At Her Majesty's Service Chapter 20
Summary: The annual Christmas party held at Kensington Palace for the children of deployed RAF personnel has always been the highlight of Emma’s festive season. But this year, a chance encounter with someone very special results in her throwing an impromptu party later that week, at RAF Akrotiri.
All my thanks go to @resident-of-storybrooke and @forget-me-not-s for their encouragement on this piece.
Special thanks go to @kmomof4 and @forget-me-not-s who made the beautiful banners for this story.
Killian cast another long look around the office as he flopped back into his chair.
"Can you believe that this time tomorrow, we'll be back with the people we love most?" Liam asked from his place, leaning against the open door.
"Is that your way of telling me you don't love me?" Killian quipped, briefly raising his eyes to meet his brother's.
Liam scoffed out a laugh as he swaggered into the room and threw himself into the seat opposite his brother. Normally, Liam would have shown much more grace and decorum while he was in an office on base, but his entire body had been vibrating since he'd woken up that morning and seen the text from Elsa that simply read;
"24 hours!"
Most of the grace and decorum he possessed had fled his body at the understanding those words brought to him. Thankfully, Liam wasn't the only one on base who seemed to feel that way.
"How'd your handover go?" Killian asked, startling his brother out of the mental countdown he'd been running all day long.
"Good. Fine. Same as usual, really. I've worked with Wilson before, so I trust her to stay on top of everything I started, and I know she'll do it flawlessly. She was always a stickler for the rules when we were at Northolt." Liam shifted a little awkwardly in his seat as he tried to remember the name of his little brother's counterpart. "How about yours?"
"Not too badly," Killian hedged. "I took some extra time to help him learn the system the way we'd been taught and to catch him up on everything that's happened during our time here. Hopefully, Wilson will be able to keep an eye on him. That first posting after a promotion is always the worst."
"Ugh. Don't remind me." Liam hung his head a little as he recalled the first few days of his own promotion to Flight Lieutenant. The position had come with more responsibility than Liam had ever really had in his life before, and he'd been sure he could continue juggling the weight of the title with his friendships in his team. Unfortunately, he'd quickly been proven wrong, and the paperwork that had come with that understanding still haunted him to that very day.
"I'm sure he'll be a very capable Flight Lieutenant," Killian said confidently. "It just takes a while to adjust, especially when it's your first posting away from home."
Liam could only nod his agreement to that statement.
While both brothers had found themselves spending time at many different bases around the UK since they'd joined the RAF, Liam had already spent time in the Falkland Islands before his Squadron had been positioned at RAF Akrotiri. His time in the Falkland Islands had come a year into his relationship with Elsa, and she'd been more than happy to relocate with him for the duration of his temporary stay. This time, however, with Oliver settled and finally making friends, the decision for Elsa to stay home with her nephew had been an easy one to make – even if saying goodbye to two of the people he loved most in the world had been one of the hardest moments of his life. Liam couldn't even begin to imagine how tough it had been for Killian, whose only overseas duties before his stay at RAF Akrotiri had been a deployment to Afghanistan before Oliver was born.
"So, what's the first thing you're gonna do when we get back home?" Liam asked, hoping that a change of subject would help to lift the mood.
"You mean after I've hugged my son?"
"Well, I felt that was a given," Liam chuckled, already imagining his own cuddles with his sweet little nephew. "Elsa's been watching this show on Sky Atlantic recently about a ballet dancer that she can't stop talking about – so I think I'm gonna book tickets and take her to the ballet."
"She'll like that," Killian assured him. "And Lord knows she deserves it."
"She deserves so much more than that," Liam sighed. He just wished he had the power and ability to make all of her dreams come true.
"I'm pretty sure Elsa is happy with what she has," Killian offered, picking up on his brother's melancholy. "I mean, she's stuck it out with you for this long already, and having lived with you most of my life, I know how difficult that can be."
Liam reached across the desk to offer his little brother a sucker punch for his words, and Killian chuckled as he lifted a hand to rub the sore spot on his upper arm.
For a long moment, the brothers allowed a comfortable silence to settle between them; each lost in their thoughts.
Killian wasn't sure how much time had passed before he spoke up, but it had felt like an eternity to him.
"I, uh… I've applied for a transfer."
It took a long moment for his brother's words to sink in and even longer for Liam to process their meaning.
"Why?" was the first question he voiced, but the instant the word left his lips, Liam knew he already had the answer.
"Oliver," Killian said simply. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before he added, "When I joined the RAF, the idea of being paid to travel the world felt like a dream come true. And there's a part of me that still wants that dream. But with Oliver in my life now, he needs some stability. At least until he's a little older and understands all of this better. I can't guarantee any transfer would keep me home with him, but a transfer to the 63rd Squadron would help."
Liam's eyes widened at his brother's proposed career move.
"The Queen's Colour Squadron? You've applied for a transfer to the Queen's Colour Squadron?"
Killian shrugged his shoulders. "They can only refuse my request, right? It's worth a shot."
"It's a very long shot," Liam scoffed. He'd known many men and women he'd previously served with who had requested a transfer to the Queen's Colour Squadron when a place had opened up. He also knew that precisely zero of his former colleagues had gotten that coveted transfer.
"I know. And if I'm being honest, I don't think I'll get the transfer, but I had to try. If it can offer Ollie a little more stability, then it's worth taking a chance."
Liam sat with his brother's words for a moment before nodding his head in agreement. He didn't think his brother would get that golden transfer either. There were very few people inside the RAF who didn't want such a coveted position, which offered the stability his brother desired, a modest pay rise that most of his colleagues would never scoff at, and the chance to work beside the royal family. Competition would be heavy, and Liam was already certain that many of their superiors would have already applied long before Killian ever found out about the vacancy. But that didn't stop him from hoping that maybe someone would be looking down favourably on his brother at the time the applications were reviewed.
"You should have asked Queen Emma to put in a good word for you while she was here," Liam teased gently.
Killian snorted out a laugh, but his brother didn't miss the way his cheeks pinked at the name of their queen.
"I don't think Her Majesty is personally in charge of hiring," Killian teased.
"Maybe not, but I bet a good word from her would be hard to ignore," Liam countered, with a raised brow.
Killian chuckled a little at his brother's expression before a somewhat awkward silence descended over the pair.
Liam was thoroughly confused about the sudden tension in the room until his brother finally spoke up once again.
"She was, uh… It was Her Majesty who gave me the idea."
"The Queen gave you the idea to put in for a transfer?" Liam asked, doubt colouring every single word that fell from his lips. "The Queen?"
"She said something about putting in for a job as Palace security when I was giving her a tour of the base," Killian explained, his tone suggesting this was something completely normal and not at all the shockingly new information Liam believed it to be. "I thought about what she said that night and realised that while I wasn't quite ready to give up my RAF career just yet, I did want something a little more stable for Oliver. So, I sent a few emails and found out about the vacancy, and then made my application just after Christmas."
Liam sank back into his seat in stunned silence. He still couldn't quite believe what he'd just heard. Killian had been notoriously cagey about what his time with the Queen had been like while she'd been on base, and he'd assumed, like everyone else there, it had been mostly filled with awkward silence. Never, in his wildest dreams, would he have assumed that the most important person in the country would take the time to discuss future career options with his little brother – and certainly not to the extent where she seemed to have inspired him to make a change.
If Liam had believed in the power of a higher being, he would have said that it almost felt like his brother was destined for that opening.
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Thanks for sticking with me during this difficult period in my life.
