III

Jonathan smirked solicitously as he drove towards the station. "So, c'mon - spill it!" he urged. "How far have you got, man? Have you and Abbey- you know?"

Jed narrowed his eyes. "You're totally sleazy, I hope you know that. You're gonna grow up to be a dirty old man drooling over teenage schoolgirls, I can just see it now."

His little brother chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Oh, man. You are such a prude," he snickered as he pulled into the parking space and stopped the car.

Jed got out and leaned down to talk to him through the window. "For your information, some of us care about more than just sex, actually."

Johnny tilted his head on one side to regard him. "Oh my God, you are actually a girl. Next you're gonna tell me that she's 'The One' and you want to sit and hold hands and pick flowers together."

"Shut up," he muttered through gritted teeth, as he grabbed his suitcases and walked away. His brother's mocking laughter followed him all the way to the station.

But he didn't care. Because he was going back. Home, almost - although here in New Hampshire lay his birthplace and all the life he'd known growing up, some internal compass had already begun to point towards Abbey. Laugh though his brother might at the concept, he was sure of it; yes, she was the one. She was the one for him, and his heart lightened with every step he drew closer to her.

It dropped again at the prospect of the train journey from hell ahead of him, but still. One step at a time.

"Abbey!" There he was, all bright smile and big blue eyes. He looked exhausted from the journey, but mustered the energy to speed up as she saw him approaching. Last time she'd met him from the train like this she'd hesitated to run to hug him; now she revelled in the chance to indulge that impulse. He gave a soft sigh that matched her own gratitude to no longer be separated from this young man she'd grown to need so much in so short a time.

"I missed you."

"Yeah."

Further conversation seemed unnecessary when there was perfectly good kissing to be getting on with instead.

"Enough of that." Her father tapped his foot and glared sternly but affectionately at the two of them.

"Yes, sir." Jed stepped back obligingly, but there was still a glint in his eye; he'd come a long way from the shy, hesitant boy he'd been when first getting to know their family. Growing comfortable had pulled him out of his protective shell, and his more devilish, playful side popped to the surface. She liked to see that side of him; it was so wonderfully at odds with his solemn, deeply serious half to see him acting like a mischievous little boy.

"Dad drove me up here; we can go by your place to drop off your bags and then you can come have dinner with us," she explained.

He shot a quick, almost apologetic glance towards her father. "Oh, you don't have to do that-"

"No, but Mary will be quite distressed if we don't bring you back with us," he answered in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "I think she thinks they don't have food in New Hampshire."

"Besides, we didn't bring you all the way back here just to kill yourself with food poisoning," Abbey interjected. Jed turned his best injured look her way.

"I can cook," he insisted, eyebrows high.

"You can burn," she corrected.

"Hey, I like my toast that way."

"Black?"

"It's good for the digestion."

Her father rolled his eyes at them. "Be quiet, the pair of you, and just get in the car."

She squeezed into the back of the car with both Jed and his bulging suitcases for the ride back. It was a tight fit, but she barely noticed; the two of them spent the entire journey grinning madly at each other.

"I really missed you," he repeated, in a tone that made her insides melt.

"I missed you too."

They leaned towards each other. Her father glared in the rear-view mirror. "You start on that in my car, and one of you's walking home."

They both giggled, and Jed contented himself with a quick kiss to her cheek instead. They snuggled closer despite the intrusion of his luggage on their space.

"My brother Matt's still home," she told him. "You can meet him at dinner."

Jed pulled a mock-worried face. Or possibly an honestly worried one; she might well have mentioned a few times that her older brother had a protective streak that was easily the match of her father's. "Is he gonna want to beat me up?"

"He'll love you," she assured him. Of course he would.

Eventually, anyway.

This little shrimp was the famous Jed? Matt could hardly believe it. The guy practically came up to his navel. He supposed that didn't matter so much to somebody as short as Abbey, but still. She'd ditched Ron for this guy?

The two of them were making sappy eyes at each other all through dinner. Apparently it wasn't just Abbey who'd been suckered by Mr. Josiah Bartlet; their mother was obviously taken with the guy, and even dad treated him with a confusing amount of respect.

