"Next, on the yacht show. The princess, fast asleep, barely aware of any kind of rainstorm... and the butler who's hiding from the shark."
"Prince Roberto! I am doing no such thing! I just … do not think it wise... to stay on deck. In the rain."
I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the couch, my head in a lap, staring up at a relaxed Roberto. I blinked bleary as I reached up to prod his jaw. "What am I doing here?"
"You were sleeping so peacefully." Roberto smiled down at me. "We saw a shark."
That got my attention. I went to sit up but Roberto shook his head, nodding to my other side, and when I lifted my head I saw they'd propped my bad leg up so that it wasn't touching anything. It didn't change the fact that the motion killed. I shuddered, teeth gritting, a soft hiss escaping as a wave of nausa spread. A quick glance to my leg... and I felt sicker still. It looked bigger than it had last time I'd looked and it was still covered! When Roberto gently encouraged me to lie back down I couldn't argue with that idea. Lying down made most bad feelings go quiet.
"When did you all move me?"
"You just about fell off your seat." Roberto explained. "Don't you want to know about the shark?"
"Shark?" I felt so groggy, weird, disorinated, and motion caught my eye as Alberto moved across the cabin towards the kitchen. "I like eating shark. What happened?"
"That'd be fun. Catching ourselves a shark. But it wasn't that exciting- Alberto swears he saw a shark outside and now the butlers have all agreed no one's going out. He's afraid of sharks." Roberto whispered the last part, as Alberto busied himself in the kitchen area, his palm brushing over my forehead with something cool. "You're still warm. And … warmer!"
"That's cause your face is …. is right there!" He'd bent down again and I shoved at him. "Come on."
"I loved laps when I was sick. It made me feel better." Roberto seemed a little put off by my rejection. "I'd love your lap..."
"Do not make Miss Sophia feel any more uncomfortable than she already is, Prince Roberto. If she wishes for you to move then you should move." Alberto's voice cut across the cabin.
Roberto dug his back into the couch at that, flattening himself, and crossed his arms above my head. "No, I'm staying put. You don't really mind, do you?"
His big warm eyes met mine and I felt myself being begged by a near-perfect puppy dog expression. Oh god. How could I … say no to those eyes? "Um."
"Please?"
"Please." Prince Joshua's voice cut in, suddenly, and it was only now I realised that we weren't alone. Prince Joshua sat beside Roberto, Wilifred beside him, both of them with their eyes plastered on the TV. "Can you both be quiet?" He scowled and crossed his arms. "We have problems to deal with."
I nodded my agreement to stay and he grinned, running that cool cloth against my forehead again, his eyes going back up to the TV that had the news back on.
I felt my body relaxing slowly. Oh. I supposed … I had heard things like this. It was kind of weird to see Roberto's face on TV like that. I had stopped viewing him as a Prince or someone famous. And yet... there he was, on TV, alongside the others.
Suddenly I felt a bit uncomfortable that I was lying on my side on the couch, so casual, beside three Princes. While one of them held my head in his lap.
"I shouldn't be lying down." Or... being so casual around them. I felt awful suddenly. "You're all..."
"Princes? I'm glad you remembered." Prince Joshua muttered. He leaned forward, concentrating hard, as they focused on his country and his family. "Woman, hush."
"It's okay. Let me take care of you." Roberto slid the cold wet cloth against my warm skin again. "I'm just Roberto."
I fell asleep after that. It was hard to stay awake- I was pretty warm again, trembling a little, and I knew that the leg was probably getting bad again. Oh well. It wasn't that surprising... they'd fixed it up on a kitchen table for crying out loud.
When I woke again, the news was still on, but they seemed to have run out of things to talk about. Now they were in some 'Royal Rumours' segment of the news show. My mind took a long time to refocus, to come out of sleep, and even when I tried to concentrate, my mind swum.
It was three words spoken from a reporter on the TV that really got my attention.
"Prince Roberto's fiancee-"
Fiancee?
This shouldn't have been such a shock as it was. But it was. He was engaged? I felt like vomiting again. I shuddered, somewhat, and tugged the blanket higher up my neck as a wave of cold crossed over me.
"You're engaged again, Roberto?" Wilifred asked. He smiled at me and shook his head lightly.
"I'm not engaged." Roberto muttered. His eyes met mine. "They always come up with a new fiancee every few weeks whenever they seem e with another woman." He yanked the blanket higher up my body, carefully tucking it in, adding, "You cold again?"
