By the time they left for the Hayes' estate, Sam was ready to crack. He was stressed out about the campaign and was in dire need of a very well earned vacation, although Sam knew this would be anything but a vacation. Ainsley eyed Sam as he popped aspirin into his mouth, then swallowed them down with a swig of water.

"You know honey, people are going to think you're popping pills because you've taken a lot of them for a while now."

Sam shot Ainsley a venomous look and began to drive as the light turned green again.

"All joking aside, you need to relax Sam. Really, it's not good for you to be stressing like this."

"I know." he muttered. Ainsley rested a hand on his knee and Sam moved his right hand off the steering wheel and took her hand in his. "I'm sorry. I know I've been a total pain in the ass the past couple of weeks."

"No, not totally. You got me the necklace for Valentine's Day."

Sam glanced over at Ainsley, who gave him a sweet smile.

"You're fretting over my mother. Do you realize that? Out of the ton of people that will be there, who also love you, you're fretting over my mother and you know nothing that is said or done will make her change her opinion of you so you might as well give up on trying to make her like you."

"I know." Sam turned off the main road and onto a smaller one, going straight until he came upon the driveway of his in-laws' home. He drove up to the mansion and parked the car behind Alex's dark blue Mustang. "Are we late?"

"No. Alex is always here." Ainsley replied.

"Oh."

"Sam,"

"Yeah?" he looked up from unbuckling his seatbelt and Ainsley caught his face in her hands, kissing him deeply. Sam looked slightly dazed as they pulled apart and stared at his wife. "What the hell was that for?"

"I need a reason to kiss you?"

"No, but that was..."

"Amazing. I know." Ainsley got out of the car, leaving Sam sitting there for a second, until he got out of the car as well. He walked over to her, taking her hand in his as they walked up to the front door. Ainsley opened it quietly and pulled Sam inside. They heard talking down the hallway and Ainsley led Sam down towards the kitchen.

"And there... something is not right with her." Emily was saying. Alex was sitting at the island across from his mother, a blank look on his face. "Alex, either you find someone good and let her go or you find someone bad and immediately think she's the one for you. We go through this all the time."

"Hi." Ainsley said, announcing their presence. Alex turned his attention to his sister and gaped.

"Jesus Ainsley."

"Hello to you too." she said sarcastically, kissing his cheek.

"What happened? You look like you swallowed a basketball or something." Alex grinned. Ainsley smacked him upside the head and he winced.

"You just say the sweetest things Alexander."

"I'm quite the charmer. Sam, don't be a stranger man."

He smirked and walked over to his brother-in-law, shaking his hand.

"I wouldn't tease her. She can still kick your ass." he forewarned.

"I wouldn't doubt it. She's always been a hard ass. Obviously being pregnant isn't going to change that. I still don't understand why you'd want knock her up."

"I don't know what Mom's talking about. I don't know why any woman want to date you." Ainsley said.

"Aw, come on Ainsley. I was just teasin' you." Alex said. "You're a beautiful, intelligent, strong, caring woman. Who wouldn't want to have sex with you? Hell, if you weren't my sister I'd try to get with you."

"You can't just make up for it now." she said. "How are you Mom?"

"I'm good sweetheart." Emily put on a smile and glanced at her son-in-law. "Hello Sam."

"Hi Emily." he muttered.

"Where's Daddy?" Ainsley asked.

"He's in his office." Emily replied. "Are you hungry?"

"Not yet."

"Ainsley, you have to eat."

"We stopped for something to eat when we got into Raleigh. I figured you had eaten dinner already."

"Well we have but I could always make you something."

"Really Mom, I'm fine." Ainsley assured. "If I'm hungry, I'll scrounge around for something to eat. We're gonna go see Daddy."

She took Sam by the hand and practically dragged him out of the kitchen and down the hall to her father's office. Ainsley opened the door and Robert looked up, a smile forming on his face.

"Hi." Ainsley smiled, walking into the room. Robert stood up and hugged his daughter.

"Look at you."

"According to Alex, I look like I swallowed a basketball."

"Well you know your brother. He's an idiot. I still can't believe it, my little girl having a baby of her own."

"Dad, stop."

"About time as well. Sam didn't come with you?"

"No he's hiding out in the hallway."

"Sam, get in here!" Robert yelled. He quickly appeared and greeted his father-in-law. "It's great seeing you two again. Christmas wasn't really good."

"Well, you know Mom. She can make anything into a bad situation." Ainsley said.

"Ainsley, don't worry about your mother. She's..." Robert didn't finish his sentence and turned to his son-in-law. "I've seen bits of the campaign on the news. You guys are doing all right for yourselves."

"Thank you." Sam said.

"That was a boost of confidence he needed." Ainsley smiled, resting a hand on Sam's chest. He smiled down at her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "When's Nana coming?"

"She said tonight and I told her to come tomorrow but you know the crazy old bat."

"She's not crazy."

"The woman is seventy-five Ainsley. She needs to be in a nursing home and she still thinks she's twenty-five."

"Well she's in good shape and can do more than you can so I wouldn't be talking about her."

"Sam, I might vote for Bartlet this time around."

"Daddy!" Ainsley sounded shocked.

