PART 3

On the following day...

Monica’s eyes opened slowly and then shut a second later due to the light that suddenly hurt them. But when she felt a gentle hand holding hers and a familiar voice calling her name she became bolder and opened her eyes once again. Andrew’s handsome face was the first clear image she saw and he was caressing her hair and talking to her.

“Hey... here you are...” he whispered, tenderly caressing her cheek, looking at her with utmost affection.

 “Andrew...” She tried to speak.

“I spent the whole night here just waiting for you to open your eyes... angel...”

His last word caused her eyes to grow wide with surprise and shock. Was he using the term of endearment he used to call her? Was he looking at her the way he used to whenever they met again after a long assignment?

He saw her reaction and smiled. “Yes, baby. I’m back to you and to our little angel...”

Tears of emotion rolled down her face as she heard him.

“Oh, Andrew... I missed you so much! So incredibly much!”

The tears soon became sobbing and on the following moment, Andrew was holding her tightly and carefully, his hands permanently on her hair, caressing the long auburn tresses. “Shh... It’s okay, angel... Please don’t cry...”

She was going to say something else, but a terrible thought crossed her mind and made her pull away. “The little girl? What happened to-“

“She’s fine, angel. You took her out of the room where she was; the entire sector was destroyed. But then you two got stuck and couldn’t return from where you had previously come from.”

“This... this was when you found us?”

“Yes. And I have no doubt that our Father led me to you... the feeling of you in great danger trigged flashbacks and made my memory return.”

Monica bit her lower lip as another silent tear made its way down her cheek. “I thought I could spend centuries without you by my side.”

“Oh, Monica... That would never happen, sweetie.”

“Well... those days you could not remember were like centuries...” she spoke, feeling suddenly exhausted from the extra effort.

He helped her lie down and kissed her forehead. “I know... and I’m sorry for that, angel... I cannot begin to imagine what it was like for you...”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Andrew. It was not your fault...” she replied, feeling sleepy due to the medication.

“I want you to rest now, okay? You inhaled smoke and cut your arm. The doctor said if everything goes well you’ll be released tomorrow.” He kissed her hand. “I told him I’ll watch over you now!”

The way he winked at her placed a small smile on her face. A minute later, she was already sleeping again.

X

Later on that same day...

Andrew kept on walking from one side to another in the corridor of the hospital. Hands tugged in his pockets, the blond angel had an look of impatience on his face as he seemed to wait for something to happen. But his anxiety was soon over as he heard a familiar voice.

“Angel boy...”

Tess came along the corridor towards him, carrying in her arms another angel he loved with all his heart and soul besides Monica. Little Angela’s smile at him was moving, and so was the way she opened her little arms ready to wrap them around her daddy’s neck. On the following minute, he was holding her tightly, kissing the top of her head and stroking the thin wisps of auburn hair that resembled her mother’s.

“Daddy...” she spoke, her little dimples visible as she kept on smiling at him.

“Oh, sweet little angel... Daddy missed you so much, baby...”

“Thank you, Father...” Tess whispered, watching as little Angela tried to speak incomprehensible words that seemed to make all the sense in the world to Andrew.

“How is she, Andrew? How is my angel girl?” The oldest angel wanted to know.

“She’s recovering, Tess. Thanks to the Father, I managed to take her from the building on time.” He informed, “Come on in, I feel she’s waking up.”

X

When Monica opened her eyes again it was already afternoon. She looked around her and saw that the bedroom was empty. Frowning, she slowly moved to sit down in bed, which caused her arm to ache a little. Where was Andrew? She had spoken to him early in the morning, but now he had left. A sudden and scary thought crossed her mind and made her heart jump with apprehension: had she dreamed that he had recovered his memory?

But her questionings did not last for long as a movement on the door knob ceased her doubts.

“Guess who is here to visit her mom...”

Andrew’s voice and the image of their baby daughter in his arms and smiling broadly at her brought tears of joy and emotion to her eyes. Much slower than what she wanted, Monica sat down on her bed and as Andrew carefully deposited Angela in her arms, she held her tightly.

“Oh, wee Angela... What a wonderful surprise you made to your mommy!”

“Fower!” the little girl spoke, holding up a small daisy and wanting Monica to take it.

“A flower for me? Oh, sweetie, thank you very much! This is such a lovely gift!” she said, kissing Angela’s chubby little hand. Then she looked up at Andrew and saw in his eyes the joy reflected in her own.

“I have so much to thank the Father...” Tess spoke, “You’re all together again...”

“Tess... I’m so happy to see you here...” the Irish angel reached out to hold the supervisor’s hand.

“And I’m happy to know you are all fine now, angel girl. You’re all my babies and I loathe to think that any of you is exposed to any risk in this human form... I feel... like a mother without news from her children!”

Monica and Andrew exchanged a moved and slightly amused glance as the oldest angel sniffled. Andrew wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

“Auntie Tess!”

Angela’s sing-song voice finally made them laugh, the first spontaneous and genuine laughter in nearly three months, when they had to go separate ways in order to fulfil the Father’s work.

