Chapter Sixteen – In Our Arms

Henry jerked awake and felt his book slide off his lap. He slid his fingers under his glasses to rub at his eyes before glancing at the clock. It was after four. Elizabeth and Stevie should be home. Henry had tried to stay awake but apparently he'd fallen asleep and missed them. He threw the blankets off his legs and ran out of the room. Now that he was awake he was going to find his daughter and stay at her side. Elizabeth was already there. He found her curled up on Stevie's bed. Stevie was asleep with her head resting next to Elizabeth's hip and her arm thrown across her mother's lap. His wife was completely focused on Stevie and continually carded her fingers through their child's hair. It nearly broke Henry's heart. Just one look at Stevie told him she'd been through a terrible ordeal, and he could see that when she was asleep. It scared him to think about what he would find once she was awake.

He moved to Stevie's bed and stroked the back of his fingers across his daughter's cheek. Elizabeth watched him, and when he looked up he could read the pain in her eyes all too clearly.

"She looks so thin," Henry murmured.

"I know."

"Did you get her to eat before she fell asleep?"

"No. I barely managed to convince her to stay awake long enough for me to clean her up with a wash cloth and get her into pajamas."

Elizabeth looked back down at Stevie. With most of the dirt gone the bruises were even clearer. She hated seeing the dark marks marring her daughter's face and arms. Some of the marks made it obvious that Stevie had been grabbed roughly at some point.

"What happened to her arm?" Henry whispered.

"The doctors in France thought her wrist might be broken. We'll have to get x-rays tomorrow."

"And get some good food into her."

"That too. I'm going to take tomorrow off so I can get her some help."

Stevie was definitely going to need psychiatric help after this on top of medical help. Elizabeth was going to make sure she got whatever she needed. More importantly she was going to be there as someone her daughter could talk to.

"Do you want me to stay too?"

"No. We'll be alright for a few days. Once I have to go back you can stay home. That way she'll have someone with her for longer."

"Okay."

"Henry? Do you think you could handle telling Jason and Alison tomorrow?"

Doing that was simply beyond Elizabeth's ability at the moment. She desperately needed sleep, and her mind was far too overtaxed to handle anything else, especially if it involved seeing her children in pain.

"Sure, babe."

That was not going to be easy, but for Elizabeth's sake he was willing to do it. The kids needed to know what was going on with their sister. Stevie wasn't going to be able to simply get back to her life after this. She would have a long road to recovery, and everyone in the family needed to know that so they could help her.

Henry settled himself onto the edge of the bed and wrapped an arm around Elizabeth. He couldn't help resting his other hand on Stevie's arm. Touching her made the fact that she was home feel more real.

The three of them stayed together in Stevie's room for nearly a half hour before Henry finally dragged Elizabeth away. They both needed to go to bed. There was nothing they could do for Stevie right now, and if something happened their room was close enough that they would be able to hear it. Elizabeth left Stevie's room with only a bit of convincing, but she wasn't at all ready to get some sleep.

"Henry, when Stevie got off the plane she kept apologizing to me," she explained once they'd entered their own room. "She said she couldn't even get out of my way in another country."

She was about to ask him what he thought that meant and whether it was her fault that Stevie had left –Did her daughter really think she was in Elizabeth's way? – when she saw Henry pale. That meant something.

"What, Henry?" she demanded.

"I… That might be my doing."

Elizabeth's eyes widened in shock. What did he even mean by that?

"Henry?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The second she'd repeated Stevie's words he'd recognized them. They'd been said in a time of frustration when his control had been slim. He hadn't expected those words to come back and bite him. They had, however, and now he was going to have to explain his actions to Elizabeth.

"I might have lost my cool with her the day you were made acting president."

"You lost your cool."

That scared Elizabeth enough on its own. Henry rarely lost his cool, and it was almost never with his children.

"I yelled at her for making more bad choices. At one point I told her to get out of her own way. And yours."

