LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG CHAPTER HERE - I HOPE YA'LL ENJOY THIS. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW. IVE DONE SO MUCH WRITING SO REVIEWS WILL HELP GET ME INTO TEH MOOD TO WRITE SOME MORE!


Elizabeth resisted the urge to play the video over and over again. Henry said he'd look at it. And if she looked at it one more time – she'd…

Start to hope.

And she couldn't hope if it wasn't true.

Henry's words rang in her mind, "Treat it like any other part of your job. Bring the American citizen home."

The National Security Council had been summoned right after her conversation with Henry. They'd listened to a great tongue lashing – perhaps the best she'd ever gave before. She threatened to fire anyone who fucked up again if this was all true.

IF.

They'd gotten right to work – each one utilizing every part of their authority to get to the truth. They'd devoured the old video, searching for some discrepancy. Ellen Hill had taken a head role in all of it. She'd come to Elizabeth after the group meeting – and had extended her sincere apologies if anything had come of something she'd missed. She'd assured Elizabeth that she'd do her hardest – would move heaven and earth – to get to the bottom of the whole thing. Ellen had even teared up a little bit – sympathizing with Elizabeth in the fact that she too was a mother, and she couldn't imagine the pain of all of this.

But now. Elizabeth had to have a difficult conversation with one person she'd been glad to write off after the funeral.

She waited in her office, trying to steel herself for what was yet to come.

Her phone rang, and she answered it.

"Ma'am," Blake said, "He's here."

Elizabeth wished she could actually wrap some steel around herself and appear stronger for all of what was to come. "Thank you, Blake." She took a deep breath. "Send him in."

As the door opened, she remained sitting behind the desk.

He looked older. Even more gray, especially in the scruff across his chiseled chin. Dressed in a suit and tie, she knew he'd dressed up for the visit with her – especially after his retirement.

"Bess." The low tone of his voice brought back enough memories to overwhelm her even behind his old desk.

"Conrad." She acknowledged. It wasn't until she watched him feel uncomfortable about where to sit while she was behind the desk that she stood up and gestured to the couch. "Thanks for coming today."

He unbuttoned his coat as he sat down, sitting on the edge of the couch, "I was surprised to hear from Blake." She saw small smile crack across his face. "Hopefully you didn't call me to be the first to tell me about nuclear war?"

Elizabeth shook her head as she sat down, "Nope."

When it was quiet for a few seconds, Conrad's face became even more serious. And he quietly said, "I know things have been tense since Emma's funeral." He stared uncomfortably at his hands. "The for the press meeting before your election didn't give us much time to talk."

"It didn't." And had she been fine with that? Yes.

"You know I don't hold resigning from State against you, right?"

The resignation letter had been sent to Conrad through Blake. She'd had specific instructions about the state of her staff – that the deputy secretary who would fill in until another one had been appointed would keep her staff on – and that the next one would either keep her staff on or find comparable positions for all of them.

Elizabeth nodded. "Conrad…"

He seemed to need to get words out – to justify. "Bess, no one was prepared for all that followed." She looked at her hands so she didn't have to meet his eyes. Not when discussing the aftermath of everything. "For the news to be leaked like that – for everyone to start name-calling, stalking, and judging us based on years before, it wasn't right."

She spoke up, "After the initial shock from the reporting, I didn't mind that they blamed you for indiscretion in hiring me." She hadn't. Had been a small spot of irony in the whole thing.

Conrad shrugged uncomfortably while grimacing, "You always were the favorite in the public opinion polls." Then he gestured around the room, "The whole thing couldn't have hurt your image too bad – seeing where you are now."

Elizabeth let them sit in silence again – which apparently wasn't comfortable for Conrad, who again had to fill the air with words, "Lydia wanted me to say hello." And he added, "She was just sick after everything with Emma happened – she couldn't imagine what you were going through."

And with that, Elizabeth felt no need to continue in the façade. "So I called you in to read you in on a situation that came up today."

He sat back, watching her. And Elizabeth just stayed poised – using her CIA skills to meticulously watch his face as she continued, "We're investigating and gathering information about an American citizen being held for ransom."

Conrad nodded, "Ok. Which terrorist group?"

Elizabeth ignored that. She needed to see his reaction without letting him know what they had on it. "They're claiming that the hostage is Emma."

Suddenly all pretense fell away. Conrad's face fell and he sat forward, expectantly asking, "And… is it true?"

She held her head high as she said, "We're looking into it." Then she leaned forward, staring at him directly – holding his gaze, "Conrad, I've read the files. I've reread them today." She watched for his face to break. For some sign to flash across his eyes. "What else is there?"

He looked like he was searching for memories. But honestly.

"Bess, I don't think… the only thing I remember was how confusing it was."

