This story takes place somewhere mid season 3 but doesn't impact on any of the long running story arcs as such. Since I haven't finished watching season 3 yet, I apologise in advance for any errors that may crop up.

"You were up early."

Henry glanced up at his wife's words and a small smile played across his lips. "That's normally my line. Coffee?"

"Absolutely." Elizabeth waggled her fingers at him. "Gimme." Her hand brushed his arm as she leaned into him, kissing his cheek. "I was disappointed to find your side of the bed empty, neither one of us has early morning meetings, I'd hoped that we could have had some time together. We've not had much of that recently, what with national crisis after national crisis."

He pressed a kiss to her hair. "What kind of time did you have in mind?"

Catching sight of the smirk on her husband's face, Elizabeth poked her finger into his side. "You know full well what I mean, I'm not spelling it out for you."

"Really? Because I'd like to hear exactly what you were thinking about."

His mouth trailed down her neck, his smile widening against her skin as she felt her breath hitch, a small giggle escaping her. His coffee mug was abandoned on the counter, his arms going around her waist. "I suppose I could share a few snippets tonight."

Henry ministrations stilled. "I uh, I'm going to be late tonight." He picked up his mug again and gave a shrug. "I need to work."

"Which is normally my line." She pointed between them as she remarked, "I feel like we're trading places." When he didn't respond to her joke – she knew it wasn't a good one, but still she normally at least got an attempt at a smile – she asked, "Everything ok at work?"

"Yeah, just busy."

"Is that code for I can't talk about it?"

"Nope, that's me just saying that I'm busy."

"And Dmitri?" she asked nervously. If there was one person who could make her husband act out with his normal character, then it was him. He was under Henry's skin and she often felt as though she was still on eggshells whenever they spoke about him. Henry hadn't even mentioned him since he was reunited with his sister, but Elizabeth sometimes still felt that he hung over their family like a spectre.

"Nothing new." His eyes meet hers, the corners crinkling with his smile as he added, "I'm just busy at work. You don't need to read anything into this."

"Ok, But I'm here if you need me."

There was a thundering of feet from above them, the slamming of a door and a shout of, "Ally get out the bathroom! I need to brush my teeth!"

"I think the kids are up," Elizabeth remarked dryly.

"What gives you that idea?" Henry replied on a laugh.

The thundering extended to the stairs, where Stevie appeared, jumping the last three steps. Elizabeth winced. "I hate when you all do that, one day one of you is going to fall and really hurt yourself."

Stevie rolled her eyes. "Out of all the risks this family might face, I don't think the stairs feature on the list."

"They're on my list. Walk," she told her daughter.

A screech emanated from upstairs. "Jason! Give it back! Mom! Dad! Tell Jason to give me back my calculator!"

"Calculator?" Elizabeth sighed, rubbing her temples. "They're fighting over a calculator?"

"Apparently," Henry acknowledged dryly.

They both winced as Jason bellowed back, "I need it, I have a maths test today."

"We're expected to have one for class, if I need to ask for one of the spares, I'll get a demerit. Tell him to use his own!"

"I'm not having this conversation between floors," Elizabeth shouted back. "Downstairs please." She turned to her husband. "They get demerits for not having calculators?"

Stevie looked up from her bowl of cereal. "Yeah, it's to do with exhibiting personal responsibility for both your belongings and your education." She gave a shrug as her parents turned to stare at her. "What? Alison told me."

"I feel like we didn't quite pick up on the measure of the Quakers when we picked that school. They're much more rigid than I expected."

Henry snorted into his coffee, his smile fading into a mildly pained frown as their two younger children descended into the kitchen, arguing as they went.

"It's not yours!" Alison screeched. "You can't just take it because you've decided that you need it more!"

"It's for the greater good," Jason argued back. "If I fail this test it could set me down a dark and terrible path, completely wreck my future career."

"Overdoing it there, buddy," Henry remarked.

"Ok then. Since our government frequently eschews doing the right thing for doing the thing that provides the greatest good then we should apply the same principle here. Me passing my maths test will provide a better longer term outcome than the negative outcome of Alison getting a demerit." He directed a triumphant smirk at his sister. "So, I should have the calculator."

"So, let's get this right, you're trying to argue that who gets this calculator should be a utilitarian decision?" Elizabeth asked.

"Exactly."

"Hmph." Elizabeth shot a smile across at Henry, before telling their son, "Unfortunately this is more of an autocratic household than a democratic one, and we all know that autocrats frequently don't make decisions based on the greater good, never mind a skewed version of that. So you still need to give that back to your sister. Take the one I keep in the drawer."

Alison snatched the calculator back from her brother. "Haha."

"The one you keep in the drawer isn't scientific. I need a scientific one for my test. I don't have time to get one for today."

"What happened to your one?" Henry asked.

"I lost it," Jason admitted grudgingly.

"Then you have to take the consequences of that," Henry told him. "Take some personal responsibility, your sister shouldn't get a demerit because you can't look after your belongings."

"Exactly, so I suggest you get to school and start trying find out if you can borrow one."

