Time is a cruel implement at times. Never is that truth more obvious as to when one is waiting for something to pass. Even as familiar with that fact as Slade is he finds himself counting the seconds as they slips past. Not to say that he wasn’t productive, there were dozens of things that he had to occupy his time.  Working towards getting Jinayah set up as his ward for example. There was paperwork to fill out, people to bribe, information to fabricate.

Plus there were plans that he needed to adjust, supplies to acquire or put away, information to obtain and internalize. The hours that the most lethal man alive waited for his newly acquired niece to wake up were not spent idle. Yet that didn’t lessen the impact of the painful drag that time had. Nor did it lessen the temptation to allow his mind to wonder back to earlier times in his life, back when he walked this road for the first time.

Never the less he kept to his work, even as, like clockwork, he would step away to check in on the young girl that was now a part of his life on the hour, and it was during one of those times that he stepped away from his work to check on Jinny that he came across the sight of her crying, the sight of which tore at him.

Quietly he would move to sit next to her a gentle hand on her back rubbing soothing circles. He would not say anything. For there was nothing he could say, for even if he knew what it was that brought about her tears, how could his words have any sort of impact at this point?