The Royal Scandal | Prince William |

Indomitable

May 24, 2017

The footage from the concert is on replay on every station. Jaclyn can't pull her eyes away, watching while she absentmindedly picks at her nails. No matter how many times she's seen each clip, or heard the same screams she still gasps and shudders.

William is left to helplessly watch her, tidying up leftover toys around the living room just for the excuse to be near. He sat for as long as he could stomach it, but her resolve must have been stronger than his, or perhaps she craved the way the videos made her feel. She was empathetic, to a fault actually, and she would sit there still as a stone just to feel the pain of strangers.

At one point PJ toddled into the room, still in his footed airplane pajamas, and crawled into Jaclyn's lap. She keeps his head tucked into her shoulder and he burrows into her hair, but to him the news might as well not be on.

"Daddy, what happened?"

William looks down to find Mia at his feet peeking out into the living room. The yellow blankie she can't sleep without crumpled in her fists despite the fact that she got dressed for the day.

Unlike PJ she can comprehend the crying and blinding smoke on the screen and know something is wrong. The recognition flashes in her expression and everything seizes as she clings, unknowingly, to the back of his legs.

"There was an accident," she mumbles when he doesn't immediately answer, and he tries to bend over to see her without losing his balance or hurting her. Amelia will definitely take after him height wise, he can already see it with her scrawny legs that are longer than the rest of her body. Until then he still towers over her.

William does his best to nod, contemplating using his diplomat mask to hide the dry choking feeling crawling through him. It's child's play pretending around strangers, but he's found it increasingly hard to do so around his kids, and they're not politicians so maybe he shouldn't.

"I'm afraid so," he looks back into the room to see both PJ and Jaclyn have fallen asleep. Their son is comfortable enough to do so and Jaclyn finally just crashes.

William takes the opportunity to spiral around to pull Mia away. Maybe he can distract her by playing with dolls for a while, but just as he steps he stumbles. Anchored onto his hand, but with her heels dug into the ground, Mia looks up at him utterly perplexed. Her head tilts wisps of thin curls falling into a jumbled gold mess with eyes such a watery blue he's afraid she'll start to cry.

"Why do people hurt other people?" She asks.

"Well…" the words claw at his throat and he tries not to think of Manchester, and he tries to avoid her bright eyes and childlike curiosity.  "It's usually because they're hurt too."

Her eyebrows furrow, twisting her curiosity into something sour. "Doesn't make it okay."

"No it doesn't, that's why we always tell you and your brother to be kind, no matter what. You can't take your pain out on other people."

"Gan gan is queen. Can she make it stop?"

To her everything is black and white. She has no concept of what being queen is, she doesn't even know one day it will be her. It's a conversation Jaclyn has begged them all to prolong for as long as possible to give her a normal childhood. But right now gan gan is queen, and in the eyes of a child that makes her in charge. The reality of the world can be harsh for those only accustomed to the rules of the playground.

Her eyes haven't been opened to the cruelties of the world. Where ash and smoke pollute the air until your tears sting like poison. Where people kill kids and say it's justice, and where others blame who they can in their misery. Eradicating the good because the bad aren't so easily caught.