Chapter #31: Nothing really ends

"No doubt endings are hard, but nothing really ends does it?"

~Supernatural

Philip jumped out of the bed and searched for his robe, placing it around his body and running after her catching her quickly "Diana wait!" He said and in a rather agile way, he slid through the wooden floor grabbing her shoulders "Wait, please."

"Leave me alone!" She screamed at him.

"Please Diana hush listen to me!" He tried but Diana kept trying to avoid his presence and tried to wiggle herself out.

"You are not papa! You are not papa!" She screamed and turned on her mother who wore a smile in Philip's absence thinking this was all some sick dream. Somehow the problematic in her dream roused her. "Philip" she mouthed her smile spreading.

Diana's eyes blazed with hatred.

"Harlot! Harlot! Harlot!"

"I know I'm not" Philip whispered "But you must listen to me. I am not your father Diana but I do like your mother very much. You must believe me."

In a moment of distraction hearing Anne call his name again, Diana broke free from his grip and went for her mother's unfinished cup in the stool next to her bed and spilled the remaining wine on her face.

The cold wine woke Annie up who screamed "Who dares ... Diana! God sweetheart ..." She gathered the covers close to her body and stepped from bed doing the best she could not to fall, her arms extended for her daughter but Diana would not have herself anywhere near her.

"Harlot! You harlot I am going to tell grandmother! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I wish my grandmother was my mother she would never do this to me!"

Annie looked hurt at this and Philip noticed. In that moment he felt an enormous hatred against Mary. She was a murderer who had tried to kill her own daughter. And here was Diana saying these things!

"Diana..." Annie started "Please, you must understand..." but her daughter grew tired of her excuses.

"No! I don't want to understand nothing!"

"Diana" Philip said and approached her again. He knelled in front of her "I know you're mad. I felt like that too, when I discovered that my own father had had an affair with a woman, and she had his son, who's my brother, Juan. I felt very mad because my father always claimed he had loved my mother...he even forced me to preside her funeral when I was only twelve, because he was too sad to attend. But then I realized, that I could not blame my brother, for has no fault, and I could not blame my father, for my mother had died years before, and he had a right...to like someone new"

Diana remained silent during his whole sermon listening intently, her eyes were full with such hatred that she directed to her mother that she had to look away not to feel anymore hurt.

"I know that you think your mother doesn't love your father anymore, but it's not true. She still loves him as she loves you. Do you understand? You can love many people at the same time, it's the wonder of having a heart" He whispered gently

She shook her head, tears fell from her eyes, and she centered them on her mother. "I prayed for you when you were asleep, I take back all my prayers for you I wish you were dead the only good thing you gave papa was me and my brothers! Let me go harlot!"

"Diana please" Annie had tears of her own now "I won't have you saying these awful things to me, I am your mother and your Queen!"

Diana interrupted "No you are not! Grandmother was more a mother than you ever were! She is a better person than you. She never hurt me! She never was clumsy to have an accident like you..."

"Annie no!" Philip warned as he saw in her eyes what she is about to do "That's not the way and you know it"

"Diana why are you so mad with mother?" He asked her turning again to Diana placing himself between them. He could not let Diana out of the room otherwise she would run to tell Mary and then Philip would have to be the Hapsburg -and the King he was- and blackmail Mary, and that was something he was not in the mood for doing, for he felt very little patience to deal with that woman right now.

The little Princess held her ground and kept on saying "Grandmother would not be as stupid like you to have an accident"

Diana's voice trailed off as one word in her sentence -accident- triggered a horrible memory she had buried. "Make it look like an accident" The voices became clearer, the faces less fuzzy and she let go of her daughter to reach for her forehead that hurt her terribly as she struggled to remember everything of that fateful day.

"I have every right to be angry and you can't do anything to me, you are not my father and you can't punish me anymore than your stupid pope and saints can. My grandmother is the only one who can! Did you hear that "mother"?" -She yelled looking past Philip at her mother who clutched her head in pain. No matter how hard she tried, she could not and Diana's insult did not help.

"Let me go! Let me go I want to be with grandmother" She yelled at Philip who held her again.

Philip was unaffected with this "I know, but first will you listen to me? I'm not your father, nor I want to be, for a father is not something you can substitute. Your mother loves you Diana and you love her too. I know that, I saw how sad you were when she was sick. I know you don't like me, and I'm not asking you to. But you can't lie to me...you care for your mother and you think she no longer loves your father. But she does. I know she does. But your mother has the right to be happy like you and everyone else. The fact that she likes me doesn't mean she will forget your father, she could never, because you're their daughter, and she loves you, and you will remind your mother of what she felt for the King. Please" He whispered "Just give your mother a chance."

