Chapter Text
Ava’s life is hectic, but her job is even more hectic. As the Secretary of State, she doesn’t get a minute to breathe during the day because she’s stuck in meetings one minute and the next she is being whisked away to answer some questions from the press. Most days she doesn’t even have time to eat lunch, so she just has a power bar or something to keep her blood sugars up just enough to make it through the rest of the day.
Today is no different, the moment she steps into her office she is bombarded with stuff that she has to do. There are papers and files strewn across the dark wooden desk that is standing proudly in the middle of the room. She lets out a sigh, hangs her coat up by the door, and sits down at her desk. But, before she can even begin to think about where to start, there’s a knock at her door.
“Come in,” she says, with a hint of frustration in her voice because she has so much work to do and she’s already being distracted after being there for five minutes. The door swings open to reveal Zari Tarazi, her right-hand woman.
“Good morning Madam Secretary,” Zari says, her hands clutching a binder against her chest and a soft smile gracing her lips. She steps a little further into Ava’s office, letting the door close behind her. Ava looks up at her with a cautious look on her face, knowing that it’s never going to be a good day when Zari isn’t already sitting in her office ready to catch her up on the latest gossip. Whether that be about something that her boyfriend, John Constantine, did the night before or just something that she had seen online about some celebrity.
As much as Ava pretends that she doesn’t, she likes it when Zari just sits opposite her while she is doing her work and rambles about something that, most of the time, Ava has no idea what she is talking about. It’s her only form of entertainment as she goes over some dull paperwork. Zari gets so passionate sometimes when she is talking to Ava, it brings a bright spark to her chocolate-colored eyes.
It’s comforting to see, never in Ava’s life has somebody been so excited and happy to share intimate details of their life with her before. Even from an early age, Ava wasn’t that great at making friends and that carried on into high school and then in college. So she hadn’t really had the chance to gossip with someone, even if she should be doing work, and the fact that Zari does it with her so willingly and so comfortably, makes her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
However, there wasn’t an excited glint in Zari’s eyes today. Instead, she just placed the binder on the desk in front of Ava and remained standing in front of the desk. Ava eyes the binder suspiciously, and opens it with one finger, just enough to peak at the first page. But, the front page doesn’t tell her what is in the binder, she looks up at Zari with confusion written all over her face.
“It’s the files of your new security team, I know you didn’t ask for it but I just thought that you would want to get to know more about them and their backgrounds. They’re going through security and then I’ll bring them in to meet you unless you have something more important you need to do, Gary hasn’t given me your schedule for today,” Zari says and Ava pulls the binder towards her to get a closer look at it.
“No, bring them in when they’re ready, I just have a few things to finish off from yesterday before I can get today’s things done,” Ava smiles at her friend before she exits the room, leaving Ava alone once again.
She has a quick flip through the binder, before going back to the first page. Her eyes scan the page and they land on a picture in the top right corner of the page, it’s the head security guard. She has blonde hair that is scraped up into a ponytail two loose strands framing her perfectly structured face, in the picture, and brilliant blue eyes that remind Ava of the ocean. She takes in the smaller details of the woman, like the freckles that are littered all over her face, and the small, barely-there smile on her face causing her dimples to stand out.
Her eyes flit over the page to the small list of important details about the blonde woman in the picture.
“Sara Lance,” Ava says out loud, and the second the words leave her lips they sound familiar and she has no idea why. She has never seen this woman before, she would remember somebody as pretty as her.
Before she has a chance to try to think about the name a little harder and why she recognizes it, there’s a knock on her office door. “Come in,” Ava calls out and the door opens to reveal Zari once again, but this time there are a couple of other people with her.
They all step into the room, Ava stands up and walks around her desk to greet the new people. They’re standing in a line, each with their hands behind their back and stoic looks on their faces. Ava steps closer to them and they each introduce themselves, starting with the youngest looking one. He has longish dark brown hair, Ava holds her hand out for him to shake before introducing herself.
“Behrad Tarazi,” he says giving her hand a firm shake, before resuming his original position with his back straight and his hands clasped together behind his back.
When Ava hears his last name, her face scrunches up in realization and her head snaps towards Zari, who is standing close beside her. “Wait, Tarazi, as in- are you two related?”
