Jed sat at Leo's desk waiting for him to return much as he had earlier with Abbey. He was still in shock over his wife's confession. He kept rolling it over and over in his mind, the crude things that Leo had said to her, the longing that he had expressed. "I've wanted you for as long as I can remember." As long as I can remember? All these years Leo had wanted her and he hadn't had a clue. They had opened their home to him, made him a glorified family member. After leaving rehab when he was too afraid to go home and fall into old patterns, he and Abbey had allowed him to spend a month at the farm recuperating and re-evaluating his life. Now, he wondered how Abbey must have felt about that, how uncomfortable it must have been for her and there he had been completely oblivious as to why there had been such underlying tension between the two. At the time he had assumed it was because Abbey still had unresolved feelings about how Leo had tried to convince him to stray from his marriage vows. He had a very open marriage with Abbey and they told each other everything, nothing was kept secret. At least that was what he had thought. Now he knew differently and he also knew why Abbey had avoided Leo for much of his stay at the farm.

Jed leaned forward and picked up a picture of he and Leo with their arms around Abbey's waist. They were all smiling broadly. He had just been elected President of the United States. Nobody had had more to do with his victory than the two in the picture, nobody was happier for him than the two people in the picture, and there were no two people that he trusted more than the two people in the picture. Trust; it was so much more fragile than love, so much harder to give and so much easier to destroy. He had fallen in love with Abbey almost as soon as he had met her, but trust was a bond that had grown stronger and stronger as their marriage had progressed and matured. Even when he had seen that photo and been crushed by his shattered trust in her, he had still loved her. Love could not be destroyed that quickly or that easily. It was so much easier to love someone than it was to trust him or her. His love for Leo was not the same as his love for Abbey. It was not needy and all consuming, it was the love a man had for his brother. But trust that was a different story. In his chosen profession it was not wise and could even be dangerous to put his trust in anyone too deeply. Yet, he had trusted Leo as he would a member of his own family and while the thought that he had broken that trust was not destroying him the way that it had when he thought Abbey had done so, it still hurt down to his core. It made him question the openness he and Abbey had shared with him. It made him question the way he had turned to Leo and confided in him, at least when it came to personal matters.

After Abbey's rape, when she had become withdrawn and started to build walls around herself that he was afraid to scale, it was Leo he had turned to with his fears. When he had painfully confided that she was breaking his heart by shutting him out and not letting him help her with the emotional aftermath of the attack, it was Leo who urged him to keep being patient and understanding and she would eventually come around. His face flushed red with embarrassment when he thought about how he had revealed his fear of pushing Abbey into any sort of sexual intimacy and ultimately wondering if they would ever again share the rich and varied sex life that they'd had before the attack. More than anyone, other than Abbey's female confidants, Leo had known exactly how traumatic things had been for her and yet he had still forced that pass on her.

Things would be so easy if this were 200 years ago, he thought with a huff. As soon as Leo entered the room he would simply call him out and they would duel for his wife's honor. Alexander Hamilton did it, why couldn't he? Still, the fantasy lacked any basis in reality since he and Abbey had never allowed guns in their home, and he didn't really know how to use one. With his luck he would end up shooting himself in the foot or something. He was still pondering "High Noon" scenarios when Leo entered the room shutting the door with click. Jed spun around in the leather chair and faced the man who was both friend and foe. Leo gave a start at seeing him in the chair.

"You scared the hell out of me," he inhaled sharply. "What are you doing in here?"

"Thou Shalt Not Covet, Leo," he stated flatly.

"What?" Leo frowned. He was at a total loss as to what the hell Jed was talking about.

"The 10th Commandment; Verse 17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbors."

Leo stared at him with a look of complete puzzlement on his face. "You think somebody is coveting your ass?"

"Not my ass, my WIFE!" Jed stood and walked around the desk to stand toe to toe with Leo. "Let me ask you a question, good friend. Are you in love with my wife?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" Leo swallowed convulsively; knowing deep inside that the gig was up.

"One I'd like answered."

"What would make you think that?"

"THIS!" Jed seethed, as he slapped the picture down on the desk. He watched Leo's face pale and panic begin to fill his eyes. "You son of a bitch!" he exploded. "What the fuck were you thinking!"

"I…I wasn't thinking." Leo took a step back out of the reach of Jed's clenched fists. "I was drinking, I wasn't thinking clearly. You know what it was like when I got drunk."

