"I shouldn't have said those things to them, Leo." An emotionally distraught Jed Bartlet sat on the edge of the couch in Leo's office. It had taken both Leo and Ron to lead the shocked and shaken man from the situation room. "I taunted them, I pissed them off."

"It wasn't you that set them off. It was Abbey, her defiance, her bravery."

"Jesus, did you see what they'd DONE to her."

Leo nodded, unable to speak through the lump that had formed in his throat. Right away he'd noted the cuts and bruises, the drugged eyes and the sickening fact that she was not wearing the clothes that she'd been wearing when she was kidnapped. He'd wanted desperately to smash his fist into Khaleels face and if he'd felt that strongly about it he could only imagine how Jed was feeling.

"He used her, Leo."

"What?"

"That's how Zoey escaped. Abbey gave him her body to distract him so the girls could get away. Oh, GOD, I want him DEAD!"

Horror filled Leo's eyes at his friend's anguished cry. Abbey�my God. He'd known from the moment he saw her wearing only that shirt that something had gone on. He had tried to deny to himself what had obviously been done, but now, KNOWING that it had caused his mind to reel. And yet, the complete and utter anguish in Jed's eyes was enough to keep his own emotions under control. Jed needed him calm and reasonable, not off the wall. Still, he couldn't think of anything to say. Knew there was nothing that he could say that would make a damn bit of difference to Jed right now. He simply reached a hand out to squeeze his forearm.

"Abbey's tough. She'll get through it."

"She can't be dead, Leo. She can't be. I'd know it if she died. I'd FEEL it in here." He beat his fist against his heart. "If Abbey had died a part of me would have died too."

Leo nodded. He remembered Abbey saying almost the same thing to him when Air Force One had been presumed down, the President dead. Their connection was as spiritual as it was physical and intellectual.

"You know, I barely remember a time before Abbey was in my life and what I do remember was cold and lonely and so empty. Abbey brought all the warmth and color and sound. Abbey brought the love. I can't even imagine the world without her in it. I can't imagine ME without her."

"I know." Leo rested his hand on Jed's shoulder. He'd known Jed Bartlet before Abbey had entered his life and he'd known him after. The makings of a great man had been inside of him right from the start and it had just taken hooking up with Abbey for HIM to believe that. Caring and compassionate, Jed had been the kind of kid who would give you the shirt off his back. He'd also been exceptionally smart and good looking, although he'd never seen himself that way. Well, not until he met Abbey. Abbey's unconditional love and belief in him had turned his reserved young friend into a self confident, more gregarious young man. Right from the start they had fit together so perfectly, Jed and Abbey, Abbey and Jed, two halves of a whole. It was something he had envied, even longed for, but something that he had never known. Jed had known. He had spent pretty much his entire adult life bound to the woman who was his soulmate. To lose her would be a blow that he was not sure even someone as strong willed as Jed Bartlet would be able to absorb.

****

Abbey moaned softly, the pain in her head like a hammer pounding at her skull. As she slowly regained consciousness she could feel someone stroking her hair �touching her head. Panicked, her eyes flashed open, white-hot pain nearly blinding her as she fought to get away from those hands.

"Abbey�calm down, it's me. I'm not going to hurt you, it's just me." Toby swallowed tightly at her terror of being touched.

Abbey knew that voice. "Toby," she moaned painfully. 'What happened?"

"You caused quite a commotion." Toby tried to smile as he continued to stroke her hair back off the horrible bleeding lump on her temple. "After you told the President NOT to cave in Azim dropped the camera and hit you on the head with his gun to stop what you were saying. The gun went off and the bullet shattered the camera."

Abbey winced as she touched her forehead and felt the sticky blood, the pain throbbing behind her eyes. "So, I guess I can honestly say now that I've been pistol whipped."

Toby smiled. Even under such dire circumstances Abbey Bartlet was still Abbey Bartlet. "I guess you can."

"How long have I been out?"

"A couple of hours. He conked you pretty hard."