Elizabeth couldn't believe this. There was no way she could forget that day, and she clearly remembered warning Henry not to antagonize Stevie about being found with Harrison. He apparently hadn't listened to her, and what he'd said had stuck with Stevie. It had stuck with her so much, in fact, that she'd gone to Africa. Africa!

While the ordeal of the last few days was over, neither of them had recovered from the strain. They were both exhausted. Their tempers were on a hair trigger, and those triggers had been pulled.

"You told her what?!"

"It was after Harrison and that whole mess with the drugs! I didn't expect it to send her running halfway across the world!"

"I told you not to push her buttons! I told you! Why didn't you listen to me?"

She was waving her hands around and pacing the room, clearly agitated. Her agitation and anger were clearly directed at him too. Most of the time Henry could let Elizabeth's anger roll right off him until she'd gotten it out of her system. Today he couldn't handle that.

"She had heroin in her pocket, Elizabeth! She needed to start making better choices. We both agreed with that."

"Yes! But why didn't you wait for me? Maybe if you had we wouldn't be in this situation!"

She'd planted her feet right in front of him and was yelling directly at him, nearly right up in his face. Henry wanted to strike back at her, but he couldn't do it. He blamed himself enough for what had happened. The last thing he wanted was to continue pushing this argument toward who was to blame, especially since he didn't truly believe Elizabeth blamed him. She was just tired and upset. Besides, he knew full well that she could easily start turning the blame on herself, and worse, she would actually believe she was to blame.

"You really want to start tossing around blame on who pushed our daughter into getting stuck in a hostage situation?" he asked.

Elizabeth winced and looked away. No, that was not what she wanted to do at all. She was already regretting what she'd said. Nobody was to blame for what had happened, not even Stevie. She rested her hands on Henry's chest and leaned forward to press against him.

"No. I don't want to do that at all. I'm sorry, Henry."

He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She settled happily against him with a sigh.

"You know I don't blame you for Stevie leaving, right?" Elizabeth asked.

"I know you don't, babe," he replied before kissing her head.

Elizabeth stayed right where she was for some time, soaking in Henry's love and trying to calm down. It worked rather well, but she still needed some reassurance from him. Thankfully he was always pretty good at that.

"Henry? Stevie's going to get through this, right?"

"Yeah, babe. We're all going to get through this."

O . o . O . o . O

"One excellently made grilled cheese sandwich for you, and one for me," Elizabeth told Stevie that afternoon.

Stevie laughed lightly and took the plate from her mother. Her description was completely accurate. Both sides were perfectly brown.

"It always amazes me that you can make such an amazing grilled cheese and everything else you try fails so miserably."

"Grilled cheese is easy… as long as you pay close enough attention to it."

"Meaning you've probably burned a bunch of them."

Stevie grinned at her mom, totally ignoring the look her mother was shooting her and plucked a piece off her sandwich before popping it into her mouth.

"Just eat your sandwich," Elizabeth nearly growled.

"Okay, Mom," Stevie replied rather sarcastically.

She did, however, start eating. As she did she shifted a bit closer to her mom so they were touching shoulders. It was incredibly comforting. Elizabeth didn't mind at all. She liked the physical reassurance as much as Stevie did. At least Stevie was eating and had moments where she was acting like herself. It gave Elizabeth hope that at least her little girl was doing alright.

Once they were both done with their sandwiches Elizabeth patted Stevie's knee.

"Come on. Let's get some ice cream."

Stevie laughed again and followed her mom into the kitchen. Of course her mother wanted ice cream. She barely needed an excuse for making herself a bowl, so having a reason like getting food into Stevie pretty much guaranteed ice cream was going to come out. Stevie wasn't about to turn down ice cream though. She loved it nearly as much as her mother did.

They had just finished scooping out bowls when the front door opened. Both Elizabeth and Stevie glanced up in surprise. It was too early for anyone else to be home. At least not if they were coming home at a normal time.