"NO!" Jed stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar. "NO excuses, Leo. You told my wife that you had wanted her in bed for years and then you attacked her at a fundraiser promising her that I would never have to know. Well, NOW I KNOW!" He punctuated the last three words with sharp shoves of his pointer finger into Leo's chest.

"I don't know what to say. I'm sorry. It was a long time ago."

"I don't care if it was 25 years ago. You KNEW that she had been raped, Christ Leo, I confided in you. I TOLD you how scared she was and still is to this day of being held against her will and YOU went ahead and did that to her anyway. You're my best friend and you did that to my wife." He thrust Leo away from him as if the very touch of him made him sick.

Leo took a step back, shaken by Jed's fury. He'd never had it directed at him like this before. But it was more than a fear of physical reprisal that had Leo sick to his stomach. It was the fear that his friendship with Jed, a man he considered to be his brother, would not survive this betrayal. Jed had turned away from him taking deep breaths to calm himself. When he turned back around Leo could now see that there was pain mingled with anger in his eyes. "Are you still in love with her?"

"What do you want me to say?" Leo's voice was shaky. He wanted so badly to lie. How could he admit to Jed that his feelings for Abbey were stronger than ever?

"Try the truth for once, Leo. I want the goddamn truth. Are you still in love with my wife!"

"YES, OK, YES!" Leo blurted it out angrily. He hated the fact that Jed was making him do this. "I'm still in love with Abbey. I still want her the way that I did that night!"

Rage surged through Jed's limbs at Leo's words and of it's own volition his fist came up connected with Leo's right cheekbone. Leo staggered back against his desk and Jed swore at the pain in his knuckles. For a moment he couldn't believe that he had actually struck Leo. Fighting had never been his style. The blow stunned them both into momentary silence.

"I guess I deserved that," Leo broke the uncomfortable silence, as he gingerly touched his eye with his fingertips.

"I should have done it 12 years ago," Jed grumbled. "She should have told me."

"Don't blame her, Jed. None of this is Abbey's fault."

"You're damn straight it's not her fault."

"I meant about not telling you. I begged her not to."

"I don't care if you got down on your hands and knees and wept, she should have told me."

"I tried that," Leo admitted ruefully, "but it was hitting her below the belt that did it. I promised her that if she wouldn't tell you I would check into rehab." What he neglected to tell Jed was that he had made a similar promise to Jenny the night before. She had seen what he done to Abbey and had threatened to leave him. Even Abbey didn't know that part of the story. "I knew she was unhappy with the deception but she went along with it to get me into rehab."

"When I think of all the crap that I took from you at that time, all the things Abbey and I did for you, it just boggles my mind." He rubbed his weary eyes then gave Leo a speculative look. "How long, Leo."

"How long what?"

"You told her that you'd wanted her for as long as you could remember. How long have you been in love with Abbey?"

Leo silently appraised his best friend for a moment. He could be sealing his own coffin by telling him the truth and yet he wanted to get it out, to finally acknowledge his feelings. If he did that then maybe they would stop eating away at him so much. When had he fallen in love with her? He thought about their first meeting. He had expected a quiet, bookish introvert; someone more like his Jenny turned out to be. Boy had he been wrong about that. "A part of me wanted her from the instant you introduced her to me."

Jed shook his head with stunned bewilderment. How had he gone all these years without knowing that?

(Past: Boston, Mass. Abbey is 19 Jed is 21)

Leo stood at South Station awaiting the bus from Indiana. His own bus from Ann Arbor, Michigan had just dropped him off a few minutes before and now he was waiting for the arrival of his best friend Jed and Jed's girlfriend. It was Thanksgiving break and they were all coming home from college for the holiday. Jed had been dying for Leo to meet "his Abbey" and since they were all arriving in Boston within the same hour he had planned the meeting. They would have time to get to know one another and have lunch before Abbey hopped another bus to Salem, Mass and he was off to New Hampshire. Leo lived right in South Boston so he was in no rush. He knew that he was going to be the first "family" member to meet Abbey. So far Jed had spared the poor girl a meeting with his parents but if he was as serious about her as he sounded in his letters Leo knew that she would be in for an icy meeting not too long in the future.

