Royals: Part 7

Chapter 14

"Harry, come in here," Jackie said breathlessly. 

Her husband, who was playing with the twins on the sitting room floor, looked up and dropped the duck puppet that covered his hand. "What happened?" 

"Nothing- nothing bad, I have an idea." Jackie nodded to the twins, who watched her curiously. "Bring them and meet me in my office." 

Jackie hurried back down the hall from the sitting room to her office. She'd called Elizabeth as soon as her radiation therapy was over, telling her to wait at Kensington Palace 1B and to have an open mind. 

Elizabeth was waiting in Jackie's office, sitting in a chair opposite her desk, clipboard in hand. "I hope this is important, I was ordering new carpets for York Cottage and had to reschedule the meeting. You know I've been playing phone tag with them for weeks." 

Jackie ignored Elizabeth's griping, typing rapidly into her computer. Harry joined the women a few moments later, toting Caroline and Cece with him. Mary Kate was off with George and the nannies on an outing to a local farm park.

Harry handed Caroline to Jackie, holding Cece in his lap as he sat down next to Elizabeth. "Will you tell us what's going on?" 

Jackie spun her computer monitor around, knocking over a picture frame and pen holder in the process. "Look." 

Harry and Elizabeth watched the same footage Jackie had seen during her treatment that afternoon. The carnage in Syria. The thousands of innocent people who needed help. Who needed a voice. A voice like her's.

The clip ended. Elizabeth spoke first. "That was... disturbing." She held her pen, ready to take notes. "Did you want to organize a fundraiser?" 

Jackie looked at Harry. The troubled look in his eyes made it clear that he knew what she wanted to do. "Jackie, I don't know about this." 

Elizabeth frowned obliviously. "He's right, a fundraiser seems a bit forward. We could look into charities who sponsor-" Elizabeth stopped, noticing the intense look between Jackie and Harry. "What? No sponsorship?" 

Caroline tilted her head back, staring at Jackie with clear blue eyes. Harry's brows furrowed. Think of them, his expression read. 

"I want to go to Syria. I want to volunteer with-" she replayed the video and pointed to the rescuers wearing white helmets "-them." 

Elizabeth's jaw dropped, looking at Harry for back up. "Surely you know that's ridiculous." 

"Jackie, isn't there something else you could do? Elizabeth has a point," Harry said, trying to wrangle Cece, who was impatiently crawling all over her father. "It's very dangerous over there." 

Jackie nodded. "I know it's dangerous, but that's the point. I'm creating a new image for myself. I'm strong and capable and willing to do anything to help those in need. It's sort of like when your mother helped the Red Cross on their campaign to ban land mines." 

Harry was clearly torn. "But she wasn't walking through a field of active land mines, they were disabled. It was safe. That-" he said, pointing to the screen "-isn't safe. You could die." 

"I'll have to do some research. I'll find out who those people are, maybe there are other Westerners over there that I could follow." Jackie opened up a new tab, typing as she spoke. "These people are being overlooked by lawmakers and politicians -- some are even vilifying them, saying we can't even risk bringing in the children, because they could be terrorist. Especially Donald Trump, God forbid he wins the election in America next year." 

Harry laughed. "I don't think we have to worry about that, he's a nutcase."

"You can't take a political position, and you know that," Elizabeth scolded.