Chapter Ten
"And how was my little guy at the park?" Linda asked, taking Charlie from Amenadiel's arms. Her son was sleeping and barely stirred as he was transferred into her arms. She patted his back and walked back and forth across the nursery floor. She'd been tidying up there while waiting for her boys. It helped diffuse nervous energy, especially with Eve and Maze traveling. "Did he have a good time?"
Amenadiel nodded. "He loves sitting in the stroller and just soaking up the sunlight. He babbled a little and then napped."
She nodded and set Charlie down in his crib. "I'm glad you both had a good morning. I can see you'll be spending so much time at Gymboree or just doing sports things when he's big enough."
"Gymboree?" Amenadiel asked.
She shrugged. In this case, he and she were equally clueless about baby things. She'd heard the ins and outs of juggling an, ahem, inhuman amount of extracurricular activities from her clients. Who knew three year olds would do tap, ballet, singing lessons, and yoga classes to get them to the level for acting lessons? Actually, probably Chloe had been overscheduled like that from what she'd gleaned about the other woman's mother at tribe nights. However, Linda personally wasn't familiar with like Tumble Tots or youth soccer or all those things. She and Amenadiel would be figuring out all that juggling eventually.
"I think it's like a baby gym class or more like toddlers. They do tumbling on matts? Sing songs?"
"Are you asking or telling me, Linda?"
"Both," she said, winking at him and leaning against the wall. "But it was fun?"
"Of course, there is nothing in the Silver City, I promise you, that compares to a day at the park with Charlie. Human parents…they have no idea how lucky they are."
"Even with the diapers?" she joked, although it warmed her heart to hear that from Amenadiel, not that she thought he'd ever leave. Clearly Amenadiel and Auntie Maze would be around to defend Charlie to the end of time, but when he was so happy about it, it made Linda feel good. She still worried he saw them as a duty more than a family. He was just so inscrutable sometimes. "Have you given more thought to a play group?"
Amenadiel's bright smile fell and his expression shuttered. "He's still a little young, and we don't know how angelic he is. I wouldn't want him…if he's just normal…to pick up tons of colds from other kids. He's so little."
"I know but the local moms, um, parents and children playgroup in Beverly Hills has a year waitlist and by then Charlie would be big enough, had enough colds, and it would be a way to get him out of the house before preschool. Oh, we need to start figuring out which one so we can interview him."
"He's not even six weeks old!"
"Waitlists, I've been researching all the schools around here and-"
Amenadiel sighed. "I am not sure about a playgroup yet."
"Because he might have powers some day?"
He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Humans can be so cruel to each other, to anyone who's different."
She sighed and set a hand on his forearm. Her career was basically about trying to untangle a lot of early trauma her patients had gone through and, yeah, some of that definitely came from bullying or best friend betrayals or just generally high school. Lucifer had said once that high school reunions were a popular motif in Hell, and she was hardly surprised.
"And Charlie has a lot of challenges." In this world, and after Caleb's death, sometimes Linda thought that Charlie's possible Celestial gifts were the least of his problems. "But he can't just live in a plastic bubble forever. Us and Maze and Eve, even hanging out with Trixie…he has to be with other kids sometimes. Besides," she started, not sure how Amenadiel would take this next part. "I think that angels can be as cruel as men. Uriel both came here to kill people to hurt Lucifer." She left out what Amenadiel had done via Malcolm as proxy. That felt like a lifetime ago. "Lucifer mentioned that he was bullied by the angels with flashier powers in the Silver City."
A muscle in Amenadiel's throat ticked. "I am not always proud of everything I've done. Sometimes, Gabriel and Michael and I got carried away with ourselves. God's strongest warriors and it was easy to trample over our siblings with the quirkier powers like Uriel." He sighed. "Gabriel and Michael were also pretty awful to Azrael too."
She filed that away, not even surprised anymore after dealing with the universe's first and most messed up family, that bullying happened even in the Silver City too. "Then, Charlie would have to deal with that anywhere, that chance. It's what growing up is about. You can't tell me in the Silver City, they'd be kind to a half-human child with so far no visible abilities."
