A/N: Rating for this chapter is NC-17

By the time they got back to the cottage, it was almost five o'clock and already dark. They had spent a short time at the bookstore in Ballykane and Abbey found the book about the town. When she showed it to Jed, he simply nodded then looked back at the poetry book he had been leafing through. Abbey suppressed a small sigh, knowing that if the circumstances had been different, he would have found the book fascinating. But she still bought it along with a CD of Irish songs, while Jed bought Murphy's Twentieth Century Ireland and a small volume of Yeats' poetry.

Before they reached the car, Jed drew her to a standstill just across the road from the Post Office and they stood there for a few moments. Slowly he shook his head. "Today's not turned out anything like we expected, has it?"

In reply, Abbey squeezed his hand. "We'll deal with it, Jed – when you're ready."

"Yeah." Then he turned away. "C'mon, let's go. Let's just get away from this place."

They stopped briefly at the village store to stock up on fresh salad, bread rolls and milk and then returned to the cottage. It was still too early for supper, so instead they settled down in the sitting room with glasses of red wine, Abbey on a big cushion on the floor near the stove, and Jed on the couch across from her, while the CD of Irish songs played softly in the background.

For a while, they sat in comfortable silence. Abbey was reading the Ballykane book and Jed had his Twentieth Century Ireland open in front of him. He read the first paragraph and then realised that he didn't have any idea of what he had just read. After that, he simply stared down at the meaningless jumble of words on the page while his thoughts shot off in what seemed to be a dozen different directions at the same time.

Just what had happened between his mother and Eddy Bartlet? He thought about her for a few minutes – heard again the softly spoken Irish accent that she had never lost despite the American words and phrases she had started to use – saw again the dutiful Headmaster's wife, accompanying him to school and town functions – and remembered how she had always seemed to defer, calmly and unemotionally, to John. Almost always, he thought suddenly, because there had been times – not many, but he could remember a few – when her blue eyes had held a spark of determination, when she had stood up to him over something. Even so, it was still difficult to equate the mother he had known with the young woman who had had what must have been a short but intense love affair with an American submariner. And if she'd been so much in love with him that she'd gone to America to marry him, why then had she then married John Bartlet so soon after Eddy's death?

Jed shook his head slightly. There was no point in going over questions that could never be answered. Instead he turned his thoughts to John Bartlet and his lips tightened. How in hell could he even start to deal with the knowledge that the man he had thought was his father wasn't his father at all? How could he come to terms with the realisation that his real father was just a vague figure about whom he knew virtually nothing? And how could he ever get his head around the fact that John Bartlet had hated his brother's child . . . ?

Abruptly Jed reined back his thoughts. No, stop right there, he thought quickly, I'm not ready for this yet. He shut the book, took off his glasses, put them both on the coffee table and stood up.

Abbey looked up from her book. "Where are you going?"

"I'm coming to sit with you."

He threw a cushion down on the floor, picked up his glass of wine and handed it to her while he sat down next to her. "Good book?"

Abbey handed his glass back to him. "Yeah, a lot of old folks' memories, collected by the history society. It's interesting."

Jed sipped his wine and nodded. "They ought to do that more often – collect memories before the older folk die off, before the living memories about the past disappear for ever."

"They do it at home too, Jed," Abbey reminded him.

"Yeah, I know – but not enough. Maybe I should've passed a bill, given it some funding–"

"Too late, gumdrop!"

Jed leaned back against the couch, listening to the soft Irish voice from the CD player singing 'Wild Mountain Thyme' and trying to ignore the demons that were still fighting inside his head. "I love this song."

Abbey nodded and they sat there side by side for a few minutes. Intuitively aware of the tenseness he was trying to hide, she desperately wanted to ask him something, to get him talking about his mother and Eddy Bartlet – and John too. But she knew that it was too soon, that he would only retreat further into himself. So instead she put her book and glasses on the couch behind her and looked round at him. "Put your glass down, Jed."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you to spill your wine."

"I'm not–"

Abbey took his glass from him and put it on the hearth.

"No, but you might," she said as her hand reached for the belt of his jeans and started unfastening it.

Jed narrowed his eyes and gave her an amused look. "Just what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"You aiming to seduce me?"

"I might be."

He grinned. "Okay."

As Abbey unfastened the belt and the button and then pulled his zipper down, Jed slid himself down until his head was resting on the cushion he had just been sitting on, and pulled another cushion under his back

"Okay it is then, boyfriend." She lifted his polo-shirt and leant forward to kiss his stomach and Jed closed his eyes, loving the fact that her silky hair which had fallen forward was doing just as much to arouse him as her mouth was.

She slipped her hand inside the waistband of his jeans and boxers at the same time and he raised himself slightly so that she could start to slide them down, giving a small grunt of pleasure as he felt her hand on his thigh.

He opened his eyes slightly. "You'd better get yours off too," he said, then grinned. "I told you that you didn't need panties, didn't I?"

