The Promise: A Maxerica Fanfiction

The Reunion

When I awoke, I was King.
My parents had been killed by the rebels. My mother, selfless to her very last breath, had died protecting my father. He died soon after. The King had never been a great dad, but he was still my father.
However, he was only one of many fatalities. Too many. Some of the Selected, and a large amount of staff were gone. 
I reasoned that so many couldn't have possibly died. There must have been survivors. They must have survived.
She must have survived.
If she hadn't, I certainly couldn't.
I left the safety of the King's suite – where I had been taken while I was still unconscious – and went down to the hospital wing.

I walked in and froze.
There were so many people. Too many people.
Some were two to a bed, others on the floor between them. I saw everything from bullet wounds to severed limbs.
I didn't let myself wonder how that had happened.
I surveyed the room and, as I had feared, found no sign of that bright crimson hair.
My heart sank.
I turned to go, and ran straight into Lucy, America's maid. She was so distracted that she didn't even apologize, just carried on her way. She, too, scanned the room and her eyes locked on something. No, someone. I followed her gaze and saw Officer Leger.
"Aspen!" Lucy exclaimed.
Aspen, with a heavily bandaged head and leg, sat up. I winced in sympathy at the pain he must be feeling, but his face only showed happiness. "Lucy!"
She ran forward and tackled him, showering him with kisses. The scene brought a sad smile to my face.
The happy reunion was endearing, but it brought me to the things I'd been trying to resist thinking about.
Never would I hold my America in my arms just as Aspen held Lucy.
It was then that I realized that what America had said was true. She and Aspen had moved on from each other. I hadn't believed in her and now she was gone. I could never correct my mistake.
I turned and fled the room.