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Shoulder to shoulder, the only sound in the kitchen was the hum of the refrigerator. He heard Henry sigh, and he turned his head to look at him.

Henry was looking at him with an expression mixed with worry and confusion. "Son, what happened?"

Blake knew it was time to start talking. So he took a deep breath, and began.

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Blake POV

As he was taking a deep breath, Blake decided to tell Henry what happened in the same tone as he would deliver the Secretary's morning schedule. Of course, the best-laid plans often don't survive the execution.

"The Secretary was ready to leave. She told me to go find Daisy and- oh my god we forgot about Daisy!" His voice went from calm and matter of fact, too shrilly and frantic in a second.

He jolted forward, with a half-formed thought to call the woman in question only for Henry to put a hand on his chest, "Blake, calm down. I am sure that no matter what we say to her, Daisy will get over it."

Taking a settling breath, Blake resumed his position against the wall. So much for calm, he thought derisively.

"S-she told me to go get Daisy and wait for her at the exit. Not leave, not wait outside, wait at the exit." He spits that last sentence out in anger, only realizing that he was angry with the Secretary. It was irrational, even if he would have been with her as she left, he wouldn't have gone in the room. Sneaking a peek at Henry, expecting to find anger, Blake was surprised to find only patience and concern. Gritting his teeth and reminding himself to watch his tone he continued.

"I found Daisy in the opposite corner of the ballroom and was almost there when I saw the Secretary leave with the President. Any meeting with the President usually means we aren't leaving anytime soon, and she would need me on hand so I left Daisy chatting up some guys in the corner and went to follow the Secretary out of the room."

"I was at the door when Russel Jackson grabbed my arm and demanded to know where she and the President was. I told him they had just left through this door and boy was he pissed. The whole way to the Oval he kept ranting about how 'my boss is a neophyte pain in the ass' and how 'Queen Bess should stop sticking her nose in things she doesn't understand…"

Blake had to pause because just recounting the insults that angry little man was hurling at his boss made his nostrils flare. A glance at Henry saw that he wasn't the only one who found the comments infuriating.

"I didn't say anything. I wanted to, but I knew that the Secretary would be mad at me if I did. By the time we reached the Oval Mr. Jackson had worked himself into such a state that he didn't even give a parting jab at me. He just threw open the door yelling at the top of his lungs. After he slammed the door shut all I heard was muffled shouting. I couldn't help but think that he would give himself an aneurysm going on like that whe-when I h-heard…"

Blake felt his throat get tight thinking about what happened next.

"There was shattering glass and I d-didn't even think. I was at the door and pushing it open almost before I knew what was happening. And then - and then I s-s-saw her.. Sh-she was just laying there so… so still. " I th-thought sh-she was dead….

Blake could barely get the sentence out and the last word was barely a whisper. He couldn't stop the sob that escaped his throat. Seeing such a vibrant woman as Elizabeth lying on the floor so still, surrounded by glass made his heart stop. He felt Henry put his hand on the base of his neck, but before he could even think about tensing, the hand was rubbing soothing circles into his upper back. He took a deep breath, and then another. And then another. He wiped the tears from his face and once he felt like he could say something without crying, he continued. And if Henry continued rubbing circles into his back, neither of them mentioned it.

"I was paralyzed, I-I couldn't move. Matt and Frank had to shove me out of the way to get to the President. He was standing over her so threateningly but it was when he started fighting the DS agents to get towards mom that I - that I moved. She was-"

He was cut off by Henry, "Wait, what?!"

Blake jumped at the sudden interruption. Turning to look at Henry, he saw that the older man was surprised but mostly confused. Blake thought he could see anger in the mix too, but he stopped analyzing Henry's emotions when the man continued speaking.

"What do you mean? Are you saying that the President, no that Conrad hurt Bess? His voice was full of disbelief and tinged with incredulity.

Blake felt awful. When he started the story from the beginning, it didn't even occur to him that Henry wouldn't know it was the President because *he* knew from the beginning. So stupid...

"I'm so stupid, oh my god. Henry, I am so sorry! I didn't mean-

But Henry cut him off, "Son, you are not stupid and I am not blaming you. I just wasn't expecting that."

The other man was staring at him intently and Blake couldn't tell what he was trying to find. He was a little unnerved if he was honest with himself. Looking at his hands he asked, "W-would you like me to continue?"

"Only if you feel up to it Blake."

Blake decided that was a trick question because it was obvious Henry wanted to know what happened and Blake wasn't about to put something as silly as his own comfort above Henry's want for answers.

Taking a shuddering breath he re-started, "S-so the DS agents had grabbed the President from behind, and he was still trying to get towards her. S-she was screaming at them to let the President go and was even trying to crawl in the glass to get towards him. I - moved a-and I don't even remember moving…" He trailed off and he didn't know how long he stared off into space before he started speaking again.

"I moved, and I grabbed her from behind and lifted her to get her away from the glass. It was, it was terrifying. She was fighting with everything she had to get away from me. She was *scared* of *me*. And then she just stopped. She let out this ear-piercing whistle and started barking out orders like she wasn't covered in blood."

"She was demanding that the SS and DS agents let the President go, for me to let her go and for everyone but the President to leave the room. I honestly think she didn't even realize that it was more than just those agents, Russell, and I in the room she was so focused on the President. The SS agents were looking for permission from the Head of the Secret Service and all of the other security people in the room were staring at her like she had lost her mind. She lost her patience and yelled "Now" in her most commanding tone. I immediately let her go, and the rest of the people left the room." She got even angrier when she saw that Russel and I weren't leaving the room. Henry, there was no way in hell I was leaving her in that room by herself and I told her as much. I was so scared for her, but she was so mad at me… Henry… do you think I did.. did the right thing?"

