Chapter Two

Elizabeth pressed herself against Henry and without really thinking about it, twisted her hands into the back of his jacket. She buried her face against his shoulder to try and prevent herself from crying. They were still in a main corridor of the hospital even if it wasn't the most used one. Henry's arms tightened around her. It was too tight, really, but it provided a kind of anchor to her. She was grateful for that even if it wasn't entirely comfortable.

"It's going to be alright," Henry whispered.

"You don't know that," she returned just as softly.

He didn't know that, but he had to believe it anyway. Considering any other possibility would be too much. Henry couldn't let his mind go there, and he certainly didn't want Elizabeth thinking that way. It would do them no good and would be entirely too painful.

Jason was in trouble. On the trip to the hospital his respiratory rate had dropped enough that the paramedics had put him on an oxygen mask. It had only gotten worse at the hospital, and he'd been intubated. With a BAC of nearly .38, coma and brain damage were real possibilities. The one thing they had going for them was the fact that the doctors were relatively confident Jason wouldn't die.

Henry stiffened, alerting Elizabeth to a change in who was nearby. She forced herself to take a steadying breath and turn around. Jason's door was standing open while two nurses walked away. The doctor remained standing in front of it. Seeing him almost made Elizabeth turn around and press her face back against Henry's chest. She was scared to face the reality of their situation. Henry slipped his arms around her and pulled her back against him anyway. There would be no turning around now, but at least she still had him as support.

"You can go in now."

"Is he awake?" Henry asked even though he knew it was likely too much to hope for.

"No. He's in the same state as before, Mr. McCord. I'm sorry."

Henry nodded. He really hadn't been expecting anything to change in the short time it had taken them to move Jason to a room Elizabeth's security was happy with. Still, he'd wanted to ask.

"When do you think he could regain consciousness?" Elizabeth questioned.

"I'm afraid there's no way to tell, Ma'am. It could be hours, days, or even longer."

"Longer…"

"It's possible. We won't know much more until he regains consciousness and we run some tests."

"Thank you, Doctor, for everything you've done," Henry murmured.

The doctor nodded and left the two of them alone. Once he was gone Elizabeth turned to Henry and opened her mouth to speak. Henry cut her off before she even started.

"He's done everything he can, Babe. You can't blame him for seeing to his other patients. Let's go see Jason."

Elizabeth forced herself not to argue and held tight to Henry's hand as they stepped into the room. The sight that greeted her was too much. If Henry hadn't automatically recognized that and grabbed her elbow she would have ended up on the ground.

"Oh, Jason. What have you done?"

The color of Jason's skin would have been scary without all of the tubes and wires. Those were even worse than what she'd seen attached to Henry after the dirty bomb. Her husband had nearly died then, which didn't give all that much hope for her son.

Henry had to guide her forward and settle her into a chair beside the bed. She gathered Jason's hand into hers and kissed his knuckles.

"I need you to come back to me, baby."

There was no response from Jason, and Elizabeth choked back a sob. Henry squeezed her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

"Give it some time, Babe. He's going to wake up."

Elizabeth nodded and tried not to think of any other possible outcome. Jason was her youngest. She couldn't even imagine losing her beautiful baby boy even though the possibility was staring her right in the face. How could this have happened? That train of thought didn't really lead to anywhere good either, but it was better than considering life without Jason. Since she couldn't come up with anything better to occupy her mind and there was no way to stop thinking altogether, she let herself consider the answer to that question. The inevitable answer that came to mind wasn't one that made her feel very good.

"Henry?"

"Yeah, Babe?"

"Did my job drive him to this?"

Henry looked up at her in surprise. He understood why she would consider that, but he also knew there was no way it was true.

"No, Babe. He didn't drink as a way to cope with being the Secretary of State's son. He drank because he was at a party with a bunch of friends. You didn't cause this, but you're going to be there to help him fix it."

His answer took some of the edge off of her guilt. Her career might not have directly caused this, but she still partly blamed herself. She hadn't noticed. She hadn't stopped it before it had happened. The truth was she likely couldn't have, but that reality wasn't something she wanted to accept. She was Jason's mother, and she should have protected him.

A few hours later there was still no change from Jason. Both Elizabeth and Henry had sat in near silence as they waited and hoped. It hadn't been a good few hours, and the next ones weren't likely to get better. Neither of them noticed anything except the stillness of their son and the anxiety that wouldn't go away.

"Ma'am?" When the question brought no response there was a knock at the door followed by another attempt to draw attention. "Madam Secretary?"

Elizabeth and Henry both looked up the second time.

"Blake…" Elizabeth murmured.

"I apologize, Ma'am. I know this isn't a good time, but you weren't answering your phone."

Blake was hardly ever nervous in front of her, but given his handwringing in that moment he definitely was this time.

"Cell phones aren't allowed in here."

That reply made Blake squirm even more.

"I understand, Ma'am, but the President wants to speak to you."

Elizabeth released a long, drawn out breath. She knew what that meant and she didn't like the thought. There would be no avoiding the President, even for Jason. Even knowing that, her eyes flicked back to her son.

"Go on, Elizabeth. I'll let you know if anything changes," Henry promised.

She had no other option but to do what Henry said, and she did trust him to let her know if something changed with Jason. After running her fingers through Jason's hair Elizabeth turned away to follow Blake outside.

"Before you call the President, Ma'am, you should know that the media isn't letting this go. They've been on a tear since the moment it aired live. Daisy hasn't even been able to slow it down. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Blake," she said in resignation as she held out a hand for the phone.

Elizabeth couldn't have expected the media to react any differently. They were always quick to jump on a scandal. She was far more concerned about Jason than she was about the media, but she suspected that might be forced to change. For a moment all she could do was stare at the phone and try to convince herself to dial.

"Ma'am?"

She glanced up at Blake and then sighed.

"I know. I know. I'm calling."

And she did.

It took a long time for the call to go through, which only made Elizabeth tenser. She wanted to be back in the room with Jason, and all the waiting only made that desire stronger.

"Bess."

Elizabeth tore her eyes off the window and focused on the call.

"Mr. President."

"I'm very sorry about Jason, Bess. How is he?"

"Still unconscious. The doctors won't know how much damage was done until he wakes up."

She left out the fact that there was a chance they wouldn't even get that far.

"I hope it all turns out alright, and I wish I could give you the time to deal with Jason's situation and nothing else. But I can't."

Conrad sounded as resigned about that fact as Elizabeth felt. Unfortunately that resignation wouldn't change what needed to happen.

"I understand, Mr. President," she replied even though she wished that she could argue for that time.

"The media has been all over this since the beginning, and they have some harsh criticism of you. To not pull my punches, they're tearing you apart. However they view you reflects directly on this presidency, so I need you to address this and get back in their good graces so Jason's actions don't completely taint your reputation. I don't care how you do it. Even if you have to throw Jason under the bus, I need you clean."

Elizabeth grit her teeth. There was no way she was going to sacrifice her son just to save herself and Conrad's presidency. Jason had suffered enough. Conrad knew that though. She knew that he did. It was why he'd told her that he didn't care how she did it. There would be another way, and she would find it.

"I will get right on it, Sir."

"I know you will. Tomorrow. That's why I had Russell tell your speech writer to get to work."

That would be another phone call she would have to make, but there was nothing to be done about it. She would have to take a little more time away from Jason before going back to him. Then, once she did, she was going to have to force her brain into gear so she could find a way out of this mess.