Tu Es Ma Lumière

104 - Unsettlement

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Prompt - What if Mary gave birth in a tent surrounded by Pagans, like that other woman did in series 1?

Side Note - this scene was actually kinda creepy to me (when Bash started talking in the rhymes with the other two people) and I haven't watched it in depth, literally ever. The whole Mash and Francis in exile did make me tune out for a while, since one, it never happened, two, it lead to my least favourite storyline in Reign, and three, it didn't make much sense to me. So, this one won't be exactly like that scene, but I'll do my best!

Side Note #2 - I'm gonna play around with the timeline again in this one, ladies and gentlemen. Henry was never mad and the legitimisation thing didn't happen, so neither did any storylines borne from that. Mary and Francis were married in 1x08. So, no Frola/Jean. Bash and Francis are still close, and Aylee doesn't die. Weird, I know, but try and bare with me.

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"Are you sure she's alright?" the Dauphin of France asks, standing over Mary's sleeping body protectively. His shoulders are hunched over, his posture daring anybody to come closer to the slumbering Queen of Scotland, to try and take her from him. The young Queen doesn't stir at the sound of her husband's voice. He sounds so different. Equal amounts concerned and something that his mother cannot figure out.

"She'll be fine, Francis." Catherine states softly, looking up from the small infant in her arms to her own infant as he stands guard over his wife, the new mother of his child. Mary sleeps on, as Francis continues to stand guard over her. The newborn baby in her arms grizzles, much like Charles did when he was just as small as this new baby. "We rid her of the afterbirth, it was whole. You and your brother got Mary and your baby into the carriage, while I stayed behind to throw the afterbirth to the wolves, lead them off of our scent. I know you were scared of how much she bled, the dirty bit of land she had to give birth upon, but bleeding is normal when mothers deliver their young. And the area could not be helped, it was the lesser of two evils, Francis." Catherine pauses to take a breath. "We must be thankful to him, I suppose, it's because of your brothers' quick thinking that we made it out of that tent alive. His chants, however-" she trailed off. Francis looked away.

"I know." he mumbled. "He spoke the same words in my presence when you had your guards hang Lola's lover by his feet like the pagans do." Catherine choked on her spit at that. "What? Did you believe nobody knew about your plot to silence the boy after he could tell Mary what you made him do?" Francis asks.

"I-I had no idea that-" she trails.

"My wife is more attuned to Court ways than you know. She has her ways, ones that you will not expect, nor know about." Francis pauses. "That's besides the point," he shakes his head bitterly, remembering the feeling of Mary's desperate claws to his neck as he covered her mouth, stopping her from screaming , as his brother began to chant with the pagans, keeping them safe from attack. After a visit to pay alms to the poor, the fifteen year old Dauphine had gone into spontaneous, early labor. They had ended up taking refuge in the middle of nowhere, the guards putting up a tent for the royal families' safety. In a measure of bad luck, in the height of labor, an attack by the Pagans. The Dauphin had forced his very far along, labouring wife into silence whilst his half brother -who was acting as a guard- went to deal with the pagan force. It was a miracle that it worked, Sebastian's quick thinking and that. The babe had been born a few minutes after the pagans had finally left. The Queen of France had rid the Queen of Scotland of her afterbirth, before the young mother had finally succumbed to her blood loss and exhaustion and shock of such a quick birth at barely fifteen years of age. The Dauphin had picked up his wife, while his bastard brother had held the baby, putting both of them -now sleeping- into the carriage, ready to go back to French Court, where midwives and physicans would meet them. When the tent was put down and the Queen was in the carriage, the family made their way back to Court, being surrounded by the physicans and nurses, who whisked the young Dauphine and her newborn child away. "I suppose it doesn't matter now, anyway." Francis whispers, not wanting to let his mother in on her golden ticket of being rid of the King's bastard son.

The Queen of France opened her mouth, but she was silenced by the door of the infirmary opening swiftly, the boar-like King of France barelling in. His face was drawn with anger.

"What is it?"

"I've sent words for five companies of men to go to the woods and slaughter those Pagan bastards." Henry grunted, ridding himself of his hideous, cumbersome fur coat. His steps became lighter, his face lessening in anger as he approached his son's new child. "Terrorising my people is one thing, but threatening the royal family is quite another." he grunted, looking down at the baby in his wife's arms. "Healthy? Both of them?" he asks his son.

"The baby is fine, perfect, in fact-" Francis swallows a smile. "but the labor was too quick, Mary bled quite a bit more than usual. She needs to sleep a lot more."

"Your wife will be in the best of care." Henry assured his heir. "Look at that, an heir producing Catholic with her Catholic child, the key to a brighter France, to England." The King of France stated swiftly, running a large finger down the childs' pale cheek.

"If everything goes as we plan, yes." Catherine places the newborn in her husbands arms, biting back the resentment that she could bare him no more children. 

"What a marvel." Henry states, looking down at this new baby. It sleeps, resembling the mother more than the father, if the dark hair, long lashes and pouty lips are anything to go by. "Francis, you created quite the babe, you know?"

Francis took Mary's sleeping hand, looking down into her face, before over at his father. "I do, Father. I truly do."

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Sorry it's so sucky and weird, but it's the best I can come up with right now! Spoiler for the next one, it's based in a similar AU as my first modern Frary story Way Down We Go. Go check it out if you haven't please!

Stay safe out there,

love,

me

:)