Diana lowered her voice and said in a dangerous tone that reminded him of Eustace Chapuys "I. Want. To. See. My. Grandmother. Now"

"No you can't." Philip said very calmly. He was the King of Spain he didn't feel intimated for a young girl. Indeed she reminded him vaguely of Maria -his sister- when she got mad "I'm sorry Diana, but I care for your mother, I won't watch her suffer. I know you feel like me in this, because you care for her. If you didn't care for her then why would you be so bothered with what you saw?"

"Because we should not have a harlot as queen" she said looking into his eyes, not in the least intimidated either. Her grandfather said hatred and anger when dominated where a person's greatest strengths.

He smiled to her annoyance "Diana your mother loves you. I will do everything but please try to understand. I am the first man your mother looked at after your father died."

"Grandfather was right about Spaniards your whole purpose was to cheat on my good aunt and deflower my mother"

"Yes, such a pity I'm half Portuguese" He said as his own private joke. He knew what she was trying to do. She thought that if she were to insult him he would snap. But he had years of self-control, he wouldn't snap.

"Why can't you believe that I care deeply for your mother and that the fact that she cares for me doesn't stop the fact that she loves and always will love your father?"

She sniffed, he sounded sincere but so did thieves and beggars. And didn't the devil use intelligent arguments when he tricked Eve to eat from the forbidden tree in the garden of Eden?

"Where are you taking me?" She asked once Philip began to put his clothes.

Suddenly remembering the scary stories her papa told her about Spain she asked: "Are you going to burn me?"

Philip laughed "Contrary to common belief, I don't burn everyone I see, especially not in the morning." He winked at her. "I want to show you something"

"What?"

"A painting" He answered simply and after dressing he offered his hand. He looked briefly at Annie who was staring at the emptiness in the bed, he worried about her but he had to take about Diana first.

Diana looked suspiciously at his hand "I won't hurt you but I have to make sure you won't run away. It's going to be quick, I shan't take long"

Diana accepted his hand and he led her to his own quarters. Ruy was inside and he stood immediately about to ask him where he had been.

"Can't talk now, my Prince of Eboli" He said "I'm busy"

"Why is he a Prince?" Diana asked against her will but not able to control her curiosity as they entered Philip's private room.

"Because he's my friend, and it wouldn't be acceptable for someone to be so close to be without having a grand title"

"So you made him a Prince?" She asked with skepticism.

"He's a very good friend" Philip said with a tone of justification.

"It is stupid, it creates betrayal"

"Or it provokes loyalty. Ruy is very loyal to me as I'm to him for a King is not bellow being loyal or being patient"

"Now," He said "This is what I wanted you to see"

And he placed her in front of two paintings. One it was obvious his father, she realized, for they were alike. On the left side, there was a woman a very beautiful. Indeed, Diana thought the most beautiful she had ever seen.

"Who is she?" Diana asked

"She's my mother." Philip said "Her name was Isabel."

"And?"

"I was not a very well behaved as a child. She took care of my education, she punished me sometimes, and sometimes I thought that she only saw in me the Prince I was and not her son. She lectured me endlessly, about politics, religion, how I should behave, what I should do. She told me about my father. I was convinced that she only cared because I was to be King of Spain. When she was dying she sent for me. I was 12, a little older than you –"

"I saw my father die" she interrupting, her father's dying image came to mind. They said it had been accident, but she remembered him breathing. Sometimes she convinced herself it was not a dream but every morning when she was brought to reality she knew by the time her father's corpse reached her mother's arms there hardly any life in his body. She remembered his lifeless eyes staring up at her. Eyes that would never blink, a mouth that would never smile, arms that were stiff as a board. They would never reach out and grab her and swing her in the air.
"I did not really see him die" she said "But I dreamed of his fall, I dreamed of the beast that caused it. His lifeless eyes stared at me" That much was true and Philip knew having learned it from Ruy through the usual gossip he'd gotten involved in at court.

Philip nodded happy he was making some progress with his tale. "And she said to me: Philip be a child. Now I understood what she meant but at the moment I didn't. In that year, my father left me to preside over her funeral for he couldn't attend. And you see Diana I could not cry for the Prince of Spain could not cry. I was there with the funeral, presiding over it, and I could not cry.

I wanted to cry for only on that moment I realized how much I would miss her. And I realized that she was not only a Queen she was my mother, and I was not only a Prince, I was her son, and I had lost her."

"Do you understand this? I think you were very lucky because your father he was with you? They told me he played with you and he talked with you?"

