So, I have had this written for a while. I was waiting until I had a little buit of chapter 10 written before I posted this. I was hoping that this would keep the wait time down between chapters. But, I still apologize for the lack of updates; life and lack of inspiration have made writing very difficult! But I am back. Thanks again for your support… time skips may happen once or twice during some chapters because it would take too long to make up anything unnecessary to fill in the gaps! Please read! I have created a poll for the next story I should upload after the completion of my other fanfic, Strangers Like Us; please visit my profile and cast your vote. Instructions for voting are on my profile page. Thanks!

So far the results are:

Naruto: 0

Kingdom Hearts: 3

Stranger's Like Us sequel: 20

YUGiOh!: 0

Surprise Us: 7

Anyway on with the story! First, I noticed I made a huge info mistake. The book makes it seem like no one was really certain what Nigel looked like, given that Giannine did not recognize him at the end of the book. Hence her mix up involving Nigel's uncle and Nigel. I had someone recognize Nigel in chapter 7, but this has been fixed. This chapter is going to delve more into the Rasmussem family's relationships. Also, Nigel and Giannine's relationship changes and they learn just how dangerous this game of cat and mouse is. Also, I am also almost through with the first chapter of a two shot for this story universe that is going to tell the Heir Apparent story from Nigel's POV and the aftermath of Heir Apparent from both Giannine and Nigel's POV. Look for it soon!

Disclaimer: All of the characters and storyline mentioned, except for Dale Rasmussem, Nigel's parents, Dr. McKinsey Scott, Janice Thompson, and George these are my original characters, belongs to Vivian Vande Velde but the story idea is mine!

Level 9

Crossroads

A few days later…

Nigel had initially come to his parents' place to discuss the possibility of making Giannine his wife. But when he had gotten there, he walked into a major argument. After waiting a few moments to see if the verbal altercation would come to a close, he decided to leave. Lately, he had noticed that there was a slowly growing tension between his mother and father. For the last two days, there were verbal arguments between the two of them. But this really did not surprise Nigel. They always had arguments when Dale got himself into "incidents", like his current "suicide attempt". It almost gave Nigel hope, because in his mind wanted to believe that at least one of his parents saw that Dale really did need help. Nigel just sighed and shut the door. He walked down the stairs leading from his parents' house and walked to his car. He unlocked it and got in.

As he sat in his car, he pulled a velvet box from beneath the passenger seat and opened it. Inside of the box, there was a ring. The band was made of white gold and there were princess cut emeralds and blue topaz gems in the band, three of each color in an alternating pattern starting with an emerald. The words "Queen of my heart" were engraved on the underside of the band. The ring was simple in design, yet strikingly beautiful. The ring reminded him of his girlfriend. She was not a magazine cover model, but Giannine was beautiful in a simple yet very strikingly unique way. He had been walking around in downtown New York after a regional staff meeting earlier in the week and passed a store with the very ring he was holding in his hand, in its window. He knew it was perfect, and did something a little spontaneous. He went into the store and bought the ring right then. He knew Giannine's ring size because he had seen her write it on an order form for her class ring. He had bought the ring on Friday. He had had the ring for about a day now. He had been racking his mind to try and come up with an interesting way of proposing to Giannine. All week along her words from their walk in St. Jehan replayed over and over in his mind.

… I do not mind that you can not be spontaneous all the time, since you always have time set aside for me in your busy day, but a surprise or two here and there would be a nice change…

He really wanted to surprise her and let her know how much she really meant to him. This needed to big and loud, unlike anything he had ever done before. He had realized over the last few hours that sealing the deal between Giannine and himself was one of the most harrowing tasks that he had ever faced. He was not sure if he was ready or worthy enough for that type of commitment, but unfortunately with Dale lurking about, time was not a luxury for his lady love or him. He knew Giannine was something special and he did not want to lose her to anyone else. He also knew that she was in this relationship with him for the long haul, because when all of the mess with Dale started hitting the fan, she did not back down or run away. In fact, she stood up to and challenged Dale, which was something that had taken him a while to do.

