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1996

"It's a boy!" The doctor whispered as he handed the tiny blue package to its joyful father.

"My first born son," Joseph almost cried.

"And the last," his rather exhausted thirty-four year old girlfriend Alice panted after the sheer exhaustion of giving birth to such a big boy.

Joseph held her hand and showed her their son, he then kissed her forehead and smiled, "Well done."

They'd already decided on a name when she first found out she was pregnant, his name was to be Joshua Luke Martin-Hills.

The two parents were overjoyed with the safe arrival of their new son, and had a party to celebrate.

It was held at the palace by special order of the king. A private party with no members of parliament taking up valuable space, with the exclusion of Joseph's good friend the Prime Minister and family. They too were celebrating the birth of their first daughter.

The party was going quite swell, until the queen pulled Joseph aside with a look of anger on her face.

As soon as they were out of sight she slapped him ever so hard across the cheek, "What was that for?"

She slapped him even harder this time and he grabbed her arms, squeezing them until she screamed.

"You a liar! An asshole! Rat! Scum! The lowest form of human I have ever met!"

"Actually I think the word you're looking for is congratulations? Incase you didn't know, I just became a father. This is an exciting event for me."

He released her and she slapped him again, causing him to violently grab her and hold her against the wall, "What's your problem?"

"You told me you couldn't do it! fifteen years ago you told me you couldn't father a child and now all of a sudden you have a son!"

"You're bringing up something that happened fifteen years ago? I'm surprised you remember that far back."

"Of course I remember, everytime I look at your face I remember," she shot him nasty looks until reality sunk in, "I knew I shouldn't have believed you, but I clung to the hope that there was some other possibility, some sort of explanation like... an immaculate conception. Thank god it was a false alarm, I wouldn't have wanted to bring a child into the world who's father doesn't even know the meaning of the word responsibility."

Joseph raised his eyebrow, "You call sneaking off to the security room in order to get a bit of action before bedtime responsible?"

She struggled in his grasp ready to tear him apart, yet he didn't release her. Instead he dragged her into the cupboard under the stairs and held her hands, "Look, I admit that I lied to you about the whole not being able to have children thing, but believe me when I say I did it for you!"

Clarisse threw her head back and faked a laugh, "You did it to save your own bacon! Admit it! You didn't want a child intterupting your perfect bachelor lifestyle."

"Would you just shut up and hear me out? I did it to protect you. Do you think the queen's mysterious pregnancy would have gone unnoticed by the public? That nobody would notice a new "heir" coming into the world? Your husband would have known instantly it wasn't his and believe me, he wouldn't have taken it lightly. I figured the best way to deal with the situation was to keep my distance and make everyone believe it was impossible for us to have ever had relations, including you. Clarisse, if you had mothered an illegitimate child, your world would have collapsed. You would have had nowhere to run, your family would have suffered humiliation. I assumed that if you'd actually fallen pregnant you'd think of some way out of it, I thought you'd terminate the pregnancy or go away for a few months on an unplanned holiday until it was born and you could do something about it."

The look on her face was of pure disgust, "Do something about it? What? Put it up for adoption? Never."

"You still don't get it. I tried to keep you in the lifestyle you're accustomed to. Given the chance, I would have been more than happy to take you away and start a family with you, but I knew I couldn't give you what he could. I knew you would never leave your rich, royal husband and run off with a low life like me, so I told a lie."

Tears were pouring from her eyes, she pleaded for him to release her so she could wipe her eyes, he let her.

"Believe me now?"

Sniffling, she turned away from him, "Why didn't you ask?"

He trembled slightly, "Ask you what?"

"To come away with you."

Attempting to wipe the falling tears from her eyes, he mumbled, "You would have said no. I know you would have said no."

Pushing past him and opening the door she whispered, "Then you don't know me at all."

Joseph's face fell as he realised what he thought of as impossible, might have been possible after all. The thing he wanted most in his life could have been his 17 years ago. Reluctantly he walked back to the party, face red from being slapped so many times. Suddenly he wanted to slap his own face for just assuming the love of his life wouldn't have left the palace to live with him, when in actual fact, that's what she wanted all along.