TPASD 19

Waking to his phone vibrating hard against the oak bedside table, Alex groaned, before looking over on the opposite side of the bed to see the clock on the other nightstand. Snatching his phone up, fearing it was the hospital with bad news about Gabriella, Alex rubbed at his eyes and sat up. Multiple news alerts for breaking news.

When he and Henry had become friends, he'd set his phone up with news alerts for anything to do with the royal family. Mostly so he could gather intel to tease Henry with later.

BREAKING NEWS: HRH QUEEN MOTHER, QUEEN MARY DEAD AT 81!

"What the...?" Alex exclaimed out loud, double checking he hadn't misread the time and it really was three hours since the last news bulletin. That it really was only two o'clock in the morning.

Clicking on the accompanying view in the app, Alex lowered the volume. Hoping not to wake Nora and June who's bedroom was beside his.

"We have live reports coming in, that London Bridge has fallen. That's right folks, London Bridge has fallen. Operation London Bridge is a set of royal protocols that layout what happens between Queen Mary's eventual passing and state funeral. In place since 1960, they were outlined in Politico a year ago.

The document says that shortly after her death, "D-Day" goes into effect. The day that the Queen dies will be referred to as D-Day, while every day afterwards will be referred to as D+1 and D+2 and so on.

A series of phone calls will take place informing senior members of parliament. The "Call Cascade" involves informing the UK's prime minister and the cabinet secretary.

An email draft will be sent to senior civil servants. It currently reads "Dear colleagues, It is with sadness that I write to inform you of the death of Her Majesty the Queen Mother."

An official statement will come from the royal household informing the staff, civil servants, and the public of the Queen's death.

After this email is received, flags across Whitehall in London will be lowered to half-mast.

The UK prime minister will be the first member of the government to make a statement on Her Majesty's death. We are standing by for that. Number 10 Downing Street have called a scheduled press conference to take place on the front steps in one hour, at 3am.

As per the protocol outlined, all official social media accounts following the Queen's passing, the royal family's website and the UK government website will all display black banners. All non-urgent content must not be published. Retweets are explicitly banned unless cleared by the central government head of communications.

On D-Day+1, that's later today, at 10 am, as it is believed that she passed before midnight. On the day following the Queen's death, the Accession Council will meet at St. James' Palace and the Queen's eldest child, Princess Catherine, will be officially re-proclaimed the new sovereign. Queen Regent, Queen Catherine will no longer be in caretaker mode. She will be officially proclaimed as the new sovereign of the Commonwealth.

On the day of the Queen Mary's funeral, which will be D-Day+10, a state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey and there will be a National Day of Mourning. A two-minute silence will also be held across the UK at midday. Following the funeral, the Queen will be interred at Windsor Castle's King George VI Memorial Chapel.

A royal portrait of the new Queen will be commissioned and once approved, the Royal Mint will start printing bank notes with the Queen's portrait. Royal Mail will also roll out new stamps featuring Queen Catherine I, and royal ciphers on mailboxes will also be updated to replace M III R.

All members of the Royal Family, their staff and all members of government, opposition and their staff will be required to dress in black, as a sign of the mourning period. There is no exception to this rule.

In the days after Queen Mary's funeral, our new sovereign will make her first official speech as Queen, before a small tour of the United Kingdom.

God Save The Queen… "

"What the … ?" Alex asked out loud. He was alone in the room, in an unfamiliar apartment. No one was going to answer him.

His thumb hovered over the group chat between him, Percy and Henry, debating if he should say anything at this unreasonable hour. He knew both men rarely slept. Although Percy had been keeping a better sleep schedule than he and Henry, of late. Henry and Alex suspected Pez might have a new partner he hadn't blabbed about yet. Percy always slept better when he was in a relationship.

Exiting out of their group chat, he brought up the thread between him and Henry and quickly typed out a message to Henry. As he tossed the phone back on the counter, he had second thoughts and set himself a reminder to text Catherine his condolences at a reasonable hour of the morning.

Alex sighed, as he lay back down, resting his phone on his chest. He figured he wouldn't be hearing from Henry any time soon, now. He worried a little further when he recalled that Henry hadn't been himself earlier in the evening, when he had stopped by the hospital. Henry had been out of character. He had been weird, and he was definitely mentally exhausted.

