She was God's favorite. God wasn't supposed to have favorites, but everyone knew she was his. She was Heaven's best angel, and her name, ironically, was Angel. Angel took care of all the baby's that died on Earth. She listened to the old people talk about their loved ones who hadn't yet come into the kingdom. She played with the young children, and told them stories about what their mother and father on Earth were like, and how much they missed and loved them. Sometimes, she would send Whispers to Earthlings. A Whisper was exactly what it sounds like, a whisper from an angel in Heaven. Sometimes it was advice, a comforting word, or an encouragement. Angels were only allowed to send three Whispers down to Earth every year. But God made Angel an exception, because she was so good at sending Whispers. All the other angel's loved her. And God treasured her dearly.
Then, something happened. This had happened once before, when an angel named Lucifer got into a fight with God, and stumbled off the edge of the cloud. Lucifer landed on another cloud though, but this cloud was flaming red. When Lucifer fell, his wings broke. So he had no way of getting back up to God. God offered to help him up, but Lucifer was too proud. He thought he could do it on his own, without God. So the fallen angel tried in vain to float his cloud higher than Heaven, but he could never do it. Rumor has it, he's still trying.
It was a Christmas Eve when Angel fell. But she didn't land on a cloud. She landed on a planet. Planet Earth.
To be specific, she landed in New York, in Alphabet City, which really wasn't a city at all. Angel shouted and screamed, but God couldn't hear her. The party was too loud in Heaven, and no one noticed Angel was gone. So she picked up an old tub, and began to drum. Angel thought if she drummed loud enough, God would hear her. But he didn't. But Angel did hear something. A sound she recognized. The sound of pain. The sound of death creeping closer. So she went towards the sound.
On Earth, Angel experienced a feeling she'd never felt in Heaven. Love. Love for people. She fell in love with an Earthling by the name of Tom Collins. She'd sent him Whispers before, and now was able to actually interact with him. And she loved him with all of her heart. She also loved her friends. There were a few she'd helped before from Heaven, a lawyer named Joanne she'd helped win a case, a girl named Maureen she had helped come out to her parents as a teen, Roger, a guy she'd sent words of comfort to when his girlfriend April joined Angel in Heaven. Then there was Mark, the one she'd helped through a tough breakup, and a young girl everyone called Mimi whom Angel hadn't had a chance to help yet. But Angel did her share of helping Mimi on Earth, and continued to give her hope and Whispers when Angel returned to God's cloud.
Something about Angel changed when she hit Earth's atmosphere. No longer was she a girl. She was a boy. Angel did her best to change herself back into the beautiful girl she was in Heaven, and she got pretty darn close. But the part of her that wasn't quite female was what made her so special. That, along with her empathy and compassion, made her just what Earth needed.
Lucifer noticed Angel absence from Heaven right away, and saw the good she was doing. She gave people hope. And Lucifer didn't approve of that. So Lucifer threatened Angel, told her he was going to steal her from Earth. So she had to make up an excuse in case Lucifer did take her, something to tell her Earth friends. Angel then pretended to have a terminal illness, a good excuse to have in your back pocket if one died suddenly.
It took ten Earth months, or one hour in Heaven, for God to realize his most prized angel was missing. He sent her a Whisper on Halloween night, begging her to come back. But she had been on Earth too long, and her wings had disappeared in the mess of poverty, disease, sin, and reality. So she couldn't fly back on her own. Angel said her good byes to her Earth friends, and sang her last song with her love, Collins. Then she screamed at God to take her. And he did.
Angel went back to Heaven. And she's still there today. Eventually her friends from Earth joined her, as well as the one she had loved. That was the first time an angel had felt love. But it was not the last.