#jay whitman

51. “Those things you said yesterday... did you really mean them?”

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“Nadine? It’s three in the morning, what’s wrong?” Jay held the phone to his ear as he rolled over in bed.

There was a crackle of white noise, as if she was breathing directly into the speaker. “Those things you said yesterday... did you really mean them?”

Oh, he didn’t have the cognitive function for this. Not at this hour. “What... what did I say yesterday?” He scrubbed a hand over his face.

There was another shaky breath. “That I could call you day or night. If I... if I ever needed anything.”

“Well, yeah.” He furrowed his brow. “What—“

“Well good, because I think I need that.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I need you to come get me. I... I need to go to the hospital.”

That got him wide awake instantly. “Are you all right? Where are you? What happened?”

“I’m in the parking garage at Truman.” Why was she still at the office at this hour? “H-He was waiting for me by my car.” She sounded tearful.

Jay swore under his breath even as he kicked the covers off and swung out of bed, grabbing the first pair of pants he could reach. “Are you okay?” He fumbled with the phone as he put it on speaker, tossing it on the bed and then pulling a sweatshirt over his head. He grabbed his phone and pocketed the keys that were sitting on the dresser. “Nadine, what happened?”

Now that he was paying attention, he could hear the way she was breathing, deep and rattling and unstable, and it was making his blood curdle in his veins.

In his foyer, he stepped into his shoes and then practically flew out the door, barely remembering to lock it behind him.

“Nadine, talk to me.”

There was a small hitch in her voice. “You were right all along, Jay, I should have listened to you...”

“Don’t worry about that now.”

“I thought it was harmless.”

“I’m on my way, okay? Stay on the line with me.” He lived so close to work that he could walk if he wanted; it was something the others always teased him about, how he was so married to the job that he couldn’t bear to be away from it for longer than he had to. In a crisis, he was always the first one to arrive. Tonight, in the middle of the night without any traffic to stop him from tearing through the streets like a madman, he could probably get there in under six minutes.

He started his car and tried not to think about what he would find when he got there.

“Nadine, you still there?” Inwardly, he cursed at himself. He knew he should have made her call the FBI, he knew the emails and calls and threats had to be worse than she was letting on, but he let it go because he didn’t want to push her, none of them ever pushed her; they were in the habit of doing that, no one ever made Nadine do anything she didn’t want to do, but still, he should have insisted, he should have called them himself, he should have—

“Mhmm,” she said faintly. He didn’t like the way she sounded.

“I’ll be there in two minutes. Stay with me.”

When he glanced down at his phone, he did a double take at the new message notification: Blake, one minute ago. Jay tapped it open and held it up so he could read it as he drove.

Gunshots reported in Truman parking garage per DS. Ted and Carl headed over now.

Jay’s heart dropped like a stone.

“Hey, Nadine?” he said.

He was met with silence.

“Nadine, talk to me, please.”

He could see the building coming up. The light in front of him changed from yellow to red; he blew right threw it.

Elizabeth finally reads in her staff, and prepares for the trip to Iran.

Prompt #16 from this list - “You’re getting crumbs all over my bed.” Requested by @laineyvb131. Set a bit before Elizabeth tells her staff she’s running for President, and before she fires Blake.

Deep into his task of reworking the Secretary’s schedule after recent events had conspired to crap all over its former order, Blake only realised the time when he thought about getting another coffee – only to figure that after midnight was probably not the best time to be chugging more caffeine.