A Fresh Start
Chapter Forty One
After RJ had his blood test, Richard took him back home and then returned to the hospital to sit with Cassie and Will. Will had just fallen asleep when Richard looks up and is surprised to see a royal guard standing in doorway to Will's room.
"Excuse me, may I help you?" Richard asks, getting up and walking over to the door thus taking Cassie's attention away from Will.
"Yes, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Prince William requests your presence at the palace." Colonel Mitchell replies, looking between Cassie and Richard.
"Requests our presence, why didn't he call us? Why did he send you?" Richard asks.
"What's going on?" Cassie asks, walking over to Richard and Colonel Mitchell.
"William is requesting our presence at the palace."
"What? Why? Why would he send a royal guard…?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss the reason why Prince William requests your presence. He will inform you when you arrive." Colonel Mitchell says, stepping back and opening the door for Richard and Cassie to leave the room.
"Richard!" Cassie says, taking his arm as he walks out the door.
"We have to go Cassie." He says, taking her hand and leading her through the door.
"But what about Will?"
"His Highness will be well taken care of." Colonel Mitchell says, walking out into the hall and letting the door close behind them. "If you will follow me." He says, walking towards the elevators.
Richard and Cassie fall into step behind him, putting his arm across her shoulders as they walk down the hall to the elevator. "It's going to be okay." He whispers.
"Do you think he's upset because of what I said to him this morning? I mean, maybe he's going to tell us that we can't see Will anymore."
"I don't think he'll do that."
"But he's summoning us to the palace Richard, with a royal guard. William has never done that before. If he wanted to talk to us he called."
"Why don't we wait and see what he wants before we jump to any conclusions."
"I…."
"I know you're worried and scared but we'll deal with whatever he does." Richard says, kissing her forehead as the elevator arrives and they walk on after Colonel Mitchell.
William is standing at the window when Colonel Mitchell knocks on his office door, turning he calls "Come in."
Opening the door, Colonel Mitchell walks in and says. "Sir, your brother and…."
"We can speak for ourselves." Richard says, following him into the room. "William." Richard says, looking directly at him.
"Thank you for coming."
"We really didn't have a choice in the matter, did we?" Richard replies. "What's going on?"
"Why did you have us summoned to the palace like common criminals?" Cassie asks.
"I needed to speak to you."
"And you couldn't call us."
"I felt this was better done officially." William says, walking over to his desk.
"You'll felt better if what was done officially?" Cassie asks, watching him.
"It's about Will, I…."
"You are not taking my…."
"I'm not going to take Will, but we do need to discuss something." William says, looking at both of them.
"How does this pertain to Will?" Richard asks, reaching for Cassie's hand and holding it.
"I spoke with Dr. Simon…."
"You spoke to him without us being there, we're his…."
"He called me Cassie."
"Darling, calm down, and let's see what's going on?" Richard says, squeezing her hand gently. "Go on William."
"As I said, Dr. Simon called and asked to speak to me about Will. I went to the hospital and what he had to tell me was quite surprising. I don't know how to say this." William says, getting up and walking back to the window.
There are a few moments of silence with William looking out the window and Richard and Cassie watching him. When he turns back around, Richard says. "What did Dr. Simon want?"
"As you know, he suggested that you be tested to see if either of you are matches for Will, should he need another transplant. After I left you this morning, I went by the lab and told them to run the tests immediately. Dr. Simon was contacting me about those results."
"I don't understand what this has to do with Will, beside the transplant. We knew…."
"Let me finish Cassie." William says, holding up his hand. "When the lab ran the test comparing your blood with Will's there were similarities there that shouldn't be there."
"I don't understand." Cassie says.
"What it means is that you and Will have similarities in your blood that should not be there if you are not his mother."
"What are you saying William?"
"When the lab saw the similarities they ran a DNA test on yours and Richard's blood, comparing it to Will's and they match perfectly."
"Are you saying…?" Richard asks
"I'm saying that they match too perfectly for you to only be Will's uncle and adoptive mother. Will is your son."
"That's not possible. Our baby died, he was still born. You know that, William." Cassie says, getting up and walking over to the window.
