Chapter 11

Elidra and Azrael stood in the room hand in hand as the guys came in to say their good-byes. The brothers couldn't see them, but they might have gotten the feeling that they weren't quite alone in the room. Criss very hesitantly touched her body's hand and then wrapped his fingers around it.

"She's cold." He said his voice flat and pulled the blankets up a little more as if it would keep her warm. Tears ran down Elidra's face as she watched him and she let go of Azrael's hand, approaching the bed and looking at him from across her body.

"Criss." She said and his head snapped up, his eyes on her. He couldn't see her of course, but he had heard her voice.

"What is it?" JD asked, his eyes glittering.

"I swear I just heard her." He said looking at him. "I just heard her say my name."

"Criss, she's gone. She didn't say anything." Costa said, his voice thick.

"Guys, I think she's here in this room. Her soul, her spirit, whatever you want to call it, I think its here with us." Criss said and they gave him sad looks. "Come on, guys! She wasn't normal when she was alive, why should she be now that she's…" his voice trailed off and he looked at the body on the bed, a silver tear rolling down his cheek. Elidra wanted to brush it away but instead she just reached out and touched his cheek. His own hand came up and touched the spot, his eyes wide. "I just felt her. I just felt her touch me." Elidra walked around the bed and laid her hand on JD shoulder, then went to Costa and put her arms around the smaller mans shoulders from behind like she always had when she was alive. They were roughly the same height; she was slightly taller, so it was no problem. "You guys felt her, didn't you?" Criss asked as he saw the looks on her faces.

"She's hugging me." Costa said, tears making tracks down his face. "Right now, she's hugging me."

"Right now, at this very moment." Criss said and Costa nodded.

"I can actually feel her arms around me. People say that when a ghost touches you, it feels cold."

"But when she does it, it feels warm." JD finished and Costa nodded. "She touched my shoulder." Costa shuddered.

"She's gone, I can't feel her anymore." He said and hugged himself. "Now I'm cold." He said, smiling almost nervously. Elidra walked around them and back to Criss, standing next to him. She rested her hand on his where it was settled on a side bar of the bed. Going up on tiptoe, she kissed his cheek and he started to cry more openly.

"She just kissed my cheek." Criss said and Elidra concentrated, making her voice more powerful.

"Goodbye." She said and they all started.

"You guys heard that, right?" Criss asked and they nodded.

"She wanted to say goodbye." JD said and Elidra went back over to Azrael, their hands linking together.

"Ready to go?" he asked but she shook her head.

"No, but I know I have to. So let's go." She said and they vanished from the room.

They reappeared in a sterile white hallway and she looked around.

"This is it? The infamous white light? There's no disembodied voice saying 'Elidra! This is your life!'" she asked and Azrael snorted.

"You've spent way too long around the humans." He said and she shrugged, flashing him an innocent smile. "Yeah, okay. Innocent…right." He said and she laughed, leaning against him. He wrapped her in a hug and she buried her face in his robes, inhaling his cool, clean scent.

"You always smell like mint." She said, her voice slightly muffled and he smiled. "Why do you always smell like mint?"

"It's the tea I drink." He said and she nodded against his chest. After a while she pulled away and looked up at him with a smile.

"Shall we go and see Pete?" she asked, referring to Saint Peter.

"Yeah, sure, why not." Azrael said and they walked down the hall arm-in-arm. Azrael opened the door at the end of the hall for her and they went through, the door closing behind them.

"Ah, so this is what they look like from this side." Elidra said, looking up at the massive golden gates. She crossed her arm over her chest and tilted her head to the side as if she were looking at a piece of art. "A little over the top, don't you think Azzy?" she asked and looked at him.

"I never liked how shiny they are. It annoys me that they always stay clean." He said and she snorted. They approached the white podium, a very bored looking older man standing behind it with a large ledger in front of him.

"Got a new one for ya, Pete." Azrael said and Peter snapped to attention.

