A week has passed since Tom found Seth and Kendra kissing in her office and he knew that they were both back to work and so was Emily, the past week has been hell, Leo wouldn't even talk to him, he had a fight with Alex who kicked him out of the bedroom and wouldn't talk to him unless it was about the kids, she was furious at him for not only the way he reacted to Kendra and Seth's relationship but more importantly on how he treated Leo. He walks in the office and finds his whole staff waiting for him, he was late for the morning briefing again apparently.

"Morning, what's on the agenda?" he grounds as he drops his briefcase on the floor next to the desk.

"We have to discuss about the Brandy bill sir." Emily starts, Tom looks up from some papers in front of him.

"What about it?" he asks uninterested.

"The supreme court decided that it's unconstitutional"

"Fine!" the staff looks at each other they don't know who should talk, Emily breaths and tries again.

"The republicans will try and pass similar regulations again sir."

"And what exactly you want me to do Emily?" he says, his voice shows clearly his annoyance with her which causes her to take a step back in surprise.

"Sir if I may the best way from legal standpoint is for you to firmly stand behind the Supreme Court's ruling." Kendra joins in, he looks up, their eyes connect for a moment, Kendra sees something cold and twisted there for the first time in maybe weeks.

"I know the legal standpoint Ms. Daynes I spent almost two decades with a lawyer."

"I know that sir, but as the White House counsel I had to inform you about it." She pushes back, for a moment there's a total silence in the room, until Aaron barges in, he seems worried, color is draining from his face.

"Sir, we have a problem." For the first time Tom looks like he's remotely interested in what's going on around him.

"What problem Aaron?"

"Three American students they were arrested in North Korea, they are accused of contempt against the government." Tom takes a deep breath closing his eyes for a moment, this morning was getting so much worse.

"Give us the room." Everyone starts scrambling to get out of the room as fast as possible.

"Kendra should stay sir, we need our legal options." Aaron says, Kendra stops at the door and turns around.

"Fine" Tom says, all but Kendra and Aaron leave the room, the two staffers look at each other.

"Go on"

"Three students Eric Maison, Robert Gibson and Allison Donavan were arrested early this morning in North Korea, the authorities there accuse them of contempt of the government, they claim to have video of at least one of them taking down a banner or poster, the Intel is not clear yet."

"When are they due to court?" Kendra asks, she doesn't wait for Tom to join in, she knows what she's doing but at the same time it makes Tom even more upset rather than be glad.

"Probably sometime today."

"I think we should try and get them lawyers from the embassy, the government might not allow it though." She says turning to Tom who was sitting at his chair, he nodes and turns to Aaron.

"What do you think Aaron?"

"I think Kendra is right, our ambassador in South Korea tried to contact the North's government but she was unsuccessful on that front."

"We can't leave them without legal representation, they'll die there!" Kendra intervenes, she doesn't know much about North Korea but she knows enough to know the future of those three students.

"Well why don't you hop on a plain and go represent them yourself." Tom says, Aaron looks at their boss in shock, he was in a bad mood for a couple days but that was out of the line.

"Excuse me?"

"Sir that was out of line!" Aaron tells him, Tom walks in front of the desk, his hands are balled in tight fists.

"You are out of line!" he responds to Kendra's surprise he stands almost face to face with Aaron, and she has to admit she's afraid they'll end up having a fist fight.

"She didn't say anything wrong it's true that we have to exhaust all diplomatic ways to get them back or else they'll die in a North Korean prison!" she's not sure who pushes who first but soon enough she finds herself trying to pull Aaron away from the president.

"What the hell is going on?" both men stop, frozen in their spot as the first lady's voice filled the room. "Kendra are you alright?" she asks putting a hand on her shoulder. Kendra looks at the other woman and smiles.

"I'm fine." She tells her. Alex walks to Aaron who's now standing awkwardly a few feet away from the president.

"Aaron are you ok?" she asks him as well.

"Yes ma'am." He responds nodding.

"Give us the room please." She tells them both; the smile on her face is clearly apologetic. Aaron and Kendra walk out of the room as fast as they could closing the door behind them. She waits until the door is closed before turning around and facing Tom.

"What the hell was that Tom?" she asks him, her voice was harsh, she wasn't going to pull any punches.

"None of your business." He murmurs walking back to his desk.

"None of my business? You're a brewing volcano for a week now! Fighting with Leo, suspending Kendra, Seth and Emily for nothing, ignoring me, the kids and now getting in a fight with Aaron? I think you made it my business by acting like a child!"

"It's all about you isn't?" his voice, dripping with sarcasm feels like a knife to her heart, he sounds bitter and the man that turns around looks even worse.

"I'm sorry?" he walks to her fast, his hands gripping her arms tightly.

"Don't you dare tell me that you had it worse than me Alex! I thought about killing myself more than once!" Alex feels his hands squeezing her arms where she will sure find bruises the next morning. "You could turn on the TV and you would see us, you knew we were alive, I had to bury you, I had to tell our ten year old daughter you died! Our son wouldn't talk to me for months, he hates me!" his voice started rising and the grip on her arms tightened a little further.

