Extraterrestrial Lives

19

The king finally leaves and Rafe comes back over to me. "I'm so sorry Maha, it wouldn't even be an issue if I hadn't of opened my mouth about how you were treated on board the ship."

"It was bound to happen sometime or other, princey. I'm not from here or from the ruling class. They would have found some reason to demand it from me. Now what was this crap about moving from the palace?"

"I won't be able to stay here if I refuse the throne. We will need to move if father does find someone to take my place." I flinch back from Rafe's hand as he goes to stroke my hair. I haven't forgiven him for this last thing. He needs to learn that he's no longer single and needs to talk to me before making decisions that will impact us all.

At my flinch he pulls his hand back to his body. He's learning, slowly.

"I have  a nice little cottage in the countryside that we can move into tomorrow if you want. Or we can look at houses. I don't really care where we live as long as I'm with you and our child."

"You have a cottage? Tell me princey how big is this cottage?" Cottage to me is a couple of bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom.

"Only about twenty bedrooms, fifteen bathrooms and a huge kitchen and dining room and living room."

"Prince, do you remember the houses that were surrounding me when you picked me up from Earth?"

"Yes, a bit small." Rafe says not really paying me much attention. I don't say anything until he looks at me and gives me his attention.

"Those are full sized homes Prince. I grew up with my family in one that size. Your 'cottage' is bigger than any home I ever had before coming to the palace. Tell me who is going to take care of this cottage?"

"The staff of course."

"Uh huh. And if you are no longer ruling the people where are you going to get money to continue paying for servants?"

"Oh that. Well I also own stock in various companies and even own a few companies. Maha, we'll never be poor. Trust me on this okay?"

"Trust you? Dammit Rafe, that's all I've been doing and yet you keep throwing things at me like this. What am I suppose to do?"

"I'm sorry, I just never thought about it like that I guess. I'm not entirely sure what you want me to say Maha. Damn, I'm screwing up again aren't I? Why are you staying with me?"

"Stop whining princey. We'll figure something out."

She is far too forgiving. I marvel at her ability to forgive me like she does. I fear for the day when she runs out of forgiveness.

"Do you want to eat dinner in our room or go to dinner?" I ask hoping for the former.

"I don't feel like getting all dressed up. I would like a bath," she tells me. I smile wickedly and place the order for dinner for an hour from now.

The next morning the picture of the prince kissing my very pregnant belly is splashed everywhere on all the news outlets. That is one very happy photographer.

The story about how much the prince loves me takes top story everywhere. All demands for a psych evaluation drop. The people suddenly loved me even more than before.

That's good because the people need Rafe right now. And for some reason he thinks he needs me.

I had no idea that such a simple gesture would have such a wide spreading influence. They love it, absolutely love that I show my wife such care and my unborn child love as well. I can only hope that the story and the photo will stop the rumors that the child isn't mine.

Every time I hear that it makes my blood boil. How dare they say that she was trying to foist a bastard onto me? How dare they think I wouldn't know if the child was mine or not?

But I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I rather liked the idea of us just going off and being a family and not have the responsibility of the throne.

The king is in a good mood as things seem to have changed over night into our favor. I don't understand how a photo changes people's mind about wanting my mental state evaluated, but I'm not going to argue.

Rafe starts my self defense classes again and pushes me even harder. He'd rather just eject all the leaches from the palace but for some strange reason that seems to be impossible. Don't know why, just tell them to get out.

My father is in a good mood. The best I think I've ever seen him. I'm not entirely sure why although the photo of me kissing Maha's stomach might have something to do with it. I really don't know what it is with that photo, but it's magical to say the least. 

People that had been going for no holds barred on getting her psych evaluation done, now find that it's not necessary. All because of that photo.

As long as people know how I feel about my wife I don't care. It seems that the article that the reporter wrote to go with it made Maha into a hero. I can't disagree with that. Perhaps she's not the kind of hero that first comes to mind when you think of heroes, but she is.

Many think that because she is smaller in stature or a female that is prone to fainting spells that she's weak. That's not the truth at all. Maha has been through more than most of us could dream of and survived. Personally I don't think I would have done nearly as well as she did.

But now Maha is feeling pressure about helping us against the Other's when she still doesn't even really know anything about them. She only knows what we've told her and that was scant enough information clear back at the beginning when we first met.

I decide that after we take a break from self defense that I will show her all we have on the Other's. Maybe she will be able to pick up something we missed.

I hope so, because I have a feeling time is running out.