Hi, so here is another chapter and I hope that you like this chapter, it is a bit shorter than I would have liked but I hope you like it anyway.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

And I did say there wasn't going to be another Elizabeth chapter in the last one but I was wrong, I think there will have to be another Elizabeth one. However Jason and Henry will still be the main view points.

Do Not Send Us Astray

Chapter 5-The Good Son

Jason speaks to his Mom, Henry plots a way out but continually comes back to his relationship with his son.

The second Jason spoke his wife's name Henry's entire body sagged a little in relief. He didn't know why, there was nothing about this situation had relief written all over it. He didn't understand why he was suddenly relieved and he couldn't hear his wife's voice but the truth of the matter was that he could feel her down the phone as if she was speaking to him directly. It was as if her warmth had sunk into the room and was wrapping around him like a warm blanket.

Also he knew his wife, Elizabeth wouldn't hesitate to bring in everyone and anyone that she could to help get Jason and him home.

Actually to be honest right now he was more worried about getting Jason home. Come hell or high water Henry was getting his son out of this. If that meant staying behind to be shot like some common criminal then that was fine by him.

"Mom?" Jason asked again and blue eyes met his and he tried to smile encouragingly but getting his face to move was like pulling teeth and he couldn't keep his eyes of the gun that was still under his son's chin. One wrong move and…

Oh this was going to give him nightmares for years, he could already tell. This was going to be the thing that kept him up at night and he was sure that he was going to feel it in his very being when this was over.

There were many ways this could go he thought to himself, one they could get out of this alive, two they were both killed, three they kept him and let Jason go, the fourth, the fourth was not going to happen, the fourth involved him staying alive and Jason being,…he couldn't even think it so as Jason turned to look at him and he nodded encouragingly. He knew Elizabeth, the longer they let this call go on for the more chance that she and the people she had working on this would have to find them and that was all that mattered. He had to do this for his wife, for his son and he had to sit here perfectly still and try to remember how to breathe while someone held a gun to his son's face and threatened to blow it off if the fifteen year old said the wrong thing.

Jason let out this little noise and then "Mom, Mom I'm alright, so's Dad and—"

The phone was yanked out of his hand, the gun swung and Jason reared backwards scrabbling backwards with both hands and Henry jerked his head terrified that if he moved he would send the gun pointing back at them again. Jason scooted closer to him and Henry wrapped his arm around him feel the body tremble violently against him.

"You know what we want Madam Secretary, you have twenty four hours and then…well…you can choose which one we shoot"

Even though Henry knew it wasn't going to come to that (whatever they wanted Elizabeth was going to do even if it did involve letting some lunatic out of some Russian jail—if she could do it with Demetri then she could do it again of that he was confident) he still felt the same amount of panic and fear and terror swoop down him and he had to stop the whimper that was rising out of his throat. Jason right now did not need a terrified father, he needed a father in control.

The main guy slammed the phone shut and grinned at them both.

"Boys" he said once and then he was gone, up the stairs and slamming the door shut and once again they were sat there waiting for the bomb to drop.

Jason let out a groan and Henry tugged him closer to his side letting him rest his head against his chest and trying not to tremble. He felt like he was going to be sick and he had to breathe in and breathe out again to avoid it. They were still in danger and there were way, way too many guns around his son for him to feel like he could speak normally but he had to try.

"Jason?"

"Yeah" Jason said his teeth chattering no doubt due to a combination of cold, shock and adrenaline. "Yes Dad?" he said again and Henry rubbed his arm trying to create a picture of comfort and not absolute terror.

"Are you alright son?"

There was a pause and then…

"That some kind of a joke?"

Henry grinned in the darkness feeling the move split his cheeks with how strange it felt. If Jason was back to being sarcastic, against the world and cheeky towards his old man then the world couldn't be too out of whack.

"I'm as good as I can be Dad" Jason said finally. "But let's just say I have a new found appreciation for those politicians that want to effect real change when it comes to gun control"

Henry snorted. That was his little anarchist.

"You spoke to Mom?"

"Yeah" Jason said quietly. "She didn't sound too good. Actually she sounded…I don't know…like she did when she came back from Tehran and you and her were pretending that everything was okay when it wasn't. "

Henry sighed. He had no idea how to breach that subject with Jason now. Tehran had been a topic that he had not planned on talking in a great detail with his youngest and that had come back to bite him on the ass spectacularly. He could still feel the bite of Jason's words stinging, harsher than any wound inflicted and he wondered just how on Earth things were supposed to get better from here. Elizabeth would have said that at least Jason was being honest with them but the truth of the matter was Henry had no idea where to go from there. There was so much to unpick and…

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you about the coup" he said finally. "Your Mom thought it was best"

"And you went along with it I know" Jason said sounding tired. "Same old story, I get it, Stevie and Alison were old enough to know and—"

"I didn't want Stevie and Alison to know" he said firmly "But Stevie…Stevie had known a lot of things back then that she shouldn't have done and Alison…Alison was her sounding board I think and…and Alison knew that your Mom was there, I think she took one look at my face and knew and I…your Mom came back in such a mess that this seemed like the one thing that we could do. She didn't…she wasn't well…she was in therapy for a long time trying to come to terms with what had happened and not telling you was the one thing that she felt she could control. I think she wanted to protect your innocence for a bit longer. She didn't have that option with your sisters, but you were right, we should have told you. If not in those days then afterwards."

