Yeah, I updated pretty fast. I know. Even I'm proud. Though, as I reach this chapter and see things starting to resolve it makes me a little sad to think that this is going to end and I'll have to stop writing about my dear Lana and Ian :/

This one's dedicated to caskettgal, because she votes on almost every chapter and has sent many words of encouragement :)

On a different note, I was comparing the weather of what I’m used to here in Florida and what Lana would be dealing with at this time of year, which is almost what time period we’re looking at for her (technically we’re in July now in the story). I was quite upset.

Here’s my forecast for the next two days: Right now, fair skies, 85 degrees, feels like 92 with humidity. Tonight Isolated Thunderstorms, and tomorrow cloudy skies with a high of 89 degrees. (we also have a tropical storm just churning right off our shore…)

Here’s the forecast I looked up for London: Right now, light rain 57 degrees, tonight, more rain, tomorrow, even more rain, at 70 degrees.

...i’m obviously not making it rain enough in this story. SO I SHALL CHANGE THAT! I guess I’m just too used to the sunny weather…even though I suppose we've been getting our share of rain here too :/

Also, the video I posted: I'm going to post a different song each time from Ouran HSHC for each chapter, because i listen to them when I write, and I like sharing them :) besides, they just seem to fit :D

Anyway ON WITH THE STORY!

__________________________________________________________

Chapter 20

I woke up in my own bed, not of my own doing. I suppose Ian had taken me back after I’d fallen asleep. There was a light knocking on my door, the reason for my sudden wake up. “Come in…” I grumbled, groggily.

“Hey,” Aunt Patty said, walking in. “Your message sounded strained, what’s wrong?” I let out a sigh and patted the bed next to me for her to sit.

“Do you remember Logan?” I asked. She nodded.

“Of course. The bastard. Continue.” It didn’t take too long to explain everything to her, though I did leave the part out about Ian and me. I only told her that he was blackmailing me. She didn’t ask for me to explain any further on that part. I was way too worried about what she would think about that to tell her, at least not yet. “So, you’re stuck in a bind then. He’s the worst kind of journalist, the kind you dated.”

“You’re telling me…”

“Anyway, the blackmail…is it really that bad? Is there any way around it?” I shook my head.

“Not really, I mean, it’s not something we can just ignore if it gets out. It wouldn’t be easy to twist a different story out of it either.” Aunt Patty gave me a flat look and I groaned. “I know, I know. I dug myself into this hole and I feel awful asking for your help to dig me out.”

“Well, if there’s no way around the blackmail Lana, we either deal with it being released or you accept whatever deal he’s made you.” I returned her flat look.

“Really? That’s your advice?”

“Unless you’re willing to divulge what the blackmail is, I can’t help you any further.” She breathed and I rolled my eyes.

“You just want to know, nosy.”

“Yes. Now tell Auntie.”

I pursed my lips and cleared my throat nervously. “You have to promise not to overreact.”

“Promise.” She said, putting up scouts’ honor.

“Well, what happened is that Ian and I are kind of seeing each other and we were caught at the ball kissing.”

“What?” She yelped, standing to show how shocked she was. Her reaction was so over the top, it showed me that she had already guessed at what it was.

“So you knew.” I said, monotone.

“I’m not that thick, child. So I’m guessing Logan got a picture? Threatened to release it? Besmirch the royals’ name, as it be?” She said, dramatically.

“What?”

“Never mind. Well, you’re right that we can’t really twist that any which way. I’m guessing you’ve spoken to Chad? Has Ian told Amelia yet?”

“He’s doing that today actually.” I informed her. She tapped her chin thoughtfully as she considered the situation.

“Well, unless we have Amelia on our side, our story won’t fly.”

“What story?” I was lost.

“Unless we can somehow get Amelia to agree that they were planning on ending the relationship after the ball and that she knew about the two of you and is completely okay with it…I have nothing.”

“There is no way, in hell, she would agree to that. She’s too self absorbed to let herself be used like that. She’d need something in it for her.” I countered and she made a dissatisfied noise.

