Henry showed up at Elizabeth's house late Thursday night, as per usual. She let him in the door and he followed her to the living room. "Isabelle's not here yet?" he asked.

"She's not coming. She's getting things ready for tomorrow and couldn't tell me where she'd be tonight. Said I need 'plausible deniability.'"

Henry sat on the couch. "What about tomorrow?"

Elizabeth took a seat on the opposite end. "Well, Ambassador Dori told me that to put pressure on the jackscrew, you'd need to take off the tail plate and strip the threads from the vertical stabilizer nut."

Henry nodded. "And since the tail plate's removed during fueling-"

"It'd have to be the fueler who did it. John Castellano." She opened her briefcase and pulled out the photo Isabelle had given her. Henry scooted closer to take a look, so that he was just a foot away from her on the couch. "That's what's happening tomorrow. Isabelle is going to get him in a room for me."

"You're going to interrogate him yourself?"

"I can't trust anyone else. And I think my position will give me an edge. There's another thing I wanted to tell you," she said. "Matt came to my office today to make a confession. Apparently, Russell had him spying on Marsh and feeding him information."

"What kind of information?'

"He had him writing policy speeches for his upcoming run for president, I guess he was getting ready to announce. But now Russell wants him spying on me. I told him to tell him yes."

Henry nodded, understanding. "So you can feed information you want Russell to have."

"Right." She stared into space for a minute, thinking. "Matt overheard a conversation between Russell and Marsh a few days before the plane crash. He told me Marsh accused the President of planning to turn on him, and you know what Russell said? 'So it goes.'"

Henry's eyes widened. "Those exact words? That's what he said on the blackbox recording, right?"

"Those words. Matt was sure of it." She looked Henry in the face, her eyes wide with fear. "Ambassador Dori didn't deny that the CIA was involved in the Dubai crash. If they were, then Dalton knew how to sabotage a C-600 and get away with it." Her breathing grew heavy with the weight of her words. "I'm calling the President of the United States a murderer. I need you to tell me I'm wrong."

Henry thought for a minute, his eyes not leaving her face. He had never seen her this vulnerable, and he wished he could do what she was asking. "I'm sorry, I got nothing. Look, Matt came into my office yesterday and asked me why you were bringing the Israelis in on such short notice. At the time, I thought-"

"Wait, what?" Elizabeth interrupted him, frowning. "You didn't tell me this?"

"Uh, no, it didn't seem important."

"At that point, Matt hadn't decided yet not to spy on me for the President and Chief of Staff. I'd say that's pretty important," she said sharply.

"Of course it is, but I didn't know that then. I didn't think-"

"Well, you should have." Elizabeth kept her voice down for the sake of the kids upstairs, but her tone was getting increasingly angry, and Henry didn't know why. "We still don't know what happened on Marsh's plane. We need to take everything relevant into account."

"I didn't know it was relevant," Henry insisted. "Why are you getting so worked up over this?"

"Because if Marsh was murdered, whoever did it had no problem killing the Secretary of State. I'm the one who has to live with that, Henry," she snapped. "And if I don't figure this out fast enough, then my kids…" her voice broke, and she stopped to take a deep breath, wiping her hands over her face before lowering them to her knee. "My kids are gonna have to live with it too."

Following an instinct, Henry put his hands over hers. "We are going to figure it out," he assured her. "Together. Isabelle's working her spy magic on Castellano, and tomorrow you're going to look him in the eye and know if he was involved. Then we'll-" Henry stopped abruptly when Elizabeth jerked her hands out from under his, scooting away from him.

Her eyes were focused on something behind him. He turned, following her gaze to the staircase, where Jason was standing on the bottom step, looking at the two of them. "Hey, Mom...what's going on?"

Elizabeth stood up, plastering on a smile. "Hey, Jason, you know Dr. McCord?"

"We met at the confirmation hearing," said Henry. "Good to see you again, Jason."

Elizabeth crossed the living room and got to Jason, leaving Henry on the couch behind her. "Everything okay?"

Jason frowned at her. "Yeah, I just couldn't sleep. I came to get some water…why is he here at 11:00 at night?"

"We're just going over some work stuff."

"In our house?"

"Well, Henry was doing some work after-hours and made a discovery. He dropped by to talk to me about it."

Jason didn't seem convinced. "What 'discovery?'" he asked, making air-quotes with his fingers.

"Classified. But it was something that couldn't wait until morning."

Jason sighed, turning toward the kitchen. "Whatever, Mom. Go do your spy stuff," he said, opening a cabinet to take out a glass.

Elizabeth went back to where Henry sat waiting, brows raised. "Well, thanks for stopping by," she said politely, knowing Jason was still in earshot. "And thanks for bringing that to my attention. Can we continue at the office tomorrow?"

Henry nodded, taking his cue to leave. "Yes, ma'am. I'll see you in the morning."

"Thanks for letting us relocate," said Elizabeth as Henry let her into his house.

"No problem," he said.

"I just don't like the idea of my kids getting suspicious, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it." His brow furrowed. "What about your security detail?" he asked, nodding toward the door. After taking a quick look through the house, they had agreed to stay outside the door. "Do you think they're suspicious about our late-night investigating?"

"Nah, they probably just think we're having an affair," she said with a shrug.

Henry's eyes widened in shock, and his mouth hung open for a moment. She tried to suppress a grin, but she didn't try very hard. "Anyway, shall we?" she asked.

He cleared his throat. "Of course," he said, leading her through the doorway behind him to a small living room.

A short while later, after Isabelle had arrived, she and Elizabeth were explaining what they'd learned from the fuel technician that day. "They used his daughter's life to get what they wanted," said Elizabeth, her voice hollow. "They sent him a link to a live feed of her on the playground with a red dot on her forehead."

