John's Quest

John's Quest

By: Abra de Winter

Beta By: dot - without her help the story would not be nearly as good as it is. Any mistakes left in the story - all mine

Pairing: John Hoynes/Ellie Bartlet - Romance

Rating: PG

Spoilers: season 5 episodes 15 – "Full Disclosure" and 16 – "Eppur si muove"

Disclaimer: The characters are from the NBC, WB, Bravo, A John Wells Prod., TV show, 'The West Wing'. They are the creation of Aaron Sorkin.

Feedback: yes, please!

Chapter VIII

Ellie Bartlet and John Hoynes were enjoying a romantic dinner watching the sun set over the Californian coast from a private booth in an exclusive restaurant, three tables away from a not-so-romantic meal shared by agents Jackson and O’Reilly. John was aware of the tediousness of a Secret Service bodyguard’s job because of his own days in office, and therefore had felt somewhat obligated to be nice to them. However, this unusual kindness had won him quite a lot of points with Ellie. She didn’t want to double date with her agents, but, as happens to most people who are forced to spend a long time together, she had bonded with them and was glad to see John take such good care of their comfort.

“It’s beautiful here,” she said, and caressed his hand over the table.

“It’s not Venice or Paris, but I knew that leaving the country would probably not go unnoticed by your father.”

John wished he could sweep her all the way across the world to share with her places that were special to him, but, so far, he hadn’t even dared to take her to Texas to show her where he grew up. His own very public past prevented him from doing so almost as much as the shadow of her father’s power, which still stretched over their relationship. Rumors about them were already sprouting, but so far he though he had been able to keep them under the White House radar. He took her to the most beautiful places he could find where they might have a chance of being safe from prying eyes, trying to minimize the chance of being recognized.

“It’s better than Venice,” she said, licking the cream off her finger.
He swallowed dryly. A few months earlier, he had suggested she try a whipped cream and strawberry cake, and, upon noticing something strange in his tone, she had not let it go until he had told her his birthday dream. She hadn’t mentioned it since, but last week, in her apartment, she had started to lick a chocolate stain from his finger. It was then and there that he decided that the situation could not go on like that any more. Now, watching her, he was lost for a while in the image of her lips around her finger and all the sexual implications that arose from it. He came back to reality, with a feeling of tightness in his pants, quite usual for their dates. Ellie’s shyness was out the window every time they were alone and at the end of his daydream he noticed the smile spreading over her face, marking her satisfaction in a job well done.

“I don’t think we can keep this secret for much longer,” he said.

Ellie sighed, accepting her share of guilt for the ensuing conversation.

“Yes, you’re right. I’m going to tell them soon. I was thinking of doing it during the Fourth of July weekend.”

“Would you like me to come with you? I don’t want them to think I’m afraid of them.”

“Well, I wish I knew how I’m going to tell them. I’m really worried about dad’s reaction. He’s always been weird about my boyfriends.”

“And the fact that this time I am your boyfriend only makes things worse.”

“I didn’t say that. But it’s true. It’s going to be really awkward. I’m considering not going to the farm at all. I don’t like family gatherings even without the prospect of a scene.”

“I don’t want to push but I would really like to come with you. We have to learn to face these things together.”

She almost trembled at hearing this. Such small demonstrations of his commitment always touched her. One year of friendship, four months of dating and she was still having trouble thinking of them as a couple.

“I never brought anyone home to meet my parents - into the lions’ den, so to speak. Still, maybe it would be better if we did this all at once. It will be a shock but they have to learn to live with it.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“However, I’d like to tell mom first. She’ll know how to prepare the terrain. You should tell someone in your family, too. Someone who could test the waters for you.”

“Do you feel ready to meet my family?” he asked, with a crooked smile, one that Ellie had rarely seen, and she didn’t know what to make of it.

“After I tell my parents it’s going to be a breeze,” she assured him.

“Ellie, I want you to know that I did my best to go slow with this relationship, as you seemed to want it that way,” he began.

“I know, honey, and you’ve been great,” she interrupted him.

“But I don’t think I can wait any longer.”

Her smile froze for a split second, before his hand opened on the table, revealing a small box. Panic rose swiftly through her; a mixture of hope that she knew what he was going to say and the fear that she might react poorly if she was right.

“Ellie, I love you and I wish I could wait as long as you need, but I have to ask you, because, to quote your favorite movie - when you know you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start right away. Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

When he slid the ring on her finger, Ellie’s eyes filled with tears. It had to be the most beautiful ring she had ever seen, but Ellie would have happily accepted one found in a box of cereal, instead of the beautiful champagne diamond, as long as it was John offering it, along with his heart. Years later, Ellie would wonder if her heart had beat even once before she had answered. That decision, taken in sixteen months or a heartbeat, would prove to be one of the best she had ever taken. However, it was going to take her some time to come to that conclusion.

“I’ve been carrying this ring in my pocket for about three months,” he confessed, kissing her hand. “I would rather have proposed to you in Venice, but I guess we’re going to have the option to go there on our honeymoon.”

