Chapter 13

Ok folks here is chapter 13, hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading and favouriting.

Threats bring families together.

Frank opened the door to Stephanie McCord's room. He really didn't want to be the person to do this but there was no one else to pass on the message. He looked around the room and noted Dr McCord sitting beside the bed and Madam Secretary lying beside Stephanie. He was glad to note that Stephanie was asleep. He came straight to the point, firmly but quietly. "Ma'am, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."

Elizabeth got up off the bed and squeezed Henry's hand. She walked over to the door and followed Frank out into the corridor. They moved down the corridor a little, leaving one on-duty agent guarding the door. Stevie had been placed in a room at the end of the corridor to allow the detail to fully secure the area and Elizabeth could see several of her detail patrolling the section. She faced Frank, unsure what bad news he may have for her. "Have there been more attacks, Frank?"

"Uh, no, ma'am, this is about Harrison Dalton. Allison found him in the barracks. He'd tried to kill himself in the room Stephanie had been in."

"Oh my God… Is he…"

"Unclear at this time, Ma'am. Allison was found trying to save him. He's on his way here. So are Allison, Jason and Blake."

Elizabeth was shocked. Sure, Harrison had seemed in a bad way when he'd left the hospital but she never would have expected this. "I need to tell Henry but Stevie doesn't need to know until we know for sure what's going on. Make sure the rest of the detail know that."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Elizabeth started to head back towards Stevie's room but then turned back to Frank. "Does the President know?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Blake called Nadine and she informed him. He's on his way here, too, with his wife."

"Good. Harrison has his support network, we have to be here for Stevie. Have the children brought up when they get here."

Elizabeth was torn between returning to Stevie or going to meet Allison when she arrived at the hospital. They both needed her.

No, she pulled herself together. Her detail would be happier if she stayed here so she spoke quietly to Frank. "Frank… Allison will be in a state. Please see that she's okay."

"We'll go get her, Ma'am. Don't worry, we'll bring her to you."

"Thank you, Frank."

Elizabeth watched as Frank swiftly walked away from her and spoke to another agent as he passed the rest of the detail at the end of the corridor, instructing him to follow. She turned to go back into the room when Henry came through the door.

"What's wrong?" Henry asked, seeing the look on her face.

"After Harrison heard the news about the baby he went back to the barracks and tried to kill himself."

Henry's face lost all the colour it had gained when he'd realised that Stevie was okay, "Is he okay?"

"They don't know yet but Allison found him and whatever she did, Frank believes she gave him a chance."

"Noodle! I can't believe it. This is gonna hit her bad."

"I know. Frank said they're bringing her and Jason here."

"Good, I don't want us to be separated. Team McCord needs to stay together."

He pulled her into his arms, needing to feel her beside him.

_M'Sec_

Conrad Dalton couldn't believe what he'd heard. He wouldn't have expected his son to have this sort of reaction to a miscarriage. Perhaps Harrison had been right earlier that morning when he'd accused them all of not putting their children first. Perhaps if he'd known Harrison better he could have seen this coming and sent the detail after him with more urgency than he had.

He could see Nadine filling Jackson in and both of them looking towards him with shocked looks on their faces. For the first time in a long time, Conrad didn't know what to do. The country needed him in this time of threat but now Harrison and Lydia needed him, too. His own security detail were encouraging him to leave and go to his son and people around the room were looking over at him, unsure of what was going on, but he was struggling to move. It was like he had lead feet.

Needing the counsel of his Chief of Staff, Dalton signalled to Russell to come over and join him. "Russell," he said with quiet urgency as soon as he was beside him, "You've heard about Harrison?" At Russell's nod he took a breath. The last thing they needed was the press to get wind of this story. "Try to keep a lid on it."

"Of course, Sir."

Dalton only hesitated for a moment as he thought of his son before getting back to business. "And find out what the suspect told the head of the FBI. We're going to need to do a press conference covering all of the issues that have come up in the last few hours."

"Mr President, that can all wait until we hear what's going on at the hospital. The press can't get there and it won't make the morning news."

"Yes, I know. If anything else develops…"

"I know exactly where you are, Sir, You'll be kept informed."

"Good…"

"Go, Mr President. You're needed there right now."

"Yes. I just never…"

Jackson looked over to the door of the hanger. "Right now, you need to be a husband and a father. Go be with your wife, Sir. She needs you. I really hope Harrison's okay." Jackson practically pushed Conrad towards the door where his wife was waiting.

