Later that evening after the incident at the garden door, Moira sat at the vanity in her grandmother's old room brushing her hair with the brush her grandmother used to brush her own well kept hair with. Moira had wanted to stay in her old room when they had initially arrived. But Ava had demanded she take her grandmother's room as there was less furniture for her to bump into and it was farther from the stairs so she wouldn't walk out the door and fall, AND it was HER house so she should get the bigger room.

After a while Moira had given up and allowed her bags to be taken into the room. Though she really didn't feel like the room belonged to her, she didn't mind sleeping there. She had always loved being in the elegant old room. As a child, she would feel like a princess sitting upon the velvet seat in front of the mirror while her grandmother brushed her hair with the ornate sterling silver brush. The vanity itself was made of cherry tree with hand carved flowers and twirling vines. Small figures of angels peaked from the around the corners of the drawers in the vanity. Their little faces were carved with such detail that one might almost believe they were alive. Moira could almost see their little faces as she ran her hands over the old wood.

"I miss you so much grandmother." She whispered quietly as she clutched the hairbrush to her heart.

Her grandmother had really been more of a mother to her than a grandmother. With her parents always going out to parties and working, not to mention they detested the idea of their daughter being put into a public or even a private school with other children that were beneath her social standing. She had wanted for nothing as a child..except for the one thing she was forbidden to have. Up until she went to university, Ava had been her only friend...that is Ava and Michael.

"Michael," She whispered to herself.

He was her first and dearest friend, her guardian angel. He had chased away the monsters that haunted her dreams. He had been her confidante, her playmate, and her royal captain of the guard, her knight in shining armor. But he was also the reason her parents fought with her grandmother and eventually barred her from visiting. She came to a point where she no longer wished to come home. She spoke of nothing but the stone angel who guarded her. She even began to believe sometimes that she saw him in the city, that he left her grandmothers house at night sometimes to come to the city to watch over her. After she was no longer allowed to visit her grandmother's house, she received word that he had been stolen from the garden. She had never cried so hard in her entire life. She wrote letters to him, called for him, begged him to come back to her. But he never did, and when her parents found the letters, she was sent to therapy where she was eventually convinced that his being alive was not possible.

~Flashback~

"I WON'T GO! I WANT TO STAY WITH GRANDMOTHER AND MICHAEL!" the angry little voice shouted as Little Moira ran out to the garden with tears streaming down her eyes.

Behind her she could hear her parents arguing with her grandmother.

"YOU HAVE TURNED OUR CHILD INTO A DAMNED LUNATIC AND I WILL NOT HAVE IT ANYMORE!" Her father roared back in the house.

"She is not a lunatic!" Her grandmother answered in a firm voice. "She is lonely! You keep her locked away from the sun and others you deem beneath her of course she is going to find friends where ever she can!"

Moria's vision blurred as she continued to run. Suddenly she fell forward, tripping upon a troublesome root. She hit the ground hard and lay there sobbing. Her parents had come to take her away once more. But she had refused because she had wanted to stay with her grandmother, and Michael. While she lay upon the ground she began to feel a gentle hand caressing her back. She closed her eyes tightly as she had learned to do during the years she spent at her grandmothers. Jumping up from the ground she lunged forward into the strong arms of her friend.

"I don't want to leave you!" She cried as she wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed. She felt strong arms wrap around her tiny form.

"Stay with me," a familiar voice whispered on the wind. "Please...my Moira..."

"MOIRA!" Shouted her father from the door.

Moira turned around to look at him before turning back a head to see Michael standing where he always stood his face covered.

"MOIRA TIME TO GO!"

"NO" She cried as she surged forward and wrapped her little arms around the legs of the stone angel. "I want to stay here daddy please!"

"Oh for heaven's sake," her father growled as he stormed down the path to where she was and grabbed her around the waist. Moira held on with all her might.

"DADDY PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME STAY."

"MOIRA STOP IT!" Her father roared pulling her hard and ripping her from Michael's legs.

Moira screamed as she was thrown over her father's shoulder.

"NOOOOO!" She screamed as she reached out. "MIICHAAEEELL"

Her father turned and began walking back towards the gate that lead to the waiting car in the front. "Moira stop it! That is just a piece of stone!" her father yelled over her kicking and screaming. "He isn't alive ITS NOT POSSIBLE"

"MMIIICCHAAEELLL"

~End Flashback~

Moira shook her head. 'No,' she thought to herself. 'it wasn't possible.' Suddenly a light breeze blew over her from the window. The breeze brought her back from her thoughts and she began once more to brush her hair, pulling her long blonde hair over her shoulder. Ava must have opened it earlier to air out the room. She felt the breeze again gently caressing her hair. She closed her eyes and sighed with contentment. The breeze reminded her of a gentle summer breeze caressing her hair when she was a child and would sit in the garden reading to her stone friend. She smiled at the memories of when she could let her imagination take over and bring stone angels to life.

"I miss you Michael," She said quietly.

"I've been waiting for you." a voice softly answered back on the breeze.

Moira's eyes shot open. She slowly turned her head towards the window. The voice had sounded close by.

"Hello?" She asked as she slowly stood from the vanity and began to walk towards the window.

Her thoughts instantly returned to earlier in the day with the incident at the garden door. She had been sure that someone had been there to catch her. She knew she had felt the smooth cool skin. But her cousin had assured her there was no one there, so she had written it off as a hallucination from the medicine she was taking. She made it to the window and stood there listening carefully. Maybe she had heard one of the nieghbors standing out side talking on a phone? But she heard no other voices. She felt the breeze again and heard the rustling of the trees in the garden below.

