"A Way Out"
Post series end, spoilers ahead
(In other words, guess who finally had the time to binge-watch Kings and be incredibly frustrated by the finale? That's right. Me.)
*
"Thomasina?" I asked quietly, knocking against her already open door. She looked up from her desk and sighed. She looked so tired, but I felt no sympathy for her.
"Yes, what is it? It's late," she said. I stepped into the room and shut the door.
"It's Lucinda, ma'am," I began. "She's been vomiting since we brought her dinner. She said the smell wasn't quite right."
"Is it morning sickness?" Thomasina asked. She stood up and seemed to be immediately awake. It really wasn't as she assumed, but she kept weird hours.
"I don't know, ma'am. I wanted to tell you before someone sent for the royal doctor," I explained. "We didn't want any false alarms getting back to the palace."
"Good, good," she muttered. She finally met my eyes. "Go get the royal doctor and bring him to the girl's room."
"Yes, ma'am," I said politely, nodding shortly and leaving the room. She followed close behind, but eventually she turned down a different hallway than I did. As soon as she was gone, I took a cell phone out of my pocket and dialed a familiar number.
"How is Ms. Wolfsen?" the royal physician answered.
"Quite unhappy. She has food poisoning after all," I joked quietly. The doctor laughed a little louder; he had more privacy in his suites than I did walking the hallways. "Did you pass along the note I asked for?"
"Of course. Someone on the kitchen staff has delivered the notes to Jack's guards," he confirmed. "I'll go to Ms. Wolfsen and Thomasina when you've told me he's out of his rooms."
"Alright. I'll send a message soon, then," I told him. We both hung up our phones, and I picked up the pace to make it to Jack's room. The doctor was farther away from Lucinda's room than Jack's, so I had plenty of time before Thomasina began hunting for the doctor herself.
I finally made it to the hallway Jack's suite was on and found one of a the kitchen staff kneeling next to his two unconscious guards. Two mugs with the royal seal on them were laying on the ground, drug laced tea spilt and seeping into the carpet. The 'notes' sent by the doctor had worked perfectly.
"When did they go down?" I whispered.
"Just a few seconds ago. I didn't expect it to work so quickly," she answered, sounding worried.
"Well, it'll keep them out for at least an hour. Where are their keys?" I demanded. We didn't have time for her overly kind worries. She and I began to dig through their pockets until we had found the key to Jack's doors. "Try to clean this up as much as you can, then go back to the kitchen. Take their cups."
She began gathering up the mugs and pressing the hem of her apron into the carpet to pull the tea from the fibers. I unlocked the door and bolted inside. Jack, who must have heard our commotion, was on his feet with a bedside lamp in his hand.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Getting you out of this breeding shed," I answered. "Now come here and help me get these two out of the way."
Jack looked past me, and his eyes landed on the two guards still very much unconscious in the hallway. The girl from the kitchen was on her feet now, holding the mugs on the tray as if they had simply been drunk instead of spilled.
"You're getting me out of here? How?" he followed up. Even though he was questioning us, he still moved to help drag the bodies into his rooms. He grabbed the shoulders of one, and I picked up the feet.
"The royal doctor is in on it. Kind of providing all the distractions we need, now that I think of it," I mumbled. "Gave Lucinda food poisoning so now Thomasina thinks she's pregnant. Then Thomasina called for the doctor, who will take his sweet time getting there and keep us off her radar for a couple hours."
"And the guards outside?" Jack asked.
"Covered. Drugs in the eight o'clock coffee," I answered. I glanced at my watch as I let go of the guard's legs. We had a few minutes before the coffee would be delivered by more of the kitchen staff. We went back to the hallway and started dragging the second guard into Jack's room. "But there are guards we couldn't get to, a more elite unit that patrols the woods around the grounds. You need to be at least sort of disguised."
Once the guards were safely hidden away, I shut Jack's door and went to his closet. I threw a rain coat, a pair of shoes, and an umbrella to him. Why Thomasina and the house staff would provide him with outerwear when he wasn't allowed outside his rooms was beyond me.
"Put those on," I ordered when he stood there dumbly. He threw the coat across his shoulders and roughly shoved his arms through the sleeves.
"What about you? You're dressed like one of the maids, and not even the public maids. One of the 'hide them away, do all the dirty work' maids," he commented.
"Got that covered too," I said. I began to unbutton the line of buttons on my grey dress that went from collar to hem, and Jack ducked his head to start tying his shoes. Once a majority of the buttons were undone, I slid the plain smock of a thing off to reveal a form fitted navy blue number underneath.
"Your shoes are still wrong," he decided after taking a look at me. He was right; my uniform issued shoes were plain grey, clunky bricks.
"Ye of little faith," I muttered. I went back to his closet and found a shoe box with a big X on the end of it. I brought the box out of the closet and took out a pair of navy heels that matched the dress. Jack looked me up and down once the shoes were on and nodded.
"Now what?" he asked. I retrieved my phone from the pocket of the uniform dress and sent a text to the royal physician.
"Now we leave," I answered. I grabbed the guards keys again and led Jack out of his suites. He hesitated for a split second at the threshold but walked through with his chin held high and his jaw set stubbornly. We began walking, quickly finding ourselves on an intercept course with the royal doctor. He had a lady's rain coat over his arm.
"The storms have arrived. Perfect weather," he said. I turned my back to him, and he helped me slide the coat on. I cinched it around my waist as Jack watched the halls.
"Coffee's been delivered?" I checked. The doctor nodded.
"And everybody who may be in the woods is hunkering down because of the rain. I'm on my way to Ms. Wolfsen's room, and a driver from Gath is waiting for the both of you," he rambled.
"Gath?" Jack asked.
"David Shepherd and your sister are both in Gath, under protection," I clarified. The doctor checked his watch, and we all silently concluded that we had wasted enough time on pleasantries.
"Godspeed, dear," the doctor told me, leaning in to quickly kiss my cheek. He looked to Jack then. "She'll take care of you, but Godspeed to you as well, your highness."
Jack nodded awkwardly, unsure of the doctor calling him my a royal title. I put my hand at Jack's elbow and began to pull him along.
"How well do you know him?" he asked as we went. He didn't know the way through the halls since had been so secluded; he relied on me pointing and nudging him.
"He's my father," I told him. We reached a door that I knew led out to motorcade staging area, and I made sure that my coat was arranged neatly. I grabbed an umbrella for myself from a waiting hook.
"He's sending you on the kind of mission that could get you killed," Jack summarized.
"Funny, you didn't have a problem with me risking my life until just now," I noted.
"Maybe I have issues with fathers manipulating their children," he countered. "Kind of my personal daddy issue, you know."
"I volunteered," I said. "Now, you need to walk out ahead of me. Act like I'm your assistant. There should be a car that will turn its lights on when I open this door."
Jack looked at the solid wooden door with such focus that I almost wondered if he could see through it. Then he loosened the snap closure on his umbrella and prepared himself.
"Let's go then."
*
Author's Note:
NBC's website decided to work with me after a couple years of essentially forgetting it was there. So, I rewatched and finally finished Kings. While I wasn't thrilled with the ending, it certainly opened the door to some fanfiction corrections.