Set 5 months after the Season Finale. Francis returns in secret to reclaim his crown and his country, and if she'll have him, his wife. The plague is over and Lola and her baby were not immune. He spent the last few months re-organizing the villages

FRANCIS POV

Francis finally finds an opportunity to slip past her mother's guards sometime after lunch. The heat of the day has them dozing while standing and while he wishes to reprimand them for taking his mother's security so lightly, he must remain unseen and unseen means unheard.

He sneaks up on her and covers her mouth before spinning her around. He makes a shushing motion with his fingers. When she gets over her shock, she gently removes his hand from her mouth. "Francis, my son." There are tears in her eyes and they embrace.

"But what are you doing back? Mary told me—

"I would very much like to know what Mary has told you and why it makes you wonder whether I would return."

"She told me, about you and Lady Lola. Your child. Francis, you cannot have brought them here!"

"Though I carry them with me wherever I go, they are no longer here for me to bring." He waits as the full import of his words sink in.

"I'm sorry. I thought, well, we all thought that you had somehow reached them in time and escaped the horrors of the plague." Catherine rubs his arm consolingly. "But why didn't you come sooner? Why now?"

"They were well, for a time. But the village soon succumbed to the plague and though I came out unscathed, they did not share my immunity to it. I've been around the country, trying to put it back together from the ground up. It wasn't merely the surrounding villages that fell victim to the plague but the entire country. I'm surprised you didn't send someone to come looking for me." He says half-accusingly, half-hurt.

"We did, as many as we could without alerting the public of the reason behind you absence. Your story actually matches the cover we gave. Mary thought it best that our people think of your departure as an act of a king desperate to save his kingdom. She wanted you to be remembered well, and for you to be received as a hero should you have returned."

"Mary. Where is she?"

He sees the hesitation in his mother's eyes and watches as she chooses her next words carefully. "She is most likely in her rooms—she has been, tired, as of late. Running two countries is not an easy task."

She is hiding something, he can tell by the way her shoulders roll back and the clipped way she speaks.

"Take me to her." He has wasted enough time playing catch up, whatever his mother is hiding, he will find out from Mary.

She looks away and when she returns her gaze to his she seems much older than he's ever seen her. "Francis, before I do, I must tell you that you will find her much altered. Please be gentle with her."

Before he can seek clarification, she is turning on her heel and leading him down the halls. He hears the gasps and exclamations left and right but he ignores the servants, the nobles and courtiers, following his mother's lead.

"It's the King!" "Your majesty!" "He's back!"

As they near his rooms, their rooms, his mouth begins to dry and a ball has formed in the pit of his stomach. He knew from snippets in the villages that he had yet to be declared dead though there were many that believed him to be. She couldn't have remarried. No illness had reached past the castle gates thanks to her actions. Much altered. What could that possibly mean?

Francis enters her room silently, watching as Catherine tells her of his return.

"No-he wouldn't. Why would he?" She asks, disbelief coloring her voice, apparently horrified at the thought of his return. "Why would he turn his back on-"

Mary doesn't get to finish her question because as she stands awkwardly from her desk to look at Catherine, she realizes they are not the only ones in the room.

Panic, longing then-nothing. He can read nothing from the expression on her face, eyes blank and unfeeling. Cold. Like he warned her not to be. He doesn't realize he's spoken those words until her expression shifts.

"You left me with no choice! You left. You chose her, chose your child, over your country, over me." She whispers the last part and he almost thinks he'd imagined it. He almost wishes he did. But the anger he feels at her comes bubbling out and he forgets Catherine's warnings about being gentle.

"You shut me out! After everything we've been through you chose to lower the gates rather than wait for me!" He bites out, angry and miserable.

"How dare you?!" She breathes, looking at him with her amber eyes suddenly ablaze. She is more than angry; she is livid.

"It's true—"

"I gave you a chance! A chance to lead a normal life to be Francis, a father, not the king of anything! I didn't shut you out, I gave you up." Her voice breaks even as she continues with her tirade. "So don't you dare throw everything we've been through to my face because those were nothing, are nothing compared to giving you up!"

MARY POV

Tilting her head defiantly she moves to go around her desk, wanting more than anything to be away from him.

His sudden gasp and Catherine's flinch make her realize her mistake. He saw, he sees.

"Mary." He says her name like he's always said it, like a prayer, like the last breath of a dying man.

AN: I used the "I gave you up" from Doctor Who (The Asylum). I own nothing. Frary forever.