As the summit draws near, Bass and Miles both find excuses not to be around the house - they both have phobias about meetings - which gives Charlie practically no opportunity to tell them about Duncan's attendance. At this point, she'll be lucky if she gets to tell them before Duncan arrives.

"Babe, I need to talk to you about something before you head out." Charlie sits on the trunk at the foot of their bed to pull her shoes on while Bass finishes up shaving for the day. His head pokes out of the bathroom door with only half of his face done and a suspicious look on his face.

"OK," he says slowly. "Is something wrong?"

Charlie shakes her head and attempts a smile. "No, what makes you think that?" But she must fail at the smile because Bass' face goes from slightly uneasy to worried in a heartbeat.

"Because you're doing that thing again where you try to act nonchalant when really on the inside you're about to explode." Her husband sighs and walks back into the bathroom, coming right back out with a towel so he can wipe the rest of the soap off of his face. He sits down next to her and takes her hand. "Tell me what's wrong, Charlie."

She hesitates for a moment but finally gives in. "OK, but you have to promise not to get mad."

"Oh, I hate it when you say that. It's almost always followed up by something that either physically or mentally pains me."

Charlie squeezes his hand reassuringly and kisses his cheek. "Well, lucky for you, I think it'll just be mentally painful this time."

"Is it weird that I kinda wish it was a physical pain? 'Cause I can get over a gut punch pretty quick, but I have a feeling whatever headache you're about to cause will last a little while longer."

Chuckling, Charlie leans against him and rests her head on his shoulder. "You know me too well."

Bass wraps an arm around her and kisses the top of her head. "Yes, I do. Now come on, just tell me about this headache and get it over with."

"It's about the summit. I, uh, kinda invited Duncan Page." Silence follows her words as they sink into her husband's brain, but it only takes a matter of seconds for his temper to kick in.

"You did what?"

She cringes at the tone of his voice. Bass has completely surpassed angry and gone straight to furious. "Why the hell would you do that? That bitch is crazy, Charlie. She literally threatened your life right in front of me. Why would invite her to come to our home, where we eat and sleep. Oh, God..." He starts pacing around their bedroom, running his hands through is hair and whining like a caged animal.

"What if she actually tries to kill you this time." But he's talking more to himself than to her. "She could poison you're food or break into our bedroom."

"Bass, stop it." But he ignores her and continues to pace.

"Or she could wait until you guys are alone and just slit you're throat."

"Bass-"

"What if she attacks you during one of the meetings and kills you right in front of Foster and Blanchard-"

"Bass!"

He finally stops to look at her and she has to cover up a smile because he looks so ridiculous with only half a shaved face, his hair sticking up in all directions, and his eyes wild. Charlie bites back the smile and reaches out to grab his hands, pulling him close so he's standing between her legs.

"Honey, you need to calm down. Remember what Maggie said, stress is bad for your blood pressure."

He rolls his eyes and shrugs away from her mumbling, "there's nothing wrong with my blood pressure."

"Of course there isn't," she says placatingly.

He gives her an annoyed look. "I hate it when you use that voice on me."

Sighing, Charlie gets up and wraps her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his chest so she can look up at him. "I know you do, but as much as you want to pretend that you're perfectly healthy, we both know you're not."

"I'm fine. I think that Maggie just overreacted."

"And I think that you're just worried that blood pressure problems will make me realize how old you really are, and you're afraid that I'll change my mind about marrying you because of it."

Bass' mouth opens and closes a few times, but eventually just stays closed in defeat.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Bass. Age means nothing to me. I would rather have an old husband that takes good care of himself than a young one who doesn't."

He rolls his eyes in a 'I know, we've talked about this' kind of way and kisses her slowly, his tongue slipping into her mouth to deepen it. They break apart minutes later breathless and with swollen lips.

"I love you," Charlie whispers.

"Love you too, babe." He gives her another quick kiss, but pulls away quickly with a frown. "Wait a minute, how did we go from me yelling at you about Duncan, to you yelling at me about my blood pressure?"

Charlie grins and pulls away from him, heading for the bedroom door. "Because you and I both know that inviting Duncan was the right thing to do. Plus, you were overdue for a good scolding in the health department, Maggie's told you five hundred times that you need to cut back on the whiskey."

Groaning like a child, he makes his way back to the bathroom to finish shaving, yelling over his shoulder. "Guess I'll switch to scotch then!"

XxX

"So when is Frank do in?" Kelly Foster asks, as she and Charlie have coffee in the courtyard. "I would have bet that he'd beat me here just so he could say that he did it."

"He would have beat you here if they hadn't run into a storm. A runner came in the day before yesterday with a message that he and his people were holed up in a barn waiting out a thunderstorm."

Kelly nods as she nibbles on a cookie. She and Charlie had met years ago and despite the Georgian President's dislike of her uncle, the two of them get along perfectly. "And what about Page, is she still coming?"