Matt didn't see what they all saw in him. He was short, nerdy, and he talked too much. The whole meal long he hadn't shut up about politics, of all things. Matt had tuned out most of the fine details in self defence. Honestly, what self-respecting college boy wanted to debate the intricacies of the Constitution over dinner?

Apparently, the one that Abbey was smitten with.

"So, Josiah, what are you studying?" he asked as they both cleared away plates to the kitchen. "I tried to ask Abbey, but I couldn't get a straight answer."

"I'm, uh... well, I changed classes in the middle of the year. I was originally going to shift to economics, but it turned out I couldn't get all the classes I needed so now I'm majoring in American Studies. Um... call me Jed?" he finished, the fervent 'please' hanging unspoken on the end of the sentence. Matt smirked.

"Fickle," he noted, with a glance across at Abbey. She refused to deign to meet his eyes.

"Not really," Jed said seriously. "I'm still going to do the economics, just as a second degree. And my old major, theology, I'm keeping on as a minor."

"Theology?" Matt frowned disparagingly. "What were you going to do with that?"

"I was going to be a priest," he said, quite solemnly, and Matt choked.

Abbey leaned in with a smirk. "I'm a great corrupting influence."

Jed grinned across at her. "She lured me away from a life of innocence and piety in the church, you know," he said wryly.

"Ah, you'd never have kept it up." They cheerfully shared a kiss right in front of him, to Matt's great disgruntlement.

Apparently, little sister's new boyfriend was more difficult to pin down than he thought. Not a jock but a nerd, and one with a religious background at that. Still, being raised a Catholic was no cure for the even more pressing condition of being a teenage boy, and it wouldn't hurt to put a little fear into him just in case. He leaned against the wall and looked him up and down. "You play any sports?"

Jed looked uncertain, as well he should. "I used to play some basketball," he offered hesitantly.

Matt refrained from any obvious jokes about being the ball.

"Great," he smirked. "Let's shoot some hoops."

Jed had a strong suspicion he was going to get pounded. He was already tired from the long journey, and Abbey's brother had several inches and a good few pounds of muscle on him. Still, there was his manly pride to consider. He'd pointed out as much to Abbey. She'd snorted and walked off, muttering something that ended with a scathing "Boys!" Well, at least if he did get pounded, it wouldn't be with an audience.

His prior basketball experience was pretty much limited to exactly this kind of backyard scuffle; he'd been on the team in prep school, but a kid his height without any spectacular flair to make up for it rarely got a touch of the ball. He was used to shooting hoops against his little brother, who was taller and probably fitter, but pretty lazy about pressing home his advantage. Matt Barrington, on the other hand, was clearly out to teach his sister's new boyfriend a lesson. There was little time for idle conversation; Jed's main priorities were to avoid horrifically embarrassing himself, and, if at all possible, make at least one basket.

So far, objective two was looking like a distant dream, and objective number one wasn't going too swimmingly, either.

His breath was soon wheezing in his chest; he really wasn't built for prolonged exertion. Matt was running rings round him and enjoying it, but he struggled on anyway. If this had been any old testosterone face-off he would have cut his losses and backed down by now, but he felt a stupid urge to impress Abbey's brother. Vague thoughts he didn't quite dare fully grasp hold of muttered about family gatherings and the possibility of a brother-in-law.

Such a brush with scarily enormous future plans dizzied him for an instant, and Matt took advantage of the moment to steal the ball yet again. Jed made a desperate stretch to block him, and Matt suddenly paused. "Hey." He frowned, and lowered the ball to bounce it. "What happened to you?"

"What? Oh." He hurriedly tugged his sweater down to cover his stomach. Bruises, still. He tended to forget they were there after the initial sting faded. "I'm... I'm kind of a klutz," he excused with a quickly nervous smile.

"Yeah?" Matt didn't look convinced. "Well, maybe we'd better call this off before you trip over in the dark and kill yourself or something."

His big mouth was getting ready to claim he could still play just fine, but, unusually, common sense intervened. "I should probably be getting back. I've still gotta unpack all my stuff."

"Suit yourself." He lazily bounced the ball and then turned around to make a perfect shot. Jed hurried back to the house to say a final goodnight to Abbey. He felt Matt's suspicious eyes on the back of his neck, watching him go.