X

A few days later...

Monica was sitting on a towel laid on the soft sand of a far away beach; her beach. A secluded place where she and her angelic family used to go whenever they were on Earth but not on assignment. A fire had been lit up a little earlier and now the flames danced in the air, sending away the darkness of the night. Her surroundings were nearly deserted if it weren’t for the small house just a few feet behind her and its inhabitants. With a dreamy eyed expression, she observed the sky, filled with sparkling dots that shed their light millions of miles away across the universe. She let out a contented sigh, enjoying the warm summer breeze.

A minute later, she felt a gentle presence coming closer to her and didn’t even need to look back to know that it was her beloved Andrew. Barefoot, he sat down next to her and stroked her auburn locks, which were illuminated by the firelight, making her look almost ethereal.

“I knew someday I would manage to convince you how good it feels to walk around without this human beings’ invention.”

Chuckling, he nodded his head. “Well, you know there’s nothing you can ask me that I can possibly deny!”

Monica finally turned to look at him, keeping the slight smile on the corner of her lips. “Did she take too long to fall sleep?”

“Nah... Fell asleep in my arms just when I was telling her about the first time Alice sees the rabbit!” he happily informed.

They both laughed but little by little Andrew’s face became serious. “I cannot believe I erased you two from my mind...”

“You didn’t erase us!” she was quick to cut him off, shocked at the guilt written in his eyes.

“It feels like I did.”

Monica took his hand in both of hers, eyeing him with emotion. “Andrew, do not torture yourself because it wasn’t your fault. You suffered an accident, a very serious one! But because of you, many children were saved, an old lady had a chance to redeem herself and to prove how generous she could be!”

“You were there with me all the time... despite all the suffering it caused you.” He took her hand to his lips as she tilted her head.

“I was where I was supposed to be!”

“All that happened to me, to us, had another consequence besides the ones you listed just now...”

“What was it?”

“It served to prove that even if I had never seen you before... even if you were human, I still would have fallen in love with you, angel.”

She caressed his face, touching his jaw with delicacy as a smile returned. “Would you call me ‘angel’ too? I don’t think I could exist without hearing you say that...”

Also smiling, he shortened the distance between them and captured her lips in a long, languid kiss he had been waiting for for a long time. This time there was not the tension of the latest weeks between them, the fear of her rejection as well as the sadness caused by his lack of memory were in the past now; Andrew kissed her freely and lovingly and his affection was not only welcomed but returned with the same intensity.

Their kiss lasted for a small eternity, but the two angels in human form knew it would be the first of many on that starry night.

“When I went to the hospital in the morning of the fire, I was going to tell you that I’d stay by your side...” he spoke, once they pulled away; forehead rested on hers. “I was going to tell you that I’d fight for your love and put an end to all that suffering I could see in your eyes and which I could not understand. Little did I know I was the reason to your sorrow.”

Monica let out a small sob as a lonely tear fell from her face. “Oh, no... That you would never be. I would have waited for you, Andrew, as painful as it would have been.” She pulled away and looked into his soft green eyes. “I would have loved you too, even if you could not remember our past... Because we are a whole...”

“Kindred spirits, humans would say.”

He kissed her lips again, softly now, taking his time to take to memory all the times his lips touched her soft skin. Andrew kissed her eyes and forehead as his fingers entangled her long auburn tresses. And once again he captured her lips, holding her tightly against him as if never letting her escape. Monica’s slender fingers caressing his short blond hair on the back of his neck, the way she welcomed his caresses and put herself under his care only increased his passion and filled his heart with the deepest love.

“Wee Angela...” Monica murmured, in between kisses, not trusting herself to think properly.

“She’s just a few feet from us. And we’ll know if she wakes up.” He replied, making a trail of kisses against her shoulder skin.

Smiling and closing her eyes, Monica nodded her head. “You’re right... and I doubt she will anyway... she must be having the sweetest dreams by now...”

“I feel like I am having the sweetest dreams by now too...” he joked, and her giggling was silenced by his lips capturing hers once again in a sequel of passionate kisses, a consequence of their painful separation for such a long time.

“I missed you so much...” he heard her whisper, almost with a crying voice still carrying the sorrow for having him so close and yet so distant.

The blond angel kissed her once again and his urgency contrasted with his infinite gentleness as he carefully lay her down on the white towel before proceeding in delivering tender caresses and passionate kisses. Monica held him tightly and tingled all over when a pleasant shiver ran through her human body as she gave in to feelings of passion. Andrew caressed her shoulders, then her neck and her entire body while he brushed his lips against hers for another deep kiss. As both were intertwined, he reached his hand around the Irish angel pulling her closer to him. That night would be a night of peace, love and joy for the two angels in human form. Monica received Andrew with open arms, closing her eyes and feeling him as he moved against her, careful not to put his full weight on her. Their forms danced like flickering flames in that warm summer night intertwined in each other's love and the angels were aware that they still had the eternity to make up for the time they had been away.

X

To be continued