Mac was taken upstairs by her team of doctors they crowded into the elevator. When they arrived at their destination, the doors opened to reveal several more doctors and nurses; there were experts from nearly every specialty she could think of. A gray-haired man stepped forward holding his hand out.

"Madam President, I'm Dr. Alston, Chief of Medicine here at Bethesda."

Mac shook his hand, "Pleasure." She didn't really know what to say 'thanks in advance for all the poking and prodding you're about to do?' And while she knew she was the most powerful person in the room, hell the world, she felt slightly intimidated by all these doctors. She was soon led to a very nice exam room, she'd been in this room before. As Vice President she received the same annual exam at Bethesda as the President, but this was her first annual exam as President, and she knew there would be greater scrutiny.

For the next hour she was seen by several specialists, and was run through several tests. They took enough blood, in her opinion, to stock an empty blood bank. The last doctor in had informed she would be going to radiology next. With that she panicked, she was pregnant, she couldn't expose herself like that.

Noticing the panic that crossed the President's face for just a moment the doctor asked, "Ma'am is something wrong?"

She didn't want to tell this doctor, while he would probably respect her privacy, she wanted to keep this between as few people as possible. "I need to see Dr. Alston before we do that please."

Curious, but not about to question his Commander in Chief, he simply nodded and left. A moment later Dr. Alston came in, apparently he didn't know about the request Vince had made. "Ma'am is something wrong?"

"Shut the door please." Mac slipped into her President mode, taking charge of the situation and refusing to be shy about this. "Five days ago I became sick in a morning meeting. Four days ago I tested positive on a pregnancy test." She couldn't think of any way to approach this but head-on.

Dr. Alston blinked. "I see."

"Doctor, I want this to be kept between as few people as possible, I'm sure you can understand my need for privacy."

He couldn't even imagine, "Of course Madam President, just let me get Dr. Kincaid in here, he's our chief of neonatology." Dr. Alston walked over to the phone and dialed a number. They waited in silence for a few moments. "Ma'am, forgive me if this is inappropriate but, are you thinking of…"

He didn't need to finish. Mac knew he was asking if she planned on going through with the pregnancy. "Dr. Alston, I brought you in here before they brought me to radiology, I'm having this baby."

"Of course, I'm sorry."

The two were saved from too much awkward silence when Dr. Kincaid arrived. He was a bit nervous. His pager had simply read "POTUS suite." After entering the President was holding out her hand.

"Dr. Kincaid,"

"Madam President, a pleasure."

"Doctor, I'm going to tell you something that only precious few know right now. I'd like to keep this quiet for now."

"Ma'am anything you tell me is privileged."

"Yes, but not to the rest of the medical team, I need this to stay in the room." He didn't say anything. "Four days ago I found out I was pregnant."

He didn't know what to say, so he simply said what he says to all his new patients, "congratulations."

"Thank you. I need you to confirm that and tell me where we go from there."

"Absolutely."

After Drs. Kincaid and Alston examined the President, they confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. "You're about 6 weeks along, have you been experiencing any morning sickness?"

"Yes."

"Tell me about your previous pregnancies."

After talking for another 20 minutes Dr. Kincaid became more familiar with his new patient, and was able to see her as just that. He explained to her the possible risks of having a child in her late 40's but assured her that it was in no way an impossible or even life-threatening event with proper medical supervision.

"I'd like to see you regularly ma'am. I could come to the White House if it would be less conspicuous that way."

"I'm not sure yet, the press has a keen eye on all who come into the building. I'll have to get back to you on the details, how often are you thinking."

"Right now every 3 or 4 weeks, possibly more often later."

"Alright, you'll be hearing from me by the end of the week as to how we need to do this." She looked each of the doctors in the eye for a moment before continuing, "and please, this cannot be known to anyone, I will announce it when the time is right, I'd appreciate you keeping this to yourselves and out of any written records."

"Of course, I'll be leaving now, I look forward to hearing from you, and again congratulations." With that Dr. Kincaid left.

Mac turned to Dr. Alston, "I like him."

Dr. Alston simply gave a slight chuckle, "I suppose that's a good thing, you'll be seeing him often Madam President. I'm going to cancel your radiology tests, which means we're finished. Everything looks great, I'll pronounce you in excellent health. Keep up the exercise and make sure you continue to eat well."

Mac stood and shook the man's hand, it was time to go talk to the press. And while she wasn't going to lie, she wouldn't do that, she had some evasive maneuvers to make and some information to leave out.

She would talk to Rod, but she wanted the rest of her senior staff to know soon, and of course the kids – that would be a separate adventure. She was worried that Amy may not be able to keep such a secret before they were ready to announce it – she would have to ask Rod and Kate's opinions about that one.

She walked down to a small conference room where she and her doctors could meet with Kelly before they spoke to the press. It was just a routine statement made by her medical team and herself to let the nation know that their leader was 'fit for duty.'

After drafting their official letter and signing it, Mac, Kelly and four of her doctors headed downstairs and out to the front where both the motorcade and the press were waiting. The group stepped over to the waiting journalists to make their statements.

10 minutes later Mac, Kelly, and Vince were in the Presidential limo on their way back to the White House. Mac was hoping she would have time to speak with Rod when she got back before diving back into work. "Vince, what's on the schedule when we get back?"

Vince pulled out his portfolio with the President's official schedule. "Actually ma'am," he started, glancing at his watch "it looks like we're about 45 minutes ahead of schedule, you don't have your meeting with the Senate leadership until 1:30."

"Excellent," she looked out the window as the White House came into view. "Josh," she asked her agent up front," let's go back to the Residence."

"Yes ma'am" came the monotone reply from her agent. She watched as he spoke into his microphone, obviously making the change she requested. Just before they got out of the car Mac told Vince she'd be downstairs by 1:15, and with that they went their separate ways, Mac to see her husband, and Vince and Kelly back to the West Wing.

Josh and Mike walked her to the entrance to the Residence where they took up their posts; it was the one part of the building they didn't have to follow her through, which she liked. She was glad of this, the Residence was her home for now, and where she enjoyed time with her family – she liked it to seem as normal as possible, inside these walls she was just Mackenzie Allen wife, mother, and daughter.

Sorry all, I was on vacation for a while. I should have one more chapter up before I take a small hiatus because I have to send my computer away to get fixed and head up to summer school. Don't worry, I'll continue to write through school if all goes as planned. Unfortunately for you, I'm going to stop apologizing for my short chapters – it's as far as I can get before my ADHD-like creativity loses interest for the day.