CHAPTERS 14 & 15

Chapter 14

Monica looked up into the eyes of the fallen angel.  Through her own blurred vision, she could clearly read the anger and hatred in those eyes, and though she had never known a greater fear in her entire existence, Monica knew the choice she had to make.

“I will never follow you, Kathleen,” She replied, her voice trembling though she put as much strength behind her words as she could muster,

“I would rather die, knowing who I am and who I belong to, than to live forever surrounded by evil and darkness.”

“You’re a fool, Monica,” Kathleen snarled, releasing the hold she had on the angel,

“Nothing but a fool.  Your God has forsaken you and you would rather perish here than to live forever.”

“He always gives us what we need, when we need it, Kathleen,” Monica replied gently, hoping with all her heart that was still true.  There wasn’t a lot the angel did know at that moment, but she was frightened enough to hang onto the truths she had always believed. 

“I tried to help you, Monica!  You have no one now!” Kathleen paced angrily, trying to understand why Monica would make such a decision.

“There isn’t a sparrow that falls from the tree, that the Father does not know about,” Monica replied, her own words soothing her and strengthening her broken spirit,

“He knows I am here, Kathleen.  He has not forgotten me and if it is to be His will that I perish here today, then I will do so with a heart full of love for Him who made me.”

Kathleen shook her head in disbelief as she looked at Monica.  Though the angel’s face was tear streaked, there was a peace there that Kathleen could never understand,

“This is your last chance, Monica.  Are you going to live or are you going to die?”

Monica felt the fear well up inside of her once more as she began to tremble.  But before the fear could get the better of her, the words to a song she had heard Tess sing on many different occasions gently entered into her mind, almost as if her supervisor was speaking to her soul.  Monica swallowed hard as she softly began to recite the words,

“As the rain first falls

And then, then it flows away.

First you'll feel and then forget

Then forget your pain.

 God's eye is on the sparrow

And sees your darkest night.                                           

You will not be left comfortless

 For you are God's delight. “

Kathleen watched in disgust before she turned away and with a wave of her hand to the four dark creatures that surrounded the angel, she said,

“Do it.” Before she vanished into the night.

Monica saw Kathleen go and tears began to stream down her cheeks as she watched the ominous creatures approach her.  Sobbing, she struggled to say the words to the song that had comforted her moments before,

“Now your heart

  It feels like,

  Like an open wound.

  Once so full of life and joy

  Now an empty room.  “

She got no further before a sharp blow to her abdomen took her breath away.  In desperation, Monica curled herself into a tight ball, trying to do what she could to protect herself.  As she struggled to catch her breath, she thought she heard Tess finishing the song in her rich, full, beautiful voice that Monica loved so much,

“  God's eye is on the sparrow

    And sees your darkest night.

    You will not be left comfortless

     For you are God's delight. “   

“Your will be done, Father,” She whispered, her slight frame shaking with fear as she awaited the next blows.  But they didn’t come.  Instead she heard cries of pain that were not hers and as she turned her head ever so slightly, she realized that her life would be spared.

Andrew’s angelic body covered Monica’s human one as he took the blows for her and though she knew he would not be hurt in angel form, she also knew that he could feel each and every painful, agonizing blow.  Reaching up with one hand, Monica linked her fingers tightly through his.

Neither Andrew nor Monica had any idea how long the attack lasted, before they were surrounded by total silence.  Andrew rolled off of her, gasping for air, trying to allow the pain to pass.

“Are you alright?” Monica uttered, kneeling beside of him, her hand moving to stroke his blond hair back from his eyes.

Andrew nodded his head and managed a weak smile to reassure her,

“Yeah, I think so.  How about you?” His hand reached to cup her chin as he looked into her eyes.  There were many things that he saw there that he didn’t understand and he was suddenly consumed with worry for her.

“Yes, thanks to you,” She replied softly, moving to sit down beside of him,

“Did the Father send you to help me?”

Andrew hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to answer her,

“No, Monica, He did not.  I couldn’t leave you, I just couldn’t do it.”

Monica gazed downwards, her heart breaking at his words,

“Maybe Kathleen was right,” She whispered, her lower lip beginning to tremble.

