"It’s so calm outside. It’s hard to believe that we have a hurricane bearing down on us." Having been invited to join the first couple for dinner, CJ was sitting at the kitchen table slicing tomatoes for the salad . The President was at the counter grating cheese and the First Lady stood beside him stirring the spaghetti sauce and adding spices. It was apparent they often cooked together for when Abbey brought a spoon to Jed’s mouth, all it took was a squint of his eyes, or a wrinkle of his nose for her to reach for the basil or the garlic.

"She’s hardly bearing down on us." Abbey sipped from her glass of Merlot and looked out the window. "She’s not even going to hit the east coast. She’s veering out to sea out toward Nova Scotia. Ron just wanted us to get back from Bar Harbor quickly because the seas are going to be affected."

The seas had definitely been rougher on the way back than they had been on the trip up the coast, but it had been exhilarating to ride the large swells and they’d arrived safely back before there had been any real danger. Back in time to find CJ in a flooded bathroom plunging away at the toilet. Evidently while she had been placing a clean diaper on Aislinn, Nicholas had tried to flush his sister’s soiled one and backed up the plumbing. Never had CJ been so happy to see two people, even if the reason they were home was because a hurricane was headed their way. At this point she welcomed Hurricane Sylvia as opposed to Hurricane Nicholas, and Hurricane Aislinn.

"Well, I am sorry your trip got cut short."

"Sure you are." Abbey laughed, as she re-filled CJ’s glass with wine. "So that frazzled, ‘calgon take me away’ look when we returned was just a figment of our imagination."

"Must have been. Everything went perfectly smoothly."

"Bull…oney" Jed finished weakly after getting a look from Abbey. He really was trying to watch his language now that the kids seemed to be picking up on everything. "Did you get any sleep at all last night?"

"Oh, I had no problem with sleeping. The kids fussed a bit for mommy when I put them down in their cribs but they slept pretty good through the night. It was when they were awake that chaos reigned."

"Perfectly smoothly?" Abbey lifted a brow at CJ’s contradicting statements. CJ flashed the President a ‘help me’ look, to which he responded with a shrug.

"I keep telling Abbey she’d have made a hell of a prosecutor."

"Well, she walked right into that one." Abbey lifted the lid on the boiling pasta . ‘Spaghetti is ready. Why don’t we take all the food outside and Leo can join us whenever his flight gets in."

They each carried trays laden with food and wine to the table that was set among the beach roses on the edge of the cliffs. Vivaldi played softly in the background and Jed lit tiki torches to keep the mosquitoes away. The baby monitor was set prominently in the middle of the table lest the children awaken while their parents were outside dining. The three friends enjoyed a leisurely supper and a conversation surprisingly devoid of politics. CJ regaled the first couple with stories from her Hollywood past. Both Jed and Abbey were amused and intrigued by the idiosyncrasies of some of the movie stars she knew. Given the President’s very vocal opposition to adultery and the very monogamous nature of his own union, she knew many of the male staffers often thought of him as ‘old fashioned’ and ‘straight laced’. He was both those things, but he was not stuffy or prudish in any way and he seemed especially eager to hear of the sexual peccadillo’s of some of the biggest names in Hollywood. She also knew that it would surprise many people to know that the first lady had quite a ribald sense of humor and it took a lot to make her blush. Somehow it was easier to be herself with them at Windy Point. Easier to be open and not always on her guard about saying the wrong thing. Maybe it was because they were so much more accessible without all the trappings of the Presidency surrounding them. Whatever the reason, CJ was enjoying herself immensely.

As darkness began to descend upon them, Abbey brought out strawberry shortcake for dessert. She was carrying the tray across the lawn and as she approached the table a sharp pain stabbed into her side. She gave a soft gasp and dropped the tray loudly on the table.

"Abbey!" CJ jumped to her feet but the President had made it to his wife’s side before her.

"Abbey, what’s wrong." Concern clouded his face.

Abbey took a breath, the pain having gone away almost as soon as it had struck her. "I’m okay, sorry. I guess I just got a stitch in my side. That’s what I get for eating all that spaghetti."

"Abbey, are you sure that’s all it was? Why don’t you sit down."

"Oh, Jed, don’t hover over me. I’m fine." She smiled to reassure them both then leaned over to light the candles on the table. A slight hint of citronella began to mix in with the briny sea and the roses. Crickets chirped and the surf crashed below them at the base of the cliffs. None of them were aware that the balmy, almost tropical air, was the calm before the storm. None were aware that Hurricane Sylvia was regaining her fury and getting ready to make a turn toward the east that would put her right on a collision course with the coast of Maine.

