Of Princes and Princesses

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Saturday my wonderful readers! So here we have a much longer chapter than usual but that's because we have a lot of drama going on and I didn't want to leave you on a cliffhanger this time around. We have a whole ten page chapter here today so I hope you guys like this one and where it goes. Very soon we'll be in the movie chapters, just you wait! His brother and August and everyone else will be joining us very, very soon! As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week.

28.

The months after they came back from the UK were mundane. Rose, who had been as livid about the reason behind the trip to England as Marshall had been, had actually admitted to Kate that she was proud of what she did. She still thought it was stupid and they didn't deserve it, but she was proud. And to be fair, Marshall was too.

They spent their days going between spending time together doing every day domestic things, working, or going out with friends. They had nights in where he and Kate would spend time on the couch. She drinking wine and flipping through magazines, he drinking beer and watching bad telly. They had nights out with their friends. Kate would have girls nights, Marshall would go out with his old band mates for jam sessions or just beers. They had nights with their collective friends, games nights, dinner's out, that sort of thing.

Everything was going smoothly. There were very few arguments, he got promoted at work from bartender to manager and Kate got promoted to a better shift rotation. Everything was going so very, very well. Which was why Marshall was only half surprised when the cops showed up at their door looking for him.

Things were going so good something disastrous was bound to happen soon or later and it literally had just knocked on their door.

They had been having one of their quiet nights in. Kate was drinking wine and reading her latest magazine, while Marshall was busy whipping them up a little light snack for them before he put some sporting event onto the TV. Kate had answered the door and then he heard a very serious voice cut through their domestic bliss.

"I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, we're looking for Marshall Connelly."

Marshall was already turning the stove off even before Kate called: "Marshall the police are looking for you."

There was trepidation in her voice and even Marshall was nervous. He had been on such a good behaviour, what could they be mad about now?

Still he forced himself to be calm as he headed towards the door. He smiled at the two men in uniform standing at the door, hoping that this was a cruel prank involving a stripper gram.

"Hello officers is there a problem?"

"I'm sorry sir, but we have warrant for your arrest," already Kate was moving in between them and Marshall. "You'll have to come with us."

"But… but… what for? What did he do?"

"We're bringing him in for assault and battery."

Kate turned wide eyes onto him but Marshall was literally just as confused as her. He hadn't beat up anyone… like at all.

"Who?" he asked. Kate put her hands on her hips and glared up to the two cops. "Yeah, who is accusing him of this?"

"Thomas Copeland filed the assault," one of the officer's said. But Marshall didn't know who that was.

He turned wide eyes onto Kate not sure what was happening but it was Kate who cried: "Slutty Sophie's husband?"

What? Really? He hadn't seen her since he got together with Kate.

The two officers exchanged looks. "Do you mean Sophie Copeland?"

"Yeah for right now. Firstly, this is her third attempt at marriage and do you know how many guys that girl is cheating on her current husband with? Or how many guys she had on the side with her other husbands? There's a reason the whole hospital calls her Slutty Sophie."

Their eyes flicked to Marshall but Kate huffed and snapped: "He's not sleeping with her anymore!"

The anymore was not very helpful.

"I'm sorry, but we'll have to continue this at the station," one of them said pulling out the cuffs.

Marshall felt his heart constrict. He never actually thought Kate would see him with his hands cuffed behind his back. But there he was, getting handcuffed in front of the girl he loved. He tried not to look her in the eye but he caught that look of tearful horror on her face.

"You have to believe me Kate, I didni do it! I swear!"

"Don't worry, I'll get help and I'll meet you at the station okay?"

He didn't bother to say anything he just let them cart him away. God there was no way his relationship with her was going to survive this.

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

Kate's first stop was to get Rose. Rose was working that day, which meant she had gone to the hospital practically sobbing. Rose took an emergency day, Kate had to literally drag Rose away from the section of the ER where Sophie currently was, so her best friend wouldn't accost Sophie then and there for what they were certain were lies. But she needed Rose to come with her to the station because Kate was literally freaking out right now. On the way there, Rose called Charlie and demanded that he join them at the precinct.

Then while Kate cried and chewed away at her finger nails, they waited for Charlie at his desk. When he did arrive, Rose was doing all that she could to calm Kate down. But Charlie seemed to be in one hell of a good mood.

He slapped down a file folder as he took his seat and then shot a smile at the two of them. "I'd like to say I'm surprised but it was only a matter of time before he ended up behind bars again."

"He didn't do it Charlie," Kate cried.