"Calm down honey. I said might."

"Why would you vote for him?" Sam asked.

"I'll leave you guys to talk." Ainsley said, leaving the room. She went back into the kitchen, where Emily and Alex were arguing again.

"You met her once!" he exclaimed. "You always do this."

"Alex, I have a granddaughter and another on the way. When are you going to give me a grandchild? Why can't you take after your sisters?"

"I try but then you always put my girlfriends down when I bring them to meet you. Then they break up with me, thinking we're all a bunch of crazy lunatics."

"They're the ones who are crazy lunatics."

"I'm done talking about this." Alex slipped off the stool and brushed past his sister, exiting out to the hallway. Ainsley stared at her mother, then followed after her brother.

"Alex, wait a minute," she dragged him into the living room and sat down on the couch next to him. "What's going on?"

"I met a girl, Susan. I know, you're thinking this is one of my one night stands but it's not. I've been dating her since before Thanksgiving. That's why I didn't come to Christmas at your place. I was meeting her parents." he said.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Alex, that's great."

"But then I brought her here."

Ainsley gave her little brother a sympathetic look and rubbed his shoulder.

"She's Richard Donahue's daughter."

"Wow."

"Yeah but Mom doesn't like her."

"Daddy did though right?"

"Of course he did. All he kept talking about was how he couldn't believe she was Rich's daughter."

"He's a great lawyer."

"I know."

"How old is she?"

"Twenty-three. She'll be at Dad's birthday party. You'll meet her then."

"I can't wait to meet her. I'm really happy for you Alex."

"I wish some other people were too."

"She'll come around."

"Did she come around to liking Sam?" Alex asked but it was more of a statement as he gave his sister a look.

"That's different." Ainsley replied.

"I am sorry about what I said before. I was just kidding. I'm happy for you. You got everything worked out and I'm still the family fuck-up."

"Alex, don't say that. Besides, I don't have everything worked out. I work in a Democrat White House. I married a Democrat and you know what? There is a 50/50 chance that I might have a Democrat for a child. Now do you think Mom is pleased about that?"

"But if you take away the Democrat part, you have a good job, a good husband, and a baby on the way."

"Alex, things will work out for you. You're twenty-five."

"And by my age Casey was married and had a good job and you had just graduated from Harvard."

"You're a late bloomer. What can I say?" Ainsley teased. "What you need to do, is stop worrying about Mom. If I worried about what Mom said, I'd probably be a porn star and married to that kid from high school right now."

"If you weren't my sister, I'd watch your pornos." Alex grinned, making Ainsley smack him on the arm.

"Just do what you want. Don't worry about making Mom happy. Worry about making yourself happy."

"You realize, the only one she was happy with was Casey."

Ainsley was silent for a minute then nodded.

"I know." she mumbled.

"I mean, Casey was the ideal child. She got good grades, didn't drink or do drugs, went to a good college, got married, had a kid..."

"She was the opposite of Mom."

"You're the same way though."

"But Casey did it perfectly. She married the good Republican boy, didn't take a job with the Democrats, and had the perfect baby. Me on the other hand, did things correctly but when it came to my life as an adult, I screwed up in her eyes." Ainsley said.

"She doesn't like us." Alex said.

"Stop it. Alex, she does. We're her kids. She loves us. It's just... I mean, look at how she and Dad are. They met in college and got married after four months of knowing each other because he got her pregnant. Everything she worked for went down the tubes. She had these big plans and she screwed up so this is what she's stuck with. Does she like how things turned out? I want to think she does. Was she happy when she was younger? No. She was under thirty and had three rambunctious kids. She'd rather be out partying with her friends."

"She's selfish. You don't think that Dad wanted to do that too? He was still trying to be the best father he could be."

"Yeah, she is. She thinks about herself all the time. She wasn't good in school and she only got into college on her father's money. Casey was salutatorian of her class and got into Georgia Tech. She met Bryan and her life was complete and Mom liked that. Me, I did good in school but wasn't second in my class. I had a boyfriend that I never really liked but Mom loved. When I got accepted to Smith, she didn't want me to go. She wanted me to go to California and try and start a movie career because that's what she wanted. She's trying to live through us Alex. Casey was everything that she ever wanted to be and left her alone but we came along and she wanted things from us that we couldn't or didn't want to give her."

"Yeah."

"Let's move off this. Did Daddy tell you that Nana said she's driving in tonight? He told me he doesn't want her driving at night." Ainsley giggled.

"Nana drives better at night than Dad does in the daytime." Alex smirked.

"I know! I told him that."

"What did he say?"

"He ignored me and started to talk to Sam."

"Man won't admit when he's wrong." Alex chuckled. Ainsley nodded and let out a yawn. "Sleep much?"

"The thing with your niece is she sleeps during the day, when I'm wide awake at work but when I want to sleep at night, she kicks up a storm."

"That sucks."

"Yeah. Anyway, I'm going to bed. Are you staying here tonight?"

"Most likely."

"Okay. Well when you see Sam, send him up to me."

"I will. Night Ainsley." Alex leaned over and kissed her cheek. Ainsley smiled at him and ruffled his hair.

"Remember what I said."