Michael and Beth O'Neill stood on the porch of their daughter's home watching she and her family approach. The fields were blanketed with snow and the ice on the pond gleamed under the bright winter sun. They were all dressed in ski parkas, hats, and boots to brave the single digit temperatures while they had been out searching for, and cutting down the Christmas tree Jed and Zoey were now dragging behind them. Abbey walked in step with them pulling a toboggan that held Nicholas and Aislinn strapped in under a heavy wool blanket.

"You want to bring the tree in now, Dad?" Zoey asked.

"Not yet. I'm going to help your Mom bring the little puffalumps in first then we'll do the tree," Jed looked down at the twins in their toboggan and couldn't help but grin. Abbey had pulled the hoods of their snowsuits so tight all that was visible were four big owl eyes and two red noses.

"Mom, Dad, you made it," Abbey said as she trudged up the stairs with Aislinn.

"Of course," Beth told her. "I wasn't going to miss my grandkids first Christmas." She began to untie Aislinn's hood. "Oh goodness, look at those rosy cheeks," she bent to kiss her granddaughter and then her grandson as Jed approached with him. Jed couldn't believe the change in Beth. The last time he had seen her, she had looked old and ill. Her words had been very slurred and she had had a bit of trouble moving her left side. Now, other than speaking just a tad more slowly, he never would have known she'd had a stroke a mere six weeks ago. The sparkle was back in her eyes and the color back in her cheeks.

"Mom," He set Nicholas on the floor so he could give her a big hug. "I can't get over how good you look."

"Thank you sweetheart," she kissed his cheek. "I give Michael and Abbey all the credit. They wouldn't let me quit even when I wanted to."

"It wasn't just us, Mom," Abbey was unzipping the twins out of their snowsuits as she spoke. "You worked damn hard."

"I wish I'd been able to get back and help out more," Jed took the snow dampened mittens Abbey handed him and placed them on the radiator.

"Well, I'd say you had a few more important things on your agenda," Beth smiled. "This country can't exactly run itself just because an old lady would like to see her son-in-law."

"Old lady?" Jed exclaimed with mock outrage. "I don't see any old ladies here."

"Bless your heart, darlin'," Beth touched his cheek with a chuckle, "but there's that Irish blarney in ye," she feigned a thick Irish accent.

"Tis' not the blarney at all," Jed gave a good impression of his grandfather's heavy brogue. "Y'er only as old as ye feel. Age is a complete state of mind."

"Ah, Abbey darlin', can I keep him?" She teased as she pinched Jed's cheek.

"I think Daddy might have a problem with that," Abbey grinned and put her arm around Jed's waist.

"Yes, lay off son. You already have one of my women," Michael joined the teasing banter as he was looking out the window by the door. "Who is that driving up?" he asked. Abbey joined him to peer out.

"Oh, that's Elizabeth, Jay, and Annie. They went to pick Ellie up at the airport." She turned back around just in time to see Nicholas crawling up the fifth step of the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Jed, stop him!" She gasped. Jed turned and quickly dashed to scoop his son off the stairs.

"Buddy, that wasn't such a smart move. You aren't even walking yet." Nicholas squirmed wanting to get down and try again. Abbey put her arms out to take him.

"You just scared the daylights out of me, you little daredevil," she kissed the top of his soft blond head. Nicholas looked up at her with wide, innocent, blue eyes. He knew just how to charm his mother.

"That one is going to be a handful," Beth laughed.

"Just like his father," Abbey sighed.

++++

The Bartlet farmhouse was alight with candles in the every window and the Christmas tree was twinkling away in front of the big bay window. Music and laughter spilled through the doors as Jon, Sally, and Emily arrived laden with gifts on Christmas Eve.

Inside Ellie was playing the piano, Jed sat next to her singing 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' with Aislinn sitting on his lap in a pretty red velvet dress and white tights. Annie was seated on the floor bouncing Nicholas on her on her knees and everyone else was crowded around the piano singing. Everyone but Abbey.

Jon placed his gifts under the tree then gathered his wife and mother's coats and moved to the hall closet to hang them. As he moved past the library, a movement caught his eye. He peered in and saw Abbey standing in front of the fireplace looking incredibly lovely as usual. She was wearing a long, wool, slim fitting, cream and red plaid skirt and a cream colored cashmere mock turtleneck sweater. Her auburn hair was loose and snapped with color in the firelight. She held a picture in her hand and the sad, wistful look on her face drew him in to her.