He closed the ring box up and put it away again. He started up his car and drove off. As he was driving, he toyed with the idea of proposing to Giannine in the game. Well, he was going to have to eventually, because he was going to have to marry her in the game anyway. So, as he worked out various ideas in his head, an ingenious one struck him. He raced back to the gaming center and got out of the car. He would spend the next few hours working on his huge surprise for Giannine.

Finally, he finished putting the last few touches on his gift for Giannine. As he hung up the phone, he looked down at his desk and nearly laughed out loud. His desk could not be seen due to the thousands of invoices, notes, and payment confirmations. It had cost him a few favors and few thousand dollars but it was complete. Giannine was about to get the biggest surprise of her life. Now, the only question was would she accept it? He had just called her a few moments ago and asked her to come over to play the game for a bit since he had gotten a little bored and was still worried about her. He began to gather up all of the materials and receipts. When he finally managed to organize the papers on his desk, he stored them all in a locked file cabinet in his office. He then left his office headed to testing area to wait for his girlfriend.

With Giannine…

Giannine was staring out of one of the bus's windows, lost in thought. She was mildly curious about what Nigel had planned. He sounded unusually excited on the phone. If she was honest with herself, to her he sounded just as excited as he did when he first showed her the game. This made Giannine feel a lot better, they both have been feeling stressed from the mess with Dale and the constant questions from her grandma and friends, the police, and Nigel's parents. Nigel's parents… they had a strange effect on Giannine. She remembered how she used to become jealous when she saw whole families together during festivals and fairs. But sometimes, after she observed the antics of the Rasmussem family, she was glad she lived with her grandmother. Sure she was a little absent-minded, but she always had Giannine's best interests at heart and was always available. Also, she was an only child; there was no shadow she had to crawl out from under.

Poor Nigel on the other hand… He had Dale's shadow choking him. First, Dale was also a computer prodigy, but he was also good at math. He could have probably worked as an engineer for any company in the world after graduating, but he got kicked out of school. Nigel was a whiz at numbers and computers, too. But he could not hold a candle to Dale, who in their parents' eyes had set the bar impossibly high. Nigel excelled at the same subjects that Dale did, but Dale had always done better. Nigel was an honor graduate, Dale was valedictorian… Nigel graduated at 17 with generous scholarships… Dale graduated at 16, with a full ride to Columbia University… Nigel was more creative than Dale and created lots of software and technology, but his progress was largely ignored… Dale got patents, most of which were stolen from Nigel and others, and pats on the back. Then on top of that the second son was mostly ignored, because the parents were constantly trying to keep up with the older one.

Even when Nigel had started his own business behind his family's back and made it a multi-million dollar and international empire, Dale was getting a real degree, or that's what Nigel's parents' behavior seemed to say, especially his father's. She really could not say what his mother's thoughts were on the matter because she usually did not have much to say about anything. But when she did speak to Giannine, she would sing Nigel's praises. This brings about the second problem, Nigel's father was a slave driver, but he was a nice man for the most part. He was constantly pressuring Nigel to leave the company in someone else's hands and finish his education, insisting that he did not want an "ignorant" son. The first time Giannine had overheard one of those conversations between the two of them, she almost stormed in the room to ask if Nigel's father was off his rocker. Nigel was one of the smartest people she knew, she did not even think the word "ignorant" was even in Nigel's vocabulary.

Also, the relationship between Nigel and Dale had always been unhealthy, although that adjective did not do that situation justice. The matter was only made worse by the denial that her boyfriend's parents had in regards to the mental health of their eldest son. Giannine had actually started talking with Mackie, in confidence, about it. She said that it sounded like Nigel's parents were afraid of admitting that their poster child was flawed or that they had failed as parents, in his father's case probably both. Therefore, it was easier to say that they had a younger son that was frustrated by and jealous of his older brother's accomplishments, so he acts out to get attention. This was fairly normal in families that have more than one child, where it is easy to ignore a child unintentionally. Mackie also said that would be easier for everyone to swallow than admitting that one child might be a psychopath. This situation, of course, left Nigel open to Dale's and his father's, unintentional, abuse.

