Her first morning back at Windy Point, Abbey awoke, not to the soothing sound of the surf and the gulls, but to the obnoxious clanging of pots and pans down in the kitchen. She groaned and started to roll over to hide her head under the pillow but gave a sharp intake of breath at the pain in her lower side. It was only then that she remembered the surgery that she'd had just a couple of days ago. She placed a hand over the throbbing spot down low on her belly.

"Jed!" She called out to him, but in lieu of a response, the clanging of the pans simply got louder and louder. She slowly rose from the bed and slipped on a light summer wrap to make her way down the stairs.

"Oh my GOD! What have you done to my kitchen!"

Jed turned from where he was scrambling eggs to see Abbey standing in the doorway with an outraged look of astonishment. "Abbey what in the hell are you doing out of bed?"

"You expected me to sleep with world war three going on down here? I came down to see what all the racket was about and it's a damn good thing I did, isn't it?" Her eyes scanned the room. Having pulled out every pot and pan that they owned from under the sink, Nicholas sat in the middle of the kitchen floor banging them together with glee. Aislinn was in her high chair, her face and hair sticky with the ketchup from her eggs. Max was seated at her feet licking eggs and ketchup off the floor.

"I'm sorry that he woke you but it was the only way I could keep him occupied and work on making breakfast."

Abbey nodded and made her way to the sink where she began to wet a sponge.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jed had to shout over the racket that their son was making as he happily continued to pound away on his pots and pans.

"I'm going to start cleaning this mess. This place is a disaster, Jed." Her nerves frayed, she looked down at her son. "That's enough noise, Nicholas." Jed saw her flinch with pain as she bent to take away the offending pan.

"That's it, Abigail. Out of here now."

"Excuse me?" Abbey's hands went on her hips, sparks flying from her green eyes.

"You heard me. You're supposed to be recuperating from major surgery. You should still be in bed. I can take care of things, trust me."

Abbey's skeptical eyes fell back on the mess in the kitchen.

"I'm going to take care of this mess, just like I'm going to take care of you AND of the kids. Now, go back up to bed and I'll bring you your breakfast."

"I'm not going back up to bed. You heard Dr. Stewart. I'm supposed to walk around."

"Yeah, well that doesn't constitute cleaning. Go sit on the porch and I'll bring your breakfast out to you."

"Just tea and toast. I don't think my stomach could take much else yet. Are you going to…" She gestured to the room.

"Yes, I'm going to clean up the mess," he sighed.

Abbey nodded and made her way slowly out to the porch where she settled back on the wicker chaise.

Back inside Jed surveyed his offspring who were gazing up at him with innocent eyes.

"Okay, you two. We need to show your mother that I can do this. You gotta quit getting me in trouble."

"Out, out" Aislinn lifted her arms up to her father.

"I'll take you out, hon, but don't think you're going to play on the floor with Nicky. We're going to clean up and bring mommy her breakfast, okay?

"Okay, daddy" she grinned and patted his cheeks with her ketchup stained hands.

Jed cleaned and dressed the children quickly, leaving the mess in the kitchen so he could bring Abbey her breakfast. When he leaned down to place the tray beside her, Abbey sniffed at his cheek.

"What?" he asked.

She wet her thumb and traced it along his cheekbone. "Ketchup"

"Abbey," he protested, backing away like a child.

"Honestly, Jed, you're worse than Nicholas."

Jed sat down heavily on the porch swing. He looked tired.

"You sure you want to do this? I mean I can call New Hampshire and have Mrs. Morrison come and at least take care of the house."

"You're not calling our housekeeper, Abbey. I can handle this, I did it plenty of times when the girls were younger."

"It was different then, Jed. You didn't have double trouble." Her eyes fell on the twins who were now playing together on the floor.

"The truth is, I miss it, Abbey. I miss taking care of the kids on a daily basis, making their food, dressing them, and giving them their baths. This is giving me a chance, at least for a little while to regain that bond. Besides, once your mother gets here it will be a little easier."

