They had a quick supper at the cottage because Jed was still working on the energy papers, and so it was after eight before they finally set off for the pub in Ballykane. Jed had made a deliberate decision to go back to Ballykane – and also to ask Charlie to drive them there, so that he could have a drink.

"This pub please, Charlie," Jed said as they reached Lonergan's on the main street of the small town.

"Jed, are you sure?" Abbey asked. It was the pub where the old man had first told them about Eddy Bartlet.

Jed's eyes met hers and he smiled. "Yeah, I'm sure."

As they got out of the car, Jed turned to the two agents. "Glad to see you're casually dressed, guys – so don't just sit in the car, come into the pub – as long as you sit as far away from us as possible," he added with a grin.

"Yes, sir."

The pub was fairly full, but they found a table in a corner opposite the bar. "What d'you want – red or white?" Jed asked.

"What are you having?"

He grinned. "For the last night in Ireland? It has to be Guinness."

"Okay, so I'll try it too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"A pint?"

Abbey laughed. "I guess I'd better try a half to start with."

She watched him go to the bar. In his jeans and dark blue sweater, he looked as far away from the formal President as anyone could imagine. Her mind's eye flashed through the tuxedos and black bowties, the tails and white bowties, the handmade navy suits he favoured, the blue long-sleeved shirts – but this Jed in jeans and sweater was her Jed, informal, casual and relaxed.

"And so damnably sexy," she thought as he came back towards the table with the drinks.

"You were eyeing me up then," Jed said with a grin as he put the drinks down.

"I'm allowed to, aren't I?"

"As long as I can eye you up too."

"I don't recall you ever asking my permission to do that!"

True to form, Jed's eyes appraised the curves in her flecked heather cashmere sweater and then gave her a seductive look.

Abbey slapped the side of his thigh with the back of her hand as he sat down next to her. "Eyeing me up does not mean the same as undressing me with your eyes!"

Jed raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. "Really? I always thought the two things were synonymous."

"That's testosterone thinking! Women can eye a man up and think 'That colour of shirt really suits him' without thinking at the same time of ripping it off him."

"Aww, my way's much more fun!" Jed leaned forward to pick up his glass. "You gonna try your Guinness?"

"Okay." Abbey took a tentative sip. "Mmm, this is – yeah, it's different but it's good."

Jed laughed. "You've got a frothy mustache!"

Abbey wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Well, at least there's no press here to take a photo of me doing that!"

Jed took a long drink and then had to wipe his mouth too. "We'll come back here, Abbey, I promise you." He paused for a moment then looked at her. "Look, this thing on Friday – it's a one-off – I'm just stepping into the breach. It's probably never going to happen again."

Abbey rested her eyes on him. "Jed, it's brought you alive again."

He grinned. "So I died?"

"Yes – yes, you did."

"What?" His eyebrows shot up. "When?"

"When you shook hands with Matt Santos and then got into the car after the Inauguration – when you finally realised it was over."

Jed nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're right." Then "No," he said suddenly, "no, you're not right. What I realised was that that part of my life was over, and that a new life was beginning. Friday is just a blip, sweetheart. When we get home, we can sit down and work it out together – we'll consider the options – and all the offers that have come in – and then we can decide."

Abbey drew in a deep breath. "Is reinstating my licence one of the options?"

Jed's eyes widened. "That goes without saying! Abbey, I know what you gave up. You think I don't remember your birthday party when you told me you were gonna forfeit your license?" He put his arm round her and squeezed her shoulder, recalling how she had shell-shocked him that night. "I could never ever forget that night. Finding out that Rob Nolan was going to recuse – and then you saying that you were voluntarily going to – Abbey, for crying out loud, there's no option about it, I know what it means to you."

She hesitated. "I haven't decided yet."

Jed frowned. "What? I just assumed–"

"If I do reinstate it, it won't be to go back into surgery."

His eyebrows shot up again. "It won't? What then?"

"I don't know – maybe some community clinic–"

"In Manchester?"

"Jed, there are as many problems in Manchester as there are in Washington – maybe they're less obvious, but they're still there."

Jed nodded. "True," he conceded.

"We'll work it out when we get home, Jed. Let's not talk about it now, let's just enjoy tonight."

"Okay." But his grip on her shoulder showed her that he was struggling with this new information.

She glanced across to the door as the two agents came into the bar and nudged him. "Charlie and Mike have just come in."

Jed looked across at the two agents and suppressed a groan. "Why is it that agents always look just what they are even when they're in casuals?"

"Relax, Jed. No-one here has ever seen the Secret Service before, so no-one will think that. Anyway, I think they look okay – in fact that girl over there is eyeing Charlie up already!"

"He has a wife and two kids back in Alexandria – so he'd better behave himself!"

"He's still on duty, Jed – didn't you see the way his eyes scanned the whole bar when he first came in here?"

"I don't envy them their job, I really don't. Those men are trained to put themselves between us and any danger. I can still remember how Ron Butterfield literally threw me into the car at Rosslyn–"

Abbey shuddered. "I hate that word."

"Rosslyn? Yeah. It was scary."

