"What are you doing sitting out here all alone?" Jed stopped in front of Toby's office upon seeing the very pregnant ex-wife of his communications director.

"I'm just waiting for Toby." There was a pervasive sadness to Andy's tone that caused Jed to pause.

"Andy, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Why don't you come in to my office and relax. I'm not sure when Toby will be back." Jed reached down a hand to help Andy to her feet well aware of the balancing issues a nine months pregnant woman had.

"Sir, I'm okay, really. You must be busy."

"Not right now I'm not. Come on let's go." Jed led her into the Oval office and helped her to sit on the couch. "Lean forward" he told her, and when she did so he slid a throw pillow behind the small of her back. The gesture brought tears to Andy's eyes.

"Did I do something wrong?" Jed asked with concern.

"No, not at all. It's just� Through this whole pregnancy I haven't had anyone who would know that a throw pillow behind my back would make me more comfortable.

"Ah, that's just experience," Jed grinned with an aw shucks manner. "When you've been through this as many times I have with Abbey you learn all the little tricks. Twins are an extra heavy burden; you need to stay off your feet as much as possible. Now you want to tell me why you looked so upset outside of Toby's office?"

"I just need to see him. I� I said some really horrible things to him. He bought me a house."

"I know, he was very excited. Well, as excited as Toby Ziegler can get."

"He wants us to get married again. He wants our babies to have a traditional family."

"Nothing wrong with that." Deep inside Jed was hoping Andy would find it in her heart to give Toby another chance, to give those babies a chance at a traditional family.

"No, there isn't, except that I've been married to Toby and I was miserable. There is a reason that we got divorced. I just couldn't live with all that negativity anymore. You work with him. You know what he's like."

"Yeah, that's just Toby."

"Yeah, it's just Toby, but try living with someone like that day in and day out. I told him that he was too sad for me. I told him that instead of showing our children that the world is for them, he was going to be telling them that they have to work hard in school so they can bone up for a life of hopelessness and despair."

"Ouch," Jed winced.

"Yeah. That's why I'm here. I want to apologize, well, not for saying it because I still feel that way. I guess I just could have said it better."

"Hey," Abbey poked her head in the door. "Charlie said you were here, Andy. Is this a private conversation?"

"No, come on in."

Abbey entered with Nicholas and Aislinn who were carrying crayon scribbled papers. "We just got back from Story Hour at the library. The kids wanted to bring you their latest masterpieces."

Jed took the pictures from the kids making a great show of putting on his glasses to examine them then brought them over to the corkboard Abbey had had put up on one wall so that he could display the kids artwork. Nicholas watched him tack up the photos but Aislinn was more interested in Andy.

"Baby?" She pointed at Andy's stomach. Her mother had told her before that a baby lived in there.

"Yes,"Andy smiled patting her stomach. "There are two babies in here, just like you and Nicholas."

Aislinn looked from Andy to Abbey and walked over to her mother placing a hand on Abbey's flat stomach. "Baby?" She asked her.

Jed's head snapped around.

"Now there's a panicked look if I ever saw one," Abbey laughed. "No, darlin'," she patted her daughter's head. "There's no baby in mommy's belly right now. But you and Nicky did live right here for almost nine months until you were born."

Aislinn nodded and walked over to check out Jed's display of her artwork.

"Whew," Abbey turned to Andy. "It won't be long until she'll follow up with, how did I get born?"

Andy chuckled. "I won't be looking forward to that one either."

Abbey smiled and walked toward the children. ""Okay, kids. Give daddy a kiss and say good bye to Congresswoman Wyatt. Time to go upstairs and clean up for lunch.

"Bye, daddy" The kids waved back at Jed as they left with their mother. "They're such sweet kids," Andy smiled.

"Yeah, they really are. Aislinn is becoming such a little chatterbox and even though he's actually the younger one by 16 whole minutes, Nicholas is always leading her around and making decisions about what they're going to play.

"I hope my two get along as well as yours do." Andy started to get to her feet.

