"Sir?"

Jed turned slowly, knowing that voice. It was Dr. Stewart standing behind him, still wearing his scrubs. Ice replaced the blood in his veins and for an instant he didn't want the doctor to speak, he wanted just another moment of not knowing, not knowing if his entire life was about to be shattered by the news the doctor was about to relate. One more moment of the certain knowledge that his wife was still alive.

"It's over? Is Abbey…is she okay?" He held his breath awaiting the doctor's response.

"The surgery is over. Mrs. Bartlet came through like a trooper. "

"Oh, thank you, Jesus" Jed released the breath he'd been holding and turned to look at a grinning Leo.

"Now, we're not out of the woods yet, but it's looking a lot better now than it did a few hours ago. We're pumping your wife with massive doses of antibiotics to try to ward off any chance of infection. That's always the big risk when it comes to these sort of ruptures.

"I'd like to see her. Can I see her?"

"She's still under the effects of the anesthesia and is heavily sedated."

"I don't care. I just want to see her. Please."

It was the pleading look in the President's eye and the "Please" that did Albert Stewart in. This man was the President of the United States. He could very easily have demanded to see his wife, probably would if he was denied, but instead he had politely asked just as any husband would.

"Okay, I'll take you to see her for a few minutes. Then, once she's out of recovery and in her own room, you can stay with her.

****

Jed entered the post-op recovery room. It was hard not to recoil at the sight of his wife and he had to convince himself that the doctor HAD said that she was going to be okay. She certainly did not look okay. Her hospital gown was pulled down to cover her breasts, yet bare her chest for the round little heart monitors that were plastered there and that sent the tiny little bleeps up to the monitor beside the bed. She still had a breathing tube down her throat and tubes from IV's and catheters seemed to be everywhere. Those tubes and the beeping monitors were scary enough, but it was seeing her face that nearly did Jed in. She was so pale, her lips almost bloodless. He could see the tiny little veins in her eyelids. There was something ethereal about her, as if she were not truly with them any longer.

Gently, as if he were afraid to touch her, he ran his fingers over her brow, pushing her hair back off her forehead. "She's so pale, is she really all right?" He turned to the nurse who was busy monitoring Abbey's vitals and checking her IV bags.

"She's fine. She's going to be weak for awhile, but she'll be fine. The rupture of the appendix caused some severe internal bleeding and she did undergo a transfusion, but it won't be long until she gets her color back.

Jed nodded and turned back to his wife. He touched his fingers to hers, careful not to dislodge the IV needle that ran into the back of her hand. "I'm right here, sweetheart. I told you I wasn't going anywhere. You came through with flying colors and the doctors say you're going to be just fine."

"Sir?" Dr. Stewart stood behind him. "She really does need her rest."

"I'm going, I'm going." He turned back to Abbey and bent to drop a soft kiss on her forehead. "I'll be waiting for you in your room.

He left the recovery room visibly shaken.

"Sir, I thought Abbey was okay?" Both CJ and Leo were frowning at him.

"That's what they say."

"But you look so…so…"

"I've never seen her like that," Jed said. "The only time Abbey has ever been in the hospital was to have our babies or for her miscarriages. I've never seen her like she was in there"

"She had surgery for Zoey, didn't she? A C-section"

"That was different. She was awake the whole time and I was with her. This looked pretty serious."

"I'm sure everyone looks pretty serious right after surgery," Leo assured him. "Would you like us to see about getting you a hotel room for the night."

"What?"

"The hurricane is winding down but getting back to Windy Point will be difficult. I think our best bet is to have Ron start working on a hotel room.

"No. I'm staying with Abbey until she wakes up."

"Sir, you don't know when…"

"I promised her, Leo. I'm not leaving here until I know she's out of the woods. But go ahead and get the hotel room. As soon as it's safe I want Nicholas and Aislinn brought here."

"Yes, sir.

