Disclaimer:
I don't own Andrew, Tess, or Monica – they belong to CBS, Martha Wiliamson, etc. I also don't own the name Saturn SL1. I'm not using this for money. Anything else I forgot applies.
Claimer:
I do, however, own the character of Jezebelle, Jocelyn, Joel, Ashley, Tabitha, Wesley, Logan, Daniel, Noah, and Michaela. I also own the character of Sabetha.
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Ashley's Goodbyes
Part One
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Jezebelle looked at her three co-workers. They had been given the day off, and had enjoying the day on the beach. Jeze and the other three angels had had a great time swimming and telling stories – Jeze had enjoyed telling about Andrew especially. But now the setting sun was making the sand glitter, the waves were slow and calm, and the angels were sitting down to watch the glory of God. "I used to do this every chance I got. Just sit and watch the sun set behind the water." She said, thinking back to when Andrew had gotten a crab in his shorts a few years back.
Andrew looked at her, "What is with that smile?"
Jeze snickered, "1990. You, Leonarda, Kai, and me came out here to go swimming. Halfway through that trip, you got a crab…"
"Must you bring that up?" Andrew said, whining.
Monica snickered – she knew this story, because Kai had told her the next day.
"Are you three ever going to act somewhat responsible?" Tess said, looking at her three angelbabies.
"I don't know. When we're your age, may…" Tess cut off Jeze.
"Watch it, Halo-ette." Tess warned.
Jeze looked back at the blue and purple sky, "How old are you, anyway?"
Andrew looked at Monica and made a whistling sound.
"You wouldn't happen to have heard the quote 'Fools rush in…'"
"Where angels fear to tread. I've heard that about eight hundred times. So, when's our next assignment?"
Tess nodded toward a person who was coming down the beach, "Right now."
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Seventeen-year old Ashley Sara Deiset walked slowly, loving the feel of the sand beneath her feet. She loved the feel of the water has it gently lapped around her thin ankles. She loved it so much that her parents had moved closer to the beach after they found out she was sick. She sighed. She hadn't been down there very often – mostly she stayed at the dance school that was about six blocks away. That was her favorite thing to do besides sing and swim.
Ashley hummed a song softly, as she passed a lone blanket on the gold sand. She stopped and looked at it for a minute, "I wonder who left this." She said, aloud. The gorgeous blue blanket looked like it had been hand-stitched with the letters J-E-Z-E-B-E-L-L-E sewed in beautiful cursive writing. She frowned for a moment, then folded it up, and put it on the rock ridge that divided the beach from the land. No sense in something that nice getting soaked by the incoming tide.
Unbeknownst to the teen, the four angels were watching her.
"Her name is Ashley. She's seventeen-years old. The third oldest in a family of nine children." Tess said, "Ashley believed very much in the Father, but about a year ago, Ashley was told she had cancer. It's been downhill for her since then."
Jeze looked at the child, as Ashley began to sing.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound…" Ashley sang. Her sweet soprano voice made all four angels take notice – especially Tess.
Jeze looked at Ashley, "Who's assignment is Ashley?"
"Ashley's your assignment, Monica has Ashley's younger siblings, and Andrew has her parents."
"What about you?" Monica asked.
"Ashley has two older siblings – they're mine."
Jeze nodded her head and watched the girl make her way toward the dock.
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Ashley walked into bible study, and sat down. The walk to church had been longer then usual and her legs hurt. She crossed her arms on the top of the table and put her head down. She quickly fell asleep and was awoken by new girl ten minutes later.
"Hey. Wake up." A whispered voice said.
Ashley opened her eyes. Her pastor was watching her with a concerned look on his face, as did the other kids. "Sorry."
"That's okay. You can leave early if you'd like. I'm sure no one would mind." Pastor Douglas said, "Jezebelle could take you home."
Jeze smiled, happily, "My car is out front. It'll take me two minutes to get you home."
Ashley just nodded, "I am a bit tired. I'll go early, but I'm staying late next week." She said, to the young pastor.
