"He is safe. They are all safe, Eleanor," stated the once charismatic and determined president who now felt the weight of his country on his shoulders.

"Thank God. Thank God. Thank God," Eleanor, his longtime wife, answered with relief sparking on her blue eyes, as she took one last look at the map and wiped away the few tears of happiness in her eyes, knowing that all her four sons were safe and sound.

"It's so hard to be away from this map, Franklin."

Franklin agreed. He knew he was too lucky to have all his five childrens alive, even in the midst of this war.

"I can only imagine," deep inside of him, he felt happier over Eleanor's relief than his own. He didn't want her to suffer over the death of another of their offspring. No again."Come join me on the couch."

He began to push himself on his wheelchair, his hands on the wheels as he wheeled himself to the couch. The wheel screeched as Franklin also heard Eleanor's shoes walking behind him. Then, Franklin's wheelchair was beside the couch, and Franklin saw Eleanor getting closer to him, as both of her hands spread.

Franklin began to let go from the wheelchair, and he felt Eleanor's warm accent approaching him, ready to help him up. At that moment, Franklin thought of something, "I never would have come this far without you."

But he only told her, "Thank you."

Franklin felt his hand being grabbed by Eleanor's hand, while her other hand was on his arm, and she slowly helped him stand up and walk to the couch. As Eleanor was leading him to the couch, the president got lost on his thoughts once more.

"I don't deserve you, Eleanor. You keep helping me when I need you even knowing of my infidelity, and I still betray you by seeing Lucy again. I broke your trust again. I don't deserve your kindness, I never deserved it."

Franklin, lost in his thoughts of guilt and remorse, didn't notice that his already weak feet had lost balance, but it was too late. He fell into the couch, also causing Eleanor to fall to the other side, and both of them groaned softly. And the president softly cursed, "Damn!"

Seeing how foolishly he made Eleanor fall with him, Franklin quickly tried to get up to help her.

"I'm so sorry," Franklin apologized, in his mind he was apologizing for all the pain he had caused her during their marriage.

"Please let me help you up," Franklin muttered again.

Franklin took Eleanor's hands as she kept making soft moans of pain and she slowly got up to sit on the couch, next to her husband.

"I'm more tired than I thought," Eleanor muttered, remembering her recent trips.

But Franklin hardly heard what Eleanor said. He got lost in her hair, while watching her sitting on the couch. Her hair was brown with some silver streaks, not black like Lucy Mercer's hair, and it was tied up in a fancy bun. He really liked Eleanor's hair, so much that he could touch it. Her hair still didn't look as affected by age and stress as his, and he didn't even look sixty-three as he had just turned in the last January.

As she sat on the couch next to Franklin, Eleanor felt his gaze at her, and she couldn't help but ask herself what Franklin was thinking as he genuinely smiled at her.

"She is still beautiful, inside and outside,"Franklin thought, and his smile stayed on his face while something got into his mind.

"When this thing is over, whenever that may be. God willing sooner than later, we need to go back to Campobello. Just the family. All of us together."

He didn't look straight to her face, but still Franklin slightly noticed how Eleanor's face became serious when she heard his suggestion. He realized how much he missed their first years of marriage, how much he missed his Eleanor, who happily wanted to go anywhere with him, just to be with him . He missed when their love was really true, not just a facade for the public to hide their extramarital affairs.

"Sort of like a vacation of sorts." Franklin added.

Eleanor let out a sight, almost sounding annoyed. Perphans Eleanor preferred to be with Lorena Hickok? He remembered how he cried when he saw those photos between the journalist and his wife…

Still, Franklin was excited about those vacations, "Even if only for a few days."

"A vacation ... .I can't even imagine.", Eleanor stated.

Eleanor then took one of Franklin's hands and stroked his other hand gently. Franklin felt Eleanor's wrinkled hand over his own wrinkled hand with such softness, and for a moment, they stopped being the President and the First Lady of the United States. They were just Eleanor and Franklin, "Here we are, you know, after all these years.".

"Yes," Franklin said.

Franklin thought about his beloved mother, "You know, early today, I was thinking about what difficult time Mother had given you."

"No, she did?," Eleanor asked with irony. She obviously did, at first, Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt didn't seem to want Eleanor as a daughter-in-law, and by the time Eleanor became that, her mother had dedicated herself to handling all aspects of Eleanor and Franklin's marriage.

But Eleanor and Franklin just laughed.

"I wish she could see you now. Single-handedly representing our nation across the globe".

Then Eleanor stated words that her mother-in law would definitively say if she saw how Eleanor became the opposite of what wives were expected to be for centuries, then she finished with "...'Stop drawing all the attention, Eleanor. Be a proper wife.'"

" 'Proper' " Franklin repeated. He remembered that once she was a "proper" wife, and his betrayal made her become anything but a proper wife. Still with the guilt, he was so proud of her, of her bravery, kindness, and smartness that most people didn't have, "Proper is not a word I would use to describe you."

Franklin then continued, a slyly smile that Eleanor didn't see, "Singular, maybe. Formidable, Relentless." He stopped for a moment to search for another trait, "Irreplaceable.

When he got silent, Eleanor looked at him directly. Her face made him feel unsure of if she was believing his words, but he hoped she did.

At that moment, both gently put their heads together, then he closed his eyes, with a smile still on his haggard face. Even if this wasn't the most sweet or romantic affection, it caressed Franklin's heart, it made him feel that connection that he didn't feel so much when he was with Lucy. Somehow, this made Franklin thought that his marriage could still work, that his relationship with his wife could still improve…Without having to look with Lucy for what he felt Eleanor wasn't giving him

He didn't want to admit to himself that he was being very selfish with two of the women he loved the most, and with that feeling of guilt, he looked away from Eleanor.

"Your mother did do one thing for me which…,"Eleanor declared " I will always be grateful."

"What?"

"She insisted we stay together."

"Mhmm," it was the only thing that Franklin said.

On one hand, he thought that she would be happier if she never married him, maybe someone, like her "friend" Lorena Hickok or the bodyguard Earl Miller would have made her more loved than Franklin ever could. And on the other hand, he was glad that they stayed married, she was with him when he got polio and she supported his political dreams even when they disagreed, and he knew that most of his popularity was thanks to her. "We could have been so good together, if only I had thought of your pain and not my desire."

"A team to the end," she exclamed, unable to imagine his thoughts.

"Yes," Franklin admitted. They were Eleanor and Franklin, the two halves of a whole.

"I missed you," Franklin finally confessed what he had wanted to tell her for a long time.

He saw what looked to be a little smile on Eleanor's face. He had hoped for a more affectionate smile, but it was still enough for him to keep dreaming about the future, about those vacations that both of them needed.

Franklin couldn't wait to go to Campobello, one day, hopefully when the war finally over, when the Axis power surrendered and no more innocent lives were taken. His mind got more lost in that future day he wanted, a day in Campobello, just Eleanor, their childrens, their grandchildrens, their closest friends, and their beloved dog Fala.

A day that he never ever lived.