Lyman Campaign Headquarters: March 11, 2004
"Mr. Lyman, the Greenwich Daily News would like an interview with you, sir."
"There's a problem with the lighting at the civic center, they want to know if you want to change venues, Mr. Lyman."
"I'm terribly sorry, sir, I just need a moment of your time to discuss…"
"Discuss it with Toby," Josh replied, on an ever-shrinking short fuse, to whom ever the question had been from. He was in his office, trying to figure out the earliest he'd be able to get home tonight and looking at his schedule it looked like if he hurried, it was going to be close to this time next year. Hence, the short fuse.
"But, sir, if I could just…" the anonymous staffer continued
"Go do your job without me holding your hand for you?" Josh shot out. "Yeah I'd appreciate that, thank you very much. Now could you all please vacate my office before I decide our next budget cuts should involve staff salaries." The staff members dispersed to their respective sections of the house while Josh sat back at his desk and groaned. One of the reasons he and Donna had decided to use the guesthouse as the campaign headquarters was because of its close proximity to Langley House but it seemed that ever since winning the primary last month, his time with his family was becoming more limited.
“You okay, sir?” Josh looked up and saw Gus peering into the room.
“Gus, I swear on anything and everything that is holy,” Josh started, “if these people do not get their asses in gear in the next week, I’m gonna…”
“Rain down fire and brimstone the likes of which God himself could not comprehend,” Gus finished with him, having heard this threat many, many times since joining the campaign. “Yeah, yeah I know. Do you want me to run downtown and get you a scythe just in case?”
“Since when did you grow a backbone?” Josh asked him, testily.
“Since I figured out that your wife adores me therefore she’ll never let you fire me,” the young man taunted him. As pissed as he was, even Josh had to smile at his aide and the confidence he'd gained in just a few short weeks.
Gus had, naturally, accepted the job and had joined the campaign as Josh's personal aide part-time while still attending school. The first week was rough on him, as it would be on anyone who was coming into a well-oiled machine with no experience, but he gradually adjusted. Nowadays, Gus could reorganize Josh's schedule with ease, handle phone calls from demanding contributors and reporters, and study for an Economics final all at the same time.
Drawn by the similarity of their backgrounds, Donna had taken it upon herself to make sure that Gus got into the swing of things in terms of the campaign. She gave him advice, encouragement, and limitless support. Whenever Gus would go up to the house to tell Donna that Josh would not be joining them for dinner, she'd pull a chair out and invite Gus to eat a fresh, home-cooked meal. He was friendly with Toby and the other campaign leaders, he was efficient, he was personable, and most important he had a never-ending patience for Josh's moods and antics. All in all, it was a good match.
"So," Josh said as he got up and stretched his back, "what's next?"
Gus opened his notebook for a quick check. He looked back at Josh with a puzzled look. "You've got an appointment marked down here but it doesn't say what it is," Gus explained. "I don't remember writing it down." He gave Josh a semi-stern glare. "You weren't touching the schedule were you? Because you know that Donna says you're not allowed to do that."
"Hey, whose name and face are on these posters here?" Josh asked, gesturing to the campaign posters in his office. His face, name, and slogan, "Change Happens Now" lined the walls and windows of the home. "Mine, okay? My face and my name. Not my wife's. These posters do not say 'Donnatella Lyman: 2004.' That is my name up there. Got it? I'm in charge here, not her."
"Yeah just keep telling yourself that," Gus scoffed, ignoring him because he knew the truth. "Seriously though, did you make this appointment?"
"Let me see." Gus handed him the book and pointed to the peculiar log, which Josh looked at curiously. "This looks like its Donna's handwriting but she didn't say anything to me about it." Josh walked out of the office and into the staff area. "Donna!" he called out to the general vicinity of everyone, hoping that she was still there working on some events she had planned.
"Yeah, hold on a minute," he heard her call back from across the room. He looked around and saw her giving instructions to some of the staff. When she was done, she walked over to him. "Gus, can we have the room for a bit?" she told the aide. He nodded in understanding and had Josh been looking more closely, he'd have seen the pair exchange a microscopic wink before he and Donna went back into his office, closing the door behind them. "What's up?"
