Author's Note: I found this little scene that I wrote eight months ago, not realizing I'd never posted it. So here you go. It takes place during Midterms (s2ep3).

Midnight Calls

"Elliot Rausch is polling at 46, can you believe that!?"

Abbey rubbed her face, keeping her frustration to herself for the moment. "Jed, how do you know he's polling at 46?"

"I put some of our guys on it."

"I cannot believe you wasted time and resources with that."

"Abbey! This is Elliot Rausch!"

She groaned. "Yes, Jed, I'm aware. In case you don't recall, while you were battling him for Congress, I was about an inch away from getting into an actual fist fight with his bitch of a wife after she…"

"Oh that's right, she was the one who said those things about Liz! I'd forgotten. Even more important that people pay more attention!"

Now Abbey had lost her patience. "Would you knock it off!? I get maybe ten minutes a day with you on the phone when I'm traveling, and I cannot hear you whine about this anymore. You are the President of the United States, for God's sake. The people of Manchester are very good, and even if they do elect Satan's assistant to the school board, they won't let him do anything truly heinous."

"Now, Abigail, you don't know that, you do not know that for sure!"

"You're making it really hard for me to like you, right now," she said in a low tone.

Jed sighed into the phone. "Yeah, I've been getting that sentiment a lot lately."

Abbey paused a beat. Maybe she'd been too hard on him. It had only been eight weeks since Rosslyn. He was dealing with stuff. As a doctor, and especially as his wife, she had to be more understanding. "How many campaign calls do you have left?"

"A few."

"Finish them up, and call me back later."

"Yeah, okay. I'll talk to you in a couple hours. You sure you'll be awake? I don't wanna wake you up."

"Even if I am asleep, I want to talk to you before you go to bed. Just humor a worried wife."

"I don't appreciate humoring just any worried wife, but I suppose I'll make an exception for my own."

Abbey chuckled softly. "Alright, fine. Talk to you later, babe."

"Yeah." Jed hung up the phone and ran a hand through his hair. Abbey did the right thing in getting him off the phone. He could distract himself with work, then come back ready to unwind with her.

It was three long hours before Jed called Abbey back. She picked up on the fourth ring.

"Hey." She sounded groggy.

"I didn't want to wake you, but you wanted me to call."

"Yeah I did. So talk to me. Tell me three things I should know about today. And if I hear you say Elliot Rausch's name, I'll come home and kill you with my bare hands."

He laughed. "Yeah, okay." Jed went on to explain the more interesting parts of his day, his worries about Toby and Charlie, and assuring Abbey multiple times that Zoey was doing fine.

"You feel a little better now?" she asked, when he finished talking.

"Not as good as I'd feel if you were here with me."

Abbey smiled to herself. She wasn't going to tell him that he took the words right out of her mouth. "Lot of good it would do you. You need a sign off from your doctors and from me before we get to have any kind of fun again."

"You said 'we.'"

"What?"

"Usually when you tell me that, you say I can't have any fun yet. This time you said we."

"Well I guess I just miss you," Abbey replied in a huff.

"I miss you too," he told her tenderly.

"Get some sleep, Jed."

"You too, sweet knees."

She smiled. She did love that nickname, never mind how dumb it was. "I love you."

"I love you, too." And with that, President hung up the phone for the last time that day. He slept soundly, and Elliot Rausch was almost completely gone from his mind.