The Twelve Vitali Ch 29

Authors note: Hello everyone. Thank you everyone for the positive feedback and comments they continue to mean the world to me and have brightened my days. Thank you once again to Paul who continues to be my second set of eyes. ~ellie.

*****

Cat woke to find herself sandwiched between the legs of the two men she loved as they worked on their devices silently. Both looked freshly showered and shaved, as if ready to go to work. She had a sense of deja vous, and came awake and smiled as Ricco put down his device and leaned down to kiss her.

"Good morning, Beautiful. How did you sleep?" Ricco asked.

"Good," she lied, hoping that Matteo hadn't realised how many times she had woken up during the night. Each time though, he had been there beside her. Awake and working on his laptop, but close and touching so she knew he was there like a solid rock, never moving while she needed him and staying true to his word.

"Would you like to tell him the truth, or shall I?" Matteo asked, looking at her dubiously.

"You were right here every time I woke, keeping me safe, and I fell straight back to sleep," she sighed. "I did sleep well. I need to see Lucca, then I'll feel better and relax more. I kept seeing him fall in my dream. Once I know he's okay I'll be fine, I promise."

"He's not okay," Ricco said gently. "He has a head injury from his fall, and he is unconscious."

"But he will be okay?" she asked softly, her eyes large and luminous.

"The early signs are good, but it's just a waiting game now," Ricco delivered the news as gently as he could. "If you get up and have breakfast we will take you to see him."

"Yes, please!" she said quickly, and scrambled from the bed into the bathroom.

She had a quick shower and dressed in a comfortable flowing skirt and top before hurrying out to the kitchen, frowning at the huge hot breakfast that sat on the bench. She felt her belly clench and wondered if she could use the baby card to opt for her preferred breakfast of fruit and cereal. She had power here; both Ricco and Matteo kept telling her she held power here. She should be able to eat what she felt like, shouldn't she?

"I'm sorry, Lisa. I don't think I could stomach anything that heavy. Do you think I could just have some yoghurt and muesli, and maybe some fresh fruit?" Cat asked.

"Of course, Catriona," she said with a smile.

"You should eat something substantial, proteins," Matteo growled in a low voice hearing her request.

"I am eating healthy, and there are two other meals in the day to load up on proteins and carbs," she said lightly, trying to avoid a battle of wills.

"You need to make time to go and see Zachary today as well, don't forget," Matteo tried to prompt her without telling her that she was eating for two now.

"I haven't forgotten. That still doesn't mean I have to eat things I don't enjoy for breakfast. I like yoghurt and muesli and fresh fruit," Cat sighed, seeing that despite her best intentions this was going to become a battle of wills. "I've never been a fan of eggs unless they're in cake or something," she admitted.

"You never said," he accused.

"Matteo, my love," she smiled and cupped his cheek, kissing him chastely. "everything has happened so fast for us, we can't possibly know everything there is about each other like normal couples."

"I guess," he agreed grudgingly, having felt that same sense of rush surrounding their relationship in the last two days.

Cat sat and ate, trying to slow her movements to cover how anxious and eager she was to get to the hospital. She knew Matteo would barely let her visit at all if she seemed upset or anxious, so she stilled her nerves and ate at a steady pace, taking time to eat all the fresh fruit Lisa had prepared for her as well. Then she waited patiently for a few minutes before leaving the table.

"I'll just check in with Arturo, if he is here. Let me know when you're ready to leave," Cat said casually. "Lisa, if you have time for a quick chat, that would be great, but otherwise we can catch up when I come home," Cat said, making her way out of the kitchen to her office.

Matteo hid his smirk, realising just how anxious she was to leave but letting her have her moment of self-denial. He took a few extra minutes to finish his coffee before moving from the room, with a smile at Lisa, who seemed amused by the morning's antics.

Ricco had foregone breakfast to have a heart to heart talk with Arturo. While he appreciated that Arturo took his job with Cat so seriously, and was obviously loyal to her, there was something very off-putting about the way he had spoken to Matteo yesterday morning. He also knew of Matteo's gut feeling in the last few days that something was amiss in his attitude. Ricco tended to be the nice guy to Matteo's controlling and demanding demeanour, which was fed by his constantly high-stress levels recently, but Ricco had no problem being the arsehole if it was needed to put someone in their place.

