Hey everyone! I hope you all are well and enjoying the summer. I just wanted to say again that this chapter was pretty hard to write and it took several edits and rewrites to get to the point that I'm comfortable posting. This is true with pretty much every chapter and it's those of you that always review and leave nice comments that make me feel SO MUCH better about it all. I know, I'm my own worst critic and I should lighten up a bit, eh? :) But seriously, just wanted to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone for sticking with this story over the years. It means the world to me that you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing!

-Ang

It was very nearly more than Tess could bear, frozen in place, observing the steady but ragged rise and fall of Monica's chest. She didn't know how long it had been, or how much time remained, and she found herself fighting an immense internal battle. With an intensity that rocked her entire being, she fought against the desire to call for help to try and save Monica's waning life. As much as being witness to her little angel girl's anguish and efforts to defeat said anguish pained Tess, intervening was not something that she was permitted to do. No matter that Monica had once been an angel … she was human by choice and choosing to end her own life now - involving herself anymore would be defying the laws of human free will. Everything she knew and understood about free will was the last thing she wanted on her mind in this moment, but Tess could not ignore the reality of the situation. Though her heart was breaking and screaming out with a desire to do something, anything ... Tess knew inside that she could do nothing but be present and wait as the consequence of Monica's choice unfolded. As an angel, she had never felt more powerless than in this moment in the entire span of her existence.

"Please, Father ..." Tess whispered to the heavy darkness, "I know that Your plan for her – for them – is perfect and well thought out and nothing that I should ever question … but Lord give me strength and the wisdom to trust that right now because I don't know about this one."

Andrew was hardly breathing as he and Adam touched foot to ground only moments later, and it took another few moments for him to get his bearings and process just exactly where they were. He looked around with confusion in his eyes, momentarily plagued with doubt that he was really being taken to Monica's side, for they stood only blocks away from the doors which led to the apartment that Andrew had occupied in Denver for his prolonged stay on Earth.

"Adam ..." Andrew questioned his friend, "I thought you said we had no time to waste? What are we doing here?" Adam just looked at Andrew blankly for a few seconds, not entirely sure what his friend meant.

"We're … meeting Tess at Monica's apartment, Andrew. That's her building right there," he said, pointing over Andrew's left shoulder at a run-down brownstone just feet from their location.

"I don't understand," Andrew began slowly, his confusion ever growing, "how long has she been here?"

"I don't know exactly … as many months as I've been visiting, it's been this same building. Why do you ask, don't you want to go in?" Adam questioned him, confused himself at the even darker shadow that seemed to cross over Andrew's features.

"I … of course, yeah ..." Andrew stammered, overcome once again with an emotion that he couldn't place. Had she really been right here, right under his nose, the whole time? Might he have passed her on the street or seen her in a shop if he had been paying attention? But he hadn't, had he? He'd been so pre-occupied with the notion that getting out of Denver and from under the ever-watchful eye of Tess was key that he hadn't even considered the possibility. And as he pondered that thought, he wondered painfully if that had not been the idea all along.

Adam studied Andrew carefully before motioning for him to follow. "Hey," he said softly, "are you ready?"

Andrew nodded immediately and followed Adam forward, inside the building and into a dimly lit hallway. As the pair of angels ascended the stairs to the landing of the second level, Andrew was struck by the condition of the place ...trash everywhere, peeling paint, stains on the carpet and walls. More disturbing even were the pungent odors of sewage and marijuana hanging heavily in the damp air. His heart began to thud against his chest with each step and he could only wonder how many more painful things the both of them would have to endure before this was all said and done. As he and Adam approached a door at the end of the dark hallway, Andrew could feel an anxiety such that he'd never felt coursing through his veins, as if his entire existence had led him up to this very moment.

"I'm not being called in quite yet, so you go ahead," Adam said gently, trying to convey through his eyes all the sympathy that he could muster. Adam knew that from this moment on, things wouldn't be easy for any of them.

