Disclaimer - I still don't own these characters. They are still the property of Josh Wells, NBC and the fabulous Aaron Sorkin.

Rating – PG

Pairings - Josh/Ellie, Ellie/OC

Spoilers – None

Summary - Josh Lyman meets Eleanor Bartlet during the campaign and falls in love with the young, married medical student. For the purposes of my story, Ellie is several years older in this story and very different than she is on the show.

Ellie paced the floor outside the Oval Office, chewing distractedly on her fingernail while she waited for her father's meeting to be over. He'd sent for her – and God only knew what he wanted to talk to her about. It had been two weeks since she and Josh had told her parents about the baby. Her father had taken to completely ignoring Josh, giving him the cold shoulder in every meeting and shooting down every one of Josh's ideas, even before they got completely out of his mouth.

The door opened and several members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff exited. Charlie smiled at Ellie, who frowned a reply. He shook his head and stood, stepping into the Oval Office and conversing briefly with the President. He stuck his head out and motioned for Ellie.

She stepped past Charlie, who gave her an encouraging, "be strong". Her father was at his desk, his reading glasses perched precariously on the end of his nose. He held up a finger for her to stay quiet for a moment while he finished the page he was reading. He laid the paper on his desk and slowly took off his glasses.

"Ellie," he said, his tone neither cold nor angry.

"Daddy," she responded tentatively.

He motioned for her to sit and came around the desk to sit across from her. "How are you feeling?" he began.

Ellie shrugged. "I feel okay. My sickness is afternoon sickness, not morning sickness."

"Yeah," he answered knowingly. "Your mother was the same way."

"Daddy?" she asked carefully. "Why did you want to see me?"

The President's eyes darted around the room, seemingly focusing on anything other than her. He was carefully considering how to begin this conversation with his daughter. "Ellie," he said, scratching the side of his head, "your mother and I were counting how many weeks you've been pregnant and it's come to our attention that..."

He cleared his throat and Ellie decided to finish the sentence for him. "That the baby might not be Josh's."

"Yeah," he answered with a sigh. "Does Josh..."

"Yes," Ellie replied with a nod. "He knows and quite frankly, he doesn't care. He loves me and he wants to marry me and he's going to be the father of this baby."

"While that improves my current opinion of Josh Lyman slightly, and I mean only slightly, that's an awful lot for a man to handle, Ellie," he said. "Have you even told Curtis?"

"Yes," she nodded. "He's going to come here for the birth, and if it is his child, we'll figure out something..."

The President groaned and shook his head. Ellie stood from the couch and knelt down in front of her father, taking his hand in hers. "Josh is going to be this baby's everyday, diaper changing, boo-boo kissing, getting up in the middle of the night daddy. It's what we both want."

"That's not exactly fair for Curtis," he responded.

Ellie groaned and returned to her seat, ready for this new argument with her father. "Curtis loves his work, Daddy, and he was never willing to give that up, not even for me," she explained.

"What went wrong with you two, Ellie?" he asked tenderly. "I just don't understand it. He loved you so much, and we all thought you loved him."

"I did," she answered honestly, "I do. But, I think that I loved him because he was so different from Josh. We never argued, never. And after a while, the passion sort of stared fading."

"Maybe with a little more work, it wouldn't have faded," Jed accused bitterly.

"That's not fair, Dad. You didn't live with us day to day. You weren't there. You and Mom caught the last couple of months and even then in bits and pieces," she responded.

"Lord Phillip said that Curtis is simply beside himself with grief," Jed told her. "He can't eat, can't sleep, he's lost without you."

Ellie swallowed what would have been a smug grin. "You made that up."

"Yeah," he admitted. "I'm a crappy liar. It's a miracle I've succeeded as a politician. I haven't talked to Phillip. I have no idea what to say to him right now."

"I know the feeling," she responded. "I told Curtis about the baby, then had to get off the phone because he made me cry."

"Yeah."

"Dad, you're treating Josh really badly, you know that, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, and when I decide I'm done punishing him for knocking up my daughter, which he may or may not have actually done, I'll probably fire him," he answered sarcastically.

"Could you wait until after the baby's born?" she asked with a slight smile. "I'd really like to have insurance."

"Josh is a rich guy," Jed scoffed. "He doesn't need the insurance."

Ellie shook her head exasperatedly. "He's not that rich and by the way, do you have any idea how expensive it is to have a baby?"

"No, Doctor-whatever-your-last-name-is-today, I don't," he shot back. "And while we're on that subject, when in the hell are you going back to work?"

"After the baby is born," she explained with a shrug.

The President frowned and leaned back in the chair. He pointed at her stomach. "What are we having anyway?"

Ellie grinned and absent-mindedly ran her fingers over her belly. "It's too early to tell, Daddy."

"What's your best guess?"

"A girl, probably," she answered.

"Figures. I've had three daughters, one granddaughter and only one grandson. The odds weren't in my favor," he replied.

"They never have been," she teased. "You've always been outnumbered, and quite frankly, we like it that way. Gus was an accident. He was supposed to pop out a girl."

"That's not nice," he answered with a warning glare.

"Speaking of nice," she said with a grin, "are you going to start being nicer to Josh now?"

"I wouldn't count on it," he scoffed. "I'm not ready to stop punishing him just yet."

"But soon?"

"I might do a 180 and be nice to him on your wedding day, but after that, all bets are off," he replied.

"Is that your warped way of giving us your blessing?" she asked hopefully.

"Not yet. You both have a lot to prove to me over the next few weeks," he answered.

"C.J.'s announcing the engagement to the press today," she told him. "They're going to ask about your reaction."

"You can tell her to remind the press that they haven't yet found Josh dead, so obviously my reaction wasn't that bad," he said.

"It wasn't that good either," she reminded.

"I'm not going there with you," he warned.

"Okay," she said, standing. She reached over and kissed her father on the cheek. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Honey," he replied. "And I stand by what I said years ago. He hurts you, I'll kill him."

"I think you'll have to get in line," she answered with a sly smile.

"I'll be the head of the line," he said as she retreated from the office, "With Leo and a whole line of Secret Service agents behind me."

TBC....