The Boondock Saints: Angel of Death, Angel of Love

By: Raven in Red

"And so the Angel came down, and swiftly bestowed the blow of Death upon him. And from that moment on, she was the Angel of Death." After her parents' murder and a fateful St. Patty's Day introduction to the MacManus brothers, Grace Reilly receives a calling from God to be the Saints' guardian angel, and she takes her job quite seriously.

Chapter 12: Angels, Take the Stand

…And I was fool enough to think that Ellie and I would only ever do that one hit together and be back to our days of cute little arm wrestles and street fighting. Wrong. Dead, dead wrong.

As it turned out after checking the bodies in the warehouse, the leader of Ellie's band of attackers had slipped away after hearing the gunshots and was hiding in an abandoned subway tunnel. Were we going to stand for that? Fuck no.

"Ellie needs me again," I announced when I got off the phone. It was the morning of the day we were slated to take out Pappa Joe.

"What happened this time?" Connor asked, taking a long sip of coffee and a long drag from a cigarette.

"Apparently, we didn't get all of the mob guys yesterday," I explained, sitting down next to him with my own coffee cup in my hands.

"How many are left?" Murphy asked.

"Just one – the leader," I said, taking a long, comforting sip. God, I loved coffee so damn much.

"That sounds too fuckin' easy," Murphy laughed.

"Ya sure ya can handle it?" Connor asked. My only response was a 'do I look stupid?' glare.

"You gotta stop worryin' about her so damn much, Connor," Rocco chimed in. "From what I can see, this chick can take care of herself."

"Yeah, give her a break, man," Murphy added.

"Alright, alright, I give up!" Connor insisted, throwing his hands up in defeat. "I just care about her, is all."

"I understand, sweetheart," I said, leaning over and patting him on his knee. "Believe me, I was even more careful yesterday when I was without you than I was on any mission we've been on together."

"Well, I'm sold," Connor said with a smile. "Go show that bastard what you're made of."

"We're countin' on you to impress us, Gracie," said Murphy. Rather than correct them every single fucking time, I had decided to drop the name boundaries altogether and let them call me whatever they wanted.

"If you want to be impressed, you guys can tag along," I suggested, "but you cannot get involved. This is me and Ellie's thing."

"Remind me again why they're with us?" Ellie inquired as we made our way into the subway tunnel. It had originally been intended as an extension of the Orange Line, but something had gone wrong during construction, and the project had been abandoned. Now, the tunnel was a frequent refuge for druggies, pimps, and mob guys.

Per my insistence, Connor and Murphy walked about a hundred feet behind us. They'd also left any weapons back at the house. Rocco had decided to stay behind and, as he called it, 'trip on Tylenol.' Fine with me. Less interference that way.

"They wanted to see what I can do," I explained. "Connor was a little pissed that I went without telling him yesterday. He can get a little overprotective sometimes."

"Typical man behavior," Ellie remarked. "They think they can control us as soon as we say 'I love you'."

"Exactly," I said. "I do love Connor, but sometimes I think he needs to give me a little space."

"I've never known you as one to be tied down," said Ellie. "Even when we were little kids, you never let someone push you around or tell you what to do."

"Except for my parents, that's so damn true," I agreed. "I've always been one to fly solo."

"Me as well," said Ellie. "That's why we're so goddamn perfect together. We don't take no shit from no one."

"Exactly," I said. "God, Ellie, it's so great to have you back. I don't know how I got along without you."

"Nothing can separate us, babe," Ellie said with a big smile. "Ever."

"Hey, look!" I stopped, quieted my voice to a whisper, and pointed ahead of us in the tunnel. Sure enough, a tall suited man was visible at the farthest limits of our field of vision. The light was dreadfully dim, so there was so far very little chance of him seeing us. He also had not single accomplice. Too fucking easy.

"Alright," Ellie said, drawing her revolver. "You ready for this, babe?"

"Just one sec," I said, turning to walk back to Connor.

"Do ya see him?" he asked when I was within earshot.

"Yeah – he's all the way at the end," I said, drawing my own six-shooter.

"Go get him, lassie," Murphy said in encouragement, leaning over to kiss my cheek.

"Oh, I will," I promised, my smile absolutely wicked. "You can fucking count on it."

"Make me proud, my angel," Connor said, pressing a quick little kiss to my lips.

"I will," I concluded. With that, I turned on my heel and made my way back to Ellie. "Let's fucking go," I said once we were back together. The Angels of the Night took off on a fateful march, proudly on their way to exterminate a goddamn waste of a life that had done us wrong.

"Who the fuck are you?" Our victim snarled, the thickness of his Russian accent garbled by obvious drunkenness. His eyes grew wide with fear when our two beautiful six-shooters pointed right at his chest.

"My name is Grace, and this is my friend Ellie," I explained plainly. "You did Ellie wrong, and we're here to fix that."

"This is too fucking easy," Ellie laughed. "He's too drunk to even fight back."

"Where's your backup?" I inquired, genuinely curious. Surely, a mob leader would be able to scrounge up a few lackeys before going into hiding.

"You two bitches fucking killed them all," the man said.

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Ellie said. "You fuck-asses raped me."

