Ma Reine Her King✔ (Complete)

Chapter 15

"No she isn't." I glanced over my shoulder where I spotted a pink and brown figure moving. I waited for Rose to approach her father.

"Daddy." Rose spoke, her voice small and tired. Alex looked at her for a moment before he stood and swept her up in his arms, checking her for any injuries and generally making sure that she was okay.

"Rose, princess." He spoke. The tension breaking and the emotions beginning to break free from their steel enclosure. "You should be asleep, baby." He told her and she shook her head.

"I can't. Where is mommy?" She asked and like that the steel snapped in two. His face softened and his eyes filled with tears.

"She's in the hospital.C'mon baby, let's get you to bed." He spoke before carrying her upstairs. I laid back on the sofa, running my hands over my face.

Please God, pull through momma bear I thought, if anything happened to her I would not be able to cope. I could not watch Rose go through that. She was like family to me, as was Fleurie. She had to be okay.

👑★👑

Momma bear had been in the hospital for three weeks and it was getting harder to calm Rose, because of Covid, visits were few and far between but thankfully she was coming home. We'd since moved back into Alex's home and Rose had started attending a preschool. Alex would take her every morning, call the hospital for information, call me with the information and then go to work. I would then pick Rose up from school whilst Alex handled the other side of business and would be back for dinner, see Rose off to bed and then head out to collect shipments and then be back at his home at eleven. He was running himself ragged. Hopefully with momma bear coming home, everything would calm down and he would take a break because my God was he grouchy when he was tired.

"Precious cargo coming through." I heard Alex's voice ring out and I sprinted out of the kitchen and towards the front door. Fleurie was in a wheelchair, her brown locks tied back tightly in a bun. Her skin had lost it's norml glow and it had been replaced with a dry and dim one. Her eyes were blank and dark.

"Momma bear!" I cried, rushing to her side. She smiled, it was fake, it held no emotion, damned Aquarius always holding their emotions away from everyone else but always willing to listen to everyone else's problems. I hugged her, she rested her head on my shoulder for a moment before I pulled away and then said, "You and I are having a chat later, but Alexander over here hasn't slept properly in three weeks so maybe convince him to do that." Fleurie nodded before Alex continued through the house with her.

She was hiding from her pain, hiding from her fear. That was not going to be the case, it was all going to come out some way or another and the sooner the better.

If anyone would be able to talk her through her trauma from this it would be me, at this point I'm collecting different types of trauma and psychological issues the way that people collect titles.

Daniel Isiah Hawthorne, RT (Religious trauma), CT (Childhood Trauma), AI (Abandonment issues), PT (Parental Trauma) etcetera.

This was hard, it was far from something that she was going to bounce back from quickly, it wasn't something that would be healed quickly. It would take time, a lot of talking and revisiting it, a hell of a lot of ice cream to eat whilst talking through it.

👑★👑

"Daniel, she's ready to see you." Alex spoke, he was in his pajamas, a tired smile resting on his lips.

I almost sprinted up to their room, Fleurie was curled up on the bed, her hand brushing over where the bullet tore through her skin. I didn't knock, since she was expecting me. Her gaze flickered over to me, nothing more than a sad frown resting on her lips.

"Momma bear." I spoke and she turned towards me, I watched as the light from the window illuminated the tears that were running down her face and before I could even process that I was embracing her in a tight hug. She had been there for me through every break up in France, through every nightmare, through every down moment and now I had to be here for her.

"Danny." She whispered, still curled up tightly. "I lost it." I stilled, giving her a moment. "I lost my baby."

I pulled her closer, brushing her hair back from her face,

"I'm sorry, I am more than sure that you are sick of hearing it but I mean it from the bottom of my heart momma bear, I am so so sorry."

"Dan, I-I." I sat up, pulling her up with me. "I'm scared. I'm so scared and I don't want to let Alex know because he did all of this for me and Rose but-"

Her sobs cut her off. They were awful soul wrenching sobs that tore my heart out of my chest.

"Fleurie, look at me." I said and she directed her teary gaze up to me, "In and out, one breath at a time." She followed my instructions and slowly worked herself into a rhythm of breathing. "You need to speak to Alex, he will understand. You were shot in your garden, one you have been in hundreds of times, with your daughter, with him, with me. Stuff like this doesn't go away easily and you need to have this conversation with him. Especially if you two are getting married anytime soon."

Fleurie nodded, her head low. "I understand. Thanks Danny."

I smiled at her, "Now it is time to make you laugh. Did I ever tell you the story of when I emailed a philosophy and theology professor to spite my Sunday school teacher when I was twelve?"

She shook her head,

"Well it is about time that told you."