Hi everyone,

Sorry the day got away from me yesterday.

So this chapter has me fully caught up with what I have written. I usually keep 5/6 chapters ahead however with a demanding full time job ridiculously busy social life recently I have just not found the time. I have had wayyyyyy to many weekends away and they are not finished yet but I am going to make more of an effort to get ahead again.

There may not be an update next week simply because I might take the opportunity to get myself ahead again but I am def not abandoning it so don't worry (Kate I'm looking at you lol).

Let me know what you think of this chapter xx


CHAPTER TWENTYSIX

Later that day, Elizabeth was striding towards the elevator when her phone pinged:

H: I have a surprise for you. Go home and change, Matt will fill you in on what you need to do and I will see you soon. YH X

Elizabeth smiled. she loved Henry's surprises and had no doubt that tonight's would be fun.

E: Can I even have a little hint? X

H: You showed me yours, now I will show you mine... Now, hurry up, I can't wait to see you baby. YH x

She put her phone away as she exited the elevator and walked towards Matt, "I hear you and your accomplice have been cooking things up again, Matt." She had kept her expression neutral, which threw Matt for a second, "Emmm yes Mam, but only if you agree obviously," he replied nervously.

Elizabeth grinned slightly at him, she trusted Matt but she liked to keep him on his toes. Saying nothing, she climbed into the SUV.

As she pulled up to the brownstone, Matt turned to her "Mam, plain-clothes agents will be waiting for you at the back door in 15 minutes. I have left an overcoat along with a hat and some glasses on the kitchen table for you."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrow, silently asking what on earth was going on "I have been sworn to secrecy. You will figure it out pretty quickly, but you know I will tell you if you insist. It is up to you."

Elizabeth thought for a second, and decided against forcing Matt to give away Henry's plan. She quietly got out of the car and headed inside. Fifteen minutes later, she was standing at her back door with hair and face mostly concealed under a Mets baseball hat she wasn't sure belonged to Matt or Henry. A knock sounded on the door; as she opened it, she was surprised to find two of the newer DS agents wearing plain clothes alongside a fully suited Matt.

"Mam, I have assigned Luke and Peter to you this evening. I thought people may be more likely to recognise me even in plain clothes. I will be staying behind so anyone lurking will think that you are still at home. There is another agent at your destination who has done the preliminary checks, as soon as you arrive he will leave you and Dr McCord be. There will not be an agent stationed right outside the door, but he will be within it's line of sight at the adjacent stairwell adjacent, as it is the only entrance and exit. Luke will walk you in and you will have a panic button should you need it, I would assume you will not, but you know I don't like to leave things to chance. Now any questions?".

Elizabeth laughed at Matt's serious tone, "Nope, I think you covered everything apart from where I am actually going. Shall we make tracks? I can judge your spycraft along the way, Matt, and give you feedback," she nudged his shoulder on the way out and Matt simply stifled a grin wanting to keep a more professional tone for his newer recruits.

Like Matt had suggested, it hadn't taken Elizabeth long to work out where she would be spending the evening and she was so excited to get a glimpse into this side of Henry.

They pulled up outside Henry's building and waited a few seconds until the footway cleared, fewer people meant she was less likely to be recognised. Luke spoke to the agent who had done the preliminary clearing, before he opened the SUV's door for Elizabeth. They then made their way inside and up two flights of stairs before coming to a stop outside Henry's apartment door.

Luke knocked and another agent answered, "All clear?" The agent nodded his head, as Luke turned to Elizabeth and pressed a fob into her hand, "Mam, please keep this on your person or close to you at all times. I will be just through those doors if you need me. Dr McCord is already inside; you can go on ahead in now."

"Thank you, Luke," she knew this whole thing was odd but didn't really care in that moment because she was about to see Henry's home for the first time. The smell of her favourite pasta dish hit her as she stepped through the door.

Henry rounded the corner, his eyes lighting up as he took her in. He quickly wiped his hands on his apron and pulled her close to him; merging their bodies, he narrowed the gap between their lips as he whispered, "I missed you." Elizabeth closed the gap entirely and locked their lips together in a soft and tender kiss before pulling back and looking up at him again smiling "It's only been a few hours but I missed you too."

"So what do you think of my surprise then?" he asked timidly, a little unsure of himself.

"I love it, I'm so glad I finally get to see your place," she looked around her, taking in the little symbols of Henry's personality that he had dotted throughout the space in the form of books and pieces of art.

"Well, like I said, I thought it was only fair that you got to see where I call home at the moment." His phrasing caught her by surprise. She grinned at him as he looked back sheepishly, both aware that they hoped their future together would one day involve Henry no longer living here. "I haven't really done much with the place since I moved in as it was already furnished, a lot of my stuff is still in my Pittsburgh house, hopefully I can show you that someday as well."

She ran her fingers across the spines of his vast book collection, "I'd like that."

"Good. Now make yourself at home, dinner will be ready shortly," he retreated into the kitchen area as Elizabeth continued to check out Henry's personal space. She could tell that he had not furnished the place himself. Aside from the pieces that had immediately caught her eye when she walked in, most of the furniture felt a little too sterile for Henry's taste. There was one piece though that she knew was definitely his. The deep red lounger didn't fit in with the decor and most certainly looked older than everything else; right beside it was a small coffee table with a book on St Francis lying face down alongside a framed picture of his family. She sat down on the lounger, putting her legs up before reaching for his book. This was what Henry valued in a home, somewhere to sit in peace and comfort while he read, she could feel his personality radiate from this spot.

Henry called out, "Dinner's ready." She looked up, a little startled. She didn't realise he had walked back into the living area, "I see you found my spot but I never took you for a St Francis fan."

