Chapter Text
Waking up to Eleanor is a gift Jasper is grateful for every day.
Waking up to Eleanor and Sarah Alice is a weird fucking occurrence Jasper isn’t sure how he feels about.
All he is grateful for right now is his two girls being heavy sleepers, because his alarm just rang and they need their rest before the day takes off. It’s five on a monday morning; best keep these two in bed for a little while.
But Eleanor turns around as she yawns and keeping her eyes closed, whispers:
“What time is it?”
“Too early for you to wake up,” Jasper whispers. Eleanor tries to move up to him to wrap her arms around his waist, but he catches her forearm mid-air. “Careful, Sarah Alice’s with us,” he adds, which has her opening an eye.
So, that’s who she was cuddling with.
Sarah Alice’s head is buried in Jasper’s pillow, holding her plushy in one of her oh-so-small hands. Now spooned to Eleanor, whose hand Jasper is holding over her, the little girl sleeps soundly, surrounded by warmth and comfort.
“Oh. Did she wake you up?”
“Yeah, she had a nightmare I think. She’s worried about her dad.”
“Aw, poor thing,” Eleanor whispers as she smoothes the little girl’s hair on her back.
“I told her we’d call Hill in the morning. I’ll swing by later, go back to sleep,” Jasper adds as he wiggles out of their bed to get dressed.
Eleanor hums in response but doesn’t move the slightest bit, too comfortable to bother.
She might have slipped back into sleep already but Jasper walks back one last time to their bed to kiss her head and, without a second thought about it, kisses Sarah Alice’s head too.
While Eleanor was traveling the world with Sebastian, Sarah Alice had turned to him as a friend. He wouldn’t say he had, too, in return, but she was the person he had spent the most time around, except for his boss, whom he wouldn’t qualify as a friend. Keeping a calendar and crossing days of Eleanor being gone had been his idea, that he had slipped to Sarah Alice, for whom it was much more acceptable to count the days while Eleanor was traveling the world on her own. It had been an anxious time for both of them; Sarah Alice for she felt to have lost a dear friend, Jasper for not only was he missing his lover but also constantly wondering if Rosie was protecting her as much as he would (Rosie might have a thing for girls. Eleanor does, too, yet she and Rosie have a wonderful, platonic friendship she can thank heaven for.)
He can’t help the grin that spreads on his face as he walks to his office; it feels only natural to love and be loved in return, to wake up with a noble purpose, in bed with someone he trusts and who trusts him back.
That feels really fucking nice. Life has been treating him well. (Except for the part his father shot him but hey, he is healing.)
The lord chamberlain is due to check with him within the next minutes, so he takes the time to text Hill.
“Sarah Alice wants to chat, call asap.” He types Hill as he flops down in his chair.
The answer comes quicker than he expects.
“I’m off for the next couple of hours, call whenever.”
Good, so his girls are taken care of; now on to the rest of that goddamn palace.
*
Paperwork is boring. Background checks often aren’t, but Jasper has been looking through potential employees with incredibly normal lives for the past hour, so when the elevator doors open and Marianne’s heels clicking on the floor interrupt him, he doesn’t shy away from the conversation.
“Mr Frost?” Marianne sounds alarmed. “I couldn’t find Sarah Alice Hill this morning, she is nowhere to be seen, I’m terribly worried-”
“It’s okay, she’s with Princess Eleanor. She slept over in our room last night, we thought it best to keep her with us in case she woke up during the night,” Jasper explains, as the woman’s face relaxes.
“Oh, good. Did she? Wake up during the night I mean? Mr Hill warned me she might, she doesn’t sleep well when he is traveling.”
“Yeah, she did, so she got in bed with us to catch some more sleep.”
“She is quite fond of you two, isn’t she? Especially you.”
“Definitely. She hung out with me a lot when Eleanor was away last spring,” Jasper smiles as he remembers the countless times he’s told her tales of thieves getting their asses kicked that weren’t fiction as much as they were his own father’s misdemeanors.
“Mh, I do remember that. As much as I hate to take her away from you, that little devil has to go to school today. Would you like to wake her up?” Marianne suggests.
So kids aren’t on holidays at the moment and Sarah Alice has to attend school; Jasper feels he is learning more and more by the day. He wonders for a bit how could he have not known this, considering the time he has known her, and guesses he either wasn’t paying enough attention, or- or he is going as shitty of a father as Earl was to him.
Shame cripples down on him for a second, before he can answer.