Charlie scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Look, he has a previous relationship with Sophie, she has texts on her phone from him confirming his relationship with her, and a history of assault. That's one hell of a pile of evidence."

"Hey!" Rose snarled pointing a finger into her older brother's face. "You don't see them together like I do. There is no way he's cheating on her."

"Sophie is a very attractive girl and let's face it, more his type than you, Kate," Charlie said. "Sooner or later that man was going to do this to you, I did warn you not to fall for his type. No good girl like you can keep a man like that tied down."

Rose gasped in outrage for Kate. "How dare you?! Kate is every bit as worth of Marshall as Sophie, thank you very much!"

"Okay, Rose, Rose you are not helping, can I talk to Kate on her own, please?"

"I'm not leaving her alone with you if you're going to insult the shit out of her."

"Rose, for godsake, the investigating officer has let me borrow this report, and it has some sensitive stuff in it, could you leave us for a moment."

But Rose was unmoving. "What? Me? I'm her emotional support friend."

"Rose, you can't keep your mouth shut."

Kate glanced to Rose who was glaring at her brother. As much as she didn't want to be left alone with Charlie, she needed to know what was in that file. She put a hand on her friend's arm. "It's alright, Rose, I'll be fine."

Rolling her eyes, Rose got up. "You two have like three minutes," she snapped. "And if I come back here and she's crying, I'm going to knock you sideways like I used to when we were little, I don't care if I embarrass you at work.

Then with one big huff, she turned on heel, with a toss of her hair and then finally walked away.

Once she was gone, Charlie opened the file and showed it to her. Her eyes were still swimming and her head was pounding so it was hard to read the small font of the report, but the pictures were clear as hell. Someone had beat the shit out of Sophie's husband, Thomas.

"Mr. Copeland said that he came home from work early in the afternoon, and there was someone in his house and in his bed with Sophie. There was an argument, he went for the guy, and the man just turned around and beat the shit out of him, as you can see this afternoon."

"This afternoon? But he was with me this afternoon."

"Just the two of you?"

"Well… yeah…"

"See that's a problem because both Thomas and Sophie have said that you'll do anything to protect him. Sophie's exact words were that you'd lie to save your skin because there's a rivalry between you two and you don't want to admit that she won your man."

Oh, that was so like her.

"That's not true, Charlie," Kate cried. "I know he's not cheating on me."

Charlie rolled his eyes a bit and Kate frowned at him. "What? What does that look mean?"

"It mean's she's his type, Katie," he growled and her heart hurt a little bit heard that. She managed a weak don't call me that but Charlie hadn't heard her. "Look, Sophie's story hasn't changed. She says she's been sleeping with him for months, that the man with her this afternoon was definitely Marshall Connelly. And… well… it looks bad. Really bad."

"But he's innocent, Charlie, he didn't do it," Katie cried.

"And it's nice of you to think that but I think you need to be a little more realistic. Don't you think?" No Kate didn't want to think that. "Look, you're just going to have to face facts, he's going to jail this time…"

God, her father was right, she should have saved that money for Marshall's lawyer fees cause at this rate they were going to get steamrolled.

"Isn't there anything you can do?"

At that Charlie scoffed. "It's not my case, Katie, and even if it was, I wouldn't be able to keep it, it's a conflict of interest," he told her and she hung her head. "And why would I want to help? Do I have a reason to?"

Kate's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "How about I'm your friend and you want to help me?"

"But I don't want your friendship, and you know that. As it stands, him going to jail will be good for me."

"What are you saying?" Kate hissed.

Charlie reached out and put a hand on her knee. "Look, you want me to help him. I'll want something in return. And that's leaving him and getting back together with me." Kate slapped his hand away from her. "As I see it, either he goes to jail and you lose him that way, or you break it off like you're probably going to do anyway and get back together with someone worthy of you. Like me. Like we were going to do before you met him."

Kate stood up, a dark glare on her face. "How dare you!" she snarled. "You… you're… you're disgusting!"

She stormed away from Charlie's desk. She couldn't go to Rose with this because knowing Rose, she'd attack Charlie in the precinct and she couldn't afford to bail out two people. But she had to do something. Or at this rate Marshall was going to go to jail.

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

After he propositioned Kate like that, he figured it was only a matter of time before Rose bore down on him ready to beat him a new one. But when she never came, he figured himself off of the hook. He could go back to pretending that the case against Marshall Connelly didn't have major holes in it, and if he was lucky, Marshall would go to jail for a couple of days and he could persuade Kate to give him another chance.

