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 at him. Jed picked the crying little girl up wondering where Nicholas was.

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

"Oh Jesus, ABBEY!"

Abbey lay unconscious, sprawled face down on the floor with Max stretched out beside her whining and nudging her with his nose. The sippie cup she had been carrying to give to Aislinn still laid under her fingertips. The pitiful moans had come from Nicholas, who had climbed out of his crib. The baby boy sat beside her crying and patting at her face and hair trying to get her to wake up.

Jed put Aislinn on the floor and raced to her side, pushing both the dog and his son out of the way.

"Abbey! Abigail!" He began to tap on her face and realized that she was burning up with fever. He turned her over and lifted her so that her head was in his lap. "Abbey, sweetheart, wake up, come on, baby, wake up." The jostling had caused Abbey enough pain for her to weakly open her fever bright eyes. "That’s it, honey. I’m right here."

"J…Jed…" She whispered his name so weakly he could barely hear what she said. "Th…thirsty…"

"You’re thirsty?"

Abbey gave a slight nod. Jed’s eyes scanned the room passing over the twins who were huddled close together, still crying, although not so hysterically now that he was there, and finally fell on the full sippie cup laying on the floor. He brought it to Abbey’s lips and she swallowed gratefully, then pushed his hand away urgently.

"No…It’s making me…sick.

Knowing there wasn’t time to get her to the bathroom, Jed grabbed the first thing he could find, the kids diaper pail. Thankfully it was fairly empty. He made it back just in time for Abbey to grab both sides and begin to vomit. Watching their mother throwing up had caused an increased pitch to the kids crying, but Jed was too focused on Abbey to calm them, other than every so often telling them that everything was okay. He emptied the water from the sippie cup on to a face cloth and pressed it into the back of Abbey’s neck, holding her hair back and rubbing her shoulders while she continued to throw up. When she was finally finished he dabbed at her mouth with the washcloth and held her back against his chest while she tried to regain her breath. The pain of vomiting had nearly done her in.

"Abbey, what’s going on here? Do you k now what’s wrong with you?"

"Don’t know…flu?"

Jed gave her a skeptical look. This looked much more severe than any flu he’d ever seen. It was then that he felt her whole body begin to shiver uncontrollably in his arms.

"Cold…so cold Jed…Please…I’m so cold…"

"Okay, I’m going to bring you down by the fire." He looked at the two sniffling children on the floor.

"I’m going to put you in your cribs and bring mommy downstairs to warm up."

Mutinous expressions came over their faces and they got to their feet, running to Abbey.

"Downstays…Mommy…"

It was quite evident that they did not want him to take their mother and leave them behind. For a moment he figured they would just have to live with it, but then remembered how Nicholas had climbed out of his crib. He couldn’t have them climbing out and running around without supervision. What was he supposed to do?

"Okay, okay, calm down. You can come down with us but you need to stay with me and mommy, okay?" Both nodded wiping at their noses and eyes and got to their feet.

"You ready, Abbey?" Jed got to his feet and leaned down to lift her up.

"NO!" Abbey shrieked in pain as he pulled at her. "No, don’t move me, please don’t move me."

"Where does it hurt, Abbey?"

"Here." She moaned and covered the lower part of her abdomen with her hands.

Jed lifted her pajama top and peeled down her bottoms examining her. There was no evidence of any bruises or bumps marring the creamy skin of her belly. Nothing that would indicate why she was in such severe pain. But, that kind of pain did not accompany the flu and he was now convinced that his wife needed medical attention right away. That was when he reached in his pants pocket and for the first time since he had become President he pressed down, HARD, on his panic button, as if the harder he pressed the more urgent his request would be.

"I don’t see anything, Abbey. But, I’ve got to get you down by the fire. Help is on the way." He ran next door to the bedroom for a quilt and wrapped her in it. "Put you’re arms around my neck, I’m going to carry you down to the fireplace. I know this might hurt, sweetheart., but I’ll try to be gentle. "

Abbey weakly placed her arms around his neck and he hooked an arm under her knees and began to lift her. As her body shifted Abbey cried out again in pain.