Jason gave a snort of disgust. "So, it's ok for you to apply whatever rules you feel like, when you feel like it? That's fair."

"Life isn't fair and this is our house. Your mother and I pay the bills, so yeah, you do what we say. Go to school," Henry finished firmly.

"Fine." He ducked out of the way of his Mom's attempt at a hug, stomping to the front door and standing there sulkily, staring at the floor.

Stevie tipped the remnants of her milk down the sink and told her parents, "I'll take him to school. Ally, you ready? I can drop you on the way as well."

"Yeah." She grabbed a slice of toast off her Mom's plate and kissed her cheek. "See you later."

"Have a good day Noodle." She looked over and smiled at her eldest. "Thank you, I hope he doesn't give you too much of a headache on the way in."

"It won't be anything I can't handle."

"Good luck on your test," Elizabeth shouted through to her son. The reply she got was a grunt and the slamming of the front door. Sighing, she turned to her husband and told him, "It was vaguely creepy to see you channel Dean Ward, do I need to arrange an exorcism?"

He gave a soft laugh. "No, but I kind of wish Jason had picked up a little bit more of that particular lesson, during his brief time with them."

"He's being a teenager," Elizabeth shrugged. "He's just a bit more vocal than the girls were. They can be much sneakier than he is."

"So, we should be glad that he's flaunting authority and ignoring personal responsibility because he's doing it to our faces?"

"Sometimes we need to pick out small positives. Parenting and politics have taught me that." She tilted her head and asked Henry, "You free for lunch today?"

"I should be, don't know if I'll have time to get to your office and back though."

"How about the park then? It's halfway between us."

"That sounds good." He leaned forward and kissed her, the briefest of touches across her lips. "I'll see you then." He glanced at his watch. "I better go. Class starts at 9am and I need to set up."

He rushed off and Elizabeth opened her mouth to say I love you, but he was already gone. She glanced around her empty kitchen and remarked aloud to herself, "Wow, I'm actually last to leave, who thought that would ever happen?"

Elizabeth could feel her details eyes boring into her back, as she dropped onto the bench she and Henry would meet at. She knew how her security felt about her park walks, but they were a hint of normality in her life. She checked her watch, Henry was late, he was quickly becoming the new her in their relationship, it made her smile, she could tease him about that and his poor timekeeping when he finally got here.

Her mobile rang, Henry's name on the screen. "And here was me beginning to worry that I was being stood up," she greeted him.

There was an awkward silence and then his voice. "Yeah…about that."

"You're standing me up."

"I'm sorry, I really am. I started marking papers and then I lost track of the time. If I left now, I wouldn't make it back in time for my afternoon classes. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"It's ok, I can let it slide this time. But I will hold you to that promise."

His tone was warm as he told her, "I'm counting on it."

"Any idea what time you'll get home tonight?"

"I'm not sure."

"The perils of having two jobs."

He gave a mirthless soft laugh. "Yeah. Look I'll let you go and grab something for your lunch, try and salvage what you can of your time out the office. I'll see you soon, alright?"

"Alright. I –"

The phone line went dead and she rolled her eyes when she saw he had hung up already, second time today she hadn't been able to get those words in. Third time lucky, maybe. She twirled her mobile in her hand for a moment before sliding it back into her pocket. Henry was just distracted, she reminded herself, it had been a stressful few months for them all and because of that she was reading too much into this. She knew what her husband was like when he became immersed in work, and this was exactly it. Sighing, she stood up and began to walk, hearing her security fall into step behind her.

The path curved ahead, a long swoop into a blind corner, a corner she knew her security hated. They'd only cleared the park because the path was next to the road, so they could run the car slowly along the edge of the park, following her for that bit. Sure enough she heard the car engine start and her head ducked as she smiled at how she knew their moves now. There was a crackle on her security's radio and she heard them tell her, "Crowd of runners coming from ahead. Move to the right please Ma'am."

The mass of runners appeared as they said the words and unthinkingly, Elizabeth dodged to her left, separating herself from her detail, placing them at the park edge and her in the main body. "Ma'am!" She heard one of them protest her move, saw them start to try and make their way through the crowd. Almost simultaneously she felt someone approach her from her opposite side.

She heard his words before she saw him. "I tried to reach out to you, Elizabeth, you shouldn't have ignored me."

A frown was on her face as she took in that familiar voice, she tilted her head to see the face under the baseball cap.

She didn't manage it before there was a bang and she felt the oddest sensation of pain and pressure to her chest, the shock causing her to stumble back and fall onto the grass.

Her detail was shouting, and she could hear screaming.

She felt odd and she blinked up at the sky for a moment before turning her head to the side, she felt as though minutes had passed but realistically, she knew it was only a matter of seconds.

She saw someone drop to their knees next to her, finally saw his face and her thoughts felt almost sluggish as she realised, she was looking at Ray Merchant. His hands were up in the air and she watched as something fell from one, landing on the grass a few metres from her, and as she took in the sight of the gun, it dawned on her exactly what had happened.