Chapter 14

“Andrew…I—“ Monica stuttered as she sat, shaking, on the cold floor of the attic, staring into her best friend’s stern, green eyes. Her own brown eyes flooding with more hot tears and trickling down her pale features, the younger angel’s voice broke off as she felt her body convulsing with heavy sobs.                        

Moving her red and swollen eyes away from Andrew, the Irish angel brought her hands up to her eyes and continued to let every sob in her being escape from her.

As the angel let her emotions out, she felt a strong, but gentle, pair of arms wrap around her waist and hold her tightly. Her vision blurred with wet tears, Monica removed her hands from her eyes and threw her shaky arms around Andrew’s neck, holding onto him for dear life.

She knew that what she had done was very wrong; lying about how she had sprained her ankle the day before and claiming it was an “accident” when it was really Denise…                          

With Kathleen’s help…Kathleen…

Shaking her auburn head as she buried her tear-streaked face deeper into her friend’s chest, Monica’s mind whirled as she remembered Andrew’s words just a second ago about how he knew that Kathleen was involved in helping Denise hurt her. Had Kathleen really been the one to try and take her young caseworker away from her…and make her go over to the other side with her??

How else could Denise had suddenly changed? She thought miserably as she felt Andrew rock her gently in his arms. Monica, you should have KNOWN that she couldn’t have done this alone…and Kathleen has always been the one to try and hurt us in the past…Why would things be different now?    Forcing herself to try and speak, Monica heard a few words escape her lips and into   Andrew’s ear.                                        

“I’m sorry, Andrew…I’m sorry…” she whispered tearfully.

Gently pulling away from the embrace, Andrew kept a light hold on his friend’s shaking shoulders and tried to meet her brown eyes…and succeeded.

“Are you ready to tell me the truth now, Monica?” the older angel whispered gently, but firmly, rubbing the soft shoulders of his dear friend. “The entire truth?”

Summoning up all of her courage despite her mind screaming out to protect her best friend from all around them, Monica gave her head a jerky puppet’s nod, her long, auburn hair bobbing against her shoulders, and slowly opened her mouth, her words quiet and strained with tears that still refused to come to an end.

 “Yes…I’ll tell you the truth, Andrew…”

  *****

 “…The incident in the café last week when Denise burst in after Stevie got hit by a car wasn’t the first time…It also wasn’t the first assignment she had failed, either. But—Denise kept pinning the blame on me. I’ve tried to be nice to her and reason with her, but as the years went by and as she kept failing the assignments,  she kept coming back to me and telling me I should have warned her…But…when Stevie died, that one took  the cake, Andrew…”

Monica stopped talking for a second to gather her thoughts and take several shaky breaths before she continued, returning her gaze to her best friend in front of her.

 “That incident was the worst one yet. But—I didn’t think that she’d go as far as to try to kill me, Andrew…I didn’t! A—a week after you saved me from the truck, I was given the day off and just walking down the street when I heard Denise’s voice calling out to me. I swear, Andrew, she sounded like she was in trouble and  needed my help. I—I thought she’d prayed to the Father about everything and we’d be able to work everything out. But—as I came closer to her…I suddenly felt myself falling into that sinkhole. I didn’t know it was Denise until—until I looked up and saw her laughing down at me…”

Her voice catching in her throat, the younger angel choked out, “She told me ‘Maybe that will teach you to set angels up to fail’…and she disappeared. I didn’t know that Kathleen was involved with this…I didn’t know…”

 “So it WASN’T an accident, Angel Girl,” Andrew confirmed, although he already knew the truth. He just wanted to hear the word “accident” come out of his friend’s own mouth.

Gulping, Monica aimed her tear-filled, brown eyes to Andrew’s loving, green ones and spoke quietly.

 “It wasn’t an accident, Andrew…Denise—and I guess with Kathleen’s help—did this to me. But—“

 “But what, sweetie?” Andrew pressed, moving his hand to stroke her hair lovingly. “But what?”

Her body once more shaking, the angel closed her weary and pained eyes, refusing to meet her friend’s gaze.

She just couldn’t look into those green eyes in front of her now…Not after what she had done.

 “But I only wanted to protect you, Andrew! I only wanted to protect you from getting hurt! You and Tess…I couldn’t let that happen to you two again!” she cried through her tears as she finally brought herself up to look into Andrew’s eyes. “You’ve done so much for me in the past that—that I couldn’t get you involved again and have you guys possibly hurt by Denise…Although I didn’t think that she would go so far, and being as naïve as I was, the thought of my best friends getting hurt kept coming at me that—“

 “That you lied,” Andrew concluded, tears filling his own eyes as he listened to Monica talk. “Oh, sweetheart…”

 “Andrew, please understand!” the Irish angel pleaded, interrupting her friend. “I know that what I did was wrong; I shouldn’t have lied to you, but—but please understand that I was only trying to protect you and Tess…I was only trying to protect you…”

Letting out a sigh of his own, Andrew closed his eyes as he once more wrapped his young friend up in his arms tightly, gently rocking her back and forth on the cold ground. Kissing the side of her head lightly, the angel shook his head slightly as he took in all that Monica had told him.

And her question.

 ‘Andrew, please understand…I was only trying to protect you and Tess…”

Deciding to himself that he refused to answer the question directly, the Search and Rescue angel whispered into his best friend’s ear softly, trying to put all of his compassion and love into his voice, along with reassurance that she would get out of this mess.

 “You’ll be okay, honey…” he whispered gently, continuing to rock the angel as she sobbed on his shoulder.

 “Everything will be okay, I promise…I’ll get you out of here, if it’s the last thing I do…”