The Best Lesson

Chapter One

"I don't know why I have to go to this thing. I don't even know this woman. Why am I celebrating her birthday?" Jed Bartlet grumbled as he tied his tie in mirror inside the closet in his office.

His research assistant, Charlie Young, smirked as he waited patiently for his mentor. "Dean Landingham said all the department heads have to go. And since you're the head of the Economics department, you have to go."

"Well, at least Leo has to suffer with me," Jed reasoned. "Though he won't have all his political science buddies there with him, right?"

"I don't know, sir. Dean Fiderer is the head of the College of Sciences, so I would guess that other than the required department heads, the other guests will be her personal friends. And I would assume most of those would be professors of the hard sciences."

"Thanks for coming with me, Charlie. Science people are complicated and weird. You, me, and Leo can keep to ourselves at the open bar. Or maybe not. I don't know if Leo is sober this week or not," Jed added bitterly. His best friend was a brilliant professor of political science and did an exemplary job running that department, but he certainly had a problem with alcohol. Sometimes he had everything under control and sometimes he fell off the wagon. Jed did his best to support him in whatever he chose, whether it was putting him in a cab, letting him sleep on the couch, or pouring every bottle of booze down the drain.

Charlie decided not to touch the comment about Professor McGarry. "It's my pleasure to come with you, sir. Also, my girlfriend will be there with her mother, so this is a nice way for us both to get to go to the party."

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend, Charlie!"

"Oh, well, I try to keep my personal life away from the work we do. It keeps things less complicated."

Jed smiled. "So tell me about your girl. What's her name? And why will she be at Dean Fiderer's birthday party with her mother?"

"Her name is Zoey. She works as a research assistant to the head of the Biology department, Professor Barrington, who also happens to be Zoey's mom," Charlie replied.

"I know I'm bringing you because I haven't got a spouse or significant other to bring as a date, but why is Professor Barrington bringing her daughter and not her husband?" Jed asked curiously.

"Zoey's parents are divorced," Charlie explained. "She hasn't really seen her dad since she was a kid."

"That is unfortunate but does explain the situation." Jed checked his watch. "Alright, we'd better go. You'll have to introduce me to Zoey when you see her."

At the party, Zoey was craning her neck in every direction to find Charlie.

"Zoey, would you stop doing that? You're going to pull a muscle, and I won't let you get out of microscope work because it hurts."

Zoey turned to her mother and glared. "I was going to say you look really nice tonight, but now you're being snotty so I won't say anything at all."

Abbey chuckled. "Well, jokes on you, because you basically said it anyway." But Abbey was quite pleased at her daughter's half-compliment. She had put in a little extra effort to look nice for Debbie's party. There were a lot of influential people there and most of them didn't know the head of the Biology department. Or if they did, they never saw her out of her lab coat. In recent years, Abbey had done nothing but work. Thank god Zoey worked with her or they probably would never see each other. So for tonight, Abbey had forced herself to schedule time to get her hair done and buy a new dress. And in deep red satin, Abbey Barrington felt both beautiful and strong. Almost everyone else was wearing black or other dark colors, so she stood out more than she'd originally planned. But she took it in stride, standing as tall as her five-foot-three stature would allow. She could feel people's eyes on her, and she quite liked it.

"They're here!" Zoey exclaimed excitedly.
"I don't know what the big deal is," Abbey responded. "You see Charlie all the time. I swear that when he's not working with that Econ professor of his, he's at our house!"

Abbey followed Zoey's gaze to see Charlie, looking quite dapper in his suit, followed by a man about Abbey's age. The man turned his head to listen to Charlie say something and began to laugh. Abbey felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach, getting the wind knocked out of her. She shook herself as they approached, bringing herself back to reality.

"Hey, Zoey," Charlie greeted, giving his girlfriend a soft peck on the check. "This is Professor Bartlet, head of the Economics department and my research supervisor."

Zoey shook the professor's hand. "It's really nice to meet you. Charlie's told me so much about you."

"Well, that's nice because Charlie hasn't told me anything about you. I didn't even know he had a girlfriend until tonight."

"Hey, I was just trying to keep it professional," Charlie defended.

"Well, that's dumb, because my research supervisor gave birth to me, so obviously we don't really follow rules of professionalism," Zoey countered.

Charlie ignored that snarky comment, giving a small laugh and quickly moving on. "Professor Bartlet, this is Professor Barrington, head of Biology. And Zoey's mother."

