"Daddy?" Nicholas stood beside his father with a concerned look as Ron and Leo each held an elbow to keep the man standing.

Through the haze of terror and grief Josiah Bartlet heard his son's tentative voice over the loud thud of his pulse that was racing so quickly and so loudly he was sure that everyone in the room could hear it.

"Nicky." He choked out the boy's name and reached blindly for his tiny hand, squeezing it tightly, needing to feel his son alive and with him.

"Sir, I'm sorry but we don't have time for you to digest all of this." Ron wished he could give the man more time to get his bearings, to come to grips with what had happened, but that wasn't possible. Every minute wasted was a minute that the Bartlet girls got further away from being found. " We need to make some quick decisions to get them back."

"Get them back�" Jed shook his head as if clearing cobwebs. "Yes, we need to get them back. IZZY!" He looked helplessly at his little boy.

"Go." Nicky's agent stepped forward. "We'll be fine until the nanny gets here."

"Yes�okay�let's go!" Jed took off down the hall in a full-blown sprint, his adrenaline now pumping so furiously throughout his body that his kidney's ached. He was running as if his life depended on getting to the situation room but everyone following him knew differently. He was running because the life of three of the people that he loved most in the world depended on it. As he made his way down the halls of the West Wing his jacket flying behind him everyone stopped working and watched him with at first puzzlement and then a mounting fear. Nobody had ever seen the President run like that and not since Marcus Hughes had broken into Harmony Point with Mrs. Bartlet and the twins present had they ever seen such a look of determination and fear on his face. They knew instinctively that something had to be terribly, terribly wrong. Little did they know just how bad that it was.

****

Abbey awoke slowly, her brain was fuzzy and she was disoriented, her limbs heavy and lethargic. She heard a soft whimpering and wondered if it was she making the noise. One part of her clung to oblivion as if she knew that waking up would be a bad thing but as she started to let herself fade back into the blackness it hit her with the force of a slap. She had been kidnapped and her daughters were with her. A stab of panic speared through her heart and she opened her eyes to face their fate, her first thought on making sure that they were okay. Aislinn was sitting beside where she lay prone and it was the little girl who had been whimpering for her mother to awaken. Big tears continued to trail down Aislinn's cheeks as she stroked Abbey's hair.

"Ash, sweetie, it's okay." Weakly Abbey pushed herself up to a sitting position and in moving she realized that her wrists were no longer bound but the skin was raw where they had ripped the duct tape off.

"Muuumma� muuumma�mommmyyy�" The relief that her mother was now awake was palpable as Aislinn crawled into her lap burying her face into Abbey's breasts. "Wanna go home�wanna go home�pease mumma�wanna go home."

"Ssssh�ssshh� it's okay, my love. Mommy's awake now." Abbey stroked Aislinn's hair as she tried to take stock of their situation. She had no idea of where they were; of how far they'd been taken, of what time of day that it was or of how long that she'd been out of it. The windows of the small room were boarded up and there was no furniture. It was dark, hot, and stuffy and Abbey didn't want to think about what kind of creatures were making the skittering sounds in the corner. Zoey was lying at her feet still knocked out from the drugs they'd been given. Abbey thought about trying to awaken her but figured the girl was better off being left in the sweetness of her dreams rather than waking her up to the nightmare of their reality. Toby was not in the small room with them. She continued to fade in and out of consciousness, the drugs not having quite worn off yet, but she continued to rock Aislinn gently in her arms until she too began to fade off to sleep.

The slam of the door banging off the wall jolted her out of their peaceful solitude.

"Ah, you are awake." Hassan smiled down at them, a smile that caused chills to run down Abbey's spine. It was the smile of someone purely evil, a smile that never touched the icy hardness of his dark eyes.

"What is it that you want with us?" Abbey tried to remain calm.

"I want to take away everything that Jed Bartlet loves and have it for myself and then I want to DESTROY it, thus destroying him."

He knelt in front of Abbey, looking deeply into her green eyes. Abbey swallowed at the hatred that burned in his black eyes. His hand reached out and cruelly squeezed her breast. Abbey gasped in pain and shrunk back from him. Hassan only gave her that cold, cold smile. "By the time we're all through with you and your daughter your husband will be grateful that we killed you."

****

Jed wandered around the situation room shouting off orders to close airports and bus and train terminals. He had the entire state of Pennsylvania shut down. But, after those first few crucial orders had been made he couldn't keep the panic from clawing at him. He was unable to stand still. He paced the room listening to the joint chiefs and his national security advisors discussing and debating who might have taken his family and how to retaliate. But, Jed heard it all as if he were in an echo chamber; he could hear the voices but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Other than as a means to find the girls he didn't care who it was that had them, he didn't care about bombing countries that might be involved. All he could think about was how scared his girls must be, and whether they were being hurt or not. No, it didn't matter who held them captive; they were going to pay. He was going to MAKE them pay.

"Sir�" Jed was brought back to the present by Ron Butterfield's arm on his elbow.

"What is it, Ron?"

"Sir, there were some things�some articles that belonged to your family that were found at the scene. In the barn."

