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

[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.

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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."

[pyroprincess]

"That goes without saying. Of course you'll be invited to the wedding." Stephanie answered smoothly.

"He will." Stephanie nodded. "But until then, I wholeheartedly approve the hiring of the best security you can find."

She wanted to stay on the new topic, however. "I suppose it remains to be seen what the wedding will actually look like. A small wedding sounds nice, but it may be difficult."

[ngm_parents]

"You can make it smaller if you have it on a private island in the Caribbean," he suggested. "When are you two planning on getting married?"

He settled back into his chair.