Opening her eyes to the slanting rays of afternoon sun, the strongest feeling Elizabeth McCord felt was pain. It was clear they had tapered back on her meds because for the first time she could truly feel the ache of her arm, and her shoulder. Her knee hurt too. Truth be told her whole body ached. She had become accustomed to the dull throbbing ache of her head. She glanced at the giant clock on the wall across from her bed only to realize that she had now been in the hospital nearly twenty-four hours.

One full day.

It was bizarre to think of how much things had changed in such a short amount of time. Yesterday, she was running around making fifteen decisions a minute, and trying to make sure they squeezed every important meeting they could into this short visit. And now - she was trying to contemplate how she was going to walk from the bed to the bathroom without becoming overcome with nausea.

Jason had a concussion once - when he was four. He'd been jumping from rock to rock near a friend's pool when he'd lost his balance - landing head first on the rocks. She had always considered herself to be calm in a crisis but watching the bump immediately grow huge on his forehead, she had to force herself to take a deep breath and keep moving. But it was actually much worse later when she had lain awake next to him all night terrified that he would stop breathing at any second.

She hadn't understood how painful a concussion could be. She couldn't imagine how he had managed the pain, and felt guilty all over again about letting him climb on those rocks. She pulled herself up to a sitting position trying to ignore the immediate wave of dizziness it set off. Moving very slowly she scanned the room. She was surprised to find herself alone. Henry hadn't left her side since he'd rushed into her room the day before. She hoped that he had gone to get some sleep or to eat something.

She considered swinging her legs over the side of the bed to at least sit all the way up. Being stuck in the bed was a nuisance. She felt completely isolated - hadn't seen her staff since the previous day - couldn't check on Matt.

"It figures you'd try and make a break for it."

She hadn't noticed Blake standing in the doorway to the room. He was dressed, as always, completely impeccably. Leaving to Blake to remain stylish in crisis. Her eyes blurred with tears happy to see him safe. She had been told her staff was all fine - with the obvious exception of Matt - but they hadn't allowed any of her staff to visit her.

"Well, there are things to be done." She offered, trying to hide the sound of tears, from her voice.

"And people to do them." He stepped closer, offering her a small bouquet of roses. "I stole these from a small child down the hall."

"I appreciate it." She said as he set them on her night stand.

"Well, I thought I should warn you in the event they attempted to arrest you before you left the hospital. It seemed only right you should be informed." He leaned over giving her cheek a brief kiss. "I must confess I'm quite relieved you weren't blown to smithereens."

"Me too." She said with a light laugh, grateful that despite the dire events of the last day, at least Blake was still Blake.

"It's murder trying to find a new job!"

"Be sure to add 'tact' and 'compassion' to your resume."

"No need to update it now." He sat in the chair beside the bed. "So, how are you feeling?"

"A lot like a series of bombs went off next to me." She considered him thoughtfully. "Did Henry send you over to babysit me?"

"Well, I wanted to come and check on you but none of us can get past your armed fortress. So when he came down to check on Matt, I offered to keep you company."

"How is Matt?"

"About as well as you can be when a series of bombs go off right next to you." He paused. "He's doing alright. There is talk that they will be able to fly him home at the end of the week. And what about you, Madam Secretary? When will that let you fly?"

"I don't know. They haven't said. I was hoping they'd release me soon."

"Well according to the papers you are recovering nicely and should be released some time tomorrow."

"Really?" She brightened at this. "Well, thank God!"

"Yes." He agreed heartily, and she was surprised to see tears in his eyes.

"I don't suppose you smuggled any paperwork up here did you?" She asked, not wanting to embarrass him over his show of emotion.

"No. I did not." He cleared his throat."Your husband is a retired military and I have no desire to be killed. He made it quite clear what would happen to me if I helped you do any work."

"He's being ridiculous."

"I disagree." He rose suddenly. "Well, as we are banned from working, why don't I see if I can steal you some food. You look hungry." He turned to go and as he did a piece of paper fell from his pocket, landing on her bed. "Oh my," He said in a voice of mock concern. "I seemed to have dropped a draft of a press release. Why don't you hold onto it, until I come back." He winked at her.

"You are a brave man, Blake."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

***MS***

"But when are you coming home?" Jason demanded.

"When the doctor says it is alright." Henry McCord answered sternly. He and Elizabeth sat side-by-side on her hospital bed, the computer open in front of them as they Skyped with their children.

"Don't be a jerk, Jason! You think she should just hop in plane? She has a concussion!" Allison hissed at him.

"Hey," Elizabeth said. "Take it easy. We are all upset, but we just have to be patient."

"We are fine." Stevie offered. "We just miss you guys."

"It shouldn't be too long." Her father said. "Your mom's doing fine. They are just being careful."

"Did it hurt?" Jason asked.

"Oh God!" Allison moaned. "Stop acting like you're six!"

"I just asked a question! I don't know what . . ."

"Stop picking on him!" Stevie told her younger sister.

"He's the one asking stupid questions! Like mom wants to even . . ."

"Hey guys! Guys!" Henry interrupted them. "Enough! C'mon."

