After Leo had gone back to the West Wing, Jed sat for a long time, thinking about everything Leo had said. It had actually been much calmer than he had been expecting. He'd really thought that Leo was going to lay into him for concealing his MS, but instead there had been a depth of understanding, which perhaps wasn't surprising since Leo himself had gone through so much with his alcoholism – and he'd kept it concealed too, until it had finally broken in the media.
"So what will I do when my thing finally hits the press?" he wondered, then looked round as the door opened.
"Jed?" Abbey looked at him anxiously. "What are you doing here? I called Charlie and he said you'd come back up here. Are you okay?"
"I've just talked with Leo."
Concern clouded her eyes as she moved quickly to sit beside him. "Was it bad?"
He shook his head. "No – the opposite in fact – but that made it harder in a way."
"So what's going to happen now?"
"Nothing. Well, apart from telling Fitz – Leo thought I ought to do that, and I agreed."
Abbey raised her eyebrows in surprise. "And that's it?"
"Yeah."
"I really thought he would insist that we should disclose it now."
"So did I – but I guess he has enough on his plate right at this moment. It's only twenty-four hours since he did that press conference – and today's papers are full of it. The last thing we need at the moment is another shock revelation from the White House."
"So we continue just as we have been doing?"
Jed looked at her. "Not completely. Leo knows now – and so will Fitz."
"Will that make a lot of difference?"
"I hope not, at least not from my point of view. I think they both have enough intelligence to be able to see past the disease – to realise that I'm still me the person."
Abbey smiled. "It's never stopped me from seeing you the person."
Jed's eyes met hers. "I know." Then he thought for a moment. "To tell the truth, what I'm actually feeling now is a sense of relief. I'm glad that Leo finally knows."
"Because you didn't like hiding things from him?"
"Partly that. But I'm thinking about the other night – when you came back from wherever it was – not knowing whether I was gonna have a full-scale relapse. And you were totally on your own here with that."
"I called the girls–"
"That's not the same, they're family. But at least now you have Leo at your back – and I feel better for knowing that."
Abbey nodded slowly. "Yeah – I guess that does make a difference." She looked back at him. "I panicked on Monday night, Jed. It's the first time it's happened since we we've been in this goldfish bowl called the White House – and I honestly didn't know how I was going to handle it, if you had gotten worse – or if I'd had to come clean about it in order to get you the treatment that you needed."
Jed caught hold of her hand. "Abbey, I don't want you to be ever in that kind of situation again. If anything happens in the future – and if you feel that it's necessary to tell someone – then you go right ahead and do it. Understand?"
"Yes." She stood up and leant over to kiss his forehead, then wiped away her lipstick mark. "But don't go scaring me again for a long time huh?"
Jed grinned. "Were you just checking my temperature then with that kiss?"
She laughed. "Was I ever that subtle, pumpkin? But now that you've reminded me–"
"Oh God, why didn't I keep my big mouth shut?"
Abbey glanced at her watch. "Look, I have a luncheon thing at Trinity College at one o'clock, so I need to change. Come into the bedroom and–"
"And?" Jed said, standing up quickly.
"And let me take your temperature," Abbey went on firmly.
Jed followed her into the bedroom. "Is that all?"
"Yes, that's absolutely all," Abbey said, but grinned at him as she brought the thermometer from her bag. "Open up!"
He caught hold of her round her waist and pulled her towards him. "Not even a quick barbecue?" he managed to say, despite the thermometer in his mouth.
Abbey laughed. "Jed – watch it – you're gonna poke my eye out with that thermometer!"
"Sorry!" He kept his face back from her, but still pulled her hips against his until she squirmed free from him.
"Jed – let me go – I have to change!"
Jed followed her to the dressing room and leaned against the doorframe, watching her as she slipped off her casual brown pants suit and put on the formal red suit and black blouse.
"What do you have this afternoon?" she asked him.
"Mmm – mmm – mmm," Jed replied.
"What?" She looked round and saw him pointing at the thermometer. "Oh – sorry!"
Once she'd taken it out and was looking at it, he replied, "Just a final run-through of the speech and a couple of meetings, I think."
"Do I get to look at this speech before I have to listen to it tonight?"
