Angels among us

Chapter 2 "Today is the first day of the rest of your life."

"Harry," Michael asked patiently, "Why are we sitting in the rain?"

He held the umbrella over our heads shielding us from the worst of the rain, but the wind was blowing the rain on us and it was cold.

"Do you remember a while back," I started, pushing the chaos spinning in my brain into a tiny little room in my head and closing the door, "I told you that the shade of Lasciel was in my head?"

"You mean when Nicodemus had tossed her coin at one of my children and you saved them?" he asked, putting a noble spin on it that I didn't deserve.

"ya, that." I said. "and how her shade lived in my head for a long time before burning itself out of my head to save my life." I asked.

"Yes, I remember." He said kindly.

"Well she's back." I said bluntly.

"The shade? How is that possible?" Michael asked sounding a little worried and surprised at the same time.

"Not the shade," I said, "She's a real woman. She's in ICU." I said lifting my head to look him in the eyes.

"Harry, that's not possible." He said. "Laciels coin is secured and has been accounted for." He finished.

"She's not in a host, it's HER!" I stammered.

"I don't know what you mean, you're losing me Harry." Michael said giving me a kind and patient look.

"The woman in there looks exactly as she did when she would appear to me to talk face to face. She could project an image of herself, like an illusion so I wasn't having a conversation in my head." I finished.

"Maybe it's a coincidence?" Michael said lamely as he didn't believe in coincidence any more than I did.

"Could the Denarians have physically changed one of their hosts to look like her?" I asked lamely.

"To what end? If they wanted to come after you, they've shown in the past that they usually take a more direct approach." He said.

"Maybe they want her to get close to me to get the swords?" I asked.

"Perhaps," He said pausing to think for a moment, "but Harry, if that were the case why is she in the hospital?" Michael finished.

"What do you mean?" I asked still working with half of my intellect.

"I mean why make herself vulnerable? She could likely heal herself with little effort, we've seen the older Denarians do that in the past. Why let herself be brought here?" He asked.

"Maybe to draw me out? Maybe they want to get me out of the house and away from the swords." I offered.

"With the new wards, do you think they could get into your house?" He asked seriously.

"I don't know, with the blessings Father Forthill put on it and with the new wards I've put up, I don't think so but they are older and wiser than I." I said shaking my head.

"What if she wasn't sent by them?" He asked simply.

"What if?" I asked.

"Harry, refresh my memory. Tell me everything that happened the night she left you." He asked.

So I took a deep breath and told him how I had gone to the deeps to save my brother. How all hell literally broke loose and how Lash had sacrificed herself to give me the time and power to save myself. I also told him how Bob had said that a chunk of my soul was missing when I got home that night. Then after that I couldn't call Hellfire but in its place had Soulfire.

When I finished Michael thought for a moment, then looked me in the eyes and asked, "Harry, what do you call an intelligent being with a soul and a body?"

"I'm not a religious man, I know there are angels, seraphim's, and all manner of heavenly hosts. So spirits?" I asked.

"No Harry, their called humans." He said with a glint in his eye.

"Okay…" I said not seeing his point.

"Harry, if you gave her part of your soul and her intelligence lived on with it, then… "He said as if I should be having an, "Ah ha" moment.

"Then she's a duck?" I asked using my best Monty Python voice.

"No, she may very well be human Harry." Michael said smiling.

"How?" I asked incredulously.

"Every human soul is sent to earth and given a body to learn, grow and prove themselves worthy. Normally we are born to our parents and they teach us and we grow and so on. Lash learned from you and even got her soul from you, you couldn't very well have a baby born knowing what she knows. Maybe she was sent here with a body as an adult because she is an adult mentally and although you can be childish, you have an old soul Harry." Michael finished.

"She has hundreds of life times worth of experience in and out of bodies, why would she have to come back." I asked.

"No, Lasciel has those experiences and she was only using somebody elses body as a puppet at that. Lash only stared to exist after you touched the coin and rode along in your head, do you see the difference?" He asked.

"So you think she may have been sent back to be tested?" I asked trying to wrap my head around the concept.

"I do and to learn what it means to be a mortal, to be human." Michael said with a smile glancing at the night sky that was starting to clear.

"You take this mysterious ways thing pretty seriously, don't you?" I said loudly to the sky. Michael laughed and stood up with an umbrella in one hand and his cane in the other.

"We really should go inside now." He said with a shiver.

"There's more." I said with a guilty look on my face.

"Okay." Michael said.

"It's Murphy. She doesn't know about Lash. I never told her." I said feeling ashamed.

"I can see how that would not come up in casual conversation," he said raising his eyebrows, "how is that a problem? Just tell her." He said.

"I know I should and I want to but," I said blushing, "I'm not sure what to say."