And then his mother called. That wasn't entirely uncommon, so he thought nothing of it.

"Hey mom…"

"Charles Duncan Bell, I cannot believe you are attempting to blackmail Kate into dating you."

Jesus Christ she had called his mother. What a little snitch. That was so much worse than going to his sister.

"Mom… that's not… this guy she's with is…"

"You stop it this instant! Who Kate wants to date is her business. I did not raise you this way…" and from there it was just lecturing, he wouldn't be able to get a word in edgewise.

But hearing his mother yell at him like that. Listening to her rail on about how she didn't raise him to blackmail women, he realized that… well… he was acting no better than Kate's father. He had done the exact same thing and alienated her for the rest of his life.

Charlie didn't want that. So, he told his mother he'd fix it and actually went about doing that. He knew that Marshall was vehemently denying that he attacked anyone. He admitted to sleeping with Slutty Sophie once, on Valentine's Day like two years ago, but he hadn't done it since. Aside from seeing her every now and then at work parties he'd attend with Kate, or when he picked up Kate from work, he had literally no contact with her.

When he was given a physical it was determined that he had no marks on his hands, which he should have if he had thrashed Thomas as soundly as he had. Nor were there any of the marks from the defensive moves Thomas had employed.

He already knew that the investigating officer thought something was off about this, but both Thomas and Sophie were adamant that it was Marshall Connelly. And Well… since Thomas had no idea his wife was cheating, and Thomas had only met the man once which was the afternoon he had been beaten up by him, really it was just Sophie who was adamant it was Marshall Connelly.

Charlie also knew, from Rose and Kate, that the rivalry between Sophie and Kate was a real thing. And it was entirely possible that Sophie was making this up to protect the real man she was cheating with and to get back at Kate who had, in a way, stolen Marshall from Sophie.

Though he didn't want to, he started to talk to the detective on the case and with his help they set up a test.

They had Thomas come back in and then they put Marshall in a line up with guys that looked like him. They then had Thomas come in to look, to see if he could identify the guy who attacked him.

"Okay, just take your time," the detective said. "I know you didn't get a clear look at the guy's face, but do any of these guys look familiar?"

Thomas looked long and hard at each of them and then shook his head. "Nope, no, I don't think so."

Yeah that wouldn't be good enough. "Number Four step forward," he ordered into the intercom. Across from them Marshall jumped but he eventually took a step forward.

"What about him? Does he look familiar?" Charlie asked.

"No, none of these guys look right. Marshall Connelly is blonde, and he was thinner," Thomas snapped. "All of these guys are brunets. Besides I thought you had Marshall Connelly in custody."

"We do. He's number Four."

Thomas turned back to where Marshall was standing. "No… no… where's the black eye? I definitely gave him a black eye. And the suit, he was wearing a suit." Great, he really had just proved that this was a case of falsified identity. And Thomas seemed to realize it too. "She lied to me… she didn't tell me his real name…"

Charlie glanced to the other detective. Well, that was it then, Marshall Connelly was free to go.

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

They didn't tell him why, but after the line up where he was the only person singled out, the police let him go. Not enough evidence to hold him, they said.

Marshall had been there through the night and well into the morning. He could have called Kate but he couldn't bring himself to do that. He couldn't face her after the police dragged him away, he was too mortified, too afraid that she was just going to end things with him.

He was waiting to get his stuff back at the counter when someone came up and tapped his shoulder. Marshall turned almost immediately worried the cops had changed their minds but instead he was looking at a man who looked like he had gone through hell and back.

This had to be Thomas.

"Hey, I uh… I wanted to apologize," he said to Marshall. "Sophie uh… she said it was you… and I just… I mean I don't know why I believed her, I found her in bed with another guy…"

"Hey! You know what, it could happen to anyone," Marshall said quickly and then lowered his eyes. "And… and… I am guilty, you know? I did sleep with her. Just once, a really long time ago when I was single… but… you know, I knew she was married and I shouldn't have. So… I'm sorry."

Marshall and Thomas avoided each other's eyes for a moment before Thomas cleared his throat. "I know I shouldn't ask this, and you don't have to answer but uh… could you tell me when… when…"

"Two Valentine's ago."

Thomas's head jerked up and Marshall realized that it probably meant something.

"I'm sorry about that… uh… we weren't even married five months and she was already cheating on me…"

"Yeah…"

"I heard her coworkers called her Slutty Sophie but I just thought they were being petty because they were jealous of her."