As Abbey shook his hand, she noticed his left hand had no ring. She smirked to herself, knowing she could flirt with confidence now. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Bartlet. I'm Abbey."

"You can call me Jed."

"Jed. That's an interesting name. Is it short for something? Jedidiah? Maybe Jethro?"

"No, my full first name is actually Josiah."

"Are you sure you don't like Jethro better?" she teased. Her nose wrinkled as she smiled at him.

"Jed's just fine with me."

Charlie interjected, "Professor Bartlet is a direct descendant of Josiah Bartlett, who signed the Declaration of Independence and became the first governor of New Hampshire."

"Oh my, you have quite the namesake. Even if you do go by Jed." Her green eyes sparkled with mirth.

Jed wasn't sure what to think. Was this woman kidding? Was she just eccentric? Or maybe just nuts? He almost didn't care. She was exquisitely beautiful and the tone of her voice made tingles go down his spine.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jed saw a flash of movement. He looked away from Abbey to see Leo by the bar waving at him. "I'm being summoned to the bar. Charlie, I'll leave you here with your lovely girl and her lovely mother. Ladies, it was a pleasure to meet you," Jed said politely before making his way over to Leo.

"Who were you talking to?" Leo asked, handing his friend a glass of scotch.

Jed took a big swallow. "Charlie's girlfriend and her mother."

"Why are they here?"

He just waved his hand in a gesture that made it very clear he didn't want to talk about it. Leo shrugged and took a sip of tonic water. Jed looked at him curiously. "You aren't drinking?"

"Nah, I'm trying sobriety again."

Jed smiled encouragingly. "That's great. You know I'm here for you."

"Thanks. I'll need to call you when I fall down drunk somewhere the next time."

"Hey, don't set yourself up for failure."

"Well, we can't discount past experiences. But I think this one might stick," Leo replied.

"Oh? Does this mean you've got a date?" Jed asked, knowing how his friend tried to behave when he had a woman he wanted to impress. It was rare, but it did happen.

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"Jordan?"

Leo shook his head. "It never worked for us. Schedules and all that. No, this one is new."

"Who is she?"

But Leo just waved his hand, just as Jed has done, effectively closing off that topic of conversation.

"Okay, fine. Tell me another time. But I'm happy for you, Leo, really I am," Jed told him.

The two men were interrupted by a very tall, elegant woman in a black satin gown. "There you two are! God, I've been wandering around here for twenty minutes trying to find one person I know."

Jed laughed. "CJ, didn't you bring a date?"

"Toby offered to come with me, but we all know he'd just whine the whole time. So no, I didn't bring a date," she replied. "Didn't any of you bring dates?"

"I brought Charlie so he could network a little. And Leo's got a new lady that he won't talk about," Jed teased.

"Leo!"

"We're not gonna talk about this," Leo insisted.

"Fine, we won't talk about it. But still, that's very exciting, Leo. You have very good taste in women, so I'm looking forward to meeting this one," CJ said with a smile.

Jed nodded. "Well put, Claudia Jean."

"Thank you, sir."

"We've talked about this, CJ," Jed sighed, "You're my colleague. And you have been for eight years. You can call me Jed."

She looked at him with affection. "Sorry, sir. You were Professor Bartlet to me on the first day of Econ 101, and you'll be Professor Bartlet forever."

"You know it makes me feel really old that you were my student twenty-something years ago."

CJ just shrugged as she let her gaze wander the room. "You know, it's amazing that both colleges at the university are run by women, and I love Dean Landingham and Dean Fiderer, but it's a little ridiculous that I'm the only female department head."

"Biology has a woman," Jed informed her. "Professor Barrington." He pointed out the short woman in the red dress.

CJ looked to where he pointed. "She's a department head? Of biology? Wow."

"Go say hi," Jed suggested. "She's a little odd, but I think you two should know each other."

"I'll go over and introduce myself," CJ reasoned. "You're acting very strange and Leo's sober and none of the boys are here, so this party is sort of a drag."

Leo laughed as CJ walked away. "You know, she's right. You are acting kinda strange. Who is this Professor Barrington?"

"Charlie's girlfriend's mom."

"She's over there in the red dress?"
Jed nodded.

Leo started to laugh heartily. "Oh wow. Never thought I'd see the day Jed Bartlet got flustered by a beautiful woman."

