Leo sped through the Maryland countryside trying, like Ron and Jed, not to dwell on the horrible scenarios his mind was conjuring up. The thought of anyone hurting Abbey made him sick to his stomach. He remembered the look of fear in her beautiful eyes when she had confided in him how much just the THOUGHT of Hughes scared her. This was exactly what she had been afraid was going to happen and HE had assured her none of them would let Hughes get to her. How on earth had they allowed this to happen? He couldn't even imagine what Jed had to be going through right now. Couldn't imagine how his friend was going deal with it if Abbey was hurt again. He couldn't help but remember how devastated and completely torn up inside Jed had been after Abbey's attack. The man had been absolutely riddled with guilt. A part of him still was.

The women in the back seat mirrored his thoughts. CJ had come along in a professional capacity. Whatever was happening in Port Harmony would at some point be her responsibility to pass on to the press. But, she had also come as a friend. Abbey had opened up and confided in her about everything that had happened. She had seen the pain, knew Abbey's fears, and she had come along to be moral support for her friend as well as to do her job. Millie's interest was purely personal. Abbey had been her best friend since college. They had been maids of honor at each other's weddings, were godmothers to each others children, together she and Jed had helped Abbey to deliver Ellie in that snowstorm. It had been Millie that Abbey had turned to for moral support after the rape. Millie that she had discussed abortion with when she thought she might have gotten pregnant from the assault. And now Millie was determined to be there for her to help deal with the consequences of whatever occurred.

"I can't believe this is happening," CJ shook her head. "She was so afraid just this kind of thing happening and we were all so sure that it couldn't."

"I was on duty in the ER when Jed brought her in after the attack," Millie told her. "That beast really worked her over."

"She told me, " CJ swallowed. "I can't imagine what it must have been like to be treated so roughly that you would need stitches."

Leo's knuckles whitened on the steering wheel as he tired to tune out what the women were saying in the back seat of the car. He knew the details of Abbey's attack; however, he couldn't stand to think about it.

"It's not just Abbey either. This is so hard on Jed. I remember seeing him after they had taken Abbey into an exam room before he joined her. He was sitting in the waiting room of the ER filling out the paperwork for her admission and he just looked absolutely shell shocked. As if his world had just been turned upside down, and in a way it was. At least for a while."

"Abbey said it was really hard on him," CJ agreed.

"It was hard on both of them. I'm just so afraid that this time he's going to kill her." Millie's eyes filled with tears and the car went silent as each passenger prayed in their own way that Abigail Bartlet be spared.

* * * *

"This is a whole new side to you Abigail." Marcus gave her a sinister grin while he traced the dull edge of his knife along her cheekbone as he had done earlier with her son. "So submissive and obedient. What a difference from the wildcat you were the last time."

Abbey's eyes looked past him, over his shoulder to scan her bedroom. She saw the rumpled bed where Jed had made such achingly sweet love to her last night. She thought about the gentle caresses, the tender words of love, and the way her body had strained to be joined with that of her lover's. She couldn't believe that an act that had been so beautiful and giving could be turned into something so vile and vicious and so utterly hateful. This man had raped her hundreds of times in her nightmares, yet she had never truly believed that it could happen to her again. Jed had promised her that he wouldn't let this happen again. Her eyes swam with tears as she thought of the dear, concerned face of her husband. Oh Jed, where are you? She wondered. I need you.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you" Marcus ground out angrily. Abbey winced as his grip tightened on her slender wrist and she turned eyes filled with hostility and hate on him. "Ah, so there IS still some fire smoldering in there"

His eyes moved insolently up and down her half-naked figure. Standing before him in that skimpy satin and lace slip that barely covered her hips and left all of her shapely legs exposed, she looked just like he'd dreamed after going through her lingerie drawer. Her breasts strained against the fabric and he could see the outline of her nipples. Her tousled copper hair brushed along her delicate shoulders. Fire and tears burned in her amazing sea colored eyes.

"You are so beautiful." The words were said as if he resented that fact not the soft, loving way that Jed would say it.

Hughes remembered with mounting excitement the way it had been that wonderful summer night in Boston. Remembered how she had fought and clawed like a wildcat and how it had felt to feel the fight drain from her body when he tore into her slamming himself to his hilt. He remembered the exhilaration of his domination of her and how she had wept while he made love to her He remembered the jolting thrill of stimulation he'd felt at the way she had cried out in pain with every deep thrust. He remembered how amazing it had felt to ejaculate inside her at the very moment that HE entered the room. What satisfaction that had been. His smile faded as his thoughts moved to what had occurred after his orgasm. That son of a bitch who called himself her husband had nearly killed him. And Abigail, his one true love, had turned on him and had him thrown in jail.