****

Abbey awoke slowly, disoriented. Her eyes weakly scanned the room taking in the IV poles and the flowers. She had spent most of her adult life in place just like this so it didn't take her long to realize that she was in a hospital. There was pain down low in her belly and she felt so weak, so tired. What on earth had happened to her? She tried to move her arm but something was heavy on her hand. Her head rolled to the left and she realized that it was Jed. He was lying sprawled out on the straight-backed chair, his hand covering hers. He looked like hell. His shirt was rumpled and un-tucked, his head was bandaged, his hair was mussed, and he had a two day growth of gold and silver on his jaw. Her heart swelled with love for him.

"J…Jed" her throat was sore and raspy.

"Mm…what?" Jed awoke confused and sleepy until he saw Abbey's open eyes. "You're awake!" he beamed.

"Wh…what happened" she gestured toward his head.

"You just underwent an emergency appendectomy, you're hooked to a billion tubes, and you're asking what happened to me." Jed knew he was grinning like a fool, but he didn't care. It was the first time in a day and half that his wife had been lucid. She was still pale and there were soft gray smudges under her eyes but she was no longer shivering and crying out in pain.

Abbey smiled weakly. She had so many questions, she wanted to talk to Jed, but her eyelids were so heavy and she was so tired. Jed watched her fighting to keep her eyes open. "It's all right, beautiful, go back to sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up."

"Promise?" she ran a tongue over her dry lips, her eyes fluttering shut.

"I promise." He grabbed a tube of chapstick from her bedside table and gentle traced her lips with it. "I'm not going anywhere, not even if Canada invades Michigan."

Abbey smiled softly and the smile stayed on her lips as she fell back asleep.

****

Jed was true to his word; he did not leave Abbey's side while she flitted in and out of sleep. He sat at her bedside making phone calls, reading the newspaper, watching her sleep, and the only time that he left was when Dr. Stewart booted him out to go and get some coffee while he did a physical examination on her. When Jed returned with his coffee Abbey was still awake. She smiled when he walked in the door and though there were still shadows under her eyes and she still looked a bit groggy, her eyes held a spark of amusement.

"You thought I was pregnant?"

"What? Who told you that?" He sank down on the bed beside her.

"Dr. Stewart. He said when you brought me in you thought I was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. So when exactly did your PHD become an MD?" She coughed lightly; her throat was still raspy.

"It's not funny, Abigail. You scared the crap out of me. I didn't know what the hell was wrong with you. One minute you're telling me that you're having bad menstrual cramps and the next minute you're passed out on the floor of the nursery and the kids are screaming like banshee's."

"I'm sorry," she said contritely, her earlier humor gone. "I really scared them?"

"Yeah. Nicky climbed out of his crib to sit next to you."

"That little monkey."

"You should have seen him, he looked for all the world like a little lost orphan. You don't remember any of it?"

"Bits and pieces. I remember throwing up, and sitting in front of the fireplace. I remember how comforting it was to hear your voice but it was like everything was happening from a distance. I remember this god awful burning pain and being so cold I didn't think that I would ever warm up. I seem to remember being on a beach in the wind and the rain and you were singing to me and rocking me in your arms, it was that Sinatra song "Don't Take Your Love from me". I guess that doesn't make any sense. I must have been dreaming while I was under the anesthesia."

"That wasn't a dream. We were bringing you here on Marine One right into the heart of the hurricane. The wind caught us and we were going down. We almost ended up in the ocean but the pilot was able to do a crash landing on a beach. We had to wait for a Humvee to come and get us. I sat with you under a rock overhang, trying to keep you out of the rain, and I did sing to you."

"We CRASHED. I must have really been out of it not to remember that."

"Be thankful."

"It must have been terrifying." She reached her hand out to him.

"It was." He grasped it, careful not to disturb her IV.

"Is that where you bumped your head?"

Jed's hand reached out to touch the bandage. He kept forgetting about that. "Yeah, my head went into the back window."

"Stitches?"

"Yeah. No scar" he scowled.

"Oh, Jed" she laughed, then gasped at the pain.

"Abbey!" He gripped her hand tightly.

""It's okay. Just… don't make me laugh. It hurts."

"Don't they have you on pain meds?" His face darkened and she could see he was ready to rip into the first doctor or nurse who came into the room.

"Of course they do, but it's still going to hurt."

