The Threat – Chapter 1.
Here is my new Madam Secretary story, it has about 15 chapters. Again it is set in the world between season 1 and 2, everything from season 1 is the same in this story but nothing of season 2 has happened as I haven't seen it. Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think.
"Threats can be huge and threaten a whole nation."
Henry heard the quick footsteps before he was fully awake. He awoke to one of his girl's screams and was out of the bed and almost through the bedroom door when his wife's security detail burst into the room.
"Dr McCord we need to move. NOW" Frank bellowed as he saw that Henry was out of bed.
"What's wrong?" Henry questioned, his heart rate increasing as his mind went over the potential answers to the question.
"I'm not at liberty to tell you Sir. Please gather the children and come with us." Frank left as quickly as he had arrived and Henry was left standing at the end of his bed.
"Daddy" he heard Allison suddenly scream. Henry snapped out of his groggy state and ran into the corridor. Jason was already there and Henry could see past him into Allison's room and the fact that she had screamed at the large man taking up most of the space in the doorway. Stevie arrived at her sister's door, wrapped in a large blanket.
"Dad what's going on?" She asked sleepily.
"Not sure honey, Frank needs us to go with him quickly, grab your overnight bags and let's go." Henry tried to keep calm but firm, whatever was going on was big and for the sake of Elizabeth who wasn't in the house he knew he had to go.
"Where's Mom?" Jason asked looking past his father and not seeing her in their room.
"She didn't come home last night." Henry stated then looked at Frank, "Can you at least tell us if you are here to take us to her?"
"Yes Sir, the Secretary has ordered us to take you somewhere safe where she will meet us. Can we go, NOW."
Henry breathed slowly, "Yeah, sorry, kids do what the detail want, let's go."
Henry made his way back to his room, ever since Elizabeth had taken this job and they had the initial security briefing they all had an overnight bag ready to go. This would be the first time they had been forced to use them and it worried Henry that Elizabeth had decided to order the whole family woken and taken to her. He quickly changed from his pyjamas to his sweats, he figured he needed to be comfortable as they could be going anywhere.
"Dad you gotta see this!" Jason's voice boomed through the house.
Henry grabbed his bag and moved again along the upstairs corridor, again he was joined by his daughters and the detail, all apparently keen to see what Jason was talking about. Jason came out of his room pulling his case and waving his i-pad at them all.
"Look there's been two bombs, the Parliament in the UK has been hit and they've evacuated the Parliament in Germany."
"Is this why we are going, is there a threat here?" Henry asked Frank as he ushered them all down the stairs.
"I'm sorry Dr McCord, the Secretary did not give me permission to tell you anything."
"Of course she didn't, I will be having words." Henry tried to lighten the mood as they made their way to the door.
On opening the door the first thing the entire group noticed was the sound of the sirens all over the city.
"Has it happened here, is mom ok?" Allison asked with fear in her voice.
She had only just finished speaking when there was a loud, large boom and suddenly they were in no doubt that there was a major threat to their country.
Frank bundled the four members of MSec's family into the waiting car and jumped in the front.
"Let's go. Get on the radio, check what's going on and whether we are still a go for plan A or whether we are switching locations." He told the other agent.
They sped away from the house and Henry found himself trying to calm his very scared children in a way that he had not had to do since Jason had stopped believing Stevie had found a monster under his bed. They were all quiet but Allison was shaking, Stevie was staring into space and Jason, his normally macho son, was burrowed under his arm. Not that he could blame them, if he wasn't the father in this scenario he would be exhibiting all the symptoms his children were, including finding someone to hug. Of course what he really wanted was to be able to hug his wife. Henry was scared, about as scared as he had been when the phone call told him that Elizabeth was lost in Iran. There had been a bomb, here, and since it was not daytime like in Europe it was unlikely to have been the Capitol building, no he assumed that someone had attacked a big target, maybe the White House or more worryingly, since Elizabeth had sent her detail to get them, maybe his wife's office.
Stevie was huddled in the backseat trying desperately not to completely freak out in front of her family. She couldn't decide what was more worrying, the fact that there had been a bomb, the fact that her mom was somewhere else and not with them or the fact that her friend and boyfriend, could also be under threat. She needed to know where that explosion had occurred. She could get on her phone and do what Jason had done at the house and yet she also didn't want to know because for now she could live in innocence and in the unknown. The minute she looked up that website and let CNN or NBC tell her what was going on she would be swept into a nightmare that may be worse than Iran.
Suddenly the car swerved around the corner and all of the occupants looked out of the window to see another explosion in the distance.
"Frank I don't care how you do it, but you get my wife on the phone right the hell now." Henry yelled from the back seat trying desperately to get his phone to connect to that of his wife. He was beyond the point where he could be calm and as he looked out the window he could see that most of the other drivers around them felt the same. He was very grateful for the driving classes given to agents as their driver had to skilfully manoeuvre them past crashes and screaming people, none of whom could believe that their early morning was being disrupted in such a way.
"I'm trying Dr McCord, only I think the phone system must be down."
"Damn it, at least tell me that you know she is safe."
Frank didn't say anything but did catch Henry's eye in the mirror on the sunshade and the look that passed between them terrified Henry even more.
AN: So this is obviously an attack story and will be dealing with themes of that nature. It is not based on current events, they kinda overtook the writing of the story. However this is the world that the show is set in so it seems reasonable to use these themes. More to come soon. Thanks