"Josh? What on earth does he want?"

"Checking where you hid the cache of paper fasteners?" Abbey said facetiously behind him.

Charlie looked past Jed at Abbey and Jed saw the appreciative look come into his eyes. He coughed warningly and Charlie looked back at him. "Er – we have a secure line at the cottage, sir – so if you'd like to come across?"

"Now?" Jed glanced backwards at Abbey.

"Go, Jed."

It was about ten minutes before Jed returned to the cottage. In the meantime, Abbey had poured herself another drink and fixed a second one for Jed. She'd put her feet up on the couch and looked round as he came back in, pulling his damp shirt away from his chest, and then running both hands through his wet hair. "You went out in the rain without your jacket on?"

"I forgot it was raining – and it's coming down pretty hard now."

"Jackass! Did you get through to Josh then?"

"Yeah, and you're not gonna believe this–"

"Try me." Abbey swiveled her legs round so that Jed could sit beside her again.

"Matt Santos has gone down with chickenpox!"

"What?"

"Yeah, evidently his kids both had it – that's why they weren't at the Inauguration – and he's caught it from them."

"Hey, that can't be good – chickenpox in kids is usually fairly mild, but it can be pretty nasty for an adult."

"Yeah, Josh said he was quite ill."

"He was calling you just to tell you that?"

Jed hesitated, picked up his glass and swirled the ice around before taking a mouthful of whiskey. "Well, no, there was a bit more to it than that."

Abbey's eyes narrowed. "Go on."

"Matt was due to go to a the final day of the Global Energy Commission in Brussels on Friday, but obviously he can't–"

"So they've asked you." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yeah."

"Surely there's someone else who could go? What about the VP?"

"Eric's not officially VP yet, not until he's confirmed by Congress. We've had a big delegation from the CEQ there all week doing the spadework, but Friday's the important day. The Secretary of Energy will be there, some members of the Congress Energy Committee and some of the staff too. But Josh said that Matt was insisting it should be high profile. There are enough people out there already thinking that America is not taking the energy problem seriously enough."

"So what did you say?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I – er – well, I said I'd call him back tomorrow."

"What are you gonna do?"

Jed took another gulp of his drink, studiously avoiding looking at her. "I'm not sure."

"What do you want to do?"

"I'm not sure."

Abbey thought for a moment. "Well, I suppose that since you went to the last meeting, you already know most of the people who will be there–"

"I was gonna stay out of politics."

"I know. But this is something you feel strongly about – you've always said that America is falling way behind Europe in trying to combat global warming."

"Yeah, because all the advisers say it would hurt America's economy too much."

"What's Matt Santos' take on it?"

"Same as mine. That it's time America started looking seriously at alternative energy sources at home at the same time as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and that it's time to stop letting the oil companies dictate our policy for us."

"So any views you wanted to put forward at the meeting would reflect the views of the Santos administration?"

"I guess so. I'd just need to check out the latest views about ethanol subsidies and nuclear power, and the draft of the roadmap that's being hammered out this week, but I could discuss that with Josh, of course – and get him to send me some documents to read."

"Do you want to start reading long policy documents again?"

Jed was silent for a few moments. "I'll think about it." He reached for his glass again and drained it. "Mr Sinatra's doing his best over there," he said.

"Yeah."

Jed leant back against the couch, closing his eyes as he listened to Sinatra singing 'Time after Time'. Then he started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking of all the times in the White House that we got interrupted when we were in the middle of making love – and it's still happening even here and now!"

"We weren't actually in the middle this time," Abbey reminded him.

"True."

Abbey put her hand on his knee. "Your pants and shirt are wet, Jed – isn't it time you took them off?"

He opened one eye and looked at her. "Are you making me an offer that I can't refuse?"

Slowly Abbey started sliding her hand up his thigh. "Come to bed, lover boy."

Jed drew in a deep breath, then opened both eyes and looked into hers. "And that's the best offer I've had all day," he said.

They both stood up and then, with their arms around each other, they made their way to the bedroom.

TBC