“Yeah, he’s my little brother,” Zari says with a soft smile on her face.
Ava nods her head and gives them a firm smile, before moving onto the woman standing beside Behrad, she introduces herself as Charlie Jiwe. Her name sounds very familiar to Ava, she also looks a hell of a lot like her brother’s girlfriend. However, she chooses not to dwell on it, already far too behind her schedule as it is. So she moves onto the last woman standing there, she recognizes her from the binder that Zari had given her earlier that morning. Sara Lance.
They shake hands and before anyone else can speak, Ava says, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, I just have so much work to do before the trip and I’m already behind schedule.”
They each nod and wave it off before leaving the room with Zari, who is probably going to take them on a tour of the building, so that they know the ins and outs of the place; in case of emergency. Usually, Ava would have taken the time to get to know each of them a little, because she finds it slightly difficult to trust people she doesn’t even know, especially when said people are the ones who are responsible for keeping her alive and making sure that no harm comes to her.
However, she figures that there will be plenty of time for her to get to know each of them a little better and in the meantime turns her attention back to the work on her desk. She sits down with a sigh and begins to sort the papers into different piles, from the most important work to the least important work. It’s a tedious job, but it’s practically impossible for her to even begin to do work if her desk is a mess. Everything has a place and everything needs to be put in its place for her to be able to do her work efficiently.
Luckily she gets a good amount of work done and by lunchtime, she is almost caught up with her schedule. She glances over at the clock on the wall, 12:30 pm, she contemplates whether or not she has enough time to be able to eat her lunch and ultimately decides that lunch can wait until she has finished everything that needs to be done.
She decides to get up and read through the paperwork in her hand over on the couch at the opposite end of her office; just to be able to have a change of scenery. Even if it is just looking at her office from a slightly different angle, at least sitting on the couch allows her to look out of the window.
On the streets down below her, there’s a gaggle of students standing in a half-circle around what she assumes is their teachers. There are also a few kids who are standing away from the group, clearly unhappy about being forced onto the trip. Her eyes flit to another group, they look a lot older and she guesses that they are tourists, each of them have a camera in their hands or hanging around their necks, snapping pictures of the building from various angles. She’s a little confused as to why they would travel to come and see the building, it’s nothing special, especially compared to other government buildings like the White House.
She shrugs her shoulders and tears her eyes away from the window and focuses on the papers in her hands. She ends up reading the same line four times before she is able to fully focus on reading it, she begins with a quick skim read through the file, and then she reads through it again, this time using a highlighter to pick out the more important parts of it. She doesn’t get a chance to do any more than that because there’s a knock on her office door.
She rolls her eyes before calling out, “come in!”
The door opens to reveal Gary, her assistant. He seems a little more reserved than usual, and that makes Ava slightly nervous because that means something bad has happened and he is there to deliver the news to her.
“Good afternoon, Madam Secretary,” he says bowing his head a little.
“Good afternoon, you don’t need to bow to me Gary I’m not royalty, I have told you this so many times,” Ava says with a slight annoyance in her voice, not necessarily aimed at Gary, more at the fact that her work has been interrupted for the second time that day. “What is it?” she asks, chewing her lip slightly when she sees Gary playing with his fingers, it was one of the things he did when he was nervous.
“You have been summoned to the White House, President Taylor wants to meet with you.” The words tumble out of Gary’s mouth at a hundred miles a minute, and Ava finds it a little difficult to understand him at first. But, her brain catches up with her and she swallows hard. Her mind running through the million and one different reasons as to why the President of the United States, would want to set up a random meeting with her on a Thursday afternoon.
“Oh, okay, did he give you a time?” Ava asks, trying her best to keep her nerves at bay.
Gary nods his head and glances down at the piece of paper in his hands before saying, “yes, he wants you there at one fifteen.”
Ava slowly nods her head before glancing at the clock on the wall and realizes that it is already twelve thirty-six. Meaning that she will have to leave in around ten minutes to be able to get to the white house and go through all of the security measures.
“Okay, does Zari know about this? The last time I saw her she was showing my new security team around the building,” Ava says as she rushes around the room, shoving things into her satchel.
“Uh, yes they are all ready to go, she is just going over a few things with them,” Gary explains as he grabs Ava’s coat for her and hands it to her. She slips it on and they leave the room. As she heads towards the car that is waiting out front for her, her steps are so quick and full of purpose that Gary has to do a little jog every now and then just to keep up with her.