“This might save us a lot of grief from my parents.”

“I know it will save a lot of grief from mine. They’re very old-fashioned when it comes to marriage.”

“When the elation of the moment has passed, I’m going to have a full blown panic attack.”

John smiled, and she knew he had understood perfectly what she meant. They might start to regret the secrecy of their meetings once they had to face her family, his family, the White House staff and the circus the national media will create when they learn of their engagement.

“It’s a good thing we love each other. I think that will give us strength through this,” he tried to comfort her.

“I was thinking exactly that.”

Ellie smiled, and, blushed furiously, to John’s obvious delight. Apart from thinking how lucky she was to be in love with him and at the same time to be the object of his love, Ellie was also thinking how soon the moment would come when she would cast away all her reservations and finally make love to him. She tried to mask her embarrassment by excusing herself to go to the bathroom.


~~~


“Oh, I’m sorry!” the stranger apologized after bumping into her.

“It’s all right, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she said and started to walk away.

Then the thing she had dreaded for the past four months happened. She heard the man calling her name.

“Elle? Elle Bartlet?”

There was only one person in the world who called her “Elle”. She turned around and smiled at a delighted Will Bailey. They had first met at the ball, when Will had won the job of Assistant Communications Director after writing almost single-handedly a brilliant Inauguration speech for the President. Ellie had met Will’s stepsister, Elsie, first, and she had introduced them. Will had asked her to dance and, after calling her Elsie three or four times, they had agreed that it would be better if he called her Elle and not Ellie.

“I can’t believe it’s you!” Will continued, catching up to her. “We never meet in Washington or anywhere on the east coast and here we are, twenty thousand miles away from where we live!”

“Hello, Will. It’s good seeing you. How are you?”

“Fine. Fine. Just catching up with some friends. How are you? How have you been?”

“Good. Great.” She paused, and decided to try the effect of the news on him. “I just got engaged.”

Will looked, stunned, at Ellie’s hand, wearing the ring she had received only a few moments earlier. He shook off his surprise and congratulated her.

“That is great news. When did it happen?”

“Oh, about ten minutes ago.”

“Here? So who’s the lucky guy?”

She paused, reflecting on the best way to handle this.

“I think you’ve met. Do you want to come say hi?”

“Sure.”

As soon as Ellie turned away from him to make her way back to her table, Will’s expression changed dramatically. He was probably the first person to meet Ellie’s future husband, but he would rather have been the last to do so. The unhappiness was wiped off his face the instant he saw who was waiting for her to come back.

John Hoynes stood up as Ellie approached. Will saw that Hoynes’s smile barely lessened even upon seeing his fiancé returning accompanied by another man. He couldn’t help but appreciate the man’s composure, and he remembered that he had voted for him, and not for Ellie’s father, to get the Democratic nomination seven years earlier. Many things had made him reconsider his position since then, but nothing, not even the stupid way Hoynes had lost the Vice-Presidency, had made Will resent his former hero as much as the ring on Elle’s finger, and the expression of adoration on her face.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Hoynes. Ellie has just told me the news. Congratulations!”

“Thank you, Will.”

“I don’t want to intrude any longer in this special moment. I wish you all the best, and hope to see you back in Washington,” he said precipitately. “Mr. Hoynes. Elle.” He bowed his head slightly and walked away.

“I have to tell him not to say anything before I tell my parents,” Ellie said and rushed after him.

John watched them moving away, saw her stopping Will, but couldn’t hear the conversation, which was short and ended with Ellie kissing Will on the cheek and coming back to their table. While she was returning, Will was standing very still where she had left him, and looking after her with an expression that could only mean one thing. John saw and understood, but did not say anything to Ellie, just told himself one more time he was a lucky bastard and he’d better not screw up this time.


~~~


Their dates had never been the classical lovers’ encounters, and the sexual tension between them had been challenged by the stress of the approaching Fourth of July weekend. This time the discussion had taken on a very pragmatic tone.

“They’re gonna want to know how we met. I don’t think we should mention the X-ray thing,” Ellie said.

“The bar fight thing, you mean,” John said roughly.

Ellie loved his almost cowboy-like way of cutting through bullshit sometimes. In her never-ending quest to express herself in as politically correct and sensitively a way as possible, always looking out for the other person’s feelings and at the same time trying to avoid misunderstandings, she often lost precious time and sometimes missed easier ways to make a point. She had made efforts to unlearn her tendency to be so damn cautious around John, and confide in him instead, but she was not yet sure that he wouldn’t run away if he saw her darker side.

After the proposal, they had decided to tell one family member each. On July 1, Ellie had summoned all her courage and cornered her mother at a fund-raiser away from Washington to tell her.

To her credit, Abigail Bartlet reacted like the coolest mother in the history of American motherhood and did not make a scene. Ellie knew that her mother had it in her to make her feel like the last human being on the face of the Earth, and she was all the more grateful for the way she had chosen to take the news. More importantly, her mother had agreed to hold off on breaking the news to her father until Ellie had the chance to see him in person. Ellie suspected she had consented to keep quiet not just because Ellie had asked her, but because she didn’t really want to be the one to do it. The meeting ended with one of the warmest hugs Ellie had ever given her mother.

