Jed sat before his cabinet. They looked shell-shocked. He knew that he had stunned them with his decision to invoke the twenty fifth amendment and hand the Presidency over to Glen Allen Walken, a man who had been their enemy on nearly every issue and belief that they held. He knew that this move would not have been quite so traumatic if he had been handing the reigns temporarily over to John Hoynes, but he did not at the moment have the luxury of a Vice President who at least shared their core values. Instead he was handing his job over to the Speaker of the House, a Republican, a man who was his polar opposite in every respect. And, by doing so he was giving that man a greater power than he ever could have dreamed of. As Jed took in the faces of his cabinet, some soft with compassion and some angry with disbelief he damned John Hoynes to the fires of hell.

"Sir, my concern is this," Roger Tribby leaned forward. "If you and the acting President were to give contradictory orders Leo McGarry would be put into an impossible situation that could lead to extraordinary chaos."

I won't be giving any orders," Jed assured them.

"But, if you did." They all knew how much Jed Bartlet's family meant to him and that he might not be able to stand idly by while kidnappers had their way with them. " I think there are those in this room, myself included, who would want to follow those orders. And now we have two governments."

"Leo would know what to do."

"Would he?"

"Yes."

Jed quickly took the vote and headed for the Oval Office where Walken had already ensconced himself. Jed noted that at least the big man had the decency not to be already sitting in his chair when he entered the room. He kept his head down unable to look his staff in the eye. He felt weak, as if her was letting them down by not being strong enough to deal with the situation. He knew they didn't begrudge him doing what he felt that he had to do, but he also knew that at least some of them were worried about him having committed political suicide. The truth was, he didn't care anything about politics at the moment. He would give the Republicans as many years in office as he could, if only he would get Abbey, Zoey and Aislinn back home safely. And, if he didn't, then there wouldn't be anything left of him to be President anyway.

Still, signing the papers that turned his job and his power over to another man, a man who stood for almost everything that he, Jed Bartlet, despised, was one of the hardest things that he'd ever done in his life. Glen Allen Walken was a right wing conservative, NRA advocate and pro lifer who had spent his career fighting against everything that Jed believed in. Not to mention he was a boorish, arrogant bastard. Never was that moment more clear to him than when, after signing the papers making him acting President, Glen turned to him with a steely look and told him that he was "relieved" effectively booting him from his own office. There was dead silence in the room as everyone stood in shock, including Jed who looked like he'd been slapped. It had been five years since anyone, other than his family, had dared speak to him that way.

It was Leo who broke the silence. "You're relieved." They were the same words Glen Walken had spoken just a moment before but meant in an entirely different way. Jed knew exactly what Leo meant. He had been surviving these past few hours on pure adrenaline. He hadn't been allowed to dwell on what might be happening to his wife and daughters and when he had the scenarios had been so breathtakingly cruel and painful he'd been left with no other choice but to invoke the twenty-fifth. "You're relieved." Yes, Jed knew what Leo meant. No more situation room, no more meetings, no more decisions and no more phone calls. He was free now, free to be a husband and a father. Free to feel the pain that he knew was waiting to tear and claw at him when he allowed it to do so. That freedom scared him. A part of him was deathly afraid of being allowed to wallow in that pain and grief.

"Sir" Glen's voice stopped Jed just as he reached the door. Jed turned back to face the man who was now his President.

Realizing that he come off as a bit of an ass and seeing that Jed Bartlet truly was in pain Glen tried to redeem himself. "At least you can be grateful that Ms. Bartlet doesn't know what kind of men she's dealing with."

Jed stared at him for a long moment, his jaw clenching with emotion. "Abbey is not a fool. She knows evil and she knows violence, she's dealt with both before and I can tell you that she knows EXACTLY what men are capable of." With that, Jed turned and left the Oval Office, for what might be his final time.

****

"The feed, it's not working. I can't reach the White House" Habib, the third terrorist was obviously in charge of the electronics.

Abbey sat at a table in what she now knew was a trailer watching her three captors argue vehemently with each other. There were windows out here and Abbey could see that it was dark outside so she knew that it was night. But, because it was night she could not see where they were. From what she could tell, there were no streetlights and it was quiet outside the trailer so she assumed they were in the country, not in the city.