"Did you make an appointment for me today that you forgot to mention?" Josh questioned her.
"Um…yes and no," she replied mysteriously.
"How is that possible?"
"I mean yes, I did schedule an appointment for you today," Donna explained, going over to the desk to look over some papers, "but no, I did not forget to mention said appointment to you."
"But you didn't tell me about it."
"Which is remarkably not the same thing as forgetting to mention it to you," Donna observed, putting the papers down and going over to stand with him. "It's nothing bad, I promise. It's just a little, itty-bitty, teeny-weeny surprise."
"Oh come on Donna," Josh groaned, banging his head back against the wall. "You know I hate surprises more than anything in the world."
"More than Jerry Fallwell?" Donna asked with half a grin.
"Ye…okay maybe not as much as Fallwell," he conceded, pulling Donna's body closer to his, craving just a little bit of intimacy with her during the hell that was campaigning, "but you know it's like in the top six of things I hate the most."
"Well this surprise you'll like, I guarantee it," Donna assured him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she began to kiss him passionately. "And she's very eager to see you so be polite."
"She? My surprise is a 'she'," Josh said distractedly, moving his head down to neck his wife and slip his hands down to her backside. "Because I’m perfectly content right now with the ‘she’ that is in front of me at the moment. When am I supposed to see this 'she' that you speak of?"
"Right now, Joshua," an unmistakable voice said from the open door. His head shot up and he looked over in amazement to see his mother, Dr. Rachel Lyman, leaning casually against the doorframe, dressed in a simple business suit, her bright red hair pulled into a bun and a knowing smile on her face. "Unless, of course, I happen to be interrupting something "
"Mom?" he said, stunned to be seeing her right then and embarrassed to be caught making out with his wife by his mother. "I don't understand. What…what are you doing here?"
"Waiting for my only son to get his mind out of a certain body appendage and give me hug," she said, holding out her arms as Josh walked over to her, encompassing her son in a warm embrace. She pulled back after a minute and held Josh's face in her hands. "Oh, my sweet boy, you look wonderful. It's so good to see you again."
"Yeah, it's great to see you too, Mom," he told her warmly, his shock dissolving into happiness. "But again I ask, what the hell are you doing here? You were supposed to be in Africa until May."
"Supposed to be and yet here I am," Rachel teased. "But really, I was just so eager to come back home and meet my grandchildren that I cracked the whip on my staff out there. We finished our research ahead of schedule and now I have a week free to bond with my granddaughters before I need to get back to Florida."
"Oh that's great, Mom," he said, moving in for another hug. Then he remembered that his wife was standing in the room with them, back towards the wall to give the newly reunited mother and son some space. "Uh, Mom, you remember Donna right?" he asked a little awkwardly, unsure of what the proper etiquette was in introducing his wife to his mother.
"Of course I remember her, who the hell did you think orchestrated this whole thing? Certainly not you, that’s for sure, right sweetheart?" Rachel said to Donna, going over to her and giving the woman a hug, which she reciprocated. "It's going to be so nice to have a daughter again," the older woman whispered softly into Donna's ear, so Josh couldn’t hear.
Donna swallowed back her tears, a bit overwhelmed by how easily Rachel had accepted her into her family. "Hi Rachel," she said when they pulled apart. "It's good to have you back here."
"Well it's good to be back," Rachel agreed. "And it will be even better to be back when I have both my grandchildren in my arms. Now where the hell are you hiding them from me?"
Josh and Donna laughed at her eagerness to meet the girls. "Donna's sister, Nicole, took them for the day," he said regretfully. "But they're due back here any..."
"Mommy! Daddy! We’re back from the mall and we got new clothes and when we got back here Aunt Nicole stubbed her toe and then she used a grown-up word me and Natty aren't supposed hear!" they heard Emma shriek from outside of the office.
"Minute," Josh barely got the word out before his mother flew out the room in search of her grandchildren. He turned back to his wife and took her hands into his own before kissing her softly. "Thank you," he whispered before they went back outside to join everyone.
