Prompt: one of the little McCords makes Henry or Elizabeth pinkie swear.
Elizabeth could not recall the last time she'd felt so helpless. She stood beside Henry, cradling her youngest, four year old Jason, in her arms as he clung to her, his legs wrapped around her waist as he cried, little fingers wrinkling her blouse in his tight grip.
"Baby, I promise it's going to be okay," she attempted to soothe him, looking helplessly at Henry over Jason's head.
"Buddy, Mama's going to be back soon," Henry said in an attempt to help, but Jason just shook his head against Elizabeth.
"No," he cried. "I don't want you to go, Mama."
Elizabeth would have sworn that her heart was shattering. She had a work trip to go on, the first she had gone on in Jason's memory, and it turned out that their little mama's boy was not thrilled with it. He'd been fine with it in concept, but now the reality of it had settled in and he wasn't happy with it. Elizabeth would have given anything in that moment to stay home and hold Jason for the rest of the day; a glance at her watch reminded her that it was not an option and she took a steadying breath, running her fingers through Jason's hair.
"Jason, honey, I promise you I'm going to be back before you know it," she said softly. "You know that Mama doesn't make promises that she can't keep, right?"
Jason nodded hesitantly against her.
"Right," she said encouragingly. "So there's nothing to be scared of, see? You and Daddy are going to do such fun things and your big sisters will be here. And it's going to go by so quickly. So, so fast. I promise."
"But I'm scared," Jason whimpered.
"I know," Elizabeth soothed. "I know. It's okay to be scared, baby, but you just have to trust Mama and Daddy, alright? We would never let anything bad happen to you, not if we can help it, and it's all going to be just fine."
Jason pulled back, his fingers still wrapped in the fabric of her shirt. His earnest eyes met hers, wide and trusting, so much so that Elizabeth almost called and cancelled her trip then and there, her job be damned.
"You promise?" he asked softly, and Elizabeth nodded her head.
"Promise," she echoed. Jason seemed to think about that for a moment, and then he hesitantly held out his pinky finger to her.
"Pinky promise?" he asked seriously. Elizabeth nodded her head again, linking her own pinky finger with his small one.
"Pinky promise," she said. Jason nodded.
"Okay," he whispered. Then he wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged tightly, holding close to her.
"I'll be back before you know it," she whispered. "I love you so much, sweet boy."
"Love you, Mama," Jason mumbled, and then Henry picked Jason up, pulling him away from Elizabeth with a small, sympathetic smile for his wife.
"Alright bud, wave goodbye to Mama, okay?" Henry instructed. Elizabeth tugged her suitcase toward her and then leaned in to kiss Henry, whose touch on her shoulder was warm, familiar, and understanding.
"I'll see you both on Monday, okay?" Elizabeth said, stalling just a little bit. Henry nodded and smiled.
"Have a good trip, babe. Call when you get there," Henry answered.
"I will," she promised with one last kiss to each of her boys' cheeks. She smiled at them, waved, and then she was gone, with one last glance at Jason's little hand waving her goodbye.
Right then, Elizabeth decided that this was going to be her last work trip for a while.