There are two of her new security guards walking in front of her, Sara and Behrad are practically marching in front of her and Charlie is walking behind with Zari and Gary. They reach the car and Sara is holding the door open for her, she thanks the smaller woman softly before stepping into the car and settling in on the backseat. Sara and Behrad sit up front, while Zari sits at the very back of the SUV with Gary.
He is talking her ear off. Although she isn’t paying any attention to the man, instead she is just staring out of the window, watching the streets of Washington DC pass by.
“Do you have any idea what this is about?” Ava asked anxiously. There are so many different reasons that the President could want to speak to her, but her mind seemed to only focus on the negative ones, like him firing her.
He has no reason to fire her, she is exceptional at her job. Probably, the best that the country has seen in years. But, the thought is still there floating around her mind.
They finally make it to the White House and the drive over there felt as though it lasted for hours when in reality it’s a mere ten-minute drive. Going through security to enter the building takes longer than it did to drive there. Ava is getting a little impatient, she is through security first and wants nothing more than to just go to the Oval Office to find out what is going on and settle her nerves.
Instead, she has to wait for her own security team to be cleared by the White House’s security team. Ava has to be there to sign some things to allow them to have badges, to make it easier for them to access the building in the future.
She goes as fast as she possibly can because a glance at her watch tells her that she has less than five minutes to finish signing the papers before she has to rush over to the other end of the west wing, where the oval office is located.
When the necessary papers are signed, she and her team are finally able to head towards the oval office.
When they arrive, Ava shoves her bag into Gary’s arms before she smooths her pantsuit out. Zari stops her just as she’s about to enter the room, she fixes Ava’s hair for her. It isn’t until the little strands of flyaway hair are stuck to her head and her bun is in perfect condition, tied tightly at the base of her head.
“Thank you, Zari,” Ava nods her head at the dark-haired woman before taking a deep breath and following the President’s assistant into the Oval Office.
Her nerves are through the roof when she sees the President standing by the window, just staring out of it with a drink in his hand.
“Madame Secretary, Sir,” his assistant says softly, causing him to turn his attention away from the window and onto the two women standing in his office.
“Thank you, Olivia, Secretary Sharpe, have a seat please,” he says, gesturing towards the two couches that are located in the middle of the office. Olivia leaves the room and Ava takes a seat.
As she sits down she notices the very serious look on the President’s face. Usually when they talk he is all smiles and it is never as formal as this feels. It makes Ava nervous, her hands start to feel clammy again, she subtly wiped them on her pants but that didn’t stop the nerves. She and the President sat across from one another, in silence. It was a little awkward and Ava wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to speak or not.
Luckily, he broke the silence, “I bet you’re wondering why I asked for this meeting to be set up, on such short notice, which sorry about that by the way, I hope you weren’t too busy.” He chuckled and Ava just shook her head and waved it off, as if she wasn’t buried up to her head in paperwork.
“It’s okay, I mean I do have a few things to take care of-” Ava began to say but the man sitting across from her cut her off.
She tried not to let her anger show, it happens all the time. She is a woman in politics, after all, a profession that is predominantly old-white men who think they’re superior to everyone around them. The President is no exception to that. In fact, he probably cuts her off more than anybody she has ever worked with. So after working with him for almost six years, she has learned that it is best to just shut up and let him say whatever he needs to say.
“As you know, I am coming up to the end of my second term, meaning I can’t run again,” he says slowly, almost as if he is waiting for her to acknowledge that she understands what he is talking about. Another thing that got under Ava’s skin, her colleagues like to act as though she has no idea how politics actually works. It’s as though they don’t realize that without her, there doing her job every day, the country would be falling apart. But, for the sake of her keeping that job, she tends to keep her mouth shut and tries her very best not to let it bother her.
She nods her head and he takes that as a sign to carry on, “I can’t run again, and I have been thinking long and hard about who I would like to endorse in the election next November. There are many people who are more than capable and are qualified for this job, but I don’t think there is anybody better or more capable than you to take over as President, I want to endorse you, Ava.” He says and at the last part Ava’s head shoots up to look him in the eyes.