++++

Abbey had gone into the library to find a book she had recommended to Elizabeth. Upon walking toward the shelf, she had paused at the computer desk to pick up a picture of the Bartlet family that Jed kept there. The picture was certainly not a study in warmth. Neither parent was touching the two young boys standing in front of them. John Bartlet stood with the stern, severe expression she remembered so vividly on him and Emily looked aloof and regal. Jed was a skinny young boy of about 12 or 13. He stood stiffly in his suitcoat, his face dominated by big, serious blue eyes. She ran a finger over the glass as if she could push back the lock of hair that fell over his forehead. Her heart ached at his vulnerability. He, at least, was trying to smile, but it was a hesitant, uncomfortable smile. His arm was around his younger brother whose face held not even the glimmer of a smile. It still amazed her at how Jed had become the warm, loving self-confident man that he was after coming from such a cold, barren, emotionless background.

"That was taken the Christmas I turned 10," Jon said from behind her.

"Jon," Abbey turned around, startled. Jon took the picture from her hand and gazed down.

"Look at how cold my parents are," he said. "Thank God for Jed. Even at 12, he was looking out for me."

"Jed isn't happy unless he's looking out for someone."

"He was a great big brother," Jon said fondly. "Even though he was only a year and a half older than me, I looked up to him like nobody else. To me Jed was a golden boy. He had such patience with me. He never bullied me like my friends' big brothers did with them and he always let me tag along with him. I think because of the way our father was he felt such a sense of responsibility for me."

"He's been really struggling with that emotional conflict lately."

"I thought the censure might bring all that back to the surface. His relationship with Dad was so much more complicated than mine was. You know, as much as I love Jed, there were times that I hated him."

"Of course. You were brothers."

"Not because of the usual brotherly reasons though. It was mainly because Jed refused to fly under the radar. Not only did he get good grades, he had to be damn near a genius. God, that used to just drive my father crazy. Sometimes I wished Jed would just slack off so my father wouldn't be so bitter and angry with him. I know he was afraid to speak up to our father but that never stopped him from doing it. Damn, did he have guts. I always stayed under that radar trying so hard not to draw any attention to myself. I was the coward. Jed was the brave one. But boy, did he pay the price for that."

"You both did what you had to in order to make through to adulthood. Don't be so hard on yourself."

"Do you tell Jed that?"

"All the time," Abbey smiled sadly.

+++

By the time Jon and Abbey refilled their eggnog glasses, the singing had stopped. They stepped into the living room where everyone was crowded around Jed who sat with a baby on each knee and was reading from a big red book.

"T'was the night before Christmas, When all through the house Not a creature was stirring, Not even a mouse..."

Abbey smiled watching Aislinn trying to tug Jed's glasses off, and Nicholas pulling at the buttons on his shirt. Jed studiously ignored their busy little hands and continued to read from his book. Yes, Abbey thought, in spite of everything his father had done to him that sweet, responsible little boy had grown into a loving, kind, gentle man.

++++

It was almost 1:00 am when the entire Bartlet family returned home from midnight mass. While everyone else went straight to bed, Abbey went in to check on the twins and stood, watching them sleep. Her hand moved to her now flat belly, remembering how heavily pregnant she had been at this time last year. It was hard to believe she hadn't even known these two remarkably precious creatures last Christmas. That she hadn't even known if they were boys or girls, or whether she would deliver them safely, or if they would be born too small and have health problems. And now lying here sleeping peacefully on this night of miracles were her own two little miracles, her new son and daughter.

Jed stood in the doorway enjoying the purely maternal tenderness emanating from his wife as she stood gazing down at their offspring. He watched her gently pull the covers back over them and trail a finger lovingly over the top of each head. He entered the room and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"You thinking about last Christmas?"

"Yeah. I can't believe we didn't know them last year and now they are two separate and distinct little personalities."

"Last year, they were just pictures from inside your belly. Your gift to me."

"And it was this night we decided if we had a boy we'd name him Nicholas to commemorate that." She ran a finger over her son's back. Nicholas stirred slightly in his sleep and pulled his thumb back into his mouth and began to suck.

"We should go," Jed whispered. "We still have a lot of work to do."

