Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

[ngm_miscellaneous]

Marcelo Alencar da Silva had been in surgery for a few hours. He had been completely unaware of law enforcement locking down the city block his building was on. He had not been aware of much outside of trying to stay awake until some doctor like person told him it was okay to sleep.

The doctors had worked hard. As precisely as the sword had been impaled into their patient, they had to be just as precise to make sure he did not bleed out all over the operating table. Those doctors lived and worked in New York, home of the Avengers and Fantastic Four. Yet, they were never quite prepared for people stabbed with swords.

Even with a very close call, the Brazilian patient was rolled out to recovery. As the nurses and doctors monitored him, the surgeon went out to explain to his fiancee how things went. When the medical personnel were sure he was stable enough, he was sent to his own private room and allowed to have visitors.

Comments

[vesper_verde]

"I'm terrible. And I'm loopy. And I think I have a tubes in places I don't wanna look." He closed his eyes and enjoyed Stephanie laying with him.

He kept stroking her hair. It made him feel better at least. "Hands are important. It's hard to feel you up later without them."

[pyroprincess]

"You are terribly loopy, yes. And ... I'm quite certain that you do. Hopefully they'll take that out soon." Stephanie snuggled up a little closer to him, enjoying just being with him.

"They're very important. And you had best take good care of those hands." She closed her eyes.

"I'm actually feeling sleepy."

[vesper_verde]

"Being able to pee on my own would be nice. Not being in pain when you excite me would be a very nice bonus." He was too strung out from anesthesia to get excited at the moment. Though he was content to stroke her hair. He liked the feeling of those soft strands across his fingertips.

Though he did try to touch her nose with his glowing red fingertip. "Boop. The magical you can sleep right here touch."

He yawned a little. "I'll join you. Until a nurse chases me out of the bed. My shapely butt hanging in the breeze and all."

[ngm_parents]

Luíz had finally managed to track down where his son was after dealing with law enforcement and getting his own nerves back together. He let out a slow breath outside of the door to his son's hospital room. He looked upward and hoped Letícia had kept an eye on their boy.

He turned lifted the door handle and walked in.

Sometime, in the middle of the night...

[hellkitten]

Liza crouched on top of the hospital parking garage, scanning the hospital grounds with the night vision feature in her spiffy new costume's mask. She could see far better in the dark than most people unaided... something to do with that family adaptation for functioning in Stygian blackness. The technology in the mask elevated that to "might as well be daylight".

She could see private guards as well as law enforcement patrolling. Some out in the open, the obvious deterrents, and some less obvious. There were more than a few of them, not surprising, given such a spectacular and bloody assault on one of the biggest business interests in the world. Quite a force, professionals all, but they weren't ready for the likes of her.

At least, she really, really hoped not. Otherwise, this was going to be embarrassing as all Home.

Liza watched, waited, picked her moment, then flicked her wrist, and the line in her glove shot out across the space between the garage and the main building. She swung across and sunk her claws into the side of it, the heating elements in them melting into the brick and giving her extra purchase. She scuttled down the wall, pausing at one certain window, the top of her head barely peeking down over the frame to check on who was inside. Two people in a hospital bed, one the man she was looking for, the other, Liza guessed, his fiancee. No guards in the room.

Her new costume was packed with all sorts of handy features, but the item strapped on her back was definitely non-standard equipment. Still hanging upside down, she unhooked it, took a marker out of a pouch hidden under her sash, and began writing.

Liza wasn't stupid, although sometimes she pretended to be less astute and observant than she really was. And she was pretty good at telling when someone was trying to hide something... that came with the territory when your father was the Prince of Lies.

Done with her message, she held the whiteboard up to the window.

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie heard the door open and turned around to see Marcelo's father. Though she wasn't really physically exhausted, she felt emotionally drained. She'd just seen his bandages get changed not so long ago. It was difficult seeing the oozing blood and ... other things. He was doing well, considering, but he wasn't totally out of the woods yet. And she wasn't leaving until he was.

