A/N: Thank you for the reviews! There's a little bit more fluff coming before the big action but I promise it's coming! I'm also going a bit off the episodes starting here so here comes my unbearable work writing lol
13 ½ Weeks
Another day, another appointment – at least that's how it seemed. After her conversation with Stevie and an unexpected conversation with Blake, she decided to let her doctor know about her Braxton-Hicks contractions. Dr. Moore felt it was important to start more regular appointments, even though every three weeks was already very frequently.
Luckily, Dr. Moore was now doing house calls. There wasn't anything that really needed a full office, a quick check of her blood pressure and review of any changes was all more than capable of being conducted at home.
Dr. Moore arrived on time, at 8:45, just as expected. The kids had already left for school, her first meeting was at 9:30 and Henry had managed to get part of the morning off for the second time in two weeks – which had really started to raise eyebrows from his coworkers. Thankfully, Conrad and Russell were providing some cover.
As her detail left Dr. Moore in, Elizabeth left her spot looking out the kitchen window to greet her.
"Good morning, Dr. Moore!" She greeted her, holding out a hand to initiate a handshake.
"Good morning, Elizabeth." They had finally gotten on a first name basis. "How are you feeling today?"
"Pretty good. Morning sickness is all but gone, still tired but not as bad as I was. All around feeling a lot better!" Elizabeth answered.
As Elizabeth was answering they made their way to the office next to the front door and Elizabeth took a seat at one of the chairs while Dr. Moore retrieved the blood pressure cuff from her bag.
"That's good! Left arm please." Dr. Moore instructed her.
Elizabeth gave her Dr. Moore her left arm and Dr. Moore wrapped the blood pressure cuff around it. She pumped the small air socket filling up the cuff.
Elizabeth remained silent as Dr. Moore finished reading her blood pressure.
"Still 130 over 85 still and a little high but nothing too crazy." Dr. Moore began putting her items back in her bag. "Have you thought about an amniocentesis?"
"I haven't really, do you think I should?" Her doctor had covered it with all of her pregnancies but never really suggested one.
"It's up to you. It will give you an idea of some genetic abnormalities you could be facing but it does come with it's risks as well. I would recommend it simply because of your age, just to ease your mind or help you prepare. You don't need to decide right away but if you choose to have it done, we'll probably need to do it in the next month or so."
Genetic abnormalities. Two words that she hadn't thought of since she found out she was pregnant but ones that needed to be at the forefront of her mind. With higher maternal age did come higher risks for many risks, ones that might need preparation now.
"Actually, yea, let's schedule that." Her mind was made up, she wanted to know that everything was actually ok.
"I'll have Jess give you a call when I get back to the office! Do Tuesdays still work best for you?" Dr. Moore asked. "You will probably need to take the entire day off to rest after and you shouldn't do any strenuous exercise for two to three days."
"Yea no problem." It would probably be a slight problem but not one that couldn't be solved.
"Great!" Dr. Moore replied. "As always, great to see you! See you in a couple of weeks."
Dr. Moore put her cut on and left as Elizabeth walked with her to the door. After Dr. Moore left, Elizabeth went back to the kitchen to grab her coffee and headed out the door to join Blake in her motorcade.
"Good morning, Blake!" She greeted him climbing into the SUV.
"Good morning ma'am." There was a slight stress and nervousness in his voice. "I knew not to interrupt you but we have an issue with the Mexican government."
"Oh great, what now?" She said with an eye roll.
"Apparently a group of US students on a recreational trip were kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel while touring the Mayan ruins. The cartel is demanding US payment for the hostages." He was hoping this situation wouldn't blow into something bigger but he had a feeling he would be making a business trip to Mexico soon.
"So what are they asking?" Elizabeth asked.
"They want five million US dollars…" He began.
"Just five million?" She cut him off.
"No… They want President Lopez to resign." Blake finished.
"That…"
"That doesn't seem like the cartels at all, I know, apparently the Gulf Cartel is under a new leader who's got a variety of connections to a newly emerging far right party." Blake told her.
"Ok, get Ambassador Flores in my office as soon as we can. I want the staff working to get me as much information about this new party as possible." Elizabeth rattled off commands, ready to get this work done and bring the US students home.
"Yes ma'am." He replied as her door to the motorcade was opened and she stepped out.
They boarded the elevator and he hit the button for the seventh floor. Once the door was shut, she knew she was safe to talk.
"Can you get me as much of my schedule for the next four weeks as you can? I'm going to need a day off in the next couple of weeks." She asked Blake. She knew her wouldn't be able to get a fully set schedule but at least any major events that she couldn't move without raising eyebrows.
"Yes ma'am." He was hesitant to ask anymore but he was truly starting to see Elizabeth as someone he wanted to protect in the most innocent and friendly way possible. "Is everything ok?"
"Yea, just a doctors appointment."
With the end of that answer, the elevator dinged indicating they had arrived at their destination. As the door opened she saw all of her staff standing there, ready to ambush her as they normally did when there was a major incident.
"Good morning everyone!" She said happily hoping to break their straight faces.
"Good morning ma'am, I'm sure Blake as briefed you on the situation in Mexico." Nadine responded to her cheery greeting with an equally straight face as before.
"Yes he has, I'd like Ambassador Flores here as soon as possible. What do we know about those involved? The students, the cartel, this new party?" Elizabeth needed as much information as possible.
