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“I have a secret,” Nora said, plopping into the seat across from Alex. “An important one.”
Noting her serious tone, Alex sat up a little straighter, paid a little more attention to the conversation. “What is it?”
“I put a Black Widow in the White House servers.”
“I’m sorry, what? What does that even mean?”
“A Black Widow. It’s a piece of spyware I developed myself - named after Natasha of course. Anyway. It’s obviously super against the rules, but I don’t trust the tech people as much as I trust myself and… I found something.”
“Oh shit.”
“So I… stopped something.”
“Oh. Shit. Okay, what’s the move? What did you find? What comes next?”
“So, that’s why I came to you first. Because it’s about you.”
“Nora, please, you’re scaring the hell out of me.”
“Somebody was trying to hack the email server. Specifically, our email server. Specifically, your emails. To Henry.”
A wave of nausea punched Alex in the stomach. The implications were vast, the potential fallout almost impossible to comprehend.
His emails to Henry.
Someone knew about him and Henry, suspected it at the very least. How had he been so stupid, so reckless? How had he ever believed he could protect Henry the way he longed to promise him? God, their entire lives could’ve been blown up—
“Alex, it’s fine, it’s going to be okay - but you need to breathe. You’re turning red, I stopped it-“
“You-you almost… what if you didn’t? What if you hadn’t?” The love he’d fought for, the love he’d flown across the ocean for - it would’ve been… what would it have been? Used for blackmail? Political sabotage? Used to plaster the streets with the more explicit parts of their emails? Fuck. Fuck, he’d been so stup—
“Alex!” Nora hissed. “Breathe!”
So Alex breathed. He forced himself to gasp in a gulp of air, lungs stinging from the deprivation.
“Who was it?”
“Richards.”
“I’ll kill him.”
“I’ll help.”
“What do we do next?”
“It’s up to you.”
“I need to call Henry. See what he wants to do. How long do we have until they know you caught them?”
“I put a facade in there that’s generating a bunch of meaningless downloads that they think they’re getting, but it’s pages and pages of Lorem ipsum. Best case, you’ve got 12 hours. Worst case, you have 3 until they open the first zip and realize what they’ve gotten.”
“Fuck. Fucking shit. Okay. I need to call Henry. I promise I’ll thank you appropriately once I’m done panicking, but thank you. I love you.”
“I love you, too. What can I do to help?”
“Can you find June? We can meet in the China room and talk this all out. And…”
Clear the server, is what he needed to say. But his emails… his love story with Henry - it was all there. All sacred, and very nearly stolen. It wasn’t safe there, and he knew that losing any proof of it would hurt, but losing their privacy would be irreversible.
“We need to clear—“
“It’s already done. I’ve scraped every email between you and Henry, as well as any correspondence that even mentions him.”
“Oh.” Alex felt empty, thinking of all the words and stories and postscripts and secrets that had just been erased. He should’ve memorized them. “Good. That’s good. Thank you.”
Then Nora was standing up, pulling him into a hug, and pressing something small into his hand. It was a little thumb drive, innocuous and beautiful and very suddenly Alex's prized possession. “I would never take those from you without permission. They’re all on this. I’ll help you get them all back once we’re in the clear.”
With a small, dry sob, Alex clutched Nora to him tightly, holding her like a lifeline. “Thank you, Nora. Fuck. Holy shit. Thank you. Thank you, for all of this.”
“Go call Henry. I’ll get June. And I’ll see you in the China room.”
Alex nodded, squeezing her once more before they went their separate ways.
“Good afternoon, Love, I was just thinking about y—“
“Baby,” Alex murmured.
“What?” Henry’s voice was cold, and Alex could almost see him sitting up straight. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“It’s - it’s okay right now, but Richards… he must know about us. He’s trying to hack our email servers and… and he was looking for stuff about… us. Fuck. I’m so sorry, Henry. I should’ve been a million times more careful. If I’d ever known or predicted what we would have become I… I don’t know. I would’ve fixed this. I want to fix this. Tell me how to fix this.”
“He doesn’t have anything, does he? He didn’t get any of them?”
“No, no. Nora stopped him. They don’t know that we know, yet. We have a few hours before they do.”
“Okay. Okay, alright. Can you take a few deep breaths for me?”
