The Unexpected Journey-A Prince Harry Fan Fic

Chapter 39

Maddie had one day, twenty four hours, before it all came crashing down around her. The day after they discovered her name had been the calm before the storm. There were posts and articles but most of them contained merely the newly founded identifying info. The Mystery Blonde was a Psychologist from the United States by the name of Madeline Forrester. That was all they knew.

Over the next twenty-four hours they began to print more than what they knew; digging deep for a story, for a piece of gossip to attach to this no-longer mysterious blonde. And when the calm passed; the storm raged.

Maddie woke to blogs, tweets, even a newspaper article; all featuring her name and photo. Her mother had called; worried about her welfare. Managing to convince her mother that, despite the photos and the stories, she was doing just fine, Maddie pulled on her running clothes and shoes for the first time ever and headed outside; ready to sweat it out. And when she did, the now familiar click of the cameras from across the street sent her back inside. Closing the curtains, Maddie sank to her couch; her mind struggling to keep things in perspective. Her phone rang out and she answered it quickly.

"Ella..." She breathed; feeling the strangest of comforts knowing she was connected to her best friend.

"So," Ella took a breath. "They know."

"Apparently."

"You've been sleuthed."

"Yeah," Maddie sighed. "You want to come over and help me..."

"On my way."

"You're the best."

"Yeah, well..."

"I mean it."

"I know. I'll see you soon."

It took Ella less than twenty minutes before she was ringing Maddie to let her up.

"Wow. You didn't tell me I would need full hair and makeup for this meeting," Ella laughed as she stepped into Maddie's place. "You know there are cameras down the street."

"No! You're kidding!" Maddie's voice was dripping with sarcasm as she shut and locked her door.

"Okay, okay," Ella kicked off her shoes and sat on Maddie's couch. "What can I do for you?"

"Well..." Maddie came back into the room with two coffees. "I was wondering if you could be my filter."

"Your what now?"

"I can't read it all. I started and...it'll make me crazy. So I was thinking you could read it and pull out the important stuff; let me know how it looks."

"Okay..." Ella reached for the open laptop on the table and pulled it into her lap. She clicked and read; clicked and read, and clicked again before, five minutes later, she looked up to Maddie and sighed.

"Well?" Maddie bit her lip.

"You know I love you right?"

"Oh God."

"It's not that bad...." Ella was quick to comfort her. "It's not. It's just....well. They don't know much about you so they are running with what they know. Which is that you're an American and he's British Royalty. And the writers can't seem to get enough of all the possibilities that presents. You know the history of the US and the UK....and the headlines...it's just, you know the options are endless." Ella glanced at the computer. "For instance, here they are playing on the Declaration of Independence. Here, it's the Constitution...in order to form a more perfect union...that sort of thing. Oh!" Ella's lips pulled up in a smirk. "And one particularly trashy magazine makes an interesting yet smutty parallel to the Revolutionary War."