"Oh, they have their moments, believe me. If, God forbid, Aislinn so much as looks at his favorite stuffed Tigger, Nicholas is off and�." Jed trailed off noticing the funny look on Andy's face as she reached for her purse. "Andy, you okay?"

"Yeah. It was just�Ohhhh�.""Andy bent over and grabbed at her stomach. Jed was at her side in an instant.

"Is it a contraction?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I've never had a contraction before, so I don't know. It started in my back and tightened up around stomach into a really sharp pain."

"That's a contraction all right. It's exactly the way Abbey's described it to me. You sit down and I'm going to call a car around."

"No, call Toby. I want Toby to take me." Andy handed him her cell phone and Jed made the call.

"Oh�Oh damn, this hurts."

"It's okay, Andy. Just do your breathing. Toby will be here any minute."

"What breathing?" she snapped. "I'm supposed to be induced for a C-section. I never did Lamaze classes."

"Well then, it's a good thing for you that I did. Just breathe in deeply through your nose and let it out with your mouth." Jed looked down at his watch. "Tell me when you feel another one coming, the doctor is going to want to know how far apart the contractions are when you get to the hospital."

Andy stared at him in awe. She thought men were supposed to fall apart around a laboring woman but the President was calmly taking charge of the situation. "You're really good at this."

"Experience." Jed tried to be cavalier but he knew that when it was Abbey he'd been a much more frantic nutcase.

"I know you were with Abbey for the twin's birth. Was that the first time?"

"Nope. I watched every blessed one of my kids's come into this world. I even delivered Ellie. Abbey had her at home with me and�."

"OHHHH!"Andy cried out as she reached for Jed's hand and squeezed it hard.

"It's okay, Andy, just breathe through it." Jed rubbed her shoulder. "Don't hold your breath. You have to try to relax. If you fight it, it's only going to hurt worse."

"How do you know!" Andy cried out as the pain grew in strength. "You're a man, you have no idea how much this HURTS!

"No, but I've been told," he grinned sympathetically.

"I'm sorry," she groaned as the contraction ebbed. "I didn't mean to yell at you."

"Hey, that was nothing compared to Abbey during transition. I've heard much worse, including a few instances when she threatened to rip off a certain piece of my anatomy that I'm quite partial to."

Andy gave him a weak smile. "At this point I can see why she'd want to do that."

As the contraction ended Jed looked at his watch the color draining from his face and a nervous glitter flashing in his eyes. "Okay, uh�Andy that was only three minutes apart. At five you should be heading to the hospital." Jed helped her up to her feet and watched as her eyes widened with astonishment.

"Ohhh�. Oh, God, I don't think I'm going to make it. My water just broke."

"CHARLIE!" Jed bellowed. "GET MY WIFE!"

****

"What's all this yelling going on in here?" Leo poked his head in from his office.

"Andy's in labor," Jed continued to rub Andy's back in a soothing manner.

"Labor?" Leo looked stunned.

"Yeah, labor, you know, as in contractions, dilation, birth."

"I get the picture," Leo grimaced.

"I'm really sorry about your carpet." Andy looked down with dismay at the wet dark stain by her feet.

"Hey, don't worry about that. It's seen worse. Nicky peed on it one day."

"What the hell are we doing just standing around here!" Leo burst out. "We need to get her to a hospital. Good God, she could have those kids right here in the Oval Office."

Jed turned with surprise at his chief of staff's frantic tone. It was obvious Leo had not spent much time around a laboring woman. "Is this how you acted when Abbey went into labor at my state of the union?"

"Worse," Abbey said as she briskly entered the room. "I think he would have picked me up and carried me to the car if I'd have refused to go to the hospital for much longer."

Abbey stopped in front of Andy and took her hand with a reassuring smile. "Men are always afraid these babies are just going to fall out of us onto their heads. Believe me," she turned to Leo. "We KNOW when they are about to emerge."

Leo nodded his face reddening with the image Abbey presented.

"So," she turned back to Jed. "How far apart are the contractions now?"

"Just around three minutes."

"Oh�dammit, Abbey�This HURTS!"