“Me?! Me take deep breaths?! Henry, I almost ruined your life with my own fucking stupidity! You - you should hate me, you should block my number and never speak to me again! This is exactly why you ran away, you didn’t want to trade your prison for mine, and that’s exactly what’s happening even though I promised you it wouldn’t and… and you shouldn’t forgive me, you should be angry—“
“I am angry, Alex,” Henry interrupted, and Alex’s heart sank even as he felt the relief of knowing Henry would be able to find someone infinitely more deserving of him.
“Oh.”
“I am angry, Alex, but not with you. I’m angry that Richards thinks he can use something as precious as our story for his own selfish gain. I am angry that I’m an ocean away from you while you’re dealing with this-“
“I could’ve ruined your life,” Alex sobbed, sinking into the nearest chair.
“It’s your life, too, Alex. It would’ve been your life, too.”
And wasn’t that the truth? Wasn’t it Alex’s life, and privacy, and love that was very nearly spread across the front pages of every magazine? He felt unmoored, like his life raft had been tossed off the ship, and he was fighting against the waves
“I hate this,” cried Alex, tears streaming down his face now. “You’re right. You were right. It’s a fucking prison, this life. I don’t want it anymore. I want you, and I want a house in the middle of nowhere where nobody knows who we are, and I want our life to be ours, not my mom’s, or your grandma’s, or Richards’. It’s ours. I’m so tired, Henry. I’m so tired of sharing our life.”
“I know, Love. I know. It’s not fair. And we’ll figure that out, okay? I promise. I promise we will figure it out. We’ll make our life ours. But right now I need you to breathe.”
“You don’t hate me?”
“I could never.”
“You won’t run away?”
“Not ever again. Not unless it’s with you by my side.”
“You want to run away together?”
“Put a pin on a map, my Darling, and I will follow you there.”
Alex sobbed, then. A real, proper sob. Half-hysterical and half-relieved as he sank even further into the chair he’d collapsed in. “I want that.”
“Maybe Svalbard?”
Alex let out a weak chuckle, ever grateful for Henry’s understanding of him and exactly what he needed to hear. “Too cold.”
“Moloka’i?”
“Do you take me as some sort of colonizer?”
“Lord Howe Island?”
“Spiders are too big.”
“Ibiza?”
“Perfect.”
“Ibiza it is.”
For a beat, they sat in silence. Henry dared to break it first. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what the right answer will be. I just know I don’t want - no, I won’t let anyone but you and I tell our story.”
“Okay. Then we tell it.”
“What?!” Shrieked Alex. “What - what do you mean?”
“You waited for me to be brave, Alex, and I’ll never be able to tell you how grateful I am for that. But I’m ready. I’m ready to be brave. I want to be.”
And all Alex could do was cry some more, trying desperately to stifle it behind his hand. The panic and elation and rage and relief were a whirlpool inside his head, bringing him to the surface and threatening to drown him all at once.
“Hen, I feel like I’m gonna pass out.”
“Oh god! Please don’t do that, are you sitting down?!”
“Yes - yeah, I’m… I need to go meet June and Nora. We need to talk it out, I just… I needed to talk to you first. I needed to hear your voice. Hear that everything’s okay.”
“Okay, okay, good. So good, love. Everything is okay. I’m not angry with you. I’m going to get on a plane and I’m going to come to you, and we’ll figure it out together. I love you,” said Henry, his voice gentle and slow. With a whimper, Alex hugged himself tightly. The words were still foreign to him - the fact that he meant it entirely was even more unbelievable. Henry loved him. Henry and Alex were in love. Somebody on this earth loved Alex, and whether they were the only two people on earth who knew it or the entire world did, they were in love, and that’s what mattered.
“I love you, too,” Alex responded because he could. Because he loved Henry. And because Henry loved Alex.
“Let’s breathe a few more times, my darling.”
“Okay,” Alex said, following the sound of Henry’s breathing - in and out, in and out. “Thank you,” said Alex. And then, because he could - “I love you.”
“And I love you. Go talk to Nora and June, I’m sure they’re eager to talk you down as well. Shaan’s getting a plane ready as we speak.”
“Okay. Thank you. I love you.”
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
It took another minute, but they finally hung up the phone, and Alex made his way to the China Room. His chest felt lighter, but his legs still felt wobbly, and he braced himself against the wall more than once on the walk there.
“Oh, Alex,” June gasped, rushing to hug him. “Nora told me everything. I’m so sorry you’re going through this. We’re going to fix it, okay? It’s going to be alright.”
“Henry…” Alex started, unable to finish the sentence as he allowed his weight to be held - just for a beat.
“Henry what? If he blames you for this, so help me—”
“No, no,” rushed Alex. “No, he wants us to tell our story. Our way. Before anyone else can.”