He risked a look at Henry as he finished the last word and what he saw stunned him. The religious scholar was looking at him with such love and compassion it stole his breath. Blake swallowed the sudden lump in his throat and watched as Henry moved his hand from his side and placed it back between Blake's shoulder blades and this time, this time Blake didn't flinch.

"Blake, I think you did exactly the right thing. I think Elizabeth will be so proud of you for wanting to help her. Maybe a little peeved that she couldn't protect you, hmmm?" Henry finished the sentence with a quirk of his lips and a small laugh.

Blake attempted a small smile. It would be just like his boss to be upset that she couldn't protect others. Leaning slightly into Henry's touch he rushed to finish his part of the tale.

"The Secretary managed to calm the President down but when she tried to walk towards him, her leg buckled. Don't worry! I caught her before she fell, but it was obvious she had twisted her ankle at some point. She managed to get right in front of him - the President - and then they were talking and then he was clinging to her like she was a lifeline. I-I think he was crying." He looked towards Henry and he saw some of the anger he expected to see at the beginning of the evening. Blake leaned away from Henry's hand just in case his anger got directed towards him.

"He hurt her and she was comforting him?! What in the hell-"

Blake hurried to reassure him, cutting Henry off in the process.

"I-it turns out that the President had some sort of flashback, he served in the Vietnam war, didn't he? The Secretary was saying something about how it wasn't his fault and he wasn't himself and she would never blame him for PTSD."

Blake held his breath at the end of his tirade, hoping that Henry wasn't even more angry that he got interrupted. But he shouldn't have worried. At the word "flashback" Henry looked less angry, and when he got to the part about not blaming him for PTSD'' the man had completely deflated.

He looked defeated.

Blake wasn't sure what to do, but didn't Henry comfort him? He hesitantly placed a hand on Henry's shoulder and squeezed.

Blake heard Henry sigh heavily and watched Henry cover his hand with his own. Henry turned his head and looked at him, "thanks, Blake. What happened next?"

"I managed to convince her to see the White House doctor before we left, even though she thought I was just saying that to get her out of the Oval and away from the President. The reason her hands are covered in gauze is because she sliced open one of her palms on glass when she was trying to crawl towards the President. The other hand had glass embedded in it so while there aren't stitches there are small open wounds. The doctor determined that her ankle is only very badly sprained. She has a slight concussion and some bruising on her back. She lied to the doctor about what happened, but she said that the glass broke because she fell into the drink cart. So I think that has something to do with why her back has some bruising, but no ribs are broken or bruised. She had two panic attacks during the exam and dissociated after the second one. She didn't even remember getting to the car. After that, it was calling you, driving to the pharmacy, and heading home."

Blake sat back heavily against the wall and let his head drop backward. God, he was tired. And even though it was oddly freeing to tell Henry what had happened, it had drained him even further. He was pretty confident that Henry wasn't mad at him anymore

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Henry's POV

Henry mirrored Blake's position against the wall, sitting heavily, head dropped back, and eyes closed.

He just couldn't believe how this night had turned. He was thinking that just maybe if his wife got home at a reasonable hour, he might get lucky. Instead, he got a call from his wife's assistant telling him that his wife had been attacked. He thought he would have died from panic, pacing like he was on the sidewalk, but he finally felt like he could breathe once he had Elizabeth in his arms. Bringing her to their room and making sure she was comfortable was easy. Leaving her passed out on their bed to go check on the man he thought of like a son was hard.

Finding the young man in question scrubbing his hands in the kitchen sink with a metal sponge brought forth the same emotions he felt when waiting for his wife, and before he could even think about it he was reaching for Blake and ripping him from the sink. He thought that he would get some sort of explanation, but all he saw was blind panic and then Blake was tripping over and falling and then scooting away.

Henry's heart broke at the obvious fear from the younger man, and then absolutely shattered when he heard what Blake was saying. Restraining and comforting Blake was like second nature, and even though he felt like he would never pick up the shattered pieces of his heart from the way Blake was struggling against him, he continued to croon reassuring words into Blake's ear.

When Blake finally calmed down and haltingly told him what had really happened, he thought he might just be angry enough to put his fist through the wall. Where were her DS agents? Hell, where was the President?

As Blake got to the part of the story where it was the President that had hurt his wife, he couldn't contain his disbelief, and then eventual anger. It was Blake's hurried rebuttal to his anger-filled questions and the distress on the young man's face that had him admitting to the anguish that was filling him. When he felt Blake's hand on his shoulder, he managed a weak smile at the attempted comfort and urged him on. When Blake finished the story, he watched as his wife's assistant slumped against the wall. He really could not believe what had taken place this evening… and the strength at the man next to him. Here was a man who was not trained for combat or was used to putting himself in harm's way, and yet he had willingly tried to put his body between a threat and his wife. Henry acknowledged that Blake had frozen, but he was determined to train the younger man out of hesitation for the next time.

God. The next time.

Henry didn't want to think about there being a next time, especially from the President, but with the way, his wife's political career was going it was better to be safe than sorry. But, in addition to worrying about his wife he was also worried about Blake. He remembered the therapist explaining about secondary PTSD, from watching a loved one suffer through it, and Blake exuded the symptoms he had diligently looked out for amongst his other children…. Although the self-harming behavior was particularly worrying, along with Blake's reaction to him. Ha, other children. And it was true. He thought of Blake as his second son, and hearing the personal assistants slip of mom, he would bet his house Blake felt the same way. He would talk to Elizabeth about it when she was feeling better.

He felt exhaustion slip into his bones and saw Blake's eyes begin to droop. He knew he had to get them both to bed.