But Nigel's personal life aside, she was looking forward to playing the game without having to continuously look over her shoulder. She missed relaxing with her "half-brothers" or just strolling through the kingdom and chatting with the subjects. Plus, she just missed spending time with Nigel. She finally reached her destination and stepped off the bus. She waved at the receptionist and said hello.

"Hi Ms. Bellisario, or should I say the future Mrs. Nigel Rasmussem?" she teased. Giannine stopped short and blushed furiously.

"Ok… what brought this on?" she asked as she tried to will her red cheeks back to their original color. The receptionist winked roguishly and said,

"I never reveal my sources…" After seeing the put out look on Giannine's face she added, "Oh alright, it is just obvious that the boy is in love with you. I have worked at this establishment during both of its lifetimes and…"

"What do you mean both of its lifetimes?" asked Giannine.

"It used to be an old movie theater, but the original owner declared bankruptcy and left. Nigel bought the place a few months later and added on to it later as the company grew. But as I was saying, I have never seen the boy date until you came along. It is obvious that he loves you, then when you add up the time that the two of you have been together… it is only a matter of time before he asks you!" the receptionist gushed. Giannine could not help rolling eyes and chuckling. She waved the receptionist off and continued on to her initial destination, the testing lab. When she got there Nigel was waiting on the immersion couch for her. She went and sat beside him, leaned over, and kissed his check.

"Hi love," she said. Nigel repeated her earlier actions and responded with a hello. He then gave her a soft one armed hugged. She went to her side of the couch and laid down. After a few moments, she was sitting inside the center of the maze garden outside of the castle in St. Jehan; she had started cloud watching during their last session. They had returned from visiting Orielle and Wulfgar late in the day. Kenric and she joined the queen dowager, Grimbold, Abas, and the rest of the castle for dinner. Then they retired to Kenric's room for the night. Since the ale incident, sleeping in the same bed had become a habit for the couple. Despite sharing a bed frequently, neither of the teens could bring themselves to explore the situation that led to Janine's current condition. They were still a little modest when they were sober. Janine had risen early the next morning and had taken to cloud watching while waiting for the others to rise. After a few moments, the young Queen heard footsteps behind her. She turned slightly and smiled softly at Kenric, who looked like he had just risen from sleep.

"G' morning…" he mumbled as he plopped down on the grass beside her. Nigel was not a morning person. It seemed that it was an aspect of the genius's personality that stuck with the young genius in the game. She loved getting up in the morning and was usually the first to get going in the morning. It usually took Nigel at least an hour to fully wake up. Janine chuckled softly as Kenric laid his head on Janine's lap and proceeded to doze in the early morning sun.

"Good morning to you, too, how can you be sleepy now? A few minutes ago, you were wide awake." she said as she began threading her fingers through Nigel's midnight hair. He hummed in sleep addled satisfaction. "If either of us should be tired, it should be me!"

"I was in a deep sleep when the game was saved, so I woke up feeling groggy and sleepy. End of story…" he muttered without opening his eyes. Janine giggled and Kenric smiled softly in response. Giannine stop stroking his hair and began to stroke his face slowly. He looked so relaxed in that moment, he actually looked his age. Due to his job requiring business attire since he started working as an "actual" CEO after he graduated instead of loitering behind the concession stand during the week, he often looked older than his nineteen years. He had been looking really old lately due to stress. After a few moments, he grasped the hand that was stroking his face. Then he brought it to his lips and began to slowly kiss it over and over in various places. She smiled at his sweet gesture. She was about to ask her lover another question, but when she opened her mouth… she belched loudly. She quickly muttered an "excuse me" before hiding her face in her free hand. Nigel laughed loudly as he started to sit up. He gathered Janine in his arms and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Stop laughing!" Janine whined. This only caused Kenric to start laughing again. This time Janine socked the prince in the shoulder.

"Ow! That hurt!" Kenric cried. Janine just stuck out her tongue. "Really love, belching is not something to be embarrassed about, it is quite normal at this stage. Or at least that was what the books said… I am glad we live in the modern world, little one, there was way too much guess work in medicine during this time period."

Nigel and Giannine had started looking over a bunch of pregnancy books once they had time alone after they first exited the game but had not had a chance to pursue more knowledge after the incident with Dale. They usually looked at the books in the very back of the public library to keep out of sight of nosy gossips. They definitely did not want people to see them looking at books like that. The local rumors would be vicious. Thankfully, Nigel was not well known currently; even though his technology was.

