Based on lilacmermaid25's prompt: Elizabeth talks to Stevie about the document being circulated by female employees – she has a mother's intuition that one of the entries was written by her daughter.

Content warning for what you'd expect based on that prompt, sexual assault/harassment.

My first T rated fic.

Once again this isn't the jealous Henry piece, whoops. It's coming I promise.

Crossposted to Ao3

…...

Elizabeth is sitting in the front room waiting for Stevie to come home. She's twisting her fingers, desperately hoping that, for once, her intuition and analytical skills are wrong. If they're not then not only does she kind of want to throw the whole government into the fire but she also feels as if she's failed as a mother because Stevie never came to her about this. She's probably going to feel the former either way, after reading through the document Nina reluctantly gave to her. The list of male government employees (and one woman) who abuse and harass their subordinates is exhaustive and extensive. Some of the names don't surprise her (the former Treasury Secretary was always a lech and had looked down her blouse on more than one occasion), while others do (her own deputy, she's still fuming about being blind to that one). She's done what she can to start the process of getting all the people listed thoroughly investigated and if necessary, removed from their roles.

There's one entry that's been giving fits though, the one for the Deputy Chief of Staff David Richardson, one of Russell's staff. At her behest, Russell has already put the man on leave pending a full investigation. She hasn't had much interaction with the man, his portfolio is largely domestic so their roles haven't intersected. The complaints against Richardson are copious and disturbing and include at least one account of full on attempted rape. There is one entry that stands out to her though, it was added about six months ago.

"Cornered me in his office, grabbed my arm, and pulled me close and told me 'You're almost as pretty as your mother (she is also in government), but I bet you're less of a ball buster, you should have dinner with me tonight.' He tried to kiss me and grab my breasts, but I used a move my Dad taught me and spun away from him. He muttered that I wasn't that fuckable anyway as I escaped. The next time I was in a meeting with him and my mother he made sure I heard him talking to another guy about what she was probably like in bed. I avoid him now. Did not report."

The second she finished reading that paragraph her heart rate had gone up. She tried to convince herself that there was no way it was Stevie, that there were plenty of women who worked at The White House who also had a mother in government (who would be described as a ball-buster) and who also had a Dad who had taught them a self-defense move that involved spinning out of a hold. She thought about talking to Henry about it but she knew that wouldn't go well. So, though there is a million and one other things she needs to be doing right now, she is sitting here, turning her rings around and around her fingers.

Finally, Stevie walks into the house. She's on the phone and laughing about something. She sees her mother and waves. Elizabeth crooks her finger and gestures to the seat next to her. Stevie frowns but walks over. "Sorry, Angie, I have to go, we'll get lunch next week." She hangs up the call and sits down, giving her a confused look. "What's up Mom? I'm really fine about the article and I'm completely wiped so I really just want to go to bed."

Elizabeth has been sitting here for thirty minutes waiting but hasn't actually prepared what she's going to say, so she goes with what's always worked for her, straight-forward. She looks Stevie in the eyes, "I need to talk to you about something. A document came to my attention today, and parts of it worried me, well actually all of it worries me, but there's one particular part that I wanted to ask you about."

Stevie instantly looks away and starts fidgeting. "Is it the policy guidance on the migration treaty? Because I told Russell he shouldn't let me write that section on Central Asia."

"You wrote part of that? That's amazing, I'll be sure to read it tonight, I think it's in my bag, but, no it's not about that. This document is private, it's one that circulates among lower-level female staff… "

Stevie pales and looks back at her with fear. "I...I don't know what you're talking about."

"Stevie please."

"Fine, okay, I've heard about it, but I don't know how I can help you with anything."

"It names several high-ranking men in DC, accusing them of harassment, including David Richardson."

Her daughter has clearly inherited some of her subterfuge skills because her face doesn't change when she hears that name. Maybe she really is wrong Elizabeth thinks, maybe Stevie didn't write that entry. "I heard he was on leave, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."

"Did he ever say anything inappropriate to you?"

"Look, he isn't a nice guy, he once said that if you made less than 100k you should be forcibly sterilized. Russell only keeps him around because he's effective at wrangling Congress."

Elizabeth stares at her placidly. "You didn't answer my question." Stevie shifts in her seat and starts to fiddle with her phone. Elizabeth covers Stevie's hands and meets her eyes.

"I mean he was sketchy okay? I could handle it though."

