It was a sunny day when none could think about anything going wrong. Monica had met her former charge, Gloria, and was walking with her in silence, thinking that any assignment that they may have to deal with in such a beautiful day would be easy to solve. More than anything, she wanted to be free to spend some time with Andrew... Maybe, she thought, they could spend the afternoon walking together hand in hand and talking about any simple thing that may come to their minds... She hadn't had a clue of what she was supposed to deal with when she had been required to meet Tess and Gloria.
When Monica saw Tess, the Irish angel smiled happily and hugged her supervisor, who even after the hug, didn't take her eyes away of what she was looking at. "Hi, Tess!" she said. "What a beautiful day, isn't it?"
"Not that fast, Miss Wings." Monica and Gloria couldn't avoid the concern in her voice. "Everything looks good now, but you should already know that things can change in a second."
"But, Tess," Gloria interrupted, "I don't see anything strange around here..."
Gloria hasn't even finished the sentence when a terrifying cry made the two younger angels turn to pay attention to what Tess was looking. A young woman was running out of an elegant house to meet her husband in the yard with a small kid lying unconscious in her arms, blood draining out if his mouth and nose. The man ran to meet his wife, took the little boy and got into a car. A second later, the three angels saw the car disappear around the corner.
Gloria looked at Monica questioningly, but the Irish angel only shook her head. "That's Senator Robert Grimsley," Tess finally said facing the younger angels, "and his wife Alice and their son, Mike".
"What's happening to the boy, Tess?" Monica asked.
"He's gotten Ebola, Monica," Andrew answered, appearing just right behind her.
"Andrew!" Monica felt her heart filling with joy at the sound of his voice, and a wide smile spread on her face when she turned to face him, wanting nothing more but hugging him. But all the happiness just fade away in a second when she saw that her beloved angel, as well as Adam, Rafael and Ronald were all dressed in their formal angel suit ready to go to work. Her voice changed from joy to a barely audible whisper. "Are you going anywhere?"
"Yes, beautiful," Adam said. "And this is not going to be an easy... nor a happy assignment." Having always been close to Andrew and Monica, the angel of death knew the deep love his two friends shared and he understood that being away was going to be especially painful for both of them.
"What kind of assignment needs seven angels?" Gloria asked. "Not to mention two angels of death..."
"Well, this is not a normal assignment", Rafael explained. "We are not the only angels working at this..."
"Where are you going?" Monica interrupted while she took Andrew's hand looking for some relief to the anguish she was starting to feel.
"The Congo" Ronald said. "There's an epidemic of Ebola there. Senator Robert and his family have just came back from a safari."
Knowing that this meant a long term separation from Andrew, fear had risen in Monica's heart before she decided to ask for a confirmation. "How long would you be out?" she heard herself asking but not wishing to know the answer.
Andrew tighten her hand and sighed heavily. "At least a month...", he said, just as afraid as she was of the tears that had started to glisten in her eyes. "Will you excuse us for a moment?" he asked their friends.
"Of course, baby," Tess said. "You need to talk".
The blond angel held Monica by the shoulders and walked with her a little away from the rest of the group. He could feel the fear in her heart, not a fear of never meeting again but of not having a clue about how to deal a long time without each other's loved presence. When she finally stopped and faced him, Andrew saw her bright eyes and felt his heart plunging to the bottom of his chest.
"A whole month without seeing you?" her voice was trembling and he could see in her face a silence hope of everything being a misunderstood. He felt his resistance about to cease, about to refuse going anywhere away of the little angel he loved so much. "I'm afraid so..." he took both of her hands and kissed them tenderly before meeting her sad gaze again. "I know this is hard, but you know that I have no choice..."
"And why can't I go with you?" she asked anxiously, a tear falling through her cheek. "If Rafael and Ronald are going..."
She was almost pleading and that was something Andrew felt he wasn't prepared to deal with. He couldn't deny anything to her, he would do everything she asked for, but this was not his decision... He took her face in his hands and gently cleaned up her tears with his thumbs. "But this time they are working as angels of death too. And I also know that God needs His best angel of truth right here. That's why you're staying".
The remainder of her mission as an angel forced her to regain herself, yet she felt her hands would be terribly empty without the contact of his body. She nodded slightly and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest, trying to remember since that very moment what that contact she was so used to felt like. "I know", she said. "I just don't know how I'm supposed to live a whole month without you".
"You know you're never away from me, baby", Andrew said in a low voice. "I carry you in my heart wherever I go."
"You know what I mean...", she replied. "I'm going to miss being with you like this". Monica held him tighter, rubbing his back slowly.
Andrew felt himself almost shaking with the love he felt every time he had Monica near him. Leaving her for some hours was one thing: he always knew he would surely be with her at night, she would be waiting for him and they would spend hours on each other's arms, talking about the day, the assignment or any other nice thing they could come up with. But leaving her for weeks... "I don't know either how I'm going to do this, sweetheart, if I can't stand two seconds away form you". He held her tightly, as if his entire life depended on her warm contact. "I'm going to miss terribly holding you like this, feeling you this near..." he whispered on her ear, "... but especially" he pulled her a little away, just enough to take her face between his hands once more, "... I'm going to miss kissing you like this...". Andrew leaned down to reach her slightly open lips that were waiting for his and kissed her slowly, tenderly first and more passionately later. He felt her melting under the feelings his mouth and his hands had risen in her and lowered his left hand to encircle her waist and pull her even closer.
"I'm going to miss you so much", she whispered finally stopping to kiss him.
"I know. But I want you to remember that I love you with everything I have on me, ok?", he said his forehead touching hers and caressing her right cheek.
"Ok... You do know I love you as well".
"I know", he said leaning again to give her one last quick kiss. "I've got to go".
Monica nodded and looked at her beloved angel walking to where Adam, Rafael and Ronald were already waiting for him, their hands refusing to release until the last moment. Tess and Gloria had come near her and the supervisor hugged her. "I know you're going to miss him, angel girl," Tess said with tender voice, "but the Father really needs you here".
"I know, Tess", the little angel looked at her, tears glistening in her eyes. "Let's go back to work".