Authors Note: I have this story mapped out. I don't know how many chapters it will be, but I do know what major plot points I want to hit. I will try to update once a week. Thanks for reading!

2014 Elizabeth

My alarm is going off. 6 AM and another day of pretending everything is fine. I've been lying to the kids for a week. I told them that their Dad is on a work trip. I'm not sure they believe me, but they know better than to ask too many questions. I need to try to call Henry. It's time to tell the kids, they deserve to know that their lives are about to fall apart. The thing is, I'm not ready for this to be final. I'm not ready to hear that he's not coming back, to hear that he doesn't love me anymore. I'm not ready to give up on our forever.

God, I miss him. Waking up alone this past week has been hard. It doesn't make sense we both have traveled for a living, I've gotten used to waking up alone. It probably has something to do with the fact that I know he isn't coming back this time. I'm starting to settle into bitter anger at him and it's a nice change of pace from the empty hurt. At least anger feeds fires and raises the dead. I use every last bit of that anger to get out of bed and get into the shower.

By the time I get downstairs Stevie has started breakfast for everyone. I can tell that she, more than Allison and Jason knows something is wrong. She smiles at me and wishes good morning, as Allison and Jason are fighting over something as usual. I break it up with a loud "Good Morning My Babies"

2014 Henry

8 AM and I'm just coming back from my morning run. Back to my hotel room anyway. It's quiet here, the kind of quiet I needed for a while. But that quiet is quickly turning on me. It's getting lonely. I miss the kids. And if I dig deep enough, I might find that I miss Elizabeth, too. I wish I knew how to get past all of this, I wish I knew how to get back to the man I used to be.

I think I'm going to call Elizabeth today, I need to see the kids. I need to let them know what's going on. I need to reassure them that I love them and that this is in no way their fault.

Elizabeth

My phone is ringing. I'm in the conference room for my daily brief, but I can hear my personal cell in my office. I try to just let it ring, but I can't. I know this is life changing phone call. I tell my staff to take 5 and rush into my office. It had stopped ringing, but one look at the call log told me I was correct. It was Henry. With shaky hands I press his name to call him back.

Henry

I should've called later, I knew she'd be at work. I don't want to mess up her whole day with this, it doesn't seem fair. Now, that I know there is an end in sight, and that I won't have to spend every last waking moment fighting with her, I am finding it easier in myself to be kind. My ringing phone startles me out of thought. It's her, here's goes nothing.

"Hello"

Elizabeth

"Hello" he answers, just as neutral as can be. I am struck with the realization that I actually don't know what to say. I know I don't want to fight, I'm so fucking tired of fighting.

"Hey… Do you have a minute…? I… We need… The kids…" I leave it there. He should know what I mean.

Henry

"Hey… Do you have a minute…? I… We need… The kids" she sounds nervous, almost like she's walking on a tightrope.

"I've been thinking about the kids, too." Maybe the key to keeping this conversation civilized is by only talking about the kids, we can do that. We are both good parents, thinking on it now, I'm glad that I picked her to mother my children, she is the best mother. That's also the first positive thought I've had about her in so long. It feels nice.

Elizabeth

We managed to keep the conversation about the kids. We are planning on telling them tonight. He is going to come over after dinner around 8, and we will tell them together. I am surprised that we didn't devolve the conversation into a fight. That seems to be all that we do lately.

I try to keep my nose to the grind stone for the rest of my workday. I don't want to think about this anymore. I need to ask Blake to discreetly look into divorce lawyers for me, but maybe that can wait until tomorrow. I think it's best to take this whole thing one day at a time.

When I get home, Allison is already helping to prep a veggie stir-fry for dinner. I ask her if she needs anything from me, and she laughs and says "only if you want to buy us pizza later" I then go to check on Jason, he is playing Xbox, of course. And Stevie is studying at the kitchen table. She looks stressed and confused, so I offer help, reminding her that US Treaty Law is literally in my job description.

We eat dinner like any normal day. We are laughing and I'm dispensing parental advice that will go untaken. Of all of the jobs I have had, I've decided that being their mother is my favorite.

