"Hassan is coming, the others are still working on the electrical wiring. Now is your chance." Fayih stood before Abbey, and for one panicked moment Abbey wondered if she could go through with this. Wondered if she could bear to allow that animal to have her body. Wondered if she were sending Zoey and Aislinn to their death. Then she gazed down at the sleeping little girl in her arms. Aislinn had finally cried herself into a fitful sleep. The purpling bruise on her jaw stood out in stark contrast to the paleness of her skin and she held her swollen arm pitifully to her chest, whimpering whenever she was moved. Abbey had taken off her bra and formed a make shift sort of sling but she knew that it would still be painful when Aislinn moved. She was a surgeon, used to making quick, snap decisions, but as a mother holding the lives of her children in the palms of her hands the decisions did not come so easily.

"Ash, honey�" Abbey pressed her lips into Aislinn's forehead. "You need to wake up, sweetheart."

Aislinn blinked her groggy eyes up at her mother.

"Hoot, mumma�" Aislinn's bottom lip trembled as she woke to the pain in her arm. Her eyelashes were still wet from her tears and her big hazel eyes were just pools of pain.

"I know it hurts, baby. That's why mommy needs to get you some help. I want you to listen to me. I need you to be a big brave girl. Zoey is going to take you away from here. She's going to take you away from the bad men and bring you back to daddy. Do you want to go home and see daddy?"

Aislinn nodded tears swimming in her eyes. " Wan my daddy."

"I know you do. But your daddy is far away and you're going to have to be a very good girl for Zoey. I know your arm hurts and I know you're scared but you have to keep very, very quiet so the bad men can't find you. Can you do that for me?"

Aislinn nodded again, her terror of the bad men flashing in her eyes. Abbey felt a hand on her arm and turned to see Zoey's lip trembling in much the same way that Aislinn's had.

"Mom�" That one word held a wealth of pain and uncertainty and caused a sob to catch in Abbey's throat.

"Zoey, don't�" Abbey swallowed tightly. " You can do this. You HAVE to do this. I'm trusting you to get your sister to your father. This is the biggest thing that I've ever asked of you. I�"

Abbey trailed off as Hassan entered the room, eyeing his captives as if they were garbage. Abbey transferred Aislinn into Zoey's arms and got to her feet. She approached the man eyes down in the respectful manner he expected.

"Ah�you are learning." Hassan grinned, then lifted Abbey's chin.

"I need to talk to you. I�I want to make a deal."

"Hmm.. Now THIS is interesting. What kind of deal are we talking about here?"

"I'm afraid for my little girl. I don't want you to hurt her again. I'm willing to do what you want�whatever you want�I won't fight you�as long as you promise not to hurt my daughters again."

"So, you are telling me that you are willing to "sell" me your body."

"My signature, my voice�my body� whatever you want." Abbey kept her eyes downcast knowing the revulsion that had to be burning in them.

"Oh, I think you know what I want, you brazen little western whore. I can hardly wait to tell Jed Bartlet how cheaply his wife sold herself to me."

The words stung and Abbey flinched from them but it didn't dampen her resolve.

"You can tell him whatever you like."

Abbey felt herself being shoved harshly against the wall, Hassan proving that despite her acquiescence this act was not going to be a walk in the park. It was going to be brutal and�damaging. Forgive me, Jed�Oh God please forgive me. She closed her eyes as the terrorist pressed a grinding kiss against her lips with enough force to draw blood.

Sickened by what he was about to witness Toby turned away and instead watched Zoey make her way quietly to the door. Hassan's back was to them and he was too busy kissing Abbey to notice the movement.

Zoey turned back once as she moved to shut the door behind her and the last thing that she saw was her mother kissing Hassan Al Khaleel, his hands ripping at her pants and shoving their way inside. Tears burning her eyes, she held her baby sister tightly to her chest and raced out of the trailer into the dark and across the field trying desperately to get to the shelter of the woods.