Elizabeth reaches forward and grabs a sheaf of papers, she flips to the flagged page and hands it to Stevie. "Did you write this?"

Stevie glances down. "Yes."

"Did it happen?"

"Yes."

Elizabeth blows out a breath. She counts to five in her head and lists all of the reasons why she can't destroy David Richardson. She squeezes Stevie's hand. "Why didn't you tell me honey?"

Her daughter quirks her lips and shrugs her shoulders. "I was just getting past all of the PTSD stuff from the attack and you were dealing with a lot, I didn't want to bother you. It wasn't worth it."

"Oh baby, no, you are always at the top of my list." She cups Stevie's cheek.

"Mom, be serious, when you're President and we're about to go to war with Russia or something I'm not going to come to you with boyfriend problems." Stevie turns her head causing Elizabeth's hand to drop.

She feels her heart ripping, this is one of her biggest fears about this whole thing. She worried about it when she became Secretary, but now that the campaign is starting up, she's even more worried. She's going to destroy her family, her children are going to resent her and aren't going to see her as a mother. She pushes that aside, because this isn't about her.

"I'm not President yet and this is more than boyfriend problems Stevie. Can you tell me what led you to not report it? To at least tell Russell or somebody else? Are you okay?" She goes to grab both of Stevie's hands, she wants a connection, but Stevie moves her hands away, clearly dodging her.

"I told my therapist."

"Well I'm glad to hear that."

"It's just…" Stevie looks down and twists her fingers in the same way Elizabeth was doing earlier. "It's embarrassing. That stuff he was saying about you...it was horrific. And nothing really happened to me so it didn't feel like I needed to tell anyone and start a whole...thing. Plus, Mom you know it would have gotten out and it would have been a whole thing in the media. And I'm fine, really, I was never alone with him after that and he just ignored me whenever I did see him."

"Something did happen to you and it's important. I understand that it feels embarrassing, I've been there." Stevie arches her eyebrows in question but she waves her off, she doesn't feel like going through Andrada right now. "Yes, I've dealt with it too. Intelligence is still a mostly male-dominated field, I've dealt with my fair share of creeps. It's gone more underground since I became Secretary of State, but it still happens."

"So what you're telling me is it never stops?"

Elizabeth looks pained. "No, well yes, well we're doing something about it, we're changing things. I'm so sorry this happened to you. And it's absolutely terrible that you're in this position, but I think you should talk to Russell about what happened, I can come with you if you'd like. The White House is conducting an investigation into all the allegations in this document. It's up to you, but it would help if you came forward, you would remain anonymous. I'm also telling you right now, that I will do everything in my power to make sure Richardson never works in this town again. And indeed, that he never works again period. I will do this whether or not you come forward. In fact, I'm doing my best to make sure that none of the people mentioned will ever have a career anywhere near this town."

Stevie looks a little taken aback at the vehemence in her last statement. She forgets that her mother wields considerable power and that she didn't raise to her position by backing down. She returns to uncertain quickly though. "I don't know. There were a lot worse things I read about, mine wasn't really a big deal comparatively."

Elizabeth looks Stevie directly in the eyes, she wants to make sure that her meaning is crystal clear. "It doesn't work like that. We don't rank things based on how terrible they are. What happened to you was terrible. What happened to all of those other people is also terrible. None of it should have happened."

"Okay. Can I go now? I really am tired. We can talk about this tomorrow? I think I want to talk to Russell about it, but I don't need you there. I'll let you know."

"Of course. I love you."

"Love you too." And with that Stevie skitters out of the room. She hears the refrigerator open and close and then footsteps on the back stairs. She feels absolutely drained. She ignores the 15 texts and 2 missed calls on her phone and drags herself upstairs. She knows that at some point she or Stevie will need to talk to Henry, especially if Stevie chooses to report. She can't do that tonight though, and she wouldn't feel right telling him without Stevie knowing anyways. She hates that she had to have that conversation with Stevie, she hates that she needs to have this conversation with Henry. She shouldn't have to talk to her daughters about how to handle sexual harassment, the world should be better than that.

When it comes to light a year later that she was the instigator of 'the mysterious purge' (what the media had taken to calling the sudden resignations of a number of high profile government administrators) she gets a five point jump in the polls among women, though she drops two points among men. She refuses to take any credit for it which drives Mike crazy. She shifts all the attention back to the people who came forward. She pulls Stevie aside later and reminds her of how proud she is of her.