Elizabeth remembered. "We're reanalyzing the data now with new technology." She stood up – and grabbed the pictures from her desk, "These are from the video."

Conrad searched them, one by one. "I don't recognize anything about this… normally I'll recognize some pattern… but maybe retirement has gotten to me."

She shook her head, "From what we can tell, there's major differences in the styles, the video used, the sophistication." She walked over to her desk and leaned against it facing Conrad. "Which is what's leading us to think it's a fake."

Conrad stood, "So you don't think this is…" He looked down at the picture, "You don't think it's her?"

"I do know that she's being held against her will." Elizabeth couldn't let herself think that. And as she met Conrad's eyes – she knew he understood. "And I know it's my job to figure out how to get her home. And after that we…"

"Bess, what's your gut telling you?"

She walked behind the desk – her back to Conrad. "You know how this is, Conrad. You know I can't go there… the CIA was different – all about gut." She turned around, "This job here? You above everyone else should understand. This job's about duty – about doing the pragmatic thing."

He walked over and handed her the pictures back. And he stepped away. "I know better than probably anyone on your staff." And Elizabeth nodded, "But always check your gut, Bess. If your gut's telling you something – you gotta trust it. If you don't, you'll regret it… I know I did."

Vulnerable. He was being honest.

"You regret?" She asked.

He put his hands in his pockets and nodded his head, "I wish I would've trusted my gut about a lot of things. But I knew in my gut that your children should've had protection. I wanted nothing to ever get out about Emma." And he bit his lip before saying, "But my gut said it might and I should have her protected."

Bess clenched her hands into fists, "You should've." She bit out.

He nodded. "I wish I could change it."

She whispered, "Me too."

Then a knock sounded at her door. "Ma'am…" Blake opened the door just a little, "You have a visitor…"

She nodded knowingly, "Tell her I'll be just a minute?" Then she turned to Conrad. "Russell said he could fill you in. If you'd be willing to give a statement to the NSC about anything else that went on…"

Conrad agreed, "Of course, anything I can do, Bess." He opened the door, and said, "Let me know if there's anything else… Ah." Conrad said as he saw Elizabeth's next appointment. And he looked over his shoulder and said, "You always get the best."

"Russell will be right with you." Elizabeth stated pointedly. She didn't need to discuss her choices with him. Not when it came to this. She needed any information from him – not his approval.

Conrad's attempt at civility could be heard even from Elizabeth's office. "Isabelle. It's nice to see you again."

Isabelle walked past him, with soft smile for him. "Conrad."

Blake walked in past Isabelle, a few files in hand as he walked to the desk. His eyes met Elizabeth's and he lifted his eyebrows and whispered, "Not much love lost between the two of them…"

And Elizabeth just shook her head, understanding why. "Thanks, Blake."

"These are the hourly updates in the case you requested." He said, "I've also rescheduled your meetings for the rest of the day. Although I know that the Vice President wasn't all that excited to be doing the quarterly climate crisis talk…"

She nodded, acknowledging Blake while gesturing to the couch for Isabelle. "Could you reschedule that for when I'm…"

"Already in the works, Ma'am." Blake said, just a little proud of the job he had done knowing what she'd want already.

Once the door closed behind her assistant, Elizabeth opened the folder.

"So… meeting with Conrad…" Isabelle said, sitting down and moving one of the couch pillows, "How'd that go?" Elizabeth could feel the questioning sarcasm in her friend's voice.

"There's a situation, Izzie." Elizabeth said, distracted by the folder in front of her. From Ephraim Ware's report, she could tell that Cybercom was currently reviewing all the past negotiations and videos from four years before. They were also working on finding the location from where the video was sent. Files on each leader in the insurgent group they thought responsible were in there as well.

She looked up over her glasses at her friend. Her close friend. One of her only.

"I figured that was why I was here." Isabelle cracked a smile, "We've never been ones for girls night just for the fun of it."

Elizabeth walked over to the couch and sat down opposite her friend. "There was a ransom video sent this morning." The spy face took over Isabelle's face. Analyzing. Calculating. Absorbing information. "An insurgent group in Iran is holding a girl and claiming that they have the president's daughter."

Isabelle took in a deep breath. But said nothing.

They knew each other well.

Elizabeth continued. "Trying to keep myself separate from the situation is harder than I thought it would be. I know that I have to do something. But I can't cave to just any terrorist group who claims they have my daughter – especially one that I watched others kill years ago."

Isabelle nodded in understanding. "Gotta give them credit. Takes a lot of guts to resurrect that." Then she leaned forward, "So whatcha going to do?"

"I've got to get some serious intel on it." Elizabeth handed her the file. "Sending in a team if we find a location could prove dangerous. Sitting ducks perhaps."

Isabelle flipped through the file, holding up the pictures from the video. "I can see a resemblance. But it is hard because she was young so aging would be hard to guess."

