Elfbrat: runs in circles Many apologies to everyone for not working on this! So much has come up that kept distracting me.

Whistler: runs off list Wedding, getting lost after wedding, art lessons, plannine for art contest, planning a website, starting a LJ community, helping with the library's summer reading program, meeting animator Ben Towle, seeing a crazy neighbor nearly plow into our kitchen (drunk no doubt, but sitll crazy as hell), getting the Sims Hot Date, writing down ideas for a new ygo fic, getting commissioned by one of the librarians for custom x-men art-

Elfbrat: Okay, I think they've got it. Yeah, busy summer. So how was y'alls? The heat is just ridiculous, ain't it? Well drink lots of water and enjoy the next chapter!

Tears In Heaven

It was over two weeks since Tea had left Domino with her newfound friend Willow, the older cousin of Rebecca. The hot Florida sun was beating down on said trio as they were walking out into the backyard with Willow and Rebecca taking the lead, leaving Tea to wonder what they were planning. The house belonged to Rebecca and Willow's grandfather, Professor Hawkins, but since Willow always came to stay in the summer, he allowed Rebecca to stay with her while he worked. he knew his youngest granddaughter could take care of herself, but there were just times that she needed to have an adult figure to watch over her, and that was Willow. Tea staying was a plus as well, since the two seemed to know each other. On the other hand, Willow and Rebecca would have to do everything in their power to knock the depression out of Tea. They assumed it was because of the breakup with this 'Koga' she had told them about, but it was deeper than that. She missed Yami, Yugi, all of her friends back home. She put on a brave face on the outside, but the inside she was crumbling. At work Tea was very enthusiastic about her job; she made good tips as a waitress and the customers seemed to like her. Tea was even considering saving up and buying plane tickets to fly her friends down later this summer, she just hoped that Joey and Tristan had gotten over themselves by then. The last verbal conversation she recalled having with them was nothing but shouting at each other and she hated it. These thoughts were cut short however when Tea bumped into Willow from behind, not even realizing the two had stopped.

"What's the deal? Why'd you two stop?"

Neither said. Instead they moved aside and went, "TAH-DAH!"

"We have a pool?" Tea asked. Indeed it was a pool, and a failry large one at that. Along the left and right sides lay two sets of lawn chairs, each with a table between them. To Tea's right was a grill and a picnic table not too far from it. On her left was a set of doors leading to another room of the house. "When did we get a pool?"

Willow placed a hand on Tea's shoulder. "Hun, we've had a pool since Grandpa bought this place."

"How come I haven't seen it until now?"

"You must have never noticed 'cause you were so bummed out when you got here." Rebecca offered.

"Oh..has it been that obvious?"

Willow nodded. Tea looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry you guys. I didn't realize..." but she stopped short when Willow smacked her in the back.

"Hey don't apologize! You don't have anything to be sorry for. I know from experience that breakups can hurt, and when friends fight too. My old friends and I used to have different opinions on things and just because we yelled at each other one day, didn't mean we still weren't friends. From what I've heard about your friends, this 'Joey' and 'Tristan' sound pretty hard headed. They'll get over the spat you had in time, if they haven't by now."

"Willow's right, Tea. For now, let's just enjoy the summer. And what better way then by the pool?" Rebecca said, grabbing Tea by the wrist and leading her to the set of doors.

Tea was confused now. "Hang on, now where are we going? I thought we were going to go swimming?"

"Do you really want to go swimming in your clothes?" Willow asked. "Those bathing suits we bought are back here in this room. There's a bathroom back here too, so we pretty much fixed this room to hold all the inflatable pool rafts and beach balls and stuff. There's some changing stalls Willow's friends helped her put up a few years ago, so we can change in there."

