This started out as a one shot for my Samcedes songs short stories fic, but there were so many gaps I had to stop and fill it out, just finished filling, it's turned into a slow burning drama - enjoy
Everything
I guess the first question on everyone's lips might be how in the hell did Jamaica get a royal family, well that's easy, we can clear that up in a paragraph. The reigning King of England back in the 1890's loved the island so much so, he had what he called a holiday home built, it was a grand replica of his palace back home. Once it was finished he called the area Port Royal claiming it to be his little part of the island, brandishing it with many servants and the like, the place was built for socialising, frolicking and the like. On many occasions he'd visit alone for months on end, it was rumoured there was a mistress, it was never proved while he was alive of course, but when he passed in the early 1930's, he named in his will his son Benjamin as his heir to a throne that must exist in Jamaica, separate to his throne in England and that was how this family of royals came about.
So now that's cleared up, let's get on with the tale
D'Shon had finally gotten his wish with the help of his older friend and confidant Ian, he'd always wanted to travel across America and experience life outside of the royal house. As the son of the future king, he wasn't allowed many freedoms, but thankfully this time Ian, whose father was the Queen's head of state, was living out there, having married an American girl called Holly five years ago, and settled for half the year to appease her parents. He'd got into Harvard and was doing well socially and academically, usual distractions prevailing, he'd been staying with Ian originally, but when their baby girl was born, he needed to move out of the chaos, and managed to get digs near campus.
Enter Bee-Shay, D'Shon met her at the beginning of his second year, she was a new face on campus, majoring in History, and after a turbulent initial sarcastic meet cute, followed by a quick irritating, love, hate relationship they finally become a thing. Just nearing the end of their last semester his fourth year of study, he'd gotten a call from home, which meant he had to leave America urgently, leaving Bee-Shay behind with a promise of coming back as soon as he possibly could.
Jamaica
His Grampa, the Duke, was a lot worse than he'd expected when he got back, so the few days he'd initially thought turned into nearly a year by the time the old man passed away, got buried and everything looked like it was about to get back to something near normal.
That in itself had put an obvious strain on their relationship, but to add to all that, during the funeral his grandma, the Queen, collapsed, so again he had to break another promise when he was forced to stay at the palace for another year. They were both nearing 100 years old but nevertheless it had still come as a shock, how quickly everything happened, many said she died of a broken heart, which might have been true, but if it was, loved looked ugly in those last days.
D'Shon's father, Forrest, had been a sickly child, they'd tried all the old Jamaican remedies, river water, garlic, herb tea everything, but despite all of it, he had carried that sickness into adulthood. With him being an only child, apparent heir to the throne, King wasn't something D'Shon could see happening for his father looking at the broken man stood over his grandparent's grave, listening to the man's favourite song from his best friend back in his days of childhood. He smiled remembering the times his Gramps used to tell him about, back when all the man had to think about was wine, women and song. They'd had his Grandfather's old friend sing a rendition of some Alton Ellis song he'd used to woo his Grandma, otherwise known now as Queen Tatianna, back then, and rumour has it that the man had it sung again at their wedding so, it was only fitting it was played now they were eternally united again now
Their family from England had come over of course for the funeral and stayed for the ordainment, so two weeks later D'Shon stood watching his father being sworn into the role as king, knowing the man wasn't up for it, truth be told everyone knew it, including his father. The only good thing about the whole day was that they did away with Alton Ellis and groups like Culture took his place. It felt like it was only the day after his dad was crowned that his life changed too, there was no time to grieve, he, like everyone else, was being forced to change everything about his life in preparation for the throne, and before he knew it, his old carefree life, and who he considered to be the love of his life, were distant memories. All that was left to remind him of those playful, stress free days were random calls from Bee-Shay, pictures of Holly and the growing child and Ian, who'd bring him letters and take them to her when he travelled back and forth.
The atmosphere in the palace had changed the new vibes got even the staff walking faster to the upbeat music. That wasn't the only thing to breathe life into the palace, it quickly became busy with the main topic on everyone's lips being the task of getting a young wife for their just gone 25 year old Prince. There were advisors running all over the place, asking him questions, giving suggestions, and showing pictures, there was strong resistance from D'Shon, after all he still had a girl waiting for him in America. After nearly 12 months of resistance, they dwindled it down to the top three, he'd always known that in the end the crown was going to win, he'd been sworn to it as a child.
He managed to leave things dangling between those three for a while, but after three years he was forced and finally announce he was getting married to Roz a Duchess' daughter who was 2 years his senior, but for all intents and purposes she was the best of a really bad bunch. The grand wedding was going to merit a national holiday in Jamaica, and to celebrate the farse the media went about introducing the future Queen to the country and the outside world, for all intents and purposes everything seemed as it should be, they posed in family pictures, did lots of public duty stuff, and were seen everywhere together, building the picture of a future happy home.
