Author: Regency
Title: Zoey Gives As Good As She Gets
Category: drama/angst
Rating: PG-14 for a dew major curses.
Pairing(s): None
Spoilers/Season: Anything post "Jefferson Lives." 5th season.
Summary: It's inevitable that Zoey should blow right? So she does.
Archive: wherever with my permission.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Aaron Sorkin.
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She couldn't take this anymore. Dear God, she'd been kidnapped and had survived. And then, her parents weren't speaking on any terms. Her mother was all but controlling her every word and movement. She couldn’t take a deep breath without her mother having planned it two days beforehand. It was inevitable that she'd snap, right? I mean, even her mother had to see the eventuality of that.
It was finally going to happen. Zoey Bartlet was going to lose it. And she was going to either lose it on her mother who wouldn't let her answer her own questions or on the interviewer who kept asking the damned questions.
She's just sitting there with her eyes closed. She's taking these deep breaths. You know the ones you take when you're very close to losing your temper and you have to count down from ten. I'm thinking she's starting from somewhere around a thousand. She's muttering something now.
"ShutupShutupShutupShutupShutupShutupShutup…" She's losing it. Her mother turns to her and puts a hand on her arm to try and get her attention.
"Zoey, honey?" If I were her, I would so not touch my daughter right then.
"Zoey, are you all right?" That's the interviewer.
"She's fine." Her eyes snap open. She turns to her mother and shakes her head.
"I think she was talking to me, mother. Me as in Zoey Bartlet. When did that come to be a synonym for Abigail Bartlet, in other words you? Yeah, that's right, it isn't, so stop it. Stop it now." She turns back to the interviewer. "I'll be fine. I think I just need to be with my daddy for a while." I wonder if she realizes that she just referred to her father as 'daddy'. She hasn't done that in a long time to my knowledge.
"So, what are your plans after the interview?" I can tell the First Lady's going to do it again. I really want to wave my arms in a big NO signal. I have to be satisfied with shaking my head in resignation.
"We're going to go back to New Hampshire for a few more weeks." Zoey's eyes widen. She looks at her mother in complete astonishment and then she looks straight into one of the cameras as if looking into her father's eyes. She mouths, 'I can't believe her. She is not doing this. She is not.'
"Really, what is Zoey going to do about school?" This just became Abbey's interview.
"Excuse me, mom, but I'm not going back to New Hampshire. I'm going to see daddy. I'm going to see Charlie, and I'm going back to school; and not necessarily in that order. You wanna go back to New Hampshire, feel free, but this is home to me. This is where I dwell. My father is here, my…Charlie is here. All that I have is here. All that you have is here. I'm not gonna run away just because this happened and I won't be you r excuse to do so either. You wanna leave, then you'd better go now, because I'll be damned if I let you do anymore damage to my father. And I mean the man, not the president. There is a difference. You're just too jaded to see it." Abbey's eyes are wide and she looks towards the cameras and the studio audience.
"Zoey, this isn't the place. We'll talk about this on the flight back." And we call this not listening.
" This is as good a place as any. It's not like all of the country hasn't figured out that you dropped the world and your blame onto my father's shoulders and he's faltering under the weight. You seem to be one of the only people who doesn't see that my father is all but lost without you. Or maybe you do see…Maybe you're trying to destroy him. But for what? For this…for my kidnapping? Is that why?
Is it just some awesome coincidence that this would be around the same time that my father's staff seem to forget their jobs? They serve at the pleasure of the President. If he is not pleased, then they've already screwed up. They have fucked-up royally. And so. Have. You, mother dearest. You've fucked-up worse than all the rest. See they've just forgotten their job descriptions; those are on file just for this reason. You however, have obviously just thrown out thirty-seven years of your life. In that thirty-seven years is my father and every bit of love he has for you. In that thirty-seven years is 'til death do you part.' And in that thirty-seven years is me. " Abbey tries to interrupt the now standing Zoey.
"Zoey, you just don't understand--"
"Shut up! Just stop talking. I don't care. Just be quiet. There is nothing you can possibly say to me to make up for what you did. My father is dying inside without you. I am dying inside because he is. We are dying and I blame you, mother. You. You shouldn't have left him alone." She's almost shouting now. At least it feels like it. Her words carry through the silent studio.
"You don't understand. It was my choice, my decision. I made the choice that was right for my child. I took my child away from everything that could hurt her. I was doing what I should have been doing: Being a good parent. While your father was busy playing the President. It was my choice, my decision and I made the right one." Now, Abbey's standing and shouting too. Zoey is calm. There is no more anger, simply opinion.
She steps close to her mother, right in her face. "Your decision, mother, not ours. Never ours." She turns away. She can't even look Abbey in the eye now. "I blame you, mother. I blame you now. And I will blame you for every day you have taken off of my father's life. Now, you think on that and try to understand…I'm just trying to take my father away from everything that could hurt him. I'm doing what I should be doing: Being a good daughter…while you're off playing the worried mother. Ironic isn't it." Zoey starts to walk off the stage. But she turns back for one final parting shot. " And my father doesn't play the President. He is the President."
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