****

"MAMA!… MAMA!… MOOOMMMYYY!

Abbey awoke with a jolt. She hadn’t even needed the monitor to hear the kids screaming loudly for her from the nursery. She was up in a flash to find out what had caused their terrorized cries. Before she made it to the bedroom door she knew what it was. A bright flash of lightening illuminated the bedroom and almost instantaneously a loud, crashing bang of thunder shook the cottage, causing more hysterical screaming. She opened the door to the nursery and another flash of lightening showed her both of the twins standing in their cribs howling with fear, their faces blotchy from tears.

"Ssh…ssh…it’s okay, Mommy’s here now." Abbey knew there was no way she was going to console them and get them back to sleep while the storm was at full force. She lifted each child onto a hip, a task that was getting harder and harder the bigger they got and grimaced at the tenderness on her side. Jed met her in the hall.

"Scared of the storm?"

"What do you think?" Abbey waited for the next shriek as a particularly loud bang of thunder shook the house again. They didn’t disappoint. "They’re terrified, Jed."

"It’s okay, kiddo’s, don’t be scared." Jed took Nicholas from Abbey. "It’s just a storm, the loud bangs can’t hurt you." Nicholas was having none of his father’s words of wisdom, instead his little arms clutched as tight as a vise grip around his neck. "Ssh…It’s okay, son, daddy’s got you now, nothing can hurt you." He held the boy tightly to his chest, patting his back, and, while Nicholas stiffened with every clap of thunder, he was no longer screaming in fear. Aislinn too, had calmed a bit in her mother’s arms and by the time Abbey and Jed lay back in bed with the two children in between them, rubbing their backs soothingly, they had settled down to occasional sniffles. The nasty band of thunderstorms preceding the hurricane went on until the wee hours of the morning but thankfully being safely in their parents bed and in their parents arms had allowed both children to fall back to sleep, albeit a fitful sleep.

****

Jed felt the soft touch of fingers roaming over his face. "Mmm…Abbey," he murmured, and smiled in his sleep. "Abbey!" It was said indignantly this time as he wondered why in the hell his wife was waking him up by poking him in the eye. His head snapped up and he was confronted by the grinning face and guileless eyes of his daughter, her curls all askew.

"Dadda eye."

"Yeah, that’s dadda’s eye all right," Jed rubbed at his eyelid.

"Eye." Aislinn pointed to her own eye.

" Yup, that’s Aislinn’s pretty green eye."

"Nose." She reached out to squeeze Jed’s nose.

"Uh, Ash, do you think we could maybe try to go back to sleep? Look, Mommy and Nicky are still sleeping." A tender smile crossed his face as he watched his wife sleeping peacefully with their son’s fair head tucked under her chin, one of his tanned little arms draped around her neck. Hoping Aislinn would agree, Jed laid back and closed his eyes.

"Up!" Aislinn demanded and leapt onto her father’s belly, her knee hitting him in that spot that caused him to awaken completely.

"Shit!" He drew his knees up and rolled to his side. "Man, little girl, it’s a lucky thing I don’t wanna have any more kids," he groaned.

"Sit!" Aislinn mimicked.

"Not you too. " Jed’s gaze fell back to Abbey, but although she had stirred, she had not awakened. He wasn’t going to take any chances. "Okay, okay I’m getting up. What do you want?" He got sleepily to his feet and turned back to where his daughter sat amidst the blankets.

"Ceweel" She lifted her arms to him.

"Cereal it is then." He picked her up and they made their way to the kitchen.

****

Still a bit bleary eyed, and feeling under the weather, Abbey entered the kitchen with Nicholas. Jed was at the counter wearing a pair of faded cotton boxers, a gray t-shirt and white athletic socks, his hair sticking up endearingly. He was singing the ABC’s and bouncing Aislinn on his hip while poured boiling water into her oatmeal.

"Anything I can do to help?" She asked.

"I’ve got it all under control," he assured her, tipping his head down to accept her kiss to his cheek. "You might want to let the dog in though, it’s pretty nasty out there and he didn’t want to go out to begin with."

Abbey moved to the door gasping when the wind ripped it out of her hands and slammed it back against the house. She felt the sting of sand all the way from the beach against her face and Max came bounding in soaking wet and began to shake everywhere. It took all Abbey’s strength to get the door shut again.

"Jed, it’s really bad out there. Those winds are hurricane force."

"I know. I guess the storm’s gotten closer to shore than they thought." He held out a mug of hot coffee toward her, made just the way she liked it.