Elizabeth nodded. She checked herself before thinking hopefully.

"I'm guessing you called Conrad in to see if he had any information that might help." Isabelle prodded.

Shrugging her shoulders, Elizabeth added, "That among other things – thought it would be courteous."

"More than he gave you, that's for sure." The sarcasm in Isabelle's voice made Elizabeth smile.

"There's no love lost between the two of you, that's for sure."

She set the folder down beside her before answering, "Bess, after the things I've watched him do to you, the way he almost destroyed your marriage, played politics over safety, and threw you under the bus? Ignoring him is the nicest thing I can say to him. Because you know I'd love to tell him to go…"

"Yup." Elizabeth interrupted her, "And you've seen it all, so you get it."

"Oh, I've seen it all." Isabelle sat back, obviously angry as she remembered, "I'll never forget coming to see you in the hotel, after Henry had kicked you out. Could you have picked more of a hellhole than you did?"

Elizabeth smiled at the memory, "I don't know if DC has any worse places."

"You probably could've gotten pregnant just sleeping on those filthy sheets." They both laughed. "But the fact that Conrad just abandoned you – told you that you'd ruined your life – and that because you'd told Henry you'd put his whole political career at risk?"

The memory flashed. "And I was so sick…"

"I got there and you were sobbing with your head in the toilet from the morning sickness…"

"Maybe that's where our friendship really developed." Elizabeth said, "Other than the time I saved your life in Baghdad."

Isabelle replied, "Oh, so that's how we're spinning it… well, we both know I saved your life…"

Elizabeth smiled, "Always the disagreement."

A knock on the door came just a millisecond before the door opened. Blake's voice called out, "Ma'am…"

Elizabeth stood to her feet as Director Ware and Admiral Hill walked into the room. The pressure in the room jumped so high. She could feel the tension – and the folders in their hands felt like ticking time bombs until she could figure out what they contained.

"Madam President," Ellen began, her voice tense enough to cause the hairs on Elizabeth's arms to stand up straight. "I'm sorry to interrupt but we've found something."

Putting her glasses on, Elizabeth took the folder from Ellen. "What is it?"

Russell had walked into the room behind them. "It's classified…"

Then Elizabeth realized all her advisors were looking at Isabelle, who just sat there.

"Someone's going to have to ask me to leave…" Isabelle said. "I'm not sure where I fit in here but…"

Elizabeth hadn't even thought of that. Not when Isabelle was so important to the plan she had. "Consider yourself read in." She said to her friend, and turned back to the folder. In her hands, she had four pictures in her hand – pictures that she had wanted never to see again.

"Ma'am we've had our technicians analyzing both videos… the one from four years agon and the one this morning." Ephraim began explaining while Ellen had set up a screen on her desk. "When this first happened, we hadn't been able to triangulate the location."

"But with our new technology, we ran through the videos again, thinking that if we compared them, we'd be able to see similarities between the two if it was the same group." Ellen said.

By this time, everyone gathered around the screen.

"So it's the same person?" Elizabeth asked.

"We don't think so." Ellen said, "But that wasn't the thing we found."

"This isn't a TV spy drama." Russell sarcastically commented, "Just fucking tell us already."

Isabelle snorted, "I'm surprised you've seen spy dramas."

Russell rolled his eyes, "A man's gotta destress sometimes."

"And that's how you choose to do it?" Isabelle asked, "Took you more as a panda cam sort of…"

"It depends on the day." Russell bit back.

Feeling like she was at home with her teenagers, Elizabeth silenced them quickly, "Are you two done yet?"

Under his breath, Russell mumbled, "Not yet but fine."

Starting the video, Ellen said, "In the files we saw that there was a discrepancy of length between the video we'd all reacted to, which had been analyzed by the departments and the video that was included in DIA's files."

Elizabeth's mind began to sift through the information… "One was shorter…"

Ephraim nodded, "The one we were shown was shorter. Which means we were missing about a minute of footage."

"A minute of…" Elizabeth asked. "How did that…"

Ellen interrupted, "Sorry, ma'am. We're looking into that. But the important part was the minute that was excluded." Before she pushed play, she explained what Elizabeth didn't need to know. Where in the footage they were. "This is just seconds before the video ended."

"Here's the video we all saw."

Elizabeth could feel all the things that she'd felt that day. Watching the blade swing down, watching the blood. Feeling the horrific nature of a beheading – watching her little girl's head fall to the ground. It was enough to make her stomach turn over and over again.

Then the screen went black.

"Thanks for sharing that with us yet again." Russell quietly mumbled. "Wasn't planning on sleeping tonight anyway."

The video went back a few seconds as Ellen paused it just as the blade was held above it.

Ephraim added. "This is what was erased. Erased."

