************

Looking across the diminished ranks of the White House press corps, CJ noted that there wasn't a single one whose kneecaps she wouldn't cheerfully smash right now. She pushed up her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose before continuing, "President Bartlet left Chicago an hour ago, on his way to his final campaign stops, which are in Michigan. His last official stops will be Lansing and Detroit, but first he'll spend about an hour in Kalamazoo, which, in addition to having a fabulous name and being the celery capital of the United States -- which the President is ecstatic about--" She paused for the ripple of laughter that remark engendered. "--Kalamazoo is also...what?" No one moved. "Come on; you guys live for useless minutiae like this." Still, no response.

CJ opened her mouth to answer her own question but had to stop as a great pain shot through her abdomen. She gripped the side of the podium, hoping no one had noticed, and when the pain subsided, she put on her best "I love my job -- really" smile and said, "Kalamazoo is also the home town of the President's Western campaign coordinator, Nicki Rhyland." CJ closed her notebook. "And with that piece of utterly worthless knowledge, I'm calling a full lid. Unless something drastic happens -- which, believe me, it isn't going to today -- your next briefing is in six hours. Grab some lunch; grab some beer -- remind yourselves that there is a city beyond these walls. That's it."

The gaggle was mercifully quiet as she left the podium. No one seemed to have noticed her long pause or the grimace she was fairly sure she hadn't been able to keep from her face. Although, now that she thought about it, that didn't fill her with confidence in the investigative capabilities of the reporters who weren't following President Bartlet around during these last hours before the election.

"CJ, what was that?" Ah. Someone had noticed.

The press secretary didn't bother pretending she didn't know what her assistant was talking about. "Funny you should ask, Carol, because I believe it was a contraction."

Carol's eyes widened. "CJ! A -- really? We should--"

"Breathe. That would be a good place to start." She smiled fondly at the other woman and headed down the hall toward her office.

"CJ!" Carol sounded scandalized. "What are you doing? I mean, where are you going?"

CJ looked at Carol out of the corner of her eye. "Well, I've heard a rumor that I have an office somewhere in this building. Mind you, I've never actually seen it, but--"

"CJ! We have to -- you're in labor. We have to call the hospital! The doctor! Leo!"

"Do not call Leo yet." CJ grabbed Carol's arm. "I mean it. He'll panic, and the last thing we need is the chief of staff panicking the day before the election."

"But--"

"Carol. That was my first contraction. I don't think the baby's going to come shooting out anytime soon. I promise: when the contractions are closer together, we'll make calls. Until then, I want to get as much work done as possible, as it appears little...Whoever Cregg-McGarry intends to make an early entrance into the world."

Carol grinned. "Still haven't picked a name yet?"

"Not a single one. Seriously, we should both resign, because we're clearly unfit to have power in this country." She frowned as they turned a corner and arrived outside her office. "And, Carol, if Leo finds out before I'm ready, I'll hex you."

"You'll hex me?"

"Some sort of holiday hex, I think. May your Thanksgiving turkey never thaw; may your mistletoe really be poison ivy -- that sort of thing."

She smiled and nodded. "But you promise you'll let me know when it's time to make the calls, right?"

"You'll be the second to know." CJ put a hand to the small of her back as she waddled into her office. "Right after me."

But the funny thing about the White House is that things have a way of coming up unexpectedly, and CJ Cregg was not the kind of woman who would let a little thing like labor pains distract her from the work that needed to be done. By the time she got around to noticing them again, her contractions were just over three minutes apart. She tapped a pen on the edge of her keyboard a couple times, then buzzed her assistant. "Uh, Carol?"

"Yeah."

"Remember when I said I'd let you know when it was time to make the calls?"

"It's time?"

"Honestly, I think it's a little past time."

She heard a sigh of long-suffering. "How far apart are they?"

"Three minutes." She leaned away from the phone in case Carol decided to shriek.

Instead, Carol sighed again. "Okay. Who am I calling?"

"GW. Tell them I'm on my way. Oh, and -- you'd better call Leo. I'm not -- he's going to throw myriad tantrums before he gets around to freaking out, and I'm in no state to deal with that right now."

"Gotcha."

After CJ disconnected the intercom, she picked up the phone and called her obstetrician, who had a good chuckle at the press secretary's expense. "Only you, CJ," Ruana said, "would lose track of labor pains. I'll meet you at the hospital." At some point, a C-section had been discussed, because of CJ's earlier ectopic pregnancy, but in a fit of righteousness she was sure she was about to regret, CJ had insisted that unless it looked like something was going wrong, she wanted to give birth to her child "normally."

As she was hanging up from telling Henry to be ready to do the rest of the day's briefings -- and the next day's, as well -- a blond streak in a dark suit all but fell into her office. "CJ! You're in labor? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Leo." She held her hand up to silence him. "What's past is past, and yelling at me is not going to help."

