Jed got to his feet and opened door to the outside. It was pouring out and the wind blew the rain right onto the portico. Jed ignored the fact that it was 45 degrees and he was getting soaked. He stood, letting the rain pelt his body trying to cleanse himself of the bitterness and the anger he still felt toward the man who had fathered him.

"Jed." The voice was soft and gentle and for a moment he thought he was still day dreaming. He turned slowly around and there she was. Abbey.

"Jed." The voice was soft and gentle and for a moment he thought he was still day dreaming. He turned slowly around and there she was. Abbey. She stood in the doorway the lights of his office illuminating her from behind. He blinked twice for a moment thinking he was conjuring her up from his dreams.

"Abbey," he choked. She moved toward him, slowly at first. She felt the cool rain begin to drench her body but ignored it, instead focusing on the man standing before her. His hair was wet and shaggy, his blue eyes blazing with need and intent, and when he opened his arms, she sped up racing into them.

"Oh God, Abbey," he crushed her to his body, his lips grinding into hers with a feverish kiss. "I need you...God, I need you so much."

"I'm here now, Baby," her fingers dug into his hair as she kissed him back with as much passion as she was getting. "Everything's OK now...I'm here...I'm here."

"Things get so fucked up when you're gone."

Their kisses were open- mouthed, hot and hungry, the rain making them more wet and slick. Their tongues tangled in a frenzy. Abbey clung to Jed with need and desire. Jed pulled her even more firmly against him, his hands sliding down her back to grip her rear and pull her fully up against the bulge that was growing in his pants. Abbey rubbed against him feeling him grow harder against her belly.

"I want you so much, Jed," she breathed.

"What brought all this on?" He asked

"You just looked so sexy out here all wet and tousled," she nipped at his bottom lip.

"I make you weak in the knees?" He sunk his teeth lightly into her earlobe.

"At the moment," she sighed, "but you'll be weak in the knees with pneumonia if you don't get inside and dry off."

"I'll go inside if you dry me off," he cupped her face in his hands and began to kiss her amorously again. He couldn't seem to get enough of her mouth, enough of the taste of her. "God, I love you," he groaned against her lips.

"Mr. President, I have the..." Josh stopped when he saw the First Couple in a lip lock.

"Go away," Jed growled, one hand still on Abbey's breast.

"Did you show him?" Leo said, stepping out next to Josh.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Jed groaned with frustration. He stepped out of his wife's embrace. "That's it, I'm getting my wife's cute little ass up into our bedroom before we get interrupted again." Jed noticed both Josh and Leo's eyes riveted to Abbey. He glanced over and noticed that the rain had plastered the T-shirt she was wearing to her chest. Her nipples were distended with a combination of the cold and arousal and the fabric clung to them. Jed shrugged quickly out of his suit coat, placing it over her shoulders and pulling it tight in the front to shield her nipples from the other two men.

"Good night, gentlemen," Jed glared at them then put an arm over Abbey's shoulders leading her toward the residence.

"Well, if nothing else he'll have more fun not sleeping tonight," Josh leered. Leo flashed him a dirty look and walked away. "What?... what did I say?"

+++++

Jed felt he showed remarkable restraint in not touching Abbey until they made it to their bedroom, at which point he shut the door behind them and pulled her back up against him. Abbey gave a sexy purr as she felt the evidence that the walk over had not caused him to completely lose his erection. His hands cupped over her full breasts, tweaking her chill hardened nipples between his thumb and forefingers. She tore at his shirt pulling it open to expose his chest. Her mouth ran over his jaw to his neck and then was wildly wet over his chest. Her hand ran over the front of his straining pants until Jed felt he would burst through his fly. Abbey acknowledged his discomfort by unbuttoning and unzipping his pants to take his satiny hardness into her hand making him gasp with pleasure. At that moment he knew he wouldn't have any control tonight. He needed to be inside her, needed it NOW. He pulled her T-shirt up over her head and discarded her bra in short order. Abbey was sliding out of her jeans and hadn't even gotten them off her ankles when Jed pushed her gently but forcefully down on the bed and fell on top of her. She kicked the jeans off the edge of her toes just as he grabbed her legs to pull up over his waist. He didn't waste any time getting down to business and in one fluid moment he thrust into her hard and deep. Abbey cried out with a combination of pain/pleasure, as her body was not quite prepared for his fierce onslaught.

