A/N: Okay, hi again. I know I marked this as complete, but sometimes you get something in your head that you just have to write down. This is one of those times. As I was wrapping up The Fallout I talked about being cautious about getting into season five for obvious reasons, but I'm going to try relying less on the show as a guide and see where that goes. Please enjoy this chapter!
Chapter Two
"I'm Claire Underwood and I approve this message," Claire says into the camera. She is filming an ad that will hopefully strike fear into the American public. With the aftermath of Jim Miller's killing and his family's kidnapping, people are on edge. The Underwood's plan to use that to their advantage to gain votes.
"Should we do another one?" Claire asks the camera crew. They've been filming since morning, and Emily is due home from school at any moment. She would like to wrap this up before she has a toddler demanding her attention.
"Mommy? What are you doin'?" Emily asks as she breezes through the living room of the residences. Claire sighs and shakes her head at the cameraman. The three-year-old isn't going to stay quiet enough for them to film another take of the commercial. Emily bypasses all of the cameras and hops into her mother's lap. Claire readjusts so Emily can fit while the crew starts taking down their equipment.
"I was filming a commercial for the campaign." Claire brushes a rouge strand of brunette hair away from her daughter's face. "Daddy and I want it to air on TV so people will vote for us." Emily's cerulean eyes light up at the mention of her father.
"Where's Daddy?" Emily asks. She hardly ever sees her father as he bounces from state to state now that the campaign is nearing its end. Claire is hardly around either.
"Daddy's in his office. We have the funeral for that family later today."
Emily nods in understanding. She doesn't know what a funeral is, but she remembers the Conway's invading the White House to get the Miller family back. From what her parents explained to her, the dad died, and the rest of the family lived.
"I go?" Emily asks just as Frank comes into the residences. She sees her father and scurries off Claire's lap. "Daddy, do I go to dat funral?" Frank gingerly bends down to be eye-level to his daughter.
Frank glances at his wife who is shaking her head. They agreed there's no reason for Emily to attend. He isn't sure his daughter really comprehends what happened.
"No. You are going to stay here. Mom and I are going." The toddler frowns at the thought of being excluded. "Trust me, darlin', Mom and I don't even want to go. You can hang out here." Frank gently pushes Emily towards her bedroom.
Claire disappears into her room to change into a form-fitting, ebony t-shirt dress. She wishes the outcome would've been more favorable, but Jim dying boded well for them politically. Her and Frank just need the rest of the Miller family to be on their side.
"But you let it pass…because you know you have so much more ahead of you. So much to do together." Claire watches Melissa Miller deliver her eulogy at her husband's funeral. She is trying to reign in her tears, but for whatever reason, watching Melissa start to break down pulls at Claire. "You think…You think forty minutes. If we were late 40 minutes…" Claire bursts into tears while Frank sizes up the Conway's. She frantically digs through her purse, looking for her sunglasses. Frank glances down and holds his hand out to stop her.
This is all hitting a little too close to home for Claire. With them barely being on the other side of Frank's shooting, she is aware of easily her and Emily could be in Melissa and Caroline's shoes. And part of her feels responsible for this funeral even transpiring. It was her and Frank's decision to let it play out this way, knowing Jim Miller would be sacrificed.
Don't get soft, Claire. Not now, Claire chastises herself. She stops her pursuit of her sunglasses and gently reaches over to place her hand on Frank's knee. He glances over at her and nods before she withdraws her hand.
"What did the girl say to you?" Claire asks as they are in the car on the way back to the White House.
"She said she hopes I die and that you become president," Frank says to her. "How do you think Emily would've handled this? If it were me?" Claire momentarily abandons the paperwork she was pretending to skim.
"Francis…" Claire takes off her glasses. She wasn't prepared for this conversation nor does she really want to have it.
"No, I'm serious. I know she's a lot younger than the Miller daughter, but would she act that way if it were me?" Claire shakes her head.
"You should've seen the way Emily acted while you were in a coma. It was amazing to see her behave how she did."
"How did she behave?" A grin tugs at the corner of Claire's mouth.
