"Abbey!" John rushed to help Leo with the First Lady. He took Nicholas from her arms and handed him to Connie who had raced over at Abbey's cry.

"Wh...What happened?" Abbey asked as she regained her equilibrium. "Why do you think Air Force One is down?" Fitz turned to look at the First Lady who stood before him with her baby daughter in her arms. She was trying so desperately to be brave and he would have given anything not to be the one to tell her what he was about to say.

"We have intelligence reports stating that there was to be a missile attack on Air Force One," he said. "Soon after we communicated that to the plane, we lost any contact. We can't pick even pick up the flight on radar anymore. It's gone."

"There has to be some sort of mistake." Tears began to flood her eyes. "Please," she pleaded, "please keep trying."

"Mom?" Zoey touched her mother's arm tentatively and Abbey turned to see her daughter's stricken face. "Is Daddy dead?"

"Oh Zoey," Abbey pulled her into her arms.

"Mom, tell me the truth," Zoey demanded, pulling back to look into her mother's face. "Is Daddy dead?"

"Honey, I don't know," Abbey said, leading her back over to the corner. "I just don't know. Nobody knows what is going on. All we can do right now is pray. We have to be strong and pray."

Leo stood at the communications desk with Fitz, John, and the rest of the Joint Chiefs.

"Anita, have you been able to reach Ron Butterfield?" He asked of one of Abbey's Secret Service agents. She had been trying frantically to reach her boss with the communications equipment the Secret Service used to keep in touch, but for the first time in her memory as an agent, she had not been able to reach anyone on the flight.

"No, I can't reach any agent on the President's detail," she said with a worried frown. Leo had expected as much, he hadn't been able to reach any of his staff on their cell phones either. Air Force One and all its inhabitants had simply disappeared.

"What's next, Fitz?" Leo asked, trying to clamp down on the anxiety that almost had a choke hold on him. That was his family on that flight.

"I'm sending out some reconnaissance flights over the last place we had Air Force One on radar. We'll see if they can spot the plane." The last sentence was said grimly as they all knew that he meant the wreckage of the plane. Leo turned his eyes to Abbey who was seated on the other side of the room again, this time holding Zoey in her arms while she rocked the crying girl back and forth. Zoey held the rosary Abbey always carried in her purse. The one that had been blessed by the Pope when she and Jed had visited the Vatican, and the two were praying quietly.

At that moment in time, the only thing that kept Abbey from descending into hysteria were the repetitive prayers that she and Zoey were reciting. Maybe that was why people found it so comforting to recite the decades of the rosary, she thought. The mindless repetition of prayers she had known since childhood, and the firm belief that God was listening to those prayers kept her emotions at least somewhat in check. But, once she had Zoey calmed, it was no longer enough. She needed information. Needed to know that everything that could be done to find Jed and the others was being done.

"Sweetie, I have to find out what they are doing to find your Dad. Will you be OK?" Abbey asked, pushing her daughter's hair back from her face.

"Yes," Zoey whispered, leaning back against the wall and wiping her eyes. Abbey approached the group of men with fire and purpose.

"Leo, what are you guys doing to find Jed?" She snapped.

"We're doing everything we can. We've tried every means of communication, but we can't reach anyone on the flight."

"Maybe the communications systems are down." She was grasping at straws now, and knew it.

"We've tried cell phones, pagers, everything, Abbey."

"Obviously, not everything, Leo, or you would have reached someone," her voice was laced with anger and an underlying fear.

"Abbey," he said gently, touching her arm to calm her.

"Don't," she said forcefully as she shrugged away from his hand, "don't try to comfort me. There is no reason. That plane is just fine, your equipment is failing that's all." She turned away from Leo to face Fitzwallace. "You need to find my husband, Admiral." It was an order from a woman used to giving orders.

"We're doing everything we can, ma'am. Oh wait, here comes the reconnaissance report." Fitz grabbed the phone and, from the look on his face, everyone knew the news was not good. Abbey saw the sympathy in his eyes as they caught hers and she felt herself begin to shake. She was thankful this time for Leo's steadying arm around her waist.

"Well?" Leo asked when he hung up.

"He didn't see any evidence of a wreckage." Relief flooded both Leo and Abbey's features. " However," Fitz put his hand up, "there was a lot of black smoke and he couldn't see much of anything. I think the smoke indicates that we have to start going with the assumption that Air Force One has been shot down and the President may be dead."