"It hurts….oh God, it hurts…"

"I know…ssh,..it‘s okay" He stood for a long moment holding her still against his chest. It was killing him to hurt her like this, to feel the way her body was shivering against him from the cold, and to feel her tears of pain against the bare hollow of his throat. "It’s all over now, you’re up." His lips moved against her scorching forehead. "We’re going to take this nice and slow." He turned back to look at the children who had been scared into a subdued silence with their mother’s cries of pain. " Kids follow me down the stairs to the living room."

As gentle as he tried to be, Abbey still moaned as he made his way down the stairs and Jed was sweating with exertion and the queasiness he got from causing his wife pain. He made her as comfortable as possible on the couch and pushed it up close to the fireplace before moving to the bookcases that lined the hearth, scanning quickly for Abbey’s medical books. He found the one that he was looking for and sat in front of the hurricane lamp where he followed the trail of his wife’s symptoms to find out what could be wrong with her. His eyes widened at where his research lead him. Ectopic pregnancy. His gaze fell to where his wife lay curled up in pain. Could it be? How could it be? He knew that no type of birth control ,other than abstinence, was 100% effective but they’d been so careful since Abbey had conceived the twins. Could lightening strike twice? Could it have happened again? He read further along and was not comforted in the least. The part about a tubal pregnancy not being a viable pregnancy seemed to jump out at him. It should have been a relief, it was a relief, one middle aged pregnancy had seemed, after the initial shock, to be a gift. Another would not be quite so welcome. They had their hands full with their two young toddlers. Another pregnancy and birth and then caring for a newborn infant was something he didn’t want Abbey going through again. Still, as he watched her shivering on the couch, her arms held around her belly maybe losing their child, something inside began to hurt. Losing a child, even under these circumstances would not be an easy thing to deal with. Still, it was what he read next that caused his blood to run cold, the fact that if her fallopian tube were to burst the results could be fatal. Reading further on about the chance of infection and death from a burst appendix, the only other ailment that came up with Abbey’s symptoms, did nothing to alleviate his fears. His eyes moved back on his wife and his limbs began to shake. Could she honestly be dying? Could something have burst inside her and was now poisoning her system? Could Abbey really be dying while there was absolutely nothing that he could do to help her? Well, there was something he could do. He could try to pinpoint exactly what was wrong with her.

"Abbey?" He knelt beside her and took her hand. "Abbey, could you be pregnant?"

"Pregnant… Am I having a baby? Is that why it hurts?… Her head fell limply to one side.

"Abbey?" Jed’s face froze as he realized that she was delirious and was not focusing in on him at all, that her condition had deteriorated so badly in just 10 minutes that she had no idea of where she was or what was happening to her. Somehow, someway he had to get her to a hospital. He wasn’t going to just sit here and let his wife die. He looked around wildly for a way out of this mess. The phones were dead, how could he find out what was happening with the service and just what the hell was taking them so long. That was when he remembered the cell phone.

****

Agents were running around the guest house with a profound sense of urgency. Never had the President used his panic button, but he just had, and now they were forming plans to get to him. Plans that included rope lines tied to their waists to combat the wind and the torrential sheets of rain, which was exactly what they were doing at the moment.

"Can’t you work any faster?" Leo asked brusquely. He had returned after dinner last evening but before the storm. "You don’t have any idea what’s going on over there."

"No, we don’t Mr. McGarry, that’s why we’re making sure we’re prepared for whatever the problem might be."

"What if a tree fell on the house and the President is pinned under it?" CJ asked. She was bordering on nervous hysteria…"What if the President had a heart attack? What if he opened the door and got hit in the head with flying debris? What if he got struck by lightening?…"

"Who are you, the voice of doom?" Leo shook his head. Ron was staring at CJ, his eyes wide and mouth open with amazement, but after working with Margaret all these years Leo was used to that type of rambling negative thought process. "And what if he’s just alerting us that they lost power."

