Elizabeth knocked on the door to her son's old room and Sara answered with a knowing smile. Sara opened the door wider and slipped past to leave her alone with her son.

Luke was sitting cross legged on the bed and tried to cultivate a stone faced looked but failed. Elizabeth sat on the corner of the bed and smiled at him for a moment.

"He loves you, you know."

"Yes, yes," Luke said with forced exasperation but then more honestly, "I know."

Elizabeth sighed.

"Do you remember when you got horribly sick that one time and your father discovered that the common cold was one of the few things an angel cannot cure?"

Luke smiled to himself.

"He fluttered about like a worried hen and watched me suspiciously whenever I brought you something."

Luke laughed quietly at the memory.

"He stayed with you night and day for five days, even though you were much better after three."

Luke nodded, "When he thought I was asleep, he crawled into bed with me."

"I didn't know that but that's him," Elizabeth said and smiled encouragingly.

"But then you caught my cold, Mom, and he wouldn't let anyone near you. You kept saying you were alright with him but no one trusted his judgment. Cassie yelled and Azazeal threatened but anyone who put a toe across the threshold of your room…geez you should have seen they icy glare they got."

Elizabeth didn't respond right away, worried that her attempt at making him feel better was now only going to make it worse. But she believed that because his angelic side had been so understanding for so long, it was her son's human side that just wanted to know that his daddy loved him.

"And then you cried," she said finally, "Our little boy cried and…"

"Yeah, he snatched me up so hard my head was still spinning when he plopped me down next to you."

Elizabeth laughed, "He was emotional, he forgets his own strength when he's emotional."

"We held up for three days in that room like we were fugitives, making quick and wary dashes to the kitchen while keeping an eye out for the cops," Luke said making fun of his father's caution and determination to keep Cassie and Azazeal out of Elizabeth's room.

"Oh, you had fun. It was another adventure for you and I remember hearing the giggle of a not so stealthy little thief in my house. And he did just fine, right? He had watched me with you. He knew what I needed and he knew that it included you."

Luke felt his cheeks get hot and nodded in hopes that it would go away.

He thought of one of those nights. The one that he had woken up snuggled against his father's back with something soft tickling his nose. He'd pulled back and then gotten up to walk around to his mother's side of the bed to confirm what he thought he saw. Sure enough, they were both sound asleep and his father had her tucked gently under one of his gold flecked wings. He had flown with his father many times but never actually by the use of wings and he'd never gotten a good look at them. He had reached out a hand to touch one but then stopped, knowing instinctively that they were not for him. After a few minutes he when back to his side and burrowed back into the still warm spot next to his father. The next morning the wings were gone.

Luke tried one more time to be jealous of this but he knew that there was no point. It was only the human in him that was trying to refuse to just be happy with what he had, but the angel in him knew that with his family and Sara he had everything that he needed.

"Thank you, Mom," he said simply.

Just then Lucifer burst in and gave them both a winning smile that Luke couldn't help returning. Yes, he father loved him, but what he felt for his mother couldn't compare and, like his own love for Sara, was indescribable.

"Son, I have just informed your wife that I'm stealing you tomorrow!"

Sara popped out from behind him with a wry smile and Luke couldn't help his excitement. He just realized, the way you realize things obvious to an adult that as a child meant little to you, that when they were alone together his father was his. There were things they had done and things his father had told him that his mother didn't know. Sure, Lucifer would spill the beans if she asked but there were private things that only father and son shared. It was just that his father could only deal with one loved one at a time.

"Oh alright!" Luke said with exaggerated reluctance.

"Excellent! Now, woman, I have an exceedingly important question for you!"

Elizabeth shot her son a conspiratorial look and answered, "Hm?" walking over to him slowly as Sara slipped past them and over to Luke.

"Mmm," he rumbled and purred at her, "Tonight will I be trembling for my goddess or will you serenade me with that lovely moan of yours until I decide I've tortured you enough?"

Luke looked at Sara and shook his head. He was used to this, his father never hide anything, but he alone knew what they were like in their private moments together. He'd seen his father tremble submissively at the touch of his mother's finger and he'd seen his mother's eyes bright with a desire that only a devilish tease could produce. Although he had never been brave enough to peek in on one of their more violent sexual encounters, he understood that sometimes his father didn't want to fall gently into the arms of surrender as he generally did at Elizabeth's slightest urging. He wanted to be thrown to his knees and given no other choice. He wanted to be taken to a place where all of his power meant nothing in the presence of her glorious strength.

Luke could not imagine his mother being capable of that kind of controlled fury but he knew that his father occasionally acting intimated by her was not just a show. Fury wasn't exactly the right term though just as it was not exactly anger that she communicated to him. The bible talks about fearing God and the angels feared him too, but it didn't mean being scared of Him or dreading His punishment. It was more like recognizing a power greater than yourself, celebrating the awesomeness of it, and relishing your weakness in the face of it. Just as Lucifer could have calmly spent days in a tortured state of unfilled sexual desire for her and equated it with one of the spheres of the divine presence in heaven, he could take the shocking sensation of a whip and the feel of her demanding that he please that dark place inside of her and translate it into the experience of God's absolute power. Angels were good at experiencing those things and his father was the best.

He knew this not just because he knew his parents so well but also because Sara had her own ways of taking him to similar places. He knew what it was like to turn to his lover eager to put himself entirely in her hands even when she'd already taken everything he had to give, like resting himself in her open palms after having just been released by clenched fists.

"Go on you two!" Luke protested with mock disgust.

Both he and Sara knew that despite the choices Lucifer had laid out for Elizabeth whatever she was in the mood for was exactly what would happen, even if she didn't know what that was yet herself.


"Malachi."

"Don't Mother!" he replied.

"Malachi," Cassie said again, grabbing his face to look him in the eyes and then throwing her arms around him.

"You are your own person and…"

"Oh stop that crap, Mother!"

Cassie pushed him away and gave him the steely stare she'd learned from his Father.

"Don't let your alleged destiny mess with your head any more, it's enough!"

He glared at her but she ignored him. She knew that he felt like he had peeked too soon when he had helped all of the angels when he was so young. Now he felt overshadowed by Sara, Luke, Brian, and even his father and Lucifer in their good work on this earth. He compared himself to them when he should have just contributed.

"You under estimate your worth and you toy with evil because you think it maybe where your talents lie, but you're wrong."

Malachi continued to glare but the fire was fading.

"Don't make the mistakes that your Father did! Let us love you for what you are, hm," she smiled kindly at him and he smiled back despite himself.

"Yes, mother!" he said quietly and then pulled her towards him for a tight hug.