The Royal Scandal | Prince William |

Hold Me Till Dawn

March 3, 2001

Jaclyn quickly had to pick herself back up. Sunday soon ended, and the week started all over again. She had to go out and show her face, she had to go commit herself to her classes. The pity party was over and life was moving on.

She only wished she could get her family on the same page as her, she didn't need them to protect her.

"Gaga, I need all of you to stop lying to me, and tell me what's going on." Jaclyn paced the lobby as Thomas and Natania watched from against a wall. It was currently two a.m. and the two of them were waiting with Jaclyn so she didn't have to be alone waiting for William's driver.

There was a reverberated exhale from the other side of the phone as the older woman replayed the images of disbelief and compassion that everyone in Villa Grove had given her. "Jac, as long as you're safe everything else will be okay, you're going to be okay right?"

"I'm safe as long as a fangirl doesn't decide to murder me in the middle of the night-"

"Jac!" Glenda scolded.

"Sorry Gaga, but really William filed a complaint with the PCC, and they somehow struck some kind of deal with the big tabloids. I'm no longer front page news. It's glorious." Jaclyn wasn't sure how he did it, apparently there was a lot of negotiating. If a company published anything about her they would risk getting blacklisted.

Photographers still circled, but the numbers had dwindled since they could only sell photos internationally. "He worked for days trying to make sure I'd be alright, it was rather sweet and I'm not even his girlfriend." The word itself made Jaclyn want to scream, and her friends teasing kissy faces weren't helping.

"Tell me though how's it going over there? I need to know that you all are alright."

After a few seconds of hesitation Glenda said, "It's pretty big. The press found our phone number, so they've been calling the shop like crazy. Your father unplugged the phone, but now he can't get calls from customers."

"Tell him I'm sorry. He doesn't deserve to be labeled a homewrecker, and it isn't fair people who don't know you think you're crazy just because of what he said." Two weeks later, and the thought of him made her teeth grind, not for her truly, but for her grandma. That woman had put up with him for all those years.

"Oh, it's not that bad. No worse than the names Bill used to call me in private-" sensing her granddaughters plea for her to further explain Glenda shushed her. "But we won't be getting into that." There was no reason to give the girl more to worry about.

"Truthfully though people feel genuinely sorry for the whole family. They think he's an ass, and while the press may be shouting all your flaws and your family's commoner background, everyday people I speak to think it's funny and romantic how you've picked up for father's habit of falling for someone society has deemed... Above you... Except you've multiplied it."

The two of them laughed together, she needed her grandmas slight snark right now.

"Well, I'm guessing you're up at... Whatever time it is over there to see him?" The question had brought Jaclyn back to where she was, what she planned to do, and that he would be gone again.

The blush attacked her cheeks instantly, and she turned to hide from her teasing friends. She wasn't a fan of sharing personal details, not even with her Gaga who she talked to the most. "I am, he's leaving for Africa for three months. I'm heading over to the airport to see him off." Like the rest of his trips, this one came at the worst time, and she had loathed him leaving this time more than the others.