Slow Dancing in the Darkness

“He said you were like your mother?” Lionel posed as he looked over at Gabriela, his stomach turning a little at the red puffiness that surrounded her blue eyes. He hadn’t been expecting her back so early, from what he understood, she had planned to spend some time with Luca, but when he had found her in their bedroom crying, he knew that the older man had caused a problem. He didn’t know a lot about Luca, Gabriela’s family was not something that came up in conversation often, but he knew that Luca had an issue with her, something he could only guess was related to Gabriela’s mother.

Gabriela sighed. “Did you not wonder why I never spoke about her?” she posed, her hands gently tucking her hair behind her ears.

“I figured you’d tell me all I needed to know” Lionel noted gently “It’s only been a few months and I figured if I needed to hear about it, you would eventually tell me. It’s not like we know everything about one another yet” he added.

Gabriela nodded. “She’s not my favourite subject” she noted gently.

“You don’t have to tell me” Lionel noted.

“You ought to know” Gabriela replied softly “My mother was terrible at marriage” she murmured.

Lionel tilted his head a little and shuffled closer to her, his hand gently taking hers in support.

“She used to use my papa” she murmured “They married young and not long after, they had Davi, my oldest brother. After she had him, she disappeared for 3 weeks and then she showed up out of the blue, insisting that she’d changed. Needless to say, this happened after she had Evan and later me, and every time, my papa took her back. He was stupidly in love with her, never saw her flaws, at least not until I was 17 and she finally told him the truth. For 17 years, she’d been seeing another man, some idiot she’d met at work, and she wanted to divorce my father in order to start a new life with her boyfriend” Gabriela explained softly.

Lionel sighed. “I’m so sorry, Gabby” he murmured.

Gabriela shook her head. “When my papa compared me to my mother, it stung, Leo. I am not perfect, I am a little useless when it comes to marriage, but I am not her and to have him say that…I don’t think he could have said anything worse” she muttered.

Lionel shuffled a little closer and wrapped his arms around her, gently hugging her closer to him. “You don’t need him” he murmured.

“He’s my padre” Gabriela pointed out.

“I know” Lionel comforted, placing a small kiss on her temple “But he’s not going to change his mind about us, Gabby. Your father had decided within 30 seconds of meeting me that I was no good for you and now he thinks it’s you that’s the problem. Gabby, querida, he’s never going to be on board and right now, we have something else that we need to fix our attentions on” he mused with a soft look down towards her stomach, a fond smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

Gabriela noted the smile. She kind of like the way that he was already smiling at the prospect of their baby.

“He’s not just going to accept us, and I am not suggesting that we never make the effort, but for the next few months, perhaps we should focus on the most important thing” he suggested, his thumb gently brushing over her shirt.

Gabriela nodded. “Perhaps” she confirmed.

Lionel offered her a kind smile and pecked her lips briefly before he ducked back, admiring her for a second.

Gabriela blushed and pushed him away teasingly. “Stop staring” she pouted playfully.

“But you’re beautiful” he returned.

“And you’re saying more and more things like that. What’s gotten into you?” she teased softly.

Lionel shrugged. “Just feeling affectionate” he commented “It’s a phase I go through. You should ask Antonella about it” he commented.

“Does she know?” she posed.

“Not yet. I am due to see her and Thiago tomorrow. I’ll do it then. You’re going to tell Eli?” he posed.

“He’ll catch on eventually” Gabriela replied “He’s an ass, but he’s not that stupid” she added.

“I don’t know about that” Lionel commented playfully, nudging her ribs “He did let you go” he added.

Gabriela rolled her eyes. “Do you get out of this phase soon?” she teased.

Lionel shrugged. “It was about the time we found out that Thiago was a boy. I could focus all of my energy on preparations as opposed to protecting” he noted gently “How are we going to explain it Noah?” he posed softly.

Gabriela shrugged. She knew that they had to tell Noah, the little boy was going to have to share his mother with another baby in a few months’ time and Gabriela wanted to make sure that he understood, but she was nervous. He already knew that Elena was pregnant, Elliot had explained that in a few months, Noah would be a big brother, but Gabriela wasn’t sure how he’d cope with the idea of sharing his mother too. “He already knows about Elena’s baby and he didn’t seem to like the idea very much. I don’t quite know how well he will take the notion of his baby brother or sister being your baby” she explained with a look towards her husband.

“You think he’ll have a problem with it?” Lionel posed.

“I don’t know” Gabriela replied earnestly “But I think maybe we should hold off telling anyone else for a little while. Telling my papa was supposed to go better and it’s not filling me with great hope that people are going to love the idea of us doing this together” she explained, her eyes looking up at him.

Lionel nodded his head. “Ok” he agreed gently “We’ll hold off for a little while, but you’re not going to be able to hide our bump forever” he added.

“I know that” she noted.

Lionel smiled and kissed her cheek gently, mumbling about moving at their own pace. It was what they did, everything they’d done had been done at pace that suited them, and he didn’t want that to be any different. They’d made things work for months and he wasn’t about to change the way that they did things.