Chapter 17
Two days later, Jed was in GW's Presidential suite, attempting to walk for the first time. Shaky, but making it. He had just returned to the chair when the door opened. Leo and Abbey walked in, smiling when they saw where he was.
"Abbey. Leo. Good to see you."
"Hi, babe."
Abbey came over and placed a kiss on his forehead, then went back to stand next to Leo.
He quickly noticed that Abbey and Leo were exchanging glances.
"You want to tell me what's going on?"
Leo looked at Abbey and she looked at him.
"Oh, hell. Why do you keep looking at each other?"
Abbey shrugged her shoulders. "Leo knows."
"Knows what?"
"About the MS."
Looking surprised, Jed looked at his best friend for a response. Obviously Abbey had told Leo sometime in the past few days so it wasn't like it had just hit him. He had had time to digest it.
"How do you feel about it?"
"Why didn't you tell me? I could have been a friend to you."
"You have been, Leo. You have been."
Leo leaned down to hug his friend. "Jed, don't keep anything from me again. This is your friend speaking, not your Chief of Staff." He stood back up just as his cell phone rang. After listening to the conversation, Leo closed the case. "Gotta go." Seeing the worried expression on the President's face, Leo smiled. "No Mr. President, this is not something you need to worry about. You get better. That's all you should worry about."
Abbey sat down next to Jed and looked back at Leo. "That's all he will worry about too. At least for the next two months."
"Two months!"
"Yes, babe. Two months. Maybe six weeks if you behave yourself. And I won't hear of anything less."
"But Abbey…"
Jed saw the expression on his wife's face. He knew that the final word had been said. And that there would be no discussion of it any further. "Yes, dear."
Laughter filled the hospital room.