Abbey's eyes remained closed as she tried desperately to retreat within herself and close off to what was happening to her. As Hassan's hands moved to her breasts squeezing them hard enough to draw a cry of pain from her lips she told herself to pretend that it was Jed, but that was impossible. Jed did not thrust his tongue savagely down her throat; his hands did not squeeze and pinch at her breasts so cruelly. Instead, she pictured Zoey running, running away with Aislinn through the night to safety. It was that vision that allowed her to remain limp and uncaring letting Hassan touch her however he wished to touch her, letting him grind his disgusting erection into her and letting her ignore his piggish grunts of satisfaction. But, that wasn't what Hassan wanted. He didn't want Abigail Bartlet limp and yielding, he wanted her participating. He wanted her fighting. He thrust her harshly from his body and Abbey panicked.

"What? She asked. Her eyes frantically noted that the girls were gone and she saw the panic in Toby's eyes.

"On your knees, whore." He pushed on Abbey's shoulder shoving her down to her knees. "You're going to service me exactly the way that you service the President." He saw Abbey's startled response to his statement, saw Toby's face redden. "Oh, yes, the Frenchman told us much about just what kind of a slut that you really are. I expect as good as the President gets."

Hassan began unzipping his pants and Abbey felt the bile rise in her throat. How was she going to do this? How was she going to "service" him without throwing up? She felt herself shaking, felt the tears filling her eyes as Hassan's erect penis sprang free from his pants. That she was good at this she knew. Jed told her so often enough, but this wasn't Jed, this wasn't an act of love and desire. It was a nightmare.

As the First Lady's head moved forward to take the terrorist into her mouth Toby turned away from the unfolding scene. He turned away partially out of respect for her but also because he just could not stand to bear witness to such a despicable act. Rage and pain flowed through his veins and his fists opened and closed repeatedly as he tried desperately to break free of his bonds. He wanted to stop this from happening, wanted to rip Hassan's cock right off his body. Tears of impotent frustration blinded him for he knew he couldn't do a thing about it.

Abbey swallowed reflexively trying to keep from gagging as she moved closer to the wormy appendage Hassan dangled in front of her face. In the end it was a losing battle. As her lips were about to make contact she felt her stomach violently contract and the meager contents in it were thrown up all over Hassan's feet.

"YOU BITCH!" Hassan slapped her across the face, HARD. Abbey shrank back against the wall, wondering if her weakness was going to lead to him finding that her daughters were gone. Enraged now, Hassan grabbed her wrist and lifted her harshly to her feet. "It SICKENS you to suck MY cock when I know for a FACT you have no problem putting your whore mouth on the President. You're going to pay for this MRS. Bartlet. You're going to pay!"

Hassan pulled Abbey's arm up behind her back and shoved her out of the room. Abbey didn't even care that he was shoving her toward a bedroom. Her only feeling was one of relief in knowing that with leaving the other room he would not notice that her daughters were gone. Every moment they were not discovered missing meant more ground gained. Hassan pushed Abbey towards the edge of the bed.

"Take off your clothes," he demanded.

****

"Dammit, you're telling me that you're no closer to finding my family then you were a fucking day ago!" Jed fumed.

"Jed," Michael placed a hand on his son in laws arm urging him to remain in control.

"I didn't say that, sir." Alan Jeffries head of the FBI gazed over at Ron Butterfield and Leo McGarry. "We're pretty sure that they're still within Pennsylvania State lines and we do know who is holding them captive."

"How?" Jed's head snapped up.

"The necklace that belonged to your wife must have been forcibly ripped from her neck and in doing so skin was torn from the kidnappers hand. We ran a DNA match. The man who tore the necklace off your wife was Hassan Al Khaleel."

Jed turned to Leo for guidance; the name meant nothing to him.

"Khaleel is�well known as an interrogator." Leo's eyes skittered around the room glancing at everything but Jed, something that was not lost on his friend.