“Right about what?” He asked her, his green eyes flooded with concern.

“That God was leaving me there to die.  When you showed up I thought He had sent you to help me, not that you were putting yourself at risk for me.  Andrew,” She looked up into his eyes as she began to cry,

“What am I going to do?  What have I done?”

Andrew pulled her into his arms protectively as he searched his heart and mind for the right words to say to her.  He had always known just what to say to calm her fears, but this time was different.  He was confused by all that had transpired on this assignment and even more overwhelmed when he considered the fact that it wasn’t over yet. 

“Shhh,” He whispered to her, his hand stroking her hair,

“I want you to listen to me, alright?  I don’t ever want to hear you say that you think Kathleen was right about anything, because you and I both know better.  Whatever Kathleen said to you, she said to hurt and confuse you and it sounds to me like she succeeded in doing that.”

“No, Andrew,” Monica sobbed, her hand gripping his shirt tightly,

“She was right about things…about how I had doubted you and about how I was…doubting the Father…”

Andrew closed his eyes, her painful words touching his sensitive heart deeply,

“But Monica, you’ve been human longer than you ever have been before and that plays into all of this.  Humans don’t see things as clearly, even if those humans are usually angels.  Did you ever think that maybe God didn’t send me to help you because He knew that I was going to be here, with or without His orders?  He knows all things, Monica, and He knew I was going to be here.”  Gently, he rocked her in his arms, listening as her violent sobs began to turn into quieter weeping.

Monica tried desperately to get a hold of herself, but all the fear of moments before had been released and try as she might, the tears refused to cease,

“Andrew…if I remain human…then I can never go Home…”

Andrew tightened his hold on her as he realized he was as afraid of that possibility as she was,

“We won’t think about that yet, not while we still have a reason to be here.  You still need to talk to Stacey before we can even think of going Home.” He pulled away to look into her eyes with a gentle smile,

“And beings Tess is going to be furious with us, lets hope we can stay here for awhile.”

Despite the situation, Monica laughed, though they both knew that what he had just said held as much truth as it did joke.  Neither of them had any idea what would happen to them once they returned Home as both had disobeyed the rules set forth by Tess and the Father. 

Slowly, Monica pulled away from him and after a moment, shyly reached up and kissed him on the cheek,

“Thank you,” She whispered,

“You always make me feel so safe, Andrew.”

He smiled down at her and gently brushed some of the tear-dampened hair away from her face,

“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Angel Girl.  Now, come on, let’s go back to the dorm room and wait and see if Stacey shows up.” He got up and then pulled her to her feet.  Wrapping his arm around her shoulders protectively, they started the journey back to the main campus.

Chapter 15

Andrew starred out the window of Stacey and Monica’s dorm room later that night, his thoughts millions of miles away.  He quickly glanced over at Monica, making sure she was still fast asleep.  The angel had been exhausted by the time they had gotten back to the dormitory and had cleaned up the room and though she had struggled to stay awake, she had eventually lost the battle when she had laid down “just for a minute”.  Andrew noted that her expression, even in sleep, was pensive and occasionally she would murmur something that he couldn’t understand.  

Andrew’s sensitive heart ached for her as he watched her sleep.  He could only imagine how frightened she was, and after all she had been through, he worried about how much more she could take.  He knew he should be equally concerned with the consequences of his own actions.  He had been told not to come back here, but he had been unable to comply with that directive.  He knew he should talk with the Father, but he felt unable to do that at the moment.  He was very ashamed for not following the instructions set forth by Tess, but he also knew that if given the chance again, he would do the exact same thing he had done this time.

This was all very new to him.  He had felt a sense of responsibility many times where humans were concerned.  He loved and cared about each one of his assignments, sometimes to the point of becoming far too emotionally involved.  But this was different—very different.  This was Monica, his friend and fellow angel and never in all the assignments over all the years, had he ever felt this way.  Though his greatest loyalty was with the Father, he knew he would go to the ends of the earth to protect the angel who slept in the bed near him.  She had taught him so much in the few years they had been fortunate enough to work together.  Though he was the one with the most experience in human nature, Monica had a way of seeing things that fascinated him.  She was so quick to find the good in everything and everyone, sometimes even getting herself into trouble because she refused to believe the truth if it was bad.  She threw herself into her work with a passion that Andrew admired most about her.  Her eagerness to make a difference on every case made her an absolute joy to work with. 