****

"Yes, Ben, yes, I understand. We're sending negotiators over but you're going to have to do your part…wait a minute, hold on." He yanked the phone back out of Aislinn's grasp and put it back to his ear. "Sorry about that, please go on…"

After awakening from an afternoon nap outside on the chaise, Abbey had re-entered the cottage and found Jed on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel. Nicholas sat at his feet repeatedly running his choo choo train over his father's foot, while Aislinn squirmed around on his lap trying to grab the phone and kiss his face, all the while babbling away to him.

Abbey choked back an amused chuckle as Aislinn gave Jed a loud raspberry on the jaw and he had to explain to the Prime Minister exactly what was going on. When he finally hung up Jed sank back in his chair and closed his eyes wearily. Aislinn squeezed his nose and giggled loudly at his exclamation of surprise, which finally gave Abbey away as she succumbed to laughter.

"How long have you been standing there?" He asked.

"Just long enough to hear you have to explain to the Israeli Prime Minister what a raspberry is."

'You could have come in and helped me."

Abbey put her hands up in the air in surrender. "Yes, I suppose I could have. But that would be against Jed Bartlet's rules. I'm not allowed to help, remember? Well, I'm off to watch a sappy chick flick. Don't forget it's past their naptime. Good luck."

Jed scowled at Abbey's departing form. He had a sneaking suspicion that the woman was actually enjoying his struggles with the twins.

It was a half-hour fight with his children to get them down for their naps and Jed finally gave up. He had too much to do to worry about getting the kids to sleep. Besides, if they didn't nap they'd go to bed earlier and going to bed early sounded pretty fine to him. He shut the baby gate in the kitchen, set them on the floor and set to making the kitchen somewhat presentable again. He didn't want his mother in law arriving and thinking that he was out of his element. By the time he finished putting everything away and cleaning he eyed Abbey's cookbooks ruefully. He had pulled them out of the cupboard having planned on making her a special gourmet meal, but it was getting a little late to start on that. Instead, he dug in the refrigerator, found some boneless chicken, and began cutting it up to make a stir-fry. He was pretty proud of himself, humming away while the chicken and vegetables simmered away in the wok, but that was when he realized that the twins had stopped babbling to him and each other and had been very quiet for too long. He turned to find both of them curled up against Max, using his belly as a pillow, and they were both sound asleep.

"You didn't want to sleep in your cribs, but you'll sleep on the hard tiled floor of the kitchen," he muttered, but his muttering was through the smile that he couldn't keep from curving across his lips. He turned the wok off and carried each sleeping child up to its crib before returning to the kitchen to finish dinner. Unfortunately he had forgotten to turn the burner off for the rice and he was left with what he concluded to be a sticky mess. But, it was too late to improvise so he simply lay the stir-fry on top of the rice hoping Abbey wouldn't notice how sticky it was.

"Abbey?" he kissed her temple gently.

"Mmmm" she rolled over sleepily.

"How are you feeling? Ready for supper."

"I think so," she yawned. "Those pain pills really knock me out. Hopefully I can stop taking them in a couple of days." She noticed that Jed had set up a little table by the window of their bedroom. "I could have come down to the kitchen, you know."

"I know, but I also know how those pills do you in. We'll just have a nice relaxing supper in here. Just the two of us."

"Just the two of us?" Her eyes narrowed. "Where are the kids?"

"Napping"

Abbey glanced at her watch. "Napping!" she exclaimed. "My God, Jed, it's almost 6 o'clock, why on earth are they napping now?"

"I couldn't get them to sleep this afternoon so I figured I would just put them to bed earlier tonight."

"Let me guess. They fell asleep."

"Yeah, in the middle of the kitchen floor," he sighed.

Abbey bit back a smile at that resigned sigh. "You do realize that they are going to be up all night now, don't you?"

"I suppose they will. Honestly, I don't know how you do it, Abbey. I'm wiped out."

"Most of the time I have help, Jed. Have you forgotten about Izzy and that huge White House staff that cooks our food, cleans our residence and does our laundry. I can hardly qualify for homemaker of the year."

"Just keeping up with those kids is a full time job, never mind all the rest of it and you do it so easily."

"Not easily, Jed. I just have more practice. Believe me, it was a big adjustment dealing with two infants and now two toddlers as opposed to one. It's been a whole new experience for me."

"You're a good mother, Abigail."

