Sam leaned back in his chair, desperately trying to ignore the incessant pain in his side. Ainsley, Donna, the senior staff, and a few Secret Service and FBI agents were gathered in the Oval Office, discussing Gracie's kidnapping.

"We don't know for sure." Agent Peterson said, "No offense Mrs. Seaborn. Your daughter is missing. A lot of thoughts are going through your mind right now. You're thinking of the first person you can remember."

"Look, she's not stupid." Josh interrupted. "And no offense Agent Peterson but I think she has a better understanding of this than you do."

"Mr. Vice President..."

"Thanks Josh but I think I can stand up for myself." Ainsley said quietly. "I'm not sure you heard me Agent Peterson, but I told you that I was sure."

"You're going on hunches. Just because some guy said something, you immediately jump to conclusions that it's him."

"It's not just some guy." CJ said.

"Ms. Cregg..."

CJ turned to Peterson and gave him a deadly glare.

"Did I ask you to say something Jonathan?"

"CJ..."

"Look, the point is we finally have a suspect." Toby said, "And Gracie is still missing and we still don't know where she is. This may be our only shot."

"No." Peterson shook his head. "It's not. Because anyone in the United States can have a grudge against the president and the only way of hurting him would be to take something dear to him. Hell, anyone in the world could want to hurt him."

"Talking from experience?" Josh asked. Peterson and Josh began arguing and Sam, who had been silent all along, finally spoke up.

"All of you just shut up!" he yelled. The room went silent and they stared at him. "I know this is the guy. So this is what we're going to go on."

"I'm sorry Mr. President but you're not running this investigation." Agent Truman said. Sam swerved his head around towards the lead agent and Josh made a noise. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"Really? Truman, who employed you?"

"The FBI."

"Who runs the FBI?"

"The government."

"And who runs the government?"

"You. Sir."

"Good. I'm not running the investigation but I do run your job. So you'll be doing what I say."

"Actually..." Peterson began to interrupt but Sam turned and looked at him. "This all bull shit."

"What?"

"You should step out of office for the time being. You're ordering us all around and you're out of your mind."

Josh leaned back in his chair and stared at the agent.

"You do realize you're speaking to the President right?"

"No Josh, let him go on." Sam said. "I'm out of my mind? Yeah well you would be too if you lost your daughter!"

"This is what I'm talking about!" Peterson exclaimed. "You're acting on emotion! We can't have the president acting like that while he's trying to run the country! Step down for a while. Let the vice president take over."

"Sam, maybe he's right." Ainsley said quietly. He looked over at her and she looked back at him. "Let Josh step in. It wouldn't even matter if Gracie was here or not. You just got out of the hospital. You're not well enough to run the country yet."

"Ainsley..."

"No Sam. Stop trying to do things when you know that you can't."

"I can too."

"I'm not suggesting. I'm telling you. You can't do this right now."

The room was silent as the rest of the group watched the couple.

"Will you guys leave us alone for a few minutes?" Sam muttered. The group slowly filed out and Sam stared down at his desk. "What is your problem?"

"Excuse me?"

"What is your problem?" Sam repeated.

"Sam, you..."

"I what? What Ainsley? I'm running on pure emotion and I'm not thinking straight?"

"Yes!"

"Well I'm sorry that I care about getting her back."

"And I don't? Don't try pulling that with me Sam! Because you know damn well that I want her back!" Ainsley exclaimed. "You cannot use your goddamn power all the time to make things right! We can't just walk out of here and pick a place to go and see if Gracie is there! The FBI has to do this! They'll find her but you have to stop acting like an ass towards them when they suggest something!"

"Fine! You want me to step down!" Sam yelled. He yanked a drawer open and pulled out a piece of paper, then grabbed a pen. "Here Ainsley!" Sam began writing as he spoke, "I, President Samuel Seaborn, step down from office for the time being and put Vice President Joshua Lyman in charge."

Sam signed it at the bottom, threw the paper at Ainsley, and walked out of the Oval Office. Ainsley stared down at the paper at her feet and stepped over it before following Sam.

"Stop getting pissed off at me!" she hissed, finally catching up with him. "Stop making it seem like I'm the bad guy here because I'm not. Have you even looked at yourself? You're a mess and you think you can run a country? Why the hell aren't you answering me?"

"Because if you haven't noticed during your little rant, we're in the West Wing and there are journalists all around and I don't want Stacey Shepard writing another article about us!" They walked in silence until they were alone. Then Sam spoke again, "You want me to answer you? Yeah I've looked at myself Ainsley. I don't think I'm a mess. And hell yes I think I can run this country."

"Then you need a serious reality check Sam."

"So you don't think I can?"

"Are you insane?" Ainsley exclaimed. "I was talking about right now. So don't try switching it around! All the rest of the time you're a wonderful president but right now you're acting like a madman!"

"Leave me alone Ainsley."

"Fine! But when you accidentally let the military send a nuclear warhead to... to France or something and blow them up and then the rest of the world comes after us just because you're not in the right state of mind... I don't want to hear about it." Ainsley turned on her heel and began walking the other way. Sam stood rooted to the ground, then yelled after her,

"I'm not that stupid!"

---------------TWW--------------

Josh looked up as Sam flopped down in a chair in front of his desk.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"Sparks really flew this afternoon huh?" Josh went back to reading the file in front of him.

"She pisses me off."

"Yet you still love her for some strange, unknown reason."

"Yep."

Josh rolled his eyes and looked up at Sam, waiting for him to say something.

"I know I acted like a bastard."

"Never thought I'd hear you say it." Josh joked. "No. You didn't. Peterson and Truman were acting like bastards but then again, that's how they always are."

"You think Ainsley's right though."

"Yeah. I do. If I was in your position and it was Donna or my kids that were missing, I'd be acting the same way and I would not trust myself with all that power."

"Ainsley says I'm going to blow up France with a nuke."

"It's a possibility. Personally, I'd go for Antarctica, nothing there."

Sam cracked a smile and looked around Josh's office.

"Sam, it's only a few days. You'll be back before you know it."

"I'm never going to get re-elected." he muttered, then sighed, "That was pretty selfish of me. My daughter's missing and all I care about is getting re-elected."

-------------TWW-----------

"I don't know!"

"Well... don't say anything."

"I'm going to have to. This was all your idea anyway! And I think someone knows."

"Who?"

"Her! She's acting funny around me."

"Everyone acts funny around you."

"Shut up! How's the kid?"

"Finally asleep. All she does is whine and complain and everything else under the sun."

"He's not dead."

"I do have a TV and the news but thanks for the info."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. What should I do?"

"Send a bomb to the White House. Get rid of them all at once."

"You're smart. I like that idea."

"We make a great team Ryan."

"Not great enough. I don't want to kill Ainsley. So no bomb. Besides how do you get a bomb into the White House?"

"We'll figure something else out then. They caught Evan."

"Yeah I heard that too. Idiot. I told him not to leave the gun behind."