. I've gotten the answer I needed. Thank you, Charlie." Abbey walked out of the Oval and went back to the Residence. She had packing to do.
~~~~
Abbey pushed back a lock of newly cut hair and zipped up the last of her luggage. The agents would be in to get it in a bit. Now, she just had to do a last minute check to make sure she had everything.
All of her clothes. Check, except for those in Boston, at the house. She’d have to have someone retrieve those later. Shoes, ditto. Trinkets and White House memorabilia. She had about as much of that packed as she could stand. Plane tickets. She actually laughed out loud at the thought. She hadn't taken commercial transportation in years. She didn't see the need to start now. She had just about everything. The only thing she needed now was Jed, but she would have to learn to do without him for a while. Just a little while though. Three years. She sighed and fell back on the bed half-excitedly, half regretfully. ‘hree years until they could be together. Just three. On the other hand, she couldn't help, but think, Three years! What the hell am I supposed to do for three years? Another voice said, Wait! Wait. She could wait. She would wait for him. But what in the mean time?
The door opened behind her, but she ignored it. “Abigail.” She sat up and looked at her husband. Right on time. He always showed just enough interest to keep her holding on and came just in time to keep her from leaving, but that was then. This is now.
“Leo.” He looked at her luggage and straightened his jacket. He was confident that he could fix this or at the very least, patch it up. “Can I help you?” He sat down beside her.
“What was that about in the Oval today?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“The questions.”
“If I remember correctly, I asked only one question, but you needed clarification and therefore, I clarified. One question.”
“Okay, what was that question about?”
“I was just curious.” He made a sweeping gesture with his hand.
“It doesn’t look like it.”
“What does it look like?”
“It looks like you’re leaving.” Abbey began to clap dryly.
“Give POTUS a prize.”
“So, you’re leaving?”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Now.”
“Why?”
“Because, I’m unhappy.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t have love.”
“What the hell are you – Abbey, I love you. What do you mean you don’t have love?”
“You don’t love me-love me.” He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at her as though she were off her rocker.
“What is this? High school. Of course, I love you-love you. You’re my wife.” Abbey sighed and waved him off. If he didn’t want to understand, then he wouldn’t.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then, help me, Abbey. Don’t just do what you’re doing without a good reason.” Abbey swung back around.
“Without a good reason. Without a good reason? Not two hours ago, you looked at me and said that you loved this place more than me and that it was far more important than our marriage.”
“I didn’t say far.” Abbey scoffed.
“Like that matters.”
“It does!”
“It doesn’t! I’m your wife. I’m supposed to matter.” She turned her back to him.
“You do matter.”
“Not enough.” He stuffed his hands even deep into his pockets and looked pleadingly at her.
“What can I possibly say to keep you here.” Abbey made a shrugging gesture and gave her answer.
“Nothing.”
“That’s it, nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Why?”
“I’m sick of being unhappy.” He tipped his head and stared at her flushed cheeks.
“Is there someone else making you happy, now?” She set her jaw and shrugged. “Someone new, younger, more attentive?” Her lips turned up at the ends. “There is, I see.”
“You don’t see anything.”
“I think I do. Who is he?”
“Who is who?”
“Your imaginary friend. You know exactly who I’m referring to.”
“Nope. I think you’re completely deluded.”
“Deluded, my ass. Cut the crap, Abigail. Who is he?” She strode away from his angry voice.
“Just – He’s a great man, Leo and so loving.”
“Did you have sex with him?” Abbey stuttered and took another step away from him.
“Excuse me?”
“Did you have sex with him, Abbey?” Abbey remained silent. “Answer me, damn it, did you?”
“No.” Though the opportunity to do so had existed, it had stopped at a kiss, neither willing to jeopardize one another for what, at that moment, was simply lust. They didn’t even know each other. Not really. Not yet. But they would.
“I don’t believe you.” She snorted.
