"Look, I need a break from this," Jed said. He took his glasses off and began to rub is eyes as he set his copy of the state of the union speech down and looked over his desk at his staff. "Nicholas is sick so I'm going up to go check on him and have a quick bite to eat. Then I'll come back and we can spend some more time on it".

He received nods of acceptance and a chorus of "thank you Mr. Presidents" as they gathered their speech copies and left the room.

Jed looked at his watch as he entered the mansion. Ten o' clock. No wonder he was starving. He'd worked through the dinner he'd told Abbey he would eat in the oval office. Somehow he had to get around letting her find out about that. He set his briefcase down in the hall and peeked into the nursery to see how Nicholas was doing. The room was dark save for the dim shine of the night-lights that cast a soft glow over Abbey, who was in her bathrobe rocking the baby to sleep. Nicholas lay cuddled to her breasts sucking his thumb while she stroked his hair and sang softly pausing every few bars to kiss the top of his head.

"How's he doing?" Jed whispered as he knelt beside the rocking chair to get a better look at his son. Nicholas weakly opened his fever bright eyes.

"He hasn't vomited in a couple hours but his temp was still 102.3 a half hour ago so I gave him some more Tylenol. I'll check it again in a little while".

"Has he kept anything down yet?" He touched a finger gently to his son's cheek. It felt like he was burning up and Jed could hear the congestion in every rasping breath Nicholas took.

"Just a couple ounces of Pedialyte. But that's better than nothing. At least he won't dehydrate".

"Poor kid. I have to get back down to the office. I just wanted to check up on you guys. Is there anything you need help with before I leave?"

"No we'll be fine". Abbey smiled gently down at their son.

"OK then". He bent to kiss Nicholas on his warm forehead. "Goodnight son, I hope you feel better. Daddy loves you."

He stood and watched Abbey rock Nicholas for a few more moments. There were few more warm or tender sights than that of a mother rocking her child to sleep. And when that woman was your wife and that child your blood the feeling was magnified to even greater proportions. Reluctantly he began to walk toward the door. As he reached for the knob he heard Nicholas whimper and he stopped short. He turned back and noticed the baby's eyes were open and he was watching him.

"Go to sleep sport" he called out softly, then turned to open the door. Nicholas began to fuss.

"Da, " he whimpered while he squirmed in Abbey's arms to get down.

Jed let go of the doorknob and turned back not sure if he'd really heard his son just call for him. He moved back toward Abbey, and Nicholas reached his arms out to him.

"Da…da…dada" he babbled.

"I think he wants you ". Abbey laughed at the look of amazement on Jed's face. She'd seen that same look every time one of their children learned to call him by name.

"He just said my name". Jed's tone was incredulous as he reached out to take the boy from Abbey. "You want your dada Nicky?" he asked.

"Dada" Nicholas said again, then tucked his head under Jed's chin and stuck his thumb back in his mouth.

"I'll rock him to sleep, " Jed said as he took the chair Abbey had vacated so she could fix the covers over a soundly sleeping Aislinn,

"I thought you needed to get back to the office?"

"I do". Jed thought about the sandwich with his name on it in the kitchen then brushed his lips against his son's silky blond hair. Suddenly he didn't feel so hungry. "But I have some time to spare. Besides I'm the boss. It's not like they can start without me".

"Well, if you're going to stay here I'm going to bed. Try to give him some more of this while he's awake". She handed him a bottle filled with clear liquid.

"What's that?"

"It's the Pedialyte. It will keep him from dehydrating, especially if he continues to vomit".

"OK. Go relax. I'll take care of things here".

* * * *

By the time Jed returned to his bedroom after getting Nicholas to sleep and spending a couple more hours in his office it was well after one. Abbey was sound asleep as he slid under the covers next to her. He was just starting to doze off when he felt her begin to stir. In the next few moments she began to moan and whimper softly. He rolled over to touch her hip and felt her whole body shaking.

"Abbey?" he quickly turned the light on beside their bed and saw her huddled with her knees drawn to her chest, her face streaked with tears. She was shaking so badly her teeth were chattering. And she was awake.

