in every universe, i'm yours.

Neither my characters nor my show.

xx

Elizabeth Adams loved being Secretary of State - really, she did. For a woman who retired from the CIA nearly a decade ago to a life of horse farms and teaching, it was an unexpected but truly wonderful gift.

There were just small moments where all she wanted was a minute to catch her breath. Small, practically non-existent moments between feeling grateful and humbled where she remembered that she was a single parent working 90 hour weeks and how tired she was.

Right now she was experiencing one of those moments.

Her daughter seemed eternally mad at her and had quit college.

Her son had once again gotten in trouble at his new school.

And now she had some meeting with a DIA agent regarding the peace talks in Iran. Peace talks that if she didn't make progress on this week with this Dr. McCord, were going to be off the table in a permanent kind of way.

So, really, surely it was reasonable this was one of those days that held a small moment of defeat for the Secretary of State.

She was pulled out of her reverie by the telltale knock of her assistant Blake, who bustled into her office holding out a pastry and coffee for her, with a very handsome man loitering behind.

"Ma'am, this is Dr. McCord," Blake informed her, placing the coffee and danish on the table in front of her before gliding out of the room.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Madam Secretary," Henry said, offering her his hand.

She immediately took it before asking him to take a seat. "Thank you. Why don't you take a seat Dr. McCord."

"Please, call me Henry, Ma'am," he replied, a brilliant smile spreading across his face.

"Well Henry, I hear you have been working on the Middle East peace talks."

"Yes, I have been. I mean I've just been going over profiles searching for motive and levers and all that negotiating good stuff," he said, pulling his glasses off and putting them into his breast pocket.

"Well, then how about you tell me what you've noticed. I assume this meeting is more than just telling me what you have not been successful at," she asked.

"Of course, but before I say anything I don't want you to think I'm trying to bad mouth the Chief Negotiator. I just want to be completely honest."

"Please, feel free. This is an open space and I need to know everything," she assured him. Henry seemed like a smart and reasonable man who could give her a fair version of what had been happening with the talks. Because although she of course knew all of the on paper information, this was a task that had originally been undertaken by Marsh and she had yet to get a feel for the negotiation room.

"Well, in that case I will say that Allen Ballings is an absolute blowhard who does not seem to actually be paying attention to the Iranian representatives," Henry accused, causing a smile to grace the Secretary's face. "Either he's not up to the job or he doesn't truly want this to succeed?"

"Want to give me an example of something that he has missed, Dr. McCord?" Elizabeth challenged. It was time to see just how intelligent this NSA agent really was.

"Their former UN Ambassador has just joined the talks."

"Javani."

"Yes, there are talks that he used his time at the UN well, taking advantage of the fact that it's the one place he's legally allowed to talk to Americans on American soil-"

"And he is rumored to be the next Foreign Minister. I know all this."

"He's your guy. Take him aside and repeat the offer. I bet you anything that he has the President's ear and that he is the one who can push for the deal."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Mixture of things really – his western education, his work during his time at the UN, other pieces of intelligence that I've been reading over. I've looked at him thoroughly and although I'm not near the analyst that you are I do think that I'm correct."

"I think you are, too," Elizabeth replied, smiling back at him. "And thank you."

She wanted to keep talking to him, had an overwhelming urge to keep him in her office and talk to him - but she couldn't. She had meetings and she didn't actually know the man.

"I'm sure you are very busy, Ma'am, so I'll let you go but here is my card if you need me at all," Henry told her as he slid across the desk a card with the Georgetown University logo embossed in the corner.

"You're a professor too? I mean that's what I was doing before I became Secretary," she told him.

"Yeah, I'm a religion and ethics professor," he told her as he picked up his briefcase and headed for the door.

"Goodbye Dr. McCord. I'll talk to you soon no doubt," she said. "You know – about the talks." God, she thought, could she be more awkward to a virtual stranger?

"I'm sure that we will. Goodbye Ma'am." And with that final comment Dr. McCord left her office.