"As far as I know. I sent a copy of the agenda for her to read over on her way here, but I haven't heard anything back."

"Do you think she'll show?"

Charlie shrugs, feeling much better about the situation now that she'd come clean to Bass. "I guess we'll see. But I think she will. I think she'll want to be able to rub it in everyone else's faces that we invited her."

"Are you expecting there to be any issues with her being here?"

"I'm not expecting them, but I'm also not stupid enough to think they won't happen. Bass and Miles aren't her biggest fans."

Kelly nods understandingly. "I wouldn't be either if she had threatened someone in my family."

"It wasn't even that big of a deal," Charlie says tiredly. "I think that everyone's overreacting. I mean, Bass and Miles were both sitting right there when she said it so it's not like she was actually going to be able to do anything."

"Yeah, but it's more about the fact that she even said it more than anything else. If it had been me in Bass' place, I would have had her executed on the spot for daring to speak that way in my office."

Charlie rolls her eyes but chuckles at the other woman's bluntness. "Well, who knows, maybe you'll get the chance to kill her yourself while she's here."

XxX

It's the first day of the summit and Charlie, Kelly, and Frank Blanchard are sitting in the conference room that Miles usually uses for military briefings. Both of the boys and Duncan have yet to make an appearance for the opening meeting, though Jeremy has joined them at Charlie's request.

"So do your lazy husband and uncle plan on joining us, or are we on our own for this one?" Frank asks, as he lounges back in his seat.

"Oh, don't worry. I sent a messenger to 'remind' them about the meeting just before I came down. They should be here soon."

But even as the words leave her mouth, Jason pokes his head through the door. "Uh, Mrs. Monroe, the runners just got back and they both said that the President and the General claim to be too busy to attend at the moment." Even the way Jason says it let's her know that it's complete bullshit.

"Alright, then go ahead and try plan 'B'."

Jason hesitates, teetering on his heels in the doorway. "Charlie are you sure this is a good idea-"

"Yes, Jason now just do it."

"Fine," he grumbles. "But when they get pissed, I'm not taking the blame again."

Charlie rolls her eyes at him and shoos him out into the hallway. "OK, OK, just hurry!"

Jeremy watches her close the door with a smug grin and frowns. "This isn't going to end well, is it..."

Completely ignoring him, Charlie picks up her paper from the table and looks around at the other two. "Should we get started then?"

Not even ten minutes later, they've just gotten into discussing their current border patrols when the conference room door flings open and both Miles and Bass come storming in with their guns in hand.

"Charlie," Bass shouts, running over to stand in front of her protectively.

Miles moves close to them as well, his eyes scanning the room for some kind of threat. "Where is she? Where'd she go?" He spots Jeremy looking dumbstruck, sitting at the table. "Baker, what the hell are you doing just sitting there? Find Page, and bring her to me, right now!"

Both Kelly and Frank are watching the two men with amused expressions while Charlie is just downright giddy. Bass turns to look at his wife, his face changing slowly from rage to suspicion as he lowers his weapon.

"Duncan isn't here, Miles." He says dryly. "Charlie played us."

Miles turns to look at her as well, his shoulders sagging with defeat. "Damn it. We should have known it was false alarm. Jason never would have left Charlie's side if Duncan had actually threatened her."

Bass claps a hand to his forehead and shakes his head at himself. "Damn, we're dumb." He glares over at the door and barks, "Neville!"

Jason pokes his head through the door again, his face set as if expecting whatever punishment you get for pulling one over on the President. "Sir?"

"You're fired."

Charlie nudges her husband aside and pushes him into a chair at the table. "Jason, you're not fired."

"Oh, yes he is." Miles adds.

"Oh, no he's not." Charlie says, mimicking his voice. "Lieutenant Neville was just following orders, so if you want to fire someone, you can fire me."

Bass frowns and narrows his eyes at her, clearly trying to appear angry in front of Kelly and Frank, but only succeeding in seeming childish. "Well then... Charlie, you're fired."

She snorts. "Fired as you're wife, you're assistant, or the Vice President?"

"Just the last two."

She sighs with mock relief and heads for the door. "Oh, good. Then I don't have to sit through this stupid meeting."

He jumps up and runs to the door, shutting it before she can get through. "On second thought, you were right Madam Vice President, now come have a seat." He leads her back to the table and pulls out a chair for her, making Kelly roll her eyes.

"Well now that you three have had your fun, should we get started?"

The six of them spend pretty much the entire first day catching up on what's been going on since the last time they were all together, which was before Bass and Charlie's wedding. They're so caught up in their fun that they don't get any work done and no one even mentions that Duncan never showed up.

A/N I guess this is me trying to see how long I can draw it out before Duncan shows up, lol. Next chapter, I promise. :-D Thanks for reading and comment if you have a sec!