He sighed and ran his hand across his face. "You're right. I'm just -- what will help?"

She smiled and turned her hand over, and Leo grabbed it and hauled her out of the chair. "Getting me to the hospital."

"You need anything else?" Carol beamed at them as they left the office.

CJ frowned, thinking. "Yeah. If anyone asks where we've gone, you can tell them, but don't broadcast it. They'll find out soon enough."

"Right." Carol nodded. "So...good luck, both of you."

CJ smiled and squeezed Carol's hand briefly. "Thank you, Carol." She glanced around. "See you in eight weeks, I guess."

************

Ruana Moe was waiting for them with a wheelchair when they got to the hospital. "CJ, Leo," she called, "you're already checked in; let's get you right up to delivery." When CJ balked at the wheelchair, Ruana stood firm. "It's either the chair or a bed, CJ," she told her.

"Fine."

"There's going to be a third-year med student assisting with the delivery," the doctor said. "If that's all right with you."

As another contraction contorted CJ's body, she gasped, "At this point, a team of trained seals could assist with the delivery and I wouldn't give a damn."

Ruana laughed and wheeled CJ out of the elevator. "Actually, I'm sure you must know her. Eleanor Bartlet?"

Leo laughed. "Ellie's going to help deliver this baby? There's something strangely fitting about that, don't you think?"

"Leo, I am in such agony right now that I'm not thinking about anything other than what I'm going to do to you when this is over." But a split second later she was gripping his hand. "You're not going to leave, are you, Gerald?"

"Leave?" He blinked. "Why on Earth would I do that?"

"Because I'm probably going to call you a lot of really offensive names before this is over."

He kissed her hand. "You call me whatever you want, Claude; I'm not moving until our baby is born."

She sighed, then flinched at another contraction. "Thank you."

Ellie Bartlet grinned at them as they came into the delivery room. "Hey, guys. The big moment's here kinda early, huh?"

"Hi, Ellie." Leo leaned over and kissed her cheek as Ruana helped CJ clamber awkwardly onto the bed. "What are you doing here, exactly?"

"Obstetrics rotation. When I heard you two were on your way, I begged to help with the delivery."

CJ was struggling to get into the stupid hospital gown. "Don't you still go to school in Baltimore?"

"It's an arrangement Johns Hopkins has with GW Medical. We come down here for certain rotations; they come up to Baltimore for others. Gives everyone a chance to see how things are done in other hospitals."

Ruana brought a small, bright-eyed woman to the foot of the bed. "CJ, Leo, this is our nurse, Belle." Leo shook the nurse's hand, and CJ waved weakly.

The door opened again, and the pediatrician swept into the room. "Hello, Cregg-McGarrys."

Leo gave his old friend a quick hug. "Glad you could join us, Pat."

"Well, thought I'd be here to greet my newest patient. How you feeling, CJ?"

"Like I'm about to try to pull an entire loaf of bread out of a toaster."

Pat grinned. "I like that image. I'll have to remember it." He grinned at the other doctor. "Hi, Dr Moe."

Ruana smiled back. "Good afternoon, Dr Hargrove. This is Ellie; she's one of the Johns Hopkins third-years."

Pat shook Ellie's hand. "Dr Bartlet. Heard you were down this month."

"Dr Hargrove. My father sends his regards."

Pat grimaced. "Bet he does."

Leo clapped him on the back. "Relax, Pat; you were one of the nice ones."

"Belle!" Hargrove cried as he spotted the woman. "Best damned nurse in OB."

"Hello, Dr Hargrove," Belle said, blushing slightly as she cleaned the instruments.

"Hello?" CJ called. "Anyone interested in the pregnant lady over here?"

"I'm right here, CJ," Ruana assured her. "You're dilated almost to nine centimeters, which is great, so we're just going to wait a while longer until you're fully dilated."

"That's it?" she yelped. "We wait?"

"There's not really anything else we can do right now, CJ. Try to relax as much as possible, maybe yell at Leo some more, and I promise we'll get started as soon as we can."

Ellie moved to the head of the bed and smoothed CJ's hair, trying to help her relax. "So, boy or girl?"

CJ shook her head. "We don't know. We didn't want to know."

"Okay. What names have you picked out?"

"We haven't," Leo said, rolling his eyes.

"No names?" Pat asked.

"We have a whole page of names, and we hate them all. Now, if CJ would just agree to my grandmother's name for a girl--"

"I'm not naming my daughter Hester."

"Like Hamish is so much better for a boy," he returned.

The charge nurse slipped into the room with a small piece of paper in her hand. "Mr McGarry? Ms Cregg? Some people have called for you."

"I know who that's going to be." Leo took the paper anyway.

The nurse frowned. "I think the President called, too."