"We don't have time to mess with this." Azim was pacing furiously. Tension was quite high among the terrorists, none had ever been part of a plot so dangerous before and that they were nervous was quite evident to Abbey. "Take her picture, we'll send a note."

Habib pulled out an old fashioned Polaroid camera and took a picture of Abbey seated in front of the white wall. Hassan, with a mask over his face, held a newspaper with the day's headlines on it to prove to the President that his wife was at the moment still alive.

"Now, Mrs. Bartlet." Azim slammed a piece of paper and a pen down on the table in front of her. "You're going to write your husband a little letter asking him to free Mosrah Alleel, Ali Al Kahleel, and Mohammed Ashad."

Abbey simply stared at the floor not moving. "No." The word was very quiet but very final.

"WHAT did you say to me?" Azim lifted her chin, saw the defiance shining in her eyes and so badly wanted to wipe out that spark. He positively itched for the day that he could do what he wanted to this woman, the day he would look into her eyes and see nothing but the blank stare of a broken spirit.

"I said no. I won't do that to my husband."

"You'll do what I tell you to do. Hassan!"

Hassan took the pen that Azim had set on the table and placed it in Abbey's hand. Abbey merely let it fall to the floor. Angry now at her defiance, Hassan picked up the pen and squeezed her fingers tightly around it, a little more tightly than even he had intended. Abbey gave a sharp cry of pain as she felt the pop in her pinkie. She didn't have to be a doctor to know that he had broken her finger. Tears stung her eyes at the white-hot pain and she pulled her hand in protectively against her belly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" Hassan's eyes were merely slits as he pulled Abbey's hand away from her belly and pressed his lips to her painful finger. "Better?"

Abbey pulled the hand back away from him, defiance still shining in her eyes even as a single tear of pain trailed down her cheek.

Seeing that Hassan had the scent of blood in his nostrils Fayih Shareef took pity on their captives. "Hassan, I bring food."

Abbey followed Hassan's lead and turned to the voice in the doorway. She was surprised to see a woman. At least she assumed it was a woman, the person wore the traditional abayah of many Middle Eastern cultures including the veil that covered her face. Abbey was stunned to see a woman. It was always more of a surprise to see a female involved in something like this.

"We'll eat." Azim said. "You get this out to the White House." He thrust the picture and the hastily scribbled note at Fayih. "You know what to do." He lifted Abbey to her feet and shoved her back through the door into the dark pit from which she'd been dragged out of. The light flooded the small room and Toby took in the First Lady's disheveled appearance, the hands she had wrapped around her middle and the tears that still streamed down her cheeks. He closed his eyes against the pain and the feeling of impotence that he had in not being able to help her, in not being able to keep them from hurting her. He'd heard the angry voices, heard Abbey's cry of pain but he didn't know what had gone on out there. He didn't know if he'd ever know. He winced with pain as he watched Abbey gingerly take a seat between he and Zoey still cradling her left hand.

"Mumma cwy?" Aislinn asked as she moved from Zoey's arms to Abbey's lap. Abbey felt Aislinn's little hands brushing at the wet tears on her face.

"Yes, baby. Mommy cried, but she's okay now that she's back with you guys." Abbey leaned her head wearily against the wall, the tears still falling from behind her closed eyelids.

"Survive, Abbey," Toby said softly as he placed a gentle comforting arm around her shoulders. "It doesn't matter what happens to you here, what they do to you, all that's going to matter to the President is that you survived."

Abbey nodded choking back a sob. "We have to get out of here, Toby. There has to be a way out of here."

It was then that Toby knew that Abbey was just as aware as he that they were not getting out of this situation alive, not unless the FBI found them, or unless they escaped.

****

Jed made his way tiredly to the residence. He had been going on fumes for the past few hours and now he just felt like he was going to crash. He was scared, terrified at the thought of being alone with his fears and emotions. He'd been informed as members of he and Abbey's family had arrived at the White House but he certainly didn't expect them to be up at this hour. It was after one a.m. He made his way quietly through the living room and nearly jumped out of his skin when his mother stood from the chair where she'd been awaiting his return.

"M�mother�" The surprise in his voice was evident and Emily knew that he hadn't expected her to be waiting up for him.

