Author's Note: I really enjoyed exploring this relationship a little bit, and I quite enjoyed the cute fluff. Hope this makes you smile too :)
Like Mother, Like Daughter
Abbey Bartlet saw the little girl playing on the living room rug, and with more effort than was really befitting, she joined her on the ground.
"What are you playing?" she asked.
A pair of bright blue eyes turned and crinkled into a smile. "My dolls are on a camping trip in the woods. Serena doesn't like it because the woods are dirty and she can't plug in her hair dryer. Bethany likes how quiet it is, but she doesn't like how loud everyone else is. She just wants to sit and read a book. And then this is Molly, and she's really excited to go to the river and go fishing, but she's really bad at it, so Heather will have to help her. Heather is good at everything."
Abbey chuckled at her detailed descriptions, recognizing other girls she knew very well in those descriptions. "Are there any boys on this camping trip?"
"No. We don't need boys."
Abbey nodded. "That's right. Boys tend to get in the way."
"Yeah. Daddy isn't allowed in the kitchen when I'm helping Mommy cook, and he isn't allowed in the garden when we're busy planting."
This little girl was the brightest, loveliest child. Abbey was absolutely entranced by her all the time. Everything she did was magical and perfect. It reminded her so of her own children. And for very good reason, she mused. At seven years old, Annie was now the same age that Zoey had been when Liz had given birth to the wonderful girl sitting there with Abbey. Having her eldest become a mother at nineteen wasn't quite what any of them had been expecting, but what a blessing it was. Just as their youngest was growing up, Jed and Abbey had gotten to help raise another baby. Liz and Doug had needed a lot of help, both being barely grown themselves. But they had proved to be wonderful parents, despite how young they were. It helped having them so close by in Manchester. Now that Liz was back in school, finishing her third year of college, Abbey got to babysit Annie a lot more now. The Bartlet farm was as much of a home to little Miss Westin as the small townhouse she lived in with her parents.
"Grandma?"
"Yes, Annie?"
"Can we go camping for real sometime?"
Abbey smiled. "Would you like to?"
Annie nodded vigorously.
"Well, we'll see. Maybe sometime this summer. I haven't been since your mother wanted to go for her birthday a few years ago."
"You went camping with Mommy and Daddy?"
It took everything in Abbey to not scoff about her granddaughter's father. "No, this was before your parents met. Your mommy was still in high school and living here. We went camping in the woods with your Aunt Ellie and Aunt Zoey. Zoey was even younger than you are now."
Annie was fascinated by the idea of her teenaged aunt being a little girl. "Really?" she asked with wide eyes.
"Yes. And she caught a fish with Grandpa and your mom while I went on a hike with Ellie," Abbey told her, taking her memory back nearly ten years. It had been the last birthday Liz had spent with just her family. It must have been less than a year before she had met Doug.
The front door opened and Governor Bartlet walked into his ancestral home, wiping the mud from the fields off his shoes before coming into the living room. "Would you look at this? Two of my favorite beautiful ladies are sitting on the floor!"
Abbey laughed, "You'll have to be careful saying things like that, what with a wife, three daughters, and a granddaughter."
He knelt down to give Annie a big hug. "Well, don't tell the others, but you two are my favorites."
Annie's eyes went wide. "Really!?" She positively worshipped her grandfather. The words from his mouth were gospel to her, and his attention and affection were absolutely everything.
Abbey smiled at the scene and happily received a quick peck from her husband. "You think we can go camping sometime this summer?"
Jed scowled. "We are not a camping people, Dr. Bartlet. Don't you remember how miserable you were when Liz made us go that time?"
"Yes, but Annie wants to go," Abbey pointed out with a smirk. She knew exactly what was about to happen.
Jed changed his tune. "Well, if Annie wants to go, we'll have to make that happen!" He laughed as he fell back onto the ground, Annie screaming with joy and tackling him with an exuberant hug.
Abbey laughed and found herself transported back much further than their last camping trip. Elizabeth had always adored her father and had a very strong, deep connection with him as a little girl. Anything Jed did was immediately what Liz wanted to do. And Jed had been just crazy about his first child. He loved all his girls to the moon and back, but Liz was the first, and everything was so new and powerful with her. All Liz had to do was say the word, and Jed would have taken the stars from the sky and put them in a bottle just for her. And now history repeated itself with their granddaughter. Abbey adored Annie, and she knew that Annie enjoyed spending time with her too. But she didn't share the same bond that Jed had forged from the moment she was born. And that was quite alright. Abbey hadn't gotten along well with Liz until she had grown up. They had plenty of time.
Deciding to allow Annie and Grandpa to have their time together, Abbey hauled her aging bones off the floor. She was a grandmother, certainly, but she was only forty-nine. One of the few perks of having a child young who in turn has her child even younger: Jed and Abbey were still young enough to crawl on the floor and run around the fields with their grandchild.
She paused on her way to the kitchen, looking back at the two. They were deep in conversation now. If it weren't for Doug's blue eyes and button nose on Annie's face, Abbey could swear she was back in London, watching Jed play with little Lizzie in the living room of their flat.
Abbey shook her head and went on her way. So much had gone by since those days. But Annie was so much like her mother that it often brought Abbey back like this, back to that earlier time. It was times like that when she could really see how far they had all come.