/ / / / / / /

By the time she got home it was close to midnight, and Elizabeth had spent most of the day reading and investigating what turned out to be a falsified report and was justifiably in a souring mood. Not to mention how the President had chewed her out, she had been forced to deal with idiots and she now had serious suspicions regarding Marsh and Nadine. So when she got home already tired from the long day and Stevie had made some comment about not feeling very appreciated, the Secretary almost understandably snapped.

"You think I don't appreciate you enough?" Elizabeth asked, her voice almost calm and devoid of feeling. "Well, then let me appreciate the way you eat my food, live in my house and do not much of anything else."

Elizabeth regretted the comment as soon as it came out of her mouth. She was tired and stressed and for the past month had been running on nothing but cheap caffeine and adrenaline.

"Because I'm nothing but a college drop out right?" her daughter pressed. "That's what you think of when you talk to me? I got a job and I keep this house running but all you see when you look at me is a college dropout – a failure."

"I never called you a failure," Elizabeth argued back - and she didn't. Don't misunderstand – she wasn't happy with the situation. What mother would be when their oldest child comes home telling her they had dropped out of school, but never had she referred to her daughter as a failure.

"You didn't need to, Mom," her daughter told her. "It's in everything you do."

Elizabeth wanted to say something – anything to defend herself or to make her clearly hurt daughter feel better but before she got the chance Stevie was already picking up her jacket and making a beeline for the nearest exit.

"Where are you going, Stevie? Stay here and let's talk this out," Elizabeth tried to reason. She was so tired that her bones ached. All she wanted was a hot shower and her bed; not to be once again in a fight with Stevie. It seemed that all they did these days were fight and bicker. They had always gotten along so well and Elizabeth sorely missed those days. She knew this particular fight was her own fault, but she couldn't seem to keep her mouth shut.

"I just need to not be here, Mom. I'm going to a friend's and I'll talk to you later."

Elizabeth, against all motherly instincts, let her daughter go. afraid that forcing her to stay would only make the situation worse. And too tired for even a glass of wine Elizabeth made her way upstairs to bed, knowing that in order to deal with both the domestic and foreign problems in her life she was going to need a good night's sleep.

Not that she was going to be getting it, she thought as she walked past her son's room. She could hear him sleeping away and she hoped that at some point that night his sister would join him but Elizabeth seriously doubted it. Why was everything in her life such a mess?

/ / / / / / /

Blake walked into the Secretary's office to an unnerving sight. Elizabeth was lying upside down on the couch, shoes off, reading yet another report. She looked tired, annoyed and most of all like she had been stuck inside her office for an hour too long. He decided to break the moment when he heard an increasingly loud sigh of disapproval.

"Ma'am, may I suggest that you take a break?" Blake asked, his voice laced with concern. He had known the Secretary for so long now that their professional relations had blended into almost a personal one. He had admired her during his time as her TA at the University of Virginia and nothing had made him more proud than to embark on this Secretary of State journey with her. Of course this relationship often meant that he was the one to make sure she was eating, sleeping and returning home whenever possible – a job that was not made easy thanks to the stubborn streak that ran strong through the veins of Elizabeth Adams.

"Nah, I'm good. I need to finish reading this report before my meeting with the President," Elizabeth argued, turning another page of the report.

"No offence, Ma'am, but that was not so much a request as, well, the closest thing I can give you to an order," Blake amended nervously. He so often just went with whatever the Secretary wanted that whenever he pushed her it put him on edge and really made her reevaluate her situation.

"Well, while technically you can't give me anything that even sounds vaguely like an order, I will take your concern on board and go for a coffee at that place that I like," Elizabeth agreed, standing up from the couch and stretching her body. "I shouldn't be any longer than a half hour," she said, as Blake handed her a coat and bag.

"Take your time, Ma'am," Blake encouraged as he motivated her toward the elevator. "We don't have any meetings for the next two hours and that report will still be here when you return."