"So, what aren't you telling me?" Jed asked flatly.

Ron could see the difficulty Leo was having in telling his friend about the sadistic monster that held his wife and daughters captive. It was Jeffries who finally spoke up.

"Khaleel is not just an interrogator, he's THE interrogator, the man they turn to get results. He's a very sick individual, one of those men who gets an orgasmic pleasure at working over his victims.

"Torture?" Jed turned to Jeffries. Jeffries nodded solemnly.

"Rape?" Jeffries again nodded, this time unable to look at the President when he did so.

Jed was not shocked by Jeffries admissions, he'd known from the start what his wife and daughters would be up against, but for Michael O' Neill it was just too much. Jed watched his father in law get to his feet and stumble from the room holding his stomach, the devastation at knowing what might be happening to his little girl too much for him.

"If he's so damn well known, how did he get here? How did he slip through the cracks?"

"Canada, he came in through Canada under an assumed name."

It was strange for Jed not to be able to issue orders to these men. Their visit had not been a formal briefing for the President; it had been a courtesy visit to the family of the missing. Jed watched Jeffries leave, helplessness making him hunch over miserably.

"Walken's going to bomb Qumar, isn't he?" Jed turned to Leo who had remained behind.

"Yeah." The one word completely conveyed Leo's disgust.

"He knows that's probably the kiss of death for my wife and daughters, doesn't he?"

"He thinks it's important to give the world a show of force." Leo tried to keep the sneer out of his voice.

"And in doing so getting my family killed."

Leo stared straight ahead unable to tell Jed of the cold calculating moment in the situation room when he had brought that very subject up and Glen Walken had turned to him and informed him. "They're already dead. No matter what we do, they're already dead." Whether that was the case or not it was certainly not something that Jed needed to hear.

"Are you going somewhere?" Leo gestured toward the suit Jed was now wearing; all day long he'd been in jeans and shirtsleeves.

"We're going to St. Joes. Father Hugh offered to do a private Mass for us tonight."

"That will be good for you all." Leo knew how important Jed's faith was to him, the strength he took from it.

"I'll be praying that Glen doesn't bomb Qumar, not yet anyway. Not until I get them back. You're the voice of reason in there now, Leo�You love Abbey." It was tough for Jed to refer to that, to use his friend's feelings now for Abbey's benefit.

"You know I do." Leo swallowed. "And I love Zoey and Aislinn too."

"And right now you're their only hope in that room. Please, help them."

Leo touched his shoulder as he stood to leave. "You know I'll do whatever I can."

Jed got to his feet and went to check on his father in law leaving Leo to find his way out.

Jed found Michael slumped over a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Since his arrival he'd been so strong, so comforting, but right now, bowed with grief, he looked like a broken old man.

"Dad?" Jed placed a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

"No, I can't say that I am�When I think of what those bastards might be doing to my little girl, to my grandbabies�" Michael wiped a shaky age spotted hand over his eyes.

"I know, Dad."

"Even if we get them back�Will they ever be the same?"

"I don't know," Jed admitted. "I just want to get them back."

"Daddy?" Nicholas stood in the doorway in the little miniature suit that he had worn to the Inaugural balls. Although the little boy hadn't been told what was going on with his mother and sisters he was not a stupid child. The tension and commotion around him had caused him to become subdued and quiet and Jed had to wonder if that twin connection had come into play. He'd found the boy just sitting and staring at Aislinn's crib several times asking for his sister. Did he feel Aislinn's fear? Her pain?

Now he stood with a shoe in his hand and Panda jumping at his feet trying to get the shoe back.

"What have you got there?" Jed asked.

"Mumma's soos" Nicky handed the fashionable purple and black slingback to Jed who winced when he saw that the puppy had been teething on the four-inch stiletto heel. It wasn't the first pair of Abbey's shoes the puppy had ruined.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I wished Abbey would come flying in that door and start ripping into me about the puppy destroying another pair of her expensive Italian shoes." Jed sent a rueful glance Michael's way.

