AN: This was complete. Done. I wasn't adding to it. And then Lilacmermaid put her March Fanfic Challenge up-hospitals and/or injuries. Well, what options did I really have? There needed to be one final ER visit. Now, this is really complete. Finished. I'm not adding any more. I hope.

Please review. I'd love to hear what you think.

Chapter 4

March 2020

Dmitri had just settled Stevie on the couch. Her casted arm was propped on pillows and the remote was laying in her lap. "Do you need something to drink? I'll get you something, and maybe a snack too." Before Stevie could formulate a reply, he disappeared into the kitchen, determined to attend to his wife.

She had just relaxed, letting her body sink into the cushions when there was a commotion outside, and the door flew open. "Baby, what happened?" Elizabeth cried, bursting into Stevie's apartment.

"Oh my God, Mom. What are you doing here?" Stevie winced as she struggled to sit up. Her casted arm, bent at an awkward angle, made it difficult to move from her reclined position.

"No, no! Stay there. Your father called and told me you broke your arm. I came right over."

Stevie sighed. Her mother showing up on her doorstep wasn't something she thought she'd have to deal with. Stevie was in no mood to have to answer the questions her mother would certainly have and then have to explain this rather awkward situation. "Seriously mom. I'm fine. Don't you have a country to run or something?"

Elizabeth frowned. "Of course I do, but I have an entire staff. I can still check on my daughter who's gone and broken herself. What happened?"

"Hey Stevie. I made you a peanut butter sandwich. Is that al-right?" Dmitri rounded the corner coming from the kitchen, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw Elizabeth, his words trailing off.

Elizabeth looked over her shoulder and her jaw dropped. Dmitri had a black eye and split lip. No one moved for a long moment, and finally Elizabeth slowly turned back to face Stevie and leaned in, speaking quietly. "Do you want to tell me what is going on here?"

Stevie slowly exhaled and covered her face with her uninjured hand. This was going to be a good time, she could already tell. "Dmitri, hon, can you give Mom and me a few minutes?" Elizabeth glanced back and caught Dmitri standing open mouthed, like he wanted to speak, but the words had escaped him. The moment seemed to drag on and finally he turned to go back to the kitchen. Elizabeth noticed a slight limp.

"Stevie?" Elizabeth asked. Stevie noticed the incremental increase in pitch that meant her mom's "worry level" was through the roof.

"It's okay. Really. God. If we could just not do this right now." Stevie closed her eyes. She couldn't possibly imagine having any more awkward discussion with her mother.

"No. I think we need to do this right now. Stevie, are the two of you okay?" Stevie looked at Elizabeth, confused. "I mean, if you need to leave, I can get you out right now. I know Dmitri has struggled in the past-"

"Mom. No. Stop. Geez. It's nothing like that." She sighed. "Dmitri doesn't hit me. In fact it was quite the opposite."

"You hit him?" Stevie's head snapped up and she was annoyed.

"No. Of course not." She shifted on the couch. "Help me sit, would you? I can't have this conversation lying down." Elizabeth moved the blankets and stood, taking her daughter by her good arm, helping her to sit up, while Stevie swung her legs off the couch. Then Elizabeth sat next to her.

"So, we had sort of an accident." Stevie couldn't stop the blush from flooding her face, and Elizabeth immediately noticed. "I slipped, and Dmitri fell on top of me. I landed on my wrist, and somehow I elbowed him in the face. I don't really know how, but he ended up twisting his ankle." Stevie was getting agitated at the whole situation. When she felt her mom take her hand, the whole story came tumbling out. "I said I was fine, but then my wrist was swelling and I couldn't move my fingers without pain and Dmitri insisted we go."

"To the emergency room?" Elizabeth didn't speak for a moment, reliving her own series of embarrassing trips to the ER.

Stevie nodded. "It was terrible. I was so embarrassed and they asked all of these questions that insinuated that Dmitri was abusing me,and I didn't want to give them details, for obvious reasons." She hung her head. "And now there's you, and of course you'll tell Dad, and it's just…" Stevie hung her head.

Elizabeth nodded her head. It was funny how the passing of thirty years didn't diminish those feelings of complete and total embarrassment. She felt it in that moment as much as she did then. Eventually she spoke. "So where did this 'accident' happen?"

Stevie turned away, her face burning. "In the bathroom," she mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth asked, her eyebrows taking on a life of their own, poised for a lecture.

Stevie released an exasperated sigh. "In the bathroom." She looked up just long enough to see Elizaeth's expression, her mother's mouth drawn into a thin line and her brows knitted tightly together.

Elizabeth switched from embarrassed to angry instantly. "Stephanie Anne, were you not using the bathmat we got you as a wedding gift? There was a reason for that. Extra large, lots of suction cups. Won't go sliding all around. I gave Blake specific criteria. I mean it's not like I could actually explain why, but for goodness sake Stevie, couldn't you just use it?"

Elizabeth stood and paced the room like a caged animal. "It's not like it was back then. We were nobodies. Now, it will be all over the press-"

Stevie stared at her mom and after a moment, the realization set in. "You mean you and Dad—and then you—and so you gave us—and you're worried about…" Stevie felt the bile rise in the back of her throat. Oh Lord, this was worse than she ever could've imagined.. Obviously her parents still did it, but who wanted to think about that and them in compromising positions, ugh. It was too much. She decided to ignore that whole situation and go with the practical approach. She needed to problem solve—she could do that.

