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 this is a short one but I hope you enjoy it anyway, I had great fun writing it.

And only one more left!

Do Not Send Us Astray

Chapter 10-Always Accountable.

The Penultimate Chapter-The McCord family go home and Elizabeth and Henry share a moment where Henry can just be. Potentially another Elizabeth chapter.

They got home and in various states of emotional distress collapsed on the couch. It gave Elizabeth enough time to send Matt and Mike to the door, to send an exhausted looking Blake home and with instructions for Nadine to tell, Jay, Matt and Daisy to do the same. She also might have left instructions for Jay and Nadine to make sure that there were no international crisis on her desk for the next twenty four hours and if she told Blake to co-ordinate with Russell Jackson's secretary to make sure that he didn't get any wild ideas to call her during those twenty four hours then that was between Blake and Gladys both of whom were very good friends who shared muffin recipes on the weekend.

(Apparently the search for a tasty wheat bran muffin which was low in carbs and fibre but tasted delicious was still something that needed to be discussed)

But her family got home. That was the point of it. Her family got home and she watched as Jason sat on the couch looking around at the downstairs of his house as if he had expected it to change. Elizabeth watched as Henry immediately went to grab his shoulder and tug him back into the side embrace and she was struck suddenly at how closer father and son were. Yesterday before this had happened they had been as far apart as a father and son could be (at least a father and son that lived under the same roof) and now they couldn't let each other out of their sights.

Stevie folded herself in on the other side of Henry and Allie perched herself on the edge of the chair resting her chin in her hand and Elizabeth watched for a second as her family just…was…and then finally she turned and walked into the kitchen.

The FBI had left the place in a right mess she thought looking at it. There was still equipment which she knew tomorrow they would come back to collect and she knew that, that meant getting up early to let them in and watching as her house became her home again and not the scene of the crime.

She looked down at the floor and noticed that the wine glass she had dropped earlier had been cleaned up. She really did have to get Blake a nice bottle of wine for all he had done. She noticed with wry amusement that he had also wiped down her countertops and packed the food away. Blake she knew was a stress cleaner but this was above and beyond. God bless America? God bless Blake.

She poured herself a glass of wine from the fridge and took two large gulps feeling the cool liquid spill down her throat and—

"Mom?"

"Not now Stevie"

"Okay" Stevie said picking up on the change of tone pretty instantaneously and knowing that her mother wanted to be alone with her thoughts. They had that in common Elizabeth thought briefly.

"Just thought you should know that Jason is tired. He's half falling asleep on Dad and I…Allie and I want to go to bed too. We were just wondering weather or not we should suggest to Dad that Jason go too?"

Elizabeth sighed. She didn't want anything to disrupt the moment that she was in right now, the deliciously, delightful moment that she clung to.

"Yeah" she said finally opening her eyes and recognising that she had to be the strong one for just a little while longer. "Yeah, give me second and I will come in"

Stevie watched her as she downed her wine and usually that would make something in Elizabeth snap that she was not a baby to be watched but this time she was so tired she could barely lift her head. There were still decisions that needed to be made over what had happened tonight. And there was a mastermind that was being rounded up she was sure as she spoke and when they found him and got him in a cell then he was going to come face to face with her. The terrified wife and the pissed off mother and then God only knows what would happen to him or her next.

She downed the rest of her wine and then followed her daughter into the living room to be the bitch that pulled apart her husband and her son so that her daughters could get some sleep.

(Maybe that was not true—but it sure as shit felt like it)

Later that night she watched her children sleeping. She watched Stevie her phone playing in the dark one of those ASMR things that she liked. She watched Allie asleep with her dark hair fanning out on the pillow and she padded down the hallway to where Jason's room was and then…

Then stopped dead.

Henry was there sat on the floor outside the room knee drawn up to his chest and resting his head on it. She could tell that he was beat, could tell that the exhaustion that he was battling down so hard was threatening to take over and that he was seconds away from crumbling but she also dreaded to think what would happen if she suggested that he move from his guard post.

So instead she sat down on the floor next to him.

He didn't look at her.

He didn't move.

Actually come to think of it without seeing his chest rise and fall she wouldn't be sure that he was breathing.

She reached out and gently took his hand in his linking their fingers together and then finally after what felt like an age he turned his head to look at her bright blue eyes wide and almost childlike and she knew the storm that he had been battling for the last two days was almost over.

"You cannot do it here" she reminded him quietly. "Henry…you cannot break down here okay, come into our room in the bathroom with me and we can shut the door. The girls can get us if there is an issue I promise and…"

It was all babble and she carried on with it unable to stop as Henry either listened to her or just simply followed her (and it was worrying that Elizabeth could not tell which) and they stumbled back into their room.

He didn't even make it to the bathroom. Instead she shut the door and watched as he sat on the bed.

He still hadn't said anything.

"Henry?"

He looked at her and then…

"I thought he was dead"

She didn't know what to say to that, didn't understand but Henry suddenly spoke again and this time his voice was a little bit sharper.

"I told him to stay behind me, to let me…they said they were going to shoot on of us and I said that it would be me, you know cause the alternative—" he shook his head and she nodded because weather it had been Jason, or Allie or Stevie that would have been the thing that she would have done no hesitation, no questions asked, no mercy shown.

