A/N: Because this idea hasn't left my brain since 2.10's arm-candy comment, and it cracks me up. There may be a chapter that reverses the roles, stay tuned. Set somewhere in Season 2? Reviews make me smile.
"Jealously is the green-eyed monster."
…
There was no denying that Henry McCord was an attractive man. He was also kind and compassionate, that rare person who was almost too perfect for his own good. Henry also happened not to be aware of the extent of his perfection, always humble about any praise he received, which only served to fuel the fire.
Being such an all-around good guy, he'd had admirers all through school and college, some more subtle than others in voicing their desires for a man who was in no way single. The women had seemed to follow him into his professional life as well, both as a professor and in his intelligence work. Usually, he calmly and sweetly brushed them off, and they understood, but some were more persistent.
Elizabeth, being the trained analyst she was, was always acutely aware of Henry's female admirers. His "cult following," as she jokingly called them. They ranged from ditzy college students who had crushes on their professor to colleagues who did not seem to value the vows either they themselves had taken, or the McCords', or both.
Now rationally, Elizabeth knew nothing would ever come of any of these misguided flirtations, because Henry was faithful to her, as she was to him. Rationally, Elizabeth knew she had nothing to worry about, that their love and their bond were solid. Rationally, they were it for one another, and nothing could come between that.
But there was a little nagging voice in Elizabeth's head, that little bit of irrationality that festered. "Jealousy is the green-eyed monster," Shakespeare said, and Elizabeth couldn't agree more. Jealousy was a bitch.
It happened every once in a while, a flirtation would go too far, one Elizabeth noticed when she was just having a particularly stressful day. She never doubted Henry in these situations, but seeing him with another woman made her blood boil.
That's when jealous Elizabeth came out, who also happened to be a version of passive aggressive Elizabeth — and that was not an Elizabeth anyone wanted to be on the bad side of.
…
She found Henry grabbing coffee in a break room in the White House one morning, having herself been summoned to the sit room to check in on a situation developing halfway across the world. No activity had been detected for a good three quarters of an hour, and so Conrad had given everyone who needed it a ten-minute break to stretch their legs. Elizabeth had used the opportunity to go look for some coffee, and wound up at the doorway to a break room where her husband was pouring himself a cup and chatting away.
Chatting with a woman, she noted. Not that that was an inherent problem. Henry had worked with many women, whom Elizabeth liked and respected, and who had proven themselves great friends to both McCords.
But none of those women stood quite so close to her husband when they talked, and none batted their eyelids quite so profusely in the process. And they definitely did not brush their hands up Henry's arm as he reached over for the cream, giggling like schoolgirls at the contact.
She was pretty, Elizabeth had to admit. Tall, a redhead, her hair swept up into an artful bun, loose tendrils framing her freckled face and alabaster skin. She dressed well too, in a black blazer and a navy dress that brought out the green in her eyes. She and Henry seemed to be having an intense discussion, but their physical proximity was what worried Elizabeth most, the way the woman leaned ever so close when Henry spoke, trying to catch every syllable.
Elizabeth had enough — she needed to step in or she'd turn into a raging bundle of nerves. She moved quickly across the room to the coffee, brushing her hand high against Henry's thigh as he turned around to face her.
"Hey," she breathed, as Henry's eyes widened at the contact and the tone her voice had adopted.
"Hi Elizabeth," he managed, steadying himself. "Uhh, this is Maggie," he added, motioning over to the redhead who smiled demurely.
"Pleased to meet you, Madam Secretary," she said with the tiniest hint of disdain in her tone, offering her hand. Having picked up on that immediately, Elizabeth shook it reluctantly, her placid facial expression perfectly hiding the waves of annoyance that ebbed and flowed.
"Maggie works as an Associate Counsel," Henry said, utterly oblivious to any of what was going on between his wife and the other woman.
Elizabeth was pouring herself a cup of coffee now, and she looked over and nodded politely at his comment, though it honestly didn't interest her in the least. "I'm sorry, but I've got to get back to the sit room," she said instead, leaning over to kiss Henry on the cheek and give Maggie a pointed look.
With that, she stepped out of the room without so much as a backward glance, and Henry was left stunned and a little confused as to why his wife had been so curt.
"So, you were saying…" Maggie started again, and Henry turned around, still in a bit of a daze. He snapped out of it quickly and found his train of thought.
"Uhhh, yes. We're really trying to use the asset's connections to our advantage…"
…
The break room interaction had been bothering Elizabeth all day; she couldn't stop herself from thinking back to how Maggie's hand had rested on Henry's arm, how she'd leaned in just so. She forced herself to snap out of it and concentrate on the mounds of paperwork that were covering her desk, not that they were interesting enough to keep her focused anyway.
See, normally, Elizabeth would brush off incidents like this and move on, but sometimes, once in a blue moon, the feeling would linger and begin to fester — the jealously that she knew wasn't warranted but she failed to control.
Right now, Elizabeth's rational mind was failing her, and her brain was coming up with the most outlandish scenarios. What if Maggie followed Henry around the White House? Pulled him into a secluded hallway? Leaned even closer to whisper in his ear?
