Happy Mother's Day to every mum out there! :)

Be sure to read the chapter before this one that I posted yesterday (With A Human Heart). And if you have the time, I hope you'll comment. Thanks for reading.

This chapter is going to bring up some questions, I think... o.O

Chloe crept as quickly and quietly as she could through the maze of hallways, in her daughter's poorly-laid-out, goddamned overpriced school, trying desperately to remember where she'd been when she'd seen Trixie, and where the stupid auditorium was!

Seriously! Why wasn't there a map on every damn wall?

She wanted to call out for Trixie so badly, but Samael's words stopped her cold every time.

a being infinitely more powerful than I

Infinitely more powerful than an angel?!

Was she insane?!

What was she intending to do here?!

Scold a son she'd never truly known and tell him to go up to his room?!

... down to his room?

Chloe winced at herself. Pressing against the end of a wall, she peered around the corner.

Another silent, nameless hallway.

Frowning thoughtfully, she realized something.

She had technically grounded God, so...

...maybe that would work on the Antichrist?!

Facepalming herself, she peeked through another broken door into another empty room.

And her steps slowed with another revelation.

Because that's what this was... wasn't it?

The Antichrist? The child of the Devil?

And this horrible thing had happened... because she'd had a lot of sex with Lucifer?

Right?

That opened a yawning hole of horribleness in her gut.

She shook her head to the thought and pushed it far away. Because that didn't help right now. It didn't fix anything. It didn't make anything right.

So it didn't deserve to take up space in her head.

Get Trixie and flee.

Worry about blame later.

Nodding sharply to herself, she stopped to listen again, hoping and dreading both to hear her daughter's pained voice.

The sounds Trixie had made before had been horrifying. There'd been so much pain in those cries.

"Baby," she whispered, unable to hold it back anymore. "I'm coming, I prom-"

The world exploded with a sound of shattering glass, screaming metal, and the dull thunder of falling masonry.

The building shook - pieces of ceiling tiles falling down the corridor before her, lockers and broken doors rocking in place.

A brilliant light burst from the end of the hall, then faded to the sound of roaring.

And the hallway was filled with a rush of steam that smelled faintly like chlorine.

Chloe stood frozen and breathless, her heart thundering in her chest.

Then something pushed her forward.

A bright light? Like... a fireball?

I can be a distraction

"Oh no," she mumbled, and tried to run, but her limbs felt like rubber.

It was like a dream where no matter how hard she tried to move forward, it made absolutely no difference at all.

"NO!" she roared, and she forced herself forward, finally gaining traction and speeding down the hall.

There was a sign at the end pointing to the sports complex and the swimming pool.

She pushed through the thick cloud of steam, through a shattered door and down a tiled hallway flanked by shower rooms, to a huge open space where she could barely see anything.

But water lapped at her feet.

The pool.

She looked up.

The cloud wasn't as thick there. Her heart lurched as she realized why - the glass ceiling had collapsed. The metal structures bent inwards and the ends looked as if they had melted.

Beyond, the sky was almost black, flaring and rumbling.

She moved forward, and something crunched under her feet.

Glass - everywhere.

The wind howled above, drawing the fog from the room.

And above the sound of the wind and dripping water, she heard a faint gasp.

Jerking forward, she found the lip of the emptied pool and jumped in, landing awkwardly on a strip of metal that rolled, tossing her onto her side.

Glass caught her elbow, and arm, and hand, but she barely felt the pain of the cuts, because she saw him.

The fog obscured detail, but a figure lay curled away from her.

It was dark, dark red.

"Oh no, no no," she mumbled, sliding and pushing forward, ignoring more cuts and everything that got in her way.

The cry she made when she reached him was strangled, falling to a desperate moan as she reached out to touch him, and froze.

Because he didn't have any skin there.

Almost all of it had all been burned away.

A sob tore from her as she realized what the blackened stubs poking out of his back were, that twitched as she neared.

The remains of his wings.

"Oh, nnnnno," she cried, no longer able to hold in the tears, as she swept around him and saw his face.

Because she'd seen this face before.

But, never so raw.

Never so ruined.

His hands were blackened stumps. His legs didn't end in feet. They'd been burned away.

And red was leeching from him into the water lapping at them both.

She didn't understand at first, until she saw the spear of metal through his thigh.

The angel that looked like the one she'd loved, gasped again, as his eyes opened, flooded in red.

