Authors note: okay so I'm really sorry this one has taken me so long. I got caught up with Uni work and to be honest I should be writing a coursework for public international law right now.

Henry got home and was giddy, and Barb could tell. She kept eyeing him up as he said hi to Jason and walked her to the door, thanking her for all her help. Eventually the curiosity got the better of her and she had to ask "What's gotten into you? When you left you were really tense"

From the dining room Jason could be heard. "HE'S GOT A THING FOR SOMEONE AT WORK. HE WON'T TELL ME WHO SHE IS"

At that Barbs eyebrows raised inquisitively "I see…"

Henry blushed and steered her towards the door as she pressed him for details. "I'll tell you when it gets more serious." As she left she noted that he had said "when" and not "if" and walked down the front steps laughing to herself in her floral night dress and slippers.

As Henry joined Jason in the kitchen he noted that she had made him waffles and there were extras on the island which he picked at while his son filled him in on his Sunday plans, consisting of homework and video games. Henry told Jason that he might need to be called back to work later that day and spent the rest of breakfast dodging questions about why he was needed on a Sunday and where he had been during the night. Henry did decide that while he couldn't share information on what he was doing in the night, he could fill Jason in on what he did in the morning.

"Ooh breakfast date!"

Henry laughed and said "well, it is the most important meal of the day" with a wink.

Jason did his best not to laugh but every so often when he wasn't ready for a joke, his dad slipped one in and he couldn't stop himself. This of course made Henry happy, knowing that he hadn't completely lost his touch.

They finished their breakfast and Jason challenged his dad to a round on the PlayStation, and being that Henry often felt guilty about not spending enough time together, he accepted, threatening to kick some butt.

…

Once Elizabeth had cleaned the coffee cups she sat back down to finish reading the reports from the night before. She started feeling the guilt of having such a long breakfast with Henry that she so often did if she took any time for herself. Even though she realised that it's okay to be selfish once in a while, and that having such a high stress job entitled her to let off some steam every now and then, she still couldn't help being hard on herself.

She worked out that she would have a few hours till the situation room had any information on the extraction of Sadiq and that she might not even be needed in that meeting. After that, she had until round tea time before the girls would be back from their dads. The plan was to get as much work done as possible before then so she could spend some time with them, before Ally went back to school on Monday. Thankfully Stevie was already home for summer and was able to help out with the school run and getting groceries.

Lo and behold, three hours into her work session there was a call from the Whitehouse asking her to the situation room. A small wave of annoyance clouded her mind for a minute. While she appreciated the Presidents confidence in her opinion to want it on a lot of issues, she also wondered why she was needed to witness an extraction of an asset. It was exciting to watch the body cams of the extraction teams of course, and there may well be international ramifications in the long run, but at the minute there was no working government where he was and there was very little Elizabeth could do from the situation room. There was, however, work to be done at home.

This annoyance soon dissipated when she realised she would get to see Henry again. Frustrated that she hadn't had the forethought to fix anything about her appearance but realising it was too late to do so now, she packed up her paperwork and headed for the Whitehouse.

…

When Henry got the call from Jane he had moved on to grading papers and forced Jason to make a start on his homework. He jumped up from his desk as soon as he heard that the extraction was a go and would be happening soon. Jane informed him that it wasn't usually protocol for the DIA to be let in on all the meetings in the situation room but that the President had taken a shine to their dedication and had asked that they be present. Henry let Jason know that the meeting he thought might happen was in fact, going ahead and reminded him that TV was only allowed after he had done 3 pieces of homework.

In the car on the way to the White House he thought about seeing Elizabeth again and felt his stomach tighten. He felt the heat in his cheeks and realised that this feeling he had when he was with her, or thinking about her, was something he hadn't thought was real, just something you read about in books and poems. With this revelation, he arrived and made his way to the situation room, switching into handler mode.

Henry and Elizabeth were standing in a fairly crowded situation room, with a few military leaders and the DIA team, waiting in front of the screen watching the delta extraction team storm into a warehouse in search of Sadiq. Elizabeth felt the usual apprehension and adrenaline that came with watching an extraction, but couldn't help herself from stealing glances at Henry, who seemed glued to the screen. She tried with all her might to not stare at him, unsure of whether he was even breathing. While henry was enthralled by the extraction she did lock eyes with another woman at one point, and felt herself trying to pass it off by looking around the room nonchalantly. When she returned her eyes to the screen the voice in her head was screaming with embarrassment.