"Ma'am," Blake said as he appeared in her office, ripping her out of her thoughts. Thank God, she thought. "The Dutch ambassador is waiting in the conference room, after which I'm afraid you'll be needed in the White House again. Something moved, apparently. I was told you'd know what that means."
She sighed and stood up, knowing exactly what that meant. Their little sit room situation was progressing, albeit at a snail's pace. That explained why she still had time to see the ambassador before she went back. "Thank you Blake," she said. "I'll be out of this meeting soon, will you make sure I have a car waiting?"
"Of course."
"Thank you," she said again, walking through the door. The kid really was a godsend.
The meeting with the ambassador was quick and painless, and Elizabeth was glad for the few minutes of uninterrupted silence as she headed to the White House, trying to think of nothing at all. Of course, that didn't work, her thoughts immediately went back to the redhead and she sighed. She hated to admit she was jealous, but it was futile to refute. She was jealous, and she'd just have to deal with it. She trusted Henry completely, and yes, maybe he was oblivious to the flirtation, but she could count on him not taking it anywhere.
Maggie on the other hand, could be up to anything, she thought, and that made the jealously even more intense.
Back in the White House, Elizabeth made her way to the sit room and opened the door just as something was happening, so she didn't have a minute to scan her surroundings but instead was whisked right in and glued her eyes to the screen.
"Bess, it seems as though Murphy's Station may benefit from this intel," Conrad said once it had calmed down a little. Elizabeth nodded, taking the information to mean she'd brief them later.
She was surprised then when Henry seemed to materialize out of nowhere. "Mr. President," he said, addressing Conrad, "I think this intel will be extremely helpful and further allow us to pinpoint HS's location."
"Good. I still want you to keep working with the Counsel's office on this, we don't want to find ourselves in any sticky legal situations after all this is over."
"Of course not, sir. Maggie has confirmed we've hit no grey areas yet."
Maggie. Henry was working with Maggie? Elizabeth's blood was boiling.
"Yes, Mr. President, everything looks sound at the moment." Speak of the devil. Maggie herself now appeared, moving dangerously close to Henry once again. Elizabeth closed her eyes and willed the image to go away. She opened them again to a confused look from Henry, who was standing on the opposite side of the conference table. Good God, it was excruciating, she thought, seeing Maggie next to her husband. And then she leaned over to whisper something in his ear and Elizabeth felt her blood boil.
"Elizabeth, we're going to need you to set up a meeting with the Libyan ambassador tonight," Russell said then, and she nodded. Anything to get her out of that room.
…
It was late that night when Henry opened the front door to the house and walked into the foyer. He took off his shoes and coat and dropped his bag on the floor. It was only then that he saw the light was on in their office and he peered in, surprised to find Elizabeth sitting in the armchair, eyeing him.
"You're home late," she said.
"Yeah, we got stuck in the office working out the legal kinks. I missed you."
She had to force herself not to get up and let him scoop her up in his arms right then, she had to stay steadfast. "We? You mean you and Maggie?"
"Yeah," Henry said, still the poster child for blissful ignorance. "What about it?"
"You, and Maggie, alone, late at night…" she trailed off, her voice laced with contempt.
"Baby, I can guarantee nothing happened," Henry said quickly, finally realizing what was bothering her. "Hey, I love you. No one else but you, okay?" He dipped down to press a kiss to the crown of her head, taking her hand in his and pulling her to a standing position.
"I know," she sighed, "rationally…"
It had clicked now, and Henry couldn't help the grin spreading across his face. "Elizabeth, were you jealous?"
She blushed furiously at that, dipping her head and staring at a spot on the floor. Henry pushed her chin up so she had to look him in the eyes. "Maybe," she whispered, suddenly embarrassed she'd even entertained the thought.
"Baby, you have nothing to be worried about. I love you."
"I love you too." Henry met her lips then, and wrapped his arms around her slim frame. She arched into the kiss, trying to increase their contact, threading her fingers through his salt and pepper hair.
Damn right, she had nothing to worry about, he thought, because no one set his senses on fire like Elizabeth McCord. She was his as he was hers. It was that simple.
When the kiss broke and they both caught their breath, Henry kept her close, his arms still wrapped loosely around the small of her back, hers around his neck. They just stood there for a little while, content in the silence.
"So, you were jealous, huh?" Henry teased, having removed any actual concern from the situation.
"Idiot," she said, shoving him playfully.
"It's cute, baby. Really."
"Aha. I could say the same about your total lack of perception when it comes to women hitting on you."
"Point made," he acquiesced, chuckling. "Maybe it just means I'm too handsome for my own good," he flirted.
"Shut up," she said, unable to keep from laughing. "You can't let the cult following get to your head."
"That's where you come in; you bring me right back to earth, babe."
"Hmm, yeah, it's one of my talents. Did you leave the dirty pan in the sink last night?"
"And there you go," he said, chuckling.
He kissed her again, and she melted into his touch, dirty pans and redheads named Maggie soon forgotten as they kissed the life out of one another. Breaking apart for air, Henry nudged his head up at the staircase and winked. Elizabeth immediately knew what he was up to and grabbed his hand, leading them both upstairs.
What better way was there to prove that all her jealousy had been totally unwarranted?
Fin.