"Yes, yes it will," Elizabeth muttered as she walked away from her office. The report was the same one that she had been dealing with the day before regarding Canada and the pipeline. She was trying to see if there was any small part of it that was at all salvageable but at hour three she seriously doubted it. There was almost nothing Elizabeth hated more than people who were motivated by pure self-interest and that was exactly the kind of people that wrote, requested and submitted that report.

It was not helping her stress levels that she was now seriously concerned about the public vs. private agenda of the former Secretary. It was becoming more and more obvious that he was not as well-liked amongst the Washington crowd as it was purported in the news, making the advice George had heeded her more and more worrying the more she found out.

As she entered the coffee shop she decided to try to take a break from thinking about her job, as impossible as that sounded. All she wanted was ten minutes to drink a cup of coffee in peace – or as much peace as she could get when surrounded by the circus that was the Diplomatic Security. Not that she didn't appreciate them or their work because she certainly did. She knew that their sole purpose in her life was to keep her safe and make sure that her kids didn't lose their mother but it also meant that just doing the smallest things, such as going out to get a coffee turned into a three-ring circus. She was broken out of her reverie by a familiar voice calling her name. "Madam Secretary."

It was Dr. McCord, the very intelligent and very handsome NSA agent who she had been working with on the Middle East peace talks. "It's lovely to see you again, Dr. McCord."

"Please, I told you to call me Henry. Especially while I'm not in the office," he told her as they both waited in line for coffee. "Would you like to join me for a coffee, Ma'am? I understand if you are too busy but I thought I'd put the offer out there."

As he asked Elizabeth couldn't help but notice just how lovely his smile was. She never dated, even before being Secretary, and she knew that with this man she had to work with, it was hardly professional, but she was so tired and so stressed that the idea of having a coffee with a handsome man seemed to be the nicest idea in the world. "Yes, Henry, that would be lovely."

They grabbed their coffee from the lady and made their way to a nearby table. She tried to pick one that would make her DS agents the least nervous but she could feel their annoyance as she sat down. She knew it spoke volumes of her stress levels but reveled a little in the feeling of once again annoying Frank.

"How have you been since our meeting, Secretary Adams?" Henry enquired. He didn't know why he was so forward with her as to ask her for coffee. She was just the most beautiful woman that he had seen in such a long time, not to mention smart and funny, and he felt himself ask her before his mind had even caught up to what his mouth was doing.

"I've been alright. Going over the things you told me, preventing war with Canada, doing my best to make my children hate me,'" she joked. "So just the usual story in the lives of the Adams family."

"Still, other than the stress of it all, I'm sure spending some time with your children was nice," he proposed. "What have you got?"

"A college daughter and a thirteen-year-old son. Well – kind of a college daughter. It's a bit of a longer story. What about you? Any children yourself, Dr. McCord?" Elizabeth asked trying to take the spotlight off her own children. It was just making her think about the disastrous fight she had just had with Stevie which was doing nothing to alleviate her anxiety levels.

"I share with you the joys of a daughter. Allison is fifteen so we are deep in the trauma of the teenage years," he joked before getting serious. "Not that she isn't an absolute delight because she is. I lost her mother during childbirth so it's just been me and Allie for so long now."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Henry," Elizabeth told him. And she was, even if for some reason that she was really not willing to think about today, a relief that he was clearly single. He was talking about his dead wife – potentiality for a future date should be the furthest thing from her mind.

"No, don't be," he assured her. "It's not too bad. I mean it's not ideal. I wish that she could have a mother and that her mother could see just how perfect she is but it was fifteen years ago so I've done my grieving, Ma'am."

God, he was so perfect. He was clearly a loving and devoted father if he too was doing it alone. She could tell that much by the look in his eye when he even briefly talked about his daughter. She wished that she could think about pursuing something with this man, even something as simple as a second coffee but she did not have the time or space in her life for a boyfriend. She had one of the most demanding jobs in the country and when she wasn't in the office she was trying to make sure her kids remembered that she existed.

"Please Henry, when we aren't at the office call me Elizabeth." She knew this was a mistake, and that she should create clear professional boundaries with Henry. But no matter how hard she tried she couldn't help but feel a pull for the man currently sitting in front of her.

