"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in your deliberations, I would urge you to remember that these men committed a crime not only against one person, but rather against something bigger," Zoey told the jury, walking slowly back and forth in front of the jury box. "They committed a crime against the principles of this country. They singled out a group of people for their hatred; Isaac and Rachel Latterich were the two innocent people that the defendants chose to exact that hatred on."

She hesitated in front of the box for another moment, then she returned to her seat. She'd done all that she could. She hadn't made it personal, at least not in the courtroom. Now, everything was up to the twelve men and women of the jury.

As the defence lawyer stood to begin his closing arguments, Zoey turned to look at the gallery. Charlie was sitting in the second row. He nodded his reassurance to her. He knew what hopes she'd pinned on this case.


Jack closed the door quietly behind him, not wanting to wake anyone. It was late, later than he'd expected, and all he wanted to do was slip quietly into bed sleep until morning. He slipped off his shoes, noting there was a light still on somewhere upstairs.

"You're home late," Alex said from the top of the stairs, startling him. He hadn't expected her to still be up.

"I got held up in Virginia," he explained, walking upstairs to give her a kiss. "Westfield wanted to finish our discussion over some drinks."

"And you went." She turned her head and his lips glanced off her cheek.

"Of course," he shrugged. "We weren't done what we had to get done for today yet."

"That's a sorry excuse, Jack," Alex sighed, whispering so that she wouldn't wake the girls.

"I don't know what you want me to say, because it's not an excuse. He offered to put me up in a hotel room, but I wanted to get home to see how the girls were." They both had bad cases of the flu.

"Well, they're sleeping now, but they've been up almost all night," Alex snapped tiredly. "I'm surprised that you even knew they were sick. I was told that they couldn't get through to you on your cell."

"They left a message," Jack told her. "We were in meetings. I don't know what else you wanted me to do. It's not like my job lets me drop everything at the drop of a hat."

"But I'm still expected to walk out of committee meetings every time one of them gets sick at daycare?" she demanded.

"I don't expect you to walk out of committee meetings every time one of them gets sick!" he exclaimed in frustration. "You know Milbrandt and I have had this week's meetings planned for months. If I wouldn't have been out in Virginia, I would have taken them. You know I would have."

"If there was nothing else on your schedule," she retorted.

"Jack, this isn't just about today," she continued. "This is about every day. It's about you going to the office and leaving me to get them ready four mornings out of five. It's about me having to find interns and aides to watch them in the evenings and on weekends because something came up and you couldn't be home when you promised that you would be."

"We knew this would be hard right from the beginning," he pointed out, "but we've had the twins for three years now and it's not like these things are just starting to come up now." He made a show of checking his watch and sighing. It was two in the morning, he'd just gotten back from Virginia, and he had to be on the road by eight so that he could make another meeting in New Jersey. "I don't understand what the big deal is all of a sudden."

"The big deal is that every time something happens," Alex told him furiously, "I'm the one who winds up having to juggle my whole schedule. Whenever something happens, I'm the first call and you're always unavailable." She turned away from him, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.

Jack took a couple of deep breaths, trying to reign in his temper. He knew this wasn't the first time that Alex had had to hold conference calls in between carrying for the girls. "Things will look better in the morning, after we've both gotten some sleep."

"In the morning?" she repeated. "In the morning I've got to go in at six to try and catch up on everything that I didn't get done today. Then I've got to come back here so I can get the girls ready to go over to Josh and Donna's, where Joan has been kind enough to volunteer to watch them. But I've got to figure something else out for the afternoon because she has a class. And where are you? In New Jersey all day with Milbrandt meeting prospective Senate candidates!"

"Alex," he started, stepping toward her, "we're both trying to do everything that we can. This isn't a normal family; we don't seem to know how to do things the easy way."

"You can say that again," she whispered, still keeping her back turned.

"You're usually the first call because your office always has to know where you are," Jack explained gently, even though Alex knew it. "And you don't usually have to leave in the middle of the day; usually we can both manage to keep our offices functioning."

"I know," she responded, her voice cracking. She turned back around and Jack was shocked to see that she had tears rolling down her cheeks. He hadn't thought it was that serious. "It's just so hard sometimes," she added miserably.

He stepped toward her again, confused as to the turn the conversation had taken. "I know, Alli. But we're doing our best," he told her, reaching out a hand to draw her into an embrace.

"It's not going to get any easier," she declared, stepping into his arms.