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! COLD! COLD! COLD!" Tea had been the first to come out of the changing rooms, so she grabbed a few pool toys and set them out. She grabbed one of the rafts and dove in the deep end. Tea had lost her grip on the floatie when she hit the water, and she swam over to where it was and tried getting on. With a push she heaved her butt onto the raft but before she could adjust herself Tea went off the other side and back into the water. Growling in frustration, Tea tried leaping onto the raft-it worked, but she had to shimmy to get the rest of herself on. Smiling in satisfaction she leaned her back against the backrest and closed her eyes and tried to relax...only to hear laughing from the other end of the pool. Opening her eyes she noticed it was Rebecca that was bent over laughing at her!

"Here I thought that Willow had the most trouble getting on those things!" Rebecca howled, "Apparently I was wrong!"

Tea couldn't help but smile. After all, seeing it from the specators' view it was an amusing sight to behold. "Well I've gotten a lot better over the years," she shouted back to the teen-genuis, "When I was little I had to jump off the edge of the pool and throw my arms out praying I landed on it, and that was with my parent's help!"

Rebecca starting laughing harder trying to imagine that. What she didn't see was Willow coming up behind her, grabbing her, and tossing her into the pool, followed by a beach ball aimed at Tea. "Did I hear someone call my name?" She asked with a grin.

The still grinning Willow casually stepped into the pool, and it was about waist deep that she let out a loud squeal. "Holy shit! COLD! COLD! VERY COLD!"

While Tea was trying to hide a grin that wouldn't go away at the sight of Willow's face, Rebecca had long come up for air and was still laughing. "To think out of the two oldest females here, why am I the only one that remembers that the water is only cold until your body temperature gets used to the shock of it?"

"Cause we're not super geniuses like you, I guess." Tea said, tossing the beach ball at Rebecca from behind. It made contact, and this time Tea couldn't hide the large grin that plastered her face. She looked over at Willow to see her retreating to get the towels she forgot, but she looked back to see Rebecca had disappeared. "Rebecca? Where'd you go?"

Tea wasn't expecting to hear her voice coming from under her, and it took her a second to realize what Rebecca was planning. "Don't you d-" SPLASH! Rebecca had overturned Tea and the floatie and grinning like a chesire cat.

"That's right! I am a genius and don't you forget it!" Rebecca grinned, pleased with her efforts. Tea had come up for air only to splash Rebecca in the face with a good bit of water at the words 'don't you forget it' so it came out sort of gargled as Rebecca got a mouthful of water.

Willow came back out of the changing room to find neither her cousin nor Tea, but instead a tirade of water going in a million different directions and an overturned raft. It didn't take a second for her to piece together what had happened while they were unsupervised. She walked over to the set of chairs on her left and placed the towels under the table and with a flick of her wrist she unfurled the umbrella that was set into the middle of the table. After that she tiptoed over to the diving board so as not to bring attention to herself until she wanted it. When she had one foot on the diving board she whistled to get their attention. A few seconds later the sounds of splashing had ceased and both Tea and Rebecca were looking around, trying to find out where the sound had come from. Neither of them had noticed Willow come out out the changing room, and clearly neither of them were expecting to see Willow run across the diving board and jump in, screaming "CANON BAAALLLLLLL!" SPLASH!

Rebecca and Tea came up hacking like cats with a hairball to find Willow with her back to them trying to push the wet hair out of her eyes. Rebecca was busy complaining about water up her nose and had swam over to the ladder to hoist herself up so sit on the edge of the pool. Tea swam over to Willow to compliment her on the huge canon ball she did, but what what on her back caught Tea by surprise.

"Oh Willow, what a pretty tattoo," Tea complimented, swimming towards her. "When did you get that?"

Willow turned to see Tea motioning towards her tattoo. She turned to give Tea a better look. "Angel wings..What made you decide to get angel wings, Willow?" The tattoo began inbetween her shoulderblades, and the wings feathers srpead out and along her back, just barely reaching her shoulders.

"I got this done a few years ago. It has special meaning to me," Willow began, "You see, about four years ago me and my friends had graduated from high school. And we were close, really close, almost like family. It was the day we graduated, and it was getting towards the evening and we were going out to go out and eat and then either go to the movies and see if anything good was playing, or we'd just go rent some movies and buy some junk food and spend the night at my house. Well, we never did...make it to the restaraunt."

