Author's Note: This story takes place about four months after Bartlet History 18. Something of a transitional piece, but I made myself emotional over it. As usual.

Parents

"Happy birthday, dear Eric, happy birthday to you!"

Jonathan held his one-year-old son up high in the air as the family cheered. Jed grinned widely at his brother as their mother brought out a big chocolate cake.

Abbey sat slightly further away, content to keep Ellie on her lap as an excuse to refrain from too much engagement. They had celebrated Ellie's third birthday only two weeks before and so much celebration for babies with the whole family became tiresome very quickly.

"Mommy, cake?" Ellie asked, her big hazel eyes begging her mother.

"Yes, sweet girl. You can have cake." Abbey reluctantly let the little blonde child run to where Mary was cutting the cake.

"Don't you want any cake, Abbey?"

She looked up to see her father-in-law, John Bartlet, standing beside her. "No, not for me. We just finished the leftovers from Ellie's cake. I'll have a bite of Jed's, probably. I don't need a whole slice," she replied politely. Try as she might, she never felt comfortable around John Bartlet. He had never been anything but nice to her, but knowing the damage this man had done to his son, her husband, was always at the forefront of her mind whenever he was near.

As if to save her from awkwardness, Ellie returned to her mother with a paper plate with a slice cake in each hand.

"Eleanor, be careful," Abbey warned.

"Cake, Mommy!" Ellie held out one plate to Abbey.

"Is this for me?"

Ellie nodded.

"Thank you, Ellie. That was very nice of you." Despite not actually wanting cake, Abbey took the plate from her to prevent any spills. But Ellie was a shockingly neat and clean child.

Abbey watched as Ellie slowly took tiny bites of cake, careful to hold the fork tight in her baby hand. It gave her a simple yet powerful sense of pride. Ellie was so different than Liz had been at that age. Ellie never wanted to make a fuss or have anyone go to any sort of trouble for her. She wanted to be helpful in any way possible. She often got upset, but she would just stay very quiet and it would sometimes take Jed or Abbey several minutes to notice their toddler silently crying in the corner of the room. Their eldest, Elizabeth, was nothing like that. She had thrown big tantrums as a small child, and now at age nine, she had proven loudly argumentative with her mother and something of a manipulator of her father. But both of the Bartlet children were extremely well-behaved in public and incredibly bright. Abbey had always wanted to have children but she would have never imagined that being a mother to two such wonderful little girls would be the most rewarding and important thing in her life.

"I don't think that's very fair."

Her husband's raised voice made Abbey look up. Jed was frowning while speaking to his father. Abbey's heart constricted, worrying about what was going to happen now.

"You've been wasting enough time with this," John replied.

"It isn't a waste of time! I'm going to work for the children and their parents and make our schools better!" Jed fired back.

Abbey recognized this fight. They'd had it more than once. John never had approved of his son's career path. Jed was working so hard on his campaign for State Board of Education. He'd won the primary and his name would appear on the ballot in November for the General Election. Since the end of the school year at Dartmouth, Jed had been campaigning fulltime. He had a little over four months to convince people to vote for him. Abbey had never seen him so passionate before. It was incredible to watch and it killed her that John didn't understand what an admirable thing his son was doing.

The fight was starting to gain momentum. Jed and his father had both seemed to forget that their whole family was in the living room with them. Mary gathered Liz and Ellie into the kitchen to help her. Paula took baby Eric upstairs to change him. Abbey and Jonathan were left watching the two other Bartlet men.

"I will never understand this obnoxious need you have to fix everything, Josiah. Not everything is your concern!"

Jed was starting to get red in the face. He was really shouting now. "There is nothing wrong with wanting things to be better! I have the power to change things. And I'm going to damn well do it."

John shouted back, "Watch your language! That's another thing I clearly failed at. Teaching you to mind your own business and to speak like a respectable man."

"I've got a PhD and I'm about to be an elected state official, so I think I'll speak any goddamn way I want."

John raised his hand and Abbey leapt out of her chair. "How dare you! Jed has already made himself into a beloved professor and he's going to change the world, no thanks to you! After all the horrible things you've done to him, he's a better man than you could ever hope to be! I hope you…" Abbey was pulled by the middle and practically dragged out of the room. "Hey! Get your hands off me!"

