Ursula woke up with a start. She was in a pair of silk red pajamas. The heavy blankets folded over themselves around her body. She remembered getting ready for bed the night before. However, something stirred within herself. The room was quiet. Her ears strained themselves to find any noise that would be out of place. She couldn't place the disturbance. Her hand went to the center of her chest. She felt it again. A faint fluttering, a sense of gloom. Looking around the room, she could see nothing out of place. Nothing harmful to her. Her hand rubbed her chest in gentle circular motions. The feeling pulsed throughout her body as if it were a heartbeat.
Looking around the room, she could see and felt it that she was alone here. Nothing was amiss. She scooted off of the bed. Her bare feet padded over to the mirror hanging off of the bathroom door. She used her fingers to make her hair more presentable.
She closed and locked the bathroom door when she went to clean herself up, even though she was all alone in the room. It felt odd, somewhat claustrophobic, but it felt good. And the bathtub looked amazing as well.
When she was all dressed and in the process of cleaning up the bedroom, she saw that she had messages from Grey saying that they must meet.
She walked out of her room and her heels clicked against the tiled floor as she rushed past people lingering in the hallway.
" Gianna, I have an errand to run. " said the doctor walking in front of the reception. " Please tell Caius
"Daddy, mommy can we go to the park?" A four years old Michaella Sloan asked giving her father, Mark Sloan, a puppy dog pout, making Meredith Sloan laugh and Mark groan in annoyance.
"I'm gonna kill your aunt Ursula one day," Marl mumbled as he nodded his head.
"What? What did I do?"
"You taught her the puppy dog pout; she's always using that on Mark whenever she wants something out of him."
"Hey, you let her use that on me," Alex Karev said before Owen Hart and Nathan Riggs agreed with him.
"That's different,"
"How in the hell is that different?" Alex asked.
"Alex language!" Meredith said glaring at the doctor making him raise his hands in mock surrender.
"Why I am here?" Asked Ursula following Meredith in her office.
"What no, hey Mer or how are you?" Meredith asked with a disapproving look on her face.
Ursula crosses her arms and pouts." Fine!. How are you, Meredith? All ok with your family and work?"
"You can act like a human being"Meredith shook her head. " I am fine. And you were right about the move on. I and Mark have been in Italy for two years and it is amazing. Not Derek, not Addison, not jealousy. Thank you for helping me move on from Derek and pushing me toward Mark"
"I happy for you and I hope to treat you like a queen"
"Don't tell me you actually…." Meredith lowered her voice to a whisper "care!" she said in mock horror.
Ursula rolled her eyes "I'm hurt!"
"No Black…" she smiled "If you were hurt you'd have to have to have a heart and we know that's not true!"
"Ah, got me again. No, I don't care, and I am shocked that you would suggest such nonsense - but neither do I want to go to prison for murder "Ursula dismissed her accusation.
"Okay, what do you got there" She addressed Meredith, who quickly picked her file back up and began reading "Patient, Jupiter Meyers…"
"Don't care about the name" Ursula interrupted her "unless it is medically relevant". She put her finger on her chin, rubbing it thoughtfully and pretended to think for a moment.
"Do you think a name like Jupiter could hint to a disease? Maybe a mental illness she could have inherited from her parents. Everyone who names their child after a planet can not be right up here", Ursula taped with her finger to her forehead.
"Yes, eh anyhow" Meredith coughed a little "Patient" she didn't repeat her name this time "presented to the emergency room last night with fever, nausea, a headache, pain in the joints. Blood work showed elevated…" Ursula put her hand up as a sign to stop Meredith from listing all the symptoms.
"Ho, ho, hold it again. That's what you are bothering me with today? Do you have anything better to do? All the symptoms you just read indicate a common cold. The guy has the sniffles. Prescribe some aspirin, a hot cup of tea and 3 days of bed rest and send him home. Women and you all want to be doctors! It does indeed take a bunch of high qualified specialists to figure that one out. I just wonder how we managed that all alone. I didn't even need a neurologist to assist us. Bummer!" Ursula looked at Meredith .Meredith opened her mouth about to say something, but before she got the chance, Ursula already went on: "I suppose to be invocation "
"Why are you here then?" Meredith asked belligerently.
"You asked, I came…that's the agreement." She spoke quietly, but there was an edge to her voice that made Meredith think he wouldn't want to see her angry. She then noticed that Ursula took two Vicodin.
"Ursula, exactly how many of those have you taken?"
The pill bottle dropped from the crippled woman`s hand to the floor, spilling the treasured pills with it. "It's gotten worse in the past few weeks. Yesterday, I practically drained an entire bottle of pills before lunch."
Meredith. closed her eyes tightly for a second, then opened them." I'm worried about your drug problem, Ursula."