"The President wouldn’t hit his panic button for THAT," CJ scoffed. "He’s proud of the fact that he lives in a place where Nor’easters and blizzards knock out power. Don’t tell me you’ve never gotten the pioneer lecture."

"The Pioneer lecture?" Ron asked, as he knotted the rope around his waist.

"It’s a version of several other speeches but basically consists of a derisive monologue about how pansy we’ve become in the twenty first century. How completely lost we are without power, how we’ve lost our self reliance and…"

"Okay I get it, I get it…" Leo placed his hands up in defeat. " So he probably didn’t hit the panic button for that, but I doubt a tree fell on him either. Maybe he…" Leo broke off at the ringing of a cell phone.

"That’s me." CJ dug in her bag and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello…Mr.President…" All talk in the room ceased and everyone stared at CJ expectantly. "Yes, he’s right here." CJ handed the phone to Ron.

"Mr. President, what’s going on over there…What? How high is her temperature? ….Is it normal to have a fever like that with a miscarriage?…Oh, yes, I see… We’re going to make our way over now and I’m going to see about getting Marine One on it’s way…Yes, we’ll hurry."

CJ and Leo were staring at each other stunned and both jumped on Ron as soon as he hung up.

"What’s going on, what was that about a miscarriage?" Leo asked, in shock. "Is Abbey pregnant?"

"Not that the President was aware of but the First Lady collapsed."

"She collapsed!" Leo burst out, his eyes going frantic. CJ could see that, despite his careful façade, Leo still had very deep feelings for Abbey Bartlet.

"The President found her unconscious in the nursery. Evidently she’s been having some abdominal pain off and on for the last day or so."

"She did last night," CJ nodded. "She said it was just a stitch in her side."

"I guess there was more going on than that. Right now she’s delirious with fever and pain."

"That doesn’t sound like a miscarriage to me." Leo frowned.

"Not a typical one. I guess the President ran her symptoms through one of the First Lady’s medical books and they led to an ectopic pregnancy."

"Ectopic?" Leo asked.

"A tubal pregnancy, " CJ told him. She’d had a friend who had gone through one. "It’s when the egg is fertilized in a place other than the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes. The baby can’t grow in there, there isn’t enough room. A woman either miscarries or has to abort. Sometimes the tube bursts and…"

"And what!" Leo demanded.

"And the mother can die."

"Oh shit," he groaned, his face growing ashen. " Surely Abbey would have told him if she was pregnant."

"She didn’t with Nicholas and Aislinn," CJ said quietly. "Not until after he was shot."

Leo nodded his head remembering very well the moment he’d been told of her pregnancy. "Well, is he sure that’s what this is?"

"No," Ron said, "but the other option, a burst appendix, is not exactly a more comforting alternative. We have no way of knowing just what is going on inside her until we get her to the hospital."

"He must be going out of his mind." Leo ran his fingers through his hair.

"He’s alone trying to take care of her AND the children?" CJ asked.

"Yes, he’s alone."

"Then I’m going too. You‘re going to need help with the kids and they know me."

"Ms. Cregg it’s very dangerous out there. I can’t let you out in that storm."

"Sorry. You don’t have any authority over me."

"Or me," Leo said. "The President is going to need us. You either help us get over there or we’ll do it on our own."

Ron shook his head. The President’s friends were just as stubborn as he was.

****

Jed sat on the couch with Abbey laying over his lap. She was still wrapped in the heavy quilt and yet was still shivering uncontrollably. She drifted in and out of consciousness, never completely aware of what was going on except to say that she was cold and that she hurt and hurt bad.

