After making sure he was truly asleep. Abbey stood up, leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her husband's forehead. "Sleep in peace, please," she whispered.

She turned and left the room. Exiting, she saw Zoey talking to someone, but couldn't make quite who. It only took a second to recognize that person to be Leo.

"Leo! What are you doing here?"

"I was worried when you dropped the line so fast. So I hurried down here so I could offer my help."

"Thanks." Abbey was trying not to tear up in front of her daughter but the emotions of the past hour was forcing tears out of her eyes.

"Mom! Is Dad okay?"

"Yeah honey. I'm sorry. He's asleep. The nurse just had to give him something to help him calm down a little bit. He'll be fine when he wakes up. Listen, I need to talk to you, but let me talk to Leo for a minute and then we'll have a chat, okay?"

"Sure, Mom. I'll just go and sit with Dad."

"Thanks honey. I love you."

"I know that, Mom."

She watched Zoey close the room door and then turn to Leo. "I had to tell him everything, Leo. He saw some sort of story on the news about President Russell and kind of freaked out. After I told him, he just shut down and started to shake. I thought the best thing to do was to help him rest. He didn't need to get any more upset than he already was. I hope I made the right choice. God, I hope I didn't make things worse." More tears started to fall.

Leo took Abbey to a nearby sofa and gently pulled her down. He got close to her and hugged her tightly while she let her tears just flow until there were no more to come. Handing her his handkerchief, he tried to reassure her. "You made the choice that was best for him at the time you had to make it. That's all you could do. Don't second guess it. It's done. Move on. As he's so fond of saying, 'What's next?"

That comment made Abbey smile. "You're right. I have to move forward. There's too much to do. Have you told Ron? The Senior Staff? Russell? Oh God, there's just too much to do."

"Calm down, Abbey. I called Ron and he's fine. Margaret has the ball rolling with the Chief Usher in the Residence. They are used to doing things with short notice. Lilli has been notified. I haven't had a chance yet to tell the staff, but will as soon as I get back. Russell will be told by Ron and I'll follow up with him. If he gets his feelings hurt, tough. And I will make sure you get 28000 Wednesday if I have to pay for it myself. But as an ex-president, Russell owes it to Jed."

"Thank you, Leo. You've always been a great friend to both of us. I'm going to miss you."

"I'll come when I can. And it's not permanent yet. No permanent decision has been made. Has it?"

"No. You know my feelings, but you also know how stubborn a healthy Jed Bartlet can be. We will wait and watch. God has worked miracles. He can certainly work one for Jed."

"Now that is what I like to hear."

"Alright. I'm calmer now. Do you want to go in there and stay with him while I talk with Zoey? It shouldn't take very long. I know you can two can't talk, but at least you see him before we leave on Wednesday. Everyone knows your schedule is always subject to the whims of the world."

"Abbey, that's a great way of putting it. Yeah, I'll send Zoey out." He leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek. "It'll be okay. I promise. And it'll work out the way it's meant to be."

Leo stood and strode through the door. Shortly Zoey came out and Abbey patted the empty place on the sofa. "Come here honey. Let me tell you a few things."

Zoey took the news with strength and calm. She understood the health status of her father and the damage the clots had done to his brain. She expressed understanding of the unknown length of the healing process and the accompanying memory loss. She also understood the political ramifications of the move from the White House back to New Hampshire. Since she was already ensconced in the dorm at GW University, her life wouldn't change much. She would lose her Secret Service escort, and she wouldn't see her parents as much as she used to. Neither one seemed to bother her much. Of course, Charlie would stay in Washington.

Jed slept through the afternoon. Abbey grabbed a quick lunch in the cafeteria, but otherwise stayed in the room in case he woke up and wanted questions answered. Zoey left midafternoon to run a few errands and asked her mother to call her if she needed her. Otherwise, she would be back tomorrow morning.

It was getting dark when Dr. Wilson made his evening rounds. Abbey had been napping, but woke when someone walked up to the bedside and disturbed her.

"Oh, I'm sorry I disturbed you. How has he been? I understand there was an incident this morning."

"Yes. He heard something on the news this morning and he kind of freaked out. I explained things to him the best I could, but then he started shaking and just staring into space. I thought if he could get some sleep, he would feel better so I asked the nurse to give him the sedative you had ordered. And he's been sleeping ever since."

"What time was that?"

"I think that was about ten or eleven."

"And it's six now. That's means he's been asleep for about seven hours. Let me check him."

"Are you worried?"

"Just let me check him."

Abbey noted that Dr. Wilson went through the standard neuro checks. When he got down to pinching Jed's foot, there was no response. He did it again. Still no response from her husband.

Abbey knew enough that the responses were not the responses from a coma free patient. She immediately got very worried.

Dr. Wilson turned to her with a very worried face. But before he even uttered a word, she knew what he was going to say.

"Dr. Bartlet, your husband has slipped back into a coma. The only good thing is that he's breathing on his own."