Lessons Learned

A fic exchange story for the prompt "a scandal hits the McCord family." I didn't want to do one of the more traditional scandals, so I went with this. Hopefully it still qualifies. It's a three chapter story since I am completely unable to write one shots.

Chapter One

Daisy was frantic. There were media surprises and bad media surprises, and then there was this. It was going to cause waves across the entire country, with the Secretary of State at the epicenter. The Secretary needed to be informed, immediately, and for more than one reason.

She left her office at a run, shouldering everyone out of the way that wasn't smart enough to move on their own. Blake saw her coming, but even he wasn't going to stop her. Daisy didn't care what the Secretary was doing at the moment. This took priority. As she skirted around Blake he stood up and reached toward her.

"Daisy, the Secretary's in a meeting! You can't interrupt!"

It was clear Daisy wasn't stopping, so Blake went after her. He was hoping he would be able to place himself in front of the doors and physically bar them, but he wasn't fast enough. Daisy didn't even bother to knock. She just yanked the doors open. Blake was forced to step in with her so he would at least look a little less incompetent.

Elizabeth was out of her seat before either one of them was more than two steps into the room. Her face was alight with fury as she stared them down, which made Blake want to cringe. China's Foreign Minister, who had been in the middle of a meeting with the Secretary, merely swiveled around in his chair to look at them placidly. There was no doubt that his stoic expression was masking a fury nearly equal to Elizabeth's.

"The entire world better be collapsing because that's the only reason I can think of for the two of you to have a right to come barreling into my office without knocking while I'm in a meeting with a foreign dignitary!"

"I believe I still would have knocked," Chen added dryly.

"I stand corrected," Elizabeth admitted with a slight nod to Chen before turning a blazing glare back on Blake and Daisy. "You better have a good explanation."

"Ma'am, I'm sorry for the…" Blake began, but Daisy cut him off.

"Ma'am, you're needed immediately. It's your son."

That brought Elizabeth to a halt.

"Jason?"

Her eyes swept over Daisy's face, trying to determine how bad it was. In her heart, however, she already knew the answer. Daisy wouldn't have come barging into her office if the situation hadn't been dire. The mere thought was terrifying. Being on break from school, Jason had more time to potentially get himself into trouble, but she trusted her son. He generally made good choices. What could he have possibly done to merit this level of attention from her Press Coordinator?

"Yes," Daisy confirmed, though it was completely unnecessary. She strode over to the desk and handed Elizabeth her tablet before continuing. "This just came up on the news. Jason was taken to MedStar Georgetown."

Elizabeth collapsed back into her chair. Jason had been taken to the hospital.

"Wha-?" Elizabeth began, and then cut herself off.

What had happened would be explained in the news clip Daisy had pulled up on the tablet. Hands shaking, she hit play.

"Local police have just raided an underage party in Georgetown. Dozens of teenagers were found at various levels of intoxication. Some of them were in serious enough condition that they were sent to the hospital by ambulance. One of these teenagers is the Secretary of State's son, Jason McCord."

The image on screen changed from the reporter to older footage of an ambulance. Two EMS personnel were wheeling a gurney toward it. Jason was strapped down to the gurney, completely passed out and terribly pale.

Elizabeth didn't hear anything else that was said in the news segment. Nothing mattered but getting to her son. She was halfway across her office before her brain caught up with her automatic response to seeing her child in danger.

"Blake, call my motorcade."

"Yes, Ma'am."

As Blake rushed out of the room to make the call, Daisy could only look on in silence. The frantic terror on her boss' face sent a knife through Daisy's heart. She wanted to do something to help, but she didn't know what could be done.

"Elizabeth."

Chen's voice stopped Elizabeth in her tracks. She'd completely forgotten the Chinese Foreign Minister was in her office, but she turned half toward him after he called her name. Hopefully he wouldn't want anything because she wasn't sure she'd be able to appropriately handle any discussion at the moment.

"I hope your son is alright."

He offered her a small nod, telling her without words to go to her boy.

"Thank you, Ming."

That said, she took off running, out of her office and through the hallways. She had to trust that Blake already had a car waiting for her outside. Even taking a moment to check with him felt like too much. She had to get to her son.

O . o . O . o . O

"How bad is it?" Jay asked.

"For Jason or for the Secretary?" Nadine enquired.

