Doctors and Dresses

The next morning Harry woke up with an adrenaline hang over. He stood in front of a mirror, leaning over the sink, with just a white towel wrapped around his waist. His body was aching, possibly from all the rigorous work from yesterday, but also from staying up all night. He questioned his qualifications to work with Francine. He liked the idea of helping out, but he was concerned that his image would tarnish the goal. In the end, he wanted the organization to be benefitted, not his name.

“Hey, rough night?” Jacob walked in with a towel over his shoulder, and what looked like his girlfriend’s shower caddy. Harry shot him a curious look, “What? My bird has excellent taste in shampoo and conditioner. Plus, my luggage was lost so I don’t have half my clothes or shower supplies.”

“I can help you out in that department. You don’t need to shower with girl smelling shampoo.”

“Hey! My lady’s shampoo smells bloody brilliant. You would be lucky to smell this shampoo, that’s how good it is.” Jacob crossed his arms, “And besides, what I want to know is what you and Frannie were talking about yesterday. We fetched a table for the four of us, but you two never showed up.”

“Oh, we thought you two wanted to be alone.”

Jacob smirked, a dirty picture crossed his mind. “Can’t complain. But you two looked like you were an inch away from either snogging or winning a race. We couldn’t suss it out.”

Harry smiled nervously, “We are going to fundraise together.”

Jacob’s eyebrows never raised higher, “Is that code for sex? I thought Frannie declared no sex in the room. And she’s not the kind of girl to mess with.”

“No! Oh, God no. I have no intention-”

“Good. She’s a good girl. Better than half the women in the UK. She works harder than anyone I know, and her heart is on her sleeve for the most part. Frannie can put a professional mask on and act like everything is peachy, but behind those walls and guards is just Francine.”

“I understand, but all we’re doing is raising money for the organization. We want to make sure that with the money they can use it to provide more medical attention to the tribes and such. I do not, under any circumstance, want to embark in a relationship with Francine. It’s strictly professional.”

“Yeah,” Jacob sighed, “You say that now.” He winked and stepped into the shower and turned the water on.

Harry stood by the sink, numb. He couldn’t explain the feeling that was pulsing through him, or the thoughts that plagued his mind. He felt weak yet powerful, nervous yet confident. He walked out, and back into the room with that feeling reeling. No one was there, and he took the opportunity to change.

He went to breakfast and found Francine already eating with Dakota. He grabbed a pre-made egg sandwich and joined them.

“Hey,” They said in unison.

“What’s up?”

“Well,” Francine put down her fork, “I was telling Fitz about our plan. To fundraise.”

“Oh, what do you think?”

“It’s awesome. It’ll do this place good to have some extra money. My concern is that you two will never be able to meet up.” Dakota replied with a mouth full of Cheerios.

Harry started to nod, but Francine’s face lit up.

“We don’t have to. As long as you have a webcam and a Skype of something, we’re in the clear. Between emails, phone calls and now video chatting, there really isn’t a need to meet up in person.”

“Of course,” Harry put in hoping that he didn’t sound too desperate, “We’d have to at some point. We can’t just run an entire project and not meet up. If we want partners, investors, we’d have to get together and go over things that we’d want to talk about with them. We’d need to have notes that are on the same page. Plus, how reliable can Skype be? It could crash or get glitchy.”

“I’m going to be at our flat in Oxford until the end of school year. Minus the few events and holidays I’ll be with my family.”

“I have training normally five days a week, but I can take days off. Plus weekends are free.”

“My classes have weird schedules, so when I’m not writing term papers I can set up meetings.”

“Yeah, but maybe we should set up a place to meet in the middle?”

Francine was nodding, “Yes, that’s makes sense-”

“Woah.” Dakota interrupted, “You two are talking a mile a minute. We’re in Africa, we should be getting in the shuttle any minute now. You two should exchange contact information? I mean, it’ll be difficult to Skype when you don’t even each other’s usernames.”

Harry chuckled nervously, “Right of course. Besides, I leave in two days anyway.”

“Okay,” Francine started to write on a napkin. “Here’s everything. My mobile, email and Skype. Just send a message to these saying it’s you.” Handing it over Francine had to mentally stop her hand from shaking. In her mind she knew how important this moment was. From here on out she knew that she would never forget Harry and their attempt to better the situation here in Africa.

He looked over the napkin, trying to memorize the curves in each letter. Francine flashed him a smile and he replied with the same. “Okay, so this is the official start, isn’t it?”

