"We are going to be late!" Blake rushed through the kitchen. "It's four hours to the hotel and if we don't leave Foggy Bottom on time, we won't have time to get our bearings before we have to head to the welcome thing."
Elizabeth turned, watching him collect their things and move them to the door. "I don't think a few minutes is going to hurt anything."
He gave an exasperated look.
"Fine! I'm coming! But your going to have to feed me somewhere." She grinned.
"I swear, isn't it enough I ended up packing your case because you were working all night dealing with China? Now I have to feed you too?"
She patted him and she walked past for the front door. "You love me, Blake." She laughed. "And see, I am walking out the door by the time you wanted."
"I already hate this trip."
=MS=
After meeting up with everyone else and loading up, they rode to New York. Blake found himself wedged in the back seat between Jay and Matt as they ran a mobile morning meeting. "I've made sure to block out your time to take Alison to college. She is meeting us with her things and then hopefully we get the afternoon to do all the normal drop-off activities. Also, a reminder you are having lunch with you brother at the Four Seasons." He worked on paperwork in his lap as he spoke.
"Yeah. Totally remembered that one."
"Of course you did." He tried to hide a grin.
"And Ali was really fine with us not driving her? I mean, it was horrible having to take myself to college, I never wanted my kids to go through that."
"I'm fairly sure meeting you there is nowhere near the same thing, but yes, she is fine. I talked to her yesterday and she pointed out that she'd need her car anyway, so she would be driving even if we took her. She's disturbingly rational sometimes."
"Yeah, no idea where she gets that one."
"I'm thinking it's a McCord trait." He bantered back, earning a faux glare from Elizabeth. "In any case, she's only going an hour away, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to go visit… And perhaps their student body won't protest your presence."
"Are we stopping to eat?"
"Food will be in the suite when we get there, so if you don't get distracted on the way up, you will have time to grab something before we turn around and head to the UN."
"That was a bit pointed."
"Well, I did nearly leave without you this morning." He looked up from the paperwork he'd been sorting to suddenly realize both Jay and Matt were staring at him. "What?"
"Nothing." Matt shook his head. "It's just… you two are never so obvious about your friendship."
Nadine chuckled. "You both are in rare form today. Is this indicative of how this trip will go?"
"I guess that depends on if he feeds me or not." Elizabeth decided to not fight the light mood.
"I managed to feed Ali and Jase omelets this morning, so me not cooking was not the issue." He couldn't help the lopsided smirk.
=MS=
Will stood beside the entrance to the park and watched as his sister climbed out of one of her SUVs, followed by her security agents. "Hey, Sis."
"Hi." She smiled.
"I know the Four Seasons was a reach, but couldn't you have picked something other than a food cart?"
"I've been busy."
"I know." He looked around. "No Blake?"
"What?"
"Blake. He didn't come? He's usually your shadow, never more than a few feet away."
"In work settings, but this is lunch with you, not work."
He laughed. "You still have to feed him!"
"He's working. After the minister from Timor Leste died, it's been a little crazy."
"I heard about that. How are you doing?"
"Okay." She ordered their food and waited until they were away from the crowd to say anything else. "Honestly, it was getting a bit tense between Blake and I after that happened, so stopping for lunch with you was good timing."
"Wow, tensions between the two of you…"
"What?"
"I've seen you fight; you fight dirty. And I've seen him a time or two when he had to take a call while we were visiting and he shut himself in the other room, he'd get that look in his eye."
"It wouldn't be that bad." She brushed off.
"I'm not saying you both wouldn't get over it, but I bet you have more ammo on each other to land some seriously hurtful comments than you and I do." He sat on a bench and waited for her to join him. "Anyway. After our sad little meal, what are your plans?"
"China has left me with a lot of free time, but we're driving over to see Ali off to school."
"We?"
"Blake and I. The rest of my staff are staying in New York to manage anything that comes up. Some of them have meetings of their own they'll attend. Our UNGA trips tend to pull us in all directions."
