Blake looked up in anticipation when Jay seemingly materialized in the doorway of the conference room where he'd spread out to work.

"How...Wow, that's a…" He shook himself away from the mountains of folders. "How much longer do you think this will take you?"

"Uhh. Two hours. Do you need me?"

"I need to talk, not a big rush and not totally work related. More like work adjacent." Jay glanced down the hall. "Whenever you are free."

"Sure." He only paused long enough to watch Jay nod and seem to shore himself off before walking away. Curious, he knuckled down to beat that two hour time.

Blake stepped into Jay's doorway and knocked on the glass an hour and a half later.

"Come in and shut the door. Have a seat." Jay moved to a chair across from the couch. "I'm going to just jump in. Matt came to me earlier, he'd been through the office and there was a Blue problem and he said Nina didn't even seem to notice." Blake was already moving to stand and Jay put his hand out. "Matt dealt with it. It's good now. But he asked me if we are going to read Nina in on Blue Protocols."

He sank back in his seat, considering. "Only five people have ever been read in, Kat isn't even read in."

"True."

"What do you think?"

Jay pulled in a deep breath through his nose. "I think we should be looking at the future, if something like that ever got out." He shrugged.

"I'm not sure Nina should be read in, but we should discuss Kat. She's an ally." He finally asked. "How bad was it?"

"Matt said it was only Protocol One, which, as you know, leads to others fairly quickly. He was worried because now that isn't your role. He was worried about walking away."

"I could…Technically the Blue Protocols weren't part of my job, they were this." He gestured to the two of them shut in the office together. "And this hasn't changed."

He waited, letting Jay study him before speaking. "Is this why you shot down so many other job choices?"

"No!" He insisted with a short laugh.

"Blake."

He ignored the question. "We should have a vote." He watched Jay leave to get Matt and Daisy, returning only minutes later with both.

"So, what's this about?" Daisy jumped right in.

"Blue Protocols." Jay supplied. "Blake and I were talking. The idea is to read Kat in, but not Nina and I want your thoughts."

"Well, Nina is great and all, but she's had massive shoes to fill. I'm not sure she can add that as well."

Matt finally jumped in. "There's four of us, five if we read in Kat. Do we need Nina?" He looked at the other three.

"So, none of us have faith in Nina." Jay sighed. "Okay. What about Kat?"

"She understands discretion." Blake tossed out. "And she's fully loyal, she wouldn't abuse it." He tipped his head side to side. "I think she would rise and help."

"Having another woman read in would be nice, you know, for those times we get to Protocols eight or eleven."

"And it would be one more set of eyes on the inside." Matt paused. "Is it telling that Blake has always been part of the in-group and Nina… isn't?"

"We already agreed on Nina." Jay tried to keep them on track. "Kat's back from her trip, the schedule is clear for a half hour, should we do a read in now?"

"Can we do it in a half hour?" Blake wondered out loud. "Yeah, we can always finish up tonight." He answered Jay, looking up to the others for agreement.

"Okay. I will go get Kat."

The trio were still comfortably seated in Jay's office when he returned with Kat. "Have a seat, we need to cover a lot really quickly. All of this is classified and none of it in print. Not even hard copy."

She looked around the room. "O-okay."

"In this office, we have something called Blue Protocols. Only the people sitting here plus two other people know about them, they can never get out. Ever." Jay emphasized. "We need you to agree to full compliance with that before you can hear the details."

She took in the serious looks on their faces. These were her friends, the people who essentially ran State. "I'm good with that."

"Good." Jay let out a breath. "Off the record, MSec has suffered PTSD after an incident a number of years ago. From that point on, she has been prone to anxiety attacks and a host of other symptoms. Which we manage with something we dubbed the Blue Protocols."

"Blue?"

Jay half-smiled. "DS code named her Bluebird, at the time it made sense to keep with that, so we understood the urgency. Blake used to manage a lot of it, but now he's spread his wings and we all have to step up. We took a vote, which is why you're here."

"What about Nina?"

"We're not reading her in." Daisy shook her head.

"Oh. Okay."

"There are a few, we won't get to all of them right now, but we can finish this tonight."

"I have Desi."

"And I have Chloe."

"Bring them, come to my place." Daisy offered. "It'll keep Joanna distracted too."

"So." Blake redirected. "Protocol One. Low blood sugar quickly tanks her reserves, food is always a bit of a fight. There's parts to this one- make sure she eats; then, dealing with when she hasn't eaten."

Kat studied him. "Suddenly, you being you makes sense."

"The first part of this one Blake actually laid out, along with my predecessor. We have a schedule, unofficially, for meal times. It follows her, us, wherever she travels." Jay supplied. "The detail aren't officially aware, but if you're out and you tell them to stop for food, they will."

"Make sure she eats. Got it."

"And keep an eye on what it is." Blake added. "She will go for carbs and sugar when she needs protein."