"Like us. She has your pragmatism and my stubbornness. Even if you…" Claire pauses, forcing herself to say the word, "died, she wouldn't act like the girl. No. She would be stronger than that."
Frank smiles and reaches over, holding out his hand. Claire momentarily squeezes it before letting go.
"She's going to do great things, Claire." Claire nods in agreement.
"I know. We just have to make sure she doesn't make our mistakes."
Later that night, Frank and Claire are having a briefing with LeAnn. After they dismiss LeAnn, Claire tells Frank their next move should be appealing to one of the kidnapper's mother.
"Come with me," Frank tells Claire, holding his hand out for her to grasp. Claire grabs it, following her husband outside and onto a private balcony. Frank borrows a sniper scope from a police officer and motions for Claire to follow him to an opening between the pillars of the balcony.
"You see them?" Frank asks as Claire is looking through the scope. "Those people want a voice. Some for, some against. And they're looking back across the lawn, towards this house and these windows and they're thinking 'I wonder what the president and First Lady are doing tonight? And will they be able to protect us?'"
Claire lowers the scope and turns to face Frank.
"I should've been there," Claire says with a frown curling on her lips.
"Where?"
"When you got shot. I wish I was there. Maybe I could've protected you." Frank smiles at her and reaches over to pinch her cheek.
"I had nightmares after I got released from the hospital." Claire's eyebrows lift ever-so-slightly in shock. He's never shared this with her.
"Nightmares about what, Francis?"
"You and Emily being there. The bullet hitting either one of you, sometimes both. It's better you two weren't there. I couldn't…" His voice trails off, but Claire fills in the blanks. "You were able to handle it. I don't think I could've if the roles were reversed."
"I think we would both fall apart if something like that were to happen to Emily," Claire softly mumbles. Frank nods, remembering how shaken they were after Emily broke her arm. And how guilty he felt afterwards.
"I don't even want to think about that," Frank comments after a brief moment of silence. Claire reaches over and places her hand on his shoulder, using her other hand to hand him back the scope. She feels the need to redirect their conversation into something lighter.
"And what are the president and First Lady doing tonight, Francis?" Claire asks with a slight smirk on her lips. Frank matches her expression and gives the scope back to the officer. She stands behind him, waiting to grasp his hand.
The next morning, Claire stirs when she hears her daughter's laughter outside her bedroom door. She looks over, wondering where her husband went. Frank crashed in her bedroom last night but slipped out before she woke up.
"No, Daddy, like dis!" Emily says through a fit of giggles. Claire smiles to herself and quickly gets dressed so she can join them. When Claire opens her bedroom door, she finds Emily sitting in Frank's lap. Emily is sliding her finger back and forth on an iPad, watching a computer-generated model of Frank and Claire's pictures blend together.
"Why are you still playing with that thing?" Claire asks her husband. She sits down in the empty seat next to him. Claire is fiddling with a bracelet she's trying to hook around her wrist.
"Because I'm skeptical," Frank tells her and reaches over to help secure her bracelet.
"That kind of looks like Emily in about twenty years," Claire comments while she watches her daughter continue to manipulate the program. Frank nods in agreement.
"When do you leave for New York?" He asks her.
"Now. We should be back in time for dinner. Emily, are you ready to go?" Claire asks. Emily hands the iPad to Frank and hops off his lap. The toddler races over to her backpack parked on the couch.
"Are you sure you want to bring her?" Frank asks.
"Yes. I think it would be good for her to leave the White House for a little bit. I don't want her to feel she's trapped here."
Emily scurries back over to her parents, showing them she's got her backpack full of toys for the trip.
"I ready!" Emily exclaims.
"Give your father a hug goodbye," Claire tells their daughter. Emily hugs Frank and bounces on her heels, impatiently waiting for her mom to be ready.
"Good luck," Frank tells Claire as she kisses him on the cheek.
"I don't need it."
When Claire is at the subway station for the event, she spots Ken Caswell, an old schoolmate of Frank's. She asks to speak with Ken after the event after he implied something about a relationship between her husband and Tim Corbett, another former classmate of Frank's.