"You say that as if you're surprised," she laughed. "We do have three other children together."

"No, I'm not surprised. I just don't think I tell you often enough just how happy I am that you are the mother of my children, ALL of my children."

"Why, Jed, that was an incredibly sentimental thing to say. Thank you."

"I'm feeling a little sentimental lately. You really scared me this week. I don't want to let anything go unsaid, EVER. I never want it to be too late to tell you or the kids just how I feel.

Abbey gazed into his troubled blue eyes feeling the prick of tears in her own. It was obvious that her husband had been greatly affected by her near death experience. She had a feeling that was what all this "Mr. Mom" stuff was all about. He wanted to show she and the children just how much he loved them and how he could be there for them and she found that more moving and eloquent than any three page epic poem of love could ever be. So the chicken was a little dry, the rice a little sticky, and the children were napping at six in the evening; none of that mattered to her. Jed had proven just as he always had, that when the chips were down, when she needed him the most, he would always be there to take care of her and that was a very safe and warm feeling.

"I love that you want to take care of us, Jed. It makes me feel very protected.

"I'll always want to take care of you, Abs. You're my girl."

Abbey reached out a hand to cover his. "Just don't go overboard," she warned him with a twinkle in her eye. "And speaking of overboard, what was this that Annie said about you not putting your seatbelt on so you could stay with me."

"I had to. You didn't see that angry ocean, Abbey. There were swells that were at least 50 feet high, spray everywhere, and it looked like we were going down into that mess. You were unconscious and strapped to the gurney. There's no way you would have survived it. You would have drowned. I had to stay with you."

"You could have been killed when we crashed like that. You could have flown right through that window."

Jed simply stared at the floor. She was right. He didn't have a comeback.

"Jed." She reached across the table and lifted his chin to look into the depths of his beautiful eyes. She ran a gentle thumb over the bandage on his temple. "I'm serious, you could have been killed."

His eyes held hers, unwavering. "So what?" He asked bluntly.

"What do you mean, so what?"

"Exactly what I said. I had to take the chance. I'd have rather died and gone on with you then spend the rest of my life without you. Just what kind of a life do you think I'd have without you anyway?"

"Jed" tears pooled in her eyes. "You're getting me all mushy tonight."

"I like you all mushy" he lifted her fingers to his lips, happy to see that her rings were back exactly where they belonged and he kissed the back of her fingers.

****

After finishing supper, Jed steeled himself against his squeamishness and changed Abbey's bandage, checking for any of the warning signs Dr. Stewart had said to be on the lookout for. It was a very small incision; down low, close to her pubis, a tiny scar no one but he and her doctors would ever see. He flinched at her sharp instake of breath when he applied the antiseptic.

"Sorry," he quickly looked up to see the tears in her eyes. "Does it hurt real bad?"

"It's okay, it just stings a little." She watched him gnaw on his bottom lip, his brow furrowed with concentration as he applied a new bandage trying not to hurt her. "You're doing fine, babe," she assured him.

With the bandages changed and pain medication given they decided to relax and lay back in bed to watch a movie. The movie had just started when the doorbell rang and Max began to bark. Jed left to see who it was; knowing it would be family or staff since they had been allowed past the service without an announcement.

After just a few moments Jed returned. "I brought you a visitor," he said sticking his head in the door to make sure that Abbey was covered. When he'd left her she had been wearing just one of his pajama tops because the bottoms bothered her incision. He waited until she had pulled the quilt over her bare legs, then allowed Leo entry.

Leo entered the bedroom much differently than he had in the past. He was tentative and uncomfortable at finding Abbey in bed.

"Hi, Leo. Come on in." She smiled at him with affection, that while deserved, still wreaked havoc with Jed's emotions. Unaware of her husband's feelings she urged Leo to pull up a chair. He did so, his discomfort growing. Visiting her would have been so much easier if she had been weak and sick like she had been in the hospital. Instead, she looked lovely. Her copper curls were bright against the snowy white pillows she was propped up against and there was a faint hint of color back in her cheeks. Her wide sea green eyes sparkled with warmth. His fingers itched to reach out and caress one of those silky curls or slide gently down the curve of her cheekbone The baggy pajama top, obviously Jed's, was not anything more revealing than he'd seen her in before so he didn't know why his mouth had suddenly gone so dry. Was it because she was lying in bed and his mind had begun to wander into what she might be wearing under those covers? Was it because when she moved to sit up the top gaped open affording him a glance at the creamy swell of a braless breast? Was it because he could see the outline of her nipples through the thin silk? Was it simply because he was seeing her in bed and his traitorous mind could recall every erotic dream he'd ever had about having her in his bed. His face flushed with those memories as if Abbey could read his mind and see exactly how he was picturing her.