"Sorry," Jed groaned against her neck.

"S'OK, don't stop." Jed knew there was no way he could stop. He had been denied this too long. His mouth latched on to her nipple and he began to thrust fiercely into her. Abbey writhed underneath, him reveling in his forceful possession. It wasn't long before Jed felt his body tensing, filling. He tried to prolong it wanting to bring Abbey with him, but she was just too much for him tonight.

"Oh God Abbey...Shit...I'm sorry," he groaned as his orgasm pulsed through him and he began to climax inside her. Abbey ran her fingers through his hair over his back and his arms. Her own body ached with unfulfilled desire and she nearly screamed with frustration when Jed withdrew his hard fullness from her body. She closed her eyes, taking deep shallow breaths to calm her racing blood. Because her eyes were closed, she wasn't expecting Jed's first stroke between her legs and she arched off the bed with soft low moan of pleasure.

"What are you doing?" She gasped

"What does it feel like?" He grinned. "I'm apologizing for my ungentlemanly behavior with that slam bam, thank you ma'am. You didn't come."

"It's OK, Jed," she sighed, biting her bottom lip as his finger slid inside her and his thumb stroked the throbbing center of her passion. "I want to talk."

"Well, that's too bad because I want to make you come." He bent his head to flick his tongue over her nipple while his fingers, slicked by his earlier release inside her, stroked and caressed and penetrated. It didn't take long for Jed to achieve his goal and he took her cries of ecstasy into his mouth as he kissed her. He left his fingers just where they were so he could feel the quivering, pulsing contractions he had caused.

"Better?" he asked, kissing her closed eyelids.

"Much," she gazed up at him with soft green satiated eyes and stretched out languidly. "But I still want to talk."

"I thought you might."

Abbey reached over the side of the bed to snag Jed's discarded dress shirt and shrugged into it. Jed smirked when she couldn't button it up since she had ripped all the buttons off in her haste to get him naked.

"Another shirt gone," he sighed.

"Yeah, well, my Victoria's Secret underwear and lingerie bill is pretty huge in itself."

"Well, you know, gorgeous, if you didn't look the way you do I wouldn't have to tear your clothes off. Maybe they should come up with a line of Velcro underwear and lingerie so it wouldn't have to be replaced so often."

"Or maybe you should learn to have a little bit of restraint," she lay sideways across the bed, curling up with her cheek on Jed's torso in the position she knew he found easiest to talk in.

"Who needs to show restraint?" He asked, opening the top of the buttonless shirt.

"OK, WE could learn to have more restraint," She looked up into his eyes and they both laughed, as they said "No" at that same time. Both knew the bills for the President's dress shirts and the First Lady's underwear would continue to be exorbitant.

"Jed," she said, rubbing her cheek against the crinkly hair on his belly. "What's going on? Leo said you aren't sleeping and you're seeing a psychiatrist about it."

"Yeah, I had my first session with him tonight. He's the guy who helped Josh after his father's death."

"Why didn't you tell me when we talked?"

"Because you just finished telling me how special and important your time with your mother has been for you and I knew you'd rush back if I told you how I was struggling."

"You still should have told me. Do you have any idea of what the problem is?"

"I think you know as well as I do," he twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. It was easy to talk in this position because he had the comfort of Abbey in his arms without seeing the pain and compassion in her eyes.

"You've been thinking about your father."

"Part of that wound opened up when I talked to Ellie, and then a little more with the censure, but Toby ripped it wide open."

"Toby?" Abbey frowned. "How does he know about your father?"

"He guessed. He was upset with the way I answered a question. He said that he believes there are two Jed Bartlets, the real me and the one who tries to be an everyday kind of guy in order to get more votes in some kind of misguided need to win my father's love."

"There are two Jed Bartlets," Abbey admitted, "but they aren't separate entities, they are just part of who you are. You're a complex person with many layers, Jed. There isn't anything wrong with being a brilliant Nobel Laureate and an everyday kind of farmer."

"I guess he thinks maybe I play down the Nobel Laureate part just to get those votes. And he guessed that my Dad used to hit me. He told me my father hated me because I was smarter than he was."

"Damn him," Abbey swore. She couldn't believe Toby had opened this can of worms, especially right now when Jed was so vulnerable to it all. "You are smarter than your father was, Jed, but he didn't hate you. He may have been jealous of you but he didn't hate you."

