A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

Chapter 4: Prince Edward's Return

Although it was only a guest suite and not a suite for one of the royals, the place that had served as Jo's living quarters the past three and a half months was exquisite. When a person first walked inside, he would enter a tiny foyer and then a small sitting room, and finally, the bedchamber, which of course had an en suite bathroom attached. All the rooms of the suite were pained a simple sky blue, and all the floors had white carpeting, with the exception of the bathroom floor, of course. The walls were adorned with some incredible artwork as well as portraits of various Konopka royals throughout Momi's almost two hundred year history. There was a blue loveseat and television in the sitting room, with a light oak coffee table and matching end tables, and there was a giant bookcase on the wall behind the loveseat. On the other side of the room behind the television was a similar light oak desk with a navy blue leather desk chair where Jo always did her schoolwork from Eastland, as well as various homework assignments given to her by Andrew and Grace concerning their lessons about Momian government and high society.

As soon as Prince John sent Jo to her suite, she anxiously waited for her father, sitting on the loveseat with her arms folded across her chest, scowling. She could sense it that he was not pleased by what she'd just done to her uncle, and she just knew a lecture was coming. She could already hear Mrs. Garrett lecturing her inside her own mind about how wrong she was to resort to violence, and she was not looking forward to having to hear it from her father, too. And besides, no matter what either one of them might say, Jo knew she wasn't wrong for standing up to him after the way he was treating that poor maid.

When Jo finally heard the knock at her door she'd been waiting for, she let out a frustrated sigh, and then she got up and let him in. After following her to the sitting room, he sat down with her on the loveseat, and the discussion began.

"Jo, I want you to know that I understand why you did what you did. Your uncle's behavior was atrocious, and most unbefitting of a prince. After he shoved you, I understand that you must have felt physically threatened by him, and that you felt you needed to defend yourself."

"I sense a but coming up."

"But," Prince John said knowingly, "the guards and I would have been there in just a few more seconds, and if you would have allowed me, I personally would have dealt with the situation."

"Do you really believe I was wrong to take a stand and put a stop to him bullying that poor maid?"

"Of course not. You're absolutely right that a true princess must always fight for the rights of others. You did that today, and I'm proud of you. However, in this situation, your actions were most unwise. You know that your uncle has been in Europe until today. He left for Paris eight months ago. He's always doing things like that, leaving on the spur of the moment. Living like a teenage playboy. Having affairs. Getting drunk. Verbally and emotionally abusing all the people around him. It was my hope that he would remain in Europe until the announcement ceremony on your birthday was over and you had officially announced your decision to the press. With him coming back so suddenly, it…well, it makes things so much more complicated. So far, I've been successful in keeping your true identity a well-kept secret. Only a very select few in the palace are aware of who you really are. But now that you've actually dared to punch my brother and cut him down to size in front of others, he's going to want to know who you really are and why you're staying in the palace. He's going to want to know everything about you, and he's going to want to do everything in his power to hurt you. He's a bloodthirsty hound, and when you stood up to him and bruised his ego, you basically waved a thick, juicy stake in front of him, and now, he's going to go crazy trying to hunt you down. You weren't wrong to stand up for the maid, Jo. That's not the issue. It's just that you have got to learn to think, really, really think, before you act. You're an impatient soul, Jo, and you often act far too rashly. That's a weakness that men like Edward can and will exploit to hurt you. I know it's hard, especially for someone as young as you, but you simply must learn that every single action we take in the palace and in public is constantly being scrutinized by everyone, and if you act rashly, there could be severe consequences for you and for others. If you are going to live out your life as the Princess of Momi, then you must always remain aware of that fact."

Jo was not usually very receptive to criticism. For a long time, she'd suffered from a terrible guilt complex over her mother (supposedly) having to work so hard to put her through Eastland, and whenever someone criticized her, it often only made her feel worse about herself. When it came to adding to her inner burdens with guilt trips, Mrs. Garrett, who saw guilt as a terrific weapon that shouldn't be wasted, had not always been very helpful, although she did mean well. And when her journalism teacher, Mr. Gideon, had cruelly torn her down in front of the entire class and made her feel like crap after all her hard work, out of her hurt and anger, she'd retaliated with a damning story about him in the school newspaper, which had effectively ended his teaching career. Rather than even trying to understand both sides of the story, Mrs. Garrett heaped further criticism on Jo's shoulders and sided with Mr. Gideon, without also stopping to consider his own fatal flaws as a teacher. Now, Prince John was basically trying to teach Jo the same lesson about learning to truly think before she acted out, but this time, there was something very different. Yes, he was criticizing her actions, but in the most loving way possible. He truly understood why she acted the way she did, and even though it hadn't been the best course of action to take for obvious reasons, he didn't cut her down for it and heap loads of guilt and condemnation on her shoulders and make her great inner-burdens even heavier. He was making it crystal clear that he was only correcting her out of his love for her and his great concern for her well-being. He wasn't trying to tear her down and humiliate her and treat her like dirt as Gideon had done, and he wasn't overlooking what she was going through and ignoring her side of things as Mrs. Garrett had always done whenever Jo had problems with a parent or an adult. He was merely trying to correct behavior in her that could put her in danger, both now and in the future, and Jo could plainly see that, and that made all the difference.