As he sat to wait for the bus, Leo pondered what this girl might be like. Jed fairly gushed about her in his letters. He was obviously head over heels in love. His Abbey had the most beautiful hair, the most beautiful eyes, and the most incredible legs. His Abbey was the smartest person he'd ever met, the funniest, the most well read, the most compassionate, on and on it went until Leo had to chuckle at his friends over enthusiasm. Jed had never done things in half measure and falling in love had been no different. Still, given the fact that Jed tended to drift toward intellectuals he pictured a shy, bookish, introverted young woman. Abigail, even her name spoke of old fashioned, quiet schoolmarms. His mind was just settling on that image when he saw Jed depart from the bus and wave to him. Leo waved back and watched Jed turn back toward the bus to help a young lady down the stairs. Leo's eyes fairly bugged out of his head. That could NOT be Abigail. This girl wore platform shoes, tight fitting hip hugger bell bottoms and a short little T-shirt that rode up when she accepted Jed's hand to help her down. Her hair fell to her waist in riot of red-gold waves and tinted sunglasses covered her eyes. He blinked waiting for another young woman in a conservative twin set and pearls but she never materialized. Instead, Jed placed an arm around the waist of the gorgeous, sexy young woman and began to approach. God that figure, he swallowed. Jed was right, she was definitely a knockout. It was incredible, long slender legs, a tiny waist, gently flaring hips and a generous bust, not too large but enough to draw a man's attention. Small, stacked and sexy were the words that ran through his mind.

"You must be Leo" Abbey took off her sunglasses to gaze at him with lovely clear hazel eyes and she gave him a bright smile that revealed a dimple in her right cheek. She was, quite simply, breathtaking. "I've heard so much about you." She reached a hand out and shook his limp one firmly. He knew he was making an ass of himself just staring at her but she was just so different from what he had expected.

"Knocks your socks off, doesn't she?" Jed grinned slapping his old friend on the back.

"That's putting it mildly." Leo turned to him. There was something different about Jed as well and it wasn't just the clothes or the fact that he was wearing his tawny hair longer. It was his whole demeanor. Gone was the uptight preppie boy and in his place was a relaxed self-confident man. Being with this woman had truly done Jed a world of good. "Where the hell did you find her and where can I find one just like her?"

"Well," Abbey gave him an impish grin and linked her arm with his. "I do have a sister…"

(Present)

Jed shook his head again unable to believe that this infatuation/love that Leo had for Abbey had been going on since before they had even married.

"I trusted you, Leo. When I got shot and I thought I was going to die in surgery I asked you to help Abbey and my children. Tell me, were you hoping that I WOULD die so you could put the moves on my grieving widow." There was an ugly bitterness to Jed's words.

Leo stared at him in shock. He couldn't believe that Jed would believe that of him. "You know that isn't true. Other than your family, nobody prayed harder for you to survive than I did. I never-----

"Does anybody else know about this?" Jed cut him off.

"Just Jenny and…and Jordan."

"JORDAN!" Jed exclaimed. "How the hell did Jordan find out?"

"New Years Eve…" Leo began slowly knowing this was only going to add fuel to the fire. "I was getting intimate with her and I called her Abbey."

"What?" Jed's mouth dropped. This was worse than he had thought. The past he might have been able to deal with but Leo was STILL fantasizing about his wife, still picturing his wife when he had sex with other women.

"I was starting to make love to Jordan and I moaned Abbey's name, OK. Hate me if you want to but I can't HELP it! Yes, I still wonder what it would be like to bed her, but I would NEVER act on that."

Jed stared for a moment at Leo's swollen right eye and badly wanted to blacken the left as well. "The problem is, Leo, you did act on it and I don't know if I can ever forgive you for that." He turned and left the room with a slam of the door.

* * * *

Abbey was sitting in bed in her silky pajama's reading bedtime stories to the twins when Jed entered their bedroom. Right away she could see from his face that things had not gone well. She watched him turn from the cozy scene and lean back out the doorway.

"Izzy," he called out down the hall, his voice cool and demanding. "Please come and get the kids from Mrs. Bartlet."

"Yes sir," Izzy entered the bedroom and approached the bed.

Ordinarily Abbey would not have let him get away with such high handedness, but this was no ordinary day. She kissed each sleepy babe on the head as she passed first one, then the other, over to the nanny. Jed followed suit when Izzy passed him in the doorway. With the nanny gone he turned back toward her. Abbey's pulse began to race as he settled his glittering blue eyes on her. She had seen that look before, it was possessive and dangerous and filled with intent. His face was still flushed with anger, his bronze hair mussed and falling over his forehead. She watched him take his tie off and fling it across the room and felt a shiver of apprehension and yes, God help her, desire. Only very rarely would she ever use the term dangerous to describe her husband. But, as he slowly approached the bed ripping the buttons off his shirt to get it off his fiery eyes never leaving hers, she had a delicious thrill of anticipation, of knowing that she was about to be ravished by a dangerous, sexy, out of control man.

TBC...