The Story of Udonia

Chapter Thirty Two: Recovery and Plans

February 21st.
One month has passed since I was shot and lost the baby. Lacey went to get her cast off. Her leg had healed up nicely. She was on payed leave for the month. She stayed in her room in the castle, but would come hobbling down to my room to check on me occasionally. Because texting and calling me every day wasn't enough.
I was lying in my bed when I got a call. I assumed it was Lacey so I didn't look at the screen.
I answered it. "Hello you Australian lunatic." I giggled.
A man's voice spoke on the other end. "Actually, my lady, I'm from London, England. Not Australia."
I sat in attention and embarrassment. "John Locke." I face palmed. "Hello sir. I thought you were someone else."
"Yes, you made that obvious."
"How may I help you?" I asked.
"I just wanted to ask you about Hannah Hoss."
I grumbled. "What about her?"
"I'm just curious if you had any plans for what to do. I mean...if you would like to go to war, then I would need our signature on a few documents."
"No!" I was confused where this came from. "Absolutely not. I don't want war."
"Well that's what the people are asking for. They all want justice and some are doing it themselves. Protesters in Haruhi have joined forces with some people from Udonia. They have been outside of Hannah's palace for weeks." He explained with a distressed tone. "I just need to know what you are thinking or I'm going to have to start taking matters into my own hands."
"I know, Mr. Locke. I have been brainstorming. I think I have an idea. It's risky and might not work out at all, but I'm making the necessary arrangements. Just, hang tight." I got out of bed.
I guess I should probably get this plan under way then.
"Alright, my lady. What is your plan?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you." I pulled out some clothes.
"Okay...well then what can I do for you?" He asked.
"Thank you, but nothing. I can handle this...I think." I hung up and got dressed.
I was just wearing some skinny jeans and a simple purple t-shirt. I made my way to the office. I opened one of the doors and saw Ashton sitting behind the desk on his laptop. Lacey was looking through some papers sitting in front of the desk in the left chair. Neither of them looked up from what they were doing when I came in.
"So the people are getting a little restless that I haven't done anything to retaliate yet, so some of them have been doing it on their own. This is not their battle to fight. I want to get this thing moving soon."
Lacey looked up. "How soon?" She asked with concern.
"Like within the next week soon. Why?"
"Because I want to come too and I just got off my crutches. My physical therapist said I can't do much but walk for a week."
"Well, we might not need to do much but walk. It all depends on what the results of the test are. Has Jasmine called yet, Ash?" I asked Ashton.
He looked up from his computer for the first time since I came in the room. 
"What?" He asked.
"Has Jasmine called?" I repeated myself.
"Not yet." He looked back down and continued to do what I asked him to do.
I rolled my eyes and looked back at Lacey who also now looking back through the stack of papers in front of her. Her eyebrows suddenly went up.
"I found it!" She shouted.
"Let me see."
Lacey turned the paper around so I could see the file of the person she had been searching for. This office was my father's. He kept a lot of stuff in here and a lot of it was in his safe. I didn't know the code to open it, so I figured it would be on his laptop. I took off all the information from it and we put it onto Ashton's. He then was able to file of military men. All the officers and men who has rewards or medals. There were two names I was specially looking for. Ashton had printed off the list so Lacey could help look. He found one of the names and has been emailing the man back and forth about my plan. Now Lacey had found the last one. These were both men who were retired from service and when I Googled them, there wasn't any contact information because they were essentially spies.
"Good. Call him. Get him to come tomorrow too." I ordered.
"Okay." Lacey pulled out her phone and started to dial.
I walked over to Ashton and became to message his shoulders. He was so tense working for me. I glanced down at his screen. He was looking at a woman on some website!
What the hell?! Who the hell is this?!
"Ashton?"
"Yeah?"
"Who is that?"
"The person you were looking for."
"No...the person I was looking for is a fifty year old man, not a beautiful twenty five year old woman!" I shouted.
Lacey uncomfortably got up from her seat and hobbled to the door.
"Claire, he sent me the link. I was supposed to check her out for the mission. She is a spy or something." He looked at the website. "It's a blocked site so it can only be found if you have the link." He explained. "She has her number here and I was thinking of calling."
"What for? A booty call?!" I asked and squeezed his shoulders tighter.
He winced and pulled away from me. "Claire, she could be useful, besides he recommended her."
I smiled. "That sounds so wrong."
His eyes widened. "Whatever." He turned back to the screen and pulled out his phone.
"Yeah, whatever." I headed for the door when his phone rang. 
I snapped around and raised an eyebrow.
"It's Jasmine."
I raised my eyebrows with excitement and sat down in the right chair. "Put her on speaker." I instructed.
He tapped his phone to answer the call and then again to put her on speaker. "Hey Jasmine. I hope you have news."
"Yeah, I do." She sounded happy.
"Claire is here too."
"Hi, Jasmine." I smiled.
"Claire, good. You're gonna want to hear this too. So I made it to the palace successfully. Good thing Hannah doesn't know who I am. I then snuck in, which wasn't hard. I dressed as a maid and went in to clean Hannah's room and gathered what I need. A piece of hair from her hair brush. I then left and went somewhere safe to perform the spell. I'm calling from a motel in Opal, it's a cute little city. Anyway, the I did the thing and she is positive. Hannah has the gene and is a witch."
I sighed. "Okay, good. I'm not completely crazy."
"No, you aren't for thinking that, but your plan is a little far fetched." She replied.
"Speaking of, the meeting with everyone is tomorrow. Don't be late. It's at 2:00." I informed her.
"Okay...can you elaborate on everyone?" She asked.
"All the people I wanted to bring on the mission, Ashton, Lacey, you, and I." I paused realizing what she was getting at. "No, not her!" I shouted and leaned back in the seat.
Ashton looked at me with disappointment. "Jasmine, thank you, we will see you tomorrow."
"Okay, bye." She sounded upset.
"Bye." Ashton hung up and crossed his arms at me.
"I don't understand how you forgave her so easily!"
"Because Monica had the best intentions she just didn't carry it out correctly. I mean think of it Claire. What if you found out that your, uh, good friend was going to lose their baby by spending terrible happening?! How would you handle that?!" He asked.
I grumbled. "I'm not sure! I wouldn't have done it like that. I would have realized that my friend lived her baby and that it meant everything to her at that moment in her life..." I raised my hand to my face and took some breaths. "It...he was part of me Ashton and I failed him. I got pregnant with him too soon and then I didn't provide him the proper home. Now I can probably only have one child and it's her fault for not doing anything to stop it!" I started to feel my throat tighten.
I hadn't cried about this in a while. I didn't want it to engulf my life like when my family died almost two years ago at that point. I stood up and wiped a tear.
"You know, you call that woman and I'll go...I'll go anywhere but here." I walked out of the office into the hallway.
Lacey was on the phone and looked at me with concern. I ignored her and kept waking.
I knew exactly here I was going. I headed to the western gardens to the large fountain next to the beautiful pear tree. Under the tree was the graveyard of family members passed. I approached a white marble monument. It was shaped like an angel. It was carved magnificently. I sat down and read the epitaph.
It read: This is in memory of the precious unborn and unnamed baby boy of Claire Hazenberg and Ashton Covington. He was taken before he could even greet the world. He still held everyone's heart.
Abi had it made for me. She knew a great artist who made statures and gravestones. Ashley helped pay for it too.
I laid down in front of the tomb and smelled the grass. I just needed to be alone until I could face what was to come.