Diana looked away to focus again on the painting, they were extreme features she hadn't seen before in any other beauty, England or foreign. "He did" she said hotly "Good thing that did, I could not cry, Princesses don't cry harlot told me, I did not even cry in my sleep. I never did until SHE fell" She traced her fingers on the painting. Her papa told her one day she would grow up to be strong as beautiful and that she would make any man and nation proud.

"Yes" Philip ignored the "harlot" word "I never cried as well" He confessed
"Diana, I " He took a deep breath and he knelled again. This was his duty. It had to be done. He had to do what he did all his life. Put his duty above his feelings "Please forgive your mother. She loves you and she needs you. And I will step aside if you want me to. But please, don't abandon your mother. It would be terrible for her to lose you she would suffer immensely and you would lose your mother. And that is the most awful pain a child can feel. And for that there is no replacement, I assure you"

She moved past him and sat on a couch, her feet tired for the first time in her life. "Do what you want, if mother wants you I won't stand in the way." a single tear fell from her eye as she set her eyes on the window next to her where she saw the stars. "Just ..." she tensed "just treat her well"

"No" Philip said and he sat next to her "Your mother would choose you any time. And I don't want her to choose. It's not fair for me to make her chose don't you think? You are her daughter, and no matter if she likes me or not...she will always love you with a love that has no comparison"

"Furthermore" He smiled "I wouldn't stance a chance. You're much prettier than I am" He said smiling winking at her

"But mother loves you it would not be fair ... I don't want her to be sad anymore but I don't want to be sad too." She confessed looking down at her feet.

Philip was thoughtful and then an idea came to him, not the brightest but it could put an end to all their troubles "And if you were to come with us, with her wherever she went?" He offered.

"What do you mean?"

He knelt before her, very serious "I am asking you Diana your mother's hand in marriage. I am asking you and not your grandfather, because it is you who has to give me the authorization. And because my offer includes you too"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. If you refuse, I will not ask her" -He said very serious

Diana leaned back crossing her arms against her chest. She sighed, very adult like behavior for a child but Diana's behavior had always been anything but a child.

"You have my permission His Majesty to ask her and poor of you if you hurt her"

He smiled brightly at her. He then bowed his head, despite the fact that she was a King and she was but a child...and a Princess. "Then come with me, let us say that to your mother"

"And I promise" He said when he stood "That I will never hurt your mother"

Diana this time, believed in him and they both returned to Annie's quarters who was still sitting in the same place with a robe around herself, shivering slightly not due to the cold, but because of the hurt she felt.

Annie heard the door click. She was afraid it would be Diana or worse her mother or her sister Katherine who'd come to mock her.

Philip held Diana's hand, he had told her along the way how she should apologize to her mother and she had asked him if she would accept it after everything she accused her of? Philip smiled and said that mothers always forgave, in the back of his mind when he said this he knew there was an obvious exception to this rule.

Annie turned to Diana and then to Philip, she appeared docile but knew her daughter had inherited the Tudor temper. She braced herself for whatever Diana was ready to throw at her -again.

"Mama..." She whispered and then looked at Philip again "I..." She took a deep breath and whispered with tears welling up in her eyes "I'm so sorry...I'm sorry I did not mean anything"

Diana ran to her mother's arm the minute she opened them and Annie hugged her daughter tightly. "I am sorry too sweet pea. I should not have hid anything from you"

"No mama you have a right to be happy, Philip explained his own mummy to me, I don't want to lose you I was afraid ... I am sorry"

"You're not going to lose me I promise you, I'll always be with you, nothing is ever going to separate us, I promise" -Annie held her tight and raised her eyes to Philip who was as impassible as ever though there was a small smile playing in the corner of his lips.

After their moment of reunion was over, Diana stepped aside and let Philip come closer to her mother. "His Majesty wants to say something to you"

"Yes" How wonderful he had never done this before. He looked at Diana who whispered "You should kneel"

"Yes, right" Philip said and he did so in front of Annie "After talking to Her Highness, Princess Diana, I asked her for her permission to have her mother's hand in marriage. To take you as my wife and my Queen"

Anne's knees felt weak and she was lucky the bed was close otherwise she would have not been able to stand up straight. "Philip" She was struck with disbelief.

"W-what about the alliance ... I ... I" before any more doubts could cross her mind she said: "yes"

"I mean" She stopped and then turned her eyes to Diana "What do you think Diana? Did you really give the King permission? Are you comfortable with this? You don't mind?" Annie asked her

Diana shook her head "I only want you to be happy and if His Majesty keeps his promise I don't mind, but if he hurts you then I will hunt him down like Artemis did to Orion, King or not" She said turning to Philip who was snickering.