“Can’t leave the office for now, but go ahead. I told her we’d call her dad in the morning, do you think you could pass by before she goes?”
“Of course, no problem.”
“Marianne?” Jasper calls back. “What time does she go?”
“Eight thirty to eleven, then one to four o’clock. Why?”
“Just wondering,” he mumbles. “Thanks.”
As she leaves and the elevator goes down, Jasper can’t quite shake the guilt away as it grasps his throat.
Seven thirty on a monday morning is too early to feel like a shitty father figure.
*
“Hi Jasper,” Sarah Alice singsongs as the elevator doors open to reveal her standing hand in hand with Marianne.
“Hey, you. Had a good night sleep?”
“Princess Eleanor likes to cuddle a lot,” Sarah Alice notes, thus not answering the question, which has Jasper wondering if she is well-rested, and if they should have let her sleep in her bed at Hill’s place after all.
“Yeah, she does. Do you remember when you woke up and I said we’d call your dad in the morning?”
“Yes, you said I could tell him alllll about yesterday, so I want to tell him I run faster than you.”
Jasper chuckles but keeps going:
“Well come on, let’s call him then.”
The little girl takes the liberty of climbing up Jasper’s lap before he can say anything; as the phone rings, he doesn’t have the time to process what’s happening.
“Hi daddy!”
“Hi sweetheart,” Hill’s voice resonates through Jasper’s phone. “What’s up? Aren’t you at school yet?”
“Last night Jasper said we’d call you so Marianne woke me up early. We played running in the gardens yesterday,” she adds, and Jasper fears that little munchkin isn’t going to keep her tongue to herself, “and I beat him three times.”
Obviously.
“Why’d you have to tell on me like that?”
Sarah Alice ignores him and keeps babbling about.
“I slept in the Princess’ room last night!”
Hill’s brows shoot up his forehead as he stares at Jasper, who desperately tries to act normal. Did he cross a line that shouldn’t have been crossed there? Did he go too far into taking Sarah Alice under his wing as her father is away?
Hill happily chats with his daughter but Jasper sees the looks he gives him through the screen.
He is so fucked.
*
“It’s been a pleasure, thank you very much.”
“The pleasure was ours, your Highness.”
“Let’s meet again soon, I will contact you so you can update me on the situation.”
“We will be waiting for your call, thank you.”
Eleanor falls back into her seat as the pair leaves the room.
Pleasantries are exhausting, but accomplishing great work is worth it, she thinks, as she is sat alone in a State Room, contemplating her life, while the staff is cleaning the last plates of the tea she has just had with representatives from her charity, which, to her delight, is growing by the day.
Eleanor takes great pride in growing into mature, calmer woman than the living Hell of a girl she has been for years. Experience has taught her what she considers is the key to her peace of mind; communication. With her mother, her brothers, her friends and, most importantly, her lover.
She doesn’t shy away from admitting Jasper and her have been a shit-show from the start. Not that she would proudly say it out loud, but it comforts her to remember that time, only to realize who they have grown into. They are finally steady, healthy, and in love. It has been a wild ride, a long journey, but as she has once written to him, she would do it all over again because she wants to do nothing but grow up and old with Jasper.
Her phone screen lights up with a text notification as she reaches for it.
“What are you up to, princess?” Jasper has just sent.
It is barely two thirty, and he is not off for at least another hour; knowing him the way she does, she guesses he is either bored out of his mind, or he is troubled and probably won’t talk about it but needs the distraction.
“On my way to bother you rn,” she texts back as she walks down the long corridors.
The elevator doors open to reveal a troubled Jasper who is going to need his mood kicked up his ass, Eleanor can tell straight away.
He is sat in front of a couple of piles of paperwork, one of which topped by an empty cup of coffee. There is not a single file opened anymore, but Jasper’s fingers twitch and taps a pen at a fast pace against the wooden table.
“Hi babe.”
“Come to bother me while I work, huh?” Jasper’s face softens as he turns his chair to her.
“Just making your job easier by letting you guard my body from short distance, I’ve been told it’s more effective,” she says as she leans in, plants her hands on his cheek and come kiss him.
“It is, indeed,” he answers, his lips moving against her still, and seals their lips again. “How did your meeting go?” he asks as she allows herself to sit on the desk.
“Alright I guess, we’re thinking of expanding it, maybe turning it into a project for students or something like that. Lots of talk, it makes me miss my costume. What about you, how’s today been?”
“Quiet, your mother is having lunch in town, she’s not back yet.”
