~~~ Part 12 ~~~

Henry sent Elizabeth out to the patio with her coffee so he could take care of the packing without her interfering. Somehow despite near-constant travel and her proficiency in so many other areas, she was still an exceptionally poor packer, and experience had taught him that it was easiest to do the packing for her. He could have done that with her still in the room of course, but this would be faster. Also, it would allow him to surreptitiously get any lingering sand out of her riding boots and sandals. Elizabeth hadn't seemed to be bothered by the omnipresent sand, but sand in the context of a beach vacation was different than unexpectedly encountering sand when unpacking, and it was an easy step he could take to avoid potentially reminding Elizabeth of her time in "Jordan" and of returning home with the dusty sand and unpleasant memories still clinging to her.

After he deemed her shoes successfully de-sanded, he set about packing all the things they'd brought plus the handful of souvenirs they'd acquired during the trip. He smiled as he thought about the things they'd purchased: Elizabeth had bought him a cookbook and local sea salt - Anguilla salt mining dated back to at least the 1600s - and he had bought her a Christmas tree ornament featuring the trio of dolphins on Anguilla's coat of arms. They also picked out gifts for the kids: a pair of earrings and local fruit preserves for Stevie, a bracelet and a paint by numbers kit for Alison, and a T-shirt and a book about the Anguilla Revolution and the British invasion for Jason. Elizabeth had also insisted on purchasing a small photo print of a flamingo in one of the salt ponds for Blake, some sort of inside joke involving his response to learning that plastic flamingos outnumber real ones. And there was the golf cap she had been given.

Finally, there were two small paintings that they had made. Unlikely Alison, neither Henry nor Elizabeth were particularly artistic, but sticking with the theme of doing things outside of their comfort zone, they had impulsively signed up for an art afternoon, where an instructor patiently coaxed them and a few others into painting their own horseback riding beach scenes. While the paintings they produced could hardly be considered masterpieces, they had shared a lot of laughs, and now they had unique personal souvenirs that would always remind them of this vacation.

Henry was just about to put the paintings in an envelope when Elizabeth returned. She sat down on the bed next to him, and they leaned against each other contentedly, studying their paintings. "Well, our horses are both recognizable," Elizabeth commented.

"Horse?" Henry joked. "I was trying for a goat."

She laughed. "Thank you Henry, this was a great vacation. I hadn't realized how much I needed it." The reality of what was waiting for her back in DC was starting to hit her. She tried to push it to the back of her mind, so she could savor a few more hours of being "just" Elizabeth McCord.

"I should be thanking you, babe. This trip was your idea. I'll admit I was initially skeptical of a beach vacation, but I think some downtime 'liming' was exactly what we needed. And of course having you alone to myself for ten days...," his voice trailed off as he thought about some of the activities they'd engaged in during their many uninterrupted hours. "Well, I'll take that anytime. I'd go anywhere with you," Henry said sincerely.

"Even underwater," Elizabeth noted.

"Even underwater," Henry repeated. "You might even be able to convince me to do it again," he admitted.

"Maybe we'll come back to the Caribbean for a vacation in a couple of years, get the kids to join us, maybe charter a boat" Elizabeth allowed herself to dream.

"We better stick to the US islands for the optics," Henry pointed out.

"Whoa, talk about putting the cart before the horse!" Elizabeth exclaimed, catching his drift. "I haven't even started campaigning yet, and the odds of ..."

"You're going to win," Henry interrupted. He spoke with such conviction that Elizabeth was stunned into silence. "You're the best person for the job. And you are more than up to the challenge."

"Even if that's true, it doesn't matter if the voters..." Elizabeth protested.

"I have faith, Elizabeth. I don't know how I know, but I feel it in my bones. It's fate." Elizabeth took in Henry's words, concentrating on her own breathing, as she tried to keep from becoming overwhelmed.

"Well," she said, steering the conversation away from the subject of the presidency, "Alexander Hamilton grew up on St. Croix, and Puerto Rico has some old churches..."

"Second oldest church in the Western Hemisphere," Henry interjected, understanding that Elizabeth wanted to change the subject. "The Cathedral of San Juan Bautista and the Church of San Jose both date back to the 1500s." Elizabeth smiled at Henry as he slipped into fanboy/professor mode.

"Just don't forget to save some time for scuba diving."

"Or, since we went scuba diving on this trip, we could go skydiving next time," Henry deadpanned, though he was, in fact, entirely willing to go diving again.

"Yeah... I'm not sure how safe that is."

"Oh come on, leave the risk assessment to your security detail," Henry couldn't help but tease.

"If I have a security detail," Elizabeth hastily amended, shooting him a look.

"You will," Henry said. "You will." And then he leaned over and silenced the myriad of objections forming in her head the best way he knew how: with a kiss.

~~~ FIN ~~~