A/N: oh hey, look what happened. I swear I didn't touch this for a long time, then started with the first part a few weeks back and left it again, and with all the late hours I've been pulling, I'm not even sure how it happened, but it did. Not sure if it's any good, but at least it's an update. I do have to say that when I wrote Sandcastles in the Sky, I had some sort of a vision of how I wanted the story to go, and mostly of how I wanted it to end. This is not the case. I have no idea where this will go, but I do know that I don't plan to write another Sandcastles, whatever that means. If anyone has ideas, please share them with me because I'm lost, and it probably shows. Anyway, enough ramble. Would love love love to know what you think of this!
Elizabeth had her nose deep in a memo Blake left on her desk that morning. It was her getaway, as always, to drown herself into work and avoid thinking about everything that was going on. Henry tried to talk to her since that morning, convince her that although tactless, Mike was right, but she refused to engage in any conversation. Henry tried to tell her that they had to tell the kids, the last thing he wanted was for them to find out in the news, but Elizabeth wasn't willing to handle this. Not until she had a solid treatment plan and knew all the possible outcomes, where she could answer all the questions she knew would be coming her way the moment she told other people. And they had every right to ask questions, she sure had more than a few. Mainly, the horrifying question of whether or not her husband was unfaithful at some point during their relationship. Elizabeth was certain, most of the time, that he would never ever do something like that. She had so many reasons to justify that thought, but then at night, when she was lying wide awake in bed, wondering how come she ended up with this horrible thing inside of her, the doubt crept in, making her question more than thirty years of being with the man she loved the most. She would immediately try to shake that feeling, erase that thought from her mind – he would never, she kept telling herself, and logically she knew he wouldn't. But if she had even the tiniest of doubts, what would people on the outside say? What would they think? Surely, the first thing they would say was that he cheated, there is no other explanation to it. And while she could handle the cancer, and she could handle having to go through this while being in the public eye, knowing that her marriage will be put to the test by every citizen in the country, and especially by her own children, that was something she couldn't do. Because if someone were to find even the smallest of evidence to prove that he was unfaithful, Elizabeth knew she would crack down and break, she wouldn't be able to carry this weight, the knowledge that the person she trusted the most could hurt her like this. So instead, she worked. Even though there was nothing urgent, even though her staff was more than capable of taking care of things while she figured this out, even though she should be talking to him about all of this instead of hiding from him in her office.
The soft knock on her door drew her attention from the memo. She lifted her eyes, waiting for the door to open. She expected to find Blake peeking inside, before entering the office, but instead she saw the tips of her black curls, her pointed shoes, and the pencil skirt she always used to wear. Elizabeth looked up, meeting her eyes and a genuine smile on her face as she closed the door behind her and made her way towards Elizabeth's desk.
"Madam President," Nadine called.
Elizabeth gasped in surprise and was up on her feet in seconds, marching towards the other woman to envelop her in a tight hug. "Nadine!" Elizabeth call, excited to see her long lost friend and coworker. "What are you here?"
Nadine smiled, taking Elizabeth's hand in hers. "Mike called. And as much as I love being a grandma, this is urgent enough, important enough and personal enough for me to be here now."
Elizabeth shook her head. The last thing she wanted was to interfere with people's lives. Sure, she was happy to have Nadine there. She kept hoping she would come back to DC, join the political game again, now that Elizabeth was the President. She could sure use her there, cancer or not. But wanting this to happen, hoping that it would, that was one thing. Having her actually there, not by choice, that was entirely different.
"He shouldn't have done that. And while I appreciate you making it all the way here, you shouldn't have either."
"Ma'am, there is no place else I'd rather be, and he most certainly should have. You know he will lose it without me here to help him manage this situation," Nadine said with a smirk and a wink.
Elizabeth let out a chuckle. "He already has," she pointed out, reflecting again at the events of yesterday's morning. "What did he tell you?"
"The diagnosis, and that you're far too stubborn to listen to him and do as he says."
Elizabeth laughed. "I'm the President, last I checked he should be doing as I say."
Nadine smiled widely at her. She missed this banter so much, and she would never say that out loud but she was thinking of coming back more often than she wanted to.
