Thank you to everyone for the reviews. I promise the next chapter we get back to the good stuff. From here on it, any angst will be just family angst and nothing Henry and Elizabeth can't deal with.

Thank you again for reading.

Chapter 14

"Drop your gun!" the Commander yelled. "Drop it."

Elizabeth saw Adila pushing behind her. She turned to the General, "There's a secret door."

"Circle them, Commander," the General ordered.

More Marines entered the room to surround them. Kurt stood there in blue boxers, his blonde hair cut super short. He began to aim the gun to his head. A Marine jumped him from behind. The Situation Room all stood up. The two men wrestled for control of the gun. The Marine winning out when another stepped in and zipped Kurt's hands together. Another handed Adila her clothes and she was immediately handcuffed after.

Elizabeth turned to Isabelle, "Guess we know who the leaker is." She left the room with Isabelle and Jay hot on her heels.

As they entered the Oval, Elizabeth was furious.

Without looking at either of them, she said sternly, "Spare me the excuse that he went rogue on you."

When she got to her desk, she turned on her heel, "I want a full investigation including how you came to the decision to make him Baghdad Chief."

Isabelle said nothing and just looked down. This is where it became hard to have her best friend as her boss, "I had no idea he had gone rogue."

"Well, we know why now. Also at the expense of my niece," she gave both Isabelle and Jay an icy glare. "That'll be all."

Isabelle left. Jay stayed.

Once the door was closed he said to her, 'With all due respect, Ma'am, that was a little harsh. Honestly if she wasn't your best friend, that would have been uncalled for."

She didn't look up from the paperwork on her desk, "She needs to have more control over the company, Jay. Get me some recommendations to replace her for the next term."

"What? Don't you want to think about this a little longer?" Jay asked.

"No, I don't" she fired back.

Jay excused himself and left her alone. She opened the door and stepped out to the colonnade , taking a breath of the cool air. She put her hands in her suit jacket. The sun had already set and the sky turned twilight blue. She looked at her watch, the one Henry gave her. 5:15pm. He would be walking in the residence any minute. They had a scheduled 6pm dinner with Jason and Claudia. She sighed as all she wanted to do was climb into bed. Somedays being President was not easy. Everything and everyone felt like pressure. This thing with Isabelle would push her to every limit, including Henry as she knew he would disagree with her.

"Elizabeth, little cold for time out on the porch, isn't it?" Ellen's voice replaced the quiet of the late afternoon.

Elizabeth turned and she saw her friend holding the door to the Oval open.

When Elizabeth grinned at her, Ellen stepped back into the office. She closed the door behind her as Ellen gestured to the coffee table between the couches, "I took the liberty and grabbed us both some tea."

The two women grabbed a cup and sat across from each other on the couches. Elizabeth quietly said, "Thank you."

Ellen started, "I understand you want to investigate everything about Kurt McManus. But, I am going to urge you to not have a knee-jerk reaction against Isabelle. She is an amazing CIA Director and I don't think you will be able to trust anyone more than her."

Elizabeth looked to the side and sniffled a bit from being in the cold outside, took a sip of the tea, "I just don't get how we completely missed that. Not a lot. Actually, practically nothing gets passed Isabelle."

Ellen shrugged her shoulders, "Relationships like that you never know. Not to bring up bad topics but look at Stevie and Dmitri. Did you see that one coming?"

"Nope," she laughed.

"And that was your own daughter," Ellen reminded her.

They laughed together.

Elizabeth took another sip of her tea, "Yours is almost as good as Henry's."

"Well, you caught me. It is Henry's. He was bringing it in and I stopped him. I thought you needed a friend and not your husband right now," she smiled at her.

"Thank you," she smiled at her again. "How's Andrew?"

"Getting better. It's only been a few days. But, he did meet with a therapist and that is helping. I have a feeling the nightmares will last for a while," she took a sip of her tea.

"Oh trust me, they will. Sometimes I still have them. PTSD is tough, really tough," she said.

A knock came to the private door, Henry poked his head in, "Babe, hate to break up the tea party but dinner is ready."

Elizabeth laughed at him and looked at her watch. It was after 6.

She said, "Good night" to Ellen and packed her things. Henry waited for her and took her bag to carry and her hand in his other while going up the stairs.

"Good news, Jason and Claudia went out for dinner with some of his friends. It is just the two of us." Henry said it with relief as Elizabeth threw her head back and mouthed thank you to the heavens.

As soon as the back hallway stairs opened to the kitchen, she could smell the lasagna warming in the oven.

'That smells sooo good. Henry, I am starving," she whined.

'Well, you should be. You barely ate the last two days," he laughed.

She smiled at him, as she pulled their salads out of the fridge. He put on oven mitts and pulled the lasagna out of the top of the wall oven.

He dished out their lasagna as she poured each of them a glass of wine. They loved to work in the kitchen together. Even though she wasn't a good cook, they had a rhythm to it. For them, it was the perfect end of the day, which is why she requested no evening staff in the residence. This was their time after the noise of the day quieted down.

She hadn't even noticed the plans laid out on the table until she sat down. When she caught a glance at what was on top, she turned to Henry , "Are you serious? Henrryy!"

She was smiling her biggest smile, "Oh, I love it! Do you love it?"

"I do," he smiled back at her taking another bite of his lasagna

She pulled them up closer to her. She focused in on the porch wrapped around to the back of the house.

"You always said you wished the porch would wrap around so you could sit and watch the horses," he shrugged at her.

"Wow! It looks amazing. See, now I am excited!" she leaned over and kissed him.

He laughed, "Let's eat and we can lay them all out after."

Jason and Claudia strode back into living room of the residence to find Elizabeth and Henry sitting on the couch but leaning over the coffee table. Their sides touching as the talked over the plans.

"I love how they are gutting the kitchen and making it so much bigger. Leaving it fully open to the dining room is a great idea," she said.

"Right? I love the wide planked wood floors. That's going to give the house a whole different feel," Henry answered her.

They were so engrossed in the plans that they didn't even notice the two of them standing there.

Jason spoke up, "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, Jase, we didn't see you there. How was dinner?" Elizabeth asked, a little surprised they were back so early.

"It was good. Nice deflection by the way," he winked at his mother.

Henry spoke, "Well, we have plans to announce it at the house over Thanksgiving, but if you can keep a secret."

"Sure," he said as he walked to towards them.

"Woah," echoed from both their son and his girlfriend.

"Right?!" Elizabeth said, her voice still a bit raspy. "I wasn't on board at first but your father and the architect have knocked this one out of the park."

"I love it," came from Claudia first as Jason stared at the plans.

"Mom, I never thought you would do it but this looks amazing." Jason smiled at his parents. It was then that he noticed his father's hand tucked on the inside of his mother's thigh. Jason shot him a look. Henry mouthed, 'What?!" back to him. Jason just shook his head back at him and gestured towards Claudia. Henry removed his hand, rolling his eyes at his son.

Meanwhile Claudia and Elizabeth were in their own conversation about the plans.

"Do you get time to watch HGTV?" Claudia asked her.

"Oh I used to love that channel! I hardly ever get time to watch it anymore," she complained back.

"We should definitely watch it this weekend. You can get some ideas," Claudia smiled back at her.

Elizabeth snapped her fingers at her, "Yes, we are definitely doing that."

Jason rolled his eyes.

"We should also watch the 'Great British Baking Show!' I love that show too," Claudia was beaming as she had finally made a connection with Elizabeth.

But, at this point Elizabeth was staring at Henry because there it was. Another memory! She didn't take her eyes off of him but smiled and said, "We love it too!"