A/N: They're getting closer to the truth behind the curse.
"Your hunch was right, Joe."
Joe looked at the files his long time mentor and friend had handed him. "Why did I not see it before now?" He shook his head, disgusted with himself at his stupidity.
"How could you have known, Joe? The old queen was a crazy bitch, but no one that knew her thought her capable of being more than a nuisance. Why would anyone have thought that she would be a part of a sick game like this?"
Joe slapped the file. "Damn it. I knew she was cruel. What I don't understand is why she didn't poison the old king as well. Why poison your son?"
"Joe, stop trying to rationalize it because you'll drive yourself as insane as she was. Her mind didn't work like ours. What makes absolutely no sense to you or I, obviously made absolute sense to her." Taking a sip of his drink, Manuel sighed, "Look at the rest of the file, Joe. It explains this mess even further."
Joe flipped the file back open and turned to the page after the last one he'd read. His eyes grew wide as he read the words printed on the white paper. "Holy hell, Manny. If that's true, then," he shook his head. "What are we going to do? What if Von Troken or Mabery decide to play this trump card?"
"Joe, think about it for a moment. They can't play it because it isn't their trump, it's yours."
Joe frowned. "What? How can this be my," finally it dawned on him. "Oh, I see. Yes, that would stop them." He began to laugh. The very thing Von Troken and Mabery had used against he and Clarisse, was now going to give them their life in Genovia back.
Manuel looked at his friend with an eyebrow cocked in a high arch. "José?"
Joe shook his head, still laughing. "Their little wild card just bit them in the ass."
Manuel started to laugh after finally realizing what his friend was talking about. He was right, it was going to bite them in the ass. "How are you going to go about getting the exile lifted? The members of Parliament aren't going to admit guilt."
"First we have to have solid proof that Rupert was Edward's legitimate heir. Then, I'm going to trust you to deliver this file secretly to Sebastian Motaz. He'll take it from there."
Manuel shook his head. The speed of Joe's thought processes had always amazed him. "How the hell do you do that? It takes the best of us at least half an hour to come up with a viable plan, and you, you just automatically have one the minute a situation arrives. Always have been a fast thinker."
Joe shrugged. "Had to. The way it was during my growing up years, I learned to think fast. It was either that or become someone's next kill."
Manuel nodded his agreement. He knew the truth his friend spoke all too well himself. "I think I know where there is proof of Rupert's biological link to Edward."
"Old Doc."
"Old Doc." Manuel confirmed his friend's answer.
"Be careful, Manny."
"Aren't I always?" Manuel smiled at his friend.
"Yes. Be sure to check on Mia. I know that Shades has her well protected, but I want her to know we're getting close to fixing this. I want her to know her grandmother will be coming home soon."
"I'll tell her, José." Manuel assured his friend as he got up to leave.
Joe watched Manuel leave, sighing at the thought of being able to tell Clarisse she would be going home soon. He knew that she missed Genovia, but he loved being here with her. He thought about their night in the gazebo, something that they never would have been able to do so freely if they were still living at the palace. Oh well, they could come here whenever they wished, so he would be happy wherever she was happy. Hearing feet shuffling on the marble floor, he turned with a chuckle to see a rumpled Clarisse making her way into the den, sleepy eyed and wearing nothing more than one of his shirts. Lord, but he was a lucky man!
"Rissee," he breathed as he moved toward her.
Clarisse smiled sleepily at him. "Mmm," she murmured against his lips that had captured hers in a sensuous good morning kiss. "I like this, but I like how you usually wake me even more. Why are you up so early? I missed you waking me."
"If you want, I can carry you back to bed and we can pretend that I'm waking you." Joe smiled as he tenderly caressed her lips with his finger.
"You don't have to carry me, but come back to bed. It's too early for you to be up after the late night you had. You couldn't have gotten more than three hours of sleep." She looked at him with tender compassion, knowing that he had been out late trying to fix the mess their life seemed to be in.
Joe's finger tapped against her lips. "Shh. None of that." His lips replaced his finger in a gentle caress. "Rissee, it's almost over. We have what we need to get you back home. Soon, you'll be holding Mia and telling her that she'll no longer have to sneak out of the country to see you." He smiled when her blue eyes blinked up at him in surprise.
"Really?" Clarisse couldn't help the way her voice shook. He beloved husband had worked so hard the last few months to make things right for her when she knew that he would love to just stay here in his homeland, in his home, in the home he had provided for her and their daughter. "Have they found Mabery and Von Troken?"
"No." Joe frowned. "Those two are still nowhere to be found, but I suspect that a few of the esteemed members of Parliament know where to find them, or are in contact with them, so once we turn their little surprise around on them and let it bite them in their collective asses, you'll be able to go home. And this time you'll have me by your side as your husband and your daughter safely tucked between us. No more hiding our love child." He smiled as he wiped the crystalline tear that rolled down her cheek.
"Love child." Clarisse whispered. He hadn't called their daughter that since the night they had left Spain to go back to Genovia, leaving their baby behind.
"Isn't she? Weren't they?" Joe whispered as he picked her up and began to make his way toward their bedroom.
"Oh Joe." Clarisse nuzzled her face into his neck. "Yes, they were; she is. Only love let me turn to you that terrible night for comfort. Even if I don't remember much about the night we created our babies, I do remember that it was the love I knew you had for me that led me to you in my pain."
"I've always known that." Joe assured her as he gently placed her on their bed. "You could never have just went to someone's bed without an underlying feeling of safety and love being there." He slipped out of his robe and slid into bed next to her, pulling her close. "I often regretted giving in to you that night, especially after I learned it resulted in you getting pregnant. I would beat myself up for being so careless. The guilt only grew when Joey was stillborn and when I thought I would lose you." He closed his eyes, his fingers caressing her hair.
Clarisse listened to Joe as he talked, her head resting over his heart, her hand caressing lightly over his chest. She had known that he felt guilty, but never knew just how deep the guilt ran. How could he have known that their Joey would never even take a small tiny breath? How could he have known that she would almost die? There was no way any of them could have known that.
"God, Rissee, I was so scared. I never left your side, and I felt an immense amount of shame every time a nurse would talk to me about our baby, a baby girl I had only seen once after she was born, but I just couldn't leave your side. I didn't know what to do. I kept trying to think of what I was going to do if you left me. I didn't know anything about babies, and I didn't know what I was going to tell the people of Genovia. How was I supposed to tell them that their Queen had died due to complications during the birth of her lowly Head of Security's children? Was I to tell them we were married? How was I to keep your honor intact? So many questions rumbled through my mind in the quiet hours of those awful days. I knew that if, God forbid, you died, Pierre would have a field day with the news. And what was I to say to Philippe? Pierre had poisoned his mind where you were concerned and I knew that I wouldn't be able to convince him otherwise."
"But I didn't leave you and our love child. I stayed. Your pleas brought me back."
"You heard me? Why haven't you ever told me that?"
Clarisse shrugged. "I'm not sure why. I guess I never really thought about it before now. Maybe I didn't realize that I had heard you until just now when you were talking about it." She tilted her head up to look at him. "How did we get off on this?"
Joe shook his head. "I guess we did what we usually do, started talking about something that sort of related to this and then just let the conversation lead us where it wanted."
"I suppose so. I'm glad, though." She placed a light kiss to his shoulder. "But I'm tired of the subject."
Joe chuckled when Clarisse laid back on her pillow, pretending to be asleep. "Oh, so we're back to that, are we?" He smiled as he leaned over her. "Well, I do believe I can accommodate the lovely lady."
And accommodate her he did…