Tea could see the tears forming in Willow's eyes, and she knew something bad had happened. She made a gesture to see if the girl would be okay, but Willow shrugged it off saying, "It's alright, I still get upset over it, there's nothing to worry about." After taking a deep breath, she continued. "Anyways, we were stopped at a 4-way intersection, waiting to turn left. Well as you can imagine there was a good bit of traffic out. I was driving. My friends and I were just sitting there talking and laughing like nothing horrible was about to happen. When we got the green I was turning into the middle of the intersection when he came out of nowhere," Willow paused, her tears were gone and what replaced them was a look of utmost hatred that gave Tea chills.

She was almost afraid to ask. "Who? What happened to you Willow?"

"The drunk driver," even as she said the words her voice was seeping venom at the mere thought of this person. "He came out of nowhere. I didn't see him coming flying down the road until the last second, and there was nothing I could do to stop him. His huge truck slammed into the passenger side of the car. My head smashed against the steering wheel first and then the driver's side window and I blacked out.

"I woke up in a hospital bed two days later. Concussion, numerous bruises and cuts from all of the glass, my right wrist was broken, I had a cracked rib...but that was nothing compared to what the doctors told me."

Tea looked over at Rebecca to see the same pained look on her cousin's face. She had a feeling this story was going from bad to worse. Willow continued, but her voice was breaking; she was on the verge of tears again. "The doctors...they told me that it was a miracle to be alive. They were told by a few of the police officers that brought me to the hospital that when the truck had collided into the side of the car we were in, the force had flipped it...twice," She heard Tea gasp, "They had to cut the car all to pieces just to get us out, so there was no saving the car. It was mangled."

"Willow, your friends...are they...?" She couldn't bear to finish.

"They're dead. The collision killed them instantly. I was the only one that survived. I was forced to stay in the hospital for a few days after that, and the whole time I couldn't help but think that it was my fault. There had to have been something I could have done to save them, but it happened so fast. At the funeral, thier parents told me it wasn't my fault, but the drunk drivers'. I still felt guilty though."

"Did they ever find him? The drunk driver?"

Willow shook her head. "No. Somehow he fled the scene before the police could make it. There were a lot of people around, but none of them could give a clear description since it was so dark. To this day that bastard is still roaming the streets. My friends are dead because of him, and the only clue I have to finding him is a dogtag."

"A dogtag? Wouldn't that be considered evidence?"

"The police gave it to me since there was nothing they could gather from it. They told me that if i could gather any clues or find anyone that might no something about the nickname engraved on it, to let them know. So the only thing between putting this bastard in jail and my friends' parents finding closure is the nickname 'Wolf Demon'." Willow sighed. "About a month after that I decided that if I ever got a tattoo, I knew what it'd be."

"Angel wings." Tea said, finally understanding.

"That's right. I don't know where my friends are now but I know they're safe. These wings tattooed are a reminder for what happened, and it's something I'll never forget. I don't know when my time is up but in a way, with these wings inked into my skin, I don't feel like we've ever been seperated. Maybe one day they'll be able to guide me to finding their killer and finally putting us all at ease." Willow finished with a teary smile.

Tea waded through the water over to Willow to hug her. "I'm so sorry. If I would have known.."

"It's ok," Willow said, hugging her back. "It's getting a little easier to talk about, but it will never be a story I can tell without crying." Letting go of Tea, she wiped her eyes. "Hey now, no more tears, okay? We'll get through this...and gettting a tan on the side is always a plus."

Tea nodded in agreement. She turned to Rebecca. "Hey Rebecca, are you going to-" But she was cut short as a huge splash of water doused her and Willow. "Why you little..."

"That's payback!" Rebecca yelled, grinning in satisfaction at the now drenched Tea and Willow. "Uh oh..Willow, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to.." she tried pleading with an innocent look. Willow threw her arms behind her only to throw them forward, slinging large amounts of water before screaming...

