Jed hugged her then glanced across at Ellie. She too was smiling now and he held out his hand to her as they all went through to the sitting room. Abbey called the stewards to clear the dining table and was pouring some more glasses of champagne when a knock came at the door.

"Come in, Sam" Jed called.

"Good evening, Mr President, Mrs Bartlet – Liz – Ellie – Zoey."

"Do sit down, Sam," Abbey said warmly. "Would you like some champagne?"

"Oh – well, yes, thank you very much." Sam sat down and handed some papers across to Jed, then took the glass of champagne from Abbey.

"You've re-written it?" Jed said reaching for his glasses from his jacket pocket.

"No, sir, most of your original is still there, I've just – um – rephrased some of it."

Jed grinned. "I bet you have – the Sam Seaborn finishing touches?"

Sam smiled. "You know I can't resist trying to get my favourite phrases in somewhere!"

As Jed started to glance through the papers, Abbey turned to Sam. "So when's the wedding, Sam?"

"Easter," Zoey chimed in. "He told us all about it on the plane – and Carrie is having six bridesmaids and two pageboys – and her dress is–"

"Hey, hold on, "Abbey said with a laugh. "I'm sure Sam wants to tell me himself! Carrie?" she asked. "Is that Caroline?"

"No, it's Carina actually, but everyone calls her Carrie." Sam pulled out his wallet and handed a photo to Abbey.

"She looks nice," Abbey commented, looking down at the photograph of a young woman with shoulder length dark hair and an attractive smile. "Where did you meet?"

"A litigation case – she was defending, I was prosecuting – she won, so I asked her out to dinner!"

"So you lost the case and won the lady?"

Sam grinned. "Eventually, yes."

"Where's the wedding going to be?"

"Los Angeles – well, Malibu actually. Carrie's folks have a big house there. You'll be getting an invitation shortly."

"And then she's gonna be with you in DC?"

"Yeah, we just bought a house in Georgetown – and Carrie will be working for the DNC General Counsel Office from the first of March."

"Hey!" Jed said, looking up from reading the speech. "Hope you don't get a conflict of interests there then."

Sam looked across at him and grinned. "As Deputy Chief of Staff I think I might just outrank her! Er – you okay with the speech, sir?"

"Yes, it's good. I like the intro–" Jed flipped back to the first page and read, "'Today we are all faced with crucial decisions on energy and global warming. Will we look toward the future, for the sake of our children and our world? Or will we remain embroiled in the disputes and differences that have so often prevented our governments from adopting new and innovative approaches to our energy needs?' It's good, Sam."

Abbey felt a slight shiver down her spine at the sound of Jed's voice reading the speech. It was something that always got to her, his resonant voice delivering a speech with just the right tone and phrasing. "It sounds very good to me too."

"Thanks!" Sam downed the rest of his champagne, then stood up and looked at Liz and Zoey. "Well, you ready to explore the nightlife of Brussels then?"

"You will have the agents with you, Sam?" Jed queried.

"Of course, sir. We're just going to a bar off the Grand Place, it's only about two blocks away from here."

"Okay – so have fun." Jed stood up to kiss both Liz and Zoey. "And don't get too drunk, you two!"

Liz laughed. "Belgium makes the best beer in the world, Dad."

"Mmm, and the strongest too," Jed commented. He glanced at Sam. "Look after them, Sam."

"Dad, we're adults now, not kids," Zoey protested. "We can look after ourselves!"

Sam smiled across at Jed. "They'll be okay, sir, I promise."

When Sam, Liz and Zoey had gone, Abbey looked at Ellie. "You feel like you're missing out, sweetheart?"

Ellie shook her head. "No, it's okay. I promised Vic that I wouldn't take any risks this time."

Jed sat down on the couch next to her. "Shouldn't you cut down your working hours?"

"I have," Ellie said. "I'm only doing the minimum – at least for the first three months." She hesitated then said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, of course you can – what's on your mind?"

Ellie looked down. "It's something personal–"

Jed smiled. "That's okay – but please look up, Ellie."

Ellie lifted her head but didn't turn towards him. "I just – I just wondered – how you feel about Grandpa – about John Bartlet – now that you know about Eddy?"

Jed looked at her for a few seconds, marvelling yet again at how this middle daughter of his could be so astute. He drew in a deep breath. "I think – I think that you've probably guessed far more than you've ever actually been told about how he treated me when I was a child, haven't you?"

Ellie nodded. "He – he wasn't just strict with you, was he? It was worse than that–"

"Yes, it was," Jed said quietly.

