Abbey sat smiling softly at the picture Jed had given her of a three day old Zoey the day they had brought her home from the hospital. She had been teasing Jed mercilessly about his gloom over their youngest daughter's graduation, but truth be told, it was just as difficult for her to believe that Zoey was all grown up and leaving the nest as it was for Jed. After all, this was the child that she had carried in her womb for nine months. Her hand moved to softly caress her flat belly and she was able to remember the exact feeling of little elbows and feet pushing and kicking at her. It couldn't have been over 20 years since she had held that tiny infant to her breast. She could still feel the tugging and suction of a baby greedily nursing. She could still smell the warm, milky, powdery scent as she held her daughter to her shoulder. She traced a finger over the impossibly tiny features in the picture. Her trip down memory lane was shockingly interupted by the sound of a glass falling and the loud gasp that filled the room. Her head snapped up from the picture and turned to where Jed stood in the doorway with Leo and Ron Butterfield.

She watched her husband turn to her and felt ice fill her veins. Her heart began to beat erratically. Never, never in all the years that they had been married had she seen a look like that on his face. It was awful, it was sick, it was DEAD. She honestly saw a part of her husband die in that look and she knew instinctively that it could only mean one thing; their children. Something had happened to one of their children. Her gaze locked with his and her eyes widened with the comprehension of this. She knew he could see the questions and the fear mirrored in her own sea colored eyes.

"A…Abbey" he choked out. He began to stumble awkwardly to her and she backed into her chair. She didn't want him to touch her. She didn't want to know. Were those little whimpers coming from her?

Jed closed his eyes for a moment at the sight of his wife shrinking away from him. "Abbey," he stood before her just a couple feet away, not knowing how to tell her this. He opened his arms to her and she began to shake her head negatively.

"No," she moaned. "No…no…no."

"Baby, please…" he placed his hands on her shoulders and she could see the tears begin to trail down his cheeks.

"No!" she cried as she jumped to her feet and began to pummel his chest softly with her small fists…"No, Jed…no."

"They got Zoey," he choked out. "Jesus, they got our baby."

Abbey felt her world crash in all around her, felt the room begin to spin and her legs give out beneath her. Jed caught her tightly before she hit the floor and sat back on the couch with her on his lap. He held her tightly in his arms, her head tucked under his chin. Her fingers were clenched tightly on his shirt as if she were clinging to him for her very life. Her tears soaked his tie while his dripped into her hair.

"I'm so sorry…I'm so sorry…" he kept saying it over and over, as if somehow this were his fault. As if he had been the one to cause this pain.

Leo stood with unease in the doorway with Ron. He felt a tear trickle down his own cheek as he watched Abbey curled up in Jed's arms. He would give anything not to have to take him away from her. She needed him. He needed her. But, the country also needed him and Zoey did too.

"Jed" he said softly.

His best friend turned to him with reddened eyes and knew what just what that one word meant. Knew what he had to do.

"Abbey" he cupped his wife's face in his palms. "I have to leave. I have to find out what they want, how we can get her back." Slowly the comprehension of his words came to her and she clutched more tightly to his shirt. She didn't want him to leave her. She needed him to hold her and tell her everything would be OK. "I have to go to the situation room."

The situation room. That was where Jed made everything all right. That was where he made plans, made decisions. That would be where he would find a way to get Zoey back to them.

"OK" she drew in a shaky breath and looked up into his face with such love and trust it took Jed's breath away. "Just find her Jed. Bring my baby home."

Jed swallowed tightly and nodded. He wasn't sure he was up to the trust he had seen in his wife's eyes but somehow he knew he had to do this. He had to be strong for her, for Zoey. His women needed him and he wasn't going to let them down.

++++

Abbey sat on the edge of the bed. Someone, one of her friends she assumed, had left her a glass of scotch on the rocks that sat on the nightstand. Now they were gone. Everyone was gone and she was all alone. She had made the phone calls to the girls, to her parents, to Jed's mother. Despite how much she wanted to be surrounded by them all, she had convinced them to stay where they were, at least for the moment until Washington was re-opened. She took a large swallow of the aged scotch and her eyes closed at the burning sensation in her throat. Her eyes moved back to the TV, back to the home videos they had been playing non-stop. There was Jed having a tea party with Zoey and her braiding Zoey's pretty red-gold hair for her dance recital. Over and over the images of their life were replayed as if…as if she were already dead. Tears pooled in Abbey's eyes again and she took another quick swallow from the glass enjoying the numbness that was taking over in her limbs. Numbness, that was what she wanted now. She just wanted this awful chest numbing pain to go away. She wanted to forget that her child, her sweet trusting daughter, was at this very moment in the presence of evil. How many times had she read about this? How many kids had she seen on the back of a milk carton? Kidnapping happened to other peoples kids, it didn't happen to hers.