After a long silence, Jo sighed and said, "I really blew it today, didn't I?"

Prince John gave her a kind smile. "You did what you felt in your own judgment to be the right thing. I can never blame you for that. You just have to learn to be a little more careful…and perhaps to control your temper a little better," he said teasingly, and then he playfully flicked her chin with his index finger, which got her to smile.

Another silence passed between them, until Prince John finally said with a sigh, "Ah, my dear Jo. You're so grown-up. You're such a fighter. I guess with your adoptive father gone for so many years and your adoptive mother having to work so hard, you were forced to grow up very early in your life, and you never really had much of a support system, at least until you started attending Eastland. But I'm here now, and I'm your father, and I love you. You don't have to fight all the battles on your own anymore, little warrior. It's time that you let yourself be the daughter and let me be the parent and the protector. You don't have to worry about Edward. I will deal with Edward. And if you see him again in the palace, I don't want you to say a word to him. I want you to let your guards deal with him, and I want you to get away as soon as possible and come find me. Understand?"

Jo nodded and answered, "I understand."

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to meet with some of the staff in my office. And as for you, I think it might be a good idea to get some work done on your latest lessons from Eastland."

"I will," Jo said quietly, and then they stood up and hugged. When the embrace ended, Prince John started walking out of the sitting room. Just before he left the room, though, Jo called, "Hey, Dad?"

He then turned around and said, "Yes, my dear?"

"I'm sorry if I made things more stressful for you."

He shook his head and assured her, "It's not your fault. Even if you hadn't been here when he returned, he would still have found a way to stir up trouble and make my life more difficult. That's just who he is."

Jo nodded once again, and then her father left, and she sat down at her desk and tried to force herself to focus on her studies.


Over the next three hours, Jo managed to get some work done despite how difficult it was for her to take her mind off what had happened with her uncle. It was seven o'clock in the evening when she got caught up on her schoolwork, and when she was done, she walked into the bedchamber of her suite and threw herself down on the queen-sized bed and let out a sad sigh. A few moments later, the phone on one of her nightstands rang, and she sat up on the side of her bed and answered it.

"Hello?" said Jo.

"Hello," a smooth male voice answered on the other end. "Is this Princess Anne?"

"Who's asking?"

"I'm sorry. I know we haven't officially met before. My name is Tony Daniels. I spoke with your father today."

It was then that it clicked in Jo's mind: Tony Daniels was a potential suitor for her.

"This has to do with the whole arranged marriage thing, doesn't it?" asked Jo.

"Yes ma'am, it does."

Jo chuckled a bit and said, "You don't have to call me ma'am. And even though my official name is Anne, I've been called Jo all my life, so I'd really prefer it if we could stick to that, at least in private, anyway."

"You got it, Jo. Anyway, your father gave me permission to call you. He asked me to come to the palace at noon tomorrow so we could have lunch together and start getting to know each other."

"Great. Maybe we'd actually better start getting to know each other now. I only have until my birthday in May to make up my mind about this princess deal, and if I decide to go through with it, I'm going to have to be engaged, like, ten seconds later."

"Yeah, you've got a good point. Well, there's not that much to know about me. Ever since I was five, I dreamed of becoming a doctor, but we didn't have enough money for me to go all the way through medical school, so I became a nurse instead. Three out of four of my grandparents were dead before I was born, and about a year after I graduated from college and started working at Lani General Hospital as a nurse, my parents were killed in a car accident. Ever since then, it's just been me and my Grandpa Daniels."

"You don't have any brothers or sisters?"

"Nope. I'm an only."

"I'm really sorry about your parents."

"Thank you. It wasn't easy, but I managed to move on with my life. At the end of the day, it's all you can do, right?"

"Right," Jo said quietly. Then a moment later, she said, "Since we're getting to know each other better, I don't guess you'll mind if I ask you how old you are."

"I'm twenty-four."

"So that means you've been a nurse for about three years. Do you like your work?"