"Goggy wet!" Nicholas cried, as Max shook right next to him. He lifted his arms to his father to be taken out of the line of fire.

"Max, out of the kitchen, boy." Jed shut the dog out of the kitchen and Abbey sat at the table watching him over her coffee mug as he got both kids settled into their high chairs, with bibs and hot cereal. She marveled, yet again, at just what a terrific father he was. He always had been, right from the start with Elizabeth. There had been no male posturing in Jed Bartlet, no walking away from diaper duty or bathing and dressing the kids. Yes, as their mother, most of that work had fallen on her, but Jed had never shirked his duties, it would never have occurred to him to do so. They had been so young when Elizabeth was born and they had learned their new roles of mommy and daddy side by side, together every step of the way. Being a father was a role he enjoyed tremendously and it had always warmed her heart and given her great joy to watch Jed with their children.

"Abbey, earth to Abbey…"

Abbey saw a hand waving in front of her face. "What? Oh, sorry…"

"You were a million miles away. I was just saying that you really don’t look so good." Now that he was seated at the table with her, Jed could see that she looked pale and wan and she was hunched over as if in pain.

"I’m just a little crampy, that’s all." The coffee had also made her slightly nauseous.

Jed nodded with understanding. "I’ve got things under control here. Why don’t you go upstairs and take a nice hot bubble bath. That usually helps."

"Yes, it does. I think I will. You’re sure you’re all set?"

"To quote my esteemed press secretary, ‘how hard can it be? 12 year olds do this.’"

Abbey chuckled and Jed watched her make her way back to the stairs, stopping at the landing to rub her side, and he frowned, thinking back. Abbey had just had her period a couple of weeks ago, he knew exactly what her time of the month was, because she was on the Pill she was like clockwork. So why now? She had told him that as she got older her cycle was going to become more erratic before it disappeared altogether, but he’d always thought that meant less times, not more times.

****

While he bathed the children, Jed listened to the radio. Hurricane Sylvia, packing winds of up to 115 miles per hour had, like a woman, he thought, changed her mind and instead of heading east out toward Nova Scotia, she was now headed northeast in the classic New England storm pattern. The eye of the hurricane was supposed to pass directly over Windy Point at some point during the day as she made her way up the coast. Ron had called during breakfast to let him know that the two agents that had been stationed in the gardening shack had made their way to the beach when alerted of an unknown boat heading their way. It had turned out to be an unmanned sailboat that had come off it’s moorings but they had been trapped on the guest house side of the beach thanks to the tremendous storm surge. None of the agents had been able to brave the wind and rain to make it to the cottage so they wanted to make sure that he had his panic button in case of emergency. Ron had also informed him that if not for the fact that there were several large pine trees down along the road they would have attempted evacuation inland earlier. It had also been decided that it would be more risky to evacuate them on Marine One, than it would be to ride out the storm in the relative safety of the cliffs. So, the Bartlet’s were staying put.

After dressing the kids, Jed made his way back to the bedroom to check on Abbey. She was out of the bath and had changed into baggy flannel pajama’s, her comfort clothes,. Her glasses were perched on the end of her nose, her hair still damp and curly. She looked so cute, like a little girl playing dress up in her mother’s clothes. He noted as he got closer that she held a heating pad to her belly.

"Not any better?" He asked.

"No, worse I think. The Midol isn’t working at all. It feels almost like when I had that ovarian cyst."

"Do you think you have another one?"

"I don’t know, could be."

"Well, if I can leave the dynamic duo with you, I’ll go make you my Jed Bartlet cure all."

"Okay." She put her book down and scooted over to make room for both kids. When they were each tucked under an arm she clicked on the TV and flipped by all the local and Boston stations issuing hurricane news to find Nickelodeon and cartoons. Jed hadn’t been gone 10 minutes when the power began to flicker and finally went off altogether. In the eerie silence Abbey could hear the surf pounding into the rocks that formed their cliffs and the wind howling and banging against the windows. Thankfully, just as both kids were about to let loose with their dismay over no cartoons, the power came back on and Jed arrived.

"Dadda." Nicholas tried to climb over Abbey to get to him, and when his elbow went into her belly, Abbey let out a shriek that scared both Nicholas and Jed.

"Abbey?" Jed was immediately at her side and Nicholas began wail with fear.

"I’ll be okay," Abbey breathed, blinking back the tears in her eyes. "Just give me a minute to catch my breath." She took deep breaths, willing the pain in her belly to go away.