Abbey, watching the two of them, seeing the pain in Jed's eyes reflected on Ellie's face, made to intervene. "Ellie–"

Jed held up his hand. "No, it's okay, Abbey – Ellie needs to know this." Turning towards her, he went on, "As you've already guessed, there were times when he lashed out at me, sometimes verbally, sometimes physically – and I never understood why he did it, especially when he never treated Jonathan the same way. So finding out about Eddy has helped me to understand why he didn't like me."

For the first time Ellie looked round at him. "Just because you were Eddy's son and not his?"

"No," Jed shook his head, "no, it was more than that. Eddy was the smart, successful son. When he died, he'd already achieved more than John could ever hope to achieve. Eddy was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, John didn't even make it to Sergeant before he was invalided out of the army in 1944. Put simply, John was jealous of Eddy and resented the fact that he could never hope even to equal let alone excel what Eddy might – and probably would – have achieved."

"And you were like Eddy?"

"Yes, I guess so – I was the permanent reminder to John, because somehow I grew up with something of Eddy inside me, even though I had never known him."

"You haven't answered my original question, Dad."

"About how I feel about John Bartlet? No, I haven't, have I? Well, I guess my feelings towards him have changed this past week, Ellie. To start with, I felt a kind of relief that I didn't have to think of him as my father any longer. I struggled for a while with the thought that he was still my step-father, that he had tried to bring me up as his son – but then I realised that no, he hadn't really – not in the same way that he treated Jonathan, his real son."

"Did you start hating him?"

"Hate's a very strong word – but yes, I was on the edge of it at times – until I realised that I actually felt sorry for the man."

Ellie nodded. "Because you reminded him of all his own inadequacies."

"You got it, sweetheart – in fact you've got there a lot faster than I did. And I think you're right, he resented Eddy and because of that, he resented me."

"And if he'd lived, he still wouldn't have been proud of you when you became President, would he?"

Jed stared at her. "Jeez, Ellie–!" He glanced across at Abbey. "Just when did our little girl become such a perceptive adult?"

"When she was about five, I guess," said Abbey with a tremulous smile.

Ellie looked at him, her blue eyes suddenly swimming. "Eddy would have been proud of you, Dad – your father would have been so very, very proud of you."

Jed felt as if he had been pole-axed. He had to catch his breath and then swallow hard. Wordlessly, he put his arm round Ellie and pulled her towards him in a fierce hug, struggling to hold back his own tears. "Thank you, sweetheart," he said eventually, his voice choked.

After a few moments, Ellie said quietly, "Thank you for being honest with me."

"Thank you for understanding so much," Jed replied.

Ellie smiled. "If this baby's a boy, I guess he'll have to have Edward as one of his names now, won't he?"

Jed gave a small smile. "If that's what you want, then yeah, I guess so."

"And now I'm going to bed," she said as she stood up.

"I'll come down with you, Ellie," Abbey said, standing up too.

"Mom, there's no need – I can find my way to the elevator!"

"I'll come down with you," Abbey said firmly.

"Okay then. Goodnight, Dad."

Jed stood and leant forward to kiss her cheek. "Sleep well, sweetheart – I love you."

"I love you too, Dad."

When Ellie and Abbey had gone out, Jed walked across to the window, looking out over the floodlit buildings of downtown Brussels which blurred as the tears filled his eyes again. 'Your father would have been so very, very proud of you.' Ellie had known just what words would mean more to him than anything else in the world. Leaning one hand against the wall, he felt totally drained.

He was still standing there when Abbey came back into the suite and he turned to her. "Ellie okay?"

"She's fine."

She came towards him, and he reached for her, holding her and burying his face in her hair as the tears spilled from his eyes. "God, that was hard," he choked eventually.

"I know," she said gently. "But you did good, Jed. Ellie needed honesty and you gave it to her. I was so proud of you – you didn't flinch once."

"Not until she said that Eddy – that my father would have been proud – I lost it then."

"But he would have been, Jed, you know that now. And so would your Mom."

"Yeah – yeah, I just wish that she had lived long enough–" Jed lifted his head and looked at her. "Oh God – Abbey–" His mouth came down on hers in a fierce and desperate kiss that left her gasping for breath.

"Jed–" she breathed eventually.

"What?"

"Hot tub?"

"Yes – oh yesss, let's do it."

"Here, take these," Abbey grabbed the bottle of champagne and their glasses from the table and thrust them into Jed's hands. "I'll bring the chocolates – or what's left of them!"

TBC