"Mommy, why you have that funny thing on?" Emily asks Claire after the event. Emily was half-watching a movie while Claire was speaking with the mayor of New York City. Claire is holding Emily as they are walking upstairs to meet with Ken.
"It was called a gas mask. It's supposed to help keep people safe in case something bad happens. I was showing people how to wear it," Claire explains. Ken is waiting at the top of the stairs and furrows his eyebrows when he sees Claire holding the little girl. Claire notices the confusion and glances down at her daughter.
"Emily, I want to you play with your toys for a little longer over there," Claire points to an empty bench a few feet away from Ken.
"Mommy, I hungy," Emily complains when Claire sets her down on the ground.
"I know. I just have to talk to a friend of your dad's and then we can get something to eat, okay? You are being so good." Claire motions for the secret service agent following them to escort Emily over to the bench.
"I lost a dear friend. I loved Tim. Everybody did," Ken tells Claire.
"And you implied Francis especially."
"Well, yeah, I mean…That was a whole other thing."
"In what way?" Claire forcefully asks. She doesn't like what Ken is reaching for.
"What do you want me to say? I'm sure I don't know anything you don't. Frank worshipped Tim. If the world was a different place back then…who knows?" Ken sees the sadness encroaching on Claire's face. "That was a long time ago. And then he met you."
Claire and Ken are interrupted by Emily, who pulls on her mother's skirt.
"Mommy? I can't find my bunny," Emily mumbles and sniffs. Tears are spilling out of the toddler's eyes. Claire checked Emily's backpack this morning and her daughter's favorite stuffed animal was in there. Emily must've forgotten it on the plane or left it in the office she was in while Claire was speaking a few minutes ago.
"Did you leave it downstairs?" Claire asks. Emily's little shoulders shrug.
"I don't know, Mommy. I can't go wifout Bunny!" Claire wipes a stray tear from her daughter's cheek.
"No, we won't. Take one of the agents downstairs with you and look for your bunny, okay? I will be down in a minute."
Meanwhile, Ken is watching this whole exchange with an open jaw. He's guessing by the dark hue of the little girl's hair and blue eyes that she is Frank and Claire's daughter.
"You two have a daughter?" Ken asks Claire as Emily walks away with one of the agents. Claire tilts her head in confusion. She assumed either Frank told him, or he saw her interview with Ashleigh Banfield.
"He never told you?" Ken shakes his head,
"No. He never mentioned it when we were at that dedication ceremony for him a few years ago."
Claire has a quick drink at the bar while listening to her husband and his group of old school friends tell stories about their time at the Sentinel. She checks the time on her phone, Emily should already be asleep. Frank wanted their daughter there, and she was, until she started getting fussy after dinner.
Claire joins the men sitting on the couch. They are trying to goad her into admitting Ken has put on a few pounds. Frank is laughing and motioning with his hand not to give into the rowdy group of guys. He sighs and grabs her hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Aw, you're a big man with an even bigger heart," Claire says to Ken before leaning down to face her husband. "I'm going to head back to the hotel and see our girl."
"Okay." Frank kisses Claire deeply, ignoring the wolf-whistling from the other men.
"Don't get him into too much trouble," Claire tells Frank's friends.
A few hours later, in the middle of the night, Frank drunkenly stumbles into their hotel room.
"Claire! Claire!" Frank whispers loudly. Claire rolls over just as Frank is turning on the lamp next to her side of the bed.
"Francis, be quiet, you are going to wake up Emily." Claire sits up in bed and Frank plops down next to her. She can smell the alcohol on his breath. It's been a while since she's seen him this intoxicated.
Emily stirs in the crib at the foot of their bed but doesn't wake up.
"Can I tell them about Emily?" Frank asks. Claire squints as she trying to adjust to the light pouring into the room. She finds it kind of amusing that her husband came back to the hotel, drunk, to ask her if she can tell his friends about their daughter. They've been limiting the number of people who know about Emily ever since she's been born. They don't want anyone using Emily against them in some way.