"I know that's what you were told." William says.
"What do you mean, that's what we were told? The doctor told me that the accident killed our son, and that Cassie delivered a still born baby. We saw him, we touched him." Richard says.
"I don't know what happened, Richard. All I know, is the results of the tests ran today, and they prove irrevocably that Will is not my son, he's yours and Cassie's."
"What are you going to do?" Richard asks.
"I don't know… I think."
"What?" Richard asks
"That we need to see whose baby is buried in the garden."
"What do you mean?" Cassie asks, turning from the window and staring at William.
"I'm saying that we have to exhume the baby that was buried in the garden and have a DNA test run on it."
"You want to have my baby's body exhumed!"
"It's the next logical step."
"Logical, how, according to the DNA tests the lab ran today, Will's our son. What will exhuming that baby prove?"
"It might give us and idea about what happened and why?" Richard says, getting up and walking over to Cassie.
"But that's…."
"Our son is alive, Cassie. He's sick right now, but he's alive. The baby in the garden belongs to someone else. It might even be William's true son, being that Camille was supposes to be Will's biological mother, we don't know. Having the baby exhumed will give us answers." Richard says.
"Okay." She says softly as she puts her arms around Richard, hugging him. When she steps back, she looks at William and asks. "What do we do?"
"I have to draw up an exhumation order and you and Richard both have to sign it. Dr Marshall will take a sample of DNA and we'll compare the DNA of the baby with all of us." William says
"And then?"
"And then we wait for the results. I'll have Dr. Marshall rush the tests. There's something else we need to discuss."
"What?" Cassie asks, following Richard over to the chairs in front of William's desk.
"I don't think we need to tell him right now… not till we know for sure the outcome of all the tests."
"I think you're right…." Richard agrees.
"Richard!"
"Cassie, this is going to be a shock to him. We need to know all the facts so we can answer his questions. I know you want to tell him that we're his parents. I want to do that with all my heart, but we have to think about him.
We also have to consider what will happen once this is announced to the country. As it stands now, Will is in line for the throne. When it comes out that he's not William's heir, the press attention will be extensive to say the very least, most likely it will be oppressive. We have to be prepared for that. We have to prepare him for that and RJ as well, along with the rest of the family."
"I will shield all of you from the press." William says
"But you can't shield us totally." Richard replies.
"What are you saying?" William asks
"We need to wait till we get the results back from the tests before we discuss this any further."
"He's my…."
"I know you're attached to him William, but we have to think about what's right for our son. And I think that means that we go back to Springfield after Will is released from the hospital. I think its better that we are not here when the announcement is made, for Will's sake." Richard says, looking directly at his brother.
"I'll discuss it with my advisors." William replies.
"What's there to discuss? If Will is our son, we have to protect him, it's our responsibility." Cassie says.
"I think its best if we discuss this after we get the results back, that way we know exactly what we are dealing with." Richard says, standing up.
"Okay." William replies, standing up as well. "Do you want a car to take you both back to the hospital?"
"Yes, thank you." Richard says, as William reaches for the phone, dialing the number to the garage. After a brief conversation, he hangs up and then turns to Cassie and Richard. "The car should be here in a few minutes."
"Thank you." Richard says
A few minutes later one of the maids knocks on William's office door, walking over to it, he answers it. "Yes."
"The car you requested has arrived."
"Thank you. We'll be out shortly."
"Yes sir." The maid replies, bowing slightly as she backs away from the door.
Closing it, William turns to Richard and Cassie. "I'll call you as soon as we have the body exhumed and the results of the DNA tests."
"Okay." Richard replies, as they walk towards the door, followed by William.
"Tell Will, I'll be by to see him later this evening."
"We will." Cassie says. "And, William I…."
"It's okay Cassie." William replies. "We'll talk later."
"Okay."
They leave, walking through the palace in silence.
After going to get something to eat, Sam spent the rest of the day taking care of the wounded agents. Most of them survived with fairly minor injuries. But there are a couple agents that are in critical condition. It isn't until she is on her way home that evening that the ring crosses her mind again.