"It's just to bad that you are such a faithless BITCH!" He sliced the knife down sharply between her breasts cutting the lace to reveal more of her chest. Abbey inhaled sharply her hands immediately moving to cover her chest.

"Don't," he pushed her hands away. "Don't you dare cover them." He slid one and inside the material to squeeze the breast he'd tried to uncover.

"Don't do this" Abbey shook her head and tried to twist away from that hateful, hurtful hand. "Please don't do this to me."

It had been the wrong thing to say. Fury filled Hughes eyes as he gripped Abbey's chin squeezing cruelly.

"Don't PRETEND you don't like it, Abigail. I was there. I WATCHED you whore yourself in that barn. I watched what you let HIM do to you. I watched what you did to HIM. I watched you BEG him for more like a BITCH in heat. You WANT it you little slut and I'm gonna give it to you better than HE ever did." He yanked her to him and still holding her chin tightly he kissed her brutally plunging his tongue into her mouth. Abbey pushed at his chest trying not to gag on his invading tongue. It was all happening again, just like before. His fetid breath was in her face, his hands were on her breasts and he was going to violate her again because she was powerless to stop him. Somewhere inside she knew that she couldn't allow that to happen. She couldn't allow him to rob her of her of all the healing that had been so painstakingly accomplished over the years. She couldn't allow him to steal who she was again. Somehow she had to hold on until Jed came home for lunch with his agents.

Jed, oh God, Jed. How would he be able to stomach this happening again? He'd promised her he would protect her. It was going to kill him that he had been unable to do so. It was the thought of the love and the strength that she received from her husband that galvanized her to action. All she could think about was stopping this assault, not what the payback would be. She bit down hard on Hughes tongue, and twisted out of his arms.

"You BITCH!" he shrieked. One hand moved to cover his mouth but the other reached out for her grabbing at her slip so that she fell face first on the bed. Her slip rode up over her hips revealing her scanty silk panties, but it wasn't her lingerie that Hughes eyes lingered on. It was the tattoo on the back of her right hip just above the swell of her rear that caught his attention and his wrath.

Abbey screamed in pain as he grabbed handful of her hair and yanked her head back ruthlessly.

"What the FUCK does JDB stand for?" He demanded.

"You know what it stands for" Abbeys voice trembled but her eyes were defiant.

"You tell me. I want to hear you say it. SAY IT!" He pulled her hair harder causing tears to fill her eyes.

"Josiah Daniel Bartlet" she said looking him straight in the eye through her tears. Oh how he couldn't wait wipe that defiance out of her eyes. She wouldn't be so damned high and mighty when he was ramming himself inside her.

"You're MINE Abigail, not HIS." He flipped her onto her back and pinned her shoulders to the bed in the same spot that Jed had tenderly kissed her the night before. Abbey struggled and pushed at him knowing that she couldn't endure this again. She couldn't stand the shame and degradation of this kind of violation. Something inside her was going to die if he did this to her again. Yet, even if she got away, there was nowhere to go. He would kill her children. She was helpless, powerless, and yet some inner reserve inside would not let her quit. She lifted her knee trying to find his groin but that only helped him to separate her thighs more easily. She felt his erection through his pants and then his hands were at her underwear tugging them down.

* * * *

On his way down the hall toward the bedroom Jed heard the anguished soul-shattering scream of his wife and for one awful moment he knew he was too late. His blood turned to ice in his veins and he ran forward to charge at the door.

"Abbey!" he shouted shoving at the locked door.

"Jed!" Abbey screamed before Hughes could cover her mouth. "Help me Jed!" She felt a relief so profound at hearing her husband's voice she nearly wept.

Jed shoved the door with his shoulder to no avail. He had taken off down the hall without Ron and now the agent was shouting for him to stop. He didn't want the President walking into a potentially volatile situation, but Jed ignored him. He could hear Abbey screaming his name, could hear the crashes of a struggle, and worse yet, the grunts and angered voice of a male. He began to kick furiously at the door until it finally burst open. Ron arrived at his side just as the door gave way and he grabbed the President before he could rush in.

Jed's eyes widened and his heart began to pound fiercely in his chest.