Jay floundered for a moment before shrugging.

"Both?"

"I don't know anything about Jason other than the fact that he was ambulanced out of the party," Daisy explained.

Given what she'd seen on the video however, Daisy didn't see how Jason's condition could be good. There hadn't been much sign of life from him.

"And you think this is going to turn into a scandal?" Jay pressed.

"I'm pretty sure it already is one, Jay," Nadine began. "The Secretary of State's son hospitalized after participation at an underage drinking party? And worse yet there's live video coverage? How could that not be a scandal? Even if Daisy starts damage control now this will still be a mess."

"I don't know how much damage control is even going to do," Daisy admitted.

They all looked at each other, nervous and worried. This was going to be ugly even if Jason's condition turned out not to be serious. More importantly, Jason's involvement in an underage party wouldn't just effect the Secretary's reputation. It could ripple outward and effect the people's opinion of the entire presidency and therefore Dalton's reputation. Public opinion was far spreading, and the people's judgements could be toxic. It wouldn't matter that the Secretary hadn't been the one to make a bad decision. Neither had the President. It could still be put on them. If that really did happen, ugly might not be a strong enough word for the mess they'd be facing.

"I guess we just have to hope the kid's okay because the only one that might be able to find a way out of this is the Secretary, and she's definitely not going to be in a frame of mind to do that if something's really wrong with her son," Matt said.

It was the most they could do. That and to try and keep the media mess from getting too much worse.

O . o . O . o . O

Elizabeth had never been to the War College. She'd never had reason to be there, and she really wished she didn't have a reason now. But she did, and she wanted to run down the hallways until she found her husband. Even though their child was in the hospital and possibly fighting for his life, Elizabeth couldn't let her emotions show. After locking her expression into a professional mask, she headed for her husband's classroom at the fastest pace that wouldn't draw attention. Of course the fact that she was there at all would draw attention, but nobody would know anything was wrong.

When she reached Henry's classroom she didn't bother knocking. She simply opened the door and stepped inside, knowing full well she would disturb the class. That would be inevitable anyway. Henry noticed her and stopped speaking mid-sentence.

"Elizabeth?"

His class swiveled around to look at her. They wouldn't be able to read her expression, but Henry would. He knew her too well. Her panic was incredibly well concealed, but her eyes gave her away.

"You need to come with me right now."

"I just started my class, Babe."

"Jason's in trouble, Henry."

Henry had been hoping he could take a few minutes to temporarily calm Elizabeth down until he finished class. The minute he heard that Jason was the cause of her panic all thoughts of continuing class were over.

"Class is dismissed. Consider this a day off," he told his students as he gathered up his coat and went to his wife.

Elizabeth didn't even look at him the whole way out to her motorcade. That made Henry even more nervous. If she wasn't looking at him it meant she was barely holding herself together and needed to do everything possible to maintain that grip until they got somewhere private. The car was that place. Once the door was closed behind them Elizabeth clutched at Henry's arm. She was openly shaking.

"Jason's in the hospital."

Henry's eyes went wide and he reached out for her hand.

"What happened?"

"Alcohol poisoning. At least I think."

As bad as alcohol poisoning was, she had to hope that that was all it was. Alcohol wasn't the only thing that was commonly at teenage parties. Drugs could be too.

"Alcohol? From where? We don't keep that much in the house. Not that's really accessible."

Henry seriously couldn't believe it. They'd talked to Jason about drinking. More than once. He'd been receptive, in his own way. Henry had always thought that if one of his children had gotten involved with something dangerous he would know. Apparently he'd been wrong because he hadn't even suspected that Jason was drinking.

"He was at a party," Elizabeth explained. "Did you know he was going to a party today?"

"No. And who throws a party in the middle of the day?"

"Kids with parents who work. The timing makes a lot of sense that way. They'd have the house to themselves."

Henry's jaw clenched and he tightened his grip on Elizabeth's hand.

"I'm going to kill him."

Elizabeth knew it was all talk. Just a knee jerk reaction. When it came time to face Jason, Henry would have a cool head. If anyone was likely to go off at Jason it would be her. She wanted to be angry at him. She really did. If she was finally able to feel angry at her son it would mean his life wasn't in danger anymore. Anger would be a good thing.

She lifted her head up to meet Henry's eyes.

"You may not get the chance."