Two chapters this time! Please read the previous chapter first for both the story and the notes beforehand!


HELLO, MARY


Look like how they imagined, Gabriel thought to himself as he walked invisibly behind the young woman. God had sent him with yet another message for yet another human, but He had stressed that this one was important. Hearing the content, Gabriel had to agree. He wasn't even sure how it was going to be possible, but he wasn't about to doubt God.

Gabriel had decided to take Cariel's advice, creating a manifestation of his wings for the woman to witness. He hadn't gone with the full five hundred and eighty-two—the physics alone of all his feathers could break the poor girl's mind—but managed to make just four wings, two upper, two lower, full of his unique gold-edged feathers. He had even picked a vessel whose hair was more golden-red than the burnished copper most of his bloodline sported, to better match the wings. All in all, he felt he looked very stereotypically angelic. Time to try it out.

"Greetings, favored one!" God had specifically told him to call this woman that. "The Lord is with you." Gabriel also offered her a friendly smile as he revealed himself to her. Women tended to be less doubtful and more entertaining, in Gabriel's experience. They were also much less common. God preferred talking to men.

The woman's hand was millimeters away from Gabriel's face before he caught her wrist, keeping the slap from landing. She stared at him with huge brown eyes, simultaneously furious and afraid. "I'll scream!" she warned him. "I will scream!"

You've got to be kidding me.

"Do not be afraid, Mary," Gabriel said, rustling his wings for emphasis. Not a bad guy! Angel! "For you have found favor with God."

"What if I don't want favor?"

This woman was breaking the script! Gabriel frowned at her. "You don't want favor with God? Lord of All? Big guy in the sky?"

Mary pouted and looked away, giving her wrist a tug. Gabriel released her and folded his arms. "Why would He want anything to do with me?"

"I don't know," Gabriel answered with an honest shrug. "He likes you? He wants you to bear His son." Mary's hand came whistling toward Gabriel's face again, and again, he barely caught her before she slapped him. "Would you stop that!? I'm just the Messenger here!"

"And I'm a virgin!" Mary retorted. "I've been promised to Joseph. I will not be… be consorting with others, not even God, before my wedding night!"

"You don't have to…" Gabriel tipped his head back, looking toward Heaven for guidance. He imagined he could hear Cariel laughing in his head again. "Look. God is God. He can do anything. He can make you pregnant while still keeping you a virgin. I think that's actually His intent. So, you say yes, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus, and everyone is happy." He released her arm again.

"What if I say no?" Mary narrowed her eyes. "I am allowed to say no, right? He's God, but… I have free will."

"You would say no to God?"

"No man would touch me if I bore a child without a husband! I'd be worse than a widow trying to raise a baby on my own—even my family might cast me out for this! You try being a single mother and tell me you'd say yes!"

Gabriel had to admit, he was impressed by this young woman. She was clearly terrified out of her mind—even if Gabriel couldn't read the fear in her soul, he could see it written across her body language and in her face—but she had still attempted to slap him, an obviously inhuman being, twice, and she was talking about defying the direct will of God. Gabriel himself had nearly collapsed from terror the one time he had openly very nearly defied God, thousands of years ago when God had asked him if he could kill Cariel.

"Would He even let me say no?" Mary asked quietly, rubbing her wrist and looking up at Gabriel warily. "Would you?"

Gabriel blew out a breath and shrugged. "I suppose I'd have to. It's not my place to force you to do anything. I'm just delivering a message. But then I'd have to take the message back to God. That will be a fun conversation."

"I haven't said no. I'm just considering." Mary was hunched over on herself, her shoulders curving together protectively. "Joseph won't like it…"

Something inside Gabriel's spirit softened at the quiet edge in her voice. After all of the doubting men he'd delivered messages to, this strong young woman was a welcome change. Slowly, so as not to scare her further, Gabriel stepped forward and reached out to rest his hand lightly on Mary's shoulder. "I'll go to Joseph," he assured her. "If you say yes to God, I will make sure Joseph understands and doesn't think anything less of you. I will make sure he still marries you, that you are not alone and forsaken. This child will be the Son of God, and you will be blessed among women."

"Will it hurt?" Mary's head was bowed, her hair falling around her face and blocking it from Gabriel's view.

"I don't know," Gabriel answered. "But I will send… no. I will personally watch over you, and if it does hurt, I will take your pain. Just call out my name, Gabriel, and I will come to you."

Mary gave a little nod of understanding, her arms slipping down to curve around her belly. "I… I am the servant of the Lord," she whispered. Slowly, she lifted her head to meet Gabriel's eyes. Though her voice was wavering, her eyes shone determinedly. "Let it be with me according to your word."

Gabriel smiled at the woman, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. "Why don't you go visit your cousin, Elizabeth?" he suggested. "Even in her old age, she has also conceived a son with the help of God. She's about six months pregnant now. She can talk to you, help you."

Mary nodded again, offering Gabriel a weak smile back. Gabriel touched her cheek and leaned in to press a kiss against her forehead, murmuring a blessing against her skin. Mary closed her eyes at the gesture, and Gabriel flew before she could open them again.

Cariel glanced over as Gabriel reentered his office, his eyes falling to the four-winged vessel the Archangel still wore. "Better luck this time, boss?"