"Oh, hi Azrael. Didn't see you walk up." He said with a yawn.

"Hey Pete." Elidra said and he looked at her casually.

"Hey El." He said, but his head snapped back to look at her, his eyes going wide. "Elly! What in His name are you doing here?"

"I died." She said. "Heart failure."

"The Fallen Ones human forms are so poorly made, the work is so shoddy. For His sake, put some pride into your work!" Peter said rather animatedly, but she just shrugged.

"What're you going to do?" she asked rhetorically. "So am I in, or what?"

"Oh well, lets check the book." He said and looked into his ledger, flipping the massive pages as he searched for her name. "Ah! Here you are! Let's see where you went wrong. You swore,"

"So?" she asked but he ignored her.

"Had impure thoughts about that Criss guy,"

"Only once! Did you see what he was wearing? Or should I say what he wasn't wearing?" Again, he ignored her.

"Drank,"

"And hated it."

"Smoked,"

"Just to see what it was like! Costa seems to enjoy it, but I coughed for like five minutes!"

"And ate red meat." Peter said.

"And it was yummy. Besides, those last three aren't sins." Elidra said.

"I know, but they're very bad for your health." He said looking at her and she chuckled. "Sorry El, can't let you in."

"For those little things?"

"Nope, just isn't your time yet. You're going to be shot back down again. He's got a plan for you Elidra, a big plan according to his mood lately. A big, important, Earth moving, change-history-forever plan. A…"

"Okay! Okay! I get it! It's a big plan! Any idea on what it is?"

"Not a clue." Peter said, leaning with one elbow on the podium and looking down at her. "You know how mysterious He can be sometime. I mean, heck, he never informed any of us when he made the Earth. It was just like BAM! and there it was. The humans believe it took seven days, ha! More like seven seconds."

"Six and a half." She said and he perked an eyebrow at her. "He had me time it, wanted to beat His own record for planet forming. He was off by two and a half seconds, only took Him four to make Pluto."

"Then again, look at Pluto's size compared to Earth's."

"That's what I told Him. Wouldn't hear it. Kept saying He would beat it next time."

"Think He knows something we don't?" Azrael asked and she looked at him.

"Doesn't He always?" she said and he shrugged.

"Okay," Peter said and they looked at him. "Get on back to your body. See you in a few months."

"Got it. It was nice seeing you again, Pete." Elidra said and he gave her a small smile.

"Always nice to see you, El." He said and the moment he slammed his book closed, she vanished from in front of him.

When Elidra came to, she realized she was lying on something very hard and very cold and in a place very dark. There was something covering her face and she jerked it away with her hands. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. Reaching above her head, she felt the cold metal and banged on it, feeling it give slightly. She hit it again and the metal latch broke, the door swinging open. With her hands braced against the sides, she rolled the metal slab she was lying on out of the cooler and into the morgue. It was dark save for a single small lamp on the desk in the corner. Using that dim light, she examined herself and was relieved to find no autopsy marks. She must have been scheduled for tomorrow, thank goodness for small blessings.

Sitting up, she wrapped the sheet around her and got off the slab. Reality rushed into her in a great wave and she fell to her knees with racking coughs. Her chest felt like it was going to explode as her heart found its rhythm again. Eventually, it subsided and she got to her feet. Hopping on one foot rather ungracefully, she ripped off the tag that had been on her big toe of her other foot. She dismissed it without even looking at it, throwing it over her shoulder and out of her mind. In the silence of the morgue, she could hear the soft padding of someone walking down the hall towards the room she was in.

The door swung open and a young woman poked her head in. Her eyes adjusted and went wide as she looked at Elidra standing in the middle of the morgue wrapped in a sheet, the slab still out of the cooler.

"Hi there. I must this be a terrible shock, but you don't think I can get some clothes, do you?" Elidra asked and the woman's only response was her eyes rolling back into her head and her body falling to the floor in a dead faint. "I'm guessing that's a 'no'."

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