Alex bit her lower lip, trying to stop the cry of pain from leaving her lips. "Don't you dare tell me you had it worse than me!" this time she couldn't stop the gasp of pain; he heard it but didn't loosen his grip on her.

"I was alone Tom…" she wasn't sure how to tell him, how to tell him everything she went through, how to explain to him her pain. "Do you have any idea how much it hurts to have both your legs broken? How much it hurts learning how to walk again at forty seven? I spend five weeks confined in a bed, I could barely go to the bathroom alone." the tears she was trying so hard to keep back now freely rolling down her face, "Five weeks Tom, five weeks, you think it was easy for me, turning on the TV and seeing you with Penny and Leo at my funeral? Seeing my little girl dressed in black, my son with tears down his face. You think it was easy turning on to the briefing and seeing you there, seeing the pain in your eyes, the exhaustion and knowing that it was because of me?" she stopped to take a breath and realized that Tom's hands had loosen their grip on her and she takes this opportunity to remove her arms from his grip. His arms fall to his side, "At the end you would go back home to two amazing children, you had your brother, your mother my mother, you had our family to support you, to take some of the weight from your shoulders, all I had was the pain of broken bones and an empty cabin in the middle of nowhere." He takes a few steps back and she sees the color draining from his face.

"You think you had it worse Tom? You don't even imagine what I've been through in those months and apparently you don't want to learn, you are so focused on your pain, as if you were the only one affected by it." She walks closer to him, she's not sure if she should reach out and hold him.

"I will take the kids to Camp David, you need to get yourself together, I can't stay in this environment, I have to take care of them first." She sees him lowering his head, the tears from his eyes falling on his crossed arms on his lap, she takes one of them and holds it tightly in her hands, her thumb slowly and softly caressing the top of his palm.

"Get it together Tom, please, I can't do this alone, please don't force me to." With that she let his hand fall back by his side and leaned over placing a soft kiss on his temple before she left the room, she didn't look back; she didn't need to see Tom breaking in the middle of the oval office.

Alex stands outside of Kendra's office taking a couple deep breaths she's not sure what to say to her, how to explain what happened. She knocks on the door fully prepared to be kicked out.

"Can I come in?" looks in the room, Aaron, Seth, Emily and Lyor are with Kendra in her office, they give her a small smile, which makes her feel somewhat better.

"Sure." Kendra says.

"You're in good company I see."

"Yeah." Alex walks to the couch and sits down next to Kendra, taking on of her hands in hers.

"I am so sorry for what happened in the oval, Aaron are you alright?" she asks the young man again.

"Yes ma'am, don't worry."

"I don't what's going on with Tom, he's unrecognizable lately." she looks at the people in the room, looking at each other, there's a question in their eyes accompanied with almost shock.

"He's been that way more or less since Christmas." Emily says.

"It still doesn't excuse him Emily. At least he was focused on the job at hand and wasn't berating people for just pointing out the truth!" Seth sounded just as angry as he looked, Kendra raises her hand, she touches the back of his palm, it's surprising to Alex how fast his face changes, the anger disappears and something else, calmer, softer appears.

"Seth please."

"Say it." Alex says, a small crooked smile appears on her lips.

"I'm sorry?"

"Say it I know you want to." Seth looks down, runs a hand over his face.

"Your husband is a son of bitch, and I'd like to punch his glasses in." she chuckles sadly, it's sad how not angry she is by this statement against her husband, the man she saw in the oval a few minutes ago was so different from the man she married, she knows he's still there, somewhere deep down he's still there, maybe he's scared, maybe he's traumatized but she knows he's still there.

"Give him some time, all of you, I'll take the kids to Camp David, he needs to work things out alone, and I don't want them around while he does. Just give him some time."

"I'll give him a month; if he doesn't change I'm getting the hell out of here." She nodes, she can understand completely why he might be fed up with Tom, especially if what Emily said was right.

"I wouldn't blame you, I honestly don't think he's gonna need that long." They look at each other, she can see the disbelieve in their eyes. "Could you guys give Emily Kendra and me the room for a while please?" she asks, if it confuses them they don't show it as they walk out of the room.

"Sure." Seth murmurs he was the last one to leave the room, stealing glances at Kendra as he was walking to the door.

"What you wanted to tell us?" Emily asks as soon as the door closed behind Seth.

"How about you two come to Camp David with me for a couple of days, you know, just to get away, from everything."

"You mean from the president." Emily chuckles, the irony doesn't escape either of them, it was amazing how much could change in a couple years, before the white house Emily was almost like a daughter to them, she would sleep over their house, she would find herself cuddled with Penny and Leo in the couch in the living room for Friday movie nights and now she wanted to get away from Tom, it was stinging.

"That too." Alex admits.

"Sure." Kendra whispers, it makes Alex smile a bit, she realizes there's so many things she doesn't know, so many things changed since she last was in this building, Tom changed most of them all, and these two could possibly have the most answers than anyone else.

"Yeah, we'll drive there tonight and call in sick tomorrow." Emily suggested, Kendra smiled widely at the idea and just nodded her head, apparently neither was too keen on coming back to work tomorrow.