And for the next few days, life was wonderful for them. Rachel stayed at Langley House and spent nearly every hour of every day dotting on her new daughter-in-law and grandchildren during the day while Josh was making public appearances and taking meetings. With his mother home, he made a more conscious effort to get home at a reasonable hour and as a result, he was much more manageable at the office. Everything was going great during those few days in March for the Lymans. Josh was starting to catch up to Brooks in the polls, Donna found a few causes and charities that she was interested in offering support to, Rachel had managed to get her leave from her teaching job extended so she could spend more time with her family, Emma was thriving in her new school with her teachers already saying that they thought she could handle skipping second grade for third grade next year, and little Natalie was just content to be around her parents, her big sister, and her grandma. Things were going so great that even Toby was seen cracking a smile every now and again. Josh didn’t know how he could be any happier and that worried him beyond belief. He could almost physically feel something lurking around the corner, just waiting for the right moment to burst out and steal their joy away. He tried to shake it off by throwing himself into getting elected, spending time getting reacquainted with his mother, playing with the girls, and making love to his wife any moment he could. But Josh’s methods of distraction were to no avail. Finally, the ball dropped.
Josh and Donna, Toby and Nicole, and Rachel, accompanied by a visiting Leo, went out for an early dinner one evening and to take in a concert in Hartford. Gus offered to watch the girls for the evening and the adults had enjoyed a pleasant evening of dining and orchestra. They returned back to the house for some dessert and found that Gus had managed to settle the girls into bed all by himself.
“Not an easy accomplishment, I assure you,” Toby pointed out to the group while Gus gathered his things, drawing back on his own experience of baby-sitting the two youngest Lymans.
Rachel pretended to glare at him. “Bite your tongue, Tobias, my granddaughters are perfect.”
“I’m not saying they’re not perfect,” Toby tried to clarify. “I’m just saying it’s obscene the amounts of sugar these two girls can intake.”
“You fed them sugar? From where?” Donna demanded heatedly, having insisted the girls eat healthy while they were developing.
“From Josh’s stash in his office,” Toby said, not noticing the gesturing of no that Josh was giving him behind Donna’s back. He grinned sheepishly when Donna turned her displeasure onto him.
“You know…just every once…when they’re good…” he stuttered to her. He turned away from his wife’s steely eyes to his former boss’s amused ones. “Leo, you were married the longest, help me out here.”
Leo grinned at him. “Be a man Josh. Stand up to your wife, tell her who’s boss.”
“The problem with that is she is the boss.”
“Damn right I am,” Donna proclaimed, giving Josh a wink to tell him he wasn’t in that much trouble. Gus came out to leave then and bid everyone goodbye as the filed into the living room, leaving only Gus and Donna in the hallway. “Oh Gus, did anyone call for me about a dedication ceremony? I was expecting a call from someone from the pediatric center at Hartford Memorial.”
Gus crinkled his brow as he thought back. “Well a doctor called for you, Donna, but I don’t know from what hospital he was from.”
“Did you get his name?”
“Yeah, hold on a sec.” Gus went over to the end table where the phone messages were and rifled through them until he found the one he wanted. “Here it is. Goodnight.” He handed it to her and was about to leave when he noticed that her face immediately went from pale to ashen as she read the message. “Donna? Are you okay?” he asked, concerned. She continued staring at the paper, as if she hadn’t even heard him. “Donna what is it?”
She snapped her head up and looked at him as if she had just noticed him. “Oh, um, it’s no…nothing, Gus,” she told him unevenly. “Thank you for watching the girls.”
He nodded at her as he left, still a little worried. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Donna said offhand, going slowly into the living room with robotic-like steps. When she got there, no one really noticed her at first as she had walked in during the middle of Leo telling a story about Josh’s parents when they were younger.
“So Noah comes up to me and says, ‘Let me trade you, my date for yours.’ So he ended up with Rachel and I ended up with her three hundred pound, German roommate Helga for four hours!” Everyone laughed at the story, except of course for Donna, but no one noticed until Nicole spotted her.
