MAXON'S POV
I don't know when I fell asleep but I am woken by a guard in the safe room.
"Your Majesty. The attack is over. It lasted two hours and there were no fatalities and few wounded." I stand and the guard looks me up and down, checking for wounds probably.
"I'm fine." I sigh.
"Still, I think you should head up to the hospital wing, Sir. I'll tell them to expect you." He ran off before I could disagree.
I decided to ignore him anyway; I had things to do. So I headed to my study to see if I could get some work done before I met with Marlee and Aspen again. There was so much I had to do, rebels to contend with. The advisors and I had been meeting almost daily to try and come up with a plan to strengthen us and, so far, we had only come up with one: have an heir. Sadly, we needed America for that and I'd been told that I had to be married by the end of the year, no matter what. The quicker that I had an heir, the sooner my family would be safe.
I sat myself in front of the mountain of paperwork that I had been neglecting recently and set to work. I needed something to distract me for a bit. I must have only been there for half an hour when the door burst open and Marlee stormed in.
"Weren't you told to pop down to the hospital wing?" She asked, leaning against the doorframe.
"I don't have time for that Marlee, I have too much work to do already." I said, annoyance showing in my voice.
"Oh, I think you do. See…ok this was going to be a surprise for when you got there, I mean the guards kept you in the safe room for almost an extra hour to plan this, and here I am, just going to ruin it. But, oh well!"
"Marlee, if it's important, just tell me, or else let me get on." I snapped.
"America's here!" She squealed.
"What?" I looked at her smiling and nodding her head. "Why didn't you tell me before?" I smiled back. I ran past her at the door and she chased me down to the hospital wing.
There were only a few guards in the beds from the last attack, clearly it wasn't too bad. I stopped outside the first private room and peered in the window. I could see the bright red hair of America, I knew it was her but she didn't look quite as vibrant as she usually did, understandably though.
"You can go in you know." Marlee whispered, appearing beside me.
"I don't want to disturb her. She looks so fragile." I whispered back.
"All you've dreamt of for the past month is this moment, and you're worried about disturbing her. Honestly, she'll be mad if you don't go in now."
"What if she's just mad with me? I mean-let's face it- I didn't find her, I gave her up. What if Aspen's right and she'll never forgive me?" Marlee just shook her head at me.
"Both of you are such idiots you know. You haven't seen what most of us have seen from day one. That you love each other and are willing to do anything for one another. I've already told you, she won't forgive you because she won't see that there's anything to forgive. Now will you just go see your fiancée?" She demanded.
"Ok. But if I don't come out alive then you have to stop the rebels." She smiled and I opened the door to the room.
I sat on the seat by the bed and just stared at her, her hair was nowhere near as bright as the last time I saw her and her skin was paler than ever. I picked up her hand, which was freezing cold, and kissed it. I'd missed her. The door opened and Dr Ashlar walked in holding his clipboard of notes.
"Good Morning, your Majesty, I thought you'd be here by now." He said, not looking up from the notes.
"Is she going to be ok?" I asked.
"Yes, of course. She's just malnourished and dehydrated. She'll wake up anytime now, we've had her on an IV drip for a couple of hours and when she wakes up we'll keep her under observation for a couple of days and then she'll be free to go." He moved over to the other side to take her pulse and wrote a few things down before leaving the room again.
AMERICA'S POV
I floated back into consciousness and felt a hard grip on my hand. I pulled it away quickly.
"America?" I heard a whisper say. My eyes fluttered open and I could see bright lights shining straight above me. "America, are you there?" The voice asked again, grabbing my hand once more. I managed to focus on the ceiling above me.
"Maxon?" I asked in a hoarse whisper. I hoped it was him that I could hear.
"America. I've missed you so much!" I said softly, but excited. He kissed me softly on my forehead and squeezed my hand again. We sat in silence for a moment before I had to find out the truth and ask.
"Maxon, are you marrying Kriss?"
"What? Of course not. Why would you think that?" He looked confused.
"Oh, just heard a rumour." I mumbled.
"However, there is something you should know about," I turned my head to look at him, he looked serious. "The advisors want us married as soon as possible. Like within the next month and they have said that they think it would be best to have an heir sooner rather than later." I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ok, that I can do. We were supposed to be married last month. Twice."
"Third time lucky?" He chuckled and I smiled at him.
"I'm so glad to be back."
"I'm glad too. What do you want to do first? A walk in the gardens? A strawberry tart?" He smiles at me.
"As soon as I get out of here I'm making a beeline for my bath. Then maybe we'll do the walk and strawberry tart." I decide.
"Let me go speak to Dr Ashlar. I'll be back soon. I love you." He said softly as he stood and left the room.
"I love you, too." I whispered back but he'd already gone.
It was a few minutes before Maxon and Dr Ashlar came back.
"Good morning, America. How are you feeling today?" Dr Ashlar asked, a clipboard and pen in hand.
"I'm fine, a bit tired, but fine." I said, sitting up.
"Ok, well there's nothing on the charts that should suggest anything. You can continue your recovery upstairs if you would like."
"Yes. I would like that very much." I smiled.
"But I'm putting you on bedrest for the rest of the week, so no meetings." He glared at Maxon. "And I'm putting you on nutrient pills for a while." And with that he left the room. Maxon walked over to me, sat on the edge of my bed and grabbed my hands.
