Walking in, I sent Rupert one more text while waiting for them to call me back. He never responded and I sighed, giving up. My mom followed me back. They did the normal routine pregnancy stuff I guessed. Took my temperature, had me pee in a cup, weighed me and took my blood pressure. Once that was all done, they put me in a little room here a tech came in and put some cold gel on my belly and used a probe to find the baby.
It was so cute, the little flutter of its heartbeat, she let me listen to it and gave me a few pictures. She described what each thing was, she said I was about three months along, or about twelve weeks. Just enough the baby started to look like a baby instead of a blob. I walked out of there happy. Everything was going fine, the doctor was happy and told he’d see me in a month.
My mom couldn’t stop squealing over the baby pictures, and texted her husband all about the doctor visit. Yet, I was worried about Rupert. I didn’t know where he was, or why he wasn’t answering. This was very abnormal for him and I was starting to panic.
“Mum, something doesn’t feel right to me,” on the way home, I finally confided my fears to her. It wasn’t about the baby; it was about Rupert. “Rupert was supposed to be here, he’s not answering his texts, I’m worried. Can you text his dad and ask him if he knows what’s going on?”
“I haven’t gotten a text back from Rupert’s father yet either. Honey, I know it’s hard to understand, but sometimes things come up, just be patient and I’m sure everything is just fine,” my mum looked at me, but the lie didn’t quite reach her eyes. I knew she didn’t believe everything was okay. Her eyes had that worry line she got when she was thinking about something she wasn’t happy about. Something was definitely wrong.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked her bluntly.
“Nothing dear, I can’t tell you something if I don’t know the answer,” she admitted. “It’s not like Rupert’s father not to message me back either. I know the plane landed safely, but that was the last thing I’ve heard.”
Sighing, I looked out the window and wished for a moment I had psychic powers to communicate with Rupert. Phones had their limitations.
We got back to the palace and the butler opened the door and helped us out. By this time, I was really worried, but I didn’t want to freak out in front of my mother, she’d get upset about the baby if I got too frantic. I tried to remember to breath and stay calm, but inside I was twisted up in knots.
When we walked inside, a security team was there to meet us. I knew in that moment, something was definitely wrong.
“What is going on?” I asked the one who stood in the middle who was staring at me.
“The Prince and King are fine, but Rupert’s at the local hospital. Someone shoot up their car on the way home from the airport. We shut down all communication until we caught the shooter. I can take you to go see Rupert, if you’d like Lara,” he told me.
My mother gasped and I was worried she was going to faint. She looked green around the edges and I put my arm around her to comfort her. Her husband sounded like he was fine, but if Rupert was in the hospital…
“How badly was Rupert injured?” I whispered, staring at the man, blinking back tears. I swallowed hard. The idea of losing him had me absolutely terrified. He was always this rock, this unbreakable will that had filled my brain with his strength and nothing bad would happen. Except, he was still human and he could still die. I needed to see him.
“Our last update was he was stable, for now. I’ll take you there now. The King will be coming home to deal with this politically, he has to make the announcement and deal with the press now that his son is okay. He wasn’t injured. It appeared that someone was targeting Rupert on purpose. We caught one of the shooters, but there was two.” The guard told me and offered me his arm. I took it and gave my mom a worried look, I wasn’t sure if I should leave her.
“Go on, you need to see Rupert, I’ll be okay here.” She told me and nodded. I wasn’t entirely sure I believed her, but I wanted to go be with Rupert, so I pushed her from my mind and let the body guard take me to the hospital, he never took his eyes off me, and I wondered if he thought I’d be a target too if they didn’t catch the other shooter soon.
I wanted to ask more questions, but I was in shock and couldn’t find a way to get the words out right now. I felt like I was walking in a vortex where nothing felt quite real. The walls blurred together on me as the body guard walked me through the hospital halls. He took me up to the fourth floor and let them know who I was. The nurse gave me a sorry look and lead me to a room and Rupert was there. He was awake, and I sighed in deep relief. He had bandages in his shoulder and he was attached to monitors and IV’s.