Finally, Abbey and Jed reached the private Bartlet family cemetery. They had been there many times before and both knew the names on the headstones as well as they knew their own family members. Jed went first to the oldest headstone, that of the first Josiah Bartlet. The story of his famous ancestor was as ingrained into him as "Good Night Moon" was to his youngest children. He took pride in the fact that Josiah was a self made man. Josiah's ancestors had come to North America from England and had settled near Beverly, Mass just a town over from Salem where Abbey's ancestors had settled. He often wondered if Josiah Bartlett had known Abbey's infamous privateering ancestor, Thomas Weathergill and if he had what the two would think of their descendents hooking up 200 years later. Without any formal education Josiah had, at 16, begun five years of studying medicine under a doctor in Amesbury Mass, then moved to New Hampshire to set up his practice, a fact that his wife with her years of undergraduate work, medical school, internship and residency was incredibly envious of. By 1765 Josiah, without family or party connections, had risen in society and was a leader in the community. He had been elected to the legislature of the province of New Hampshire where he promptly began to oppose the royal governor. It was because of this that Josiah was chosen, along with John Pickering of Portsmouth to represent New Hampshire at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He had been the first delegate to speak in favor of the Declaration of Independence and the second to sign it after John Hancock. With the war over and the United States a fledgling new nation, he later became Governor of the newly named state of New Hampshire. What Jed was truly proud of, however, was the character of the man who had not only founded a nation, but the entire Bartlet family. Josiah Bartlett had been a devoted husband and father to his wife Mary and their brood of children. He was known to have a quick penetrating mind and to make sound decisions and last but not least he had been a true patriot who had sacrificed much for his country.

"He'd be really proud of you," Abbey said, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. "From what I know about the intelligence, the decency, and the character of Josiah Bartlett, I'd have to say that you have a lot of him in your blood.

"I felt him."

"Now?"

"No, when I took the oath of office four years ago. When I promised to protect and defend the nation that he helped to create. It was like an invisible thread linking us together over the centuries."

"I wonder if he ever could have imagined that his great whatever grandson would be elected President of the United States and that he was about to be elected again.

"I don't know if he did or not, but I know someone who did." Jed stopped at the grave of his grandfather, another Josiah Bartlet. "Grandpa Josiah always said I'd do something big with my life. I just wish he could have lived to see it."

"He sees it, Jed. I can picture him up there in heaven with your grandmother Eleanor busting with pride and yet still grumbling away over the fact that you turned out to be a damned Democrat."

"He hated that, didn't he?" Jed laughed.

"You're grandparents were great people." Abbey would always be eternally grateful for the safe haven that Josiah and Eleanor Bartlet had given Jed at their farm, this farm, and that they had given him a sense of love and self worth that had been missing in his own home.

"They really were. I miss them terribly."

Abbey moved along to the next headstone, the most conflicted of them all. Jed's father. It was easier for her to hate the man than it was for Jed. It had been so hard for all the years that they'd been married to keep how she felt about him inside. It didn't matter that John had come to respect her, she still hated him for how he had hurt the man that she loved above all other's. She stood there quietly staring at the name on the headstone----John Daniel Bartlet 1926-1996--- and she was able to conjure him up in her mind as if he still stood right in front of her, silver haired, stern, austere, his cold blue eyes challenging and condemning at the same time. They were Jed's eyes and yet not Jed's eyes. John's eyes had never held the warmth of his sons, never twinkled with teasing mirth as his son's did.

