The Medici Girl

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Ezio had avoided his wife the rest of the night and into the morning after seeing her blue outline in the grasp of an equally bright red enemy. The anger that he felt upon seeing what he saw and hearing her shaking voice plead with the man who held her was indescribable. He could only feel a white hot rage burn within him to the point he did not really know if he was in control of his actions then. Of course, he was going to kill the poor stronzo anyway, but he had planned to do it the more traditional way. Ezio almost enjoyed feeling the man's neck snap and the other part of him did not care. It had become more or less normal for him to take a life at this point. 

As the sun rose over the horizon, he was lucky enough to catch the cries of a newborn child, which soothed his anger a little. The gratification that he had saved the lives of Lorenzo's family, but his own as well made him realize that he could not stay angry. With that realization came another, he had inadvertently saved the life of his own unborn son or daughter. Ezio had not really thought about it since leaving Firenze, as a matter of fact, he avoided it completely. Not because he did not like the idea of having a child, he had thought about it before, but it was a distraction. He needed to focus in order to do what needed to be done, but the thought was in the very back of his mind. 

He needed to speak with his wife, wherever she may be in that moment. He had gone to her room up on the second floor and found it empty with only the door to the balcony open. She was likely sitting out there as she normally did in the mornings. The assassin knew his wife well enough to know her routines no matter where she lived, so he removed his weapons and robes before making his way out on to the balcony. 

Contessina was sitting on the bench with a bowl of water and what smelled like witch hazel on the small table next to her. Ezio watched her as she dabbed a wet cloth on the cut that was left from the encounter she had with the men he killed. Guilt rose up from the pit of his stomach as he realized he should not be angry with her because she was doing what she thought was right. Lucrezia had explained the situation to him after the fact, but it still did nothing to dampen the anger he felt. It was only at that moment he realized he was angry because this was the second time she had put herself in harms way. 

She hissed when she pressed the cloth on her neck finding a delicate spot that was a little deeper than the rest. The sound caused him to step forward which drew her attention to him. Contessina gave him a pained expression as she removed the wet towel and set it back in the bowl. He may have been disappointed with her actions, but he had every reason to be even though she had no idea he knew about their child. Ezio sighed before moving to sit next to her on the bench and then putting his finger under her chin so he could see the full extent of the damage done. Contessina tensed up when he put a finger on the edge of the cut to see how deep it actually was. 

"How bad is it?" She asked him not knowing the real damage done. She had done her best to clean it, however she could not see it. He said nothing when he reached for the wet cloth and wrung it out before applying it to the cut. She hissed again when he rubbed the dried blood off of the edges of her sore flesh, but stayed still. "I don't like that you aren't saying anything." She told him and he stopped before giving her a hard look. 

"I'm trying not to say something I may regret later." Ezio said after a moment of silence upon realizing he was at least a little angry over the situation. Riario's assassin could have slit her throat right in front of him if he had not been close by. Not only that, but he had not known that she had been injured. 

"You are angry with me." Contessina said as she started to pick at the material of her dressing gown. "I suppose I deserve that anger for rushing into danger again." Her voice was timid, as though she were expecting him to berate her for her careless mistake, only he did not have the heart to do so. He wanted to, but he could never stay angry with her. "Ezio, I know I put myself in danger again. I know I could have been killed and that I am lucky that it didn't happen, but I could not stand around and do nothing."