"What drug problem? There's no drug problem. Just a prescription for pain medication. I've explained that to you thousands of times . . . "
"Ursula I'm not naïve," Meredith said. "I've known about your Vicodin abuse for years. I was so happy when you got help. And things seemed to be going so well for you. . ."
Ursula folded her arms and shook her head. Her face was turning several different shades of red. She looked like he was about to explode.
"This is bullshit and you all know it's bullshit."
"Ursula, everyone's in this house care about you," Meredith said patiently.
"Stop with the touchy-feely bullshit. You know that doesn't work with me."
"Ursula, you're killing yourself," Meredith said.
"And again I say, if I want to kill myself, that's nobody's business but my own."
"Ursula!" Meredith said, aghast.
Ursula slumped her shoulders a bit.
She limped purposefully toward the door.
"I'm outta here," she said. "Sorry Mer."
She had decided that despite the cold she was going to walk back to the castle. She could use some non-Caius time. She had been knowing him for over a year and a half and she had seen the many different sides of the great Caius Volturi. Sometimes he managed to be nice and say the right things at the right times, others he could be an utterly frustrating five-year-old.
Lost in her musings she did not realize a biker was coming by and almost knocked into her. She managed to see it in time and move out the way. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side because her maneuver caused her to slip on black ice. She somehow managed to land on her rear but since she was close to the traffic pole her head managed to make its acquaintance. She sat there for just a moment holding her head which was ringing with pain. And of course, of all the people in Italy, not one stops to see how she's doing. I knew I should have just stayed home today, she thought.
After some struggle, she managed to make it back to the brownstone. The only thing she was thinking of, was to go in and take a shower.
"Ursula! Do you know that I left you several text messages asking about your whereabouts, and are you aware of the time?" Caius asked as he came storming in from the throne room. His voice was amplified thanks to her headache. Caius – taking note of this gesture – immediately followed up with a different question. "Are you alright Ursula?"
"Yeah I'm fine, I just need a shower," she said electing to ignore the first set of questions. She hung up her coat and went upstairs.
This struck him odd because when she had left earlier on her "errand" she did not look that way. She looked the way she always did, somehow stunning. Get that thought out of your head! He chastised himself. He was determined to figure this out. Perhaps her mysterious errand was to see someone? Perhaps their coitus was intense? Caius thought as his mind began to dabble around the thoughts of Ursula being with a man. Get out! She is a grown woman and allowed to make decisions on her own! Caius yelled again at himself. These were indeed facts but he could not get the feeling of betrayal out of his system.
He remained there, by the stairs, in a mental battle of what his next actions should be. Apart from he wanted to go up there and question her about her outing. He didn't like not knowing, and she was something that he was still trying to figure out. Yet, another part of him knew that it would breach their trust for each other.
You're going to pace a hole into the ground."
The comment bounced of Caius' restless mind as he kept on pacing, hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks.
Aro was impatiently tapping his pale finger against the armrest of his throne as his brother continued his exasperating striding. His attempts to learn of the issue that was bothering his brother directly from his own mouth were unfruitful. He thought about uncovering the truth for himself by touch, but a single glance towards the exposed skin on his brother's hand had caused Caius to growl warningly at that method. Now they all sat and waited for their brother and fellow king to open up and express what was bothering him on his own accord.
"Must you continue on like this, brother? Pace any harder and you'll be left with shoes without a sole." Aro smoothly insisted on his chair. Caius's pace only seemed to increase at his comment. "Or grind a trail into the stone floor…" he muttered.
When Caius didn't respond, Aro impatiently shifted on his throne then slung one leg over the other. He turned to Marcus who had been gazing off into the distance with a faraway look in his eyes. The sight was nothing new, but the slight upward lift of the corner of his lip was. Aro resisted a grin. Marcus knew something.
"Care to share, brother?" the raven-haired king asked with barely concealed excitement, leaning on the right armrest of his throne.
Marcus's eyes flickered over him, observing him briefly before turning his gaze away.
"That would depend." He replied smoothly.
Aro's eyebrows pressed together. "On what?"
"On whether brother Caius wishes for others to know."
The rapid pacing suddenly came to a halt behind them. Aro leaned back on his throne, not bothering to turn around to know that Caius was directing his glare on the side of Marcus's head.
"And what is it that I would wish or not for others to know, hm?" Caius snapped.
Marcus was silent but Aro didn't need to reach out and touch him to know what he was waiting for. He turned towards the antsy guards and flicked a finger towards the double doors. They all bowed then swiftly took their exit from the throne room. Their departure was quicker than usual. Caius's odd behavior really must have intimidated them.
"I'm waiting!" Caius said more impatiently. Marcus rolled his eyes.
