Disclaimer: nope not mine
A\N: HEY I am so sorry, I shouldn't have left you hanging out there high and dry, It was rude, and this chapter was written and ready to go yesterday. And literally seconds before I pressed the upload button. The hard drive on my computer crashed. I have spent the last 36 hours in surgery with my poor computer and it is ok now! But I have to re type this WHOLE chapter! And yes all of you who said The Princess Bride gets a sticker, so just give me your address, phone number, credit card number, date of birth, and photo ID, and you can have them. I guess good-byes are in order. I know it has been a long hard trip, and a very annoying one at times for you, but I really have enjoyed it, and I hope that you have too. *warm fuzzie * So without further ado, I give you the last chapter in our ongoing saga.
"Marguerite?" Richard started to get out of the bed slowly. "Are you all right?"
"I feel a little--" She collapsed on the floor.
"Marguerite! Wake up, Marguerite!" Her face glowed for a brief moment. Richard held her in his arms and started to lift her to the bed when she moaned. "Marguerite?"
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"Madeline? Madeline!" Roxton whispered. "Madeline wake up!" she wasn't moving, but her face was glowing. "Challenger!" he barked. Frustrated, he picked Madeline up and raced outside.
"CHALLENGER!" he screamed. Challenger rushed out of a tent. "What? Oh Heavens! Set her by the fire, I will get the shaman."
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"Richard?" she moaned, not opening her eyes.
"Yes"
"Richard?" she opened her eyes. " Richard? Is it really you?" She sat up, " Am I really home?"
"Madeline! What happened?"
"I don't know, but I'm home and—"
"And?"
"And I'm with you." She looked up to his face. He leaned in to kiss her. Lightly at first, but grew deeper. When they finally broke the kiss, she was crying. She smiled at him. "I'm really home." She looked down at his shoulder, " Richard! What happened?"
"Nothing, love, I will tell you all about it later, but for now," he leaned into to kiss her again, but there was footsteps down the corridor. Richard jumped back into the bed just as the King entered the room.
"Sir Richard, I have yet to give you your reward for rescuing the Princess, twice," He said.
"Really, My King, I need no reward—"
"You will have my daughter's hand in marriage," He finished.
"Oh Father!" she rushed to hug him, and turned to smile at Richard.
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She grew very still and limp in his arms and Roxton tried to fight the panic that was rising in his chest he finally saw the slow, faint rising of her chest.
Finally she stirred. "Are you alright?" he asked her.
"Richard?"
"No Madeline, it's me, Roxton."
She opened her eyes. "Roxton!" she pulled herself up and ignored the pain in her abdomen. She put a hand to his face. "It's really you! I'm really home!"
"Marguerite!" he cried gathering her up in his arms. He swallowed the tears coming to his eyes.
"I can't believe it, how did I get home? I was afraid I would never see you again, that you would give up," She whispered slowly regaining her strength.
"Give up? Never, my love" Roxton kissed the tears streaming down her cheeks.
"I love you, John," She said as she wrapped her arms around his neck
"Marry me, Marguerite," he whispered into her hair.
She pulled away from him to look into his eyes.
"Please, I love you Marguerite, do me the honor of being my wife," he begged, never looking away from her eyes.
"Oh John," she kissed him, deeply and passionately, " Yes, forever."
Marguerite moved her head to his shoulder and lay in his arms for a few minutes, enjoying the safety and comfort of his strong arms, and slowly the exhaustion set in and she drifted off to sleep.
Challenger, followed by the shaman, rushed around the corner, and at seeing the two kissing, stopped in his tracks and herded the shaman back, "Oh, I'm sorry, it seems everything is quite alright," he said. 'Well, I suppose we have our Darling Marguerite back, I will have to find out exactly how this occurred, this is simply amazing,' he thought as he went back to his tent.
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Marguerite stirred, 'Oh another beautiful morning' she thought sarcastically. 'Where am I again? Oh yes, that's John's shoulder I am using as a pillow, Now what day is it, not that it matter's in this wretched place. Alright, I was talking with John and Veronica was telling stories and then… what? Oh then I must have fallen asleep, no I … did all that really happen? It must have been a dream, but then I guess John didn't really ask me to marry him. Ah, drat, just more wishful thinking.'
John grunted as the light started to shine in his eyes. The log he was using to lean against was beginning to cut into his back. Marguerite opened her eyes and started to lift her head off his shoulder.
"Good Morning, Princess," Roxton grinned.
Marguerite snapped her head and scowled, 'Maybe it really did happen,' she thought.
"I was only joking," he defended himself.
"Oh, I'm sorry it's nothing, John, I am just a little disoriented this morning," she apologized.
She sighed and rested her head back onto John's shoulder. She looked at the sunrise, 'It's kind of beautiful, maybe this plateau isn't that bad after all, but it's certainly no place to raise a child.' She thought much to her own surprise. 'Come on , Marguerite, you have to tell him sometime, better now than never, you can't hide it for very much longer. But… what if it changes the way he feels for me. I mean my other husbands never gave me another thought after they found there could be a possibility of a new bundle of joy coming. How could I possibly accept him loving me when I am not telling him everything?'
