Part Four

"You know what I miss?"

Jed Bartlet locked eyes with his wife, still seated on his lap, and nodded in response to her question, beckoning for her to answer it herself.

"I miss those carefree moments. You know, cooking dinner, watching tv, going for walks…"

"We've had a carefree moments," Jed protested.

"Very few."

He ran his fingers gently along her spine, knowing instinctively that the gesture comforted her.

"They were not completely nonexistent though."

"All too few and far between, honey."

"That, I'll grant you."

April, 2003

"Pulchritudinous."

Abbey walked out of the bedroom to find her husband positioned comfortably on the couch facing the television. He seemed to be overwhelmed by paperwork, yet not paying it an ounce of attention. It was a rare night, an early night. All his evening phone calls had made been, all crises were solved or temporarily postponed, the staff had gone home, and even Leo had left the office. Five minutes earlier, Abbey had walked in from a meeting with the women's caucus and headed straight to the bedroom to change. When she had discarded her high heels, stockings, and business suit in favor sweat pants and a tee-shirt, she joined him on the couch.

"I don't want to hear it," she complained.

"Characterized by or having great physical beauty and appeal."

She curled up beside him and propped her legs up on his lap.

"I'll have to commit that to memory."

"Example," Jed continued. "The First Lady of the United States, despite her obvious disdain for vocabulary, is exceptionally pulchritudinous."

"I don't know whether to be insulted or flattered."

"Would I insult you, oh pulchritudinous wife?"

Abbey rolled her eyes.

"What are we watching?" She squinted her eyes, then quickly put her glasses on. "Oh, no. Tell me you're not…oh, no. The History Channel?"

"What?" Jed questioned, innocently. "It's 'Japan's Mysterious Pyramids.' This is fascinating stuff."

She swung her legs off of his lap and stoos squarely on her feet.

"I'm outta here."

"Oh, no you don't."

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back down onto the couch.

"What would you rather we watch?"

"Well, it's almost ten o'clock on a Thursday…" She winked at him.

"Fine. We'll put on ER. Happy now?"

Abbey snuggled in closer to him as he draped an arm around her shoulders.

"Quite."

"All too few and far between," Abbey repeated with a sigh.

"Well," Jed responded. "Come tomorrow, we can have all the carefree moments we want, kid. We can watch ER all day if you want, now that Liz bought you all four seasons on dvd for your birthday."

Abbey grinned.

"Maybe I'll even watch a couple episodes of Modern Marvels with you."

"Now you're talking! There are a couple of upcoming features I'm particularly looking forward to as well. 'Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America' and 'Decoding the Past- The Other Nostradamus.' You in?"

Abbey sighed in defeat.

"If you behave. That last one will require at least six episodes of ER to compensate."

"Yes, ma'am. Maybe this retirement thing won't be quite so bad after all," Jed said, with a slight bit of enthusiasm.

"But you know, I will say one thing about the White House," Abbey stated. "It has a way of breaking our ankles."

Jed laughed heartily.

"You make an excellent point, my dear. Except I only sprained mine. You were the one rolling past people in a wheelchair for a significant amount of time."

November, 2001

The Residence had been so quiet without her the past few days. He understood that she needed a break, and he agreed that she deserved one. Had he known she was going to spend the weekend hiking in the White Mountains, he might have had something to say about that. Instead, she had lied and insisted she would be relaxing indoors when he had inquired as to her hiking habit. She had been so distressed and preoccupied lately, and deservedly so; some sort of accident was inevitable. When he spoke to her on the phone following the incident, she had been terse and quite frankly, a little pissed off. That being said, she hadn't shared an enormous amount of details with him. A conversation with Ron Butterfield told him that, while hiking off the Kangamangus highway in North Conway, New Hampshire she had tripped on a rock in the open and had quite a nasty fall. Abbey herself would never admit to that of course. She insisted that the rock had been impossible to discern and anyone would have fallen as she had. Ron was pretty adament about the rock being obvious despite what the First Lady may have claimed. The President had done his homework and spoken to Abbey's hiking companion at the time, her sister, Julia. Julia was inclined to agree with Ron Butterfield and attested to the fact that Abbey was more than a little distant and distraught at the time of the accident. He had no doubt.

The President had left the office a little early that night, to prepare himself for her arrival. He had every intention of doing everything in his power to make the next few weeks as easy on her as possible. If he had to rearrange the furniture so that she would have a clear path to get whenever she wanted to go, he would do it himself. If he didn't, he would be the one listening to her complain constantly about her lack of mobility.

When he received the call that the First Lady was on her way up, Jed braced himself. She was going to be more than a little pissed off and he aimed to alleviate whatever ailed her. Emotionally, at least, if not physically. But first…he was going to have to taunt her a little.

The door flung open and he was a little taken aback by the sight of his wife in a wheelchair. Here was this magnificent force of nature before him, confined to a small, portable chair. He imagined she was just as thrown off by it as he was. The agent who had wheeled her in quickly excused himself and closed the double doors behind him, leaving the President and First Lady by themselves.

"Well, well, well."

Jed circled her like a predator to its prey and folded his arms across his chest.

"Had a little accident, did we?"

"Cut the crap, Jed, you know exactly what happened."

"Only after I interrogated Ron and your sister."