Once in Mary's sewing room with the door closed, Jonathan let his sister-in-law go. "Abbey, you gotta cool it. You can't speak to him like that."

"Why not!? He's a bully. To Jed and to you," Abbey pointed out angrily. "Someone should stand up to him."

"He's been this way our whole lives. He's not going to stop anytime soon. Besides, we don't have to see him that often anymore. And he's getting old. It's not important anymore."

"But it is important, Jonathan! He's your father. And he treats you boys like nothing you do is ever good enough. You are a successful businessman and Jed is a professor at an Ivy League university! I don't see how any father wouldn't be proud of you two. I'm certainly proud of you," she admitted. Abbey sat down in a nearby chair, displeased that her anger was fading into a distinctly sick feeling of hurt.

Jonathan ignored her words. "You can't be fighting Jed's battles for him. He's been standing up for himself his whole life, in his own way. I never did that. I acted out when I was young and stupid, but I never dared contradict him. Jed always stood his ground. There's a reason Jed's nose is a little off. I lost count of how many times it got broken when we were kids."

Abbey was horrified. "Oh my god. I never knew it was that bad."

"And Jed just keeps fighting back. Not with his fists, and not always with his words. He's been trying to be better his whole life. For all his fancy degrees, I think I'm smarter than my brother. I got wise to the fact that I'm never going to please John Bartlet. So I stopped trying. Jed's never given up. And I don't think he ever will."

Abbey just sat quietly, digesting those words. Jonathan was right. It made so much sense. Abbey had made a terrible mistake by yelling at her father-in-law like that. Especially in front of Jed.

"Let's change the subject, shall we?" Jonathan suggested, leaning up against a dresser full of fabric swatches. "You gotta cool off some more before I let you out of here."

Abbey gave him a small smile. "Alright, fine." She was eager for a distraction.

"Since I've got you here, lemme ask you something. Why did you and Jed wait so long to have a second child?"

That wasn't really where Abbey expected the conversation to go, and she was slightly taken aback. "Oh, well, it wasn't really a conscious choice, actually. Liz was conceived on our honeymoon, so our first child arrived a lot sooner than we were expecting. I would have been happy to not have any children while we were in London, but Liz was such a God-send. And London was hard for us. For me, mostly. Jed was so busy and I wasn't very happy there. So we weren't going to have another baby until we got back to the States. And then once we got here, I started med school. I wasn't about to have a baby while I was dealing with all of that."

"But you had Ellie when you were still in school," Jonathan pointed out.

Abbey gave a sort of grimace. "Yes, well, it was Jed's birthday and we got a little…carried away. Nine months later, Ellie arrived just in time to ruin my studying for finals."

Jonathan started laughing. "His birthday!? That's wild. I always kinda figured you for something like that, Abb."

"Don't let Jed hear you talk like that. Or Paula. Actually, you can just keep your mouth shut," she replied, laughing with him.

He sighed, "Well, you're no help."

"What do you mean?"

"Paula and I have talked about having more kids, but we keep disagreeing about the timing. See, Paula's an only child. And Jed and I are three years apart. I like the idea of having our kids close in age. So they can be partners in crime or something. But Paula pointed out that you guys had Liz and Ellie six years apart and they've got a special relationship because Lizzie can take care of the baby. So I thought maybe you have a particular reason for it."

Abbey shook her head. "No, Liz just came as a surprise and then we got really busy and Ellie was another surprise. I'd like to think that we'll have better planning next time."

"You're gonna have more kids?"

She shrugged. "We haven't really talked about it one way or the other. I know both Jed and I want a big family, but two girls might be enough. We do want a boy, but we'll see."

"Good luck with that. Both Paula and I wanted a girl, but Eric is the most incredible little person."

Abbey smiled. "You're a great father. Both you and Paula are wonderful parents to that beautiful boy of yours."

Jonathan beamed. "Thanks. I don't remember the last time I got a full night's sleep, but it's the best thing ever."

Just then, the door to the sewing room opened. Jed came in, looking very upset. "Jonathan, get out."