Marcus Hughes held his wife back against his chest with his knife pressed to her throat. Jed took in the torn white slip that was splattered with blood. He saw the cut on Abbey's lip and the reddened skin on her jaw where Hughes had hit her. He had no way of knowing just how far things had gone. Fury and indignation rose within him and his body tensed ready to pounce. Ron grabbed the President's arm sure that that the enraged man might not be able to hold himself back.

"Jed" Abbey choked.

"It's okay honey. I'm here now." He looked up at Marcus. "You take your FUCKING hands OFF my wife."

"You come any closer and I'll slit her throat." Marcus pushed the tip of the knife just a little harder against Abbey's neck and a drop of blood beaded on her pale skin.

Sickened, Jed watched the blood trickle down her chest and stain the lace edge of her slip.

"I make the rules here Mr. President. I'M the boss, not YOU and since you decided to screw everything up by arriving early I think I'll enjoy putting on a show for you. You only caught the tail end of our lovemaking the last time. I think you might enjoy seeing the whole experience first hand. Then, when I'm done fucking her, I think I'll use my knife here to carve my initials right over that tattoo she has with yours."

"You touch her and you're a DEAD man" Jed's eyes were icy, his voice flat and deadly. It was a tone that Abbey had never heard him use before and it sent a chill down her spine.

"Just who the hell do you think you are?" Marcus laughed. "I m the one holding all the cards here. I have the knife and that makes ME the boss. I will touch Abigail wherever I want to touch her". To prove his point he slid his hand over Abbey's breast. Abbey closed her eyes at the shame of being touched so intimately by another man in front of her husband and the secret service agent.

Ron tightened his hold on the President, as he knew one of these moves might send him off like a loose cannon.

"Get your slimy hands OFF her!" Jed fumed as he struggled against Ron's hold.

"I watched you in the barn. I watched how Abigail likes having her breasts played with. She sighs and moans doesn't she, JED?" He deliberately refused to call him by his title. "But what really makes her cry out is when you touch her here." Hughes slipped his hand down between Abbey's legs and she cried out with mortification.

"You SON OF BITCH!" Jed twisted out of Ron's grasp and started to charge forward only to be brought up short by Abbey's cry of pain as Hughes pushed the knife harder into her skin. The cry of pain had stopped him in mid-stride and he stopped in the middle of the room with his fists clenched, his face red with rage. Never in his life had he felt such frustration and impotence. This psychopath was going to rape his wife right in front of him and there was not a damn thing he could do to stop him without hurting her. His hands ITCHED to get a hold of Marcus Hughes throat and choke the very life out of him.

"Let her go Marcus." Ron stated authoritatively. "You're surrounded here by Secret Service and U.S. Marshals. You can't get away. We're going to take you away"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"You won't make it to be taken away" Jed seethed. "I swear to God I'm going to KILL you for what you've done to my wife and kids."

"Well, I'll die happy then, cause you ain't seen nothin' yet. Abigail, get down on your knees," he ordered."

"Wh…what" Abbey trembled with confusion.

"I watched you in that barn. You seemed pretty talented with that little mouth of yours. Let's show your hubby here that he isn't the only one you can perform on."

"No…Please don't make me do this" Abbey hated the pleading tone to her voice but she just could not perform oral sex on another man. She could not bear the humiliation of her husband and Ron watching her do that.

Marcus ignored Abbey's pleas and pushed her shoulders down until she was on her knees in front of him. Tears rolled down Abbey's cheeks now. She wanted so badly to go deep inside herself. Deep inside that place where no one could hurt her. But something stopped her from doing so. Some part of her knew that if she did that it would all be over.

"Go away Jed, please" Her voice was so soft it was almost a whisper.

"Abbey?" Jed's eyes filled with tears of frustration and pain at what this man had put his wife through and what he was about to make her do.

"I can't bear it if you watch this. Please go." She turned pleading, pain filled eyes toward her husband. "Please" her shoulders began to shake as she started to softly cry.

Ron felt the furor build in him at what this deviant was doing to the First Lady. But, unlike her husband, he was trained to swallow anger and think rationally. While Hughes was taking delight in his power over the First Couple and trying to get his pants unbuttoned with one hand, Ron sidled over closer to the fallen baby monitor. They needed a distraction, one little distraction to get that knife away from Abbey's throat.

"I'm not leaving you Abbey," Jed vowed. "No matter what this pervert does to you it doesn't effect who you are. It won't effect how I feel about you, how much I love you. It won't effect US."