Andrew nodded wearily and turned away from Adam to face the door. He grasped the doorknob and it turned easily in his hand. With a deep breath, he pushed the door and it swung open to reveal a small, one-room studio. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and he vaguely registered that Tess was sitting in a corner chair. His attention, however, was immediately and intensely drawn to the other corner, where he could just barely make out her still form on the bed. For an immeasurable period of time, all he could do was stand there, his heart hardly beating, his lungs hardly drawing in air.

"Is … she … ?" He whispered hoarsely, finally acknowledging Tess's presence. Tess shook her head sadly,

"She's alive, Baby. But only just ..."

Andrew nodded mutely and stepped forward cautiously, having to restrain himself from racing to her side and force himself forward all at the same time. As he drew nearer, it was easier to make out her shape, to see how she was haphazardly draped across the quilt, one arm flung awkwardly over the side of the bed. He lowered himself carefully to sit beside her, fighting to keep his emotions in check, though he wondered why he even bothered at this point. It was in that moment that he looked up and found that Tess was no longer in the room and they were alone. Not wanting to waste any of the precious time given to him, Andrew gently slid his arms around her and shifted her slightly so that he could hold her against his chest.

"Well … this is not the reunion I had hoped for, Princess," He whispered softly, running his fingers tenderly through her once vibrantly auburn hair. This close to her, he could clearly see the damage done to her physical form. Beyond the more apparent differences to her hair and weight, Andrew noticed smaller changes to her appearance too. Seeing her relatively unchanged for the better part of two hundred years made the slight aging of one year as a human painfully obvious to him. He wasn't sure why this one small detail resonated so deeply with him, but he felt as though he could see every stress and strain that the last year had had on her etched into the fine lines around her eyes.

With nothing to do but look, he began to notice everything else about her condition that had failed to first grab his attention. With every new aspect revealed, Andrew felt as though someone was ripping his heart to shreds, piece by piece. The scars that formed a perfect line up the inside of both forearms, the ragged and bruised veins from the needles, the slight grey tinge of her pale skin, her jutting bones … learning of all that she had done to try and manage her misery was absolutely heart wrenching. He never would have believed this to be true of her if he'd not witnessed it with his own eyes.

"Why, baby ..." He asked aloud, his voice cracking with the emotions that he'd been holding back. As the tears started to run, he began to talk to her, not because she could hear him, or because he had anything particularly profound to say in these final moments, but because he could no longer stand the deafening silence. He talked about the day they'd first met, reminisced over their first joint assignment, the first time that an assignment ended less than happily, when they had witnessed the Father reuniting Jake and May Ling, when they first met Audrey and Petey, when Jordan had killed himself and he had felt like a failure and it was Monica who'd set him straight and convinced him to face Molly … on and on he spoke, of memories both good and bad, of happy times that had brought them closer and not so pleasant times that had made them stronger. It was quite some time before he started to feel the subtle changes that signaled that the end was nearer. Her breaths were more ragged and labored, and he could feel her heart thudding weakly against his own chest, the beats becoming fewer and farther between.

"Andrew."

It was Tess's voice that snapped him out of his trip down memory lane. He hadn't even felt her presence in the room and had no idea how long she'd been standing there again. He instinctively tightened his grip around Monica before lifting his gaze to look at Tess, and it was the look in her eyes that told him his time with her was running short. As impossible as it had been to lose her the first time, losing her again was unimaginable.

"Tess," he began feebly, "We … we have to do something, we can't just let her die ..."

Tess was having a world of trouble keeping herself together too, and the pain in Andrew's eyes made it that much harder to remain composed, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to remain strong. Shaking her head sadly, she replied,

"No, baby … there's nothing we can do. We can't intervene in the free will of a human, you know that."

But Andrew shook his head, his overwhelming sadness coming out in anger.

"She's not a human, Tess! She's … she's an ..." He tried to argue stubbornly, but he couldn't finish. He knew the truth, and the truth was that as she had chosen this. He didn't want to listen, but he knew that Tess was right.