"Want some ice chips?" There had to be something he could do to make her feel better.

Abbey nodded and he began to spoon the ice chips into her mouth.

"Now, back to this pregnancy thing. What would possess you to think that I would be pregnant?"

"Well, it's not so inconceivable, sweet knees," he said with indignation. "Look what happened just a couple of years ago."

"Yeah, when we weren't using our birth control properly. I can assure you that I never skip a day now."

"AND, remember what we always told the girls? NO birth control is 100% effective, and you and I do like to mess around quite a bit."

"I like that about us." She smiled, the flirty twinkle back in her eye.

"I do too, you little minx, but, you know, I guess I figured that maybe we tempted fate one too many times. When I saw you doubled over in pain…It brought back…you know…"

"Peter" she said, softly, the smiling fading from her lips. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have teased you. That must have been awful."

Jed nodded the pain evident on his face, but before he could continue with the conversation he noticed that her eyes were getting heavy again.

"I think you better get some more rest and regain your strength. I don't want to wear you out. Not this way anyway." He winked.

"Jed" she shook her head with a smile. "Are you staying?"

"I'll stay with you until you fall asleep, then I'm going to run over to the hotel and check on the kids. Your agent Mike has been with them and he's probably ready to pull his hair out by now."

"I want to see them. I feel so awful. They must have been so scared seeing me like that."

"They're okay. I'll bring them over in the morning after you get a good nights rest.'

"You get some sleep too, Jed. Take care of your head, don't take aspirin just in case you have a concussion and…"

"Hey, doc. You just get some sleep, me and the kids will be fine. Goodnight." He kissed her forehead and Abbey sighed when he began to stroke his fingers through the soft strands of her hair. A soft smile curved on her lips when the comforting sound of his voice whispered against her ear as he began to sing her to sleep, just as he had under that rock overhang on the windswept beach.

"Tear a star from out of the sky And the sky feels blue. Tear a petal from a rose And the rose weeps too. Take your heart away from mine And mine will surely break. My life is yours to make So please keep the spark awake. Would you take the wings from birds So that they can't fly? Would you take the ocean's roar And leave just a sigh? All this your heart won't let you do This is what I beg of you Don't take your love from me.

****

It turned out that fine had been optimistic on Jed's part. The children had been cranky, overtired and clingy. They had spent the past day and a half in the middle of a raging storm with a man they barely knew, crying for their parents and not sleeping well at all. Initially they had been thrilled to see Jed, and he had laughingly sat on the floor letting them crawl all over him, tickling them and kissing them. But, when it came for bed and he tried to settle them into their port-a-cribs they had cried for their mother so long and so hard that he was thankful they had the whole floor to themselves. Finally, needing desperately to get a few hours of shut-eye, he made them each a bottle and tucked them up in bed with him cuddling them close to his warm body and rubbing their shuddering little backs. He fell asleep to their soft sniffles and the sucking sounds they made as they drank their bottles.

CJ and Leo arrived early the next morning to find the three still in bed. Jed awoke at the knock and ushered them in. He sat up sleepily in the big bed while the kids slept on. CJ's heart warmed at the sight father and children made in that rumpled bed. They were adorable, all three of them, and while she respected the intelligent, politically astute, compassionate person the President was, it was the husband, man and father that she loved. He was the big brother she'd never really had, the kind of man that one day she hoped to find for herself. She got closer and peered down on the sleeping children.

"I love watching them like this. They're like little angels." She looked up and saw the President frowning and looking under the covers. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"One of these little angels peed on me." He threw back the covers revealing a large wet spot on the sheet and on the thigh of his pajama bottoms. It didn't take long to find the culprit. In his exhaustion he had not tightened the Velcro on Aislinn's diaper tight enough and it was lying wide open on one side.

Neither CJ nor Leo could hold back the laughter they were trying to suppress.

"I'm glad you two find this situation so humorous. How about a little help here?"

"What can I do?" CJ laughed.

Jed rolled Nicholas over and groaned when he saw the little boy was damp as well. "Help me get them undressed. I'm going to take a quick bath with both of them. Leo have room service bring up some breakfast. The kids like scrambled eggs and ketchup."