"Josiah." She nodded her greeting, then did something that she hadn't done since he was a very little boy needing his mother's comfort. She opened her arms to him inviting him into her embrace. The moment was too much for Jed. He held on to his small frail mother, his body shaking with the effort he was making not to sob. Old habits died hard and a stiff upper lip had been ground into him since childhood.

"Ssh�Ssh�it's okay�it's okay, son�" Emily stroked Jed's hair wondering why she had denied herself the comfort of her son's arms for so many years.

"What if I never get them back?" Jed choked. "What if I never see them again? I�I don't think I can take this, mother�I can't stand thinking about what's happening to them right now�I�I�"

Emily pulled back, placed her hands on Jed's cheeks. "You can take this, Josiah. You're strong and you're brave, and you have two other daughters' and a little boy who are going to need you. Let yourself feel what you're feeling but then pull it back together. Abbey and Zoey and Aislinn need you to keep it together."

Jed nodded, his eyes widening as he saw Jon and Sally and a tearful Beth and Michael enter the room from the kitchen. They had all stayed up to be with him.

"I really appreciate you all being here, but I�I just need a minute." Jed quickly departed the room for the safety of he and Abbey's silent bedroom where he was free from the sympathetic eyes of his family, free to bear his grief. He shuffled across the room as if he were an old man, the effort of walking even too much for him. At the hamper he reached in and pulled out the peach satin nightgown Abbey had been wearing the night before. He loved her in peach; it brought out the russet in her hair and the creaminess of her skin. Tears stung his eyes as he thought of her in this gown last night, thought about how he'd pulled the covers up over she and Aislinn to keep them warm and wondered if they were cuddled up somewhere together tonight in fear. He sank down on the edge of the bed lifting Abbey's nightgown to his face and inhaling the flowery scents of honeysuckle and lily of the valley, the gentle essence of his wife's skin. And, in that moment she was so alive for him that the pain that he might never see her or his daughter's again hit him like a swift kick to the gut. It hit him so hard that it knocked the breath right out of him and when the air finally came back it was released on a strangled sob. He buried his face in the nightgown and began to cry. Harsh soul wrenching sobs filled the room as Jed finally succumbed to the fear and grief that he'd been holding at bay all day long.

Ellie stood outside her parent's bedroom at a loss as to what to do. She'd never heard her father cry like this before and wasn't sure if he would appreciate being "caught" that way. Still, it was breaking her heart to hear those harsh painful sobs and to know that he was in there all alone. Finally she tentatively opened the door.

"D�daddy?"

Jed looked up at his lovely middle daughter. Ellie stood there in the doorway so confused and uncertain, her eyes swollen from crying.

"Ells." he choked and opened his arms. Ellie flew into into his arms feeling the safety and security of her father's big bear hug. She cried against his chest, as he did into her hair. Comforting each other, the way that a family should.

****

It was an absolutely horrific night in the stuffy back room of the trailer. The room was completely pitch black and Aislinn was terrified of the dark and of the scurrying and squeaks that came from around the room. A couple of times Abbey felt something brush up against her bare leg and it was all that she could do not to cry out or jump. She felt Zoey lurch a time or two and knew that her daughter was trying not to cry out as well, both of them doing what they could to calm Aislinn. Abbey could hear sucking noises coming from her baby daughter and knew that Aislinn had reverted to sucking her thumb as a means of comfort. She sang to her softly, gently stroking her hair and her back remembering the previous night when they'd been in her nice warm bed and Jed's arm had lain protectively over them. What she wouldn't give right now to be back in that bed. Back in Jed's arms. Tears stung her eyes as she thought of her husband and her daughters and her little boy and she wondered if she would live to see them again. Still, she sang on careful not to pass her fears onto her young daughters.

"Through many dangers toils, and snares I have already come. 'Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far And Grace will lead me home. The Lord has promised good to me. His Word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures.�

She felt Toby take her hand and although she knew the hymn meant nothing to him spiritually she knew that her voice had in some way comforted him as well as it had her daughter's who from the feel of it had finally both fallen asleep against her.

****

Abbey had only barely started to nod off when she felt lips move against her cheek, for a moment she smiled thinking it was Jed.