"WATER FIIIIIIIGGGGHHHHHHHTTTTTTT!"

Later that evening, the trio had retreated the pool with hunger on their minds. Willow was bustling around in the kitchen, Rebecca was sitting at the table typing away at her laptop, and Tea had just emerged from upstairs after taking a shower. She tossed the semi damp towel she used to dry her hair with over the back of the chair she sat down at beside Rebecca.

"Willow, what's that that smells so good?" Tea asked, the aroma from the oven drifting to her nose had made her curious.

She picked up a box that laid on the counter near the oven. "It's a frozen pizza I found in the freezer. Man, we really need to make out a grocery list either tonight or tomorrow over breakfast. If we don't soon we'll be eating this ramen in the cabinets," Willow fininshed with a shudder.

Rebecca looked over at Willow then back at Tea. "Willow's not too crazy about ramen. She nearly ate it for a week she was so broke."

"Yes, and sometimes even now it makes me want to gag, so I try to avoid it if at all possible." The tall blond replied with a look of disgust.

"Hey Willow," Tea began, "If you don't mind me asking, who was it that did your tattoo? They did an amazing job on it."

She thought for a moment as she stuffed the pizza box into the trash can. "Ah..I think it was 'Bast. Sebastian is his full name, but everyone that knows him just calls him 'Bast for short. He's a great guy and an amazing tattoo artist. He's so good he doesn't have to use a picture to trace onto the skin when he works; you show him what you want and he can copy it freehand." Grabbing the oven mitts she slipped them on and pulled out the pizza. "Are you thinking of getting a tattoo, Tea?" Willow asked excitedly.

Tea got a little nervous. "Uh, well I'm not sure. I've never told myself I didn't want a tattoo, but if I did decide to get one I wouldn't know what to get. I want it to have a special meaning to me, and not just some spur of the moment thing that I might regret."

Willow was busy cutting the pizza while Tea talked and listened intently. "I know what you're saying, and that's understandable. Maybe you could design one yourself? Or if you can't think of something on paper that looks right, I can take you down to see Bast, and you can tell him what you have in mind. He'll charge most people for both the design and putting it on but since you're a friend of mine I doubt he'd charge you. His shop is very clean, and he sterilizes everything so you don't have to worry about that. If you want, this weekend I can take you down there to meet him, and you can get to know him before you decide anything. But you don't have to make a definite decision anytime soon, I'm not forcing you. There's plenty of time to think about it." She finished, bringing the now sliced pizza to set into the middle of the table.

"Yeah, that sounds really cool Willow, thanks." Tea said, grabbing a slice of pizza.

"So you want to go meet him?"

"Sure..why not? After all I've got plenty of time to make a decision." She reasoned.

"Awesome! I'll go call him and let him know after supper." Willow said before taking a big bite out of her piece.

Tea said nothing more but she continued to eat in silence, watching Rebecca and Willow go on about a new website Rebecca had found. She felt bad for Willow; she couldn't begin to imagine what it must feel like to lose all of her friends like that. She now understood why back in Domino the girl had been so upset at the thought of nearly running over her. Taking another bite she decided then and there that she wasn't going to take her friendship for granted. She would save up her money and buy plane tickets to send over to Domino to fly her friends down this summer. Tea didn't know what would happen when fall rolled around; if anything they would be saying goodbye as they head off to different colleges, and it wouldn't be very often that they'd get to see each other. It hurt her to think they might be growing apart, but she didn't want an argument to be the last things they remember before they part ways.

Elfbrat: So that's it for that chapter. It's funny, I almost had this chapter finished before the computer crashed, and I didn't back it up. But now I'm kinda glad I didn't, I liked the way this version turned out better. I've also noticed a lot of mistakes in the previous chapters, and believe me, when I get this story done, I will go back and fix them.

Whistler: It'll drive her crazy if she doesn't. Cookies to all who review:)