𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛. ʙʀɪᴛɪsʜ ʀᴏʏᴀʟ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ

43 ♔♕ 𝘀𝗶𝘅𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿

At home though, Bella wasn't sure if she did know. She just had no idea anymore, and that was one of the worst things at the moment.

She didn't know whether or not that part of her brain had been damaged as well. Whilst she had had all the tests in the world to assess the extent of the damage, it was real world tests like these that would actually mean the most to her.

And she was terrified of finding out what the future would be.

♔♕

She had been woken that morning by the crowd singing happy birthday.

As always, it had taken her a moment to remember things. Remember where she was, why she was there, and why indeed, there was the sound of hundreds of people singing happy birthday.

And then she had remembered, and she had smiled at that. Smiled at the revelation. It was her birthday. It was her birthday and she was going home and people were shouting for her. No. Not shouting. Singing. They were singing for her. Yes. That was the correct word to use.

Part of her had wanted to go to the window, to wave out of it for them and to smile and to say thank you. But she wasn't ready for that yet.

There had even been a debate about how public her exit from hospital would be. Part of Bella wanted to thank all the people that had been in the crowds, to at least give them something for being there. But she also knew, or more realistically, had been told, that a stressful situation such as that would make her speech worse. And she wasn't ready for that yet.

It was so much better now. No longer as slow or halting as it had been in the beginning. But she still struggled to find the right words, or she would confuse words with others without realising. The best one though was when she would just stop mid-sentence, although that was a much more rare occurrence now.

She also hadn't been keen on the idea of having to get from her wheelchair to the car in front of the worlds media. It wasn't that the chair was the problem as her father's private secretary seemed to think, it was the fact that she really did not want the first time of her getting into a car to be caught on camera forever.

And so, without much input from her apart from those initial thoughts that she had told Alex and her father, who had then relayed them to everyone else, a compromise had been made.

Bella, alongside her father and brothers (but unfortunately without Alex as he was not yet 'officially' part of the family), would be wheeled out of the hospital onto the top of the stairs where they would then thank the staff that had looked after her and pose for a picture for the long awaiting media, before then returning inside and leaving by a back entrance, driving past the media once more for a final picture. And then, they and the media had agreed, she would be left in peace. Until Christmas at least.

She hadn't expected the reaction to it all. She hadn't believed the pictures that her brothers showed her of all the gifts and cards and flowers that she had been sent. And the crowds of people that had stayed outside the hospital day in, day out. It was unbelievable.

They had had quite the response yesterday as well when a statement went out revealing that she was going home. The crowd and media presence had increased tenfold in mere hours.

Bella was actually quite nervous. More of how they would react to seeing her than anything else. It was only when she went to do her makeup for the first time that morning that she realised how deep the scar was on her face, still so red and angry that she had eventually just given up trying to cover it.