A few hours later Mac was in the Oval Office, trying to work. The trouble was, she was having a hard time focusing. She often found her mind wandering to…her daughter. She smiled again, and then shook her head and tried again to get her mind on the paperwork in front of her.

After a few minutes she decided it was a lost cause and stood up, stretching her muscles. She sat down on one of the couches and took off her glasses, placing them on the coffee table in front of her. She rubbed her eyes and sighed, leaning against the back of the couch.

She started to think, wondering what they were going to do about Catie. Mac wanted nothing more than to just bring her immediately in to the white house to live with them, but she knew she had to think it through. There were so many other things that would go into it. Mac had to think about her family, her children, the press, the entire nation. She knew the press would go wild about the whole situation, but, if they approached it the right way, they might be able to twist it to their advantage.

She also had to think of Catie herself. Catie had lived with her grandparents for years. She was used to their way of life. It was home. Mac didn't want to take her away from her home. Unless that's what she wanted, of course. Mac shook her head, so confused.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. "Come in." She said.

Vince entered slowly, hesitant. He obviously didn't want to disrupt her. iHave I really been that distracted?/i She wondered to herself. "The First Gentleman is here to see you." He informed her.

"Let him in." She said. She saw him hesitate, and she figured that telling her Rod was here wasn't the only reason he had come in. Usually he would have just let Rod in. "Is there anything else?" She asked him gently.

"You have a meeting with the cabinet members in an hour." He informed her. "And…"

"What is it, Vince?"

"Madam President, are you okay?" He finally asked. "You've seemed…distracted. Down, somehow.."

Mac nodded with a small smile. "I have been down." She said. "But I'm better now. I might still be distracted for a while, but I'm a lot better."

"Ma'am, if you don't mind me asking…" Vince trailed off.

She smiled. "I can't tell you right now, Vince, but, believe me, you'll know soon enough."

He nodded and exited the room. Rod entered a minute later, shutting the door behind him. He made his way slowly across the room, and sat down on the couch across from her. "Mac, we need to talk." He said.

Mac nodded. "Yes, yes we do." They were quiet for a moment, each waiting for the other to speak first. "You go first." She said. "I want to see where you stand."

Rod nodded. "I want her to live here, if possible." He stated simply. "I want to get the chance to know my daughter. Christmas is coming soon. I'd like it if she were able to spend it with us, to see our traditions." Mac nodded, waiting for him to continue. "I know it'll be hard, and I know the press will go crazy, but she is our daughter. If it's what she wants, she should live with us."

Mac stood and walked to her husband. She leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips. He chuckled. "I guess you agree?" He asked.

"Without question." She said. They were quiet for a moment, content just to sit with each other. "We have to tell the kids." She finally said.

Rod nodded. "Yeah. We do." He said. "Can we sit them down tonight?"

"I'll have Vince clear my schedule."

"Then we'll have her over to meet the family, then we'll talk to her about what she wants." He said. "Then we'll have to tell the press."

"Of course, we have to tell senior staff members first." Mac said.

Rod nodded. "Yes." He said.

She looked at him. He smiled. "So we're really going to do this?" She asked. "We're really going to raise a fourth child?"

Rod nodded. "Yes. Yes we are. She is ours, after all."

"How do you think the kids are going to respond?" Mac asked out of the blue.

Rod shook his head. "Horace…he'll be okay with it, I'm sure. It'll probably delight Amy as long as she knows that it won't make you love her any less. Becca's the only one I'm worried about."

"Me too." Mac said. "She's not going to be happy about it. I just hope that she'll get used to the idea."

.~.

"Becca." Mac said, knocking on her daughter's bedroom door. "Becca, could you come into the living room? We're having a family meeting." She moved on to Horace's room, and then Amy's. When she had gotten all the kids, she joined Rod in the living room. The kids sat together on the couch, and Mac sat in a chair across from them with Rod standing behind her.

"What's this about?" Becca asked. "I have to do homework." It was obvious that she didn't want to be there, and that she wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Becca, just listen. This is important." Rod said.

Mac hesitated. The twins knew about Cait, but Amy didn't. "Amy, before you were born, when Becca and Horace were little, I had another baby. Her name was Cait, and she died a few days after she was born."

"I had another older sister that died?" Amy asked.

Mac nodded. Becca and Horace looked at each other, and then at their parents. "What does Cait have to do with anything?" Becca asked.

"Cait's…alive." Rod finally said after Mac hesitated.

"What?" "How is that possible?!"

Mac and Rod waited for them to quiet. Mac looked at Rod, who nodded and squeezed her shoulder. She looked back at her children, and something inside of her melted. "The little girl that died, she wasn't ours. She was switched with our actual daughter at birth." She explained to them the entire story, and paused before she told them what she and Rod had decided that afternoon.

"So what happens next?" Horace asked. "What are you guys going to do?"

"We want her to live with us." Rod said. "We want to be her parents in every sense of the word. We want her to be a sister to you, a part of this family."

"I'll get another big sister?" Amy asked with delight.

"Yes, baby, you will." Mac said with a smile. "But I want you all to know, I love you all. I know this is going to be hard for us, but we feel that it's the best way."

Horace and Becca were quiet, and they waited for their reaction. Becca finally spoke up. "I guess we don't have a choice in the matter?" She asked.

Everyone looked at her, surprised. She continued. "What, do you expect us to just welcome someone new into the family? As if we don't have to share your attention enough, let's just throw in another person." She stood up and stormed off to her room, leaving Mac behind in tears.

"For what it's worth, I think it's a great idea. I mean, yeah, it'll be hard at first, but she is a part of our family. She deserves to be in this family as much as any of us do." Horace said.

Mac nodded gratefully at her son, wiping her eyes. Amy bounced over and climbed into her lab. "Mommy, if we have another sister, will you love me any less?" She asked quietly.

"Oh, honey baby. Of course not. I love you just as much." Mac assured her, kissing her on the forehead. "But you wouldn't want me to not be a mommy to her too, would you? I am her mommy, and doesn't she deserve to have her mommy like you do?"

Amy nodded. "That makes sense." She said. She gave Mac a kiss and bounced off to her room.

Horace stood up and approached his parents. He patted his mother on the shoulder. "Bec'll come around." He said. "She's just…being her."

For once, Mac didn't rebuke her son for the snide remarks on his sister. He too headed back to his room, and Rod walked around the chair to face her. "Do you want me to go talk to her?" He asked.

"No." Mac shook her head. "This is something I have to do."

He nodded, and she stood slowly. She dragged her feet as she headed to Becca's room, not really sure what she would say to her daughter. She knocked on the door, and when there was no answer, opened it and went in. Becca was faced away from her, lying down on her bed. "I don't want to talk." Becca said.

"Then don't." Mac said coldly. "Don't talk. Listen." She paused for a moment. "I don't really understand why you're so against this, but, frankly, I don't care. I've put up with your crap since we've moved here, and I'm sick of it. I was trying to give you time to get settled, because I understand that this has been hard on you. But I am not going to put up with it any longer. I am sick of your griping around. This girl is your sister, however you may feel. She is my daughter too. And I'll be damned if I ignore that fact just because you're feeling jealous."

Becca turned around and looked at her mother coldly. "Why would I be jealous of her? It sucks enough being your daughter. In fact, I feel sorry for her. She has no idea what she's getting herself into. Instead of having a mother, she'll have a president."