"Harry, it's not my place to ask, but has something changed between the two of you?" He asked expectantly.

"Yes, I kissed her a couple of months ago." I said.

"And…" Michael said.

"AND she left. Not a word, just got up and headed out. We haven't spoken of it since." I said.

"I see." Michael said looking at me. "She has been married, a few of times now, maybe she just got scared Harry."

"I know and I'm not one to be insecure but it's Murphy." I said "I think I really screwed up."

"Michael, tonight when I got here I wasn't prepared to see Lash, especially covered in wires and tubes, then Murphy kept pushing about how I knew her and I didn't know what to say. She kept pushing and well," I said hanging my head in shame, "I yelled at her, told her it was none of her business and walked out." I sad humbly, dropping my head in my hands.

"Harry." He said turning to me, "We can't let our anger cause us to hurt the one's we care about. There is no good excuse for bad behavior." He said firmly but not scolding, "You owe her an apology, my friend." He said putting his hand on my shoulder. "At the same time, Murphy is tough and if you ask her to forgive you and you let her know you mean it, then in time, I'm sure shell forgive you." He said with a gently smile.

"Harry, let's take this one problem at a time. You may find that dealing with the Lash issue will lead to a resolution of the others in due time." He said.

"So I need to have faith?" I said with a smirk.

"It couldn't hurt." He said with a smile as we headed back into the hospital.

We walked back into the Hospital and Rawlings was standing outside the ICU doors and stopped us as we approached.

"He can go in, you," He said pointing at me, "wait out here." Michael gave me a curious look I shrugged my shoulders and waved him on as I stood next to Rawlings. Michael opened the doors to the ICU, alarms still going off but the printer and phones seemed to be behaving now. Michael looked back at me with a disapproving look, shook his head and headed in to join Father Forthill.

"Murphy told me to keep you out here. It seems when you walked out half the floor went off line. Nobody was hurt but it's going to cost a pretty penny to replace some of the equipment that isn't working anymore." He said giving me an even but slightly disapproving look.

"Sorry, about that, it was an accident." I said turning to head for the main emergency waiting area.

"Oh no," He said, "You stay here with me, where I can keep an eye on you." He motioned to a set of chairs across the hall from the ICU doors with a cup of coffee sitting on each.

We walked over to the plastic chairs and sat down with the coffee. Rawlings took off the lid and took a sip and made a face.

"The coffee must be Korean war surplus." He said, "Smooth…"

I took a sip of mine and it was bitter, strong and had the consistency of light motor oil.

"It needs sugar." I said with a grimace.

"So what happened in there Harry? I've never seen you lose it like that before, and in a Hospital? What were you thinking?" He asked with a touch of rebuke in his voice. I sipped the sludge and looked at him, not looking into his face.

"I just got a really big shock, that's all. I can't explain it, but there is no way that the girl should be here." I said shaking my head. "It caught me completely off guard and you know how Murphy gets when she thinks you aren't being straight with her. That's why I went for a walk. I just should have left a little earlier." I said.

"What do you mean she shouldn't be here?" He asked giving me probing stare.

"Let's just say that I thought she was dead, and then Poof, here she is, out of the blue. Before she died, our relationship was, Complicated." I said rubbing my face.

"Then why the hell didn't you tell Murphy that?" He said then he took a long slow breath. "You didn't know how to tell her. I know there's nothing going on between you two," he said as if spouting a political party line, "but you both deny it too often and too hard to make me think that you both don't think about it a little too much." He said with a wry smile on his face.

I didn't say anything to confirm or deny his assumption, instead took another sip of the sludge, hoping that maybe it would kill me before I had to face Murphy again.

"Harry, just tell her. It's not like your secret isn't out already and the sooner you clear the air, the less likely Murphy will break one of your favorite limbs." He said with a chuckle.

"That's kind of what Michael had said." I said taking another sip of the horrid black liquid.

"He's a smart man, you should listen." He said setting his cup on the floor.

We sat in silence for a little while as I came to my senses, the shock beginning to wear off. After about ten minutes Father Forthill and Michael came out of the ICU, the alarms seemed to have been shut off and nothing was smoking so I felt a little better.

"Well?" I asked as the father walked over.

"Michael and I could find no demonic presence in or about her and I when I gave her a blessing, there was no adverse effect." He said smiling kindly. "In fact I think it helped."

Michael smiled kindly looking at me.

"She's human Harry." Michael said.

"She's human and not demonic? You weren't kidding about complicated were you Dresden." Rawlings said looking at me a little wide eyed. "I don't even want to know." He said getting up shaking his head and heading into the ICU. "I've heard too much already."

I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my eyes. This will take a lot of explaining.

