Sam had never been good at being helpless. The dark haired man stood and walked over to the doorway of the main room straining to see inside. However he was stopped at every step by a terrorist pressing a gun in his face.

Reluctantly Sam returned to his seat next to C.J.

"Did you see anything?"The press secretary asked in an anxious whisper.

Sam leaned back against the wall. "He's still standing, but we're running out of time. The two hour time limit's almost up."

"I hope Donna pulls through."C.J. stated quietly as she pulled her knees to her chest.

Sam glanced at the open door of the embassy. "So do I. I honestly don't know what Josh will do if she doesn't."

**********

Danny hadn't wanted to leave the Embassy especially without knowing what was going on with C.J., but he also knew he couldn't do anything for her there.

As the elevator doors opened onto the third floor Danny instantly spotted Charlie Young leaning against the wall flanked by two secret service agents.

The young black man walked toward him shaking his head. "Danny....."

Concanon held up his hand. "I know you can't give me a statement. I don't care about my job right now. I just came to find out how Donna was."

Charlie turned back signaling the agents to stay where they were. He turned back to face Danny just as the reporter came to stand next to him.

"She's hanging in there."Charlie replied quietly.

"But....."Danny prompted as they moved out of the way of a pair of doctors.

"They're worried about the blood loss and she's picked up a fever."Charlie commented as he leaned against the wall.

********

Bartlet impatiently waved the CIA director and the FBI director into the Oval office. Josh had already been on hold for ten minutes and Jed didn't want to waste another precious second.

"Can I pick up the phone now?"The President asked as the men stopped next to Leo.

"Yes, Mr. President."The CIA director replied as he attached a sophisticated tape recorder to the phone line. "Try to get your man to get the head terrorist on the phone we need to get a voice match."

Bartlet nodded as he sat on the corner of his desk and picked up the receiver. "Josh? Are you alright?"

"For the moment, Sir."Lyman replied.

"What about the others?"Jed asked with concern.

"Sam and C.J. are fine."Josh replied glancing at the head terrorist warily. "Donna was..........shot."

"We know."The President replied sadly. "She's being taken care of."

"Thanks."Josh replied just as the phone was ripped out of his hand.

"We've been extremely patient, Mr. President."The terrorist stated coldly as he roughly shoved Josh away. "We've shown good faith and we expect something in return."

Bartlet stood as his hand tightened on the receiver. "You hurt one more of those people and you won't get anything from me!"

The terrorist laughed. "You're in no position to make threats, Mr. President. You have our demands, I expect to see results in twenty minutes. Or we will start tossing a body out every five minutes."

Jed winced as the line went dead.

********