“Oh.” Part of June felt ashamed for having jumped to such a conclusion; the other part was so fucking relieved that Henry had responded so perfectly that she couldn’t feel anything else. All she’d ever wanted for Alex was someone (other than her) who put him first. And finally - finally - somebody would. Politics would always come first for their mom. For their dad, his own pride. Nora had her numbers, more comfortable in the constancy of statistics. June had always prioritized Alex, because nobody else did. It had caused more than a few fights in more than a few of her relationships; her partners couldn’t understand why she would drop everything to be there for Alex, and she didn’t have it in her to justify herself or her behaviors. If they couldn’t understand why June needed to leave, they would never be worth staying for.
For a long while, she’d wondered if Henry might take some of that pressure off her shoulders. She’d wondered if someone might put Alex first. And then she’d ended up nursing her baby brother’s wounds all over again. She didn’t think she could be blamed for not jumping to trust Henry implicitly after they reconciled.
But this? If Henry was truly ready to share them with the world… June’s chest ballooned with relief and elation at the understanding. Henry was ready to fight for Alex. Henry was ready to sacrifice things for her brother. Finally, finally someone had recognized Alex’s worth. Finally, June wouldn’t have to carry all of this on her own.
“He’ll be here in a few hours. Well, like, 7 hours. But he’ll be here. He’s coming. He is crossing the ocean for me.” And even in the face of the horror the day had almost become, he let out a tiny little chuckle, a small wriggle of glee running through his limbs. “So… so he and I are going to be okay. Whatever we have to do. What do we need to do to make this okay?”
The three of them ended up in Ellen’s more private office, Alex pacing and clutching his phone for more updates from Henry while Nora tentatively admitted to what she’d done.
“You put a what in the servers?”
“A, uh… a Black Widow, is what I called it. It’s spyware. It recognizes external entities and chameleons itself to infiltrate it and, well… we stopped something.”
“Which is…”
June and Nora looked to Alex, who flashed a guilty smile in their direction.
“So… you know Henry and I, right?”
“Yes?”
“And you know how we’re… together?”
“I made three different PowerPoints, Darlin’, yes, I’m familiar.”
“Right, well, I neglected to mention that we… sort of fell in love over email. Our emails. My White House one.”
“Because texts would be too simple?”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m really, really sorry. Richards must know about us, I don’t know how - I mean… I know I’m an idiot sometimes-“
“Absolutely not, Alex,” June hissed. “You are not an idiot-“
“-but we were being careful, Ma, I promise. I swear. I would never have jeopardized your campaign, not for anything, not even for my forever.” His voice broke at the end of the last sentence, and suddenly his mom was standing in front of him, hands on either of his shoulders.
“Forget the campaign for a second, Alex,” she said sternly. “Are you okay? Is Henry okay? What do you need?”
And, well… maybe a little part of Alex had been waiting for his mom to say forget the campaign for his entire life. He let out a shaky breath, a lie on the tip of his tongue — I’m alright — and instead, he hugged his mom - desperately fighting tears as she hugged him back.
“I’m so sorry, kiddo. I’m so sorry. It’s not fair. You deserve to just be a kid in love. Your sister is right. You are not an idiot. You’re my son, and I am so, so proud of you.”
“Thank you,” Alex exhaled. “Thank you, mama. I love you. I’m okay. And Henry’s okay, too. I mean - I’m scared, I don’t know what comes next. And I’m angry! I’m so angry at Richards! But I’m… I’m really proud of Henry, too? And I’m grateful to have you all, it’s… a lot.”
“It is. And when this is all behind us, I think you and Henry have earned a damned vacation, no?” Ellen said, squeezing Alex’s cheeks. “My baby boy, going on his first boyfriend trip.”
“Mom-“ Alex grumbled. “We need to focus. What are we doing about this?”
“Well — first — we’re ordering pizza.” Pressing the intercom button on her phone, Ellen called for a few pizzas to be brought to them. Over three tables, 18 greasy napkins, two six-packs of Corona, and one teary-eyed speech, they came up with a game plan.
First, Ellen’s team would share with Richards that they’d been caught trying to hack the server. A blackmail-esque truce would be made - Ellen’s camp wouldn’t reveal that Richards had tried hacking them if Richards stopped trying to. Then, the White House and Kensington would work together on a joint statement, revealing Alex and Henry’s relationship on their own terms, on their own timeline, and the statement would include that they felt rushed to announce it because Richards had been trying to hack their private servers.
