Thank you to everyone who has read this little story and left comments along the way, this fandom is really great.

I thought about doing something a tiny bit smutty in this chapter but then I got awkward and chickened out. Hope this final chapter is OK instead…

Chapter Four

Despite the harsh ring of the alarm clock that roused her from sleep, Elizabeth woke feeling unusually peaceful and comforted. She was lying on her side, cocooned in the duvet, but it was Henry's body wrapped closely around hers that left her feeling content even as the alarm clock informed her that it was time to get up.

She reached one arm out of bed to silence the ringing, and then rolled over on the mattress to face her husband. She found him blinking drowsily, his eyes still blurred with sleep but watching her intently as she settled back down, tangling her legs with his and smoothing one hand down his side.

He brushed a lock of her hair off her shoulder and left his fingers to trail against her skin. "OK?" he asked quietly.

She thought about it before answering. The previous day had been a difficult one, and she was still aware that there were things to be dealt with, but spending the night in bed with Henry had helped to ground her, reminded her that a bad day was just that – one day out of thousands. She was mostly telling the truth when she answered, "Yeah. You?"

"Hmm, if you're planning on staying here with me." The hand he had placed between her shoulder blades pressed her towards him, keeping her with him in the bed.

Not that she had been trying to leave in the first place. She snuggled into him. "Five more minutes."

Then she would be ready to get up and go to work and deal with all the problems she had abandoned last night in their living room.

Elizabeth moved one hand up to tilt Henry's face down so she could kiss him good morning. He responded eagerly, leaning over her to swipe his tongue into her mouth and pressing her down into the mattress. She would have been happy to spend the whole five minutes like that, but after a minute Henry gentled the kiss before pulling away and settling back onto his side, fiddling with a strand of her hair. There was a slightly unsettled expression on his face, like he was undecided about something.

She smoothed her thumb over the little crease that had appeared between his eyebrows, trying to erase the frown. "Henry, what is it?"

He swallowed, catching her hand in his and bringing it up to his lips so he could press a kiss to her palm. Then he held their joined hands pressed against his chest and Elizabeth could feel the steady, healthy thump of his heartbeat against the back of her hand. Henry breathed out, long and slow. "I'm sorry for punching the bookcase," he said.

There were many responses that sprung to mind, but he didn't seem like he was finished, so she stayed quiet, watching him patiently and giving him the space to speak.

"It was… not a helpful reaction," he went on.

Elizabeth guessed that he was feeling guilty for the small outburst. She was about to say something to reassure him, but Henry continued before she could find the words.

"It's just that… there's this dichotomy, you know? In our lives now." The leg he had placed over hers tightened, like he needed the comfort of contact to get out what he wanted to say. "On one level we're safer that we've ever been. There are armed guards right outside our front door."

He paused, obviously thinking, looking away and then back at her, moisture in his eyes that caught in the dim light of their bedroom. "But then there's also this… risk," he said, and it was clear he was referring in part to the email from the day before, the fact that her job made her a target. "This threat. And it's not about the violence. Or it is. It is about that but not just about that. It's the intrusion. That this guy on the internet thinks he has the right to send those things to you because of your job. It's wrong, and I hate that I can't do anything about it."

And there, Elizabeth knew, was at least part of the problem. Henry was a man who liked to take care of things. From the beginning, he had always been there with solutions to problems, was always willing to step up and fix things for her even when she hadn't asked him to. This was something he couldn't fix, and she knew it must be hard for him.

But he wasn't entirely correct in his assessment. "Yes, you can," she said, loosing her hand from his so she could cup her palm against his face, stroking her thumb over the thin skin beneath his eye. "I just need you to stay by my side. And talk to me if you're worried."

"I'll always worry about you."

"Ditto." Sometimes he needed reminding that it worked both ways. "And hey, if you really want to do something about it, you can join my new taskforce on advancing international gender equality and really annoy Roger Norris."

That got a little smile out of him, at least. "Founding member," he promised. He wrapped his arm around her and then rolled onto his back, pulling her with him to sprawl across his chest.

She pressed her ear to his chest and listened to the thump of his heart while his fingers drew nonsensical patterns across her back and his body started to relax back into the mattress. Elizabeth played over what he had said in her mind, about the intrusion into their lives.

He was right.

The intrusion was hard. Not just the obvious things like death threats from a man who hadn't met her and probably never would, but the other things like the situation with the President and the tax returns. She was aware that in her job the line between public and private could be a blurred one, but she was never in any doubt that keeping Henry feeling secure and their private world intact was more important than anything else. She needed that.

When the anxiety surfaced because of some bastard's email, or something went wrong on her watch, or she just had a bad day at her stressful job, she needed the security of the bubble she shared with Henry and their children. It was at risk sometimes, despite the armed guards outside her front door, and she had to admit that she shared Henry's concern that there wasn't much they could do about it.

Except this, she thought. Except spend the night in bed together and sneak an extra five minutes after the alarm went off in the place where they could be closest, to strengthen their private world against the risks and intrusions that threatened it.

"Your phone is buzzing," Henry murmured, one hand buried deep in her hair and the other sliding feather light up and down her arm, drawing a shiver from her.

It was. Elizabeth groaned. "That wasn't five minutes yet."

Henry wrapped an arm around her back to keep her in place and then rolled until he could grab her phone from the night stand, handing it to her as he settled back into place. "You can't leave yet. It's the rule."

"No argument from me."

She awkwardly thumbed the screen of her phone to find a collection of messages and missed calls; no surprise after she went off the grid relatively early the night before. First she read a brief text from Russell, from which she deduced he had talked Conrad back down to earth over the HUD thing. One bit of good news.

Then she dialled her voicemail. There was a message from Jay, who was predictably incensed over the trade proposals put forward by their new friend the Prince of the Desert. And one from Daisy, about doing an interview with a French newspaper to try and smooth over the debacle of the day before.

The third message was from one of the cyber security guys. "Henry," she said as she listened to the man identify himself.

Her husband roused himself at the urgency in her tone and they both sat up as she pressed the speakerphone button so they could both hear the message.

"I just thought you'd like to know, Ma'am," the man's recorded voice said. "The local PD has arrested Roger Norris in Tennessee following receipt of your email. We've looked into things and I don't think you have anything to worry about. It's not a credible threat. We're going to hold him for questioning and there are plenty of things we can charge him with, but he's not gonna act on his threats, I'm sure of that." Then he gave his number, and told her to call him later if she wanted any further reassurances.

Elizabeth hung up the phone and tossed it onto the bed among the blankets. She had expected to feel relief at finding out what she already suspected to be true – that Roger Norris was a man with a gun but no bullets. Instead, she felt… shaken.

Like there had been an intrusion.

Henry's arms wrapped around her from behind and he pressed a desperate kiss to her temple. "Thank God."

"Yeah," she agreed. She took one deep breath, two, and felt the tension start to dissipate. She focused on the feeling of Henry's arms around her and felt her equilibrium slowly returning. "I have to go to work."

Henry must have caught the slight tone of apprehension because he snagged her chin with one finger and turned her to face him. "Today will be better," he promised, and she found that she believed him.

As long as… "You'll be here when I get home?"

His smile lit up his face, prompting her smile for him in return. He kissed her once, twice, tucked her hair behind her ear. His face softened. "Ready and waiting. Faithfully yours."

Today would be better.

Thanks for reading! Also, if anyone has any random prompts/requests for fics they'd like to see, do let me know. I'm looking for literally all the distractions right now.