"Andrew, listen to me," Tess said grievously, having just gotten Word that the end of Monica's life was drawing near, "Even if we called for help right now … it's too late to save her." It had been too late the moment that the needle from the syringe had pierced her skin. The damage done to her already fragile body was too great to be reversed now, even by the most skilled of doctors.

"It took every bit of strength I had to sit by and watch her do that to herself and then to sit by now and do nothing while I know she's dying … if I could do something, Andrew, don't you know I would have already?" Of course he knew. Andrew had never seen Tess like this before and it was the distress in her voice that made him lose all resolve all over again. Fresh tears began to fall from his already swollen eyes as he looked up and saw Adam standing in the corner, the gravest of looks upon his face.

As the full reality of the moment set in, Andrew found that he could do nothing but cry. Every ounce of sorrow that he had tried to keep inside over the last year came rushing to the surface and poured out. Not even caring that Tess and Adam were witnessing his breakdown, Andrew wept like a baby, his abundance of tears running into Monica's hair like tiny rivers. It was all he could do to remember to breathe.

Tess watched Andrew's outpouring of emotion in a sort of trance, feeling like an intruder to a very private moment but unable to look away at the same time. It was the most heartbreaking scene she had ever witnessed. She felt like she might now understand how it was as a parent to lose a child as she watched Monica's life slip away. Harder still was watching Andrew lose both his best friend and his spirit all over again.

"Tess," Adam said sadly, glancing at a silver watch upon his wrist as he began to glow, filling the darkness of the room with a soft amber light, "It's time ..."

Tears burned in Tess's eyes as she nodded and forced herself to step forward towards Andrew and Monica. Though it was only a few feet that separated her from the pair, it felt as though she was walking for an eternity to reach them. Reaching out a shaky hand, she touched Andrew's shoulder gently and said at barely above a whisper,

"Angel boy, we have to go now ..."

But Andrew didn't move, couldn't move, could not find it within himself to unglue his arms from around the precious one that he held. Though he had known that this moment had been rapidly approaching, now that it was here, he was terrified. Andrew was positive that he simply did not posses the strength it would take to stand up and leave the room on his own.

"No ..." he uttered brokenly, "I can't … you can't ask me to let go, not yet …"

Tess could only pray and beg the Father for strength for the both of them as she gently made to pry Andrew's arms from around Monica's small frame, even as he protested futilely. Fighting to keep her composure yet again, she grasped both of his hands within her own and held them as tightly as she dared, and helped him to his feet. She stood back a few paces to give him some room and just observed.

Andrew knew that this was the moment that he had to say goodbye, possibly forever, but he couldn't for the life of him form any more words. It was as though his voice was dying with her and he just couldn't speak. And so, with all the tenderness and love that he had within his being, he leaned over her and kissed her cheek, her forehead and finally her lips, hoping with all of his heart that somehow, someway she would feel his love and take it with her wherever she was going. With that, and with tears still running from his eyes, he turned away and started for the door. It felt to him as though some force stronger than himself was carrying him forward, keeping him on his feet, steering him in the right direction. He never looked back or stopped, sure that if he did, he would not have had the courage to keep walking away from her.

Tess watched Andrew go, and then glanced back to Adam who had begun to step forward slowly out of the corner. She nodded sadly, both as encouragement to him and reassurance for herself. The moment had finally come indeed, and Tess found herself quite incapable of speaking as well. Following in Andrew's footsteps, she leaned over and stroked lightly through her Angel Girl's hair with the tenderness of a mother's caress, wishing now more than ever that she could have been the one to prevent this from even beginning all those months ago. As she straightened up and prepared to leave Monica in Adam's more than capable hands, she too found herself wondering for all of them just what would happen next.

With one final glance in Monica's direction, Tess could see that Adam was already sitting by her side. Meeting his eyes once more, she nodded and said,

"Godspeed, baby."

And then she turned on her heel and headed for the door, certain that if she didn't go after Andrew right then and try to console him any way that she could, she would lose both of her babies forever.