ENJOY!


"I wish you'd just let the detail help you." Elizabeth commented while she slowly walked behind her daughter as they finally got to the top of the stairs leading to the Residence. "I mean, it's not like you'd be hard to pick up."

Emma limped towards the living room door. "Uncle Will said I was fine to walk."

"Well, Uncle Will doesn't know everything." Henry said as he held Emma's arm to help stabilize her – held the arm that wasn't in the sling.

"He said it was good for me to move so everything doesn't freeze up." Emma added.

Elizabeth, bringing up the rear of the tiny walking motorcade, took off her shoes while she walked, "Uncle Will also said it was home and time to climb into bed and rest. So you're going to listen to that part too, right?"

Henry looked back at her and winked. "Maybe he does know everything…"

Elizabeth watched Henry help Emma to the couch, and helped her gently sit down, making sure she had a pillow to prop up her right arm. Leaning against the doorway, Elizabeth just took in the scene with utter thankfulness. Will had told them that the CT showed no internal bleeding or damage that wouldn't heal given time. She had three broken ribs, but he'd just wrapped them up to give more stability while they healed. Then he had put a few stitches on Emma's lip, taped up her broken nose, and given her some mild pain killers for the pain. The one thing that would really need monitoring was Emma's broken clavicle. He told them she needed to keep it still and not move it. They normally healed on their own. Will had said Emma would be in pain for a while, and the scratches and bruising from the fall would take a bit, but that she'd be feeling back to normal within a few weeks.

Normal in a few weeks.

How had they gone from watching what they were sure would be the last time that they would see their daughter to simply letting her rest and she'd be back to normal in a few weeks? Henry went to the kitchen to make Emma some tea – sleepy tea, he said. But not before he'd moved the footrest so Emma could be comfortable. And covered her with a blanket to keep her warm.

They'd been at the hospital for a few hours, enough to see the sun come up. But it didn't matter what happened, Elizabeth would spend hours at the hospital if it meant she could walk into her living room and see her little girl sitting there, safely.

"Can I get anyone else some tea?" Henry called out from the kitchen.

Elizabeth smiled as she walked to the couch, "Is that a hint? Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"It's sleepy time tea. He's trying to get you into bed." Emma said, attempting a sarcastic smile around the stitches and swollen face.

"I'd hit you with a pillow if you didn't look like you got hit with a lead pillow already." Elizabeth joked. She sunk into the armchair, and moaned, "I've got to get more sensible shoes for when we have emergencies."

They sat there for a minute, listening to the kettle start to spit. And they both chuckled as they heard Henry whistling some song. Elizabeth listened longer, and as Henry walked in carrying two cups of tea, she asked him, "Was that… a song from the middle ages?"

"No." He said hastily, then came clean, "Maybe."

"Nerd." Elizabeth said, taking the tea he offered her.

Henry gave Emma her tea, bringing the coffee table right next to the couch so she could reach it with her one hand.

It wasn't until Henry finally sat down, sinking into his chair like a leaky canoe sinks, that the residential phone rang. He rolled his eyes, and Elizabeth said, "I got it."

She answered it to hear Matt's voice on the other line. She listened, and then said, "Ok." Then she hung up.

"What's up?" Henry asked, "You gotta go back to work?"

Elizabeth sat down in her chair, taking as long as possible to delay telling them. "Well, you see… I've got something going on today that I really can't miss."

Emma's face almost fell, but then she caught it. And Henry was too exhausted to hide the way he was feeling.

"It's really important. It's this event that I've been RSVP'd to for weeks now. And if I miss it, I'm going to disappoint a lot of people." She continued.

"When do you have to leave?" Emma asked, submerged disappointment crawling out.

Then she heard it.

"I just want to say that this easily the worst birthday party I've been to."

Emma's face filled with surprise as she tried to turn around. "Russell?"

Henry smiled.

Russell Jackson walked into the residence, carrying what looked to be a six foot stuffed animal in the shape of a cat. With a ribbon tied around the neck and everything. Always pretending to be negative, he set the cat down beside Emma on the couch, while he complained, "Your mother said I was not allowed to buy you any more cats."

Elizabeth laughed, and, pointing at the huge monstrosity, said, "It looks like you completely disregarded what I said anyway."

