Author's note: My friend loves Gary Cooper (as do I) and I have face claimed him as Abbey's father. So when she was flailing about Gary Cooper last night, I decided to break her with fluff. Hopefully I did a good job.

Fathers and Daughters

"Are you sure? Long distance is expensive. And we'll see them next week anyway."

"I know you want to tell him yourself. Just call. It'll be fine," Jed assured his wife.

Abbey smiled at him and picked up the phone to dial again. She had just gotten off the phone with her mother. She had wanted to talk to her father as well, but he was at work. At Jed's insistence, she asked the operator in London to connect her with her Dr. Barrington's medical office in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

"Hello, Abbey?"

"Hi, Dad!" Her face lit up, despite how utterly exhausted she was.

"The operator said it was a call from London, and you and Jed are the only ones I know there, so I figured this would be a pretty good guess. To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your voice, sweetie?"

"Well I know I'm seeing you and Mom next week, but I have some bad news for you."

"Oh?"

"You won't be seeing me pregnant."

There was a slight pause. "Abbey?"

Abbey looked over to smile at her husband holding their newborn daughter. "Elizabeth Mary Bartlet was born at 5:57 PM Greenwich Standard Time on April 10th, 1968. Jed says it's lucky because it's the one hundred and first day of the year, since it's a leap year. In regular years, her birthday with be the one hundredth day of the year."

"How could he possibly know that?" Dr. Barrington laughed.

Abbey chuckled and sighed, "At this point, we no longer ask how, Dad. We just accept it and move on."

"So she's a week early. Was the labor okay? How big is she?"

"Seven pounds exactly, nineteen inches long. And labor was hell. My water broke in the middle of the night. I've been at this damn hospital for thirteen hours."

"Language, Abigail," her father scolded.

She ignored that. "The doctor said she's perfectly healthy. And she's gorgeous. She's got my dark curly hair and Jed's blue eyes."

"That might change. You and Kate both had blue eyes when you were born."

Abbey nodded. "I know, but I can say she's got her daddy's eyes for at least another few weeks."

While Abbey was on the phone with her father, Jed wandered around the hospital room with their sleeping daughter in his arms. He whispered to her softly. "You know what, Elizabeth? You are so lucky. Your mommy is the greatest woman in the world. I don't know if you can hear, but she's talking to her daddy. And I know she loves me lots, but I think he's still her favorite. He was her first best friend, and she's spent her whole life becoming someone that he can be proud of. And he loves her so much. He supports her and protects her and he's always there whenever she needs him. I didn't get so lucky, and I going to try my best not to be like my father. I'm going to try my best for us to be like your mommy and her father. I hope you can always come to me with anything in your life. I hope I can always protect you and support you. I hope I can be the first man you depend on, and the person who can be there when no one else is. Because I love you, Elizabeth Mary Bartlet. I love you more than I ever thought possible. And I can't wait to watch you grow."

Abbey was watching Jed murmur to their daughter and was distracted from her own conversation to try and hear what he was saying, but she couldn't catch any of it. Her own father's voice in her ear brought her focus back.

"Where did you come up with the name?" he asked. "It's beautiful, by the way."

"We actually didn't decide until about a week ago. The boy name was easy. We've had that since my first trimester. But I'm not going to tell you because we'll use it when we have a son. For a girl, though, we wanted something representative of where she's born, something strong and elegant for our first child. And what could be stronger or more elegant or more English than the Queen's name? And Mary is after Jed's mother, along with the religious connotations," she explained.

"Are you going to call her Elizabeth or do you plan on shortening it?"

"We'll stick with Elizabeth for now, I think."

Dr. Barrington leaned back in his desk chair and grinned. "So what's my granddaughter doing right now?"

"She's sleeping in her daddy's arms." Abbey looked over to see Jed continue to wander around the room, staring at their sleeping baby.

"He's going to be a great father," Dr. Barrington predicted.

She smiled softly, feeling the same warm bubbling in the pit of her stomach she'd gotten whenever she thought about her husband fathering their children. "He already is. I couldn't do this without him. Especially since I thought I'd be doing this next week with you and Mom here."

"I wanted to be there for you, Abb."

Abbey felt a lump in her throat. "I wish you were here now." She didn't trust her voice to say anything else. She didn't want to cry.

"You'll see us soon enough. I'm so proud of you, Abbey. I can't quite believe that you're a mother now, but I know you'll be wonderful. Because you're a wonderful woman with a brilliant mind and a big heart and more common sense than anyone else I've ever met." He felt the tears sting his eyes. He took his glasses off to wipe his eyes and cleared his throat before continuing, "And you've got Jed. Let him help you. You'll need it. And I know you. You're going to try to be the world's best mom and do everything all on your own. But you can't do that. Elizabeth deserves two parents who love her, not a supermom who burns out after two months."

That made Abbey laugh. "No, no supermom for me. I'm already way too tired to do anything but lie here and feed her."

"Based on what I witnessed your mother go through in the first few months of your life, that feeling won't go away for another year or so."

"Oh great. Thanks for that."

"You'll all be fine. But I think this phone call is already getting too expensive for your grad student husband. I should let you go."

Abbey clutched the phone to her ear. "I miss you," she said in a low tone.

"I miss you too. But I'll see you next week, sweetie."

"Yep. Bye, Dad."

"Bye. And give my granddaughter a kiss for me!"

Abbey hung up and took a deep breath before looking over to her husband and daughter with a smile pasted on her face.

"You okay, babe?"

She held out her hands. "My turn."

Jed smiled and put Elizabeth in her arms. He gave both of his girls a kiss before sitting back down. As Abbey kissed and nuzzled their daughter, speaking softly to her, he just watched. He wanted to memorize every single detail. For the rest of his life, this would be one of the handful of moments that Jed Bartlet would turn to in his lowest moments. Because right here, right now, with his wife and their newborn child, would bring him light, no matter what darkness they faced.