"Thank you father, I appreciate you coming down here on such short notice." I said looking up at the priest.

"It's my job and when I couldn't reach Sanya, then he wasn't here, I took that as a good sign." He said patting me on the shoulder smiling broadly.

"Harry, Murphy asked me to tell you that the girl is being moved to a private room since her injuries aren't life threatening and her CT scans came back not showing any head serious injuries." Michael said quietly. "She said you could head home if you want and she would call you tomorrow."

I took that as a sign that she didn't want to talk to me right now and I understood, I wasn't sure I wanted to talk to her right now anyway.

"Did they give you a room number?" I asked. Michael smiled and gave me the room number and offered to take me to the cafeteria for a something while they moved her. We left Rawlings and Father Forthill and headed down to the bank of vending machines as the cafeteria proper was closed for the night.

I sat on a bench across from Michael as I ate a something salad sandwich and sipped a coke, trying to wash the taste of the coffee from my mouth. The wrapper on the sandwich said Chicken salad but somehow tasted more like deviled Ham and Tuna. So much for healthy food in a hospital.

"Harry, they said she has amnesia," Michael said eating a cookie from the tin he had procured from the vending machine. "What are you going to tell her if she wakes up?"

"I don't know." I said honestly. "I just can't let her wake up alone, I owe her at least that much." I said.

"I understand. Maybe it's best if you tell her that you are a friend, it's the truth and she doesn't need the shock right now. In time you can tell her the rest of the story but for now, let her adjust to her new situation." Michael offered.

"A half-truth?" I asked looking shocked at Michael.

"Not really, Harry. You were friends, sort of, at the end, weren't you?" He asked.

"Well, sort of, yes." I said.

"Then tell her that, just don't tell her you think she was a copy of a demon that's trapped in a coin that was used to pay Judas for betraying Christ." He said. "Keep it light for now." He said with a smile. "Any way you aren't sure that it's even her. For all you know right now, she could just be someone who looks like her." He said reasonably.

Half an hour later I was reclining in a large recliner next to Lash. Michael had decided to head home and the doctors didn't expect for her to wake till morning so I was resting as best as I could. Rawlings told the doctor that I was a consultant and would be staying with her until she woke up, which was true, but he didn't have to do that for me so I owed him one.

Murphy was conspicuously missing after Michael and I left the cafeteria, which I suppose was best for all concerned including the hospitals insurance company.

I sat in the dimly lit room that smelled like bleach and antiseptic listening to the rythem of her breathing and the gentle beep beep of her heart monitor. My chair was next to the wall that was against the hallway and the machines that monitored her heart rate and breathing etc was on the other side of the bed from me. Past that there was a private bathroom and a large window seat on the far wall. In front of the bed, hanging at an angle at the top of the wall, there was a television set.

The light came from a small florescent light above the bed that was there so the nurses could check the readings on the equipment without waking the patient. I sat there studying the curve of her face and looking at how her golden hair fell around her face. I noticed how her nose was a lot like Murphy's but her figure was fuller and had more interesting curves.

She lay there sleeping as the monitor next to the bed beeped in rhythm to her heartbeat. I put my hand over hers and felt the warmth and softness of her skin. Then I drifted off into a deep sleep.

"And how are we today?" said the portly, Jamaican nurse as she walked into the room, she wasn't loud but wasn't trying to be quiet either, her strong accent didn't leave much doubt as to her origin.

I opened my eyes, the sun streaming through the windows lit the room brightly and I had to blink a few times to get my eyes to adjust.

I looked around the room, my brain still adjusting from the delta to alpha state. I'm guessing I was in Beta stage about this time she plopped a tray down on the roll away bed table and pushed it over Lash's stomach as her eyes fluttered and then opened.

"It's six thirty," she said glancing at me, "time for breakfast."

"So what do I call you baby girl? It says 'Unknown' on your chart." The nurse said as she started removing the covers over the food and Lash's eyes scanned the room focusing on the nurse's face.

"I, I don't know." She said with a blank look on her face. "I remember waking up in a storm and then a bright light hit me like a bull and then I was here. That's all I remember." She said with a scowl that made her nose crinkle a little and was actually rather cute.

"Well honey, maybe this gentleman knows something." She said gesturing to me.

For the first time Lash noticed that there was someone else in the room and she turned to me with a start. For a brief moment there was recognition in her eyes and she sat up straight, eyes widening.

"I know you!" she said. "Don't ask me how but I know I know you." She said as a smile jumped to her face, her eyes lighting up as she turned her shoulders to face me slightly bouncing in the bed with excitement.

"Her name is Lash." I said, not looking away from the woman in the bed. I felt a smile crossing my face as we looked at each other I could feel an unexpected joy welling up through my body tingling like static electricity.