Abbey held Jed's hand while the doctor talked to them about what was causing his paralysis.

"Abbey, I can't feel my legs. I can't feel anything from my waist down." The fear had snaked its way down Abbey's spine at those words from her husband. She had calmed him, seeing the scared look his eyes, cleared the room of family members, and went to get the doctor. Now they sat together to hear what was going to come next.

"It's as I explained to your wife after the surgery," he said. "We had to leave the bullet lodged near your spine. Your condition was too precarious to remove it. I had hoped this wouldn't be a problem but obviously it is. It is putting pressure on your spinal cord, which is why you don't feel anything from the waist down."

"Well, can't you just take it out now?" Jed asked, his voice still weak and hoarse.

"It's not that easy, Mr. President. The surgery would be very delicate. Where the bullet is lodged will make it very dangerous to remove. One slip, one wrong move, and we could do more damage than good."

"What more damage could you do?" Jed asked sarcastically.

"You could end up paralyzed from the neck down, you could end up on life support, or you could die."

Abbey swallowed past the lump in her throat. Jed turned away for a moment. He composed himself and turned back. "Without the surgery is there any chance I will get any feeling back below my waist? That I will walk again?"

"No, sir. Not unless vast medical advancements are made."

"So, what you're telling me is that if I don't have the surgery, I will never walk again, never have use of my legs or…anything below my waist. I’ll never make love to my wife again."

"That's not what I said, sir. You will not walk again and you will not be able to have intercourse but..."

Jed interrupted him with a sarcastic look. "OK, never be able to walk or have intercourse with my wife again. But, if I have the surgery, I could end up a vegetable, dead, or I could get up and walk out of here fully recovered."

"Jed," Abbey's heart began to pound erratically knowing where her husband was going with this line of questioning. "Jed, you can't."

"I need to talk to my wife," Jed said, dismissing the doctor. "I'll let you know my decision." But Abbey knew, the tears in her eyes told Jed she already knew what his decision was.

"Jed, please. Don't even think about it. Plenty of people live full lives in wheelchairs. They..."

"They don't have a choice, Abigail. I do."

"You DON'T, Jed," she flared. "You could DIE!"

"Abbey, I can't live in a wheelchair knowing I could have done something to walk again."

"Jed, it will be fine. We'll make the farmhouse wheelchair accessible. We'll..."

"Dammit, Abbey, I am not going to go through the rest of my life not being able to walk! Not being able to make love to you!"

"Fuck me, you mean," she said bitterly.

"Same thing."

"No, it isn't, Jed, and you know that. God, do you think that's all that matters to me? That it matters to me at all when it comes to your life? We've been creative before. There are other ways, when I was pregnant..."

"Yes," he interrupted, "when it was foreplay or when we knew it was only for a certain time period. When we knew it wasn't over FOREVER. Do you think I could stand to look at you knowing what you need and knowing I can't give it to you?"

"I only need you, Jed. Just you alive and with me." He saw the tear trickle down her cheek and his tone softened.

"Abigail," he said quietly. "Come here," he took her hand and pulled her down to the bed, forcing her to look him in the eye. Those beautiful baby blue eyes now filled with tears. "We don't know what is going to happen with the MS. I could still end up in a wheelchair and, if that were my only choice, I would learn to live with it. But, I have a choice now, Abigail." Abbey stood, got light headed, and sat back down. "Abbey? Are you all right?"

"Jed I...Jed," she stammered.

"Abbey, what is it?"

"Nothing," she lied, "it's nothing Jed."

"Abigail, don't lie to me. Something is wrong and it's not my legs."

"Jed, I just can't..." she covered her lips with her fingers.

"You're scaring the hell out of me, Abbey. Tell me what's wrong."

"Please Jed, don't do this. Don't have that surgery. I need you. I...I'm...Oh, God, Jed, I'm pregnant."

"What?" Jed said, completely stunned. "Did you just say..."