Jason said nothing and then…

"I shouldn't have blown up at you the way I did—"

"Yes you should have, you never have to apologise about the way that you feel, not to me, not to your Mom, not to anyone."

"Well…I feel better now I got it out. As better as I can be all things considering"

Well…that was something anyway Henry thought grimly. Keeping all that bottled up inside was not doing his son any good and who knew? Maybe now things would be better.

Or maybe things would get worse. In Henry's experience it was usually worse.

"Jason?"

"Yeah?"

"What did Mom say?"

"Nothing, she just kept saying my name and then she asked about you and I said that you were alright, couldn't tell her much anyway I don't know where we are, and I don't know how to speak in CIA code Dad I don't know how to drop hints over the phone, not without getting shot anyway and I figured that wouldn't help matters"

He finished that little sentence with a small laughing noise that sounded tangled and twisted and Henry tugged him closer to his side resisting the urge to hug him so tight he might struggle to breathe. He didn't know what was worse, Jason trying to make light of this or the fact that he had been forced to watch his son come to terms with his own mortality in the cruellest way possible.

"You're doing brilliantly" he said quietly into Jason's hair. "I'm so, so proud of you Jase—"

"This is my fault" Jason said finally and Henry could tell he was near tears again.

"No it's not"

"You being here is…if it was just me then they—"

"Don't finish that thought" Henry said sharply and he felt the spike of fear take over again and he had to swallow it down again. This was hell, this was complete and utter hell on Earth but at least he was here and at least he was with Henry. The thought of being stuck at home unable to do anything…the thought of being stuck at home fear consuming him as the power was taken out of his hands and the images came to his mind, of holding Elizabeth's hand as they were asked to identify a body…

"You okay Dad?"

"Yeah" he said quietly glad that he was in the dark so that Jason couldn't see his face. Quickly he ran his thumb underneath his eyes and blinked back the wetness hoping that his voice didn't give away what he was feeling.

"You think Mom is gonna find us in time?"

"I'm amazed she's not trying to kick down the door"

There was a pause and then Jason laughed a little his broken laugh echoing around the dark room and Henry pulled him closer trying to keep him warm. The room was cold and Jason had always felt the cold, even as a kid he'd had to wrap his son up warmer than everyone else.

"Your doing brilliantly" Henry said quietly. "But…Jason I got to ask you something?"

"What?"

Henry opened his mouth and then closed it again. He didn't know what to say. He wanted to know what Jason had meant when he said everything inside of him hurt. He wanted to know what that meant and how long Jason had been feeling like this. If there was anything else that Henry could do to make it all go away. That was his job as Jason's Dad, he was supposed to make the bad things go away. He had heard the crack of pain in Jason's voice and he had known it to be true. He had felt like that many times with his own father, as if nothing that he had ever done was good enough and one of the things that he had prided himself on was that he didn't have a relationship with Jason that he had with his own father.

He could hear it in his head, Jason before the funeral watching him with sad eyes, confused eyes and…

"I don't want to be fighting with you when you die"

It had taken his breath away it was so accurate. And he had looked Jason in the eye and told him (and by association himself) that, that was never going to happen. He had folded Jason into his arms and told himself that it was never going to happen.

And then what had he done?

Yep. Some fatherly move there McCord.

"Dad?"

"I'm good son" he said finally too much of a coward to get into it now, too cold and too scared and too aching with too much phantom pain both mental and physical to get into it now. "I just…just got lost in my head there for a second. You good?"

"Yeah" Jason said voice small. "I miss Mom though"

God did he miss his wife too. She'd know what to do here. She'd know what to do with the men upstairs, she'd know what to do with Jason, she'd know how to get through this and how to get home. She'd know how to do all of it.

"I know bud" he said finally. "Me too"

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something and you tell me the truth?"

Yeah like that wasn't a loaded gun kind of moment.

"What?"

"Are we gonna die?"

And there it was again the question that Henry didn't know how to answer and didn't want to answer. All of the reasoning behind it just…fell away.

"I don't know" he said truthfully. "I don't know Jason"

He had promised Jason that he would not lie to him.

This was a close as he got.

He didn't know how long that they were kept down there. He knew he dozed off sometimes and that Jason fell asleep against him. He shook himself awake when he did that staring at the direction where the door was and hugging his son close to him. He didn't know how to ask Jason the questions that he needed him to answer.

When this was over he had to sit down and get the kid to talk to him. Family therapy if needs be, God knows Henry knew that he was going to be in it himself after this anyway.

He stroked back some of Jason's hair and hugged him a little bit closer trying to ignore the fact that the kid was getting colder even though Henry was trying to give him all the body warmth that he could, the room was cold and Jason was still a kid dressed for a party and not for this…when Henry had picked him up he'd not even had a jacket with him.

"I will get you out of this" he promised his sleeping son. "I promise you. You are not going to die here. I won't let you".

He ran another hand through the well loved curls feeling the gel come away in his hand, the disintegration of hours in the bathroom probably, Jason trying to get his hair just right as he was now often prone to doing and he looked back up towards the door.

He could not panic.

He had to be ready.

Come on Elizabeth he thought desperately and more than a tad hysterically. Where the hell are you?

And there you are, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-Jason and Henry try to pass the time by talking about their issues but then the men come back and Jason does a very, very stupid thing.