Going Back

The weeks had gone by so much faster than Della had expected. The first few days after they had returned home had been pure chaos. Not only did they all have to get caught back up at work, but they had to jump immediately into planning for a baby, finding doctors, and organizing a whole ass wedding. Della felt more tired now than she did when she had finally left the castle. A lot of it may have been due to the little life growing inside of her, but she didn't know enough about being pregnant yet to make the connection.

Now she was in her room packing to go back to the castle to meet up with her mother and her crew to make all of the final arrangements for her big day with Caine. Thinking about how close she was to finally getting to marry him put a smile on her face and gave her a sudden burst of happy energy.

She started to sing the old country song that her mother used to sing to her when she was small. Whenever she was scared or stressed out, her mom would hug her super tight and sing it to her. It still made her feel better, even now that she wasn't a child anymore.

Della suddenly realized that she was a little scared. She hadn't thought about it up until now, but the thought of going back to that castle without Caine did have her a bit on edge. She wasn't quite sure if it was the castle, or being without Caine that had her so bothered. After all, her own sister was now the queen, Mister and Pearl were dead, and her whole squad was meeting her there. Besides, it was her own damn castle now anyways.

She decided that it had to be leaving Caine for a week that was making her feel this way. She was extremely anxious about it, and wondered if it might be too soon to do this.

Just then there was a knock at her door, bringing her back from inside her mind.

"Who is it?" Della asked distractedly, as she snapped back from her thoughts.

"It's me ya hoe hoe," she heard a small voice say through the door, followed by a loud sarcastic laugh.

"Only one person in the world that could be, come to me, my little sweet tart," Della quipped back. Cat busted out laughing as she popped her head in the door.

"How'd you know it was me?" She asked playfully, with a huge grin on her face.

"Nobody else has the nerve to call me a hoe hoe in such a tiny little voice," Della answered with a smirk on her face.

"Ohhhhh, that was mean, you got me sis," Cat laughed at her friend's insult about her size, but she wasn't missing her chance to give it back to her, either.

"That's okay, pretty soon your butt will be so big, you'll be drying off with a bedspread... with your pregnant behind self," Cat shot back mid- laugh. Della was laughing too hard to even return fire at that point. She just reached for her friend and pulled her in for a tight hug.

"I've missed you brat," Della told her as she hugged her as hard as she could.

"I've missed you a ton, too girl," Cat replied as she squeezed Della back. When the girls finally stopped hugging, Cat asked Della if she was ready to go.

"What do you mean?" Della asked her in a surprised manner,

"I thought you were coming tomorrow with my mom?"

"I was," she said with a giggle,

"but your mother is making excuses to bring Georgio early, I guess she just can't let him go, so I figured I'd fly in with you. If you want me to, anyways."

"Of course you can fly in with me," Della told her with a laugh.

"Good, let's go then, bitch," Cat joked. Della just rolled her eyes and told her to go find some food and leave her alone for a minute. She wanted to say goodbye to Caine privately, and food always worked to distract Cat. It was crazy how much that little bitty girl loved to eat.

"Fine, but could you hurry it up?" She protested as she headed for the kitchen, shutting the door behind her. Della laughed a little more, and then she dialed Caine's number and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello?" He said hastily. He sounded out of breath, and that made her wonder what he was up to.

"What are you doing? Aren't you coming to say goodbye to me before I leave?" She asked him as sweetly as she could.

"I'll catch you before you leave, beautiful. You just go on about your plans." He must have picked up on her displeasure, because he instantly began to try to reassure her.

"I'll catch up, you'll see," he said to her in a hurry.

"I love you, Della," he told her in a huff, and then the line went dead. She was put off by his behavior, and her feelings were a little stung, as well.

"Well goodbye to you, too," she said in a sour tone to the now disconnected phone. She figured that he was just busy, so she just tried to shrug it off while she finished packing.

Once she was done, she tried to call him one more time before she left, but this time she didn't even get an answer.

"What are you doing?" She asked him, even though he couldn't hear her.

She started to feel a strange tug at her heart, much like the one she had on that awful night when she was forced to get engaged to Mister, and Caine never came to stop it. Granted, he was actually tied up at the time...to a whole ass chair. She couldn't help it, though, she knew it was silly but she still started to feel a little bit abandoned by him again. She tried to reason with herself but she just couldn't understand his lack of interest in saying goodbye to her.

She felt a little deflated by his absence at the moment, so she decided to just make her way downstairs, and get her things to the car, instead of allowing her mind to draw its own conclusions.

She took a good look around the room at all of the things that she had packed to take, though, and she decided that she needed help. She called for a butler and she went ahead downstairs to find Cat, leaving all of the luggage behind for someone else to retrieve.

"Hey, have you heard from the guys?" she asked Cat as she walked into the kitchen.

"Nope, have you?" Cat asked in return through a mouth full of loaded ice cream sundae.

"No, and it seems very strange. I wonder where they could be? You would think that Caine would actually want to say goodbye to me," Della said in a reserved manner, with a frown on her face.

"I'm sure he's fine, he probably just got held up somewhere. Don't stress it, let's just get going to the airport. I'm sure he will catch up there," Cat told her as she finished her ice cream in a hurry and pushed the bowl back across the counter, towards the sink where the maid was standing.

"You're probably right, let's get going then," Della said with a sigh, as she grabbed her purse and turned to leave the house. Cat hopped up from the bar and quietly followed her out to the car. Cat chit-chatted all the way to the airport, but Della barely heard anything that she said. She was just too worried about why Caine hadn't come to say goodbye.

When they got to the boarding gate for their flight, there was still no Caine. Della tried to call him again, but this time she actually got an answer.

"Babe, where are you?" She blurted out before he could even say 'hello.' Cat sat quietly and watched her friend talking on the phone. She noticed a change in her body language and that Della seemed a bit upset when she hung the phone up.

"Everything okay?" Cat asked her curiously.

"I guess so, Caine said he's tied up and that he won't make it to say goodbye," she said sadly,

"he said that he would see me when he got there to the castle in a few days."

"See, I told you that he was fine," Cat said as she tried to reassure her.

"I suppose you're right, but I miss him already," she said, trying hard not to cry.

"Don't cry, girl, soon enough you two will be married and completely on each other's nerves. Why don't we try to enjoy this flight and save the worry for the wedding?" Cat asked her sulking friend.

"You're right, you're right," Della said as she tried to brush the irritation off of her mood.

"Let's enjoy this trip, after the baby is born, this won't be so easy to do."

Just then their gate was opened and the two girls boarded their plane, both still in a pretty good mood, even though Della was still a little sad that Caine had not come to say goodbye even after he promised he would. Both of them were looking forward to some love on this trip, both of them prayed that they had it coming.

Secretly, Cat's heart was doing flip flops at the thought of being in the same place with Josh and Queen Rebecca again. It had been a wild ride the last time, and everyone ended up getting hurt in the end. She really had no idea of how to feel at the moment, but she was determined to be there for her friend anyways.

Della reached around absentmindedly and touched the back of her neck, in an effort to make sure that her tiny friend was still aboard under her hair. Ella wrapped her small arms around her finger to let her know that all was well.

The little fairy was feeling quite pleased with herself for gathering all of the information that she had over the last few weeks. She was almost giddy at how much it was all going to be worth to bargain with, it wouldn't be long now before she finally got the one thing that she wanted more than life itself. She let a sly smirk drift across her cunning little face, and she settled in for the ride.