The Royal Scandal | Prince William |

The Flame

August 3, 2001

In the peace of the greenhouse Jaclyn plucked at the dead petunias, her headphones speaking french in her ears. Colors of flowers were becoming more vibrant by the second as she plucked the brown and decaying dead from the trays.

Her bags were packed and waiting in the car, but her dad had to run and deliver some hydrangeas to a woman before they could leave. Jaclyn took the opportunity to dead head one last time, at least for awhile. 

It was all so calm...

Until it wasn't.

Caleb came toddling out on his still shaky and scrawny legs, huffing and mumbling something untranslatable. Jaclyn turned just in time to pick him up before he could attack her legs, instead latching his legs around her waist and hands in her hair. He didn't play with it, just gripped it.

His babbling was worse than usual, becoming quiet one second then screeching the next, but not a single word made sense.

Her scissors were discarded on the metal barred shelves, and her adorably sweet brother was in her arms. It was enough reason to drop what she was doing.

Jaclyn jogged through the greenhouse starting up their favorite game of reciting movies, this one being A New Hope, swinging her brother this way and that while making the sounds of blaster fire and space ships.

"Stay sharp there's two more coming in they're gonna cut us off," Jaclyn swooped low mimicking Harrison Ford's deep voice.

She swayed more, lifting him high and then low. Her voice dipped to match Luke's more high pitched voice, "Why don't you out run them, I thought you said this thing was fast?"

As she reenacted the scene Caleb stalled on his gibberish, and even gave her the slightest of smiles, a rare sight with the little boy.

"Jac, do you have your brother?" Her mom's voice cut through the fictional galactic world building around the siblings. Just  by guessing it sounded like her voice was coming from the office window.

"Yeah, mom!"

Jaclyn continued their game all the way into the shop itself, stopping once inside the swinging door. She inhaled. The room smelled more like the outdoors than the actual outdoors did.

Her grandmas were trying to work the new cash register, her grandpa looking at the soils most likely for his own yard, and her mom and dad were emerging from their joint office.

It had been a whirlwind of activity. Finding an apartment, finding a roommate to share said apartment with, keeping up her training, studying her french. When the beginning of August came it had snuck up on Jaclyn suddenly,  ready to pull her away to this strange land in one swift movement.

Her dad's face said it all. It was time to go.

It was a confusing sea of people coming at her. Grandma Janet hugged her tightly, Papa Larry taking one more chance to make fun of her french, and Gaga swearing she was going to be the absolute best.

Michelle pulled her daughter aside, ran her hands over her maturing face, and held back the tears daring to spill. People would say she didn't love her daughter, that she allowed her to live in a different country when she was fifteen, that she continuously let her leave, but they had no clue how much letting Jaclyn go pained her. For the longest time it seemed that all she had was Jaclyn, and she let her leave because she was talented and too good for the life presented to her.

"I love you my little girl." She bit her lip, but watched as her girl leaned more into her touch. Jaclyn had grown up on her own, sometimes that destroyed Michelle, other times she thought it spoke of her daughters strength. All that life had thrown at her, and she still dared to face it.