Chapter 10
A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! I hope you like this one as well! I did have to rewrite this episode a bit and that's why I didn't give many details on the exact points in it. My pregnancy research is about to pay off though so I hope you all are excited for that!
The Next Day
Whether Elizabeth was ready to or not, the world was likely going to find out about her pregnancy soon and it meant those important in her little world would have to find out too. She was nervous to tell the kids and her staff but Conrad and Russell were now the root of her nerves.
For some reason, her mind had constantly been wandering to the meaning of colors. Red showed passion, orange showed courage, and green showed fertility. Those thoughts ran through her head all morning, especially when choosing to wear a dark green blouse today. She chose it partially because it hid her very tiny baby bump better than half of her wardrobe and secondly because of the meaning of the color. She chose a pair of dark gray pants and the only semi comfortable pair of black pumps she owned.
She wasn't ready to enter his office and tell him what was going on in her life, especially that it would likely be made public in the next 48 hours. There was so much going on in the actual world that the world being made aware of her pregnancy seems like it would complicate things too much.
There wasn't time to think about that now. Her motorcade had arrived at the White House and her door was opening. She took as much time as she could without looking suspicious, to get out of the car. She really wasn't looking forward to this conversation.
She walked down the halls, managing to look as normal as possible. Soon the doors to the oval office were in front of her and the president's secretary was opening it.
"Good morning, Bess!" President Dalton said acknowledging her presence.
"Good morning, Conrad. Russell." She replied with a quick head nod to both of them before taking a seat on the couch across from them.
"So, you wanted to discuss the details of our trip?" Conrad was already a little surprised by her meeting. He knew this wouldn't be about the trip.
"Yes and no. It's more of a thing that could affect our trip." This had their attention. "The National Enquirer is threatening to run a story about my personal life…"
"It's the National Enquirer, I don't think we…" Conrad began.
"It's true." She cut him off.
"Is everything ok?" Russell knew whatever it was couldn't be good. The National Enquirer running a true story? Something was seriously wrong.
"I'm pregnant." She told them while fumbling with her hands and doing her best to maintain a fair amount of eye contact with each of them.
The silence was deafening. She watched their faces turn from concern to anger and then back to concern.
"Oh wow, congratulations are in order I guess." Conrad said nearly monotone.
"Have you thought about how this is going to play out on an international stage?" There was Russell, always worried about how a situation would look.
"I have." She didn't want to elaborate on the fact that she knew her foreign counterparts would very easily dismiss her because of her pregnancy, that they would for some reason see her as weak or fragile simply because of that.
"And you know it isn't good! Plus you'll have a maternity leave and time off and we're supposed to expect that the rest of the world won't take advantage of any of that?" Russell was nearly yelling at this point.
"Russell, cut it." Conrad hit back at him.
Conrad could see the tears swelling in Elizabeth's eyes as her head dropped and the life fell from her eyes.
"We'll figure this out. We don't need anything to over shine our visit, does Daisy have any suggestions to keep them from running the story?" Conrad continued, pulling her back to the present.
"We're working on it, she bought us 48 hours last night… I'm not sure we can get much more." Elizabeth answered.
"How… how did they find out about this?" Russell spit back at her.
"It was just a lapse in judgement by someone close to me." She didn't want to go into the details and didn't feel they were necessary. She gave them the truth, even if it wasn't the whole, most detailed truth.
"Let's see if we can get some more time and figure out a formal announcement after our trip." Conrad was over Russell's attitude. "I think that's enough for today, congrats again, Bess!"
"Thank you, Mr. President."
She was so happy to be out of the oval office. While she felt like she could somehow breath again, she also felt like a hundred pound weight was on her chest.
She had never been so thankful for her team. How they somehow managed to convince the National Enquirer that the recording wasn't actually her son when it very clearly was, was truly commendable.
What would also be commendable was getting the talks in Geneva to go smoothly. She had hope but she also knew reality would lead her to believe they wouldn't.
And they didn't.
They didn't go well with Ostrova, they didn't go well with Henry. Just as she and Conrad were catching up in the courtyard, a explosion from behind them took them by complete surprise. They were quickly secured and hustled into a limousine.
"Elizabeth are you ok?" Conrad asked with a look and sound of concern that she had only heard from him once before.
"Yea, just reeling still." She answered.
"Any pain?"
"Just a headache but it's starting to pass a bit." She admired and appreciated his concern. "I've got to get in touch with Henry."
She pulled out her phone and immediately tried to reach him with no luck. She knew he was trying his best to save his student but she was continuing to see how impossible that might become.
Their driver immediately took them to a hospital, mainly for protocol. They were able to conduct some meetings there and finally Elizabeth was able to reach Henry.
He wasn't happy but he was ok. She told him they were going wheels up soon. She didn't really ask him to come home so much as declared that they needed to be going but he didn't listen. He was staying behind for Dmitri, he would see her on the other side of the world when his work there was done.
She wasn't happy to leave him behind but she understood why he was.
Back on the plane, she was happy to get some amount of rest. She was also happy to see Blake.
"Hey there big guy." She greeted him after coming out of her suite on the plane having changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt.
"Oh hi ma'am, how are you feeling? Are you ok?" He was incredibly worried about her. He didn't know much about being near explosions during pregnancy but he figured it couldn't be good.
"Not exactly, I need you to do me a favor." She asked.
"Yes no problem, what can I do for you?" He was nervous, why did she need to start that sentence with 'not exactly.'
"Have you ever tracked contractions?" Now he was really worried.