"What can I say? He fascinates me. I assume you brought the lounger with you to DC?"

"How could you tell?" he laughed knowing that it didn't fit but not caring because it was his little bit of home and solace.

"It just seems the most you thing here," she replied truthfully as he reached his hand out to her, and she took it as they made their way to the table.

"I'm starving," she said as her stomach started rumbling.

"Well its lucky I knew you would be and made plenty."

They spent dinner talking about Henry's move to DC. The conversation segued to what happened with Russell and Nadine today and their upcoming trip.

"So Nadine had a suggestion, but I said I wanted to speak with you about it first."

"Oh?" He was intrigued by what Nadine would have suggested. She didn't seem the type to like interfere in people's personal lives, but then he didn't know her very well yet.

"Well, she suggested that we loop Daisy in so she wouldn't be blindsided if the press did get a hold of it before we decided to go public. What do you think?"

"Yeah, that's fine with me, I can understand the logic in that."

"Me too, but I'm thinking about going a bit further and looping my whole team in, well just the inner circle. If you don't want to, I totally understand and we won't. It just would make life a lot easier on our trip. I don't really want to be sneaking around every evening afraid of someone catching us or trying to avoid eye contact during meetings. This way, we could actually stay in the same suite the entire week," she started rambling a little more about how it would help them when Henry grasped both her hands in an attempt to ground her, and hopefully stop her mind spiralling.

"Elizabeth." he commanded as she finally met his eyes, "I am more than happy to tell your team. It would be easier and I want nothing more than to wake up with you in my arms for a whole week."

She smiled, thankful that he felt the same way "And you are sure? Even if I do trust my team, telling more people still means more risk of the press finding out."

"Babe, I know. Honestly, I would shout it from the rooftops tomorrow morning if I could, but I know that we have to plans these things and it will happen when we are ready. But I can't say I'm horrified about the risk, and I just don't think looping your team in is going to have any majorly bad effect, do you?"

"No."

"Well, then that's settled. When we are away, we can discuss options with Daisy about going public. It is going to happen sooner or later. I struggle to keep my hands to myself when we are outside the privacy of our homes and offices," Henry tried to lighten the mood and his heart flipped as she chucked at him and placed a lingering kiss on his lips.

"Anyway, would it really be a big deal if the press found out?" he asked, but was a little unnerved when the smile disappeared from her face.

"Henry, you need to prepare yourself for a lot of scrutiny. The press run articles almost every week, if not daily, on my non-existent love life so I imagine they will be like vultures when they find out that I am, in fact, dating someone and that person is on the presidential cabinet. They will have a field day".

"Babe, it won't be that bad," he said with a warm smile.

Elizabeth stood and started pacing the floor. The anxiety of sending Henry through the trenches of the press was always there, but now it was overwhelming her. While she knew this was part of her job, it was something she took into consideration when she made her decision. Her decision – not his. This wasn't something he had chosen for himself and, by being with her, he would be subjected to God knows what.

Henry watched as Elizabeth paced. Seeing the turmoil on her face, he got up and engulfed her in a hug, "Baby, it will be all right, I promise. I'm a big boy and can handle whatever they throw at me."

She pushed him away lightly, "Henry, I need you to really think about this. When I made the decision to become Secretary of State, I took the press into consideration. I knew I would be scrutinised and I knew that I would be giving up my anonymity, that my private life would be theirs to dissect to a certain point. But, that was a decision I made. You have not really gotten to make that decision for yourself because, by being with me, it is being trust on you. I don't want you to end up hating me for causing this sort of intrusion into your life. I need you to fully know what you are getting yourself into."

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, trying to soothe her as she spoke. He took in what she said – but he had known from the moment that he fell for her on their first evening together that his life would never be the same. He had considered the press, possibly not as much as he should have, but he would run through a million burning buildings for this woman. If the press was something he would have to deal with, then he would just have to get used to it.

"OK, for starters I could never, and I mean never, end up hating you. Secondly, I have known since we started this that my life would change. Truthfully, I may not understand the extent of those changes, but life is full of the unknown so, as long as I have you by my side, I am willing go through every hurdle that anyone throws at us – whether that be from the press, our jobs or just life in general. Elizabeth Adams, I am in this for the long haul. I will admit I might not always enjoy how the press will invade our privacy, I am willing to deal with it for you, for us. I'm making that decision, it is my decision, ok?"

"Are you sure? It will be a big change. The press can be relentless and, most of the time, you will not be able to fight back."

"I promise. I can't say that I won't struggle with it, but it is a small price to pay for spending the rest of my life with the woman of my dreams," he took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. He needed her to know that he was ok with it all and stop her mind from going into overdrive about it. When she groaned and relaxed into him, he knew he had succeeded. Breaking the kiss a few seconds later, he asked cheekily, "So, what do you want to do with the rest of our evening before you have to go home?"

Reaching up on her tiptoes, she whispered in his ear, "Why don't you show me where you have all those dirty dreams about me, Dr McCord?"

A few hours later, Elizabeth tried to extract herself from Henry's hold, "Don't go," he pleaded as he pulled her naked body closer to him.

"You know I have to. Believe me, I would much rather sleep in your arms than go back home right now, but we have a plan in place so let's stick to it. Remember, we will be able to spend a full week going to sleep and waking up together very soon."

"I can't wait." he purred in her ear.

They both knew that the trip set for a few days later would change everything, but they were excited about widening the group of people who knew about them. Initially, it would be the ability to stay together on their trip, but they were also looking forward to no longer having to second-guess their actions around each other in public down the line. The two were aware that it would not be without its obstacles, but right then, their future together shone bright.