A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews. I have a feeling I'm going to have to do a bit of ducking with this chapter...
Mia looked up from her sleeping son and blinked in surprise. "Joe?"
Joe stared at the woman standing in front of him, then down to the child in the crib. "You have a child?"
"Joey," she whispered.
"Joey?"
"That's his name. Joseph Philippe Renaldi Jacoby."
Walking closer, Joe stared down at his namesake. "How is she?" he whispered as he noticed little things in the baby that reminded him of Philippe.
"Go see for yourself." Mia hissed as she walked away, her anger suddenly front and center.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Joe whispered as he turned and walked away.
"Joe, wait." Mia called, stopping him just as he opened the door.
"Yes?" he asked, not turning to look at her.
Mia walked to him, touching his arm to make him turn. "Please help her," she pleaded, her eyes filling with tears as she wrapped her arms around him. "Please."
Holding Mia close, he let her cry on his shoulder. "I've persuaded the specialist to take the case. He'll be here by the end of the week."
Pulling back, Mia stared at the man that had been her protector for the first few years after she'd learned who she truly was. He wasn't the same. He was distant and cold. "Who are you?" she whispered.
"I'm the man I've always been, Your Majesty."
"No," she shook her head. "You're not my Joe. You've changed."
"Life changes people, Your Majesty." Joe sighed. "If you'll excuse me. I have to go and see your grandmother."
Mia watched him go, tears falling down her cheeks. The two people who had formed the woman she'd become were lost. "And their loss has nothing to do with her being sick or the brick wall he's built around himself."
CnJ
Pierre looked up when the door to his mother's room opened. "Joe," he whispered.
"Your Highness." Joe bowed his head slightly, his eyes focused on Clarisse. "Why isn't she in hospital?"
"We made the decision to keep her here to keep the media from learning the full extent of her illness. Genovia loves Mia as their queen, but news that the Dowager Queen is dying would cause," Pierre shook his head, not continuing.
"Ah, yes." Joe answered coolly. Duty was still ruling her life.
Pierre blinked at the coldness in Joe's tone. This wasn't the man he'd known. "Joe?" he questioned.
"It's nothing, Your Highness. I just came to see her as requested and to inform you that I've successfully arranged for the specialist to take her case. He'll be here by the end of the week."
Pierre watched the man sit in a chair across the room and frowned. He knew that things hadn't gone well between his mother and Joe before Mia's wedding, resulting in the man leaving, but from Joe's actions, it must have been much worse than anyone thought. Had his mother choosing duty over her love for Joe been enough to kill the man's basic emotions?
"I need to go inform her doctor." Pierre stood up, releasing his mother's hand.
"Go ahead." Joe told him, his eyes focused on something outside the window. "I'll be here if she wakes."
Pierre bit his lip, wondering if it was such a good idea to leave the man alone with his mother. "If she does, and asks for Philippe, we've been telling her that he's away at school in America. That always seems to appease her."
Joe nodded. "Anything else?"
"You are the only other person she's been asking for. We've told her you were busy. It always works because she's out of it more often than she's awake."
"Then if she wakes, she'll see that I'm no longer busy."
"She'll see much more than that." Pierre mumbled as he made his way out of the room, still unsure if this was such a good idea.
Joe watched the young man leave, the door closing behind him, then moved to sit beside Clarisse. "Why must duty rule you even in your death?" he whispered as he reached out to caress the hair from her forehead.
Clarisse's eyes fluttered open at the touch, her eyes staring up at the man she'd been longing for. "Joseph," she breathed.
Joe stared down into eyes that were dull grey with pain and glassy from medication, so unlike the vibrant blue that haunted his dreams. "Yes, it's me."
"They kept saying you were busy."
"I have been, Your Majesty."
Blinking to focus her vision better, Clarisse reached for his hand. "What is it?" she whispered. "Are you still angry with me? You know that I had to let Philippe go."
Joe frowned as he tried to understand what she was talking about. "Your Majesty?"
"Why are you calling me that? What happened to calling me Clarisse?"
"I'm sorry, Clarisse." Joe sighed, having difficulty keeping up with where in her memory they were. "I'm not angry with you over Philippe. I understand your reasons."
Biting her lip on a moan she closed her eyes. "My head hurts," she whispered as she reached for his hand. Looking up at him, tears filled her eyes. "I'm dying, Joseph."
"Shh," he soothed as he held her hand. "You aren't going to die. A specialist will be here by week's end. He'll operate and take away your headaches and you'll be as good as new."
Staring into the green eyes that filled her memories, she squeezed his hand. "No. I'll never be good as new. I hurt you. You're not the same." She stopped as the pain in her head increased.
"Clarisse," he tried, but she opened her eyes and stared at him.
"I've lost you forever, haven't I?" she asked before her eyes closed and she drifted back into a restless sleep.
CnJ
Pierre found his niece sitting in the empty throne room staring off at nothing, tears staining her cheeks. "I suppose you've seen Joe," he whispered.
Mia sniffed and nodded. "He isn't my Joe."
"He isn't anyone's Joe, Mia. The man I knew was never cold unless he was dealing with enemies of the crown or Arthur Mabrey."
Mia raised an eyebrow as she looked up at her uncle. "One in the same, aren't they?"
"How well you know that." Pierre nodded. "What really happened, Mia?"
"I don't know, Uncle Pierre. Charlotte has told me that she came in on them dancing and talking. Whatever Grandma said to Joe made him leave in a hurry. She chased after him and tried to explain, but he wouldn't listen." Mia sobbed. "I just don't know. I want it all to go back the way it was. It was my fault."
Pierre pulled his niece up into his arms. "It wasn't your fault, Mia."
Mia clung to her uncle and nodded against his chest. "Yes, it was. I was being so stupid with Nicholas and getting myself caught in all those ridiculous situations. She felt she had no choice but to choose her duty over him."
Pierre rubbed Mia's back. "But he made the decision not to stay and wait for her."
"But don't you see?" Mia asked as she pulled back, wiping at her eyes. "He'd been waiting for her for all of these years. He stood by and waited until she had the chance to choose love, but she didn't take it. She didn't take it because of me. If I hadn't been so stupid, she wouldn't have felt the need to choose her duty over Joe once again."
Pierre sighed, "The doctor has said that she may not remember anything after the surgery. He'll know more once he reviews the tests."
"She may lose her memory?"
"That's a possibility, yes. And then she won't be haunted by what's happened."
Mia sighed as she rested her head back against her uncle's shoulder. "What a damn mess."
"We've done all we can, Mia. It's in God's hands now."
