The next morning Tessa awoke fairly early. She carefully got out of bed so she wouldn't wake Zoë. Then she found something to wear, went into the bathroom, changed and proceeded to go downstairs to the kitchen to meet her Mother.
"Good, I'm glad that you're ready to go."
"Go where Momma?"
"Shopping, that is if you want to. I want to spend more time with you, I miss you."
"Really? I'd love that! What about Zoë?"
"She is going to spend the day with your Daddy. Tess, what are you going to do today?"
"Relax," she said, "I'll be here by myself."
"Would you like to come with us?"
"No, no thank you Angel Girl. The two of you need to spend time alone together, like when she was little." Monica smiled.
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"I haven't realized how much I have missed you Mom."
"Me neither." She laughed. "How has casework been sweetheart?"
"Difficult. I have been living among humans my whole life; but I never really realized how difficult they can be!"
"You'll get used to it, I promise. Where to first?" Monica asked as she parked the car.
"How about...Macy's."
"You can never get tired of a Macy's this big."
"No, you can't."
"Not unless you worked here, maybe then it would even be hard."
"I agree with that, I don't think that I could ever get sick of this."
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"Hi Daddy, where's Mommy and Tessa?" Zoë asked as she stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"They have gone out for the day." Zoë looked disappointed, "Just like you and I are going to." She smiled.
"Really Daddy?" She asked as she climbed onto his lap.
"Yes, really we can do anything that you want to. But, we need to do a little Christmas shopping."
"I'd like that, oh wait... I have my Brownies meeting today."
"What time?"
"I don't know."
"Well, we'll find out and we'll work around it."
"Ok." She said as she threw her arms around him and he kissed her head. Tess who was watching from nearby smiled.
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Tessa and Monica had been shopping for quite a few hours now. They had now moved reached the last section of Macy's. MAKEUP! Tessa went over to the Lancôme counter. But she forgot something very important.
"Hi Tessa." Tessa looked up and saw Felicity. "Long time no see."
"What happened to you? Why did you do it?"
"Because."
"Because? I have to go now."
"Tessa, you're missing out on a great opportunity here."
"Um, no I'm not."
"Sure you are."
"If I went your way, I'd never see my family again. If I went your way, I'd be turning my back on God, and I'd be for fitting an eternity with him, and my family, which is the best thing anyone could ever have. So the way I see it, you are the one who has missed out on a great opportunity." Tessa said as she turned to walk a way.
"Fine then Tessa, run back to your Mommy!" Tessa turned around and faced her.
"You know," she said, "I'm not sorry to see you go. After all in addition to giving up the Father, you have given up yourself." Felicity couldn't say anything, and Tessa calmly walked a way.
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After spending the day with her Daddy Zoë went upstairs to prepare for her Brownie meeting. The day's meeting was to take place in the park. When Zoë arrived the troop leader told all the eight year olds, (or those who were the third grade), to go and play, Zoë and her friends were perfectly content with this. They began to chase each other about and soon came upon a very, very tall tree. All three girls simply gazed up into the branches of the majestic tree.
"One of us should climb it." Came the voice of Zoë's friend Lauren.
"I agree." Zoë said
"I'll do it." Lizzie volunteered. Zoë looked up into the tree. It was so big; she had a bad feeling about this.
"Maybe I should go up." Zoë said.
"Nah, I'll go." Zoë couldn't stop her, and so Lizzie made her way up the tree. Zoë watched rather anxiously as Lizzie climbed as far as she could and then climbed down and Lauren followed suit. Before she knew it, it was her turn. She took a deep breath and began to climb the tree. It looked much easier than it was. The bark hurt her hands and her feet constantly slipped. Finally she reached the top, but just as she did so she slipped again and fell to the ground. Her friends began to scream. Lizzie went to get help while Lauren stayed with Zoë.
"Are, are you okay?" Lauren asked.
"Yeah, it's just my arm. That's all." She said she was by this time crying.
"Don't move. You'll be fine. It's fine."
But Zoë wasn't so sure she was very frightened. She knew that it she could not die, as her friends could have. But she was in a considerable amount of pain. And when she looked to her right, she saw her Dad standing there, in Angel form. She knew better than to call out to him, but at the moment that's all she wanted to do. She felt much better, however when Lizzie came back with Tess.
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"Tessa, did something happen recently that I am not aware of." Monica asked, studying her daughter's face as they were driving home.
"Yeah, I ran into Felicity. I forgot that she worked at Lancôme."
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Monica said as her cell phone began to ring. She answered it. "What? What happened! Is she...is she okay?! Good, good, we'll be right there." Monica was beginning to cry.
"What is it Mom?!"
"Zoë fell out of a tree."
"Is she okay?"
"Tess says so, we're going to the hospital."
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"Where is she?" Monica asked as soon as she spotted Tess.
"She's getting an x-ray, Andrew's with her." So Monica went off to be with Zoë and Tessa sat with her supervisor and began to cry.
"What's that for baby, she'll be okay."
"I know. I'm just upset because, well I ran into Felicity and of course there was a confrontation. And, I'm really worried about Zoë." She let her head fall onto Tess's shoulder as she sobbed. Tess hugged her and comforted her.
"Tessa sweetheart. Do you remember our conversation about Felicity?"
"Yes. You see, she told me that I was missing out on something great, but I just informed her of what exactly she is missing out on and got away as quickly as possible."
"Good, I'm proud of you, that is what is needed. But I understand how you are feeling, it's okay to cry, so you can just sit here and cry all you want okay?" Tessa nodded as she did just that.
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"Hey, it's not that bad Zoë, it's not." Andrew said, drying Zoë's tears with a tissue.
"I want my Mommy."
"She'll be here soon, I promise." He said as he kissed her on the head.
"Hi Zoë, are you okay?" Monica asked as she rushed over to Zoë and hugged her.
"I really, really, really, hurt Mommy."
"I know sweetheart, I know." She said as she kissed her. "I know that you do."
"Has anyone ever died of a broken arm before Daddy?"
"No Zoe, not that I know of. You'll be just fine."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"I promise that you will too." Monica said. "How exactly did this happen?"
"Well," Zoe began, "I was at Brownies, they told all the third graders to go and play. That's what we were doing, when we saw this tree. And we decided to climb it. I was the last to go. It was hard, I kept slipping, and I just fell."
"Oh, sweetheart. I'm so sorry. You probably shouldn't have climbed that tree."
"I know. I was worried, I knew something like this would happen, I just thought that it would be Lizzie, not me."
"You can never assume that something isn't going to happen to you, okay?"
"Okay." She nodded as she continued to cry.
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"Hi guys." Tess and Tessa looked up and saw Gloria and Adam walking up to them, hand in hand.
"You got my message?"
"Yeah, we were just shopping. So, um what happened anyway, is she okay?" Gloria asked.
"She and her friends were climbing a tree, and she just happened to be the one who fell."
"Where did she fall?"
"She fell on her arm, I think that it's broken."
"She'll be fine." Adam said. "Kids break their arms everyday."
"Wait a minute." Tessa said, as she looked up at Adam and Gloria, "Don't you think that it's odd for my sister to have had two, maybe three near death, or what would be near death experiences to a human in the past three days." Gloria and Adam exchanged glances.
"Why didn't I think of that!" Exclaimed Tess. "Of course, it all makes perfect sense now! This is unbelievable."
"What?" Adam and Gloria asked.
"Baby," she said, turning to face Tessa, "I think someone is trying to kill your sister."