Henry was 2 hours away, somewhere over the Atlantic, trusting Alex implicitly - even in spite of this near-fatal blunder. The weight of it felt like a physical thing on Alex’s shoulders. Henry had very little service, and for about 7 hours, he was willingly cutting himself off from the outside world, relying on Alex to make the right decisions for both of them. Henry trusted Alex with his life, and Alex knew he would cherish that trust, protect Henry from any harm, for the rest of his fucking life.
“I’m gonna marry him,” he said without preamble. All three women in the room whipped around to face him, and he smiled sheepishly. “I mean, not right now, or even soon. But one day. Maybe in a couple years. I just - I’m going to marry him. So… I wanted you to know that all of this - even if it was a huge mistake on my part, even if I fucked up, going through all of this to fix it - it’s worth it. I promise. Because he is my forever, Ma. You asked me if he was, and he is. I know it. I know it like I know my own reflection. I never would’ve wanted this to happen - I never would’ve risked the election, and I don’t want to make history with my relationship, but I know we’re going to, and I know it’s going to be worth it, because I’m going to marry him.”
With glistening eyes, Ellen pulled him into a hug. “This was not a mistake on your part. You were talking to someone you cared about, and then you fell in love with him. And if Richards thinks he can lay a finger on my son and his happiness, he’s got another thing coming. I’m so happy for you, Alex. I’m so happy you found your forever. And when you marry him, I’ll be front row with your Nan’s hanky to wipe my tears.” Leaning back, Ellen cupped a hand over Alex’s jaw. “Sometimes I still look at you and see the little six-year-old boy telling me one good thing and one bad thing. But you’re so much more than that. You’re so damned brave, and I’m so proud to be your mom.” Ellen looked at June then, too. “Both of you. I’ve been a lot of things in my life, and none of ‘em have been as important as being you kiddos’ mom.”
A beat later, June was wrapped up in their hug, a long-overdue moment of sincerity shared among the three of them.
“I love you both so much,” Ellen said, squeezing their heads into either of her shoulders.
“Love you, too,” June said.
“And I love you both!” Alex said, pressing a kiss to the top of both of their heads. He glanced towards Nora, eager to welcome her into the embrace as well, only to see her curled over her laptop again, a startlingly serious look on her face. “Nor? What’s going on?”
“We have a mystery player,” she said eerily.
“Uh. What?” June asked, echoing all of their thoughts.
“Someone on Richards’ team is talking to me.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I don’t know who it is, but they’re talking to me… through the Black Widow.”
Alex stood behind her, watching an analog style screen fill with incoming messages.
Oonmay: Nobody here has caught onto you yet.
Oonmay: You’ve got some time.
Oonmay: I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was happening.
Oonmay: My timeline has been advanced by this, but I have something you might be interested in.
Oonmay: It’s only about 87% complete, but there should be enough to get the job done.
Oonmay: [1 file download available]
Everyone in the room froze, a collective breath held amongst themselves. Who was this? What was the download? Nora cracked her knuckles.
R0man0ff: Who is this? How am I supposed to trust you? What will this download do?
The stranger was silent for so long that everyone assumed they’d abandoned the chat. And then…
Oonmay: Fair question, and maybe you shouldn’t.
Oonmay: But someone in that room does. Or did, once.
R0man0ff: You’re not helping your case. Tell me who this is or I’ll delete the download file from this server AND yours.
Oonmay: 2021 SCB BAC CHZ GR ON A1
Oonmay has left the server.
“What the fuck is this?” Nora asks aloud. “Did they fucking keysmash me and leave? Fine! Do they think I can’t reverse—”
“I know who it is,” Alex said, sounding numb. The day had been… a lot. He didn’t know how to feel about anything, he didn’t know who to trust, he didn’t know what to make of the code on the screen. He did know one thing for sure, he knew who Oonmay was.
Oonmay. Pig Latin for moon. Luna. Of course. Fucking genius. Piece of shit, traitor genius. Traitor. Maybe?
“Who is it?” Ellen asked.
“Rafael Luna. Oonmay, it’s Pig Latin for Moon. Moon in Spanish is Luna.”
“Anyone on Richards’ team could pretend to be—”
“The code. 2021 SCB. It’s the address of the Five Guys we used to work right next to. Bacon, cheese, grilled onions, and A1 sauce.” Alex rattled it off the same way he had hundreds of other times. “It’s his order. It’s Luna.”