"What?" Jed looked at him with confusion and then a huge lump filled his throat as Ron handed him Aislinn's blankie, her diaper bag and one pink flowered converse sneaker. Tears welled in his eyes as he took the articles from Ron.

"She was so proud of these shoes." Jed's voice was barely above a whisper as he stared at the tiny, now dirty sneaker remembering his daughter's sunny smile as she urged him to look at her new "soos" this morning.

Jed felt another arm on his elbow and turned to see Leo trying to give him comfort. The advisors had all stopped talking at the evidence of their commander in chief's grief.

"Aislinn needs her blankie, Leo." Jed turned pain filled blue eyes to his best friend. " She can't sleep without her blankie." He lifted the worn blanket to his face remembering how Aislinn had been swaddled in it just after her birth. He could still smell his little girl in the fabric.

"She's going to be, okay." Leo's own eyes stung with tears. "We're going to get her back. We'll get them all back."

"Sir, there's something else." Ron reached into his pocket and pulled out a delicate gold chain that was graced with a beautiful intricate Celtic cross.

"It's Abbey's," Jed choked. He took the necklace from Ron and brought it to his lips, closing his eyes to keep the tears from spilling. When he finally opened them one did make it's way down his cheek. "I bought this for her on our honeymoon in Ireland. She had it blessed by the Pope our first year in office when we made the state visit to Italy."

"She's a strong woman, sir." Admiral Fitzwallace placed a hand on his shoulder. "She's going to make it through this."

Jed nodded and his shoulders stiffened as he composed himself. He turned his now steely eyes on the silent room. "Get them BACK," he ordered. "I don't care what you have to do, you get my family back. " He turned to leave the room. "I'm going to check on my son and I need to call Andy."

****

"M�Mom?" Zoey awoke with alarm as she saw her mother pressed back against the wall, a terrorist's hand covering her breast.

"It's okay, Zoey."

"Yes, it's okay, Zoey." Hassan turned from Abbey and took in her daughter's frightened green eyes.

Abbey saw the gleam of interest light the man's eyes as they turned on Zoey and she quickly shoved the girl behind her, glaring ferociously at the man standing before them. "You leave my daughter alone. Do what you want to me but you leave her alone."

"Ahhh�aren't you a brave one." He traced a finger down Abbey's cheek. She continued to stare at him as she fought from betraying any of the fear that had her limbs shaking. "I'll let you in on a little secret, Ahhby. I LIKE a woman with a little fire. But you might not be so lucky with Azim. He won't like your defiance."

"Ah, the mother cub defending her young." Azim entered the room throwing Toby in ahead of him. "It is quite a sight, is it not?"

"What do you expect to gain from kidnapping us?" Abbey turned from Hassan's almost maniacal face to the cool, cold Azim.

"Gain. Well, I expect to gain everything." He stepped in front of Hassan and stood before Abbey. "I expect to get my countrymen released from their prison in Israel and to take a measure of revenge while I do so."

"You won't get them released. The United States does not negotiate with terrorists. My HUSBAND will NOT negotiate with YOU." Abbey's unwavering eyes met the man's before her.

"Don't you DARE look me in the eye when you speak to me." Azim grabbed her by the front of her blouse and savagely he swung his arm back and slapped her across the face. Abbey saw stars and tasted blood where her teeth bit into her lip. Azim flung her from him and she hit the wall. Aislinn screamed with terror and covered her ears but as her sister gathered her into her arms she could still hear her mother cry out. Aislinn tried to get to Abbey but Azim wasn't done with her. He pulled Abbey forward and held her head down, eyes to the floor.

"Your countrymen, and your HUSBAND may allow you to get away with looking them in the eye when you speak to them. They may allow you to talk back to them but now you are living by MY rules. In MY country a woman NEVER looks a man in the eye when she speaks. A woman NEVER questions a man's actions or authority. You may be a very important person in the world of the West but you are NOTHING here, Abigail Bartlet. NOTHING."

"Leave her alone, dammit!" Toby struggled against Hassan's arms. "What's the matter with you? You get your kicks out of hurting innocent women and children?"

"It is no different than your government killing innocent women and children in my country with your bombs." He turned to Zoey. "You look at me with such hatred, young lady. But, your father is no better than I am. It is HE who orders those bombs dropped. You just remember that."

"Don't you compare yourself to MY father," Zoey seethed, her green eyes flashing. It was so was so easy to see the mother in the daughter. " My father is a good, decent, loving man. You know NOTHING about my father. My father doesn't TARGET women and children...He�"

"Zoey!" Abbey grabbed her arm and pulled her away as she saw Azim's arm rise to slap the girl. Although it went against every grain of her being Abbey knew that her survival and that of her daughter's depended on how they reacted to their captors and she kept her head down, her eyes glued to the floor. "Please, don't hurt her. She's just a daughter defending her father."

"And you, Mrs. Bartlet." Azim lifted her chin to look into her pretty green eyes. "What do you think of your husband hiring assassins to do his dirty work?"

"My husband doesn't hire assassins."

"I beg to differ. Your husband hired an assassin to kill my brother, Abdul Shareef."

"You're lying."

