Hellboy opened his eyes slowly. He felt a weight on his chest and he looked down to see Angela lying there. Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing was heavy and raspy and her lips no longer held their blue color as before. Her skin was still pale and cool to the touch and she shivered. But he was filled with joy to see the life in her once more. He glanced over at the monitor and saw her heartbeat was strong and seemingly back to normal.
He must have fallen asleep, he thought as he looked around. Nothing had changed, but he knew he had been lying there a long time by the pain in his neck and the way his damp clothes clung to his body in the most uncomfortable way.
He felt Angela's breathing against his chest and bringing his hands around her he closed his eyes and embraced her tightly immersed in the movement of her chest as she inhaled and exhaled. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world; the feeling of life through her body.
He looked around and thought about moving. But the sweet feeling of her lying against him was to wonderful to tempt removing.
He leaned his head back again and was just about to close his eyes when he felt her stir.
She was awakening. She stretched and unconsciously moved to snuggle her head under his. She brought her arms up around his neck as though she had done it a hundred times before.
A smile came over his face as he intern closed his arms around her. Feeling her hair, now soft and dry against his palm.
She felt so natural with him like this and he sighed feeling the contentment of the moment. It was here that he felt peace like he had never known.
Did she also find such peace with him?
While in his arms she seemed happy, seemed without fear or worry.
Hellboy peered down at her. He searched her face for the contentment, peace, and happiness he now felt. Something that he knew could be spoken without words or expression, without movement or any indication other than the knowledge of what it felt like to express.
He lifted his stone hand and moved a strand of hair from her face and as he did it was so clear, he saw it.
It wasn't in her expression, or in her face, or even in her wondrous eyes which pierced all that they touched with love. It was in her whole self, the way she was positioned, curled around him for something more than just warmth. It was in the way her lips expressed the lightest of smiles and the way her hands caressed his skin so lightly and intimately that he gasped for breath. It was all of these things and so much more that he knew that in this moment she was at peace, at peace in a way he had never understood until now.
"Birdie." He whispered, a smile crossing his face that could not be wiped away.
She snuggled down into him more She felt just as he did, she was as in love with him as he was with her, he could feel it in the way she held him. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head tenderly.
She moved under him and mumbled something he could not understand. She brought her arms around his head and with closed eyes lifted her head and kissed him, a long deep kiss that was filed somehow with both passion and gentleness.
Had he been able to he would have danced, or yelled, or even dare he think it, sang. As she held him captive in her kiss.
"Andy…" she whispered. As she released him and smiled, nuzzling against his neck in slumber once more.
The life seemed to drain from his body at that moment. And the smile was, like a watercolor caught in the rain, washed away with ruin as he felt his heart break with her unconscious words.
She thought he was her husband, she wasn't imagining him, she was thinking of her husband.
Stupid Hellboy, real stupid.
To think she could ever feel that way about him. He was a demon, the memory of her husband would always remain his unseen but ever present competition for her heart and his memory would always win. He was a ghost, only a fragmented character strung together by every happy moment she had ever shared with him. She would remember only the good times with him, and the daughter they had who's image would remain perfect for her. Andy would forever be shrouded in the heroic image she died thinking of him with.
And he could never live up to a man without flaws. Heck he looked in the mirror and saw ten flaws.
He closed his eyes tightly, placing his hand over his eyes. Stupid. Just so stupid.
He picked her up, blankets and all and headed out the bathroom to his bed. The cold air hit him as he left the sanctuary of the heated bathroom but he didn't seem to feel it. He pulled the sheets back and placed her in his bed. He arranged the blankets and covered her up before he gazed at her. Something inside his heart was drawn to her, and he could not deny it.
Hellboy wasn't a patient man. He wasn't delicate with anything. But for her he would wait a lifetime, never stop protecting her, never stop loving her and though it was never possible with anything else, with her he found his harshness to be no obstacle. For when he touched her he was naturally delicate when his fingers grazed across her skin. A thing, like so many others that he had never known before knowing her face.