However, that still left them with the prospect of facing her father and the American public.

“Yes. I understand what happened and I know you weren’t drinking, but we don’t have to give them more ammunition,” Ellie said.

“Shall we make up a story?”

“Or we could use the time we met at the Ambassadors’ Dinner and just say that was the first time. That’s what, a few months later?”

“Are you trying to convince yourself that it’s not a lie?”

“It’s not really a lie. That was the first time you saw me in a dress.”

“This is beginning to feel like an INS interview,” he said, kissing her on the shoulder.

“This is a green card we sort of need.”

“I know, baby. I’ll be good.”

Ellie kissed him with the intensity of the damned.

“You are good. I just hope they see it, too,” she said.

“Things are already going better than I expected. Your mother took the news well, and so did my son.”

“Really? I thought you two weren’t getting along all that well after the divorce.”

“He really hates the guy Suzanne is dating. And he seems to have quite a good opinion about you. I didn’t even know that you and Van had ever talked.”

Ellie looked at him horrified. Van. Van Hoynes. How could she have forgotten?

“Ellie? What is it?”

“OK. There’s something I have to tell you. You’re not going to be happy about it. I just didn’t realize it was your son until now. I was sure he was Ben Haines, Albie Duncan’s grandson.”

“What is it? Did you date him?”

“God, no! He’s nineteen! But it’s pretty bad.”

“Can’t be worse than the image I just had of the two of you kissing. Tell me,” he encouraged her.

“It was during one of the Inauguration Balls. He was flirting with Zoey, and Liz dispatched me to keep an eye on them. But we were so bored that we ended up sneaking in a back room and smoking a joint.”

“You gave my son marijuana?! He was seventeen!”

“Actually, he offered it to us. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

“Do you think there’s anything left to make things worse for us?” he asked, kissing her forehead to assure her he wasn’t angry.

“You mean, apart from all the things we’re going to hear this weekend from my family?”

“What do you think they are all going to say?”

“Oh, that’s difficult. There’s a large selection to chose from.”

“He’s enough old enough to be your father?” he suggested.

“Don’t you remember he cheated on his wife of twenty years?” Ellie added.

“Are you doing this just to spite the President?”

“Do you love her?”

“Oh, well, some questions are easier to answer than others,” he said, and put an end to the topic by kissing her. Ellie had no desire to dissuade him from this and they spent the rest of the evening kissing.


~~~~~~


Jed Bartlet was looking forward to the Fourth of July weekend. Thursday evening found him in bed, brushing up his knowledge of the black and grizzly bears inhabiting Glacier Park, with which he intended to annoy Charlie and Leo around the barbecue. Abbey got in under the blanket and curled up next to him. She put her head on his chest and he moved his arm around her shoulders while continuing to read, registering the familiar warmth and weight. He kept on reading, while his running his fingers through her hair, thus enjoying two of the things he loved the most.

She opened her book, but after a while, it occurred to him that she hadn’t turned a single page.

“Not a good book?” he asked.

“Hmm? I have things on my mind.”

“Ellie is bringing someone for the Fourth of July,” she said a few minutes later.

“She’s bringing a date here? That’s nice,” Jed answered, looking up from his book.

“Yes. Now, darling, don’t overreact. She’s very serious about this one.”

“Overreact? When did I ever overreact? I didn’t like some of the boys she dated, but I don’t overreact.”

“I want you to keep an open mind when you meet him.”

“Have you met him?”

“She’s told me about him. You’re not going to like him.”

“Why? Who is it?”

“Uh-uh.” Abbey shook her head. “I was specifically ordered not to tell. My lips are sealed.”

“Oh, this sounds bad,” Jed grumbled, setting his book aside. He glared at Abbey, but she just smiled. “Anyway, I don’t have to like him. She’s the one dating him.”

“She might do more than just date this one.”

“What? What exactly did she tell you? Is she actually serious about him?”

“Oh, more than serious,” Abbey said.

“She’s not engaged, is she? If my daughter is engaged to someone I want to know about it! Abbey, who is he?!”

Jed tried his threatening face, and then his pleading one, but it was obvious Abbey was enjoying his frustration and was not going to budge an inch. He gave up.

“All right, just tell me one thing - what is it about this guy makes you so sure I won’t like him?” He looked her straight in the eye. “Is he a Republican?”

“No. Actually the fact that he’s not a Republican might be the only thing you like about him.”

~~~~~~~


Jed Bartlet was on the back porch when they approached. At first, he only saw John.

“John! What are you doing here?”

“Good afternoon, Mr. President.”

“No-one told me you were coming.”

“Hello, dad. I brought him,” Ellie said, stepping into the light.

“Did you invite him? You gave him a ride?” he asked, still not grasping the full implications of John’s presence.

“Dad, now don’t get upset.”

“Mr. President, Ellie and I are engaged to be married.”