Thanks to @bitbybitwrites for tagging me. I just so happen to be taking a self care day (i.e. not smelling like primer or paint or cursing at what the previous owners did to my house) and so took some time to write. I didn't write any new sentences, but rather cleaned up some and added descriptors to a scene that was mostly dialog before. Said scene is from my royal!Glee WIP fic, Bodyguards, and features Royal Hummel Guard Cadet Grace Hitchens, Cadet Matt Rutherford, and Captain Connie "Nana" Puckerman. It was inspired by s2 ep 5 of the show, "The Diplomat."
I'm seriously considering posting/publishing the Burt chapters soon as they're mostly complete.
Tagging anyone who wants to share some writing in any fandom.
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“Move out of the way!”
Cadet Grace Hitchens stood her ground in front of the closed door, meeting the man’s eyes, and replied to his demand in a polite, firm tone, “I’m sorry, Sir. This restroom is closed.”
“You can’t close a bathroom! I have to take a piss, damn it.”
“There’s another restroom on the second floor to the right of the stairs.”
“Do you know who I am? I’m the goddamn president of the Republic of Texas!”
Grace gave the briefest of nods, ever watchful eyes never looking away. “It’s nice to meet you, President Clarington. I’m sorry, but this room is currently occupied. There is a restroom on the first floor as well.”
“Fuck your stairs. Let me through.”
Her tone was firmer now. Some people refused to take no for an answer. “Sir, could you take a step back, please?”
“I’ll have my security detail drag your sorry little ass out of here.”
Grace shifted her weight, covering more of the area she was guarding, and preparing herself for another escalation. “Sir, I am now telling you to take two steps back. This restroom is closed.”
As she had been trained to do, Grace pressed the button on her lapel’s mic, listening for the reply in her earpiece, and answering back. “Cohen, we have a situation. Code Alpha. Keep ‘em inside. I’ll let you know if I need backup.”
“Backup? Who the hell are you talking to, you little cunt?”
When the man charged closer, Grace blocked him from the door with her body, and then with a grab of his wrist and a twist, pinned his arm to his back. The other followed after he took a drunken swing at her face.
“Security!”
Hitchens took in the suited man who rushed to the screaming president’s side, hand on butt on the firearm that was concealed under his open jacket, assessing the situation himself and not stepping in to free his protectee.
“You with Lima?”
“I am.”
“If you could release President Clarington, I’ll take him off your hands.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
The bodyguard pressed a button on his coiled earpiece mic. “Charlie, clear the bathroom on the first floor. I’m coming down with Cowboy.”
Hitchens handed the still belligerent and struggling president over to his protection, ignoring his threats of calling her boss, having her fired, and the spew of racist, sexist insults spitting from his mouth as he was escorted away.
When the area was clear, she clicked on her mic. “Muskowitz, you seeing Clarington on the first floor? Great. We’re Green. Wildflower can come out when she’s ready.”
A smartly dressed woman stepped out from the shadows of an alcove. “End scenario. Good job, Hitchens.”
Matt rotated his arm, swearing he could hear popping noises as he reached the top of the stairs to rejoin the little group. “Good job? She almost dislocated my shoulder, Captain.”
“But I didn’t. You called me a bellhop’s whore, Rutherford.”
“Just playing the part I was assigned.”
“Any notes, Captain?”
“Cadet Hutchinson, call for back up next time. An extra agent or two could have made all the difference if he’d gotten more physical. Cadet Rutherford, go ice your shoulder. You’re all on for real tomorrow. Write up your reports. Don’t leave a single detail out. I’ll see you in the morning; 6 a.m. sharp. You’re dismissed.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Good night, Captain.” Grace tried not to grumble with the rest of the team as she stripped off her armour-lined uniform jacket, but caved in the end. “I hate paperwork.”
I've been too busy to write lately, so I told myself that today, I was going to write something new for Six Sentence Sunday. So I did - 600+ words for my royal!glee WIP, Bodyguards. It's for the chapter, Guards. Rough draft with only minor edits. I'll be fixing the rest soon.
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On a Monday, when the Castle of Queens was closed to the public and there weren’t any off grounds excursions scheduled for the Queen, Grace along with her fellow cadets, were drilled in the art of getting a protectee to one of the castle’s five safe rooms. They’d assembled in one of the rooms on the security level deep in the bowels of the castle. Converted and modernized or not, they all referred to it as the Dungeon.