"I tripped on a rock," Abbey said, haughtily. "At least I didn't ride my bicycle into a tree."

"Oh, I know you tripped on a rock, dear, and I'm choosing to ignore that last statement. The question is why you tripped on a rock."

"It was unavoidable."

"That's not what Ron said."

"Ron wasn't there."

"Julia did not hesitate to agree," Jed pointed out.

"Julia is blind without her glasses."

"Just admit it, Abbey. Admit you didn't see the rock because your head was somewhere else."

"Why? Why is it so important to you?"

"Because I warned you not to go hiking. I told you it was a bad idea and you just had to disregard my counsel and…"

"All right already! God, you are a piece of work. Yes! Okay? You were right. I didn't see the rock because my head was somewhere else. I was too preoccupied with the possibility that my license might get taken from me and you might be censured! I apologize for allowing my concern to distract me."

He nodded, instantly regretting all that he had said to her.

"Come on, let me help you out of that chair."

"In favor of what?"

"In favor of that bed over there, which, I assure you, is a thousand times more comfortable than that chair."

She reluctantly agreed. He wheeled her over beside the bed and lifted her out of the chair. With an arm around her waist, he hoisted her up onto the bed without causing any further injuries which, they both agreed, was a miracle of gargantuan proportions. Seconds later, he disappeared into the bathroom before reappearing, clad in his favorite plaid pajamas. Then, he held up her nightgown and grinned at her.

"Oh, no." Abbey shook her head fervently. "I can get changed on my own, thank you."

"Gonna be hard, seeing as how you can't move your leg there, babe."

"Watch me."

He fully intended to. First, she kicked off her shoe. Then, she grabbed the hemline of her sweater and lifted it over her head, falling down onto the bed as she did so. She tossed the sweater onto the floor where it landed a foot from where Jed stood watching. Abbey pressed her elbows against the bed in an effort to lift herself up long enough to unzip her skirt, but when she tried to use her hand to pull down the zipper, the elbow dislodged and she fell back down with a groan.

"Still think you can do it?"

"Shut up."

It took her about thirty seconds, but she managed to turn over onto her side. She reached back to pull down the zipper on her skirt.

"Let's see you get it off," Jed challenged her.

"Shut. Up."

He held his hands up in defeat and stepped back. She pushed the skirt down off her hips until it reached her cast. She bent her right leg and pushed the skirt off of it. Now, the only obstacle left was getting the skirt past her painfully heavy cast. She tried to reach forward and lift up her left leg with her arms, but she did not prove to be strong enough. Muttering obscenities under her breath, she pushed her left leg over the edge of the bed and winced at the pain that ailed her once it had nothing to hold it up. She quickly pushed the skirt off her leg, then pulled the leg back onto the bed.

"Well done!" Jed commended her. "Now, you going to sleep with that bra on?"

"Piece of cake," Abbey replied, airily, now confident in her abilities.

"Okay. Go ahead."

Once again, she propped herself up on her elbows to get access to the clasp in the back. As Jed had predicted, she ran into the same problem she'd had with the skirt zipper. Each time she tried to reach behind her, her elbows moved and she fell back down again. As she had done before, she rotated onto her side and tried to reach back again, but with one arm trapped underneath her body, she couldn't reach the clasp.

"Damnit!"

"Want some help?" He offered.

"No! I can do it."

"See, like I always said, it's much more convenient to have the clasp in the front."

"Shut up."

"Okay."

Determined to prove her husband wrong, Abbey moved on to Plan C. She reached up and, one by one, pushed down the straps of her bra. Once she had pushed them off of her arms, she pushed the bra itself down to her waist.

"Oh, for God's sake…" Jed shook his head.

Unperturbed, she continued moving the bra down her torso, jumping when the clasp in the back snapped and broke.

"Ha!" She exclaimed, tossing the bra in his direction. "Who's the man now"
Between fits of laughter, he managed to catch the bra as it flew toward him.

"Abbey…"

"What? I proved that I can get undressed on my own, without you. What do you have to say about that!"

"You can't get undressed without severely damaging certain articles of clothing. I'd hardly say you were successful."

"It's just a broken clasp!"

"And one less fifty dollar bra from Victoria's Secret."

"That's not the point. Give me my nightgown."

"Mmm, no, I don't think I will."

"Jed." Abbey glared at him.

"You cheated. I'm not rewarding you. Plus, I'm kind of enjoying the view here."

"Jed, I swear to God, if you don't…"

"Oh, take your damn nightgown."

He tossed the cotton nightgown over to her and was just as surprised as she was when it landed on the opposite side of the bed. Her eyes followed the nightgown, then returned to her husband, wide and astonished. Her jaw dropped in shock.

"That was low, Jed."

"You were supposed to catch it!"

Abbey sighed.

"This is ridiculous, you know that?"

"No kidding."

He walked around the bed to the other side then picked up the nightown and tossed it to her again. This time, she caught it.

"Abbey, seriously, there is no way you can put that nightgown on without a little help."

She looked down at her cast in despair, then nodded grudgingly.

"Yeah. Okay. You're right."

Jed grinned.

"Twice in one night. That's gotta be a first."

"Just shut up and help me, would you please?"

"And now that we're returning to New Hampshire," Jed said, laughing. "There'll be plenty more opportunities for broken ankles."

Abbey smirked.

"Something to look forward to."