"No" the soft choked plea came from Abbey "No.no..NO!!!" The pleas turned into a soul-shattering cry of anguish and Leo turned to take her into his arms. "No, Leo," she sobbed, her hands clutching at this shirt, "Jed can't be dead, there has to be a mistake, there has to be!"

"Sssh," Leo stroked her hair as he held the woman he loved in his arms with his heart breaking for the torment she was experiencing over the loss of the man she loved more than she loved her own life. He knew that Abigail Bartlet would never be the same after today for, in this moment, he was witnessing a part of her dying.

+++++++++

"Dammit, I don't like this," Jed was pacing in the communications room at the underground SAC base in Missouri.

"Sir, it was the only way to assure your safety and avert a planned missile strike. By closing off communications and flying in under the radar, we were able to buy precious minutes to get us here safely," Nancy explained, not for the first time, to her irate Commander-in-Chief.

"Well, can't we communicate with them now? Christ, they must think we are all dead," Jed ran his fingers through his hair with frustration. He couldn't imagine what Abbey and Zoey must be going through right now.

"We need to keep quiet for just a while longer in order to make sure nobody is listening in."

"Jesus, Nancy, I'm sick of running and hiding like a scared rabbit. I want to go back to Washington. I BELONG in Washington."

"Sir, we can't let you go back to Washington until we have that bomb found," Ron stated calmly but firmly.

"Well, find the fucking bomb!" He exploded. "I want to go home!"

+++++

Leo accepted the information Fitz was giving him with less enthusiasm than would be expected for such good news. He turned to where his gaze had been falling quite frequently during this harrowing ordeal, back to Abbey. She had finally gotten the twins to sleep in their carriers and was now seated against the wall with her knees drawn up under her chin, her eyes staring blankly at the ground.

"Abbey," he said, squatting down in front of her and placing his hand on her knee. "They found the bomb. We can all leave."

"Wh...What about the plane?" She asked, staring him straight in the face with eyes full of pain and pleading, and dammit all to hell, that infernal glint of hope. She looked at him as if he could somehow will Jed to be alive and he felt like a failure for not being able to do so. For some unfathomable reason he couldn't bring himself to say the words, and merely shook his head negatively.

"I'm sorry, Abbey," his voice was barely a whisper.

"Don't look at me like I'm a widow, Leo," she snapped. "Goddammit, I am not a widow. Jed is out there alive somewhere."

"Abbey," he stroked her knee, "I know this is hard but we have evidence..."

"I don't care about your fucking evidence! I have evidence too. I feel him Leo. I feel him in here," she tapped her chest. "If Jed were dead, I would know it. My heart would be ripped open and bleeding and a part of me would be gone with him. But, I FEEL him Leo. He is still here."

Leo was silent for a moment, almost convinced by Abbey's impassioned conviction that his best friend was still alive.

"I pray to God that you are right," Leo sighed.

"I should have been with him," she said flatly. "I should have been with him on that plane, but no, he had to force me down into this damned bunker."

"He did it because he loves you, honey. You know that. Your safety and the kids' safety has always been more important to him than his own." Leo ran his thumb over her cheek to wipe away a stray tear.

"I know," she said softly. "I just wish he weren't such a stubborn jackass sometimes. I wanted to be with him."

"Excuse me, ma'am, but if you'd been with him, your children would be orphans right now." Both Leo and Abbey almost gasped at the interruption and the insensitivity of the female Secret Service agent who stood just a few feet away. Leo turned his glaring eyes in the girl's direction.

"What is your name?" Abbey asked sharply.

"Lori, ma'am."

"Lori, get the hell out of my sight," she fumed, then turned to Anita who was the head of her detail. "I want her kept out of my sight."

"Yes, ma'am," Anita said, giving the younger woman a glare of her own.

++++

Abbey left the bunker feeling completely numb. She sent Zoey and Izzy up to the residence with the twins, promising she would join them shortly. She then made her way down the corridors back to the Oval Office. She remembered how just a few hours ago bustling with activity and full of staff members. Now it was silent and eerie, as if there had been a death. She pushed that thought to the back of her mind, not allowing herself to believe for one instant that Jed and his young, vital staff were gone. She entered the office with a compelling need to feel close to her husband. This was where he had spent his last moments in the White House. She moved forward, running her fingertips over the leather of his chair and glanced with tears at all his favorite pictures that adorned his desk. Leo stood in the doorway watching the grief begin to take over this woman who had been so strong all day.

"Abbey, don't do this to yourself to yourself," he said. "Go up the residence and get some rest."