"You're here for my birthday?" Emma asked, skeptically. "I mean, dude, feels like you're crashing a bit."

Watching the two of them banter always confused Elizabeth. Cynicism on steroids. But Russell was one of the kindest people when it came to Emma. It never ceased to amaze Elizabeth.

"Looks likes YOU'RE the one who crashed." Russell threw back, taking a seat on the end of the couch that the stuffed animal didn't take up.

"I got this new motorcycle…" Emma led with, pretending to have a Boston accent for some reason, then said, "I gotta take more lessons, apparently."

Then another voice, "Knock, knock. I have someone here who wants to see you."

"Isabelle?" Emma said, then looked at Henry and Elizabeth, "Did you plan this?"

They both shook their head. And Henry said, "I was planning for you to get some rest."

Isabelle walked over, holding a struggling Zazu who was not liking being held. When she put him on the ground, it wasn't a full second before he was on the arm of the couch by Emma's head. Rubbing his face on hers, and eventually settling in on her lap.

"Let me tell you, that cat is not happy when he's not with you." Isabelle said, looking around. Then she asked, "Please tell me that you have something stronger than tea, Henry?"

"Isabelle, it's eight in the morning." He said.

She looked at him with contempt, "Are you questioning our need for alcohol after last night?"

"Touché" He said, and got up to pour her a drink, "Scotch?"

"Double." She said, stealing Henry's chair when he walked away. And she looked at Emma and said, "As your godmother, I feel like there are three important things that you need to know on your seventeenth birthday."

Emma's face brightened, despite the darkening bruises taking hold. "Yeah?"

Henry handed Isabelle the drink, then muttered something about the worst house guest before he sat down on the arm of the chair where Elizabeth was sitting.

"First, I just want to tell you that if you ever do anything like what you pulled last night, I will personally hunt you down and make you live in a convent for the rest of your life."

Emma nodded sheepishly.

Isabelle took a swig, then leaned back in her chair. Gesturing to the couch, she said, "Second thing. As much as I think you're probably the coolest person I know, you might want to get this cat thing under control." Elizabeth about spit out the tea in her mouth with laughter. "From one single woman to another, it could cause problems down the road."

"I hear ya." Emma agreed.

"Hey."

"Nope." Isabelle silenced Russell, with her words and her hand she held up, "You're a guy. You don't get it."

Henry leaned down and whispered to Elizabeth, "You think this is her first drink this morning?"

Elizabeth shook her head and mouthed, "Nope."

"What's the third thing?" Emma asked, adjusting her arm on the pillow, with a minimal grimace.

"Oh," Isabelle said, sitting quickly toward the front of the chair, "The most important one."

Henry and Elizabeth looked at each other, worried but also excited to hear whatever drunken godmother was about to say.

"You're going to be one hell of a storm on this world. Men had better watch out." Isabelle said. "I mean, whatever you did to that Agent Hensley, in questioning this morning, he was an utter mess. Confused. Tortured. And, well… good luck, men of the world when you start coming after them."

Emma sat there, a smile on her face. But now there wasn't a lot of sincerity behind it.

Elizabeth jammed her elbow into Henry's ribs and gestured her head to Isabelle.

"Ok…" He said, giving her a dirty look, then he got up and said, "How about some coffee, Isabelle?"

Isabelle put her hand up and then said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's ok." Emma said. But with authority. And she said, "I guess everyone is here, so we might as well talk about it."

Elizabeth's eyes opened wide, and she said, "Em, we don't have to talk about it if you're not ready."

"You might want to get some rest or…" Henry suggested. "It's been a really long night and…"

Emma shook her head and adjusted her arm once again. "No, I want to before the other kids get here." She took a deep breath. "I know you're all probably super pissed at me."

"I'm not." Russell said, "If you hadn't killed that bastard, I might have been."

"Russell!" Elizabeth snapped.

Emma let the quiet sit for a moment, and then she looked down at her hands and said, "It was the only way I could see for it to play out."

Elizabeth was speechless. Not because of the subject matter. But because as she watched Emma, it felt like a different person. Different from the one she'd seen the last two months. Different from since she'd gotten home from Iran. Even with her injuries, she had more confidence. She talked with a surety Elizabeth hadn't seen. She'd seen tough Emma, but that was an angry, reactive girl. This, watching her now, there was an assuredness that came from inside.