"It would be a pleasure," he told her smiling a wide and kind grin that went all the way to his eyes. "So, what's the longer story about your daughter?"

"Oh, it's not much really. She was a college student but she… dropped out a few weeks ago," Elizabeth revealed to him, her eyes staring straight down into her coffee. "It's a bit of a sore topic between the two of us recently. I want her to go back and pursue an education and she… well she doesn't seem to want that right now.

"I can understand that it would be difficult. I've yet to go down the college road with Allie," he told her kindly. "I'm sure she'll come around eventually. You haven't been in the public eye for very long though. Maybe she just needs to get use to one thing at a time."

"That might be it," Elizabeth considered. "Truth is, last night we got into a pretty hefty fight about it. I was tired and inconsiderate and she thought that I've been treating her like a failure since her return."

"Well, it's not an easy thing on any family, let alone one that the press would sure love to hound," he assured her. "I usually just… well I don't know what I usually do. Allison is usually too well behaved but maybe just talk to your daughter. She clearly can't be telling you everything – no one just randomly drops out of college. As an ex-professor you'd know that."

"I do, I do know that and you are right. I've given her space and time to come to me, maybe now is the time for me to push her," Elizabeth said, feeling more at ease than she had in days. "Stevie is so stubborn and can be so hard to reach sometimes. My parents died when I was younger so I've never really had anyone to guide me through this whole teenage daughter thing."

"Well, at least you were a teenage girl," Henry told her. "I'm just flying blind with Allison. I mean I could ask her aunt but I don't exactly need a second Maureen in the family."

Elizabeth was about to respond – to share in the angst of having a difficult sibling when Agent Cole came up to her and reminded her of the time. She had been sitting there with Henry for forty five minutes!

"I'm so sorry, Henry," Elizabeth said, leaping up from her seat and almost knocking over the table. "I was really having a lovely time but I have to go. My coffee break was not supposed to be this long."

"Really, it's no problem, Elizabeth," Henry assured her. "It was lovely just to be able to have this chat with you."

"The pleasure was all mine," Elizabeth told him. "And thank you for your advice about Stevie. Your daughter is lucky to have you." And with that last sentence and a final wave, Diplomatic Security swept the Secretary of State out of the coffee shop and toward the Department of State.

/ / / / / / / / /

By the time she had gotten back to her office after talking to the President it had become clear that she would be working through most of the evening.

It was a good night for her work to keep her behind as Jason was at his friend's house and Stevie seemed like she still wasn't talking to her mother. It was a situation that Elizabeth desperately wanted to fix.

She didn't like fighting with her kids. It was just the three of them and therefore when any of them were mad at another it was felt throughout the whole house. Never really before though had one of her children left the house in anger. It felt like just yesterday that both of her children were much too young to do anything other than slam their bedroom door and blast their music. Elizabeth was finding out that there was nothing she hated more than having a child away from home whilst being mad at her.

She decided she needed to fix it and she needed to take action to do that today. Elizabeth sent off a quick text to her daughter:

Stevie, come by the office for dinner. Jason is at a friend's place tonight and I really want to fix this x

It took twenty minutes but she eventually she got the reply that she had desperately been hoping for.

Fine. I'll bring that stuff from that Thai place you like. See you in 30.

By the time Stevie arrived Elizabeth was chock full of nerves. The two of them fighting was not new but Stevie leaving the house before the fight was settled definitely was and it was not something that Elizabeth had enjoyed.

She loved her children more than anything in the world and wanted nothing more than for them to be happy and well-rounded adults. It was partly why she had accepted the position as Secretary of State – she had wanted to begin to build a world where her son and daughter would no longer live under the threat of nuclear war.

Stevie and Elizabeth were much alike but recently with everything that had changed in both of their lives it seemed like they had forgotten how to communicate. She knew that they needed to work on changing that and she wanted to begin that today making her nerves highly charged.