"So how are you?"
"Physically?" Elizabeth queried. When Nadine nodded she continued, "I'm fine. They gave me something for the pain."
"And not physically?"
"Well… I'm getting there. It's been difficult. With Henry being in the middle of this, I feel like he is taking it much worse than I am and that is even before other people know."
Nadine nodded in understanding. "Do you think…?"
"He would never," Elizabeth replied.
"So why are you worried?"
Elizabeth exhaled. She walked over to the couch in the office and sunk in, rubbing her temples and swallowing hard. "Because it's cheap gossip, and people love white trash drama. What better story to build on than this?"
"Don't play into their hands then. The haters are going to hate no matter what you do. But if you explain everything to those important beforehand, then it's just cheap gossip, which you know is a lie. Unless you're not 100% sure that it is."
Elizabeth shook her head. "There was a moment where doubt crept in, but he promised me that he never ever even thought about it, and the doctor reassured me that his story lines up with the medical stuff. But what if someone digs deep and find something?"
Sitting next to her former boss, Nadine rested her hand on Elizabeth's hip. "Ask the one person you know will find anything to do that beforehand."
Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment. She didn't want to do it. She had that thought in her head and she understood that's probably the first reason why Mike asked Nadine to come over, but she couldn't have her own husband be interrogated, have his life be investigated like this. She trusted him. She wouldn't have come this far if she hadn't. She spent more time alive with him than without him at this point, how could they ever go back to being normal if she did something like that? Then again, if something will come up, they probably wouldn't go back to being normal anyway. And maybe it was just that she didn't want to know. Staying blissfully unaware allowed her heart to lead instead of her head, and she loved him too much to push him away.
"You can let him know, it doesn't have to be behind his back. Just like you told me when you investigated Marsh's death."
Elizabeth nodded. She could. It doesn't mean he won't be offended by that, but it was better than going behind his back. And if he did have anything to hide, he would probably just confess to it.
"Okay," she nodded, and Nadine nodded in return, squeezing Elizabeth's hand.
She was applying face cream at their ensuite when he walked into the room. He made his way to greet her, circling her in his arms, his chin resting on her shoulder. He smiled at her, his hand pulling her towards his body, her warmth calming him immediately. There was nothing like coming home to her.
She turned in his arms and her pulled her even closer, their nose touching, their eyes locked on each other, and then his lips brushed hers and he kissed her slowly, darting his tongue inside, opening his mouth to welcome hers. She breathed heavily into the kiss, her muscles relaxing against him, her hands running up his chest to wrap around his neck. She nipped at the end of his hair, threading her fingers through the thick dark brown strand, pulling him to her and never wanting to let go.
Evidently, they had to break apart for air, but their eyes stayed closed, resting their foreheads against one another. When he finally released her from his hold, he tucked a stray hair behind her ear and smiled genuinely at her. I love you, he mouthed before moving to get rid of his clothes.
"Henry," she started when he was just about to go into the shower. "There's something I need to tell you."
"Anything," he said, taking her hands in his.
"I'm going to ask Mike to look into you to find anything that could insinuate that you were unfaithful."
Henry nodded. "I already asked him this morning."
"What?" Elizabeth asked in surprise.
"Babe, you are in the public eye, people are going to look for things and, while I can guarantee you I did not cheat, I cannot know what someone will find and how will it be twisted. We need to be ahead of this, and if this means Mike digging into my past, so be it."
Elizabeth wrapped her arms tightly around him, holding onto him as if holding in to dear life. She spent her entire day trying to get rid of this thought, of this idea, because she didn't want to hurt him, and she refused to believe that it was even true, and there he was, his usual self, the man she fell in love with, already one step ahead of her because all he has in his mind is her best interest. He would never hurt her, not like this. Of that she was certain now.
"You are the best thing that has ever happened to me," she whispered in his ear before pressing a kiss to his cheek and making her way towards their bedroom.
Henry sighed. The best thing that gave you cancer, he wanted to say, but remained silent. Under the stream of water he let the tears fall as well. She was better off without me, and it was that thought that haunted him, day and night. He would do anything to protect her, but he also hurt her in the most horrible way possible. And there was no going back from that.