He held her head tightly to his chest rocking her back and forth feeling just as impotent as he had at any of his children’s birth. More so, even. At least then he knew exactly why she was suffering and what the outcome would be, today he couldn’t even get his wife the medical attention she so desperately needed. He listened intently for the comforting sound of Marine One’s chopper blades but all he could hear was the continual moaning of the wind and the piercing shrieks from the stronger gusts. Everything was moaning now, the house and the wind. He could only imagine what fury nature was unleashing out there. He had no idea how the agents were going to make their way along the cliff path in this kind of gale or just how Marine One would be able to get to them. He talked to Abbey, sent a few words to the kids who were playing quietly on the floor with the toys he’d emptied out of the toy box for them, and he prayed. He prayed for Abbey to have the strength to fight whatever was going on in her body, he prayed for the little soul of the baby that might be dying inside her at that very moment, he prayed for Abbey’s body to fight the toxins that might be poisoning her if her appendix had ruptured, he prayed for the agents safety on their way to the cottage and he prayed urgently for Marine One to hurry up and get there.

For a man of action it was exceedingly difficult to simply sit and watch his wife suffer, there had to be something that he could do to help. The last time he’d taken her temperature it had been up at 103.8 and she just seemed to get warmer and warmer. He had hoped wrapping her in the quilt and giving her Advil would break the fever but her skin was just as dry and hot as ever. What did they do when the kids had a high fever like this? Tepid baths. He wasn’t going to put Abbey through the agony of lifting her again and putting her in the tub. What else? Alcohol rubdowns. He seized on the thought. THAT he could do.

Just as he started to slide out from underneath her the door flung open, the wind gusting in knocking down pictures and knick knacks and when the door was finally closed and their raingear was removed Jed was surprised to see CJ and Leo, along with Ron and two other agents.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" He asked.

"We’re here to help," CJ informed him.

Warmth filled Jed’s chest. He knew there wasn’t much they could do to help, but the fact that they had risked Hurricane Sylvia to try to help them left him feeling humble and blessed to have such friends. "Well, that was incredibly stupid and foolish…" He saw the hurt on CJ’s face… "and incredibly brave. Thank you both."

"How is Mrs. Bartlet?" Ron asked.

CJ had moved right to the couch kneeling down to look at Abbey, but Leo stood frozen watching Jed holding her lifeless form in his arms.

"She’s in and out of consciousness and her temperature is higher. We have to get her out of here, Ron. Where is Marine One?"

"Marine One had to turn back."

"WHAT!" Jed exploded. "She’s going to DIE if we don’t get her out of here. I’ m not just going to sit here and let my wife die, Ron. I don’t care if I have to carry her out of here myself."

"Calm down, Mr. President. It was a temporary turn around. Coming up from the south the wind nearly pitched it into the Atlantic. They’re going to try flying inland and coming around from the north so they’ll be flying with the wind."

"What about the coast guard?"

"Marine One is actually better than even the best Coast Guard copter. But, we’ll send one out for back up. In the meantime is there anything we can do to help her?"

"I was just about to give her an alcohol rubdown. CJ, could you help me with that?"

"Of course."

"Daddy, color" Aislinn held her coloring book out to Jed. Neither child was aware that their mother was doing anything other than sleeping and so were no longer upset.

"Daddy can’t color right now, Ash, color with Nicky, okay…"

"No…Daddy color…"

"Hey Aislinn, want to color with Uncle Leo?"

Aislinn looked at him a little uncertainly. She knew Leo very well, but he was not the kind of man who sat and played with her.

Leo felt a slight pang that she was reluctant to go with him. He knew that because of the feelings for Abbey that had begun to consume him, he‘d neglected being the "Uncle" Leo that he had been to the Bartlet‘s other children. He was there, a presence in their life, their father‘s friend, but he had never played with them, never read to them, never helped to care for them, except for the one time Abbey had made him change Nicky‘s diaper and the baby had peed all over his tie.

"Come on, Nicky, you come too. We’ll go in the kitchen so daddy can take care of your mom and I’ll get you guys some cookies."

It was the mention of cookies that turned them right around and they began to gather crayons and color books and followed Leo into the kitchen.

"Thanks, Leo," Jed said gratefully.

"Do what you can for her." He nodded toward Abbey.

"I will."

"Sir, we’ll go in the kitchen with Mr. McGarry and give you some privacy. Call us if you need us."