"She tried to slap me twice," Gabriel grumbled. "But I liked her."

Cariel laughed and pointed toward Gabriel's desk. "Wish I could have seen that! You got a message while you were out, from someone in Michael's choir."

"Hmm?" Gabriel picked up the sealed note, frowning at it. "What does Michael want now?"

"It wasn't Michael." Cariel shook his head. "A Cherub. Metatron, I think? The Scribe?"

Gabriel felt his own grace flatten around him, his eyes narrowing. "What does he want?" he snapped, cutting through the seal with a flick of his fingers and unfolding the note.

"Jealousy isn't very becoming on you."

"I'm not jealous of Metatron! I just don't like him." Gabriel scanned the note, his frown growing into a full scowl.

"Bad news?"

"It's a mission from Father." Gabriel looked over at Cariel. "He can't even be bothered to assign me Himself? He makes His Scribe do it now?"

"Father is very busy-" Cariel began.

"He is not!" Gabriel interrupted. "He barely does anything these days! If you really look, everything we ascribe to Father is actually tended to by an angel. The Cherubim do more of Father's work than Father does. He just sits around in the Garden writing books with Metatron, or flits around the universe to look at newborn stars!" Gabriel flung the note back to the desk and threw himself into his chair, arms crossed, glaring at the far wall.

"I didn't know that." Cariel's voice was quiet, a faint thread of shock in his grace.

"Most don't. Most don't even bother to look. They just assume." Gabriel shook his head. "Father does very little. It's like…" Like He's preparing us to continue without Him.

Mary was going to bear the Son of God in her womb. Metatron was writing an "instruction manual" in the event of God's absence.

He's leaving us.

Was God dying? Could He die? Or was He just tired of this universe and wanting to start over, somewhere new, somewhere without all the baggage of Heaven and Lucifer? What would happen if God left the universe? Would they die? Without God, could the universe even function?

"Gabriel?"

Gabriel blinked, shaking himself out of his thoughts. Cariel was looking at him with concern. "What happened there?"

"I just realized…" He couldn't tell Cariel. Bad enough his Seraph now realized the truth of God's lack of involvement. God actually leaving was a matter for the Archangels to deal with, like Lucifer's original strife with Michael, or the first banishment. Only once the Archangels had any idea what they were doing should he let Cariel in on his assumptions. Gabriel pasted a smile on his face and looked over at his lieutenant. "Just realized that even Dad can get bored."

"Right." Cariel looked skeptical, but he knew better than to press Gabriel if Gabriel were lying to him. The only time Gabriel lied to Cariel, after all, was when he genuinely couldn't tell him the truth. "What's the mission then?"

"This recent message I delivered," Gabriel said. "To the woman? I told her she was going to have a son."

"Isn't that the same message you delivered a few months back, to that priest?"

"Not quite." Gabriel smiled thinly. "This child will be known as the Son of God, born to a woman still a virgin."

Cariel was silent for a minute. "The Son of God? Our God?"

"I don't think Dad is sending me to announce the birth of tulpa babies."

"But… we're His sons."

"We're sons of His," Gabriel agreed, "but I don't think any of us can claim to be The Son. I think this one's going to be more like Him than like an angel."

"Is that even possible?"

Gabriel just gave a fluid shrug. "It's God. Nothing is impossible with Him."

Cariel shook his head, dismissing the belief issues with a wave of his hand. "So what does this have to do with your mission?"

Gabriel picked up the note again to read the task exactly as it was written. "I am to 'walk at the Son's side all the days of his life,' to 'serve and protect him,' as if he were the 'prophet of prophets.'"

"You've protected prophets before," Cariel pointed out. "It can get tedious, but it's not exceptionally difficult."

"I'm not allowed to be more than fifty feet away from Jesus at any point during his life." Gabriel opened his fingers to let the note drop again. "Without a vessel. He's making an exception to the twenty-four hour rule for me alone, for the lifetime of Jesus."

"Ah." Cariel winced. "What did you do to piss Him off?"

"Maybe this is punishment for Zechariah?" Gabriel sank his head into his hands, grimacing. A human lifetime was nearly a century. While he didn't mind being away from Heaven for a century, adding the restriction of 'no vessel' meant that Gabriel would have to stay veiled for that entire time. He couldn't interact with humans without killing them, unless one of his bloodline happened to wander thousands of miles away from home to cross his path. He'd be a silent observer, alone in the crowd of Judea, unless other angels came by to visit.

Gabriel knew his choir would be happy to check in with him, to give him conversation and news of the Host, but they all had their own tasks to do. He couldn't have constant companions on Earth. He'd be largely isolated for that entire century. It was a punishment wrapped in honors, a gift he was not able to refuse but one that he did not want.

"You'll have to run my choir in my absence," Gabriel sighed. "I can't take you with me, or else Raphael will try to seize control. I'll need you to hold him off up here."

"I'll visit frequently," Cariel promised. "I'll need to, after all. I may be able to do most of the day-to-day work, but there are some things that will need an Archangel's approval. You are allowed company on this mission, correct?"

"He doesn't seem to forbid that." Gabriel looked over his desk at Cariel. "Come as often as you can. I'll miss you."