Where It Went Wrong, A Red Queen Fanfiction: Completed

An AU Ending One-shot

*do not read this if you have not read the rest of this fanfic, as the events in this one-shot will be confusing if you haven't read it.*

This chapter is dedicated to Marecal_forever (thank you for the request!), and all the other Marecal fans I know: chels_the_bookworm, theselection5, dream-is-reality, madythorne00.

 We are disregarding the last couple chapters until around Chapter 27, where Cal and Atessa have been successfully taken from their hostage. A couple things may be different. It is set five years in the future from that moment.

On with the one-shot!

*()*

After Cal was given his rightful throne, the effects that it had on him were painfully visible. One side meant that he would spend less and less time with his companions, concentrating all of his energy into his kingdom instead. There were times when I could only see the king in him, all authoritative and frigid to the world.

There are other times when I can only see the husband in him. The man who is ever protective of his family. The side of him that is barricaded from the press and public. His grandmother's dying words were that her grandson was beginning to take after her son. I could see truth in that, despite the fact that it was not the king I knew. Tiberias the Sixth, as Cal tells me, was charismatic and always only had eyes for Coriane. An honourable father who tried his hardest with both his sons, even though it became harder as Maven changed. Despite his second wife. The king I knew was tragically heartbroken, waiting to be reunited with his beloved in the stars.

From what I've heard about Cal's father, they are similar in parenting. It took several tries for a baby, including a miscarriage that left everyone torn. The Nortan public wept over their lost princess.

I hadn't cried like that for a while, but Cal was still there for me the whole time. We watched as Atessa and Maven grew closer and closer, even more so as Maven stood down from his throne. Things had become awkward around the two of us and I did not like how Cal seemed unsure around me. The prison had changed him more than the pair of us wanted to admit.

We stumbled through until we came to each other and admitted how we were thinking. The awkwardness was forgotten. It was strange how something that had often been on our minds could suddenly mean nothing. Sometimes the wound was uncovered, and that was what damaged us.

The miscarriage was timed wrong, as it was at a time when Gisa fell ill with some type of sickness that had been spreading. The combined tragedies didn't help, but my heart was healed with our new baby and the fact that Gisa managed to survive. Part of me regretted asking for a traditional Red pregnancy with the our last baby. I allowed the Silvers, particularly the Skonoses, to help with my second one.

Julian Calore is now one year old. Many of the Nortans are fawning over how he loves to attend meetings with his mother and father, occasionally wearing his baby jumpsuit. For most of the more important meetings, of course, he spends time with his cousins. Shade has taken Julian under his wing, showing him various toys in the play room.

"Does Julian know what he's getting himself into? Surely he knows that Shade Barrow is not a reliable person to trust when it comes to every day skills," Cal says, watching Julian giggle as Shade pushes a little train around a track. Julian's tousled hair is just like his father's, no matter how much I try to brush it out of his face. I believe that is not that only aspect that attributes to him.