Hellboy wandered into the bathroom, the thoughts marinating in his head. He looked back at the bed, seeing Angela snuggling down in the blankets and sheets and he smiled once more.
Having her with him was all that mattered. The rest would work itself out.
Hellboy turned back to his task of removing the heaters to move them into the bedroom. He glanced at the thermostat, it read 23 degrees and Hellboy wondered how the other team members were doing. He knew Myers was probably so covered in jackets that he couldn't move his arms. Manning, well he could care less about Manning right now. And his father…Hellboy rolled his eyes at the though and furrowed his brow, the nerve of his father.
Hellboy again glanced at Angela thinking of how much the BPRD had wronged her. How much his father had wronged her and lied to him, but then he looked down at a stray blanket that was draped over the counter and wondered if the old man was warm enough. He knew Broom got cold easily and no matter his frustration or their differences, broom was and always would remain his dad, he could not and never wanted to stop loving and caring about him.
"Hay, what time is It." he heard from a distinctly female and raspy voice.
Hellboy smiled and turned around to face her.
Revealed to him were only the slits of her eyes as the entire rest of her was covered in blankets.
He abandoned his task and walked to sit on the bed next to her.
"How are ya?"
"My head hurts but none the worse for wear." She said.
"Do you remember what happened?"
"I, remember being in the tank, it was so cold, I could feel myself blacking out…then waking up here." she said.
Angela removed the blankets she had draped around her head, revealing the long locks of hair that framed her face. Her breath was clearly visible in the cold and though she had been through so much in a short time Hellboy found her more beautiful now than ever before.
He moved closer to her until he was sitting only a few inches from her. He lifted his stone hand and stroked her hair. Sadness came over him. How could he tell her how he felt, how terrified he had been when he thought she could die, how much he felt for her, how she helped him become a man he had always wanted to be. He couldn't, it wouldn't be fair to her. She still loved her husband and might never stop loving him. Hellboy didn't know if this meant his feelings would never be reciprocated but for now he was willing to wait to find out.
Angela looked down at the sheets and then up into his eyes, she opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted when the door to Hellboy's room was opened.
"Why the hell doesn't anybody knock around here." Said Hellboy getting up in frustration.
"Sorry," said Myers as entered the room. "I didn't mean to interrupt. Angela, its good to see you are feeling better." He said.
"Thank you John." She said as she pulled the covers up further over her shoulders.
"I uh, have something here you need to see." He said holding up a folder and walking over to her.
A flash of anxiety crossed her face as he approached the bed. She could tell it want good news as he handed her the folder.
She feared to open it. Was it about Rasputin? She didn't know how much worse the situation could get. She felt awful, she was freezing, her head hurt. Up until now every bad experience had come from the BPRD, every moment of fear was the result of something to do with them. She didn't want to hear anything more, she couldn't survive it. Without thinking she took hold of Hellboy's hand and handed the folder back to Myers.
"Would you read it to me please." She asked.
"It isn't a document Mrs. Shloble." He said as he opened the folder. "It is a picture."
He handed a picture the folder contained to her.
A small child, a toddler dressed in a white linen dress sat in the dirt, smiling as she smeared her face with cake from a plate, which rested on her lap.
"This is your great grand child." He said. " Her name is Caitlin Margaret, she is the daughter of Angela Katherine Phillips who is your grandchild." He said.
He waited a moment as Angela beamed and tears streamed down her face. "She is so beautiful."
Myers handed her another photo of an old woman and man. "This is your daughter, she never married but has been living with a man named Robert Beckman for over twenty five years. He is your grand daughters father. Your daughter has several degrees, one in philosophy, another in music and a third in quantum mechanics"
A bittersweet smile crossed Angela's face and tears fell from her eyes as she gazed at the picture. How happy they looked, and how much she had missed of life, of her family's life. The birth of her grand daughter, her daughter's graduation… so much.