"No, you like scrambled eggs and ketchup and I thought Abbey was trying to keep them from developing that disgusting habit."

"Too late, it's in the genes." He looked down on his sleeping daughter and brushed his lips over her forehead. "Come on, sunshine, wake up." Aislinn rolled over, snuggling closer into his waist, ignoring him. "Come on, Ash, daddy's going to take you to go see mommy today. We can bring her some flowers."

"Mommy…" Aislinn opened sleepy green eyes and smiled at her father, that smile that never failed to make his heart flip flop. Leo watched with fascination as Aislinn frowned in a look very reminiscent of her father. "I WET…"

"Yes you are munchkin. That's why me, you and Nicky are going to go take a bath while Uncle Leo orders us breakfast." He got out of bed and began to pad across the carpet with a naked child on each hip.

"CJ" he called over his shoulder. "Make sure we leave housekeeping a VERY big tip for cleaning that bed."

"We'll also make sure she knows the kids slept with you," Leo assured him with amusement.

"Oh that's right, " CJ caught on. "I mean it would be horrible if word leaked out that the leader of the free world still wets the bed."

Jed scowled back at the two of them and made his way into the bathroom, shutting the door against the sound of their laughter.

****

Just over an hour later with the children cleaned and fed, Jed sat on the floor rying to put a clean diaper on Aislinn, who was not so keen about having one on at all. She threw herself back, straightening her legs and fighting him, until Jed placed a big hand on her belly pinning her down. "You stop this right now, Aislinn," He said firmly. "Or I am not going to bring you to see mommy."

The threat was sufficient enough to get Aislinn to stop fighting and Jed was able to finish dressing her in her favorite purple overalls with the big flower on the bib. Amazingly enough she didn't fight him when he put her sneakers on, nor when he combed her hair and worked on getting the wispy curls into tiny pigtails.

CJ sat with Nicholas on her lap watching the President. He held a hair tie with a purple bow on it clenched between his teeth, and, with a look of supreme concentration, he was working to make a perfect part in his daughter's hair before twisting the hair tie into it with practiced ease.

"You're pretty good at that," CJ said impressed.

"Practice CJ, years and years of practice. Three daughters and a wife that worked, you bet your a…" He gazed sheepishly down at Aislinn's blond little head, a vision of an Abbey glare imprinted on his brain. "…Life I learned how to fix hair. I learned early on that while little boys could care less what their hair looks like, little girls will not even go to the park without having a ponytail or braids. The only thing I never really mastered was French braiding. Abbey tried to teach me but I just couldn't get the hang of it." He smiled up at them and Leo was starkly reminded of what different father's they had been to their children. He had no idea if Mallory wouldn't go to the park without having her hair done or not, he'd rarely gone to the park with her. He didn't know what a scrunchy was or even what the difference was between a regular braid and a French braid. As he watched Jed finish his task with quiet confidence and the way Aislinn turned in his lap when he was done and gave him a big wet kiss on the jaw, the pain of what he had missed out on cut to the quick.

"Are we ready to go," he asked abruptly.

"I think so." Jed heaved the diaper bag up onto his shoulders and turned just in time to see Nicholas wrench the small bouquet of flowers out of Aislinn's hand. Before Aislinn could reach out to hit him, Jed stepped between the two.

"Nicholas Josiah Bartlet, I don't ever want to see you take something away from your sister like that again." Jed took the flowers from him and handed them back to Aislinn. Nicky's bottom lip began to tremble and he looked up at Jed with hurt eyes.

"Mummy fowers" a big tear trailed down his cheek.

"You want to give Mommy flowers, too?" Jed asked.

Nicholas nodded eyeing the flowers his sister held.

"Well, all you had to do was ask, son. I bought a bouquet for you too." Jed walked to the table and picked up the other small bouquet that lay near the dozen yellow roses he had ordered for himself to give Abbey. Nicholas took the flowers from his father with a wide smile that revealed Abbey's dimple in his cheek. Jed tousled his hair affectionately then turned toward the door. "Okay then, if everybody's happy now we should hit the road. Let's go visit mommy."

TBC...