A delicious aroma filled her nose as she opened the door to their home; Henry's homemade spaghetti sauce.
As she slipped off her coat and tossed her bag on the foyer table she heard tiny footsteps running toward her, followed by a loud thud as her toddler fell on the hardwood floor. She took a few steps and scooped up her son just as he burst into screams and kissed his cheek as he wailed. "It's okay buddy." she said into his ear. He had been perfecting his running skills and tried a full on toddler sprint to reach her, so happy she was home from work.
Jason in tow, still calming into her embrace, she walked into the kitchen finding the rest of her family. Henry was at the stove stirring the simmering sauce with a wooden spoon. The girls were setting the table.
Henry was wearing his Chef Dad apron that Allison had made for him the previous father's day. She sighed and moved closer to him, reaching to place a gentle kiss on his lips.
He was surprised by her kiss, since they'd been arguing she hadn't been very affectionate. He kissed her back softly, telling her he was sorry though the kiss and slipped his hand around her hips. "Hi." she said, pulling away from the kiss and adjusting Jason who was still in her arms.
"Hi. You're home early." he smiled back, and offered her a taste of the sauce.
"Mmmm." She licked the spoon; Henry's homemade spaghetti sauce was one of her favorites. "Can we talk later?" she whispered, indicating she was ready, but wanted to have the conversation in private after the kids were in bed.
He pulled her close once more and kissed her forehead. "Of course."
She smiled and winked as she left his embrace and moved over to the table to talk to the girls. Dropping Jason in his highchair, she came up behind Ally and hugged her. "Hi baby girl. How was your day?"
"Good Mommy. Today we made finger paint pictures at school. I hung mine on the fridge. It's a princess. "
"A beautiful princess." she agreed looking at the new sheet of paper that hung on the fridge.
Next she moved to her oldest and hugged her. "Hi Stevie, how was your math test?"
"It was fine. I got an A." she bragged.
"Very good. Did you leave the baby gate open again?"
"I guess I forgot. I'm sorry." she offered.
"Alright. Try and remember to keep it closed; your brother fell in the hallway when I came in."
"Mommy! Did you eat the cookies I made?" Ally interjected
"I did, they were delicious."
"I can tell. You don't look sad anymore."
"They really helped baby girl."
"I'm glad. I don't like when you are sad."
Stevie again rolled her eyes at her sister's efforts to kiss up to their mother. Elizabeth let it slide; remembering a time when Stevie had been just as sweet as Allison. Well sweeter than she was now at age 10. Allison had always been her sweetest.
"Okay guys, dinner's ready!" Henry called; breaking up the potential sassiness from Stevie and he placed a heaping bowl of spaghetti and a plate of garlic bread in the center of the table and sat down.
"I'll get drinks." Elizabeth offered and rose to retrieve a bottle of red wine for she and Henry and the carton of milk for the kids.
She filled each of the children's glasses and Jason's tippy cup with milk. Henry cut up some noodles and spooned some sauce on them in Jason's little plastic bowl. It was going to be a messy meal.
During dinner; Elizabeth smiled at Henry across the table. He wondered what had changed her mood in the past 8 hours so drastically. But whatever it was he didn't care. His wife seemed happy, she was home on time to eat with them at the table and the kids were thrilled.
Stevie went on during dinner about the mean girl in her class and Allison showed off how much better she was doing with her fork twirling skills; using both hands to twist the spaghetti on it.
Jason was babbling nonsensical words as he messily shoved the noodles into his mouth; his cheeks and hands covered in sauce.
As she listened to her girls and watched Jason make a mess she thought about how incredibly lucky she was to have such a wonderful family. She couldn't imagine how she'd spent so much time apart from them recently. In that moment; she didn't second guess her decision to quit in the least.
After dinner the girls helped Henry do the dishes while Elizabeth took Jason upstairs for a bath. She carried him upstairs, her arms fully outstretched as to avoid getting sauce on herself and set him on the counter to strip his clothing while the tub filled with warm water.
She added in some bubbles and set Jason down and happily watched him splash about and play with his little boats. He loved bath time. These were the moments she often missed because she was held up at work, or running some secret mission half way around the world. Moments she missed that she could never get back. A happy grin graced her features as Jason squealed in delight as she splashed him in the tub and blew bubbles off his head. She didn't want to miss anymore of these moments.
Before lifting Jason from the tub, she gave him a quick once over with the baby wash, making sure he was actually clean and wrapped him in a fluffy towel before putting him in a fresh diaper and clean pajamas. She loved that fresh baby smell and inhaled as she carried him downstairs.
After stepping over the baby gate she set him down and he immediately scurried to his toys.
The rest of the family was waiting on the couch; popcorn popped ready to watch a movie. The girls had selected The Princess Diaries. She was quite sure her husband was tired of princess movies; and couldn't wait for Jason to have a long enough attention span to watch with them, because then he knew the mix would have to be diversified.
Regardless he lifted his arm so she could settle against his shoulder, which she did immediately. She didn't say much during the movie, simply happy for the time with her family. She watched Allison & Steve argue over their bowl of popcorn and Jason push his big yellow truck back and forth across the floor, completely unaware of the princess movie.