"Yeah, I'll bring a copy back up here with me."
"Okay. Look, I gotta run now – but you take it easy this afternoon, right?"
"All right."
As she reached the door, he called to her. "Abbey–"
"What?"
"Just out of curiosity – what's my temperature?"
"Oh, didn't I say? It's still normal. See you later, honey!"
--
Jed made his way down to the Oval Office, scanned the folders that had been put on his desk and then went through to Leo's office.
"Anything more from Fitz?" he asked.
Leo shook his head. "Nope – the reconnaissance photos aren't showing anything different."
"Fingers still crossed then."
"Yeah. Oh, and Mr President–" he went on as Jed started to turn to leave, "I haven't thanked you for the statement that's all over the papers this morning. I was furious with Sam but – well, he told me what you had written and – although you shouldn't have done it – I really do appreciate it, sir."
"Leo, it was the very least I could do," Jed said quietly, looking back at him. "This White House is not going to let you go down because of all this – and I'm speaking for every member of staff when I say that."
"It's not over yet, sir."
Jed grinned. "With a bit of luck, the State of the Union will take it off the front pages tomorrow. What time are we doing the final run-through?"
"Four o'clock."
"And the pre-speech thing in the Mural Room?"
"Eight o'clock."
"By which time it will be well over the deadline for the troop withdrawal. I'll need to talk to Ken Kato at Treasury about liaising with the rest of G-7 and Fitz will need to talk to NATO."
"Yes, sir, I've already informed them of the steps that we may need to take."
"Let's just hope we don't have to. Keep me informed." Jed turned to go back into the Oval Office. "Mrs Landingham!" he called.
"Sir, there really is no need to shout," she said as she came through the door at the opposite side of the room.
"Jeez, there you go again–" Jed replied in mock exasperation. "What do I have this afternoon?"
"First, you have to have some lunch," Mrs Landingham replied. "The First Lady has insisted that I make sure you do."
"So you sent Charlie out for a hamburger?" Jed joked, knowing that it was a vain hope.
"I did no such thing. The kitchen has sent up a very nice avocado and grape salad for you."
Jed made a face but sat down at his desk and ate the salad while he caught up with the Washington Post and New York Times.
--
It was after seven o'clock by the time he returned to the Residence.
"Where on earth have you been?" Abbey asked, taking off her glasses and putting down the newspaper that she'd been reading. "You said at four o'clock that you'd be finished by five thirty."
"The run-through went on longer than we thought, and then we had to go down to the Situation Room. Here–" he added, handing her the folder with the State of the Union speech.
"Jed, sit down for a minute. You look tired and you look harassed."
"I'm okay," he replied. "I need to go for a shower and change."
"Sit down – I want to check you out."
With a sigh, Jed sat down in one of the armchairs while Abbey stood up and fetched her medical bag. "You've already taken my temperature," he said. "It was still normal when you came down to the office this afternoon."
"That was after you'd had a half-hour break and you were a lot more relaxed than you are now."
"Abbey–" Jed protested.
"Okay then – but at least let me check your pulse."
Jed gave in and held his arm out for her.
"It's fast," she said with a frown.
"Abbey, I'm about to give an hour long speech to a joint session of Congress – and India and Pakistan are threatening to blow each other up with nuclear weapons – is it any surprise that my pulse is running fast?"
"If you don't calm down, I'm gonna have to check your blood pressure too!"
"Okay." Jed leaned back against his chair and forced himself to relax the tight muscles in his shoulders.
"So – at the risk of raising your blood pressure even more – tell me what's happening with India and Pakistan." Despite what she'd said, Abbey knew that Jed needed to talk in order to let off some steam.
He looked at her. "We gave them a deadline to withdraw – and nothing seems to be happening."
"So what now?"
"Fitz wants to wait a little while longer. The last reconnaissance photos weren't clear – he thinks there's a possibility that the Indians might be withdrawing – but we need to wait for the next batch of photos to come through. If they're not moving back, then I have to decide whether we go ahead with the consequences we threatened them with – and also whether we get physical with Pakistan."
"An air strike?"
"I dunno. China won't like it if we do. That has to be a last resort. I'm just hoping that John Marbury has been able to persuade the Indians that the carrot's worth it."