“And I don’t believe you. How dare you turn high and mighty at the very notion that I have ever been less than chaste with other men when you have, at times, very blatantly, pursued other women in front of me? I have been nothing but loyal to you, Leon McGarry, nothing but absolutely loyal. And it’s sometimes come at considerable cost.”
“Oh, what has this cost you? This has cost me privacy, my years--”
“Hey, nobody made you be the President, Leo. This was your decision and yours alone.”
“Jed supported me.”
“Jed would support a friend who decided to kill himself if he honestly couldn’t stop them. Jed’s just that type of person, so don’t put this on him.”
“And you--”
“Oh, no, I’ll be damned if you’re going to put this on me. This was you, plain and simple. You just realized that you’ve gotten yourself into something that you can’t manipulate or completely control and now you’re scared.”
“You’re leaving me, abandoning me.”
“I’m saving myself, Leo. You always said that the day that loving you became painful, that I should leave. You said that and I believed you and now, that time has come. I’m leaving and that’s all.”
“That’s all?” She nodded and crossed her arms.
“That’s all.” There was a knock and an agent stuck his head in. More terrible timing.
“Ma’am, the car has arrived. Do you have anymore bags for me to take down?” She nodded, her eyes still focused on Leo.
“This one, here. That’s all, I think.” The agent nodded and took the bag, acknowledging the President with a brief look. “Sir.”
“Agent.” He slipped out of the door with just a click. “So you’re leaving now?”
“Yeah.”“You can’t wait just a little while, just until the morning?”
“No. I have to go now. It’s best.”
“For who?”“For whom, ass, for whom.”
“Whatever. Look, are you sure you want to go? There’s nothing I can do to change your mind?”
“You already asked me that.”
“It’s worth a second try. And a third, if necessary.”
“Oh, Leo. There’s nothing you can do to change my mind. I’m leaving.”
“Why?” Abbey threw her hands up with a groan.
“We’ve done this.”
“No, this is different. What does this have to do with your man?” Her eyebrow quirked.
“My man?”
“Yes, what does this have to do with him? Do you want to marry him? Immediately?”
“No.”
“No, you don’t want to marry him or no, you don’t want to marry him immediately?”
“No, I don’t want to marry him immediately.”
“Then--”
“Look, I just want, when the time is right for us to be together, for it to happen with no obstacles between us. “
“When the time is right?”
“Are you going to repeat everything I say until I leave the room?”
“What did that mean, When the time is right?” She turned away from the door.
“It means that when you get out of office, we will attempt...something.”
“Why wait?”
“Way to keep me, Leo.”
“Abbey.”
“He respects you, Leo, just like everyone else that works for you. He loves you and he will not disrespect the trust that you have put in him by allowing him to work for you. I won’t either.”
“This isn’t disrespectful?”
“This is life.”
“I guess.”
“Yeah.” She took a quick look at her watch and rocked on her heels.
“It won’t play well.”
“Nothing ever plays well in the press, Leo. The world is a nosy place and we’re just not accommodating enough.”
“What am I supposed to say when they ask why we’re separating?”
“You could say it’s none of your business.” He only gave her a dark look. “Or you could state irreconcilable differences. Or don’t say anything, I don’t care. I’m not going to talk about it.”
“They’re going to ask.”
“Everybody asks. Look, I have a plane to catch so, I’m going to go.”
“They aren’t going to leave without you, Abbey.”
“I know.” She rolled her shoulders and turned her neck. This was harder than she thought this would be. “Look...Bye.”
“I don’t believe in goodbye’s.”
“Normally, I don’t either, but I’ll make an exception this time. Goodbye, Leo.” She pulled the door closed behind her. She’d forgotten to say ‘I love you.’ It was best. Really.
~~~
Abbey picked up the phone on her armrest on the second ring. Her eyes closed when she heard the voice on the other end of the line. It was Jed.
“Hi.”
“Hi, beautiful.” He was the only one she believed when he called her beautiful. He always looked into her eyes when she said it. He had the most real blue eyes. They had that look of life and not that artificial living look that everyone in Washington D.C. was notorious for. Just looking into his eyes seemed to reinstall verve into her very soul.