She genuinely believed that he brought her in there to tell her that he had chosen someone else to endorse. Her being President was her dream, ever since she was old enough to understand and get involved with politics. However, she had a very tight-knit plan for her entire life, and becoming President was definitely on there, just not this early on in her life.
“I, uh- wow- I don’t know what to say, I am honored. Thank you, mister President,” Ava says, with a smile so big that it almost reaches from ear to ear. She stands up quickly from the couch and moves closer to him to be able to shake his hand.
He gives her hand a firm shake before smiling at her, it’s a proud smile that reaches his dark brown eyes and makes them glisten.
They talk over a few important details before he is called away to another meeting. Ava steps out of the office and walks through the West Wing in search of her team. She finds them sitting in the lobby. When Zari sees her walking towards her, she jumps up from her seat with wide eyes and a questioning look on her face.
“So? What happened? Or can you not talk about it?” She asks, Ava just shakes her head, walks by her, and grabs her bag from Gary.
“Let’s go, I need to get back to work,” Ava says, already walking away from them and towards the exit. They all jump up and follow her out of the building and out to the SUV they arrived in. Each of them sitting in their previous seats as they drove through the city, which is now considerably busier than it was when they arrived earlier that afternoon. They’re stuck in traffic when they’re almost back at the Truman Building. The entire road was stood still, and it didn’t look like they would be moving any time soon.
Ava lets out a frustrated sigh, as she looks out of the window at people walking by. She feels a little jealous of them, being able to move about without having to have security attached to them. She would be back in her office by now if she didn’t have to stay with her security team.
“He wants me to run for President and he wants to endorse me in the upcoming election,” Ava blurts out, breaking the silence in the car. Zari’s head snaps towards her and she notices Sara raise her eyebrows and glance at her with a surprised look on her face, through the rearview mirror.
“What? That’s amazing Ava, we should be celebrating, why don’t you seem happy about this? I thought this is what you wanted,” Zari says a little confused as to why Ava is acting as though she has just received some bad news rather than probably the greatest news of her life.
“I just, I have a plan, for, like my entire life, I know where I am going to be a year from now, even five years from now, and this disrupts the entire plan. I don’t know if I’m ready to do this, what if I’m not good enough? I feel like I need a few more years,” Ava says softly, and everyone in the car is looking at her with confusion written on their faces because Ava is probably more ready for this than anybody else who is deciding to run for President, even a blind person could see that.
“Ava, you are so ready for this, you can’t plan every second of your life, things are constantly changing it is literally impossible to stick to a plan like that. I think everyone in this car will agree with me when I say that I think you are ready, you have already achieved so much for yourself and this country, America would be lucky to have you as their commander in chief,” Zari says softly, trying her very best to reassure her friend. She can see the anxiety rising within Ava, the cogs in her head running a mile a minute as she overthinks every single little detail of how her running for President could go good or bad.
“She’s right, you’re amazing Secretary Sharpe, my mom and I would definitely vote for you,” Gary says from his seat in the back of the car, Ava turns to look at him, he has a huge grin on his face as he gives her two thumbs up. Ava lets out a soft chuckle at the man, before turning in her seat again.
“I just wish that he waited until at least after the trip to Europe, I already have so much work to do, and then I have to spend two weeks convincing other world leaders to join the new global environment initiative, I just-” Ava cuts herself off and takes a deep breath, to calm herself down.
She knows that it isn’t really going to be an issue, she has had so much more work to do in the past. It just feels so overwhelming to her. All she wants to do is go home, have a bubble bath with a glass of wine, and then curl up in bed. But she can’t do that, she has at least two more meetings to sit through and a huge heap of paperwork to get through.
Luckily, they get through the traffic quicker than expected and Ava is whisked away to her next meeting. It lasts for less than half an hour, and in her mind, it was a complete waste of time and should have just been put in an email. However, she rushes back to her office to get the rest of the paperwork done and filed away.
She finally finishes everything that needed to be done, but it’s almost ten pm, and with a grumble of her stomach she realizes that she hasn’t eaten since yesterday at dinner time. She makes sure that her office is clean and everything is filed away and in its proper place, before grabbing her bag and coat.