"Ahhbbby�" Her heavily accented name was whispered into her ear and a big hand covered her mouth as she jolted awake. His hand muffled her scream of terror. "Don't make a sound, unless of course you want to wake up the kid and let her join the party."

A hand still covering her mouth, Abbey's terror filled eyes moved to where Zoey lay next to her curled up with Aislinn. She knew that she had to be very careful when dealing with this man. Fighting him could get her daughter's hurt or killed so she shook her head negatively telling him that she wouldn't fight him. Toby sat quietly the corner where he had been sleeping. It took everything inside of him not to jump on the bastard who dared touch Jed Bartlet's wife, but the fear for her daughters was palpable in Abbey's eyes and he knew that to fight would only draw attention back on to them.

Hassan had done his homework well. Abbey Bartlet had shown right from the start that she would go to any lengths to protect her children and now he was going to use that weakness against her. That didn't mean that he wasn't going to have a taste of the Presidents daughter, but first he knew just how to get what he wanted out of her mother. He kissed her then, cruelly, a punishing, grinding kiss that cut her lip on her teeth. Abbey forced herself to keep from struggling the bile rising in her throat as he tried to jam his hand inside the front of her pants.

Her heart began to pound furiously. He was going to rape her. She'd been through this before; she knew exactly what she was going to go through. She was going to be violated, humiliated, shamed. She was going to be hurt. A stabbing jolt of panic ran through her as she remembered that horrible ripping pain and she prayed to God, that she could keep quiet, that she could keep from screaming. The last thing that she wanted was for her daughters to be any more traumatized than they already were. "Please, God, please don't let them hear me�" "Abbey was praying silently, retreating deeply within herself when the door swung open and another man entered the room.

"Hassan," his voice was angry and it woke Zoey, her eyes widening with shock as she saw the man that lay on her mother and was withdrawing his hand from her pants. "Get out. It is not time for this yet." Azim yanked him up and began to pull him out of the room. "We have a PLAN, cousin. My God, you are like an animal with this need to rut." He shut the door behind him. It was all over in less than a couple of minutes, but Abbey was shaking terribly.

"Mom?" Zoey's voice was laced with fear. "Are you all right? Did he hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine." Abbey's voice was tremulous, her hands still shaking as she soothed a stirring Aislinn back to sleep.

"Oh, God, Mom, I'm so sorry." Zoey sniffed, tears filling her eyes. "This is all my fault."

"How is this YOU'RE fault? Honey, this is nobody's fault but those terrorists out there.

"But, I brought them into our lives. I brought Jean Paul into our lives."

"Zoey, don't." Abbey pulled her daughter to her side, tucking her head against her shoulder. "You didn't do anything wrong. If the service didn't know Jean Paul had terrorists ties than his cover had to be very, very good."

"He played me, Mom. All this time he was just playing me. He never really loved me. I HATE him." Zoey started to cry on her mother's shoulder.

"I know, baby�ssh�I know."

****

"Jed, it's four o'clock in the morning." Jon entered the living room rubbing at his tired eyes and found Jed still clothed sitting on the couch looking at a photo album. "Have you gotten any sleep at all?"

Jed didn't look up from the album. "She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen."

"What? Who?"

"Abbey. That night when I first met her�Man, I KNEW she was the one for me. She was so gorgeous and so full of life and sass and just, you know everything that you could want in a woman." Jed could still remember so vividly how drawn he'd felt to Abbey that night, the instant pull of sexual attraction that he'd never felt before that moment. He remembered it so easily because that feeling had never left him. Even now, all these years later, there were times when Abbey would just look at him smile up at him and it could take his breath away.

"Abbey is an incredible woman, Jed." Jon agreed as he took a seat next to his brother. "She's just full of s words."

"S words?"

"You know, smart, sexy, sassy, strong. She is one of the most amazing women that I've ever met. You're a very lucky man."

"Yeah, I know." Jed looked up for the first time and Jon could see the dark circles under his bloodshot eyes.

"You really should try to get some sleep."

"Can't. Every time I close my eyes I see them, I hear them screaming for me." Jed ran his hands over his ears as if he could hold the screams at bay. Uncomfortable with his older brother's emotions Jon awkwardly patted him on the shoulder.

