At one o'clock they were all ready when the cars arrived for them and half an hour later the motorcade arrived on the tarmac at the airport where the blue and white 747 was waiting. After the obligatory waves at the top of the stairs to the camera crews, Jed and Abbey joined the staff in the conference room where, after take-off, the stewards brought in a lunch buffet.

While Jed was talking to Sam, Abbey glanced round at Zoey who moved across to join her.

"Everything okay?" Abbey asked.

"Yes, all set," Zoey replied, "and it'll be about three o'clock."

"Great – thanks, Zoey."

"Oh, and Captain Hewitt said that the cloud cover will probably have lifted by then. And you need to be on the starboard side of the plane."

Abbey smiled. "Okay – good then!"

She kept an eye on her watch and at about two thirty she made her way across to where Jed was sitting with Peter Rosen. "I'm going along to the suite," she said. "I'd like to put my feet up for a while." Then she leant towards him. "And I need to talk to you about something," she added quietly.

Jed looked at her. "Okay. Will you excuse me, Peter?"

Abbey was glad he was behind her as she made her way out of the conference room. She had caught Zoey's grin out of the corner of her eye, and was having difficulty keeping her own face straight.

"Well, you made that pretty obvious," Jed commented as they reached the door of the suite.

She looked round at him and saw the amusement dancing in his eyes. She smirked. "Believe it or not, I was not making excuses. I do need to talk to you."

"No Mile High Club then?" Jed said, looking at her under his lashes as he slipped his jacket off and loosened his tie. "We've still got over five hours flying time – would anyone notice if we went to bed?"

Abbey started laughing. "You need an afternoon nap?"

"Well, that's not exactly what I had in mind."

He made to sit down in one of the oversized arm chairs on the left hand side of the suite, but Abbey deliberately moved to the other side, near the windows. "Come and sit next to me, Jed."

Jed's eyes narrowed as he looked at her, and then moved across the cabin. "Abbey, you're up to something – what is it?"

"I told you, I want to talk to you about something." Kicking off her shoes she sat down on the couch.

Jed sad down next to her. "Are the girls coming along?"

"No, I asked them to give us some time alone."

Jed gave her a sideways look. "What did you have in mind?"

Abbey ignored the look. "Jed, be serious for a minute, will you? I want to tell you what the girls talked about this morning. You know you said you were searching for something that you hadn't quite reached?"

Jed's eyes narrowed slightly. "Yeah?"

"I think your daughters may have come up with the answer, but I wanted to sound you out first before you talked to them."

"Go on."

"I asked them how they thought we – you and I – could pool our skills – and Liz and Ellie got it straight away – economic development and medicine in the Third World."

Jed raised his eyebrows. "Okay," he said carefully. "But that's a pretty wide spectrum. Did they say any more?"

Abbey smiled. "Plenty. They wouldn't be our daughters if they didn't have a good grasp of world problems, would they? The ideas were coming thick and fast."

"Yeah, but discussing world problems isn't the same as trying to resolve them."

"You still trying to fix the world, Jed?" Abbey said gently. "Your daughters had a few ideas about that too – must be an inherited trait or something."

"So what were their ideas?"

"The one that Zoey came up with was street kids in Latin America."

Jed looked at her for a moment and then nodded slowly. "Yeah, well, there's a real need there. But we have kids born into poverty in America too."

Abbey nodded. "So maybe we have to look into the whole thing about children – and where we feel we could really make a difference."

"Yeah." Jed's mind reflected on the possibilities. "Did they say anything about how to make a project like this work?"

"Raising funds, of course – and increasing public awareness and support – research, practical help and training – and internships for young people."

"Internships?"

Abbey could tell that Jed's interest had suddenly been sparked. "That was Zoey – wanting to involve young people – internships for undergraduates and young graduates – to give them the opportunity to do something to help."

Jed was nodding slowly. "Today's young people – tomorrow's leaders–"

"I think you should talk to the girls about it."

"Yeah. Are they all coming back to the farm?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll talk to them tomorrow then. Seems like they have plenty of ideas."

"They have."

A knock on the door interrupted them and they both looked round as a steward came in with a tray with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

Jed looked round at Abbey with raised eyebrows. "Champagne?"

Abbey smiled at the steward. "It's okay, Paul – you can just leave it on the table."

"Very good, ma'am."

"Abbey, why champagne?" Jed asked as the steward closed the door again.

Abbey stood up and moved across to the table to pour two glasses of champagne. She put them down on the small table in front of their seats, then went across the lounge to retrieve her flight bag. From it, she extracted the package in its gold and silver wrapping. "I was going to give you this last night," she said with a smile. "But somehow I got distracted–"

Jed grinned. "I wonder why?" He looked at the flat package that she held out to him. "What is it?"

"Open it."

Jed tore the wrapping paper and opened the box. Then his face stilled as he looked at the framed photograph. "This – this is amazing!" he breathed. "How–?"

Abbey sat down again next to him. "A photographer friend of Charlie's did it. Do you like it?"

"Abbey, it's–" Jed stared down at the photograph, an enlarged copy of the small photo of Annie and Eddy – his mother and his father – enhanced by the computer so that it had lost its graininess and lack of definition. Their faces were crystal clear – and he felt a lump in his throat as he saw the love that radiated from them both Suddenly choked, he grasped Abbey's hand. "This is just perfect."

Abbey handed him his glass of champagne and picked up her own glass. "To Annie and Eddy," she said quietly. "To your mother and father – and everything you've discovered about them since this time last week."

Jed couldn't speak as she clinked her glass against his, he could only nod as his eyes suddenly brimmed.

Then he looked round as a crackle came from the loudspeakers in the lounge. "Captain Hewitt here," Mike's voice said clearly. "I've been asked to let you know that in a few minutes we'll be flying over the west coast of Ireland – and it's a beautiful cloudless day down there. So if you glance out of the starboard windows, you should get an excellent view of Galway Bay–"

Jed started smiling and then looked round at Abbey. "You even managed the cloudless day?"

"Well, that's the part that I didn't actually organise," she replied with a laugh, "but it's definitely a bonus."

Together they leant forward, and Jed put his arm round Abbey as they watched through the windows as the green fields of Ireland gave way to the rugged coastline.

"Look, "Jed said, gripping her shoulder, "there it is – Galway Bay – and you can even see the road going to Ballykane–"

They watched until eventually they left the coast behind and started the long crossing of the Atlantic. Then the loudspeakers hummed into life again. "And this is for two very special people aboard today – with love from Liz, Ellie and Zoey."

There was a slight pause, and Jed frowned slightly. But then his face cleared as Kate's beautiful Irish voice started –

"If you ever go across the sea to Ireland
Then maybe at the closing of your day
You will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh
And watch the sun go down on Galway Bay"

As she started the second verse, Jed smiled and stood up. "Dance with me, Abbey."

Abbey stood and locked her arms around his neck, while his hands went round her waist. Together they swayed on the spot, their eyes never leaving each other.

"Thank you," he said softly.

"I love you, Jed," she whispered.

"And I love you, Abbey," he said quietly, "more than I could ever tell you." He leaned forward to kiss her mouth gently, and then rested his face against hers.

Even when the song ended, they stayed locked together, hardly moving but just content to stay close together.

Eventually Abbey moved back slightly and looked at him. "What are you thinking about?"

His beautiful blue eyes looked into hers. "Tomorrow," he said with a smile.

THE END – of their first week after the Presidency –

But the beginning of the rest of their lives…