"Abbey? What is it? What's wrong?" He reached a hand out to touch her shoulder and Abbey flinched at his touch.

"Don't baby, " he groaned. "God, don't shrink away from me". He pulled her towards him spooning himself around her back and running his hand soothingly over the curve of her hip in an effort to still her shaking form.

"It's just another nightmare, " her voice was catching with the effort it was taking for her not to cry. "I'll be fine in a minute. Just let me catch my breath".

"Another nightmare?" he asked against her neck. "Have you woken up like this before?" Jed's accusatory question was met by silence.

"Abbey, I asked you a question. Have you been waking up like this?"

"Yes, OK. Yes"

”How many times?”

"I don't know Jed".

"HOW many times Abigail?"

"Every night," the words were whispered softly, almost shamefully.

"Did you just say every night?" He rolled her over so he could look into her face.

"Yes, " Abbey choked; her eyes swimming with unshed tears.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He ran his thumbs under eyes and let her warm tears run over them.

"Jed look at what this is doing to you. Because of me you're worried, you're angry, you have your own nightmares to contend with AND you have a country to run. That's what is important".

"First of all it's not BECAUSE of you, and second of all, you are just as important to me as running the country is. Don't you forget that. You're the most important thing in the world to me".

"Jed…"

"No Abbey, I mean it. Don't hide things from me. You're my wife. Let me be here for you. These nightmares, are they always the same? About the attack?"

"The rape. Jed you can say it. Yes they started off mostly just reliving the rape but lately they've gotten worse".

"I don't know how it could have gotten worse. Unless…Oh God in your nightmare, does he kill you?"

"No" she buried her face into his neck. "He kills you".

"Me?"

"Yes" she kept her face buried in his neck feeling the reassuring beat of his heart.

"He made you watch while he raped me, then he shot you and he was taking me away to be his forever".

"Never Abbey. That's never going to happen. I promise you sweetheart". But even as he uttered the reassuring words Jed knew a deep-seated fear that no matter what he did, or how much protection he gave her, it might not be enough to keep her safe.

* * * *

"Abbey, you need to get more sleep". Jed stood buttoning his shirt while he watched his wife. Wearing only a silk slip, Abbey was seated at her vanity table dabbing concealer over the dark circles under her eyes and blending it in. She was artfully applying her make up to conceal the effect that night after night of restless sleeping was having on her.

"I'm fine Jed".

"Well you won't be for long if you don't start getting some sleep. Shut the monitor off and let Izzy take care of the twins tonight."

"Jed I'm their mother. As long as I am physically here and capable of taking care of them I should be the one to do so".

"Everyone needs help Abigail and unfortunately I can't be as much help as I normally would be. You're not getting any sleep as it is. Getting up with the twins is just running you down even more. If you keep it up you WON'T be physically able to care for them because you are going to make yourself sick".

"Maybe I don't want to sleep. Did you ever think of that?" The words were thrown out harshly as she began to yank the brush through her hair.

"What? Abbey you need to sleep".

"Do you think it's fun? Night after night reliving everything over and over and over until I wake up sweating and crying and unable to breathe".

"Oh Abbey". He stepped toward her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "What about a sleeping pill. That might help".

"I don't want to start relying on sleeping pills".

"Just try it for one night and see if you can get one full night of sleep".

"What's happening to me Jed?" she turned wide plaintive eyes to him. "I don't even know who I am anymore".

"Don't worry" he cupped her face. "I know who you are and I'm never going to let you forget that".

* * * *

"Mr. President" Ron approached Jed as he returned from a morning engagement. "We've made some progress in our investigation. Do you have a some time?"

Jed gazed at Leo knowing that his day was stacked with meetings and practice sessions for the State of the Union, which was coming in just a few days.

"Yes". Jed said firmly. Leo nodded and scurried off to work on some quick schedule revisions.

"We found the apartment where Marcus Hughes has been staying".

"Did you…"

"No, " Ron interrupted. "He wasn't there and from the looks of things he hasn't been there for a little while. But what we found was quite disturbing".

