AN: This is different from what I usually write, there is no dialogue in it, just Russell's thoughts. Chapter two will be posted tomorrow. Maybe.
There was a hardness to Elizabeth eyes that Russell rarely saw. It came in the heat of arguments and at times when almost no one was looking. You had to know her, really know her to notice it. For her faceful expression only changed in the slightest, Elizabeth's smile would somehow turn sharp, but didn't move, and there was the smallest glint of anger in her eyes. After Iran he saw it more often than before, but that was to be expected.
Conrad sometimes wore a similar expression to Bess's, but the President didn't care to mask it as well. It took Russell a while before he realized what the look meant. It was the look of righteousness. It was the look born from horror and sadness, but that became a fire to do good. It was a look of lost innocence and a look of selflessness.
It was almost a year into her term when he finally understood the look, when he finally shed the illusion that she was completely innocent. Now, she was, innocent, that is, but she was so much more than the persona she gave off. Bess had that fiery passion that politicians lost by the time they were in a position to have real change. And she was selfless, always willing to give more to the administration. She was also powerful, she had an air about her that made a person give in. She stood tall, no matter what. And she had actually goals, not dreams. And yes, there was a big difference. That's when he learned how dangerous Elizabeth was. She was irreplaceable, if something happened to her, deals, treaty's would break, tensions and relationships would be strained. She would never have to do a thing, except say something and it would come crashing down.
And despite how dangerous that made her, it was also what made her so special. Without her, -as much as he hated to think-, Conrad's presidency would have almost no chance of being as remarkable as it was now. Elizabeth had once told him a saying by Ernst F. Schumacher that she practically lived by. It went 'Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.'
But, there was another saying about geniuses that applied to her. 'What is to give light must endure burning.' And she burned, but he was worried about for how long. For every candle runs out of a fuse, and slowly dies out. Though, at the rate Bess was going, she would be a reusable candle, so long as someone gave her something to light the wick. So long as she had the hope for a better world
The look had hardly left Elizabeth's face when she returned for Algeria. Though that was to be expected, she had witnessed a hanging with no time to prepare herself. And despite that she went back and helped with the transition of power.
The look made Russell's skin shiver, but for different reasons. When it wasn't directed at him, he'd look on in wonder. He wanted to know what had happened for her to have that look. He knew she had been in the CIA, but he didn't know everything. Then there was Iran, in which the look had been absent a while, before it came back with a fiery vengeance.
He'd feel a small amount of pride. Russell didn't know why, everything that she was she made herself. But he couldn't help it. The woman could do anything she set her mind to. And it filled him with hope. Hope for country and the world. The determination that he had barely gotten a glimpse of gave him hope for hope.
She wasn't Bess in those moments, she wasn't a friend. She was Elizabeth, a self made woman who was out for what was best for the people. She wasn't a person during during those times, she was something more. She was the hero the little girls looked up to.
The hard look in her eyes would pass in seconds, making him sometimes wonder if he had imagined it. But the apherintion he felt when he saw it was almost palpable. He wondered if Conrad ever noticed it, he knows that the look had flashed in her eyes in front of the President. And Conrad had been CIA, he'd have to have noticed.
But, Russell didn't pretend to know what the president knew. Doing that could get him, and others into trouble. And not the small kind.
He shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to Elizabeth who was threatening the person on the other side of the phone. Russell would never tell her this, but she was truly remarkable.