Captain Connie Puckerman didn’t need to shout to get the officers' and trainees' attention. The moment she stepped behind the podium, she had their focus. “This ain’t like the movies. Running through a kitchen may look cool on the big screen and on TV, but there are too many handy weapons lying around for a would-be-attacker to use. I’ve got the burns and knife scars to prove it back when I was a cocky son-of-a-bitch who couldn’t think fast enough and forgot the secondary route when the first one was blocked. If it wasn’t for the rest of my team, our protectee would not be alive.
“Do not be like past asshole me. This castle isn’t all hidden passageways. Utilize the non-public hallways, staff areas, tunnels, rooms, the routes that have been cleared and planned ahead of time. Memorize them. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to do a physical run through before an event. You’re rarely lucky. Think and think fast. Trust your team. Communicate with your protectee via touch. Spoken word only if absolutely necessary. The continuation of the royal Hummel bloodline and this country they swore an oath to serve and you swore an oath to protect depends on it.
“Now get with your assigned teams. A senior officer will be acting as your protectee but will not give you instructions unless you’ve put their life in actual danger.”
“Do not shove me into the moat and claim it’s for my safety like the last class of idiots did. I was out for a month with dysentery and an absolutely nasty yeast infection.”
Captain Puckerman restrained herself from laughing and schooled her reaction to a more serious nod. “What Shadonda said. I don’t want to see any broken bones from falls down steps either. Fast Safe Smart and Cloak Cover Move.
“Alright, let’s get to it. Admiral Beiste and I will be monitoring your movements via security camera, your body cams, and the trackers attached to your uniforms. Officers acting as protectees, please disrobe and put on your cloaks and crowns. Team A you’re to get your Fake Queen Hummel from the Throne Room to Safe Room Two. Team B, Fake Crown Princess Elizabeth will be having breakfast with her boyfriend Fake Burt Burns in the private room off of the main dining room. You are to escort them both to Safe Room Three. You have ten minutes to get into your positions and three minutes to get your protectees to safety. The clock starts now.”
As the groups hurried out the door to make their way up to the main levels of the castle, Connie turned to her superior officer and friend. “If I was a betting person, my money would be on Hitchens and Rutherford.”
“If I too were allowed to bet, I’d take you up on that action. Your instincts weren’t wrong about Hitchens. She’s got coffee and smarts running through her veins. My money’s on Cameo, not Rutherford. She may have started as a wild mare, but she’s settling down. Rutherford needs to be more assertive.”
“I shall take your non bet. Loser buys the other a bucket of Castle Chicken.”
Chapter 10 Summary: Newly crowned Prince Finn discovers that every family has its secrets. Every castle does too. A retelling, with new material, of the Kurt and Finn scene in the one-shot Passage Ways
AN: There's going to be 15 chapters total. Chapter 11 is currently being written. Chapters 13 and 14 are fully written. Chapters 12 and 15 are partially written. I'm determined to get this done before the next emergency home repair sucks out all of my time and energy.
Chapter Excerpt:
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Between his sixteenth birthday celebration, his first Hummel Christmas party and New Year's address to the nation in the court dress protocol with his bits on full display, his dad getting married to Carole, she and Finn moving into the castle, getting to date Blaine which was wonderful but also politically complicated in ways he hadn’t anticipated, glee club, Cheerios, and the Neanderthals causing him trouble at school that he didn’t want to think about right now - it had been a busy year.
Taking his stepbrother on a castle tour had given him the perfect opportunity to visit the Queens Passageway. His living family was important, but so was his ancestral one. He had missed the place. It centered him, and he knew he needed to make the time to come back more often. Today, it would also serve to provide Finn, now a titled and tattooed prince, with some needed insight into the family he was a part of. Being a royal Hummel meant more than politics, being naked a lot, and living in a nice, but far too drafty, castle. Even though most days it felt exactly like that.
Kurt was glad that Finn followed him, without questioning why, into a hallway covered in faded blue and grey diamond print wallpaper. He stopped in front of a small painting of a sailboat in an unassuming and plain wooden frame.
“Never use your hands. It leaves fingerprints.” Kurt let out a small laugh at the shock on his stepbrother’s face as he pushed open the hidden door to the Queens Passageway with his butt.