On the inside however, things had gone bad almost immediately, Bee-Shay hadn't taken the news well, it was mainly his fault, he'd been too scared for where their already frail relationship was going, to throw this news at her, so, against Ian's advice, he'd told her nothing about any of it. The woman had been waiting in the wings for nearly five years, most of their conversations had turned into arguments now, especially when she'd heard snippets on the news about him choosing a wife and confronted him about it, but D'Shon was being his usual self and playing things down.
He could only imagine what the scene on his wedding day was going to look like to her sitting somewhere in America watching. He was truly stuck between a rock and an extremely hard place, eventually it was left up to Bee-Shay to make the final decision, he hadn't made it hard for her to make. She was sat with a group of friends, having taken to having dinner parties to wipe out the boredom, they were all watching the news about the royal family, she was excited having believed his promise the night before that everything was going to work out.
"The Palace made a special announcement this afternoon" the commentator announced smiling into the camera "Prince D'Shon and Roz daughter of the Duchess of Manchester will be getting married in the summer" he smiled
"What the fuck?" Bert her friend Shelby's husband looked at her asking
"I don't know" was all Shay had to offer because she didn't know anything, but over the weeks the news flooded the airways, D'Shon of course turned to radio silence, and after a week of trying she gave up, she stopped sending letters, stopped making calls and didn't receive any either, that was how he'd forgotten the love of his life, he had a new love now
He had no business feeling anything two months after the engagement announcement, but he was passed irate when he heard she was seeing someone else, and the whispers of a wedding were already coming from the lips of her close friends. Ian had told him to make the trip years ago, but he had so much going on it was near impossible to get away. True to word two weeks after Roz announced their plans to marry and start a family straight away, Bee-Shay got married, so while he was pining for his lost love, Roz was planning a wedding and angling for a baby, the whole thing couldn't have come at a worse time, he was tormented, and grieving his lost love.
So, they had the wedding planning going on, Roz was sent off for tests to make sure she could carry children, he was sent off to get fitted for suits and in between all of that Roz was looking for baby clothes and stuff, it was all too fast, but what choice did he really have, none. The wedding happened, and the whole day all he could think about was Bee-Shay, how did she look on her day, promises they'd made to each other, that this should be her he was meeting at the halter, and maybe he could have fought a bit harder for them "I do" came out of his lips before he knew what was happening and he was kissing this woman, he was only then realising he'd only ever kissed once before "Fuck" he hissed when she let his lips go
"What?" she giggled
"Nothing" he looked at her wondering how he was going to tell everyone he'd just made the biggest mistake of his life
The whole day was something he wanted to forget, especially when they had to dance to nearly the whole of a live performance, of one of his dad's favourite songs. But there was worse still, the wedding night was painful, he'd found himself in the middle of it, praying it would never happen again, the whole event was awful for him, he kept seeing Bee-Shay and couldn't stay up long enough to do the deed, he couldn't find his new wife appealing in that way when he was still in love with another woman. The next morning, he was pissed that she didn't even keep quiet about it, at breakfast his parents had him drinking mannish water soup, which he was having like medicine between meals to get his libido up, he'd had a conversation with his dad, which made him feel as if he was a virgin, and to top that a pep talk from his mom about what women like, if anything the thought of going through that again was enough to make him feel impotent.
After that day he performed, he had to, it was easier than the alternative, awkward suggestions, investigations, he did what he needed to, in the hope that soon they would produce a child, an heir to the throne, as long as the family had someone to lay all their hopes onto he'd be happy and free to go get his girl back.