Abbey started to nod but the movement caused an explosion in her head. Definitely a concussion, she thought. She sat back against the wall, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, completely unconcerned at how much flesh she was bearing.

Toby was not so unconcerned. He had seen her in a bikini before so seeing her shapely legs bared should not have been startling, but somehow it was. Somehow it was even more intimate than the scanty bikini's especially when the shirt rode up over her hip making it evident that the bastards had not even given her her underwear back. It was a testament to all that Abbey had been through that she was not at all embarrassed merely resigned as she tried to smooth the fabric down to cover herself. She continued to stare straight out across the room seemingly lost in thought. Finally, chin on knees her voice soft and husky she spoke.

"Jed isn't ready for this."

"What?"

"They're going to kill us before they run and Jed isn't ready for that. He isn't going to be able to handle it. He'll never be the same. Oh, God, Toby, what's going to happen to my kids?" Tears dripped from Abbey's chin onto her bare knees.

"Don't give up, Abbey." Toby placed an awkward arm over her shaking slender shoulders. "Please, don't give up. You know the President isn't going to rest until he finds you."

"Jed isn't the President anymore. He stepped down. I know in my heart that he'll do whatever he has to get me out of here. But�his hands are tied."

"Do you really think that having his hands tied will stop Jed Bartlet. This is a man who�"

"Oh�what a touching little scene." Azim entered the room, stopped before Abbey and stared down at her. Abbey couldn't help the small swell of satisfaction she got at seeing the dark red gouges down his cheek that her fingernails had made earlier. She might be scarred but they were not getting away without their own scars.

"You have defied me for the last time you stubborn little bitch. Nobody makes Azim Shareef look like a fool. NOBODY. You do know of course that you'll have to be punished and since you seemed to enjoy the closet so much�" He pulled out the roll of duct tape an evil smile crossing his lips.

"No," Abbey moaned. She couldn't go back in that airless little box, she'd go crazy. "Please, don't�please."

"Well, then, I could call in Hassan. There are all sorts of ways he'd like to punish you, if you know what I mean. The man has always had a thing for Western pussy."

Azim loved the flash of terror that moved across Abbey's eyes. Ah, yes, when the time came, right before they killed her, all three of them were going to have quite a good time on this woman.

"So, you don't like that idea? I guess it's back to the closet then."

Abbey tried to struggle as he bound her hands and her feet but she was weak, so weak. She knew that any fight she'd had in her was slowly ebbing away with her strength. She twisted her head from side to side as Azim tried to place a piece of the thick tape over her lips but her sluggish efforts were no match for Azim's strength.

"You do know that you're going to pay for this." Toby's voice was deadly. He no longer cared what happened to him; he just could not stand for these monsters to get away with what they were doing to Abbey anymore.

"I don't think you're in any position to make us pay," Azim gave a derisive laugh.

"I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about Jed Bartlet. Whether you kill us or not HE is going to make sure that you pay for what you've done to his wife. DON'T underestimate the power of his wrath. The last man to touch a hair on her head is no longer alive. Remember that. He will leave no stone unturned. He will hunt you down like the animal that you are and THEN you will know what it means to be punished."

Azim gave pause. Normally he would have brushed the words aside, but the emotionless conviction of Toby Ziegler had sent a tingle of fear down his spine. They had underestimated Jed Bartlet before and his brother had been killed because of it and now they were trapped. They hadn't planned on anyone escaping and knew that it was only a matter of time before Zoey Bartlet led the FBI to their doorstep. They had kidnapped Abigail Bartlet and her daughters because of how much they meant to Jed Bartlet and now a little needle of panic pricked at him for he was afraid that their plan was going to backfire. That now THEY were going to pay the price because she meant much more to him than any of them could have known. This was not supposed to be a suicide mission and yet that was exactly how it was turning out. They would not run and hide in the woods like cowards; they would stand and fight the infidels even if it surely meant death.

As he sent the needle into Abbey's skin his one flicker of satisfaction came from the surety that while he and the others would be rejoicing with Allah, when Jed Bartlet recovered the body of his wife he would be plunged into the depths of hell.