Elizabeth leaned in, as did Isabelle and Russell.

There, they watched as Emma was ripped from the sand, and Elizabeth's heart stopped. Full of confusion and fear. Emma's hooded figure was pushed off screen.

Then they all watched as from the other side of the video another figure, with matching clothes and hood, was shoved back into Emma's place in the sand. Her clothes were arranged perfectly. And the man raised the blade up perfectly.

And the rest of the video continued – the same outcome as before.

When the video went silent that time, everyone was quiet.

Her brain went wild.

And she tried to contain her rage as she began putting the pieces together.

"Oh. My. God." Isabelle whispered.

Ellen broke the silence. "There's credence to the fact that this might be your daughter."

Elizabeth threw her glasses onto the desk before she began pacing.

Isabelle began.

They knew how things worked. They figured things out together.

"The video was manipulated." Isabelle fired out.

"But was played for us in real time." Elizabeth fired back.

"The first part was."

Elizabeth turned around as she reached the end of the office, her head following the carpet while she rambled, "It was pieced together."

"But in real time."

"Both recorded at the same time – fed into the other."

Ephraim interjected, "To make it seem…"

But Isabelle and Elizabeth didn't need him to figure this out. Elizabeth interrupted, "But the triangulations didn't work. We couldn't find one video much less two…"

Isabelle: "But if the longer one was stored in DIA…"

Elizabeth stopped. And stared at Isabelle. "It was pieced from this side."

"Our side."

Ellen and Ephraim nodded.

And then Russell caught up. "Fuck."

The temperature in the room dropped multiple degrees.

And Elizabeth spat out the words, "This was an inside job. Someone on this side wanted everyone to think that Emma was dead."

"And if this was an inside job." Isabelle added, "It explains why nothing could be done on our part to find her. Like she'd just vanished."

Russell responded with anger as he came to the conclusions. "Fuck!"

"We need to go over all the evidence again." Elizabeth commanded. Then added, "No. I need a task force set up. No one from defense. I want my team. And the best NEW techs." Then she yelled, "BLAKE!"

The door swung open, "Ma'am?"

"I want Jay, Nadine, Matt, and Daisy brought immediately."

The fear on his face appeared as his eyes widened, "Are they in…"

Ellen interjected, "With all respect, Ma'am, I think we can set up a…"

Elizabeth shook her head, "I want people who are completely vetted – no one from the last investigation. But my people – I know them. I trust them. I want them in here right away and on it."

"Yes Ma'am." Both Ephraim and Ellen echoed – followed by Blake's own acknowledgment.

"I want everyone investigated." Elizabeth commanded. "I want each and every person who could be responsible for this held accountable."

Ephraim looked up from his phone and said, "Ma'am. I just got word from our techs. They have a location for the most recent video."

"Where?" Russell asked.

They pulled up a map on the screen. "An underground storage building about two hours outside of Tehran in the desert."

"We can get the SEALS there in three hours." Ellen said.

And the room stopped. Elizabeth knew what she needed. Knew now that her plan would come to fruition.

"Izzie?" Elizabeth asked, turning to her friend.

No words were exchanged. Instead Isabelle knew what she was asking. A small nod signaled that not only did Isabelle know what Elizabeth was asking. But that she knew why and what would be required.

"You know I would go if I could." Elizabeth said to her friend.

Isabelle shook her head, "You need to stay here and run the country."

And Elizabeth turned to Ellen, "I want all information about the mission given to Isabelle. Isabelle will be the point leader." She knew she'd get push back from the Commanders, so she set herself as the authority and refused to back down. "I trust no one more than I do Isabelle. We don't know who our enemy is on the inside. Isabelle has skills to both act and analyze in the field. And…" Elizabeth caught herself before letting her voice break. "Emma knows Isabelle. I want Isabelle there on the ground."

Everyone nodded.

"I want updates sent immediately." Elizabeth instructed as the commanders walked to the door.

"Yes, Ma'am." They said in tandem.

"Russell," Elizabeth pulled his attention from his phone, "I want you to oversee the task force." Then she clenched her teeth together as she said, "I want Conrad questioned."

His eyebrows raised, asking a question without words.

"Yes, I'm sure." Elizabeth said, "If he knew any of this, I swear to God I'll have him strung up by his balls and skin him alive."

"Well then." Russell said, "Let me get on it."

Just as Isabelle was to leave, Elizabeth said, "Izzie…"

And Isabelle's brown hair twisted in the air as she swung around to look at Elizabeth, "I know."

"And you'll do it?"

Isabelle nodded, "You know my training. I'll take care of it."

And Elizabeth added, "Please bring her home."

"What else is a godmother for…" Isabelle smiled sadly, "than to bring their goddaughter back from her terrorist kidnappers?"

"Thank you." Elizabeth whispered.