A/N: This is a little self-indulgent piece that's mostly about how much I miss living in DC, but also a very (and i do mean very) slightly different take on the final scene in 4x22, Night Watch.

Prompt: Elizabeth calls Henry and asks him to meet her at the Lincoln Memorial, but she won't say why.

Henry was riding the metro. He didn't get to do it often these days, or indeed for the last several years. Since Elizabeth had become Secretary of State, life had been markedly different for the McCords in many ways, not least of which the frequency of traveling with a motorcade. But Henry had always enjoyed the mundane routine of riding the metro. And on this particular evening, he could because he was by himself. In fact, he'd been about to head home when Elizabeth had called and redirected him.

"Hey, babe."

She smiled at Henry's warm voice, even knowing he couldn't see her.

"Hi," she answered. He could hear the exhaustion in her voice, but also the relief that crept into her tone at the sound of his voice.

"What's up?" he asked. Elizabeth hesitated, and it was so quick and subtle that most people wouldn't have noticed at all, but Henry couldn't miss it.

"Can you meet me at the Lincoln Memorial?" she asked. Henry had to admit that her request caught him off guard.

"Why?" he asked, hearing the surprise even in his own voice.

There was another hesitation on Elizabeth's end, and this time anyone could have heard it.

"Can you just come?" she asked, her voice a little softer now. Henry recognized the subtle vulnerability there, the importance of whatever she was asking him.

"Yes," he answered. "When?"

"In an hour?" she suggested, voice raised in question. Henry took a quick glance at his watch; he had plenty of time.

"I'll be there," he assured her, and then there was a pause.

"I love you," Henry said, gently. On the other end of the phone, Elizabeth closed her eyes for just a moment, thinking that she could have fallen apart then and there with the stress of the last few weeks. But she still had one more very important conversation to have before then, so she pulled herself together and straightened up.

"I love you too," she answered, and though she had drawn herself up to full Secretary of State, her softness for Henry was still there in every syllable.

"This is Foggy Bottom/GWU station," the cool, recorded voice in the newest model of metro trains resonated throughout the train car and Henry rose from the hard blue plastic seat. He thought he preferred the old series of cars, with their paper maps and lurid colors of vinyl on the seats and the crackling voice of the conductor over the speaker. The train car swayed and Henry steadied himself on the metal poll. Most of the passengers getting off here were students, but some were clearly hospital employees and then there was Henry, looking only a little bit out of place in his dress clothes. But after departing the car and ascending the two sets of escalators, Henry rose to street level and was already blending in again. He stood for a moment on the bustling DC street in the twilight before crossing the crosswalk and setting off down twenty-third street where it intersected with I street.

He was familiar enough with the route to let his mind wander as he crossed one DC block after another, eventually forgoing the George Washington University buildings for a trendy hotel, a restaurant or two, which then gave way to government buildings, including the seven-floor State Department building. To cross, Henry had to pass the 23rd Street entrance, and the security guard there nodded at Henry. But as much as Henry enjoyed evening walks in DC, his mind was not really on the State Department or his view of the Kennedy Center if he looked to his right. He was really just thinking about Elizabeth, about this mysterious phone call and the mysterious meeting he was on his way to now. He couldn't help but remember, as he crossed the bridge and approached the outskirts of the National Mall property, that day when he and Elizabeth had been here last. He remembered it vividly, the way Elizabeth had looked and the way the kids had managed snarky remarks even as they ignored his attempts at teaching. But the memorial seemed, even from a distance, much quieter now than on that busy afternoon. There were still people milling about, but far fewer as night had fallen and the memorials were all illuminated by warm incandescent lights. It was never truly dark in this part of the city, but the evening lent a moody, eerie sort of quiet to the atmosphere. Henry could see people walking slowly along the path before the Vietnam wall, and up ahead, if he squinted, he could make out Elizabeh's motorcade vehicles parked only a little obtrusively in Lincoln Memorial Circle. He kept walking, still wondering what this was about and getting admittedly a little more anxious to find out with every step he took. He reached the edge of the memorial, marked with black metal roping, and waved at the members of Elizabeth's security who were waiting with the vehicles. Elizabeth was sitting near the top of the stairs, and even from the distance she looked natural and stunning bathed in the warm lights and the shadows of the imposing columns. He approached, and she caught sight of him as he was about halfway up. Something inside her immediately lifted just at the sight of him there in front of her. He joined her after climbing the countless steps and she stood to hug him. He took in the warmth of her pressed against him, and the familiar scent of her shampoo where her hair brushed his cheek.

"Hi," he said softly and she leaned into him for a moment longer than she might have usually.

"Hi," she breathed against him, pressing an affectionate kiss to his cheek. Elizabeth had grown into a very affectionate person throughout their marriage, but Henry had to admit that he'd noticed the lack of that from her recently. He knew it was due to the immense pressure she was under, but he had missed it nonetheless and a rush of warmth flooded his chest at the feeling. The two of them settled on the steps again, looking out at the vast space before them, the steps and the sparkling reflecting pool, rippling with the blurry image of the imposing monument at the opposite end. Henry could make out the distant fountains at the WWII Memorial. He turned away from the sight to look at Elizabeth instead. She looked troubled, still, but she'd reached a massive victory and there was undoubtedly something lighter about her.

He watched her take in the sight before them and draw herself up just slightly, and it all fell into place in his head. Suddenly he knew exactly what this was about. But he stayed quiet for a moment, letting her begin when she was ready.

She took a breath, and then she glanced at her husband, so steady and by her side as he always was, and she knew that he would be no different now- or ever.

"This whole ordeal has reminded me about the importance of civic duty," she began. "It's reaffirmed my faith in the process, you know?"

"I do," Henry affirmed.

"We got this enormous thing done, Henry," she continued, "and I feel a responsibility to make sure it doesn't get undone."

Henry smiled; he couldn't help himself.

But it caught Elizabeth off guard and her prepared speech no longer tumbled so freely from her lips. She faltered, looking at him curiously.

"What?" she said. Henry sighed, the smile still playing on his lips as he wrapped his arm around Elizabeth's shoulders.

"What?" she asked again, more insistent. Henry met her gaze, and looking into her blue eyes that were so familiar to him, he knew without the shadow of a doubt that she was going to make an even better leader than a diplomat.

"I know you want to run for President," he admitted softly.

"You do?" Elizabeth asked, sounding genuinely surprised. Henry nodded his head in affirmation.

"I do," he echoed.

Elizabeth looked at him for a moment, her expression hard to read. Henry wondered for a flicker of a minute whether he should have just let her continue, if he had ruined her moment.

But then Elizabeth laughed, and Henry couldn't help letting a little smile play over his lips again.

"What?" he asked, a reiteration of her own demand a moment earlier.

"I just- I really didn't," Elizabeth half-laughed. But then her eyes turned soft, her expression tender and warm, familiar to Henry as his own face in the mirror.

"But that's nothing new," Elizabeth said. And it wasn't- from the very beginning, Henry had known her in many ways better than she knew herself.

"There's one other thing I know," Henry added seriously. Elizabeth's eyes on him were inquisitive.

"I'm with you." She had never had any doubt- but hearing it from Henry was exactly the cement that Elizabeth needed. Having Henry's support meant that this was real; she was going to run for President.

She leaned in and kissed Henry, and she was still stressed and tired, but there at the feet of Lincoln, with Henry's lips on hers and a tangled mix of history and future spread out before them in the fabric of the city, Elizabeth felt lighter than she had in weeks.