"No but ma'am if you're having contractions, we need to get someone…" He was incredibly worried for her and his worry was showing in his demeanor.
"I think these are Braxton Hick's contractions… but I'm going to need to track them to be sure. I also need you to not worry about it, got it?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am, what do you need me to do?"
"Every time I tell you I'm having one, write down the time and whatever I rate it on a scale of one to ten. If it is just practice, they won't get closer together and they'll get easier." She was breathing through one as she instructed him on what to do. She took a deep breath, "go ahead and mark one, that one was only about a four though… definitely easier than the last one."
"Yes ma'am, can I get you anything? Do you need anything else?" He was nervous but he was being strong for her.
"Yes, a nap." She told him with a smile before returning to her suite. "Oh and some water. Pregnancy makes you so thirsty."
"Absolutely." He answered rushing off to get her some water.
She was so thankful for him, even if he had no idea what he was in for.
Thankfully her contractions had become incredibly far apart as their flight home went on, so did Blake's nerves and worry that something major was going to happen to her.
Once they made it back to their motorcade safely, he had to break the ice.
"You had me very scared there for a bit, ma'am."
She let out a smirky smile. "If you think that was bad, wait until they're real!"
"I don't know if I'll be able to handle them if they're real!" Blake told her very seriously but the smirk she had earlier remained on her face.
"Ahhh come on kid! You'll be fine!" She playfully reassured him.
There was a pause on his end. "Were you nervous, ma'am?" His question was somber.
"On the plane? Not really. Sure it had been a while since I had one but something about those didn't feel like the real thing. I had Braxton Hicks with all my pregnancies, after the first one, they aren't scary!"
"Are you scared?" He couldn't believe that he had the courage to have this serious and personal of a conversation with her but after the events of today, he realized how much he truly cared about her.
"To have another baby? Absolutely. That's never not scary!" She was honest with him, she was scared. She was excited, but damn was she nervous.
Before he could respond, her motorcade had arrived at her home and one of the members of her detail opened her door.
"Good talk, thanks for today!" She told him getting out the car.
"Ma'am," he had her attention "if you need anything, I'm here for you."
"Thanks, Blake! Have a good night."
As she made her way into the house, all she could think about was how bad she wanted a glass of wine. Typically after long and stressful days, she could justify a glass of wine but with her current condition, a glass of wine wouldn't be ethically or morally possible.
As she sat her handbag on the entry way table, she was surprised to see a living room light still on. It was very late and still a weekend and she expected all the kids to be in bed.
She walked towards the light and soon saw the headful of strawberry blond hair resting on the arm of the couch as Stevie lay fast asleep. Elizabeth wanted to wake her up and tell her to go to bed, she also wanted to let her sleep, and finally, she wanted to wake her up and talk about Stevie's day.
Before she could make a decision, Stevie began to stir and quickly opened her eyes to see her mother.
"Mom?" She questioned sleepily.
"Hey baby, go upstairs and go to bed." Elizabeth told her while sitting on the small space left unoccupied at the end of the couch.
"How was your day?" Elizabeth was slightly caught off guard by the question. Not that she thought Stevie didn't care, but that Stevie had fallen asleep waiting up for her.
"It was a day. I think the score is Me – 0, life – 4." Elizabeth answered with a slight smile.
"That bad?" Stevie responded coming out of her sleep and back to reality.
"Just a lot." Elizabeth answered.
"Where's dad?" Stevie had finally recognized the elephant in the room, that her father didn't return from this trip with her mother.
"He had to stay in Geneva for a bit." She didn't necessarily want to give her the details but wanted to talk to someone.
"Is everything ok?" This was Stevie panicking, this was Stevie genuinely concerned about her parents.
"Yea, just some work stuff." While that probably wasn't the answer Stevie was looking for, she saw the answer between the lines.
"Are you ok?" Stevie asked not wanting to get into the details about her father.
Elizabeth thought about how to wanted to answer. Did she say the truth that she was ok, kiss Stevie goodnight and retreat to her bathroom and handle this stress like she handled most stress when she didn't have anyone to talk to – an hours long soak in her tub while allowing her emotions to fully come to the surface and tears to stream down her face? Or did she say she wasn't and share her deepest emotions with her daughter?
"Yea!" She said fake enough that it prompted Stevie to ask again.
"Are you sure you're ok?"
Elizabeth exhaled deeply before giving her daughter the honest answer she was looking for. "Not totally."
"So let's talk about it!" Stevie eagerly tried to convince her mother, she was there to listen. She may not be able to fully understand simply because she had never been there, but she wanted to support her mother through thick and thin.
"No sweetie, it's ok, let's go to bed." Elizabeth felt she had done her part by admitting she wasn't ok.
Stevie got up from the couch but instead of taking a turn towards the stairs, took a turn towards the kitchen. Elizabeth could hear her get something out the cabinets and open the fridge before coming back to the living room. Stevie emerged with a bottle of wine that had easily been opened months ago, a bottle of grape juice, and two wine glasses.
"Alright, so let's talk." Stevie said sitting her items on the coffee table.
Elizabeth told her about her day, how Henry was conflicted with everything now happening with Dmitri, about her experience on the plane, and about how all of this happening now reminded her of how scary her future was going to be.
As she spoke, Stevie poured herself a glass of wine and a glass of grape juice for Elizabeth. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at how effortlessly Stevie has resorted to a glass of wine on a stressful day, especially since she wasn't 21, but she picked her battles and appreciated her daughters thoughts.
While tears slowly streamed down her face as she was brought back to the harsh reality she was facing, she had never been so thankful for her oldest daughter.