"Beautiful isn't it?" he asked her.
"Huh?"
"The sunrise"
"Oh"
"Penny for your thoughts. Marguerite," He looked down to her.
'Here goes nothing,' she thought. "Well John, I …"
"Yes"
"John, do you love me?"
He pulled away to look at her face, "Of course, I love you, Why do you have to ask? Have I not proved it enough to you?"
"No John, you have, it's just…"
"Just what?"
"Would you love me even if I … I was pregnant?"
Roxton looked shocked. 'I knew this would happen. He is furious,' she thought. Then a smile spread across his face.
"So you really are? You mean you, we are, really?"
"You're not angry?"
"Angry?!?! I'm the happiest man alive!" He held him to his chest and kissed the top of her head. "Why would I ever be angry? The woman I love is going to have my child, what more could I ask for?"
"John," she started to pull away and felt a pain in her side. "Damn, what is that?" She pulled opened her blouse to see a long trail of stitches down her stomach. "Roxton? What happened? When did this happen?"
"When you traded bodies with Madeline, or more correctly Princess Madeline," he said. "Are you alright does it hurt much?"
"It hurts like hell, but— wait, I really did trade bodies with that princess, and Richard really saved my life, and you really asked me to marry you?"
"Yes, Marguerite,"
"So it wasn't just a dream?"
"No, do you remember everything that happened?"
"Well," she thought for a moment, "Yes I do."
"So how did this Richard save your life?"
"Well, how did you know about Princess Madeline?"
"Well maybe we should sort this out now before the others wake up" Roxton offered. He told her everything about Madeline and what had happened with Dupree, and how Challenger told him about Marguerite's possible pregnancy.
"So you knew all along? I mean before you asked me to marry you?"
"Well I didn't know for sure, it was only a possibility, and I don't care if you were or weren't, I still would have asked you to be my wife, I was just waiting for the right moment."
"So you thought the right moment was when I had just traded bodies with a bloody mid-evil princess?"
"Now Marguerite, this isn't going to be our first fight as an engaged couple now is it?"
"No I suppose it isn't." she smiled, "But still I wonder, how did I get back?"
"I don't know, I one second Madeline was lying asleep on her cot, and then her face started glowing and she got very still and then you were here."
"The last thing I remember is sitting by Richard's bed and—"
"Bed?"
"Roxton, really, I never thought you to be the jealous sort," she said sarcastically. "Well for your information, he was wounded trying to save me from a earlier form of Dupree, which is more than I can say you did for Madeline, or me rather" she grimaced in pain again.
John looked down.
"Oh John," she tilted his chin back up with a finger, "I know you did everything you could for her, I know you would do anything to protect all of us, I really shouldn't have said that. You take most of the blows for all of us. Don't go feeling guilty," she kissed him gently.
"Yes but if anything happened that will hurt our baby, I don't know if I can forgive myself for not stopping that bullet at all cost."
"John," she sighed, " the baby is going to be fine, I know it, It's a mother thing, but I know how much you love me, and this baby, Its going to be alright, don't worry."
He smiled weakly and kissed her again. The kiss grew deeper, Marguerite put her arms around his neck and put her fingers in his hair. He put a hand up to her face. Marguerite's side burned in pain, but she ignored it. They heard people approaching so they abruptly ended the kiss and returned to their original positions.
Veronica and Ned came around the corner of a tent, apparently they had seen them, because Veronica was smiling, and Malone wore his usual embarrassed grin he always had when he was caught looking at something he felt he shouldn't have witnessed.
"Marguerite?" Veronica asked.
"Yes" she grinned.
Veronica rushed to her, "I'm so glad your back, but, how?"
"We're not quite sure of that ourselves, One second she's Madeline, the next Marguerite." Roxton replied.
Challenger joined the group, "Well Marguerite it is good to have you back home, although how you did it would be a mystery I can't wait to solve"
"I can" she replied shortly, "but I wonder, Challenger, do you believe in true love?"
"Why of course, but I'm not so sure that true love can pull you from planes of reality,"
"I wouldn't bet my life on it," Marguerite replied, "we've seen stranger things."
"Well, let's go home," Veronica said "We can figure it out there, I don't know about you, but I would to prefer to get away from this place for a while. I'll go say good-bye to Assai."
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Twenty minutes later, the explorers were steadily walking towards the treehouse. Roxton had his arm around Marguerite, "for support of course."
"Well, my Princess, when do you want to have this glorious wedding of ours?"
"I would say when we get back to England, but I don't know, give me time," she replied. She stumbled on a root and Roxton caught her before she fell.
"My knight in shining armor," she whispered as she looked up to see his face.
Behind them, Veronica reached for Malone's hand, and sighed, "And they all lived happily ever after"
The End.
SierraSunshine
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