Conrad watched as Russell walked back over to the area where his team were working. Jackson was right, there was nothing he could do here at the moment. He needed to be at the hospital.

Dalton and his wife were bundled into an SUV by his detail and, far too quickly for his liking, they were at the hospital, watching as their son was wheeled past them on his way to Emergency.

Harrison had made many bad choices in his life, many of which they'd come to blows about, but Conrad had never ever expected him to do something like this. He could see Allison McCord, covered in blood and very distraught, being led away from the area by Elizabeth's detail. He'd have to find out what had happened and, if Elizabeth's daughter had saved Harrison, he had no idea how to thank her.

Conrad turned to his wife and pulled her weeping form into his arms. He had to stay strong, that's what he decided. Both his wife and son were going to need him. And for the first time he seriously considered whether he wanted to run for President again.

_M'SEC_

Frank pulled Allison away from Harrison as the hospital staff took charge of the first son. She was in quite a state and clearly going into shock. He spoke to Jennifer, the agent who had accompanied Alison and Jason to the hospital, and instructed her to get some hospital scrubs and some blankets. If they were all going to be in Stephanie's room, Alison needed to be cleaned up or there'd be questions from Stephanie about what happened.

Frank called for Jason to follow as he put his arm around Allison. He didn't usually use personal touches but this was a unique circumstance and, in his job, that was saying a lot. They made their way towards Stevie's room and he could see his boss waiting for her children outside the door. Both broke away from Frank when they saw their mom and ran towards her.

Elizabeth gathered Allison in her arms and Allison began to sob. She reached for Jason and pulled him to her as well.

"Oh, Noodle, I'm so sorry you had to face this," she whispered.

"She was amazing, Mom," Jason said quietly. "The detail woman said she probably saved his life."

Elizabeth turned towards Jason and smiled. It wasn't often that he praised his sisters, so this must have been really quite something.

"I'm very proud of you, honey." She pulled back a little to look at Allison and Frank took the opportunity to quietly interrupt them.

"Ma'am, we're having some scrubs sent up. We didn't want to upset Stephanie any more than needed."

Elizabeth hugged both her children tighter and kissed them both on the head before letting them go and walking over to Frank, saying quietly, "Thanks, Frank. Uh, did Blake come with the kids?"

"Yes, Ma'am. He's just in the waiting area. Would you like me to send him through?"

"Please, Frank. I need to find out what else is going on, especially if the President's here."

Frank walked away to get Blake and returned with the scrubs for Allison. She took the scrubs gratefully and headed to the bathroom to change.

Blake walked over to Elizabeth. "You wanted to see me, Ma'am?"

"Yes, Blake. I need you to fill me in on what's going on out there. Then we're going to have to draft a statement about the events here."

"Very well, Ma'am."

Elizabeth turned to Jason and guided him towards Stevie's room. She needed to be there while she and Henry told Stevie about Harrison but that couldn't happen until they knew if he'd survived or not. There was just time now for her to do her job and be back to being mom in a little while. She opened the door and Henry moved away from the bed towards them.

"Babe, I need to go talk to Blake for a bit."

Henry simply nodded in agreement and pulled Jason from under Elizabeth's arm into his own arms.

Allison came up quietly behind Elizabeth who turned and put her arms around her.

Elizabeth looked at her two youngest children and said quietly, so as not to disturb Stevie, "Guys, Stevie can't know about this yet. We need to wait for news from the doctor. Are you okay about keeping quiet? I promise we'll tell her soon, just once we know everything."

Allison and Jason both nodded and hugged their mother, then turned and slowly walked towards Stevie's bed as Elizabeth watched them. Henry gave Elizabeth an encouraging hug before turning and following his children.

"How's Stevie?" Jason asked his father quietly.

"She's going to be fine, buddy, but she lost the baby."

"Can we stay here with you?" Allison asked.

Henry hugged each of them, wanting to reassure them that, even though the past 24 hours had been chaotic, their family was still the same. "Of course you can. Here, come over and sit down. Your sister's going to need lots of TLC. You can help with that."

"Well, just as long as she doesn't take advantage of my kindness," Jason said, trying to be macho.

Henry just smiled and then glanced at Elizabeth, who was watching from the open doorway, when he noticed Jason sitting holding his sister's hand and whispering to her. They really did have fantastic kids.

_MSEC_

AN: So there are two chapters to go, one will be out in the middle of the week and the last next weekend. Thanks for your support.