A Glimpse at the Future: A Nightmare of Epic Proportions by MandaPanda2

(See first part for disclaimer, notes, rating, spoilers, etc)

"Are my girls here?" Jed asked.

"Liz and Zoey are downstairs and Ellie arrived from New York right before I came to see you."

"OK," Jed sighed. "I gotta go down and talk to them." He walked over to Leo and said, "Thanks. For everything."

"Go be with your girls Jed."

Jed nodded and slowly walked out of the room. As he walked down the hallway, he could hear Leo's muffled sobs coming from the bedroom. Oh Leo. You're always taking care of me...Doing your best to calm me down when inside your heart is breaking too. Abby was your friend as well as my wife, Jed thinks to himself.

As Jed walked down the stairs, he thought about his girls. Liz. Ellie. Zoey. What was he going to say to them? He knew that they were going through the same hell that he was.

When he got downstairs, he heard someone crying. Jed followed the sounds into the kitchen, where he found Ellie. Oh God Abby. I wish you were here, he thought. You would know what to say to the girls....how to comfort them. He took a deep breath and went over to his middle daughter.

"Ellie?" he asked.

Ellie looked over at her father, tears tracks staining her face. "Oh Daddy," was all she could manage before she broke out in a new round of tears. She moved over and fell into Jed's outstretched arms. "Mommy hasn't even been gone a whole day and I miss her already."

"I know sweetie. I know. I miss her too." Jed held his sobbing daughter in his arms, rubbing her back. After a few minutes, Ellie began to calm down. She pulled back from her father and looked into his eyes.

"Are you ok? Do you feel ok?"

Jed smiled wistfully. She's so much like you Abs, he thought, always a doctor. He nodded.

Ellie just continued to give him the once over. "Are you lying?"

He managed a small smile. "What is this I hear? Are you accusing your dear old dad, a former president, of lying?" he joked.

"Dad, I'm serious. Do you feel dizzy or lightheaded? Is your vision ok?"

"No. No. Yes. Does that answer all of your questions Dr. Bartlet?"

Ellie sighed and said, "Dad, I am only trying to help."

"I know baby. I'm sorry. It's just that I already went through something similar to this with Leo. Where are your sisters?

"Liz went to go pick up Annie at the airport. She couldn't get a flight out until she took her last final. Zoey is with Charlie. He took her outside for a walk."

"Ok. What about you?" Jed asked.

"What do you mean 'what about you' ?"

"Are 'you' ok?"

Ellie gave him a meek smile before answering, "Yeah, I'm ok."

"Are 'you' lying?" he countered.

"What's with the tit-for-tat?"

Jed sighed. "Nothing Ellie. No 'tit-for-tat', as you put it. Just a concerned father making sure his daughter is coping with all of today's sadness. I hope that is ok with you!" he said, shouting the last part.

"Dad-"

"Ellie your mother is dead. She's dead! Abby is dead and she isn't coming back!"

"Dad, stop it."

"She's dead, Ellie. She's dead. She's dead."

"Jed-"

"Dead. She's dead. Abby's dead, " he sobbed.

"Jed honey, wake up. Wake up Jed!"

Jed sat straight up in dead, breathing heavily with tears running down his face. He looked over and saw Abby staring at him with a worried look on her face. Oh my God, he thought as he started to shake.

"Pumpkin? Are you ok? What the hell kind of dream did you have?" Abby asked. She reached over to brush his hair out of his eyes. "You're soaking! Do you have a fever?" she asked, putting her hand on his forehead.

Jed reached up and grabbed her hand in his. With his other hand, he touched her cheek tentatively, as if she might disappear in a cloud of smoke. She's real, he thought as he moved his hand to run it through her hair.

"Jed, you are scaring me. Say something. What the hell were you dreaming about?"

"You," he whispered.

"Me?" she replied. "Dare I ask what happened to put you in this state?"

"Abby it was terrible. You were in your garden putting the roses in and then you were on the porch drinking lemonade and you had a heart attack and I was at Boston College giving a speech to their political science department and you died all alone and I didn't get a chance to tell you that I loved you one last time and Leo and Ellie were there too and they kept asking me if I felt ok and I wasn't ok because you were dead and I was all alone and I felt like a piece of me had died with you," came tumbling out of Jed's mouth as he started to cry again. He reached over and pulled Abby to him as he sobbed into her hair.

"Oh Jed. Honey, it's ok. Shhh. I am here and everything is fine," Abby said softly as she encircled her arms tightly around Jed. "Shhh. It's all over. It was just a dream."

Jed pulled away. "No Abby, " he said, "this wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare of epic proportions. My God, it felt so real. Do you know how lost I felt without you? I thought you were gone from my life forever. Do you know what that feels like? That feeling of loss?"

"Yes, Jed I do," Abby said. "I know exactly what that feels like. I have had nightmares like that since the day you were diagnosed with MS."

Jed looked at her. "I never knew that. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Because pumpkin, that is negative thinking. Yes, Jed you are going to die. So am I. We all have to die sometime. It is going to happen whether we want it to or not. So, to answer your question, I didn't tell you about my own nightmares because I refuse to let it ruin our time together. I don't want to live my life thinking about 'the end'. I want to live for moment and enjoy the time we spend with each other and our girls."

Jed looked at the woman who captured his heart almost 40 years ago and who continues to hold it captive. He took a deep breath and pulled her back towards him. "I'm ok now," he said.

Abby looked at him closely and asked, "Are you sure?"

He nodded yes and pulled her even closer to him. Jed reached up and cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her face up to his.

"What are you doing? " Abby asked.

"Living for the moment," he replied as he gently placed his lips on hers.

The End