"You think?"

"Someone called and asked if you were in the delivery room, and when I said yes and asked if I could take a message, he...well, he sounded almost embarrassed and said he'd try again later. His voice sounded just like President Bartlet's."

Leo sighed. "That was him, all right. Thank you." The woman nodded and left again. "How the hell did he find out so fast? He's in Michigan, for crying out loud."

"He's the President, Leo," CJ said through clenched teeth. "How does anything he does surprise you? What do the messages say?"

Leo slipped on his glasses and consulted the paper. "Toby says good luck; Sam sends his love; and Josh requests that we not name the baby Liberty, Democracy, or Electoral Process."

"He is so lucky I'm in too much pain to go back to the White House and kick his ass."

"Does it seem strange," Leo asked, frowning, "that the men sent messages, but not the women?"

"Not at all," CJ replied. "The women are smart enough to know that you never interfere with a woman in labor." She gave a strangled yelp and gripped Ellie's hand. "Ellie--"

"Dr Moe?" Ellie called. The obstetrician looked up from the whispered conference she and Belle had been holding in the corner. "CJ's water just broke."

"And the contractions are right on top of each other," CJ gasped.

Ruana nodded and crossed the room. "Looks like it's showtime," Pat said. He looked at Leo. "You all right, McGarry?"

"I just..." He swallowed. "Jenny wouldn't let me anywhere near the delivery room when Mal was born. I've never--"

"All you have to do is hold CJ's hand and be here for her," Ellie assured him.

"Sit here and take abuse, in other words?"

"Unless you want to give birth to this baby, Leo--" CJ hissed.

Ellie squeezed her hand. "CJ, did you take Lamaze or any other birthing class?"

"Why, yes, Ellie, I slipped it in between press briefings and kayaking lessons."

The President's daughter ignored that. "Let's set up a simple breathing pattern, okay? Hee, hee, hee. Hoo, hoo, hoo. Come on."

CJ joined her. "Hee, hee, hee. Hoo, hoo -- I'm sorry, Ellie; I just feel too ridiculous."

"That's nothing compared to how you'll feel if you go through labor without something like this."

"Okay, CJ," Dr Moe cut in, "when you feel the next contraction start, I want you to push."

"Aw, shit. You mean I actually have to push this baby out of me?"

"That's kind of the idea, CJ," Leo said.

"You absolutely need to shut up, Leo," she returned. "This is your fault."

"Come on, CJ," Ellie said. "Concentrate on breathing. Concentrate on--"

"Oh, God!" CJ gasped.

Things got pretty incoherent after that, what with CJ screaming and all. At one point she asked the "medical types" in the room how many bones were in Leo's little finger and how many she could hope to break by squeezing his hand really hard. The words "bastard," "vasectomy," and "sex-crazed maniac" passed her lips more than once, and something that sounded suspiciously like "sleep on the couch for the rest of your natural life" slipped out, too. But Leo didn't let go of her hand once, not even when she was threatening to break it, and Ellie stayed on her other side, trying to keep her calm.

And then there was a new scream in the room, one that was small, quavering, and decidedly pissed at having left a warm, dark place for a cold, blindingly bright one. "Congratulations, guys," Pat told them, grinning. "You have a beautiful baby girl."

CJ's head fell back onto the pillow. She was drenched in sweat and felt like she had just run three fucking marathons in a row, and she burst into tears. "Oh God, Leo," she sobbed.

He gave her hand a light squeeze and kissed her forehead. "I know, Claude," he whispered, "I know."

Belle came to the side of the bed. "CJ?" CJ struggled to sit up, and the nurse held out her arms, and CJ held her daughter for the first time.

"Hey, precious one," she said, trying not to cry on the baby. "Happy birthday." She giggled and looked at Leo. "It's a baby," she said.

He grinned. "It sure is. It's our baby."

"A baby without a name," Pat pointed out.

CJ looked up at Leo and tilted her head, questioning. His gaze flicked to Ellie, and he nodded. "Actually..." he said.

The young woman felt their eyes on her. "No. Uncle Leo -- CJ, you can't--"

"Please, Ellie?" CJ asked quietly. "You were -- I don't think I would've made it through this without you."

"Of course you would've," Ellie said, blushing.

"It's not up for debate," Leo said firmly. He touched his daughter's cheek in awe. "Welcome to the world, Eleanor," he said, and smiled at CJ, who was crying again. He turned to Pat. "I need to get this hand looked at. I think I've got a couple broken bones."

CJ cooed at the baby. "Don't listen to your father, Eleanor. He's a bitter old man with a mean sense of humor."

Belle came back to the bed. "I need to take her for a while, and then we'll take you to your room, CJ, and I'll take Eleanor to the nursery, if you'd like to come with me, Leo."

He shook his head. "I'll stay with CJ."