Stopping to pick up something to eat before she heads home, she is walking in the door when her phone starts to ring. Dropping her purse on the couch, she pulls her cell phone out of the pocket of her lab coat, as she sits done.
"Hello, Jeffrey."
"Sorry to disappoint you." Megan says.
"Meggie, what's up?" Sam asks, leaning back against the cushions of the couch and kicking her tennis shoes off.
"I've been trying to catch you all day."
"I know, I meant to call you but I've been busy at the hospital. We had an emergency early this morning and it took us all day to stabilize everyone. So, what's up?"
"You know what's up? What did he say?"
"He was shocked and then excited, we both are." Sam says, thinking back to Jeffrey and how wonderful it felt to be in his arms after telling him he was going to be father.
"So everything went okay?"
"Not exactly, after I told him, and the shock wore off, we made love and afterwards we had a bit of a fight." Sam says quickly.
"You had a fight!"
"Yes, he was hurt that I thought he would walk away from us and that I didn't trust in what we have."
"You've been apart for twelve years, surely you told him that."
"Yes, I told him that and I apologized, but he was still hurt."
"So, what happened? Did you work it out?"
"Eventually we did."
"What do you mean eventually you did?"
"He left that night and he came home I guess about 2 or 3 am with the help of Ava."
"Why did he need help? He didn't go…."
"He went and got drunk."
"Why do they think getting drunk is the answer?"
"I don't know, but he did. And then the next morning, he got mad because I called his assistant and told her that he would be late coming in."
"So bottom line, how did it all turn out?"
"Fine, he came home at lunch that afternoon. We talked and everything was settled. We even told Ava."
"You told his daughter."
"Yes, well we sort of had too."
"Had too, why?"
"I kind of got into an argument with Olivia, over Ava and the fact that Ava asked me to go to her appointment for the baby, instead of asking Olivia. Jeffrey walked in as Olivia pushed me and he physically picked her up and carried her out of the restaurant. We were at Company for lunch. Anyway, when Jeffrey came back he checked to see if I was okay and then we talked about Ava's appointment, one thing lead to another and Jeffrey told Ava that he thought it might be better if she found someone else to go with her to appointments and that's how it came up about the baby and me being pregnant."
"How did she take it?"
"Good, she asked Jeffrey if we were going to get married though."
"What did he say?"
"That we hadn't talked about it."
"Okay, so everything is alright."
"Yes, he'll be here next weekend."
"Will I get to meet him?"
"You might, if you're over here helping me pack up."
"To finally meet the infamous Jeffrey, I can be there to help."
"Good." Sam says, as her phone beeps. "Meggie, hold on." Sam says, before taking the phone away from her ear and glancing at the screen, seeing that it's Jeffrey, she gets back on the line and says. "Megan, it's him. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Okay, take care."
"I will, I promise."
"Okay." Megan says, as the phone beeps again.
"I got to go." Sam says.
"Okay."
Sam clicks over to Jeffrey's call. "Hi, J." She says, smiling broadly.
"Hi, you sound good."
"I am."
"Everything is alright with the baby?"
"Everything is fine."
"You didn't work to hard today, did you?"
"No, I'm fine. I took plenty of breaks, and I ate lunch after we got off the phone and I have my dinner sitting in front of me."
"Good."
"So, how did your day go?"
"Oh, the usual."
"I guess you haven't heard anything from the state attorney's office."
"No, it'll probably be Friday or early next week before they contact me. I did talk to Noah today."
"You did, did he tell you anything? Do they have any leads?"
"No, but I asked him to have the moving team come in and pack up the apartment for you."
"J, why, I can do that."
"You're pregnant. You need to be taking it easy and not working yourself to death. This will be one less thing you have to think about. Speaking of things to think about, have you…."
"No, I haven't. I was busy at the hospital and then I was talking to Megan, so I haven't really had time to think about anything. But I promise I will." Sam says, softly
"Okay. I'm not trying to pressure you, I was…."
"I know, and I'll think about it. Did you see Ava today?"
"Yes, we just had dinner."
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine. She talked to William today."
"What did he say?"