"Sir" the dreaded voice of his butler called him again as he made his way to his bedroom
"Not again" D'Shon rolled his eyes seeing the sign on her quarters telling him she was fertile, for the fourth night running, he swore she was getting some sort of satisfaction out of his trauma
"Sorry Sir" the butler smiled
"What's the matter with this woman?" he asked him under his breath
"Sir" the butler unable to answer his question
"Ladies" D'Shon smiled at the waiting women he'd hand-picked for the job, smiling at his butler for having them waiting, making his way slowly across the hall to her room "You called?" he pushed the door open
"I don't want them in here tonight" she snapped at him, her mood wasn't one a man needed when he was trying to perform, even if he really wanted to
"So, you can ask them to leave"
"Leave" she snapped
"Thank you ladies" D'Shon smiled at them
"They're not ladies, they're whores" she hissed "Let's get this over with" she sat on the bed
The less he had to see of this woman the better, he sat on the side of the bed not willing to make the first move, if she wanted those women out the way, she was going to have to do their job "Get to work then" he pointed at his trouser zip
"I'm not…" she looked at him with disgust
"Then I suggest you get those two back in" he smiled knowing she was contemplating it, laughing inside because he knew her stupid pride wouldn't allow her to
"Bastard" she hissed, undoing his trousers ready to take on the challenge
That was their life for a long while, he'd gotten to the point where he wanted her to see a doctor again, this thing was taking so long, eventually after two years of personal torment, everything came to a relieved, gasping applause when Roz announced she was pregnant. At that second the palace became a buzz as the news travelled, immediately everyone started making plans for this new arrival, who right now even according to the media was the most important person on earth to be born. Course five months in there was the official announcement that a girl was expected, then the staged pictures of holding baby bump, smiling at loving wife, the world was ready for the big day, and then the bomb dropped.
Roz had been on her way back from Anti-natal clinic, it was no different to any other visit, D'Shon had attended and then gone off to do some official business in Portland, he was in the middle of listening to a presentation when he got the news about an accident. He rushed off to find out what was happening, entering the hospital to cries and hushed talking "What's happened?" he asked one of the guards close by
"The driver died on impact your majesty they're waiting for you to give news of the Princess" the guard rushed towards the wards with him talking as he went
"What happened?" he asked again
"Car accident Your…"
"I heard that man, how, why, what happened?" he snapped "What's happened to the baby?"
"Sir" the man looked at him, trying to tell him they would never give him that kind of information
"Your Majesty" the surgeon swung the door open, bowing as the Prince walked past him into the room "Our deepest sympathy to you, and your family your Majesty, your wife came in with no responsive signs, we did all we could but I'm afraid we couldn't help…"
"The baby?" he interrupted
"Sorry Sir, the damage was extensive" the surgeon ushered those attending out the room, closing the door behind himself to give D'Shon some privacy
D'Shon sat in silence unsure if this was a dream or a nightmare, wondering which part of this he'd wished on them, on himself "D" he heard a familiar voice, looking up to see Ian stood there
"Ian" he gasped looking up at his friend "I lost my baby" he broke down crying, all Ian could do was hold him and let him get it out
"D" he finally called his name again "We've got to get you home, it's been four hours, your parents will be beside themselves"
"And I'm not?"
"You know what I mean" Ian warned him "Come on, we'll come back once they'd had a chance to tidy all this up"
"They won't let me come back you know they won't"
"Maybe that's for the best, we'll see" Ian ushered him out of the room, leaving Roz's mangled body on the cold slab, he hadn't so much as touched his wife's body, he just sat staring at the plastic and sheets covering it
D'Shon sat in the car thinking this morning he had a wife and a child he was so looking forward to meeting, seeing her little heart beating like that had filled him with hope that something good was going to come out of this tormented life his family had given him and now what "I hated her, I hated having sex with her, do you think I caused this?" he asked Ian
"You weren't even there, how could you have caused it?"
"I might have wished it too hard"
"For your baby, I don't think so, get that out your head D" Ian told him going back to paying attention to the road ahead of them
As he'd guess the whole world were devastated, condolences coming from every corner of the world following the misfortune of the royal family, the palace was a sombre place to be right now all the joy and laughter of the servants, staff and family had fallen out of the air. D'Shon was on a different level he'd passed through shock, hit on broken and he was now in anger, his child hadn't come into the world and for that someone's head had to roll, unfortunately everyone involved in the events of the day were laying on slabs in the morgue.
Three weeks later, amidst conspiracy theories, tears, anger, and grief, not to be mother and baby had the grand royal funeral, deserving of any royal, with D'Shon walking alone behind his family, on that day he was deeply saddened. In his mind through the years, he'd wished them away so many times, the irony of it actually coming true was such a cruel twist, especially as he was just coming to terms with having a child.
After the funeral surprisingly it hadn't taken him more than a minute to get over the death of his wife, the child however, was a different story, he'd surprised himself when he went down into a funk and stayed there for nearly eight months, his saving grace came yet again in the shape of Ian, his trusted friend.
"Does Shay know?" he looked up at his friend asking
"Course she does, the world knows, but you guys are not in that life anymore"
"I know I just thought she'd have called, you know, see how I am"
"I really don't think you'd want her to see you like this, get a shave and a damn shower" he snapped at him "We're taking a week"
"Seriously?" he looked up at him smiling, the families always went to the cabin over in St Ann when they just wanted to let off steam or recharge
"Yeah, your father said it's fine, I got dad to ask"
"Genius" D'Shon got up to find the bathroom,