“Donna what’s wrong?” she asked going over to her as the laughter died down when they saw the look on her face. She didn’t say anything, just simply handed over the scrap of paper to Nicole and walked over to the mantle over the fireplace, staring blindly at the family photos that lined it.
“What does it say?” Josh asked his sister-in-law, a knot of fear forming in his stomach. Nicole quickly looked down at the paper and immediately closed her eyes at what she read there. “What the hell does it say, Nicole?”
She looked sympathetically at her brother-in-law, feeling the tears well behind her eyes as she thought of what this could do to all of them. “It’s from Ben, he called here tonight,” she whispered, as if saying it any louder would cause him to suddenly appear in front of them.
Josh felt his mouth go dry and the air being knocked out of him as if he’d been punched in the stomach. ‘This is not happening!’ his mind screamed. “Ben?” he repeated.
“Yeah,” Nicole nodded. “He, uh, wants to talk to Donna apparently.” Josh felt his legs turn to water underneath and he collapsed back onto the sofa, resting his head in his hands and trying to block out what was happening.
“Does it say about what?” Toby asked, mentally preparing to go on the offensive to save his friends from whatever trouble was headed their way.
She looked at her sister, already seeing what distress she was in over this. “It says,” she read out loud, “we need to talk about the kid.”
“What kid? What is all this?” Rachel demanded to know, desperately worried and angry over the reactions her son and his wife were experiencing over this message. “Who is this Ben person?”
“He’s Emma’s father, Rachel,” Leo explained quietly to the stunned woman.
“No he is not!” Donna shouted to them, startling everyone with the volume and tone of her voice. She stalked back over to Leo and got right in his face. “He is not Emma’s father! Don’t you ever say that again! Josh is her father and I am not letting fucking Ben Peterson anywhere near my daughter!” Her energy tapered out as she began to fully understand what was happening and collapsed against her sister’s shoulder, in tears. “Oh my God, why is he doing this?”
“I don’t know, sweetie, I don’t know,” Nicole answered as she rubbed Donna’s shuddering back, feeling a tidal wave of anger and desperation wash over her.
Toby observed the scene for a minute before going over to Nicole. “Give me the number.”
“What?”
“Just give me the damn number, Nicole.” She handed him the message and he walked out of the room.
“What are you doing?” Leo questioned.
Toby turned to him. “I’m gonna go and have a little chat with the good Dr. Peterson.”
Rachel and Leo walked over to the couch and sat besides Josh, Rachel wrapping her arms around her little boy’s stiff shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay, son,” Leo assured him. “We’ll work this out, I promise you.”
“You can’t promise that, Leo,” Josh contradicted. “We don’t know what he’s gonna do, we don’t know what the hell he wants.”
“Then let’s wait and find out what he does want before we start panicking,” Nicole tried to be positive. “Maybe he doesn’t even want anything, maybe he just wanted to sign the papers for the adoption.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s all he wanted, Nic,” Donna spat out, gently pushing away from her sister. “Because Ben has always been so considerate and forthright like that. What if he…?”
“Let’s not worry about that just yet,” Rachel echoed Leo’s words.
The two minutes that passed while Toby made his phone call were some of the longest two minutes of anyone’s lives. It was so strange that this man, whom most of them knew only by reputation, had such a power over all of them. At last, Toby reappeared, the expression on his face noncommittal.
“What did he say?” Josh finally asked, standing and going to his wife’s side.
Toby took a deep breath before he began, knowing the fervor that his first statement would cause. “He’s here in Connecticut…”
“Oh God no,” Donna moaned from Josh’s shoulder. He instinctively wrapped his arms tighter around her.
“But he didn’t give me any indication that he was going to fight for Emma,” Toby continued. Everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief. “He did, however, insist that you meet with him, Donna, next Saturday.”
“Why then? I thought he was now?” Rachel questioned.
“He’s here for a medical convention and he flies to Chicago tomorrow. He can make time for next Saturday to meet you in Baltimore and that’s the soonest he said could do it.”
“Okay,” Josh nodded, feeling slightly more at ease. “We can live with that, I guess. Where does he want to meet us?”
