Christian had been struggling since he broke his arm. First of all, he beat himself up over that whole mess and letting Nox get away right after he finally got the first clue into what the villain was up to. The insulin was truly perplexing…unless he knew a diabetic in need. But that wasn’t exactly prime villain behavior.

Then again, neither was the stunt he pulled with Inferno. He still hadn’t figured out why Nox did that. Was it because he was feeling petty about his date being ruined or what?

As if the confusion over what Nox was doing wasn’t bad enough Christian had broken something for the first time since he was a much more fragile child. Two somethings, technically. His arm and a rib. He didn’t tell Avery about the rib though because he didn’t want her to worry…and couldn’t take the time off work.

He healed faster than the average person but it wasn’t instantaneous. He was out of commission from hero work for the foreseeable future and that was more frustrating than he could put into words.

His stupid sixth sense was going off like an insistent alarm first thing in the morning when all you wanted to do was sleep. He literally couldn’t do anything about it right now!

The one good thing about being incapacitated was being about to spend more time with his girlfriend but that brought its own set of problems. It got him thinking about what things might be like if he could be with her forever, which he knew wouldn’t be able to happen as long as he was Mercury.

Realistically speaking, he knew he couldn’t be a hero forever. Nobody heard of middle-aged or elderly heroes. New ones cropped up all the time to take the places of their predecessors so that wasn’t an issue. His sixth sense was.

How was he ever supposed to retire if it felt like the whole world was screaming at him all the time?! Because the more time he spent with Avery the better retirement was looking.

Christian couldn’t settle down and be a hero at the same time. It wouldn’t work. The risks were too great. Even if he was able to trust someone with his secret identity whoever was with him and any potential children would be in danger if a villain ever found out about them.

His parents and Liam were already potential targets if he got caught. He couldn’t add to that list…though technically he had simply by virtue of agreeing to be in a relationship. He had done a lot of rationalizing to get to where he was now because he selfishly wanted to be with the woman he loved.

He was in over his head here. Avery had completely taken over his life while he was recovering and he didn’t want that to change.

Things were getting more serious than he intended them to. Especially after she met Liam because his parents found out and wanted to meet her too. That would make things way too official.

If his mother liked her—and why wouldn’t she?—she would never let Christian hear the end of it if he broke up with her for some noble, heroic reason. She was already giving him grief for “hiding” his girlfriend from her.

“Mom, we’ve only been dating a couple of months. I don’t want to pressure her,” he said patiently as the four Slaters sat around a table at a restaurant to celebrate his father’s birthday.

“What’s so pressuring about going to dinner with people who live in the same city?” Nancy Slater demanded. “It would be different if we lived out of state and visiting us required travel time. All we want is to meet her in a casual setting. She’s all you ever talk about anymore so I want to meet the woman who captured my baby’s heart.”

Liam radiated an undeniable air of smugness at not being the son with the relational target on his back for once. Christian glared at him and wished he could fly away never to be seen again.

That traitor had to go and make things worse for him too. “That’s the understatement of the century. Chris has been mooning over her for ages. He literally bought my birthday cake solely to have the chance to talk to her since she’s the one that made it.”

Nancy’s eyes watered with great emotion. “Oh, honey! You finally fell in love!”

He shot his brother a look indicating that he would be dead if they weren’t in public right now. “It’s not a big deal, Mom.”

“Yes, it is! I thought it would never happen. You haven’t had a girlfriend since law school and then she seemed like more of an afterthought than anything. This girl seems like The One!”

“There can’t be a ‘The One’ for me and you know it!”

“Why not?” Brian Slater asked, speaking up for the first time since his wife began interrogating their older son. “Plenty of people in your situation have families. Your circumstances don’t preclude you from that, especially when you retire.”

As if it was a given thing Christian could retire! He would go insane ignoring all of the distress calls.

“Daaaaaad. Don’t gang up on me!” he complained.

Liam grinned at their father. “By all means, keep ganging up on him. It’s about time he had to deal with it.”

“…you guys are the worst.”

The worst when it came to giving people a hard time but the best when it came to wearing people down. In the end his mother always got what she wanted. At least Avery didn’t seem too bothered at the prospect of meeting his parents. Her only comment was that he should meet Angelo too if they were going to do this.

Christian knew he was important to her and therefore the emotional equivalent of him taking her to meet his parents. It was only fair but he couldn’t help but be nervous because based on what she said he was notoriously overprotective.

Meeting each other’s families purposely was definitely going more into serious relationship territory. They hadn’t been together long but it was more about the quality of time than the quantity. They were spending all of their free time together, anyway.

He felt like he knew her better than anyone outside of his family and vice versa…even if he couldn’t tell her the truth about being Mercury. She knew virtually everything else there was to know about him.

Avery was the type to accidentally overshare so he knew more about her than he thought he would in a short period of time. It only spiraled from there as she grew to trust him more.

She talked about everything from childhood exploits to her issues associated with her albinism, such as how she was at increased risk for skin cancer and had to reapply sunscreen constantly when outside and wear sunhats and sunglasses since her eyes were light sensitive.

Christian felt like he had a solid understanding of who she was as a person at this point. Creative, independent, a bit stubborn, and soft-hearted. She cried over sad/happy/cute stories about perfect strangers on the internet.

She was a good person. Perhaps the best person he had ever met, including other heroes.

Nobody was perfect but Avery was pretty darn close. As he watched her easily interact with his parents at the dinner they set up and manage to handle his mother’s overbearing nature perfectly he thought about how well she fit into his life. As if she was meant to be there.

He loved her. More than he ever thought he was capable of loving anyone. So not telling her the truth about his identity threatened to crush him.

At the end of the night when he was dropping her back home she shook her head and laughed. “Your parents are funny. I can see where you get your sense of humor from.”

Christian was a bit embarrassed but his parents hadn’t been too mortifying. Yet. They probably didn’t want to scare her off considering he had never been seriously interested in anyone. The few previous girlfriends he had in high school and college came onto him first and he went along with it until it became clear that they were incompatible.

That wasn’t his problem with Avery. It was that they were too compatible. If he wasn’t Mercury…he would want to marry her. Which was nuts considering they really hadn’t been dating that long. But when you know, you know.

“I’m sorry if they overwhelmed you,” he said lamely.

“Nah, they’re cool,” she reassured him. “How long have they been together? They were surprisingly in sync.”

“Forty years though they’ve only been married for thirty-four. They were high school sweethearts and didn’t get married until they were done with college.”

“That’s impressive. My parents didn’t last five.”

Christian knew she was simply a blunt person by now. She didn’t want pity; she was making a statement of fact and nothing more. It was best to accept what she said and move on as if it was completely normal.

“Yep. They’re aiming to beat out my grandparents, who were married for sixty-seven years before my grandpa passed away. I think they’ll do it too,” he said.

Barring any unforeseen accidents. Heaven forbid.