Felipe practically ran down the hallway and flung himself at the door to Diego's room.  He'd never meant to sleep this long.  What if Diego had woken up?  What if he'd needed something?

At the sight of Victoria half-curled around Diego's arm, obviously deeply asleep, he skidded to a halt, not quite able to keep from crashing into the foot of the bed.

Diego's eyes peeled open.  Seeing Felipe there, he smiled and gestured at Victoria.

*She's asleep,* Diego signed.  He'd never been as good at signing as Felipe was forced to be, and was hampered by Victoria's claim on one of his hands, but he got the meaning across clearly enough.

But then Victoria, too, stirred and opened sleepy eyes.  She smiled at Diego, a dreamy, not-quite awake expression.  He smiled in return, but then she noticed Felipe and sat up with a slightly embarrassed gasp. 

"Felipe!" she said.  "I am sorry.  I didn't mean to fall asleep."  She looked back and forth between Diego and Felipe and then stood.  "I am sure you, Diego, are ready for something besides broth, and Felipe could probably use some breakfast, no?"

Felipe nodded eagerly.  Despite the circumstances, it was very good to have Victoria at the hacienda.  She made things seem almost normal.

"Well, I will go and see about something, then.  You two probably have things to talk about."

She swept out of the room, ruffling Felipe's hair in passing.

Diego struggled to sit up, and Felipe went instantly to his side, taking most of his weight and rearranging the pillows to support his back.  When he finally got Diego settled, he couldn't help but throw his arms around him and clutch him as tightly as he dared.  Diego let him, reaching up one hand to stroke the back of his head.

After a moment or so, he reluctantly let go of Diego and sat back on his heels.

*You woke up,* he signed, somewhat belatedly.

Diego looked at him in clear affection and even chuckled a little.  Oh, that was good to see.

"Yes, it would seem so."

*I should have been here. *  Felipe frowned.  He knew he shouldn't have slept so long.

"It is all right," Diego said.  "Victoria was here."

Felipe felt his frown deepening as a rare, uncomfortable surge of jealousy overtook him.  He was always the one to be here, taking care of Diego in such times as this.  The look Diego and Victoria had exchanged had been so easy and intimate and he was used to being the only one with whom Diego was so open. 

Diego's expression was a little bemused, as if he knew exactly what Felipe had been thinking.  Felipe shrugged and grinned, blushing a little.

"Are you all right?" Diego asked, bemusement falling into a hard, searching look.

*I am now,* Felipe signed.  He wasn't, really, not quite yet, but it wasn't that much of an exaggeration, and Diego wasn't nearly well enough to be dealing with other people's problems.

Diego didn't look like he much believed him, but when he tried to sit up and face Felipe more directly a sharp spasm of pain crossed his face and he fell back against his pillows.  He pressed a hand to his side and took a few deep breaths, but his color remained pale and he didn't try to rise again.

*You're going to have to stop that,* Felipe signed when Diego finally opened his eyes again.   

"I simply moved too quickly."  Diego tried to smile in reassurance, but his hand was still hard pressed against his side and the expression was forced.  "I am well, truly."

Felipe could feel the cycle beginning all over again, and his simple joy at seeing Diego awake curdled.  The banked terror of the last few weeks swelled up in the back of his throat.  They weren't doing this again.  He just couldn't.  He wouldn't.

*No.*

Diego blinked in surprise.

*You don't understand, do you?*  Felipe was well aware of the wild inappropriateness of this protest against someone of Diego's standing, no matter their closeness, but he just couldn't care.   Here Diego was, after the long tense weeks, the shooting, the capture, still keeping up that façade even here, just between the two of them. 

"Felipe?"

*You're not well.  You almost died.*

"I am sorry," Diego said, weakly gripping Felipe's arm.  He was clearly struggling, clearly trying to understand what Felipe needed, but that wasn't what Felipe wanted, not precisely.

*The doctor said you have to rest.  You have to.*

"All right, my friend, all right."  Diego slumped further back into the pillows Felipe had propped behind him, apparently tired from even their slight conversation.  His head fell back against the headboard and fatigue and pain marched for once unrestrained across his expression.

Felipe rocked back on his heels again, biting back his frustration.

The door crashed open, and Alejandro appeared in the doorway.

"Diego!"  The wide smile on his face froze as the veneer of social correctness once more fell over Diego's face.

"Father," Diego said.  Abrupt stiffness washed over the weariness of the moment before and he pushed himself up away from the support of the pillows.

Alejandro took a lurching step into the room, hand half-raised.

Instinct and Diego's forced look propelled Felipe to insert himself between them.  He regretted it a moment later when Alejandro's hand fell and his face twisted away, but he didn't move. 

"Diego," Alejandro said, "it is good to see you awake.  You had us all very concerned."

"My sincerest apologies.  I didn't mean to cause such a commotion."  The guilt and studied control in Diego's voice made Felipe want to shake him. 

