:Chapter 22:

"Jesse, where were you just now?" CeeCee snapped at me, as I rematerialized into the backseat, the ring box in my pocket.

"Umm…right here, why?" I asked, trying to sound as completely cool and calm as possible in a situation like this.

"I asked you to feel Suze's stomach and see if it was swollen or highly sensitive" she said, sending me a menacing glare in the rearview mirror.

"Oh, okay" I mumbled, gently lifting up Susannah's halter-top. Her stomach looked exactly the same as the last time I had seen it, so I gently touched the tips of two of my fingers on her tummy. "Ow!" she flinched, grabbing hold of my hand again.

"It's really sensitive" I reported back to CeeCee as she turned onto her street.

"Crap… umm… okay, Jesse you take her upstairs to my bathroom and I'm right behind you" CeeCee hurried out before dashing out of the car and opening the front door.

"Querida, I have to rush you upstairs, but just remember to squeeze my hand if you feel any pain" I reminded Susannah as I lifted her into my arms, and then dashed into CeeCee's house, and up the stairs. Susannah desperately gave my hand a tight squeeze and I slowed down a little, so she wouldn't feel as much of the movement.

I'd only ever been inside CeeCee's house two or three times in the almost fifteen years we've known each other, but luckily I'd been upstairs before, and knew where CeeCee's bathroom was located. When I opened the door I thought about the best place to set Susannah down, but she whispered "Jesse, get the ring on me, it's happening."

"What's happening?" I asked in a squeaky voice.

"I can feel it inside of me, it's gonna stick Jesse. This kid's a fighter" she wheezed with a small laugh, but stopped when it hurt.

Gently I set Susannah down on the edge of the bathtub and retrieved the ring box from my pocket. Wanting to seem a least a little orthodox, I got on one knee in front of Susannah and asked, my voice shaking "Querida…Susannah, will you marry me?"

The pain stricken look in Susannah's eyed flickered away for a moment and she happily cheered "Yes!" Without thinking I kissed Susannah and reached for her left hand.

"Where the hell am I?" Paul asked, materializing in at just the right moment. Susannah and I ignored him, and I carefully slid my grandmother's engagement ring onto Susannah's delicate finger. We broke apart to catch our breath, but Susannah's breathing was erratic and she grabbed hold of my hand. Her left hand, now adorned with the engagement ring clutched her stomach tightly, but something wasn't right. And not like any kind of not right, but mediator not right. Susannah's tummy was glowing. A dull light at first, but then it got brighter and brighter. It got so bright that it felt like she was emanating some kind of energy. (AN: I kind of took this from an episode of Smallville; just the glowing stomach thing, but I saw the episode the other day and thought it was perfect for this).

"Suze, what the fuck are you- Awh, crap" Paul snapped as the energy circled him. I had to squint my eyes to see, but I could make out the shape of a cloud of the energy Susannah was releasing. It was literally devouring every inch of Paul, one at a time.

"Suze, quit it. You and me can finally be together! Don't you see, he's just trying to keep us apart! Suze, please! I lo-" Paul shouted over the whirring of the glowing cloud around him. But then he was gone.

"Querida, we did it! Paul's gone for good" I cheered before turning to look at Susannah. But when I saw her, my mouth went dry and my chest began aching. Susannah was lying back in the bathtub, one hand over her stomach, the stones on the ring glimmering in the light and her other hand lying limp at her side. She had a panic-stricken look on her face, and a single tear drifted down her cheek.

"Querida?" I whispered, my voice sounding hoarse.

She didn't answer, but a different kind of glow came out of her. I knew this kind of glow. It was a ghostly glow, and it made my heart stop at that moment. I had to look away, because if I saw Susannah's ghost right now, I feared I'd start crying.

"Jesse" Susannah cooed.

I turned my head back towards mi querida, but I fell back when I saw her glowing form. "Querida, please come back, please don't leave me here. I need you" I begged.

"Jesse" she repeated, "I'm not dead."

"Oh, querida, thank God. Are you all right though? Why aren't you in your body?" I sighed.

"I have a feeling that the two people who can explain all this will be along shortly" she replied, sliding over to sit next to me.

"Susannah…" I mumbled.

"I know, I don't like this either, but we'll fix things. I promise," she said, practically reading my mind.

I smiled at Susannah and asked something that had been nagging me since we were in the car; "Querida, how did you know it was our baby that's the angelic being with an emerald gaze?"

"Okay, this makes sense to me, but I don't know if you'll get it. So, to me, an angelic being would be pure, or without sin. After we made love, I knew I couldn't be the angelic being, and I had been thinking about where an angelic being with an emerald gaze might come from. Well, as soon as I stood up from the bench outside the hospital, I felt a presence, if you will, in my body, and that's when I first thought it might be a baby; our baby. Plus I remembered that you said you saw a beautiful baby with green eyes like mine. So it has my green eyes, plus it's got that whole angelic being thing going on because the baby hasn't been born yet, and therefore doesn't have original sin tainting it" she explained.

I kind of chuckled to myself, and then scooped up Susannah and set her in my lap.