"Maybe." I wasn't sure I wanted to admit it.
A blonde woman flashed on screen, exiting Nobel Michal with Roberto, the two of them laughing as they ducked around the press. Roberto actually relaxed. "Oh. They're thinking it's Cynthia again."
"The supermodel?"
"We grew up together." Roberto snatched towards the remote. "Do we have to..." His eyes had snapped down to me all of a sudden, embarrassment and frustration all over his face, a tenseness running throughout his body.
Prince Joshua held the remote and crossed his arms.
"Sophia doesn't need to know about this!"
It was kind of too late. Once they'd finished with rumours of Cynthia... I saw Roberto being hounded by a large group of women at a ball. His 'potential fiancees'. As I watched them, faces flashing, the most beautiful women I'd seen, I saw my own reflection in the flat screen TV.
My hair was jumbled everywhere, face was pale and drawn, and I looked... well, as sick as I felt. Not to mention the fat arms. Compared to theirs. I … might have told myself off for comparing myself to anorexic models another time, but right now?
Wait, what? I sat up straighter, staring, swatting Roberto's hands away as he tried to cover my eyes, seeing a much better groomed Roberto on TV with at least one or two of these women in some kind of unfunny 'The Bachelor' remake. Dates. He'd dated so many women. Sometimes two at a time. It looked like this had happened for years now. Something to do with a 'age limit' for the crown.
"Don't look! It's not funny. Change the channel!" Roberto scowled, yanking a cushion and shoving it over my head, protesting, "I don't want you to worry about them!"
"She'll find out sooner or later." Wilifred, the ever cool one, made an amazing graceful move as he took the remote from Prince Joshua. When his eyes met he added, softer, a little sympathtic as he freed my face from the cushion that Roberto was holding up between my face and the TV, "You would notice before long."
"They've moved onto rumours about Joshua's love life." Wilifred dropped the remote beside him.
"No, yours." Roberto corrected. Whatever they'd said about Prince Joshua had been so fleeting that I'd missed it. He sighed and slumped back. "That wasn't fair."
"Then you should have had the foresight to discuss this with your ...friend... before she had to hear it. Unless she already has heard it." Prince Joshua stood up suddenly and headed for the door to the deck. "I need fresh air."
Wilifred stood up as well, stretching, and the two of them vanished.
I suspected it was less to do with 'fresh air' given that it was raining outside... because Roberto's head slumped forward. He stared down at me.
I wasn't sure what to make of what I'd seen. I mean... it wasn't my business. He was my friend. I wanted my friend to be happy. "So... Lots of girlfriends, huh." It felt really awkward now... being in his lap like this. "You know how jealous girlfriends get of female friends. But it's not my business, you know. As long as you're happy."
Roberto opened and shut his mouth a few times. I sighed and shivered. I was kind of tired and … and I didn't want to hang around in here. Of course he had women thronging around him. I shouldn't be as bothered as I was. I blamed the infection for it- it must have been making me more emotional than normal. My head started to hurt. I wasn't in the mood for this anyway.
"Alberto?" I called to the silent figure in the corner, who immediately moved forward, and one of Roberto's hands grasped my arm suddenly. "Sorry, I'm tired. And hot. Or cold. I can't make up my mind. But it's too noisy here."
"Did you want a rest?" Alberto knelt in front of me. There was a kind of tenderness there all of a sudden, his face softened, maybe he seemed to know how I felt right now. Of course e did. Butlers were magical men that knew everything.
"I can carry her in." Roberto protested as Alberto's hands gently helped me up.
"No, Roberto. You have yet to come up with a draft for disaster recovery." Alberto pulled me against him, tugging my legs up as his arm went under my legs, nodding down to a pen and paper that sat ignored on the coffee table.
Something happened then that distracted the three of us. Claude, a near-silent figure at the radio, shuddered. It was a tiny movement but it got our attention all right as he stood up suddenly, grasping headphones and a microphone, his head slowly twisting around so that his eyes met Alberto's eyes.
"Is it time?" Alberto asked. He hesitated with me in his arms. When Claude nodded, Alberto sighed softly, and gently lowered me back down onto the couch. "Forgive me, Miss Sophia, but I must bring the Princes to the microphone. Can you wait a few more minutes?"
"Uh huh." Time? I wasn't sure I dared to hope, as Alberto vanished down the narrow hallway. Claude had opened the door to the deck and called to Wilifred and Prince Joshua to come in as well.
