Fic: Do Cylons Dream of Chrome Sheep?, Part III
Previous: Part II
Elizabeth Bartlet Westin had been awakened in the middle of the night many times in her life, first by her father coming home late from some political event, and later by her children. Gus in particular had been a light sleeper and used to crawl into bed with her and Doug before they’d finally had to put a stop to that when he was four. Long experience, however, did not make Liz any less grumpy when woken at three in the morning. Especially when it was the state police.
Liz had promised herself she’d never get into politics, and she kept telling herself she wasn’t really a politician because she wasn’t in an elected office. But the family business was the family business and after the divorce from Doug she didn’t have much choice but to go to work. Her one concession had been to leave New Hampshire to do it. But that really had more to do with the idea that everyone in the grocery store and the PTA meetings knew that her husband had first cheated on her, and then publicly humiliated her.
She had humbled herself enough to ask a few of her father’s friends for a recommendation, and so she ended up in Michigan as the chief of staff to the governor. Liz Westin never did anything small.
It was a Michigan State Police captain who had woken her, so that she could wake the governor to tell her about the shooting of the two officers. The fact that her own sister was being held in the incident didn’t really register until she was halfway dressed.
She had managed to look presentable, mostly because she never failed to look presentable, in a blouse and black slacks with a long wool coat, a visitor’s badge hanging off the lapel. She watched her sister’s back for a moment before speaking. “You know, when I thought about bailing my little sister out of jail, I’d always figured it would be Zoey.”
Ellie turned her face to see her, but it was half hidden by the mop of hair that she seemed incapable of keeping out of her face. “Liz… I didn’t know they’d called you. Where are the kids?”
“Gus and Annie are still sleeping. Ellie, have you gone insane? A shootout?”
“I wasn’t shooting anyone…”
“No, you were just driving the car.” Liz folded her arms and Ellie looked away. “Look at me, Ellie, two men are dead.”
“I didn’t shoot them.”
“Then who did?”
“The woman I was driving out… the one they took off…” Ellie held her head in her hands.
“Who took off?”
“The Colonials. They took her off in a ship.”
“And she shot the two policemen?”
Ellie nodded.
Liz shook her head and held the bridge of her nose for a minute. “Come on… you can explain on the way out.”
“They’re letting me out?”
“I posted bail… they’re charging you with evading arrest and destruction of public property. Though they might add a few more charges on once they sort out what happened.”
“I didn’t know she had a gun.”
“This would be the time to use that trademark ability of yours not to say anything, Ellie.”
Her sister nodded and didn’t say much as they processed out of the police station. In fact she didn’t say much of anything to Liz until they were on the road. “I just want to lay down in my bed and wake up tomorrow and find out this was a weird dream from drinking too much coffee.”
“It’s not a dream, and we’re not going back to your apartment. You said a Colonial ship was chasing you… I’m not letting you back into the zone until we figure out what’s gone on.”
“But this isn’t the way back to your place.”
“I’m not letting you stay in the same house as my children either, if people are shooting policemen around you. I called Toby Ziegler, he said he’d let you crash on his couch.”
“But he’d call Dad.”
“El… Dad’s probably already been called.”
**~**~**~**
CJ hadn’t been inside Toby Ziegler’s apartment in Washington more than twice in the eight years they worked together, but that was more than she’d been to his place here. After he’d left the White House Toby had gotten a teaching position at the University of Michigan, though he didn’t live in Ann Arbor. Something about college towns being great if it weren’t for the college students.
When she ran the doorbell Toby opened the door, dressed in jeans and an NYU sweatshirt that looked like it had been through the washer about twenty times too many. He might have had something snarky to say to her, but the fact that he didn’t made her realize that whatever this was it was serious. Not that he would have called her out here in the middle of the night unless it was serious. There were limits to Toby’s affinity to torture. “Hey, CJ, they’re in the kitchen.”
CJ didn’t know who ‘they’ were, but it was answered soon enough when she saw Elizabeth and Eleanor Bartlet with mugs of coffee. Liz was leaning against a wall and Ellie hunched the kitchen table with her head in her hands.
“Why do I think I’m going to want a cup of coffee too?”
“What you’ll really want is some scotch, but I’m out.”
“You’re out of booze?”
“Andi was here last weekend.”
“That would explain the LEGOS all over the living room,” Andi Wyatt had relented to remarrying him less than a year before, but still spent most of her time in Washington with their two children. They alternated every other weekend. “I’ll take the coffee though, if you have any clean mugs left.”
“Of course I do…”
CJ smiled. “Andi was here last weekend.”
He shrugged, and pulled out a Maryland State University mug for her, which just underscored the point.
“What happened?”
“Ellie tried to outrun a space ship,” Liz offered from the side.
“I didn’t know it was a space ship…” Ellie said exasperatedly.
“No, you thought it was a dinosaur,” Liz smiled. She’d obviously come to a point where she could smile about whatever it was. Which was good. CJ never much liked being in a room with any of the Bartlets when they were angry, but she particularly dreaded it when that Bartlet was Liz.
“You thought you were being chased by a dinosaur?” CJ asked, still not quite following…
“The loud engines and flying weren’t a clue? Or was Jeff Goldblum and the John Williams score what confused you?” Toby asked.
CJ held up her hands… “Okay, go back and start from the beginning. Ellie, why were you being chased by a Raptor?” She did know enough about the Colonials to finally figure out what they were talking about.
“My friend Karl told me that he was concerned about a friend of his, Sharon. That he needed me to drive her out of the city so that she could get political asylum. That her life was in danger.”
“Did he tell you why she needed asylum?” CJ had never had anyone come to the embassy looking for asylum, so it was hard to understand why someone would go to Ellie.
Ellie shook her head. “No, he promised to explain once she was safe.”
“We’ll need to get him to explain now.”
“If he hasn’t been arrested,” Toby added.
CJ’s heart leapt when she saw the look on Ellie’s face.
“This is crazy… the Colonials are a democratic society…” Liz set her coffee down. There were times when CJ wanted explain the nastier sides of democratic societies to her, but Elizabeth Bartlet wasn’t really naïve on any subject unless she really wanted to be.
“Ellie, what happened at the border?”
“We got past the Colonial check, and were on the Michigan side when I think the Colonials got word that Sharon was in my car. I gunned the engine hoping to get completely into the US … but there a ship … the kind we took up to Galactica, it ran me off the road and she got out and just started shooting. And than they dragged her off back into the ship and took off.”
“Were you all the way past the checkpoint?”
Ellie nodded.
“So they used force against you on the US side…” CJ trailed off. This had just gotten much, much, messier.
Next: Part IV