Pastor Douglas smiled, "Sure."
Ashley picked up her books and walked out of the room behind Jezebelle. Jezebelle held the door open for her charge, led her to the white Saturn SL1, and unlocked the doors. She got into the car, as Ashley threw her stuff into the backseat and then sat down.
"Nice car." Ashley said, looking around the seemingly brand-new car.
"Thanks. My father got it for me." Jeze started the engine, and fixed her seat before pulling out of the church's parking lot. She pulled onto the road, and looked at Ashley for a second. "So. Were you up late?"
Ashley smiled, "Yeah. There's beach that's basically in my backyard, and I haven't gone down there in awhile so I went for a walk last night."
Jeze smiled, "That sounds nice. I'm just curious, but how old are you?"
"Seventeen. I'll be Eighteen in three months. How about you?"
Jeze thought for a second, "I'm eighteen." 'Thanks, Papita.' She thought. He'd answered her just as she'd panicked from that question.
Ashley smiled, and looked down at the CD player in the dashboard, "Can I?"
Jeze smiled, and leaned over. She opened the glove-box revealing a bunch of CDs – or more specifically, Jeze's CDs. The Father had given the car to her after she brought up the fact that all four angels in Tess' car wasn't so well – and the CDs were something Rafael and Loi had given her three years before as an incentive to not leave her job.
"Wow." Ashley said, picking up the newest *NSYNC CD. "My mom won't even buy this for me."
Jeze giggled, "I don't usually listen to it in the car. I use it when I go practice my dance routines." She pulled into the Deiset family's driveway, behind the red convertible.
"You dance?" Ashley asked, as the two got out of the car.
Jeze handed Ashley her things, and headed toward the house, "Yep. My favorite thing to do is dance – except for the toe shoes! My ankles kill by the time I finish dancing in those things."
Ashley laughed and jumped up the steps to the porch. She pushed opened the door, threw her books onto a chair, and picked the mail up from the floor. "Mom, I'm home!"
A little boy flew out from the kitchen, covered in flour, and hugged Ashley.
"Hi, Logan. Where's Danny and Noah?" Ashley asked, as Monica and the other two triplets appeared in the room.
Danny ran over, "Hey, Ashy, look what we made!" the four-year old laughed. He took her hand, and began to drag the teen into the other room.
"Hold on, Danny-boy. Where's mom? We have a guest." Ashley said, stopping her brother from dragging her into the kitchen.
"We do?" The brown-haired child asked.
"Yes. Jeze this is my little brother, Daniel. The one with the black hair is Logan and the one with the blonde is Noah."
Jeze waved at the two and smiled, "Hi."
"Hi!" The three boys squealed, "Do you like cookies? Mommyjustmade…"
Ashley sighed, "Slow down guys. No one can understand what you're saying when you talk that fast."
"Sorry, Ashy." Danny said, making a sad puppy-dog face.
"That's okay." Ashley looked at Monica, "You must be the new nanny Mom hired."
Monica smiled, "Yes, I am. I'm Monica."
"I'm Ashley." She motioned for Jeze to come over, and the angel readily complied, "This is Jeze."
Jeze giggled, "I know Monica already. We happen to live in the same place."
Ashley looked at the two people, "Really?"
"Why would I lie?" Jeze joked.
Ashley smiled and looked at her watch, "I forgot again. Jeze, I know this is probably too much to ask, since you just drove me home, but could you drive me over to the dance studio?"
Jeze smiled, "Depends. Can I join in?"
"Sure! I'd love to have someone to talk to besides Sabetha for once."
"Great. Be back in a little while." Jeze said, as Ashley grabbed her black dance bag from under the couch and walked toward the door.
"Hold on, Ash!" Her mother called from the stairs.
Ashley stopped and waited for her mother, who was holding six-month old Michaela, to walk down the stairs.
"I need you to take Michaela with you." Her mother, June, said, now standing in front of her daughter.
Ashley looked at her mother, "But mommmm…"
"No buts, Ash."