"There is some bad news." He continued.
Angela had been so consumed in the unexpected pictures that she had almost forgotten about the bad news she knew would come.
"Your daughter has cancer." He said. "The doctors say she will die within the week." He said.
"My baby is dying?!" she said with disbelief.
She clasped her hand over her mouth dropping the pictures. She never expected this, and suddenly the thought of Rasputin was a welcome one. Her child was dying. She released Hellboy's hand and covered her face with them. "Oh God." She cried out.
Her mood suddenly shifted and she threw the covers back and jumped out of bed. Not caring how scantily clad she was she searched through the pile of clothes and picked the first thing her hands touched as tears continued to stream down her face. She pulled on the pale blue dress she had plucked from the pile and swung a robe over her shoulders, pulling her wings against her back.
She marched out the door with Hellboy and Myers in fast pursuit as she went with heavy determination towards a destination neither of them knew. But as she walked through the corridors ignoring Myers questions Hellboy began to understand where she was headed.
The corridor, which would lead to the main entrance and exit, the tall room which Myers had first entered from. Where the elevator was.
Fifty yards from the entrance she was in sight of the guards who would normally stand at the doorway without much to really lookout for but at the sight of her now gripped their rifles to their chests wondering if they would really have to engage her.
"Angela?" Myers said with a worried and warning tone in his voice, "Angela what are you doing, you know you cant leave." He said.
But she paid him no mind and the expression on her face became more and more that of a person who was not going to be deterred from her task.
Myers took hold of her elbow and spun her around. "STOP. What are you doing aren't you listening to me."
"I have listened to all of you for long enough, my child is dying and if you try to stop me from reaching her I swear there is no place in hell worse than where I will send you." she said before wrenching her arm free of his grasp and continuing forward.
Hellboy remembered his fathers words about Manning's men and he readied himself for a battle to protect Angela should it come to that.
The guard to the right lifted a walky talky from his shoulder and said something in it just as Angela reached the door to the corridor.
"Mama, I can't let you go in there." Said the guard as he stood in front of her.
"I need to leave, now would you be so kind as to move aside." She said without removing her gaze from his eyes.
"Im sorry mama I ca…"
"MOVE NOW!" she screamed with rage as the robe flew from her shoulder and her wings stretched out. A wind kicked up that was so powerful the guards were thrown through the doorway and fell twenty feet from it before landing with a thud. The guard to the right lost his rifle, which spun out of his hand.
Angela grabbed her robe and kicked off the ground, flying up the huge room.
One of the guards fumbled to get to his feet and took aim at her with his rifle. Hellboy snatched it from his hand and smashed it between his fingers.
"Sorry about that but I don't feel comfortable when you aim that at her." he growled at the guard, who backed away with fear.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" yelled manning as he showed up with a dozen agents at his rear.
"Open this door Manning." Angela said as she flew.
"I can't do that." he responded.
"Hey, uh, she's pretty pissed I think you should try not being a such dick for a few minutes." Said Hellboy.
Manning gave him a nasty look.
"Hay you might like it, Im just sayin." Hellboy said.
"We had an agreement, I cant let you out of here, you know why, its to much of a risk."
At his words Angela became furious and swooped down with incredible speed and scooped him up. She flew as high as she could and stopped with Manning in her arms.
"I don't think you understand me, my CHILD is dying, and if you don't open these doors bigger things will happen here than just you and me." She spat.
"She isn't a child anymore, she is an old woman at the end of her life." The moment these words came out of his mouth Manning knew he shouldn't have said them as an expression of fury came over Angela.
"Wrong answer." She said as she dropped him and he plummeted towards the ground.
Sorry I haven't updated in a while, my computer keeps beeping at me when I try to start it up and I don't know why. It seems to not like the beeping because it doesn't start up whenever ti beeps. Does anyone know why it might be doing this?
If my computer works the next chapter will be up tomorrow night,