Jed's initial shock immediately turned to fear. Fear of what Abbey was going to think had gone on while she was away.

"Abbey," he said urgently. "This isn't...I mean nothing has gone on between..."

Abbey quelled his stammering with a fierce glare. She belted her robe tighter around her waist and moved forward toward where Sammi sat on the top of Jed's desk. If Sammi had known the First Lady, she would have been more fearful of the sparks that were snapping in her green eyes as she approached.

"What in the HELL do YOU think you are doing in here?" Abbey's voice was icy, deadly.

"I think that's pretty apparent," Sammi said with a saucy bravado she didn't really feel. She was furious that Abbey Bartlet had come home early and had obviously just had the man she longed to be with. And, just like the proverbial scorned woman, she lashed out. "You have been gone an AWFULLY long time. I thought you were supposed to be so smart. A smart woman wouldn't leave an attractive man like Jed all alone for so long."

"Jed, is it?" Abbey's voice was dangerously calm.

"Abbey, I swear, nothing..."

"Jed," she snapped sharply and put her hands up to keep him quiet. She then turned back to the woman sitting on her husband's desk. "So, you thought you'd try to seduce MY husband?" Her eyes ran scornfully over the scantily clad woman. " Honey, you didn't have a chance," her sarcastic laughter filled Sammi with anger.

"Oh really?" Sammi raised an eyebrow. "We'll never know, will we?"

Fury and fear raged within Jed. He wanted to strangle Sammi but it was obvious that Abbey wanted to handle things.

"Oh yes, we'll know. Take a good look at him, Sammi," she turned to point at Jed. "That is the most powerful man in the world and YOU are a CHILD." Abbey gave her another disdainful once over. "He needs a WOMAN. Did you honestly believe I would think that you could offer him more than I can?" Abbey's sarcasm was biting.

"I'm every bit as much a woman as you are," Sammi fumed.

"Honey, you aren't even close," Abbey snorted.

"Not by a longshot," Jed added, putting an arm around Abbey's waist. "I suggest you make yourself decent before I do what I said I was going to do if you pulled this crap again and call in the Service to boot your ass out."

Abbey's eyes registered shock at Jed's statement that this had happened before, but she wasn't going to let on in front of Sammi that she didn't have any knowledge of that.

"Yes, Jed, why don't you call them in to take out the trash," she said sweetly.

Sammi furiously began to dress, her eyes filled with tears of thwarted passion and humiliation.

"Oh, and just to let you know," Abbey whispered to Sammi as two agents began to lead her out, "the President hates pink."

After the door shut and Sammi was gone, Jed sighed with relief.

"You scared the hell out of me with those looks you were giving me. I thought for sure you were going to believe her."

"You're not off the hook yet, mister," the anger was still present in Abbey's voice.

"Abbey, you know nothing went on between us."

"I know you didn't sleep with her. But why didn't you tell me she made a pass at you before?"

"I didn't want you freaking out and making me fire her."

"And pray tell, why not? It didn't bother you?"

"Of course it bothered me. I knew she had a little crush on me, but after she made the pass, she was so embarrassed and sorry. She knew she had made a mistake and she started to cry."

"Oh Jed," Abbey said, shaking her head. She knew exactly what tears did to him. Sometimes her husband could be incredibly naïve when it came to women.

"She only had a couple days left and she promised my rejection of her advance was the end of it."

"Just what kind of pass did she make at you?" Abbey's eyes narrowed.

"Abbey," he was obviously reluctant to tell her.

"Jed, I want to know."

"OK, OK...she sat on my lap and kissed me," his cheeks began to turn red with embarrassment. "And she ran her hand over my crotch and squeezed me."

"That little BITCH!!" Abbey fumed. "I can't believe she felt you up."

"I was a little surprised myself."

"What did you do?"

"I jumped to my feet and dropped her on her ass," Jed chuckled at the memory and Abbey couldn't help but join him as she envisioned the scene.

"It serves her right," Abbey grumbled. "But you should have told me, Jed. If I had known she grabbed your crotch, I would have pulled that bitch's hair out strand by strand."

++++

"Is all your shopping done?" Jed called out from the bathroom where he was showering and shaving.

"Pretty much. How about you?" Abbey called back to him.

"Pretty much. There is one thing left though. I'd like to get the twins a puppy."

"A PUPPY!" Abbey exclaimed.

"Yeah, every kid should have a puppy. The girls always had cats and dogs and all those rodents."