CJ handed their daughter to Belle, then grabbed the nurse's hand. "Please, please, please keep the riff-raff away from my baby."

She smiled. "I assure you, the public is--"

"Not the public," CJ said, shaking her head. "Josh and Sam."

Leo snickered and kissed her as Belle left for the nursery. By the time they looked around to thank Ellie again, she had slipped out of the room.

************

"Hey!" Josh called as he stumbled into the Oval Office. "Got here as fast as I could."

"That's everybody," Jed said into the speakerphone. He sounded exhausted, and for good reason -- he'd returned to Washington from Michigan a mere half an hour prior, and with the election on the horizon tomorrow morning, sleep was not in the cards for his immediate future. He looked around at all the people crammed into his office, half of whom he'd never seen before. "And I do mean everybody. Go ahead, guys; spare no details."

"Well," Leo began, "CJ and I are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl. Twenty and three-quarter inches long; seven pounds two ounces." He leaned back and waited, grinning at CJ.

"And?"

"And what, sir?"

"Don't keep us in suspense!" Connie said. Bruno and Doug had, predictably, declined the offer of "meeting" the new Cregg-McGarry, but nothing would've kept Connie away. "What did you name her?"

Leo raised an eyebrow at CJ; he knew he couldn't pull off the next part without laughing. "Well, actually," she said, "Josh made a fabulous suggestion--"

"Oh, no," Donna moaned.

"We've decided to call the little dear 'Electoral Process.'"

"No!" Josh yipped. "No, you've gotta -- CJ, I swear I--"

Leo and CJ burst out laughing. "Relax, Josh," Leo said. "Her name is Eleanor Amanda. We're calling her Nora."

He could almost hear Jed frowning. "Eleanor? As in my daughter Eleanor?"

"Yes, sir," CJ said. "She was there during the delivery, and she saved us. If not for Ellie's intervention, you would be talking to one very bitter, very insane staffer right now -- but only one, because I would most certainly have killed Leo during labor. We've asked her to be Nora's godmother."

Jed was eerily silent. "She was fantastic, sir," Leo said gently. "She's an amazing young woman."

The President cleared his throat. "Yes, that she is."

"Where's the Amanda come from?" Connie asked.

"My mother," CJ said.

"Being named after Amanda Cregg is not something you want to saddle a child with," Toby said.

"Hey, watch it, buddy," CJ warned him. "That's my mother you're talking about."

"She's a wonderful woman, Toby," Leo said. "It's not our fault she hates you."

"It's not mine, either," Toby countered. "She's just a nutcase. So, when do we get to meet the little bundle of nerves?"

CJ chuckled. "I believe the phrase you're looking for is 'bundle of joy,' Toby. 'Bundle of nerves' would be you."

"Whatever. When can we see her?"

"You may come see her whenever you want," Leo said. "As may the junior staff, and the President, if Ron clears it. Mutt and Jeff over there--"

"I'll have you know I've helped raise seven younger cousins, Leo," Sam said indignantly. "I am excellent with babies."

"Fine. You can come, too," Leo said. "Josh?"

"I, uh, promise not to actually touch her?"

CJ laughed. "Deal."

"Well," Jed said, "I think that's it for us. Call us when you get home from the hospital, CJ."

"I will, sir."

"And, Leo, you'll be here tomorrow to help me survive this accursed election?"

"I will be there, sir."

"All right. We're done. As soon as someone shows me how to disconnect this damned thing."

Laughter surged through the Oval as the assistants pressed forward to help the President. "Mr President?" Leo asked suddenly.

"Yes?"

"Call Ellie today."

Jed paused, then sighed. "I will."

Leo pushed the disconnect button on the phone and stroked Nora's cheek with the back of his finger. "She's so tiny."

"I know. But she'll grow fast."

He sighed. "I know that, too. I just...I don't remember Mallory being so small." He frowned. "Then again, I don't remember much of Mallory's childhood."

CJ rested her hand on his arm. "This is your second chance," she reminded him. "You can do better this time."

"I couldn't possibly do worse."

CJ rolled her eyes. "Hold your daughter and stop feeling sorry for yourself, Gerald."

As he took Nora from her, Leo smiled at CJ. "We did good, Claude."

"We?" She blinked. "Gosh, Gerald; you're holding the baby I squeezed out of my body; where's yours?"

He sighed. "I meant in a larger sense."

She smiled softly. "Yeah. We did good." Then she frowned. "But, Leo? Make me go through this again, and every Bartlet woman who's ever lived won't be enough to save you."

He nodded gravely. "I had a hunch."

CJ and Leo kissed softly over their daughter, who had no idea that she had just been party to a phone call with the President of the United States, that some of the brightest minds in the nation were anxious to meet her, that her own parents were people of great power and influence. She had slept through the whole thing.