"You will treat Matteo with the respect due to him as leader of this family! You will realise that your need to know the family business is far down the list of our priorities! Trust me when I tell you that Cat is our greatest priority!" Ricco said forcefully, standing over Arturo's desk intimidatingly. "We do not run our schedules past you! You run Catriona's past us, and not putting a lunch meeting with friends on her schedule to surprise her must be approved by both Matteo and myself! We don't just wish to know her precise schedule, we demand it, and if you overstep your position again, not even Catriona will be able to save your position in the house! Do we understand each other?"

"We do," Arturo said stiffly. "I over-stepped, it won't happen again." The abduction of the woman he served yesterday had truly crushed any notion he had that his position here was as a mere social secretary; making appointments at salons, going shopping and attending charity events. Yesterday had shown him just what an integral part of this family she was, starting with the conference call from CJ and Sebastian and carrying on throughout the day to the horrible moment when the alarm had sounded, and the whole building erupted in panicked activity when she had been taken.

"Just remember that each of us is facing the pressure inherent in our position, and none more so than Matteo at the moment," Ricco was quietly impressed that young man made no excuses but simply accepted the rebuke and thinly veiled threat he had made.

"I fucked up, I admit I didn't understand the full picture. I do now, and you can believe me when I say it won't happen again," Arturo said contritely.

"Actions speak louder than words, you need to show us that you mean that," Ricco said seriously, and turned to walk out of the room, only to find Cat watching.

"For once I don't want to know," Cat shook her head. "It sounds like you two have sorted out your differences, and that's fine." She dismissed the conversation and went on in a business-like manner. "Arturo, I am going to the hospital this morning, and then I need an appointment with Zachary Vitali. I would like you to find out if he can meet me there or if I have to go to his surgery. I would rather not give the gossip columns anymore fodder to run with. Anything else on the schedule I don't think I can commit to until I find out how Lucca is this morning. I am sure people will understand once they know he had an accident and I am needed at his side. That's the general line, okay?"

"Certainly, I will text you if there is anything urgent that needs your immediate attention, otherwise I will put off your appointments until next week so you can stay flexible during Lucca's recovery," Arturo responded with the same business-like manner. "Would you like me to ask someone to sit in with Sebastian and CJ this morning so you can catch up on the tutorial when you are ready?"

"I actually know what the software is, and I believe Zion would love access to it as well. I'll give him a quick call and explain, although I am sure Sebastian is quite capable of doing this on his own."

"Lucia and Peri Donati have both called several times, both last night and this morning," Arturo told her of the most urgent-sounding of her calls.

"Could you send their numbers through to my new phone, please? I will call them back when I can. Is there anything else that can't wait for one more day?"

"I believe Ally Gambaro is returning to Perth today and had been hoping to see you at the house on the hill before they left," Arturo said tentatively.

"Okay, well, find somewhere decent, close to the hospital, and ask her if she would like to make a quick lunch or an afternoon tea there with me, and apologise that I didn't make it out to the house for me," Cat said. "Ricco and Matteo will force me to eat at some point, so I may as well do it with friends, if I can," she smiled. "So, hospital, lunch and Zachary today. I should be able to manage that without too many problems," she grinned.

"A quick call to Lucia or Peri as well would help smooth some worry lines too, I think," he agreed.

"Yes, send those to me asap!" she gasped.

"Already done," he held up the phone in his hand.

"Great, now I am going to cave in and beg my husband to hurry up and drive me to the hospital. I think he goes slow on purpose sometimes just to hear me beg him to move faster!" she said, then covered her mouth. "Oh dear, that came out wrong!" she gasped.

"Sounded like a good idea to me," Matteo grinned. "But I am ready to go, so you can save that begging for later," he chuckled as she blushed.

"Great, let's go," she said overly brightly, trying to ignore the innuendo, making him chuckle more.

*****

Cat gasped as she walked into the room where the unconscious body of Lucca lay. She had been told of his injuries, but she hadn't been truly prepared for the bruises and scrapes on his face and shoulder that she could see about the sheet. Cat turned to look at Theresa, who looked haggard after spending the night sitting at her son's bedside.