"Whenever you're ready we can head up."
"Oh, I'm ready. I need light." I laughed and stood up. I fell again fairly quickly but Maxon caught me with one arm around my waist and the other still holding the other hand tightly.
"Ok. Come on." He pulled me into him and slowly walked me towards the door. We slowly walked upstairs towards the suites, Maxon never letting me go for even a second. Eventually we came to my room and he led me to my bed.
"Can you get Mary to run me a bath?" I asked.
"I can do that for you." He said, walking away to the bathroom.
"Maxon, no. I want to sit with you for a bit. Please, just call Mary."
"OK. Anything for you, my darling." He kissed me lightly and pressed the button to call my maids before sitting next to me on the bed. I pulled my feet up and put my head in his lap.
"So. What have you been up to?" I asked as he started stroking my hair.
"Not much. Meetings with advisors, meetings with Aspen and Marlee, sleeping and eating if I get a chance."
"What were you meeting with them for?"
"Trying to find you, my love." He paused. "You know, when I first got back here after…you know, Aspen told me that you would never forgive me. Is that true?" I sat up, crossed legged and turned to face him.
"No. I will never forgive you." He looked away from him but I turned his face back to face me. "There's absolutely nothing to forgive. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if the country was in the hands of the rebels. I knew that I would get out eventually, and I can tell that you tried to find me. I found an opportunity to get out and I used it. I can't hate you for my opportunity appearing before yours!"
"What was your opportunity?" He asked. I stared back at him.
"Umm. Well, you see…" I started.
"My Lady?" Mary appeared and curtseyed at the door.
"Thank you Mary. Could you run me a bath?"
"Yes, of course." She curtseyed again and walked through to the bathroom.
"I've told her not to be so formal but, she still is." I laughed and shook my head.
"America, please. I want to know what happened." He begged.
"Ok. I was locked in a room underground. There were no windows, just a flickering light on the ceiling. I was taken in for questioning fairly frequently. They wanted to know about the safe room. At first I simply denied all knowledge of them at all, but then I went a bit crazy. I didn't tell them anything but it was more because I couldn't than I didn't want to. They got frustrated with me and tried to make me crack by telling me that you were engaged to Kriss, that you didn't love me anymore I sort of made friends with one of the rebel guards who was making sure I was locked in. And then everyone else got fed up with me and decided to attack the palace, leaving just me and this rebel. He came in to chat with me, and then he kissed me." I paused and looked at Maxon who looked upset. "But I pushed him away from me, got over my crazy and managed to get out. I managed to hitch a ride with this woman and she brought me back here." He couldn't even look at me. "I'm sorry Maxon. I love you. Please forgive me."
"Go take your bath." He said, gesturing to Mary who was now stood at the door. "We'll talk later." He stood and moved towards the door.
"Maxon. I-"
"Later, America, later." He left the room without as much as a look back.
"Come on, miss. Let's get you cleaned up." Mary said putting an arm around me and leading me through to the bathroom that smelled of blackberries.
I took of my thin, hospital gown off and Mary helped me into the bath. The water was warm and felt great on my skin. I submerged myself fully under the water and stayed there for a few seconds before coming up to the surface. Mary carefully shampooed my hair, as if she was trying not to hurt me, and then poured water on the top to wash it off.
"I heard what you said to Maxon." She whispered as she started lathering up my hair again.
"And now you hate me too."
"No. You went through a heck of a lot for him, for all of us. I don't think he's angry, I think he just needs time to process." She said softly.
"I hope you're right. I love him, I don't want him to hate me."
"Of course I'm right. We've all known from the beginning that you two were in love. We always knew that you would win, pretty much from that first night." I smiled at the thought as Mary finished washing my hair and helped me out the bath again.
I dried myself with the towel and wrapped my hair in it, and then put on my dressing gown. Mary led me through to the bedroom. I sat on the bed as she went through my wardrobe and emerged with a light blue day dress. She dressed me quickly, pulled my hair into a loose bun and quickly did my make-up lightly. I smiled at myself in the mirror. I looked and felt normal and human again.
"Now go, find Maxon. He's probably in his study. Talk to him and everything will be fine. I promise." She smiled, grabbing one of my hands. "Do you need a hand walking over there?"
"No, I should be fine." I shook my head and walked slowly out the door and down the corridor. I knocked on the door to Maxon's office. I heard him sigh.
"Come in." He shouted. I opened the door to find him bent over his work at his desk.
"Maxon?" He turned to look at me and his eyes lit up. He quickly came over to me and pulled me into his arms.
"I'm sorry. For everything." He whispered into my ear. I turned my face and kissed him softly. As I pulled away he stroked my cheeks and pulled me in for a passionate kiss.
"I love you Maxon Schreave." I told him.
"I love you more America Singer-Schreave." He whispered back and I smiled at my future name, and the fact that we were finally reunited.
SO, DID YOU ENJOY IT? SORRY IT TOOK A WHILE, JUST GONE BACK TO COLLEGE AND I'M ALREADY STRESSED ABOUT WORK! HOPEFULLY THE NEXT CHAPER WON'T BE LONG, BUT PLEASE REVIEW IN THE MEANTIME.