++++

"That's the last of it," Jed said placing a big, soft, stuffed rocking horse under the tree. Despite the fact that they were less than a year old, Jed and Abbey had kept the twins' 'Santa' gifts hidden and were just placing them under the tree now. While Jed had filled in under the tree, Abbey had been stuffing the stockings that hung on the mantle over the fire.

"Not quite the last of it," she said, coming forward with a flat wrapped gift. "You'll get your big gift tomorrow but this one is a little more personal."

"That sounds intriguing," he reached for the package and began to tear at the paper. He looked puzzled at first upon seeing a black portfolio. But, his confusion turned to astonishment when he saw what was inside. The portfolio consisted of page after page of glossy 8X10 glamorous, sexy pictures of his wife. Some were actually pretty racy, and while she wasn't naked in any of them, the suggestiveness in the photos made that even more tantalizing.

"Who took these pictures of you?" He let out the breath he had been holding.

"Harry Nilsson, the guy who took my Vogue photos."

"These aren't the Vogue shots, are they?" He looked worried.

"Do you think I'm crazy? Of course those aren't the Vogue shots. I asked him to take some personal pictures that I could give you for Christmas and he cleared the studio to do these. Do you like them?"

"LIKE them?" He turned the page to a photo of Abbey kneeling on the bed wearing nothing but a man's dress shirt that was completely unbuttoned leaving a column of naked skin from throat to thigh. The slopes of her breasts were visible, as was her belly button. Her hands demurely closed the shirt over the white lace panties there was a mere glimpse of, but there was nothing demure about the sultry look she was giving the camera.

In another photo her back was to the camera and she was holding a sheet over her breasts, a sheet that dipped provocatively low in the back. She was looking over her shoulder and the slender expanse of her back was completely bare all the way to her rear.

In yet another one she stood wearing white, filmy spaghetti strapped negligee leaning with her cheek against what looked like a pillar of the White House. Her languid green eyes were staring straight into the camera.

The second to the last page held a photo of her lying across a brocade loveseat. One arm was flung behind her head and her neck was tipped back allowing her russet hair to spill over the arm. She was completely naked except for a sheet draped strategically over her breasts and hips.

In the last photo she sat at a vanity table, her hair pulled up and wispy long tendrils escaping to curl along her slim neck. She was wearing only a black silk slip with slim straps that crossed in the back. She was yet again looking over her shoulder as if her lover had just walked into the room. Jed was stunned by her alluring femininity. These were all looks he had seen before, but seeing them in large color photos was entirely different. It was incredibly erotic seeing her this way. And while the pictures were provocative and sensual, they were also done with innate tastefulness. There was nothing smarmy or dirty about them. In fact, they played up Abbey's combination of sexual elegance to a tee.

"Abbey, I don't know what to say. Of course I like them. You...you're absolutely breathtaking." He couldn't take his eyes off the alluring pictures. "But I can see why you didn't want me to open this tomorrow morning."

"It might have been a little embarrassing," she admitted. "Then again, it might have been worth it just to see the expression on your mother's face."

++++

Annie let out a loud squeal of delight as she ripped the paper off the large gift in front of her to see the fancy new saddle she had been begging for.

"Gramps, THANK YOU!" She jumped to her feet to rush over and give Jed a big hug.

"You're very welcome, Tinkerbell," he winked at her knowing she would let him get away with the endearment she hated so much on this morning anyway.

"Thank you, Gram," she turned to hug Abbey.

"You're welcome, sweetheart," she kissed Annie's cheek "Lancelot is going to be the best tacked horse on the circuit next summer."

"I can't wait to try it out."

"Look at this, he's finally getting the hang of it," Jed said. He was sitting on the floor with the twins. Nicholas and Aislinn sat in their little reindeer sleepers that stated "Baby's First Christmas", amidst piles of balled up wrapping paper. He and Abbey had started to tear the paper, trying to teach the kids how to open their gifts. But, in the beginning both had been more interested in trying to play with, and eat the wrapping paper. Now however, Nicholas was pulling paper from a gift and at the encouraging words from their father, Aislinn reached over to help him.

"They'll be old pros for their birthday next month," Beth laughed. She was feeling very blessed this holiday to have been spared by the Lord to share yet another milestone with her family.