Abbey placed a hand protectively over the slight thickening in her waist. "I'm pregnant… knocked up…enceinte… with child. Eight weeks. The G8 summit, that night in India when I wouldn’t let you pull out. I'm sorry. I just didn't know how to tell you," she looked up at him with wet eyes and lashes.

"I TOLD you," he said angrily. "I tried to..."

"I know. I know. It's all my fault, just please don't yell at me, my nerves just can't take that right now."

"It's not a fault, Abbey," he said more gently now. "It's a baby. Our baby."

"You're not angry?"

"I could never be angry about a baby. I'm scared. I'm scared about you. About..."

"About us losing another baby," she said softly, stroking his cheek.

"Yes," he said simply.

"Me too," she admitted. "But I'm more scared of this. I can't go through this pregnancy alone. Jed, I can't raise this baby alone. Don't you want to meet your son? Or daughter? Maybe the odds will be with us and it WILL be a boy. Jed, I can't lose you. I have been sitting in this hospital for days now wondering if you would live or die, and now you are telling me I'm going to have to go through all that again. I can't lose you."

"You won't. But you might if I don't do this. If I shrivel up in a wheelchair filled with bitterness over not having tried everything I could try to get on my feet. I want to walk out of this hospital. I want to stand up in front of Congress to give my State of the Union, I want to dance with you at State Dinners, and I want to hold your arm, and walk you and our new baby out of the hospital. Please Abbey. Please, I need you with me."

"I'm always with you Jed. Always. Even when you make a decision that may destroy me," she kissed his forehead sadly, and defeated, she turned to leave the room.

Jed lay back and closed his eyes. A baby. He was going to be a father again. This was totally unexpected. He should be angry. They had decided after Peter, no more babies, but, Abbey had looked so miserable and she had been through so much the past couple of days and really, in spite of her words, it wasn’t ALL her fault, he could have withdrawn from her body before releasing his life creating seed deep into her womb.

It wasn't that he hadn't wanted more children, he wouldn't have minded half a dozen. He was afraid of the danger, not only to his wife's body, but to her emotional well being should something happen to this baby. Losing their son had been devastating for her. But, now God was giving them another blessing.

The G8 summit was it? He couldn't help but smile at the memory of this child's conception.

It was a week before the summit. He entered the residence to change for the dinner party he and Abbey were giving that evening. Abbey was sitting at her vanity applying make up in her short black silk slip. Damn Abbey, he thought, I only have a few minutes to get ready and you know what seeing you in black silk does to me.

"Jed, is that you?" She asked while applying mascara.

"You're sitting dressed like that and you calmly ask if it's me," he growled. "What if it wasn't me?"

"I'm not naked," she teased me, shrugging a shoulder. "Hurry up," she admonished me. "We only have a few minutes." I began to unbutton my shirt. "Jed, what do you think about India?"

"As a country?" I asked, puzzled.

"I mean, would you like to go to India?" She applied her lipstick, smoothing her lips together. Jesus Abbey, what you do to me. I feel myself hardening knowing exactly what kind of pleasure those lips can give.

"Am I going to India?" I ask inanely. All the blood has left my brain to fill my penis.

"Are you trying to be obtuse?" She started applying perfume to the pulse points on her wrists and throat. She knew exactly what she was doing to me, and that made it all the more erotic. "I am asking if you would like to go to India with me?"

"I'd love to go to India with you. I'll go anywhere with you, baby, especially if you cancel the dinner party tonight." She turns and looks at me at that point. She raises an eyebrow as her gaze centers on my waist.

"I think you might want to lose that before we go out and dine with your cabinet members."

"Care to help me with that?"

"India is not on your agenda, Jed," she said, ignoring me. "It is on mine."

"Well then, I guess I can't."

"Yes, you can, Jed.” She stood raising one of her legs on the bed to pull on her stockings. "You are the boss. They have me leaving early to go to India to give a speech and visit the Taj Mahal before joining you at the summit in Japan."