"Your mother is the President of the United States, and you saw no other way for this to go?" Isabelle asked, pointed and sober. Elizabeth could've slapped her friend, for pretending to be drunk to get them to a conversation that she wanted.

But Emma answered, "I couldn't."

"Why?" Isabelle countered.

"Because." Emma said, "Sterling came to me after that business dinner."

Elizabeth couldn't hold it in, "What? He did what? To you? Here?"

"He did." She said, "And Riley was nowhere to be found. In fact, he left seconds before it happened."

Elizabeth's blood began to boil. And her understanding for Emma began to take root.

Emma continued, "Sterling said that he could get to me whenever. And that I was the most guarded, so imagine what he could do to Allison or Stevie."

"That son of a bitch!" Russell said, now standing as he paced and listened.

And Elizabeth could tell that Henry would've done the same thing if Russell hadn't claimed that first.

"Then I woke up in the bathroom, and Riley tried to convince me I had blacked out in there. And I knew that I couldn't get any help from him."

Elizabeth needed to know, "Why didn't you come to me? I could've fired him, sent them both to jail, and nothing would've had to happen tonight."

Emma said, "I didn't know who was involved. I didn't know if it was the whole detail department. And if that was the case, then you could be in danger too if I told you."

"So you didn't tell us to protect us?" Elizabeth asked, reaching for Henry's hand.

Emma nodded. "And I didn't think anyone would believe me. I didn't have any evidence. And you already thought I was losing it." Elizabeth tried to disagree with her daughter, but Emma kept going, "So I went to the farm that week with Dad, to scope out the best place for me to try and take him down."

Realization began to hit the people in the room. "I didn't want to go alone, so I had dad come with me, because at least his detail was different than mine was alone."

"Oh, Em." Henry whispered.

And Elizabeth knew they all wanted to ask why she had to do it all alone.

But they let her continue, "Then it was all preparation. I practiced at the range, I saved all my sleeping pills, I convinced you to let me go on TV."

Russell asked, "How did you think of this?"

"I kind of lived an entire four years of having to think but not do. I knew how to think in steps."

Isabelle added, "Might have something to do with the spy blood in her?"

"That too." Emma conceded. "After the interview, it was just downhill from there." Then she said, "Pun not intended."

Then it was quiet.

"But I couldn't figure out how to work the damn phone, so I was stuck calling you. I would've just recorded it but I couldn't get to the screen in time."

They sat there for a while. By this time, Russell had a drink in his hand as well. Isabelle had finished hers. And they were all looking at something other than Emma.

Russell held up his glass, "A toast. To the damn cat and the person who bought that cat. Without him…"

"What?" Emma asked. "I don't know why you were there, Mom. I mean I'm happy but…"

"Zazu would not shut up. The entire evening. So I decided to surprise you and bring him to see you." She said.

"Oh." Emma said, her attention turning to the purring cat, who looked like nothing even remotely wrong had happened other than Isabelle picking him up. And Emma said, "If he hadn't been there, I think I would've shot one of your detail." Everyone's eyes opened wide. "Not because of, like, anger or anything. I was just scared and didn't know if they were with Sterling."

"And Zazu being there…" Elizabeth led.

"…Meant that you or dad were there…" Emma finished. "And I know you might all want me to like go away and sit in a bubble. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was just scared that someone else would get hurt."

Elizabeth took a deep breathe, and she looked at Emma and said, "Like Izzie said, if you ever do anything like this again… well, you're never going to do this again, are you?"

Emma shook her head.

"I'm just glad that it's over." Elizabeth finished.

And then she watched Emma exchange a look with Isabelle.

"What?" Elizabeth asked, sitting forward, and looking between her friend and her daughter. "What the fuck was that look?" She'd been left out of enough information in the last twenty-four hours to make her angry if there was more she didn't know.

"You want to tell her?" Emma asked Isabelle.

"Tell me." Elizabeth commanded.

Isabelle looked at Emma, "What do you think I know?"

With authority, Emma said, "I watched how you brought up the whole thing while pretending to be drunk. I pulled that move last night. I know you're fishing for the last bit of information I have."