"I am not flustered!" Jed protested. But he could feel his cheeks grow warm.

"There you two are!" The men were interrupted once again by another woman. Dean Landingham, head of the College of Humanities, came over to see them. "How did I know that I'd find the two of you by the bar?"

"You're looking well tonight, Dean Landingham," Jed told the older woman with a smirk.

"I'm feeling very well tonight, Jed." She turned to Leo. "Now, why are you laughing so much? What have you two done? I swear, you're no better than Josh and Sam. And I know Donna was disappointed, but there was a good reason I didn't let them come."

"Dean Landingham, do you know Professor Barrington?" Leo asked.

Jed could have smacked him.

"I don't know her personally, but Dean Fiderer speaks highly of her. I hear she's brilliant and works harder than the rest of the Biology department combined. She's a great face for the department as well." Dean Landingham looked over to see CJ speaking with Abbey. "Oh, I see CJ's found her. That's good. I'm sure they'll get along well."

By the grace of God, the subtle background music stopped and a spotlight landed on the stage where Dean Fiderer stood to make her birthday speech. Following her rambling—which covered everything from praising the physics department to commenting on the viability of alpacas for profit—the party started to wind down. The dedicated ones took to the dance floor. The uninterested started to trickle out into the night. Jed wanted to leave as soon as humanly possible.

Charlie came over to Jed just as he was starting to look for his young research assistant. Accompanying Charlie were Zoey and Abbey Barrington.

"Sir, I'm going to take Zoey home, if that's alright with you," Charlie told Jed.

"You kids have fun," Jed replied with a smile.

Charlie and Zoey left hand in hand, leaving Abbey standing near Jed. She ordered a vodka from the bar to calm the butterflies in her stomach. "I'm sorry if I offended you earlier with my stupid jokes about your name," she blurted at him. "I spend most of my time in a lab and Zoey says I don't know how to interact with humans anymore."

Jed chuckled. "No offense taken. Though I do feel at a disadvantage. Charlie seems to have told you and your daughter all about me, but I know nothing about you."

"Abigail Barrington. Doctorate in molecular biology. Divorced, one nearly-grown child. Fan of alcohol, jazz standards, and Thomas Aquinas."

"You're a little weird," Jed said.

Abbey just shrugged. "By the way, thank you for sending CJ Cregg over to meet me. She's utterly charming and I quite like her already."

"CJ is incredible. I'm sure she told you she's the head of the Communications department. She was just named department head last year, but she's great."

Abbey looked at him suspiciously. "You're quite proud of her. Ex-girlfriend?"

Jed was taken aback. "No, not at all! She was a student of mine back when she went to school here. CJ was in my very first Econ 101 class."

"Well that's much better," Abbey replied with a smile. "You aren't married, are you? Charlie didn't say anything, but I don't see a ring."

"No, widower."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Here I am, yammering on like an insensitive idiot."

"Don't apologize. It was a very long time ago. I don't think Charlie even knows."

While Abbey tried to think of something to say that wasn't completely stupid, Leo returned to Jed's side.

"Hey, sorry to step in, but I'm headed out. Do you need a ride?" he asked his friend.

For not the first time, Jed wished he could will Leo away. "Yeah, I think so," Jed replied, downing the last of his third glass of scotch. "Professor Barrington, this is Leo McGarry, head of Political Science."

Leo shook Abbey's hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Professor Barrington. And may I say, that is a stunning dress you're wearing. It does credit to the stunning woman wearing it."

Abbey started to laugh. "My, aren't you the smooth talker!"

"Yeah, yeah. You know, Leo's a recovering alcoholic and I think the years of booze have permanently destroyed the part of his brain with inhibitions."

"Hey, I could do the foxtrot right here, right now," Leo fired back.

Jed just rolled his eyes and gave him a small push toward the door. He turned to Abbey. "Professor, it was lovely to meet you. I'm sure we'll see each other around campus." He nudged Leo again and as they walked out of the party, Jed muttered, "Quit getting your mojo all over the place. I thought you already had a woman. Unless it's that woman, in which case, good luck."

Leo laughed. "No, it's not that one. But don't worry. She doesn't want me. She's obviously crazy about you."

Jed didn't know what to say to that. But he smiled to himself. Transfixed in his mind's eye, all Jed could see was red satin fabric covering the perfectly accentuated curves of her body. And the sparkle of her green eyes. And that wrinkle of her nose when she was teasing him.