Okay, so I conquered finals and have been on vacation for about 2 weeks. It's time to hit the ground running with this story…it took me some time to figure out where I wanted to go with it. I'll be honest – from the start I had planned on fixing it all with an accident and a miscarriage – but I love CiC too much for that (though I may write it in as an alternative ending). But you don't need to know all my plans just yet! Hopefully my vacation will be kind to you all and provide plenty of updates! Thank you all for your amazingly kind reviews! Now….on with the show!

Once they made it back to the Residence Mac and Amy headed to the youngster's room to read Green Eggs and Ham while Kate headed off towards the family kitchen to put a bit more of her fresh cookie dough into the oven.

About twenty minutes later, Kate was pulling the delicious morsels out of the oven when Mac walked in. She had changed again, this time into some black sweats and a Yale Law t-shirt. Kate thought back to the moment when her daughter first told her she would be going to law school – she was 7 and she had broken that news over a batch of cookies then too. Mac sat down at the table with a sigh.

"Tough day?" Kate asked as she brought a plate of chocolate chip cookies over to join the two glasses of milk already on the table.

"That doesn't even begin to describe it. It's no small thing to find out you're pregnant, but when you have to deal with an Iranian nuclear threat at the same time, well" she reached for a cookie, "no one should have to do that."

"I won't pretend to know what this is going to be like for you, but I do know that if anyone can do it, it's you."

Mac smiled, this was exactly what she needed right now – warm cookies and her mother telling her everything was going to be okay. "Thanks mom. Things aren't going to be easy. And what do we tell the kids."

"Becca and Horace will be fine - "

"Yeah, but I'm worried about Amy. She is quite content with being the baby in this family, and I know she misses me."

"She does." Kate didn't have any silver lining to apply to that cloud. It was true, Mac didn't see the kids as much as she used to, but they all understood. Even Amy got that her mom had the most important job in the world. That, of course, didn't mean that they liked it, but they understood – and that was all the hope she could give to her daughter. "But Mac sweetie, they understand. We all do."

"Yeah." Then why did she feel so guilty?

The two talked for a while longer, mostly about Mac's fears of pregnancy. Before she could even worry about having a child as the President of the United States, she had to worry about having a child at her age. But taking her Presidency into account, she had no doubt she would get the best and most attentive medical care available. When Mac managed to stifle a second yawn, Kate realized her daughter needed to go to sleep – she was not going to be responsible for a groggy and therefore cranky President come the morning.

Mackenzie enveloped her mother in a tight hug and kissed her cheek before heading off to bed. It was 11:30, and she couldn't remember the last time she had been able to go to sleep so early. She figured it must have been years ago, or at least it felt that way. Before going to bed however, she felt the need to check on her children. First she snuck into Amy's room, the youngster was already fast asleep. She gently brushed a wisp of hair from her cheek and kissed her forehead. As she watched the six-year-old sleeping peacefully, she thought back to when she found out they would be having a third child.

The twins were nine and she had just left Congress. She and Rod had not been planning on having another kid, but they weren't trying to prevent it either. Rod had just come home with news that he made partner at the Richmond law firm he had been working at for years. He was so excited she almost didn't tell him that night – she didn't want to steal his thunder. But she told him on the ride home from the restaurant they had gone to celebrate at, the twins were paying no attention in the backseat. He almost had to pull over he was so happy. Mac pulled herself from herself from her thoughts and kissed Amy's forehead one more time before quietly leaving the room.

Her next stop was he son's room, she figured he would still be up, and she was right. Her son was smart, but didn't always apply himself. He was a procrastinator just like his father, and just as she guessed he looked like he had just sat down to finish his homework.

"You know, if you did that when you got home you wouldn't have to keep yourself up half the night trying to finish it."

"But then I'd have to stay up half the night chilling out, and I'd rather do that before homework."

Mac laughed, she knew 15-year-olds could rationalize almost anything and decided not to argue. He would learn, eventually. "What are you doing?" She walked over to his desk to peek over his shoulder.

"Algrebra," he answered in a monotone voice, signaling his complete lack of enthusiasm.

"Need any help? I used to be good with numbers."

"Thanks but I got it, it's just time consuming, not hard. I don't even know why we have to learn all this stuff. I mean, come on mom when was the last time you used a multi-variable equation to solve a problem?"

And with that, Mac had him. "All the time." Horace turned and gave her an incredulous look. "Really, let's see. Cost-benefit analysis – very handy in my job. I have to measure the costs and benefits of every decision I make to try and figure out the best outcome. And sometimes there are factors that affect those costs or benefits – it can become a pretty complicated equation."

Horace was just looking at her now, he couldn't argue with that so he decided to drop it. It still didn't mean he had to like algebra. Mac knew she had won and so decided to let her son get to work. She ruffled his hair before heading out.

"Night baby."

"Goodnight mom."

On the way to Becca's room she realized that she didn't know if the girl would be awake or not. That's when the guilt really hit her. She knew her son would be up doing work, but she didn't know about his twin sister? She and Becca hadn't always seen eye-to-eye and it actually made her respect her daughter more, but to not know what her daughter would be doing, she felt a bit disappointed with herself.

When she opened the door to her older daughter's room it was dark inside. The light from the hallway shined in and she saw her daughter close her eyes. Mac really felt guilty now, her daughter would rather pretend to be sleeping than to see her.

"Becca, you awake?" Mac whispered, though she knew the girl was indeed awake.

No response. She decided to let her pretend if she wanted to. She walked up to her bed and leaned over. Just as she had with Amy, she brushed a wisp of hair from her face and kissed her forehead.

"I'm so proud of you, I hope you know that. And I love you."

With that she quietly shut the door and waited. She heard the sheets move as Becca rolled over. 'Good' she thought, 'she needed to hear that.'

Mac finally made it to she and Rod's room where her husband was reading in bed. Without any words she crawled into bed and snuggled up into his arms. She felt so safe there, like nothing could go wrong. He kissed her forehead and shut off the bedside lamp, and together the fell asleep, preparing to face a new day of challenges.

I'm sorry it's short, but I wanted to get something out. Bad news about the show  It appears to have been cancelled. ABC will be showing the last few episodes in June on Wednesday nights. There are also talks about doing a network movie to wrap things up. If you want, write to ABC and try to get it back, I have. They may bring it back if ratings for the last episodes and even the movie are good.