Jed took Nicholas into his arms, trying to comfort the boy. "Abbey, are you sure this is your period? You’ve never had cramps this painful before."

"I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like regular menstrual cramps and I haven’t actually started my period. With cramps like these I should have something to show for it. It’s probably another ovarian cyst."

"Well, as soon as this storm is over I want you to go see your gynecologist and have it checked out."

Abbey nodded, it was a testament to the pain she was in that she didn’t make a sarcastic comment about being the real M.D. in the family. Instead, she began to pat Nicky’s back. "I’m sorry, Nicholas. Mommy didn’t mean to scare you, it just hurt me when you crawled over me."

"Hoot?" He asked, inserting his thumb in his mouth.

"Yes, hurt" Abbey pointed to her belly. Nicholas nodded and squirmed to get out of Jed’s arms. He crawled up the bed and leaned over to give his mother’s belly a kiss.

"Thank you, sweetheart. I feel better already." Abbey tousled his fair hair. It was a lie, but at least it made Nicholas feel better about hurting her.

"You want to give this a try?" Jed handed her a warm mug.

"Is it what I think it is?" She inhaled the aroma.

"Of course."

Real hot chocolate, laced with butterscotch schnapps. It was the drink they had always favored after coming in from the cold, but Jed had also discovered early in their marriage that it had helped Abbey when she had cramps. Since then, he’d always been ready and willing to make a pot whenever she needed it. Abbey didn’t have the heart to tell him that the curative powers of his elixir was not helping her this time, in fact it had only taken one sip for her stomach to roll over and she thought for sure she was going to throw up all over the quilt.

As they all sat together on the bed the wind began to increase in intensity, howling with a fierceness they had never experienced before, gusting savagely to shake the house. During one of those violent gusts there was a horrible creaking noise, Jed’s eyes caught Abbey’s and they held their breath as a large crash shook the ground. Jed raced to the window.

"Jed, stay back!" Abbey called out. We didn’t tape them, those windows could blow any minute. Jed adhered to his wife’s wishes.

"I’ll go downstairs and check it out."

Abbey nodded. She was seated on the bed Indian style with both frightened children on her lap. "It’s okay, " she soothed, smoothing back hair and rubbing backs. "It’s just the wind, nothing to be scared of."

Jed returned, a little of his nonchalance gone. "This is going to be a doozy, Abbey. That crash was a big old pine tree and it’s laying right across the lawn. It’s only a matter of time until the power goes."

"Then we better get to work."

"Abbey, I can batten down the hatches. You stay…"

"Jed, I’m fine, it’s just cramps. I’m going to try to put the children down and then I’ll join you."

The nursery was on the west side of the house, away from the direct hit the east side was getting and things were a little more quiet, a little less ferocious. Abbey moved the cribs to the far wall, away from the window, all the while ignoring the pain that was beginning to burn in her belly. She covered the windows tightly with towels in case they blew and it didn’t take the kids long to fall asleep. They were exhausted from their lack of sleep the night before. Once she was sure they were really out, Abbey began lighting candles and hurricane lamps and filling flashlights with batteries. Jed was busy nailing a board across the door so she moved to the sink to fill it with water in case they were to be without for an extended period. She’d already filled the bathtubs. Chances were that once the storm was over the service would whisk them out, but at least this gave her something to do.

"The doors are all set, " Jed told her as he made his way to the living room. I’m going to start a fire to take an edge off the chill. Abbey nodded followed him in. She’d only handed him one log when they heard Aislinn crying.

"Great," Abbey sighed. "I JUST got her to sleep."

"I’ll see to her." Jed started to rise.

"No, finish the fire, I’ll check on her." She wearily made her way up the stairs, the pain getting worse with every step that she took. She stood in the nursery rubbing her belly, denial losing out. These were no menstrual cramps, this was no ovarian cyst, this was something really serious. It was her last thought before she lost consciousness.

Jed finished lighting the fire and could still hear crying in the nursery, in fact, now both children were crying. What was Abbey doing, he wondered. Why wasn’t she calming them? When the crying turned to out and out hysterical shrieks he frowned and made his way upstairs.

"Abbey" he called out at the top of the stairs. His frowned deepened with no answer. "Abbey?" He opened the door to the nursery. Aislinn was standing in her crib screaming and pointing toward the wall behind him. Jed picked the crying little girl up, his mind registering that Nicholas was not in his crib.

"Mama…Mamaaaa" the pitiful moans came from behind him. He turned and he nearly dropped Aislinn on the spot.

"Oh Jesus, ABBEY!"