King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Ten, King and Queen of Hearts

They had to restart West's heart with a defibrilator once, shortly after they had gotten him to the hospital. The gun shot had been through his shoulder but his lungs had been slightly damanged and filled with blood. The doctors drained the fluid out and managed to restart his heartbeat and the Cubano was far too strong willed and stubborn to go down hill after that.

Joao had broken Maddison's zygomatic arch when he hit her, which meant she got headache and pain, all the fun of a concussion but no bruising. Refusing to leave her Cubano's side, Maddison had ridden in the ambulance with him and let the paramedics fuss over the shot man, knowing that she could wait until they arrived to be treated. Even with a broken face, Maddison was released from the hospital that day, but spent the bulk of the autumn staying at West's side. He was in the hospital for a week before they let him go home ot his family. But that was by no means the end of his hospital sojourn. West was gonig to be doing physical therapy for months just to regain use of his shoulder, the joint badly damaged but slowly recovering. West knew that from here on out he'd be able to predict the persnickity Candian weather with far more accuracy than the weatherman could ever achieve.

He hated how being so injured slowed him down, restricted what it was he could do. But West also appreciated every twinge of pain and frustrated moment of it because he knew better than most, how close he came to not only getting himself killed, but his Angel as well. Pride simply wasn't worth losing her.

"You've got a melancholic look on your face love. Alice will beat the daylights out of you if she thinks you're going to ruin her wedding by doing something dramatic." Mad warned as she fixed West's tie. She liked seeing her Cubano in a tuxedo, and even though he was a little bit skinnier now than back when he wore the suit for prom, it still looked mighty fine on him.

"Just thinking about what might have happened." West shrugged and then hissed as his shoulder twinged at the careless movement.

"Well don't. You'll just give yourself wrinkles and then you'll really looking like your father." Maddison teased, tucking her arm into his and trying not to fuss with nervousness.

"Thank you so much for that confidence booster. I love you too." West replied with a sarcastic air. But he smiled at his short lover, taking in a deep breath and trying to relax. It was Alice and Malcolm's wedding day. It was about d*** time those two got married, Alice was as big as a house and ready to pop that baby out at any minute now. And she looked fantastic, having that glow that everyone attributes to pregnancy.

West was a little stunned that it was already December, it felt like this year had alternated between dragging its feet and leap frogging itself so that the end of the year waylaid West and caught him completely unprepared. Hard to believe that he'd only known Alice and Maddison for a year now, these two women were so closely interwoven into his life now. One as sister and the other as lover and he loved them both deeply for the honour. West kissed Maddison on the temple and whispered 'Te amo' in her ear, loving the way she blushed in response. That was his Angel, romantic and quirky to the very end and he sent a silent prayer skyward that she had stuck with him through it all.

"There's the groom. I'm going to go make sure that he doesn't freak himself out." West whispered, letting his lover go so he could go talk to his once idol and often surrogate big brother. He spotted Maddison weaveing her way through the crowd, probably gonig to go check on Alice while she had a man free moment. "Así que esta es tu gran día." he smiled at Malcolm, skipping the awkward bro-hug most North Americans used and actually hugging the man. (So this is your big day)

"Mi garganta se siente tan seco que podía beber de un lago." Malcolm replied while fussing with his tie. West laughed, not expecting the man to be nervous. (My throat feels so dry I could drink a lake). Malcolm had no reason to be nervous, he knew that. He just had this weird premonition that all the careful planning that got them to this day was gonig to fall apart at the last minute and his wedding was going to turn into a catastrophe. And Malcolm and Alice were both unaware of some of the crises that West and Maddison had already dodged for them. For one, Mr. Bottomswell had finally figured out that Alice had been Malcolms student, and was very obviously pregnant. The poor old man had needed to sit down and have a stiff drink after that. Once it was made very clear to him that the two were undeniably in love, he seemed to calm down, and surprisingly it was Malcolm's own parents that talked the principal around to, if not liking the idea, at least not throwing a fit about it.