The next morning, after the operation, around 9h30am, Queen Carolyn woke up late. Never has she ever slept late.
Sleepy, she turns over and unconsciously attempts to snuggle into the love of her life, only to notice that side was empty and cold.
Then, all that has happened the previous day, floods back into her mind and she shoots up.
Selene jumps up from the chair she had slept in the whole night, and rushes to her to calm her, telling her he was ok. After a bit, Carolyn calms down enough to listen to the latest update Selene had just gotten half an hour ago.
Happy he was stable, and had been moved back to the Royal ward, but still under medicated induced coma. She quickly uses the bathroom, showers and dresses. With a cup of coffee and muffin, Carolyn starts to leave with the intention of heading to the hospital. Only to be stopped by Selene.
"Ma'am, the Doctor told me you can only come later today, this afternoon."
Pissed off, Carolyn glares at Selene for a moment, then storms off to her office to see if there was something she could do to fill this time.
A few hours later, the Doctor updates Selene. Selene heads over and knocks on her Queen's office door, slipping in without invitation, only to receive another angry glare from her, just daring her to deliver more bad news.
Selene smiles back, not worried at all.
"Dr van José just called, and has informed me that His Highness is awake, and waiting for you."
Carolyn bolts up and runs out of the office, past the staff who jumps quickly out of the way, towards the cars already waiting for her.
Hopping into the first car, she orders them to "DRIVE!!" while Selene was racing to catch up. The driver, fearful to defy his queen, does as ordered and drives. Luckily this car had a protection officer guard in.
He sped off with the convoy hastily following. The last car stops to pick up disgruntled Selene and they race after the convoy.
Arriving at the hospital, ignoring the crowd of news media vultures, Carolyn darts into the hospital with the PPGs trying to keep up with her. She quickly proceeds up to the 5th floor via the stairs, after not wanting to wait for the lift, to where the private royal ward was located.
Arriving onto the floor, huffing slightly out of breath, Carolyn pauses as the Sister in Charge dashes forward. After a quick curtsy, she directs Carolyn, and her belated arriving staff, towards the waiting room where she informs the Doctors will be with her shortly as they are busy attending the Duke.
Pacing the room, Carolyn just couldn't be Queen-like at this moment and sit in the chair like a royal and wait. Not a chance. Selene, with Philip arrived and were at the door, while the rest of the protection team chose to escape the room and stand guard in the passage.
After what felt like hours, Dr van José finally enters the waiting room with another doctor. Seeing their Queen pacing, he smiles. He tries to encourage her to sit with them, but she wanted to defy him, at first. But she sighs, relents, and sits, yet unable to keep herself still.
Dr van José calmly starts to report: "Your Majesty, firstly the Duke is fine. And is currently painless due to the medication he is on. He is fine, trust me." He pauses for a bit and after she absorbs this, she draws in a deep breath and expels it, relaxing.
He continues. "As you know, the Duke's spine needed immediate repair. It seems he had forgotten the brace and twisted to reach for something, causing the internal brace to twist. While this is not normally serious, if he didn't twist or do something erratic. I was planning on scheduling the next operation to repair his spine. This incident just pushed up the schedule. We replaced three damaged vertebrae and four discs. And as the original damaged disc had dislodged and caused compression on the spinal cord, we were able to release this compression with minimal damage. While the spinal cord did have a few minor tears, causing a small leakage of spinal fluid, we have repaired this. We are yet to see what the final results are, to if he will walk fully, semi or not again. But with the spinal nerve block we have administered to him, to assist his body to heal without pain, we have to wait a few more days. Your Majesty, I need to warn you, there is a risk the Duke may either be partially or fully paralyzed for life, or by some miracle he will be fine and walk again. Other than that, there are no other life-threatening issues, and he is waiting to see you."
Shuddering, with tears in her eyes, she silently wept.
"I - I don't care if he never walks again. Even after it was my fault. Thank you for saving him. That was all I was scared about. And I am grateful for you saving him."
Selene breaks protocol and rushes to Carolyn's side, hugging her while Carloyn cries into Selene.
"Your fault, Your Majesty? Whatever you mean by that," asks Dr van José sternly
Weakly she replies: "We had sex the night before, and that morning he was still fine. I was on top of him this morning," she blushes although her tears, still dripping, while she admitted this. "And then, we were about to … you know." She stops and seriously blushes.
Then she resumes. "But we were interrupted by the persistent knocking of Selene. I climbed off him, went to the bathroom and teased, telling her she could enter. I heard Max shout as I was in the bathroom. He shouted 'No' and I was laughing at him. But then I heard him scream in pain. He must have twisted to grab something to cover himself and caused his spine issue. So you see, I am to be blamed. It was my fault," fresh tears pour out of her.