"The carrot?"
Abbey's look of total bewilderment made Jed laugh. "Yeah – something John said yesterday – the stick and the carrot. The Brits used to make a local leader into a maharajah to ensure his loyalty. John thinks that a commitment from us to help India with its computer industry infrastructure might just have the same effect."
"Will it work?"
Jed shrugged. "It's the only hope."
"Is he coming here tonight?"
"John? I expect so – he'll come to anything where there's free booze – not to mention all the women from the West Wing!" Jed glanced at his watch. "I really do need to go and change."
"Okay. Is that the speech?" Abbey replied, glancing at the folder on the couch.
"Yeah – and don't forget that it's too late to change anything now!"
"Let me just take your temperature, Jed – to put my mind completely at rest."
"All right – but this is positively the last time, okay?"
"I'll decide that. I'm the doctor here, remember?"
Jed grinned. "As if you'd ever let me forget it, Doctor Bartlet."
While she stood in front of him waiting for the thermometer to register, he ran his hands down her waist and hips to her thighs, then back up again until his hands reached her breasts, cupping them and rubbing his thumbs over her nipples. When she drew in a quick breath and closed her eyes momentarily, he felt a shiver of desire course through him. "Jeez, I want you," he breathed.
Abbey caught the thermometer as he let it fall from his mouth and looked at it. "Okay, you're good to go."
"Really?"
"For your shower, jackass – what did you think I meant?"
"Well, I hoped–"
"Shower, Jed! You can't tell the joint session of Congress that you're late because you decided to make love to your wife instead of delivering the State of the Union!"
Jed chuckled as he stood up. "I'd like to see their faces if I did!"
Abbey threw him an expressive glance as he disappeared into the bathroom, then sat down, bringing her legs up on the couch and putting on her glasses as she picked up the speech.
She was still reading it when he came back into the bedroom.
"I want to take your temperature one last time," she said.
"Abbey–"
"I want to take your temperature," she insisted, still looking down at the speech.
Jed knelt down on the floor next to her and held out his shirt cuffs to her. "You've taken it fourteen times in the last three hours. You're not taking it again."
Without even looking up from the speech, Abbey started to fasten his cuffs for him. "Yeah – fine," she said.
"At least not with a thermometer," he said.
She gave a small laugh. "Jed–"
"I'm saying if you want to take it – recreationally–"
"Oh, there's something wrong with you, you know that?"
"Yes, I do."
She was still looking down at the speech. "Why is 'hallowed' spelled with a pound sign in the middle?"
Jed leant forward and gently pulled off her glasses. "I stopped asking those questions–"
She looked up from the speech and he brought his mouth down on hers, gently at first but then their kiss deepened. After she'd finished fastening his cuff, his hand went to her breast and she leant back, loving the way his tongue was teasing hers, loving the way he was caressing her breast. A small moan of pleasure escaped her before she realised what they were doing.
"Jed!" she cried, pulling herself away from him.
"What?"
"For heaven's sake, we have to go down to the reception in the Mural Room – we can't–"
"But you want to, right?"
"Damn right I want to, but we don't have time–"
Right on cue, the phone rang. With a sigh, Jed stood up and went across to answer it. "Yeah?"
He listened for a few moments then said, "Okay, I'll be down in a few minutes."
After he'd put the phone down, he looked across at her. "Leo," he said. "He says the latest batch of photos is coming through."
"Have they withdrawn?"
"He doesn't know. I need to go down to the Situation Room."
Quickly he went across to where he'd left his jacket and flipped it on. Abbey stood up and came across to him and caught hold of his lapels.
"Listen, boyfriend," she said. "If those photos show that India hasn't withdrawn, then I know you're gonna have to be in that Sit. Room till God knows what time tonight. But if they have and you're off the hook – then maybe we can have some fun tonight – after this whole State of the Union thing is over?"
Despite the tension inside him, Jed grinned at her. "Is that a promise?"
"Yeah – it's a promise – and it all depends on India, huh?"
"I shouldn't be joking about this – but withdrawal has never seemed so appealing as it does right at this moment!" He leant forward to kiss her again. "I'll see you down in the Mural Room, sweetheart."
TBC