"Hamsters and guinea pigs," Abbey grinned. "I think it's a bit early for a puppy Jed. They aren't even a year old yet. Maybe next year. You'll be an even bigger hero when they actually know what a puppy is."

Abbey moved toward the dresser to start unpacking her toiletries. She glanced down at a well-worn magazine that lay on top of her dresser. It was her Christmas edition of Victoria's Secret, only it looked like someone else had gotten to it first. She opened the magazine laughing softly at all the bookmarked pages and circled items.

Jed came whistling out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. He was rubbing another towel over his wet hair. Abbey stood with one hand on her hip and the incriminating evidence in the other.

"You do realize that this subscription is made out to me, don't you?" she asked. "Are these items you're planning to purchase or was I supposed to take the hint?"

"Well," he drawled. "It did get a little lonely without you here. I had to find a way to occupy my time," he put his hands on her hips pulling her a little forward.

"Don't you dare, you're still soaking wet," she dug her feet in to keep from moving. "So it's like a girlie magazine for you?"

"Hardly," Jed laughed. "I just figured I'd circle all the stuff I like and we could go through it together and see what we want buy. You know, make a night of it."

Abbey smiled and took the towel he was using to dry his hair to run over the rivulets that were rolling down his chest. It was nice that after all these years her husband would still want to make a night out of picking out lingerie for her together.

++++

"How do I look?" Jed asked as he stepped out of the Oval Office bathroom into the office where Abbey was waiting with the twins.

"Oh, Honey, now this is a sexy look for you," Abbey looked him up and down.

"Really? You like it?"

"Oh definitely. Red is really your color, and the added girth and sexy white beard? Oh my, my, my, be still my heart. Aislinn, what do you think of Santa?" Abbey looked down at her daughter who wasn't quite sure what to make of the man who sounded like her father but didn't look like him.

"Come see Santa, little girl," Jed held his arms out but as soon as he took her Aislinn began to cry with fear.

"Oh, don't cry sweetie," Abbey chuckled softly. She leaned forward with Nicky on her hip to stroke Aislinn's back. "It's just Daddy. Jed, show her it's you."

"Nicky's doing a fine job of that himself," Jed told her. Abbey turned to see Nicholas tearing at Jed's big fake white beard. "Sunshine, look, it's me. It's just Daddy." Jed pulled the beard away from his face in an attempt to get Aislinn to calm down. Her crying slowed a bit but she was still a little confused.

"Put her down to play and I'll fix your beard," Abbey told him. "We can't have you going to play Santa at St. Mary's Children's Hospital with your beard all askew." They each set a baby down and Abbey began to play with his beard.

"Since you find me so appealing like this, would you like to be the first to sit on Santa's lap?" He sat on the couch and beckoned her forward.

"Well, yes, I would," she smiled as she settled herself down on Jed's now very cushioned lap.

"Now little lady, have you been a good girl this year?"

"Oh I've been a VERY good girl, Santa," Abbey teased.

"Do you have proof of how good you've been?"

"You could ask my husband. I think he'd vouch for me."

"Why don't you show Santa how nice you are to your husband?"

"Well, it starts off like this," Abbey leaned forward pushing Jed's mustache and beard apart to find his lips and give him a kiss.

"Oh yes, that's very nice. You are a good girl. Continue on."

"Mr. President," there was a knock on the door and Charlie's head popped in. Jed remarked yet again at how nice it was to have Charlie back and Sammi gone. "It's time to leave for the hospital. Are you ready?" Abbey got up from Jed's lap and moved to gather her children.

"Yes we're all ready," Jed turned to see Abbey in her festive red dress holding the twins who were in their Christmas outfits. He smiled at the attractive picture they made. After the four of them attended the Christmas party at the hospital, they were having some Holiday pictures taken for the wiretaps. Then, tomorrow after Mass, Jed had a very special Sunday planned for his wife.

++++

"Jed, are you or are you not going to tell me where we're going?" Abbey asked. She was sitting in the back of the SUV in the jeans, sweater, and boots Jed had told her to dress in.

"I told you, just a nice Sunday drive."

"We don't do nice Sunday drives anymore. And really, I have so much to do so we can leave for New Hampshire."

"I promise you, you are going to enjoy this."

