The Boleyn Girl
In Whitehall Palace the Queen's apartments had entered a strange period of quiet after the hustle and bustle of the various members of the court scrambling to see the infant currently resting in the cradle.
Watching over the babe was a young looking woman in a sumptuous bright yellow gown fit for a royal ball, she had chosen it purposefully to convey that this was something to celebrate.
"Sleep tight little Edward," she said to him softly, smiling at her baby boy, "Don't let the bed bugs bite."
She then heard footfalls and glanced up just in time to see the door open and rose to her aching feet as her lord and husband, King Henry VIII entered the room.
"Anne," He said to her softly, almost with a caress, "I heard you were here."
"Yes I was," She replied while glancing back at the baby boy, "I couldn't stay away, he's just so... so..."
Henry chuckled, "I know, he's perfect, he's healthy, and he is the heir that you promised me."
Henry noticed that his wife's smile at this was one of relief, "But could I ask a small favor of you?"
"Of course," Henry answered, "Anything that is in my power I will give you."
"Can I name the next one?"
Henry chuckled lightly, "Of course you can dear Anne, of course you can."
He then stepped closer to the cradle to look at his son, Anne's eyes seemed to be glazed over...
"That was bold of you Daria," the voice of what Daria had taken to calling 'The Man' calling out clear as a bell in her mind, "Very bold indeed."
"Hey," Daria thought back at him/it/whatever, "I just had a second kid for him in the span of a year, and it was the boy he wanted. I think I'm entitled to name the next kid we wind up having."
The Man laughed, "True, but dare I suggest that the process of having that third child is about more than just duty?"
"Oh fuck off you jerk," Daria thought darkly even as she was vaguely aware that Henry had left the room, "It wasn't like I asked to be in this mess."
"Mess you say?" The Man teased her, "You are the Queen of England and Ireland and the mother of a future King and a Princess, what's messy about that?"
"Because all of this has altered history!" Daria thought back at him harshly, "Ever since you just took my freaking mind, soul, whatever! And stuffed it into Anne Boleyn's right when she was pregnant with freaking Queen Elizabeth the First no less. I've been on pins and needles, knowing that I was going to have to fake being a perfect little Tudor Queen and manage to have at least one successful birth of a boy when the real Anne Boleyn never managed it!"
"But you did manage it Daria," The Man chided her, "You kept yourself calm, meditating while pretending to read the bible and pray, during your second pregnancy and now you have two beautiful children."
"Well," Daria thought even as Prince Edward stirred in his sleep, "My mother always said that having kids changes things..."
"So if I gave you the option of going back to your old life, would you take it?"
Daria didn't hesitate.
"No."
"Then enjoy the rest of your life, Your Majesty."
The voice then left her mind, and every instinct in Daria's new body told her that it would never haunt her again.
Two Years Later
Flushed and exhausted after the delivery, Anne Boleyn smiled and rose up from the bed into a reclining position as the doors opened.
"Henry, children!" Anne said happily as her husband walked in, a servant leading Prince Edward with Princess Elizabeth toddling right beside them, and emerging behind them were two other servants carrying the twins she had born just an hour before.
Henry greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and whispers of sweet-nothings that made her laugh.
"Not in front of them!" she teased him.
Henry grinned and said, "Remember the favor you asked of me when you gave birth to Edward?"
Anne nodded, "I remember, and I've already thought of names."
Henry knelt down next to his wife in her bed and waited to hear the names of his twins.
And thus the next two Princes of England were named Jacob and Joseph, after the father and grandfather of a girl from the future named Daria Morgendorffer.
END