*sheepish grin*...

Hey ev'ryone.
Nope, I'm not dead. Came very close (twice) but, I'm still here. Had to put my life back together, but I still apologize from the bottom of my heart for seemingly abandoning this story.
This chapter isn't much, but it is the one that has kept me from posting more. It's one of those damned "bridge" chapters, that I just couldn't get down on paper to get to the meat of the story. I have at least ten others (no joke) waiting in the wings from 2007. I just have to get there!
I want to thank anyone and everyone who has read this story, even if you didn't review. And for those of you who did, you let me know that I just had to keep this alive. :)

Carry on then.
- &i

Enlightenment

Chapter 14: The Morning After

When Bethany woke up next, it was early evening. Again. This sleeping through the day thing was becoming problematic.

She groaned and stretched, rolling over to check the time. She felt something odd shift on her forehead, then slide down her cheek. She recoiled slightly, until she saw it was the wash cloth Metatron had conjured for her.

She smiled.

The next day, smiling didn't come as easy.

She'd returned to work. Had to. Rent needed paying, she had to get her old car both towed and fixed (it had, after all, been found on the side of the highway, reeking of pot, thanks to Jay.)

Still in all. She couldn't suppress the shiver, or the nauseous feeling that clutched her throat and burned, when she set foot in the Women's Clinic again.

The door had shut behind her with hardly a sound, yet someone had heard it. Liz poked her head out of one of the rooms, wearing a worried expression.

"Come in here," she hissed, gripping Bethany by the elbow and pulling her into an unoccupied room.

"Is Linda mad?" Bethany whispered hesitantly, wondering if their boss would come around the corner, a pink slip in her hand. The last few days had been somewhat of a haze, and while worrying about missing work obviously took a backseat to preventing the Apocalypse, it hadn't really occurred to her to call when she'd gotten back home. But by that time, she was preoccupied with something else.

"What? Why...why would she be mad?" Liz asked her incredulously, still holding her by the elbow. It was like she was worried she'd run off.

Bethany scoffed. She'd disappeared for several days without a word. Any reasonable boss would be upset.

"Because I was gone for several days…and…and I didn't tell anyone…" Bethany trailed off. Liz was still staring at her oddly.

"Sweetie we talked yesterday."

"Well yeah Liz, but that was yesterday, that's hardly notice – "

"Oh hun, you're still mixed up, I'm so, so sorry – " Liz cut her off with a very tight hug and a sniffle. "You called me a few days ago, remember?"

Bethany was nonplussed for several seconds, then recalled that Liz had in fact met a Muse the day before. It was obvious she was being inspired to remember things that hadn't happened.

"Oh…" Bethany murmured over her friend's shoulder, through her thick, wavy hair. "Well, um, when I called you," she started, "what did I say?"

Liz pulled back and dabbed her eyes. Despite her trust in the Muse, Bethany was beginning to worry a teeny bit about what exactly Serendipity had told Liz.

Metatron had promised she wouldn't tell Liz she was pregnant. There was no way she could deal with any questions, the "hows" the "whys"…let alone the "who"...

"You called me when you were on your way to your mom's," Liz said grimly, interrupting Bethany's mental turmoil. "All you told me was that she'd had a stroke, and that you had to go to the hospital."

Bethany's lip started to quiver. Somehow, she knew where this was going.

"You called me again after the doctors told you she wasn't going to wake up," Liz sniffed.

"I pulled the plug…" Bethany breathed, feeling hot tears well up in her eyes. So that was it. Serendipity had told Liz her mom had died, and Bethany had to pull the plug. A little truth, a little fiction. She had been in a hospital, and she had unplugged life support. Just not her mom's.

Bethany felt queasy. Just the thought was making her light-headed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd called her mom, just to chat or…well, anything. Her mom couldn't die, she needed her, she was going to be a mom herself! There were so many things she needed to ask her, wanted to know.

Liz was talking again.

" – I'm so glad you called me, I just wish you would have let me come up with you! I don't know how you managed the drive back after the whole ordeal. Why are you back so soon? Don't you need more time?"

Through her hypothetical sadness, Bethany discerned Liz's question and was brought back to the present. Tears were running down her cheeks, so at least the Muse's story was believable, if nothing else.

"More time?" she repeated. There wasn't enough time in the world for what she needed to get her mind around. She stared hard at Liz. Her friend's eyes were slightly red and watery.

"Why don't you go talk with Linda," Liz suggested, squeezing Bethany's arm gently. "When you called me, I told her when I came in the next day, so she knows what happened. She'll probably insist you take a few more days."

"'Kay…thanks Liz..." Bethany said absently. Before she turned away to head for her boss' office, she gave Liz a hug as thanks, one which Liz returned all too happily.

"Please, let me know if you need anything, 'kay?" she offered, offering a grim smile. Bethany smiled back, somewhat relieved to know that albeit she numbered just one, she had mortal support group in addition to her ethereal one.

Thank God.