Abbey woke up to her phone ringing incessantly. "Hello?" she mumbled sleepily. CJ stirred beside her.

"Mom?" Zoe's voice came clearly along the line. "Something's wrong with Daddy." She sounded scared.

Abbey sat up quickly. "What?!" she exclaimed. "Did he have an attack?"

"No…" Zoe sounded confused. "Mom, where are you? Are you in Washington?" Abbey relaxed a little, lying back in the bed.

"Yes, Zoe, I'm in Washington." She sighed, knowing her youngest daughter was too astute not to ask the obvious questions.

"Did something happen?" Zoe asked tentatively "Between you and Dad?" It was an inevitability she'd been waiting for. She'd watched her parents' bickering increase, less and less joking, more and more fighting, for the last 5 years.

"What makes you think that?" Abbey's voice was strained. CJ reached over and put a hand on hers. Abbey clutched it.

"He called." Zoe started. "He was drunk, angry. Leo kept trying to get him to hang up the phone. He said stuff…"

"Oh, God." Abbey interjected.

"And…you obviously aren't at the residence." Zoe finished hesitantly.

Abbey sighed. She didn't want to bring her youngest daughter into this just yet, but her husband had obviously jumped the gun on that one. "Yes, Zoe. Something happened."

Zoe steeled herself, and then asked the question. "What happened, Mom?"

"You're sure you want to know?" Abbey asked quietly "You won't like it."

"I'd rather know." Zoe said confidently.

"I've been having an affair." Abbey said bluntly. "For the last ten months." Zoey burst into tears. Abbey's heart broke.

"Oh, God, Mom. With who?"

"Claudia Jean."

"CJ?" Zoe exclaimed. "You've been having an affair with CJ." She affirmed incredulously.

"Yes." Abbey answered monotonously, hating herself for putting her daughter through this.

"You're bisexual." Her daughter sounded more surprised than upset at this point.

"Yes, dear."

"Oh." Zoe sounded much calmer. "Umm…What are you going to do?"

"I would never leave your father!" Abbey exclaimed. "I was just…"

"I could tell how unhappy you were, Mom." Abbey smiled at the tone in her daughter's voice. "I've been expecting a call like this for a long time." Abbey was surprised.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Zoe responded bluntly. "You've just seemed happier lately, so I thought we might be in the clear…but now I know why."

"Now you know why." Abbey repeated.

"So…" Zoe waited for an explanation.

"We haven't discussed what's going to happen yet, Zoe. But I'm not leaving your father, and I'm not leaving Claudia. I'm happy."

"Okay." Zoe answered simply.

"We're just going to have to make things work somehow."

"Okay Mom. I just wanted to know everything is alright."

"You think this is okay?" Abbey was surprised.

"Comparatively speaking. You evidently still love Daddy, and you're much happier than before." Zoe explained. "I like CJ" she commented "and I can see why you would."

"Well, thank you, sweetie." Abbey was shocked by her youngest daughter's calm reaction. She had expected blame and anger if her daughters had found out.

"Dad will come around." Zoe assured her. "In the end, he just wants you to be happy."

"I hope so." Abbey responded sadly. "He's pretty angry right now."

"Of course he is. It's Dad." Abbey chuckled at that.

"He'll always be Jed Bartlet."

"He will."

"You should get to bed. You have class in the morning." Abbey pointed out, her motherly role taking over.

"I will."

"And sweetie, can you not tell anyone?" Abbey asked gently. "Not even your sisters? I don't think they'd take it as well as you have."

Zoe was proud to have been a source of support for her mother; she decided to push a little further. "Of course. On one condition."

"What's that?"

"That I can have dinner with you and CJ in the West Wing tomorrow."

Abbey was surprised, but pleased by the request. "That would be wonderful."

"Okay. I'll call you." Zoe smiled, hearing the pleasure in her mother's tone.

"Night, I love you."

"Night, Mom. I love you too." Abbey hung up the phone and turned to CJ.

"Well, that went better than expected!" CJ smiled.

"Zoe's a very adaptable and sensible girl." She replied.

"We're having dinner with her tomorrow." Abbey announced, and then sighed. "I'm just afraid of what her father will think."

"I think we'll have to deal with that tomorrow." CJ pointed out.

"I'm going to kill him for calling her like that." Abbey spoke vehemently, settling back under the blankets.

"Okay." CJ knew better than to argue, and just draped her arm back over Abbey.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Abbey stalked into the Oval Office the next morning.

The entire senior staff, CJ included, looked up, eyes wide. Jed sighed. "Can we have the room please?" They exited quickly.

"You called Zoe?" Abbey demanded. "What's more, you called Zoe drunk, and without even talking to me? What the hell were you thinking, Jed?"

Jed rubbed his hands tiredly over his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. He had a headache. "I was drunk out of my mind, Abbey. I wasn't thinking."

"Damn right you weren't!" Abbey exclaimed.

"What did you tell her?" Jed asked tiredly, looking up at his wife.

"The truth, what else? She was scared out of her wits!" Abbey said angrily. "I wanted to at least discuss all of this before bringing our daughters into it. I couldn't even tell her what we were going to do!"

"How did she take it?" Jed saw no point in arguing with Abbey right now, it wouldn't lead anywhere good.

Abbey sighed, perching on the arm of a couch. "Well." She responded more softly. "Very well. She's having dinner with CJ and me tonight at her own suggestion."

Jed looked up, surprised. "She's what?"

Abbey shrugged. "She said she was glad to see me happy. She'd been expecting something to happen for a while. Apparently our youngest is more astute than you are. "She said facetiously. Jed sighed. He didn't know what to think.

"Evidently."

Outside, in Charlie's office the senior staff was gossiping about what the fight inside could be about this time. CJ sat quietly in a corner, staying out of the conversation. She already knew.