She'd never forget the night that Jed had finally opened his soul to her and she had found out just what kind of a bastard John Bartlet really was. Up until that moment she had just assumed he was stuffy, dour, cold fish. He hadn't been so different from a lot of the men in her grandparents circle of Brahmin friends, at least that had been her assumption until New Years Eve 1973. She and Jed were home for Christmas break and Jed had invited her over for New Years weekend. She had met his parents before and didn't relish spending an entire weekend with them but if it meant spending time with Jed she would put up with pretty much anything. After a spending the summer apart they had come back together at Notre Dame and had spent the past four months practically joined at the hip. They were inseparable, head over heels in love, and now Abbey was ready to take their relationship one step further. When they had first started dating she had told Jed that she wanted to wait to have sex until she got married, and, like the good Catholic boy that he was, Jed had accepted that. But, lately it was getting harder and harder for them to stop. They had come so close to actually going all the way that Abbey knew sleeping with Jed was inevitable. She wanted him as she had never wanted a man before. Her dreams had suddenly become terribly erotic; she pictured Jed doing deliciously wicked things to her, things that made her blush when she woke up to a throbbing unsatiated body. She knew Jed wasn't having it any easier, she'd come to know his erection very well and she knew that it physically hurt him to stop; yet he never pressured her. She often thought of Ron calling her a cocktease and she wondered if that was what she was doing to Jed. She wanted to make love with Jed, she loved Jed, and there was no way that could be wrong. She'd even talked to her mother about going on the Pill when Beth had expressed concern over the intensity of her relationship with Jed and had gone as far as to set up an appointment with her gynecologist. But, that had seemed a moot point when she'd gotten word that she'd been accepted to a semester at John's Hopkins and she and Jed would be separated for four months. She'd cancelled the appointment. Now she wished that she hadn't because Jed was telling his parents that they weren't going to the New Years Eve party with them after all. They were going to stay home and watch Dick Clark and that meant they were going to be home alone all evening long. A shiver of anticipation ran up her spine and a feeling of tingling warmth spread through her groin. Just a few hours later she'd heard the raised voices coming from John's study as she walked down the hall. It was her first glimpse into the temper that simmered beneath John Bartlet's cool surface.

"You two are going to the party whether you like it or not."

"No, we're not, Dad. I'm 22 years old, more than old enough to make decisions on my own."

The sound of a slap resounded loudly causing Abbey to gasp. When she opened the door she was stunned to see John holding Jed pinned to the couch by his collar.

"You are NOT going to stay home with your hand up your girlfriends skirt. I WILL NOT have that going on in my house."

Abbey was horrified. John Bartlet was talking about her like she was some kind of slut.

"Take your hands off me." Jed's icy cold tone clearly took his father aback. John simply stared at him. "I said, take your hands off of me." Jed yanked himself loose. "Don't you EVER talk about the woman that I love as if she's some kind of whore. AND, don't you EVER hit me again. I'm not a child anymore, you hit me again and I might just hit back."

Shocked by the exchange, Abbey stepped back out of the room before Jed could see her.

There had been no more talk of Jed and Abbey attending the New Years Eve party. Instead, Jed had made her dinner that evening. Nothing fancy, a bottle of wine, spaghetti and meatballs with a sauce the housekeeper had made for him and they ate it at a romantic candlelit table set in front of the fireplace. They'd never really dined alone like this before. It was seduction pure and simple. Jed had put one of his mother's Frank Sinatra albums on the turn style and for the first time Abbey truly felt like a woman, not a teenager.

Abbey was quiet during dinner, often looking up to see the slight bruise on Jed's temple where his father had struck him, waiting for him to tell her about the altercation. That he didn't tell her about it and seemed unfazed by it spoke volumes. She wondered how many other times that this had happened and he hadn't told her.

They took care of the dishes together then returned to sit snuggled up on the couch in front of the fireplace. Sinatra had given way to Dean Martin and finally Abbey couldn't bear it anymore. She reached a gentle hand up pushing the hair back off his forehead and lightly traced the bruise at his temple.

"What happened here?" She asked.

"Oh…uh…nothing. I just bumped into the wall. You know me."

"I thought I did," Abbey said sadly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't think you lied to me or kept secrets from me."

"I don't."

"Don't you? Jed, I heard the fight you had with your father. I know that I shouldn't have been eavesdropping but I heard him hit you."

"You're right," he said, angrily brushing her hand away. "It isn't polite to eavesdrop."