“That’s the thing,” Toby continued. “He was adamant that you not be at the meeting, Josh. Just Donna.”
Josh stared at him incredulously. “Is he kidding me? He thinks I’m gonna let my wife just…”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll do it,” Donna broke in. Her husband looked at her with uncomprehending eyes. “I know Ben. I know how he works. It’ll be easier to find out what he wants without you there.”
“Are you sure?” he asked after a minute. She nodded carefully and leaned her head against his chest, letting him rock her for a few minutes, oblivious to their guests.
“We should get going,” Nicole said suddenly, gathering her coat and purse. She went over to them both and gave them each a lasting hug. “It’ll be okay,” she tried to convince them and herself. Toby offered Josh a handshake and Donna a kiss before the couple departed. Leo left a few minutes later, instructing Josh to get their attorney on the phone in the morning to alert them to this latest development. Rachel headed to bed after bidding them goodnight. After their company was gone, Josh and Donna held onto one another for a bit longer, not wanting to go to bed yet out of fear of the uncertainty the next day would present them with.
Finally, they made their upstairs to their bedroom. When they got there, Josh veered left, saying he was going to check on Emma and that she should see how Natalie was doing. They went off to their respective child and Donna walked into the nursery.
The baby was awake, cooing and trying to eat her tiny fist at the same time. Donna smiled, despite her anxieties, at the baby’s innocent actions. Every moment she had with Natalie was precious to her since she had missed out on seeing most of Emma’s firsts: her first crawl, her first word, her first step; Donna had been there for none of them. Sure she’d seen the photos and videotapes, all of which were some of her most sacred processions but it wasn’t the same as being called “Mommy” or holding out her arms as Emma toddled over to her shakily. And now with this thing with Ben, she might miss even more.
Donna reached into the crib and pulled Natalie to her, clutching her possessively and rocking her gently, clinging to the simple sounds she made. Donna didn’t want to let her go, not even for a minute irrationally feeling that if Ben had the power to take Emma from her, what was to stop him from taking Natalie? The fear threatened to swallow her whole and she knew the only relief from it was to have both her daughters with her right now.
She walked out of the nursery with the baby, prepared to go to Emma when her husband walked in from the hallway with an armload of blankets. Inside, Donna could make out the shape of her little girl and was grateful that Josh was as in tune to her as she used to claim he was.
They put both girls down onto the bed and proceeded to their nighttime rituals. Once they were changed and refreshed, they settled onto the bed, Donna carefully placing Natalie among the pillows and blankets. She laid down on her side afterwards, gazing down as the baby drifted off to sleep again, comfortable in her new surroundings. Josh picked up the older girl and sat back on the bed, his back resting against the headboard as Emma curled herself into his arms, not even stirring. He placed soft kisses on the top of her head and rubbed her back before pulling away to look down at her peaceful face.
“Does she look like him?” he asked Donna tentatively.
She tore her eyes away from the infant and looked at her husband in the dim light of the dark room. “What?”
“Emma. Does she look like…him?” Josh asked more firmly. “Like Ben.”
“Would it matter if she did?”
Josh thought for a minute and shook his head slowly. “No but I just want her to be able to answer honestly if someone ever asks her if she looks like her father.”
Donna reached over to take his hand. “She doesn’t look like him. She just has a birthmark that’s similar to one he has but that’s it. The rest of her is pretty much my dad and I.” She paused for a second. “I’m so sorry I’m doing this to you,” Donna apologized. “This the last thing you need with the campaign going on…”
“If he tells you next Saturday that he’ll leave the country for the rest of his life if I drop out of the election, I’ll go down to the statehouse that afternoon and take my name off the ballot,” he interrupted and Donna could tell he meant it. “Nothing is more important you and the girls. You three are the only thing I’m thinking about every day and every night. I’d do anything to keep you all safe and happy.” He rested his and Donna’s joined hands lightly on Natalie’s stomach while Donna’s other went up to Emma’s knee. She repeated the words to him that he’d said to her on another dark night when she felt like her world was caving in around her.
“It’s gonna be fine.”