Henry watched as the cameras caught the team finding Sadiq unharmed and leading him out to the chopper that was awaiting in a nearby field. It wasn't until they were safely in the helicopter that Henry released the breath he hadn't noticed he was holding and looked over to Elizabeth in relief. They locked eyes for a moment and was met with a sheepish smile that confused him. Then he turned to jane and was met with a knowing smile.

"what?"

"she was looking at you during the extraction, we may have made eye contact. I think I made her nervous."

Henry looked back over towards Elizabeth who had her back to him and was talking with the president and an admiral.

"So, you gonna tell me what's going on there?" Jane nudged him with her elbow

"Going on where? She's the secretary of state" Henry feigned innocence but he knew that Jane could see right through him, they'd been working together for a few years and had become very good friends, Jane had seen him with a some of his dates and he never looked at them like that.

Jane raised her eyebrow sceptically and henry relented "I'll tell you later". Jane finally laughed and responded, "I'll hold you to it"

Elizabeth had seen some of this interaction for her position across the room and started to wonder if she had gotten in between something, suddenly she felt very foolish and scolded herself for falling for someone so quickly. Elizabeth left as soon as the meeting ended not wanting to be in the same room as henry and the mystery woman any more.

She had almost made it to the end of the Whitehouse driveway when she heard Henry calling after her. She took a deep breath and composed herself before turning around to see him, as he ran to catch up with her she could see the confusion in his eyes.

"Hey" he panted "where'd you go? I went to grab my bag and you'd left"

"yeah, listen I'm really sorry but I just can't do this…"

Henry felt like he'd been punched in the gut "what do you mean? It was going so well…"

Elizabeth took a deep breath and decided to just be completely honest, "listen, I'm not getting any younger and what with my job and my kids I really don't have the time or energy to spend time on games" with that Henry only grew more confused, which must have been clear on his face because Elizabeth continued. "You and that woman from the DIA?"

At that Henry started to laugh, suddenly there were tears stinging at Elizabeth's eyes. And she turned to walk away. Henry caught her by the arm and ran around to stand in front of her, sensing that maybe that wasn't the best call.

"that's Jane, she's one of my closest friends, she's like a sister to me." Elizabeth didn't look entirely convinced. "she mentioned that you two caught eyes, she was looking at you because she'd seen the way I was looking at you the other day. It's impossible for me to hide anything from her, and to be honest I'm surprised everyone in that room didn't see how I was looking at you the other day."

Elizabeth felt the heat rise in her cheeks and said "I'm so sorry, I usually don't get like this with a guy. Besides even if there was something, we've known each other less than a week" she suddenly caught herself. "gosh, has it only been a week? Anyway, I feel stupid" she looked at the floor in embarrassment, this was something her mind would replay for her for years to come.

Henry reached out and pulled her in for a hug, he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face at the thought of her being jealous… of Jane. That thought alone would keep him amused for the foreseeable future.

"For what it's worth I'm not interested in games either. And you're right it feels like I've known you for years"

Elizabeth lifted her head to look at him, glad she wasn't the only one who felt that way. She leaned up and kissed him, it was tender and soft but she took her time, needing to show him how much she cared without saying it.

Henry asked Elizabeth to go go with him for a coffee but Elizabeth couldn't forget about the amount of work she had to get done before the girls got home, so she told henry to go and spend the day with Jason and that she would ring him later. It was then that he thought he should check with her about something.

"hey, so since we're both in this, I haven't told Jace who you are yet because I didn't want him to be affected if this turned out to just be a one date thing… but I was wondering if you had any qualms about me telling him who you are? He's a responsible kid, he won't go blabbing to his school friends."

Elizabeth smiled at him, flattered that he asked her opinion on it. "That's absolutely fine with me, he deserves to know who his father is spending time with. Its sweet of you to ask though."

"Well I mean it affects you too so I just thought… Okay so I'll talk to you later. Let me know how you get on with the girls later." Elizabeth nodded and gave him another kiss goodbye, this one quicker, as though they had been doing this for years. As she heads to her waiting motorcade Henry caught the eye of the security guard manning the gate who gave him a thumbs up and he smiled sheepishly and headed to where he had parked his own car.

…

As henry walked in he noted the quietness of the house, he was about to find Jason and see if he was still doing homework until he heard the familiar sounds of the PlayStation coming from the living room. Walking up to him he tousled his hair and crouched down behind the sofa, resting his arms on the back so that he was the same height as his son. Before he could say anything, Jason said, "I've done most of my homework, I only have Spanish left and I was losing focus so I thought I should take a break."