"I heard what he said about me and I heard you threaten to hit him back the next time he hit you." Abbey swallowed knowing she was treading on dangerous territory here. "It wasn't the first time that he hit you, was it?"

"Of course not. Spare the rod spoil the child is my father's motto." Jed tried for bravado.

"I don't mean spankings, Jed. I've known for some time that something isn't right here. You never want to come home on break, you hate to talk about your family, what is it that you're hiding?"

"Oh, so now you're majoring in psychology?" He was lashing out at her because he was terrified. Terrified that for the first time ever he was going to spill the beans about his miserable childhood.

Abbey refused to be put off by his angry words; she could see the pain in his eyes and knew she was close to breaking through. "No, I'm majoring in you. Jed, we can't have any kind of a relationship with all these secrets."

"What do you WANT from me" He broke away from her and made his way to the fireplace placing his hands on the mantle and bending his head.

"The truth. I want to know everything there is to know about Jed Bartlet." She came up beside him, ran a hand in soothing circles over his back. "Tell me, Jed."

He'd been in denial for so long unable to tell a soul, stoically ignoring everything that happened to him that he wasn't sure he could get the words out. He looked down at Abbey then tears swimming in his eyes. "I…I want to, Abbey. But, I…I can't."

"Yes you can, Jed. I love you."

"I know. That's the problem"

"How loving somebody be a problem?"

"Because I don't want you to stop loving me. I couldn't stand that." The pain he was in was overwhelming, it was almost more than Abbey could bear. She wasn't sure if she was as prepared for this as she thought she was."

"I'll never stop loving you, Jed." She cupped his face in her hands." There's nothing that you could say to me that would make me stop loving you. Tell me, baby…please."

And he did. He couldn't look at Abbey while he told her, instead he gazed deeply into the dancing flames in the fireplace, but, to his credit, he left nothing out. He started his explanation, his confession; so to speak, with the humiliation of a four year old who had wet the bed and been spanked and left to sleep cold and shivering in urine soaked sheets for his transgression.

"Only animals soil themselves, Jed, so you can sleep like an animal tonight in your own filth".

He'd gone on to the little boy, who, at five years of age brought his mother a grubby handful of wildflowers only to have them laughed at and discarded by his father before he could even show them to her and the wide eyed innocent eight year old who had snuck downstairs with his brother to get a glimpse of Santa on Christmas Eve only to get kicked in the rear and sent sprawling across the floor because he was supposed to be in bed.

He continued on into his teen years when his enraged father had struck him so hard across the torso with his golf club that he'd broken a rib. Jed had been a gangly thirteen at the time, his offence, telling his father that he couldn't take two mulligans for the same hole.

On and on it went, from the childhood smacks across the face because Bartlet's don't cry, to the insults and putdowns of adolescence, and finally to the out and out beatings as he became a teenager, all told in a stoic voice as if Jed were talking about somebody else, not himself.

When he finally finished and got up the courage to turn from the fire to look at Abbey there were tears streaming unchecked down her face. He was stunned. Nobody had ever cried for him before.

"Why?" She asked him. "Why didn't you ever tell me this before?"

"I never wanted you to know. I felt like it was all my fault. I was so ashamed, Abbey. So ashamed…"

Abbey knew in that moment that he had never shared any of this pain with anyone else. She felt incredibly privileged and an incredible sense of responsibility. But, even more than that she felt a love stronger than she had ever known before. She opened her arms to Jed, tucked his head against her breasts and continued to cry for him, for the little boy that he had been. She cried for him as he could not cry for himself. Through the entire history of his childhood he had not shed a tear, it was only the words that Abbey whispered over and over and over into his hair that caused his eyes to swim with emotion and a lump to form in his throat.

"I love you, Jed, IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou…"

"Don't cry, Abbey…please don't cry…I'm okay, really…"

Abbey sniffed and smiled through her tears. "We're a pair, aren't we? Here I am crying for you and you're the one trying to comfort me."