"Goddamn," Russell interjected, "She's good."

"Isabelle nodded. "We searched Sterling's belongings, his phone, his two houses, and his company office."

Henry now was standing, "What else is there? I've had enough leading on for one night."

"There's just a bit more to take care of before we're done." Emma said, and Isabelle agreed.


Henry watched Elizabeth knock on the door.

She looked beautiful. Commanding. And no-nonsense. A light jacket in the mid-morning air. Her lips pulled tight in restraint. Her hair fell around her face. If he didn't know, he wouldn't be able to tell that she'd had a horrible night.

And she held his hand.

The door opened.

"Bess! Henry!" Conrad said, the surprise evident in his face. "Is everything ok?"

"Conrad," Elizabeth said, "Can we come in?"

"Of course!" He said, stepping aside and welcoming them in. They stepped into the corridor, and Matt came in, at a discreet distance. Henry stood behind Elizabeth. "Can I get you something to drink or?"

Elizabeth shook her head, "No, we're not going to be here long."

"What happened?" Conrad asked, "I know that look. There's something wrong."

Then the voice from the distance, "Connie, who was that?" Lydia walked from the kitchen into the foyer. "Henry! Elizabeth! Well, isn't this a surprise?" And, as Henry had seen Lydia do every time Elizabeth had been around Conrad since the news had broken about Emma, Lydia walked up and placed her hand smugly in Conrad's.

"I think there's something wrong." Conrad told his wife, and then, to Elizabeth, he asked, "Is this about Emma's visit here a few weeks ago?"

Lydia chimed in, "Oh, no it's not. It was a mutually uncomfortable visit. That's no cause for a housecall. Is it?"

"No," Elizabeth said gravely. "I came here because I thought, Conrad, that you deserved to know that Emma got into some trouble last night."

"Is she alright?" Conrad asked immediately, worry plastering his face.

Elizabeth held his gaze, "She's pretty beat up. Broken shoulder, three broken ribs, and broken nose."

"What happened?" He asked her, and then looked at Lydia.

Henry watched Elizabeth cross her arms, adjusting her feet to give her a steady grounding. "Well, last night at the farm, Emma was attacked by Craig Sterling, who intended to kill her to keep her quiet about his involvement in her kidnapping in Iran."

Conrad's face fell. "Craig?" He whispered. "Wha…"

Elizabeth nodded, "We were all surprised."

"But didn't she have security on her?" Lydia asked.

"Sterling had paid them off, one of them in particular, who led him right to her." Henry explained, needing to say something.

Conrad jumped in, "If her detail fractured, and he was coming after her, how did she …"

"She drugged her security agent, stole his gun, and when Sterling attacked her, she shot him."

"Oh my." Lydia gasped, "I can't believe she went through that. That poor child. Elizabeth. Henry. I can't imagine how scared you were."

"Thank you," Elizabeth said, "We were both terrified, but now we're just focused on bringing those involved to justice." Then, her tone changed, more to an explaining than a giving information tone. "Do you know what the most interesting part of this is? And the thing that has confused us all from the very beginning. It's the whole fact of how the fact that Conrad, you were Emma's father, how that got out in the first place."

Conrad looked deep in thought, "We scoured all the medical records, and we knew all the people who were aware of the situation."

Elizabeth nodded, "We just assumed that there was some piece of paper we missed. Something we'd just overlooked to correct."

"I mean, who even knew?" Henry asked.

Conrad said, "Elizabeth, you, Henry, Russell, and Isabelle." Then he added, "You even questioned whether Isabelle, when she was under investigation about the Iranian hack, whether it had been her."

"I did, which we later realized was false." Elizabeth said. "Well, today as Isabelle went through the intelligence from Sterling's apartment, she found something."

"It was Sterling?" Conrad jumped to the conclusion. "How did he find out? I didn't tell him. You didn't, I'm sure. And Russell hated his guts…"

Now Elizabeth leaned her head to the side. "We found a paternity test that had been run, matching some of your DNA to Emma's. We found that suspicious, since, while Sterling was, to quote Russell, a bastard, he wasn't always the smartest thing in the room."