She leaned her head back against the pillow and was about to close her eyes when the scenes changed from she and Jed chasing Zoey on the beach, to CJ's press conference. She was only half listening, her mind still running over the hundreds of other scenes that millions of Americans were not watching right now. Hundreds of private moments shared between a mother and a daughter, shared as a family.

"Is there a concern that she is being raped?"

Abbey sat up off the pillow with shock. It wasn't that she hadn't run that very scenario through her own mind, it was the complete matter of fact manner in which the question had been asked. She felt a wave of nausea overwhelm her and she made her way quickly to the bathroom where she threw up the scotch she had hoped would numb her pain. Didn't they care? Didn't they care that at this very moment her daughter could be being tortured, or raped? Didn't they care that she could already be dead? That thought sent her head back over the toilet as dry heaves caused her abdomen to clench. Didn't anyone care that all this was happening to the daughter that she was supposed to protect and there was not a damn thing that she could do? Jed was in the situation room at this very moment. He was getting information and formulating plans. He was trying to get their daughter back and all she was doing was sitting watching old home movies and living in a time when this had not yet happened. There had to be something that she could do. She was Zoey's mother for goodness sake. She couldn't just sit here and do NOTHING. There had to be something she could do to help her daughter.

++++

Abbey strode down the hall full of intent and purpose. She was going to do something all right. She was going to beg whoever had Zoey to give her back to them.

"Mrs. Bartlet…Ma'am." She heard Amy's voice but tried to ignore her. This had nothing to do with her. She had to get to that briefing room and make sure those people cared. Make sure they knew what her daughter meant to her and plead for her safe return.

"Abbey, you can't go in the press room." CJ's voice was added to Amy's.

"I'm going to make a direct appeal. I don't know why I waited this long." She spoke as if in a daze. "I've seen mother's do this." She flung open the door to the pressroom and froze with a deer in the headlight sort of shock. Flashbulbs blinded her; reporters screamed questions at her. She hadn't expected it to be like that. Hadn't expected the harshness of it all. She felt CJ's hands on her shoulders and let herself be led from the room feeling dazed and lost. Outside the pressroom she didn't know where to go. She started to head to the oval office to see Jed but changed her mind at the last minute. She couldn't burden him with her pain. He was busy working to get Zoey back. She turned a complete circle and began to head in the opposite direction. She simply wanted to get out of there, get away, but she found that she couldn't even remember which way it was back to the residence. She couldn't remember ever feeling so lost and confused. She began to walk slowly not really knowing where she was going. She heard Amy prattling on behind her about why she couldn't do the appeal. Did she think she was STUPID? She knew that she couldn't do the appeal. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. It had seemed like something that SHE could do. Now she knew that there was nothing, absolutely NOTHING that she could do to save her daughter.

CJ watched the First Lady with a sort of stunned compassion. She had never seen Abbey Bartlet looking quite so shell- shocked. Had never seen her so close to the breaking point. It was easy to see that she only had a fragile hold on controlling her emotions.

"You can't go in the press room." Amy reiterated.

Abbey felt CJ stroking her back to comfort her and she found herself fighting terribly to hold back the sobs that threatened to break free. She couldn't let them go, because once she started she knew that she would never stop. She drew in a shaky breath and fought to keep her composure.

"I know, " she sniffed as the tears continued to spill down her cheeks. "I've just seen other mothers do it. I screwed up." She turned her anguished eyes to CJ and CJ knew just how close she was to losing it.

"Abbey, come sit on my couch for a minute."

Abbey nodded and allowed herself to be led away toward CJ's office.

"I'll call the doctor," Amy said with concern.

"Tell him I want what Zoey got," Abbey said bitterly as she entered the office.

As CJ brought Abbey to the couch she noticed the piece of paper laying on it and grasped it quickly before Abbey could see it.

"What is that?" Abbey asked as she ran her fingers over her cheeks to wipe away her tears.

"It's nothing."

"It's something to do with Zoey isn't it?" Abbey ripped the paper out of CJ's hands. The picture was blurred as Abbey gazed at it through eyes swimming with tears. She blinked quickly to clear them and was rewarded by a picture of her daughter on the ransom note the kidnappers had sent.

"Oh my God." She fell to the couch staring at the paper. "Oh God CJ, this is REALLY happening. Terrorists have my BABY!" Abbey began to sob then, great keening wails that could be heard down the halls. Admiral Hackett raced into the room and quickly filled a syringe to calm the hysterical First Lady.

