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They drove from the academy to the palace. Jill looking out the window couldn’t help but notice the sharp contrast between the first time she had rode to the palace with her father and now with Queen Agatha. It had been a couple of weeks after the announcement. Although traffic had been controlled as they went to the palace there had been a lot of it. She could remember police officers blocking cross traffic as they crossed intersections. Now with the population evacuated, there was almost no need for the traffic control as they went to the palace. At the intersections, their police escort stopped traffic at, there might be five or six cars, where before the intersection had been loaded with cars and traffic snarled for miles. Now there was hardly any traffic on the roads.
“I almost hate to do this,” the Queen said. “What traveling?” Jill asked.
”Yes,” the Queen replied looking out the window and seeing her once vibrant capital city almost a ghost town. “I mean no. I hate to disturb you parents! I think your mother’s abduction has made them closer.”
“It has your majesty,” Joyce Wilson who was riding with them commented. “Mike was protective of Lisa before the abduction but now he is even more so.”
“I know,” the Queen said, “he is trying to carve out some time for her every day!”
“Oh shit,” Jill suddenly said realizing what today was, “It’s their anniversary! They were going to spend the entire day together! That was I why still at school. We were to have dinner later tonight to celebrate.”
“Can we wait till morning to tell them?” Princess Carroll asked.
“No,” The Queen said, “We have to tell Mike tonight. He has to know from us and not some news leak or in a report from the command.”
“She’s right,” Lord Mercer agreed. “They need to know from us.”
Jill nodded wishing that this announcement could wait until the morning. She resented that she was going to intrude on her parents’ quiet time. She had been amazed at how close her father and step mother were, more so after the abduction. Where before her father would try to find some what he called Mike and Lisa time, now he was making and keeping dates with her step mother. It wasn’t anything special. Often just a quiet dinner with none of the family around, other times he would come home for lunch and they would take a walk. Without telling her parents she had been staying at school more and more to let them have more privacy. She suspected that they knew what she was doing; but were not saying a word. In some respects, she and her parents had become closer in the last few weeks also.
As they got closer to Serenity and they continued to ride through the nearly deserted town, Jill wondered how her parents would respond to her becoming not just the owner of Home, but its ruler. She didn’t really know how she felt. It was exhilarating to be asked to be Queen of Home. Though in retrospect she realized she could have claimed to be the Queen and ruled Home as she saw fit because she owned the world. Yet as exhilarating as it was, she was frightened of what it could mean to be queen. The power she could weld. She wondered what would happen if she refused it. She and her family had been planning to move to Home, but not be involved in the planet’s day to day operations. Which would have suited her fine! She was planning to remain at the academy and then go onto college, either on Home or on Earth. Although was extremely proud of her accomplishments at the academy, she wished at times she could just be an ordinary teenage girl. But now that was impossible, if it had been possible after coming to Trena and she found out about her heritage.
She was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice the limo pull into the vehicle entrapment until the limo drove through the other end of the entrapment.
“Let me go first,” Jill asked as they neared the residence. She didn’t want to embarrass her parents by having a bunch of people walk in on them.
Everyone had cleared out of the house. Her step sister was spending the day with a couple of the neighborhood kids from her old neighborhood. Her grandmother was spending the day aboard her yacht and Jill had been at the academy. It had been a well-orchestrated day to give her parents some time to themselves. Maggie had given her staff the day off and was keeping mostly to her rooms in the servant side of the house. Jill came into the family room and saw her step mother lying on the sofa with her head in her father lap. She couldn’t help but notice that Lisa’s blouse was open and where her father’s hand was. She turned around and quickly left.
“Mom! Dad!” Jill called opening and slamming the front door of the residence.
“One second Jill,” her father called and Jill tried to swallow a chuckle imagining what her parents were scrambling to do. The same thing she might have done if someone had walked in on her and a boyfriend getting real friendly. Finally Lisa called, “Okay Jill!”
“All decent now?” Jill asked needling her parent a bit. Her father actually blushed a bit in embarrassment. “Sorry! I wasn’t planning to be home until dinner later to let you guys have some time together. But…Well let me get the reason why I am here.”
She left and brought the adults with her. When Lisa saw the Queen and the Princess she frosted over until the Queen spoke, “Lisa I am sorry. I know what you had planned. I am really sorry; but this couldn’t wait. We have some news that has to be shared today.”
“What it is Aggie,” Jill’s father asked.
“We have a government for Home,” Aggie replied.
“Well that’s certainly news; but it could have waited a bit!” he father said exasperated hoping that his daughter and the people would get the message and let him and Lisa get back to what they were doing.
“Yes that could,” Aggie replied, “but we didn’t want it to leak out that we are to be Jill’s regents before you knew about it. They have fully accepted Jill as their queen with only that stipulation. That me and you become their queen’s regent.”
“Oh,” Michael responded, “How do you feel about that?”
“I think I can deal with it,” Aggie replied, “besides it will only be for seven years. Then we’ll turn her loose on the universe.”
“God help the universe!” Lisa remarked, all thoughts of enjoying her husband now pushed out of her mind. “Have you seen it Jill?”
“I have,” Jill took the document out of her uniform jacket. “I want to read it some more before I make my final decision. Aggie, will you see that Dad gets a copy of this?”
“It is sitting in his mail box.” Aggie responded, “We’ll discuss it in the morning. We just wanted to make sure that you heard about this portion in case it leaked.”
“Now if you’ll excuse us,” Jill remarked with a twinkle in her eye. “We’ll let you get back to what you were doing.”
Jill ushered the others out. As the double doors to the family room closed, Lisa looked over to her husband, “Now where were we?”
“I think right here,” Michael said unbuttoning his wife’s blouse. Though his heart wasn’t into making love with his wife, Jill’s news distracted him.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 225