She was a little afraid of what Luiz thought, of what he'd do. She couldn't blame him if he ordered that his son go back to Brazil- he must have been terrified. She was terrified too, but she'd had a foot in this insane world for awhile now.

"Hola." She finally said after a moment, gesturing towards another chair next to Marcelo.

[vesper_verde]

Marcelo was physically drained to Stephanie's emotionally. He was dozing when he heard voices. He stirred a little but stayed asleep for the time being.

[ngm_parents]

Luíz stopped momentarily at seeing Stephanie there. He kept his face blank as he fought a swirling tide of emotions. This wasn't the time to sift through it.

The sight of his son laying in a hospital bed smothered whatever else he felt. It pained Luíz to see his son this way.

"Olá," he greeted softly. He glanced at the chair before walking over and settling down on it. He didn't particularly want to sit, but he doubted pacing the room would help much.

Re: Sometime, in the middle of the night...

[vesper_verde]

Sleeping as much as he did meant Marcelo was awake at odd hours. Almost like being Vesper except with a lot more pain in his chest. Movement at the windows caught his attention. He glanced over and did a double take.

He grinned a little. At least equipment suppliers were well thought of. He gave Hellkitten a little wave.

Re: Sometime, in the middle of the night...

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie looked out the window and saw ... well, she's assuming it must have been Hellkitten, waving a little sign out at her. Her face screwed up ever so slightly, unable not to feel slightly jealous. She didn't do anything as drastic as go over to the window, but she continued to watch.

If Hellkitten tried to come in, however, there would be words.

Re: Sometime, in the middle of the night...

[hellkitten]

Liza grinned and waved back. Then she performed a walkover/backbend, the kind of maneuver usually performed by a gymnast on a floor mat, balance beam, or other horizontal surface, against the side of the building, coming to rest right side up, perched on the narrow ledge outside the window.

Showing off? Demonstrating that her new light armor didn't hinder her balance or flexibility? The answer was entirely up to the observer.

Liza smiled again, gave a thumbs up gesture and another wave, then cast her line out and swung away into the night.

[pyroprincess]

She watched him sit down, and turned her eyes back to Marcelo. She wasn't sure what to say to Luiz, if it was indeed appropriate for her to say anything at all. She took a deep breath. The silent tension needed to be broken, somehow.

"I don't know if you had a chance to speak with the doctors. Their prognosis is actually quite good. He should be out of the hospital in between one and two weeks. And working again in a month or so."

And then it was back to watching over Marcelo.

[ngm_parents]

His brow furrowed for a moment. His son had not awoken to help make this less awkward. He took in a breath.

"I am... of many emotions right now. Relief that Marcelinho is alive being the biggest." He was very careful and deliberate with his words. Because he was sorting through everything as it came out.

"I should owe you thanks for saving him."

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie nodded. She couldn't help but wish, herself, that Marcelo would wake up and take some of the dreadful awkwardness out of the room.

"I would do anything for him." Die, as unimagineable as that seemed. And also, kill. She'd killed for him, twice as a matter of fact. Compared to the raw relief of his being alive and able to recover, it was miniscule, but there was a part of her that had to process that reality. "I'm glad I could get there in time."

She looks over at Marcelo again.

"I could go, if you wanted to spend some time with him."

Re: Sometime, in the middle of the night...

[vesper_verde]

Marcelo watched the display of his gear fitted to the right person. He was quite impressed. He gave her a thumbs up with a grin.

"Nice that I've got more people looking out for..." he glanced at Stephanie.

"... uh, me."

[ngm_parents]

"No, you can stay. You're going to be as important part of his life as me." He rubbed his hands together because they felt cold. Maybe it was this room or the idea he nearly lost his son today.

"We should talk, you and I. Letícia never talked much with my parents. They did not want me marrying her. Even after Marcelinho was born, they did not accept her."