"Is that a problem?" I asked, my throat dry. She isn't helping to take care of my problem at all.

"Yes, it is," she said, attaching her stocking to her garter. "I have seen pictures of Jackie Kennedy with her sister, and Princess Diana by herself at the Taj Mahal. This is a temple built to honor love and these were two women loved by millions, but not enough by their husbands to accompany them. Those pictures were sad. I don't want to be one of them." She moved closer to me; I could smell her shampoo, her perfume, the scent that is uniquely Abbey. Her hand moved to help me unbutton my shirt.

"What do...you want...me...to do?" I breathe.

"I want you to come with me. I want to experience that temple with you. To be the one to have my picture taken with my husband."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Jed," she said seductively slipping her hand into my pants causing me to groan. "Remember, you're the boss."

"You're a wicked woman, Abigail Bartlet," I gasped as she began to stroke.

"I just know how to get what I want," she smiled up at me.

"That you do, babe, that you do."

So, there I was in a hotel in India. I could hear my wife cursing in the bathroom.

"Abbey, what's wrong?"

"I forgot to pack my birth control pills."

"Abbey," I said, exasperated. "I fly halfway across the world to be with you at the shrine to love, and you forget your pills."

"It is the shrine to love, Jed, not the shrine to sex," she snapped. "What are we going to do?"

"Well Abbey, I can hardly walk out to the local drugstore and buy some condoms. Wouldn't the press have a field day with that?"

"I am aware of that, Jed. Oh never mind, we have to go. We'll just have to forget about sex."

"This vacation sucks," I sulked and she glared at me as we left to go visit the great temple to love.

It really was magnificent and Abbey and I were both moved by its beauty. We posed for the pictures, which the press ate up. When we got back to the States, Abbey got two 8X10's of the photo used on the cover of Time and many other newspapers. It showed the two of us standing in front of the Taj Mahal, I had taken off my suitcoat due to the heat and was in my shirtsleeves and Abbey wore a soft gauzy white sundress, her auburn hair loose and curling at her shoulders. I had the back of her hand pressed to my lips, and she was smiling softly at me. It is on both her office desk and my desk in the Oval Office. After a romantic dinner at a local Indian restaurant where my stunning wife had a bit too much wine, considering she didn't eat much of the food since she found it too spicy, we went back to the hotel. Abbey was tipsy and, when Abbey is tipsy, she can be quite amorous. What is a man to do when his wife is running her fingernails lightly over his back, her lips kissing his chest?

"Abbey we can't...Remember?" Her response was to latch on to my nipple, nipping it with her teeth. I was lost. My body was on fire and my only thought was to show through actions how much I really did love my wife. Soon I was making love to her, Abbey was whimpering beneath me, her nails digging into my back as I felt my orgasm building and I had one last coherent thought. "Abbey, I'm gonna come..." I tried to withdraw from her body to release my seed on her belly but she wrapped her legs more tightly around my waist and held me inside her. Before I knew it I was spilling everything I am into her body. She lay wrapped in my arms after that, her head on my chest. When I was sure she was sleeping, I slipped on my boxers and went out onto the secluded balcony to smoke a cigarette. A few minutes later I felt Abbey's arms wrap around my waist from behind, her lips pressed into the back of my neck.

"Josiah Bartlet, are you out here smoking?" She admonished me.

"Isn't that what you do after great sex?" I smiled pulling her around to face me.

"Jed, it was one time. At my age one time is probably not going to create any problems." God, that woman can read me like a book. But she was wrong. I found that out today. We hadn’t just created a problem we had created a child. Well it was nice to know that she could be wrong sometimes too. I just hope that my decision isn't wrong. Is it selfish of me to want this for myself when I could be leaving her alone to deal with the repercussions of that night in India? I pray I am making the right decision.

"From the look on your face, I assume you have spoken with my wife," Jed said as a somber Leo entered his room.

"We spoke."

"And she asked you to come in here and convince me to do things her way."

