They were on the street in front of the bowling alley, a cab waiting. John looked around slowly, casting about to make sure nothing was watching. Elizabeth was opening the door of the cab to get in.
"Hold up." John took her hand. She looked up at him questioningly. "Here." He slipped a chain over her head, the same amulet Father Hennessy had worn not so long ago to hold the voices at bay. "Don't take it off."
"Another security system?" she looked down at it, where it rested over her heart.
"Insurance." He caught her cheek in his palm and leaned in, kissing her. She responded warmly. He broke it off slowly, feeling her catch her breath again. "Might as well start acting like we are." He watched her. She didn't blush this time.
"I'll be quick." Her tongue slid quickly over her lips, licking the taste of him off.
"Find one, nothing fancy, and go directly to this address." He gave her the street numbers mentally. She nodded. "I'll be waiting downstairs. You know how to get inside."
Elizabeth looked up at him. "I'll be there soon." She slid in the cab and Constantine shut the door after her. He made sure the cab was around the corner before he hailed his own and got in.
"The El Carmen, and step on it."
There was still traffic; that part of Los Angeles would probably never go away and most likely worsen. At least it wasn't the traffic in Hell Los Angeles, which never moved and was mostly made of fiery auto wreckage. The driver made the best time he could.
John dug into his inner pocket for a Chicklet but instead pulled out the small envelope. He felt it, outlined the shape of the object inside. He'd really never known why he'd hung onto it; marriage had never crossed his mind and wasn't something he felt suited for. Still didn't feel that way. This was a marriage of convenience really. Much like marrying someone so they could stay in the country after a Green Card expired. Wasn't it?
He undid the flap and tipped the envelope, spilling the ring out into his palm. It was a plain gold band, not very wide. Nothing about it to catch your eye. The significance was it was holy. Consecrated and blessed by the Pope. Constantine really couldn't remember how he'd come into possession of it but had left it stashed in a drawer all these years.
And now it had a purpose. It would buy Elizabeth protection as well. He looked out the window, a billboard of a couple towering in front of the cab. It seemed to be an advertisement for a jewelry store. The guy was sliding one hell of a rock onto the woman's finger. The copy text seemed to be something like "Show her how much you love her all over again." The cab drove past before John could get a better look.
He began to doubt the plan. Would a marriage in name work? Sure, you could have a marriage license, be perfectly legal on paper, but was it a real marriage? Didn't marriage require you love the other person, and they love you, with all your mind, heart and soul?
John started thinking back over his love life, as pitiful as it was in places. There had been plenty of times he'd been in lust, and satisfied that lust with someone. There'd been a few demon half-breeds, which he knew would be more then happy to keep him spiraling towards the downside. He'd thought maybe he felt something different for Angela, a deeper connection as they'd stopped the Earth from becoming Mammon's playground. But the guilt of transforming her, helping her see what he saw, that was still there. That was a bond between them that would never break now. It had been her choice but he'd helped her carry it through.
There had been an attraction and not just on his part. She'd made attempts, inviting him to lunch or just calling and trying to talk. Afterwards he had sunk into a self-despair. He'd lost all his last close friends. Why would he want to make more, let alone a lover and then lose her? Just because of who he was, what he did, what he faced daily.
Honestly, he was a man who had never really loved another person properly. Sure, he'd cared about all the friends he'd ever had, the ones who counted, but he'd never really understood how much they'd meant to him until they were corpses. Even then it wasn't the same type of love.
And here he was, about to marry a girl he barely knew, just to save her from a fate she didn't deserve.
I'm such a swell guy. He thought. Am I doing this for her, or because Heaven charged me with this mission? But there was no longer time to think. The cab stopped outside the El Carmen just then.
