Author's Note: This is dedicated to my wonderful friend Sarah, who inspires me and supports me always. Enjoy, baby sister 3

Sweet Knees

On an unseasonably hot day, the Bartlets decided to go on a picnic. Elizabeth and Doug weren't invited; at six months pregnant, the eldest Bartlet—now Westin—was moody and overly sensitive and frankly, no fun to be around.

Zoey had been so excited that she spent the morning literally running circles as he packed the picnic basket. Ellie smiled at her little sister as she helped their mother make sandwiches for the family outing.

"Ellie, I made yours without ham, okay? It's the special one in the tin foil," Abbey told her daughter. Normally, she didn't condone picky eating habits in her children. Jed was hard enough to feed without three girls claiming they didn't like everything she put on their plates. But Ellie was so easy-going in every single other respect of life that Abbey bent her rule and tried not to give her food she genuinely didn't like.

Eleanor smiled up at her mother. "Thanks, Mom." She knew she was getting special treatment with her special sandwich, and she really did appreciate it.

Meanwhile, Zoey came running into the kitchen.

"Zoey Patricia, would you stop that!?" Abbey barked.

"I can't, Mommy. I'm an airplane! I have to zzzzzzzooooooooommmmmmm!" Zoey shouted as she continued her crazed running.

Abbey sighed. "Jed?" she said to her husband, asking for help.

He just shrugged. "She's an airplane."

Ellie stood right in Zoey's flight path. "I'm a mountain! You can't fly by me!"

Zoey stopped in her tracks, thought for a moment, and turned to run in the other direction. Ellie started to chase after her. "Hey! You're a mountain! You can't follow me!" the five year old shouted to her older sister.

"Okay, girls, time to go outside," Jed announced loudly. The girls both ran out the front door. Jed grabbed the picnic basket in one hand and held out the other. His already exasperated wife took it with a soft smile.

The family left their Manchester farmhouse and walked out past the barn and into the open field where the horses and cattle grazed. They found a nice spot away from the fences beside a large oak tree. Abbey laid out a large blanket and Jed set down the basket. The girls were still zooming around.

"Come on, little planes, let's have lunch," Abbey called to her daughters.

Zoey and Ellie plopped down beside their parents and enjoyed their ham and turkey sandwiches along with Jed's pasta salad, made from his mother's recipe. It was Ellie's favorite food, so he'd make it anytime she asked. A picnic was the first time in recent memory when she'd requested it for an occasion as appropriate as a picnic.

The four Bartlets talked and laughed together as they ate. Zoey would tell everyone things her dolls had told her during their tea party earlier in the week. Ellie would ask her parents questions about the things she'd learned in school. Jed would launch into a trivia-filled lecture that would make Abbey roll her eyes. But she loved nothing more than to watch him speak with such enthusiasm and expertise and to make sarcastic jokes whenever he gave her an opening.

After they finished eating, Zoey wanted to go play with the horses. For safety reasons, Jed and Abbey insisted that Ellie accompany her. The twelve year old was happy to do so. The parents were left alone.

Abbey started cleaning up the food. "God, would you look at this? Ellie just inhaled your pasta salad."

"Of course she did," Jed replied matter-of-factly. "It's Bartlet pasta salad. It has the special magic ingredient."

"You know, she's getting old enough now to figure out that there is no special magic ingredient," Abbey told him.

"There is too a special magic ingredient!"

"If you say 'love,' I'm gonna dump this bowl on your head."

"That's not the special magic ingredient," he scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Then what is it?"

"Salt."

Abbey laughed. "Well, I'm glad to know why we all bloat so much whenever you make it." She went back to packing the picnic basket back up. "Jed, what's this?" she asked, pulling a Tupperware container out of the basket.

"Oh I brought ice cream for the girls."

As he answered, she had been trying to figure out its contents and tipped it just enough to make the near-melted ice cream leak out. The vanilla liquid dripped all over her legs which were exposed in her shorts. "Jed!" she shrieked.

"Hey, I didn't tell you to dump it everywhere."

She glared at him. "I'm going to get all sticky."

A spark of idea leapt to his mind. "I think I can take care of that." He crawled across the picnic blanket towards her. "Put the container in the basket," he instructed.

"What are you going to do?" she asked warily.

He responded with a sly grin and proceeded to lean down and attach his mouth to her bare thighs.

Abbey gasped and clenched her fists in the picnic blanket. "Jed! The kids!" she hissed.

"Are they looking?" he asked, his voice muffled.

"No…"

"Then don't worry about it." Jed proceeded to suck and lick all the ice cream off of her. "Mmmm you've got sweet legs," he hummed in appreciation, his tongue circling the curves and creases of her skin. "Sweet thighs and sweet knees."

Abbey's head rolled back as she enjoyed her husband's attentions. "After twenty years, you still find ways to surprise me with what you do with your mouth," she moaned.

"I've got a lot of inspiration to work with." He sat up to make his way up to her face. "Even if you are squarely middle-aged now. You still get me going, sweetheart."

"Sweet heart or sweet knees?" she asked, her emerald eyes twinkling happily at him.

He laughed. "Both." He sealed the sentiment with a fiery kiss. Abbey could still taste the sweet vanilla on his tongue.