Abbey instinctively reached for his hand. "It was more than scary – when they told me, I think the whole Zapruder thing of Dallas replayed itself in my head." She shuddered again. "Please give me something to take that image away."

Jed understood and squeezed her hand. "Okay, so–" he thought for a moment, "–so how about re-election night then?"

Abbey started laughing. "Sam, then Leo, then Toby interrupting? That was so funny – the look on your face–"

"I was thinking more about what happened after all the interruptions."

"Now why am I not surprised about that? I think I remember a little about it too," she teased. Her mind went back to their fierce and intense lovemaking that night and she gave him a coy look. "Well, you were my Commander-in-Chief – and the ladies liked you to the tune of fifty-eight per cent – so I just added my one per cent."

"You made it a hundred and ten per cent. And I loved it."

"Yeah, so did I – the moment when the most powerful man in the world was totally helpless inside me."

Jed looked at her in surprise. "You really thought that?"

"Power is an aphrodisiac, Jed," she said seductively. Then she laughed. "Idiot! D'you think I really cared at that moment? I don't need any aphrodisiac – just having Jed Bartlet inside me has always been enough for me."

"Mmm." Jed winced slightly and shifted his position on the bench seat.

Abbey shot him an amused grin. "Er – our jeans getting a bit tight, are they?"

He returned the look. "Can I help it if you turn me on with comments like that?"

"I only said–"

"I know what you said."

"So shall we talk about the weather then?"

Jed laughed. "Might be more comfortable!"

Abbey glanced round at the crowded bar. "This is just so good."

"What is?"

"Just – everything. Being here where nobody knows us, being able to sit in a pub like this – I guess I'd forgotten what it was like not being in the goldfish bowl."

Jed nodded and looked around too. "Yeah, it's been a long time since we could do this back home." He looked at her empty glass. "Hey, you downed that pretty fast – want another?"

"Oooh, Mister Prez, are you trying to get me drunk?" she teased.

Jed gave her a sideways look. "Not too drunk, I hope!"

Abbey rolled her eyes. "I can drink with the boys anytime – a pint this time, please."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I like it – it must have triggered off some primeval Irish yearning inside me."

"Whoa, just keep that primeval Irish yearning till we get home tonight – and I'll be right there to satisfy it."

Abbey laughed. "Sure ye will, Danny Boy!"

He grinned. "Don't go away!"

Jed went to the bar and, as he stood waiting for the drinks, realised that he was standing in just the same place as he'd been when the white-haired Irishman had told him about the American submariner who had been his father.

Abbey, watching him, saw his face change, saw the stillness in his features, the far-back look in his eyes. As he sat down beside her again, she said, "What are you thinking?"

Jed gave a small shrug. "I was just thinking that this is where it started, isn't it? I came to Ballykane just to see where my mother had been born and lived – remember how disappointed I was after we'd been in the Post Office? And then by sheer chance – if we hadn't come in here – if that old guy hadn't heard me asking about Michael Egan in the Post Office–"

"You'd never have known about Eddy Bartlet."

"Total chance, wasn't it?" He shook his head slightly. "We think, we plan, we try to get things sorted out in our lives – and then wham, a chance thing happens that turns your whole world upside down. It just hit me that if we hadn't come in here for lunch that day, I'd never have known about my real father."

"And you'vecome a long way since then, Jed."

He nodded. "Yeah." Then, "I'm sorry, this has all been about me, hasn't it?"

Abbey reached out to hold his hand. "It was important to me too. I desperately wanted to help you sort it out. That's why I wanted to come back here to see Mary."

Jed looked at her. "You haven't really told me how you knew about Mary."

"Yes, I did. Only you were in shut-down and wouldn't listen to me." She told him what Rory had said about his grandmother's friend marrying someone called Bartlet. "And somehow I just knew her friend had to be your Mom – and I knew I had to come back here to see her."

"I am so glad you did, more than I could ever tell you." He picked up her right hand and fingered the Claddagh ring. "Friendship, loyalty, love – have I ever told you how very much I love you?"

Abbey smiled. "I think you have, Jed – so we gonna do mushy now or later?"

"Oh, definitely later – but we can do it now too, if you want?"

Jed gave her one of his looks and Abbey laughed. "Depends what sort of mushy you want!"

"I just want to hold you and never let you go." He slipped his arm round her shoulders and hugged her to him. Then he glanced round as there was sudden movement in the bar. "Hello, what's happening here then?"

Three young men and a girl had started to set up amplifiers and speakers.

"I think it's entertainment time." Abbey said.

"Singalong with the Ballykane Balladeers? Hey, hold on, isn't that girl–"

"It's the one from Connolly's."

"What was her name again?"

"Kate."

"Yeah–" Jed drew in a deep breath, "–and she knows who we are. Damn, we should have asked her not to tell anyone until after the weekend. I have a feeling this could be the end of our anonymity."

Abbey looked round at him. "Do you want to leave?"

"Do you? I know you wanted tonight to be just the two of us doing ordinary things. But that could all end in the next few minutes."

"Let's see what happens."

"Okay."

TBC