Not mine.

Because I wanted to write about when she first time she heard the moniker 'Queen Elizabeth'.

xxxx

Elizabeth thinks that dating Henry was the simplest choice she's ever made and the easiest thing she's ever done.

He was handsome.

He was kind.

He treated her like a princess.

And for Elizabeth, whose parents died in an automobile accident when she was just 15, nothing had ever been simple or easy.

With no one but a brother, who had been in the car itself and wanted to be nowhere near his sister, she'd been alone and by herself for most of her life.

It was quiet and it was still but it was her only choice.

Then she'd met Henry and he was anything but.

She, with his influence, got to be loud and got to be dependent. Finally she was able to feel all those emotions that her contemporaries that gotten to experience their whole life.

So when Thanksgiving rolled around and he'd invited her to his house she had leapt at the invitation.

Henry was so perfect and so kind and so very much the ideal gentleman that Elizabeth wanted to meet the people that had raised him. After all this was the kind of guy that studied theology, surely he had to be raised by people who had nurtured and fostered that sort of interest.

It turned out that Elizabeth was only half right.

Henry's mother met them off the train and immediately enveloped them both into a hug. It had been quite a while since anyone other than Henry had shown Elizabeth any sort of affection – let alone someone so maternal and soft. She understood infinitely better why Henry always wanted to be touching her – why he craved to be close to her. It was the way that his mother had raised him to be.

"Elizabeth," she had said. "It is so nice to meet you. Henry never stops talking about his beautiful girlfriend."

Henry had blushed and Elizabeth had smile.

His mother simply added. "He did not exaggerate."

Soon enough however they had gotten to Henry's house and Elizabeth had been faced with the half wrong portion of her initial assessment.

Maureen.

Elizabeth had wanted to like her; had wanted to give Henry's sister another chance but after the fifth or sixth comment about how she couldn't understand what someone as wealthy as Elizabeth wanted with someone as middle class as a McCord the young blond had been successfully riled.

Surprisingly, or not really if you'd ever met Henry McCord, he'd been the one to really go off.

"Yeah well, if Elizabeth had the choice I'm sure she'd pick not having dead parents over her inherited wealth, but a drunk driver took that away from her when she was just fifteen."

The silence in the room had been deafening and was only broken when Henry leapt off the couch and up the stairs to his room. Elizabeth followed closely behind.

As soon as they entered the room an awkward silence descended on the two of them. Henry was leaning on the closed door, his back to Elizabeth as she tried to get an idea of his mood. It was rare for her boyfriend to be this angry.

"Your mother is lovely," she had told him trying to break the tension. But before she had the chance to say anything further Henry interrupted her.

"I'm sorry about Maureen and I'm sorry if I ruined the afternoon." He sounded genuinely upset, not just with his sister but with himself. As though he had been the one to insult Elizabeth every chance he had gotten.

"Don't be silly Henry. You don't need to apologize for your sister and even less do you need to apologize for yourself. Once again you are the perfect boyfriend. It's becoming a hard task to live up to."

Sometimes, usually in the middle of the night when she was feeling especially sorry for herself, she wondered if she was good enough for Henry. He was thoughtful and polite and he treated her better than she ever thought she would be.

He was the kind of person that she would have wanted to bring home to her parents.

"Please," Henry said. "This relationship is a series of me trying to earn you. You are much too good for me."

Elizabeth just shook her head at him not bothering to continue this argument. She knew that he was wrong and that she was nowhere near as perfect as he made it seem. "That is not true but I appreciate the sentiment."

"I mean it though – I am sorry for Maureen." As he repeated the apology Elizabeth realized that he looked uncertain. As though this small hiccup in an otherwise almost perfect romance would be enough to make her walk away.

"She isn't going to scare me away Henry," promised Elizabeth. "I love you. And not even a little bit. I love you a lot. Like a whole lot. I'm never walking away from this – from us. Ever."

He kissed her immediately. He pushed her onto his bed and kissed her hard. It was clear that until her stomach rumbled, a symptom of not getting the chance to eat that day, he had not had any plans to stop kissing her.

She really wished her stomach hadn't betrayed her but instead stayed silent.

"I'm going to go get you a snack. You are too thin not for me to let you go without food." Despite the resulting pout Henry had gotten of Elizabeth, giving her one last kiss before making his way downstairs.

Ten minutes later she wondered how long he would be and what was keeping him and she was just about to brave downstairs and go looking for him when she heard their conversation.

Maureen's and Henry's that is.

"I don't understand why you are dating Queen Elizabeth upstairs."

It would be a lie to say that nickname didn't hurt Elizabeth's feelings. She didn't grow up with parents that flaunted their wealth. In fact other than going to a good school and owning horses Elizabeth didn't realize just how wealthy they were until she inherited it.

"I don't need your understanding Maureen." Elizabeth immediately recognized that tone and she hope that the frustrations of her boyfriends would not be leveled at his sister no matter how much deserved.

"Well, I think you should know…"

"Stop Maureen," he cut in. "I love her. I really, really love her and for some reason that I may never understand she loves me back."

How he couldn't understand the many and vast reasons that she was utterly head over heels for him confused Elizabeth but she made a promise to herself to make sure that she really spelled it out him.

"But…"

"There are no buts," he interrupted. "This is the woman that I want to eventually marry. I did not bring her here for your permission or for Dad's blessing. I just wanted my family to meet the person that I hope will be the next McCord."

Everything in Elizabeth's body went still and stopped turning when she heard his words.

He wanted to marry her.

She had hoped that it would be the case but to actually hear the words come from his mouth was a different thing all together.

He wanted to marry her.

He wanted to get down on one knee and promise her everything.

She wasn't sure if her heart would ever start up again.

It needed to though and needed to do so quick smart because she could hear her boyfriend brush past his sister and bound up the stairs. He entered the room carrying a packet of potato chips explaining that it was the only thing he could find when she cut him off.

"I just want you to know that I'm going to say yes."

"What?" he asked.

"When you ask me to marry you, I'm going to say yes," she clarified.

"You heard that?" he said alarmed, as though he didn't want her to realize just how serious he was about their relationship. As if that would scare Elizabeth away from the best relationship, romantic or otherwise, she'd ever had in her life.

"I sure did," she confirmed. "And I'm going to say yes."

"You're going to…"

"Say yes," she agreed. "When you ask me to marry you I'm definitely, absolutely going to say yes."

A beautiful smile appeared on his face.

Like he was looking at his future and it was everything he had dreamed of and more. She knew because that's what she felt every single time she looked at Henry.

He was going to be the person that to which she'd say 'I do.'

He was going to be the father of her children.

He was going to be the person that she'd grow old with.

Henry dropped the chip packed on the floor and pounced on his girlfriend like he was a drowning man and she was his oxygen.

She can feel his hand cradling her neck as his other hand is clasping on to her hip and his mouth explores her own. It was pure perfection and something that Elizabeth never wanted to end. Unfortunately, eventually it did need to be cut short but only when the need for oxygen and for a full breath trumped his immediate need for her.

"You're really going to say yes?" he asked needed the reassurance. As though there was even the smallest chance he had heard her wrong earlier.

"You're really going to ask me the question?" she checked smiling back at him.

"It'd be an honor," he replied.

"Then it'd be my pleasure to say yes," she promised.

Neither of them was seen by anyone for the rest of the afternoon as they found one another in the sheets on Henry's childhood bed.

After all, were practicing for the rest of their lives.

xxx

I'm working on my other story but inspiration hit me for this in the middle of the night. As a result this has not been read over by anyone else and the grammar is probably poor. Despite this let me know what you think.

Also, if you have one shot ideas please send them to me.