"Yes, please do tell." Aro insisted with an eager nod of the head, earning a glare from his blonde brother.
"How fares your other half? He is restless, is he not? That is why your pace." The brunette turned his gaze to his brother who had gone stock-still. It wasn't a question. Marcus knew something.
Aro's eyes got comically wide as they gleamed with anticipation. "The beast! How fascinating!" Caius growled at him but he ignored his blonde brother and focused on the other. "Go on, dear brother. I insist that not a single detail is to be left out either." He motioned for him to continue with a wave of the hand.
Caius's red glare flickered between the two of them. "I don't see how it concerns either of you."
"Thankfully directly it doesn't," Marcus responded with a soft chuckle. "Unless Aro acts like a cat and gets killed by his curiosity."
Both Aro and Caius were quiet as they shared confused looks with one another. It was Aro who turned away first and spoke up, more cautious than before. "I will try to bend my inquisitiveness on the matter then, considering the apparent stakes. Though might we learn what obstacles are before us that you see?"
"Don't confuse my words for ones of threatening, brother. There will be hurdles that must be scaled, yes, but not of that nature and not by the two of us. Brother Caius, on the other hand…" Marcus turned from Aro's perplexed stare to look back up at Caius.
"The news I have is for both you and your other half," Marcus said. "I assume he's listening?"
"Ursula "
Caius gave a curt nod.
"She is in pain"
" We know" Marcus snapped.
"I want to help her. But how?" Caius asked.
"Well," Aro spoke up; gaining the other's attention. "All of us love Ursula and want her here with us. He paused and looked over at his two brothers, grinning widely at Caius who seemed ready to rip his head off if he didn't continue." Leave her alone"
"She is in pain and you two insist I sit here and do nothing!?" Caius rumbled menacingly, his voice rising with his anger. His hands began to shake so he tightly fisted them to control the tremor.
Aro shook his head, a bemused smile already on his face. "Of course not. You still have your duties as king to uphold and…" he trailed off as an enraged roar filled the room before something large flew through the air and crashed into the stone wall.
Aro didn't have to turn his head to the left to know what the poor splinters of wood on the ground used to be. "Though now you're a king without a throne…" he muttered. Marcus snickered beside him.
The amused grins on both their faces quickly fell when Caius rounded on them, his eyes no longer red but an electric yellow. Their brother noticed their reactions then closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm himself and his reign in his control of the beast within. He was furious at his brothers for not letting him go out and find the girl, but he knew it wouldn't end well for anyone if he did. His other half would take control and cut down anyone in his path. The worst part was that Marcus and Aro were probably right.
"Back in the cage?" Aro asked.
Caius ran a hand through his long hair that had come loose during his fit of anger. His inner beast rumbled in agitation at Aro's words but he was in check again. Caius could feel it pacing back and forth behind the bars, ready for him to slip in control and open the gate to spring free.
"For now, yes." He sighed. "She will fear my other half. I don't think – no, I know I won't be able to keep him from her. He will want to possess her as much as me."
"Afraid the beast will harm her?" Aro asked curiously.
"I'd never!" Caius's eyes flashed yellow again, the beast responding in unison to its host.
"I do hope not. We all lobe Ursula. What a shame it would be to accidentally kill her off. I could not imagine the guilt that'd come from the act. Horrible." Aro sighed and rested his chin on a fist.
Caius looked ready to pounce on his brother before Marcus raised a hand to grab the blonde king's attention. He shot Aro a glare for purposely riling Caius up. He was going to push their brother too far one of these days, especially now that the beast was harder to control and will be protective of Ursula. Marcus had a feeling Aro was going to get bit at least once by the end of it all. He'd even wager a limb to be absent as well.
"Don't let Aro's words get to you, brother. He knows better than to jest when it comes to mates. We both trust that no true harm will come to her from either you or your other half. Have nothing to fear."
Visibly Caius seemed to calm back down thanks to Marcus's words. Trust Marcus to pick up and put back together whatever Aro has broken. Unconsciously he began treading back up the stone steps to sit back down on his throne before he remembered he hurled it across the room. He stopped dead in his tracks and grumbled under his breath. Aro caught on what Caius had intended to do and let out a soft chuckle.
With nowhere to sit, Caius went back to pacing behind the two remaining thrones. His other half wouldn't have let him sit for too long anyhow.
Ursula laid in Caius' bed asleep. Ursula looked angelic; the light casting a halo on Ursula's crown of messy hair; her eyelashes laying across her cheeks just so. Caius sits at the edge of the bed with a heavy heart. He tentatively lays his hand on the back of Ursula's neck and gently brushes his thumb across Ursula's cheek.
"Please. Be my queen "