Chapter Fourteen – The Good and the Bad

Once there was confirmation that the soldiers and hostages were on their way out of Nigeria Elizabeth called President Buhari and let him know they had successfully completed their mission. She'd had to report that there had been a few Nigerian causalities, but they had all occurred before the American troops had arrived. After a mix of apologies and thank yous she hung up and headed for home. It had been a long day and a half basically. She would get some rest and come back in the afternoon. They would know more about the hostages' arrival time then, though Elizabeth fully expected it to be some time in the middle of the night. While that would wreak further disaster with her sleep schedule, at least coming in then would offer some form of protection against discovery by the press. Of course she wouldn't put it past some of them to notice she was leaving for somewhere in the middle of the night. She did that so often that it didn't even sound unusual anymore, but she understood that midnight trips tended to inspire ideas of secret plots, whether real or imagined. Whatever the press did, they did though. She wasn't going to ask the convoy to change their arrival time. She wanted Stevie home as soon as possible. Sooner really.

It was still early when she walked out the door, and she couldn't help hoping that maybe she would catch Henry before he left for work. She could definitely use his stability right then. As tired as she was, she still felt jittery. Her patience had been on its last strands hours ago. She needed him to give her enough of a boost so she could last until Stevie got home.

She wound up getting lucky and caught him just as he was leaving for work. Before he had the chance to do anything she caught the lapels of his jacket and leaned into him.

"Do you have a minute?"

"One or two," he answered as he wrapped his arms around her. "Are you alright, babe?"

He had to admit that her behavior was making him think that something had gone wrong on the rescue mission. She wasn't near tears though, so he had to hope nothing too terrible had happened. It was also possible that her clinginess was because of exhaustion. She hadn't even made it home last night. Henry couldn't even guess how many hours of sleep she'd actually gotten in the last few days, but he knew it was a low number.

"Yeah. I'm just tired and impatient." She pulled far enough away from him that she could meet his eyes. "They got her, Henry. She's okay and on her way to France with the other hostages."

Henry's eyes lit up and he kissed her fiercely. That was about the best news he could have possibly gotten. It didn't exactly explain what had his wife so out of sorts though. No matter how exhausted she was, this news should have brightened her spirits considerably.

"That's fantastic, babe! I knew you could come up with some way to bring her home."

"I know." She offered him a bright smile full of the excitement he thought she should have, but then it slowly faded away. "But it's a long way home. I want to meet her in France so bad, Henry."

"And you can't because of the flight times," Henry replied as understanding dawned on him.

He had no idea how long it would take to get from Nigeria to France, but he suspected it was shorter than the eight hour flight from the States to France. If Elizabeth went she and Stevie could wind up passing each other in midair over the Atlantic. That wouldn't help either of them.

"Exactly! And even though I keep reminding myself that she would get there long before I would even if I left right now it's hard to accept that all I can do is sit here and wait."

Henry pulled her against his chest and stroked her hair in an effort to soothe her.

"I know, but she'll be home before you know it, babe, and then you can never let her out of your sight again. For a few hours at least."

Elizabeth laughed lightly. That was pretty much exactly what she wanted to do, and she knew Henry felt the same way. They were both likely to smother and over-parent Stevie when she came home. Elizabeth signed and snuggled further into Henry's arms.

"I have my own damn plane and I still can't get to my daughter. It's incredibly frustrating."

"You already got to her, babe. By getting help to her. That has to be enough."

"Yeah… Henry, I'm sorry. I'd wanted to come home and make this the best morning for you by telling you Stevie was safe, and here I am falling apart and seeking comfort from you instead."

"You're not falling apart, Elizabeth. You're exhausted and emotional. That's understandable. Besides, you managed to make my morning pretty amazing anyway, and you know I don't mind comforting you. It always comes for free."

Somehow he could always manage to make her feel better. She tipped her head up and gave him a quick kiss.

"God, I love you."

Henry laughed and gave her a kiss of his own.

"That's good because I love you too."