She leaves her office to find Sara and Behrad sitting on the chairs outside of her office. Ava’s eyes widen in shock, her old security team never stayed past six pm, always leaving her to uber home. Which now that she thinks about it, probably wasn’t a good thing. However, she realizes how late it is and immediately feels bad that they’re still sitting there, although the other woman, Charlie, is no longer with them.
“You didn’t have to wait here,” Ava says softly causing the two of them to look up at her. Sara slaps Behrad’s arm, silently indicating for him to get off of his phone, he gets the message and quickly shoves it into his pocket.
“It is quite literally our job to protect you, Secretary Sharpe, Zari warned us that you like to stay late, Charlie had to head home but the car is waiting for you out front if you’re ready to leave?” Sara asks and Ava nods her head and gives her a tight-lipped smile.
“I can handle myself you know, my last security team never waited for me to finish my work, I used to uber home,” Ava says as they leave the building, almost as if she feels the need to prove herself to the small blonde woman.
“I’m sure you can, but we don’t want to take any risks,” Sara says, opening the car door for Ava to get into the back seat of the SUV. She looks at Sara with a soft smile on her face before climbing in.
The ride to her apartment is mostly silent with the exception of Sara and Behrad making a small comment every now and then.
The sky is pitch black, with clouds covering the moon slightly. The stars were barely visible with the bright lights of the city. But, this is always Ava’s favorite part of the day. Coming home when it’s dark means that she gets to enjoy the city in all of its glory, the whole city is lit up and the Washington Monument is visible for the entire drive. Even though it looks the same every time she looks at the monument, she can never seem to take her eyes off of the thing.
Ever since she was a little girl and she visited Washington DC on a school trip, her dream has always been to move to the city. The first thing that they visited on the trip was the monument, so it has always been there in the back of her mind, as a little reminder that she has achieved over half of the goals that she had set for herself as an ambitious fourteen-year-old. So, it always gave her a little bit of excitement and hope, being able to see the monument every day.
It reminds her just how proud she should be of herself and how much she has overcome throughout her life.
She is ripped away from her thoughts when suddenly the car is no longer moving and Sara is standing with the car door open and a soft smile on her face. She quickly gets out of the car, after thanking Behrad for the ride.
She walks up the small staircase to her front door and is fishing in her pockets for her keys to get inside when she notices Sara standing beside her.
“You don’t have to follow me inside, I’m sure nothing bad is going to happen on my doorstep,” Ava says with a mixture of amusement and slight frustration at the fact that Sara didn’t think that she is capable enough to let herself into her own home, without getting in some sort of danger.
“I’m sure nothing bad will happen on your doorstep, but as I said before it is my job to protect you, and until you are inside safe and sound I will be here by your side because you can never be too sure,” Sara says and Ava just narrows her eyes and nods her head slightly before turning her attention back to finding her keys.
She finds them and quickly unlocks the door, “I’m surprised you aren’t insisting on checking my apartment for any form of danger,” Ava teases.
“I mean I could if that would make you feel safe,” Sara says with a smirk.
“It would not, goodnight Miss Lance,” Ava says before stepping inside.
“Goodnight Madame Secretary,” Sara mock salutes her before turning on her heel and heading back to the car.
Ava rolls her eyes and closes the door. She kicks off her shoes and puts them in the correct place by the door, along with her bag and coat, before heading to the kitchen to find something substantial to eat. At that moment, she has never been more grateful that her mom insists on making her premade meals, just to make sure that she has something to eat; because she knows that her daughter has tendencies to get too focused on work that she forgets to eat or simply chooses not to because of her schedule.
She tosses the Tupperware box into the microwave and scrolls through her phone as she waits for the food to warm up. There’s a text from Zari and her brother Nate, she is about to respond to Nate’s rambling about some new conspiracy theory he has stumbled upon when the microwave dings and she forgets all about her phone.
She quickly eats the food, before heading upstairs and running a bubble bath, she gets in with a glass of her favorite red wine in her hand. Her eyes start to feel heavy after a while and the water is getting slightly cold, so she figures that she should probably get out and head to bed; because if not she will definitely end up falling asleep in the bath, that has happened more times than she would like to admit.
Her pajamas are already neatly laid out at the end of her bed from that morning. She dries herself off with a towel and changes into them before crawling into bed. Almost as soon as her head hits the pillow she is out like a light and the stresses of the day are momentarily forgotten.