"What was that?"

"Sir, the walls were covered with pictures of your wife. He had a bookcase filled with videotapes of Mrs. Bartlet in news clips and interviews and speaking at events. C-Span seemed to be his channel of choice."

"I want to see it Ron," Jed stated forcefully.

"I don't think that is a wise idea Mr. President. The press follows you everywhere. We don't want Hughes to know that we are on to him. We have his apartment under surveillance and we're leaving everything the way it was in the hopes that he will return home and we will catch him. I do have a video tape that we took of some of the evidence".

Jed took the tape from Ron and they moved into his study where he was able to pop it in the VCR. He felt all the air leave his lungs and his legs grow weak as he watched the camera pan wall after wall of pictures of Abbey. Newspaper and magazine photo's as well as pictures he had taken himself. Pictures of her at the hospital talking to colleagues, at an outdoor café lunching with Millie, picking Elizabeth up from school, teaching Ellie how to ride her pony, swinging Zoey in the park. His eyes closed for a moment as the camera focused on a picture of his wife's nude body.

"We think that was taken in the doctor's changing room," Ron said quietly. We think it's an old picture, not a recent one".

"It is" Jed said knowingly.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, My wife has a tattoo right here". He pointed on the TV screen to the spot on his wife's anatomy where her tattoo was. She only got it about 15 years ago and it's missing in this picture so it had to be taken before then…Oh my God, WAIT, pause it". His face blanched as the camera panned along the wall at more pictures.

"What is it, sir?"

“My God. It wasn't just a random violent act that day. This guy was stalking her long before he raped her".

"How do you know that?"

"Because look at this picture that he took of Abbey walking holding Ellie's hand".

"Yeah, what does that have to do…"

"She has Zoey in that front pack. She only used that until the babies were around six months then she would put them in the backpack".

"Yes?"

"Zoey was TWO when Abbey was raped. That means the son of a bitch was stalking her for a little over a year before he attacked her. It wasn't a random act at all. It was carefully planned. Jesus Christ Ron, he was following her around taking her pictures, watching her undress in the doctors changing room. He was HUNTING her down". He began to pace the room his hands clenched into tight fists.

"It certainly fits his MO".

"Is there anything else that I should know?" Jed bit out.

"In some of the pictures where Mrs.Bartlet was with you and the babies he cut your head off and transposed his in it's place as if he would take your place as husband and father. In others he cut the babies out as well. And in the really angry ones…" Ron paused the tape and Jed looked at the screen in horror. On several large photos where Abbey was on his arm, mostly in glittering eveningwear, the words "BITCH", "SLUT, and "WHORE" were written maliciously in red marker. But it was the largest photo on the wall that caused the blood to rush so quickly though Jed's veins he had to sit back against his desk. It was one of the barn photos that had been sent to Abbey's father. The one with Abbey on her knees pleasuring him. Slashed across the photo in that blood red ink were the words "DIE WHORE".

Jed turned away and took a deep breath. He had known that Hughes wanted his wife but this was the first evidence he'd seen of the mans completely irrational and insane rage. The word "DIE" had frightened him as no other had. He moved slowly to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a stiff shot of scotch to calm his nerves. What he really wanted was a cigarette.

"Mr. President?"

"I'm OK Ron. Go ahead".

"It's obvious that he is very conflicted right now so that makes it hard to know what exactly he wants. He either wants to take you out of the way so he can take over your position as Mrs. Bartlet's husband and father of her children, or he can't stand the idea of the babies at all so they need to be taken out of the equation. What he really wants is Mrs. Bartlet, but even that is conflicted. He wants her but she angers him when she doesn't follow his "plan" for her thus the need to punish her with the harsh words".

"Do you think he'll go back to the apartment?"

"He's smart. I'll give him that. But, he has been collecting these images of your wife for 20 years minus his stay in prison. It's anybody's guess how long he can stay away before he'll need a “fix".

"Let's just hope that the ”fix” is him looking at pictures of my wife and not actually trying to touch her".