"She's going to crash in a little while. You better get her upstairs and into bed."

++++

Jed heavily made his way back to the residence. He was no longer the acting President. He had passed that role on to a man who was against everything that he believed in. Damn Hoynes anyway. If that fool had just kept his pants on none of this would be happening. If Hoynes had been here it would have made handing over the reigns of power so much easier.

"You're relieved," Walken had said. Jesus, the guy had pretty much booted him out of the Oval Office. HIS Oval Office. "You're relieved." Leo had said it too but he meant it in an entirely different way. Jed knew exactly what Leo meant. He had been surviving these past hours on pure adrenaline. He hadn't been allowed to dwell on what might be happening to his daughter and when he had the scenarios had been so breathtakingly cruel and painful he had decided to invoke the 25th amendment. He knew himself too well. The sons of bitches had found his one weakness, Abbey and the girls. He was serious when he told Leo he might bomb Tel Aviv if it meant getting Zoey back safely. He didn't have any idea of what lengths he might go to in order to get his daughter home and back in he and Abbey's arms. So, in the end, he had abdicated the power to do so. "You're relieved." Jed knew what Leo had meant. No more situation room, no more meetings, 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. Free to be with his wife and help her through this ordeal. That freedom scared him. A part of him was deathly afraid of wallowing in that pain and grief.

He opened the doors to his bedroom and saw Amy reading a magazine on the couch.

"Amy" he nodded. But his eyes were on the form lying on the bed. Abbey lay on top of the covers still fully clothed with just a few buttons on her suit undone. She was holding a piece of paper tightly to her chest.

"Abbey," he said softly…"Abbey?" He turned to Amy with a frown. "What's wrong with her?"

"Admiral Hackett had to sedate her."

"He sedated her?"

"Yeah. She tried to go into the pressroom and make some kind of direct appeal for Zoey's release. CJ stopped her, but, well sir, she was really sort of out of it."

Jed looked down on Abbey's still tear stained face his heart filled with love and empathy. He brushed a stray strand of hair back off her forehead. "What is this she's holding?" He tried to take the paper away but she held it clutched to her as if in a death grip.

"It's the ransom note. She saw a copy of it in CJ's office."

"Ah damn. I wanted to be the one show her that." Jed closed his eyes unable to imagine what it had been like for her to see it that way.

"Admiral Hackett sedated her and he asked that she not be left alone."

"Well, I'm here now Amy. You can go. Thank you for taking care of her."

"Yes sir."

Jed sat on the edge of the bed. He took Abbey's hand in his, his thumb playing over her engagement and wedding rings. He'd sat like this for hours after she'd given birth to Zoey, well really, after she'd given birth to each of their girls. He'd been amazed then at her strength, at her capacity for handling such extreme pain. This kind of pain was different. Before she had known that in the end, if she could just endure the grinding pain, she would be rewarded by holding her child in her arms. They had no such knowledge of that now. If they could survive this awful pain, would they be rewarded with holding their child in their arms? He had to believe that they would, for to believe otherwise would be to lose hope and to lose hope would be to lose faith.

Abbey stirred in her sleep still holding the picture tightly to her breasts as she had once held Zoey. Just the thought of Abbey being in so much anguish that she needed to be sedated filled him with guilt.

"I'm sorry…" Jed murmured as he stroked her hair back off her face. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here for you Abbey. I should have been here to help you. You needed me and I wasn't here. But, I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere."

Jed began to undress her for bed but had to pause where her hands held the picture. He tried to take it gently out of her hands.

"Please don't.'

Jed looked down into Abbey's groggy, drugged eyes.

"Abbey, it's OK."

"Don't take it away" she slurred sleepily. "It might be… the last picture…we ever have…of her…"

Jed sat back in shock his eyes filling with tears. He hadn't ever thought of it that way, but she was right. The thought that he might never see his daughter again finally hit him. It hit him with the swiftness of a kick to the gut. It hit him so hard it knocked the breath out of him and when the air finally came back it was released on a strangled sob. He buried his face in his hands and began to cry. Harsh soul wrenching sobs filled the room.

"Jed, don't cry." Through her drug induced haze Abbey heard her husband weeping and she held a hand out to him. Jed took that hand and she pulled him weakly toward the bed and down beside her. He stretched out next to her pulling her small form against him and wrapping himself around her. Abbey instinctively snuggled into him taking comfort from his warm form. This was her rock, her anchor, her man.

"We'll get her back, Abbey" Jed whispered with conviction into her hair. "I know we'll get her back."

"I believe you." Her voice was hoarse from crying but also soft and so damn trusting. "I believe you.

The End