“Give me some time, I’m sure between the two of us we can think of something. Or we can even wait until Logan gets bored with it, or it’s too long ago for anyone to care.”

“Or unless we have bigger news to cover it with.” I supplied.

“There you go! All right, well, until that happens,”

“I’m stuck with my deal. I think I can handle it for now.” Now that it was all of my chest and I knew I had my aunt on my side, I felt better.

“You know you’re going to have to tell Cassie and Henry.”

“Please god no.” I begged her and she shook her head.

“We can’t exactly keep a secret like this from them. We could get fired for that. We probably would. Both of us.” She clarified and I felt a pain in my stomach. I hadn’t only made this a difficult situation for me, but for my Aunt Patty as well. After all she’d done for me, and I’d landed her here.

“I’m sorry. I’ll tell Cassandra, I promise. But Henry…I don’t think I can handle that one alone.” I admitted, fearfully.

“Then tell Cassie, and ask her advice on how to approach it. To be honest, I think she’d love you as a daughter-in-law. I have to go now. We’re going to need to start planning because Christine wanted to put off her coming out party until now, so hurry downstairs soon. And also, don’t wait too long.” I knew she meant don’t wait on telling Cassandra, but that was easier said than done. I always felt calmer when I felt I had time to plan and think it out. This was all happening far too fast for me.

I let myself relax in the steam of the shower before getting ready for the meeting. I looked out the windows as I headed down the hallway and groaned. Raining…now I was going to get a headache. I suppose I lived in the wrong place if almost every time it rained I felt sick, but I just pushed through it.

I joined my aunt in our office where she and Cassandra were looking over some different coverage of the ball that had come out in the news already. All I could think of now though, was Christine’s debutante ball.

“I’m confused. I thought she would have this party on her birthday?” I asked, sitting at my desk and pulling out my laptop.

“Yes, that’s usually how it goes. However, Christine’s birthday was in the middle of the school semester and she wanted to wait until everyone was back home and finished with the semester. She also didn’t like that as soon as she returned there was a string of events she had to attend. She wanted to hold off until it was the one event everyone simply had to attend.” My aunt explained. It made sense that she wanted to wait until her friends had finished school. Christine had only recently returned from her finishing school when I had been hired. The thought made me a little sad. I would have liked to see her graduate.

“She wanted to be the center of attention.” Cassandra clarified.

“I see. Well, I suppose it really is up to her when she wanted to be presented to society.” I said, flippantly. I didn’t really care when she had the party, it was just something I had to worry about now. As her political advisor, most of this really fell on me, not Aunt Patty. She expected me to take on the full bulk of it, and I suppose this was my first real challenge.

“You and Christine will be meeting with the event coordinator today in the parlor to overlook some different vendors she suggests. Make sure Christine chooses tastefully.” Cassandra said with a worried look. I suppose she was only imagining what Christine could come up with on her own. The thought made me smile. “Oh, and Patricia said you had something you needed to discuss with me?” My smile faded instantly. I looked over at my aunt menacingly and she simply went along with her work as if she heard nothing.

“Right, erm, well, you see…”

“I take it this isn’t something pleasant?” Cassandra asked, her eyebrows furrowing in worry even further.

“Oh that depends on how you view it Cassie.” My aunt butted in and I glared at her.

“Well, your highness,”

“Call me Cassie, Lana. We’re past such formalities now.” She assured me.

“Cassie, I’m in a little bit of a difficult situation at the moment.” I started, awkwardly.

“Oh?”

“Yes, you see, I’m in love with your son.” I said very quickly. It was like ripping off a band aid: it was painful, but I was glad I hadn’t dragged it out.

“In love with my son.” She repeated. It wasn’t a question, she was just repeating the words for clarity in her own head.

“Cassie, Ian and I want to start seeing each other and we thought it was better that it not be kept from you or your husband.”

