The Threat Chapter 6

AN: Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad people are enjoying this story. Here is chapter 6. Enjoy.

"Dealing with threats can bring us together or tear us apart."

"You're never going to believe what I just heard!" Matt declared as he walked up to Daisy and Blake, who were trying to organise their area of the hangar.

"Has someone claimed responsibility for the attacks?" asked Daisy, pen in hand, ready to write down any information pertinent to any briefing she'd be giving.

"No… better than that… think gossip!" Matt answered.

"Now?!" Blake, who'd just returned from the third floor with MSec's detail, was not impressed. "We've just seen our office blown up in a senseless attack and you're talking gossip?"

Matt had the decency to look a little sheepish. "Okay… not the right time, I know that," he said as he looked at Blake, then turned to address Daisy. "But if I don't tell you and a reporter asks you about it then you'll look unprepared and I don't want that."

Daisy sighed. Whatever it was, she suspected that any serious news reporter wouldn't care while everything else was going on, but you could never tell in her job. She nodded for him to continue.

"Well, I got this from a White House staffer who was in the barracks when the Secretary and her family came in. Apparently, daughter number one ran straight up to Harrison Dalton, kissed him like there was no tomorrow, and he then announced that the parents were all going to be grandparents!"

"Are you serious?" Daisy asked.

"As a heart attack. The place went quiet and out of loyalty to the President they all left the room. So, unless he was lying to his father, then yeah, MSec is going to be granny and the President a papa."

"She's not going to like that," Blake stated.

"Who isn't going to like what?" Nadine asked as she came over, hearing Blake's comment.

Blake promptly went red and got the nervous twitch he always got whenever he was caught out doing something he shouldn't. Nadine stared at him a little too long and he caved. "Ask Matt, he's the one in the know."

"Well?" Nadine asked as she turned from one man to the other.

Matt cleared his throat. Nadine probably should know anyway so he might as well tell her. The other white house staff were clearly discussing the situation anyway. "It seems the Secretary's daughter is pregnant by the President's son."

Nadine was aware that her staff had been gossiping with each other but she hadn't been prepared for that announcement. However, she was always aware of her place as being elevated from the young ones and she took a breath before speaking. "If that's the case then the entire family's going to need our support and help in the next few months. That is, assuming we all get through this current crisis. Now, would it be too much to ask for you to all go back to your work?" She looked at each in turn. "Daisy, the White House Press Secretary is planning a briefing in an hour and would like you to be there. Matt, the Secretary's going to need some talking points about the bomb at the office and the damage there, so check with our security people for some details. Blake, I suggest you go back upstairs and make yourself even more indispensable to the Secretary and her family. By the sound of it you're going to be needed. Tell her I have everything under control here and to let me know if she needs anything."

The three looked a little subdued and ready to get back to work, although it was clear as they looked around that they weren't the only people who were sharing the gossip from earlier. They looked at each other before dispersing, leaving Nadine to try and bring some order to the new office space.

Blake Moran made his way up to the third floor, not looking forward to what may be happening there. He knew that as the Secretary's personal assistant he'd be in the awkward position of being in her personal life more than either of them would want. He'd visited her home to collect clothes, looked after her children, seen her at her weakest and her strongest and, for the most part, never addressed the fact that he was actually witnessing it. Of course, on occasion topics needed to be discussed, like Jason's ankle, for example, but normally they both just existed in a world where it was possible he'd see her changing one minute and then help her show just how great a secretary she was the next. Now he was potentially walking in to a minefield. She'd been in quite a state in the car and it had only been a cell phone link to her husband and kids that had stopped Blake from telling the detail to head to George Washington hospital. He knew that this information would hit the Secretary hard. No one at her age wanted to be a grandparent, especially when all of your children were still in fulltime education. Secondly, there was the 'father' to consider. Blake had overheard enough conversations to know that Harrison Dalton was fighting some serious addiction demons and Blake knew that the Secretary would be very concerned that the relationship between Stevie and Harrison had developed so much, too quickly. He reached the level, nodded to the DS agent on the door and went through, wishing he had some kind of body armour.

Elizabeth had made it to the room allocated to her and Henry but no further. The panic attack that she'd hoped was done, wasn't diminishing. She was sitting on the end of the bed with Stevie sobbing in her arms, trying to apologise, and Elizabeth wasn't sure how much more she could take. Henry had taken Allison and Jason to their room and promised to be back very soon. She had no idea where Harrison was and right at the moment was okay with that. Stevie was curled up in a ball and Elizabeth decided that if she didn't take some control of the situation they'd both need to be hospitalised.

She cleared her throat to speak. "How?" was the only word she could get out.

Stevie tried to pull herself together and sat up to face her mom. "It was after the hearing. I was scared you were going to jail and I invited him over and it just… happened."

"Stevie, we've talked about this before. What about protection?"

"We did, Mom, I swear!" Stevie started sobbing even more.

"Okay, okay… Calm down, it'll be okay." Elizabeth hugged her daughter and wiped her hair from her face. It only took a few minutes for Stevie to sob herself to sleep and Elizabeth was left holding her firstborn, pretty terrified about the fact that Stevie would soon have a firstborn, too.

Henry entered the room and walked over to the bed, gently sitting down behind Stevie and carefully hugging her, too, trying not to wake her. He looked at Elizabeth over their daughter's head and tried to comfort both of them without saying anything. As the minutes went by he could see that Elizabeth was calming down and he hoped that her panic attack was behind her. Stevie awoke shortly after that and looked at both her parents, hoping that everything had been a dream, but that wasn't to be.

Henry knew that they all needed to talk but he thought that it could wait, given Stevie's emotional state, so he just smiled, trying to reassure her. "Harrison's outside. He said to say that if you need him he'll come in but he thought you'd want to speak to us alone."

Stevie nodded, quite content lying where she was. She was falling in love with Harrison and wanted him to be a part of this but for now she was happy with her parents accepting her because she'd been so worried that they might send her away.

Henry looked from Stevie to Elizabeth. "Oh, and Blake is also outside, wondering if you need anything. I suspect that means that Harrison's announcement has gone viral around your staff."

"That's okay," Elizabeth said. "Like you said downstairs, right now Stevie's more important than anything else."

"You have to go and see what's going on," Stevie said in a quiet voice from between them.

"Perhaps, but first I need to know that you're okay," Elizabeth said, rubbing her hand up and down her daughter's arm.

"I'm not okay, but I understand that my problems can be dealt with after you work out what's going on in the world tonight."

Elizabeth sighed. This was the part of her job that she really hated because Stevie was absolutely right. Her problem could wait. The threat to the world could not. "Okay." She leaned down and kissed Stevie's forehead. "I love you and we're going to help you through this, but I need to go."

"Babe, are you okay?" Henry asked his wife quietly.

"My chest feels better but I know I need to keep calm. I'm going to speak to Blake then check in with my staff and the President. I'll be back up soon, I promise."

"You have an hour, Liz. If you don't check in before then I'm coming to find you."

"Yes, Sir, Captain," Elizabeth said as she cheekily saluted her husband, although she knew that he fully meant his threat.

"Don't go there, Liz. You're in my territory now. One word to that Major and he'll let me kidnap you and fly you anywhere."

"Don't worry, I promise I'll be back." Elizabeth leaned over and gave both her husband and daughter a quick kiss before disentangling herself from their arms and heading towards the door.

AN: Thanks for reading, I hope to get another chapter up at the weekend. Thanks again to my beta who looked over this one.