"And then you beat her to shreds," I added, spitting at the man's feet for emphasis.

"Jackasses who beat and rape young women don't deserve to be graced with God's love," Ellie snarled.

"Each and every one of you will be nice and comfy where we're sending you," I said.

"And where's that, exactly?" the man asked, clearly just trying to prolong the inevitable. He obviously knew he had very little time left.

"Hell," I said bluntly. I then turned to Ellie. "Ready, babe?"

"Fuck yeah," Ellie said. Those were the last words that jackass bastard heard before he was sent to his judgment by the Angels of the Night. As his blood burst from his blackened heart and sprayed onto the filthy subway tracks, I felt nothing but the combination of success and relief flooding through my veins. Ellie and I were unstoppable.

"Fucking fantastic." I heard Connor's proud remark as he and Murphy moved to rejoin us once the gun smoke had settled.

"Back off for a minute, guys," I said seriously as Ellie and I bent down over the body. "We're not done yet."

"Rest well," Ellie whispered as we each made the Sign of the Cross in turn on the dead bastard's face.

"Alright, now you can approach," I announced. Before I even had a chance to take another breath, I was lifted into the arms of my Irish love and presented with the cutest and most victorious of kisses.

"You two are fucking perfect for each other," Ellie remarked sweetly.

"You should see them after a spat," Murphy snickered, igniting a laugh in Ellie. I knew right then that those two were going to get along well. "They can't keep their hands off of each other."

"Shut up, Murph," I said, kicking him lightly from where I hung in Connor's arms.

"You girls are amazin'," Murphy said once I was back by Ellie's side. "How long do ya two go back?"

"Years," I said. "Ages."

"Practically since we were our mamas' wombs," said Ellie. "And you damn sure can't split us up."

"Good," Connor said, reaching over to tweak my nose. "'Cause we don't intend to."

"Now, how far do you ladies intend to go?" Murphy inquired. The four of us had returned to the house to rejoin Rocco, and we were all seated at the kitchen table, drinking beer. Rocco was passed out asleep on the living room couch, so it was just the four of us.

"As far as we deem necessary," Ellie declared. Being much more of a beer drinker than I am, she was already finished with her first bottle.

"As far as it takes," I added, only taking my fourth or fifth sip. "But really only when someone does us wrong."

"That's right," said Ellie. "We only took those mob fucks out because of what they did to me."

"We don't follow the Calling of the Saints and the Guardian," I pointed out. "That's for you guys and me."

"I'm not really intending to make a career of it," said Ellie. "Once all this shit is over, I want to go back to med school and get back to my life."

"I intend to stay with the boys, but the Angels of the Night will never be far apart," I said.

"Yeah, you've gotten yourself pretty deep," Ellie said, almost regretfully.

"Yeah, I know," I said, the reality of my actions starting to sink in. "I'm just going to spend the rest of my life a fugitive."

"But you've got us," Connor chimed in, reaching across the table to hold my hand.

"Forever, my baby sis," Murphy added, ruffling my hair in a successful attempt to make me laugh.

"I've gotta say: I'm really grateful to you guys for taking her in," Ellie said, her smile both relieved and downright ecstatic. "She needed some excitement in her boring-ass life."

"Yeah, I thought our days were over when you went to med school," I said, leaning back in my chair and basking in joy.

"But I'm back, if only for a little while," Ellie reminded me.

"That's damn right," said Murphy. "You've got an army behind ya, Gracie."

"And we all love you," Connor concluded.

Later that afternoon, Ellie went back to her apartment so the boys and Rocco and I could start preparing for our job with Pappa Joe.

"You don't seem nervous," Connor observed as I loaded my six-shooters and stowed them in my shoulder holster.

"I'm a little high on victory from killing that mob jackass," I said with a sigh. "Trust me: in a few hours, I'll be scared shitless and trembling 'til my hair falls out."

"Ya sure ya want to come with us?" Murphy asked, pausing in his gun loading to pass me a concerned glance.

"No, I'm not," I said truthfully. "But it's my duty to protect my Saints, and I'm not just gonna stop because I'm a little scared."

"Stubborn as fucking hell," Connor remarked with a smile. "That's gonna get ya in trouble someday."

"It already has, in case you haven't noticed," I pointed out. "I could have just ignored my calling and written it off as a hallucination caused by the horror of my daddy's murder, but no. I stuck with you two no matter how scared I was. Knowing my shitty history with relationships, I could just be having a quick little two-week stand with Connor and leaving him in the dust, too scared for anything serious, but no. I ain't planning to leave him anytime soon, if ever. And finally, I could have just comforted Ellie like a best friend after her rape and just let the police catch the bad guys, but hell no. We took matters into our own hands, and we wouldn't have it any other way."

"I'm at a loss for words here," Murphy admitted after a long moment of silence.

"I didn't know you felt that way, darlin'," Connor said, pulling me into a gentle hug. "That really hit me."

"I don't want to leave you, Connor," I whispered into his chest. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Murphy duck out of the room to give us a little privacy.

"Don't worry, my love," Connor whispered into my hair. "I don't want to leave ya, either."

"You won't have to," I promised, looking up into his beautiful eyes. "I'm here to stay."