"Am I? I guess we'll have to just wait and see. Now, I think that it's time for a little negotiating." Azim grabbed Abbey's arm and began yanking her toward the door.

"I'm telling you, this is pointless, the President will NOT negotiate for hostages."

"Oh, you're right. The PRESIDENT may not negotiate for a journalist or a businessman or even a relief worker, but for his wife and his daughters I think Jed Bartlet will make an exception. How could a man live with himself if he allowed his family to die?

****

The TV was on in Debbie's office as Jed moved from the Oval Office to make his way back to the situation room. He paused for a moment as a harried CJ took the podium for her press conference. The pressroom was going crazy with shouted questions and it took her a few moments to restore order before she could speak.

"At approximately 3:00 p.m. today the head of the White House secret service was alerted that there had been an AOP. Attack on principals. First Lady Abigail Bartlet and her daughters Zoey and Aislinn Bartlet were kidnapped from the barn of the French Equestrian team at the Philadelphia Olympics at approximately 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. today. Right now I don't have any details other than to say that the FBI, Secret Service, CIA, and local authorities are all working together to find out who was behind the kidnapping."

"CJ! Were they Middle Eastern? Was it Al Qaeda?"

"As of yet, nobody is taking responsibility for the kidnapping."

"But the assumption is that we're talking Middle Eastern terrorists here, isn't it?"

"Is there a concern that they are being raped?"

CJ knew that with the kidnapping of women that was one of the first thoughts on everyone's mind, the first thought on hers and certainly the first thought on the President's but it still took her aback to hear the fear spoken aloud and with such sheer insensitivity.

"For the sake of a number of distraught people I'm going to ask you not to publicly speculate on what's going on."

The conference continued to go on but Jed Bartlet walked away from the TV with his shoulders slumped. That reporter in the pressroom had just given validity to one of his greatest fears. That while they fumbled and bumbled trying to get family back his wife and his daughter were being molested at will.

Debbie watched her boss depart with a lump in her throat. She couldn't even imagine what kind of hellish torment he was going through right now.

****

In the situation room it was confirmed to Jed that the terrorists who had kidnapped his wife and daughters were Middle Eastern. He was also told that they'd had the help of Jean Paul de Bourbon who had been left to die at the scene with a massive drug overdose, but was at the moment having his stomach pumped. Jed felt sickened as he was told of how the terrorists had masqueraded as grooms and gotten the girls and Toby out of the Olympic venue. He knew he should be clearer on what exactly was going on but he was having trouble concentrating on what they were saying to him or what they wanted him to do. The confirmation of who had his family and the idea that his wife and girls were at the mercy of men so cruel and so evil had caused a cold terror to grip his heart, numb his limbs and dull his normally sharp brain. These men were not an unknown quantity. He knew exactly how they operated. He'd had to make more than his share of phone calls to the families of deceased hostages. Hostages that had been beheaded and dumped like trash on the side of the road. Just the thought of his girls being treated that way, desecrated and killed made his mind whirl dangerously and his stomach roil with nausea. He couldn't�wouldn't allow them to die that way and yet how could he cave into terrorist demands when he had never done so before?

He knew he wasn't handling this well. Knew that everyone was looking to him for leadership and he was floundering. Floundering in an abyss of terror and despair and he didn't know how to come up for air.

"Leo." He stopped his friend as they made their way out of the situation room and sat on the stairs. "I need you to tell me now. Do you think they're already dead?"

"I absolutely do not." Leo was firm in his resolve.

"You know," Jed was staring into space lost in his pain and his memories. "When Abbey was pregnant I would sleep with my arms wrapped around her belly so I could feel my babies moving inside of her. When I laid like that with all of them wrapped in my arms I felt like I could protect them from anything."

"You couldn't have seen this coming."

"Aislinn had a nightmare last night." Jed's voice was flat, dead. " She came to our bedroom and crawled up into bed with us. She was crying. She was afraid of the monsters. I held her in my arms and I promised her that I'd never let the monsters get her�But they did, Leo. The monsters got my little girl and there is not a damn thing that I can do about it."

"Yes, there is. We're going to find them, Jed. You've got to trust the FBI and �"

"I forecasted this, you know. A few years back in my first year of the Presidency I made up a scary story so Zoey would take her protection more seriously. I went too far and I scared her and she cried. THIS was the story. Leo, the people around me don't have the legal authority to stop me from doing certain things. In fact, they could go to jail for not following my orders."

Leo could see the dangerous path Jed was descending down. He knew exactly what he was referring to. "We're right here by your side, you won't do anything that you shouldn't do."

"I might. If I see a machete held over my wife or daughter's head or a knife held to my baby girl's throat I know I'll do whatever they want me to do."

"Don't think of images like that."

Jed looked at him with surprise. Did he think that there were any other images in his head? "All I can think of is images like that. I have to step down, Leo. I can't keep my oath of office to protect and defend this country and also keep the vows that I made when I married Abbey to protect her, not to mention the promises that I made to each of my daughters the first time I held them in my arms to take care of them always. Quietly assemble the cabinet please. I'm ready to resign."

TBC...