Not fire.

They fixed on her.

Agony.

He was dying. She could feel it. She wasn't sure how, but she could feel him retreating.

Samael moaned, a sound of indescribable pain, as his arm quavered and reached to her, the blackened stump curling, crumbling to ash.

Chloe sobbed, and swept forward, doing her best to gather him up into her arms.

It was easier this time, and she cradled his head, his ruined body, and held his gaze with defiant love as he started to fade.

And she decided something at that moment, as something bright and strong and blazing swelled up inside of her. Something beautiful and eternal and pure, that had been fashioned and placed with utmost care upon this Earth, and was more powerful than anyone knew.

She decided that he would live.

When the flutter of wings sounded about them, and the winds kicked up anew, and the black robed figure neared, Chloe looked up into gentle eyes that held the universe.

And said "No."

The angel of death retreated with another rush of wings.

Chloe looked back down at the broken angel in her arms, holding his gaze with tears in her eyes.

His gaze, so wounded, held hers in confusion.

how he seemed to mouth, with lips bubbled and black.

She squeezed her eyes closed, releasing the tears, and shook her head.

"I don't know, and I don't care," she squeezed him gently, "Please, please heal. I need you."

His eyes closed, and rolled when he opened them again.

can't his ruined lips mouthed. And then he tried to say something else she couldn't quite interpret.

"But... you healed me?"

Groaning, Samael tensed against her, his eyes rolling in pain again.

"Why can't you heal yourself?"

He mouthed the same thing as before, and finally, it clicked.

anger

"Anger?" she echoed, incredibly confused. "You can't heal yourself because you're angry?"

There was the smallest nod of his head against her hands in answer.

Chloe frowned and stared down into eyes that held so much defeat.

And she had an idea then, what he might be angry at.

Because she'd seen it in Lucifer.

"At your dad... or yourself?" she asked softly.

Samael's eyes drifted from her, and he seemed ready to answer, but he didn't. His mottled brow pinched inward.

Then his lips moved slowly.

both

His gaze fixed on her, and he strained to talk again.

All of this was hurting him terribly. She hadn't meant to prolong his pain.

Should I have just let him go?

Squeezing the bubbled raw skin over his eyes tight, he managed to speak.

"...need... love to heal... anger b-blocks..."

"Love," she finished.

Another faint nod, and a soft moan.

And he mouthed words that left her cold.

"What?" she whispered, not wanting to believe what he'd meant to say.

His blood-flooded eyes met hers, despairing.

"...let me...die..."

Chloe began to cry. She tried to hide it, covering her eyes, but it was pointless - the tears spilled anyway.

"I can't," she sobbed, feeling wretched. "I can't let you go."

"...failed..." he whispered, his own eyes growing wet. "...second... chance... and failed... again..."

Her brow furrowed.

"What?"

Drawing in a deep breath with a moan, he released it in a slow wheezing sigh, his gaze sliding from her to stare across the floor of the pool. A red stream traced the cracks in the sloped tile to the last few feet of water at the far end.

"...running... always running..."

He grew very still in her arms.

"...never stopped..."

"Samael," Chloe said, squeezing him again. "I don't understand. Running? Second chances?"

Dread gripped her.

"Samael?"

A hand touched her shoulder, gentle and warm.

"Let me take him, Chloe," a soft voice said behind her.

Chloe closed her eyes.

She hadn't even heard her this time.

"No."

"He wants to go. Let me take him while I'm still able to."

Heart aching, torn between compassion and need for Lucifer, and a savior, and anger at all of this, Chloe turned to face the angel of death.

And the light within her flared brightly, and spoke when she opened her mouth.

I SAID NO!

The force of the celestial speech washed over Azrael, scattering the black bob about her face and blowing her cloak open.

Azrael shifted away from it slightly, squinting, then turned back to her with a sigh.

"Okay. Just don't be too surprised if you die and I'm not there. It's been a bad day."

But with the smallest of smiles, she left.

Chloe blinked at the spot where she'd been, her eyes wide, her heart stuttering in her chest.

She'd...

How...

Then her face softened. All fear and doubt and shock fell from her, and she gazed down at the angel on her arms, hovering in the limbo between life and death.

The light within her spoke as she lowered, whispering in shimmering, crystalline tones of no human words.

Moments passed as she gazed down at Samael's still form.

And she smiled as he took in a shuddering breath.