Reap What You Sow

"What are you doing?"

Jed jumped slightly when he heard his wife's sharp, accusing tone. "I'm…"

Abbey walked into Liz's bedroom to look over his shoulder as he took his hands out of the drawer he was carefully looking through. "You're snooping, aren't you?"

"What else am I supposed to do!?"

She frowned. "Jed, you know better. We can't be invading our daughter's privacy like this!"

"But you know she's up to something, Abbey. You know she's sneaking around. I bet it's with that Doug Westin. You know he's in college?"

"Yes, I know he's in college," she replied. Abbey knew very well that her daughter was seeing an older boy going to the University of New Hampshire. She knew because, even with her busy surgery schedule, she was still home more often than Jed was, what with being a congressman and all.

He looked at her incredulously. "Well? Don't you think it's a problem that our seventeen-year-old daughter is dating a man in college?"

Abbey couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Jed, he's a freshman in college. He's not even an entire year older than she is. And at least his is in college and not some criminal."

"Has she talked to you about any of it?"

"Not much. But I wouldn't expect her to. You know she and I don't get along much. But I was like that with my mother when I was her age."

Jed narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah, and what were you getting up to when you were Lizzie's age?"

She scoffed, "A whole lot more than just sneaking out with a steady business major."

"You see?" Taking that as a sign of his victory, Jed went back to looking through the drawers.

"Oh my god, you've got to stop that. What if she comes home and wonders why her things are out of place?"

"I'm being very careful," he defended.

"Well what if she comes home and catches you?"

"Then you can keep watch."

Abbey was about ready to tear her hair out. "Jed, if she thinks we don't trust her, she'd just going to work harder to hide things from us. And I really don't think that she's doing anything too terrible."

Jed paused. "Oh yeah? Then why does she have these?" He pulled out a small box of condoms from the back of the sock drawer.

In that moment, Abbey's heart stopped. She wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or throw up or faint. She wasn't sure if she wanted to congratulate Jed on being right or scream at him for finding what they certainly did not want to be found.

But while Abbey remained quiet, Jed was just getting started with his ranting and raving. "I cannot believe her. I cannot believe that we failed so completely. My god, she's seventeen! What the hell is she doing with condoms in her room? That boy is dead. I swear to god, I'm gonna kill him. This is his fault. He…he pressured her or corrupted her or whatever else, but this is his fault!"

"Jed, stop it." Abbey had found her voice again, but it was shaky and cracking. "You put those back where you found them. And we are leaving this room right this second."

"Abbey, we found proof! We can't just pretend like this isn't happening."

"No, but we aren't going to confront her and we certainly aren't going to take those condoms." It occurred to her that it was Jed who was doing all of the snooping, but she kept automatically saying 'we.' Well, after all, they were a team, she and Jed. Everything they did, they did it together. They had their separate careers, but they made all their big decisions together. When it came to their kids, they did everything together. And when it came to figuring out what to do when they discovered that their eldest daughter was having sex, they would be together on whatever they come up with.

Jed felt like he was going insane. Like this was all some horrible nightmare and he'd wake up from. Because this couldn't be real, could it? His perfect little girl, his eldest daughter Elizabeth, she wasn't off doing…things. And Abbey wasn't here telling him to put condoms back in Liz's sock drawer. That wasn't real. This wasn't real.

And in the midst of their confusion and distress, neither of them heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs.

"What are you doing!?" Liz shrieked. She stood there, seeing her mother with tears in her eyes and her father with a strange glazed look on his face standing in front of her open dresser drawer and holding a box of condoms.

Jed recovered first. "What am I doing? I think it's more important to ask what you are doing, Elizabeth." He shook the box at her accusingly.

"Stop that," Abbey snapped. "All of us, we're going down to the kitchen and we are going to have a chat."

"I am not putting these back," Jed said petulantly.

Abbey glared at him. "We are going to have a talk, and you are going to leave those where you found them. I'd rather she use them. The conversation could be very different if she's been having unprotected sex," she pointed out.

At that, however, Liz burst into tears. "I'm so sorry!" she wailed.

Both Jed and Abbey stopped, startled again.

Abbey took her daughter into her arms and held her while she cried. "Shh, it's okay baby doll. It's all going to be okay."

"No it's not!" Liz sobbed.

A strange calm came over Abbey. The shock had certainly not worn off about the reality of her daughter's sex life, but her maternal instincts and her need to love and protect her child were overpowering any other negative emotions she might have experienced. "Having sex isn't the end of the world, Lizzie. And just because Dad and I are a little disappointed doesn't mean we won't all get through this. You're growing up, and we have to get used to that. And you know I'm a doctor and I'm a woman, and I'm here for whatever questions you might have. And all of that is okay."

Behind Liz's back, Jed stood and just stared, too dumbfounded to do much of anything. Liz had caught them going through her room. And now she was crying and Abbey was comforting her and he was left there like an idiot to just stand and do nothing.

Liz lifted her head and looked over at her father, her face red and puffy and stained with tears. And when she looked at him, her hysterical tears began anew. She buried her face in Abbey's sweater. "It's never gonna be okay. Dad's gonna hate me forever."

"Your dad does not hate you now and he is never, ever going to hate you. Not for this and not for anything," Abbey told her. "Isn't that right?" she asked, looking over to Jed.

"That…that's right," he agreed. It was true, of course, he'd never hate his daughter for anything. He just wished he could speak with a little more conviction about it.