"Your Majesty, you are NOT the cause of this unforeseen accident. All little things mixed together caused this accident. It was an accident. Please, believe that," he begs.
With Selene hushing her while assisting her to wipe her face, after Philip hands her tissues, Carolyn reluctantly nods.
"Good. Now, when you are ready, the nurse will be outside to show you to him." He stands, bows and departs.
With Selene's help, she cleans up and refreshes herself. Then, together with arm in arm, they leave the room, and were escorted by the nurse to the Duke's room.
Upon entering, seeing all the monitors, IV bags and tubes, and him with a nasal oxygen thing round his face, it caused her to stagger to a stop for a moment, fearing the worse. But, she saw him smile brightly at her.
Quickly, she rushes to his side and is about to hug him when she stops. Not wanting to hurt him, she looks to see how she can hug him. The nurse sees this and steps forward. She advises her on what she can and can't do and what she must be careful of.
"I love you," Carolyn whispers to him, leans down and kisses him. Then she lays her head on his chest and weeps while his right wrapped around her.
She cries all the pent-up stress and pain she has.
After a bit, she stands up and steps back only to bump into a chair that was placed there for her without her awareness. Pulling it closer, she sits, claiming his hand.
Quickly looking around, she saw they were completely alone. Except for the hovering nurse, who was trying to hide in the far corner of the room, where there was a small monitoring station set up there.
Carolyn turns back to him and kisses his arm, cuddling into it.
"I am fine, baby," he croaks softly, his voice dry and sounding like a frog, assuming from the long session of the ventilation tube he had to endure during the surgery. "I missed you, love," he continues. "And it was NOT your fault."
Carolyn's head shoots up and looks at him.
"How can you NOT blame me? I was the one who allowed Selene to enter knowing you were still ..." she lowers her voice, "naked." Then she resumes normally. "If I didn't do that, then you wouldn't have had to twist and grab something to cover yourself!"
Smiling, he replies. "You are right in many aspects, but I KNEW I was NOT supposed to turn or twist. I knew it and I still did it. It was my fault. I chose in that split second to either hope Selene does listen to me shouting 'No', or cover myself with my hands, or turn and try to grab the duvet. I chose the duvet. I choose that. I made that decision! So, while the events lead to it, I made that final decision. Not, you. Me. I knew you were teasing me. I knew and loved it. You have no idea. But just before you shouted 'enter' to Selene, I was thinking of what I could throw at you!" and she giggles while they hear a snort from the other side of the room.
They both looked towards it and saw the nurse duck down to hide herself from view. Smiling, he took her hand and kissed it.
"This operation was long overdue and right now, God willing, I may or may not walk. Have or have no feeling. I don't care. Many survive with partial or no feeling and so can I. God is my maker and he will heal me and use me to his advantage. I am truly thankful for him, especially for him giving me YOU, and Ashley. As I said before, titles and all, I don't care about, I just want YOU and our daughter."
"Our daughter? She is not mine. She is yours! While I love her like she is mine, she can probably never be mined too."
"Forget legal and all that. Your heart has already declared its love for her and her for you. Therefore you are her new mother. Remember she told you that. So, she is also your daughter. While legally she has no right to the crown and all that, no title, except for stepdaughter of the Queen Carolyn of Denmark, she is and will always be yours and mine."
Nodding she saw what he meant and accepted it, smiling. "I accept. I do love you and her, and she will be part of our lives. But Max, she does have a title. Grandmother made that possible. When she made you a peerage Count. Ashley became Lady Ashley. And now that you are Prince Max, Duke of Denmark. She will automatically assume the title of Countess, when she is 21-years-old. Her eldest child will inherit the Count/Countess title, whoever is first born, and the others will be Lord or Lady accordingly."
In shock, he faintly nods, absorbing this information. Then he says, "Until she is at least 18, I would prefer her not to be called with a title, but to be as normal as possible." Carolyn agrees, informing him she will make it so.
After chatting for a while, the Nurse eventually comes forward when she notices the Duke was growing tired, and delicately requests it was time for Her Majesty to go, as he needed lots of rest from the major surgery.
After kissing him one last time, she departs the room knowing he was alive, safe and been cared for.
Selene stood up, and all PPO guys outside of Max's room, stood straighter to attention upon seeing Carolyn exit. They all witnessed her smile, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Carolyn, first thanks the Sister, then leaves the Royal Suite in the hospital with her protection team and Selene following, while knowing Max's team would remain on guard and report regularly regardless of the progress.