Title: Stay with me
Genre: Romance + Angst
Summary: The Palace is being taken over by an angry mob. Jasper is trying to get Eleanor to the safety of the tunnels under the Palace. How far will he go to keep his princess safe? [Summary sucks, but please give it a go.] JASPER x ELEANOR.
Disclaimer/ Note from the author: HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS! With the new year, I have a new fic to start off 2016. I swore to myself that I would NEVER watch another show that Mark Schwahn wrote/produced after the way he messed up Brucas (Brooke and Lucas, OTH) but here I am so deeply in love with Jasper and Eleanor, that Jaspenor is now my favourite on air OTP. They consume all my thoughts and I love them so much. Plus they are so HOT together...I haven't seen chemistry like this since Brucas and Chair. Anyways, I hope you enjoy my first of many Jaspenor fics. If you like this fic and you want me to continue, or write more Jaspenor fics...leave me a review :) Paris xo
Date Published: 2 January, 2016
© theboyfriend-and-theprettygirl, 2016
"JASPER, PUT ME DOWN!" Eleanor yelled, punching and kicking at his back, as her body dangled in the air. She was trying her hardest to break free from his firm grip and failing miserably.
"Do you have to be so childish?" he asked ignoring her.
"One: You can't talk to me like that. And two: I'm the princess, so I demand to know where you're taking me."
"I'm sorry... do you have to be so childish, your highness?" Jasper asked, his lips curving into a small smirk. "Is that better princess?"
Eleanor rolled her eyes. "So?" she snapped.
"What is it now?" he asked sighing heavily.
"So...where are you taking me? I am perfectly capable of walking."
"We are going to the safe room."
"The safe room? Why the bloody hell are we going th-"
But before she could finish her sentence, she saw it. A mob of angry people with firearms waited for them at the next turn of the corridor.
"THERE SHE IS! LOOK, THE PRINCESS!" a man who Eleanor presumed would be the mob's leader shouted, pointing in her direction. "COME ON, LET'S GET HER."
"Jasper..." Eleanor said, her shaky voice only just above a whisper.
"Here's what I'm going to do." he whispered softly and surprisingly calmly as the mob started to charge in their direction. "I am going to put you down and give you my gun.."
"No, Jasper." she said shaking her head.
"...and you are going to run and lock yourself into a room until-"
"No. No. Jasper, please, I can't-" she said as tears started to fill her eyes.
"Yes, you can. Eleanor, you need to find a room and lock the door behind you. Then I want you to use my ear piece and signal Pryce for help. He will come and find you and escort you to the safe room. Okay, are you ready?"
Before she could object, he had already planted her firmly on the ground and was handing over his ear piece and gun. Eleanor watched, completely immobilized as the angry mob drew nearer. In that moment, everything went quiet. She could no longer hear the roar of angry people charging at her or the sound of the palace being trashed as they overturned the artwork and decorations that lined the corridor.
She stood there frozen. Unable to move or feel anything until Jasper's firm hands shook her by her shoulders. He was saying something to her. His lips were moving, but she couldn't make out the words. It took another minute or so until she came back to reality.
"ELEANOR RUN!" He yelled, pushing her down the corridor, snapping her out of her trance.
"Jasper, please...we can both make it if we run." she begged. "Please, you haven't thought this through properly."
"I'll be alright. I'll cause a diversion. You go and signal Pryce. You need to get to the safe room."
"Jasper...there's fifty of them. You'll never make it. And you don't even have your gun." she pleaded as the tears started to fall from her eyes.
Jasper closed the distance between them with one quick step and for a second Eleanor thought he had changed his mind and was going to come with her. He tilted her head up towards him with his thumb and wiped her eyes dry.
"I love you." he said, looking her directly in the eyes. "And if you ever loved me at all during the time we spent together...you would follow my instructions. Please, Eleanor."
"Jasper, they'll kill you." she said reaching for his hand. "Come with me."
"I will make it back to you, I promise." he said cupping her face quickly, before giving her a little push. "Now run, Eleanor."
"Jasper, please..."
"Go, Eleanor. RUN PRINCESS."
-x-
I want you to use my ear piece and signal Pryce for help. He will come and find you and escort you to the safe room.
Eleanor could barely see through her tear stained eyes and her hands were shaking too much to work the ear piece that Jasper had given her. She had locked herself into one of the cleaning closets. She figured that the royal bedrooms would be the first place the mob would go looking for her.
You can do this, Eleanor. She told herself firmly. You just need to signal Pryce to get Jasper some help.
She wiped her eyes dry and exhaled loudly. There was no time to be weak. Jasper needed help and the longer she took figuring out how to use this bloody thing, the longer she put Jasper in danger.
"Hello? Pryce? Can you hear me?" she asked, talking into the piece as she pressed down on a button.
"Your Highness? Are you okay? Are you safe? Where are you? The mob of rebels must've cut the surveillance to the Palace. "
"Oh Pryce! Thank goodness!"she shrieked.