"So, I'm here and I have the requested food," Stevie said as she entered her mother's office.

"You could sound more pleased to be here, Stephanie," Elizabeth noted, garnering an eye roll form her oldest child. "I do love you, Stevie."

"Then you have a funny way of showing it to me," Stevie argued.

"I know, baby, and I should not have talked to you with any sort of tone or referred to you as a college dropout but to be fair… you haven't really talked to me about why you left Lovell. I assume it's not just their need aware policy but how would I know?" Elizabeth said, exasperated. She had a very intelligent, kind and thoughtful daughter but she was not someone who opened up very often – even to her mother.

"I- I just… it's complex, Mom."

"Then explain it to me, baby," Elizabeth pleaded. "I thought you were so happy there and then all of a sudden you were in my foyer telling me you'd quit college and that was that."

Stevie went quiet as she played with her food avoiding her mother's gaze. She didn't know how to explain to her Mom that while she had been helping to save the world her daughter had basically been on display at university. That she had no friends anymore that she could trust weren't there for the wrong reasons. That she was tired of being at college and trying to live up to her mother who cast a long shadow of achievements over her.

"Mom, I," Stevie said before going silent again. "All I was in college was the daughter of Secretary of State Elizabeth Adams. Ever since you took that job people who hated me have wanted to be my friends and people who were my friends wanted to be better friends. They take more notice and whisper about me and some students hate me because of Uncle – sorry President Dalton's policies."

The room went silent again as Elizabeth tried to take in everything her daughter had said.

That was the very, very last thing she wanted for either one of her children. As much as she wanted to be a role model for her daughter and to prove that women can do anything she never wanted to set an impossible bar for her daughter to clear. Nor did she want this job to take away the privacy that she raised her daughter to cherish. The idea that her job, this dream job, had such negative effects on her daughter's life broke her heart.

"Sweetheart, why would you not tell me this?"

"Because you're busy saving the world," Stevie said, her voice beginning to crack. "What kind of selfish idiot does it make me if I get sad because people know who my extremely intelligent and powerful mother is? And it's not even that they know who you are – it's the way they treat me because of that."

"First of all, you have never been selfish and you have never been an idiot. And in the future I want you to tell me these things," Elizabeth assured her. "That being said eventually you are going to go back to college. Maybe not now and maybe not in the next six months but eventually I want you to get an education."

"I know," Stevie said. "But I just can't right now." She did want to go back eventually but she had seriously underestimated just how hard college would be. It wasn't the academics that she had struggled with, like her mum said she was a smart and intelligent girl, but she found it hard to be away from home. She had been raised in a small and single parent home where her mother and her brother were everything and although she was glad to move off their small horse farm in their small town, moving away from the only family she had turned out to be a daunting and unwelcome task.

"And I really, truly get that, baby," Elizabeth said before asking, "So, fight over?"

"Fight over."

"Oh, thank god. I do not enjoy arguing like that with you," Elizabeth revealed as a weight lifted off her shoulders. There was nothing in this world she hated more than fighting with her children. With that she took another bite of her lovely dinner and moved on to other topics of conversation with her daughter.

/ / / / / / / / /

It wasn't until the day before the ball that Elizabeth finally found the time in her busy schedule to call Henry regarding her plan to get the peace talks back on Iran's agenda. She had taken his advice and formed a plan for the President to sign off on and it she thought that it was only fair that she include him - it was his intel that might have saved this entire peace deal.

Not that the passing days had really mattered. She was a grown woman who was perfectly capable of not talking to a man, even one that had captured her attention as much as Dr. McCord. In fact because of the way that he had started to break down her walls there was even more reason to delay contacting him.

However, despite the inner neuroses of Elizabeth Adams she really did actually need Henry to be at the party that Canada was throwing for her to make sure that everything went to plan so she really did need to call him.

And really, his lovely velvet voice had nothing to do with how quick her fingers dialed his number when they had been given the chance.

"Madam Secretary," he said as he answered the phone, "It's nice to hear from you again, what can I do to serve?"

