The Crown (Prince Harry fanfic #5)

Chapter Sixty-One

September 2027

Lucy had a hard time sleeping the night before, when she realized it was one of the last nights that she would've gotten any real sleep for a while. That didn't help calm her nerves. Harry was the same beside her, as they both stared at the ceiling. There wasn't much left to say, with everything prepared as much as it possibly could be.

When the alarm went off, Lucy rolled out of bed immediately. She took a shower and dressed. Gwen came in soon after and did her hair and makeup nicely. Cameras would've been everywhere today. Harry took a shower and then dressed in tan pants and a white shirt, which a gray sweater was placed over. It ended up being a chilly September day. Lucy didn't have that courtesy, placed in a weighted dress of floral patterns. She was once again placed in heels.

Breakfast took too long for Lucy with her nerves buzzing in her stomach. It was hard to keep anything down. Harry felt the same way. The boys across the table only seemed to have a slight idea of what was happening today, but after the past two months, they only remembered a slight bit. When the time hit, Lucy and Harry were gone, wishing their boys a good day and that they would be seen again at noon.

Lucy and Harry couldn't sit still, like most parents in this situation. Cameras did surround the area, and cameras had been waiting for a while. There were less today, apparently not suspecting it, but cameras would be in full by the time they left once again. The cameras didn't bother them as they went inside and up the lift.

The girls laid in their cradles already awake, as if they suspected this day to be a different kind of day. Lucy automatically picked up Emma in her arms, as Harry easily grabbed Louise and Beatrice. Everything was ready, and after a few signatures, the little girls were ready to be taken home. Wrapped in their blankets from the cold, the girls were taken outside for the first time.

A car pulled up to the front, this wasn't much of a photo opportunity as other times had been. People crowded around just in good wishes. It was interesting fitting three baby carriages into the back of a car, but it worked. The girls were placed inside and buckled up. The couple were old pros at it by now, only taking a minute in total. The pictures of the baby girls weren't going to be great, but it would be enough for now. Harry got into the driver's seat with Lucy in the passenger's seat, and they went home.

The boys waited outside Kensington Palace, in their best wear for daylight, and they were amazed by the babies pulled out of the backseat of the car. Freddie had the ability to tell them apart, even if it was by the fact they were color coded, but Henry hadn't gotten that far yet. It was going to be sometime before they had the ability, especially with the girls being identical.

Defining features were coming in from the girls, with them having Lucy's golden blonde hair and green eyes, but their faces more closely resembled Harry's. But the rest of the features leaned toward Lucy, which Harry said was for the best. The boys tried to peek up at the girls, but Harry ushered them inside. Once everyone was seated in the living room, the boys climbed over each other to get a better view of girls. However, there wasn't much excitement with the girls having fallen asleep.

Louise was tucked into her bedroom first. Beatrice was next. And then Emma was tucked in. The doors closed. Freddie and Henry had gone to take naps too. It was silent in the house. Nannies were gone for now, along with assistants and bodyguards. It was just Harry and Lucy with their children. Harry hoped it would end up like this.

Arm in arm, the couple went downstairs. Lucy breathed once again and Harry smiled. "Having fun yet?" he asked.

"Always," she answered. "And you?"

"It never stops." Both of them looked at each other and laughed. "How's this for not being boring?"

"Maybe you're right," Lucy said. "Maybe boring for a little bit will be good."

"Are you thinking another trip to the countryside?"

"Can I choose the Highlands?"

"Balmoral?"

"Somewhere higher."

"In the winter?"

"I do miss the snow."

Harry sighed. "How about spring and summer? We can spend the winter here and spring and summer in the Highlands, but we'll have to be back in fall for Freddie starting school."

"How could I forget that?"

"The Highlands it is, since I know how much you love it up there."

"It is beautiful."

"See, I think that you just like Scotland more than you like England."

"I didn't say that."

"Is that why all of your sweatshirts say Edinburgh and not London?"

"They don't say Glasgow either." Lucy took a sip of water. Her head rested on her hand as she looked across the kitchen table where Harry was seated. In this light, he looked like the guy she met back in Africa, so young and energetic, ready to take on the whole world. Many things in that sense hadn't changed, where he was still energetic. Also, Harry was willing to take on the world, as long as Lucy was at his side.

"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked.

"No more kids."

He scoffed. "Okay, Luce, okay." There wasn't an argument from him. After all, there were five upstairs.

"But I want you so badly, all the time, and I love that us are just us, giving no fucks about what others think or say."

"It was you that told me to stop caring what others thought."

"And look where that got you."

"I got you." His blue eyes rested on her. "I got you," he murmured again.

Reaching across the table, husband kissed wife deeply, with his fingers wrapping in her hair. He breathed her in, as he just wanted more and more. But like the sun shining, a baby started crying to interrupt anything that was about to happen.

"I love you," Harry said.

"Never forget that," Lucy whispered.

"Not possible."

One cry led to another, and now two little girls were crying. And then the last little girl added to the mix. Henry was awoke by this sound and created a tantrum. His cries filled the air. They waited thirty seconds, and Freddie added to the mix, complaining that the new babies were waking him up.

"Here we go."