Hey Lovelies! So I recently started rewatching The West Wing, and I thought about how things could have gone way differently. In this version of the tale the public knew that the President was sick, and yet Abbey still gets pissed when he decides to run for reelection. What would have happened if they had gone about things a little differently up in Manchester...? This picks up then and takes the story of what happened in the President's personal life a completely different direction. P.S. I don't own the West Wing, or any of the characters in this story. :(

Chapter 1 – Mistakes

Go to hell! Of all the things she could have said, all of the ways she could have reacted she had told him to go to hell. Abbey was sitting on the floor of the bathroom in their suite, the cool tile pressed to the back of her legs as she cried. She shouldn't have reacted like that; she had always known that him running again was always a real possibility, even though he had made her that promise. She wiped her eyes and washed her face, getting ready for bed. When she reentered their bedroom he was still sitting on the bed where she left him, reading whatever memo he had been holding while she had been screaming.

They spent the entirety of the next month skirting around each other. Not openly hostile, but not their usual selves either. The staff had noticed, and they were concerned. The First Lady wasn't herself, she wasn't near as assertive as normal, and she was being lenient on issues she normally wouldn't budge on. The President was even worse. No one on the staff had realized just how much the couple depended on each other for their basic day-to-day functioning.

They had been together for over thirty years; the President had been twenty years old when he dropped out of seminary school to pursue the nineteen year old Abigail Barrington. Now in their early fifties, three daughters, numerous degrees and prizes each, and multiple campaigns, elections and public offices they were here. President and First Lady Bartlet, and they weren't speaking to each other. They were sharing a bed each night with a space between them that seemed larger than the Grand Canyon.

They left for the farm in Manchester in early July. C.J. was worried about the appearances of the First Couple as they travelled north. The President was photographed boarding and disembarking Air Force One entirely alone. Abbey had taken a car, choosing to stop in New York to see Lizzie and her family on the way up. C.J. pulled up in the driveway of the farm only to see Dr. Bartlet walking across the yard in jeans and a button down, carrying a basket of apples. "Good morning Ma'am."

"Good morning C.J.! Would you like some cider? We grow the apples just down the hill." She smiled and headed back for the house, the President's press secretary trailing behind her.

"That would be fine ma'am." She paused as they reached the porch. "Ma'am there are some photographers here, I was thinking maybe some casual pictures of you and the President together would be a good idea. There have been some sources saying that since,"

"Since my husband and I haven't been seen together in public for a few weeks there must be something wrong in our marriage! What sources C.J.?"

"I'm sorry ma'am?"

"The sources C.J. I want names!" C.J. didn't know what to say, she was glad to see the First Lady's fire was back, but she didn't know exactly what she was going to do.

"Ma'am they are unnamed,"

"Unnamed sources! C.J. I don't give a damn about unnamed sources! You won't come to me with unnamed sources again, am I clear?" She hadn't raised her voice, but the First Lady's tone offered no room for argument.

"Yes ma'am."

The First Lady turned and swept through the front door, letting the screen slam shut behind her. "Oh and C.J.?" Her voice carried from inside the house. "You're not getting any cider."

C.J. gave Abbey a minute and then followed her into the house; Leo grabbed her arm on the way by. "How did it go with the First Lady?"

"Well I'm not getting any cider."

"Eh," Leo shrugged, "It could be worse."

"How?"

"She could have banned the President from cider." C.J. nodded and moved on through the house, looking for the First Lady, she still wanted to convince her to introduce the President at his speech tomorrow night.

Abbey was stepping down off of the stage when she saw Jed's limousine pull up behind. He still didn't know that she was going to introduce him, and she grinned slightly to herself as he and Leo approached. With a wave of her hand she dismissed her own staff, and Leo being Leo knew to give them a little space. All anyone did was try and give the two of them space these days.

