CHAPTER 6

Monica held her breath when Carrie finally opened her eyes and started to regain consciousness. In a matter of instants, the little Irish angel had gone from a kind and friendly lady to an evil woman who brought unhappiness and disharmony to a family.

"Let's place her on the sofa..." she suggested, and Jim took his wife in his arms and immediately carried her out of the kitchen.

"Carrie? Please, talk to me, baby..." he pleaded, taking her hand in his own. But the confused expression on the woman's face didn't last too long. Her eyes flashed with anger as she saw her husband and the woman who had just knocked at her door offering help standing side by side.

"Get out of here! Get out of my house and leave my family alone, will ya?" she shouted out loud, and if she wasn't so weak, the woman would probably have grabbed Monica by the collar and guided her to the door herself.

"Wait... please, this is all a misunderstanding, I-" The angel still tried to convince Carrie that she was wrong, it was useless.

"Didn't you hear me? Get out of my house!" she shouted again, and before her presence caused even more trouble, Monica lowered her head, feeling extremely embarrassed and not knowing what to say.

"Mom..." Jennifer spoke, she and her brothers perplexed with their mother's sudden reaction to the lady's presence.

"Excuse me..." Before the children's confused eyes, the little angel left the house as quickly as she could, and as she crossed the door, the woman turned to look at her husband, noticing that he had followed Monica's steps with surprised eyes.

"Are you considering going after her, Jim? Go! You never really cared about your family anyway!" she snapped, in anger, drawing his attention back to her.

"Carrie, it's not what you're thinking..."

"Yes, I remember you told me that same thing ten years ago!"

"No... really, you're making a mistake here..."

"I guess I made a mistake long ago... When I decided to forgive you..." came a bitter reply, and then he was the one who gave up arguing with her. She needed immediate care now and Jennifer was the best person to deal with her. With a worried expression on his face, the man left the living room and headed to the bedroom; a turmoil of thoughts running in his head. What was the angel Monica doing there, exactly at his house? What did she want? As he walked to the other room, he could still hear Carrie's voice accusing him of betraying her, and now Jim wondered how he would explain her his previous meeting with Monica.

X

The little Irish angel left their house so quickly that she didn't even care about taking Tess' car, parked right in front of the entrance gate. Monica was so shocked and at the same time so afraid and unsure about her new assignment that she doubted she could drive properly. She walked along the lane with quick steps and no destination, and only stopped a couple of minutes away, under the shadow of a tree. Breathing heavily, the angel turned her doe-like eyes up to the blue sky searching for the answers to the innumerable questions she had in her mind.

"Father... I'm so confused... I'm not sure if I'm the right angel to do it..."

"Of course you are, sweetie..."

The familiar and so dear voice coming from behind her was like a wave of relief to wash over her soul. She turned around and on the following second, threw herself in Andrew's loving arms - the safest place on Earth for her. The blond angel rested his cheek over her head and held her tightly, tenderly rubbing her back and praying for the right words to put her heart at ease, as he could feel it was full with fear and uncertainty.

"Did you see who it was?" she asked, without moving a muscle or opening her eyes.

"Yes, baby, I saw. But he's not your assignment; Carrie is. Besides, Jim regretted all he did to you, you heard it yourself."

"I know... But... There's something inside me I cannot control..."

"The memories are still too fresh in your mind..." he completed her thoughts, as, besides God Himself, he was the one who knew her heart better than any other living creature in the universe, human or angel.

"Yes... I thought I was going to overcome them but... When I saw him..." she shook her head and a silent tear fell down her cheek. "I wish I wasn't that weak..."

"Shh..." he gently pulled away and lay both hands on each side of her face, brushing away the other tears that followed the first one. "... This is not weakness, Angel. You've been through a terrible experience and confusion and fear are perfectly normal."

"How am I supposed to fulfil my assignment if I act like this?"

"This was your first reaction, and there was nothing you could do at that very moment other than leaving. But I'm sure that later on you'll find a way to reach that woman's heart and give her the message that God wants you to give. You always do, baby."

"The look in her eyes... She's ill and will have to put up with me, thinking that her husband and I..." she shook her head remembering the woman's words, "The things that she said..."

"She's confused, Monica. More confused than anyone in this whole story. And she needs help. Her condition is getting worse as the days go by."

Monica sighed deeply, frowning with worry. "What if I fail, Andrew? What if I cannot fulfil my assignment because of my fear and insecurity?"

With a slight smile in the corner of his lips, Andrew shook his head slowly and caressed her cheek with infinite tenderness. "Baby... I couldn't think of anyone better than you to be that woman's angel. You have a loving and pure heart, a gentle soul, and only you can see past her fears and be there to support her when her condition starts to get worse. You are the best messenger of God to tell her to trust Him." Then, he playfully touched the tip of her nose with his index finger, "And this time you cannot say that I'm being partial! The Father agrees with me 100, otherwise He wouldn't have chosen you to be here!"

Carefully considering his words, she bit her lower lip, a habit that only made her even more adorable to him. "I... I guess you might be right, Andrew..." He raised his eyebrows in amusement and she lowered her head a bit embarrassed, "I just wish I didn't interrupt you while you're working so that you could stay here with me... N-not that I don't like you to be here with me, I do! But I know you're busy and I didn't want to be in the way..."