"I went through his emails," said Isabelle, "but the sender was untraceable. What's our next move?"

"You use Matt," said Henry, "right?"

Elizabeth nodded. "I need to give him something to tell Russell and see how he reacts."

"Maybe something about the conversation with Ambassador Dori," Henry suggested. "His response might tell you if he's just annoyed that you're digging, or…"

"Or afraid of what I might dig up," Elizabeth finished. "That could work."

"It could also put you in danger, Bess," said Isabelle. "If he was involved, and he finds out that you're on to him, who's to say he won't try to make you disappear?"

Henry sat frozen and watched as Elizabeth considered that. "You're not wrong," she conceded. "But I don't have any other options."

"Hey, Nadine?" Henry came into her office on Monday, while Elizabeth was meeting with the Iraqis.

Nadine looked up from her desk. "What do you need?"

"I was going over some of the material for the dinner next weekend" He laid a paper on her desk, and pointed to a mark he had made in pen. "There's a section here that I think-"

At that moment, a member of Diplomatic Security opened the door. "Ma'am, we have an active shooter situation."

Henry looked up. "What? Is the Secretary alright?"

"She's being secured. For now we're asking everyone to shelter in place." With that, he left.

Henry looked back at Nadine, defeated. "I guess we're gonna be in here a while."

Alison was on the couch in the living room, flipping through channels, when Jason came down the stairs. "Anything good?" he asked, his voice breaking into a yawn halfway through.

"Don't know yet," said Alison.

"Where's mom?"

"At work. She has that thing with Iraq, remember?" Alison reminded him as she idly flipped past a news channel.

"...and the State Department security seems to have-"

"Wait, go back," said Jason.

Alison changed the channel and the anchorman continued. "-under control. We don't know at this time if this is a lone shooter or if he is working with a group."

"A shooter? What?" Alison stood up, panicking.

"For anyone just tuning in, we are getting reports that there is an armed shooter outside the State Department."

"I'm calling Mom." Jason pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly found the contact for his mother. It rang several times before it went to the familiar sound of her personal number's voicemail.

"Hey, if you're trying to reach Elizabeth, Bess, or Lizzie, please leave a message. If you're looking for Secretary Adams, this is the wrong number. You should be calling-" Jason cut her off when he heard Alison's phone ring. He looked at her expectantly as she picked it up off the couch, along with the remote, muting the TV.

"It's Blake, her assistant," she said. She answered it and put it on speaker. "Is Mom okay? We saw it on the news."

"What's happening?" asked Jason.

"She's fine," said Blake. Alison sighed and sat on the couch. Jason joined her. "The building is on lockdown," Blake continued, "but the windows are bullet-proof, and her security is working to resolve the situation. I was just calling to let you know that we're all okay."

"Can we talk to her?" asked Jason.

"I'm afraid not. She's in another room with the Iraqi delegation, and we are all being required to shelter in place. I'm sure she'll call you as soon as she can." Jason and Alison stared at each other, not knowing what to say. "She really is okay," said Blake.

"Okay. Thanks, Blake," said Alison before hanging up.

Nadine and Henry tried to make themselves useful while they was able to continue most of her regular office work, but all Henry had to work with was his phone, so he spent his time catching up on emails.

"How do you think the Iraqis are holding up in there?" asked Henry after a few hours of working in relative silence.

"I don't know," Nadine said honestly. "I haven't heard any missiles deploy yet."

Henry smiled. "Let's hope the Secretary's working her diplomatic magic on them, not to mention her CIA knowledge."

"Let's hope," Nadine echoed. "Speaking of CIA knowledge, how's it going on the Marsh investigation?"

Henry raised an eyebrow. "The what?"

"Please," she said with a roll of her eyes. "She told me it was her next move after I was cleared, and I know you've been helping her."

"Well, then you know I'm not comfortable telling you anything," Henry said simply.

"Fair enough. But I could probably help. I knew a lot about him."

"Of course you did. You were his Chief of Staff."

"I was more than that."

"Oh?"

"I thought she might have told you. Secretary Marsh and I were...close."

Henry nodded slowly, realization dawning. "Oh."

"Anyway, I could probably help you guys. There was very little about him that I didn't know."

"Well, you should communicate that to the Secretary."

"Maybe I will," she replied. She went back to typing for a minute before she spoke up again. "You should be careful with her," she said, keeping her eyes on her screen.

"I'm sorry?"

"With the Secretary."

Henry's eyes narrowed. "I don't quite catch your meaning."

Nadine looked at him and worked her jaw, trying to choose her words carefully. "Just make sure you don't get too close."

Henry leaned back against the back of the sofa, trying to shrug her off. "We're not-it's not like that. At all."

"I've seen this movie before, Henry. I was in it. It starts with the closed office door, the pull-asides after senior staff, then it's working late when everyone's gone, then you're in her house…" she saw Henry tense up and knew she was touching a nerve. "And it doesn't end well," she finished.

Henry sighed. "Look, whatever you think-"

"Ma'am?" The same DS agent poked his head in the door. "The shooter is secure. We're lifting the lockdown." He was gone as soon as he had come, and Nadine looked back at Henry.

"Just be careful."

I gotta say, when I was re-watching this episode and the DS agent said "Shelter in place," it hit different in 2020. Just me?

It might be a little while before I post the next chapter. When I started posting this fic, I was already like 6 or 7 chapters into writing, but now I'm just a little over one chapter ahead of myself. I find that having multiple chapters written down the line makes my writing more cohesive and makes me more confident about posting it. I'm not talking about a long break, probably no more than a week.

Thanks so much for all the kind reviews I've gotten so far! It makes me beyond happy how much I see you guys enjoying this fic.