×The Princess'Captain× Chris Evans

III

Chapter III

(June 14th 2015 in London)

The voices around her where getting louder. She was getting more anxious with each passing second without opening her eyes. She remembered everything but the only thing going through her mind was the memory of her little brother screaming for her to not closed her eyes, to stay awake, to not leave him. The memory of her brother crying out in pain was all it took for her to start opening her eyes.

"Our grandfather is taking care of the animals until she's released from the hospital" No one had noticed her opening eyes. Her brothers were at each side of the bed while her best friend stood in front of her and they all looked unusually messy. The worse of all was Harry, of course. Knowing him like she did, she was sure he'd refused to rest until she woke up.

"What about your father?" Tom asked, worried.

"He's in official business in Sweden..." Harry whispered back. After a long pause, he chuckled "She's going to be really pissed"

"It's terrifying... I don't know if you're talking about granny or Vicky" Will said, with a small smile, making Tom and Harry laugh.

She didn't want to think about her father. They'd had a fight about the same thing as always right before he left. The idea of love and marriage scared her to death while his father seemed to grow more excited with each passing day and he was not afraid to let her know what he expected of her, going as far as trying to play matchmaker between her and some of his friend's sons. His father's candidates were annoying, posh, dishonest and rude to anyone without a tittle. She knew she would never love someone like that and she made a promise long ago.

She'd only made three promises in her thirty three years: she promised her mother to always take care of Harry; she swore to her brothers to protect her nephews and nieces until her last breath; she vowed to her mother, after the divorce, to only marry someone who loves her as much as she loved them. She intended to keep every single one of them.

"Why are you all standing around my bed like a bunch of creepers?" Her hoarse voice made the three most important men in her life jump out of surprise. However, before he could laugh, her younger brother was launching himself at her. Suddenly, she found herself with her hands full of redhead sobbing mess.

"You're okay... You're okay... You're okay..." Harry kept murmuring over and over again as he was trying to convince himself. He let her go abruptly and stood up "The doctor! I'll call the doctor!" He ran out of the room.

"How are you feeling?" William asked after a few seconds watching the door where their brother had disappeared.

"I've been worse" She replied with a small smile. They all remembered the last time she'd been deployed to Afghanistan and had returned in a stretcher. Before anyone could said anything else, the doctor and a few nurses came in followed by her little brother.

"Hello, Your Royal Highness" The doctor said with a small head bow "Do you remember what happened, ma'am?"

"A truck came out of nowhere and crash into us" She answered. The memory of the truck's headlights coming straight at them burned in her brain forever.

"Yes, ma'am. Your left arm has suffered an avulsion fracture that required urgent surgery" She nodded, relocating her sling arm "Some of your ribs have small fractures but nothing that bandages and rest can't cure. Your body is covered in glass cuts but the most worrying are the lacerations above your left eye and on the side of your stomach given that they are considerably deeper. Also, you have a mild concussion that will go away in a few days"

"I got off lightly, didn't I?" She joked, knowing that none of the injuries were incurable.

"Well... It's true it could have been worse..." The doctor muttered. After the looks the men in the room sent him, he went completely professional "We'll recommend staying in the hospital a few days, ma'am, to supervise the laceration"

"No, thank you, Dr. Hughes" She said with thankful smile "I would like to go home. I don't like hospitals when I'm the patient"

"I understand, ma'am, but I'm obligated to recommend the stay"

"Vicky, maybe you should consider staying here for a few days, like the doctor says" Her older brother said, trying to make her see reason.

"No, thank you. I know what signs I should look out for... and I'm sure I'm not going to be alone anytime soon..." She answered. She heard a small "You're damn right" from her best friend, before continuing "So I'll be okay... At home"

The doctor sent her a sympathetic look before leaving to get the discharge papers, followed by the nurses. Letting her a moment alone with the most important people in her life, with the exception of her grandfather.

"Shouldn't you be in the States, Tommy?" She asked.

He looked down before answering "I... I was going to surprised you today and spend the week with you before going back"

"Well... I'm not going anywhere anytime soon so we could still do it, once I can leave this place" He smiled at her as an answer. She looked around the room, seeing all the colourful flowers from her family. However, what caught her attention was the man sitting in the most far away chair of the room, looking straight at her with big blue eyes.

"Hello. You're cute. Who are you?"