Abbey was aware of Leo's discomfort but instead of acknowledging it she chose to ignore it. Jed did not. He sat possessively on the edge of the bed taking Abbey's hand into his. Leo wanted to tell her how happy he was that she was doing well, how terribly she had scared him with her illness, but he did not. Instead, they kept the conversation light, discussing her convalescence and the upcoming convention until Abbey began to yawn with fatigue and Leo figured he had stayed long enough

He had come to reassure himself that Abbey was truly doing well, to see for himself that she was on the road to recovery. He hadn't realized just how dangerous a move it was. He thought he had gotten his feelings for her under control, had even began to feel able to start a relationship with Jordan, but almost losing Abbey had brought everything back to the forefront. All the feelings for her had come surging back at the fear of losing her and now he felt like he was starting all over again. As if he had fallen off the wagon and had to start recovering from his addiction from scratch. Sometimes he felt like that was what his attraction to Abbey was; an addiction. Something that would be with him for the rest of his life, something that he would just have to learn to live with.

"Leo." Jed caught up with him just as he walked out onto the porch. "Are you flying back to DC in the morning?"

"I thought I'd stay here a while longer and, you know, make sure everything is okay."

"Everything is fine here," Jed told him firmly. "Is Jordan still pissed at you for missing her thing and not calling her?"

"Yeah."

"Then go home and set things right with her. Get your own house in order."

"What?" Leo looked at him puzzled.

"Abbey is not your worry, she's mine. You can see that she's doing fine, it's time for you to go." Jed's determined, steely blue eyes stared steadily at him.

'You WANT me to leave?"

"Yes. I appreciate you for being there for me when she was so sick, but as you can see she is doing much better now. I know you…care… about her but I think there is still a little more than friendly interest on your part. You have to let her go, Leo."

"Jed, really…I"

Jed put his hand up to ward off further explanations. "Go back to Washington, Leo. See if you can salvage things with Jordan."

Knowing he was defeated, that Jed had seen right through him, Leo nodded and turned to leave.

The fierce anger that could still boil Jed's blood when it came to Leo's attraction to Abbey turned to compassion as he watched his friend's slumped shoulders as he started to make his way across the lawn. "Keep me updated on the convention," he called out to him. Leo nodded and continued on his way.

Upstairs, still lying in bed but listening to the voices of her husband and his best friend as they carried through her open window from the porch below, Abbey sighed with sadness. She'd heard the defensiveness in Leo's voice and the reproachful determination in Jed's. She worried about how much longer Jed would tolerate the situation. They had both really hoped that things would get better since Leo had started seeing Jordan but after seeing the way he had looked at her earlier she knew that not a whole lot had changed. A woman knew when a man physically wanted her and Leo definitely wanted her.

"Oh, Leo," she closed her eyes in silent prayer. "Please just let me go."

****

"WEAD, Mommy, Wead." Fresh from their baths Aislinn and Nicholas were carrying their favorite books just ready to be entertained. Abbey smiled down at her two little cherubs. Their faces were scrubbed pink, their hair still damp, and they had the delicious smell of baby powder. They looked clean and beautiful and ready to roll, unlike Jed who had entered the room looking exhausted. His shirt was soaking wet and clinging to his chest, there were suds in his mussed tawny hair, and he carried an armload of toys the kids had played with in the tub.

Deciding to give him a break from daddy duty Abbey had him lift the kids up on to the bed with her. It took them a few moments to settle in, what with their stuffed animals and blankies but finally they each lay a head against her breasts and were ready to listen as she began reading "Goodnight Moon".

