Sam ordered pizza for them once they got back to his place. As Kate was upstairs changing out of her work clothes, he made a phone call from his office.

"White House Operator. How may I direct your call?"

"Hi, Chris. It's Sam Seaborn. Would you please connect me with the First Lady?"

"Sure, just a sec."

"Thanks"

Jed and Abbey were in the Residence watching a movie when the phone rang.

"Good evening, Mr. President. I have Sam Seaborn on the line for the First Lady."

"Go ahead and put him through." Once the call switched over, "Sam, is there a particular reason that you're calling my wife at this time of night?"

"Mr. President! I'm very sorry for disturbing you, but I need to speak to the First Lady, if that's possible, please."

"It might be, provided you tell me what this is about."

"It's Kate, sir."

He waved to Abbey to come over to the phone. "It's Sam. About Katie."

"Sam? Is everything all right?"

"I'm not sure, ma'am. We were..."

"Sam, conversations like this, I'm Abbey."

"OK. Well, she was meeting me at the office because we had dinner plans and she wound up walking into the middle of the thing we had tonight. It seems that she and Toby collided with each other by accident and he screamed at her like no tomorrow. I finally caught up with her near the fence by the Northwest entrance and she was crying like I've never seen anyone cry before. I'm really worried."

"Where are you right now?"

"At my place. She's upstairs in the guest room. After everything that happened, I thought it might be a good idea if she came here with me and we ordered in for dinner."

"Good call, Sam. Don't force her to talk until she's ready. Stay nearby and remember that she's very tactile. Right now, she's probably operating with the emotional logic of a 10 year old, possibly lower if this rattled her as bad as you say. Just keep things quiet there and that will help her recover."

"Thank you, Abbey. I'm sorry I called this late."

"Don't worry about it. I can tell how much she means to you. Just take care of her."

"I will, Abbey, I will."

After they'd hung up, she snuggled up to Jed on the couch.

"She OK?"

"Yeah. Toby collided with her earlier and yelled, and you know how loud he can get. Apparently, it really frightened her and she bolted. Sam caught up with her at the fence at the Northwest entrance. From what he told me, it sounded like she was crying even harder than she did when she was with us at the State House."

"Where is she now?"

"They're at Sam's. They'd planned on going out, but after what happened he thought it'd be better if they ordered in, since he felt that she needed quiet."

"He's a good man, Abbey. Even though he doesn't think he knows what he's doing, it sounds like he did everything you'd recommend."

"You're right, Jed. Who knows? You may have to give away another girl from this family," Abbey said teasingly.

"She's Leo's niece and I think he'd agree about my building the dungeon," he grumbled, shooting Abbey an evil look.