A/N - Thank you for the reviews! They mean a lot! This chapter is based on Tamerlane from season one, I doubt I really need to recap what happened in that episode but I will anyway just in case. It turned out that Dalton and Jackson were not behind the plane crash that killed Vincent Marsh - it was actually Juliet and Munsey who were helping to stage a coup in Iran. Elizabeth decides to go to Iran with very little security to warn them about the coup and try to prevent it from happening. Once again this chapter will borrow a lot of dialogue from Tamerlane.

FYI a sacrifice in chess terms is a move giving up a piece with the objective of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value.

Chapter Three

Sacrifice

Four months later

"You're out of moves, Bess."

The words had been niggling at the back of her mind since he'd said them to her. It had bothered her that he'd had the audacity to call her Bess, as though he was still her friend, like they were still close. However she couldn't deny that he was right, she was certainly out of good tactical moves - even if they informed the Iranian president of the imminent coup that was being plotted they would just assume that the United States was behind it all along. No, she needed to think outside of the box - dealing with this from the comfort of her own country wasn't going to cut it this time.

All of these thoughts repeatedly circled in her head on the drive home from the White House, as well as an imminent feeling of fear slowly building deep inside her. She knew Henry wasn't going to react well to the idea, and she was going to have to talk him round. When her motorcade arrived at her Georgetown home, she reluctantly stepped out of the vehicle, bidding goodbye to her detail and that she would see them tomorrow morning. Slowly but surely she entered the house - which by now was in complete darkness thanks to the late hour and made her way up to their bedroom. She was surprised to see Henry was still awake, lying on the bed as though he had been waiting up for her to come home.

"Ah, good. I'm glad I don't have to wake you up." She said walking over to the chair in the far corner of the room, opposite the bed where he was lying.

"I don't like the sound of that." Henry said, his brow furrowed as a look of deep concern swept over him.

"I've been at the White House." Elizabeth said.

"Yeah, for quite a while." Henry remarked, indicating how late it was.

"I had to convince the president that the only way out of this little pickle in Iran is to go there." She explained, taking a seat on the armchair and staring him in the eye.

"Please tell me that you mean for him to go there." Henry pleaded his eyes wide and filled with fear. It broke her heart to see it.

"Henry." She said softly, in an attempt to comfort him.

"No. I have always got your back, but going to Iran when there's a coup in the works? No, I'm playing the husband card." He argued, getting up from the bed and waking over to her.

"Babe, listen to me, if this coup moves forward and takes out the current government, Iran will become a failed state, you know -" She tried to explain herself

"Stop. I know you're gonna say this is what you signed up for, that there are millions of lives at stake but I - " He pleaded, his voice wasn't completely filled with anger, but it seemed to her like he was getting there.

"what part of this do you disagree with?" She asked, surprised at just how argumentative he was being.

"Okay." He said, taking a seat opposite her on the end of their bed. "There are God knows how many radicals who would love to kill you." He suggested.

Elizabeth paused and looked down at the floor, dreading his reaction to what she was about to tell him.

"That's why it's a secret mission. They won't even know I'm there." She paused when Henry visibly recoiled at this new information, clearly unhappy. "Okay, look - the whole point of me going is precisely because of the risk. How else are we going to send the message that we really have nothing to do with this coup?"

Henry shook his head and stood up from his perch on the end of the bed so that he towered over her.

"So now you admit... it's risky?." He stated

"And sanctioned by the president. You can take it up with him, if you want to." She replied.

"Maybe I will." Henry said coldly, overwhelmed that he seemed to have next to no choices in the matter, he knew that her mind was made up and whether he protested or not, she was going to go.

"Henry, come on." She said, the faintest of smiles spreading across her face as she looked up at her husband, she stood up and moved in close to him. "I'm gonna be okay, I love you." She said as she softly kissed him on the lips. She pulled him close and engulfed him in a hug, stroking the back of his head tenderly. "I will be fine. But just in case I'm not…"

"Are you really gonna go there?" Henry said, as she retreated from the embrace and walked over to her side of the bed.

"I think that you should wait a year." She stated, as she took a seat upon the bed.

"And there you go." Henry scoffed, throwing his arms up in the air as he walked over to his own side of the bed.

"To remarry." Elizabeth finished.

"Yes, I got that. I'm not having this conversation." He said stubbornly, sitting down.

"You'll be a hot commodity." Elizabeth joked as she watched her husband sit beside her on the bed. I'm just saying that for the sake of the kids, I think a year is a respectful amount of time to wait."

