Abbey stood staring at the woods where her daughter had just disappeared. Gina had gone tearing after her while she just stood there in shock over Zoey's outburst. "Well, we're an even tempered bunch, aren't we?" She gave a deep sigh and turned to Millie who was still looking at her with surprise. "How did none of my kids inherit the repressive stiff upper lip Bartlet gene?"

"Mom?" Her name was spoken softly, without the volatility Zoey had expressed just a few moments before, and Abbey turned to face Ellie. She'd been wrong. She did have one child who had inherited her Bartlet grandparents more stoic bearing. Ellie had never been one to go off the deep end but that didn't mean that she didn't feel things quite deeply. Her face was pale and, while outwardly she appeared calm and in control, there was a world a hurt in her lovely eyes. "You didn't kiss Uncle Leo, did you? You wouldn't do that to daddy." They were statements, not questions.

Abbey smiled softly and reached out to touch Ellie's cheek. Ellie had had always been her champion. "No, Ellie, you're right. I wouldn't do that to your father. I wish your sister had given me the same benefit of the doubt."

"Aunt Abbey." Mallory came running up behind Ellie all out of breath. "I'm so sorry. I thought they knew about the picture. I never would have said anything if I had known that they didn't." Mallory was quite close to tears.

"Its OK, Mallory. I'll explain everything, but let's go find Zoey first." Abbey started off down the trail then turned when she realized that Millie and Brynn weren't following.

"What are you waiting for?" Abbey asked.

"I thought you might want some privacy."

"I want some moral support." She grabbed Millie's arm and began dragging her along. "Besides you're only going to make me rehash this to you later so I might as well get it all done at once."

* * * *

Zoey sat on the bank of the stream staring out over the water, her eyes blurred by tears. It was not easy to be the daughter of a beautiful woman, especially one who garnered as much attention as her mother now did, but Zoey had never really minded. She had never minded that before they got to the White House people had often mistaken her mother to be one of her older sisters. She had never minded that all her friends' thought her mom was so cool with her leather pants and suede jackets. She had never minded that the press had referred to she and her sisters, along with her mother, as the "Bartlet Babes". She had never minded that when people told her mother that she didn't look old enough to have a daughter in college, they really MEANT it. She thought it was funny when Liz and Ellie's male friends and boyfriends made comments about how 'hot' their mother was (although it wasn't quite so funny when that happened to her). She had never minded any of that because she was confident of who her mother was and just how devoted she was to her father. Now she almost resented that beauty. If her mother had not been so attractive would that psycho Marcus Hughes still have stalked her? Would Uncle Leo still have been so attracted to her that he betrayed his best friend and kissed her?

Still, one thing didn't make sense to Zoey. If her father had seen that picture, as Mallory said that he had, and if he was that angry with Uncle Leo, why wasn't he just as mad at her mother? There was no way he could have faked the love and affection she had seen just this morning when they had all eaten breakfast together. Something just didn't add up.

* * * *

Abbey found Zoey in the clearing. She was sitting on the edge of the stream her knees drawn up under her chin, her long red hair flowing over her shoulders. Jed's baby, she thought. Oh, she and Zoey were plenty close but Jed and Zoey were like two peas in a pod. Until the twins, she'd been his baby and he had both spoiled and been over protective of her. In return, Zoey thought that the sun rose and set on her father and she would not allow anyone to speak ill of him. Abbey remembered when Zoey and Ellie were little and Jed was running for congress. She had brought them to the playground and they were wearing their Jed Bartlet for Congress campaign buttons. An older boy had taken exception to that and he had come over to tell them that their father wanted to go to Washington so that he could let women kill their babies. Before she had been able to walk over and drag them away she heard Zoey shriek, "My dad is NOT a BABYKILLER" and she hauled off and punched him in the nose. Ellie's response had been to react typically with hurt rather than anger. "Daddy loves babies" she had said. "He cried when our baby died. Why would that boy say that?" Campaigning had always been hardest on her sensitive middle child.

Zoey had been only 11 years old when she had learned of her father's MS and since that moment she had become as protective of him as he was of her. Abbey knew that was a part of Zoey's irrational anger today. She was afraid; afraid of what something like that picture might do to her father. Abbey couldn't fault her for wanting to protect her daddy, even if it was protecting him from HER.

"Zoey" she touched her shoulder. Zoey flinched but didn't look up. " I think hat we need to talk."

"What could you possibly say that I want to hear? You admitted that you kissed Uncle Leo, MOTHER," the word dripped with disdain.

"OK, that's quite enough, young lady," Abbey said sternly. " I know that you're upset but I'm your mother and as such I deserve a little respect."

"Were you showing your HUSBAND respect when you kissed another man?"

God give me patience, Abbey thought with a deep sigh. Right now she was having some very unmotherly thoughts about shaking the insolence out of her daughter. "I think you need to lose the attitude and just listen to what I have to say." Abbey motioned the others to come closer and explained to them all what happened that night. Explained it to a certain extent, that is. God willing, none of them would ever see that picture so there was no reason for them to know the full measure of Leo's pass at her. They were simply told that Uncle Leo had had too much to drink and tried to kiss her. She pushed him away but a picture had already been taken. End of story.

Only Mallory knew that wasn't the whole story. She had been there, she had witnessed everything and a kiss had been putting it mildly. Her father had been all over Abbey, grabbing at her breasts and rear and trying to pull her dress up. She knew Abbey had glossed it all over, probably for her benefit, but she was too embarrassed to call her on it. She didn't want all of them knowing just what her father had done.

"In the end things worked out OK because your Uncle Leo went into rehab the next week."

"Because Mom threatened to divorce him," Mallory said.

"What?" Abbey asked, shocked. "He TOLD your mother what he did."

