Ok, this is for Sam, who asked for fluffy stuff as an early Birthday present! Happy birthday, Chickenwriter!

PART 2 Bring back my smile

Monica couldn't remember the last time when she had less wanted to go back to an assignment than this time with Jamal. Not only the previous day she had discovered her "co-workers" were two demons, but also she had had the worst fight ever with her beloved Andrew. On the top of all was the fact that she couldn't put her heart at ease yet as she missed the angel of death more than anything but she felt equally angry when she remembered him laughing and chatting with that... Deborah.

Weakly she walked from the elevator to her desk, mentally praying for her boss to arrive late. She left her purse in a drawer and took a seat. She then remembered the payment orders Jamal had asked her for and started to check for them on the papers scattered in front of her. Twenty minutes later she had gone through all the papers three times, each one finding she had missed new orders, until she finally left them over the desk and hide her face between her hands.

"You had a bad night, Mony?" Kathleen's shrill voice made her snap back to reality.

"Kathleen..." she murmured.

"What a face you have dear! Couldn't sleep all night? Oh, no, don't tell me! Andrew!" The demon shook her head. "Men! One way or another they manage to steal your sleeping!" she laughed.

The little angel was taking deep rapid breaths to try to calm herself but her patience was growing thinner. "What do you want, Kathleen?"

"Hey! Is that a way to say hi to an old friend?" the demon asked.

"Old friend?" Jamal asked coming closer to them. "You didn't tell me you knew each other!"

"Uh... oh... Yes!" Kathleen stuttered. "Monica and I worked together some time ago."

"Used to," the little angel mumbled.

"Where?" Jamal asked. Both Kathleen and Monica looked at each other like wanting the other to reply. Only then the man noticed the angel's upset face. "Monica, are you ok?"

The little angel lowered her face so he couldn't meet her eyes. "Yes, Jamal, I'll be ok."

"Poor Monica was telling me what you, men do us," Kathleen intervened and walked sexily towards her 'boss'. Wrapping her arms around one of his, she added, "and yet... we seem not to know how to live without you!"

"You, women are the ones that make us suffer!" Jamal replied following his assistant game. But when he looked at his new secretary again, something made him felt somehow as miserable as she looked. "You don't look fine, Monica. Why don't you take a break?"

"I haven't finished with the payment orders you asked me..."

"That can wait. Take a couple of hours. Go have a coffee or something. I don't want to see you here until 11," the man ordered before he got into his office.

Just as the same time there was another angel that wasn't doing any better. Andrew walked in a park until a bench and took a seat on it, desperately rubbing his face with his hands.

"Andrew..." Sam greeted his former charge appearing by his side.

"Sam..." the blond angel responded.

"I guess I don't have to ask how are you doing. Your face speaks volumes."

"What can I say, Sam?" the blond angel replied in a defeated tone.

"You can start by telling me what happened with Monica that has you this down," the dark skinned angel surprised the younger one.

"How... How did you know about...?"

"About you and Monica?" Sam smiled. "Son, whoever has seen you two together can easily guess that the only reason for such a face is that you had problems with that sweet Irish angel! What happened?"

"We had an argument, Sam. I wanted to help her with her assignment but she took it the wrong way and thought I didn't consider her capable enough to handle it by herself..."

"You do know this is a specially hard assignment, don't you, Andrew?"

"Yes, I do, Sam! Tess told me, and Monica mentioned Kathleen and Gregory are there too! I know this is difficult!" the blond angel answered almost angrily and stood up quickly. "I want to help her! There's nothing I want more!"

"Ease, Andrew, you don't have to convince me! I know you want to help her, but pushing her is not the best way," the supervisor said.

"You know her, Sam! She thinks she can do it all and sometimes she's too stubborn to accept help!"

"Did you hear yourself, Andrew?" Sam stopped the blond angel.

Andrew sighed heavily and took a seat again. "I'm sorry but she's stubborn sometimes."

"I know she is. That's why the Father put Tess as her supervisor an not anyone else. And that's why she's been chosen to help Jamal this time. I know you want to help her but this is not the way."