Within the hour, Jason grew tired. It was coming up on his bedtime. She noticed it by his shortened attention with each toy, before crawled up on the couch next to her and buried his face into her leg. "Oh, someone is tired." she whispered to Henry. He took the popcorn from her lap as she stood and picked up Jason, taking him to the recliner with her, settling him against her chest as she started to rock him to sleep.
Henry smiled. Jason loved when Elizabeth was home early enough to rock him to sleep. Sometimes it was the only interaction they got all day. He got up and gave the girls his remaining popcorn and draped a blanket over his wife and son as they watched the remaining 30 minutes of the movie.
When the credits rolled, Henry clicked off the TV and ushered the girls up to bed. Elizabeth carried Jason and lay his already sleeping form in his crib before they tucked in the girls and headed back down to the living room for their talk.
"Babe, I know you want to talk. But let me apologize first. I've been thinking about it a lot, what I said was completely out of line and I'm sorry. You should go to Baghdad, if that's what you really want. It's a fantastic opportunity, you earned it. I mean, selfishly yes, I want you to stay. I hate being apart from you. That's what I should have said. I should have said, 'I'll miss you too much' But, we'll get through it, we always do - the kids-"
"Henry, I quit today." She interrupted, her eyes shimmering. She appreciated his apology, but she just needed to get it out.
Henry did a double take, blinking quickly. "What?"
"I quit." she repeated.
Henry couldn't speak. He was shocked. Thrilled. But shocked.
"I don't want to go to Baghdad." she whispered.
"You don't."
"No. I just...yes, what you said hurt me, and I'm still kind of mad about that. But you were right. Things would be different. They already are. I've been thinking a lot...and these past 4 years have been so hard. The miscarriage, 9/11, work. I mean I rarely make it home for dinner, I'm missing out on the kids' childhood. I keep working round the clock to fix something I..I don't even know if it can be fixed anymore. It's….I know you've been trying to get me to see that, and I finally did. I can't do it anymore. I don't want to do it anymore."
He pulled her to his chest, letting her cry for the past 4 years. "It's alright sweetheart."
"I'm so sorry, Henry." she cried into his chest.
"For what, darlin?" he wiped at her tears when she pulled back.
"For breaking one of our promises."
"What promise?"
"You know the one we made on graduation day, when I was so mad at my dad for missing my speech? When we promised we'd never let work get in the way of family."
"You didn't break it. Come on, you haven't missed out on any big occasion." he assured her.
"I love you." It was the only thing she could say in that moment as she leaned in and pressed her lips against his. All that mattered now was that they'd forgiven each other. It didn't matter who's fault it was, who said what, or who was right. They loved each other and it was all they needed.
"I love you too, babe." he said, pushing his tongue into her mouth to mingle with hers.
She groaned into the kiss and he deepened it, his hands roaming her body. "Make up sex?" she asked, breathless.
It wasn't often they fought, so make up sex for them was rare.
Henry nodded and scooped her up, moving them to the bedroom. Their make up sex was desperate and needy, followed by slow and tender.
Henry smiled down at her as he held her against his chest, stroking her hair. She smiled back up at him and leaned in for a kiss. "Henry?" she whispered. "What do we do now?"
"Well, I think we lay here together and fall asleep." he said, knowing that's not what she was asking.
She giggled. "Not that. I mean like, work. Do I get another job?""
"Eventually, I suppose." Henry said. "You should stay home with the kids for a while, like you mentioned earlier. They'll love it. And when you're ready to go back to work, you can."
"Yea. That sounds nice. I just, I don't know what I want to do, you know?"
"You'll figure it out." he said as he brushed his lips across her cheek.
The next day, Henry had saw the ad in the paper for the farm house. They went to look at it, immediately fell in love with it and bought it, diving head first into life outside of the CIA.
They spent an incredible summer there with the kids, riding horses, roasting marshmallows and swimming in the river that flowed in the woods behind the property. Elizabeth had quickly returned to her old self, no longer caught up in a war she couldn't fix, as they re-created a version of their college bubble once more. They were out in the country with no outside influences to disrupt their happiness.
****Promises******
6 months later
Henry McCord knocked on a class room door at UVA. "May I walk you to your next class?"
Elizabeth looked up from her desk, offering the most adorable smile. "Absolutely. I'd hate to be late on my first day." she winked, taking him back to their first meeting in a college lecture hall so similar to the ones at UVA.
Henry smiled, wrapping his arms around his wife. "Luckily for you I know my way around this place pretty well. I even dropped by early enough to buy you a coffee before your next class."
"Do you do buy all new professors coffee on their first day?" she flirted as she pulled on her jacket.
"No, just the pretty blonde ones." he flirted back as he walked with her arm and arm across campus.
As they walked she couldn't help but smile. Here they were, walking arm and arm on a college campus, just as they did when they met nearly 17 years ago to the day.
She was sure if she mentioned it to Henry he'd come up with some ancient quote to describe the situation. But for her the simplest answer was sometimes the best. Despite all happened in the past 17 years, the happy and the sad, they had come full circle; beginning the next chapter of their lives in the same place as when they started, in college and in love.
Fin
AN: THANK YOU all so much for your continued support and interest on this story. I know I say that every time, but I mean it! You are the best. I hope you enjoyed the ending. I'm sort of sad to see this one end, but I'm trying to finish up my WIPs before S2 starts. Then I can start on some fresh storylines.