“Did you get to talk to Hill?”
“Yep, called him this morning when Sarah Alice came by - before she went to school, because she actually attends - she told him about my fan-deceiving running performance yesterday,” he smirks, “and how she slept in the Princess’ bed.”
“Oh. Did he say anything?”
Jasper had been so sure to figuratively and actually get his ass kicked by Hill he had wanted to cut the conversation short, but it turned out he was simply surprised at the length of Jasper and Eleanor’s commitment to the task he’d given them.
“Just thanks for doing that while he can’t.”
“I thought she’d be with you this morning, since she wasn’t with me when I woke up. It’s good she gets out of the palace, sees the world a bit, I wouldn’t want her to grow up thinking this is all there is in life.”
Jasper simply nods in response. The silence doesn’t last as Eleanor jumps straight to address the elephant in the room
“What’s on your mind?”
“Do you think I’d be a shitty father?” Jasper blurts out, surprising her.
“Why would you ask that?”
“I don’t know, us taking care of Sarah Alice made me realize there are so many things I didn’t know about her, about kids in general. I thought I did but it’s all so much, there are so many things to think about, I kinda feel… overwhelmed.”
“Hey, it’s okay. We have known her for a while and you have been nothing but extraordinary with her. Besides, you are not her father; it’s okay for you to not know everything about her.”
“I can’t believe we didn’t even think about her going to school.”
“I just assumed, since she can read and write and all that, but I don’t think I’ve heard her mention it.”
Jasper lets out a long sigh before he admits:
“I still feel like there’s so much I don’t know.”
“You’re not like your father, if that’s what’s bothering you. And you wouldn’t be a shitty dad.”
“I just- I didn’t have that great of a childhood, so I want Sarah Alice to have the best one possible, you know what I mean? She knows it’s a risky job her dad has and she’s around us all the time, but I’m not kids-fun and I don’t know how to give her that.”
“You’ve thought a lot about that,”, Eleanor realizes. “How long has this been on your mind?”
“A while,” Jasper admits. “Probably since I got shot.”
Getting shot had changed a lot of things, for them, but mainly it had lit up a flame in Jasper that he never thought would fuel him to become a different person; an honest lover, a loyal friend, possibly - and Jasper won’t admit to giving this more than a thought - a great father.
Eleanor can tell from the way his eyes seem to stare into the void that he’s lost in his own thoughts, so she simply reaches out for his hand that still taps the pen against the desk, stopping him.
“What time is it?” Jasper suddenly seems pulled out of the void by a thought.
“Two thirty, why?”
“She gets out at three, we could pick her up from school, go for ice cream or something. Do you think she’d like that?”
How could Jasper even wonder if he would be a great father is out of Eleanor’s understanding as he nervously waits her opinion.
“I think she would, yeah. Hill probably can’t pick her up most of the times, so it’d be a nice surprise.”
Jasper relaxes for a few seconds, before his shoulders tense up again and his gaze goes back to the void.
“Come on, bodyguard,” Eleanor says playfully as she hops off the desk and offers her hand to hold, which Jasper takes, and as he gets up, intertwines their fingers and draws her into his arms.
“Thank you,” he whispers before his lips join hers in a tender kiss she smiles through.
*
Eleanor hasn’t walked into a school in years; Jasper can’t remember the last time he did. He supposes it was high school, but he might have broken into one to steal shit when he was still in Vegas.
To say they are feeling out of place is the understatement of the year, so thank God for the acting lesson her mother insisted Eleanor and Liam took when they were barely teenagers, because the public eye is the harshest critic of them all. It doesn’t help that parents, actual parents, not playing-parents-to-a-kid-that’s-not-theirs parents Jasper notes, around them clearly recognize them.
He cannot wait to get out of there.
The bell rings just in time to save him from remembering his own school years. As children slowly start walking - running for most of them, really - out of the building, his mind wanders to a place he usually doesn’t let it wander.
He could see himself there, every day, watching carefully the crowd of running little devils for one of his own. Maybe a little girl with dark hair, like her mother, and his eyes; or a little boy the spitting image of his father but his mother’s wit and laugh. Maybe both. That’d be nice, a little family.
(Hopefully the kids grow with none of their parents’ hatred for their own parents.)
His stomach twists at the bare idea that his kids could hate him one day.
This is why he doesn’t let his mind wander there, he remembers, as he spots a familiar blonde head walking down the school’s stairs.
“Hey there Pumpkin,” Eleanor calls out Sarah Alice, while other kids look at her with wide, starry eyes.