"Yeah, no, uh… my girlfriend works with her. She said there's a history of cheating… not that I should be telling you that. Look, I know this is rough, buddy and I'm not going to say that it doesn't suck but… this isn't the end of the world."

"The woman I love let her lover beat me up. A lover, I'm assuming, is one in a string of many."

Marshall thought about how upset he'd be if Kate cheated on him and figured that yeah, he'd be devastated too.

"Okay, so it feels like it's the end of the world right now but I promise that the right girl is just out there, wondering what's taking you so long to find her."

"You got one of those girls, don't you, I can tell," Thomas said with a smile.

"Yeah, not sure if she's going to stay with me after this…"

"Hey if you need me to tell her it was all a mistake I will, where is she by the way?"

Not coming, but Marshall couldn't voice that right now.

"Mr. Connelly, here are your things," the man at the counter said, handing him the plastic bag. "One wallet, one set of keys, three guitar pics and one ring."

Marshall snatched that ring immediately, putting it back on his finger just felt right, and he had a feeling he'd keep wearing it after Kate broke up with him so he'd always remember what he lost.

He thanked the man for his time, heard a screech of his name and only got to half turn before someone collided with him. Kate hit him with such a force that he almost fell over. How the hell had she known to come?

"Hey there Jailbird, how was your time inside?" Rose asked from a respectable distance. "Get anymore tattoos."

"It was a holding cell, Rose, not the big house," Marshall said as his arms wrapped around Kate and refused to let go. She was just shaking in his arms and he had a feeling that she was crying.

Rose turned onto Thomas who was staring at her with wide eyes of surprise or, if Marshall had to guess, was wanton desire. Rose was very pretty after all.

"Who's your friend?"

"Thomas Copeland, Slut…. Just Sophie's husband."

Rose frowned at him and shook her head. "My Condolences. But you know, you lasted longer than the others so that's something. I'm Rose, sorry," she said offering him hand. "I should also tell you that I just got suspended for cussing out your girlfriend in the middle of the ER. But if it weren't for my yelling, we wouldn't have found out that her newest boyfriend is Dr. Carlin up in oncology."

"It's true, Charlie arrested them both. Carlin for the assault and Sophie for messing with the investigation."

Kate had pulled her head out of Marshall's chest to announce that and he was right. She had been crying.

Thomas carefully tapped Kate on the shoulder to gain Kate's attention.

"You must be Marshall's girlfriend. I'm so very sorry for inconveniencing you with this. It seems I had the wrong name, entirely Sophie's fault, of course. I hope you don't hold it against him."

"That's alright, I figured," she whispered though she didn't once look at Marshall. "Would you two mind if I had Marshall to myself for a couple of minutes."

"Yeah sure, I wouldn't mind a few moments alone with Mr. Thomas," Rose said her eyes practically undressing him where he stood.

Despite the severity of the situation he found himself smiling for Thomas, he had a feeling that he was going to be alright. But he had a feeling that things weren't going to go so well for him.

Kate took him farther into the precinct to a quiet little hallway where she stood before him, hugging her arms to her side.

"Hey, are you… are you okay?"

Kate turned her eyes up to him, those tears streaming down her face and his heart shattered in his chest. First for making her cry like that, secondly because he knew then and there, she was going to break up with him.

"No, Marshall. I'm a wreck."

He reached out a hand for her, just to try and comfort her in some way and she let him rest it on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I am… I…"

"I just keep thinking about what could have happened and… and… I don't… I don't think I could go through something like that again."

"I know, I didn't mean to make you go through this… we weren't… I didn't actually do anything."

"I know that Marshall but… but… you have a past and a temper and I know what you're like when you need to blow off steam…"

"Okay, okay, but I've been better… you know that… I haven't been in a bar fight for a really long time!"

"I've thought a lot about this, but… I can't do this again, Marshall. I can't. If you get arrested for fighting again… I'll have no choice, do you understand? If this happens again, I will leave you."

"But I wasn't really fighting…"

"You know what I mean, Marshall!"

Marshall nodded his head. He'd get away with it if it were a misunderstanding like this one, but if he were to get picked up for fighting, she'd leave him for sure.

"So… you're not leaving me right now?"

Kate shook her head and Marshall let out his breath in one big sigh, well that's a relief. He took his girlfriend into his arms held her tightly to him and whispered: "I swear to you this will not happen again… or at least I won't be guilty, I can't say someone won't lie about it again…"

Kate just held him tightly, starting to cry again. "I was just so afraid that I'd lose you."

She was never going to lose him. Not ever.