"She didn't really tell me much, but that they talked about the baby and Will."
"Did he say anything about Richard and Cassie?"
"No."
"Okay, I was just curious how he was doing since he left the hospital."
"I'm sure he's fine, as quickly as he recovered."
"Yes, but he can relapse. It's not that common, but it can happen."
"I'm sure he's fine, or we would have heard something from Cassie. I'll bet she's dealing with Will, Ava did say that he's in the hospital right now."
"Is he okay?"
"He's fine, I guess. She didn't really say."
"Okay." Sam replies, trying to stifle a yawn."
"I think it's time I go."
"No, I'm fine."
"You're tired, so eat and then take a warm bath and relax."
"I'd relax much faster if you were here."
"I know, and I wish I was."
"I miss you." Sam says softly.
"I know, I miss you too, I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight."
"You'll miss my snoring."
"No, I'll miss holding you, both of you."
"Well, we miss you too."
"I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Okay, we love you."
"I love both of you. Eat, take a bath, relax, and turn that pager off."
"You know I can't do that, but I'll relax, I promise."
"I love you." Jeffrey says
"I love you too." Sam replies. A few minutes later they hang up.
After Ava left Jeffrey at Towers, she headed for the Beacon. She was just walking into the lobby when Olivia appears in front of her.
"Are you ignoring me too?" Olivia asks
"I'm sorry." Ava asks, looking up.
"I've been calling you all day and you never once returned my phone calls."
"First, I was at work and then I was… I had dinner with Jeffrey and now I'm home and all I really want to do is go upstairs, take these shoes off, take a hot bath and relax." Ava says, walking towards the stairs with Olivia following behind her.
"We need to discuss yesterday."
"There's nothing to discuss about yesterday." Ava says, walking up to her door.
"Yes, there is. You took her, to your first doctor's appointment. I'm you're mother. When I was pregnant with you…."
"I realize that you're my mother. But this is my life. I feel comfortable with Sam. More comfortable than I feel with you, and maybe…." Ava says, turning around in her doorway as Olivia raises her hand and slaps her.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ava asks, reaching up to touch her cheek.
"How dare you say you're more comfortable with her than me? I'm your…."
"You're my mother, not my master. You need to back off and let me live my life. This is why I didn't take you to my appointment. Sam doesn't…."
"Sam is playing you."
"No, she's not and if you would get over your jealousy you would see that they love each other."
"No, he doesn't. He…."
"He loves her, and he wants her. You have to accept that."
"No, he belongs with me. He's mine."
"I think he has something to say about that. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going in my room, taking a hot bath and I'm not answering the door for the rest of the night." Ava says, stepping back and closing the door in Olivia's face.
On the ride back to the hospital neither Cassie nor Richard spoke. When the car stops, Richard opens the door for them. Getting out, he turns to help Cassie and then they walk into the hospital as the car pulls away. They are walking down the hall to Will's room when Cassie starts to slow down, finally stopping a few feet from his door and forcing Richard to stop as well.
"Cassie." He says, turning to her.
"I don't know if I can go in there. I don't know if I can go in there and pretend that everything is the same. He's my son, our son. The son we lost."
"We don't know that for sure Cassie."
"Yes we do, he's our son. The DNA tests proved it. The ones ran here at the hospital and the ones that William is running. He's our son and I can't go in there and pretend that we're just his adoptive parents. How did this happen, Richard? How did we adopt our own child?"
"I don't know, but we can't avoid him Cassie. He'll wonder why."
"I know, but can you go in there and not want to tell him the truth."
"Yes, I want to tell him, but we can't right now. He's sick Cassie. It'll be too much if we tell him this too. I know it's hard for you to do, but we have to wait."
"I want to hold him and tell him." Cassie says, looking up at Richard.
"I know you do; so do I." Richard says, putting his arms around her and holding her.
"He's our son." Cassie whispers, laying her head on his chest.
"I know, he's our boy, but we can do this. It's only until we know that he'll be okay and then we'll tell him the truth." Richard says, as Dr. Simon's comes out of Will's room.
"Dr. Simon, is something wrong?" Cassie asks when she sees him walking out.