Abbey knew that it was her fault, that she had overreacted with Jed, and that she had been snippy with C.J. but she didn't care. He had made her a promise, and then she had had to learn that he broke it on national television. Yes he was sick, everyone knew that, and everyone but Abbey seemed to know that he was going to run for reelection anyway.

By the time she had gotten up here yesterday she knew that she was in the wrong, she knew that she was going to have to be the one to suck it up and apologize, but she was Abigail Bartlet and Abigail Bartlet didn't apologize. She smiled when he met her on the steps. "Jed."

"I didn't know you were going to be here?"

She grinned as she stepped down the steps past him. "I'm introducing you."

"What?"

"It was C.J.'s idea." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "It'll look good, and it's a step, a first step. For us, for me to, well, anyway…" She trailed off. "I'll see you at home."

She started to step away from him, but he caught her elbow, "Will you wait up for me?" She could see the look of hope in his eyes and she knew that she had found her way back in.

"Count on it."

She had found that crack, the way that she was going to get back into Jed's good graces, a way to apologize for all of the problems that she had caused him over the last month. It wasn't that she didn't feel bad, that she wasn't sorry for the extra stress that she had caused him, she was. It was just that she was proud and stubborn, and she didn't like to be in the wrong.

She had promised to wait for him, told him to count on it, and she was sure that she was going to make it worth it. She knew that he would be out there on the podium rehearsing for an hour or so and she used her time wisely.

By the time she heard him coming up the stairs everything was where she wanted it, even herself. She had showered and only partially blow-dried her hair, knowing full well how much he liked her having wet hair. She had dressed in red, which she knew he loved, and she had lit candles.

"Abbey?" He started to speak as he entered the room, but stopped mid-step when he took in the scene before him. "Abbey, what's going on in here?" He looked around for her and when he found her sitting on her knees in the middle of their king sized bed he couldn't help but smile. "Abbey?"

"This is my apology Jed. For everything over the last month or so." She crawled across the bed towards him and then padded her way across the hard wood with her bare feet to look up into his eyes from right in front of him. "Will you accept my apology?"

"You haven't exactly said you're sorry yet Abigail." He was trying very hard to continue being angry with her, but he loved her, and she was standing there in a nightdress that barely covered anything saying she wanted to apologize. This woman was going to kill him one day. "You keep saying the word apology, but not the words 'I'm sorry', do you think you could manage those words?"

It was taking all of his will power not to pick her up and toss her on their bed, but he knew that making her apologize for real would just get her even more worked up. She hated apologizing. Her fingers made their way up his chest and she deftly slid her hands under the lapels of his jacket, pushing it to the floor. Her lips connected with the underside of his jaw as she unbuttoned his dress shirt and discarded it alongside the jacket.

"Abbey…" He groaned as she worked her hands over his now bare chest. He couldn't handle it anymore, he bent and scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. Dropping her unceremoniously in the middle of it.

He started at her feet, working his way up her legs trailing kisses ever so softly along the inner portion of each leg. He was being meaningfully cruel, staying as far away as possible from the places that he knew she liked most.

"Jed…" She moaned his name almost as a plea as he left her alone on the bed. Moving away from her to sit across the room in the armchair. She propped herself up on her elbows to look at him, an infamous Dr. Abigail Bartlet glare on her face. It was a whisper, which was all she was willing to give. "Jed, I'm sorry."

He moved painfully slowly. Drawing out her torture for as long as possible. When he reached her he cupped her cheek in his hand and grinned, "What was that Sweet Knees?"

Her glare only intensified, but she wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him down on top of her, "You heard me Jackass."

The next morning things had changed. Everything it seemed had gone back to the way it was before he had announced. Before she had found out via national television, before she had made that one awful mistake. The staff could tell that everything was back to normal. No one had any idea what had happened the night before, but they knew better than to ask.

Abbey introduced him, Jed made his speech, and they boarded the plane to Washington hand in hand. Her mistake was forgiven, their marriage was revived and they were running for reelection. Only after mistakes come accidents…