Slam! 4 : " Quality of Life"

Ellie's POV

This is my hill, no our hill. Before, we'd sit out here on certain nights, maybe even make love under the stars. This was our place.

We'd planned to buy this place ourselves. We didn't want it as a gift, but as a reward for the hard work we'd done to get wherever we were. We were so excited. I was getting everything I wanted and so much more, it seemed.

I come back here often. Not that I can help it, I do live here. I bought this place after Rosslyn2. The second Rosslyn. I used this place to recover, to heal. I'll never fully heal, never really be who I was again. It's possible that none of us will ever be. How can we?

What we lost that day was great. But we also found something nearly as great. Each other. We've been family for years and yet we couldn't have been more distant strangers if we'd been from different families altogether.

We're only starting to be normal again. Whatever normal is. We congregate to my home now, and less to Manchester. It just seems fitting that we call a new place home after this happened. We're new people, not necessarily better ones, but definitely new, more fragile people.

I push myself up from the ground and make my way back over to the house. I can't help, but smile as Zoey runs around after Charlotte Abigail, her daughter.

She has been my baby sister's saving grace. It's a wonder to a dozen doctors how my niece survived Rosslyn and its aftermath. It's a wonder to her mother and grandmother too.

I smile at her as she sees me and runs to me with arms wide open. I pick her up and spin her around. She snuggles her head into my neck.

"How ya doin', Charli Gail?" I can feel her smile. It's her father's and my father's smile.

"I'm doin' fine, Auntie El'. How you doin' El train?" My smile becomes a grin at her assumed nickname for me.

"I'm doin' fine too. Come on, I'd better give you back to your mom before she thinks I'm trying to steal you for myself." I'd never do that. She's the love of my sister's life, next to Charlie. Losing her would nearly destroy her.

"Hey, you tryin' to steal my kid?" Zoey walks toward us. " And you. Are you tradin' me in for a better model?" Charli scrambles down from my arms and runs to her mom.

"No way, mommy. The El' Train's already got a baby. She doesn't need to have me too." She's right. I've got my baby. Nicole Jocelyn. Nicci or Cece. She's upstairs with her father. Just thinking that gives me chills. The fact that he's here at all is another thing in this family that has amazed a dozen doctors. One gunshot wound to the side of the head. By all accounts he was dead on the scene, even mine. If I'd been thinking clearly I would've remembered that it had been a terribly cold night. He'd let me wear his jacket, because I'd left mine in the White House. The cold slowed down his heartbeat and probably saved his life as he lay there on the sidewalk, in my arms.

That's why I didn't feel his heartbeat. It had slowed down to a rate just above death. He was the point that would put a doctor and family on 'death watch.' I thought I was being hopeful, I thought he was really gone. The doctors thought that Nick was on the way out. They gave me 10% odds of his surviving with limited quality of life at best. He beat those odds down. That's why he fits in with us Bartlets so well. We always just barely beat those odds.

I can hear the front screen door slam back to the porch wall. I've told everyone who would listen not to do that. It nicks the paint and drives me insane. Only one person has the nerve to do it anyway. Nicholas. I turn towards him and decide to give him whatfor.

"Nicholas Douglas Vassar! What have I told you time and time again about slamming my doors open?" I stand there with my best glower on my face, courtesy of my mother, and my hands on my hips, courtesy of my father. Who else?

Damn him. He has the good grace to look chastized. And adorable. Jackass. He shuffles on the second to bottom step, toeing the grass meekly. What can I say?

Feel my wrath, gorgeous.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" I don't expect much from here. He's already forgiven. I'm pretty sure he knows that too.

"I love you very, much Eleanor." But he sure does know how to take care of the 'just in case.' I sigh.

"I love you, too, jackass. Now get over here and kiss me like you mean it." You know, hubby's fast when it means something to him. Oh, and yeah, he means it.

Oh, and one more thing: Quality of life...

Unlimited, unfettered, and wonderful.

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