Dark Angel's Blue Fire: I'm glad you liked that one. :D

CoverGirlxX: I'm glad you liked the chapter and thanks for your compliments. My ego needed some inflation XD

Lil Kitsune-Chan: Well... I kinda borrowed the idea you left for me in that review. Hope you don't mind!

forgetMEalways: I aim to please and I'm glad I did. :D

totally manic: I'm glad to have a new fan.

GoGothGirl: Well... I'm glad you like Michael. He's the reason the whole thing started! And yes, there is a chance Tyler would be an angel without Reid's help, but it's the thought that counts, right? lol

I'll never forget the first time I saw him. His eyes were dark and tired and he looked like he was fighting with himself. There was something haunted about his appearance, like he knew a secret that his sanity couldn't bear alone, but he couldn't share with anyone else. At least, that was the impression I got when he sat down at the table across from mine in that little diner. I remember our eyes met and he offered me a tired smile. I couldn't help but smile back.

He was there again, two days later when I returned to the diner for breakfast again.

"Would you mind if I join you?" I was surprised that my voice didn't shake.

He looked up at me and motioned to the empty chair across from him. I wasn't entirely sure of what to say at this point. I'd never dreamed ofdoing anything like this. I was beginnig to panic. I mean, what the hell was I thinking, walking up to someone I don't know and asking if I could eat breakfast with them?

"Do you believe that there are people who are punished for the wrong reasons?" He asked slowly.

Not his name, no questioning why I sat with him... Just that question, spoken in a relativel soft voice.

"I...I suppose there are people who are punished for the wrong reasons."

He just nodded and started doodling on a spiral notebook I hadn't really noticed before. The way he was treating the doodles, it almost seemed like he was writing, but it was no language that I had ever seen before. I suddenly felt like I was intruding and turned my attention elsewhere. He didn't say anything until the food was dropped off.

"Picture this. There's a country at war with itself and there are people that don't like the way the country is run, but they don't like the ideals of the rebellion, so they sit the fence. The original government resumes control of this...war-torn country... and they punish the people who were sitting the fence. How fucked up do you think that is?"

I thought about it for half a second.

"I think it's pretty fucked up."

"Now picture that the rebels have managed to carve a little place for themselves out of this larger country. The people who sat the fence lost their status as welcome members of the main country, but that's where their loyalties lie so they're not welcome with the rebellion, nor would they ever cast their lot with them. What home is left to them?" His eyes seem more hurt and angry now than tired and wary.

"And I saw the dead, the great and the small, and no home was left to them. They were judged according to their deeds and anyone's name not found in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." I sighed.

He raised an eyebrow at me before his expression turned suspicious.

"The Silent Hill movie taught me the only scripture I can remember." I shrugged. I blushed too.

He seemed to find that amusing, but he said nothing else. He didn't speak another word to me before he left, except to argue with me when I insisted on paying for my breakfast and his. I won. Like ususal.

"I think that, perhaps, we should do this again?" He seemed unsure.

"And when would you like for that to happen?"

"Same time tomorrow?" He shrugged.

"I'd love to, erm... I don't think I caught your name." I frowned.

"Chase. Collins." He smiled.

"Caleb Danvers."

We had breakfast every day for almost a month, each time with minimal conversation that was peppered with his bitter hypothetical situations. I eventually broke down and demanded to know why he kept asking me these questions.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He shook his head.

"You'd be surprised."

He didn't say anything else to me, but at the end of our meal, he handed me a slip of paper with an address on it and told me to meet him there after sunset.

The address belonged to what was a church at one point. It was charred and I remembered seeing it on the news going up in smoke. No one was ever really sure what had caused the fire, but it had demolished the building and no one had the heart to tear it down or the desire to rebuild it. He was standing there in the rubble, his dark pants and leather jacket blending in with the darkness. I picked my way through the rubble to him.

He turned to me, his eyes no longer the stormy blue I loved to drown in when he wasn't watching. They were, of all fucking colors, violet. Violet and glowing.

"You can still turn back now. You can still go." He whispered.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and shook my head. I ignored how shaky his whisper was, how his eyes looked half-crazed and half-suicidal. I needed to know why he was so broken.

Chase shook his head and shrugged off his jacket. I bit my tongue when I realized he wasn't wearing anything under the jacket. He doubled over at the waist suddenly and I took a step forward, thinking he was hurt. That's when I saw his back... It was like there was a pissed off animal under his skin trying to break free. The skin was quickly darkening to a black color and then it seemed his skin was growing transparent, but that would only be possible if he had black feathers instead of shoulder blades. When his wings broke free of the skin and he stood up, all violet eyes, pale skin and raven-colored wings, I fell to my knees, convinced I had been eating breakfast with a literal angel.

"Get off your damn knees. I'm nothing to marvel at."

I didn't move, didn't respond to his command. I continued to stare up at him. He tooke a few steps towards me. The feahers moved slightly in the gentle breeze as he loomed over me.

"You're an angel." I whispered.

"Was an angel. But when Lucifer started his little war and I decided to not get involved, I was thrown out with the rest of them. Kicked out of heaven and barred from hell, I'm stuck here." He smiled sadly.

"Is there no way for you to go back?"

"Not that I know of."

"So you're stuck here forever."

"Pretty much." Chase sighed, walking away and flopping down on a mildewed and charred pew.

I shakily pushed myself to my feet and walked over to where the was sitting.

"Have you been alone for all of this time?" I asked him.

"I've not found anyone who I could trust with my secret." He sent me a meaningful look and it wasn't wasted.

"I want to spend eternity with you." I murmured.

"You don't want that. I'll be stuck here forever. No afterlife for me." He was bitter.

"So? If Heaven is perfect, then there's no adventure. And Hell sounds like it's a little too hot for my tastes. Earth has adventure and moderate climates." I smiled.

I managed to make him laugh and I wanted to record the sound and play it over and over again. His laugh was beatiful.

He stood up, his wings flapping gently as he moved. We stood there for a moment before his hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. He jerked me forward and I stumbled forward, crashing against his warm chest. He put a finger under my chin and made me look u at him. He lowered his head slightly and kissed me. I heard rustling and I could feel his wings wrapping around us. He broke the kiss too soon for my liking and all I could see was him and a canopy of feathers. I knew, in that moment, that I would take a fallen and disgraced angel over any other kind any day, especially this one.