"I can't I'm going to take Jeze to the dance studio. I can't take Michaela with me."
A knock on the door shattered the impending argument, and Ashley turned around to open the door.
Andrew and Tess stood there, smiling at the teen.
"Hi. We're looking for Monica and Jezebelle." Andrew said, seeing Monica standing beside three little boys.
Ashley smiled, "Hi. They're right here." She led the two into the living room, and sat down in the armchair.
Jeze smiled, devilishly, and looked at Ashley and her mother, "I know a way for Michaela to come with us."
"How?" Ashley asked, seeing her new friend's face.
"Andrew, wanna come with me and Ashley?" She asked, as child-like as possible.
Andrew shook his head, "No."
Jeze looked at him and smiled, "If I let you drive the car on the way back, will you come?"
Andrew thought for a moment, before answering, "Will you stop bugging me to go dancing with you?"
"Yep."
"Then I go." Andrew said, thinking he'd finally gotten Jeze to stop with that demand.
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Jeze put Ashley's bag in the trunk before getting into her car and driving out of the driveway. She pulled onto the main road, and looked at Andrew who was giving her the hint of a glare from the backseat. "Oh, chill out, Andrew. It's not like I'm asking you to actually dance, you just have to watch Michaela. I know you like babies, too, so don't whine."
Andrew sighed. Jeze was right – he loved infants. They were these little things with so much placed before them. They were life. He looked at the little girl in the carseat beside him. Michaela was smiling happily at the angel, while trying to shove her foot into her mouth.
"So what kind of dancing do you do?" Jeze asked, the teen.
"Anything. Monica likes to do Irish, so sometimes I'll do that so I can hangout with her. My friend, Leonarda, likes tap and Jazz, so I've done those with her. My other friend, Loi, likes Ballet and I like it too – but I hate the toe shoes. I'm not really sure which one I like best."
"Cool. I've done those too – but the shoes that go with ballet and Irish dancing are like a death sentence to my feet."
"I know." Jeze giggled, "I love the dance but my feet are numb when I finish."
Ashley giggled along, and then went on, "I created a dance all my own – as far as I know. It's kinda like an improv thing. It doesn't require shoes, and you just dance to the music. No toe shoes, no frills – only what you want. My friend, Sabetha, and I are obsessed with it."
Jeze giggled, "As long as it doesn't require shoes, I love it." Jeze made a left and looked up the road to the strip of houses. After a few more moments, she made a right after the last house and pulled into the parking lot of the dance studio. Jezebelle and Ashley hopped out of the car, as Andrew unclipped the baby carrier from the base. The older angel followed the girls, who'd already grabbed their stuff from out of the trunk, into the studio.
Jeze looked around her, to see what the dance studio was like. The building was simply a one-story studio apartment with a huge mirror and a bar along one wall. A door on the left side of the building was labeled DRESSING ROOM in light pink and blue paint, and a door right next to the dressing room was labeled OFFICE in gold and silver.
In the middle of the room, a red-haired girl was dancing to Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik. She wore a black leotard with a loose white shirt on over it. Her hair was French braided, but the strands that had fallen out showed that she'd been practicing for a while.
"Sabetha!" Ashley yelled – in order to be heard over the music.
Sabetha turned around and looked at her friend, and then preceded to pause the CD player. "I've been waiting for you! What took you so long?"
Ashley walked over, "I completely forgot. Sabet, this is Jezebelle."
"Hi." Sabetha said, smiling.
"I don't need to introduce Michaela, obviously."
Sabetha smiled, and giggled, "I hope not. I was sitting with you when Meka was born."
"Oh, shut up, Sabet. Andrew, this is Sabetha Lynn O'Conner. Sabet, this is Andrew."
"Hi." Andrew said, shifting the carrier and the diaper bag in his hands.
"Pleased to meet you." Sabetha said, the hint of an Irish accent hindering her words. She looked at the two girls before her, "So we gonna dance or what?"
Ashley smiled and dragged Jeze toward the dressing room.
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Cassie Jamie
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