Alex wondered if Henry had known about Queen Mary's death, he wondered how the Queen died. Furiously googling, he discovered that no one was reporting why or how she died. There was lots of speculation, and it was outrageously inaccurate, even Alex knew that. However, some of the realistic speculation on the BBC that it must have been sudden as the extended royal family had not been seen in the hours, or days prior to her death gathering at Buckingham Palace.

The Sun and Daily Mail did ponder, rather vocally, if the Queen's passing had anything to do with the ambulance being called to Kensington Palace two nights ago. Before further gossip mongering and speculation that the Queen had been hiding an illness from the people and actually died two nights prior. That the palace had been hiding her death. The evidence they had used to support their outlandishly claim was the photo of Henry and Catherine leaving St Mary's hospital. Henry looking lost and disheveled, worried written on his face. His loving mother, kind and caring, on his side, comforting him in her royal way.

Of course, Alex knew she had been well enough the day before, she had cut a mean figure and in no way was frail when she was berating Henry, being a xenophobe to Alex and arguing with Catherine less than twenty-four hours ago. She definitely hadn't looked sick, nor had she looked like she was on death's door.

The vibration of the phone in his hand was sudden, and it startled him. Seeing Henry's contact information next to the new message symbol, made Alex feel something in itself. Open the message, Alex's heart broke for Henry, 'it was sudden' was all Henry had said. The lack of punctuation and capital letters in Henry's message concerned Alex in a way that he had not been prepared for. It made him want to throw on the nearest pair of sweats, run all the way to KP, push his way through the growing crowds of reporters and demand to be let into the palace. Alex supposed if Shaan recognised him, the equerry would admit him beyond the palace gates.

But he wouldn't, as much as it pained him to want to. He wouldn't feed the parasitic press further ammunition against the royal family. He wouldn't out Henry against his will. He wouldn't … He just wanted Henry to be with him. Preferably with him. Typing a hasty reply, Alex lowered the phone onto his chest and sighed, looking over at the clock on the nightstand. 3.10am. He wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon.

The vibration of cell made him jump once more, he is heart in his throat, only to see his father's contact information appear next to the new message display. 'I just saw the news about the Queen, I hope your friend Henry is okay. Please pass on my condolences when you see him next.'

Tossing his phone on the nightstand, Alex sighed. He would deal with his father's message and the lack of a reply from Henry later on. Right now, he would try to get some more sleep.

Waking to Shaan shaking him gently was not unusual. Except usually Henry was in his own bedroom, at Kensington Palace, and not asleep in his childhood bedroom at Buckingham Palace. A room as cold and lifeless as his father's buried corps. Henry groaned out loud, remembering why he hates this god-forsaking palace so much. His grandmother. Who is dead.

"Yes, Shaan. I am awake," Henry muttered, rubbing the corner of his eyes where the crusted sleep had formed. Henry was looking everything like the little boy that would beg to accompany his father and his father's equerry, a very young Shaan, everywhere they went, and not like the young Prince of England's hearts' that Shaan currently served. "What is it?"

Glancing at the clock, then looking at the time on his phone, Henry saw how late it was. After eleven in the morning and Henry also saw all of the missed calls from Pez, from Alex, from June, Alex's sister and from Nora, her wife. He also had missed calls from his mother and Beatrice.

"Two things." Shaan stated, praying that his charge didn't become upset at being woken, after giving orders not to be disturbed. "One, Ms. Claremont-Diaz-Holleran has telephoned. Gabriella is awake and said to be doing well. They weened her off the sedation very early hours this morning and is said to be on the mend. Two, Whitehorse Road is reopened, and I ventured out there this morning at first light. I am afraid that Mr. Claremont-Diaz's house is rather damaged."

"How damaged?" Henry asked, he had been listening intently to everything that Shaan had been saying, but his mind was stuck on the good news that had been the only bright spark in the last twenty-four hours for Henry.