"Fine. A year. Are we done?" Henry snapped, clearly uncomfortable with this topic of conversation.

"Then there's the question of to whom." She suggested.

"Seriously? You have a list?" He asked.

"More like parameters, I think we're talking north of 40 here, with 35 as the floor for somebody

really spectacular." She said, turning around to face him. Henry laughed and removed his glasses from the bridge of his nose as he looked down at the patterned bedspread.

"Okay, I'm not Hugh Hefner 40 is just fine." He joked.

"Good, and while I don't have a list of approved women…" She continued.

"Oh, my God. You have rejects?" He asked, amazed.

"I do. Renee Brown."

"Oh, no. What is wrong with Renee Br…" He stopped immediately when she shot him the most evil look she had ever given him. "Okay, okay, you're saving the world. No Renee Brown. Is there anyone else off-limits?"

"Maria DeLuca, Denise Chang, Vera Petrovic, Erin Blackshaw, Odette Norwood...Do I need to make my case there?" She listed.

"I won't even accept their lasagnas." He joked.

"Good." She said, turning around and beginning to take her shoes off. "Make sure the kids don't like new Mrs. McCord more than they like me." She said, throwing her shoes to the ground.

Well, I'm marrying her, and I already don't like her, so...Is that it?" He said.

Elizabeth smiled slightly at the notion that even if she died, Henry wouldn't like anybody else other than her.

"Well...what else do you think we need to cover?" She asked coyly, biting her bottom lip and shooting him a small glance. Henry smiled and leaned over, grabbing her by the shoulder he pushed her down onto the bed and positioned himself on top of her, she slowly and gently began stroking his arm.

"If this is our last night together…" He began, but paused to kiss her. Elizabeth smiled widely and returned his kiss

"Computer passwords?" She suggested, smiling even wider. Henry leaned in to kiss her once more, gripping her right hand with his left and smiling.

"Wow. That is so hot." He murmured

The following night he sat in the den with Alison, Stevie and Jason. He had once again been challenged to a chess game, but as he sat opposite his daughter overlooking his pieces, his mind was very much elsewhere. His thoughts swung back to the previous night - the raw passion that had been ignited by the fact that this may just have been his and Elizabeth's last night together. He smiled remembering the way she'd made him feel, the way he'd really focussed on making her feel amazing, the way she had responded to his touch with her soft moans of pleasure and calling out his name.

His smile fell when his mind circled around to the events from this morning, the way he stood and watched as she hugged and kissed all three of her children as though this may be the last time she would ever see them - and they were all none the wiser. He had told her that she didn't have to go, though it wasn't a statement, it was a last ditch effort of pleading. She kissed him fiercely and seemed to push herself out the front door.

"See you in a few days." She said, as he watched her go.

For several moments he'd just stood there watching as she bundled herself into the back of the motorcade which rolled away slowly and then disappeared from his field of vision.

"Don't go easy on me, dad." Alison complained as she took Henry's queen with her bishop, placing it down on the side of the sighed, realising his mistake - it had been a downright bad move, his queen was sacrificed for simply no good reason, he had gained no advantage - it was a mess.

"If I ever did, and I'm not admitting to anything, that ends now you're sixteen." Henry said pushing one of his queenside pawns up toward the fight. Alison moved her knight to attack Henry's pawn and looked up at her father.

"Woah, coup." Jason mumbled from the window seat, his laptop laid open on his legs.

"What's cool, Jay?" Stevie asked from the sofa.

"No, no not cool." He said, sitting up and turning the laptop so the others could see the screen. "Coup, like a military coup." He said.

"Where?" Stevie asked, putting her book down beside her on the sofa and looking at the laptop screen.

"Iran." He said. "It looks like a civil war there."

Henry's head shot up as Jason mentioned Iran and looked at the images being played on the news site that Jason had up on the laptop.

"Oh God, just what the Middle East needs, more instability, right dad?" Stevie asked, looking over at her father. Henry looked away; his thoughts already beginning to spiral.

"History of the world." He whispered.

"Sounds like more work for mom." Alison said, sighing. "Your move, dad." She reminded him, and he looked down at the board just as his cell phone began to ring across the room. He lifted his head, removed his glasses and stood up to go and answer it.

"Oh, give me one second." He told Alison, walking over to the side table and picking up the phone in his right hand and placing it to his ear.

"Hello?" He asked

"Dr. McCord, it's Nadine Tolliver." Elizabeth's chief of staff's voice filled his head, so calm and collected, and it took every bit of self control he had not to fall to the floor as she delivered the news about the coup to him.