"Mumma mad?" Nicholas asked. He'd witnessed his mother's fury over chewed up shoes before.

"Yeah, Mama will be mad when she gets back. Now, are you ready to go to church?"

"Me sit Gus?"

"No you're going to sit with me and you're going to be very good and very quiet, right?" Jed had seriously considered not taking Nicholas to the service but had given in at the last moment wanting the entire family together, a united front.

Nicholas nodded earnestly.

"That's my boy." Jed ruffled his hair, thankful that Nicholas didn't know what the service was all about. "Now let's go get your sisters."

****

Danny Concannon wove his way down the halls of the west wing as he had done many times before, only this time he was not looking for a story. Carol was not at her post outside CJ's door so he took the liberty of opening it a crack to see if CJ was busy. She was not busy. She was sitting at her desk her chin in her hand and a picture in her other hand. She looked exhausted and grief stricken.

"Ceej?"

CJ snapped to attention laying the photo down and clearing her throat of emotion. "Danny?"

"Don't. Don't put on a show of strength for me. I didn't come here to find out how the President is holding up, or how the new President is handling things."

"Then why are you here?"

"Cause I thought you might need one of these." Danny reached out and pulled CJ into his arms holding her tightly. At first she was stiff but it didn't take long for her to melt against him, to close her eyes and bury her cheek into his shoulder. Since this had happened nobody had held her, nobody had comforted her. These people were more than just co-workers more than just friends. Aislinn was her GODDAUGHTER. She'd held that little girl less than an hour after she'd been born. It was so easy to remember the first time that she'd held her. The newborn had just finished nursing and Abbey was eager to show off her adorable new offspring. Aislinn had weighed next to nothing in her arms and the tiny fingers that had kneaded Abbey's breast so gently had closed over her own finger with surprising strength. Her milky little mouth had remained pursed as she continued to make little sucking motions and her big eyes blinked owlishly up at her as she absorbed the people who would come to make up her world.

No, these people were family to her and that was something nobody in the press seemed to take into account. Nobody but Danny, that is.

"I know how much they mean to you Ceej, and I'm so sorry."

CJ backed away running a finger under her eye to catch a tear before it fell. "Thank you, Danny. It's just so awful, this horrible waiting."

"Have you heard anything?"

CJ eyed him warily, ever the press secretary.

"Off the record, CJ. God, you can't think that I came in here to pump you for information."

"I don't know what to think anymore. I'm sorry, I'm just exhausted."

"It's okay." Danny lifted the picture from CJ's desk and smiled sadly. It was a picture of CJ holding Aislinn in front of the baptismal font flanked on each side by the beaming parents of the child, President and Mrs. Bartlet.

CJ smiled warmly, if sadly at the picture. "I held Aislinn during the service." She told him. "It was really quiet and she got fussy. I didn't know what to do to keep her quiet. The President was having the same problem with Nicholas but he had gotten him quiet by letting him suck on his pinkie, so I did the same. It worked. I think I fell in love with my goddaughter at that moment. Bet you didn't know I even baby-sat them. You should have seen me that night; I was SO out of my element. They were such little hooligans getting food all over themselves, spilling bubble bath on the dog." She gave a soft laugh. "But, that night when I read to them, and gave them their bottles and rocked them to sleep, they stole my heart. I can't bear to think of�"

"Sssh�I know." Danny stroked her hair.

"They aren't just the President and First Lady to me, Danny. They're family."

It was true. To her they were more than just the President and First lady. They were Jed and Abbey. The President was Jed, the man who hated to take his vitamins and who loved to spout trivia especially while playing poker with his staff. He was Jed, the man who liked to bet on just about anything and had to hide his one cigarette a day habit from his wife. He was Jed, the man who made her learn the entire Notre Dame fight song and then sing it to the press, and the man who liked to sneak away for a little "private staff" or "barbecuing" time with the First Lady. He was Jed, the man who woke his child up in the middle of the night just to hold him when he was feeling blue and the man who had jumped in front of a knife meant for his wife.

