Not a prompt. 3x16 "Break in Diplomacy" tag. Sort of.
Elizabeth stood at the podium, gripping it ever so slightly to keep herself upright in the face of all the flashes and questions. Her heart was pounding way too fast, but her speech never faltered.
Finally, she'd done it. She'd called out Andrada for being the abuser he was. And she was glad for the most part. Digging it all back up and having to deal with those emotions again, reliving it had not been fun. But the questions had been worse. Mainly because they'd all been questions that she'd been asking herself at the time.
She shook herself out of her reverie and headed to her motorcade.
She and Henry had decided to fill the kids in before the press conference. Ali and Stevie had hugged her fiercely before promising her that they would not watch the press conference. Jason, on the other hand, was in his freshman year of college and had been unreachable. She hoped that he didn't see that. She thought she'd handled it pretty well, but she also didn't want her children to witness the questions. Questions to her morality or the sexualization that was bound to happen.
Henry met her in the hall with a hug.
"You okay babe?"
She nodded. "Just tired."
She started to head up the stairs when she heard "Mom!"
Jason waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs and her heart felt like it was breaking right there.
She walked back down the stairs to meet him. She still hated the fact that she now had to look up at her baby to catch his eyes.
"Jace?"
Instead of answering her, he placed his arms around her gently but firmly hanging onto her. Clinging to her with all he had.
She expected him to say something along the lines of the same things his sisters had said when they'd been told. "I'm sorry" or something.
Instead, she met Henry's eyes over her son's shoulder with tears stinging her eyes as he whispered in her ear.
"I'm proud of you."