Now with a broad smile, Andrew cupped her chin and lifted her head up, immediately lost in the spark of her sweet brown pools. "Well, do you know what I pray for every day? That you are always in my way, sweetie. And I want you to never forget that you're never alone. I'm always by your side, always."

"I know..." she replied, hypnotized by the power of his loving gaze. Their faces were just a few inches apart and the blond angel only had to bend his head and cross the small distance between them, brushing his lips against hers with a light caress at first, as if treasuring every second they had been granted. Then, he moved one of his hands to encircle her waist, and placed the other on the back of her head, his heart bursting with joy when she returned his loving kiss, feeling deep inside his very soul her nervousness and excitement whenever they shared a sweet moment like that. When they pulled away, he kissed her forehead and pulled her in his arms once again. "I love you so much, Andrew, that now I could never imagine existence without you..."

Sighing deeply, he held her a bit tighter, "Oh, my sweet Monica... To me, existence means you, baby..."

X

Hand in hand, Andrew and Monica returned to the place where she had left Tess' car, and the blond angel opened the door by the passenger's seat for her. But before she got into the vehicle, Monica stared at the house for a few moments, trying to imagine what was happening in there. She sighed deeply and only the soft touch of Andrew's hand caressing her cheek took her out of her reverie.

"Shall we go now?" he asked, reading her very soul.

She finally nodded her head. "Yes..."

Andrew took the driver's seat and guided the Cadillac back to the church where Tess was. The supervisor was finishing organizing the donations when the couple of angels arrived and, even though she already knew something was wrong just by the expression on Monica's face, she couldn't help smiling when she saw her two "babies" holding hands.

"Tess..." Monica spoke, tentatively.

"Hum... I'm under the impression that you two can't seem to keep your wings away from each other!" she said, raising her eyebrows and looking at them inquisitively and with mock sternness.

They exchanged an embarrassed gaze and didn't know what to say.

"Well, we..."

"I was..."

"Oh, nevermind!" she interrupted them, "Did you find your assignment, Miss Wings?"

Before she replied to Tess' question, Monica looked up at Andrew, not sure about where to begin. It was when he placed a supportive hand over her shoulder that the Irish angel spoke again, "Y-yes... I found her..."

"But something happened, Tess..." he said, trying to help his beloved friend to tell her supervisor about the latest events.

X

Some time later, Andrew was forced to leave, as an assignment was waiting for him in some part of the world, and after receiving a loving kiss and a warm embrace from her beloved one, Monica busied herself by helping Tess at the church. The supervisor had to leave for a few minutes and Monica was filling up a few boxes with food supplies to be delivered on the following morning when she felt another presence in the hall. It wasn't her supervisor, though. There, standing right in front of her, was Jim.

And an old, terrifying sensation took over her very soul when she saw her captor staring at her.

Monica's heart began to beat loudly in her chest despite her best attempts to remind herself that she had nothing to fear from him, "J..Jim…" She stammered, as she backed up a step without even realizing that she had.

"Monica, why are you here?" He wasted no time in asking what he had come here to ask, "My wife thinks I'm having an affair with you and if I tell her you're an angel, she'll be certain I've lost my damn mind."

He looked haggard and tired and rather out of patience and the little angel knew that there wasn't much she could tell him. A gentle whisper to her heart reminded her that it was not in her place to tell him about Carrie's condition, so that left her feeling relatively empty handed, "I…I just go where I'm sent. I'm not entirely certain of the reason yet, only that this is where I've been asked to be."

The man ran a hand through his hair wearily, "Well, look, Monica, I need you to not be here. Your being here is complicating things in my marriage and I sure as hell can't have you hanging around my house. I know you're an angel and all that, but for all intents and purposes, Carrie thinks I'm sleeping with you!"

Monica felt her face turn red at his words as she shook her head, "But she's wrong!"

"I know that and you know that, but I have no other way to explain you to her. What do you suggest I do? Tell her that I kidnapped an angel?"

Just that reminder of how she indeed did know him, sent a shudder through the little angel, "Of course not, but you could tell her you met me on the road without being specific," She bit her bottom lip worriedly, trying to find a solution that would not be a lie, "Tell her you gave me a ride…you don't need to tell her it was against my will."

Jim met his eyes with hers and for the first time saw the trace of fear that lingered there. He opened his mouth to apologize to her, but he felt so uncomfortable with his own actions that his words changed, "I'll see what I can do." He stated before turning on his heel and leaving the shelter.

Monica left out a breath that she felt as if she had been holding in forever when Jim departed, but she was immediately ashamed of her own feelings. The man had repented and still it was all she could do just to talk to him, "Oh Father, I'm so sorry," She whispered.

"Angel Girl, was that Jim?" Tess had returned just in time to see the man leaving.

"Yes," Monica replied, "He was trying to find out why I was here and I'm afraid I didn't know much of what to tell him."

The older angel observed her young charge in silence for a moment, clearly reading much of what Monica was feeling, "You'll know when the time is right, baby." Seeing Monica give a half hearted nod, she sighed, "You look tired and I think it's time we wrapped things up for the night. We have an apartment in the next block. We can head there and I can whip us up some dinner."

"I'm not very hungry, Tess," Monica reached for her coat, "I think I'm really just a wee bit tired."

"Well, it's been a difficult day," Tess stated simply before she wrapped her arm around her charge's shoulders and led her out of the church.