Chapter Eight

WEDNESDAY 9:10, WASHINGTON

The cameras clicked causing that all too familiar sound of foreboding in the air as Jed Bartlet spoke to the country.

"Two hundred women a day are abducted from their homes. No word is heard, no notes, no sign of evidence, just the words of their family members: something is wrong. They are our sisters, and our daughters, the check-out lady at the super market, and they are our friends. We know these women, we work with these women and we know when something is wrong. Something is wrong. I am standing up for all the fathers and the friends. For all the brothers and the sisters of the women who have been lost--- who knew something was wrong. For all the people who know their friends---For all those who know their friend wouldn't just walk away; 'my sister would not disappear with out a trace.' For every father who said, 'Something has happened to my daughter.' I know CJ Cregg. Everyone in this room knows CJ Cregg. The reporters, the assistants, the secretaries, the men and women who clean up at night--."He looked at Toby, Will, and Leo in the doorway. "And my staff. She is our boss, our co-worker and our friend." He took a pause. "And we all know: This is not CJ Cregg. CJ Cregg does not just walk away and Claudia Jean Cregg does not just disappear. I stand here and say: 'something is wrong.'" He paused. "I emplore you, and everyone out there, to help us find her and in turn keep an eye out for all the unnoticed women and men, and children, who don't have someone to say, 'This is not the person I know, the woman I know would not just disappear.' Go find her...."

THE WOODS NORTH CAROLINA

CJ was reliving it again. She walked out of her car and found herself on the pavement on the street in front of her apartment. It was three am and no one was around. Her instinct and adrenaline somehow gave her the strength to push herself up and hastily get to her apartment. She felt someone pull on her, but CJ somehow made it to her apartment door. She swayed in the doorway trying to find her keys. She somehow found them in as much of a hurry as she could. Suddenly, the earth became a roller coaster to CJ. She felt sick as she felt the ground was getting closer. Her door opened and CJ fell flat in the center of it. She could feel shadows walk above her as she slipped and slipped further and further away from the world. Next thing CJ knew she was in a dark room. A man took her hands and tightened the ropes thatwere already around them. CJ screamed and then her mouth was covered and her feet were bound and the shredding of her wrists began. She tried to bite one of the hands and got a wrist as her mouth cover was adjusted. CJ screamed silently inside her head as a gun was thrust in her face and her eyes ran with small tears.

Back in the real world CJ's eyes shot open as she woke up screaming, but now she had Danny close. He felt her body move in the night and her voice let out the cry.

"CJ. You're safe. CJ." He held her.

"Help me. Help me,"

"Shhh" Danny pulled her tight. "You're safe." He looked CJ in the eye. "It's alright. You're safe now." CJ nestled her face into Danny's chest taking hold of his shirt as she quietly cried herself back to sleep. This time Danny tried to stay awake, which was hard with the comfort of CJ's warmth next to him. He had to remind himself she was the one who needed the comforting.

Toby sat at his desk in the darkness in his office. While Josh's reaction to the situation was to run around with the frenzy of a penny racer right before it died, Toby was the exact opposite. Toby held his baseball in his hand, passing it from his left to his right at random intervals. He would have thrown it against a wall, but throwing was for thinking, and Toby really didn't want to think too much. This wasn't a problem he could muss around in his head and put two and two together to find the right answer. Toby felt helpless.

There was something between CJ and Toby that was beyond friendship and beyond love. They had a higher relationship that, much like Toby himself, was a complicated enigma.

Toby looked up to find Andi, his redhead ex-wife and mother to his two children, standing in the doorway. He looked up, still playing back and forth with the ball, but stopping once he set his eyes completely on her. They said nothing as Andi walked over to Toby slowly.

"Hey." Andi said.

"Hey." Toby stood.

Andi put out her arm and laid it on his left shoulder. Toby put his hand on hers and took a breath. They caught eyes and Andi gave Toby the hug he so desperately needed.

"Wait." The President stopped his security detail on the way back to the Oval as he saw Carol crying in her outer office.

"Carol?" he said, peaking his head in, aware he didn't know Carol as well as he knew say Donna or Margaret.

"Mr. President." Carol stood snuffing in her tears.

"No, please sit." The President used his hands to tell her to sit, but Carol stayed standing. "You're pretty close with CJ aren't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Were you on the campaign with us?"

"No, sir."

"Ahh, I thought so. Otherwise we would have gotten to know each other." He paused.

"You listened to my statement from here---." She held in a wave of tears.

"It's not CJ--"

"You've been in here the whole time—?"

"I have memos to---there's a lot of things to get done, Henry's not used to all of this. CJ was always the one---"

"Yeah, that girl needed a night off—"Carol started to cry.

"I'm so sorry, sir." She said lifting up her head and wiping her tears away as more began to fall.

"Hey, never say you're sorry for caring." He looked her in the eye. "Come on, you need to be with people." And Jed took her away from her office.

Jed walked down the hallway and past Toby's office where he saw Andi and Toby talking on the couch.

"Come on." Where all going to my office--Andi too."

"Mr. President." Andi acknowledged Jed.

"Thank you Mr. President....... I'd rather be alone." Toby spoke with his eyes off from view.

"You're not alone now."

"Well, as much as I can be."

"Toby get up. You need to be with people."

The president picked up people as he went creating a parade of those who loved CJ, into the oval office to be, comforted by each other.

The flashlights hit the bushes and all the little corners and small spots around CJ's apartment. Dogs sniffed and sounds and lights were heard all around. The flashlight remained on the one bush, as the officer holding it felt his dog had discovered something.

"What ya got boy." The man asked his dog as he carried a rag in his month. The officer knelt down and took the blood stained rag in his hand.

"Captain! I have something! "He yelled as he cover the rag with the light from his flashlight.

Jed walked into the Oval Office and looked over the crowd. Abbey lifted her head off of Leo's shoulders where she had been resting. Jed saw the look of horror on his friend's face.

"What is it, Leo." Jed stood. All eyes were on Leo as the blood looked like it had drained out of his face.

"They found something."

Josh walked with full speed out of his office

"Call Toby, tell him to stay put. Tell him, I'm coming over."

"He's in the Oval. There all in the Oval."

"Oh." Josh looked around thinking. "Leo?"

"They're all in there."

"Ok, tell them I'm coming over—"

"Josh—"Donna ran after him. "Is it safe for us to tell them what's been going on with Danny?."

"I think we've gone past that point. Something's not right Donna."

"Donna, you have a fax coming in!" An aide yelled.

"Josh, just wait a second—." Donna walked briskly to her fax in her office.

"I'll be over there—"Josh pushed her off as Donna looked at the fax coming in with the picture of the men she remembered from the copies she had taken for Danny.

"Josh! Wait!"

"Donna, I have to go!" He yelled.

"No, no." Donna yelled holding the paper in her hands. "Look at this." She shoved the paper in Josh's hands as he read it quickly. He didn't need much time, his eyes fixated on the same words Donna had seen.

"Oh, my god." Josh said softly to himself.