"About the alliance -" Philip said "I will talk with the Lady Mary and the Lord Protector so they may intercede on our behalf in Parliament. I will persuade them of what I understood the minute I set foot in England -that I don't think Katherine is the most suitable wife for me- nor she would be a good Queen presently or future" Ever, he tried to say "But I will make another offer for Katherine's hand which would be most more appropriate to her even considering her age"

Annie did not know what to say but after a few seconds she looked at Diana and then at Philip "Yes" She whispered "I will marry you my lord" Philip smiled brightly at her and kissed her hand.

"It will be a double marriage very smart move my lord you will have two brides who can bring you heirs but you have to treat my mother well she means the world to me" Diana said going for her can she had dropped earlier and giving it back to its owner.

Philip turned to her "I will do as the Sultan did to his Princess." He said referring to an old Spanish legend "I will make the trees grow white if I have to"

Anne smirked "You don't have to go that far to please me. I will work hard to give you and Spain everything its needs" She said all formalities aside, they were going to be husband and wife and soon, and knowing her father would bully the parliament into accepting their union, they did not have to hide their intimacy.

"I swear to you" she said lastly thus turning back into the Queen she was feared and respected for.

He smiled at her and Diana thought better to leave them alone for a few moments. When she was leaving she said "Do not concern yourself, I won't say anything to my grandmother not before you do"

"Thanks. This will be our secret" Anne said never been more grateful to her daughter. If Edward was here he would be so proud of what they had accomplished in Diana. She was the milk and honey of this world, Edward had been right, and she was a remarkable human being.

Philip winked at her and Diana blushed. "Will you take me to all the palaces and your sea ventures?" She suddenly asked.

He chuckled "I don't have many palaces. But you can help me building the one I'm planning. And I will take wherever you want after all if you are to be a Princess of Spain my subjects have to get to know you"

"You're building a palace?" Diana asked, her eyes bulging with excitement.

"Yes. I am. I feel my new family needs a proper place" He said looking briefly at Anne "It's in a place called El Escorial it will have a monastery in honor of Spain's patron saint, San Lorenzo, and the monastery will be"

When she left thinking no doubt about that Palace, Annie turned to Philip, and for the first time he saw her completely astonished "How did you do that? How did you convince her, how did you what did you, what did you say to her?"

Philip smiled and sat next to her "I have a way with children"

"And I have a way with powerful men" she said giving her mischievous smile. He was right, when he saw her he had seen a strong personality he had not seen since his mother, this woman was the woman who would command respect from her subjects, she was a woman who was suited for the job.

"I will not disappoint you Philip . What have you done with Diana is something astounding" she then confessed "I have never seen her so happy, you will be a good stepfather to her, promise me you will always watch my little huntress"

"I will watch over her, and over all the children we're going to have." He said very serious.

Annie kissed him. "You turned a nightmare into a dream"

"So did you" He said sincerely.

He prayed with the kiss she gave him sealing their promises to love and respect to each other, that he could take away the pain she suffered at the hands of her mother and restore her to good health. He prayed to god that his disturbed son would never father a child and if it was a case and Katherine begot a son, that that boy would never be raised by either of those monsters. He swore himself if it was the case that Annie would be the mother to that child.

But his biggest dedication was to her mental health, he prayed to god, the saints and the virgin, that she restore Anne's memories so she could denounce her mother and her so called "father" that imbecile Duke.

"I will talk with Lady Mary" He whispered in her ear.

"You must beware she is not what she seems...I know you may not understand but..."

"I understand" He said firmly his expression turning slightly cold "I understand very well, Annie. But it not me who has to fear her, it is she. You are to be my wife. I don't tolerate treason or any kind of disrespect towards me or my family"

"I wish I could remember everything ... but I am content with this, nothing else matters but this moment and our marriage as Katherine's. She has more reason to fear me this time, I know you will protect us Philip but I am capable of watching after myself as well" She assured kissing his nose. He was forced to say nothing but smile, there were too many emotions for one night.

In the next two days there was a mixture of disbelief, cheers, relief that the alliance was not broken, and annoyance from part of Mary, Philip and their youngest daughter Katherine who were forced to accept the King's new bargain. Instead of Queen of Spain she would be Infanta Katherine or Catalina as she would have to change her name once she was married to that indolent disturbed boy Don Carlos.

Mary however saw a way for their triumph to still be a reality. She assured her daughter that if she could make herself as desirable as she had been to her idiot nephew, she could get Carlos to bed her as many times as she wanted, and after she had a son she could start conspiring with other nobles who would sooner opt for the Prince with a son than with the libertine old monarch.