=MS=
The UNGA trip was shaping up to be a disaster, Blake was glad that there had already been things like lunch with Will and time away to see Ali to balance out the time spend putting out the fires of international relations. He kept reminding himself it was only a few more days, but there was one more hurdle to clear, the news circuit and Marty the Interrupter.
As Elizabeth headed out of the dressing room for the Marty interview, Nadine stopped Blake. "I was really hoping she would take the suggestion to bow out."
"Yeah, me too."
"How is Alison?"
"Delighted to be at college. I pulled the plug early after Daisy's text messages because it was getting weird with the staring and the last thing we need is all those rumors and then for her to unravel over something as simple as her daughter going off to school and the media making it a thing."
"True." She waved toward the viewing area. "Shall we go watch and see if this turns into one?"
"Let's go." As they watched the interview, Blake cringed every time Marty interrupted Elizabeth. He'd not been joking when he'd called the man the highest rated interrupter on cable, the habit was grating. He was only horrified for a moment when Marty brought up the murder accusation, but the horror quickly vanished as she out-Marty'd Marty as she launched into her response.
"Well, that happened." Nadine stated when it was all said and done, something they all found themselves saying any time Elizabeth went off script anywhere that wasn't in private.
He grinned. "It most certainly did."
=MS=
"Blake, this is crazy." Will turned to face him once his sister vanished from the room. "What's going to be done to keep her safe?"
"Um. I'm not sure?" Blake glanced at the others. "That this is a drug cartel doing this, changes things."
"Yeah." Jay agreed. "It'd almost be better if it were the Russians, at least they're not so stupid as to off the Secretary of State, not one as well liked as her."
"And now she's in their sights." Will repeated what Jay'd says before. "So how is she protected? Guys, this is my sister we're talking about!" He stood. "She seemed to think her detail can't protect her from this." He watched them all exchange looks. "Blake…"
"I'm sorry." He shook his head. "I don't have an answer right now. I…"
"Could you find one before it's my sister's test results I'm holding in my hand?" He started to storm out.
Blake chased after him, catching him at the door. "Now that I know it's a threat, I will do everything in my power to stop anything from happening."
"Those kids can't lose their mother too."
"I know. Believe me, Will, I know. I promise you… I've told her before; she can trust me with her life, and I mean that."
"I hope so." Will reached for the door. "Because if ever there was a moment where you had to prove how much she means to you, man, this is it."
Blake reentered the suite once Will left to find everyone waiting on him. "He said I have to keep her alive. No pressure, right?"
=MS=
"So." Jay started as he joined Blake at the dining-turned-conference table in the suite. "This had been fifteen levels of crazy, so I had an idea." He produced boxes of playing cards. "We have pretzels and other snacks and this table that fits all of us. I think we need a night in before we leave tomorrow, and we need to play. What do you say? I'm not sure any of us can handle unwinding out on the town with that threat of death that was hanging over the Secretary, and Daisy's not usually up for being out late right now."
"Yeah, game night sounds good actually."
"Good." Jay grinned. "I'll get everything set up."
Blake turned down the hall, finding himself at Elizabeth's room. "How are you holding up?"
"You mean after having it spelled out that I could die the next time I ate or drank anything? I'm good. I might skip fighting with you when you want to feed me for a while though, the idea of risking getting my own food is a bit scary."
"Well, Jay's setting up cards and possibly snack poker in the main room. We're going to unwind with appropriate amounts of alcohol, snacks, and some fun that will likely involve lots of cheating on all sides. Your presence is required."
She laughed. "It's really sad how much cheating you all do."
"Us?! I have you know that I'm well aware of your card counting."
"You can't prove it."
He just shrugged. "Will you be out in a few minutes? Daisy will be off to bed early and we want her to get to play a few rounds first."
"Sure. Just give me a minute to check in with the kids."
"Of course."