Jasper's p.o.v.

He had been in a panic since he returned to Eleanor's room to find it empty. He worried that she might be in some sort of trouble. He didn't know who this "Cook" man was, or for that matter, what kind of person he was. He didn't know if he could be trusted.

He had spent three minutes pacing and obsessing over what to do in his mind. He had the thought of asking her mother. Maybe find out how well she knew the recent guest, or maybe just if she had seen Eleanor since this morning.

He considered it for a few seconds but decided that it was a quick way to make a bad situation worse.

Eleanor seemed pretty upset when her mother was so quick to judge what effects the man coming back into her life would cause. Maybe the queen was right to be worried.

But then again, maybe she was wrong. Maybe the queen wasn't concerned about what was in her daughters best interest. All the months he's spent at the palace, and only a handful of times has he seen the queen do something caring for Eleanor.

Maybe Eleanor just went to blow off some steam, escape her mother.

That's what Jasper decided. She went off, maybe taking her old friend with her, just to get away from her mother for a little.

That's what he had decided within the first hour.

After that hour had passed, Jasper was one imagined scenario from going crazy.

He needed to find her, or at least know that she was okay.

He had texted her about a half hour ago and she hadn't responded, but that wasn't unusual. Since when did Eleanor ever answer his texts.

He settled on calling Liam.

Surely he was a better option than the queen, and maybe he could give some insight into where she might be.

He picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?" He started, sounding confused.

"Hi," Jasper said awkwardly and then rushed out his next words, "it's Jasper, so last night Eleanor ran into an old friend of hers. He introduced himself as Cook, and he came back to the palace, and Eleanor and the Queen got in a fight this morning. Then she asked me to get something for her and when I came back she was gone and now its been over an hour and she's not back yet and I don't know what to do, I don't want to worry people for nothing but then again what if something happened to h-".

"Jasper," Liam cut off his hurried rambling, "you can relax, she'll be back. Might be a few hours, might be a few days but she'll eventually come back."

"But what if-" Jasper started.

"Look," Liam stopped him again, "Eleanor's pretty good at taking care of herself, and if she's with who you say she is then she'll be okay. It's safer for her to be getting into trouble with another person than all on her own right?"

"I guess, but what if he didn't go with her or they were taken by someone else?" Jasper continued.

"Listen, Jasper, this happened a lot when he was around. They'd disappear for a while with no word and then return later unscathed, for the most part, and no explanations. She usually would just say she needed to get away for a while. I promise, she'll be fine, she always is." Liam tried to reassure him.

Jasper was surprised at Liam's calmness, but understood what he was saying. For him, this wasn't an unusual thing for her to do.

"I appreciate your concern for her though," Liam spoke again, "and I'm sure she would too."

Not likely Jasper thought to himself.

"Just doing my job," he responded.

"Well, thanks anyway," Liam finished, "try to enjoy the rest of your day." He said signaling the end of the conversation.

"Yeah, you too."

"Oh and one more thing Jasper," Liam quickly said trying to catch him before he hung up, "don't mention anything to our mother. She would just make it a bigger situation than it needs to be."

"Of course," Jasper replied. So at least he knows he made the right call on that one.

Hanging up the phone, he was grateful that the tightness in his chest had suppressed for the most part, but he was still slightly on edge. He figured he would be like this until she walked through the doors again and he could see for his own eyes that she was okay.

He decided to return to his position outside of her door.

He almost laughed at the irony, he was standing there, guarding an empty room. While it was his job to keep the princess safe, and yet he had no idea where she was at the moment.

He stood there for what felt like hours, until a slightly unbalanced, but as Liam said, a mostly unscathed, girl turned the corner.

His entire body became less stiff and he felt more relaxed just at the sight of her.

Cook was helping her keep her balance, but she seemed to be debating on protesting.

"You know," Eleanor said softly, looking in Cook's eyes, "I could very well do this on my own, but right now I am too tired to object."

He might have even let out a small laugh at her predictable stubbornness, if he wasn't so focused on the relief he was feeling.

"I don't doubt it," Cook responded with a lazy smile.

When they got to the door, Cook gave a slight nod to Jasper, as a greeting, and then pushed open the doors guiding Eleanor to her bed.

"I'm going to wash up quickly," Cook said looking towards her, "I suspect you'll be unconscious by the time I get out so Goodnight Eff".

Jasper was curious about the different nickname, but he had more pressing questions he wanted to ask.

"Thank you for today," she said meeting his eyes, "thank you for everything."

"Always," he simply responded nodding slightly and went off towards her bathroom, leaving Jasper and Eleanor alone.

"Where were you?" He asked. He even managed to sound pretty casual about it, when in reality he spent half the day worrying to a point where he thought he might be sick.

She met his questioning gaze for a second, "I just needed to get away for a while," was the only explanation she offered before resting her head on her pillow and turning on her side, passing out.

He didn't know if it was from drinking or exhaustion, but he didn't think it would be useful trying to wake her now.

His parade of questions could wait until tomorrow. So with that, he walked out of her room closing the doors and assumed his position in front of them.

He debated going home and getting some much needed sleep after the worry filled day he had, but he just couldn't bring himself to leave tonight.

He got a chair form the hallway and brought it to her doors, sitting down leaning his head against the wall.

There was no way he was leaving her tonight.

A/N

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I had fun writing it, so I hope Jasper's p.o.v. wasn't too awful. Feel free to review if you'd like, reading them always makes me happy, and finally thanks for reading. :)