A/N: Hello all! I hope you're ready for a tense chapter 'cause there's a lot to be tense about! I tried to focus a bit on Leah in this chapter, because I needed to show some girl power in this story, and not to mention, of the three siblings in that family, she has by far gotten the least attention so I decided to give her a moment in the spotlight. so you guys enjoy this chapter... while I go write the next one. Yes, that is how behind I am. And I'm worried because I have mini band camp this week and then band camp the week after. I should still be able to update, but that's only provided I have the chapters written on time. So if we end up getting to a point where I can't update on time, just bear with me! I'll do the best that I can! :-]

Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen. Do you?

"We have to cancel the ball!" the prime minister argued.

"But if we cancel the ball, they'll just kill her on the spot!" Johan yelled.

As soon as Johan had shown the note to his father, the king called and emergency council meeting to discuss what to do. Now, they sat at the long table in the council chamber. King Magnus sat at the head of the table. Johan sat to his right. Leah and Isak sat to his left.

The chancellor stood up. "Your Majesty, Your Highnesses, even if we were to cancel the ball, there is a possibility they would not kill the princess," he said. "It may have been merely a bluff."

"It also may not have," Leah pointed out. "They essentially took her for ransom. If we were to counter their demands, they would have no reason to keep her alive any longer!"

"Enough!" King Magnus said, frustrated. He sighed as he rubbed his temples. "Let's weigh the positive and negative outcomes of our options. Minister?"

The prime minister stood up. "If we cancel the ball, there is a likelihood that Princess Julie will be killed, we will not be any closer to finding the whereabouts of our enemies, and these radicals will still try to come after the rest of us sooner or later. On the other hand, if we were to cancel the ball, we would be protecting the innocent lives of the citizens, and it would buy us more time to find the criminals."

"Do you think these positives outweigh the negatives?" the king asked.

"Well, Your Majesty, losing Princess Julie would be absolutely devastating, but we can't put all of those innocent lives at stake for one seventeen-year-old girl."

"You can't say that about the princess!" Johan yelled.

"Calm down, Johan," the king said to his son. "We are merely discussing what's at stake here. We have not decided anything yet."

Johan let out an irritated sigh as he fell back into his chair. He couldn't believe his father wouldn't address the minister's blatant disrespect toward his daughter.

"Now," the minister continued, "if we were to keep the ball on, it is true that the princess's life would be spared. But the problem is, they are after all of the royal family. Chances are, she could eventually be killed anyway. Even if they hadn't kidnapped her, she would still be most likely to be shot down first because as an underage girl, she would be an easy target."

Johan scoffed at the remark, and began muttering to himself under his breath. "Easy target, my-"

"Johan!" his father scolded. The prince simply shook his head at his father as the minister continued.

"What it really comes down to is how many lives we can manage to spare, at least for the time being," he said. "If we keep the ball on, we would be knowingly placing these innocent lives in the path of danger. As the leaders of this country, it is our duty to protect the lives of our citizens at all costs."

The king sighed. "I wish I didn't have to say this, but I agree."

"What!?" Leah yelled.

"How could you do that to your own daughter?" Johan demanded.

"I can't risk putting the citizens' lives in danger!" King Magnus said. "What would they think of me?"

"Nothing says that we'd be completely throwing them to the wolves by keeping the ball on!" Leah argued. "We'd have plenty of security, guards at every door, and just think of this: what do you think the citizens would think if it got out- and it will- that you let your own daughter die!?"

The king was silenced by these words. He looked back and forth between his daughter and son, and he sighed in defeat under their angry glares.

Johan turned to look at the rest of the table, and stood up to face the council members. "It is true that as rulers, we must protect the lives of the citizens. Make no mistake that we intend to do that. But as citizens, in turn, they also have a responsibility to protect their princess at all costs. They know that. We shall warn the citizens of this threat, and should they not wish to risk their own lives by coming to the ball, then so be it. It's their choice. But knowing the townspeople as well as I do, I can tell you that they are strong and brave. They would do anything to protect the royal family. And all of you, need I remind you, are citizens of this country as well. It is your duty to protect your princess and make sure she is safe. I say we do this for her! Long live Princess Julie!"

Leah stood up. "Long live Princess Julie!"

"Long live Princess Julie!" Isak joined in.

Then, the council members, one by one, began to stand and join the chant. Soon, most of the table was standing and chanting.

"Enough!" King Magnus yelled. Everyone instantly became silent, and the council members quickly sat down. "May we decide on this in an orderly fashion, please?"