"I know," Abbey stroked her hand sympathetically. "Oh, man, I know exactly what you're going through right now."

"How the hell did you do this FIVE times! Are you NUTS?"

"I used to ask myself the same thing when I was in labor and when I was delivering. I had women tell me that you forget the pain once the baby is born. I NEVER forgot the pain once my babies were born. But I will tell you that as soon as I held them in my arms I just knew that they were worth every moment of agony it took to get them here and you're going to feel the same way."

"No, these two are it for me. Never�.Ohhhh�."

"Okay, Andy we have to get you to a hospital before you deliver these babies right here. Jed, call Toby and tell him to meet us at the hospital."

"No, no I'm here" Toby burst through the door. "You okay, Andy?"

"You're asking me that now?"

"Uh� yeah�stupid question."

"Ohh�This is really bad�"

Abbey placed a hand on Andy's hard contracting stomach. Without doing an internal she couldn't tell for sure but it seemed that the Ziegler twins were anxiously on their way. "Andy, I hate to tell you this but you guys better get moving. I don't think you'll be having a C-section."

"But�but we have to. I didn't take natural childbirth classes."

"I can't be a coach." Toby was white with fear.

"Well, I could lend you Jed since he's such a phenomenal labor coach at least until it comes time for episiotomies. At that point he usually needs an oxygen mask." She looked up at her nervous, hovering husband. " Jed, don't look so scared, I'm only kidding. They'll do fine with a nurse helping them out."

"Episiotomy?" Andy looked like she might get sick as Toby led her slowly to the door. "Did you have to have one delivering the twins?"

Abbey followed them down the hall. "Just Nicholas. Aislinn was a tiny baby and she came out okay with a lot of stretching with vitamin E oil, but Nicholas was breech and they needed to get him out fast so they did one. It's no big deal really. You won't even notice it until later. You're going to be fine, Andy. Good luck." Abbey kissed her cheek as they got to the door and Jed stopped in front of Toby.

"Be good to her." He looked him sternly in the eye. "Try to stay calm even if you're freaking out inside, she doesn't need you to freak out." Jed reached out a hand to shake Toby's and added a pat on the shoulder. "Now go do your job, daddy."

Abbey and Jed waited in the doorway until the car drove off.

"Do you think that's the way that we looked?" Jed wrapped his arms around his wife's waist from behind.

"What?"

"Do you think we looked like we were being led into the fires of hell when we left for the hospital for our kid's births."

"I'm sure. I remember when I went into labor in London with Elizabeth. I believe the words Gerard and Colin used for the look on your face were 'sheer terror'."

"Yeah, well they said you looked like you were going to be sick."

"I felt like I was going to be sick. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life," she laughed.

"And now our third daughter is graduating from college. It's all your fault, you know."

"You're BLAMING me for our daughter graduating from college?"

"Graduating THIS year. You're the one that said she could skip from first to third grade. If she had stayed where she was supposed to then she'd have another year of college."

"Poor, Jed. You just can't stand it, can you? It kills you when another chick leaves the nest."

"Yeah, I hate it and don't try to pretend that you don't. I've seen you sitting in their bedrooms holding their stuffed animals and crying."

"Well, if Zoey chooses grad school at Johns Hopkins she won't be that far away. And we still have another 20 years before Aislinn and Nicholas fly the coop."

"That sounds like such a long time."

"Yeah, but unfortunately we both know it goes by in the blink of an eye."

"You know. I used to wish that I could make time stand still. But, if I had stopped things when the girls were still in school we wouldn't have Annie, or Nicholas and Aislinn. Time has to march on I guess."

"Okay, now you're depressing me. Just be thankful Zoey cancelled her plans to spend the summer in France with Jean Paul so she can be here for the Philadelphia Olympics."

"Yeah, we got Pierre on that one, didn't we?"

"I guess we did."

"Will she be coming with us to Jackson Hole?"

"No, but she said she'd join us at the beach."

"She's not bringing Frenchie, is she?"

"No, he's going home for the month. But he'll be back in time for the Olympics."

"Well, that's comforting."

"I thought you'd be pleased."

TBC...