****

Finally CJ and Jed had Abbey naked save for her underclothes and laid out on a blanket in front of the fireplace. CJ had gone to get the rubbing alcohol and Jed sat with Abbey trying to keep her from rolling herself back up in the blanket. Despite the heat from the fire she was freezing.

"Do you know how many times I’ve had you naked in front of this fireplace?" He asked her, as he pushed her hair back from her face. "I know this isn’t going to be the kind of rubdown I usually give you, but bear with me, I’m hoping it will help."

CJ smiled at the loving tenderness in the President’s voice, remembering back to last summer here when she had read Abbey’s Cosmo survey where she had admitted to making love in pretty much every room in the house. Evidently she hadn’t been exaggerating.

"I’ve got the alcohol ." CJ watched the President lift a sheet over of his wife’s nude body to give her some modicum of privacy.

"Okay, then let’s get started."

In spite of trying to keep the sheet covering the parts of Abbey’s body that weren’t being worked on it still felt strange to CJ seeing the First Lady this way, naked and vulnerable. She was shivering so badly now that her teeth were chattering and she was moaning and trying to push their hands away. CJ watched the President gently run his hand over the Fist Lady’s lower abdomen with a look of supreme concentration on his face.

"Sir? Is something wrong?"

"No, I was just checking to see if I can tell if Abbey is pregnant or not. This is where I first notice it."

"And?"

"And, there is a slight swelling but I don’t know if…"

"Ohhhhhh!" Abbey cried out in agony as Jed’s hands pressed just a tad too hard into the softness of her belly. CJ watched the President’s eyes fill with tears.

"I’m sorry, baby, " he bent to kiss Abbey’s forehead. "I’m so sorry, I didn‘t mean to hurt you."

"Blanket…please, blanket" she whimpered, clutching at the sheet to cover herself.

"We’re almost done, Abbey, " he assured her then looked at CJ’s wide frightened eyes. "I’m going to roll her to the side, can you do her back?"

CJ nodded and did as asked rubbing the alcohol into Abbey’s spine all the way down…"Mr. President, how long has the First Lady had a tattoo?" She asked suspiciously.

"Since before I was President"

"And you didn’t think that it might be important to inform me of that?"

"No, why would you need to know?"

"In case I’m questioned."

"CJ, take a good look at where that tattoo is, nobody is going to see it but me and Abbey’s doctors and I don’t think any of us are spilling the beans."

"You’ve certainly got a wild one here, Mr. President."

"Don’t I know it, " Jed smiled down at his wife tenderly.

"God, Josh and Sam would go nuts if they…" CJ stopped at the cool look the President flashed her way "…ever found out, which of course they won’t " she assured him.

"I didn’t think so."

CJ left to throw away the empty bottles of alcohol and Leo entered the room just as Jed was starting to pull the sheet back up over Abbey’s bare back. It should have been an erotic vision, Leo thought, the firelight casting rosy shadows over Abbey’s nude torso. Lord knows he’d had enough erotic dreams that had held that exact scenario, but right now all it did was fill him with terror. He didn’t like how rag doll limp Abbey was in the President’s arms as he tried to slide her arm into her silky pajama top.

"Let me help you with that." He took a step forward.

Jed looked up with surprise. He hadn’t heard Leo enter. He held Abbey to his chest possessively, remembering just how Leo felt toward his wife and just how bare that she was. "No!" It came out more adamant than he’d planned. "I’ll just wait for CJ."

Leo nodded backing out of the room. Obviously he still had quite a way to go in regaining Jed’s trust.

Despite their best efforts, when Jed re-took Abbey’s temperature after the rubdown it had climbed to 103.9. Terror clenched at his heart with the reading and he jumped when Ron burst into the room.

"Sir, Marine One is approaching and is about to land. We’ll get Mrs. Bartlet to the hospital in Portland in no time.

Relief made Jed’s legs weak and he sank down next to Abbey, thanking God profusely for the chance to get his wife help.