He didn't need to be told twice. Jonathan gave Abbey a knowing look before walking past his brother and closing the door behind him.

"Abbey, what the hell was that?" Jed asked in a low tone.

"I just got upset. I don't like the way he speaks to you," she explained.

"That's not for you to worry about! He's my father and he is the way he is. You didn't grow up in this house. My father adores you, and you should thank your lucky stars. He and I have a different relationship."

Abbey nodded. "I know. I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry."

Jed had been expecting something of a fight from his wife. He was surprised to hear her so contrite. "Yeah, well…" was all he could really say. He looked into her eyes and saw something he didn't quite recognize showing through behind her green eyes. "Honey, what's going on? You've never yelled at my father before. And you've heard us argue like that plenty of times."

"It just bothered me more this time than before. Maybe because all the kids were right there listening. Or…" she trailed off, realizing the reason for her outburst.

"Yeah?"

"Millie's leaving."

Jed frowned. "Yeah, I know. She took that job at Colombia Presbyterian."

"When she told me she was moving to New York, she said it was because she needed to work harder for what she wanted in life. To take risks when there was a chance she could improve things. And I guess that just sorta stuck with me."

"You think you yelling at my father is gonna make him go easier on me?" Jed asked skeptically.

"In the moment, I just knew I couldn't stand by silently. He's just so…mean. He has no right to treat you like that." Abbey knew she was dangerously close to crossing a line, especially after what Jonathan had told her. But she couldn't seem to stop herself.

"He's my father, Abigail. He's not like your dad. He's a great man and he only wants the best for me. If we disagree, it's between us." Jed could hear the stern tone in his own voice that he hadn't quite intended.

Abbey knew that there was nothing she could say to make anything better, so she thankfully stayed quiet.

Jed shook his head. "No, that's not going to work anymore. Say what's on your mind."

If it hadn't been completely out of the mood of the moment, Abbey would have kissed him. They'd been working on their marriage recently, trying to be more open and honest with one another and communicate as often as possible. Abbey was falling back into her polite pattern, not wanting to bother him by rocking the boat. And he wouldn't let her. She looked up at him. "I just wish I could make things better for you."

He came to kneel down in front of where she was sitting. "You make everything better. That's why I married you. I saw this beautiful, weird pre-med student and she made my whole life have joy and meaning, and I wasn't ever gonna let that go. Every single day, you make my life better, Abbey. The fact that I fight with my dad sometimes doesn't change that."

She took his face in her hands and stroked his cheeks with her thumbs. "God, you're good."

"Well, I gotta do something to remind you why you love me."

"You do a pretty good job," she said with a chuckle. She leaned in to kiss him softly. It struck her that things, for the most part, were so good. For the first time in a while, their lives had order and stability. Despite their busy schedules, Jed and Abbey were better than ever. So with Jonathan's words in her mind and Millie's advice to take a risk to improve life, she told her husband, "I think we should have another baby."

"Wait, what?"

"We've talked about more kids. And the timing is never going to be right it we wait for it. Jonathan and Paula have a son, so I think we should try for one too," she reasoned.

Jed's face lit up. "Really? You really want to have another baby?"

"I really do. Do you?"

"Of course!" He pulled her into a deep kiss. "Hey get your pants off, let's try right now."

"Jed!" Abbey cackled, smacking him in the chest. "At least wait until we get home!"

"Yeah, I guess we shouldn't defile my mother's sewing room today."

"We'll save that for another day," she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Come on, I gotta apologize to your father," Abbey said, standing up. She was dreading this, but she knew she had to do it. "Maybe we can lie and say I'm already pregnant and blame my outburst on the hormones."

"Well, sure, if you really have that much faith in our ability to conceive a child."

"We've done pretty well so far," she reasoned.

Jed laughed, putting his arm around her waist as they walked out to join the rest of the family in the living room. Before anything else happened, they were both tackled by their daughters. Elizabeth ran her head into Jed's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Abbey fared much better, getting a mass of blonde curls bumped into her thigh. Jed and Abbey met each other's eyes and smiled, both excited to become parents to another little Bartlet sometime soon.