"I've lived with it for a long time." He ran his thumbs over her cheeks to wipe her tears away. "It's all fresh and new to you."

"I think you're so amazing, Jed. You have to know that. To come through that kind of childhood and still be the kind, loving man that you are is a miracle. It's a testament to your strength."

"I always felt weak."

"No, a weak person would have succumbed. You're the strongest person I know." It was the right thing to say for in the next instant as Dean Martin gave way to Johnny Mathis Jed was kissing her, deeply, passionately, the way that he did when they were getting toward the end of one of their necking sessions. She felt his tongue slide between her lips tickling the roof of her mouth. She'd never enjoyed French kissing the way that she did with Jed. It didn't take him long to get hard, it never did. Abbey felt him pull his hips away from her so she couldn't feel his erection. This time she didn't let him go. She grabbed his hips pulling him against her, rubbing herself against him. Jed groaned, he knew it was going to kill him when Abbey pulled the plug on this session. He wanted her so badly he was amazed he wasn't coming in his pants. Over the past month he'd been too embarrassed to tell her that his need for her had grown so strong he'd actually had a couple of wet dreams, something he hadn't experienced since puberty and he was spending more time in the shower than he ever had in his life. He didn't know how much longer he could stand kissing Abbey and touching her and not being able to make love to her.

Still, even knowing how much it would hurt when she made him stop his hand moved up to cup and knead her breast. When she didn't immediately push it away his fingers began working the buttons on her blouse. And, when his hand slipped inside to close over the warm soft mound still covered by her bra, somewhere deep inside Abbey knew. Tonight was the night she was going to make love with Jed. This moment had been inevitable from the first moment they'd laid eyes on one another and sparks had flown. Still, she had to be responsible before things got out of hand. She had cancelled that doctor's visit; she wasn't on the Pill.

"Jed…" She pushed him away gently.

Oh God, he was going to die, Jed thought, the pain in his throbbing groin nearly unbearable. He leaned back trying to catch his breath, trying to recapture a measure of sanity when all he wanted to do was lie Abbey back on the floor and drive himself into her.

"It's okay," he finally bit out. "We'll stop…"

"I don't want to stop this time." She looked him straight in the eye to let him know that she meant business. "I want you to make love to me, I want it more than you can know. But, we need…we don't have any…you know…rubbers."

Panting heavily, unable to believe what Abbey had just proposed Jed blushed and gave her a sheepish grin as he pulled his wallet out of this back pocket. "Yeah we do…I bought'em in Boston where nobody would know me." He pulled out a foil package and dangled it front of her.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" She asked, taking the package from him and opening it to peer inside. She'd never seen a condom before.

"Tonight? No. Eventually, yes. We can't keep our hands off each other, Abbey. I knew it would happen sooner or later. I figured I'd better be prepared."

"My handsome, sexy, Boy Scout," she smiled seductively.

"That's me, always prepared." He reached a finger out tracing it around her right nipple, feeling it harden underneath her lacy bra. Abbey could feel the ache between her legs, could feel the moisture pooling there.

The condom fell to the floor beneath them as Jed's lips covered hers again and she finished working the buttons of his shirt then sat back from him to push it off his shoulders. She swallowed tightly at the sight of his torso. Wiry and lean, he was absolutely beautiful. His chest was covered with a light smattering of crisp tawny hair that tapered down over his flat tanned abdomen into a straight line over his lower belly then disappeared into his pants, into the one part of his body she'd felt pressed against her almost on a nightly basis but had never seen. She ran her finger down over that line and began working his belt her fingers itching to slip inside and see just what the arrow pointed to. They were both so concentrated on touching each other, on undressing each other, that they never heard the door open, never saw the look on Emily Bartlet's face as she saw her son and his girlfriend both kneeling topless in front of the fireplace. Abbey's fingers were on Jed's belt while his were on her breasts; their lips locked in a fiery kiss. But, while they may not have seen the look they did hear the outraged gasp.