[pyroprincess]

The room wasn't exactly warm, but there was a chill in it that wasn't just the temperature. Stephanie was hardly ever cold, a natural side-effect of her particular mutant metabolism, but it was hard not to feel a chill, nonetheless. She nodded.

"She wasn't wealthy like your family would have been. I imagine they were hoping you'd fall for someone rich." She looked over at Marcelo again for a moment. "I think, though, in him, I can see some of the reasons why you did as you did."

"There are some who feel similarly about Marcelo and I, for a number of reasons."

[ngm_parents]

"She was the daughter of one of our gardeners and one of our maids. Letícia was born well below our station to them. My mother told me that servants were for serving, not marrying. It is part of why I dropped my mother's surname and took Letícia's father's when we married." He paused and set his palms down on his knees.

"Today, in a very small part, I understood where that came from. A misguided sense of protectiveness. I would love to order my son back home, to keep him away from... this. But I know he won't go. The months you two were apart were some of his most miserable here in America. I almost visited then. Just to make him stop working all the time."

[pyroprincess]

"I'm sure I would have been told something similar had Marcelo not also been a billionaire." Father had been rather silent about the issue of Marcelo, perhaps because he sensed that it was a non-negotiable issue. There were many things that she had to surrender to him, but that was one thing he would never touch. Or there would be hell to pay.

"I can't blame you for wanting to take him away from all this." Stephanie replied. "But ... you're right. We were miserable without each other." She doubted he would choose to go, either. He had his work, and his other work, and her. And he was not one to cut and run.

"But he will be okay. I know there were many others that weren't so fortunate. If there is anything I can do to help you and your people, just ask."

Re: Sometime, in the middle of the night...

[pyroprincess]

"... I see. I assume that was Hellkitten." Stephanie looked towards the now empty window. "Cute little stunt with the whiteboard." Next thing she knew, Marcelo's ex was going to show up with flowers and fulsome declarations of her eternal love. "And with the gymnastics, as clearly you also noticed."

[ngm_parents]

He dragged his gaze away from his sleeping son to Stephanie. His look was as level as he could make it considering the circumstances.

"I need you to promise me you'll protect him. From himself. From whatever else comes at him. I need to know he'll be safe."

He drew in a slightly unsteady breath. "I will handle everything else until he's strong enough to shoulder it."

Re: Sometime, in the middle of the night...

[vesper_verde]

"Yes, that was Hellkitten," he replied carefully.

"Her gymnastics is why I designed her suit the way it is. Well, after a fashion. The cat motif is all hers." And then he realized his mouth might start leading him into trouble. He trailed off and made small cough.

[pyroprincess]

"Your son is the most precious thing in my life. I will protect him, I promise you." This time, she had no problem meeting his gaze. She couldn't promise he'd be safe, because they both knew Marcelo was not one to seek safety. She knew things that he did not, of course, about Vesper, but it was an established enough trait of his even if one didn't know about his nocturnal activities.

"Of course. But there are certain resources I could call upon to assist. The Shaw Industries legal team, for one." There were others that she couldn't so openly offer, of course.

[ngm_parents]

He nodded once. He caught the omission of safe, but he couldn't really press on that point.

"I will be invited to the wedding, of course." It was good to change to a new topic. He couldn't dwell on thinking his son would be in the hospital again like this.

"I have hired some security. To supplement law enforcement and what's here at the hospital. Symkarian mercenaries, I believe. When Marcelinho is better, he will want to run things. But until he's out of the hospital, I have paid for extra protection."

[ngm_adults]

When the news got to Helena about Marcelo, she knew she had to do something. Though she suspected his... fiancee might be around in the hospital room. Rather than deal with the interloping woman, the Brazilian supermodel sent the best get well flower arrangement with Marcelo's favorite colors she could find.

The handwritten note said:
Tchelo,
Please get well soon. The world needs more men like you in it.
♥

Though Helena wasn't aware of it, she would have been pleased the billboard facing his room in the hospital was a men's shirt ad with her wearing little more than one of the advertised button up shirts.