Royally Flushed

Epilogue

~Malia~

"So, how do you think our sessions have helped you thus far, Malia?"

I affixed my blue eyes on my therapist's glasses in front of me and took a deep relaxing breath.

"I think they've helped me tremendously. I've obviously endured a lot of trauma in my life, but I know now that keeping it all bottled inside won't help anything."

Her warm brown eyes crinkled through her smile and she told me that I had reached the end of our sessions, and while I wasn't overly relieved, I was happy to gain my Thursday afternoons back.

I could say that she had helped me, truthfully. I finally understood what it meant to finally be at peace.

She had helped me come to terms with Daniel's death and watching him die right in front of my eyes.

It was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to endure, but I knew that the person who I turned out to be was all due to the sacrifice that Daniel had made for me and for Louis.

I had worked through my abandonment issues, which in turn helped my amazing relationship with Louis.

Everyone kept saying that our wedding was going to be one for the history books, but in all honesty I wasn't even the least bit nervous.

At the age of twenty-five and having finally finished my degree in Psychology, I was ready to marry the love of my life, and it didn't matter to me if the whole world was watching.

The only thing that mattered was him there holding me at the altar as we declared our love in front of the entire congregation.

It was so magical when his grandparents had finally given their blessing, given the fact that I was an American, but my ties to the throne went back farther than almost any other member of the royal family, so my bloodline could not have been ignored.

The wedding was two days away and after my therapy session I went back to the cottage that would be my home for however long we deemed it so.

The quaint beauty of it never ceased to leave me breathless.

"Oh look, it's the bride to be!"

"Mar? Grandma, Lizzie? What are you all doing here?"

"We figured it was time to finally try on your dress for the final fitting!"

I knew they'd try to find a way to see my dress before the wedding. They were very sneaky bridal party members, that was for sure.

"Ugh, fine! But no pictures!"

"Mum's the word!"

I laughed at Lizzie's facial expressions and followed them to the bathroom to try on my gown for the last time before the big day.

Standing there in my long flowing white gown and fending off tears and hugs from my family and only girl best friend I'd ever had, I knew I'd finally found true happiness and peace.

***

~Louis~

I was sweating my entire face off, and although the main reason for that had to be the cause of the itchy and annoyingly tight black tuxedo and overcoat, the part of me that didn't want to admit that I was nervous had to be the root cause of my profuse perspiration.

I couldn't wait to see her in her dress, but standing at the altar was hardly the place to start breaking out into sweating bullets that run down the side of your face as one might get the wrong impression of the reason for said sweating.