Amenadiel pursed his lips and breathed in deeply before he spoke. "He would live and they would protect and cherish him because it is what our family does. That's more than sometimes I feel here, the types of risks. But playgroup waitlists and schools we can look into. I guess you wouldn't go in for homeschooling."
Linda laughed. "I get he'd do great at history, and, uh, P.E. if that included knife throwing with Auntie Maze, but I was hoping for maybe another doctor in the family someday. No pressure."
"Aminidiel, M.D." Her partner said. "I think I like that." His posture eased and he reached over and kissed the top of her head. It was sweet but a safe distance between them, always respectful, Amenadiel. And always treating her with complete chasteness. The rules she'd set, but sometimes she wished their lives weren't so chaotic. She'd love to try and be something more again, but it wasn't the time.
"Oh," she said, trotting after his long strides-both Lucifer and Amenadiel were ridiculously tall; she hoped she didn't stunt Charlie. "You might want to swing by the station later this week."
"I've been trying to get Dan over his grieving phase all year. I suppose I could try enticing him with groundlings tickets again."
"No, uh, well that's very sweet," she said. "However, I meant that I just came from breakfast with Ella. She knows."
Amenadiel stopped and frowned down at her. He looked to the nursery and probably didn't even realize he'd cut his focus there as well. "She does?"
"Lucifer showed her his eyes she said."
"Did she?"
"Yeah, something feels wonky there, can't quite put my finger on it. However, Ella definitely knows all about Team Celestial so maybe just seeing her later, letting her know that everything's gonna be okay. I think that comes a little easier from an archangel that from Lucifer."
"Does it?" Amenandiel asked, grinning a bit and standing taller.
Linda rolled her eyes and playfully slapped his shoulder. "Get over yourselves. I am not being a referee for a 'which brother is better' contest for the next forty years. You're both great in your own way, but Lucifer isn't exactly comforting sometimes." She chuckled. "It's the lack of filter. When dealing with all things heaven and hell sometimes a lighter, more sincere approach helps."
He nodded and slung an arm over her shoulder. He had to twist down a little to do that. Linda Martin, M.D. and her giant angels.
"Well, I'll make sure to see her soon then," he replied. "Now let me make you lunch."
Azrael hated her job. She'd always hated her job. When angels were assigned their tasks, it wasn't like they'd gotten a choice. Michael, voice of the Presence. Amenadiel, heaven's greatest soldier. Samael, Lightbringer and literally in charge of lighting the heavens. (And if he hadn't rocked the damn boat so hard it went all Titanic, he'd still be in charge of that. Okay, maybe she still had some Rebellion feels to work through.) Then, there was she; Azrael, angel in charge of ferrying dead humans to the gates of Heaven or Hell for processing.
It was a 24/7, 365 days a year job.
In fact, she had the ability to split her focus, to literally be at multiple places at once-even if it never seemed like enough-in order to make her job work. Humans died, like a lot. They were incredibly fragile. Also, fun fact, she collected so many from the bathroom after foolish accidents that those places should come with like a warning label.
But it meant that she was never really around anyone else. She could pop in once in a great while to the Silver City, but she was always working so rarely had time to bond with her siblings, not that most had ever really liked her. It also meant that while she'd meant to get back to Lu's within a few hours, well, there'd been a massive earthquake in Santiago, Chile, and a freak hail storm in Mexico City, and then there was the arson in Paris…
It was very busy being the Angel of Death. She definitely didn't have time to have a billion and one orgies like some (used to be) angels she could name.
So, it was with a huge lump in her throat, that she teleported back into his brother's penthouse. He was at the piano playing something she couldn't place-human music wasn't really her thing except, okay, maybe a soft spot for grunge rock in the Bay Area and some hip hop cause of Ella's own tastes as a teen-but Rae Rae was hopeless when it came to anything on the piano.
Overall, her brother seemed as composed as his usual. Hair coiffed, clearly intentionally shaven but just enough left over five o'clock stubble, and a new suit in plum. He eyed her when she arrived, but he didn't say anything one way or the other. With Lucifer, if he wasn't offering biting sarcasm, it was a sign that he was cool with you.
"Hey!" she said, retracting her wings and waving at him. "Humans don't tend to have a break in dying. I'm sorry. I do have what I think might be a few hour break so we can totally chat on whatever you need." She frowned and worried her bottom lip. "Lu, are you mad? I'd totally get it if you're mad."