Felipe turned from Diego to Alejandro and back again.  Diego had many years' experience with the masks he wore, but he was tired and hurt enough that they couldn't hide everything.  Not from Felipe, at least, though there were barriers there that had never before existed between them. 

In the terror and furor of the last few weeks, he'd forgotten the painful tension which had sent Alejandro to Mexico in the first place, but here it was again, stretching the hurtful silence.

Alejandro sighed and straightened, as always the practical needs of the moment overtaking any emotional concerns.  Sometimes it was very easy to see him in Diego.

"I need to check your injuries if you are feeling well enough," Alejandro said, sounding as tired as Felipe felt.  "Doctor Hernandez was adamant about the continued danger of infection."

Diego shifted uncomfortably.  "Really, Father, I am sure you needn't go to the trouble."

Alejandro shook his head, clearly not believing that statement any more than did Felipe.  He looked as if he might like to say more, but he just went to stand by Diego's side.  He pressed a hand to Diego's forehead, exhaling slowly.

"You're fever appears to be gone," he said, frowning, "though I would say you are a bit warmer than yesterday night."

His fingers lingered on the gash on the side of Diego's head, though they were as stiff as Diego himself.  "This caused us a great deal of worry.  Are you in any pain from it?"

Diego's face softened just a little at his tone.  "Perhaps a little."

Alejandro tilted his head into the light and pushed back his thick hair to get a better view.  He frowned again, eyes darkening.  "This looks like someone hit you with a rock."

"A boot actually."  Diego shrugged, superciliousness firmly back in place.  "Merely a symptom of my continued inability to get out of the way at the appropriate time, which, I am sure, will surprise no one.  Really, it is of no—"

"Stop.  Just stop," Alejandro said.  He dropped his hand from the side of Diego's head to linger first on the cut on his throat and then the deep welt on his shoulder. "I will not listen to you tell me it is nothing."

Diego fell silent.  He remained so as Alejandro removed the bandages from his ribs, though it was clearly an increasingly difficult process.

The bullet wound looked slightly less inflamed, though still raw where the doctor had carved it out to clean it.  The bruises on the rest of his chest had settled into a murky green-purple.

Alejandro's expression was fierce.  "Those bandits are lucky it was the alcalde and not me who found them."

Something hard and painful lurched in Felipe's chest at the surprise in Diego's face.  If Alejandro noticed it as well, he didn't say, but the anger was still there to be read in the stiffness of his movements.  Silence reigned again as Diego turned his head away.

Felipe slipped off of the bed and into the hall, not really wanting to watch any longer.

He slunk into the kitchen, cheering slightly at Victoria's bright demeanor. 

"What's wrong, mijo?" she said, reaching to ruffle his hair.

*They're both just so stubborn.*

Her hand stilled on his cheek.  "That they certainly are, my friend.  Is Diego causing trouble again?"

*He can't even sit up straight, and he's still trying to pretend nothing's wrong.*

Victoria patted his cheek and let her hand fall.  "Don Alejandro is a man much admired for his courage and honor.  Sometimes it is hard to be son to such a man, particularly for someone like Diego."

*He's done more than anyone in the pueblo.  He could have died.  What more does he want? *

She shook her head.  "I don't know everything that has been going on here in the last few months," she said, giving him an uncomfortably sharp look, "but I know something of it, and I think I understand Diego a little better now.

"Diego did nearly kill himself trying to be what he thought Don Alejandro expected, and yet, when Don Alejandro returned, Diego was missing and the ranch left in a panic.  It doesn't matter what miracles Diego did accomplish or what it might have cost him, to him, that's all that matters.  Can't you understand that?"

Felipe did understand that, probably a lot better than she knew did.  He just hated it.  He'd always hated it, but what was there to do?

*But Don Alejandro doesn't care about any of that.*

Except he could remember how angry Alejandro had been, in the beginning, before he knew Diego was missing, before he knew anything at all.

"Of course not," Victoria said, "but Diego is having trouble seeing it that way.  I thought I had gotten through to him earlier, but I can see he is choosing to be difficult.  We'll just have to keep trying, all right?"

Felipe nodded, cheered to have an ally in this.

Victoria smiled at him and piled up a tray with food.  "The doctor did say Diego needs to get his strength back up, and I think the both of them could use a rescue by now.  How about we take this down to Diego and call a truce, hmm?"

He hopped up again and followed as she swept down the hall. 

Author's Note:  I realize it has been some time.  Suffice it to say that my computer broke last summer, requiring me to purchase a new one.  Following that was the Semester of Great Trauma, so writing wasn't really a priority.  I have decided this will be the last chapter I post until I have the entire story finished.  I just don't think it is very fair to all of you to get one short chapter every six months.  On a better note, there are not very many scenes left, so it shouldn't be too long.

About this scene—I only posted it because it had been so long and I felt I owed y'all something.  I doubt it will appear in this form should I ever post this story in its entirety.  Alejandro and Diego are so stubborn that I felt their first conversation would be stilted, but unfortunately it made the entire scene way too clunky.