She remembered that this window use to have a clear view of where Michael had once stood. She would sometimes hide here and peek out in the hopes of seeing him move. But he never did. A sudden cold chill ran down her spine causing her to wrap her arms around herself and then reach up to lower the window. She was reaching to lock it when Ava knocked at the door and then stepped in.

"Getting ready for bed?"She asked cheerfully.

"Yes," Moira said with a smile turning around to face her cousin, forgetting about the lock. "I was just closing the window you left open."

Another confused look ran across Ava's face. She had never opened the window. But for fear of upsetting Moira again, she said nothing. It must be the medicine she was taking. The doctor said she might suffer some short term memory loss and some hallucinations.

"Uh sorry, I must have forgotten." She said passing it off.

Moira smiled as she made her way towards the large four poster bed her grandmother used to sleep on. Ava walked over to the window to glance out the window. Nothing seemed a miss but she quickly froze and did a retake. Was that a shadow she saw standing down in the garden? On her second look she saw nothing and quickly closed the long royal blue drapes. She then turned to her cousin who had crawled into the bed.

"You dressed yourself for bed?" She asked noting the long light blue silk night gown Moira wore.

Moira quickly bristled. "I'm not so inept."

Ava smiled. "I know you're not...your getting better...even if you DID put your gown on backwards and inside out."

Moira's head instantly snapped downwards towards her gown.

"Damn it!"

Ava burst into laughter. "I'm just kidding," She said with a grin as she climbed onto the bed with her cousin. "Your gonna be fine, Momo." She said using her nickname for her cousin. "Your getting better every day. Soon you'll be completely back to your old self." She said as she wrapped her arms around her cousin.

"Somehow I doubt that." Moira said quietly while she lifted herself up and pushed the blankets from underneath her to slide under the silk sheets.

Ava reached forward to help tuck her in.

"Don't forget the doctor is stopping by to check on you." She said as she smoothed the blankets over her cousin.

"Yea yea," Moira said laying back in bed.

"Yea yea," Ava mimicked as she climbed off the bed and walked towards the door. "And I'll have none of your lip this time. I'll make you deal if you behave for the doctor tomorrow. I'll take you to the market."

Moira rolled her eyes. "Yes mom," She said in an obviously annoyed tone. But then she had a thought. "Is that garden and stone shop still by the market?"

Ava paused with her hand upon the door knob. She turned back to her cousin with a look of suspicion in her eyes. "Yes...why?"

"Oh no reason." Moira said innocently. "I was just thinking about maybe getting something go in that empty space in the garden...like...I don't know ...maybe a statue...or something."

Moira could almost feel the displeasure radiating from her cousin even from across the room.

"Do we have to?" Ava asked as she leaned her forhead against the door. "You know those things give me the creeps.."

"But the garden seems so empty." Moira reasoned. "And we need someone to watch over us."

Ava rolled her eyes. "You were in the garden for less than five minutes how do you know its empty?"

"I just feel like something is missing."

"Mooirra..." her cousin whined. The garden already made her uncomfortable and she really didn't want another statue there to make her always feel as if she needed to look over she shoulder and never close her eyes.

"You did say it was my house." Moira said in a stern 'you did say' voice.

Ava rolled her eyes again. "So thats how it is, is it?"

"Yup," Moira said with a satisfied smile. "Thats how it is."

"Gah fine." Ava said. "But I get to put in a hot tub if you get a creepy statue."

The cousins laughed before saying goodnight to one another.

"See you in the morning." Ava said as she walked out the door.

"Won't see you." Moira sneared in retort."

"Haha "Ava said in a dead tone voice. "Goodnight."

"Pleasant dreams" Moira laughed.

That night Moira had the strangest dream that someone was in the room with her. She dreamed of someone standing over her gently caressing her hair and face. In her dream she smiled and reached up to grasp the hand that stroked her skin. The fingers were long and cool upon her own. She suddenly felt another hand upon her other side sliding down her waist to her hip. The hands were strong but gentle with a feather lite touch. She trailed her hands up the well defined muscles of the arms until they reached the broad shoulders. Following the shoulders up the neck her fingers then found soft curly hair and the well chilsed features of the face. It was definitly a man. Moira smiled as he leaned forward and began leaving light kisses upon her neck. She ran her hands over the back of his neck and down his bare back where her hands connected with his soft feathered wings.

Moira suddenly sat up fully awake with a gasp, feathered wings? Why the hell was she dreaming about a man with feathered wings? She shook her head as she scooted back to sit against the head board. She was spending to much time remembering her childhood if she were dreaming about men with feathered wings. Though she did have to admit that it was quite a nice dream. It had seemed so real...to the point where her neck still tingled where he kissed her.

"It was just a dream," She whispered out loud to no one as she slid back down to bed. "Its not possible..."

Soon she fell asleep once more. Out of the shadows stepped a familar figure. Michael walked up to the bed making no sound as he moved to stand over her sleeping form. Slowly he reached down to stroke her face once more, and again she responded to his touch and smiled in her sleep.

"Michael," She whispered.

Michael smiled, knowing that she was almost ready. She was no longer the little girl he had watched over and grown attached to. Now she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in all the centuries he had lived. Ever since she had been taken away as a child, he had watched over her from a far, protecting her. Watching her grow up he had only grown more attached to her. Now he simply had to wait for her to know him...for her to see him. Then she would be his forever...