Everyone had begun to clean up the wrapping paper and Abbey started to follow her mother and Emily into the kitchen to start to prepare the big brunch for everyone. Jed caught her under the mistletoe and pulled her into his arms.

"So," he whispered into her ear, "I'm still a little hot and bothered by those pictures you gave me last night."

"They really got to you, huh?"

"Oh yeah, and now I want to use my big gift. When do you think we can christen it?"

"Well, not today," she laughed. "How about New Year's Eve?"

"You're gonna make me wait a WEEK?"

"I think you can make it. Besides, at that point, everyone will be gone and we can have our own little private New Year's party."

"Now you're talking, Mrs. Bartlet, now you're talking," he pointed up at the mistletoe and proceeded to give her a big Christmas kiss.

++++

Epilogue

"Are you all packed?" Abbey asked. She entered Ellie's bedroom just as her middle daughter was zipping her suitcase closed.

"Pretty much," Ellie sighed.

"I'm glad you and Zoey decided to go up to Waterville Valley. You'll have fun celebrating New Year's Eve up there."

"Mmm...," Ellie shrugged non-commitally. Abbey sat down on the edge of the bed and watched Ellie stuff her ski goggles and gloves into a duffel bag. A ski weekend was just what her two daughters needed right now.

Both had been moping around slightly now that the Christmas holiday had come and gone. Finding themselves without boyfriends during the holidays was a blow to both of them. Ellie was obviously still reeling from the Davis Hunter fiasco, but it was equally obvious that she hadn't entirely gotten over him.

Zoey's hurt was a little more raw. She and Charlie had broken up just after Thanksgiving, and while it had been a mutual agreement, it was still a tough adjustment.

Abbey hadn't been all that surprised by the break up. The fact that they had stayed together as long as they had was the surprising part. Charlie was the kind of young man every mother would want her daughter to date and she was no exception. He was polite, kind, and respectful and he obviously cared very much for her daughter. But, there just had never seemed to be that spark between them. A lot of people said that opposites attract, but the differences between Zoey and Charlie were just too great to overcome, especially in a couple so young. Neither of them was really ready for the compromises it would take to make the relationship work.

Charlie had been forced at a very young age to take life very seriously. Between taking care of his sister, his classes, and making his living by being at the beck and call of the President, it didn't leave much time for a girlfriend like Zoey. And, as much as she loved her daughter, Zoey was definitely a high maintenance girlfriend. She smiled with affection, thinking that Leo had referred to her just that same way when Jed had begun to date her.

She and Jed had tried their best to instill a strong social conscience in all of their daughters. All three had spent many days and evenings in soup kitchens, sorting clothes at St. Vincent de Paul, and playing with the Fresh Air kids their parents took in most summers. But, in spite of all that, it had been a privileged upbringing and Zoey simply didn't have the worries or weight on her shoulders that Charlie carried. She was a fun-loving, carefree coed away from home for the first time and she wanted to have fun with her boyfriend. She wanted Charlie to cheer with her at Georgetown basketball games and accompany her to campus parties, and the fact that he wasn't able to do so, had been a constant point of friction. Many had been the night that Abbey had spent on the phone listening to her daughter lament that fact.

She knew it was conjecture on her part, but she also knew her second youngest daughter pretty well. She figured part of Zoey's attraction to Charlie had been the fact that he worked for her father. She loved to tweak Jed as much as Jed loved to tweak her. But that certainly wasn't the basis for a relationship. Abbey figured the only thing that had kept them together this long was their very real friendship and their shared stubborn desire not to let the narrow minded people who were against their relationship win.

In any case, Abbey was not sorry they had broken up. She just wished that Zoey had met Charlie later, after she had her degrees. She knew she was being a hypocrite but she wanted her daughter to learn and have fun and just absorb everything that was going on in her life right now.

"Earth to Mom," Ellie said, waving a hand in front of Abbey's face.

"Sorry," Abbey apologized. "You know, Ell, with everything being so crazy we haven't had much time to talk. How are you doing with everything?"

"I still miss him, at least the part of him that was funny and decent and not filled with rage," Ellie admitted. "Isn't that crazy?"

"Not crazy at all. As horrible as he turned out to be, you did love him Ellie. He was the first man you loved as an adult and, as much as I want tear him limb from limb for how he treated you, I do know that you can't help how you feel and who you love."

"Mom, can I ask you a question?" Ellie sat down next to her.