"Your Highness, where are you?" he asked again, his tone concerned.
"I'm in one of the cleaning rooms, near the kitchen."
"Stay there, I'm coming to get you."
"No. I'm safe. Jasper gave me his gun and nobody saw me go in there. You need to go and get Jasper. He is in the corridor near-"
"With all due respect Your Highness, my duty is to protect you."
"Pryce, he is alone against like fifty men. He will die if you don't get to him on time."
"I understand that, Your Highness but he knew the risks to this job when he signed up."
"So you're just going to let him die, then?" Eleanor spat.
"My duty is to protect the Crown. Mr Frost knows that and he would do the same thing."
The tears started to swell up in her eyes again. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could Pryce be so heartless? She was confident had the roles been reversed that Jasper would do everything in his power to save him if he was the one being attacked by the mob of rebels.
"What if it was Ophelia?" she asked softly, using one last plea to try to change his mind. "Would you let your daughter die to protect the Crown?"
-x-
Eleanor had been right. He hadn't thought this through properly at all.
After putting up an honourable fight, the mob had overpowered him. He was bashed around and shot at for the location of secret passage ways under the Palace. Not willing to cooperate with the mob of rebels, he was certain that he was going to break his promise to Eleanor and die, before blacking out from the pain. When he awoke he was relieved to see that the mob were gone. The idiotic mob had probably thought they had killed him and moved on.
Jasper sucked in a sharp breath and tried to re-position his aching, bruised body. Tears filled his eyes as he tried to make himself more comfortable. He couldn't tell what was hurting him worse, the cracked ribs or the gun shots to his gut and chest. He was losing too much blood and he was in no condition to walk. That required too many energy and he honestly was more concerned with maintaining the bleeding in the event that by some miracle help was on the way.
But he knew the odds. The body holds ten pints of blood. If you lose more than two pints, you die. And he was sure that he had already bleed out at least three..maybe even four? And with his ear piece gone and no way to signal for help, he knew that this was the end.
All he wanted at this moment was to see her face. That was his dying wish. He just needed to see her one more time.
But he knew that he didn't deserve that. It was karma for breaking her heart. He had caused her so much pain and suffering and this was the universe's way of extracting some kind of divine justice. He was going to die and he was never going to see her again and he knew the latter scared him more than his evident death. His eyes grew heavy and things went black.
"JASPER! WAKE UP, JASPER! COME ON!"
Firm hands shook his shoulders roughly as he fought hard to open his groggy eyes.
"Eleanor?" he asked softly. Surely he had to be dreaming. There was no way that she was here. Pryce had more than likely found her by now and she was with her family, safe in the tunnels under the Palace. The loss of blood had probably gotten to his head and his delusional mind was playing tricks on him.
"JASPER, STAY WITH ME!" she pleaded, through tear stained eyes, applying more pressure to his wounds.
He reached out and touched her face. "You're real. You're here."
"Yes." she said kissing his hand gently.
"Have the mob been contained?"
"I don't know."
"Eleanor, what are you doing here then?" he asked, his tone worried.
"I couldn't leave you." she choked out. "I shouldn't have left you in the first place."
"It's not safe here, princess."
"I don't care."
"Eleanor, they could come back. You should go."
"I am not leaving you again!" she cried out.
Jasper's eyes started to grow heavy again and he could barely keep them open.
"Hey, stay with me." Eleanor said touching his face gently. "Please don't close your eyes. Help is on the way."
Jasper loved her for trying to give her some sort of hope or will to live, but he knew her better than she even knew herself. He knew that she had commitment issues the moment he had met her. He knew that she enjoyed hooking up with him, despite pretending that she was only doing it because he was blackmailing her. He knew that she had fallen for him long before the masquerade ball. He knew when she was angry. When she was high. When she wasn't using. When she was trying to make him jealous. He knew when she was telling the truth and he knew when she was lying. There was no help on the way. She was just trying to give him a reason to fight and he loved her for it. But he also knew that he was running out of time to say the things that he needed to say.
"I'm sorry." he said softly.
"Hey, you're going to be okay." she said stroking his face.
"I'm not." he groaned, shifting a little so that he could face her. "Eleanor, I'm dying."
"NO! Jasper, we are getting you some help." she said. "You just have to fight through this."
"I'm sorry for everything I put you through." he said reaching out to stroke her face gently. "For blackmailing you. For what I did with your mum. For Mandy.."
"Jasper, we don't need to talk about this right now. You should save your energy."
"I just need you to know that I hate myself for causing you so much pain."
A tear rolled down her face and he knew that she believed him. He reached out and wiped it away.
"I love you Eleanor." he said before everything went black.
-xx-
Author's Note:
Thoughts? Should I end this here or add another chapter? I only wanted this to be a one-shot. I'll let you guys decide the ending. Should Jasper die or should I keep going? Also I couldn't for the life of me come up with a title for this fic, so that might change in the future. Thanks for reading.
Paris x