"Hey, Noodle," Elizabeth said leaning closer to the screen. "I really am okay, and I'll be home soon. I know that it was really scary and I'm sorry, but everything is going to be okay."

"Until your next speech." Allison said softly.

"Allison!" Stevie exclaimed. "Not now!"

"Leave me alone!" Allison said before disappearing from the screen.

"Noodle! Allison, come back." Elizabeth pleaded.

"Noodle!" Henry called.

"She went upstairs." Jason said, his voice flat.

"It's gonna be okay." Henry told him. "We'll be home soon."

"We are okay. She's just really tired. None of us slept much." Stevie offered. "Really, Mom, she's okay."

"Thanks, Stevie." Elizabeth said softly.

"I'll call you guys later." Henry told them. "Your Mom should probably rest now."

"I love you guys - tell Allison, too." Elizabeth said.

"Love you too, Mom." And then the screen went blank. Henry reached out and closed the laptop. He sat back, an arm around his wife.

"She's just upset and Stevie's right - she's tired."

"She saw it on tv."

"I know." He sighed.

"So did you."

"Let's think of something else to talk about, okay, Babe? This isn't going to do us any good. We are just going to get more and more upset. We can't go home, yet."

"You can." She said quietly.

"No."

She shifted from under his arm, and turned to face him. "You could, Henry. I'm not in any danger now." He raised an eyebrow at this. "And you could at least be with them."

"You should be released to fly by the end of the week. I'm not leaving here without you." His voice was firm.

"You just hate flying commercial." She muttered, frustrated, but desperate to avoid another angry outburst from him.

"Yeah, that's my whole problem with your plan." He shook his head at her. "And you hate dealing with messy feelings." He paused at her. "I know you feel guilty about them. I do too, but guilt is only to remind us of when we've done wrong. And you didn't do anything wrong, Liz. It's just false guilt."

"You know that both Stevie and Jason have watched it by now." She looked up at him. "There's no way they haven't."

"I know." He turned quiet again. "But you didn't bring in those bombs - you didn't even change the social code in Yemen! What happened really had nothing to do with you at all. You know that."

"It doesn't make me feel any better about it." She looked up at him. "I mean, if I had . . .well, you wouldn't feel any better knowing I was an innocent victim."

He shook his head at this, his eyes bright with tears, and pulled her in tight against his chest. "No, don't even . . ." He cleared his throat and spoke softly into her hair. "This is just something we are going to have to navigate our way through. It has an impact. It will change things - it already has. We didn't want it - didn't cause but we are left with the repercussions."

"And so are our children." She added.

"And so are our children." He agreed. "None of it is fair, or deserved, but it is there, and we have to face it. And it's hard right now, but this is just for now, Liz. Things will change and shift again."

She sighed heavily. The one thing she really appreciated about Henry was his ability to pick a problem apart - actually she appreciated a million things about Henry, but this was one thing she counted on - especially when life got difficult or complicated. He was right of course. They couldn't wheel back time and undo the damage cause by the three bombs. They could only head forward, picking up the pieces as best they could. She longed more than anything to be home. She longed to be in the big bed upstairs with her children around her, so that she could see their faces - look into their eyes and really know that they were alright. Or maybe she wanted to be further down the road past even that - to the place where she was back at work, no cast on her wrist, not even thinking about this trip anymore. It was hard to think of that as even being possible, but she knew it to be true - knew it from experience.

"Remember Khafji?" She asked quietly, her head still resting against his chest.

"Of course."

"That was the longest four days I've ever lived through." She said.

"I know."

He had been missing for five days after the battle, and thanks to modern technology. She had known he was missing for nearly all of them. She hadn't slept, hadn't ate - just paced the floors over and over and over again - trying to will the phone to ring.

"After, it felt like it would be forever before I could hear the phone ring and not spin right into a panic attack. I couldn't watch the news, but I couldn't not watch the news either. God, I'm glad that is over." She confessed.

"But things did shift back to normal again. I mean you don't feel that way every day now?" He sat back from her to look her in the eyes.

"That's what I was thinking - what I was wishing. That we were already on the other side, and," She considered thoughtfully. "This is different because of the kids, too."

"That's true." He agreed.

"And it didn't really go back to normal." She told him. "I still dream about it every now and then, and it changed me - changed us."

"Mostly for the better." He told her.

"But it wasn't easy."

"Easy doesn't build character." He said with a grin - knowing how often she told their children that.

"Throwing my words back at me, Dr. McCord. I thought you tried to rise above rhetoric."

"You should give me a break. I've been up for nearly two days trying to get my heart rate to settle back down." He pulled her back into his arms, comforted by the familiar weight of her head on his chest. "We'll get to the other side, Liz. We'll find our way."

"Tomorrow?" She asked comforted by the steady rhythm of his heart.

"You are always so impatient!" He laughed. "Gotta fix every problem them same day you discover it!"

"I'm a busy woman." She countered. "And I have a lot to get done."

"Not today. Today you are a woman who needs to rest."

"Yes, sir, Captain McCord." She teased him, laughing lightly, amazed and grateful that somehow he had led them back to laughter.