Temperance and the twins had run into a neighbour while out and the twins had begged to be allowed to play for the afternoon. She had agreed. Thankfully so. She could not have imagined the trauma they would have suffered if they had come home to this.
She found him lying on the floor half under the coffee table in the living room. His body was limp. His eyes closed, his mouth slack. He was bleeding from his nose and ear.
"Angel! Oh my god Angel!" she screamed at him, but he did not answer. She broke down, pulling the table away from his body and threw herself onto him weeping. She lay next to him pressing herself against him. Wrapping him in her arms, she pulled him tightly to her. He was nothing more than a rag doll. "No. No. No. Not again. I can't lose you again. Why? WHY?" she screamed to the air. "Why have you done this to me again? You call yourself God? You are not a God. You are not. You took him from me again. Again!"
Her grief was unconsolable. Visions of Booth and Angel twisting together in her mind. She tried to sit up, pulling him onto her lap. Brushing the hair out of her face so she could look into his lifeless one. She slapped his cheeks. "Angel! Wake up. Please. Please! I'm here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry you were here alone. ANGEL!" she screamed into his deaf ears. The dog was circling them, whining. "NO!" she screamed her head thrown back, tears streaming down her face. She turned his face up and kissed his blood encrusted lips. The taste was sour and salty. She stroked his hair and tried to clean his face using her shirt. "Don't leave me alone. Please. Please. I can't. I know you think I'm strong. But I'm not. I'M NOT! Angel. I don't know what to do!" She kissed his face, his eyes, his lips. I don't know what to do she sobbed into his hair.
She sat cradling him in her arms for what seemed like hours. His body was limp. She tried to lift him onto the sofa. But he was too heavy. She lay him back on the floor and left him just for a moment. She grabbed the phone and called her neighbour. She asked if the twins could sleep over. Made up some story about coming down ill. Then returned to him. She placed a pillow under his head and lay next to him covering them both with a blanket she pulled off the sofa.
Doctor Temperance Booth, anthropologist and author was nowhere to be found. In her place was a vulnerable, broken woman. Her scientific knowledge had abandoned her. It was of no use to her in her grief. She lay with him wrapped in her arms. The thought of letting him go was unthinkable. All she wanted to do was lie with him and follow him into that blackness.
It was just before dawn. Temperance lay still. Her blue eyes wide open, brimming with unfallen tears. She couldn't cry any more. Her arms were numb, still wrapped around him. A shaft of golden morning light slipped through the blinds. She watched it as it moved closer and closer to them. What did it matter. Let him feel the sunshine for once It crept across the carpet and touched his foot. It slipped up his leg and alighted gently on his chest. She watched it slide up and onto his face. His beautiful, strong face. "Just once I wish you could have seen the morning light shine on your own face" she said softly. She let her lips drop to his hair. It had not occurred to her that the sunlight was having no effect on his body.
Angels eyes flew open and his body jolted wildly. Temperance screamed as his body flailed. His mouth opened and he screamed. She pushed him from her and skidded backwards across the floor until she was cowering against the fireplace. The dog began to bark and whine running wildly around the room. Angels head snapped back and his eyes rolled back into his head. Suddenly he gasped. His lungs trying to fill with air. His back arched and he suddenly deep in his mind he became aware of pain ripping through his body. He rolled onto his side and tried to focus. What is happening? Where am I?
Temperance was watching a horror movie right in front of her. He rolled over onto his back and clutched at his chest. His lungs raggedly forcing their first breath out and then dragging another in. The pain was unbearable. His chest felt like it was going to burst. Then he felt it babump it was faint. Then again babump babump Angels eyes found a blurry figure that was Temperance who was still cowering against the fireplace. "Please" he croaked. His eyes finally focussing on her and begging. "Please" he managed to repeat. Again and again that bump in his chest repeated. Unevenly, intermittently, but coming quicker and more regularly. The pain accompanying it was like nothing he ever remembered. He managed to raise a hand and held it out to her "Temperance, its me. Angel" he croaked again.
The scene unfolding before held her frozen. Finally his voice broke though. "It's me, Temperance" she heard. She jolted and crawled over to him and grabbed his outstretched hand. "Angel? Angel! You're back. You're back!" She pulled him to her and cradled his head in her lap. His body still spasming, but easing slowly. Finally he grabbed her hand and pressed it to his chest. "Do you feel anything?" he whispered, his voice still weak. She waited for a moment, not feeling anything. She was shaking her head when it happened. It was faint, but it was there. A fluttering deep inside him. Then stronger. And then stronger again.
She moved him and lay her head on his chest, her ear pressed to him. She began to cry and laugh. "I hear it. Angel! I don't know how, but I hear it!" she sat up and looked into his face, nodding "I hear your heart Angel. You have a heartbeat!" he smiled weakly and allowed the tears to fall from his eyes. "Really? I'm not imagining it?" he whispered. She shook her head. "No you're not imagining it. You have a heartbeat." She took his wrist in her hand and pressed her fingers against it. There is was. A pulse. Weak. But a pulse. She was crying too now. "Angel what is going on? What happened. I thought you had died! I thought." He reached up and stroked her cheek, wet with tears "shhhhh. It's over. At least I think it's over. I'm alright. I'm. I'm alive! I think. I think I'm alive!" he said his eyes wide.
"Temperance. The Shanshu. I think. I think that was it!" He tried to pull himself up into a sitting position, but struggled, his body not willing to follow instructions. She shifted and helped him. He was dripping wet. Weakened. Covered in dried blood. But he had never looked more wonderful to her. Suddenly, they both realised something. They were sitting in their living room bathed in the sunlight streaming through the open curtains. He smiled. Then laughed and then cringed grabbing at his chest "Oh God, that hurt" He pulled her to him and kissed her. "I think I've been given a life to live. That's what Skip told me the Shanshu meant. But there was no guarantee I would survive it. I almost think I didn't." He held her face between his and stared into her eyes. "I've been given a life!" They hugged and cried and laughed and kissed.
Finally Angel pulled back. "I must be a mess. I feel like I've been hit by a bus. My arms and neck hurt so much! My entire body hurts! I guess this is what it's like? Being human again?" He looked at his hands which were covered in blood. "I really need to shower." He tried to stand up, but quickly realised that he was too weak to stand alone. "Can you help me? This is embarrassing. I always dreamed one day I'd come to you all strong and human and sweep you off your feet. Guess all I did was knock you off your feet." He said looking at the floor. Temperance had not said anything. He looked at her, worried. "Are you OK. I've scared you. It's me Temperance. It's still me. I'm just. Just. Less impervious." He looked into her face, trying to see some sign of what she was thinking.
She reached out and touched his face. "You're warm." She said and smiled. He touched his own cheek and grinned "So I am! Wow. What do you know?" She finally stood up and hooked her hands under his arms and started to lift "Come on. I can't lift you all by myself. And yes. You really do need a shower." She said wrinkling her nose. Once he was on his feet, he stood wobbling. "I guess I may need to get used to my legs again. And my arms. And my whole body!" he said as he tried to take his first steps. She wrapped her arm around him and hooked his arm over her shoulders. Come on. "Rehab starts right now." He smiled down at her. "I guess this is the start of a new life for us. Again" he said. She smiled and looked up at him "No. It's just the next chapter. One we will have to write together. At least we will both be clueless as to what happens next." She quipped as they shuffled slowly towards the bathroom.