"What's funny?" she asked.

"Well, it's like you just knew that it was our baby, almost like a mother's intuition" I said, tickling her neck with kisses.

"Alright break it up you two" Mrs. de Silva teased, materializing onto the counter. A second later another glimmer started materializing. "Oh, yeah Jesse tagged along this time" Mrs. de Silva added as an older version of me appeared standing next to Mrs. de Silva. At first he eyed me wearily and then huffed "You should be ashamed of yourself, taking away her innocence before being married."

"Jesse, we talked about this," Mrs. de Silva scolded, and then chimed "Now, let's get down to business."

"What exactly do we need to do?" Susannah questioned.

"First we have to get you back in your body. We can't do anything until you're back in there" Mr. de Silva answered, offering mi querida his hand to help her up, off my lap. She got up and then followed Mr. de Silva as he led her back to her body. "Now, hold my hand-"

"Wait! Jesse if she's holding your hand, then something odd could happen. Remember what happened with Angelica, the girl ghosty Father D. just got rid of?" interrupted his wife.

"Of course, once you've heard Father Dominic talking like a little girl, it will never escape your memory" he smiled, stepping back to Mrs. de Silva.

"Alright Suze, hold my hand and we'll both touch your body at the same time, after that you'll feel like your being sucked in to your body, and then you should come right to" Mrs. de Silva informed Susannah, taking her hand and leading her to the bathtub.

"But, why did she leave her body in the first place?" I asked Mr. de Silva as Susannah and Mrs. de Silva got to work on getting mi querida back into her body.

"Her soul probably felt that it couldn't handle the trauma her body was going through. It's like an out of body experience, only she'll remember exactly what happened" he stated, folding his arms over his chest.

"So, did you really wait until you guys were married to have sex?" I asked.

Mr. de Silva sent me a stern look, and then replied, "Of course, I respect Susannah to much to dishonor her."

Mrs. de Silva shot her husband a sharp glare and coughed "liar" before returning her attention to Susannah.

"Querida, what are you talking about? We waited until-"

"Until you slid my engagement ring on my finger. After that we didn't leave your apartment for about a week" Mrs. de Silva interrupted, smiling slyly.

Mr. de Silva blushed, but then huffed what sounded like "tattle tale".

Suddenly I heard Susannah gasping, and she sat up in the bathtub, trying to catch her breath. "Don't worry, that always happens afterward" Mrs. de Silva stated, helping Susannah up.

"Querida, are you okay?" I asked, rushing to her side and grasping her hand.

"Yeah," she said panting, "I just feel…" she trailed off, clutching her stomach.

"Empty?" Mrs. de Silva offered.

"Yeah" Susannah said with a nod.

"Don't worry, you'll feel better after a few more hours. Plus, it's time to decide some things" Mrs. de Silva said, stepping back to stand next to her husband.

"Is this where we have to make that 'life altering decision'?" I asked, sitting on the side of the bathtub.

"Yeah, now you get to decide which universe you want to continue living in" Mrs. de Silva said, a weak smile on her face.

"Wait we have to decide what?" Susannah shouted.

Mr. de Silva answered very politely, "Your options are to stay here in this universe, but start your relationship over. Meaning time would be rewound to the day you two met, and you'd get a fresh start here. But if you choose to go to our original universe, you'll go back to the day when Paul created this universe, only Paul won't exist anymore, so it will be just an ordinary day."

"In other words, your choices are start again here, or morph into us, and live in our inverse" Mrs. de Silva summarized.

"Jesse, what do you think?" Susannah asked, looking up into my eyes expectantly.

"Honestly Querida, I have no idea. I mean it wold be great to start over again, but if we become them, we'll already have our lives set up" I answered.

"We kind of figured you guys might have trouble deciding so Father Dom. figured out a way to give you two a preview of what life would be like in both universes. Both of you will go into each universe, and you'll get two days to live there, after that we'll switch you into the other universe, give you another two days there, and then we'll meet again so you can decide" Mrs. de Silva said.

"And what are you two going to be doing during all of this?" Susannah asked.

"Well, we are going to be in the other universe. First you'll go to our universe and then come back here, only with no Paul. So…" Mrs. de Silva trailed off, looking like she was deep in thought.

"Things will start from the day when Susannah comes to Carmel, to stay permanently, the day she would have met Paul" Mr. de Silva concluded for his wife.

"And what day is it going to be when we arrive in your universe?" I asked.

"The day Paul made this universe. It was Friday night when we found out, I believe" Mr. de Silva stated.

"So wait, you guys are going to be living here as us while we're living in your universe, as you?" Susannah questioned with a puzzled look on her face.

"Pretty much, only you two will think you're really us. So you won't have any memory of any of this. You'll only remember what Jesse and I remembered before Paul made this universe. Oh, and you'll think Paul died, of something normal like a heart attack, not your combined powers" Mrs. de Silva explained.

"Any other questions?" Mr. de Silva asked.

"When do we go?" I asked.

"Right now" Mrs. de Silva replied with a kind smile and a good-bye wave.