"He will now," came Liz's muffled reply.

Abbey wanted to make a joke, to tell her that sex wasn't going to make Jed Bartlet hate anyone, since he was quite a fan of it himself. She also almost told Liz that she and Jed had not waited until they were married to have sex, so Liz's choices were nothing to be ashamed of.

But Liz's next words made all of that moot. She lifted her head. Her whole body shook. And she managed to say, "I'm pregnant."

Looking back on it, Abbey was amazed that neither she nor Jed fainted at those words. But Jed's reaction was probably more predictable. The box of condoms fell out of his hand and onto the floor. And he walked out of the room without a word. The sound of a door being slammed made both Abbey and Liz jump.

And then Abbey shifted from mom-mode to doctor-mode. It was what was needed, but Abbey had to have some sense of self-preservation about it all. "How do you know, Elizabeth?"

"I haven't had my period this month. Or last month. And I keep getting sick. And I got a pregnancy test from the drugstore and used it at my friend Amanda's house."

Somewhere in the back of Abbey's brain, there had been a little hope that it was just a scare, that Liz was only a few days late, that her period would come any minute, that this was just like what had happened to Abbey when she was just slightly older than Liz. But no. Missing two periods and a positive at-home test and morning sickness seemed to be pretty definitive. "Okay. Well, we should make you an appointment with the obstetrician to see how things are progressing."

Liz was still crying. "Mom, what am I going to do?"

"I don't know," Abbey answered truthfully. She tried to wipe away some of Liz's tears, and she stroked her hair. "But we can figure it out together, okay?"

"Dad's gonna hate me forever."

"I promise you that he won't," Abbey replied. "He's upset right now, but he'll get over it."

"I ruined my life!"

"Not necessarily. Things are certainly going to be different than expected, no matter what you decide to do. But nothing's ruined. You didn't hurt anyone. You aren't going to jail. You're just going to have a baby. You're young and it's going to be hard, but this isn't the end of your life or your dad's or mine or anyone else's. We will figure it out, baby doll."

That seemed to help calm Liz down for the time being.

"Alright, why don't you go take a bath and relax, and I'll go talk to Dad. Then later, we can all sit down and start to make a plan," Abbey suggested.

Liz nodded and gave her mother a hug. "Thank you."

Abbey kissed her hair but didn't say anything. She left Liz in the bathroom filling up the tub and then went downstairs to find her husband.

On the farm, there were a lot of places to hide. But thankfully, Abbey knew her husband. She found him out in the barn brushing one of the horses. "I figured you'd be here. Feeling any better?"

"No," he replied coldly. He could not react in violence or too harshly or he'd spook the horse. It helped keep him calm knowing he had no other option where he was standing.

"Are you going to tell me I lied to her? That you do hate her now?"

Damn her for knowing exactly what to say to deflate him. All the anger flooded out of him, leaving a pit of guilt and shame that, in many ways, was much worse. "No, I don't hate her," he answered quietly. He put the brush down and went over to sit on the bench. He rested his elbows on his knees and hung his head. "What a goddamn mess."

Abbey sat beside him and put her arms around his shoulders. "Our lives have always been a little messy. Just more for us to figure out."

"How could she do this?" he wondered aloud.

"If I had to guess, it's because she and Doug have raging hormones making them feel all sorts of new and exciting things, and they're in love and want to act on all those feelings."

Jed shook his head. "I thought we raised her to be smarter than that."

"There's nothing smart or stupid about it. These things happen. And I will tell you exactly what I just told her: nothing is ruined. Things are going to be different, but we will figure it out and somehow, it's all going to be okay."

"I'm gonna kill that kid."

"Liz?"

"No, Doug."

"Well, let's reserve judgment on that front. We don't even know if she's told him yet."

Jed lifted his head. "Is she really sure she's pregnant?"

Abbey nodded. "I'll get her an appointment to make sure, but I think she is."

He sighed heavily. "I don't know how I'm gonna be able to look at her again."

She did not like hearing him say that, but she knew that it took a lot for him to admit that out loud to her. "Same as you always have, Jed. She's still our Lizzie. And whether she gets pregnant at seventeen or thirty, we're still going to love her and support her and help her as best we can. We all know this situation isn't ideal, but neither was me getting pregnant with her while we were in London or with Ellie when I was in school. You and me and our girls, we're built to last," she insisted, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "We're smart and we're tough. And we can weather anything, right?"

"Right," he said in that same deflated tone.

"I'm not going to make you agree like you believe it, but I know you do. I know you know we'll be okay. And Liz is going to be okay. Okay?"

He sighed again. "Yeah, okay."

"Hey."

Jed looked at her. She gave him a soft kiss. "I love you. And we promised each other for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, and that's some nice shorthand of promising that we'll make it through the rough times. It's been rough before, and it'll be rough again. But we've got this, boyfriend, alright?"

The smallest hint of a smile crossed his lips. "Yeah, we do."

"You still love me even if it looks like I'm going to be a grandmother at forty?"

He chuckled ever so slightly. "Yeah." He gave her another kiss. "Valde te amo, nunc et in perpetuum," he whispered. I love you very much, now and forever.

"Alright, let's go back inside. We gotta talk to Liz. And it's nearly time for Zoey to wake up from her nap and Ellie will be back from her tennis lesson any minute."

Jed stood up and took his wife by the hand. He now very much agreed that he should have never snooped in their daughter's room. But they'd face everything that came their way, just as they always did. Somehow.