The First Lady was Abbey, the woman who was always trying to fix her up on dates and urging her to dress a tad more risqu�. She was Abbey the woman she snuck out of the White House with got drunk with and went shopping with. She was Abbey, the woman who liked to buy sexy naughty lingerie and who admitted to having sex with her husband on the kitchen table (and quite a few other non -conventional areas) when confronted with hher Cosmo survey. She was Abbey, the woman who's birthing room she had sat outside of cringing and empathizing with every agonized cry of childbirth, and the woman who had, one long afternoon in Maryland, spilled her guts to her about being raped back in Boston. No these people meant far more to CJ than even she had realized.

"Hey, CJ, you watching CNN?" Josh poked his head in, his eyes widening when he saw Danny.

"Hey, Josh."

"Danny. Hi."

"Don't worry. I'm here on a personal visit. We were just talking about the First Lady."

"She's a great woman."

"She scares the crap out of you," CJ laughed.

"Only when she's on the warpath over the President's schedule." Josh defended himself. "When she's not playing watchdog over the President she's fine. I mean how many other First Ladies do you know that would watch porn with you."

"Abbey BARTLET watched PORN with you." Danny's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He knew first hand that the First Lady was not a prude by any standard but watching porn with her husband's staff was certainly something he'd never heard before.

"Let's remember this is all OFF the record," CJ pinched him.

"OW!" Danny rubbed his arm. "There was no need for THAT. Now tell me about this porn night."

"Well, it wasn't exactly a porn night. It's not like we had some orgy planned." Josh grinned at CJ's discomfort with the conversation. "Abbey showed up at the hotel one night on the campaign trail when the President and Leo were in a meeting and Sam and I were partaking in a little evening entertainment.

CJ snickered at his choice of words.

"Anyway, she came in grabbed a beer and a piece of pizza and just stood there watching and making comments until the President dragged her out. Sam nearly gave himself a hernia trying to find the remote control to shut it off." He chuckled at the memory. " She embarrassed the hell out of us, but I expect that's what she was going for."

"She does like to turn the tables on you." Danny nodded. Danny knew the First Lady probably as well if not better than Josh. She had been his assignment when Bartlet was first running for President and in the beginning he had not been thrilled with the job. He wanted to be following the candidate, not his wife. But, from the very beginning Abbey had fascinated him just as she had fascinated the world and suddenly his pieces, his articles were being picked up liked wildfire. He'd had a front row seat to watch as the intelligent, fashionable, witty, sexy, Dr. Abigail Bartlet became "ABBEY", world icon.

"Yeah, she's been like that since the first time I met her." Josh leaned back against the wall. "I was supposed to be meeting with the candidates wife to sort of "vet" her for possible press issues. I was expecting, you know, a CANDIDATES wife, pearls, sensible heels, sensible short hair, sexless earth tones."

"Yeah, THAT sounds like Abbey." Danny rolled his eyes.

"EXACTLY," Josh grinned. "In walked this elegant small woman with long sexy red hair and legs that just didn't quit. And damned if she wasn't wearing "fuck me" pumps."

"Fuck me pumps?" CJ lifted a brow.

"Yeah, you know those sexy skinny high heels she likes to wear. The ones that make a woman's legs look like a million bucks and make a man think about what it would be like to have them wrapped around his waist. Hence "fuck me" pumps. I couldn't believe it when she introduced herself as Abigail Bartlet."

"Your first thought being she might be a tough sell to middle America?" Danny asked.