And now. Elizabeth turned her attention to the woman standing next to Conrad. "But we found the date from Emma's sample." Elizabeth bit out, "It was from the same day that you cleaned up Emma's knee when I was in a meeting with Conrad in the Oval."

Henry watched Conrad's face fall as he turned to look at Lydia.

Elizabeth wasn't done. "You hatched a plan to get rid of me. Kidnap my daughter, expose the secret, and take down your husband on national television. Teach him and I a lesson."

Lydia stood there. Her jaw locked.

"You forgot one thing. You employed a bitter, greedy man to carry it out." Elizabeth said, "Sterling wanted to rub it in my face, creating the ransom video. And then, when you told him to kill Emma, the people HE employed got greedy and she didn't actually die."

Conrad stepped away from his wife, "Is this true?"

Lydia still didn't move. Her eyes narrowed.

"But you thought you kept yourself separate from it. Even when Emma was rescued, you told Sterling to leave it – because your fingerprints were nowhere in the entire thing." Elizabeth paused, "But what you didn't know was that Sterling was the scum of the earth. And, while he told you what he did to my daughter, he didn't tell you what he said."

"Say something!" Conrad yelled at his wife.

"He told her everything – thinking she would die before she'd get back home." Elizabeth now lost her sense of calm. Now she moved closer to Lydia, her face inches away, "You had her over for coffee and a chat, while she sat there, KNOWING you caused this."

And finally, Lydia spoke, "You can prove none of this. This is just the hearsay from some traumatized brat who wants attention."

Henry watched Elizabeth's fists clench at her sides, and now he stepped in. "How do you live with yourself, Lydia? How do you sleep at night?" His anger bubbled up, and he looked at Conrad, "Did you know about this? Did you find out and not tell us? Did…"

Conrad hadn't taken his eyes off Lydia. In the course of the conversation, his gaze had shifted from questioning to a state of not knowing the woman standing by him.

"I can prove it." Elizabeth said. "Sterling kept everything. You both were so sure you'd never be found out."

"You're the cunt who fucked my husband!" Lydia yelled, her fate falling before her eyes, "I always knew Conrad held special feelings for you, but then I watched when you moved to DC. He cared about that brat. I could see it. And once I proved it…"

"What?" Elizabeth yelled back, "I understand revealing the information to the public. Tell the press – all about it. But…"

"That plan would've hurt my husband, sure." Lydia hissed, "But you, you didn't care what the public said. That wouldn't have done anything."

Henry wanted to jump in. But Elizabeth had it handled, "You did it for jealousy."

"And justice. For me. For my marriage. Teach you a lesson to stay out of my marriage."

Elizabeth spoke through a clenched jaw, "You were a mother! How could you do that? Put her in a horrible place? You're a mother. How do you…"

And Lydia bit back, "I wasn't her mother."

And Henry saw it happening before it did. "You bitch." Elizabeth spat out. Slow motion. Elizabeth's hand flying through the air, the back of her hand colliding with Lydia's face, sending her head jarring to the side. The sound of skin against skin settled into the air for a second.

And Lydia just stood there, holding her face.

Then, Elizabeth spoke. Quiet. "You're going to prison."

Then Elizabeth gestured to Matt.

And in walked two arresting officers.

Handcuffs in hand.

"You have the right to remain silent."

Lydia's hands were pulled behind her back. And she stood there quietly.

"Anything you say can and will be held …"

They clicked the cuffs into place.

And Conrad finally spoke, "I can't believe you did this."

"I can't believe you fucked that whore."

"She was a child." He countered. But the officers were turning Lydia to take her out.

And they walked past Henry and Elizabeth, where Henry was holding Elizabeth's hand while she stood tall.

And when the door to the car closed, and Lydia was inside, Elizabeth took a breath.

Conrad looked like he'd had the life knocked out of him. He was sweating. His face was pale. His hands were shaking. "I can't…. I can't believe it…"

With no other emotion other than absolute sincerity, Elizabeth looked at her predecessor, and said, "If they find anything that shows you had one shred of information about this, Conrad, I won't let them take you to prison." And she hissed, "I will kill you with my bare hands. Be glad that I let them arrest Lydia."

And then she turned, her coat acting like a cape in the sudden movement. She grabbed for Henry's hand and they walked out together, leaving the door to softly swing shut behind them.