"Absolutely. I was disappointed for a while that I wasn't able to become a doctor, but I think that in the end, it was all for the best. Doctors are always so busy at the hospital that they never really get a chance to sit down with patients and get to know them. They never get the chance to really be there for them emotionally, you know? And as a nurse, I get the opportunity to get involved in my patients' lives in ways that doctors can't. It's very satisfying."

"I think I know what you mean. I want to be there for others in my life too, especially kids. I grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood in the Bronx, and when my father left Ma and me, I started acting out, getting into trouble. I even joined a street gang for a little while, until my mother shipped me off to this all-girls boarding school in Peekskill. Well, I thought it was my mother's idea at the time, but now I know that it was actually my biological father, Prince John, who was behind it. And even though I hated being sent to Eastland at first, it actually ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me. I started learning all kinds of interesting things. I had real friends in my life…a real family. And some of the faculty there made a tremendous difference in my life, especially Mrs. Garrett, the school dietician. That's why I've felt in the back of my mind for a long time now that maybe I wanted to be a teacher and have a chance to be there for some kids the way Mrs. Garrett and some of the teachers at Eastland have been there for me. But then last November, I met Prince John for the very first time and found out about this whole princess thing, and my world's been turned upside down."

"I'll bet it has been. But from what all I've seen of you, I'm pretty sure you can handle it."

"What are you talking about? You've never seen me before."

"Actually, I met with your father in his office this afternoon and we discussed the whole situation. And it was just as I was getting ready to leave that your uncle came into the palace and started making a scene. You didn't see me, you had your hands pretty full at the time, but I was there with your father when you punched the snot out of your uncle," he said with a hearty laugh.

"I suppose, as a princess, it wasn't exactly my finest moment," Jo said regretfully. "It seems that I've inadvertently made things more difficult around here, especially for my dad. Until today, Prince Edward had no idea that there was someone staying in the palace. He's just been off in Europe, doing his own thing. Now that I've shown him up in public, Dad says he'll stop at nothing to try to uncover the truth about who I really am, and if he discovers my actual identity, well…that could really mean bad news for me and my dad. As Dad told me earlier, I'm pretty impatient, and I tend to act out and lash out without really thinking about the possible consequences of my actions."

"Yeah, but you couldn't allow yourself and that pregnant woman to be bullied either. I mean, in the long run, yeah, it probably would have been best to let your father handle the situation, but I don't blame you for what you did. You were right to take a stand for the maid and for yourself. And speaking as a Momian citizen, I just want to say that I really like the idea of having our Princess be someone who isn't afraid to interfere and stand up to bullies when the occasion calls for it. I think it takes a very special young lady to do that. I don't want our next princess to be some pampered, delicate flower. I want her to be a princess who's got the courage to get in there and kick some butt when she has to." Jo laughed at that for a moment, and then Tony continued, "Don't feel bad about today, Jo. Maybe you did act a little rashly, but still, not everybody would have had the decency or the guts to step in and do something about the way Prince Edward was treating that maid. You should be proud of yourself."

"Thanks."

"It's just the truth."

"I can't believe it. I barely know you, and yet here I am spilling my guts to you."

"I think it's the nurse in me. In my profession, you have to have a good bedside manner. You have to know how to put people at ease and help them feel comfortable around you."

"I guess that explains it. Well anyway, I'm really looking forward to having lunch with you tomorrow afternoon."

"Me too. Something tells me I'm really going to enjoy getting to know you."

"Same here. I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll be there. It's been great talking to you."

"It's been great talking to you too."

"Have a good night, Jo."

"You too. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Jo hung up the phone then, and she started really thinking about this Tony Daniels. As she just said, she barely knew him, but yet for some reason, it was nearly impossible not to like him. She obviously wasn't sure yet if he was husband material or not, but if he ended up being halfway as great as he sounded on the phone, there was some undeniable potential there.

But then again, she wasn't even sure yet if she was going to say yes to being a princess. Her whole life was moving in such a mad whirlwind; things were moving and changing in her life so incredibly fast, she hardly had a chance to breathe. She'd really gotten to know Prince John over these past few months, and she'd truly begun seeing him as the father she never had. He was a very good man, and she wanted to do right by him and by the Momian people. But she was terrified at the thought of having seventy-one thousand lives on her shoulders one day, not to mention having to rush to get married to someone she didn't know very well. Jo hadn't mentioned anything about her dilemma to Mrs. Garrett in her letters to her; this was something that had to be discussed in person. But as Jo laid back down on her bed, she couldn't help but ask herself the question, "What would Mrs. Garrett say if she were here?"

Jo then let out a frustrated sigh, closed her eyes, and tried not to think about the headache she felt coming on.