Roberto stood. I expected him to smile or something at me- it was normal- but he just sighed lightly and moved away without so much as a glance. Something was ...weird all of a sudden. The news section about his lovers had made his mood shift into some weird mood I'd never seen on him before. I couldn't explain it.
I didn't really have time to think about it either. Prince Glenn was carried out, looking so awful that I realised that he was in a really bad situation now, his head barely able to lift from Yu's shoulder. Jen was right behind them.
"Are you sure it's him? We shouldn't move Prince Glenn if we're not sure..." Jen muttered as he passed me.
"Who else would it be?" A voice cut across the speakers suddenly. Loud.
"We'll make sure." Wilifred reassured Jan as he turned to the mic. Claude had stepped back, lowering the mic, and one by one they asked the voice on the other side something. I didn't hear what it was. I was already falling asleep despite all my best efforts to stay awake and listen.
A sudden motion on the couch made me jump suddenly, heart racing, as Prince Glenn was carefully helped down beside me. He gazed at me with cloudy eyes, frowning somewhat, as Yu settled a cushion behind his back.
"You-"
"Yeah."
"You look awful." Prince Glenn muttered.
"You should see yourself." I answered. He actually smiled at that and shut his eyes, head slumping, his breathing shallow.
"You're awake." A voice was heard before I realised that whoever it was practically kneeling right beside me. When I flinched his hand rested calmly on my leg. "It's just me."
Jan. "Oh. Super-butler." I tried to joke as I cringed, sitting up, and he gently pushed me back.
"If that's what pleases you, then yes. I do my best. Forgive me for not attending to you but Alberto has done his best."
"Erm. It's okay." Why would Jan attend to me? Because he had good first aid skills? I wasn't sure. I scratched my head, a little groggy, gazing around. "They're done wth the radio already?"
"Mmhmm. Prince Roberto is now ensuring our speed is faster." Jan's head bobbed towards the direction of the helm where I saw Prince Roberto in that seat once again. "We will be stopping for a moment though."
"Stopping?"
"You and Prince Glenn require a faster trip." Jan spoke to me as if I was a child, I realised, every word slow and steady. It was making it easier to understand him. I supposed. "Prince Keith is personally bringing a helicopter out."
"Oh, isn't that nice." I wasn't sure what to make sure of that. I shut my eyes again a moment and when a noise cut through my dreams, Jan was gone, and it was slowly growing darker outside. The rain had gone again. So... that noise... "The helicopter already?"
"Already? You've slept for hours." Prince Joshua didn't have the usual bite his voice came with. He was bending down over Prince Glenn, lifting him, and for all his coldness- his touch was incredibly tender. "Prince Glenn will go up first."
"Okay. I'll have another nap."
It was the weirdest thing. One second I was going back to sleep on the couch and the next... I was halfway up to the heavens.
I blinked, confused, and a little panicked as I felt my entire body kind of strapped down with a mask on my face blowing cold air at me. Woah. A weird man in a wetsuit grasped my shoulder as he gestured for me to stay still.
We were dangling. I gazed sideways, heart racing suddenly, aware that I was staring at the yacht from above, this suffocating noise beating above my head. Helicopter? It had to be- and we just got higher and higher.
Then I was inside it. No sleep this time. Just a flash between scenes. One second I was dangling in the sky and the next, in a helicopter, something on my ears muffling sounds, with a bag dangling above my head of some kind of fluid.
Then in bed. In a hospital. Not a hospital bed- not the ugly kind of weird thing you'd see. But a literal bed in a hospital.
"How weird." I muttered, voice tickling me from a serious dry thirst, weak all the way to the bones. It was a hospital bed for sure. I had a thing in my arm, I was staring at it, and there was a beep-beep-beep, and there at the other end of my bed- a leg sort of elevated.
My leg, I assumed, but given that I'd just skipped from yacht, to flying up to a helicopter, to being in a helicopter, to now being in hospital... I was a little too confused to decide it was my leg without further investigation first.
The room itself was pretty nice for a hospital room. Instruments were joined by flowers- too many for me to count without moving my head- and nice warm pink walls. A big window with, I assumed, what had to be night outside it. A bedside table thing against the wall.
The question was, I realised as I jolted to reality, were we in … Liberty, or Oriens?
As I was worrying about this a young nurse, maybe a little younger than myself, bowed as she entered the room.
Oh no. Oriens. She had clearly 'Oriens' customs.
I stared at her, waiting, but she more or less ignored me as she moved to draw blood.
Oh, hell no. Not another syringe.