"I didn't say anything, you know how long it'll take you, I have complete faith that you'll get it done."

At that Jason paused his game and turned to his dad, squinting at him. It was Henrys MO to be on Jason about his homework, he was unsure of this relaxed-about-school guy in front of him. Then it clicked, he was in a good mood, which meant he saw the mystery woman in the secret meeting he had to go to.

"you saw her again didn't you?"

Henry was impressed at how well his son could read him. "Yes I did."

At that Jason just smiled and turned back to his game. Henry was disappointed, he had expected him to ask about her again. "You're not going to ask who she is?"

"No, what's the point? I figure you'll tell me when you're ready. Are you ready?"

"Well, I mean it's going well so I guess you should know. I feel like I may have made this into a bigger deal than it needed to be, but if you could not talk about it with your friends I'd appreciate it. She has her own life and hr own kids and they're entitled to their privacy."

"Dad, I get it, would you just spit it out already?"

Henry laughed "right, it's Elizabeth Adams"

Jason paused for a second "As in the secretary of state?"

"the very same"

Jason thought about it for a second and then said "cool, you're dating the 5th person in the line of succession! I mean she seems like she has good foreign policy ideas, plus she's super pretty, and you know what with being the secretary of state and all, she's probably not crazy, so that's a plus"

And just like that it was done, he had been kind of worried about telling Jason who he was seeing, although he wasn't sure why. Jason had seen him with women before, he had dated in the 12 years since he'd been on his own, but this time he felt more nervous about telling Jason, probably because he could feel himself falling hard, fast.

Jason, however was already over the news, sure he guessed it was a big deal but it turned out the hype was more exciting than actually knowing the answer. He turned back to his game with a quick "as long as you're happy, I'm happy."

…

Elizabeth headed straight home to continue with as much work as she could fit in. after reheating one of the meals Stevie had left her and sitting back down at her desk to read over some memos she became engrossed in her work. It was a little over an hour later when her phone buzzed beside her, seeing that it was Henry she read the text immediately. "I told Jason who I was dating x"

"And? X"

"He was cool about it, thought you were pretty and said he wants me to be happy, so I guess it went great. He didn't freak out at least"

"Nah, wait for him to meet me first, then he'll freak ;)"

"haha, not likely, he'll want to come live with you instead of me"

"wow no pressure then."

"how could he not xxx"

and with that Elizabeth felt lighter, like they were somehow official now, that had been the tone of their earlier conversation when she'd completely humiliated herself at least, and now he had told his son. It was weird to her that it felt like they had taken a step forward already, but had known each other for such a short amount of time. Yet somehow, it didn't feel rushed or forced, if anything she thought it felt too slow, like they could be living together tomorrow and she'd still miss him while she slept.

After spending a few more hours doing work, the "to read" pile had gotten considerably smaller and Elizabeth was feeling pretty accomplished in her efforts, then the door to the house opened and in walked her two beautiful daughters. She got up from her desk and ran over to the door, pulling her girls in for a group hug, kissing them both on the head she pulled back to see their smiling faces.

"Ugh I missed you so much!"

"we missed you too mom" Allison replied.

"so how was your weekend?" Stevie asked with a glint in her eye.

"it was good, thank you, the house is far too quiet without you two in it but I managed" she slid her arms around both of their shoulders and walked them towards the living room and they flopped on the couch.

"are you gonna make us ask?" Allison wasn't the most patient person when it came to gossip.

" okay, okay. Wee went out for lunch on Saturday whoch I told you about."

"yes and you went on a super cute walk… and after that?"

Elizabeth filled the girls in on the general things that happened, the breakfast, the misunderstanding, that he had told his son who he was dating. When she said it out loud it occurred to her just how much had happened in the last few days. The girls spent the entire time she was filling them in, either saying aww or asking for more details, which she refused to give.

They ordered Chinese food and watched a movie snuggled on the couch together, the idyllic Sunday night between a mother and her daughters, until Elizabeth's 3am start finally caught up with her and she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Stevie nudged her awake and told her she should go to bed, and Elizabeth was in no mood to argue. She went to sleep and had a full, peaceful night sleep after an eventful day.

Please review, they remind me that this story exists and that people actually want to read it. Unfortunately, I can't respond to guest reviews but I do respond to all those I can, and I really do take your feedback on. I've already fgot a start to the next chapter so I should update pretty soon. :) xx