“Eleanor?” Sarah Alice looks confused. “Why isn’t Marianne picking me up from school?”
“Jasper thought it’d be nice to pick you up and he promised we’d go for ice cream,” Eleanor explains as she kneels in front of her to close her jacket. “Are you up for it?”
“Sure!”
“Come on then, Jasper’s waiting.”
At the sight of him, a few meters away, sunglasses on and his suit cut sharp, obviously checking their surroundings but secretly watching her, she runs up to him as her school back swings along her back. He catches her mid-run, and lifts her to balance her on his hip.
“Had a nice day at school, Miss Hill?” He asks, sunglasses still on, pretending to be strictly professional.
“Are we going for ice cream?” she asks. “Eleanor said you promised we were going for ice cream.”
“I never promised that,” Jasper interrupts as he takes off his glasses to bend them and attach them to his shirt’s breast pocket.
“Ah, I must have heard wrong then,” Eleanor fakes a sorry smile. “Although it would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
“I want strawberry and chocolate ice cream,” Sarah Alice announces, crossing her arms.
“That doesn’t leave me a choice, does it?” Jasper asks both his girls.
“No,” they answer together at unison.
“Alright let’s go then,” he fake-gives in - because really, he is dreaming of pistachio ice cream right now - as he kneels and lets go of Sarah Alice before his wounds starts hurting too much.
Eleanor takes the little girl’s hand in her own as start walking down to the park where she knows for a fact they sell this kingdom’s best ice cream.
Jasper, sunglasses down his shirt, his sleeves rolled up, watches them attentively, mainly in the name of security, but can’t help and think this is what his life could be like; it is quiet, and comforting, none of which he thought he would ever experience daily.
“Oh, oh! Can we do that?” Sarah Alice suddenly points to a couple across the street, holding their child’s hands and fly him up the air as he laughs.
“That looks dangerous,” Jasper notes as his brows frown.
“Are you kidding me? All kids do that, it’s so fun!” Eleanor answers with a grin on her face, remember the fun doing it when she had as a child.
Sarah Alice grasps Jasper’s hand before he knows it, as Eleanor excitedly tells the little girl to hold onto them tightly. They take a few steps, swinging her arms. Jasper’s confidence evaporates with each step, and as Eleanor starts counting down to one, he starts doubting his babysitting skills.
There is no time for doubts anymore though, because Sarah Alice launches herself in the air. His hand tightens around hers; she screams and Jasper’s blood pressure shoots up.
He worries that she is hurt for a split second, but Sarah Alice laughs her heart out as her feet land on the pavement
Mission: accomplished. Damsel: not in distress. Good.
“Again!” She demands with a large grin on her face.
Eleanor’s eyes slide to Jasper, but he doesn’t see her, focused on the little girl. How does that guy manage to think he would be a bad father is over her, and that feeling seems to come back quite often when it comes to him and Sarah Alice.
For a few minutes, nothing is said between the two of them. One just counts down and Sarah Alice laughs and laughs and laughs, until they reach the park and she lets go of their hands to run off to the ice cream stand.
“Didn’t your parents ever do that with you?” Eleanor breaks the silence.
“Not that I remember, we never really spent time together at all.”
“Earl doesn’t seem the hand-holding type, yeah.”
“He’s not,” Jasper sneers. “I missed out on lots of stuff.”
Eleanor grasps his hand in response, lacing their fingers.
“Well, now you are the hand-holding type. Look at you,” she chuckles, pointing to Sarah Alice who joyfully awaits for them.
“Who would have thought I’d end up here?” Jasper whispers to himself.
Eleanor definitely hears him, but doesn’t say a word, simply walking a little closer to him, holding his hand a little tighter.
Small steps, great progress.
*
AW, LOVERS CAUGHT PARENTING IN LONDON!
Her royal highness Princess Eleanor and bodyguard Sir Jasper Frost were photographed in the streets of London holding hands and getting ice cream with Palace’s Head of Security’s daughter after picking up her from school.
Bodyguard Frost, who was recently knighted, resumed to his functions at the palace shortly after he and Princess Eleanor came forward with their relationship. Inside reports indicate doctors have ordered him to take things slow considering the severity of his injuries.
But it seems as the pair went to pick up the little girl from school, he and Princess Eleanor are doing just fine and looking better than ever.
So, is England’s hottest couple right now giving parenting a try? We’d love to see them make things official and have some royal babies of their own!