"Unlivable, Sir." Shaan told Henry straight up. Henry had always appreciated his honesty and he'd figured that now would be no exception. "It will be a complete tear down and rebuild job. I had my brother do a walk through with me. As you know he is a structural engineer and he says it is a miracle the house is still standing, albeit a bit wonky. He has already written a building report for Alex to send to his insurance company."

"Does Alex know?" Henry asked. He couldn't imagine Alex not hurting over this news. Henry wanted nothing more than to comfort him, but unfortunately, he could not be seen in public, unless attending to formal, ceremonial manners regarding his grandmother's death.

Whilst he is mostly happy, she is no longer being a homophobic, overbearing presence in his life, he is mourning the woman who she used to be. The kind and caring grandmother, she had once been to him. The one from his young boyhood with whom he shared a love of earl grey tea and Jaffa cakes, and the love of a classic love story. As long as it wasn't his parents' love story. He had been seven when she had told him that they were not an ideal love story. That was when Henry had started to pull away from his Gran. Coincidentally, that had been the same summer that she had begun to suspect that Henry liked boys and had begun withdrawing from him.

It had begun with his Gran telling him that it his friendship with a servant's son unacceptable and inappropriate and had ended with what was the duty to his family. The Mountchristen duty in him was to marry a woman of worth and a woman who measured up to their family, in terms of nobility and societal value. He was to produce and heir and a spare to ensure the line of succession, in the hypothetical event of Philip, and his future family's untimely demise. It was also a family duty to serve in the military after university, and that anything but her edicts would be seen as a black mark on them, in the eyes of the people. Before she had launched into a long-winded story about a 'cousin' of hers who fancied men and ended up being ostracized for his sexuality, before the members of their church, the one in which his grandmother at the time, was the head of, killed her cousin in cold blood.

His mother had partially set him straight on the family lore, that yes, the family member had been ostracized for being gay, but the church had not killed him. It had been his guilt, and the knowledge that he could never be himself that had driven this 'cousin' to suicide. So, Henry had kept his mouth shut to everyone about being gay. About his fledgling crush on the servant's son, and he had managed to not tell a soul. Until the mess with Bea, in the wake of his father's passing.

Arthur had always suspected and had shared his theory with his wife, who had been unable to see past her sweet, adorable son. In the months and years of Henry's adolescence, Catherine had begun to see the soft, subtle signs too. But she had in a strange sort of half-truth-denial. Until Henry came home from a party that Philip had all but dragged him to. Henry's neck had been littered in bruises and he had been gingerly moving around. Arthur had told Catherine he would talk to Henry, but Henry had not been willing to confide in Arthur, instead giving him an outlandish story about falling down a flight of stairs and Catherine had bit her tongue, before simply offering to call the doctor.

The doctor had come, seen Henry alone, and left; refusing to charge them for his services, before leaving an edict for Henry to do nothing but rest and he would return in a week to check on him. Shortly after Henry's alleged fall and subsequent injury, Arthur took a turn for the worst, and he eventually passed. Catherine slipped into her grief, all the while at the back of her mind was this huge secret about her son weighing heavily on it. When she had slowly emerged from her grief, it was years later, and she and Henry were finally at a place in their relationship where they could begin to confide in one another. Henry came out to his mother over afternoon tea.

Philip had heard whispers about his brother from his friend's. Mostly from Nigel, who had told Samuel Henry was a lousy lay, but he had been the perfect baby gay for Nigel, willing to let Philip's friend pluck his cherry. When Philip had first overheard this story, Nigel had told him it wasn't true that he had just been telling porkies to Samuel to get him off his back because Nigel was sleeping with Samuel's sister and his friend had no idea. But the thing was Nigel was also sleeping with Amanda, Simone, Erica, Samantha and Philip had seen him making out with Nathaniel in the locker rooms after polo practice. He wasn't sure he believed Nigel, but he gave him the benefit of the doubt since they had known each other since they were small children, their parents were good friends and Nigel would never hurt his little brother. But after they lost Arthur and Henry had returned to Oxford, Philip had heard more stories of Henry and his wild ways. Stories of bedding anything that moved, including his flamboyant friend Pez (which both Henry and Pez both swear never happened)

Deciding on a surprise visit to his brother, Philip set out to surprise Henry early on Saturday morning, at his apartment off campus. Letting himself in with the key he had pilfered from Bea's bedroom the weekend prior, on a visit home, Philip had let himself into Henry's apartment. Making his way through the quiet apartment, he had flung open his brother's door and found a man he recognised as Ben, his friend Nathaniel's younger brother in bed behind Henry.