"No, I was just checking on Will." He says, walking over to them. "There is something that we need to discuss. We got some unusual results back from the…."
"We already know, William told us." Cassie says
"He did!" Dr. Simon says in surprise.
"Yes, he did. Why are you surprised?"
"I'm not; I just got the impression that he… nothing."
"That he what, Doctor?" Richard asks.
"That he didn't want you to know. I got the impression that he didn't want anyone to know."
"Are you saying he wasn't going to tell us?" Cassie asks.
"I'm not saying either way, it was just the impression I got. He didn't react well when I told him the test results. I got the impression that he was determined to prove me and the test results wrong when he left my office."
"Did he say how?"
"No, only that he was going to prove that Will was his son another way and then he left the office."
"But he didn't say…."
"That's why Richard."
"Thank you Dr. Simon." Richard says. Dr. Simon walks off as Richard turns to Cassie. "Now Cassie, don't. He may have….."
"No, he wants to exhume that baby in the garden to try and prove Will is his son. He's going to try and hang onto Will."
"We don't know that, and if the test proves that the baby in the garden isn't our son, he can't keep Will from us."
"He's the Crown Prince of San Cristobel, he has the power…."
"He is the Crown Prince and his heir has to be his legitimate child. He has no reason to hang on to Will."
"You're right. The country won't accept Will as the heir if he is not William's legitimate child. But what if he gets the results and they prove that Will is our son and he decides to change the results?"
"We need to put this on the back burner, I know it's hard. But Will is in there and he probably wonders where we went to."
"Okay." Cassie says, taking a deep breath. Taking her hand, they walk into Will's room.
The next morning William came by the hospital with the exhumation order which Richard and Cassie both signed Cassie had wanted to question William as to why he had wanted the order in the first place, but nothing could be said, because they were in the room with Will.
When William left Will's room, he immediately went to the morgue to deliver the order with immediate orders for Dr. Marshall to exhume the body, and to perform DNA tests on it. He is finishing a meeting when Jodi buzzes him. "Your Highness, Dr. Marshall is on line one."
"Thank you Jodi." William says, pushing the button for line one as he picks up the phone. "Hello, Dr. Marshall."
"Your Highness."
"What can you tell me? Is Will my son?"
"I'm afraid not Sir, the baby that is buried at the palace is your son. The DNA tests prove it. It was your son that died at birth, not your brother's."
"You're positive?"
"Yes Sir, I ran the tests twice sir. It confirms the tests performed at the hospital the other day."
"Thank you Doctor." William says.
"Yes Sir, I wish I had better news Sir."
"Thank you."
They hang up and William sits back in his chair, staring at a picture of Will on his desk. Reaching for it, he picks it up. "What do I do now?" He asks
Pushing back from this desk, he gets up and walks over to the window looking out at the garden and the ocean beyond. "My life was much less complicated when I was out there." He says, staring at the ocean.
Turning from the window, he walks over to his desk and picks up the phone. After a few seconds he says. "This is Prince William, have the yacht ready for me."
"Yes sir."
"I'll be there within twenty minutes." He says, hanging up before the Captain could answer
Walking to his office door, he opens it and then walks out into the outer office. "Jodi, I'm going for a sail, if you need me?" He starts to leave and then stops, turning he asks "Could you have my car brought around please?"
"Yes Sir."
He walks out of the office, headed for his suite of rooms. He quickly changes into a pair of old jeans and t-shirt and boots before he leaves. As he is walking out of the palace, one of the guards is pulling up with his car. Getting in, he leaves the palace. A few minutes later, he pulls up to yacht. "Your Highness, Sir." The crew says, saluting as he walks on board.
"Are we ready to sail?"
"Yes, Your Highness. The Captain is waiting for word that you're abroad Sir. We'll take care of that immediately Sir."
"Thank you." William says, walking towards the front of the yacht. Stopping he turns to the First Lieutenant "Lieutenant, I don't wish to be disturbed, unless it's a call from the palace."
"Yes Sir, I'll inform the Captain and crew."
"Thank you." William replies, turning again towards the front of the yacht.
41.11