"No. My first thought being that Jed Bartlet was one lucky son of a bitch. Worrying about Middle America came later when Toby and I had to grill her about her entire life up until that point. You know, we had to make sure she'd never cheated on her college tests, had a drug problem, had an abortion, hired illegal aliens to care for her children, screwed around on her husband. You know the usual stuff. Abbey answered all the questions calmly and directly but after we asked her about the adultery she snapped our heads off and got a little testy. I knew we'd really pissed her off when she asked us if we also wanted to know what her favorite positions were in bed, you know whether she preferred being on the top or on the bottom. We didn't know what to say. I think we just stared at her with our jaws gaping. As she got up to leave she told us, 'you can assure America there is nothing to worry about, I'm not going to try to run the show, I actually prefer being on the bottom�most of the time, anyway. Then she tossed her head and walked out. Man, that is ONE fiery woman."

"Guess she put you in your place," CJ chuckled.

"Yeah, I knew then and there that Abbey Bartlet wasn't going to take any crap from anyone."

"Will," CJ called out as she saw the man walking by her office with slumped shoulders. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

Will turned to them with a haunted look. " I have to prepare a speech. Two speeches actually, one for if we find the Bartlet's alive and one if they are found dead."

CJ's office went quiet as each person contemplated the impact of his statement. Contemplated the life force of that feisty, direct woman being snuffed out long before her time.

****

Abbey lay back on the bed, HIS bed. She was completely nude, her hands duck taped to the iron rails of the bedpost, another strip of the tape covering her mouth, not because screaming would get her anywhere but because not being able to breathe through her mouth would keep her from fighting too strenuously. Still, Hassan did not want all the fight taken out of the spirited woman. He loved a good challenge, and that was why at the moment her legs were untied. He paced beside the bed, also nude; enjoying the look of terror in Abbey's wide eyes as they followed him and the sheen of tears that filled them when she saw his engorged erection. Without her sharp tongue she was just another woman, another whore, but when the time was right, when he was ready to pound himself into her body he would remove the tape and listen to her scream, and scream and scream. Just the thought nearly had him in orgasm and he had to take a deep breath to calm himself down.

He sank to the bed on one knee. "Ahhbby," he leaned over her and breathed into her ear capturing the lobe between his teeth and clamping down. Abbey whimpered behind the tape, forcing herself to breathe in and out through her nose to keep from panicking.

"Ahhh�" he gave an evil little sigh of appreciation. "You are a natural red-head." Abbey closed her eyes as she felt his filthy hand cover the mound between her thighs, praying for strength, praying for this to be over fast.

"LOOK at me when I touch you!" Hassan viciously pinched Abbey's nipple and she arched with a muffled scream of pain. "You're going to LOOK at me while I fuck you."

Abbey felt her legs yanked apart, felt Hassan working his way to position himself between her thighs. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever done not to kick at him, not to fight back, all in an effort to buy time for her daughters. She couldn't however help the rigid tenseness to her legs as she prepared for the onslaught of his rape, prepared for the pain. She stared up at the ceiling, avoiding Hassan's face. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to bear this if she had to look up at his sweating grunting face. She felt the tears trailing from the corners of her eyes and pooling in her ears. 'Please, please God, give me the strength to bear this.' Abbey desperately fought to retreat deeply within her mind, closing off completely from what was happening to her. Her thumb unconsciously twisted and turned her wedding rings as she often did when she was nervous. 'Please, please forgive me, Jed. Oh, God, forgive me�'

Hassan dug his fingers deeply into the soft flesh of Abbey's hips and was just about to thrust forward when the door to the room slammed open.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

Hassan jerked back at the fury in Azim's voice and turned from Abbey's body.

"Bartlet doesn't have to know I already fucked her." Hassan had no idea why Azim was so angry.

"Yes, well, while you've been PLAYING with her, you let them get away, you STUPID rutting PIG! Azim drew his fist back catching Hassan on the jaw.

"Who?" Hassan asked, holding his hand to his jaw. "What are you saying?"

"You let them get AWAY! Bartlet's daughters are GONE! Get off of her and go FIND THEM!"

No�Abbey silently screamed, overwhelmed with frustration and fear. This couldn't be all for nothing. Run, Zoey�RUN!

TBC...