O . o . O . o . O

Elizabeth managed to get a few hours of sleep before returning to the office early in the afternoon. She found a message from Russell Jackson's office waiting for her when she arrived. Apparently while she'd been at home word had come in of the hostages' return time. As she had suspected she was in for another late night. The military plane was scheduled to land after three am. Russell's message made it rather clear that since this had been her operation from start to finish (even though it shouldn't have been – she could always count on Russell to continue bringing that up), she was the one in charge of contacting all of the families. She didn't particularly mind that though and would have asked to do so anyway.

"Blake," she called out.

It only took a moment for her assistant to respond to her call and step into her office.

"Will you get me a list of phone numbers for our hostages' families? I need to give them an update."

"It's already on your desk, Ma'am. When I saw Mr. Jackson's message I figured you would need it."

"Oh." She dug through some of the papers on her desk and quickly found the list. "Thank you, Blake. And speaking of Russell's message… Do we know anything about the medical evaluation and treatment the hostages received in France?"

From what she understood of the message the treatment had been brief and more would likely be necessary once they reached the US. It wasn't reassuring and made her want more details on Stevie's condition. If her daughter was badly hurt she would rather find out now than when Stevie walked off the plane. Of course she had to accept that no matter what she wanted she would probably learn nothing until she saw Stevie.

"No, Ma'am, but I can look into it if you would like."

"No, they probably won't tell me anything anyway."

"I'm sure Stevie is alright, Ma'am."

"I hope so, Blake. I hope so."

Once Blake left Elizabeth decided that she would call Henry before she started on the list of families. There was more than enough time to get through all of them, and she would get her staff to help with the calls too. Nobody needed to hear from her personally since there was good news involved. She glanced at the clock and confirmed Henry was on his office hours. Since it wasn't a class she wouldn't feel bad about interrupting even if he was with a student. It turned out that she wouldn't be interrupting anything.

"Hey, Henry."

"Hey. More news?"

"Yeah. The plane should be getting in between 3:30 and 3:45 tomorrow morning."

"Good. I can't wait."

Elizabeth hesitated for a brief moment. She didn't want to destroy Henry's excitement, but she couldn't let him keep thinking that he was going to meet their daughter when she got off the plane. It just wasn't a possibility.

"Henry, you can't come to the airport."

The line was dead for long enough to make Elizabeth slightly uncomfortable. She'd known he wouldn't take that news well, but she had expected some kind of response.

"What are you talking about?" he finally asked.

She could hear the anger simmering just below the surface. If someone had told her she couldn't come she would have been angry too. Even though she empathized with him it didn't change the fact that he shouldn't come.

"We've managed to keep Stevie's involvement in this a secret so far, and I really want to keep it that way. For Stevie's sake. I have a legitimate reason to be at the airport regardless of whether our daughter is there, but you don't. If you come…"

"The press would realize something was up."

He sighed, sounding completely miserable. While he understood her reasoning that didn't mean he had to like it. This was his daughter and he should be there to take care of her. Even so, he was going to have to accept Elizabeth's decision. It was the best thing for Stevie.

"I'm sorry, Henry."

And she was. If there was a way to get him there without the risk of alerting the press she would, but that just wasn't a possibility. He was going to have to do what she couldn't: Wait until Stevie actually got home.

"I get it, babe. I don't like it, but I get it. Just promise me that you'll take care of her. Despite the politics involved in this."

He knew Elizabeth well enough to know that she would put their family above political image, but he still wanted to hear confirmation from her. It would reassure him despite his frustration with the situation.

"Don't worry, Henry. I'm only going to be the Secretary of State until Stevie gets off that plane. The minute she sets foot on the tarmac I'm just mom."

It would be hard enough for her to maintain her professionalism until she saw Stevie. Once she did there would be no chance of being anything but a mom. She had every intention of gathering Stevie into her arms the moment she saw her and never letting go. It had been weeks since she'd seen her little girl, and she knew part of what Stevie had been through. Those two things together made her desperate to hold her child. She was going to do everything in her power to be the source of comfort Stevie needed after the trauma she had faced. She was going to be mom.