"Water...?" I tried, voice cracking, and the woman jumped. I felt pain in my arm and felt like being sick. Had she jabbed me the wrong way with the … argh, I cringed, trying to think of nice things. Melted cheese. Yum.
"Nil by mouth, sorry. I could bring you some ice chips..."
"... ?"
"Um. In your mouth. Ice chips... they go in your mouth."
I groaned, frustrated, as the puzzled nurse apparently missed what I was trying to ask. "No. Where?" I pointed at the window and she brightened.
"Oh! Sorry. I'm an intern." I could see that she was young, maybe my age, but it surprised me that she was an intern. That meant surgical, right? She continued, as she withdrew blood without flinching, "You must be worried because of the bow, right? I'm from Oriens but Liberty has some of the best surgeons in the country. It's okay. You've even got a bodyguard."
Huh? I gazed towards the door and, now that it was partly open, saw a dark suited man hunkering there.
"I'll be back with ice. I'll wake you so it doesn't melt- you can't drink yet." She probably took a little time, I wasn't sure, but when I woke up there she was again. Offering an ice chip. "Excuse my fingers."
It was heaven. I sighed as it slowly moistened my throat, relaxing back in the bed, and fell asleep again. Her voice woke me moments later as she spoke, apparently not aware I'd fallen asleep.
"So... you'll be here a few days. The doctor will explain more but you'll need some surgery. They're just making sure the infection is under control first. You probably won't loose your leg."
O...okay then. That was a complication I hadn't thought of. I blinked at her, startled, but she seemed oblivious to the little bombshell she'd dropped on my head as she started to scribble down in a chart.
"Bad infection?"
"When we got you it was. Dr. Han cleaned it out, your wound, while we gave you the right medicine. You don't need to worry about it now if you're waking up this much." She was so cheerful... I wasn't sure if I was too tired to deal with her cheerfulness or not. "Are you hungry?"
"I... don't think I am." Or was I? I hesitated, pondering this, and realised that maybe I was a little. "Maybe a bit."
"Great!" Light brown eyes met mine as she laughed, actually laughed, clapping her hands together. "That's what I like to hear."
The thought 'This one'd be good for Prince Joshua' flashed across my head and I smiled, suddenly, amused at the idea of lobbing this poor girl at Prince Joshua for a bit of cheer-therapy. Oh yeah. I glanced at her nametag. Jenny. Of course.
She caught me staring and faltered, her cheerful smile fading, before she asked, "Sorry... am I annoying you?"
"No. Sorry. Not even close." I smiled back faintly. Roberto would probably see the potiental for 'cheer-therapy' in this girl as well. "No. Um. It's nice to be around someone cheerful."
"Thanks!" She reddened. "Then I'll come around more. It's good to feel cheerful when you're healing."
I felt my own body relax, a soft giggle excaping from me, aware of how damn cute she was. I wanted to adopt her and make her my little sister. Dress her up. She smiled at me.
"Prince Glenn..."
"Shh!" She covered my mouth suddenly, eyes going to the door, voice lowering. "I'm not even supposed to know it's him except that he's from my country. You can't ask about him yet. As far as the hospital thinks you're both a silly pair of siblings who was trying to shoot birds and shot each other instead."
Shoot birds? Who came up with that story! I gaped at her as she continued, "He's pretty critical. You weren't that bad, Dr. Han said you were just on the border of serious, but Ben- that's what we're calling him- isn't doing so good. I think he'll be okay-" She added that quickly as my smile faded, "-but he's in intensive care and being protected around the clock. Even Prince Keith has come to make sure he's safe."
Oh. I sighed with relief at that. That meant that Prince Keith was really taking this seriously. Right?
"He's actually in surgery right now. That's why yours is delayed. They've decided his case is more urgent."
"Yeah." It probably was. I eyed the ice chips and found myself offered another with another 'Excuse fingers'. "Thanks..."
"I don't know anything else, or how you two even got shot, but... whatever it was it had to be serious if Prince Keith ordered the entire floor to be reserved for just the two of you." Jenny's voice hushed as she spoke. Then she stood up. "I have to get back to work. I might see you in pre-op if I'm lucky."
"Okay."
"See you on the rounds, Gretcha!"
...Gretcha? Oh boy. Ben and Gretcha. The siblings who'd shot each other trying to shoot birds. I wasn't sure who'd come up with this silly cover story. I shook my head as I rested my head down and tried to relax.
At least I was in Liberty.