But beyond that, sometimes Andrew caught a glimpse of a vulnerability that scared him.  She was so quick to trust because she had trouble believing that anything bad could ever happen to her because she was an angel.  Now this time it had.  That was mostly why he had found it so difficult to stay away from her tonight.  He had known she would try to confront Kathleen because she wanted to find the good inside of the fallen angel.  But Andrew had been fairly certain that there was no good left inside of Kathleen.  Every time she surfaced, it was trouble for one of them, but it usually boiled down to trouble for Monica.  The evil Kathleen knew Monica far too well and she worked that knowledge to her advantage. 

Andrew shuddered when he thought about the attack he had taken for Monica earlier.  He didn’t know if angels could die or not when they were in human form, but he had trouble believing that Monica could have survived that attack tonight.  He had felt each painful blow and after each one he had thanked the Father that the pain faded almost immediately.  If that had not been the case, Andrew was not sure of how he would have endured it.

He turned back around and looked down at Monica once more.  She was mumbling something in her sleep and he watched as a single tear made a shiny path down her cheek.  Andrew knew she was afraid, probably of more than he could even imagine, but he had to believe that this would all work out in the end.  He couldn’t let anything happen to her in the meantime, of that he was certain.

“And just what do you think you are doing?” Tess asked, appearing in the room with them, her arms crossed as she looked at Andrew questionably.

“Tess!”  Andrew’s face flooded with relief at the sight of his supervisor who he was hoping could shed some light on this whole situation for him.  He remembered the sleeping Monica then, and he held his finger to his lips to silence Tess.  He indicated the window and the two angels vanished from the room and reappeared a moment later on the roof.

“Don’t you ‘Tess’ me, Mr. Halo.” She scolded, still looking at him sternly,

“You were told to go Home, not come back here.”

“I had to come back, Tess,” Andrew replied, trying desperately to make her understand,

“I couldn’t just leave her when she needed my help the most.”

“She wouldn’t of needed your help if she had done what she was told, Andrew and we both know it.  We don’t call the shots around here, God does.  We just carry out His orders.  Now the pair of you are in trouble with Sam for ignoring that face and deciding to do what just what you wanted to do.  Now, the order is for you to get your angel-butt Home and for Monica to finish up with Stacey.” Tess looked at him questionably.

“Tess, I can’t leave her.  Kathleen could have killed her tonight had I not been there!  She’s still human, Tess!”

“She needs to trust in her Creator, Andrew and stop trusting in Monica!” Tess retorted.  She was really not in the mood to be having this discussion right now.  She had already had enough explaining to do with Sam,

“Miss Wings has gotten you into enough trouble for one day and I think its time the two of you remembered that you are angels and start acting like it again.”

“I can’t leave her, Tess,” Andrew repeated patiently, his gaze falling downwards,

“I just can’t.  She’s scared to death right now and she doesn’t know what is going to happen to her.  Kathleen put some kind of terrible ideas into her head tonight.  She needs me, Tess.”

“She needs the Father, Andrew.  Now, I love that baby in there every bit as much as you do, but our orders are to bow out right now.  So, are you coming with me or not?” Tess looked at Andrew long and hard, praying he was going to make the right decision.

Andrew was quiet for several moments before he met his green eyes squarely with hers,

“No, Tess.  I’m staying here with Monica.  I’m sorry, I know it’s wrong, but for some reason I have to stay.” He saw the disappointment in his supervisor’s eyes and he could only pray that one day she would understand.  As he turned to look in on Monica, he grabbed onto the window pane as fear flashed in his eyes,

“Tess!”

Tess’ heart leaped to her chest as Andrew turned to face her, his expression one of pure fear that was uncharacteristic of the Angel of Death,

“Andrew?  What is it?”

“She’s gone.  Monica’s gone!”