"Dr. McCord, I just wanted to extend an invitation for a party on Friday. It's being thrown in my honor by Canada," she told him. "I usually hate these things but I'm going to finally get the peace talks back on track there. We'll finally be off American soil so I can speak to Minister Javani. "

"I serve at your pleasure Ma'am, of course I'll be there."

She stayed silent for a moment, not wanting to end the phone call. She had so much to thank this man for in the short time that she had known him. Mainly for giving her the tools to really begin to mend her relationship with her daughter.

"I'm really pleased to hear that," she revealed. "You were so much help when it came to Intel that your support would be very much appreciated on Friday."

"Oh, there is absolutely no need to thank me. It's all part of the job," he assured her.

"Great," she said gratefully, "Well, my assistant Blake will forward you all the details."

"I look forward to it." The line went quiet for another fifteen seconds before Henry broke the silence. "Was there anything else, Ma'am?"

"Oh, umm yes actually. I spoke to my daughter following our conversation and I just wanted to thank you," Elizabeth said quickly. She had wanted to thank him, felt the need to do it in her bones but she couldn't enjoy it. It felt too unprofessional to say during a work call.

"You sound like a loving mother, Elizabeth. You would have done exactly what I suggested without my pushing eventually but I'm glad to have been able to help it along," Henry told her. God, the way he said her voice made a shiver run down her spine. It was completely unfair – she was meant to be working with this man, not developing a silly schoolgirl crush on him.

"Either way," Elizabeth began. "I'm glad that I could get your wise counsel."

"Like I said Ma'am, I serve at your pleasure."

Elizabeth smiled to herself as she once again thanked Henry before exchanging final pleasantries with him and hanging up the phone.

/ / / / / / / / /

It was 6pm on Friday and Elizabeth was running very late. Then again, these days it seemed like she was always running late for something. It appeared to go hand in hand with being a single mother and Secretary of State. Someone always wanted more time with her than she could give. Tonight, the threat to her work-family balance was the Canadian party being thrown in her honor.

"Stevie? Jase?" she called out and she rushed down the stairs, happily greeted by the smells of someone, most likely her daughter, cooking dinner.

"In the kitchen, Mom."

She finally made it down the final step to the sight of her family. Her son at the kitchen table, presumably doing his homework, and her daughter pouring different spices into a boiling pot. Elizabeth didn't know where her offspring got her cooking skills, except that it definitely was not from her.

"What's on the menu?" Elizabeth asked.

"Chicken chilli tonight," Stevie replied, handing her mother a small glass of wine. "I will leave you some to eat when you get home."

"God, I love you. You are, without a doubt, my favourite daughter."

"I bet you say that to all your daughters," Stevie retorted as she turned off the stove. Elizabeth passed her the plates and they began to serve up dinner.

"But I only mean it with you," Elizabeth promised. "Now, quickly tell me all about your day. I have about five minutes to finish this wine and catch up on your busy lives before I need to head to this event."

"Well, I got given yet another bogus assignment but what else can be expected from an organization whose sole intent is to stop their students from being free thinkers," her son complained, earning an eye roll from his mother. Truly, the anarchist of the family.

"Well, I just cleaned and cooked, how was your day, Mom?" Stevie asked. "You know with us being on the verge of multiple wars, one nuclear?"

"We are not on the verge of a nuclear war. Henry and I are working very hard to made this peace deal go through," Elizabeth assured them. "And Canada? We'd blow them right out of the water."

"Who's Henry?" Stevie asked with a wink.

"Just someone I'm working with on the Middle East peace talks," Elizabeth responded, a pink blush rising to her cheeks.

"Sure, sure Mama," her daughter commented, "we can all see you blushing. Is he handsome?"

"I'm his boss, the Secretary of State and I don't date so it hardly matters, does it?" Elizabeth responded, polishing off her glass of wine, unable to look her children in the eyes.

"I'll take that as a yes." And with that Elizabeth didn't get a chance to respond as she got yet another text requesting her ETA, requiring her to give her kids a quick kiss goodbye and rush out the door.

