Abbey walks out and Leo and Julia sit back down.

"Was that the President on the phone just then?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. And that was the First Lady I was just speaking to?"

"Yeah."

"Is it possible that this is the most awful and bizarre dream I have ever had?"

"Afraid not."

"How much longer until they tell us something?"

Leo looks at his watch. "Three, maybe four hours. I'm gonna step outside and make a phone call. You want anything? Coffee or…"

Julia shakes her head.

Leo walks outside and calls Sam.

"Leo!"

"The First Lady said you talked to Annabeth's office. What do they know?"

"You know they got the guy?"

"Yeah. Frank – the security head – he said they shot him in the garage."

"Yeah. He's dead."

"Who is he?"

"They don't know."

"Okay. What the hell do they know, Sam? How does this happen? She just gave up her personal security a few weeks ago. No one saw this coming?"

"The garage is locked and you need a key card to get in. There are cameras. It looks like he got in last night. He drove his car in right behind another one that had a key card."

"They know the first car?"

"Yeah. It was someone who worked in the building. He didn't realize the guy behind him was anything. Security had their eyes on her as she arrived and when they saw a man approaching her, they were in the garage in 30 seconds."

"Too goddamn late, Sam."

"Yeah."

"Okay. I gotta go."

Leo walks back into the waiting room. Julia looks up. "Is there news?" Leo shakes his head and sits down.

"On the plane...I was thinking about when Annabeth and I were kids. We'd play this game at the beach called 'Every Man for Himself.' We'd float out on a raft to where it was deep enough that neither one of us could stand, and then we'd try to push each other off the raft. If you got pushed off, you had to try and climb back on while the other person did everything they could to keep you in the water. I'm three years older than Annabeth, so I usually won. I'd get her in the water but then she would just fight. I mean, she would launch herself at that raft."

"This was a game?"

Julia smiles. "It sounds a little Lord of the Flies?"

"A little bit."

"I guess we knew we had to count on ourselves...Anyway, eventually Annabeth figured out that if she made me laugh really hard, I wouldn't be able to keep her off the raft. So she would do this ridiculous thing where she'd pretend to be a whale and she'd make these insane sounds."

Leo starts to smile.

"It was a cross between a goose and maybe like a tuba sound. She'd sort of flop her arms around and make the sounds and I could not keep it together. And then she'd just climb right back on the raft. If anyone had been anywhere near us, they would have thought we were nuts."

Julia turns to face Leo. "I guess what I'm saying is that Annabeth has always been a fighter. And she'll do whatever she needs to do to get back on this raft."

Leo starts to say something but his voice breaks and he can't get the words out. Julia takes his hand. "We're not going to lose her, Leo. We're just not."

Three hours later

Julia looks at her watch. "Why aren't they telling us anything?" She's pacing the floor. "They said twelve hours, right? It's been twelve." She runs her left hand through her hair and looks down.

"Your sister does that."

"Does what?"

"She runs her left hand through her hair and looks down when she's trying to remember something or really thinking about something."

Julia looks at him. "You really love her, don't you?"

"Yeah. I do."

"Yeah. She's kind of crazy about you, too." She smiles. "It matters to me that she's happy, Leo. Other than Bella, she is my world."

"You need to call home?"

"I don't know what to tell them, Leo. What am I supposed to say to Bella? That men are so angry at her aunt for saying that women have a right to…" She starts to cry. "I've begged her to stop. To find something else. Something that doesn't make people want to kill you. But, she wouldn't hear it. She'd say 'Bella deserves better. We have to work to give her something better.' I love her so much, Leo. I can't tell Bella…"

Leo hugs her. "Okay. It's okay."

The doors open and two doctors walk in. "Ms. Schott?'