Leo picked up Abbey's message when he arrived for the day and was, at the same time both relieved and puzzled. Relieved that she was home and apparently had gotten the President to sleep but was puzzled as what she wanted to talk to him about. Hopefully she was going to give him some information so he could get to the bottom of this unknown problem the President refused to talk about.
He took a quick look at Jed's schedule for the day and canceled the first two meetings. Senior Staff would be held in his office and any issues that needed the President's attention could be handled later.
He heard Margaret come in. "Margaret!"
"Yes, Leo?"
"The First Lady wants to see me sometime today. Can you arrange a meeting? I don't know how long she needs or where she wants it."
"Yes, sir. What is the topic?"
"Well, Margaret, does the First Lady have to have a reason?"
"No, Sir."
"Then that's your reason."
"Yes, Leo."
As she left, Leo shook his head. 'Margaret will always be Margaret.'
As Jed took his shower, Abbey ordered breakfast and got ready herself. A quiet office day with no functions was on her schedule. Whenever she returned from a long trip, she tried to give herself a couple of days to decompress. It didn't always happen but she tried.
He came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. "Good morning. How are you today?"
"I'm good. Sounds like a couple of hours of sleep did you good."
"Yeah. A little. I probably need some more but some of the cobwebs are gone."
She watched him get dressed and then sat down with him as they ate some food.
"Jed, I have a question."
"Sure."
"Do you think you would talk to someone about your father?"
He stopped eating and looked at her across the small table. "What did you just say?"
"I said, are you willing to talk to someone about your feelings about your father?"
"You mean a shrink?"
"Well, yes."
"Abbey, I'm President of the United States and I'm running for reelection and if it got out, I wouldn't be reelected. I would be done. I already hid my MS from the public and now they will say I'm crazy and they can't trust me with the nuclear button. No, I will not talk with a shrink."
"Answer me this one question. Can you continue the way you're going?"
Jed just stared at her. "Why the hell did I have to marry you? Why the hell did I agree to marry such a smart person?"
"Well, I think I'm the one who agreed to marry you. And you didn't have to marry me. You chose to marry me. And I chose to marry you."
She had him. And they both knew it.
"Can we talk about this later? I need to get downstairs."
"Will you give it some thought? Really give it some thought?"
Jed stood and leaned over to kiss her. "For you Babe, anything. I love you. See you tonight.