/ / / / / / /

When he saw her at the party, his heart stopped.

She was in a long, sleeveless blue dress and he didn't think he had ever seen anyone as beautiful.

He knew that he shouldn't be having those thoughts, that she was the Secretary of State and it was completely inappropriate but it was really unavoidable.

Ever since her hand touched his, the thoughts running through his mind had been anything but professional.

She was pretty and she was smart and he wished he'd met her just a year sooner.

But Henry couldn't help but remember how she'd asked him to call her Elizabeth, that she had talked to him more than was professionally required. He couldn't help but feel that maybe this infatuation he had with her may be double sided.

He didn't know what it meant even if it was requited. She was still a public figure and seemingly a private one at that but he wanted to try. He wanted to push just a little in the hope that he wouldn't just be shoved away.

He waited until near the end of the evening as to let her take care of any of the official business that she needed too. But when the room started to thin out a little and when he felt like he could wait no longer he made his way over to her, brushing past her security detail.

"Madam Secretary," he said, pulling her slightly on the arm. "Would you like to get some air on the patio with me?" He noticed the patio earlier and it appeared to him to be somewhere slightly more private where they could talk more openly and freely.

"That would be lovely," she replied, a beautiful but shy smile gracing her face.

He placed her hand on top of his own and accompanied her to the door. Her security went to follow them but at her wave off, they stepped back to wait for her by the patio entrance door.

"I'm glad it all worked out tonight," Henry told her quietly. "My daughter will be mightily relieved."

"Allison, right?" she asked, a large smile covering her face.

"Yes, Allison May McCord," he told her. "She's a sweet girl, just one that worries too much. Ever since she was little and realized that she only had one parent where most had two, she has been afraid of something happening to me."

"It must be difficult at times," Elizabeth said as she reached out for his hand seemingly without realizing it. "He's completely uninvolved and a complete jackass but at least if worst came to worst Stevie and Jason's father is still alive."

Elizabeth stared off into the distance regretting bringing up her ex-husband. He was not part of her present nor would he play a part in her future. She was taken out of her thoughts by the cool wind that hit the balcony.

"It's alright. It was obviously really difficult at the time but like I said the other day I've moved on," he told her, gripping her hand a little tighter. "What about you? How did that argument with your daughter go?"

She gave a small chuckle before replying. "It's fine now. We had a good chat and understand each other a lot more now."

"That's good to hear," he told her and the thing that struck Elizabeth most was just how genuine he sounded. She had opened up to him during a weak moment in a coffee shop and he had cared. "So, tell me about your son?"

"Well unlike Allison and her more legitimate worries, Jason is more vexed about the corrupt Establishment than anything else."

"So you have a revolutionary in the family?" he said, noticing once again just how much she lit up when she talked about her children.

"Well, I think he would use the term anarchist rather than revolutionary but basically," she told him. "Sometimes I'm not sure if he respects my work or if he just respects me despite the work."

"Well, maybe it's a little of both. Without government institutions what would the Anarchist have to anarchy about," he joked, causing the blonde to throw her head back and laugh.

"That is a lovely way to think about it," she agreed, throwing her head back as she chuckled. "Thank you, Henry."

The way she thanked him, her voice low and gravelly, made him turn to face her. The look in her eyes, of pure want and desire, made his heart stop for the second time that night. He wanted nothing more than to push her against the railing, kissing her until she begged for more.

He thought that he just might do it when she beat him to the punch. She leant up and he thought he knew what was going to happen just a millisecond before it did. He could imagine the softness of her lips and the way her arms would feel wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer. Just the thought of a kiss with the delectable blonde standing an inch from him almost did him in before, with a panicked look in her eyes, Elizabeth backed off.

"Elizabeth?" he asked, his eyed closed as is body recovered from what almost was. She didn't reply but rather instead picked up her purse and took off, rushing inside to the safe bubble of her security team whilst leaving behind a stunned Henry.

So, let me know what you think and I will begin working on the next chapter.