Jed took a deep breath and flipped through the photo album. Turning the pages he found what he was looking for. He stopped at the earliest photos they had of Zoey just hours old in her incubator.

"Look at how tiny she was." Jed traced his finger over the picture. He still remembered the first time he'd seen his new baby girl in that incubator, her tiny little body hooked up to all those wires and tubes. She had been wearing nothing but a doll sized diaper and a little cap over the peach fuzz on her head that already had a decidedly red cast to it. He remembered seeing "Baby Girl Bartlet" on her name placard and knew the urge to name her quickly. But, she'd come too soon, this new little girl of theirs, and he and Abbey hadn't yet decided on a name. They had narrowed it down to Alexandra or Olivia but there hadn't been a final agreement. He'd prayed so hard, so damn hard for God to let his little girl live. And, He had. Their daughter had lived and thrived, had turned into warm, laughing, fearless young woman. And now, now was that amazing life going to be snatched away from him?

He gently touched the photo of the first time that he'd held Zoey, for they'd made their new name decision when they found that it meant "life". He was sitting in a rocking chair wearing green scrubs, a big yellow coverall and an even bigger smile. Zoey was still attached to many of the tubes that were keeping her alive but that hadn't mattered. What mattered was that he'd finally held her, felt her life force, smelled her baby smell and knew an all-encompassing love.

"Abbey used to sit with her for hours and just talk and sing to her. She wanted so badly for that baby girl to know that we were with her and that we loved her."

"I seem to remember quite a few hours you spent there yourself."

"Yeah�" Jed smiled tenderly at yet another picture, this one a photo that he had taken of the first time Abbey had finally been allowed to breast-feed their daughter. She'd been so nervous, so afraid Zoey wouldn't be able to nurse, but by the end of the day Zoey had taken the first few ounces of her mother's milk and they hadn't looked back since. "This one was pretty recent." Jon gazed down at the book Jed had begun flipping through again. Jed stopped at the photo Jon was referring to. It was a profile of a hugely pregnant Abbey standing in front of the Christmas tree, one hand on her protruding belly and a secret smile of such maternal softness it caused the breath to catch in his throat.

"That was the Christmas before the twins were born. The night Abbey told me the doctor told her they were viable if they came early. This is the ultrasound she showed me." Jed pointed to a gray and white photo with two fetuses curled up around each other. "That's Nicky and Aislinn inside of Abbey."

"They look like they're hugging." Jon smiled at the before birth photo of his niece and nephew.

Jed nodded, a lump clogging his throat. "What am I supposed to tell Nicky, Jon? I mean, he knows Abbey goes away sometimes, but he's never been separated from Aislinn. He's going to ask me about them. What do I tell my son?"

"You'll think of something."

"You know, I keep seeing Aislinn blowing me that kiss as she and Abbey left yesterday morning."

"Jed, don't torture yourself."

"You don't know what it's like to have a little girl. Little girls worship you, they think daddy can protect them from anyone or anything."

"Jed, if the secret service wasn't able to protect them there was nothing that you could have done."

"I just�God, Jon�Why didn't they just come after me? I wish they'd taken me."

Jon wisely did not tell Jed that the way he was feeling was precisely why the terrorists had not come after him. Taking his family had damaged Jed far more terribly than any pain they could have inflicted upon him.

"I wish�" Jed's mind was still in that hallway yesterday morning waving good-bye to his wife and daughter. "I wish I'd called out one more "I love you" to Abbey. I wish that�you know�if there was one moment that I could get back in my life, it would be that one. I'd stop them right there in the door and never let them leave."

"Unfortunately life doesn't work like that, big brother."

"Sir?" Charlie poked his head in. "Leo is here to see you."

"Send him in. I thought I sent you home hours ago, Charlie."

"I'm not going anywhere." Charlie stepped aside and Leo entered the room.

"You have news." Jed could tell by the look on Leo's face.

"We know who has the girls. We got a ransom note, and a picture."

"A picture?"

"Of Abbey."

Jed took the piece of paper from Leo. His eyes skipped the ransom demand for the release of hostages and immediately went to the photo of his wife, her lip cut and a bruise on her jaw. "Oh�baby�What have they done to you?"

TBC...