True Love, Actually

Chapter 1: Welcome to Downing Street

This story is based on the film "Love, Actually". It is the Prime Minister's storyline. I've changed some bits to suit SwanQueen. I didn't have a beta, so al mistakes are mine. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to ErrolsFeathor for creating the cover art for this fic!

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the Arrivals Gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion started to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed but I don't see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified, or newsworthy - but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.

When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate and revenge - they were all messages of love. lf you look for it, I've got a sneaking feeling you'll find that love actually is all around." - Love Actually film.

5 weeks till Christmas.

She was nervous. Really nervous, actually. Here she was, an Anglo-American woman from Brooklyn, part Puerto Rican, a single mother and a proud democrat with a political science degree from Columbia University. And the newest Prime Minister of Great Britain. How the hell did I get here? She thought, trying to recall her journey to Downing Street.

Regina and Henry had been living in the UK for the past 6 years now, having moved from New York, where Regina had lived for most of her life. Henry was 4 at the time of their move.

Regina was actually born in London, and lived there until her parents moved back to America when she was just nine months old, and her elder sister was 5 years old.

Regina's ex-husband, Robin, was British and had more or less forced her to move back to England before they had gotten married.

They had met at Columbia University - Regina studying Political Science, Robin studying Forestry Management. Robin had pursued Regina relentlessly until she finally agreed to a date. Which led to another date. Before she knew it, they were in a serious relationship and Regina found herself pregnant just before graduating with honours.

Robin had convinced her to stay home to look after the baby, and to this day she can't understand why she was so easily persuaded to do something she thought to be so archaic. They weren't living in the 1950s, for God's sake. But Robin could be very charmingly manipulative when he wanted his own way and Regina was blindly in love with him.

After Henry had turned 3, Regina was itching to put her degree to some use. After months of applying for different jobs in her field, she had finally managed to secure a part-time job working in their local town hall with their mayor. Then, out of the blue, Robin confessed that he'd taken a job in England. He hadn't even told her that he was applying for jobs back home. It was a complete surprise and she was pretty pissed off. Her parents were getting on in age, too, so she didn't particularly want to leave them. But she had made a commitment to Robin - who had finally proposed to her and he suggested they get married before moving to his home town in Surrey.

After a few months in this foreign country, she still felt unsettled and homesick for her parents. She decided to try to use her political science degree by looking for work in their council building, finding a job managing the county's budget. It bored her to tears, though, as she desperately wanted to be able to help people. But there she was, budgeting for the local county to make sure they didn't overspend on stupid things like providing all high school pupils - and teachers alike - with an iPad each. Whose stupid idea was that, anyway? How's that going to teach kids the value of money by giving them expensive gadgets for free? She finally decided that she'd just have to make more of an effort and commuted to London once she landed a job working for the Mayor of London.