Was that hope in his voice? Flickering just a tiny bit? Was Rafael still… good?
What the fuck was in that file?
“Do we download it?” June asked, clearly looking to Alex for guidance. But Alex didn’t know. Alex didn’t know if they could trust Rafael again. Alex didn’t know what the fuck to do. Henry was trusting him, and Alex didn’t know what to do. He was frozen by the possibilities - they’d evaded tragedy so far today, would this be the moment their luck ran out?
Make a decision, Alex. Henry is counting on you.
Panic wrapped its icy claws around Alex’s throat, and he looked around the room.
“I don’t—“ he managed to get out.
“Download it,” Ellen proclaimed, sensing her son’s distress. “If it’s something good, then we should have it, and if it’s something bad, well, I trust this… Black Widow of yours, Nora. Download it.”
The panic subsided a bit, washing away like the tide when the decision was off his shoulders. He nodded. “I agree.”
And so Nora downloaded it, and they all waited on the edge of their seats as the file was decrypted.
“Henry’s almost here,” June said, her voice gentle. “Do you want to go wait for him?”
Alex recognized the offer for what it was - an escape route. If the files Luna had sent over were corrupted, or somehow sabotaged their servers, or worse yet, was proof that Rafael had known that he and Henry were being all but spied on… He wasn’t sure he could cope with the devastation. Not after everything he’d already been through that day.
But…
“I need to know.”
Nora opened the .zip file.
Alex felt as if he was floating outside of his body, gutted by the revelations in Rafael’s documents, hollowed out from the fear of what had almost happened. He couldn’t allow himself to think too much about what Raf had been through, simply because he couldn’t allow himself to think too much about anything. Not until Henry was there. They were safe, their secret was still their own. The accusations in Rafael’s files were officially serious enough that June, Nora and Alex were no longer welcome in the room, and so all Alex could do was sit in the gardens.
With shaky hands, he opened his phone.
Alex → Rafael Luna: Thank you.
There was hurt there, even now - Alex still remembered the way he’d recoiled when Rafael had implied that Alex should just fall in love with a woman - but there was only so much hurt because there was already so much love. Raf had risked a great deal in sending them those files - and moreover, he’d had to admit to the trauma he’d faced. There was hurt, yes, but there was mostly love and gratitude.
Then, a message from Henry.
Henry → Alex: Just touched down, Love. I’ll see you so soon.
Alex → Henry: not soon enough <333 love you. i’ll be waiting for you under our tree ;)
Henry → Alex: You make me do horribly inadvisable things like tell my driver to disobey the speed limits.
Alex → Henry: good!!! he should!! you have diplomatic immunity!!!
Alex → Henry: but also
Alex → Henry: get to me safe <333
Henry → Alex: Even if I have to bend time and space, Darling.
Hours later, Henry and Alex were sitting beneath their tree, feeling incredibly daring for being all tangled together outside. “So,” Henry started, an arm wrapped around Alex’s waist as he laid between Henry’s legs. “The press releases are going out tomorrow, yes?”
“Yeah, it’s… gonna be weird. Our relationship is gonna be, like, a footnote in the grand scheme of all of it, but, like, I know the media is gonna go crazy with it.”
“Are you scared?”
“I’m feeling, like, everything I think a person can feel. Scared is part of it. Mostly just… sad that we have to do this. Are you scared?”
“Not as scared as I thought I’d be,” Henry hummed. “I think… I mean, I hate what Richards almost did to us, but it’s almost as if, the risk of almost going through that helped me realize how okay I’d be with the aftermath, as long as we did it on our terms.”
Alex’s chest felt full to bursting with admiration. Fuck, Henry was so brave. And fuck, Alex loved him so much.
“I love you,” he said, reaching up to cup Henry’s jaw. “Thank you for coming, for being here. Thank you for being so brave for us.”
“Thank you for being so patient.” Leaning down, Henry captured Alex’s lips in a soft, gentle kiss. “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“I’m thinking… throwing my phone into the pool and spending the entire day glued to your side in bed? Let June give us a recap of how the world took the news at the end of the day?”
Henry nodded, hugging Alex tightly against him. “I think that sounds like a great plan. We’ll only venture out of your room for food for an entire 24 hours.”
“And… maybe we can imagine that future we were talking about? One that’s… ours, mostly? Even if it’s just a pipe dream?”
Henry hooked a finger beneath Alex’s chin, pulling him into another soft, sweet kiss. “We’ll make it a reality,” he said, sounding certain. “Even if I have to bend time and space.”
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