Penny Takes the Stage

Chapter 30: Cam Comes Home

"Are there--are there a lot of people outside?"

Penny could hear the apprehension in his voice, and she knew that Vivi could too.

"Not too many," she answered, keeping her voice light. "Just the usual assortment of reporters and fans, you know."

What she did not tell him was that, in addition to "the usual assortment," there were also a lot of paparazzi, photographers who didn't work for any particular paper, but who were hoping for a lucky picture of Cameron Aldobrandeschi's face that they could sell to a tabloid for a large sum of money. Word had gotten out about the state of his face, and it had turned into quite a story.

"Prince Turned Model Has Face Slashed by Girlfriend's Stalker!" screamed one headline.

"Handsome European Royal Mutilated by Crazed Stalker!" read another.

Of course, there were no end to gorgeous before photos of Cameron from his runway days, and even a few of him with Penny that had been dug up from social media. The internet had done the rest, and it was an international entertainment story now, with everyone clamoring for an interview, and the entire world, it seemed, wanting a picture of poor Cameron.

There seemed to be a bit of confusion about who Cam's girlfriend was at the moment. Everyone knew that Frederick was Penny's ex, but the fact that Claire was hanging around, coming and going from the hospital, answering questions and referring to herself as Cam's girlfriend had led some to believe that she was in fact his current significant other. It didn't help that Penny spoke to no one and gave no information when entering or leaving the hospital.

"Please, brother, don't worry about them, okay?" Vivi interjected. She was packing the last of his things in preparation for leaving the hospital. "This hospital has an underground entrance, we've hired a car with fully tinted windows, and your apartment has a garage entrance as well, so with any luck, no will even know we've left here or arrived there, yes?"

Penny nodded hopefully at Vivi.

She looked over at Cam, careful to keep her expression neutral. The sutures which criss-crossed his face had pulled even tighter has his face swelled, so he looked even worse than before, if that was possible. In addition, some of the sutures were infected and were oozing slightly, which did nothing to improve things. His left eyelid was drooping a little because of the cut that ran right across the middle of it, which of course could not be sutured so close to the eyeball; all in all, his face was not a prepossessing sight.

However, if a person looked at the actual suture sites, as Penny had been told to do, you could see that even the infected spots were closing in nice, tight seams, and that, eventually, all of the lines would be small and fine. The surgeon had done a good job. Cam was on oral antibiotics for the infections, and the sutures would soon come out and the swelling would go down as well. The subcutaneous sutures had already begun to dissolve, and there was no nerve damage to his eyes or face, which was incredibly lucky.

Penny knew that he actually looked good, if she knew where and how to look. It was just hard sometimes.

"Ready?" she asked brightly.

"You should be in a chair as well," Cam said darkly, gesturing toward her foot.

"My foot is fine," Penny protested with a laugh. She had actually neglected to care for her foot as she'd been told, forgetting to clean it and change the dressing, and not bothering to fill the prescription for the ointment she was supposed to put on it daily, and it had gotten infected all over again after she'd been home a few days. Her doctor had given her a stern talking to after he'd had to debride it all over again, clean it up and rewrap it.