Andrew met Sam's gaze and the older angel could see in his green eyes how clueless he felt her. "I love her more than my life, Sam. All I want is her safe and happy and... and with me."

Sam placed a hand on Andrew's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "I told Tess you'd be her biggest weakness this time, but don't be her heaviest burden too, Andrew. That much she couldn't bear it..."

The blond angel of death saw him walking away, not sure of what he had told him. All he was sure of was that his heart felt so heavy that he didn't want but to fix things with his beloved Irish friend.

"Are you feeling any better, Monica?" Jamal asked the little angel that day in the afternoon. They had just finished to discuss the next meeting agenda.

Monica smiled weakly though she felt grateful with him. "Yes, Jamal, thank you. I was going to ask you if you wanted me to stay late to pay the hours you gave me in the morning..."

"No, no, it's not necessary," Jamal replied and it even surprised himself. With another secretary he would have made her stay. "The day was quite calm and you finished your job, you don't have to stay," he tried to cover.

"Thank you," Monica replied shyly and walked out.

Jamal saw her go and something deep in his heart started to reborn after long years of being buried and forgotten.

The coldness of the small waves reaching her bare feet couldn't take out of her reverie the little angel that walked along the beach of her temporary home. Where just a couple of days before she had observed the sunset in the arms of the angel she loved the most, now she was distractedly looking at how the waves erased the traces her feet had left on the sand. All in this assignment felt for her too hard to control and now she felt even weaker as she was mad at the one that always gave her strength.

She longed to have him with her but she didn't know how to talk to him when her heart felt so troubled that she couldn't concentrate on one single thing as her assignment. Finally she stopped her pacing and lifted her head in a prayer. "Father, please, let him know I love him," she murmured and closed her eyes feeling how a lonely tear crossed her cheek.

"And I love you, Monica," Andrew's soothing voice startled her just the same as his hand on her shoulder. "There are not enough words to make you see how much..."

Monica turned to meet his green loving eyes shinning with the last rays of the sun. Looking at him made her remember how badly she wanted him, but also made her anger rise again, anger at feeling betrayed because it seemed to her he was not trusting her. "Andrew..." the little angel whispered.

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry..." he murmured touching her forehead with his. "I don't know what I did wrong but it feels so bad to be away from you..."

"Why can't you trust me with a hard assignment, Andrew?" Her voice was still low but there was a clear note of resentment on it. "I've learned through the years..."

"I know, baby, I know," the blond angel offered. "It's not that I don't trust you..."

"You made me feel like a silly angel, Andrew! If you trusted me, you wouldn't make me feel that way!" Monica argued.

He placed his strong hands on her shoulders and ran them down her arms and up again. "Monica, I trust you to handle the hardest assignment, to reach the more closed heart and open it up to God but..."

"No 'buts' Andrew!" she started to feel angry again.

"I trust you as an angel, Monica!" he raised his voice a little to force her to listen. "It's me without you whom I can't trust! Can't you see it, baby? Me asking you to be careful, to let me help even if I'm not officially assigned to your case, it's my way to beg you to come back to me! I can't even fathom a day without you, Monica! You're every second of my very life! I'm nothing without you!"

Along with the green fire she could see in his eyes, she recognized that he was telling her nothing but the truth. Deep in her heart she had always known what he was telling her, and more than once she had felt that fierce love too, but now she was seeing it in his eyes. The deep unending love he felt for her. No doubts, no lies.

"You're my entire world too, Andrew. I told you so..." she replied unable to take her eyes away from his. "I always want to go back to you."

"And I pray the Father for you to do it every day, baby. And today I prayed more than ever."

"I'm back today..." Monica murmured after a long minute. She placed a hand on his cheek and stroked it gently.

"Thanks God," Andrew whispered and leaned down to brush her lips with his.

What started like a very light kiss, little by little became more demanding and passionate as both angels released their troubled hearts in that kiss. Long minutes passed until a sudden cold gust of wind made Monica shiver. Andrew felt that and wrapped his arms protectively around her naked arms. "Let's go back to the house, baby," he said kissing the top of her head and then wrapped his arm around her waist to guide her into the comfortable living room.