The council nodded, and Johan, Leah, and Isak sat back down.

"Let us decide," the king said. "All in favor of canceling the ball?"

The prime minister raised his hand, slowly followed by two or three others. Johan glared at him, and the minister brushed it off.

King Magnus took a deep breath. "All in favor of keeping the ball on?" he said quietly.

For moment, no one moved. Then someone raised their hand. Followed by another. And another. And everyone else who hadn't raised their hand yet.

Johan smiled and fell back into his chair as he sighed in relief. For a moment there, he had almost been worried.

The king nodded. "We keep the ball on," he said. "In the meantime, we will put notices around the town about these threats, issue warrants for the arrests of anyone involved, and have guards out looking for Princess Julie. This meeting is now adjourned."

Johan stood from his chair, genuinely proud of himself. He looked over at Leah, who beamed at him to show that she was also proud of him. But his father stopped him before he could walk out.

"Johan, I'd like to speak with you in my study," he said. "You too, Leah."

The siblings glanced at each other, afraid what this was about. Although, both of them had a pretty good idea of what it was about as they followed their father to his study.

They sat down in the chairs in front of the desk as the king sat behind it. He sighed as he looked between the two.

"I know you two meant well in there," he said, "but it was not your place to speak out."

Johan and Leah groaned, rolling their eyes.

"I mean it!" the king scolded. "You were insulting the prime minister by interrupting to speak against what he was saying."

"For good reason!" Johan said.

"What were we supposed to do?" Leah yelled. "Sit there and let them cancel the ball?"

"Leah, all I'm saying is that you two need to learn not to speak out of turn, or next time there could be consequences," the king said.

"You can't punish me for speaking out of turn!" Leah said. "I'm a twenty-four-year-old married woman. I'm not a child, and neither is he!"

"And honestly, father, if we hadn't said anything, who would have stopped them from canceling the ball?" Johan pointed out.

"That's beside the point!" King Magnus yelled. "And it's not like their reasoning for canceling it was illogical! We can't just focus on saving the life of one specific individual. We need to try to save as many lives as possible."

"But I still can't believe you would even consider doing that to your own daughter!" Leah yelled.

"I didn't mean to!" the king said, standing up to pace the room. "The reasoning of the council members just made me think twice."

He stopped in front of the window and closed his eyes to try to calm himself down. For several minutes, none of them said anything. Then, Leah broke the silence.

"You wouldn't have thought twice if it was one of us."

The king opened his eyes and turned around to face his children. "Of course not!" he said with concern evident in his voice. "I would never let that happen to you."

"But you would let it happen to Julie?" Leah said. But it was more of a statement then a question.

King Magnus narrowed his eyes at his daughter. "What are you saying?"

She paused a moment to glare at her father. "You'd be more willing to give up Julie than Johan or me because we're higher in your line of succession," she said.

The king's eyes went wide in shock. "Leah, I would never-"

"Say what you will," she interrupted, "but the fact still remains that you prefer us! You may not even realize it yourself, but in your mind, we're the important ones and she's just the spare."

King Magnus stood there aghast. He glanced at Johan, who was just as shocked by Leah's outburst but said nothing against it.

Leah shook her head as she stood up. "We may be higher in your line of succession, but she's your daughter too, and she deserves no less care and respect!"

Her father, at a loss for words, could only stare after her as she turned on her heel and walked toward the door. He looked back to Johan, who looked between his sister and his father before sighing and following Leah out, closing the door behind him.

The king shakily made his way back to his desk and sat down in a stupor. He simply stared at the space in front of him for a few moments before burying his face in his hands.

What have I done?

.:.^*^.:.

"Leah, are you okay?" Johan asked as he caught up with his sister.

"Yeah, I'm alright," she replied sadly. She was already feeling the guilt sink in on her for yelling at her father. She hadn't really meant to yell; she was just so frustrated and upset over losing Julie.

Johan noticed how quickly her anger had turned to regret. "Do you really think the things that you said in there?"

Leah sighed. "I don't know," she said. "I'm just so... frustrated! With everything!"

He put a hand on her shoulder. "You just got mad in the heat of the moment, didn't you?"

Leah nodded as she buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Johan," she cried. "I'm just so scared! Our baby sister is missing!"

Johan hugged his older sister as she cried. "It's okay, Leah," he said. "Everyone's scared. But we just have to be strong and try to get through this, okay?"

Leah nodded again, and took deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down. She smiled sadly at him, and he squeezed her shoulder in encouragement.

"I'm gonna go see if they found out more about the breakout," he said. "Why don't you go try to relax?"