"Students are a group of juniors and seniors from the University of Kentucky. The Gulf Cartel has a new leader a Carlos Fernandez Ruiz, there's no word on their previous leader or Mr. Ruiz came into power in the group, it all seems pretty sudden. This new party has been on our radar for a few months, protests here and there but nothing crazy." Nadine knew exactly what Elizabeth would ask and was prepared with as many answers as possible.
"President Dalton has already approved the five million in ransom but obviously our hands are tied when it comes to forcing a foreign leader to resign." Jay added in as the group walked into her office.
"So what other options have we considered offering them?" She was really just trying to see how much her team knew.
She sat her handbag down and sat in her chair. She thought her energy was finally returning but days like this proved it hadn't.
"We've offered double the ransom money they asked for, they weren't interested in the money at all. Seems like the money might have just been to draw us in." Jay informed her.
"Have we thought about pulling in other governments?" Elizabeth asked.
"We have, we're working with Brazil, Colombia, and Peru to get any sort of assistant. Chile is out." Nadine added.
"Colombia has special interest in the Cancun area," Jay began. "We also have reason to believe the students were attempting to smuggle in drugs back to the US from Colombia."
"I'm taking it this far right group has special interest in cutting off any sort of diplomatic ties to Colombia? That would mean the students meeting with the Colombian cartel and doing their business in Gulf Cartel territory would piss them off enough to want their party in power and end their competition with tourists in Cancun?" Elizabeth asking mainly clarifying her thoughts.
"Yes, it would appear that way." Nadine answered.
"So let's get Ambassador Jimenez in here with Ambassador Flores. They both need to know the United States is happy to provide the ransom for the safe return of our citizens but there's nothing we can do with a foreign leader. This is their problem, we're just caught up in it." With that Nadine and Jay shook their heads and walked away.
"Would you like me to prepare a statement, ma'am?" Matt asked.
"How much of this has leaked?" She wanted her office to keep a low profile for a variety of reasons and didn't want to make a statement unless it was absolutely necessary.
"US media hasn't ran anything yet but with it being US college students in a popular tourist destination for US citizens, we're bound to have news out soon." Daisy informed her.
"Ok, let's get a brief statement out, we've been made aware of the issue, we are doing our best to ensure the safe return of our citizens." Elizabeth instructed Matt.
"Ma'am, there's another statement we may need to make." Daisy told her. This was something Daisy and Matt had discussed earlier and Matt had been working on a formal statement for Elizabeth since she told them she was pregnant. "We were able to keep the National Enquirer off your pregnancy but we may not be for long. It's probably better that we announce before we run into another National Enquirer issue."
"I know. I would appreciate if we could hold off two more weeks." Even though she was in a safe point in her pregnancy to announce, she wanted to wait until after her amniocentesis results were back.
"I will do everything I can but I don't know if I can." Daisy told her sympathetically. She understood her desire to wait as long as she could but she also knew that probably wouldn't happen.
"I've prepared a statement for you, in the event you'd like to announce at any point." Matt told her handing her a piece of paper with a brief statement on it.
Secretary McCord and the McCord family are very excited to announce the Secretary's pregnancy. There will be no changes to the state department and the McCord family asks for your privacy at this time.
Short, sweet, and to the point. Elizabeth appreciated that they didn't give a ton of details, the last thing she wanted was the press knowing all of her personal business. She knew there would be press no matter what, she was expecting paparazzi and a closer detail once it was announced but she didn't want to ever get to that point.
Just ask she was debating when might be the best time to make the announcement, her personal cell phone rang.
"One second guys." She told Daisy and Matt picking up her phone.
"Hello?" She answered. "Yes, I think Tuesday is still the best. I can do next Tuesday. Ok great."
"Ok, right now, plan on announcing next Wednesday." She told the remaining members of her team.
"Yes ma'am." Daisy responded and Matt nodded before heading out the door.
Whether she wanted to or not, the world would soon know her little secret.
Later that evening she was happy to have a few moments in bed with Henry before she felt her eyes closing.
"So I need you to clear your schedule next Tuesday." She started off the conversation as they laid in bed, Henry reading a book and her trying to focus on a briefing.
"What's up?" He asked not looking up from his book.
"I'm having an amniocentesis." She told him shifting her body to her right side to look at him.
He finally put his book down and looked over to her. "Oh? Had we talked about that?"
"No, I made the decision." She made a decision that was ultimately all her. "There are risks, yes, but I feel like this time it's necessary."
"Would it change anything?" For Henry it didn't matter but he understood anything the amniocentesis would reveal would directly affect her in a much different way.
"It would change things in the end. We'd need more support, we'd need all kinds of training, we might need a ton of things that we should start preparing for now." Since her doctor suggested it this morning, she had thought of every possible thing that could go wrong.
"Ok." Henry responded reaching out to stroke her arm. He could tell she was stressed and would be about it.
"I'm also having my team make the announcement."
"When?" Henry asked.
"Next Wednesday." There was even more stress in her face.
"Ok, whatever you want, I've got you." He told her.
"Even if I want a Big Mac?" She said with a sweet smile in hopes he would be unable to resist and cave in to getting her a Big Mac since was so stressed about everything going on.
"That bad?" He asked with a half giggle.
"Terribly." She said, matching his giggle.
"Are you going to be awake if I get it?" He could tell she was tired.
She could feel how heavy her eyelids had gotten. She shook her head 'no.' He gave her smile and protective kiss on the forehead before she drifted off to sleep.