When Ron left the office Jed poured himself another stiff shot and sat at his desk with a debate clamoring in his head. He had just berated Abbey for not sharing everything with him, but how could he tell her about this den of twisted depravity and of the hideously sick shrine to her. The idea that Hughes had been following her and taking pictures of her with her friends and the kids, at home and in the city could very well send her over the edge. The fact that he had nude shots, along with the graphic sexual photos' from the barn and that raiding Secret Service agents had seen all these would humiliate her beyond belief. Abbey had never been ashamed of her body, but nor was she an exhibitionist. He had himself experienced embarrassment at those barn photos. Somehow in black and white an act that was meant to be so loving and giving and beautiful suddenly looked merely pornographic.

He was still lost in thought when Leo entered the room. The Chief of Staff eyed the bottle of scotch and the empty shot glass on the desk in front of the President.

"Drinking alone during the afternoon Mr. President?" Leo lifted his brow. He was teasing Jed, but he was also worried. Not that the President was a closet alcoholic but that something had to have happened to cause him to behave out of character like this. The President did not drink alone in the middle of the day.

"Yeah, well they don't let me smoke in here".

Leo was about to ask what was bugging him, when he turned and saw the image frozen on the TV. It was the picture he had briefly seen when Ron had shown it to Jed in the first place. But when he had seen the sexually explicit nature of it he had turned away out of respect for the President and First Lady. But now he couldn't help but stare. It was the body of his dreams performing one of the more wanton acts of his dreams. She was so beautifully erotic with her head tipped back and her coppery hair flowing over her slender shoulders and back. Her breasts were lush and full and tipped with pink rose colored nipples. Her waist was slim, her hips a gentle, graceful curve and God help him, he finally knew for sure that Abbey Bartlet was a natural redhead. His eyes held for a slight moment on the tattoo just above the curve of her rear. The tattoo proclaiming she belonged to JDB. JDB. Josiah Daniel Bartlet His best friend. The proclamation was as startling as a bucket of ice water in his face and it was only then that he noticed the words "DIE WHORE" evilly scrawled across the photo. Any lascivious thoughts fled from his mind at the abomination of those words.

"Leo" Jed warned. He had assumed Leo's staring outrage had been caused by the words on the picture but his wife was NAKED in the photo and Leo had been looking at it an awfully long time.

"Sorry". Leo turned back to him. "Is it Hughes who wrote that?"

"Yeah, they found his apartment with hundreds of pictures and videos of Abbey. Look, I've got to go talk to her. I'll be back in a little while".

* * * *

Jed had made up his mind to tell Abbey they had found Hughes apartment but not the extent of what they had found there. She would just have to forgive him that little omission and she would, when this was all over. He stepped into Abbey's east wing office nearly tripping over the seemingly hundreds of gifts that filled the room.

"What is all this?" He asked.

"Presents for Aislinn and Nicholas from all over the world" Abbey's secretary Lucy tried not to stutter. She had gotten used to the fact that she worked for the First Lady, but when the President made one of his infrequent visits she could still get tongue-tied. "We're going through them so we can send thank you notes to the people who sent them, but Mrs. Bartlet wants to donate the gifts to children's hospitals, orphanages and homeless shelters around the country".

Jed nodded his approval. "Is she in her office?"

"Yes sir". Lucy paused a moment waiting for the bellow of "ABIGAIL" that was the President's usual way of getting his wife's attention as he didn't believe in intercoms. However, this time stepped forward to knock lightly on the door. When he didn't get a response he entered slowly.

Abbey's head lay on her desk pillowed on her arm. Her glasses had slipped off her nose. She was asleep.

"Abbey?" Jed said softly as he approached. She didn't stir at the call of her name. He knelt beside her leather chair pushing her wavy auburn hair back further from her face. Her face was pale and he could see the faint gray smudges under her eyes attesting to her lack of sleep in the night. Her cheekbones stood out starkly now against her thin face. She looked delicate and fragile and he was reminded of a breakable China doll. How much more would it take before she would break. He was overcome with tenderness and an aching sadness.

"Abbey" he said again softly. This time he pressed his lips to her cheek.

"NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" She bolted right awake shoving at him so that he fell back on his rear. She drew her hands up over her chest in a classic self-defense move and her eyes were wild with fear. Adrenaline began to jolt through her veins.

"Abbey," he touched her leg as he started to get to his feet.

"Don't" this time the word was a plea. "Please don't".

"Abbey, it's me. It's Jed, honey". Abbey looked down at him kneeling before her motionless. He was afraid if he stood he would scare her and he knew at that moment that he could never tell her about the lair of Marcus Hughes.

Suddenly awareness and comprehension filled her eyes and she sank to her knees in front of him.

"Oh my God Jed, I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you?"

"No, you just scared the hell out of me" he grinned ruefully.

"Well YOU shouldn't have scared me" she admonished him. She was still trembling and out of breath.

"Abbey, I kissed your cheek".

Abbey looked at the ground ashamed and embarrassed by her reaction. Jed kissed the top of her head then gently lifted her chin.

"It's OK Abs. No harm done".

Abbey nodded and pressed her fingers into her throbbing temples. Jed had seen that particular gesture many times.

"Do you have a headache?" he asked.

"Yeah" she admitted.

Jed pulled her to her feet and had her sit back in her chair. Abbey leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

"Do you have any aspirin?" he asked.

"Top left drawer, " she said without opening her eyes.

Jed opened the drawer and saw a large bottle of Advil and an even larger bottle of Tums. It was almost empty.

"Abbey, you've been popping these things like candy lately". He held up the bottle of Tums.

"Oh Jed, you're exaggerating a little bit don't you think?" She tried to tease him out of his worry but he wasn't having any of that.

"No, I don't. What I think is that you are damn close to having an ulcer over this".

"Jed, I'm a doctor. I think I'd know if I was close to having an ulcer".

"Not that you'd admit it".

"There's the pot calling the kettle black".

"Abbey, we're not talking about me here. You've lost weight, you're barely eating enough to keep a bird alive, and your clothes are almost hanging off you…

"I thought men liked anorexic looking women " she tried to tease him through her tears.

"Not this man. I don't want a woman who is all bones, I want your soft, sexy curves".

"Well, I'm sorry you don't find me attractive anymore Jed".

"Abbey" he pleaded.

"You can go to hell" she choked as she turned away from him.

"Abbey that's not what I meant. It's not that I don't find you attractive baby. I'm scared. I'm scared for your health. It isn't just the weight loss. It's the fact that you aren't sleeping. There are circles under your eyes and you jump when people touch you. You have headaches all the time and you're popping these Tums like crazy. Will you please have a physical".

"Jed, I'm fine. It's just the stress of everything that's going on".

"I know that, but maybe Dr.Hill can give you something".

"Yeah, some advice. She'll tell me to alleviate the stress in my life. Well you know something Jed? That isn't going to happen until Marcus Hughes is behind bars again".

There was nothing Jed could say to that. Abbey was absolutely right. He handed her the pills she had asked for and watched while she washed them down with a swallow of her bottled water. When she was finished he put out his hand and led her to the couch.

"Lay down" Jed ordered. "The other Dr. Bartlet is going to take it from here". Abbey stretched out on the couch with her head in his lap as she had a hundred times before and Jed began to give her a soft forehead massage. Slowly she felt her body begin to relax and give in to the relief and pleasure his talented fingers were giving her. She shivered as his fingers moved into her hair massaging her scalp gently and gave a soft moan as they ran from the tops of her ears up to her temples.

"If you don't stop making sounds like that lady I'm gonna have to quit" he teased her.

"I can't help it, "she protested. "It feels so damn good".

Jed smiled down at her running his finger over her nose and across her soft lips. There used to be a lot of things that she thought felt good he reflected with sadness and not a little frustration. He kept up his ministrations until she was breathing deep and even. Then, he slid out from under her placing a pillow where his lap had been. He found a tartan throw at the end of the couch and draped it over her.

"Sweet dreams Abigail" he murmured as he kissed her forehead. And more than any time that he had ever said it before, Jed meant that with all his heart.

TBC...