"Did you hear that, Abs? The cavalry just arrived. We’re getting you help." Jed’s prayer now was that help had not come too late.

****

"Be careful with her," Jed ordered the Marines who were lifting Abbey onto a stretcher. "It hurts her when you move her. "

"We will, sir."

Jed flinched at Abbey’s cry of distress at being lifted onto stretcher and strapped on. "Gentle, please be gentle." This came out as more of an order. As he prepared to follow, Jed’s gaze fell on the wide eyes of his children who had no idea what was happening to their mother. He’d almost forgotten about them.

"They’ll have to come with us," he told Ron. "There’s nobody to stay with them, CJ is going to have to make a press briefing from the hospital."

"You could stay with them, sir. You’d be a lot safer here than you will be on that helicopter. It’s going to be a dangerous flight and if the First Lady’s medical attention wasn’t an emergency I wouldn’t even be attempting it."

"Don’t even think about trying to leave me behind, Ron. I’m going with my wife. End of story."

"I thought it might be," Ron sighed.

"I’ll stay with them so they don’t have to go on the helicopter, sir," said one of the agents Jed recognized as belonging to Abbey’s detail. "I’ve been around the children a lot with Mrs. .Bartlet and I have three of my own. We’ll get along fine."

"Yes, well, thank you-----"

"Mike, sir."

"Yes, Mike, thanks. I appreciate it."

The door was opened and several marines began battling the elements as they wheeled Abbey’s gurney toward Marine One. Keeping her dry was a losing battle, umbrella’s and tarps were soon whisked away by the wind and she was left with the rain pelting her face. Jed felt his jacket flatten against his chest and there was a gust of wind so strong it literally took his breath away. Sheer brute force and the terror he felt at losing Abbey was the only that kept propelling his body forward against that devastating wind. Sea spray hit his face from as far away as the cottage, and it felt as if his skin was being sandblasted at the force of the sand that was pelting him. He had agents on both sides and they continually had to duck out of the way of flying limbs and even a large beach umbrella. He tucked his head down, away from the pounding force of the rain and wind and continued on one foot in front of the other, sometimes being knocked back a few, most of the time barely staggering forward. The only time he chanced a look up was to make sure that the swaying gurney that held Abbey was still making it’s way toward Marine One. He could barely see her or the helicopter through the torrential rain and moved on blind faith that both were just ahead of him. It was with a profound sense of relief that he heard the whirring of the helicopter blades over the howling monotony of the wind. And when he made it into the safety of Marine One it seemed almost surreal to be out of the elements and in the bright quiet warmth.

With everyone, including Leo and CJ, finally in the helicopter they set off toward Portland. Jed sat in the back holding Abbey’s hand, assuring her that it was only a matter of minutes before they would be at the hospital

"Would you look at that." Leo gave a low whistle.

Jed looked out the window his stomach roiling. They were out over the dark, churning violent sea. The waves were huge and white capped the spray flying everywhere. The ocean had been whipped into such a frenzy it was impossible to see the troughs in between the giant waves. It was hard to believe that was the same friendly sea that he and Abbey had been sailing on just a day ago. Then, in the blink of an eye he was unable to see anything as they hit a vicious squall of rain that turned the visibility to zero. He felt the helicopter lurch against the wind and almost come to a stand still before careening crazily side to side.

"The pilot’s lost control of this thing" Leo gasped. Jed anxiously looked from Leo to where Abbey lay strapped on the gurney, remembering those horrifically violent seas. She’d drown belted into this thing. He began frantically removing the restraints from her wondering how on earth any of them would survive in that sea. Once she was no longer restrained he held her tightly in his arms unwilling to lose her, aware that in a few moments their lives might be over. It was the way they’d always wanted to go out, together, but not now, not so soon, not when there was so much still to live for.

Suddenly, sickeningly, the helicopter began to drop straight down to the churning abyss.

"Oh God, we’re going DOWN!!!" CJ screamed as they plummeted faster and faster toward certain death.

TBC...