Philip was livid and angry. The realisation that the boys weren't merely two mates cuddling, that his friend's younger brother was actually balls deep in his brother, came when Ben had pulled out of Henry and the pain had been etched on Henry's face. Philip had turned red, and then purple, before exploding in anger.

Ben left, after being suitably threatened by Philip to not tell a soul he had slept with Henry. Philip had lectured Henry on the evils of his way of life, how homosexuality was a phase, and he would have to grow out of it. Eventually Philip left, but not before telephoning their grandmother, who had already known about Henry's unnatural proclivities.

A family dinner had been called, for that very night and their grandmother had careless and ruthlessly outed Henry at the dinner table. Coincidentally, when Henry returned to Oxford, Ben had mysteriously dropped out and no one seemed to have any forwarding contact details for him. Not even Nathaniel, the man's own brother.

Henry found out four months later that Ben had taken his own life three weeks after Henry's grandmother had got him evicted from Oxford and cast out from his own family for being homosexual. The very same day that Philip had barged in and found them in bed together.

"Yes, I had my brother speak with him and my brother has offered to liaise with his insurance company on his behalf." Shaan told Henry, bringing him back to the present. "He has also requested that I pass with on a message, and I do so with the utmost respect in which the sentiment is meant fondly, I believe. 'Check your fuckin' phone, Prince Dickhead'. Mr Claremont-Diaz has such colourful language, does he not?"

Shaan smirked at Henry and Henry tried not to laugh at the absurdity of Alex's message and Shaan's astonishingly astute observation. "Are just figuring that out now?" Henry smiled, barely containing his own mirth. "Should you speak to him before me, please assure him, now I am awake, I will check my phone."

"Also, just a reminder that there is a time scheduled for you and your siblings, and mother to visit the growing floral tributes at the main gate today, at 4pm. Your black suit, white shirt, and black tie is hanging in your robe here. Ms Callahan has pressed it ready to go." Shaan explained, before taking a small step forward and lowering his voice. "And Henry, do try to look like you're not over the moon that the evil Queen is dead."

Henry let out a small boisterous laugh that got caught in his throat, before schooling his features, "I shall try my very best, Shaan."

In the wake of the news about the Queen Mother's death, which was all that was being broadcast across any and all of the networks. Alex notified Shaan that they wouldn't need a driver, that he and the girls would make their way into the hospital by taxi. He needed to focus on being there for Henry and supporting Henry. Especially because Alex needed to be here and Pez needed to be at the shelter. Henry needed someone in his corner.

That had been when Shaan had given him the news about his home. It was unliveable. Completely destroyed. He had nothing more than what he and Gabriella had on their backs, or in his car or office. Speaking of his car, he needed to retrieve it from the parking lot at the shelter.

He was grateful that before his father had left, that he had urged Alex to store Erica's luxury car in a storage locker, wheels off, battery disconnected and steel wool in the muffler. He had asked Pez for his help to find a storage facility for a car like hers and Percy had recommended some bougie storage place in Westminster.

It was that hindsight, that Alex took comfort in. Now he wouldn't have to sort out insurance and go through the rigermerole of explaining why he wasn't driving, or hadn't been driving a car such as that. One less person to tel his sad sob story too.

But Shaan, the beautiful and ever caring man had organised for his brother Sabin to act as a liaison officer between him and his insurance company and the man was a structural engineer. Which was another bonus.

Perhaps the biggest relief from the mess with the flooding and destruction of his house was, all of Gabriella's baby photos were backed up digitally to an external server, alongside all of Alex's important documents including Erica's death certificate and Gabriella's DNA test results. He had his safety deposit box with the original copies, as well as some of Erica's jewelry he had stashed in there after she had died. Not willing to leave it in the house when he was gone at the NICU for long periods of the day. He had followed his Abuela's advice and kept ten thousand American dollars in cash, as well as some almost the same in the UK equivalent in pounds, as an emergency money the banks couldn't touch.

