Part 5

Every so often, the First Lady had nothing to do. It was rare, but sometimes meetings got cancelled or things resolved themselves sooner than expected, and she had an hour or so with nothing scheduled. Her time at the White House had been rather trying for her, as Abbey Bartlet had always been a very self-sufficient and private person. Having a staff and security detail surrounding her at all times was exhausting, and sometimes she'd go home to Manchester just to get away from everything and be able to wear a pair of jeans without the entire world panicking about the state of the First Lady's wardrobe. Of course, it was better when Jed or their girls could accompany her, but sometimes it was even nicer to be at that big farmhouse all alone.

But she couldn't run home to the farm now, as much as she wanted to. She only had slightly over an hour before her next meeting with the ambassador from Lithuania to discuss an expansion of Abbey's women and children's health initiative to Eastern Europe. The deal was already done through the State Department and various other officials, but they needed a photo op and a formal conversation between the First Lady and a Lithuanian representative. But that wasn't for another hour. And Jed was in the Situation Room.

As she often did when she needed space and her husband was detained, Abbey went out to the Rose Garden. The White House had some beautiful, perfectly manicured grounds. She wasn't much of a gardener herself, so anything she planted at the farm she just let grow a bit wild. A surgeon didn't have much time to trim the hedges, after all. But Abbey loved being in nature. Being inside so much made her long for afternoon hikes in the mountains and picnics in the fields. So she came to the Rose Garden whenever she had the time.

But today, there was someone on Abbey's favorite bench. A young woman was sitting there, crying. Abbey immediately went from being annoyed at the intruder to being very concerned. Her maternal instincts kicked in. "Excuse me…" she greeted politely.

The girl's head whipped up, and a pair of big, red-rimmed blue eyes blinked up at her. "Mrs. Bartlet!"

"Yes, hello," Abbey replied with a smile. "Are you alright?" She realized it was a stupid question. This girl wouldn't be crying in the Rose Garden if everything was alright.

"I'm…yeah, I'm fine." She wiped her eyes with the corner of her sleeve.

Abbey sat down on the bench beside her. "Now, I assume you work here."

"Yes, ma'am. Toby Ziegler just hired me as a speech writer. Until almost two weeks ago, I was Sam Seaborn's intern."

"And Toby hired you?" Abbey asked in slight surprise. Toby didn't like staff. Or anyone. Not right away, at least.

She nodded.

"What's your name?"

"Oh, sorry. Rory Gilmore." Rory held her hand out, which the First Lady shook.

"Well, you already know I'm Abbey Bartlet. Dr. Bartlet to you and anyone else who asks."

Rory smiled. "It's an honor to meet you, Dr. Bartlet. You know, you were the reason my mom voted for the President."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. She says you can tell a lot about a politician if you look at his wife. According to her, when the political wives are too smiley and polished and housewife-y, it usually means that the whole family is just doing a good job pretending to be squeaky clean."

"Oh, and I'm not those things?"

"Well, you're a doctor, so definitely more than the Suzy Homemaker a lot of political wives tend to be, or at least they used to. But we came to see you speak in Connecticut one time, and you were smart but not condescending, and kind but sincere. And I remember we watched something on the news and you and the President were talking before he went onstage for something, and the way you guys interacted was just so natural and genuine. So for my mom, that's how she knew that the President was a good man who would do good things. And she's been right about it so far."

Abbey looked at Rory curiously. These were not things one normally said to the First Lady upon meeting her. It was refreshing. "Your mother sounds like a very smart woman."

"She's pretty great."

"Tell me, Rory, why are you out here crying?"

Rory gazed down at her shoes as she shuffled them nervously in the grass. "Oh, well, I actually just got a call from my…well he's not my stepdad yet, but my mom's boyfriend who I've known practically my whole life, and he told me that Paul Anka died. And my mom was too upset about it to talk on the phone."

"I'm sorry?" Abbey was certainly not expecting the death of a former pop singer to cause such a reaction.

"No, Paul Anka is what my mom named her dog," Rory explained. "Our dog. Well, he was her dog. She got him when I was in college, so I only saw him when I was home for the weekend or the summer or something. He came from an animal shelter, and I guess he was older than they thought. He was a really weird dog. Afraid of everything. But he would jump up on the coffee table whenever he heard my voice so that he could see me over the couch." Rory had started crying again. "He was a really good dog."

Abbey found the whole scene rather sweet and very sad. Endearing in a pathetic sort of way. She put her arms around Rory and let her cry while Abbey stroked her hair. "I'm sure your dog knew how much you all loved him. And if you got him from a shelter, I'm sure his last few years were very happy ones, thanks to your family saving him."

Rory realized that she was crying into the First Lady's shoulder, but being comforted was just so nice and…well…comforting that she couldn't stop.

"You know, I've never had a dog. We almost got one once, but Jed didn't like how eager puppies are to lick faces, so we just got another cat instead. We had one cat when our oldest daughter was very small. He liked to sit between my ankles whenever I was at the kitchen table." Abbey gave a small smile at the memory.

Rory's cell phone rang loudly, and she picked it up from where it sat beside her on the bench. Abbey released her as she checked who was calling. "It's Josh."

"Josh…?"

"Josh Lyman. I should probably take this."

Abbey nodded. "Yes, you should. Joshua doesn't like getting sent to voicemail."

Rory laughed slightly and answered the phone. "Hi Josh…oh Luke told you? … Did he say how my mom was doing? … Oh okay, thanks…Yeah I'm fine. But I should get back to work probably. Toby throws things at me if I'm not at my desk when he wants me…Yeah, I'll see you later. Bye." She hung up and turned back to Abbey. "Sorry about that. Apparently my mom wanted Josh to check on me."

"Your mother knows Josh?"

Rory smiled. "Yeah, my grandfather was pretty good friends with Josh's dad. Josh and my mom were friends when they were kids. And my grandfather used to do some work with Leo, too."

"My, my, aren't you connected?"

"Well, that's how I got the internship with Sam. But getting hired for real was really unexpected. Speaking of which…"

"Yes. Go back to work before Toby develops an ulcer."

Rory stood up and paused, smiling at the First Lady. "Thank you for being so kind to me, Dr. Bartlet."

"Well, you remind me of my daughter, Eleanor. You look a bit like Zoey, but you're more like Ellie. And I would hope that someone could be there for my girls if they were ever upset and far away from me. So I'll be checking up on you, Rory. Call it a mother's prerogative. And I'd like to meet your mother someday."

Rory grinned. "She'd love that. And thank you again." She turned and walked back to the White House, leaving Abbey to sit and contemplate quietly on her favorite bench in the Rose Garden.