"CJ," Danny Concannon raised his voice cheerfully.

"Yes Danny," acknowledged CJ.

"Will Charlie's sister Dina be attending this afternoon?"

"Dina will not be attending because she has a conflict in her class
schedule however senators Moore and Woods will be attending this
afternoon," responded CJ. "I also been asked to remind you that you are
to remain in the designated press area and are not to direct questions
to the President or any of the guests. I take any question you may
have now," said CJ cheerfully as hands shot into the air.

"Katie" CJ called out.

"CJ, will The First Lady be attending this afternoon?" Katie asked.

"No, I don't believe so as we speak the First Lady is on her way back
from Los Angles," responded CJ.

"What was she doing in LA?" Liz shouted.

"She was attending a dance competition the President's granddaughter
entered," said CJ. All of the sudden the room erupted into questions
about the competition; CJ finally broke through the uproar. "Folks, I
really can't say anything more on this matter but I will have more news
for you later today, thank you" CJ said as she stepped off the podium
and walked out of the press room.

"How was the trip?" Jed asked his wife on the way back to The White
House. Abbey did not reply. Jed put his hand on her arm she turned to
him and grabbed onto his hand. "Abbey, is everything alright?" Jed
asked.

"Everything is fine." Abby replied with a quiver in her voice as the car
pulled up to the west wing entrance. Donnie opened the car door. Jed
helped Abbey out of the car; it was obvious to him that something was
wrong. Abbey was quite emotional and had not let go of his hand since
they left the airport.

"Abbey, honey, what's wrong?" Jed asked, as they walked in the door.

She leaned over to him with tears in her eyes and said, "I need to talk
to you."

"Okay." Jed responded with concern, as they walked towards the Oval
office. Jed Bartlet helped his wife to the couch as they entered to the
Oval Office; the First Lady was still visibly shaken.

"Abbey," Jed called out. She jumped at the sound of his voice; this
reaction didn't go unnoticed. "Abbey, what's going on?"

"Sit down Jed, please," she said urgently and with some fear. Jed sat
down next to his wife and took her hand and then she told him about the
dream.

"No wonder she was so emotional," he thought as she finished. "Abby,"
Jed said when she finished, "the job of the Secret Service is to protect
the President and his family and they're good at it."

"I know but that still doesn't give me a lot of confidence and this has
really stuck with me," she replied.

"I know but its going to be okay," he reassured her.

~*~*~*~*~

"Sam this is a nice piece of work," Leo McGarry commented.

"Yeah, I think you capture the President's position on gun control
nicely," Josh said.

"Although I hate to disagree I think you could have been a little harder
in the B section," Toby said dryly but quickly added, "I like it and you
finally used punctuation."

The staff all laughed at Toby's last comment they were having a final
meeting in Leo's before they showed the final draft of the speech to the
President "Okay," Leo interjected, "We don't have a lot of time so let's
try to keep our eye on the ball. CJ is the press ready for this
afternoon?" Leo asked turning his attention to the White House Press
Secretary.

"I think so, the press will start to gathering in the Rose Garden at
2:30. I have told them no questions to the President or the guests."

"Okay sounds like we're ready. The President will meet with us soon to
go over everything Is there anything else?" Leo looked around the room
to see if any of the staff had something to add. "Okay then we're
done." Leo said. With that the staff got up and left Leo's office.

Abbey had come to the conclusion that her husband was right. She
shouldn't worry about the dream but she couldn't help but think about
it. Their conversation had now shifted to Annie and the day's upcoming
events. "She was great Jed it's to bad the bill signing fell the way it
did," Abby said proudly.

"Yeah I'm real proud of her," Bartlet replied.

"Have you seen this afternoon's speech yet?" she asked.

"No, not yet. The staff coming by to go over it," he said as Leo walked
in the door. "Leo," the President said cheerfully.

"Good Afternoon, Mr. President, hello Abbey, Congratulations I heard
Annie did very well."

"Yes she did," the First Lady replied.

"We are very proud of her," the President added moving from behind his
desk.

Leo turned to the First Lady and said, "Wasn't she supposed to come back
with you."

"Yes, but she decided to stay and go back with the team instead. It
probably for the best it looks like we're gonna be busy the next few
days with everything that is going on," she said.

"Probably a good idea." Leo said in agreement. "Oh, Mr. President we
are to go over the speech anytime."

"Okay Leo, lets meet in the Roosevelt Room in fifteen minutes," Bartlet
replied.

"Very well Sir anything else?" Leo asked.

"No, thank you."

"See in fifteen minutes sir."

Leo started out the door when Abby urgently said, "Yes!"

Leo turned around and looked at the First Lady, "Abbey, What is it?" Leo
asked.

"We have to cancel the bill signing." The President shot his wife a
look.

"Why?" Leo asked.

Abbey looked at Jed as to apologize for what she was about to say. He
caught the look and said gently but firmly "Abby, I will be fine"

"No, you won't!" She fired back. Leo looked questionably at both of
them, he had know idea what was going on.

The President caught the look on his chief of Staff 's face and said
mockingly "She thinks someone is going to try to kill me this
afternoon. "

"WHAT?! And you did think that it was important to tell me about this."
Leo shot back he was letting the President, his best friend know that he
was not happy being left out of this loop.

"Listen you two," Bartlet said breaking through the argument, "I'm doing
this bill signing, today. Now the two of you get out of here and stop
worrying about me."

Abbey began to say something but then thought better of it and walked
out of the Oval office. Leo stayed and looked at his close friend in
the eye, he knew Jed Bartlet. He knew that he knew that he was worried
about but out of respect Leo didn't say a thing. Instead, he just walked
out the door and took the long way back to his office. He needed to
think. Leo knew that nothing would change the President's mind. As he
took the last step into his office, he looked up "Abbey!" Leo said
surprised to see the First Lady sitting on the couch.

~*~*~*~*