"Yes, Francis, I know you trust them." Frank digs in his pocket for his phone and drops it on the carpeting below. Claire covers her smile with her hands. "What are you doing?"
Frank picks up his phone and starts navigating through it. Finally, he shows Claire what he was searching for: a picture of Emily smiling into the camera with pieces of cereal plastered onto her face.
"I love that picture of her," Claire comments.
"Me too." Claire gently pushes Frank off the bed.
"Go. I'm sure your friends are looking for you. We will see you in the morning." Frank attempts to kiss Claire on the lips but misses and gets her cheek instead. Claire turns off the lamp and rolls onto her other side.
"Love you," Frank mumbles and stands up, fumbling towards the door in the dark.
"I love you, too. Be careful."
"Her name is Emily. She's three, almost four," Claire tells Ken.
"She's beautiful."
"Thank you. I should go and find her. It was great to see you."
Claire leaves Ken and goes downstairs to find Emily. The agent Claire left her daughter with is standing near the toddler, who is inching dangerously towards the tracks.
"We have located the bunny," the agent tells Claire like this is a real security briefing.
"Where is it?" Claire asks, momentarily turning her back to Emily.
"Someone took it from your daughter and threw it onto the tracks when we caught up to them. It's down there. Ma'am!" The agent points to Emily, who is just about to jump down into the tracks to rescue her bunny.
"Emily! No!" Claire yells and reaches to grab the toddler, yanking on her arm. Thankfully, Claire has a firm grip on her daughter, preventing her from falling onto the tracks. Emily stumbles due to the abrupt motion and scrapes her knee on the concrete. And then she bursts into tears.
"Mommy, I want Bunny!" Emily demands.
"You cannot do things like that, Emily!" Claire yells at the toddler, shaking her shoulders ever-so-slightly. Claire takes a breath to relax herself before tending to her daughter. "Let me see your leg."
Emily's trembling in Claire's arms. The three-year-old's leg is bleeding, and her sobs haven't subsided. Claire picks Emily up, sidling her on her hip. Emily sobs into Claire's shoulder.
"We need a band-aid," Claire tells a nearby agent.
"Mommy, I want Bunny!" Emily repeats. It figures the one thing that usually calms Emily down during a moment like this is sitting at the bottom of subway tracks.
"I will get you a new bunny, we just have to get you cleaned up first." Claire tells Emily. Emily's lip quivers and she tightens her grip on Claire. She is walking as quickly as she can to an awaiting car, hoping nobody will stop her for a picture or comment.
When they get to the detail, an agent is waiting with a first-aid kit for Claire.
"Thank you," Claire says. She buckles Emily into the car seat before opening the kit. Emily is still crying softly, but her sobs have subsided.
"No, dat hurt!" Emily jerks her leg away from her mother after Claire dabs her knee with rubbing alcohol.
"Where to ma'am?" A female agent driving the car asks Claire.
"The closest toy store," Claire says as she's applying the bandage to Emily's knee.
An hour later, Emily and Claire are sitting on a plane back to D.C. Emily is playing a game on her iPad, her new bunny tucked under her arm. Meanwhile, Claire is a few seats back, talking to Frank about what happened.
"I grabbed her arm, Francis…I shook her. I…terrified her." Claire admits quietly into the phone. The lingering guilt she feels about how she reacted has been gnawing at her since they left the subway station. She acted like the overly emotional mothers Claire used to roll her eyes at.
"Look Claire, you were scared. I probably would've done the same thing, only louder. Is she okay?" Claire sighs.
"Yes. She tripped when I grabbed her and skimmed her knee, but otherwise, she's fine."
"You did the right thing. The outcome could've been a lot worse." He silently wonders how the situation escalated so quickly, but he won't mention that to his wife. The last thing she needs right now is for him to sound like he's criticizing her parenting skills.
"That's what I keep telling myself. We should be back in an hour or so. I'll see you then." Frank figures his wife wants to stew on this by herself for a little while longer.
"Alright. I'll see you soon."
Claire hangs up the phone without saying goodbye. She omitted the part about talking to Ken for the time being. That's a conversation she would rather have with her husband in person.