But the company was putting more pressure on Nigel to make a public appearance before the end of the month. No pictures of him had ever been released and Nigel's reputation was that he was a brilliant, eccentric recluse. Some even speculated that he was an old man. When Giannine had heard that rumor, she had almost died laughing. Of course, she did not correct them. One, no one would believe her and two; she had enough of fame after the CPOC incident. People had hounded her forever about who Nigel really was and what he looked like. They had followed her to her apartment and to school. Finally, her grandmother had to threaten to get a restraining order. The hype died down three weeks later. That had been the longest three weeks of her life. She could not imagine having to do that for the rest of her life… but if Nigel asked her to be present for the rest of his life than she would grin and bear it.

But she was sure that the world would become a media circus once the fact that Nigel Rasmussem was actually nineteen and very handsome became public. Then to make matters worse, Nigel was one of the 10 richest new entrepreneurs, specifically he and his company was worth 17.8 billion globally. One day she was glancing at magazines in a grocery story and saw the list being advertised. She grew curious and peeked. She almost had a heart attack when she saw Nigel's name in the number 10 spot. There was not a picture of him shown, thankfully. She bought the magazine and showed it to Nigel, he just groaned in response. He really wasn't an attention seeker; he did not mind being recognized for his accomplishments, but he preferred being in the background. Giannine did not mind that Nigel was doing well; she did mind, however, how public her life would become once Nigel went public. She was his girlfriend of almost 2 ½ years; they were going to want to know all about her and her past. They would find out that her dad was practically non-existent and that her mother was more interested in globe trotting than raising her daughter. Then they would comment about how she would be not enough good for Nigel, because she was not used to high class society and came from an "unstable" home. She must have made a face at some point during her musing, because Nigel was now staring into her face curiously.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Giannine looked up at her boyfriend and was set to say yes, but her emotions had other ideas. A cruel voice slinked up from her subconscious.

"You aren't good enough…" it sang. "You will never be good enough. He is rich, intelligent, and handsome. You are just entertainment until something better comes along!" She tried to ignore the voice of her insecurities. When she opened her mouth, however, her throat closed up. Then her eyes started to fill with tears. What was wrong with her? Why was she crying? She had never let that voice get to her this much since the time before the Heir Apparent accident. She had realized that she could do anything with the right help, including save her own life. The accident had helped to silence most of her insecurities back then. But here she was, not even three years later, barely holding it together. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat but it refused to budge. She squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to contain and conceal the tears in her eyes. Tears still began to slide down her as she fought not to break down in front of her boyfriend. Her lungs shuddered and constricted in her chest as if to remind her that she required air to live. As soon as she opened her mouth to draw in some air, a sob wrenched itself from her throat. The sob had come out sounding like a desperate wail.

Nigel had jumped at the sound. He had heard her cry many times over the years, but he had never heard this broken-hearted wailing. He quickly changed their positions. He was now holding Giannine's head against his chest and was she resting in his lap. One of his arms was wrapped around her waist, and he was stroking her hair with the other hand. He could feel her warm, wet tears start to soak through his robes. His heart was breaking for his love, but he did not know what he could do to help.

"Love, please tell me what's wrong. I hate seeing you like this… oh, come on, Giannine!" he pleaded softly as he was close to tears himself. Then he thought he heard his girlfriend mutter something incoherent into his robes. "What was that love? I can't hear you."

"I'm… not worthy… useless… trouble… liar…" she slurred between sobs. This only confused Nigel more. Why on earth would Giannine would think that she was not worthy of being with him? In his mind, even after that enlightening discussion the couple had during their last session, the situation was the other way around. He did not think he was worthy of her!

"Why would you say that?" asked Nigel as he continued to pet and comfort his girlfriend.

" 'cause, it true…" she whined as a new round of sobs started. Nigel sighed and decided to wait out her tears. She would be able to give him more coherent answers. After a few moments, Giannine's sobs had decreased to sniffles. Nigel's arms were getting tired, but he did not stop his efforts to comfort her.