"Rest?" She said, stunned. "Do you honestly think I am going to REST until Jed comes back into this office?"

"I have to go to the situation room with Hoynes and Fitz," he said apologetically. Abbey remarked sadly to herself that Leo had the same torn expression Jed usually had when he wanted to stay with her but duty called him away.

"Go. You're needed more there than you are here. I'll be fine."

Leo reluctantly turned and left the First Lady to continue her wandering tour of her husband's office. She approached the open door to the bathroom, noting there were still drops of water in the basin. She picked up a towel that had been carelessly thrown over the edge of the sink and brought it to her face. It still smelled of Jed, of his bay rum aftershave, and the tears began to sting her eyes. While she stood, holding the towel to her face, she heard the familiar whirring sound of a helicopter and her heart leapt with joy. It was Jed! She raced from the bathroom to the glass doors overlooking the lawn, expecting to see Marine One bringing Jed home. Instead she saw two National Guard helicopters flying overhead to protect the city. It was only in that moment that Abbey allowed herself to feel any sense of hopelessness. Time was running out on any belief that Air Force One was just having technical problems and she had to face the fact that maybe she was wrong. Maybe she wouldn't feel torn apart if Jed were to die. Maybe her body wouldn't have marked the moment with at least a pang of some sort. When she turned back around, she saw a picture lying on the floor under the desk and moved forward to pick it up, needing to see what Jed had looked at just before he left. It was a photo she had taken at the beach this summer of him with each twin in the crook of an arm and his older daughters surrounding him. They were all laughing happily, so carefree and unaware of what events were just around the corner. Blinded by tears, she pressed the picture to her chest and made her way the couch where she curled up in the fetal position and finally allowed the tears to fall freely. She knew she should go up to Zoey and comfort her daughter, but she couldn't leave here. She couldn't leave Jed. The tears soon continued into all out sobbing. She cried so hard and for so long, that she actually cried herself to sleep.

+++++

"Good to have you back, Mr. President," Leo grinned broadly as Jed entered the situation room. "All the information we had led us to believe that the plane had been taken out."

"I was told that was a necessary precaution," Jed said tightly. He hadn't liked deceiving any of them that way. He couldn't even imagine what Abbey had gone through all this time. "How did Abbey take the news?"

"I haven't been able to leave this room since I got here. The last I saw her she was in the Oval Office."

"She still thinks I'm dead?" Jed asked with astonishment.

"I'm sorry, sir, too much was going on. I couldn't leave."

"Everything is under control at the moment," Fitz said with compassion. "Go find your wife."

Jed strode down the hall with many members of his senior staff behind him ready to plan out strategy. He opened the door to his office and saw Abbey laying curled up asleep on the couch, her face streaked with tears.

In her dreams, Abbey was plunging through the thick overgrowth of trees, through the thick smoke and fire, intent on only one thing, finding Jed. She could hear him, just off in the distance.

"Abbey...Abbey...," he was calling out. Something in his voice sounded wrong. It was too loud, too close. "Wake up, sleeping beauty," he was saying. Why was he telling her to wake up? She was awake. And, with that thought, she awoke with a start, her heart still pounding from the reality of her dream. It was then that she saw Jed at the foot of the couch. She blinked her eyes, thinking he might still be a part of her dream, that he couldn't be real. They stared at each other for a long moment and, without a word, Jed opened his arms wide for his wife and she flew into them. Abbey was crying and kissing all over his face, causing the staff to smile with the joy of their reunion.

"I thought you were dead...Oh God Jed I thought you were dead," she choked out.

"I know, I'm sorry...I" Before he could finish his apology, Abbey stepped back and slapped him across the face. Everyone in the room gave a sharp intake of breath.

"Hey, that hurt," he gasped in shock. "Why the hell did you do that?"

"That is for having me removed against my will. That is for not coming to the bunker like you promised. That is because you scared the hell out of me, and that is because I love you more than life and I didn't know how I was going to go on living without you." She began to cry again and Jed folded her back into his arms, motioning for his staff to leave them. He then pulled her down onto the couch next to him, stroking her hair and muttering words of comforting nonsense into her ear.

"What happened?" She asked when she had finally calmed. "Why did you disappear?"

"I'll tell you all about it later," he promised, "but right now I have to get back to the situation room and keep a handle on what it is going on out there."

"OK," she smiled at the familiar tone and apologetic look in his eyes.

"You'll be all right?"

"You're alive, Jed," she stroked his cheek. "I'll be just fine."

TBC...