After five books neither twin was any closer to falling asleep but Abbey's eyes were too heavy to continue on. She turned to Jed who had changed into a pair of old sweats and was stretched out in the Queen Anne chair reading a copy of U.S News and World. "They're all yours."

"Oh come on. You're doing great. Look at them all snuggled up with you. You want me to get you some more books?"

"Sure. And you can read them, because I'm going to bed."

"Abbey."

"Hey, I'm not the one who put them down for a nap at suppertime."

"Daddy, wead" Nicholas held a book out to him.

Resigned, Jed got to his feet and moved toward the bed.

"Goodnight baby girl." Abbey kissed her daughter's forehead and rubbed her cheek lovingly against hers, before Jed lifted her from her arms. She turned to Nicholas who was sitting Indian style beside her in his racecar pajama's, his thumb firmly in his mouth and his worn stuffed Tigger clutched to his chest. "Give me a kiss, little man." She smiled and held her arms open.

Nicholas removed his thumb from his mouth and grinned at her. "Essie kiss," he told her, as he crawled into her arms and up her chest to meet her face to face.

"Eskimo kiss it is." Abbey brushed her nose back and forth against his little button of a nose. Nicholas giggled and placed his small hands on Abbey's cheeks. For a moment green eyes met blue as mother and son shared an intent, loving look. Jed cleared his throat of the emotion the moment had wrought, then tucked Nicholas up into his other arm and left for the nursery.

Deep into the night, Abbey rolled over, her arm automatically feeling for Jed. Instead, all she felt was the cold sheet. She turned to squint at the clock and was surprised to see that it was almost two a.m. Unable to believe that Jed could still be up with the children, she slipped into her wrap and slippers and after checking to see that he was not in the bathroom, she made her way to the nursery.

She could hear creaking and the low soft timbre of Jed's voice as he sang softly into the night. She stood quietly in the doorway of the darkened room and took in the mess. Toys were scattered all over the carpet, crayons littered the floor and it looked like Max had chewed up one of the bottles the kids had left or thrown on the floor. Nicholas was sleeping on the carpet surrounded by stuffed animals, a blanket simply thrown over him. Then, her eyes moved across the room and she saw Jed, bathed in the glow of the nightlights. He held Aislinn to his chest, her head on his shoulder, and he was rocking her in the old Boston rocker that countless Bartlet babies had been rocked to sleep in. The same rocker Jed had been rocked to sleep in when he was a baby. Tears stung her eyes as she wondered if Emily Bartlet had ever held baby Jed or rocked and sang to him with as much love as the adult Jed was now showing his own child. The mother in her had always ached for the child inside her husband.

Her heart swelling with love and tenderness, she moved closer feeling crayons break under her feet and stepping over blocks and stuffed animals. As she approached the rocker she could see that Jed's T-shirt was covered with milky drool and graham cracker crumbs and that his hand was moving in gentle circular patterns on Aislinn's back. His head was thrown back, his eyes closed, and yet he sang on promising his little girl that, "if that mockingbird don't sing, daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring turns brass, daddy's gonna…"

"Jed" Abbey whispered.

"Hmmm…what?" His sleepy blue eyes took a moment to focus on her. She was looking at his shoulder where Aislinn lay.

"She's asleep."

"What?" He was still groggy.

"Aislinn's asleep. Why don't you lay her in the crib and come get some sleep yourself."

Jed nodded and got to his feet, trying not to disturb his daughter. Aislinn stirred, her sleepy eyes gazing at Abbey over Jed's shoulder. Jed held his breath. He needn't have worried, in the next instant her head fell back against his chest and he was able to settle her in the crib without a fuss.

While Jed bent to straighten Aislinn's covers, Abbey wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and inhaled deeply. Instead of his usually masculine scent of bay rum, tonight he smelled of stale milk, juice, baby lotion and powder.

"I stink, don't I?" he asked.

"No, you don't stink. You smell like a mother," she smiled.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"As well you should."

Jed turned and surveyed the mess in the nursery. "Has it been a week yet?" He asked hopefully.

Abbey gave a throaty laugh and tenderly pushed back a tendril of hair from his forehead. "Baby, it' ain't even been a full day yet."

"I was afraid of that."

TBC...