After a week's stay in the hospital, Bethany and Eve were released with clean bills of health. Mother and baby were doing fine, despite Eve being born slightly ahead of schedule.

Bethany drove five miles under the posted speed limit-which took longer to get home, but she didn't dare take any risks with Eve. Once she got home, the angel was waiting for her.

"What took so long? Is everything alright?" Metatron asked quickly before Bethany could even get her foot in the door. He had been waiting in her living room, where they'd agreed to meet the day before, pacing and worrying himself for the past half hour.

Bethany was only ten minutes late, but every second felt like another millennia he had to wait through. After Reaper's warning about Eve he had been jumpy and overbearing.

For once, Metatron was starting to get on Bethany's nerves, but she had to remind herself that he was just trying to help.

"Everything's fine, what's the matter with you?" she asked.

"With me? Nothing, I just like to know when anything's amiss." Metatron said quickly.

"Well, nothing is, so relax. Here, could you hold onto her for a minute?" Bethany asked, handing Eve to him as she set down her purse on the kitchen table and stretched her arms.

"Oh, she looks perfectly healthy." Metatron said absently as the baby looked back at him. "Not a mark on her."

"Is there any reason why she should have one?" Bethany asked.

"What? No, no, I was...I was just marveling at the perfection of Eve."

"Good, marvel all you like. I'm going to put her down for a nap in a few minutes and then I'll take one myself." She said through a yawn.

"Oh, here then." He handed Eve back to Bethany and watched as she went to set the baby into the crib in her bedroom while he waited in the living room.

Reaper's warning had rattled Metatron, to say the least. He was terrified at the thought of anything happening to Eve. His angelic companion had warned him not to get too close to her, but how could he not? All Bethany talked about was how he was Eve's guardian angel...what if he wasn't able to protect her?

He had become so nervous and on edge he was sure that if he had been human, his hair would have started to fall out from all the stress.

He paced up and down Bethany's living room floor, walls and ceiling before he went into her bedroom to see Eve in the new crib across from the bed. He stared at them in silence and for a few moments just listened to the deep, even breathing of mother and child.

Metatron moved to the crib and looked down at the tiny last scion and remembered Bethany when she was that age. He hadn't been her guardian but every once in a great while he would check up on her to make sure she was all right. The last scion is a shared responsibility of all beings in Heaven, after all.

Eve was sleeping soundly, so Metatron turned his attention to Bethany, who was also napping. She was sprawled on top of the covers, exhausted but happy.

Her dark hair half covered her face and for a moment he was compelled to smooth it back but instantly banished the thought. That was a gesture between lovers, and he and Bethany were nothing of the sort. They never could be, of course, thanks to God's declaration that no angel would be allowed to take pleasure in human flesh again.

Bethany was lovely, though.

Metatron sat down on the bed beside her and watched Eve sleep through the bars of her crib.