Jim, the agent on duty outside the First Couple's bedroom, took a deep breath and opened the door knowing the President was going to be pissed at yet again being roused from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. It was 3:00 am and all was quiet in the bedroom save for the soft snoring of the President. The First Lady lay draped over his chest, her copper hair covering her face.

"Sir...sir," Jim prodded at his arm, "wake up sir."

"What the hell?" Jed grumbled cracking one eye open. "Oh Christ, not you again."

"I'm sorry, sir, there's been another threat. We need to get you and the family back down into the bunker."

"Not again," he groaned, feeling Abbey begin to stir in his arms.

"I'm afraid so."

"What's going on?" Abbey asked, squinting up at them and pushing the hair back out of her face.

"Back to the bunker, babe," Jed patted her hip and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He grabbed his robe and put it on before tossing Abbey's over to her.

"This is getting to be a nightly ritual," Abbey said with irritation as she belted the silk robe around her slender waist. "Nicky and Aislinn are getting all thrown off schedule."

"I told you that you should go home to the farm with them," he whispered as they entered the nursery to each gently lift a sleeping baby into their arms while trying to keep them from waking up.

"Like hell," Abbey said firmly while rubbing her son's back to move him from whimpers back to sleep. "You know that if I leave with the kids, the people of DC are going to know there is a threat and it will cause a huge panic. I am the First Lady, just as you are the President and this is where I belong. Besides, I told you, I'm not leaving your side again."

"Ever?" He raised an eyebrow. "That could be quite interesting."

"You know what I mean," she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Yeah," he said, letting go of his baiting. He would never exactly know what Abbey had gone through in that bunker but he knew it would have a lasting effect on her. She had always been a very affectionate lover and sleeping companion. A woman who liked to cuddle and be cuddled while she slept. Thanks to her sometimes bizarre hours at the hospital and then his stretch in Congress she had been forced to learn to fall asleep without him, not that she liked it. Still, he loved the way she unconsciously rolled toward his body when he crawled into the bed at all hours of the night to snuggle up to him. But, since the day of the bombings, he had come to bed long after midnight to find her either still reading, curled in bed watching a movie, or tossing and turning. It was easy to see the relief in her eyes when he entered the room and only then could she relax and curl in his arms to sleep.

++++++++

The Presidential motorcade pulled up to a large stone church in the heart of Los Angeles. It was the third and last memorial service for the victims of the bombings that the First Couple had attended in as many days. Abbey sat leaning her head back against the seat with her eyes closed as she geared herself for the grief and emotional outpouring that would occur during the service and when talking with the victims' families. She had never been able to harden herself for this despite having to do it so many times, first as a doctor, and now as First Lady. She could never harden herself to the denial, the shock and ultimately the horrific grief when she had to tell a husband, a wife, a mother, a father that their loved one had passed on. She had always tried to do it gently and with compassion, always wondering how on earth she would be able to bear it if she were in their place. But not being able to harden yourself could also be emotionally exhausting. As a doctor, it had always been best for her when she immediately had to work on another patient, thus being able to switch gears into working hard for the still living. It was losing a patient at the end of her shift, or one she had been called in for an emergency consultation on, that took the most out of her. Those were the nights she drove home with hands clamped over the steering wheel, forcing herself to keep her emotions at bay until she got home. Jed, bless his heart, always seemed to know when something had gone wrong and kept the girls away while she changed into a warm comfortable robe and pulled herself together. It was only later when it was just the two of them that she allowed herself to feel the pain and take comfort in her husband's strong compassionate arms.

Yet, somehow being the First Lady and comforting the grieving families of the victims of natural disasters, violence, or even terrorism was more difficult. As a physician, a surgeon, she could give them answers about why their loved ones were gone. It was so much harder when she didn't have any reasons or explanations.

"We're here," Jed breathed as the limo stopped. Abbey looked at his strained face. Out of everything he did as President, she knew this was one of the hardest for him. He had never found it easy to deal with grief and loss and the words did not come easy for him. If anything, her husband empathized too much with the people he was supposed to give comforting words too. He knew that there wasn't anything anyone could say in a situation like this that would make him feel any better if he had lost a member of his family, and so he believed anything he said would be totally inadequate. It wasn't just the victims' families she would be comforting today, it was her husband as well. Abbey lifted his hand, kissing the back of it gently.