"Again." Kat grinned and shook her head. "Things I've seen you do now make sense."

"If she doesn't eat, it's a pretty fast slide into slowed thinking, dizziness, and so on." Daisy listed off. "If she's already worried or upset about something else. It will simply increase how fast she hits a panic attack. And the Secretary of State can never be seen off her game."

"Especially with a presidential run coming." She lifted her hands when they are looked at her like she suddenly grew an extra head. "What? You can't see that over the horizon? So, how do we all manage this then?"

"I used to schedule in a lunch meeting with someone when I knew things were starting to build up. Even if it was one of us and in the office. Another easy play if she's already getting overwhelmed is to call in reinforcements." She raised a brow at him, and he carried on. "Henry will come by for lunch anytime we reach out."

"Interesting."

"Protocol Two is a bit less a thing to do, and more a thing to anticipate." Matt moved on. "Unexpected loud noises are a problem. It's a trigger. Obviously there's not a lot we can do to prevent it, but she will try and cover how much it rattles her so whoever is there has to remember to get her somewhere where she can have a minute."

"Russell Jackson counts as an unexpected loud noise, by the way." Blake tacked on.

Jay checked his watch. "We need to get back to work before MSec wanders through to see where we've gone. But there is one other Protocol we can touch on really quick."

"Four?" Daisy asked, Jay nodded. "Yeah. Four is a biggie."

"What's four?"

"There are certain people we have to interact with that she really shouldn't be alone with." Daisy continued. "There is a hard copy list of names, off site. With Blake no longer as the gatekeeper of the schedule, they might come up."

"Nina still sits down every morning with me for the daily brief." Jay shared. "On a rolling basis, that would give me the chance to manage some of the in-person meetings. Phone calls are a bit harder."

"We can justify our presence though, right?" Kat queried. She had noticed that the inner office wasn't actually all that private from the comings and goings of the few seated wither now.

"As her Chief of Staff, it's not weird for me to simply be present for calls, though logistically it's not always possible. You and Blake, as the policy guys, have certain freedom as well. I mean, it would look odd if all of us piled into the office for everything, but if we planned out our days right, we would get good coverage."

Kat looked around Daisy's home. "Nice place."

"Thanks." She gestured to the table. "There are two Protocols I wanted to talk to you about, just you and me, before the guys get here. They know I'm telling you, it's just…" She huffed. "Protocol Eight is for when MSec has gotten so overwhelmed that she can't pretend anymore; her emotions start to run the show. She won't cry in front of the guys, well, Blake she will once she's really reached her limit, but not Matt or Jay. She would barely cry in front of Nadine."

"She's cried in front of you?"

"Not full on, but the Protocol is about allowing her to not have an audience at all. Around the office it's as simple as making an excuse for her to need to leave the room she's in. If we're in the conference room or something, she'll flee to her bathroom; you simply follow and make sure no one comes through her office. If the problem is in her office, that's a little more tricky."

"No witnesses, got it."

"On the plane, we just allow her space. It's gets a bit crowded and if she tucks herself away, we respect that. Overseas it's much like around the office, be aware and make sure to manage the room." She inhaled. "Protocol Eleven is a bit…different."

"How many of these are there?"

"Eleven. We only add something if we all vote it needs added. Look. MSec doesn't even know about this."

"Wait… Then who's the other person? I know Jay's predecessor, Nadine? She was part of it, I thought MSec was as well."

"No. Her husband knows they exist. He doesn't know the details though." Daisy straightened. "Protocol Eleven totally removes the guys from the picture. It's a crisis plan." Kat watched the apprehension on her face. "I am sure you are aware, as a woman, that some men are never to be trusted. It's disgusting, but we always have to be aware of our surroundings or things can happen. Bad things."

It took Kat a second. "Wait, are you talking about…" She wasn't sure how to finish.

Daisy nodded grimly. "If a Protocol Eleven ever comes up, we don't talk about it, even amongst ourselves. The focus is on the one person who is available assessing the extent of the trauma, determining a plan for healing, and then we all work on circling the wagons. If you or I are the ones on hand, we simply give the others a heads up that Protocol Eleven is running and then deal with it. If it's one of the guys, then you or I have to find a way to take over."

"I get it. I'm a little thrown that you're telling me this after you just said Protocols only get added for a reason." She thought about the implications of that. "Wow."

"Look. I know this is a lot. For the rest of us, the Blue Protocols have just been a part of our every day for so many years that we don't really ever even think about it." She attempted a smile. "But you were right today, with a presidential run on the horizon, it's more important than ever that the Protocols work like a well-oiled machine. When it first came up seriously, she fell straight into a panic attack, now it can be alluded to without totally freaking her out."

Kat started to reply, but the sounds of the others arriving cut her off. It was time to be read in on everything else she needed to know.