"Henry," Elizabeth said in surprise. "You're home early."

Elizabeth was so focused on Henry that she completely missed Stevie's sudden tension. The last time Stevie had had a real conversation with her father had been before she'd left. He'd been upset with her about making bad choices then. Now she'd made an even worse one. Despite what her mom had said about her dad not wanting to kill her after the mess she'd caused them she still was afraid of how he would respond to her disappointing him so terribly. She couldn't face him. She couldn't even look at him, so she dropped her eyes toward the ground.

"Yeah," Henry said as he dropped his bag in the office and started toward them. "I cancelled my office hours for the day. Figured being home was more important."

His eyes were on Stevie, and he noticed right away that she wasn't looking at him. She did, however, look better than she had last night. At least it let him breathe a little bit easier.

"Come here, sweetheart."

He pulled her into a hug, holding her close. This was what he'd been waiting for, a chance to hold his daughter and prove to himself that she was alright. She was tense in his arms though. Even when he stroked her hair she didn't relax any.

"I'm so glad you're home, sweetie."

A single sob escaped Stevie, and Henry tightened his arms around her in response.

"Dad… I…"

"Shhh, just let me hold you for a minute."

Tears slid down Stevie's cheeks, and she buried her face in her father's chest. Since the moment she'd first faced the rebels this was exactly what she'd wanted, to have her parents there to protect her. It felt so good to be in her father's arms even if it did make her feel even guiltier about disappointing him. When he finally let her go she rubbed at her eyes and nearly curled in on herself.

"Dad, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to cause Mom more trouble. I swear!"

"I know, baby," Henry assured her before reaching out to hold her face in his hands and kiss her forehead. "And I'm sorry too. When I'd said what I did to you I'd wanted you to wake up and realize you needed to start making better choices. I'd never wanted your wake-up call to be so harsh, and I'd never meant to send you away."

While Stevie looked absolutely shocked by Henry's words, Elizabeth wasn't surprised at all. She knew her husband would have never wanted their daughter to go through what she had no matter how mad at her he might have been. When Stevie's breathing hitched and she appeared to be getting even more upset Elizabeth started rubbing her shoulders. Stevie tried to choke back tears and scrubbed a hand over her eyes. It took a little while, but she finally managed to pull herself together enough to speak.

"You mean you forgive me?" she asked incredulously. "Even though I caused more problems for both of you than I ever have before?"

Elizabeth couldn't help herself. She grabbed Stevie's head and pressed a fierce kiss to her daughter's temple. Once she released Stevie Henry took over. He wrapped his arm around Stevie and pulled her against his side.

"Of course, sweetheart," Elizabeth told Stevie. "No matter how big the mistake we'll always forgive you."

Stevie bit her lip and glanced from her mom to her dad.

"Really?"

"Really," Henry promised and planted a kiss on top of her head. "And this wasn't totally your fault, Stevie. Going to Africa without warning wasn't exactly the best choice in the world…"

Stevie dropped her gaze, shame creeping up on her again.

"But," Henry continued in a much softer voice. "Nobody could have predicted a hostage situation. This was a mess of bad circumstances more than bad decisions."

"It was still a bad decision though," Stevie admitted.

"It was," Elizabeth confirmed.

"But you've learned from it," Henry added. "And we're just glad you're home."

Stevie twisted around and wrapped her arms around her father. His words had allowed some of her guilt to trickle away, and she felt so much lighter.

"I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, baby girl. I'm so glad that you're alright."

Stevie smiled slightly and relaxed completely against him. All of her fears of disappointing her parents were gone. They weren't mad at her. Now she could completely focus on seeking comfort from them, which was what she'd wanted even before she'd gotten home. She might be twenty years old, but she still believed there was very little they couldn't fix. They would help her and make everything right again. Once they did Stevie promised herself that she would start making better decisions and would make everything up to them. Everything. They more than deserved that.

Author's Note: Well, that's it! I hope you all enjoyed it!