1986
She hated him. Hated everything about him. Elizabeth hated the way that even though he was only two years her senior, he felt was superior, that he had more power. He didn't. She was literally eighteen, and taking a graduate class in Political Science with him, who was, as he never let her forget, older than him. Elizabeth hated the way he would tease her, joke with her, or speak to her at all. Henry, in her mind, was a stuck up scholarship kid who thought he ran the college. But out of all the many things she hated about the tall, brown eyed, muscular and very intelligent twenty year old, was how she felt when she was around him. Elizabeth hated Henry, she did, but she didn't hate how he made her feel, and Elizabeth wishes that he would drop the act he holds, because she figures maybe if he showed her who he really was, they could maybe get long. But he didn't, he remained the small minded, cocky, and extremely annoying man that loved to anger her.
Henry wouldn't say he hated, the young woman in his Political Science class, but he wouldn't say he liked her either, and he could definitely tell the feeling was mutual. It was just so easy to push her buttons, and if he was being honest, they just didn't get along, every conversation they had turned into a bickering argument, every joke was always taken one step too far by either one of them, always ending in an apology later that day, but never a truce. He just didn't like her, and she didn't like him.
Over the course of the two years they spent at the college, things between the two never improved, and during the second year they had a massive argument, one that disrupted the entire last semester they had. He'd said something about her parents, not realising they'd past, and she'd said something about him being a scholarship student, not realising how it was a huge problem at home for him, and they'd not spoken after that. Every lesson they shared was awkward and held bitter words, and occasional raised voices at each other before one of them was removed. Their fallout was the topic of the campus, none of them cared. But they hated each other, and that was that, and on the day they graduated, they made eye contact from across the room, and nodded in each others direction, knowing they'd never meet again, and they could let the hurt they both held from one another go, and with that, the two moved on with their lives.
Henry went into the Marines not long after and met a woman who later became his wife, named Sarah, who worked for the CIA, and so when Henry's deployment was over, it wasn't long before he was contacted by the DIA, saying they could use someone they trusted in their filed who had knowledge on Religion, Ethics, and Marine training behind him. He and Sarah had their first child, a daughter, who they named Brooke, in 1991 and during their year break, Henry got his PhD, and enjoyed time with his wife and daughter.
In 1994, Sarah was killed in action, and Henry quit, grieving the loss of his wife of three years, and raising his three year old, wanting her to have a secure life, and to have her father around. When his daughter turned 13, Henry was once again recruited by the DIA, and he took the offer, handing in his notice at Georgetown, and began his intelligence work again, still making time for his daughter, who he would do anything for. Which he how he found himself here, four years later, stood in a room with the woman he used to hate, who was now Secretary of State, Elizabeth Adams.
After college, Elizabeth began work for the NSA, which is where Conrad Dalton found her, and recruited her for the CIA, which is where she met her husband, Michael, a CIA agent. They had their first daughter, Stephanie, at the end of 1990, and their son, Jason, in early 2005. Elizabeth divorced her husband in 2006, after they began disagreeing on important decisions, and after that he'd give up on her and their children, Elizabeth became secretary of state in 2008, as her ex CIA director, Conrad Dalton became president, and that's how she ended up here, in a room with a man she used to hate, DIA agent, Henry McCord.
2008
"You have got to be kidding me." Elizabeth said as henry entered the presidents office, and Russell looked at her.
"You know agent McCord?" Russell asked her, and she nodded.
"Unfortunately." Elizabeth sighed, and henry smirked.
"Good to see you too, Adams." Henry said, teasing her using the name he'd called her all those years ago.
"Whatever went on between you two, I don't care, and neither will the president, deal with your issues later." Russell told them, and Elizabeth pierced her lips, and stood straight once the president walked in.
"Bess, Russell, Agent McCord. Please, take a sit." Conrad said as he walked in, and three sat.
"Bess, I hear you and Agent McCord went to the same college?" Conrad questioned.
"We did, sir." Elizabeth nodded.
"Good. It might be nice to catch up with old friends, this mission is top secret, and will take its toll on all of us." Conrad nodded, and Elizabeth took a deep breath with a fake smile and nodded.
"Agent McCord, its been some time, the last time we saw each other was under some very dark circumstances. How are you?" Conrad asked his long time friend, who he'd met through Henry's late wife, Sarah.
"I'm good, and you?" Henry asked, and Elizabeth looked on in confusion at how friendly the pair were.
"Fine, and your daughter, Brooke is it?" Conrad asked, and Elizabeth looked at Henry, he had a daughter? She thought to herself. She didn't see that one coming. Henry nodded at the presidents question, "How is she? eighteen is a strange age." Conrad laughed.
"She's doing great, applying for college." Henry smiled, and Conrad nodded.
"I'm glad. I'm sure Sarah would be so proud of her." Conrad said with a sad smile, and Elizabeth and Russell looked at each other with confusion.
"Me too, Sir." Henry replied with a smile, and the room went silent as the president remembered his dear friend and colleague, who was taken too soon, and then began the meeting on the mission. After giving all the information, Conrad stood.
"Bess, Henry, you will be working together on this. I want state, and the DIA working all hours to find these people and stop them." The president said, and Henry nodded, biting his lip to stop him from laughing at Elizabeth's annoyance and she agreed.
"Great." Conrad smiled, and sent everyone to begin their work.