"OK, let's go."

+++++++++

(One month later)

Jed sat at his desk in the Oval Office going over some information he had asked for on land mines. It had been a busy and tense month for he and his staff. While the FBI searched for the groups responsible for the bombings, every threat, no matter how bizarre or far-fetched, had to be treated seriously. But gradually the threats had begun to slow down and life in the White House was beginning to gain some sense of normalcy again. It had been over two weeks since the last time the Secret Service had to awaken the first family for another trip down to the bunker, something for which both Jed and Abbey were eternally grateful.

"Sir?" CJ said, entering the Oval Office. "I hate to bug you with something as asinine as this but have you heard of Thomas Stanton?"

"I believe he is the yahoo who has never met my wife but has written some kind of unauthorized biography about her."

"That would be the one. Well, in the briefing today, I was asked about a passage where he states that since the birth of the twins, the First Lady has been addicted to pain pills and that is why she was virtually absent from public life for the first two months after the birth."

Jed merely glanced skeptically over his glasses at his press secretary.

"I take it the answer is no," CJ tried not to smile. She loved coming to him with this off the wall stuff she knew wasn't true just to see his reaction.

"CJ, you sat outside my wife's room for over 8 hours that night. Did it sound like she had any pain medication?"

"No sir," she bit her lip feeling the giggle rising.

"As for being out of commission for two months, good Christ, she had just given birth to twins and we didn't have a nanny for over a month. She wanted to care for them on her own. Let's just say that didn't give her a lot of time to give speeches and go to lunches."

"So your answer is no to the sitting around stoned?" CJ chuckled.

"Go," he said, motioning her to the door, trying not to laugh until she left. He knew these things made CJ's day.

"Yes, sir," she started to leave but turned back to him.

"What is it now, Claudia Jean? Are we putting beer in the babies' bottles, a shot of whiskey to knock them out at night?" He asked sarcastically.

"Don't give him any ideas," CJ smiled. "No, I was just wondering if everything is OK with Ellie?"

"Ellie?" Jed questioned. "Why would you ask?"

"I just went to the East Wing to give Mrs. Bartlet the laugh about this, but she is speaking at a luncheon at the University of Virginia..."

"I'm aware of my wife's schedule, CJ, what has that got to do with Ellie?"

"I was just getting to that, sir. I bumped into Ellie on my way out. I haven't seen her for a while so I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't look up at me."

"I thought she only did that with me," Jed sighed.

"No, sir, this was different. She kept her head down and practically rushed away from me."

"Did she say where she was going?" Jed frowned.

"She said she was going to wait for her mother in the residence."

"OK, thanks for the heads up." As CJ exited, Jed called out to Charlie. "What's my next meeting?"

"In 40 minutes Rep. Brad Lungren is arriving for a photo op."

"Good, I have time. Tell Leo I had to make a quick visit to the residence."

"Is anything wrong, sir?"

"I hope not."

+++++

Jed swung open the door to the living room of the residence. He immediately saw Ellie laying stretched out on the couch, reading one of Abbey's medical journals.

"Ellie, why didn't you tell me you were coming over? I would have cleared my schedule so we could have lunch."

"It's OK, Dad," Ellie said with her face still in the magazine. "I just came over to see Mom." There was a hoarseness to her voice that caused him to approach her with his eyes narrowed suspiciously. He knew very well the voice of a woman who had been crying.

"Ellie, is everything all right?" He asked. The concern in his voice caused Ellie's back to tense as she held back the tears she had been fighting.

"I'm fine, Dad," she nearly choked on the words.

"You're not fine, Eleanor," he said almost angrily. "I have asked you this a hundred times. Please do me the courtesy of LOOKING at me when I am speaking to you."

Ellie ignored him, continuing to look down at her magazine but soon her shoulders began to shake.

"Ellie, for God's sake," Jed reached a hand out to lift her chin, causing her long hair to fall back and reveal her face. Ellie cringed at the look of horror that crossed her father's face.

"Jesus Christ, Ellie," he gasped. "What the hell happened to you?"

TBC...