"Once they're in school, it won't be quite as hard," Jack soothed her. "And everything's going to be that much easier once this next set of elections are over and done with." He was confident making that statement. Elections just caused trouble, especially in years that they were both trying to mount campaigns in different parts of the country.

If anything, she only started crying harder. "What is it?" he asked worriedly, concerned that there was something going on that she wasn't telling him.

She pushed away from him a little, but Jack didn't let her out of his arms. "I'm pregnant again," she whispered softly.

"You're what?" Jack asked in confusion.

"I'm…"

"Are you sure?" he said, cutting her off.

She nodded. Jack grinned widely. "That's wonderful," he breathed excitedly. "When?"

"Six months," she responded flatly. "March."

"Oh." He could see part of the reason why she was so upset. Unlike with the twins' birth, this time there would be no recess before the birth. And the post-Christmas slow period would long be over. It was mid-session and the situation that she had worried about last time was a near certainty; she would be put in the situation of having to miss a key swing vote. Not only that, but she'd have to give up any hope of being re-elected floor leader.

"I've been thinking about pulling out of the race completely," she confided. "I don't see how there's any other way."

"Pulling out?" he repeated. He knew her dreams and he knew how agonizing it must be for her to consider not running. If she didn't run in this election, she'd probably have to push back the primaries for at least another four years, past the three that they were already facing. And that was if she decided that she still wanted to run once the kids were older. All of the work that Josh and Toby put into planning would have to be completely redone.

"I really can't think of any other way for this to work. Things aren't like they were when you were with Herb. You can't work half-days or bring most of your stuff home. You're meeting people out of state. And I would never think of sending an infant that young to a sitter. I'd have to miss at least a quarter of a term and I can't responsibly do that."

"We could always bring someone in to look after them," Jack proposed, trying to synthesize everything at once. He was going to be a father again and he still hadn't wrapped his mind around that fact.

-

"Already tried that, remember?"

-

"Yeah, but this time we're really starting to get things off the ground," Josh protested. "There are only three years left."

"You point that out every chance you get, Josh," Donna complained, running the brush through her long, blonde hair. She was happy that her hair was blonde; it hid the grey that much better. "And it still doesn't change the fact that people aren't going to be willing to come and work for an unknown. Or do I need to remind you one more time of the trouble that I had when we were first starting?"

"I remember fine," Josh responded. "But that's why we've started looking already. This campaign is going to be unconventional by its very nature. People only know how to run the normal ones. Toby and I think…"

"Starting a sentence that way is a dangerous thing, Joshua," Donna interrupted. "The last time you started a sentence that way, we got lost and ended up in Pennsylvania."

"Toby and I think that we should start fresh, use people with experience, but not necessarily Washington experience," Josh continued, ignoring the interruption. "Instead of getting someone who can write political speeches, we're trying to find people who can present convincing or inspiring arguments and then teach them the politics that they're going to need.

"Toby's idea," Donna commented.

"It could have been my idea," Josh protested.

"It was Toby's idea."

"How come you don't think that it could have been my idea?"

"Because you never would have added the part about inspiring."

"I can be inspiring."

"I know you, Joshua," Donna stated. "And that was Toby's idea."

-

"I helped."

-

"I'm sure you did, Sam," CJ commented, wandering around the townhouse.

"I'll have you know that I have a very good eye for things like this," Sam declared, trailing behind her.

"And that's why you let Mallory pick whatever she wanted?" she asked, peering outside one of the windows.

"Yeah," he admitted unthinkingly. Immediately, he tried to correct himself, "I mean…"

"Too late, Sparky," CJ laughed. "And your wife has very good taste in housing."

"I know," he stated proudly, giving up the charade that he had picked out the place. "There's even enough room for me to set up an office upstairs."

"How soon do Toby and Josh want you to start?" she inquired sharply.

"They haven't really said too much yet," Sam told her. "I think that they need to involve Alex before they can proceed too much further. They've got outlines of plans more or less fleshed out, but it's still her campaign. She's the one who has to decide which scenario to use; she might not even use any of the ones that they've drawn up."

"And still they continue," CJ sighed. "Toby went out headhunting again last week. I'm sure that our house is a fire hazard because of all of his boxes of lists." She rolled her eyes.

"You wouldn't miss it for the world, would you?"

"No," she answered after a moment. "You?"

"Not on your life. This one is going to be a good fight."

"She's the real thing," CJ said softly.

"I didn't even need Josh's horrible poker face this time."

"Let's just hope that we can get everyone else to see it too."