"No, sir. She told me the options. In my opinion, she is right. Why take the chance?"

"Leo, stand here as one of my best friends. I have already gotten the opinion of my other best friend. We're just Leo and Jed here."

"As one of your best friends, I ask you why take the chance?"

"Because there is a chance, Leo. If I don't take this chance, I will always wonder. What if I could be walking to the podium to speak, what if I could be walking Ellie or Zoey down the aisle, what if I could be dancing with my wife, and.."

"And what if you could be having sex with your wife? That's a big issue isn't it?"

"Hell yes. Shouldn't it be? I can't believe Abbey talked to you about this."

"She didn't. I put myself in your spot and I know that's what I'd be thinking. But there are other ways," Leo squirmed uncomfortably. He and Jed rarely delved into this sort of conversation. Not since they were teenagers talking about getting laid.

"Yeah," Jed rolled his eyes. "I know all about those ways. And yeah, I know it works, but most times," his voice began to rise, "most times do you know what I hear? Do you Leo? I hear my wife begging me to come inside her, and if I do nothing, I won't be able to comply with that."

"She doesn't care, Jed. She wants you alive."

"Of course she cares, Leo. Maybe not now because she's scared. But she will care. Mark my words. I just wish I could get through to her. It's not just the sex. It's everything."

"You didn't see her, Jed. While you were in surgery, while she thought you were dying. I've never seen Abbey like that."

"It's her worst nightmare," Jed closed his eyes knowing what pain his wife had been in. "During the campaign, when we were in California somewhere, I went into our hotel room to find Abbey all curled up in the chair just staring at the TV in tears. It was that mini-series 'Kennedy'. Jackie Kennedy was standing there in that pink suit covered in blood. I knelt in front of her and she begged me not to let anything like that happen to me. She begged me, Leo, and I promised her I wouldn't."

"She told me."

"I am a jackass. Why the hell did I make a stupid promise like that?"

"Because you thought you were invincible. Because you wanted to comfort your wife."

"Well, I've done a hell of a job. She's pregnant, Leo."

"What?"

"She's pregnant. Eight weeks."

“Pregnant?” Leo’s eyes widened with shock. “But…but…how?”

‘Well, when a man loves a woman very much he----“

“I know HOW you made a baby,” Leo interrupted.. “It’s just…well…don’t you use birth control?”

“Do you see 15 kids hanging off Abbey’s skirt?” Jed lifted a brow. “Hell, yes, we use birth control. We just…well…played a little Russian roulette with her cycle in India and one of my bullets hit the mark.” Jed couldn’t help the little burst of masculine pride that came with feeling so potent that it had only taken one time without barrier of birth control for him to impregnate his wife.

It troubled Leo that he was so bothered by the idea of Jed and Abbey being so carried away by passion that they created a child. What on earth was getting into him? His feelings for Abbey seemed to be getting stronger the more time he spent with her and that was NOT a good thing. She was his best friend’s wife.

“I still can’t believe she’s pregnant. "God. That's why she's been sick. I thought it was just the fear making her throw up."

"Nope, morning sickness. Abbey’s always had it bad… Leo, I'm having the surgery. If anything happens to me in the surgery, promise me you'll be there for her. Help her. Help my girls. Help my new child. She’s going to need you."

"You know you don't have to ask."

"I know," Jed placed his hand over Leo's. "Hey, don't let Hoynes get too comfortable in my office."

"I won't," Leo chuckled.

At that moment Abbey entered with the nurses who would be prepping Jed for surgery. Leo quietly left the room. Abbey sat silently while Jed was prepped. She said nothing until they were about to wheel him away. Then, she moved toward the stretcher and brushed the dark blond hair back from his forehead. A move that she had performed on his unruly hair a thousand times, that now took on such heavy significance, as she wondered if it might be the last time.

"I love you, Josiah Bartlet," she said, blinking back tears. "You come back to me."

"I love you too, Abigail Bartlet, and you just try and keep me away."

TBC...