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English
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Published:
2014-01-19
Completed:
2014-03-05
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29,581
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7/7
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Gambit

Chapter 7: King

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

King

Francis was right. He figured out a way to beat me. Check and mate. He obliterated the board.

Actually, it's not just that he beat me at the game, and then made me a player for his side, it's that he was right - about everything. Bash not being fit to rule, me acting on superstition and emotion, rather than reason or logic. Acting like a scared girl rather than a queen. He was right about it all. It's a hard lesson; but one I must accept - and all that comes with it. My actions had consequences, some I likely don't yet know. I have to accept responsibility for setting all this into motion and seek to repair the damage. I am a queen; I only have myself to blame.

As I feel Greer tighten my laces I have to wonder - can we repair things between us? No, that is the wrong way to look at this. Francis assures me we can, that we will. And I believe him. I have to, or I will give into despair. My hand slides over my still flat belly and I feel hope. There's this life that flourishes inside of me, a life that defied my silly physical exertions and stayed with me as a promise of the love its father and I share. This child is my hope for us, our love the bridge we have to rebuild to find our way truly back to one another. We have time now - all the time we need.

I hold my arms up to allow my maids to slip the lace gown over my head. My greatest lesson in this is to truly cherish the gifts I've been given, hold them true, and only let go if I must I don't know how long Francis will live - Nostradamus's words niggle at the back of my mind - but I can't let that worry me. Whether we have one or five or ten or even twenty years together, I know now I must treat every day as the gift it is. Francis's greatest gift to me will always be this chance. Now we have a chance to build the life we'd only just begun to hope for and anticipate. And we begin with a new life and promise as well. Our child. Just the thought makes me grin. I can't wait to tell him - I know he will be so happy and excited - but I want to wait till we begin to talk through the hurt and betrayals. I want him to know that this child is a testament to the love I have for him. A little piece of him that I carried with me even as I tried to run away from us.

I sit to have my tiara arranged on my head by my mother, my earrings screwed onto my ears. In the end, Francis rescued me. Had he not shown up at the chapel where I was to wed Bash, I would already be married. Had he not compromised his belief in reason to accommodate my having given into the seduction and lure of mysticism, I would not be here. He rescued me from a life with Tomás; he came back when he should have been worried about himself; he believed in us enough to not hesitate when he found out my stubborn mind might be changed. His protection, his belief in us is why we're here today. I stopped believing and tried to let go of the string - that thing that exists between us, always drawing us back together, sometimes even when we didn't want it, or weren't ready for it - but he stayed true to his belief that we were meant to be and acted in faith with that. It overwhelms me with myriad emotions. Awe, happiness, contentment and so many more. And love, always love.

I am ready. I look in the silvered glass and know I've never been more beautiful than today. The happiness of who I am to marry radiates off my face. My maids slip a furred cape over me so I won't catch a chill. It's time to go. All of us move to head toward the carriages that will take us to the cathedral for the wedding. The snowfall from last night makes everything pristine and white, like a crystalline fairy wonderland. And as if everything has slipped back into its proper place and order, today there are no ruffians - just people on the road waving and calling out to offer their best wishes.

I can feel every eye on me as I move down the aisle. I feel my face lift in happiness, contentment and surety. I can't yet see him, but I know he's there, waiting for me. Just like always. Every eye is on me. I look down for a moment, feeling myself blush.

I look up, and there he is. My love. My king.

FIN

Notes:

1) First, foremost and always, thank you so much to justcallmesmitty and Poligirl25. Kate & Amanda, this would not exist without the two of you. I don't know how, or, what else to say but very sincere thank yous to the both of you. Y'all are such heros to this story! It would not exist without your help & dedication.

2) Yes, this is the end. This is always where I'd planned on ending this story, though it's content has changed over time. But this story is about Mary's journey and emotions through the BoP and finding it in herself to begin down a path to reclaiming what she threw away with Francis. Not the destination. Ending here gets me to that goal. My original plan was to have a companion story of the wedding night from Francis POV out before 13 aired. So this story is bookended by Francis POV. Unfortunately with the size of the Rook & Queen chapters that just was not possible. I'm going to see where they leave us tonight when I watch the episode and then figure it out. I think it will still work out to plan as I don't think we're going to get a lot AFTER the consummation scene, which is what I've been interested in all along.

3) Much thanks to my readers, every single one of you, and especially those that left comments, favorites and kudos. They're so appreciated by me. You don't even know.

4) Finally, this has been an interesting writing experience, one I don't think I'll repeat! I generally write one-shots for two reasons: I'm paranoid about not finishing stories, and multi chapter works and fandom deadlines don't really fit my life. I'll still be writing, look for the Francis story soon, and then I have another story planned that will come out whenever I write and finish it. But, no deadlines, for a very long time. I decided to write this because I love to spec, and I had a lot of ideas about the BoP - including that moniker I gave it - and I wanted to make sense of them in a narrative form. It turns out I got a lot of stuff right, especially the major themes. But I also got stuff wrong. And that's okay. Gambit stands on its own! There've been a lot of headaches, tears, gnashing of teeth, and emotions writing this, I hope reading it affected you as much as it did me. My biggest hurdle was I'd never written Bash, and didn't have a lot of interest in him, but he's central to this story, so I had to figure it out. Who he is, what his motivations were, how he speaks even - he hadn't had a lot of lines on the show till this arc - and this story is rooted in canon first and foremost. Then there's the fact that this story is only in Mary's POV, how to write her bento box nature, it was a conundrum. One that Kate had a lot to say about, but I also have to be true to me, and my ideas. Also, just trying to figure out Mary's emotions as she moved forward, how much would she give to Bash that she'd given to Francis? In the end I'm very satisfied with the path I took, I've always believed she would only give as much as she had to to keep him on board her plan, and I think that's exactly what we saw play out on screen and here. And finally, how to make both Francis and Mary the co ultimate heroes of this story, because I think that's key, they're equals. She chooses, but even after everything, he still accepts. Thank you so much for reading.

As always, comments are extremely welcome!

Notes:

Endnotes:

1) This will be multi-chapter, so feel free to put it on alert if you don't already have me on author alert. It won't be super long, but I felt due to time and structure that a oneshot wasn't the way to go. First update will be very soon, after that I'll slow down a bit, but I need to stay ahead of the show.

2) I am a very, very solid Francis & Mary shipper. This is spec fic. What I think is actually going to happen, and me seeing how close it is to the show. There's nothing here that's purely wish fulfillment.

3) This is in a lot ways a follow up to my last story, Reconoissance. And while they are independent, I believe the reading experience is enriched by having read it first. Also, there are references that carry over, but again, not completely necessary to have read the other.

4) Finally, I want to say a very grateful thank you to two people. Poligirl25' who I have been developing the spec this story is based on independently of, but which both of us posted the other night, at which point we began going back-and-forth, pushing each other, and rounding the concept out. Her sounding board has been invaluable. Also, justcallmesmitty, who gives fabulous beta. I can't thank either of y'all enough.

Comments & reviews are always greatly appreciated.