"Now, what are you talking about, Giannine?" he asked again. She sniffed softly and muttered,

"When you go public, everybody will want to know everything about your life. That includes who you are dating. Neither of my parents thought I was worth their time, hence me being left with my grandma! How is that going look? Then there was that whole leaked game mess… you nearly lost your company! That was partially my fault! Then the whole "Heir Accident" caused a get deal of mess for you, too. I just cause too much trouble." By the time she had finished her mini-rant her voice had reached a hysterical pitch. Nigel just shushed her again and waited for her pull herself back together again. Nigel kept quiet for a few more moments, collecting his thoughts. Then he took a deep breath and spoke,

"Remember what you told me when we took that walk, after Dale nearly killed us both?" he looked into her tear-stained eyes as she shook her head slowly, "You said, 'We do complement each other nicely, don't we?' You explained that our strengths make up for the weaknesses in each other. So what if you happen to be the top poster child for Murphy's Law? I have enough knowledge in this head of mine to get you out of trouble. And if I can't do it alone, there are plenty of people who owe me a favor or two." Giannine nodded slowly as she wiped at her wet face. "As for everyone else, well… they can go screw themselves! I am not going to dump you because they are suffering from social class constipation!" Giannine was pleasantly shocked by Nigel's vehement defense of her. Nigel hardly ever used harsh words when he spoke, unless he was very emotional. The first time she had heard Nigel swear had been when he was describing how messed up his life with Dale was. She smiled softly. She had been acting rather silly… stupid hormones! She knew better than to think that Nigel would just bow down to people's whims. His life reflected his resistance to that stance. His family wanted another Dale, he started his own company and turned into a fortune. CPOC (Citizens to Protect Our Children) wanted him to shut down his company and leave. Nigel basically told them to get stuffed and took a good chunk of their money while he was at it. As she thought about the CPOC incident, she started to laugh. Nigel just grinned in response.

"T-thanks for cheering me up, Nigel, I am not laughing at you, though." She admitted after he raised one of his eyebrows in a questioning manner. " I was just thinking about that CPOC case." Nigel snorted.

"That was cake, Giannine, don't worry about it!" said Nigel. She chuckled, it sure was. Giannine had heard her grandma often say,

"You can't have your cake and it, too." Nigel had his own version of this adage,

"You can have your cake and eat it, too. Just eat theirs." She had seen that in person.

"I know that! I still find the situation ironic, though." said Giannine as she pulled a handkerchief from the bosom of the dress she was wearing and cleaned her face off with it. She heard Nigel chuckle softly and agree. She could almost see the courtroom the case had been held in as if she was still sitting in it. The whole incident had started when she had received a gift certificate to one of Nigel's gaming centers for her birthday when she was fourteen. She had ignored the warning from the automated bus that there had been danger at the Rasmussem Gaming Center and went back after the bus had dropped her off at a museum a few blocks away. The danger had taken the form of a CPOC demonstration in front of the doors. She had edged around the demonstrators and was let in by the guard that had been at the door. She had chosen to play the "Heir Apparent" game. During her allotted time, some crazed CPOC members broke in and began damaging the equipment. They had caused about $500,000 worth of damage to the gaming center and lost the center months worth of revenue. They unintentionally trapped Giannine in the game and nearly killed her.

But she had managed to win the game and make it out alive. When she finally came back to her senses, she found that she had been resting in Nigel's lap in a position similar to the one she was in now. After their awkward first exchange, she had left with her father. She had been taken to a nearby hospital and declared very healthy for someone that had almost died. The next few days after that were a blur for her. About a week after the incident, she received a phone call from Nigel himself. He had called her to ask if she would testify at a court hearing. She agreed and long story short, Nigel's lawyers tore CPOC apart. Not only did Nigel get damages money from the organization, he also got money for Giannine's near death ordeal (part of that money was collecting interest in a bank and would be used for college tuition), he also got money back for the customers that lost their money in games they did not get to finish, and he got money for the revenue he lost in the aftermath of the incident. Then he pressed criminal charges against the members that actually broke the machines and threatened the safety of his customers, some of them were still in jail. CPOC was devastated by the court hearings. Their finances were in the red due to the massive bill they were given by the court. Then some of their members, including a few prominent members, went to jail for reckless endangerment involving minors and in Giannine's case, attempted involuntary manslaughter. This forever destroyed the image that CPOC was trying to present, that they were protectors of children and their innocence. Most people nowadays call them a joke at best, or compare them to PETA at worst. They never protested the Rasmussem Company again.

