Love Will Heal Two Broken Hearts

by babyphd

Abbey develops severe medical problems at the same time Jed is trying to prepare for the State of the Union. Feedback is always welcomed. I want to thank my beta reader although it was hard for her to read this type of story.

26. Chapter 26

2

Leo and the Senior Staff paused for a few more minutes in the family cemetery, not wanting to leave the man they had sworn to serve. The few invited guests and the family had long since gone back to the farmhouse. But they still remained. Even in the pouring rain. The group was still in shock. It had happened so fast.

But had it really? Each of them could look back over the past six months and see the signs that had led up to this moment. At first, it was the obvious things. The overt grief the man had for a wife who was no longer by his side. A wife that had taken vows to be by his side in sickness or in health, for as long as they both shall live. It was thought by both that he would be the first to go. That the multiple sclerosis would take him first. But for some ugly reason, she had been the first.

Then they thought he was dealing with it. He had begun to focus on his work again. He had hosted several State Dinners and made a couple of foreign trips. His daughters had taken turns to serve as hostess at various White House functions. They had even noticed his smile had begun to return. Although rare, he smiled sometimes at Debbie's jokes when before all he had done was walk away.

And then last week came the horrible news. Leo had gone to wake the President for an incident in the Situation room. Knocking on the door had brought no response, so Leo opened the door and walked over to the bed, all the while calling his name.

And still not getting a response, he touched his shoulder and only felt ice cold skin. Leo yelled for an agent who immediately requested assistance, but it was too late. The President had been rushed to the hospital, but anyone who had been in the room that night knew he had already been dead too long. Sometime in the night, a massive heart attack had taken Josiah Edward Bartlet to his final reward.

But his closest family and the Senior Staff knew differently. Jed had not died of a massive heart attack. Maybe that was what on the death certificate. But those closest to him knew he had died of a broken heart. What had not been reported in the papers, and Leo had only told a select few, was that he had found Jed holding the framed wedding picture of him and Abbey, the one that always had stayed on his bedside table. Those who knew him best would always say Jed had died of a broken heart. Now, Abbey and Jed would be together. That not even death could keep them apart. It had to be. It was meant to be. Even in death, love would heal two broken hearts.

THE END