Everyone leaned in, waiting for the President to open the envelope, pull out the magazine, and reveal the results. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of Zoey chewing her pizza. Abbey moved over to sit beside her husband. Amy had gotten Liz and Mallory on the conference line and they, too, were anxious to hear the results.
"The time has come," Jed said, dramatically.
"Oh, the love of God, Jed, will you open the damn envelope?
The staff chuckled at the First Lady's impatience. "Mmm," Zoey mumbled, swallowing a bite of pizza. "Yeah, Dad, show us"
The tension grew as Jed opened the large, manila envelope.
"Dad, stop taunting us and open it!" Elizabeth's voice shouted from the speaker phone.
Jed stopped and glared at the phone.
"How do you know what I'm doing, Elizabeth? You can't even see me"
"Thirty-one years of practice, Dad"
Jed sighed and continued fussing with the envelope. Abbey rolled her eyes.
"He's the same way on Christmas morning"
"Allright, fine"
Jed grasped the magazine inside the envelope and slid it out quickly. His eyes widened.
"Good Lord," he muttered, under his breath.
Abbey leaned in to get a look at it.
"Wow"
"Show us!" Ellie demanded.
Jed turned the magazine so that everyone in the room could see the cover plainly. Josh whistled. "That's pretty hot, ya know," Amy commented, grinning.
"I must say, that is an impressive picture, Mrs. B," Sam added.
"What! What's going on? What does it say!" Liz exclaimed.
"Tell us!" Mallory begged.
Jed smiled at his wife, then put his glasses on to read it to his daughter, and his goddaughter.
"It says, 'Abigail Bartlet- Sexiest First Lady of All-Time. The people have spoken"
Elizabeth and Mallory squealed, while the staff clapped. Jed put his arm around Abbey's shoulders and pulled her into him. Zoey even put her slice of pizza down for a moment to join them in their applause.
"I don't mean to spoil the moment or anything but…" Toby. Always spoiling the moment.
"What, Toby?" Jed asked.
"I'd really like to see what the article has to say"
"What he means is, he wants to see the photo shoot," CJ clarified.
Toby shot her a look. "I want to see the numbers"
"Toby, it's a magazine poll," Josh said.
"I want to see the numbers"
Jed began flipping through the magazine until he got to the article, then he scanned the paragraphs looking for the polling numbers.
"Aha. 'Dr. Bartlet triumphed over Mrs. Kennedy by taking an overwhelming 68 of the votes, to Mrs. Kennedy's 32"
"My God," Toby whispered.
"That's fantastic!" Josh exclaimed.
"Honestly, I expected it to be a much narrower margin…" Sam admitted. Jed glared at him.
"Only because of Jackie's legacy and such," Sam said, quickly. "So what do we do now?" Ellie asked. "We party!" Jed exclaimed.