Modern Princess

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Beckham's POV

Ugh. I had a pounding headache. And who turned the lights on?

"He should be waking up at any moment Your Highness."

What?

"Thank you, doctor."

Doctor? Where was I?

I tried to open my eyes, but found the simple movement was a struggle.

Okay. That was weird.

Speaking of, I felt weird. Not like the 'I just hit my funny bone' weird, but like 'I haven't had a good stretch in a while' weird.

And what was that smell? I was definitely not at home. I didn't know how I knew, but I just did. I finally managed to open my eyes only to be met with a bright light.

"Uhh," I moaned, closing my eyes once more.

I heard someone take a sharp intake of breath, then felt someone's presence right beside the bed or whatever this was.

"Beckham?"

Who was that? It was a female. Maybe one of my sisters? No.

"Remy," I tried to say, but just coughed instead.

What was wrong with me?

"Shhh. It's okay. Take your time waking up."

Her voice sounded groggy, like she had been crying or hadn't gotten a proper amount of sleep. Maybe both.

"Remy," I tried once more.

"I'm here," she said, then I felt her grab my hand.

"What-" cough, "What's going on?"

"We'll, you're, umm, you're in the infirmary, at the castle. You were....you were shot...in the stomach. You've been here recovering."

Well, that explained the abdominal pain...and the pain everywhere else.

"Shot," I asked, opening my eyes again.

It took me a minute to adjust to the lights, but finally, I was able to take in my surroundings. A bedside table to my left with a small lamp in the middle, an IV machine right beside me, white walls, a few chairs in front of the bed, a glass wall to the right, and a beautiful princess standing right beside me.

I started to examine her face a bit more only to see obvious dark rings under her eyes. Her normally stormy blue eyes were tinged slightly with red, but were still as gorgeous as ever. Other than that, she looked like she had just walked out of a photoshoot. In other words, she was perfect.

I squeezed her hand with all my might, but it probably came out as nothing more than a light touch. I felt extremely weak.

"How are you feeling? Do you need any pain medicine? Maybe something to drink?"

I smiled the most reassuring smile I could and croaked out a 'no'. She grimaced, as if she could sense my pain, but nodded. She hesitated, hovering slightly over the side of my bed, but finally decided to sit down, facing me. I could see her exhaustion and I suddenly felt bad for everything wrong I had ever done to her in the past few months.

Then another thought struck me.

"How long have I been out?"

When I was only met with a sympathetic look, I knew it wasn't a few hours.

Remy glanced at the doctor still standing in the doorway then turned back to me with a sigh. She timidly said, "Six days."

I nearly choked except my throat was still severely dry. Instead, it came out as a mixture of a cough and a gagging noise. Remy scrambled to help me, but the coughing was enough to knock me back into unconsciousness.

****

I awoke this time alone. I was about to sit up when a pain shot through me so intense I had to grit my teeth to prevent a scream from escaping. As it was, a strangled sound made it way out and a nurse came bounding into the room to see what was wrong.

I was in so much pain her voice only reached me as a muffled sound.

I tried concentrating on slowing my breathing since that seemed to be the only thing I had control of. Once I had calmed down, I turned my head to look at the nurse and saw she was already pumping medicine into me. I sent her a grateful smile and then tried to relax. That was the only way to truly stay out of pain anyway.

I heard voices out in the hallway, then a familiar face came back into my room.

"Oh good, you're awake," Ren seemed relieved, but I could see obvious stress on her face. "I really need to talk to you. Is now a good time?"

She had that look on her face that said 'I'm trying to handle the situation, but I'm still freaking out'.

I nodded as she walked around the foot of the bed to come stand next to me.

"A few things have happened while you were passed out," she exchanged a look with the doctor looming in the doorway once more and he just nodded at her. "Firstly, Griffin has been taken to the royal prison for treason as of right now, but his case is still being assessed. He is likely to be moved around until the advisors can get the situation under control. He has also been stripped of his title and future position as second to inherit the throne. Secondly," at this she took a deep breath and broke her eye contact with me. "Griffin was not the only one found guilty. What do you remember from?"

"Not much. I'm guessing getting shot messes with one's memory," I laughed although promptly stopped when a severe pain shot through my body. No pun intended.

"Well Griffin was working with someone as was his mother. It was," she blew out a big breath then finally looked at me," your father. He was the master mind behind the murders and one of the rebel leaders."

I sucked in a big breath at this, but couldn't find the words to express what I was feeling.

"What else?" I asked when I couldn't find any other words to come out of my mouth.

"Your mother..." she hesitated before continuing. "She has chosen to abdicate the throne."

I whipped my head up at this. I knew what she was implying, but it was still a shock when the words came out of my mouth.

"I'm to be king."

She nodded solemnly at my statement.

Exasperated, I looked up at the ceiling, trying my best to process all this information. The first thing I thought of was my family. Were they okay? Did my sisters know? What made Mom make this decision? She was a strong woman. She could handle this.

I wasn't ready to be king. Sure I had been prepping for this day my entire life, but I still felt so inadequate. I didn't even have the first law to being a king complete: Marriage. It wasn't time for me. Instead of the million questions flowing through my brain, I asked, "When do I leave? For the coronation?"

"Your family is already here to pick you up. They've been waiting for you to wake up. And for me to deliver the news."

I laid my head back onto the pillow and let out a slow breath trying to put my thoughts together.

"They would like to do it tomorrow if you're feeling okay," she said.

After a moment in silent thought, I nodded, looking into Remy's eyes. They were swirling with something that looked familiar, but that I couldn't yet understand.

She cleared her throat and looked at the floor.

"Right. So I'll just go let them know tomorrow is alright."

She started to walk away then I remembered a crucial detail about the current king of this kingdom.

"Princess...How is King Hugo?"

She pivoted around slightly, just enough so I could see her face and gave me a sad smile.

That's when I realized her exhaustion wasn't over me, but over her father.

"He'll be okay."

****

xx