The Royal Romance - What nearly happened...

The end of the fairytale

Jen was sitting in the departure lounge of the Cordonian airport, accompanied by two palace guards, awaiting an early morning flight which would connect back to New York. She heard the bing bong of the tannoy. Now boarding Economy class for passengers of flight PB205 to Amsterdam.

"That's me," she sighed, standing up and grabbing the bag she'd packed under the watchful eyes of the palace guards a few hours ago. She'd not seen anyone other than Bastien and the Royal Guards since she'd been dragged from the ballroom. She'd wanted to find Maxwell; and Bertrand, Drake and Hana, but the guards had isolated her from everyone.

Thoughts of the evening's events trailed through her mind, mixing up and making her feel quite unwell. Hana's admission of her feelings for her; followed by Drake's, neither of whose she could return, and she couldn't tell either of them the real reason why. Olivia's departure; clearly the same force wanted them both out of the running, but had more respect for Olivia than for Jen, giving Olivia a second warning. Rick's clear desire to choose her as his queen up until the moment he had to make his decision; did it show a weakness in him that he had let these lies affect his judgement? Shouldn't he have the power to put all this on hold until the truth came out?

And Maxwell. She was reliving their stolen moments on the staircase and wishing she'd said more to him. He'd really started to open up to her; she should have done the same. He was her one constant through all this. He'd always been at her side, always supporting her, always making her smile, clearly oblivious to the fact that she was falling for him. Or, if he had realised, choosing to ignore the fact. She'd wanted Rick to choose her obviously. She did like the idea of becoming Rick's queen. But more than that, the last thing she'd wanted to do was let Maxwell down. Was that messed up?

Well, now she'd let everyone down. And everything was messed up. It just proved she wasn't meant to be here. Maxwell had been wrong to bring her here after all. And Drake was right. This place broke people.

"Goodbye, Cordonia," she sighed. Goodbye, Rick. Goodbye, Maxwell. If only Maxwell could be here now. Out of everyone, he was the one she'd thought would be most likely to come to her rescue, if he could. And he was the one person who she wanted to see right now. Even if it was the last time she ever saw him, just to say goodbye.

The guards watched her as she slung her bag over her shoulder, digging into her pocket for her passport and boarding pass.

She heard a call, which at first she thought she'd imagined. "Wait! Jen!!"

She turned. "Maxwell?"

She had never been so pleased to see him, as he ran in her direction, with Bertrand behind him.

"Maxwell! Bertrand.." she called, watching as the guards intercepted them.

"Hey!" Maxwell shouted.

"You will keep your hands to yourself!" stormed Bertrand. "I am the Duke of Ramsford!"

She giggled, as she watched the two guards back down.

"That's better," Bertrand went on. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have business to conduct."

The two guards looked at each other.

Bertrand was livid. "Or will House Beaumont have to demand recompense for yet another slight?"

The guards shook their heads and moved aside.

Maxwell rushed over to her. "Jen."

She couldn't help but pull him into a hug, and he held her tightly for a few seconds. She breathed deeply, in and out, feeling safe and happy.

What nearly happened....

Eventually, she looked up at him. "Did you come to say goodbye?" She decided in that moment that there was only one way she was going to say goodbye to him, and she didn't care if Bertrand was watching.