Henry

I've been sitting on the corner of the street for 10 minutes. I have never been this nervous to talk to my kids. I love being their dad. I know that this will hurt them, but I also know it's what needs done. My Dad has always said "some things just need doing, son" and I never really got that advice until now. Some things just need doing, so I walk down the street to the house I no longer share with my family and ask Matt to call and let Elizabeth know I'm here. He gives me a weird look, and I realize that he does not know, I wonder if she has told anyone yet.

Elizabeth

I am cleaning up from dinner while the kids watch a movie when the phone rings. I answer it and Matt is telling me that Henry is outside. My whole body tenses, and I take a deep breath to relax, "Let him in"

I walk to the door and opening it to see my husband for the first time in 7 days. He looks good, he hasn't shaved and his hair is messy, but I've always loved that look on him. I step aside and gesture for him to enter. "Hi"

Henry

"Hi" she says is so quietly, it's barely audible. She looks like a dream, her hair up in a claw clip, wearing her Harvard Just Kidding sweatshirt and house shoes.

"Hi. Where are they?" I ask cutting straight to the point. I don't want to keep looking at her, if I keep looking at her, the anger might come back but right now it's buried. Buried under the surface of missing her, buried under how beautiful she look right in this moment. But burying only works for so long.

"In the den" she points toward the kitchen with her head. She stays back as she lets me go reunite with our kids for the first time in a week. I'm near tears as I hug all three of them.

Stevie must notice a shift in the energy because she is the first one to speak, "What's wrong, dad?" she looks behind her for her mother, she has seen Elizabeth and I reunite so many times over her life. She must sense that this is different. There has been no hug, no kiss, no "I missed you" and definitely no "I love you"

Elizabeth

I watch him reunite with our children, hugging each one of them and telling them that he loves them and that he missed them. He's apologizing for not calling while he's been away. As I'm watching him with our kids, I realize that no matter what happens tonight, no matter how our kids may feel in the near future, I know that they will be oaky. I know that the kids will be okay, because Henry and I are their parents, because we both love them unconditionally and beyond measure. No matter what happens from here, Henry and I will take care of them.

"What's wrong, dad?" Stevie voice pulls me out of thought. She knows, I can tell by the way she quickly turns around to look at me for reassurance. In an instant the entire mood of the room shifts uncomfortably as I watch my fully grown daughter look at me with the fear of a small child. The fear that says mommy and daddy don't love each other anymore, do they both still love me?

"We have to have a family meeting"

Henry

"We have to have a family meeting" Elizabeth is cutting to the chase. She doesn't want to drag this out for them and neither do I. I've come to know that there is no good way to break hearts. It's ugly and mean, but sometimes it's necessary.

We sit all of the kids down and break the news as gently as possible, but the glass breaks anyway. There are so many tears and questions. So many questions. Elizabeth seems to be taking them with grace. I notice that she is protecting me, making this seem like a very mutually beneficial decision. Making it seem like I didn't cut her heart into tiny shards and leave there on the floor in Dr. Sherman's office.

But now the kids know. Allison wants to help me look for a house, she want to make sure it's big enough for all of them to have rooms. I promised her she would always have a room at my house. Jason wants to know if he will now be the receiver of two Christmas's, just like him to hide behind sarcastic humor. Elizabeth told him that we will play it by ear. Stevie didn't ask any questions, she just sat alternating between looking at me and her mother. Trying to gage which one of us was at fault. I guess she settled on me because her hug goodbye to me was short, but her hug to her mother before she retired upstairs was not.

Elizabeth

Once the conversation with the kids was over, we agreed they would stay with me in Georgetown until he got a place. I promised him that he could see Allison and Jason whenever he wanted, and that he was always welcome here to see the kids. We said a cordial goodbye, but this time when he left I broke down into tears. I cannot believe what became of my life. I need a time machine a way to go back to the kitchen on the farm and tell Conrad to Fuck Off. To tell him that I don't want this job. But maybe this would have happened anyway, maybe something else would have triggered this breakdown between us. It doesn't matter now, we are here, the kids know and tomorrow so will my staff and the white house.