Abbey stared out the window at the landscape. They were about 15 minutes from Washington and had been driving in rural countryside for a while, but now she saw a sign proclaiming 'Port Harmony est. 1730'. Port Harmony turned out to be a small, quaint pre-Revolutionary town set right on Chesapeake Bay. Abbey noticed antique shops, art galleries, bookstores and café's, along with a General Store and an old fashioned, one screen movie theater that boasted it was playing 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'. She wondered if Jed was taking her out to lunch and little shopping and browsing through the art galleries. They used to enjoy taking Sunday drives around the state or to Vermont or Massachusetts and do just that before he was President. Sometimes, with the girls safely with the housekeeper, they would find a romantic Bed and Breakfast and spend the night reveling in being together, just the two of them, not Mom and Dad, not Dr. and Dr., or Gov. and Dr., but just Jed and Abbey, lovers. She took Jed's hand and smiled at him, enjoying just the pleasure of an uninterrupted day with him.

She was surprised when the car continued right through town. They passed well-tended Victorian and Colonial houses and were soon climbing a hill with woods on both sides.

"Here, let me put this on you," Jed took out a handkerchief he had folded into a blindfold.

"You want to blindfold me?" She asked incredulously.

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"Is this something kinky?" She said warily.

"It's nothing kinky," he assured her. "But it can be if you want," he whispered into her ear as he placed the blindfold over her eyes. Abbey gave a soft laugh at the predictable response and felt the car turn off the main road. It seemed that they drove for quite a while before finally coming to a stop. Jed hopped out of the car and reached in to help Abbey out.

"Can I take my blindfold off now?"

"Yes Miss Impatience," he grinned. He untied the blindfold. Abbey's eyes widened. There in front of her was a large, white Colonial style farmhouse that was very similar to the one they shared in New Hampshire. However, this one had a big red ribbon running horizontally and vertically across its length to form a bow.

"Jed, what is this? What's going on?"

"Merry Christmas, sugarplum."

"This is...this is ours?" She asked with disbelief.

"For as long as we live in Washington. We can spend some weekends here and plan getaways just like you wanted."

Abbey's eyes took in the wide porch that ran the whole side of the house, then swept to the barn and the rolling hills and woods that sloped down to the blue, glistening expanse of Chesapeake Bay. She could see the town of Port Harmony in the distance. Turning back to where they came from, she couldn't even see the main road. The driveway was obviously very long and lined by thick forest. Complete and total privacy. Her eyes began to swim with tears as she looked into Jed's grinning face. He was just beaming with the pride and happiness he took in giving her this gift.

"Do you like it, sweetheart? Are you mad I bought it without..." Abbey silenced him by jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist. Her enthusiastic response caused him to fall back against the SUV.

"I LOVE it!" She exclaimed. "This is one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten," she began kissing all over his face with enthusiasm.

"I guess I don't have to wonder if you like it or not," he laughed. When she tried to let go, he hooked his arms under her rear to keep her where she was.

"Subtly has never been one of my strong points," Abbey admitted against his lips. "But do you know what the best part of this present is?"

"The privacy?" Abbey shook her head no. "The water?" Again no. "The barn?" Another negative shake and Jed gave up. "It's the fact that you listened to me. When I told you how much this meant to me, you were really listening."

"Yes, I do that sometimes," he tucked a strand copper hair behind her ear. "Well, now that I have you in such a good mood, how about that puppy?" He looked like such a little boy it made her heart flip.

"Next year, Jed," Abbey groaned, rolling her eyes, "next year."

"Abbey, are you ready to go yet?" Jed asked as he entered the nursery where Abbey was filling diaper bags.

"Just about. What's the rush? The plane won't leave without us."

"I want to get home. We only have a couple days to prepare for Christmas." Abbey smiled at his excitement. Jed had always been like a little kid at Christmas, especially when the girls were little. Now, having the twins for their first Christmas, had brought back that excitement.

"Is Zoey even here yet?"

"Yes, she's here, she's packed and she's ready to go, so let's get a move on, woman." Abbey put her hands on her hips and lifted her brow at him.

"OK, OK, what can I do to help you get moving a little faster?"

"You can put Aislinn's coat on. Nicholas is all set."

Jed pulled his daughter out of the playpen and laid her on the changing table to put her little fleece jacket on. Abbey smiled as she heard him singing "Up on the Housetop" while he zipped Aislinn's coat. She walked up behind him and put her arms around his waist to look over his shoulder at their baby girl who was smiling so adoringly at her father. Abbey knew exactly how her daughter felt.

"This is going to be a good Christmas, Jed," she kissed the side of his neck.

"Yes, it is," he agreed. "That is if we can ever get it started," he lifted Aislinn into his arms. "Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," she smiled and lifted Nicholas.

"Then let's go home."

++++