"And the next thing I know he's fucking lunged at the guy with the gun"

She inhaled sharply suddenly unable to breathe. She could see it playing out in front of her, her worst fears and her worst nightmares all crashing together and her unable to stop them. It was a terrible picture for her to imagine in her head and one that would keep her up at night…she didn't know how Henry had managed to watch it play out in real time.

A gun. Near Jason.

It was unthinkable. Horrible. Obscene even.

And yet there was more to the story, and it seemed that once he had started Henry could not stop.

Nor did she want him too.

"And then they took him away from me, he launched himself in front of me, as if that was his fucking job and they dragged me back and then took him away from me and then I heard—" he scrubbed a hand down his face and then let out a small whimper and she knew, she knew, that the end was coming. He was Henry, he was her darling, darling, strong man and she knew when he was on the brink and he was there.

"I heard them shoot…something. I thought it was him, I heard him scream, I heard a gunshot and then…nothing and I…"

And then he was breaking and she wrapped her arms around him and held him to her as he sobbed on her shoulder, huge racking sobs that seemed to come from deep within him and there was nothing that she could do for him but let him ride this emotion out. If a few of her tears came thick and fast and furious in the process and Henry knew about them then what did it matter? They had been together for so long that it didn't matter at this point, they were two halves of the same whole. They understood each other.

They understood this.

There wasn't a parent alive in the world who did not understand this.

"I thought he was dead" he hiccupped again, "I really did think he was dead and God help me I wanted to die too I just wanted to sink to the floor and never get up again, I wanted to die just so I could be with him and I didn't think about you and I didn't think about the girls or anything"

She held him and tried to think past what he was telling her, past the images that were flashing through her mind like some kind of DVD player on record over and over again and she closed her eyes against them.

Jesus Christ.

When Elizabeth found out who was responsible for this she was going to feed them to the sharks, bit by bloody bit. And if it was a male someone she was going to start with his penis first.

Morally opposed to torture her ass.

Where was her CIA handbook?

But right now that was not important. Right now she was still holding him in her arms and she shushed him even as he cried against her shoulder wetting her top with her tears. They had been brave for their children throughout this whole thing, they had been so brave and yet they had both been terrified beyond belief and now they could admit it. Now they could finally admit it to themselves what the fear had cost them.

"But he's not dead" she said pulling back so she could cup his face in her hands and force him to look at her.

"He's not dead Henry, he's fine, Jason is fine and believe me we are going to do our damned best to make sure that he is going to stay that way. I don't care how we do it but he is going to be fine, he was fine because he is our son and we raised him right."

She didn't know if he bought half the bullshit she was spreading. She was still trying to get her brain around Jason standing in front of a gun. Actually come to think of it, she was still trying to get her brain around Jason having a gun pointed at him.

"I don't know how we can get past this" Henry said finally wiping is eyes. "I don't know how I can get past this. I don't know how I am supposed to let any of them leave the house and wonder weather or not they come home at the end of the day? How am I supposed to leave them ever again knowing that this could happen? Elizabeth…those kids…they are my whole fucking reason for being and tonight I honestly thought that we were going to a funeral, I honestly thought that I would have to stand next to you and identify his body and I just…I just…"

And then he was off again and she hugged him closer to him.

"I'm sorry" she said and this time he pulled back watching her.

"Not your fault"

"It is though isn't it?" she had been thinking about it ands it always seemed to come back to the same conclusion.

"How is it your fault?" he asked with an look and she had to smile a little because he was sounding more and more like her Henry now and that had to be a good thing? Right?

"I just…this job…this is the thing that they keep going after us for. I took this job and I didn't think…I need to quit it. Because you think those kids are your whole reason for being? Try me as well. Henry since I took this job, you've been held hostage, our kids have nearly been blown up, stalked, shamed, been in Earthquakes, kidnapped and shot at and all for what? And don't tell me that we agreed…had I seen this coming there was no way that I would have agreed to it"

"You took the job because you knew you could do it and do it right" Henry said and he wiped his eyes on the back of his hand and pulled her down so she was sitting next to her.

"And I don't want you to quit it, I get how important it is I just…" he trailed off shaking his head. "I just don't know how the fuck we move past this? I don't know what tomorrow will look like, for us or for the kids, I don't know what it looks like for me and Jason and our relationship because believe me we need to sit down and work through that at some point. I don't…I just…all I know is that I have been shot at, stabbed, blown up, shot down and nearly come close to losing you in a military coup and yet I have never been more afraid than I have been in the last couple of days. I just…I don't know what normal looks like anymore."

He trailed off wiping his face again and Elizabeth took his hand and rested her head on his shoulder and felt him burry his head into her blonde hair.

They didn't need to talk about how relieved they were that the other was okay. They had been married for nearly twenty two years they were beyond that. But Elizabeth thought tonight in their own way they were grieving something even though everything that could go right had gone right since this nightmare began.

She knew there would be conversations and therapy, for Jason, for Henry, for the family, a trial perhaps, a debrief for sure and then at some point she was going to have to make a decision about going to work but right now she couldn't get her brain to work.

Her husband was safe.

Her son was safe.

They were home.

They had caught the guy.

It was over.

And tonight she knew that despite what Henry kept telling her, she had a lot to apologise for, and a hell of a lot to forgive.

And there you go, the FINAL CHAPTER! Will be up soon.

Next Chapter-THE FINAL CHAPTER!-In which Jason and Henry share a moment together as they look back on the past and move forwards to the future.