Chapter 1

By the time, Robert and Alice arrived to the hospital, Monica, Gloria and Tess were already settled in their posts at their new assignment. Tess was the first to meet them, working as an emergency nurse, quickly followed by Monica, who was supposed to be the attending pediatrician in the hospital.

"We'll take good care of him", Monica reassured the concerned parents as they looked their boy disappearing into the wards. "I may ask you to please stay here and think of what could possibly caused the bleeding, any symptom, any previous disease, something he might've eaten or some place where he might've gone where there were other sick people... I'll be back soon".

"Please, help him", Alice whispered between sobs. Monica placed her hand on her shoulder, gave her a little squeeze and a sly smile, and then got inside. Robert tightened his hold around his wife's shoulders trying to give her some strength while he himself looked for some back. Mike had been acting quite strange since they had come back from Africa, with occasional fevers and some symptoms of a cold, but both he and Alice thought it was just the change of climate from the sunny and hot days of Brazzaville to the rainy ones of Washington D.C. They went to look for a seat on the waiting room. Monica and Tess could see them so quiet, so worried... and so far away from each other.

"I'm so sorry for them, Tess", the little angel said, "but why do I have the feeling that you're not telling me everything?".

"I'm not lying to you, Miss Wings, if that's what you're trying to say!", exclaimed the older angel with an indignant tone.

Monica wrapped an arm around her supervisor's shoulders and softened her voice. "I'm not saying you're lying to me, Tess, I said I feel that Mike's not the only problem for Robert and Alice. There's something more but I'm not quite sure about it...".

"Well, I thought you would never notice it! As now you want every couple to be so perfect as you and Andrew are...", Monica cleared her throat to avoid the clear ironic note in Tess' voice. "Of course there is something more, something huge, and you're supposed to make them go through all this t o g e t h e r", Tess almost spelled every letter of the last word, "I only pray the Lord that your mind is clear enough to use what you've learned about love recently..."

Monica listen to her in silence, half laughing at the fact that the older angel still used to tease her about her relationship with Andrew, half praying God to help her to find the right words as He had always done before.

"What?" Tess asked when she found her charge looking at her almost without blinking.

"I love you too, Tess", Monica answered before kissing her cheek and walked to Mike's room. The young angel didn't see the tender smile on Tess' face.

"If you're thinking if she would like it, I think she would", Andrew heard Adam's voice right behind him. He had been looking a delicate silver necklace in a street shop in Brazzaville. They were supposed to find there Henry, an angel from Special cases who would be supervising them, but as there was no sing of him, the four of them were wandering around the zone that had come to be a crowded market.

"Do you like this?" Rafael asked as he showed Adam and Andrew a colorful T-shirt with an "I went on safari" legend and an enormous lion face across the chest.

"Well, not exactly angelic", Andrew said, "but I think it will suit your old jeans when we go back Home". Rafael laugh with his mates while they kept looking around to try to find Henry.

"This is strange", Ronald said checking his watch. "I'm perfectly sure that he should be here by now. If things are going the way they looked, we shouldn't be wasting time".

"Last minute change, I'm sorry". Henry had finally appeared behind them. He was sweeping, had taken out his jacket and bent his shirt sleeves over his elbows. "It's so hot around here". He took a tissue out of his pocket and cleaned his forehead. "I would say it's nice to see you, but under the circumstances..."

"Not exactly the best, huh?", Adam asked.

"In fact, the worst, I'd say. Things are going worse and every single day counts", Henry's voice was really concerned. Then he turned to face Andrew, who still had the necklace in his hands. "I really hope Monica can do her job fast enough. If this is not controlled, in a month the whole planet will be in danger. Everything depends on her".

"She will", Adam said. "She will not give up".

"Yeah, if there's an angel who can touch the hardest heart and change the closest mind, that's Monica", Rafael continued.

"May God help her. You'll see why...", Henry said looking at the four angels. "I trust her as well, but still I recommend you to pray for her. Let's go".

Andrew listened to the conversation in silence, slightly mad at the beginning for thinking Henry didn't trust Monica enough, and worried later because, by the sound of the special cases angel's voice, he had realized that the life of millions was in his beloved angel's hands... or voice. Adam looked at him silently, understanding what was in his friend mind, but not feeling able to force him to share his thoughts. "Shall we go, Andrew?", he asked, Ronald and Rafael some steps away with Henry.

"Yes", the blond angel answered. "Just let me pay for this".

Alice and Robert almost ran to meet Monica and Gloria when they saw them approaching. They had been there for more than an hour after arriving to the hospital with Mike lying unconscious and bleeding, and they were almost expecting the worst. Unfortunately, that was not too far from the truth.

"Senator Grimsley? This is Gloria", the Irish angel said to introduce her charge to the waiting parents. "Could you please join us? There's something we need to discuss".

"What's happening to Mike?", Alice voice was almost a whisper.

"Please, come with me", Monica offered her hand to her, and walked them to "her" dispensary. When they arrive, Gloria was the first to talk.

"I'm sorry for being so direct, but I need you to tell me: Have you been in Africa recently, The Congo, for example?"

"Yes", Robert answered, "we came back from The Congo a week and a half ago. But why?"

"Mr. Grimsley", Monica's voice was really serious and concern was also evident. "We are afraid Mike has got Ebola".

"No!!!", Alice shouted before she covered her mouth with her hands and began to cry openly.

"What? This is not possible", Robert was having a hard time to get all that Monica's words implied: Ebola was a mortal disease in most of the cases.

"Sometimes it's not easy to identify the symptoms", Gloria explained. "They seem like a simple flu, and when detected at that moment, the possibility of a full recovery is higher, but Mike was already bleeding, and..."

"And what?", Robert was almost furious.

Gloria looked at Monica for a confirmation to continue, and sighting she said: "The probabilities for him, now, are only 25. I'm sorry".

For some seconds, there was no other sound than Alice's sobs. Monica and Gloria felt really sorry but they knew they had to continue: every little precaution was necessary, not only for their own security but for the one of thousands of people in the city.

"He's already isolated", Monica finally broke the silence out. "We should recommend both of you to be isolated as well, but I will make an exception with you, Mr. Grimsley". Robert looked at her and saw a request in Monica's dark eyes, but he wasn't sure he would accept. Noticing he didn't answer anything, the little angel continued to explain. "You're a Senator and have influences in the government. We need to alert the authorities and convince them to send special help to The Congo..."

"No...", Robert shook his head.

"Otherwise, Mike will not be the only case in the US... There could be millions of sick people in days if we don't control this".

"You control it right here! I'm not going to ask for a permission to send doctors to die in there!", the Senator was almost shouting.

"But your son may not be the only one case. Don't you see it?", Monica had also risen her voice though it was still controlled.

Robert looked directly into her eyes, and she met the most empty gaze she could remember for a while. "My son is almost dead, you said that", he half murmured before rushing out of the dispensary with a big slam.

Any of the angels weren't prepared to see what they found at the crowded little hospital at Brazzaville: a thousand of sad dark eyes, empty of tears as well as of hope, bodies lying over the floor as beds weren't enough long ago, flies fluttering around bleeding noses and mouths that remained unconsciously opened... Three fans still fought a lost battle against hot in the improvised ward where some other angels of death were already giving comfort to the dying.

"Oh, God, be merciful!", Andrew whispered feeling the moisture of tears coming to his eyes, just as Adam, Rafael and Ronald stayed like petrified behind him.