In that instant, she shocked me as she started laughing. I looked over at my aunt worriedly, who merely shrugged. “Oh, Lana. That’s adorable! But, we are in a bit of a dilemma now aren’t we? I mean, you’re his political advisor, and he’s already in a relationship with Lady Amelia. This isn’t something we can just fix instantaneously.” Cassie looked up for a moment, as if deep in thought. “So that’s why Ian seemed so nervous to see Amelia today. I thought he was proposing or something like that and hadn’t told me. I’m glad it was the opposite. That girl is just so self-centered.”

I still hadn’t said anything, in fear of interrupting her train of thought. “So, what do you think should be our course of action, Cassie?” Aunt Patty asked for me. I sent her a grateful glance and she replied with a wink.

“Well, I mean, that all depends on how you want to go about it. Let me tell Henry, I can break it to him gentler than either of you.”

“What she means by that, is she’ll distract him from his anger.” Aunt Patty said, nonchalantly.

“Aunt Patty!” I gasped at the double-meaning to her statement.

“As crude as her statement was intended, it’s true.” Cassie sighed and I shook my head.

“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. What do you think I should do?” I reverted back to our former conversation to avoid any more awkward statements.

“Well, all I can say is lay low and don’t let the press know of your relationship until we have everything else straightened out. Ian can’t be hopping from girl to girl. That just looks awful.”

“There’s also the matter of the blackmail.” Aunt Patty interjected. Right then I wanted to slap her. I love my aunt, but sometimes…

“Blackmail?” I was getting tired of reiterating the story so my aunt helped me along by explaining about Logan and how he had caught me and Ian in the gardens. “Well, that certainly does complicate things. So you have to date this Logan until he either gets bored or we figure out how to deal with the blackmail?”

“Exactly.”

“Bloody hell.” That was the first time I’d heard the queen say something like that and it had surprised me. “I suppose we’ll go with the flow, until I talk things over with Henry. You’ve put yourself in a situation I do not envy Lana. Let’s just see how everything pans out. I’ll meet you back down here later Patricia.” She left and I looked at Aunt Patty accusingly.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“I wanted to tell her on my own time!” I said, angrily.

“We would’ve been waiting days if I had let that happen. Just be thankful that it’s done and over with. She’s not angry, and we’re all working together on a solution.” I couldn’t argue with her logic so I just shrugged it off. “So I’m guessing you have a busy day ahead of you? Get to it!” She clapped her hands and I rolled my eyes as I grabbed my briefcase and went to meet with Christine and the event coordinator.

The event coordinator was late, so Christine was sitting by herself, drinking her tea. I joined her, taking out my laptop and my clipboard. “How did everything go with your aunt?” She asked and I gave her a very angry look. “Or we could talk about something else…” she tried to give me a hopeful grin.

“She forced me into telling your mum.”

“How did that go?”

“Fine actually. She said she’ll tell your dad and I just have to wait until we can all come up with some type of fix.”

“You know what this means? You’re going to be my sister!” Christine clapped excitedly and my eyes widened.

“Let’s not get carried away.” I yelped. I just wanted to get past all the drama. I didn’t even want to think about marriage right now.

“Do you not want to marry Ian?” she asked curiously, cocking her head to the side.

“It’s not that, I think I would love marrying Ian. But Ian and I aren’t even really dating right now. I think it’s a bit early to start thinking of that.”

“I think the beginning is a perfect time to talk about stuff like that. I mean, if you both don’t have the same goals from the beginning, why even try?”

“I suppose you have a point.” I scratched my head awkwardly.

I was relieved when the event coordinator finally showed, and Christine was distracted from asking me more about marriage. It wasn’t that the thought of it scared me or anything. The thought of marrying Ian was wonderful, almost too wonderful. It scared me that in a moment everything could end and have my dreams dashed before my eyes. In my opinion, it was always better to expect the worst and be genuinely surprised when the best happened. One tends to appreciate things more in that thought process.

__________________________________________________________

So, I said everything at the beginning. And, I dunno what else to say, except please vote and comment (like a parrot that just repeats the same thing over and over again).