Hospital; Dante, Michael, Ava, Emily; TBD (Dated for Sunday)
So Dante was alone as he went up to Michael's floor and met by the doctor. Even before he was handed the small bag containing Michael's personal items he was already sinking from anger at Serafino's meddling to a terrible fear and worry down in the pit of his stomach. Being handed the bag, with Michael's ATM card, a few scraps of paper, and their wedding rings just made it that much more worse, and by the time the doctor finally got around to telling him outright that they weren't quite sure if Michael was going to make it through this Dante was in tears.
He was finally led to the room, which was (very surprisingly) not empty. Well, it wasn't overly surprising to see Michael's aunt Emily there, doing some needlepoint in the corner, but it was very surprising to see Ava sitting in a chair with a magazine. Looking pregnant and irritated and just as unpleasant as always.
The doctor left and Dante stepped into the room quietly, going right to the bed with barely any acknowledgement of the other two, looking down at his husband. The tears just doubled up at the sight of Michael just lying there, staring blankly, awake but not really conscious.
Mikey cleared his throat, hoping Dante understand his point. He was sorry, for what had happened, for what he'd done. Just knowing that Dante was here now, it made things a little easier to handle.
"Doing?"
He wanted to ask how Dante was doing, but it wouldn't quite come out right.
Emily came back into the room, nodding her approval as Ava slipped in as well.
"He's awake?" Ava asked, sounding almost disappointed.
"I love you too, boo. Want some more water or are you okay?"
Emily had sat back down with her needlepoint, but Ava remained standing, watching them.
"So what? He's alive so you decide you want him after all? After he tried to kill himself? Classy."
"Almost as classy as wishing he died," he returned through clenched teeth. "What are you doing here, Ava? Sniffing around for a way to cash in?"
Mikey made a noise then, pointing at Ava and then at the door.
"Get out," Emily said, not looking up. "Go on, Ava. Go home. Dante's right, after all. You thought you'd get a piece of land, or some money."
"You better pray that when he does go, I'm already dead," he hissed, waiting for the elevator to come. "Because I'm his legal next of kin, and if I'm still around everything he's got goes to me. And I wouldn't want or need any of it, but I would burn it all to the ground right in front of your face just so you couldn't get your slimy paws on it."
The elevator came and she stepped on with a huff, stabbing the button for the lobby. She just glared and gave Dante the finger as the doors slipped closed and she was out of sight.
He kicked the closed elevator before storming back to the room, taking a deep breath before stepping inside to calm himself.
"God, I feel bad for that kid she's gonna have."
Now he pointed at himself and then at Dante, speaking softly and his voice still gruff.
"Baby."
"Ava's? Yeah, it's probably going to be ugly and stupid, in addition to having a total gold digger for a moth- wait, baby?" He interrupted himself as it occurred to him what Michael might have been trying to say, pointing back and forth between them. "Like, me you baby, us baby, we baby, baby?"
He knew the word 'mom' was pretty stupid as far as choices went. It was just the first thing that came to mind. When he thought of their future child, he just sort of saw it that way in his own head. He was the 'dad' and Danny was the 'mom'.
"Family."
"....wow," was all he could manage.
He opened his eyes again to look up at his husband, blinking sleepily suddenly.
"Stay."