You guys. I'm seriously blown away by the response to the first chapter of this story. Like really. Thank you so, so much for the enthusiasm and to everyone for reading and commenting. Now I have performance anxiety lol - I hope this next chapter doesn't disappoint :)
Chapter Two
There was nothing but the loud rush of blood in his head and the words that played on repeat in his mind, over and over.
Someone made an attempt on the Secretary's life. Someone made an attempt on the Secretary's life. Someone…
Henry felt light-headed, and he felt himself staggering back a couple of steps, but he had no control over his limbs, could hardly even see through the blur that filled his vision – tears or panic or both. He was steadied only by the hallway wall at his back as he stumbled.
Someone had tried to kill his wife. Oh God. Rage joined the terror that ran riot in his veins, melding with it and forcing a surge of adrenaline to go sparking through his body. His hands clenched into fists at his sides.
"Dr McCord, are you okay?"
The persistent question filtered through the haze of his thoughts. It might have been the first or the sixth time of asking. It almost made him want to laugh. What a stupid question. Was he okay? If Elizabeth wasn't okay then he would never be okay again. Oh, God, what if she wasn't okay? What if..? Either way, even if she was fine, someone had tried to kill her and that demanded action and definitely was not in any way okay. The thought sharpened him, brought him back a little, focused him. Gave him purpose and thoughts of avengement.
But was he okay?
He blinked to clear his vision. "Well, that depends," Henry said, his voice cutting and cold as he focused his gaze on Carl the DS agent, making the other man flinch a little. "Is my wife okay?"
"She wasn't shot," said the DS agent. "The bullets didn't hit her."
Bullets.
So it had been an attempted shooting. Damn. And bullets. As in more than one.
Henry felt an icy grip around his heart as he digested the news. He had been at the wrong end of a shooting not all that long ago and he knew that even if Elizabeth hadn't been hit, the situation must have been terrifying. He was also aware that once again the DS agent hadn't fully answered his question. "But?" he prompted.
"They're taking her to GW now, to get checked out."
"Why?" If she hadn't been hit, why did she need to go to the hospital? And why did Carl look like he was holding something back?
"She was vomiting in the car."
"Why?"
"Dr McCord, they had to get her out of there. Once they got her in the car, they weren't exactly driving slow. They engaged in evasive manoeuvres. It wasn't a smooth ride."
For some reason, Henry didn't think that was the entire story. The look on Carl's face suggested that there was something more. "And?"
"The shooting happened while she was finishing her speech. DS reacted to get her out of the line of fire. It was a rush, there was a scrum of agents around her, she stumbled and hit her head while they were getting her off the stage. Plus the shock, you know. The adrenaline."
Oh, yeah, Henry knew all about the shock and the adrenaline. He was feeling some of it right at that moment, and it contributed to the fury in his voice when he said, "So the bullets didn't hurt her, but Diplomatic Security did." Then almost immediately he felt bad about his words. "I'm sorry. I know you guys were doing your jobs. You saved her life." At least potential concussion wasn't a bullet wound, but neither was it good.
"We got her into the car twenty seconds after the first shots were fired. Procedure worked exactly as it was supposed to. I know that doesn't help you right now, Dr McCord, but…"
Henry waved him off. "I know." He sucked in a breath, felt tears hot and persistent at his eyes. Relief or distress, he wasn't sure. "The security outside?" he asked ineloquently.
Luckily Carl seemed to get what he was asking. "We don't think there's a threat to your home, but it's protocol to ensure we secure the Secretary's residence."
"You don't think there's a threat?" Only thinking it wasn't enough for Henry.
"As sure as we can be at this stage. The shooter is in custody. We think he was working alone. But there'll be extra security here and with the Secretary until we're sure and we know what happened."
There was so much to unpack in that short speech, but it wasn't the time. There would be time for more questions soon, but right at that moment there was only one thing that mattered to Henry. "Take me to my wife."
He spoke to the kids while he was in the car, being chauffeured to the hospital under flashing blue lights in a car driven by DS.
Correction: he spoke to Stevie while he was in the car.
He had just settled back into his seat and taken a moment to close his eyes and draw in a long, slow breath in the hope of calming his racing heart – he didn't think it would slow even slightly until he saw Elizabeth and could be sure she was okay – when his cell phone rang, cutting into this thoughts.
Henry looked down to see the face of his eldest child flashing up on the screen and as he answered, he already knew: Stevie must already know, too. "Hi," he said.
She didn't beat about the bush. "Dad, did you hear about Mom?"
There was something in the way she asked him that caught him off guard. It took him a moment to realise what it was. Stevie sounded… in control. Panicked and stressed and scared, sure, but also… equipped. Competent.
She sounded exactly like her mother.
The hot tears that had been threatening for the past couple of minutes finally spilled over and he couldn't hide the catch in his breath. "Yeah, honey, I did," he replied. "How did you –"
"I'm at the White House. Russell told me."
Of course. Her internship. He should have known. He hoped that Russell had told her nicely. "Yeah. They said she's okay, Stevie. They're taking her to the hospital, but –"
She cut him off again. "She wasn't shot."
"No."
There was a pause and he could practically hear her thinking from the other end of the phone line. "You're going to be with her, right? You're going to the hospital?"
"I'm in the car now," he confirmed, looking out the window to try to gauge how far they still had to go. Another few minutes, he figured. Maybe a minute less if they kept speeding the way they were. He silently thanked the DS agents in the front seat for understanding the urgency of this trip.
"That's good," Stevie said. Then she said, "I'm thinking I should stay here. There's intelligence coming in, they're coordinating the response. I'm not allowed in the meetings but Russell said he'd let me know the second they know anything."
"Yeah, Stevie, that sounds like a good idea." It sounded like a good idea on two levels. One: it sounded like Stevie needed to be occupied and staying at the White House would make her feel useful, give her a focus. And two: she might be able to get some information that would help to explain why this had happened, why someone had decided that they wanted her mother dead. Henry knew that he wouldn't rest until he had answers – and neither would his daughter.
His eldest child wasn't a child anymore.
"Have you spoken to Ali and Jason?" Stevie asked.
"Not yet." He wondered how he was going to fit those phone calls in; he was almost at the hospital and he was desperate to see Elizabeth, and while he badly wanted to make the calls and do his duty as a parent to reassure his children, speaking to the kids would take time.
"I'll call them," Stevie said. "I'll say you'll be in touch when you've seen Mom."
Henry felt a rush of gratitude towards his daughter for making the decision for him, followed by a wave of guilt at the relief he felt that he wouldn't need to waste precious minutes calling his younger children before he went to see his wife. "Thank you," he told Stevie.
"Dad… before you see Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"You should turn on the news." There was the sound of rustling from the other end of the phone line followed by what sounded like Russell Jackson on the warpath, and Henry was oddly reassured to know that in this situation, the President's Chief of Staff would undoubtedly be fighting in Elizabeth's corner. "Dad, I have to go," Stevie said hurriedly. "I'll call you if I hear anything. Watch the news."
"I love you," he told her, but she had gone before he was certain that she had heard him.
The car started to slow as they approached the hospital and Henry used the time to follow Stevie's instructions, using his phone to find the news webpage.
He was unsurprised to see the breaking news story at the top of the page, having been briefed by Carl that it was likely to hit the media soon.
What he hadn't been prepared for was the footage of the incident, and it had to be that which Stevie had meant for him to see.
As the car started to slow to a stop outside the hospital's main doors, Henry hit play.
And the terror washed over him all over again.
