Season 3 Young Royals (Version 1)

56. Wilhelm and Noah

Simon took Wilhelm's coat, reached out to squeeze his arm encouragingly, smiled at him, then left quickly to his bedroom without a word.

Wilhelm then looked at Linda who smiled at him too and glanced over to the living room before she left, following Simon down the hallway.

Wilhelm followed her glance behind him into the living room where he saw a lovely, long-haired brunette woman with brown eyes, standing in front of the sofa, smiling at him as she held a tiny baby who was fast asleep.

Wilhelm was taken aback, not sure what he'd expected, but he suddenly had an enormous smile on his face as he approached them, attempting to go silently without waking the sleeping baby.

"Lena...?" he whispered.

She smiled. "Ja, and Noah." She turned to show his tiny, sleeping face resting on her shoulder.

They sat down carefully and continued in whispers.

"Mmm, do you have questions for me?" Lena asked quietly.

"Yeah. Lots. Umm, how long did you know my brother for?"

"We were together for over a year before I got pregnant."

"I'm surprised he kept you a secret. He could have told me..."

"Yeah. He trusted you but thought you were better off not knowing. Issues with your mother I think."

"Mmm, he was probably right." Wilhelm thought for a moment, then asked, "Is there anything you can tell me about him that I don't know?"

"Well, he told me how much he loved you and worried about you. I'm sure he would definitely be on your side if he were here. He always wanted to protect you...from everything."

Wilhelm looked down for a moment.
He felt tears coming and fought to hold them back, twisting his mouth and furrowing his brow, then looked up at her again as she continued.

"You know, he mentioned you'd met someone, and he was really excited for you."

"Yeah, he figured that out the last time we talked on the phone." Wilhelm said quietly, trying to hide the crack in his voice.

"I think he'd figured it out earlier actually. He just didn't want to embarrass you." She smiled slyly as she was about to let him in on the secret.

Wilhelm looked at her, puzzled.

"He said he finally saw you smile for the first time on your first day at school, at the choir performance, and thought it was probably because of the soloist..." She squinted slightly as she whispered without dropping her smile.

"He knew?" Wilhelm's mouth stayed slightly open as he contemplated the revelation.

"He guessed it was Simon, yeah. He told me how happy he was for you. He actually made a joke and said he knew you were in trouble as soon as he saw you smile at him that day. He was really happy for you though."

He was surprised that Erik had actually realised what was happening to Wilhelm before Wilhelm had.

He suddenly felt overwhelmed by the acceptance he didn't even know he'd had from his brother.

He wasn't surprised that Erik would have accepted him, but it was nice to have it confirmed, and to think that he knew about Simon, and would have understood why Wilhelm loved him.

Wilhelm looked at Lena and smiled as his eyes welled up with happy tears.

"Do you think he would have been disappointed that I don't want to be Crown Prince?"

"No." She shook her head and didn't hesitate. "He'd understand. He didn't want to either. He did it mostly because he didn't want you to have to. And I think he would be really upset to know how they've treated you, especially your mother and your cousin."

Wilhelm realised she didn't even know the worst of what his mother had done: knowing August had leaked the video and not telling him.

"I think he would be really upset about how they've treated you and Noah too." Wilhelm bit the inside of his lip for a moment still fighting back tears.

Lena gave him a sad smile. Suddenly she looked down at Noah who'd started to stir and make a very quiet, whining noise as if he were restless, but he didn't open his eyes.

Wilhelm studied Noah's tiny, sleeping figure, trying to find some feature he recognized of his brother, but he'd never seen pictures of his brother when he was that little.

In any case he thought babies that age all looked fairly similar, if not practically indistinguishable from each other.

Suddenly Noah opened his eyes and his expression resembled that of a puzzled, disheveled and slightly frightened old man. He even wrinkled his brow as if he were really trying to understand what was going on. Wilhelm smiled at him.

"Do you want to hold him now that he's awake?" Lena asked Wilhelm as Noah rested on her shoulder and contemplated his surroundings.

"I'm a little scared to."

"Here, I'll help you." She showed him how to support Noah's head and handed him over to Wilhelm slowly, helping him situate the baby on his lap in a half sitting position so that they could look at each other easily.

Wilhelm thought how surreal it was to see this baby in real life, and how funny that they both seemed to be studying each other with the same intense interest.

"Do you want Simon to come meet him too? Linda already held him a bit as we were waiting for you to arrive."

"Yeah! That would be nice." Wilhelm answered her without breaking eye contact with Noah, and smiled at him. "You want to meet Simon?" He asked the baby.

Simon and Linda followed Lena back in quietly and Linda immediately started gushing at the sight of Wilhelm holding his nephew.

"Ohhh! Can I take a picture, then I'll just send it to you guys?"

"Yeah, that's ok." Wilhelm agreed.

Simon approached slowly and sat next to Wilhelm, getting close so that he could see Noah. He put his arm on Wilhelm's back and stroked it softly as he watched Wilhelm and the baby watch each other and exchange different facial expressions. Noah's were mostly ones of confusion and wonder while Wilhelm's were a bit sillier and more animated.

They spent the afternoon between entertaining and being fascinated by the baby. While Simon had a turn holding Noah, Wilhelm met his glance and they smiled at each other several times.

Wilhelm and Lena promised to be in touch and visit again very soon, and Wilhelm headed out to the car and his bodyguards to return to school alone.