The only other person who knew he had cash in his safety deposit box was his stepfather Leo. He had been the one to take Alex to the bank and set it up for him. He had also been the one who had given him the American money. Leo had called it a 'break glass in case of emergency money' and had told Alex it was for if "shit hit the fan here in London and you need to get you and Gabriella out of here in a hurry."

Alex was more than relieved to see that his daughter was awake and having a bottle when he had come in earlier that morning. This morning June had insisted that Alex eat a full cooked breakfast and have a whole cup of coffee before leaving for the hospital. Gabriella, was his only thought that morning and now he was with his daughter. He was so relieved to see her that he is man enough to admit that when he saw her awake and taking a bottle from the young male nurse this morning, he did cry happy tears. So did June. When June texted Nora, who was out in the waiting room, she too cried happy tears.

Alex sent texts, messages to Henry, his Ma, his Pa, Leo, Pez, more to Henry. He was so relieved he couldn't stop crying. The nursing staff were wonderful, very loving and supportive of him. Pez offered to come to the hospital in Henry's absence, but Alex told him not to worry, Percy was holding down the forte with Ethan and Sage at the shelter. There was no need to leave them even shorter on staff than what they were in his and Henry's absence.

Another and even longer text from Percy explained that he had outsourced Friday's case to another lawyer, Shaan's wife, Zahra because the judge refused a further continuance in Alex's absence. He wanted it cleared from his docket. Zahra Bankston was Shaan Srivastava's wife, Alex had no idea. Zahra was the lawyer that Percy had organised to help him with Gabriella's paternity case.

Later that same day, he received a text message from an unknown number claiming to be Zahra. It was thanking him for keeping such meticulously detailed, neat and organised, colour coded notes. That she had managed to get caught up on the case and was ready for court the following day. If only Zahra had of known it had taken Alex years of working with a therapist for him to learn how to do that, as well as to get his ADHD diagnosis and medication in the perfect balance.

Greeting the doctor with a smile a mile wide, Alex was relieved to see her friendly smile mirrored back at him. She was more than pleased with the progress that Gabriella had made in such a sort time. Gabriella would be moved out of the paediatric intensive care unit later today into a general paediatric ward for the night and if all was still OK, then most likely discharged tomorrow afternoon. They were going to start her on the oral dose this morning and see how she tolerated it.

"Slow and steady, Alex." She reminded him. "Remember the old adage, 'one step forward two steps back' ? That's what being a parent to a premature baby is like."

Henry hated Buckingham Palace more than life itself. He wanted nothing more to go back to Kensington palace. He hated it there too, but at least he was comfortable there. He missed Alex, and he definitely missed Gabriella. He and Alex hadn't spoken in two days and it was killing him from the inside out.

"Do cheer up, Henry. Focus." Philip chided him like a small boy, as they sat in yet another mind-numbingly boring meeting about the ceremonial funeral service she had requested. Around this meeting room table, that sat sixteen people, there was Philip, ten advisers from his grandmother's staff, Shaan, John who was Philip's equerry, the archbishop and one other member of the clergy. "Do pay attention, Henry. You cannot possibly be that inept."

Henry already knew his purpose in this meeting as well as Shaan did. Besides being an opportunity for Philip to berate him and his behaviour in front of the archbishop, and royal advisers, it was a reminder that Philip will always be deemed more important than Henry. It was Philip's way of reminding his younger brother that one day, Philip will king and Henry will always be the spare.

"I would like the message from the monarchy to be that Queen Mary dutifully followed and respected the followings of the church." Philip told the archbishop. "As the head of the church, she lived her life by those, as we all should do. Perhaps now is the time in which mention a subtle mention of all of which is frowned upon by the church as part of your sermon. This will be the largest gathering this country has seen for a religious service since my parents were married. Now is the time to remind the country of how we should be living our lives. It is written in the bible man and wife, not man and man, or woman and woman, or any of those other silly genders people have the misguided sense to think up in their abundant spare time. This country has been going awry for far too long and I fear under my mother it will only slip further. We need to seize the opportunity to pull the people of the commonwealth into line. Wouldn't you agree, Henry?"