Previously: "I disagree, I think you would be a great father." Celine had to avoid looking at him as she said it, overcome by a sudden moment of grief as she remember the life she had been recently carrying. He might have run from the responsibility when he was eighteen, but she was sure he would have embraced the second chance. He drained his glass before picking up the bottle for a refill. "I guess we will never really know."
A Flaw in the Plan
Chapter 7
When Celine awoke, the first thing she felt was a pounding headache that made even thinking hurt. She tried opening her eyes, but the blinding sunlight made that action just as painful. She reached up to pull her veil over her eyes, but instead of cloth she only felt her own hair. She forced herself to think over the night before and quickly remembered that she and Jude had gotten stupidly drunk, which explained how awful she currently felt.
She didn't remember making it back to her room, she realised with some confusion. As if responding to her thoughts, the surface her head was resting on suddenly moved, and she heard a loud groan over her head. The jolt made her open her eyes again and look up to see, with no small amount of mortification, that she had fallen asleep on Jude at some point during the night. They were still in the study, and both fully dressed proving that they had at least avoided doing anything too stupid while inebriated. The only item that had been discarded had been her veil, and she had probably done that herself while half-asleep, it was not the most comfortable thing when trying to rest.
Jude rubbed his eyes, and swore as he no doubt felt the effects of the hangover as well. Eventually he looked down at his shoulder, where Celine's head had been resting and stared at her in confusion for a few moments before the events of the previous night came to mind. Their faces were very close, if Celine had wanted to she could have closed the distance between them and kissed him. She could see the same desire in his own eyes. With some sadness, she forced herself out of his embrace. She badly wanted to kiss him but she knew that now was probably not the right time.
"I've never felt so terrible in my entire life." She complained, trying to distract him from the moment they had just shared. He snickered.
"Lightweight." He joked. He quickly kissed the top of her head and removed himself from the chair, not seeming to have realised what he had done. "I'll go get us some coffee. I'm a least used to this feeling, we will have to train your resistance up."
Once he had left, Celine touched her forehead which burned redder than the rest of her face. His action had been completely unconscious, and it suggested that he cared for her more deeply than he would verbally express at the moment. Perhaps she had been wrong, maybe the time was soon approaching where she could initiate their relationship without too great a risk of him rejecting her.
For the countless time that week, Celine woke up feeling flushed and uncomfortable. Ever since the night she had passed out on Jude, she had been plagued with the same inappropriate dreams she had experienced in the original timeline. If anything, they were even worse now since this time she had both the knowledge and the experience to conjure up some very pleasant dreams. She wondered if Jude, who had not been as innocent before they had met, had suffered in the same way before Malta.
To distract herself from her thoughts, she headed to Jude's study to get some work done. Since that morning, she had been trying to think of a possible scenario in which she could suggest to Jude that they might work better as more than friends. Searching through their case files, she found the file for Naples. Was it really necessary for them to take that trip again? They had not really contributed much when they had been there. She could easily assemble a document explaining the basis of the woman's miracles, with some supporting evidence, and could convince Jude that it was not a case worth pursuing. A vindictive thought crossed her mind, they could give the case to Christof instead. The lovely woman they had met would see right through his façade and rip into him for it, it would be a refreshingly honest experience for him.
Scanning the rest of the cases, a messiah claim from Barcelona caught Celine's attention. She had never been to Barcelona, but a large photo of the Sagrada Familia church adorned her wall back at the convent. She read over the claim, noting that this was one of the cases that Christof had quickly claimed in the original timeline. She had not read his report on it but he had decisively dismissed the individual as the messiah when questioned. The claim itself was quite vague, the man was proclaiming that he was able to cure people with holy water that he himself had blessed. It sounded like a scam to Celine, and one she was sure Jude would take plenty enjoyment in crushing.
At a more reasonable time in the morning, Christof appeared at the door.
"Sister Celine, what a pleasure to see you so dedicated to your task."
"I couldn't sleep." She explained.
"I suspect many of us our struggling with rest, the fate of the world is in precarious hands." Christof said, referencing the work being done by Operation Saviour in the USA. "I have come to collect a file, I've already completed the work I collected last week."
"That's very impressive." Celine tried to sound sincere. "Jude and I are much further behind you." He preened at the compliment.
"Seen any good candidates for me?" He asked, seeing the papers strewn about on her desk.
"There is one," she began carefully, "it sounds like an extremely difficult case."
"Then I would be perfect to handle it."