As a rebuttal, Nigel entered into an agreement to work with Disney and Square Enix to produce a total immersion version of Kingdom Hearts and a partial immersion version of Winnie the Pooh, for the smaller kids. (AN: Kingdom Hearts was released initially in 2002. It was a pretty big deal back then, which is why I used it.) She was particularly excited about these projects, because she helped work on them. Sure, she helped with the simpler processes and gave the thumbs up or the thumbs down on ideas for the more complex stuff, but she helped! It was going to be a big deal next week. People were already talking about it and given that next week was the start of Disney World's Spring Break season, this was going to put Rasmussem Gaming in a bracket of its own! The games were going to be debuted at the 2005 Spring Game Break Expo in Florida at Disney Quest. With Kingdom Hearts 2 set to drop in Japan in December and in North America in March, this was a perfect time to debut the game while interest was high. A copy of both games will also be place in the Rochester Center and the Japanese gaming center next month. If the reviews are good after a trial period of a month, the games will be launched at other select centers nationwide.

Another announcement that will garner huge attention is that, after 2+ years of work, Heir Expectant will be coming out soon. The tentative date was set for December 21st of this year, if they could get rid of Dale and his bug in time. After the "Heir Accident", Heir Apparent gained a huge cult following: fanfiction, fan-art, and fan made apparel started appearing at conventions and online as more and more people became fascinated with the game. At first, no one, including Nigel, knew what to do with the new fandom, until Hot Topic contacted them a year after the "Heir Accident" to ask about merchandizing the game and Giannine's story. Then Nigel realized that Heir Expectant, which had been a side hobby at first, needed to be completed pronto. He decided to feed people's curiosity about Giannine's story and have a more concise story to work with by placing Giannine's character in the sequel.

So he changed his plan from just bringing Giannine into the lab to test the newer game mode that he just finished buffering, to having her test it and do a character study, so that he could design her in-game character. Then he got a better idea, he used the new open ended technology that he created for the "living section" of the game to allow Giannine to do the character study in real game time and just linked the sequences to the game world. By doing the character study this way he did not have to transfer Giannine's voice and actions to the game separately, which saved him a lot of time and effort; and also allowed them to continue testing the newer feature. He also gathered some of the people that played major roles in the first game and got them to reprise their roles using his real game time method. Nigel also reprised his role as Prince Kenric in some of the major scenes. Then he used the same subject oriented character studies to teach the computers how to respond to different scenarios just like or almost like the actors would.

They also had excerpts of their game play recorded by in game cameras, edited, and buffered in real world, so they could serve as ads for the game and company. They also created a 30 minute mini-story about what happened to Giannine during the CPOC incident in the real world and what Queen Janine did in St Jehan during Giannine's game winning run. The short film and Nigel himself would also be debuted at the Expo as part of the Heir Expectant announcement. Giannine wished that she could be there to support Nigel as he went public, but she just did not have the means. She sighed again.

"Are you still dwelling on what we talked about earlier?" asked Nigel. She shook her head and laid it on his shoulder.

"No, I was just wishing that I could be with you next week for your first public appearance and the game announcements! But—" she broke off and sighed. She reached up and began to finger a lock of his dark hair that had fallen loose from the messy ponytail he had it in. He had grown his hair out some time last year, mostly for his game parts but he decided to leave it that way because looked less like his sinister sibling and because Giannine thought it looked awesome on him. She had tried to convince him to get an earring, but so far she was not having any luck. She slowly stopped as she noticed a sly twinkle in her boyfriend's eyes. "What?" she asked, cocking her head to the side to study him.

