“Hey sweetie. What’s going on?”

“Nothing, Mom. What are you up to?”

“I’m looking at some pictures. come sit with me.” Abbey motioned to Zoey
to come sit next to her. Zoey obliged, and sat next to her mother.

She began looking at the pictures. They were picture of her sisters,
Katie ,Joanna, Elizabeth, and who else... Michael. “Mom is that?”

“Michael, yes that is Michael”

“Tell me about him.”

“Michael was a typical eight year old little boy. He liked the
outdoors, loved sports. Your father and he used to play catch in the
back yard all the time. He was smart.” She began to laugh.

“What are you laughing about?”

“Whenever your father would begin another round of trivia questioning,
Michael would leave the room.”

“You’re kidding. I guess he was smart.” Zoey said with a laugh.”

“Yes he was. I wish you could have known him. Before he got sick.” she
added “When he got sick all of the joy and the whit faded away.” She
began to cry again Zoey quickly put an arm around her.

“It’s okay, Mom. I know him, I just wish I knew him better.”

“Where is your father?” She asked wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Charlie said that Dad was downstairs still working when I talked to
him. He had to leave to pick up his sister he did say he wasn’t sure
if he was gonna make it. Dad has been driving everyone crazy today,
since he came up to talk to you.”

“That sounds like your father, always hiding his emotions. I’m gonna go
check on him.”

“Okay. Hey Mom take him out somewhere, he needs to unwind. Charlie said
he really scared him today.”

“Okay sweetie, I’ll see what I can do.” Abbey walked out of the room and
headed for the West Wing.

In the Oval Office, the President was sitting at his desk, reading the
speech for the Retired Teacher’s Association, However, the speech
wasn’t the only thing on his mind. He had the speech in one hand and a
picture of his son held tightly in the other. He had tried to
concentrate, but his mind was on his family.

“Abbey was right, I was afraid that my son would think of me as weak.”
he thought angrily to himself, “I should have been there. I was there
for his first word, first steps, first homerun. Why couldn’t I be there
for him? For my family when they needed me the most?” His attention
wondered from the picture when there was a light tap on his office door.
Abbey walked in.

“Hi, Gumdrop.”

“Hey, How you doing?”

“Okay. How about you?” She asked as she walked toward him and took his
hand in hers.

“I’m feeling pretty bad.”

“So I hear, Zo said that you were running your staff in a marathon of
paperwork. When are you going to realize that that doesn’t make the
feelings go away? You just have to let them go.” She said as she let go
of his hand and sat down on his lap.

“I know, I know, but...” he replied as e put his arms around her.

“No buts! Regardless of the title or your gender.” She added with a
laugh, “ You are aloud to show emotion.”

Jed looked into his wife’s eyes. “You were right before, ya know, I
didn’t want him to see me weak.” He replied weakly choking back his
emotions.

“Don’t fight it anymore, Jed. Let it go!” Abbey gathered him up into a
warm embrace. He held onto her tightly for a few moments letting his
bottled up emotions follow freely.

He regained his composure moments later and looked into her eyes once
again. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For kicking me in the ass when I need it the most.” They both laughed
at the comment, Jed helped her out of his lap.

“Hey,” she began, “Zoey suggested we do something, just the two of us.
What do you think?”

“I think I could use a drink.”

“Jed! Oh, alright.” she said giving to the please Mom look on his face.

“Georgetown?” he suggested.

“You think the service will go for that?” Abbey asked.

“They better. I’m the President of the United States.” he got up, and
put an arm around her waist as they walked out of the Oval Office.