"I think you would do better than Jude and I." She admitted and handed the Naples file to him, glad that she had not yet had the time to assemble her document disproving the miracle. She watched his expression grow from interested to delighted as he read through the overview.
"This sounds fascinating, a woman who has been able to conjure up food for the poor. Very much like our Saviour."
"Absolutely." She agreed as she watched him leave the room at the same time as Jude entered, the latter glaring at the former's retreating back.
"What is he so cheerful about?" Jude asked.
"He's taken the Naples case." He swore.
"Damn, I wanted that one."
"It was a dud anyway, I found us something better." She handed him the Barcelona file.
"Sounds like a classic case of homeopathy." He noted.
"We should at least examine it so see if there is any truth to it." Celine suggested. "And it's in Barcelona."
"If I didn't know any better, I would assume you only took this job for the exotic holiday destinations." There was no rebuke in his reply, just amusement at how excited she was about the location.
"Why else would I be here?" She joked.
"The quality of the company?"
"Of course, how could I forget?"
Now that they were using the regular airlines again, the church had to book them a hotel for a few days because of the awkward timing of the flights and the uncertainty of how long they would need to see if this Antonio individual was telling the truth or now. As far as Celine was concerned, this worked out perfectly for her plan. She was sure they would not need the full three days to prove that his homeopathy wasn't actually healing people, and whatever time they had left over they could enjoy guilt-free. They arrived in Barcelona early in the morning and checked into their hotel.
While they were settling in, Celine had an idea and went to the room adjacent to hers to ask Jude for his opinion on it. He let her in after she knocked at the door.
"If we are going to be speaking to Antonio and the people he has supposedly healed with his 'miracle water', I think it might be best if we go in disguise. They might speak to us differently if they know we are from the Vatican." He nodded thoughtfully.
"That's a good idea. He is having a meeting later today, so we could pick up some clothes before that and maybe interview a few of the people he has apparently healed."
A while later, Celine had returned to his room, this time wearing her new dress. For obvious reasons, it was the not the same one as she had bought in Naples but she had chosen something fairly similar in style, with a slightly more daring neckline. She had confessed her plan to the female shopkeeper, omitting that part of the reason she was doing it was to prevent Jude's murder, and the shopkeeper had been more than happy to help her choose a few outfits that were modest enough not to cause undue suspicion, but styled in such a way to flatter her as much as possible. Judging by the look on Jude's face when he opened the door to see her, she guessed that they had been successful.
"Ready to go?" She asked innocently.
"Yes." He said, finally managing to tear his eyes away from her. "I found a group of individuals online who have recanted their previous claims that they have been healed. I thought we could go speak to them."
"We could claim that we are doing research before buying the holy water." Celine suggested. "We won't pass as family members, but we could pretend to be a married couple seeking a cure for some sort of affliction."
"We should decide on what we need curing, someone will no doubt ask when we get to the meeting tonight with Antonio. I could have some sort of disease?" She shook her head.
"I don't think we should try to claim a disease, neither of us looks particularly unwell. Also there might be someone at the meeting suffering from the same problem one of us claims to have, and I doubt either of us could withstand that kind of scrutiny. I think we should claim fertility problems, I read somewhere that quite a lot of cases of infertility are unexplained."
"That makes sense, alright that's the story we will go with."
They visited a few of the individuals Jude had found online, and each of them repeated the same story. They had bought the water, used it and had immediately felt wonderful and assumed they had been cured when they made their testimonials for Antonio, but after a few weeks each of them realised that their maladies had not been cured. A woman with Type I diabetes had nearly died once she had stopped taking her insulin under the assumption she was no longer diabetic, luckily her partner who had been more sceptical was able to get her to the hospital and treated before her condition worsened. For obvious reasons, they had been the ones to most vehemently warn them away from Antonio, Celine and Jude had promised to take their advice under consideration before they had left.
"I guess it is safe to assume that Antonio is not the second coming." Jude said as they headed to the meeting where the false messiah was planning on proving more of his 'miracles'.
"It does seem pretty conclusive." Celine agreed. "Hopefully after this meeting we will have enough information on this man and his manipulative methods to convince people not to buy his cure." Jude nodded.
"I'll make sure the Vatican releases an official statement after I submit my report. He is taking advantage of the most vulnerable people in society in order to make money." He shook his head in disgust.
AN: Happy new year everyone! Next chapter: Jude and Celine investigate the Barcelona messiah while pretending to be a married couple.