"Maaa…ma!" Nicholas's plaintive cry filled the room startling all present. Marcus snapped around to see where the sound had come from and Abbey felt the knife slide away from her throat. She immediately went into action using the moves Ron had taught her. She kneed Marcus in the groin and slammed the heel of her palm into his nose, breaking it on impact. Hughes doubled over in pain but as Abbey turned to run he lifted his knife to stab down on her retreating form.

"NO!" Jed cried and lunged forward. His rage was so all consuming he never felt the knife penetrate his skin. He fell on top of Marcus and slammed the rapist's head into the hard wood floor. "I'm going to kill you for what you've done to my wife…I'm gonna KILL you…"

Ron had grabbed the First Lady as she had fallen forward and had been unable to prevent the President from his attack. Neither he nor Abbey had seen Marcus stab him.

"Ron, stop him" Abbey cried frantically. "He really will kill him."

Ron was already pressing ahead but stopped when he saw the President pick up the gleaming knife and press it to Hughes throat.

Jed laughed malevolently at the terror that filled Hughes eyes. His hair fell over his forehead, sweat beaded his brow and his blue eyes blazed with a savage fury the likes of which Abbey had only seen one time before. He was wild with the need for revenge.

"Are you scared, you fucking little pervert? How does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot? You think its FUNNY to hurt and scare women and little children? You hurt MY son and MY wife. You're sure as HELL gonna pay for that." He pushed the tip of the knife into Hughes throat drawing blood.

"Now I just have to choose how you'll die. Should I slit your throat like you threatened to do to my WIFE? Or should I just break your goddamn neck like you wanted to do to my SON? Maybe I should just cut your fucking balls off. I'll castrate you, you son of a bitch and you'll NEVER rape another woman EVER again".

"Jed NO!" Abbey cried. "Please don't. Nicky and me are fine, don't do this."

"Sir, put down the knife" Ron stated calmly. "I think we'd all like to see this piece of trash dead, but you can't kill him."

"Yes I can. I can kill him for what he's put my family through." Hughes cried out as Jed pushed the knife harder still.

"Jed" Abbey kneeled in front of him. "Look at me. If you kill him you'll go to prison. We'll spend the rest of our lives apart. You won't get see Nicholas and Aislinn grow up or be a part of their lives. Please Jed, That piece of scum isn't worth what we have. It isn't worth the rest of our lives"

Jed's gaze moved to Abbey and as he focused on her lovely face some of the bloodlust faded from his eyes. Still, it was a struggle for him to take the knife away from Hughes throat.

"You're right" he looked down at Marcus with disgust. "You're not worth going to prison over." But before he relinquished the knife to Ron he pulled his arm back and punched Marcus in the jaw snapping the man's head back with a satisfying thunk. "That's for Nicholas." Jed ground out harshly. He drew his fist back again and slammed it into the other side of his jaw. "That's for Max.” Ron could have stopped him but, truth be told, he was he was enjoying watching the President make this man pay for the crimes committed against his family.

Jed stood and Marcus moaned thinking the assault was over. It wasn't. Jed drew his foot back and gave him a hard kick to the kidneys. Marcus cried out and groaned in agony. " THAT was for Abbey." Jed looked down at the beaten man with hatred and disgust before turning to hand the knife to Ron. As soon as he did the room filled with agents cuffing and taking Hughes away.

Abbey stood dazed and shaking. She wasn't sure her legs would carry her if she moved forward. But, when Jed opened his arms, she launched herself forward into them burying her face in his chest sobbing as if her heart would break. .

"Ssh…Ssh, baby. It's all right. It's all over…it's all over. Oh God, I could have lost you" He released her gently, and pushed back to look into her eyes. His own eyes were filled with pain and worry. "Abbey…did he…"

"No" she reassured him through her tears. She reached up a hand to stroke his cheek tenderly. "You got here in time."

"Thank God, " he let out his breath and his face softened as he pulled her back into his embrace. Relief flooded him as he buried his face into the curve of her neck. He moved to stroke his hand up her back and suddenly his relief turned to horror. Bright red blood covered Abbey's back and saturated her slip.

"Oh my God Abbey, where did he hurt you?" he pulled back and began frantically checking her over for wounds.

"It's not me Jed. He didn't hurt me." Her eyes widened with alarm as she noticed that the whole left side of Jed's shirt was soaked with blood. She reached her hands out and ripped his shirt open tearing all the buttons off. Jed's chest was covered with blood and Abbey pushed the shirt back off his shoulders, her pulse racing with panic. Suddenly she stopped and looked up at Jed with alarm.

"Oh Christ Jed" she moaned. "He STABBED you!"

TBC...