"Mom, it's fine. No one will find out. I promise. Dr. Donelson was very professional—"

"What?" Elizabeth spun around, cutting her off, mid sentence. "Who did you say?" She began muttering. "He would have to be close to 90. There's no way he could be practicing anymore. What are the chances? It couldn't be."

"Mom? What are you rambling about? Dr. Donelson was like, I don't know-in his 30s. It's not the same guy, but here's a funny story though. Dr. Donelson was trying to make us feeling less embarrassed about the whole situation and he told us this story about his grandfather who was an ER doctor as well and he treated this couple that came in with sex related injuries, not once, not twice, but three times. Can you imagine? They must have been nymphos or something—klutzy ones at that." Stevie chuckled to herself at the thought.

When she looked up at her mother, Elizabeth looked stricken. The color had drained from her face, her eyes were wide and her hands were clenched at her sides. She exhaled sharply.. "I think I need to go before this gets any worse. Although I can't imagine it being worse." Elizabeth leaned in and placed a kiss on Stevie's forehead. "Feel better baby. I'll have your father call and check in tonight."

As Elizabeth moved to the door, Stevie felt the need to clarify the situation. "Mom?" Elizabeth turned and looked over her shoulder. "Just so you know. The bathmat works just fine. I slipped on the wet tile afterwards and Dmitri tripped over me."

"Oh," Elizabeth murmured, nodding absentmindedly. "That's lovely. I'm glad that worked out. I've got to go. I'll see you soon." With that she disappeared out the door.

Stevie sighed and sank back into the couch. It took a bit, but then her mother's words ran through her mind and she processed what had been said about the doctor named Donelson and how he would have to be 90. Immediately, she grabbed her phone and labored to type out a text to her mother.

Did I inadvertently call you a nympho?

She didn't get a response right away, so she settled back and several minutes later her phone vibrated in her hand. Holding it in front of her face, she read the reply.

I'm pretty sure you did..

And there was another thing she just really didn't need to know about her parents. Being the oldest really sucked sometimes.

MSMSMSMSMSMS

It was nearing midnight when Elizabeth finally made her way up to the private residence and entered their bedroom. Henry sat on the couch, leafing through a magazine. "Hey babe." His smile was warm and welcoming, and she just wanted to fall into his embrace and escape the stresses of her day.

"Hi," Elizabeth said, her words floating out on a sigh as she slid into the couch, tucking herself against her husband.

Henry shifted, wrapping his arm around her, and kissed the top of her head. He let her relax for a while before he spoke. "Stevie called. She said to tell you that she was sorry. Did the two of you have a fight?" He felt Elizabeth tense and she pushed off of him.

Her face flushed beat red. "Oh no. It was so much worse than that. I mean, who would've thought?"

"Thought what?"

She sighed. "Henry. I don't even know where to begin."

"At the beginning seems like a good place."

She narrowed her eyes and Henry shrugged. "I don't suppose Stevie told you how she broke her arm."

Henry started to answer and then stopped. "I asked, but then we started talking about something else, so no I have no idea."

"The redirect was purposeful." She eyed Henry gauging how much information she would need to provide before he caught on. "I'm sure she didn't want to divulge to her father what happened." Henry stared at her blankly. "Two young adults-newly married-in love. You know how things can happen." Elizabeth let that sit a moment and suddenly Henry's lip furled in disgust.

"Why did I need to know that?" He pulled back, scrubbing his hand over his face. "Where?"

"The bathroom."

"I thought we got them one of those mats for the shower. I was all 'no, I don't want to think about that,' and you were like 'save them the embarrassment of an accident.;" Henry sputtered.

"Good news. The mat was correctly employed. It seems we should've also purchased a rug for outside the shower-wet tiles are slick," Elizabeth said. Henry nodded his understanding. Then Elizabeth continued. "That's not even the best part of this story."

Henry gave her the side eye. "It gets better?"

"Oh yeah. Of course it does. So they go to the ER and take a wild guess who their doctor is?"

"No!" Henry shouted, agast. "It couldn't be."

"Not him, his grandson, but fear not. Our sexcapades live on and our daughter heard how not once, but three times, her parents showed up with various injuries." Henry looked stunned. "Well, the doctor didn't know it was us, nor did Stevie until she put two and two together." She sighed, "But now, well, that's a different story."

"Maybe she'll take it in stride," Henry offered.

"She called us klutzy nymphos. That was before she realized it was us, but still." Elizabeth looked exasperated. "What if this gets out?"

Henry laughed and Elizabeth elbowed him. "What?" He commented. "Our sex life has already been called into question on late night TV. I'm sure it will be fine. If it didn't come out in the campaign, there's no reason to believe it will now." Henry wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. "And if it does, it does. We'll make it through. Just like we always do."

Elizabeth leaned in and kissed him softly. "Sunday dinner is going to be awkward. Jason is coming home and Stevie and Dmitri are coming over."

"Well, perhaps mutual embarrassment will keep everyone quiet." Henry tugged her closer and Elizabeth giggled. "What do you think? Wanna relive old times?"

"We can't get too crazy. I'm headed to the UN tomorrow to deliver remarks. Last time my back hurt for a week," Elizabeth said, matter of factly.

"I don't want to hear anything about that. It was your idea to put the harness in the LIncoln bedroom," Henry countered.

Elizabeth blushed, remembering the evening. Then Henry's hand slipped beneath her silk blouse, his lips were on hers, and she forgot everything but him.

AN2: Credit for the harness in the Lincoln bedroom goes to more-than-words because "Funny Intriguing" is the funniest fanfic ever.