"Okay," she said. Johan smiled at her, before turning on his heel and walking in the other direction.

Leah tried to keep herself calm as she walked through the hallway. She walked into the library, where she found Elsa and Anna with books open on their laps. They looked up when they heard her come in. They hadn't really been able to focus on what they were trying to read anyway.

"Hey," Anna said. "How'd it go?"

"They're keeping the ball on," Leah said, sitting in an empty chair.

"Well, that's good," Elsa said, but she could tell that Leah wasn't taking all of this well. "Are you okay?"

Leah nodded. "I'll be fine," she said. "I'm just so mad over everything! The council was almost ready to actually cancel it!"

"Are you serious?" Anna exclaimed, shocked.

"Yeah," Leah said. "And Father was almost ready to let them! I don't know what would have happened if Johan and I hadn't been there to convince them otherwise."

"Do you think he really would have agreed?" Elsa inquired.

"I don't know," Leah said. "I mean, I understand they had decent points over why it should have been cancelled, like the fact that they wanted to save as many lives as possible, but I still can't believe he actually considered it for a moment."

"Did you talk to him about it?" Anna asked.

"He pulled me and Johan into his study afterward to scold us for 'speaking out of turn' during the meeting, and I kind of snapped on him a little bit," Leah said, sighing. "I guess I shouldn't have said some of the things I said, but-"

"Like what?" Elsa interrupted.

Leah bit her lip. "Well," she said, "I accused him of not caring about Julie enough because she's not as high in the line of succession as Johan or me."

"Ouch!" Anna said. "That had to hurt!"

"Which is why I shouldn't have said it," Leah said. "Now he probably thinks that I think he doesn't care about Julie at all."

"Well, look," Elsa said. "You feel bad about what you said, right?"

"Mm-hmm," Leah said, nodding.

"Then why don't you give it a few hours for both of you to cool down and then go apologize?"

Leah sighed. "Yeah," she said. "You're right. I should. Thanks, Elsa."

"Glad I could help," the queen replied, smiling.

"So anyway," Anna said, desperately trying to change the topic, "if the ball is being kept on, we might as well make the most of it!"

"I take it you're going with Kristoff?" Leah asked.

"Well, considering that we're engaged, that would be appropriate!" Anna said, holding up her diamond ring. "I'm gonna make him wear his Arendellian royal uniform that he wore to the wedding. He's getting dressed up whether he want to or not!"

"What are you going to wear?" Elsa said.

"Julie has a lot if ball gowns that would fit me. I'll wear one of them," Anna replied.

"Wait," Leah interrupted, "you guys didn't bring ball gowns?"

"We weren't supposed to stay this long!" Elsa reminded her. "We were supposed to leave the day after the wedding, but first the snowstorm came through, and then I was attacked, so we've kind of been stuck here." She looked between the two princesses, who were both staring at her, smirking. Her face turned red, and she shrugged as she added, "Not that I've minded."

Anna and Leah laughed at Elsa's embarrassment. Before long, Elsa couldn't keep herself from laughing, too.

"Has Johan actually asked to escort you to the ball?" Leah asked.

"Not yet," Elsa admitted, "but that's probably just because he didn't know whether or not the ball was actually going to happen!"

"True," Anna said. "But if I may ask, what are you going to wear?"

Elsa smirked at her sister. "Don't forget; I'm the Snow Queen, and I can use my powers to make my own dresses," she said. She thought for a moment, and then nodded to herself. "I think I can come up with something."

.:.^*^.:.

Later that night, Leah found herself holding her breath as she stood in front of her father's bedroom door. It was almost midnight, but she had wanted to wait to talk to him in his room rather than in his study. She knew that in his study, she would be talking to him as the king, but in his room, she was talking to him as her father.

Taking a deep breath, she softly knocked on the door.

"Come in," her father called, sounding exhausted.

She slowly opened the door and walked in to see him sitting on his bed.

"Father?" she said nervously.

"Leah," he said, genuinely surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"

She took a deep breath. "I wanted to... apologize for what I said earlier. It was... wrong of me, and I shouldn't have said it."

"Oh, Leah," her father said, standing and walking over to where she stood. He hugged her in forgiveness, and she gladly hugged him back. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. You were right; I shouldn't have considered letting them cancel the ball for even a split second."

"It's not your fault. They made good points that you, as king, had to take into consideration," Leah said.

"But as a father, my most important job is to protect my children with my life, and that means all of you," he said.

"No hard feelings?" she said.

"Of course not," her father replied, hugging her again.

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Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63