****

Leo left the situation room still reeling with shock. If he hadn't been standing in that room he never would have believed that a man could be as callous as Glen Allen Walken was being with Abigail Bartlet's life. As he made his way towards the bathroom to try to clear his mind Jed's earlier words to him pounded unceasingly into his conscience. "You're their only hope in that room. Please help them." But, could he? Could he disregard everything and help her?

Glen saw Abbey as a pawn, a weapon being used against him. Even after witnessing that horrifying feed he saw it more as a terrorist act against America rather than as the torture and violation of a person. Even after all of that he still didn't see her as a person. But, Leo did. For the first time in his life Leo could not differentiate between his personal life and his job. He'd always chided Jed on his inability to shut off what made him the man that he was for what was politically expedient. He'd always been the one to be able to shelve his humanity and stay in the moment, cloaking himself in his mantle of chief of staff. But, that was no longer possible. It had not been possible from the moment he had seen Abbey on that feed, bruised, battered and half-naked, her eyes shining with courage. God, what a magnificent woman she truly was. He wasn't sure he'd ever witnessed so courageous and selfless an act as Abigail Bartlet refusing to beg her husband for her life. She did not deserve her rescue plan being ignored simply because one man believed that she was already dead.

As he splashed water on his face and sank back against the wall contemplating what to do he couldn't help but think about Abbey, as he had known her over the years.

Abbey, the gorgeous, confident, brainy babe that stepped off the bus in Boston with Jed. Abbey, young and so damn beautiful in her romantic white wedding gown, her face radiant with joy as she took Jed's hand before the priest. Abbey, lumbering around in one of Jed's dress shirts in their tiny flat in London her small frame so heavy with his child. Abbey, sitting at the dining room table in she and Jed's shabby Cambridge duplex feeding her daughter while Jed quizzed her from her anatomy textbook. Abbey, sipping fake tea with Elizabeth as they played tea party on the porch of their lovely little Victorian home in Hanover where they had lived while she did her residency at Dartmouth-Mary Hitchcock and Jed started on his full professorship at Dartmouth. Abbey, carrying newborn Ellie in a front pack against her chest while she led Elizabeth and her new pony around the paddock on the farm in Candia that they had inherited from Jed's grandparents. Abbey, her cheeks rosy and her eyes laughing as she taught toddler Zoey how to skate on the pond at the farm. Abbey, arriving like some sort of sexy mistress at she and Jed's Washington apartment while he was in Congress for weekends that left Jed smiling all week. Abbey, her green eyes flashing with fury the night that he'd made his drunken pass at her. Abbey, so serious and empathetic when she'd come to he and Jenny to tell them that she had not been able to convince 18 year old Mallory not to marry that loser Tommy O'Brien and that if they wanted to keep her in their lives they were going to have to accept him and be there for her when things inevitably broke down. Abbey, the night that Jed had been shot, frantic and terrified and as close to completely breaking down as he'd ever seen her. Abbey, dealing with his recovery and the effects that morning sickness and her ripening pregnancy were having on her. Abbey, the night that she'd gone into labor at Jed's state of the union her breath catching with each stabbing pain but stubbornly refusing to leave until his speech was over. Abbey, the morning he'd had to awaken Jed at the beach, nude and so lovingly entwined in Jed's arms after an evening of what looked like some late night lovemaking. Abbey, in the bunker after the terrorist attacks on America when Air Force One was believed to be down, so strong with the absolute belief that Jed was not dead and that there had to be another explanation.

How could he ignore all that she had meant to him? All she meant to his best friend? She was not simply a pawn, she was a friend, a daughter, a sister and most importantly a wife and a mother.

Leo's dilemma was as personal as it was constitutional. He was warring between his duty to his friends and his duty to his President but more than that he was warring with doing what was right and doing what was wrong even if it meant causing the biggest mess this country had seen. "Leo will know what to do." The trust had been placed in him, Leo just hoped it had been deserved.

TBC...