Not So Random
By Misha
Disclaimer- Not mine. I’m just borrowing them for a little while and will return them when I am finished.
Author’s Notes- This is a Love Hacks/The Royal Romance crossover. It features my Love Hacks heroine, Evie Sloane, as she reacts to the news that there has been an attempted assassination in Cordonia and she waits for news about her cousin Eleanor. I am planning on at least 3 more assassination reaction fics set in the Eleanor-verse and then I still need to tackle Drake and Amelia. So yeah, I’m going to be writing finale fallout for a while. Thanks to @lizzybeth for helping me figure out how long the news would take to hit the news outlets and the time difference between Cordonia and The US.
Pairing- Mentioned Liam/MC
Rating- PG-13 for mentions of violence and trauma.
Summary- Evie hears about the shooting at the Homecoming Ball and awaits news on her cousin and contemplates the tragedy that shaped their lives and whether history is repeating.
Words- 1104
Evie and Leah were in the Simplicity office, tossing around ideas for future articles when suddenly Evie’s phone started buzzing. She assumed it was just a text message and was about to ignore it, but then it happened again and again, alerting her to multiple notifications.
“I wonder what’s going on?” She commented with a raised eyebrow, noticing the way it kept going off. The last time her phone had gone off like that had been… The night of King Liam’s Coronation when Ellie’s name had been dragged through the mud.
A feeling of dread suddenly hit Evie as she remembered that today was the Homecoming Ball and that it was after midnight in Cordonia.
“Check the news,” she barked to Leah, who had her laptop open. Her partner did as she instructed even as Evie started scrolling through her phone, ignoring the stream of text messages as she looked for news on Cordonia.
“Oh my god,” she heard Leah whisper.
Evie stared at the screen. Bullets Interrupt Cordonian Homecoming Ball, Royal Court in Chaos.
No, no, no. Ellie was there. Ellie and Liam, this was their night. Evie thought of the picture Eleanor had sent a few hours ago of herself in a golden gown and tiara: Ready for my happily ever after. Eleanor had looked so happy, so beautiful and so sure that things were finally going her way. And now…
What was happening now? Was Eleanor safe? What if she had been the target? Evie thought everything Eleanor had told her about Cordonia, about the plot against her and all the time she’d wanted to beg her cousin to leave Cordonia and Liam and come home. But she hadn’t, because Eleanor was a grown woman and because it was obvious that she loved Liam, that he made her happy.
Just the other day she’d been bubbling with happiness on the phone when she’d told Evie all about the proposal. “This is it, Evie, after everything, Liam and I are finally together.”
Evie had been happy for her because Eleanor deserved this, she’d deserved a happy and yet… What she was reading, didn’t sound like a happy ending, it sounded like a nightmare and her cousin was trapped in it.
“Are you ok?”
Evie tore her eyes away from her phone, which was still going off with random text messages from her friends who had obviously heard the news and wanted updates, to meet Leah’s concerned eyes. “I won’t be ok until I hear from Ellie,” she said honestly.
She knew it wasn’t that easy. The palace was obviously in chaos and there would be security protocols to follow and an international call to an unsecured line probably wasn’t amongst them, but she needed some news, needed to know that the biggest tragedy in her family’s history hadn’t just gotten a sequel.
Just then her phone rang and she was going to swipe dismiss when she saw it was her mother. “Hi Mom,” she answered.
“Have you heard from Ellie?” Her mother demanded, obviously frantic.
“No,” Evie told her, “I doubt we’ll hear anything directly from here for a while because I don’t think that the security team is going to be letting her make phone calls.”
“The security team,” Rebecca Sloane said scornfully, “they obviously aren’t very good at their job if this can happen.”
“Mom….”
“Don’t ‘mom’ me,” Rebecca cut her off, “Ellie is in a foreign country and she’s at a ball that just got shot up and we have no way of contacting her directly or knowing if she is ok. This is what happened with Michael and Jennifer all over again, but so much worse.” Evie could hear the tears in her mother’s voice. “I can’t go through this again.”
“I know Mom,” She said gently. “How’s Dad holding up?”
“He’s locked himself in the garage,” her mother answered, “you know how he is.”
Evie did know. And she knew how much his brother’s death had devastated her father and how he had carried his grief around for the last three years and now… Now they might be experiencing a new tragedy.
Except this time it was even worse because while they’d had no idea her aunt and uncle had been at that mall until the news broke, this time they knew Eleanor was in the midst of this danger and that she was a likely target. This time they had plenty of time to worry and assume the worst.
“I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” Evie promised her mother, though she was just as helpless as her parents. She knew logically that it would be hours before she was able to hear from Eleanor and that was assuming… No, she refused to go there.
Her mother agreed and they ended the call.
“Any news?” Evie asked Leah who was still at the laptop.
“Bits and pieces,” Leah told her, “and none of it good. The CBC is calling it an assassination attempt and reports that there were several shooters.”
An assassination attempt, that meant Liam had been the target. What about Eleanor? Had she been at his side when this went down? Had she been a target as well? Still, Evie grasped at one word, hope sparking inside of her.
“Attempt?”
That implied they had failed. But what if it only applied to Liam? What if Eleanor… No, she wouldn’t go there, not until she knew. Leah hit refresh aggressively and then relief washed over her beautiful face. “A police official has confirmed that King Liam and his Queen-to-Be Lady Eleanor are both unharmed,” she read out loud.
Evie slumped in her chair in relief. Eleanor was alive. She knew she should call her mother back and she would, but she needed a moment to process. She thought about her aunt and uncle, about how their deaths had devastated their family, Eleanor most of all. It had been one moment of random violence that had changed all their lives forever, but this…
This wasn’t random. Eleanor had put herself in this position by choosing to accept Liam’s proposal. It was possible that the rest of her life would be filled with this kind of danger, that she and her family would always be targets and that one day she might repeat her parents’ fate.
It also meant that Evie was going to spend years worrying, always afraid of what the news might bring. Eleanor had chosen a life filled with danger and the rest of them were just along for the ride, never knowing if today would be the day that they’d finally lose her.
- End