He stood and sipped the end of his Scotch. Seriously, did her brother ever not drink? "I understand, Azrael."
"You do? Cause I know we just kind of, sort of, maybe made up some, and I don't want you to think that I just flew off on Thursday and was thinking 'oh tail problem solved' cause I so didn't, and I still think that the best idea is to raid the archives at the Silver City."
He smirked back at her. "Would you like to take a breath?"
"Maybe."
He set his drink down and strode over to her. Squeezing his shoulders, he kept smirking back at her. "Frankly, after far too much sibling togetherness, I needed a breather. Also," he added, dropping his hands and spinning around like a runway model. "I needed a few days before my tailor…" Oh, of course Lu had one or probably even a few on retainer. "was able to fix me slightly less tight trousers. I wasn't sure I wanted you to see me continue to slum it in sweatpants and t-shirts. How embarrassing."
Rae Rae wanted to point out the red, fuzzy-seriously what the fuck-tail was probably more embarrassing, but he was offering an olive branch to their seriously messed up relationship, so she decided not to mention it. "Okay, but I'm really sorry. I just…I never get time much. I mean, if you asked Ella, I'd sometimes go months before popping in on her again. It wasn't even some design or plan or whatever. I just get so busy."
Her brother sighed and collected his jacket from off the top of his bar. "That I understand. Believe me, I don't enjoy what Dad elected for me to do eventually either. You could go on holiday."
"Vacation," she chirped. "Still not actually British."
"Accent suits, it stays. You're not an American from the Valley either."
"Okay, true," she said. "But I can't just take a vacation. You're like Hell's upper management. You have tons of demons who can run things and the rooms just really run themselves from now through eternity. I don't collect souls then they wander the Earth and, hello, you ever see what happens to a human soul that can't move on? Super gross, you don't wanna know."
"How do you know?"
"Maybe, uh, I tried that back in the old 'begat' days just the once. It's not good. So, nope, I can grab a few hours of me time every once in a while, but as an angel, Lu, I'm overbooked." She shrugged. "So, do you want me to pop up to the Silver City and grab the books or try? We can call Ella and make a Sunday of it. It is Sunday right?"
"Still wish you didn't have to do everything Dad said just because…"
"Nuh-uh, those thoughts never lead anywhere good. I do my job because I don't want humans to suffer. It's kind of the inverse of you and Hell, even while you're here, you know it's running the way it should because you have Dromos or Squee or all those other idiots I meet at the gates to hand souls off to. You wouldn't just leave if you didn't know punishment was working. I can't ever just stop cause humans don't deserve to just wander the Earth totes confused and in pain. Dad made me do this-made me capable of it-but I do it cause it's the right thing to do." She shrugged and adjusted her glasses on her nose. "I don't know if you ever understood that."
"I just am sorry you never get a break. It has always isolated you from our siblings."
She laughed. "You hate everyone but Amenadiel, and that's a new thing!"
"Gits, pillocks, and blighters all. Not to mention sycophants. Doesn't mean you wouldn't like to see them more. Maybe Dad should have made more angels, at least split the hard jobs up."
She couldn't blame him there. Splitting duties up, including the running of Hell, might have been a good idea. "See, but I have a few hours now where I think nothing super huge is beckoning. Book time?"
"Assuredly not."
"Huh?"
"It's family dinner at Linda and Amenadiel's. I'd rather not get skinned alive by my therapist if I miss it. So, Sis, you coming along?"
"Wait, I'm so confused. I knew Amenadiel uh had a human kid since you like mentioned it last time. Why are you going to family dinner with your therapist?"
"He might have shagged my psychiatrist and more than once as I've heard Mazikeen tell it. Apparently, since he was mortal at the time-self-actualization of course-well, when a man and a woman love each other about nine months later they make a Nephilim. Come along now, Azrael. You can meet your nephew, Charlie."
She nodded and hurried after him, the lump in her throat growing. She wasn't sure that any human would be happy to have dinner with the Angel of Death. Maybe Linda wasn't as up on catechism as Ella. That would be helpful.
As would being able to eat anything that wasn't from a vending machine in between ferrying souls about.