Hi Guys! I haven't written in forever but I am in love with my recent discovery of Madam Secretary and felt like starting something new. As always these characters do not belong to me.

"Why can I never find anything in this house?" Elizabeth complained as she rushed around the house looking for her belongings. "I swear that my keys have legs; I'm sure I – "

"Mom they're here!" Said Jason with a snigger as he pulled his mothers keys out of the fruit bowl on the counter.

"What the –" she couldn't refrain her own smile at them being in such a ridiculous place. "Thank you baby." She added, taking the keys from her son.

"Just take a deep breath alright." Henry placed his hands on his wife's shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze. He knew that she was nervous about presenting her ideas to the President this afternoon. "You'll be great."

"I just don't know if we're prepared enough on this one Henry. I mean, the team has worked so hard, but if there's a single budget issue then the whole thing could end up being a waste of time and I don't –"

"You'll be great." He repeated with a smile. Elizabeth had been tossing and turning all night; overthinking as usual, and Henry knew that as soon as she got to work and into "work-mode", she would be absolutely fine.

Elizabeth smiled too and kissed her husband before responding with; "I love you."

"Ugh"

"Please" Stevie and Jason muttered in unison at their parent's display of affection.

Henry and Elizabeth laughed before engaging in an exaggeratedly long kiss simply to get on their children's nerves.

"Right, got to go. Love you, love you, love you" she blew kisses to each of the family members as she headed towards the door. "Ali hurry up you're going to be late – I love you!" She shouted up the stairs.

"Mom, Ali's not here." Stevie commented as she made her own way towards the stairs.

"What? Where is she?"

"She said she had to get into school early, a project or something, I don't know. I thought she would have spoken to you guys about it?"

"No – Henry did Ali say anything to you?" Elizabeth asked her husband who had entered the hallway in order to join the conversation.

"No, but look don't worry, I'll speak to her later. You just concentrate on the presentation OK."

"Fine, I'm going, I'm going – here take this post – I'm gone, love you, bye!"

o0o

"Hey honey, how'd it go?" Henry greeted his wife as she returned home later that evening. From the look of exhaustion on her face he reasoned that she'd had a pretty rough day.

"Ugh, do you mind if we don't even talk about it? All I want is a glass of wine and to snuggle up with you on that sofa!" She leant over the back of the sofa and placed a kiss on Henry's forehead as she spoke.

"Deal, you go and take those heels off and I'll get pouring."

Elizabeth was already pulling off her shoes and massaging her feet. As she leant on the staircase to do so, she noticed the pile of post on the side cabinet.

"Henry, you still haven't opened any of the post from this morning!" She yelled so that he could hear her annoyance from the kitchen. "There could be something important!"

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry – I just found so many better things to do today than open bills and junk mail. I'll do it in a second. You just go and put some cozy pajamas on whilst I make you some pasta and that glass of wine."

Loving how much her husband took care of her, Elizabeth smiled to herself as she made her way upstairs to her bedroom.

"Hey kids, how were your days?" She called out from the landing.

"Fine." Jason called out. He was probably playing his computer games and Elizabeth accepted that his one word answer would be all that she'd get out of him.

Stevie stepped out of her room to greet her mum. "Hey, how did your presentation go?"

"Don't ask." She rolled her eyes and went to knock on Allison's door.

"She's not back yet." Stevie informed.

"What? It's gone nine, where is she?" Elizabeth was annoyed. It was one thing for Allison to forget to tell her parents about going in early but to then stay out extra late was pushing it a bit far.

Stevie shrugged; "I'm not sure, she's probably just with friends or something."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes again, she was too tired to even get angry right now but she would certainly be having words with her youngest daughter.

o0o

"Dinner for one." Henry motioned to the tray of food and drink that he had laid out for his wife by the sofa. She grabbed the still unopened pile of post before going to sit down.

"Thank you." She said, taking a large sip of red wine with a satisfying sigh. "Where's Ali? I know it was probably just an innocent mistake her not telling us about going in early tomorrow but if she's going to be out all hours, we should at least know in advance."

"Just with friends, I think, I'm sure she'll be home soon." Henry sounded relaxed but the look of alert on his wife's face told him that he wouldn't be relaxed for long.

"What do you mean you "think" she's with friends? What friends? Didn't she say anything when you spoke to her?" Elizabeth couldn't believe how little everyone seemed to know about Allison's life recently – including herself, which she felt guilty about.

"I haven't actually spoken to her, I couldn't get through so I texted her but I think her battery might be dead. I didn't want to worry you about this because there is nothing to worry about. She's our sensible one and she deserves to have a little freedom." Henry smiled reassuringly but Elizabeth didn't look convinced.

"She's on that phone 24/7 Henry, the battery would never be dead. I don't like not knowing where our daughter is."

"We can't keep track on her every move Bess."

"We could if I had my way."

"We've spoken about this; we're not going to spy on our kids – we're their parents."

"Fine, but when she gets in I'm not going to hold back on the interrogation OK."

"Fine, now just relax, and eat!" Henry passed her the bowl of pasta.

Elizabeth spooned some pasta into her mouth before picking up a letter from the pile of post. "Even boring bills have to be opened." She commented with light sarcasm. "Although, you're right, this is a pretty boring task, I mean how many –" she stopped speaking as she stared at the words on the page in her hands.

"Bess, what is it?" Henry asked concerned.

"Henry…" She couldn't speak the words, instead she handed the piece of paper to her husband and watched as he read the words:

WE HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER

Hope you enjoyed that little opener! Please let me know what you think because I've got a few ideas on how to play this one out. M x