"I'm so sorry!" Cat went to her, apologising as she went. "I can't even begin to tell you just how sorry I am!"

"You didn't do this, Catriona. Nobody blames you for what happened yesterday," Theresa said sadly. "Come sit with me, and tell how you are doing after your ordeal," she said sadly.

"I am fine," Cat said, dismissing the question. "Have the doctors been to see him this morning? Have they said why hasn't he woken up yet?"

"The fracture in his leg is not bad and should heal well. He is young and fit, and there are no complications," Theresa said. "We just need to give him time to heal, he is a strong man," she closed her eyes as if in pain. "A specialist flew in last night to review his case, and had agreed with the doctors here. He will recover, he just needs time," she opened her eyes and Cat could see all of Theresa's anxiety written there in the watery brown orbs. "He is my firstborn," she whispered. "I couldn't bear to lose him."

"He told me about it yesterday," Cat smiled and took Theresa's hand. "How Matteo and Ricco and Jacobi were so much older than him and the younger siblings, that in many ways he grew up like the oldest child, even though he wasn't."

"Yes, I guess he was," she smiled. "By the time he went off to school Matteo and Mia were already at university. I expect you and Lucca have a lot in common, being about the same age."

"We grew up in totally different worlds, though, so we had very different experiences and likes and dislikes, I expect," Cat answered truthfully. "We were having such a good time, though, yesterday. I told him about what it was like growing up, and he took me to one of his favourite places when he was younger. He was pretty horrified that I'd never been to Luna Park."

"I'm surprised he didn't take you to the adventure garden, he was quite obsessed with the hedge maze there when he was younger," she gave a small, sad laugh. "There was a hedge maze in the Harry Potter series, and he was always looking for an owl and his invitation to Hogwarts, but the maze he just loved. Like he had found proof that the magic in the books was real."

"Harry Potter is his secret indulgence?" Cat asked, tilting her head.

"I don't know that it was so secret, but that was when he was much younger. I doubt he still believes Hogwarts and magic are real," she looked at her son's bruised face and reached out to place her hand over his. "It would be nice to ask him though, don't you think?"

"That would be better than Christmas to me right now," Cat said genuinely.

"Theresa, Catriona and I will stay with our boy now. Go home and eat and freshen up, please," Stefano spoke softly, and Cat could see Theresa about to refuse the request. "You need to change your clothes, and he will not wake up without people who love him here. Roberto will not go without you, and he needs a small rest," Stefano pressed.

"Yes," she said reluctantly. "You will stay with Lucca?" she asked Cat, gripping her hand.

"Of course, I wouldn't be anywhere else right now," Cat said truthfully. "If you bring me back the Harry Potter book I will read to him and remind him of happier times."

"I'm sure they would have one downstairs in the library," Stefano said. "I will ask for it for you while I walk Theresa out."

"Thank you," Cat said, moving her chair closer to the bed and taking Lucca's hand. "Oh God, I'm so sorry," she said to the lifeless looking man.

"It's not your fault," Ricco said quietly, pulling the second chair up beside her. "Lucca would hate to hear you blaming yourself when none of this was your doing."

"I can't help it, they were after me, and he got hurt because of that. If I hadn't been with him none of this would have happened," Cat said sadly.

"That's true, but it would have been whoever was with you, maybe Matteo or me. We all know the risks of being part of this family. No one blames you, you have to believe that," he said reasonably.

"Where is Matteo?" she asked, suddenly worried for him as well, knowing he would shoulder the blame and grief for this as well. It was who he was always worrying about his family, although he rarely showed it as anything other than stiff anger.

"He went to check on Vanessa," Ricco said carefully, not wanting to add to her worries but needing to be honest.

"She is still in the hospital?" Cat asked, thinking that her accident had happened over a week ago, and each time she had asked about her during the week she had been told that Vanessa was doing well and almost recovered.

"She returned for a checkup this morning, and to see Lucca," Ricco explained. "She still needs help with her broken arm. She is more than a little frustrated with the cast."