Instinctively Jed shoved Abbey behind him to shield her from his parent's eyes just as John hit the switch filling the room with bright light.

"Josiah…Abigail, WHAT on earth is going on here!" Emily was clearly traumatized and aghast.

"Mother!" Jed's face was red with embarrassment. "What are you doing home?"

"If you hadn't been so wrapped up in…in….in this HANKY PANKY you might have noticed there's a bit of a nor'easter blowing out there. We had to turn around and come home and not a BIT too soon I can see."

"Mother, please. Could you please leave for a few minutes and give Abbey and me some privacy so we can get dressed."

Still mortified to her core and sputtering away, Emily left the room. John did not. Like a snake waiting to strike he silently moved closer to the couple yanking the needle off "Chances Are" and sending the room into silence.

"Dad, please. Abbey's half-naked here. You're embarrassing her."

"I'm aware of that. You two should have thought of that before you started messing around in MY home.

"It's not your home," Jed stated defiantly.

"What did you just say to me?" John's tone was positively frigid and Abbey was quite certain that if she weren't present he would have physically struck Jed.

"I said this isn't your home. It's still Grandpa and Grandma's, just because they're in the Bahamas doesn't make it yours."

His father was furious, Jed could see that. Normally that would have sent a frission of fear through him. Not anymore. He'd already warned the man what would happen if he got physical again, he was younger and stronger than his father was, he had nothing to fear anymore.

"Touché, Jed. But I'm sure your grandparents wouldn't be thrilled to hear that you were having sex in their living room. What happened to all those Catholic virtues you're always spouting off about? I might not be a Catholic but I think I know the church still has an issue with premarital sex."

Abbey wanted to tell him to shove it up his ass. She wanted to tell him that she and Jed had never done this before. That this was to be their first time. But, she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. She knew John Bartlet now. She knew that he was a bully who would love nothing more than to see her stuttering and cowed, shaking at the wrath of his condemnation. Well she wasn't going to give him that. She wasn't ashamed of what she felt for Jed and she'd be damned if his father was going to make her feel that way. Let him think that she and Jed had been screwing each other's brains out all semester, she didn't care anymore.

Instead of quaking beneath his censorious eyes, Abbey defiantly stepped out from behind Jed's protective shield and grabbed her blouse. She looked John Bartlet straight in the eye as she slid the blouse over her shoulders and began slowly buttoning it over her breasts fighting to keep her hands from shaking with the mortification she felt at standing before her boyfriends father in just her bra and a pair of hip huggers. Her parents would have been upset to come home and find she and Jed the way his parents had but she knew that they never would have embarrassed and humiliated them simply for the pleasure of having that power. With her blouse finally buttoned Abbey turned to Jed.

"I think I'm going to turn in, sweetheart." Then, for John's benefit she leaned over and kissed Jed lightly on the lips. "I love you."

"I love you too. I'm so sorry about all this."

"Not your fault." She turned back to glare at John.

John had to give her credit; she was no simpering weakling, this one. Abigail O'Neill had backbone and spunk; just how his son had found and caught her was a mystery to him.

Then, just as Abbey and Jed hit the doorway John noticed the foil package on the floor. It was opened but not used. "Just a minute you two. You forgot something." He held the condom out in front of them as he might wave a treat in front of a dog. "You might want this for future use. After all we don't want any Bartlet bastards running around, do we?"

Before Jed could say a word Abbey grabbed the condom and shoved it into her pocket. "I think ONE Bartlet bastard is more than enough, don't you?"

"Abbey-----"

"Hmmm…" Abbey quickly came back to the present to see her husband kneeling at his father's grave and looking up at her expectantly.

"Where were you?"

"New Years Eve 1973."

Jed nodded, that night had been a turning point in their relationship and in his relationship with his father. "Mrs. Landingham was right. My father WAS a prick."

"Yes, he was."

Abbey and Jed both turned at the imperious tone of Emily Bartlet.

TBC...