"Wonderful, I'll be waiting for you two then." She gives a last squeeze to Kendra's hand and get's up, dusting the none existing dust off of her clothes, straightening her lapels.

"With lots of wine I hope." Emily suggest, the smirk on her face reminds her a bit the young faced woman that was the only one eager to work in HUD years ago.

"Lots and lots."

She hears him walk in the room, he's not as covert as he might have thought, his eyes are burning holes in her back as he watches her move around the room putting clothes in her suitcase. She wonders how long it will take him to talk.

"I see you packed." He finally speaks when she closes her suitcase, Alex takes a deep breath before responding, still looking ahead to the wall over the headboard.

"I did,"

"I guess telling you how sorry I am won't do much right?" she turns around, his words make her wonder for a moment, the sight surprises her, the man in front of her seems more broken than she had ever seen him before, it takes all her strength to tell him, "No, it won't", trying to keep her answer as short as possible being afraid that she will break down completely if she doesn't, she can't back down now.

"I am though." He walks closer, she is tempted to just wrap her arms around him tightly and never let him go but she does manage to take a couple steps back. "Alex I really am." His voice breaks a bit at the end, he notices that she walked away from him, of course he did. She hates herself for causing him even more pain and distress, but right now they don't have another solution.

"You should go say goodbye to the kids." She suggests, finally managing to take her eyes away.

"I was going to walk you out." She may not turn and see his eyes but his voice betrays his surprise at her suggestion, they had gone through this before after all, so he, naturally, thought it would be the same this time too.

"It's better if you don't, just…" she turns around and sees him nodding, "Let's not make it a bigger deal right?" he tells her, his voice reminding a bit more of his old self.

"Yeah."

"Leo's still mad at me isn't he?" he knows the answer, she knows he knows, it's not really a question that he needs answered and he doesn't even know why he asked it.

"Well, wouldn't you be?" he chuckles; the sound is empty, hollow just like he feels right now.

"You'll call right," she looks at him, it's almost as if he's completely changing in front of her eyes.

"As often as you want."

"Ok." There's a silence spreading between them, she looks around the room, pretending to look for something else.

"I'm sorry Alex; I don't know what to do." A sad smile formed on her lips as she reaches for his hand.

"You'll figure it out. I know you will."

"I feel weird going to Camp David again." Kendra said, she was looking out of the window, Emily steals a glimpse of Kendra, it's insane how apart they were driven since Christmas, they used to be closer, they would go out at least once a week for shopping, drinks, a movie but after Alex's accident something changed, not only in the two of them but with all of them, it's as if they not only stopped celebrating but they had stopped talking to each other as well.

"Yeah you never told me why the president suspended you that night." Kendra looks outside the window for a moment and then turns to Emily, the last time she was in Camp David seemed so far away and still it wasn't so much had changed since then.

"It's a long story Emily, I'll tell you, I just have a feeling that the first lady will want to know too and if you don't mind I would like to say it once."

"Sure, whatever is easier for you is fine by me." She sees her friend smiling at her and for a moment Kendra can pretend that they are a few months younger, they are driving for drinks or to a movie, nothing that would haunt their dreams has happened

"Thank you."

"I honestly thought we were past this." Emily said, Kendra saw her hands gripping the wheel tight enough for her knuckles to turn white.

"I hoped so too, he seemed to be back to his normal self but,"

"He's gonna unravel again." She said, there was no question in her voice, no doubt, Kendra smiled sadly she wishes he would unravel, someone unraveling is easy to remove from power, someone unraveling can be considered as mentally unfit to discharge his duties but someone going through the stages of grief? What to do then?

"No, we was going through the stages of grief when Alex came back he was in anger, he's probably gonna be in depression or bargaining."

"A depressed president," Emily chuckled, Kendra turned her head and looked at her friend's profile, her eyes were filled with tears she was biting her lip hard trying to stop them from falling. "Wonderful"

"I think this might shake him enough to actually seek help." Kendra said, she wasn't sure why this was different but it felt like it, this felt miles apart from where she felt he was few months ago.

"I hope you're right Kendra, because I know Tom Kirkman for nearly four years now, that man is not Tom Kirkman."

Hannah walked mindlessly to Chuck's room, she was carrying his lilies this time, their intoxicating smell was filling her nostrils, something felt different to her, something inside her head was telling her something was changing.

She stopped abruptly outside of Chuck's room when she saw the doctors come and go panicked through the doors. The flowers fell from her hands softly hitting the ground and she ran to the room pushing doctors and nurses aside, not caring that they were trying to stop her. She manages to get inside, her breath caught in her throat; he was sitting up, the breathing tube gone, the soft hypnotizing sound of the ventilator gone. His eyes widened when he saw her and blinked a couple times, there was a haze in his eyes that had trouble focusing on her.

"Chuck!" she breathed his name and for the first time in a long time the tears escaping her eyes were happy ones.

A/N: Thank you for reading this, guys! Please let me know if you like.

Sneak Peek

Alex was waiting for them almost at the door, they had barely parked when the woman appeared on the front door, she had one of what seemed to be the president's scarfs wrapped around her shoulders and waved at the two of them…