AN: Henry at Jane's bedside as she dies. Song is She Is The Sunlight by Trading Yesterday. First scene is from the end of my "A Queen's Farewell".

"Hurry. Jane hasn't long left, Father." Mary whispered.

Henry nodded at his eldest daughter's words and then pushed roughly past the girls as they left, hurrying to his beloved Jane's side. Her eyes were shut. She was slipping fast; slipping out of consciousness; slipping away from him. He knelt beside her, clutching her clammy hand, as though he could keep her with him purely by the strength of his hold.

"Don't go, please don't go. Just because you have done everything you've promised; please don't leave me. You are the milk of human kindness, the light in my dark dark world. Without you life is a desert, a howling wilderness," he begged desperately, before closing his eyes and praying as he had never prayed before, "Please God, in Your mercy, don't take her away from me. My son needs his mother and I need my Queen."

If all the flowers faded away
And if all the storm clouds decided to stay
Then you would find me each hour the same
She is tomorrow and I am today

"Your Queen, Henry? Don't you mean your brood mare? You're putting on a sham! You've never loved her. You've never loved any of us. All you love about Jane is the fact that she gave you a son."

Her voice started up in his head and he shook it fiercely. "No! No! I love Jane! I've always loved her! She is my Guinevere! She is my Guinevere and I am her Lancelot. I swear; I swear on the Holy Bible, that I will never stop loving her!"

"Holy Bible? Isn't that vow hollow for you now, Henry? After all, you broke with Rome. You've been excommunicated. You were excommunicated for my sake. I think you loved me more than you ever loved her, for all you call her your milk of human kindness."

The tone was dripping with scorn and Henry gritted his teeth at the sound of it. "God's Death, will I never be free of you, Madam? Jane is my milk and honey Queen. She has been kind to both her predecessor's children. Which is more than you were to Mary."

There was a moment of silence and Henry used it to brush a lock of Jane's hair out of her face, letting his fingers linger on her cheek in a way that he was certain he had never done with the French harlot.

And if right is leaving I'd rather be wrong
She is the sunlight and the sun is gone

"Ignore her, Jane," he whispered. "Ignore her. You are my rightful Queen and you always will be. I love you. I adore you. I always have and I always will. You are my Guinevere. No one can ever take that away from you."

For a moment, where his other hand still lay in Jane's, he thought he felt her squeeze his hand and his heart leaped with hope, "Jane!"

"No, Henry. Let her go. She's only suffering as she fights to stay with you. It's God's will, Henry. Let her go. Let her go."

The voices started up in his head again, but it wasn't Her this time. It was Katherine. His beautiful stubborn first love Katherine. At the sound of it, Henry felt like a little boy again; a lost little boy.

"But I don't want her to go, Katherine. I don't want to lose my Queen. She's done what she promised. She's brought me a golden world. She should be here to be part of it; to sit at my side as my Queen. I'm the King of England! I am God's anointed! I will keep her with me! I will!"

"I know you are, Henry. I know. But there are some things that even a King must accept. Mortality is one of them. You must let her go. You can mourn her; mourn her forever if that is your wish. After all, she is your rightful Queen. Now that I am dead, she is your rightful Queen. But you cannot keep her with you. It's too late. It's too late, Husband. She's already gone."

If loving her is a heartache for me
And if holding her means that I have to bleed
Then I am the martyr and love is to blame

She is the healing and I am the pain
She lives in a daydream where I don't belong
She is the sunlight and the sun is gone

"No! Jane, no! Please, no!" Henry's head snapped up. Grabbing Jane's wrist roughly, he felt desperately for her pulse, hoping against hope that Katherine's ghost was wrong; that his sweet Jane hadn't left him. But one look at her face was enough. He knew she was gone.

Unable to help himself, he threw his arms around her and pulled her up against, raining tears down into her soft golden hair, even as her body cooled.

For a few minutes, he gave himself over to his grief, forgetting that he was a King; that he had a country waiting on his every whim. He let himself simply be a man; a man weeping for his beloved wife.

At last, he pulled back to examine her. Her sweet face was serene, cleansed now of the tribulations of childbirth as her spirit rose to join the Father Almighty in his promised Kingdom. Rose beyond Henry's reach, to somewhere he couldn't yet go. He couldn't join her. Even though he was King of England and Lord of all he possessed, he couldn't join her.

She was gone from him; had gone to take her place beside the Queen of Heaven, and Henry's Kingdom was nothing more than a barren shell of what it had once been. The young and golden Court of England was now a dark and desolate place, one that was echoing with grief for its beautiful Queen Jane.

And if right is leaving I'd rather be wrong
She is the sunlight and the sun is gone
She is the sunlight and the sun is gone