Chapter One ~ The Pain

The thought of admitting that Iran had changed her was too scary. The image of that little boy hiding behind a chair, reaching for his dead father was going to stick with her forever. It made her sick to her stomach. She wanted so badly to protect him. Or atleast shield him from seeing his father murdered in his living room. Instead she vowed to protect her own children.

The ambulance ride to the hospital seemed to be taking forever. She was left with her mind racing. Thoughts about all the fighting she was having with Henry. All the yelling she was doing at her staff. Thoughts of ways she could make it up and apologize to Henry. With everything that was going on already, she was now having a heart attack. She was too young to have one. Had she worked herself up so much? She saved the world from war with Iran. How was she going to protect her children now?

She felt the ambulance back up to the doors of the emergency room and she pulled the oxygen mask down her face. It felt like it was suffocating her.

"Ma'am you must keep it on!" the EMT stated firmly. He reached over and pulled it back on her face.

She turned her head to Frank and closed her eyes. He was literally worried about her. When they stopped, the EMTs quickly pulled her out of the ambulance. The Cardiologist was waiting for them outside. Her security team made a big circle around her and the medical personnel.

"Madam Secretary, I am Dr. Travkin. We are going to take good care of you." He said as he walked along as the EMTs pushed her through the hospital.

"Forty-six year old female, complaining of chest pains, shortness of breath. Sinus Tach, EKG done in the bus. Hypertension, two liters of oxygen." Stated one of the EMTs.

Henry came racing down the hall, glad he had caught up with them. He ran quickly to Elizabeth's side and grabbed her hand. "Baby, I'm here!" He whispered to her as he rubbed circles on her shoulder.

They wheeled her into a private room as three nurses came in after them. Frank and the other guards stood outside her room. All the nurses and EMTs helped pull her off the gurney and onto the hospital bed. One nurse logged into the computer to document as another helped her take her blouse off and put on a hospital gown. The nurse connected her to the monitor and took another EKG. Henry wanted to be right by her side but didn't want to get in the way. Elizabeth laid her head back as far as she could. It helped her breath. The third nurse retrieved some blood for labs. Once they were done all their assessments, they left Elizabeth to rest.

Once they left, Henry went to sit on the bed next to her. He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. She didn't feel so claustrophobic since they took the mask off and switched to a nasal cannula. She opened her eyes and looked at him. Tears started streaming down her cheeks. He could see the fear in her eyes. Henry quickly moved to lay down next to her. He wrapped his arms around her as she nestled herself into him. He wanted to take her fears and pain away.

Lightly placing kisses on her forehead, "Baby, I'm right here…you're going to be okay," he whispered.

She slowly closed her eyes, and for the first time she was able to keep them closed. He listened as her breathing slowed down. She was letting herself let go and relax.

Stevie was sitting in her French literature class when her phone vibrated on her desk. She looked down at it surprised to see a text from her dad. She typed in her password and opened the text:

(Mom is being taken to the hospital)

Stevie quickly packed up her books and left her lecture. She wanted to quickly get to the hospital. She arrived to the hospital in record time. She had kind of wished that her Dad had sent her Mom's security to come pick her up. She walked up to the person at the front desk and asked for directions to her mother's room. As she quickly walked down the hall she spotted Frank.

"Frank is she okay?"

"I don't know. Your dad is in there with her." Frank responded opening the door to her mother's hospital room for her.

Stevie walked in her room as quiet as possible noticing that the lights were off. She saw her father on the bed holding her mother. She walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Henry looked up at her. He gave her a nod to the door. He slowly pulled away from Elizabeth and covered her up. He took his daughter's hand as they walked outside of her room.

"Sweetheart, you didn't have to come. Weren't you in class?"

"Yes, but I needed to know that Mom was okay!" Stevie said hugging her father.

"They are testing her to see if she had a heart attack." Henry said still holding onto his daughter.

"Oh..my..God" Stevie gasped. "But Mom's too young! Why did she have to go to Iran? If she hadn't gone…"

Henry just pulled her in closer, running his hand down her hair, "Shhh. Your Mom is going to be just fine. I promise!"

Daisy pulled out her iPad and started searching the news and twitter. She wanted to know if there was anything in the news yet about the Secretary going to the hospital. She gave a big sigh of relief when she didn't find anything.

"How are we going to put this news out there now? The doctor said she was in good health just exhausted." Daisy asked.

Matt and Nadine just looked at each other.

"Madam Secretary, went to get checked out. She is just fine but tired." Matt responded.

"She can't be tired. She needs to do Face the Nation! She should have done it already." Daisy stated.

"Well she hasn't done it yet. You have to find some other way to spin this story. In the meantime we have to figure out a way to lighten her work schedule load." Nadine said pulling out her schedule book. "I have some meeting that I can postpone."

"I think we should find a way to give her a couple days. Or only schedule her for the meeting that must happen now. She really does need to slow down. With everything that happened in Iran, I am surprised that she has been going full steam ahead." Blake said as he was typing email responses on the computer.

"Stevie, after you have seen your mother, can you please go home and meet Ally and Jason. I am going to stay here at the hospital. Don't tell them anything yet, okay?" Henry said grabbing a cup of coffee from the family lounge.

"Do you think they will keep her here for a couple days?" Stevie asked taking a cup of coffee from her father.

"I don't know. I am hoping that the doctor will come back soon and tell us what's going on."

Henry and Stevie walked slowly back to Elizabeth's room. They walked back into the room quietly. Henry sat his coffee down on the table and went back to lay himself next to his wife. She lightly stirred. Stevie went to lay a light kiss on her mother's head before heading for home. Elizabeth slowly opened her eyes to look at her daughter.

Stevie bent down and whispered, "Get better Mom, I love you! I'll see you later. " After giving her mother another kiss, she left the room.

Elizabeth turned back towards Henry and just stared at him. The fear in her eyes earlier coming back once again. Henry kissed her sweetly on the lips. Something to distract her from the memories that were about to come back. Just then the doctor walked in. They both turned toward the door. She pulled herself up further up in the bed. Henry got out of bed.

"Well I have the results from your tests. You did not have a heart attack." The doctor stated.

"Do we know what she had?" Henry asked relieved and also worried about what really brought her to the hospital.

"You had a panic attack. With everything I see in the news, you have been going full steam ahead. You need to slow down a lot. But I did find out something else." The doctor watched both of their faces before announcing what he found.