“I’m on the plane.”
“I know. You’re on TV.” She looked out the window beside her and saw all of the cameras still snapping shots and the plane began to taxi down the runway. She’d have to hang up now. She didn’t want to end their connection, but she didn’t want to plunge back to the earth either. She hung up the phone.
“Yeah, the plane’s taxiing and they’re saying I have to hang up now. So...I’ll talk to you later?”
“Tonight, if that’s okay with you?” Her face split in a smile.
“Yeah. I should arrive in Manchester in about two hours. Jed, I just wanted to say thanks for letting me stay at the farm. It’s--just thanks, Jed.” She could see his smile lighting up his office.
“No problem. Stay as long as you need to…or as long as you like. My home’s your home.”
“Thank you. I shall.”
“Good bye, Abbey.”
“Good bye, Jed.” They both hesitated before hanging up the phone. There was so much going unsaid between them. Three years, she reminded herself. Three years. She hung up and the plane took off. Three years.
~~~~~
They kissed hesitantly under the lush cover of the apple orchard. No reporters or cameras. No press of any kind. This broke the one rule they had set so carefully. No romantic contact until Leo was out of office. It had been nearly a year since she and Leo had separated. Both had lagged a bit on the divorce and it had only come through five months before. She was officially Ms. Abigail Barrington again.
That, however, didn’t give her license to start carousing with her ex-husband’s Chief-of-Staff and best friend. He had come to visit his daughter, Zoey, who was staying there until she found an apartment in Georgetown closer to her boyfriend, Charlie.
Abbey just happened to be there. Neither complained nor did they speak very much at first. There was so much to be said that hadn’t been and neither were sure whether the feelings they held were still returned. While taking a walk in the orchard that night, he had put all of his cards on the table and told her how he felt. She had returned those feeling with relief.
That had led to them taking an afternoon stroll through the farm. They held hands tentatively, at first, sharing furtive looks before they settled into the contact and let their hands swing between them.
Now, they were kissing unabashedly ignorant to their respective detail’s presence. She stood on her toes with her arms around his shoulders and he rested both of his hands on her waist. They belonged together now. Leo could eat mud and die.
~~~~~~
Unbeknownst to either of them, Leo had long since been suspicious of his CoS’s motives for being so chummy with his ex-wife. He understood being a voice of reason, but giving her a place to stay and sharing nightly phone calls with her; that he didn‘t understand. He’d been hesitant to even suspect Jed at first, but when he’d caught Abbey having lunch with him and then, dinner...The pieces fell so completely into place.
Then, there was the minor paper with a front page headline of his wife discussing her life since her separation. She had alluded to a new love interest. That coupled with the amount of time she was spending with Jed, worried him.
He had accompanied her to some medical function and their hands hadn’t separated all night. They had danced and then, slipped away early to take a walk around Manchester. They’d gone to Patsy’s and shared a piece of fudge cake. It had been terribly romantic.
That night, they’d gone back to the house while Zoey was out and had very nearly broken their rule completely against the door of her bedroom...
~~~~
He pushed his hand under her slip, grasping her thigh to wrap it around his hip. They kissed passionately as they began to undress each other. Before he undid the clasp of her bra, she leaned away reluctantly.
“Wait. I know we want to do this, but let’s not. Not yet. I want to so much, but we shouldn’t. Not yet. Okay? Later?” He nodded and rested his head against her neck.
“Later.” Their love went farther than touch. They smiled to one another and crawled into bed to talk. They talked about new things that they’d missed before and things they’d forgotten to finish discussing. It wasn’t long before she dozed off in his arms. Nothing was more soothing than the feel of his hands on her bare skin. The tender kiss he placed on her forehead did nothing to rouse her.
There was a serenity, a sanctuary in his arms that she had never found anywhere else. Now, that she had it, she was glad that she hadn’t had to wait three years for it.