"He didn't have to tell her. She saw him, and so did I. Dad was speaking that night at the fundraiser so Mom let me come along for the speech. It was my first real grown up party. After his speech I wasn't feeling very well and me and Mom went looking for him so we could go home. Someone said they saw him go outside so we went out on the patio and we saw him…groping you." Mallory left out what she'd heard. "Just give me a taste Abbey, just one little taste. I've wanted you for as long as I can remember." She'd heard it all and so had her mother. Her mother had looked like she had just been slapped across the face. "Mom started to go forward to stop him but that was when you pushed him away and slapped him. I don't think she knew what to do. We went home in a cab and when dad got home later that night he and Mom had a really horrible fight." Mallory could still hear the awful, venomous accusations her parents had hurled at one another that night. "What were you thinking, Leo? Jesus, did you honestly think that Abbey was going to let you fuck her right there in the middle of a fundraiser with Jed right in the next room!"…"I'm not the stupid fool that you think I am, I know all about your partying political groupies. I've let you have your little bimbos, but I'm damn well not going to stand idly by and let you embarrass us by making passes at one of our FRIENDS."… "It's not like I've done this with any of our other friends, Jenny." … Why Abbey? How could you sink so low that you would do that to your best friend's wife! She has JED, Leo why on earth would she want anything to do with YOU!"… " It always comes down to JED, doesn't it? You've NEVER stopped loving him, NEVER!"…"Don't even think of turning this around on me. It wasn't ME standing outside that party trying to feel Jed up. I've NEVER done anything with Jed to be ashamed of."…"Only because you never got the chance---"… What does Abbey have, Leo? Why do you want her so badly that you would you throw all caution in the wind just to try to get a taste of her? You TELL me what it is, Leo. TELL ME!"… "Maybe for once in my life I'd like to know what it's like to be with a woman who ENJOYS sex, a woman who could match a man touch for touch, a woman who is wild and passionate and uninhibited, a woman to whom sex is more than just a wifely obligation. Then again, sex might not be such a chore for you if it was Saint Jed putting it to you instead of me."…"You SON OF A BITCH!"…

" I'd never heard them scream at each other like that before. Mom was really mad about what he did to you. When they finally both calmed down she told him that if he didn't go into rehab and clean up his act she was going to file for divorce."

Oh Jenny, Abbey felt tears prick her eyes at the thought of what her poor friend had seen and heard. How devastating that had to have been for her and yet not once through the years had she ever let on that she knew what Leo had done. The ramifications of that night were turning out to be more far reaching than Abbey had ever thought and it didn't take long for her pity for Jenny to turn into anger towards Leo. Her anger about what he had done that night had dissipated pretty quickly once he had gotten himself enrolled in a rehab clinic, mainly because she felt that some good had come out it. She had been able to justify not telling Jed what Leo had done because he had promised her to get help and was on the road to recovery. Now she was learning that it didn't have anything to do with how bad he had felt about what he'd done or the ultimatum that she'd given him in return for her silence. Now she was learning that Jenny had already given him that ultimatum. He had committed himself to the clinic so that Jenny wouldn't divorce him. So, basically she had kept his dirty little secret all these years for nothing. She felt used and betrayed and, for the first time since this whole thing had exploded in her face, she wanted a piece of Leo's hide.

* * * *

As promised Abbey had finished her Mother's Day with a big family supper and then they had all sat and watched "The Lion King" with the twins. But, with the kids in bed and Ellie and Zoey watching a horror movie on the downstairs TV, Abbey was free to vent. "I can't believe that she KNEW, Jed." She was pacing in the bedroom in her silky pajamas. " I mean, honest to God, how could she stay with him after that?"

"I don't know, Abbey. I don't pretend to know the workings of anybody else's marriage. I don't know why that she put up with what she did." Jed thought back to the pain and sorrow in Jenny's dark eyes the nights that he had brought Leo home stinking of other women. She had known that he was sleeping around and yet she had stayed with him, she had stuck it out. He didn't understand it any better than Abbey. Didn't understand how she could go on living with and loving a man who was cheating on her at every turn.

"I think that for a long time she just buried her head in the sand and pretended that she didn't see what was going on all around her, because if she saw it then she would have to do something about it. I just don't know how she could allow Leo to touch her after he'd been with another woman or how she kept from seeing him with them every time they made love. I know I couldn't do it."

"Our marriage is different from theirs, Abbey. Everybody's marriage is different and we can't project how we'd react onto how they would react. Maybe the bond that they shared wasn't strong enough to be broken by infidelity, maybe it just bent a little." Jed knew that the bond that he shared with Abbey was so strong that any act of infidelity would cause it to snap in two faster than he could say uncle. He knew that Abbey would not have tolerated the indignity of betrayal with the quiet, suffering dignity that Jenny had. No, Abbey would have come at him kicking and screaming and wailing and she'd have thrown him out, not just of their bedroom but of their home. Her love for him was too strong for her to put up with that level of betrayal. It hit him then like a cuff to the head.

"Abbey, you know what you've always said that you'd do to me if I cheated on you?"

"That I'd rip your balls off?" She looked down at his crotch with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, I remember saying that a couple times. Why?"

"We've talked about this before. I know that if I slept with another woman it would destroy you and I know that if you slept with another man it would destroy me, but it can only destroy us because we love each other. What if Leo slept with those women trying to get some kind of reaction out of Jenny, some kind of proof that she loved him. Maybe he took the way she turned the other cheek to be indifference."

"That's kind of an extreme way to find out whether you're loved or not."

"Yeah, well it's not like he was thinking clearly at that point."

"There's only one way to find out. I think it's time that I clear the air with Jenny once and for all."

TBC...