"Of course."

Ellie had always loved that when her mother stated "you can talk to me about anything" she actually meant that. It wasn't just lip service the way it was for most of her friends' mothers. Abbey had always been very honest with them, even with the tough stuff like sex and drugs, and that in turn helped them to be honest with her.

"Did you always want to have a husband and children AND be a doctor or did that just happen because you met Dad and couldn't help falling in love with him?"

"No," Abbey smiled. "Long before I met your father, when I was still a little girl, my first dreams were for having babies, lots of babies. Then, as I grew older, I changed that dream to a husband and babies. I was in high school when I added doctor to the dream. Why?"

"Because I don't know how you did it. With medical school and now residency, I just don't know how I can have a serious relationship. I've begun to think that maybe I'm just not cut out for being one of those women like you who can have it all."

"Oh honey, you're having a rough patch right now, that's all," Abbey stroked Ellie's hair back from her face and looked deep into those beautiful Bartlet baby blues. "Right now is a crazy time for you. Believe me, I remember. But one day you are going to meet the right man. This man will look past all the craziness in your schedule and see the real Ellie Bartlet. The Ellie Bartlet who is lovely and sweet and generous and funny, and who has a beautiful soul. And when you meet this man, you will do anything you have to do in order to make the relationship work. It certainly wasn't easy for your father and me, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy, that's what makes it special."

"It's just so hard to meet someone who isn't put off with all the hours I have to spend at the hospital."

"When you meet the right man, he'll feel your dreams are just as important as his and you'll feel the same about him. Of course that means you will have to be ready for some big time compromising."

"Like when you gave up the Peace Corps for Daddy?"

"Yes, I did that. And he gave up a full Professorship at the London School of Economics right after he got his doctorate so he could come home and work part time as an assistant Professor at Dartmouth and care for Elizabeth so I could go to Harvard. If there is anything I've learned, baby, it's that you have to be willing to give and take or you'll never make it in a long term relationship."

"Did you miss not going into the Peace Corps?"

"A little. But your Dad gave me back that dream a few years later."

"How?" Ellie looked puzzled.

"Remember the summer we spent in Guatemala?"

"How could I forget?" Ellie wrinkled her nose immediately recalling the heat, the smell, and the bugs of the refugee camp, along with the pride she had felt in watching her mother move briskly throughout the village in her white lab coat to administer to the people. The villagers in the refugee camp had looked up to her mother as if she was an angel of mercy. That was when Ellie had decided to follow her footsteps into medicine.

"We had to live in that hut without a TV, or electricity, or even indoor plumbing so you could help those earthquake refugees."

"What you didn't know was that the Church had been looking for volunteers to go down and help out for a little while. They especially needed doctors, but most of the young doctors who would be willing to take on an adventure like that couldn't afford to take three months off without pay thanks to all those medical school bills. I really wanted to do it, but you girls were young and I couldn't imagine spending three months away from you. It was your father who came up with the idea of us all going down as a family in the summer when you, he, and Elizabeth were on school break. That way he could look after you all while I worked. I don't think your poor father knew what he was getting into," Abbey gave a soft laugh at the memory.

"Zoey was barely three and newly potty trained and he had to spend hours with her in that stinky old outhouse because she wasn't used to being in a bathroom like that and refused to go. I told him to revert back to diapers and we'd just retrain her back home, but he was having none of that. If those village kids could go in that awful outhouse, so would his daughter, he was not going to raise any prima donnas."

"That sounds like something Dad would say," Ellie laughed. "What happened?"

"Eventually Zoey began to use the outhouse. Your father is nothing if not tenacious."

"I remember him gathering up all the village kids and even some adults and teaching them English and all about irrigation and stuff. He even taught them how to play baseball and we used to have these big baseball games," Ellie smiled at the memory remembering that she had felt the same pride in her father that she had in her mother. The pride in her father came from watching him teach and converse with the villagers in their own language and the fact that the village kids trailed behind like he was the pied piper. Yet, at the end of the day, he was HER father and she was the one who got to go back to the hut with him. She was the one he tucked in and read bedtime stories to and that made it a little easier to share him during the day.

"Your father always does throw himself in to everything with 110% effort. But, what I'm trying to point out in this round about sort of way, is that when you find the right man there will have to be some sort of give and take and sometimes the giving will be even sweeter than the taking."