Disclaimer: Not to state the obvious, but, no, I do not own the Princess Diaries (book or film), it's characters, or anything related to it except for my two DVDs. I make no profit from this story. I am merely borrowing these characters for a little bit of fun.

A/N: Hey, guys! Thank you all so much for your reviews! I'm very happy that you all enjoyed Mia standing up for her grandmother, and I hope the last chapter made you happy. This next chapter ... well ... hm ... I really like this chapter, and I won't give anything away now, but I am a bit worried what your reactions will be ...

I hope you enjoy anyway, and please review:

Stepping up to the microphone, the Queen adjusted it towards her and took a deep breath as she felt Pierre step back with Mia so that she was now the sole focus of attention.

"Thank you, Amelia and Pierre, for your words," she began as the crowd grew quiet again. Shifting the papers on the podium, she looked up and, taking in the enormity of the crowd before her for the first time, began, "my fellow Genovians, I called this press conference, several week ago, when these rumours began, to confirm their veracity," she took a breath and proceeded, "but first and foremost, to apologize, to you all, for deceiving you, for…"

As Clarisse spoke, Shades, Lionel and Rick were focusing intently on the monitor displaying the right-hand side of the crowd. As soon as Clarisse had stepped up, a commotion had begun among those in the forward-most corner – it wasn't so apparent that those standing outside would have noticed it, but on the monitors, with the luxury of zoom, it was significant and beginning to worry the three guards.

"Can you tell what's going on?" Lionel asked turning to Shades who had even removed his trademark sunglasses to better view the images.

The temporary first-in-command shook his head. From the angle of the camera, it appeared that two men were attempting to wrestle a third to the floor while trying to draw as little attention to themselves as they could. However, as time passed, more and more of the surrounding crowd became aware of the struggle and either attempted to move away, pushing into those behind them, or joined in.

"Dom, Erik, Kurt" Shades called over the communication system to the guards stationed on that side of the crowd, "what the hell is going on?"

"We can't tell, boss," one of them replied and his voice was accompanied by the muffled sounds of a struggle.

"Well, find out!" he replied, pressing buttons on the other screens to try and get a better angle.

Standing just outside the door, his ear-piece in place, Joe scanned the crowd trying to identify what the cause of the problem was. Spotting the man who was now being fought by four others, he raised his wrist to his mouth to tell Shades that he had eyes on the problem, but froze with his hand in mid-air.

As he had been about to speak, the four assailants had suddenly stepped back, their hands in the air, barging into those around them with terrified looks on their faces.

Not pausing to think, Joe practically leapt from his place against the wall and, in strides far too swift for someone who had undergone major surgery a mere three weeks earlier, dashed forward towards Clarisse. In almost less time than in took to blink, he reached her side, his right arm raising across her chest and pushing her gently backwards as he stood in front of her, his left hand automatically going to his hip where his service weapon would normally have rested, had he not been on mandatory leave.

For a breathless moment, everyone froze wondering what Joseph was doing. Clarisse's breath hitched in her throat as she stood a mere inch from his back, his posture and reaction telling her, even if no one else understood, that something was terribly wrong.

Then all hell broke loose.

One of the guards on the ground spotted the gun and yelled into his microphone for back up as he and four others shoved their way into the terrified crowd, yells of 'gun!' and 'run!' spreading like wildfire as hundreds of people simultaneously tried to run for the gates and found themselves blocked in by others with the same aim.

Lionel and Shades ran out of the palace doors, the former swiftly moving to stand in front of Nicholas who, realizing what was going on, was shielding Mia. Shades sprinted to Clarisse and Joe, but even as he drew closer, he saw the barrel raise in their direction, the gunman obviously not bothered by the guards quickly closing in on him.

Before Shades could reach the couple, a shot rang out and even the screaming crowds seemed to freeze for a nanosecond, as if every person paused to check if they had been hit. When the screaming and rushing returned, they had increased ten-fold – for the sight of someone collapsing on the balcony could only instil terror into the crowd of already terrified Genovians.

To the Queen, the next several minutes were a haze of unintelligible voices yelling at each other – yelling at her – and images she could no sooner comprehend than process.

She barely registered that she was being ushered back into the palace – her mind was still frozen on the image of him writhing in a growing pool of blood at the foot of the podium. It wasn't until she felt her hand being raises and the cold surface of the finger-print scanner press against her fingertip that she realized she had been led, almost in a trance, towards the secure wing of the palace. Her hand over the scanner, the system accepted her identity and the concealed doors sprung apart allowing her to be led inside, everything around her still an incoherent jumble of sounds and sights.

As the foot-thick doors began to close behind the group, her trance broke.

"Pierre!" she heard the strangled scream escape her throat as she turned back towards the doors and made to run back – to run to her baby.

TBC

Consider this the end of act one, so to speak ... I know it was short, but this was a very important chapter and there was no way for me to end it differently or make it longer. So I do apologize that it is so short, but this time I'm not trying to create suspense and torture you, it really had to stop there. I hope you enjoyed it anyway, and I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Thanks,

CJS-DEPPendent