"Speaking of that, I have a surprise for you." He said as a smile slowly made its way onto his face. Giannine grinned and said,

"Really? Tell me! If this is coming from you than it has to be big!" Nigel chuckled at his love's enthusiasm. He hugged her briefly and said,

"Patience, little one; I am getting there. There are three parts to your surprise. Now, for the first part of your surprise, you will have to do a little work…" Giannine frowned cutely at Nigel's cryptic statement.

"What kind of work?" she asked hesitantly.

"On next Friday, you will do the immersion games'/Heir Expectant pre-launch interview with me, but you get to be in the parks and in the same room with me for the whole week." He explained. To Giannine it sounded like the last half of his explanation carried a promise with it. She could not help next words that slipped from her lips; her brain had shut down when she saw the hungry look in his eyes.

"Promises, promises…" she practically purred. He smirked at her and said smugly,

"That I intend to keep…" Giannine sat up quickly and flushed a bright shade of red. Heat began to rush from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, while electricity danced up and down her spine. Her body shuddered in anticipation. She finally jumped to her feet and moved away from him as she started to pace to calm her nerves.

"You were—saying that there were three parts to my surprise?" she asked in slightly squeaky tone due to her rattle nerves and screaming hormones. Nigel slowly stood up and stepped over to the pacing monarch and wrapped his arms around her from behind and stilled her movements. Giannine leaned into his body as she continued watch the fluffy and mundane clouds roll by to help re-focus her mind.

"The second part of your surprise will be found at the Disney parks, but you have to play a game to get it—" he started to explain, but a groan from Giannine cut him off. Nigel snorted and playfully chastised her saying, "If you interrupt me again, I will not tell you anything else." Giannine wanted to cross her arms and pout, but because Nigel was practically draped over her shoulders like a cape, she could not, so she sighed and muttered a "get on with it!" Nigel smirked into her neck, loving the fact that he was getting under his love's skin for a change.

"The final part of your surprise, is here in St. Jehan. It will help you to get to your first two surprises. But first you and I have a quest to complete." He admitted. She turned around completely this time.

"What kind of quest? You know I do not do well with quests!" she said sarcasm dripping from her lips. Nigel winced at her vitriolic tone and hastened to explain himself.

"Do you remember the day that Dale attacked us in the game?" Giannine nodded. He continued, "You gave me a message from the castle, right?" She nodded again. "Well, we have been asked to retrieve a rare jewel from a well guarded cave." explained Nigel. Giannine's eyes narrowed. "This jewel is supposed to be a magic enhancer."

"And we care because…?" said Giannine with a sarcastic bite to her voice. Nigel narrowed his eyes a bit. She was being argumentative today. Maybe it was the hormones or maybe she was just worried and keyed up. He relaxed and sighed.

"What would happen if Dale got his hands on that jewel in the game?" asked Nigel. Giannine's posture relaxed as she began to think. Then she gasped slightly and paled slightly.

"Dale could kill us without even trying…" she breathed fearfully. Nigel nodded. He reached out and gripped her shoulder in reassurance. "How long would this quest take and what about the kingdom? Who would run it?" Nigel grinned at her concern and her gaming skill. She had not forgotten that she had a kingdom to take care of as well.

"I asked Wulfgar to return home for a few weeks and watch the kingdom for you and I. He agreed. This quest may take a few days." He said honestly. She nodded her head.

"Who asked us to retrieve the jewel?" asked the Queen as she continued cloud watching.

"I did." Nigel responded glibly. Once again, Giannine turned around to face her boyfriend and gave him an incredulous stare. Nigel laughed.

"After Dale tried to kill me the first time, I wised up and created a spying program. This program scans for any unauthorized gamers and alerts me in the game. It tells me that there is an intruder and what he or she maybe looking for or doing." He explained. She nodded.

"So, we are going to stop him from gaining another advantage in the game?" she asked. He nodded and Giannine sighed. "I guess I have to go, then. How far away is this jewel? Is it well guarded?"

"It is located in a well guarded cave about half a day's ride from here." He said honestly.

"Well, we better get started, then." Said Giannine as she took her boyfriend by the hand and led him towards castle…

Ok, I know I threw a lot of info at you in this chapter, but this sets the stage for everything else that will happen from here on out. Thanks for reading and I apologize for the delay and pray that the updates will become more frequent. Review please!