"Who said I was wearing any?" Abbey said lightly as she finished pulling Jed's jeans off, and then quickly removed her own, so quickly that Jed couldn't actually tell whether she was sassing him or not. She turned back to him and brought her mouth down on his. Jed felt his body starting to respond as her tongue found his and explored it gently.

At the same time, she was sliding his polo shirt up and they paused only for a few more moments while Jed took off the shirt and Abbey did the same with her sweater, and then unfastened her bra and cast it aside.

Jed leaned back again against the cushion and closed his eyes. "You're in charge, sweetheart." He always loved it when Abbey took the lead, loved the amazing things she could do to him with her hands and her mouth, and knew that she got turned on too as she watched him losing control. So he lay back and contentedly stroked her hair, as her mouth descended to his neck, his chest, his stomach and then –

He tensed, waiting for the moment when her mouth and tongue would touch his hardening shaft. The first time she had done it – all those years ago – he had felt as if he had been catapulted straight up to the ceiling and had climaxed almost immediately. He'd been embarrassed and muttered 'Sorry' but her reply was still there in his mind–"Jed, it's okay – I just love what I can do to you." Now he was ready for that moment, and could control it, even though it had the same effect on him as that very first time.

But he still caught his breath and then groaned. He heard Abbey's voice–"Hang in there, babe."

"I'm trying" was all he could he could gasp as her tongue and then her mouth did all the things that she knew drove him insane and sent wild flames surging through him He groaned, clenching and unclenching his fists in a fierce effort not to roll her right over and thrust straight into her.

Abbey, knowing that he was on the verge of losing it completely, felt the warm spasm deep inside her as all her nerve endings started tingling. As Jed's shoulders and neck arched and his head went back with a sudden groan, her own body quivered involuntarily. She loved it when she could inflame him like this. Then she lifted her head away from him, giving them both a few seconds respite. "You ready for me?" Without waiting for an answer, she pulled herself up to straddle him.

"I'm always ready," he said, his breath coming in short gasps. Then he opened his eyes momentarily and squinted up at her. "You okay?"

"You bet." The so-familiar sensual look was there in her half-closed eyes and he knew she was already on the edge.

As her hand guided him into her, he had to draw in a deep breath to steady himself as he felt her enclosing him.

"This is just so good," Abbey echoed his own thought and they were both still for a few moments, savouring the beautiful familiarity of their togetherness.

Then, slowly, Abbey started moving on him and he felt the ache building up inside him, felt his control going, his body taking over as they moved together in the familiar rhythm, both starting to gasp with the sheer intensity of their increasingly urgent need. He reached for her hips, pulling her even harder on to him, and heard her frantic cries of "Yes – yes – yes–" When she threw her head back with a cry of "Jed! –ye-ess!" all he could do was thrust wildly up into her and then gasp her name with the final spasm that took him into his own mind-blowing release. Then they both collapsed, limp and exhausted.

Eventually Jed stirred, catching his breath again. "Oh God, that was good," he groaned, then shifted uncomfortably against the hard floor. The cushion had slipped from under him during their fierce lovemaking, and he pulled it back under his hips again. "What the hell are we doing lying here on the rug?"

Abbey was still on top of him, breathing heavily and he could feel her heart thumping against him. After a minute or so, she raised her head, her satisfied green eyes looking into his. "We just made love on the floor – and it was heaven."

Jed nodded, "Yeah, it sure was," he said softly. He put his arms around her as she dropped her head against his chest again. Then suddenly he started chuckling to himself.

"What?" she murmured.

"I was just thinking of that time when I wanted to jump you right on the floor of the Oval."

"And which particular time was that?" Abbey said against his chest. "I seem to recall there were a good few of those times."

"After Rosslyn – fourteen weeks after – fourteen whole weeks, each with seven days, and, more to the point, seven whole nights too – I counted 'em all. And then when I finally tried to seduce you that night, all I got was a crappy lecture on how women were being ignored in American history."

She raised her head. "Carry on like that, Jethro, and you'll be waiting another fourteen weeks!" Her voice was stern but her eyes danced with amusement.

"Give me fourteen minutes instead and I'll be ready for Round Two."

"You sure about that?" she said doubtfully.

"Uh – oh, maybe not. I'm not as young as I used to be."

Abbey's voice softened. "I love you so much, Jed, I feel like my head's gonna fly off sometimes."

Jed's eyes met hers. "Yeah–" Cupping her face with his hands, he reached up to kiss her gently.

Then she lay down across him again with her head on his shoulder and they stayed there for a long time. Jed's arms enfolded her and silently he thanked God for her. He loved her more than life itself – loved her when she was being sexy and provocative, loved her when she was compliant and tender, loved her when she was feisty and argumentative, loved her even when she was mad at him – and loved her because she was his Abbey, his wife, his lover, his confidante, his best friend and his soulmate – the woman who knew him better than he knew himself.

Because tonight she had known just what to do to get the demons out of his head.

TBC