"Sometimes I think he did. God, my relationship with him is so muddled and confused inside me. Did I hate him or did I love him? Did I prefer him trying to control my life or his complete indifference?"

"Toby didn't know your father, Jed. Believe me, there is a part of me that will always hate him for how he treated you, especially when you were growing up," she pressed her lips into his belly kissing lightly, "but I also caught him watching you rolling around on the floor laughing and tickling Liz, Ellie, and Zoey with this almost wistful expression. I think at times he wished he could be the kind of father you were."

"You sure you weren't imagining that?" His fingers stroked through her hair absently.

"I'm sure. And there was pride on his face the day you took the oath to become Governor."

"A title he thought was easily won," Jed scoffed.

"That's the thing, Jed. I think some parts of him felt love and pride but the jealousy was stronger. He didn't know how to express any emotion other than anger and sarcasm."

"I guess I've just never been able to understand that. As soon as I became a father, I knew what an incredible love it is that a parent has for a child. I knew the fierce need to protect that fragile, vulnerable life we created. I could never imagine berating my kids, putting them down, or deliberately trying to hurt hem. I've always been so proud of them, Abbey, and all I've ever wanted is the absolute best for them." Tears filled his eyes and Abbey gave a comforting stroke to his arm. "I hold Nicholas in my arms and I honestly hope that he turns out to be twice the man I am. I want so much for him, for all my kids."

"That's because you're not your father, sweetheart. Jed, you can't continue to do penance for the rest of your life. Your father was a bastard. You didn't make him that way. You were the kind of boy any man would be proud to have for a son. The fact that he wasn't shows how completely warped he was, not some defect on your part."

Jed squeezed her shoulder trying to keep his emotions in check.

"Stanley was right. He said that the bar keeps being raised for me. I guess no matter what I achieve it will never give me back a childhood where my father loved me and didn't hit me. It won't ever make my father love me."

"He's dead, Jed. You have to let this go. I love you. The girls love you and you have two new babies who love and need you."

"I know that. Don't think I don't count my blessings every day. If God gave me a shitty father in exchange for an incredible wife, I'd have to stay that it was a more than a fair exchange." He pulled her up his chest and began to kiss her, this time slow and leisurely. As he moved his head to suck lightly on her collarbone, his eye caught the clock by the bed.

"Shit," he groaned, "it's almost two. I have an overseas phone call I have to take at two. Sammi should have it all set up."

"Don't go," she whispered tangling her fingers in his hair.

"Ah Abbey, I have to," he gently kissed her lips then sat up. He turned to see her all sexy and rumpled in his gaping shirt, lying back among the blankets. "Come with me," he said.

"What?"

"Come with me for the phone call, then we can have a snack in the kitchen, and come back here so I can make love to you properly"

"Hey I have no complaints about earlier, but if you insist," she smiled.

They slipped into their bathrobes and, before leaving the residence, Jed pulled Abbey into the nursery. Aislinn and Nicholas were both sleeping soundly looking very sweet and innocent. Those fragile, vulnerable souls Jed had referred to earlier.

"He's still sucking his thumb," Jed whispered softly as he stared down at his son.

"Mmmhmm," Abbey murmured, running her hand up and down his back.

"And she still kicks her socks off," he gazed down with adoration at his daughter. "God, I missed them, Abbey." He placed his arm around his wife's waist and the two of them headed for the Oval Office.

++++

Sammi sat in the dark Oval Office waiting for the President to arrive. She knew there was no way he could resist her like this. Tonight she would know what it was like to make love with Jed Bartlet. She frowned as she heard soft laughter that got louder as the door was opened. She waited for the lights to turn on but the room remained dark and she head the low flirtatious voices of the President and a woman.

"I don't HAVE to take that phone call," Jed said, kissing that spot just under his wife's ear that made her crazy. "This is a heck of a lot more fun."

"Jed," Abbey warned.

"This IS one of the few rooms we have yet to christen with lovemaking, if you don't count the bathroom."

"Jed, take the call, just hurry up for God's sake."

Jed chuckled deep in his throat and hit the switch flooding the room with light. He gasped in shock at the sight before him and Abbey's eyes widened in stunned disbelief. For there, sitting on the edge of Jed's desk, was Sammi wearing nothing but a sheer pink lace teddy.

"Well, hello, Mr. President," she said, her fury at Jed's arrival with the First Lady in tow evident. "I've been waiting all night."