"Oh, I feel bad I never asked about her accident, but you both seemed so confident that she would be fine with a little rest," Cat said, then turned to Look at Lucca. "I think Lucca will need more than a little rest."

"He is a strong man, and his injuries look far worse than the doctors assure us they are. He just needs a little rest, and he will wake up," Stefano said adamantly. "I know this to be true." He turned to look at Ricco, "You're in my chair." Chuckling, Ricco rose to his feet and moved so his father could sit next to Cat. "Go and see if you can find the book Catriona wanted," he commanded, dismissing his son from the room.

"He is a strong man," Cat smiled at Stefano and squeezed Lucca's hand.

"We have not talked much, you and me," Stefano said. "I tend to scare people with my knowledge when I do not watch what I say carefully." He admitted. "Roberto is much better skilled with the social niceties and pragmatics involved in dealing with others."

"Roberto is very good at putting people at ease. Even when he was asking very difficult things of me, I felt at ease with him," she admitted. "I love him like a father figure, and, you are right, we have not spent enough time together to share that bond."

"I get feelings about people, sometimes I see things, but more often I just know things," Stefano said as a fact rather than explanation. "I often speak about those things I know, forgetting that others do not have the same feelings. Roberto knows me and understands me. He listens to my counsel. I knew you would come to us long before you arrived. I knew you would love and lose Ricco before finding Matteo. We didn't manipulate or plot, as Matteo has wondered from time to time, we had no need, because destiny played her hand in your love of my sons."

Cat turned in her chair to look at him. He knew she would become part of his family the way she had? She frowned, not quite understanding. He was the oracle, of course, Matteo had tried to explain what that meant more than once, and, as close as she could understand it, the oracles were akin to psychics in their ability to read people and foretell the future. Could he truly have known she would be the wife of Matteo, the heir apparent of this family?

"You doubt my words?" he asked.

"It's not that I doubt your words, it's more that I am not sure I really understand how you know these things. I have no experience, aside from old ladies who read tarot cards and always said the same things to everyone," Cat said honestly.

"I don't need those sort of theatrics," Stefano chuckled. "I know you hold my grandchild in your belly," he grinned.

"Did Zachary or Matteo tell you?" she asked.

"I wasn't sure if you knew yourself," he chuckled. "It will be a Christmas baby, so you will need to make sure you celebrate his birthday equally with the holiday season."

"We only found out last night, I hadn't even thought that far ahead, to tell you the truth. It just doesn't seem real yet," she tilted her head.

"It will be a cause for celebration for the whole family," Stefano said. "You have made a very big impression on the men of my family. The women will be harder to impress, I fear. Women always are."

"I have no doubt about that," Cat admitted. "Is there more I should know about the women of our family?" She asked.

"Theresa loves you like a daughter, and that is no easy thing to have accomplished. I do not think you need my help to manage the women's business of our family," he smiled and touched her hand where she held Lucca's. With the contact, his eyes widened, and he looked at her speculatively.

"What?" she asked, seeing the look on his face.

"You care for Lucca, that is plain to see," Stefano said. "He cares for you also, perhaps too much."

"We have become close friends," Cat admitted. Even though she understood Stefano's meaning, she didn't want to acknowledge it. She watched the older man as he lapsed into silence, a faraway look in his eyes. It seemed like they had been sitting there in companionable silence for a long time, when they were interrupted by a hospital volunteer who held a copy of the book she had asked for.

"Thank you," Cat stood to accept the book. "I appreciate you making the trip up for me."

"We don't often get requests for books; most people bring their own, or have family bring them in. I don't mind coming up to see a fellow lover of Hogwarts," the woman said with a small grin.

"Honestly, I've never read it or seen the movie, but I am told my brother-in-law is a big fan, so this will be fun for both of us," Cat engaged in the friendly banter, taking the book from her hands. "Thank you very much for bringing it up so quickly."

"Is everything alright?" Cat asked Stefano, who still hadn't moved and seemed to be staring off into space. When he didn't answer, she placed a hand on his arm and he turned to look at her.

"I am fine, thank you, just lost in thought. Please, read for Lucca. I am quite content to sit here and listen too," he encouraged.

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much," Cat began to read the book after settling back into the chair beside Lucca's bed.