Being a personal assistant caused one to learn a tremendous amount about one's boss. From the beginning Blake Moran felt close to his boss. But after working by her side day in and day out, he had come to learn to read her mannerisms, mood and voice almost as well as her husband.
It was often her voice that gave her away. He knew what it sounded like when she was legitimately happy, when she was being sarcastic, and when she was sad or frustrated. She hid her personal opinions well when she spoke publicly, unless of course her passion for the subject would help get her point across. She was a speechwriter's dream.
So when he heard her scream "Blake!" that morning as she entered her office, he immediately recognized it. Panic. It was sound he'd never forget. He'd only heard it before when she spoke of Iran, Bolivia or Pakistan.
He knew it was serious.
His pace increased as he inched closer to her; noticing the shattered ceramic and wet spot on the carpet from her coffee mug. Whatever cause her to scream in panic had been bad enough to force the cup from her hand.
Silently thanking god the carpet muffled the sound of the shatter, as to not trigger her into further panic, he approached. "M'am?" he asked, then his breath caught in his throat at what came into his line of vision.
The word "Quit" hastily spray painted across the wooden paneling. But what really bothered him, and what clearly shook her was what he observed on her desk. All of her family photos she had in her office had been moved and neatly, deliberately arranged on her desk, facing outward – all marred with nasty white x's. Someone had broken into her office, moved her things and tarnished them. Someone was threatening her.
"Please call…" She breathed out quietly as she stared at her desk, her hand resting on her heaving chest as she tried to take deep breaths and blink back the tears that threatened to spill onto her cheeks.
"I'll call Henry right away." Blake said. "M'am...you should get out of here." He coaxed.
"No…call Matt please." She said and remained frozen. "I'll call…"
Blake was quick to leap into action and rung security. Then it was a whirlwind around him as they put the building on lockdown and immediately rushed to secure the 7th floor.
The FBI was soon swarming the seventh floor, they circled Elizabeth in the office as she remained glued to the floor, now clutching her phone.
"What's going on Blake?" Nadine demanded as she saw the uniformed personnel closing doors left and right.
Blake simply pointed to the secretary's office, unable to move from his seat due to the lockdown.
"Henry…."
Henry McCord instantly recognized the panic in his wife's voice on the phone.
"Babe, are you okay?"
"Henry…."
He knew something was wrong. He was about to ask again when his work cell beeped with a text from Blake. "Someone has vandalized the office. Come now."
Henry sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. Someone was threatening not only his kids, but his wife now. He couldn't stand this. "Baby, I'll be right there…."
Henry quickly squealed the tires of the Jeep as he made a rough u-turn and sped toward the office, illegally parking the car in front and running in. The building was on lock down, but Frank calmed down the guard and allowed Henry to pass.
Henry nodded at the man and dashed up the stairs, not having time to wait for the elevator.
His lungs were screaming and sweat dripped down his neck after 7 flights of stairs, but he didn't care. He needed to get to Elizabeth. Blake pointed to her office quickly when he saw Henry bust in. The FBI investigator stopped him at the office door, but quickly realized who he was and let him pass.
His heart sank as he saw the office, his wife stood frozen, staring at the marred photos of their family displayed on her desk. His stomach lurched, he couldn't even bare to be seeing this – let alone Elizabeth. But he had to pull himself together. Someone was threatening his family, and now someone was going directly to his wife, he hadn't been able to shield them from it. He felt as though he had let them down.
"Elizabeth." Henry said, coming up behind her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Baby, come on….let's get out of here okay…."
Her eyes finally looked to his and the tears finally fell. "Henry….look at…." She pointed to the pictures.
"I know sweetheart. It's disgusting. But we'll get them cleaned up. Come on. Let Director Donahue handle this." He said gently
Reluctantly she nodded and Henry led her from the office and pulled her into his arms. Director Donahue followed them to the outer office, giving them a moment before interrupting.
"I'm sorry to interrupt. But M'am….did you touch anything in the office?"
Elizabeth turned to face the man, Henry's arm still around her. "Ummm, no. I don't think so. I did drop my coffee…."
"Thank you M'am. We'll get this cleaned up as soon as possible. But for now, until we figure out how they got in here and what state information was potentially compromised, we need to move you to a secure location. Your children will be meeting you there."
Before they could respond, Henry and Elizabeth were both quickly whisked away by Matt & Frank into the motorcade; en route to "Secure Location 3," while Director Donahue barked ordered at his agents; asking them to tell him how the hell someone broke into the State Department on his watch.
Henry drew invisible circles on his wife's hand as they drove to the secure location, while Elizabeth stared out the window. "I'm scared Henry." she finally turned to him. "If they can beat the security of the State Department...they can get to kids...me in our home...anywhere. Where are we safe anymore?"
Henry tightened his grip on her hand, squeezing tight to ensure his message got across. "You are safe with me. I will never let anything happen to you, or the kids. Got that?"
She nodded. Having faith in her husband was all she could do.
AN2: Okay. I don't know where this came from. I mean I do. But those pics from episode 5! gahh! I wrote this stictly based on the one photo...you know if I was writing the scene. I'm sure it won't play out this way on the show - but that's why there is fan fic right?! Please let me know your thoughts!