"Mommy, are you comin?" Emily asks, craning her neck to see where her mother is. Claire walks over to where her daughter is sitting and bends down to be eye-level with her.
"Emily, I want to talk to you about something first." Emily pauses her game and waits for her mother to speak. "When I grabbed you at the station, I wasn't trying to scare you. I didn't want you to fall. If something bad happened to you, I don't know what me and Daddy would do." Claire waits to see if Emily comprehends what she is trying to tell her.
"I okay, Mommy," Emily mumbles. Claire nods and moves to sit down next to her daughter. She kisses the crown of Emily's head while the toddler turns her iPad back on.
"What's this?" Frank asks when he sees Claire walking into the Oval Office holding Emily. He and Claire have agreed to keep their daughter away from the offices of the White House except during extenuating circumstances. Based on what happened today, and how tightly his wife is holding their daughter to her body, this is one of them.
"Hi Daddy!" Emily exclaims. Frank gets out of his chair and walks around his desk. Instead of putting Emily down, Claire keeps her grip on the toddler as she sits in a nearby chair.
"Hi Em, how was New York?" Frank eyes his wife, silently asking her how she's feeling.
"I got new Bunny! I fell too, see?" Emily shows Frank her bandaged knee. Claire involuntarily stiffens, which doesn't go unnoticed by her husband.
"I see that. Are you okay?" Frank asks just to entertain his daughter and reassure his wife.
"Yup! We see your fwiend, Daddy." Emily tells Frank. Claire's bites her lip. She was hoping to be the one to tell her husband about seeing Ken, but their daughter ratted her out. Frank tilts his head in confusion and locks eyes with Claire, looking for an explanation.
"We saw Ken at the event. We need to talk, Francis." Talking to Frank about Tim wasn't something she wanted to do over the phone.
"Okay. Emily, I have to talk to Mommy about something. Can you go play in your room?" Frank asks. Emily juts her lower lip in a pout. She just gained access to the Oval Office and her dad is already asking her to leave.
"But…I wanna stay wif you, Daddy," Emily says in the most innocent voice. Claire lets out a chuckle at the way their daughter is attempting to work her husband.
"Wow," Claire mouths over their daughter's head. "Emily, how about you play in the room next door and we will come and get you when we are done?" She doesn't want her daughter to linger too far away after the incident at the subway station.
"Okay," Emily climbs down from her mom's lap and grabs her backpack. An agent shows the toddler to an adjacent office next to the Oval where Emily can spread out with her toys.
Claire stands up once the door behind Emily closes. Frank goes back to standing across from her. He is curious as to why she didn't mention speaking to Ken on the phone earlier.
"The past doesn't disappear on command, Francis. Not even for presidents," Claire says after explaining how she bumped into Ken. "Why didn't you tell them about Emily? Or did you just not want to tell Tim?"
"What did he say to you?" Frank asks, putting his fists down on the desk.
"Ken's got a big mouth," Claire says, hoping her husband knows what she's implying. Frank walks back over to Claire. "I'm sorry about Tim. I'm sorry he's gone. I know how you felt about him." Frank reaches to put his hands on her shoulders. "Or, I can imagine." He gently rests his hands on her cheeks.
"Listen to me. You know you are the only person I've ever truly loved. You know that, right?" Claire leans into him, feeling his hand glide around her back to bring her into a hug. His hands rub her back while she buries her head into the curve of his neck. "And listen." Claire brings her head up to lean on his shoulder. "Something else is about to happen."
Claire pulls away, frowning at the seriousness eclipsing her husband's face.
"What aren't you telling me, Francis?" She asks.
Frank didn't want to do this now, but he won't let her go into a situation blindsided.
"There's a video of you and Emily at the station. They are going to run a story about you…being an unfit mother."
A/N 2: That's it for now, guys! Next chapter, Claire evaluates her choices as a mother while Frank figures out a way to go on the offensive. And poor Emily gets caught in the middle. Please leave a review and thank you, thank you for reading the latest installment!