“Indeed. First thing we should do is set up a website for donations.”

“What would do that?”

Dakota sighed, “There are Internet trolls all over the internet. Some of them have to have a heart. Plus, anything that is anything has a website. It’s practically a requirement.”

“Jacob can do that-”

“I can do what?” Jacob, dressed in a cheesy Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts walked over. His tray was filled various breakfast items.

“You’re going to eat all of that in ten minutes?” Francine couldn’t help but smile.

“Ten minutes?”

“Yeah, the shuttle leaves in ten.” Francine giggled at the look of anguish on his face.

Before anyone could get a word he started stuffing food in mouth at a rapid pace. After the initial confusion they all started to cheer. They were clapping, banging on the table and chanting, all while keeping an eye on the clock. Harry was especially amused. For once there was absolutely no formalities. Even when he was a kid at home the butlers would treat him with respect because of his position, but here all of that was gone. Somehow he had found himself a group of friends that didn’t know his middle names and could care less that he is in the line of succession.

“Done!” Francine yelled. Jacob stood up, his cheeks filled like a squirrel's. The only thing left on his plate were a few crumbs. His face was flushed and yet he was filled with pride. Dakota tackled Jacob with a sloppy kiss.

“Ew!” She squealed while laughing, “It tasted like bacon!”

“Hey, you loved it.” Jacob responded with his mouth still.

Dakota smirked, “Maybe I did.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw his protection detail nod. It was time to leave for his second day. He ushered the group towards the door, their discussion was about something he didn’t know about. He just watched them enjoy themselves, and he wished he had a group of friends like so. There was his brother, and his wife, but their relationship wasn’t-- couldn’t be-- so laid back. He had his guy friends that always made him laugh, but when there was a new girlfriend she wasn’t as part of the group as much as she should be. Then there was his family friends, which mostly meant they talked about family members and memories from over a decade ago. He loved them all, in a way that couldn’t be duplicated. It’s he wanted something like this. A friendship that transcended everything.

The group made it into the shuttle on time, and Francine made an effort to talk not just to her friends, but everyone there. She asked how they felt about the project, how they physically felt and what they thought of the travel arrangements and such. The responses were all positive of course, as was expected. For the most part, the majority of the group had only been here two days.

The energy was high when they all stepped out of the shuttle and started to work. Progress was being made, although not as quickly as they had wanted. Imani had preformed her own dance routines that she had created the night prior. The four of them worked hard, and when the day was over they happily ate their meals and went to sleep.

Harry was supposed to stay a full five days, and leave early on the sixth. However there was an emergency concerning his charity Sentebale and he had to leave on the third. Needless to say, no one was particularly happy by his early departure.

Francine was watching him pack up. They talked over dinner about how they were going to work the fundraising out. Francine made the decision not to reach out to her family for donations or for fundraising. She had a certain degree of pride and stubbornness that combined to make a lethal concoction. She was viewed in her family as the baby, which in certain terms she was. Born the last of five Francine grew up with everyone in her family raising her. She wanted to prove that she wasn't helpless and little.

Harry placed a white tee in his suit case on top of his toothpaste.

“You’re a horrible packer, you know that? Absolutely no organization in there.”

He shot her a snide look, “Who needs to be organized when I’m just going to unpack it anyway? Everything will find it’s way eventually.”

She jumped off the side of the bed and picked up his shirt that he just through in his luggage, “Seriously? You don’t even fold your clothes?”

“Why do I need to? I’ll just unfold it to wear it.”

“You’re ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. For a prince you’re extremely dirty.”

“Who said that a prince has to be neat?” He smiled at her, “That is a stereotype. Very bad morals you have there.”

“How does stereotypes have anything to do with morals?”

“It just does!” They both laughed and Harry continued to pack. Before long his jumbled mess of clothes were all packed away and he was saying his goodbyes.

Harry never enjoyed leaving a place. He liked going somewhere new, but leaving was always hard. Francine put on happy face, and Jacob joked around teasing him for his flakiness. Dakota sent him back with an American tee-shirt, an inside joke that the two had started.

His two royal protection officers ushered him to the runway. He met with the pilot and a few stewards and stewardesses. It was almost past midnight when he met with them. He went on the plane and went right to sleep. Jet lag had already set in, and the plane hasn’t even taken off. In those few moments before slumber took over, Harry saw the landscape of Africa growing smaller and smaller until it eventually disappeared in his small plane window.