They couldn't work together, it would be impossible, she thought to herself as she watched three other DIA agents walk into the state department and into a meeting room where all work would be based.
"Everything okay, Ma'am?" Blake asked her, and she nodded as she eyed Henry, watching him walk into the meet room.
"You know Agent McCord?" Blake asked.
"We went to college together." Elizabeth said in a tone that told Blake it was not a good thing.
"Bad breakup?" He asked, a smirk on his face.
"No." She laughed, "We just didn't get on." Elizabeth said, but Blake knew there was more to it, but decided against crossing the boundaries, and watched her as she walked into the meet room at Nadine's call.
They all must have been in there for hours, Elizabeth in and out as she dealt with other problems around the world as her staff worked all around, it was around nine pm when they called it a night, and Elizabeth was walking out of the office when Henry caught up to her.
"Adams." He joked, and she rolled her eyes, turning the corner towards the elevator.
"McCord." She replied, and Henry went to speak when Russell cut them off.
"Just the two people I was looking for." He said and passed them two folders.
"What is this?" Elizabeth asked.
"That, is more papers and documents you need to read through. I was going to give you them tomorrow but the president wants them sorted and filed by tomorrow so.." Russell said.
"You do realise I'm going home now?" Elizabeth said, "I have a six year old, Russell, I cant stay here all night looking through papers." Elizabeth told him, and Russell sighed.
"And POTUS knows that, but he wants this over and done with, its a threat of the country and it needs sorting, it wont take you that long." Russell told her, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Well then do it at home, I don't care. Just get it done. These guns cant be given to terrorists." Russell said, already walking away, and when he was gone, Elizabeth groaned.
"You have a six year old?" Henry asked her.
"Yeah." Elizabeth replied, looking at him with a weird look, at his weird question, and back to the two files in front of her.
"Come on then. I'd love to see how the secretary of state lives." Henry joked, and Elizabeth snarled at him before walking away, and he laughed as he followed.
Arriving at her house was awkward. Her eighteen year old, Stephanie, knew him from her school as her and Brooke were friends, and she'd asked her friends dad was here, but once she knew he was just here for state work, her daughter nodded and disappeared upstairs.
"Don't you have an eighteen year old at home?" Elizabeth asked, holding up a bottle of wine in question to if he wanted any, he nodded.
"I do. Which is why she is able to stay alone before 12am." Henry laughed, and Elizabeth poured the wine.
"Wouldn't her mother be home?" Elizabeth asked innocently, completely forgetting the conversation with Conard when he'd used the woman in past tense.
"She erm.. she passed away." Henry told her, and Elizabeth looked at him.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Elizabeth said, feeling like an idiot, remembering that Stevie had told her one of her friends mothers had passed away.
"It's fine, don't worry, it was a long time ago." Henry said with a smile.
"Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt when people bring it up." Elizabeth told him, and he looked at her.
"Is your husband-" Henry began, and she shook her head.
"Oh, no." She said, "He's alive. I think." She said, and he raised an eyebrow. "I divorced him and he disappeared." Elizabeth shrugged.
"That sucks." Henry said, and she laughed.
"Yeah. Especially for Jason. Stevie kind of hates him for leaving, but Jason's six and he doesn't get it." Elizabeth said, passing him files to look at And the night went on just like that, getting to know one another once again, and they found they like each other a lot more now than they did then. And as they finished the last bit of re search and background checks, henry looked at her.
"That whole thing in college.. how I treated you-" Henry began, and she waved her hands.
"Don't worry about it... it was years ago." Elizabeth said, and he shook his head.
"I found out about your parents a few months after we left, when I said that horrible thing about them, I had no idea, and I'm sorry that I used them to hurt you." Henry told her, and she looked up and met his eye with a smile.
"Thank you." She nodded, "And I guess I'm sorry for calling you a scholarship kid." Elizabeth said, a smirk on her face to lighten the mood, and he nodded.
"Don't worry about it." He said, and she laughed, standing up along with him and saw him out, and as he walked off she shut the door, jumping out of her skin at her daughter being stood on the stairs.
"Please tell me you're not going to date one of my best friends dad." Stevie said, and Elizabeth laughed.
"I'm not going to date your friends dad." She agreed, and Stevie nodded.
"Okay... if you change your mind you better tell me." She pointed, and Elizabeth laughed.
"I wont. But ill keep your threat in mind." Elizabeth joked with her daughter, and she heard her laugh as she headed back upstairs.
It seemed working together wasn't as bad as they thought, it was awful at first, bickering and disagreements here and there, but after their little work meeting, they'd grown to actually be friends. They began agreeing on things, and once they did, things moved a lot quicker, and they were able to track down the missiles, and were able to stop them from arriving in the wrong hands, and as Elizabeth left the office that day, Henry got into the elevator with her.
"Its been a good few weeks." Henry said, and Elizabeth hid her smile.
"It has." She said.
"Its been nice to get to know the real you, Elizabeth Adams." Henry said, and Elizabeth looked at him, and looked back.
"I guess I could say the same, Henry McCord." She told him, and as the elevator dinged, he grabbed her arm gently and she faced him.
"I'd love to get to know you a little better." He said.
"Would you?" She challenged.
"I would." He smiled, and she began to walk out of the elevator.
"You know where to find me." She said, and walked off, a smile on her face, and henry laughed.
He may have not liked Elizabeth back then, but he sure did now, and he knew the feeling was mutual.