DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own the characters from Touched by an Angel. They belong to CBS. Everyone you don't recognize, I do own.

A/N: This is it. The second to last chapter of this story. I hope everyone ahs enjoyed it or more specifically, gotten something out of it. I know I did.
God loves you!

"The Christmas Shoes"

Chapter 5-The Christmas Shoes

The next morning, Brooke woke up bright and early. She was excited to get to the store. She wanted to buy those shoes for her mother and she couldn't wait to give them to her.

After Brooke got dressed, she let Gloria do her hair and then she ate a bowl of cereal while Caleb just picked at his own breakfast. He wasn't too hungry and Gloria could tell something was wrong. She hadn't spoken to Caleb since their confrontation the night before and things were a little awkward between them now.

Brooke tried her best to help the situation, but she couldn't force Caleb to be nice to Gloria. The little girl didn't like how her brother was treating her. Gloria was her friend and she liked her a lot.

After breakfast, Gloria got her coat on and waited for the children to get their coats on.

As Brooke was putting hers on, something fell out of it.

Caleb bent down and picked the object up. As realization hit him, he glared at his sister.

"What are you doing with this! You could have lost it! If you did, then we wouldn't' be able to buy the present at all! Why can't you leave things alone?"

Brooke was close to tears by this point. She frowned as she glared at Caleb.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't want you to forget it." She said, her voice soft and remorseful.

"It's all right, honey." Gloria told her, not wanting Brooke to think she was in trouble. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yes she did!" Caleb insisted. "She's always touching things she's not supposed to."

"I said I was sorry!" Brooke shouted, before the tears gushed forth.

Gloria sighed as she tried to deal with two things at once. She decided to take care of Brooke first. She knew this was a difficult time for both her and her brother, but that didn't give Caleb the right to make his little sister cry. After all, Brooke was only trying to help.

"Brooke, shh, it's okay. Come here." Gloria picked the little girl up and gave her a hug. "Here, let's get you buckled in and then we can go get the present for your Mommy. It's okay." With that, she carried Brooke out to the car.

As Gloria left, she glanced over her shoulder and beckoned Caleb forward. Her voice was stern and Caleb knew he was in trouble. The young boy knew that even though he was mad at Gloria, he still had to obey her. She was still their nanny and that meant she was responsible for them.

Heaving a sigh, Caleb did as he was told.

Once Gloria had gotten Brooke buckled in and had put on one of her favorite music CD's, she gave her a hug before closing the door and turning her attention to Caleb.

"Now, I know you're angry. I also know you're not very happy with me right now. But that doesn't give you an excuse to make your sister cry. Do you understand me? She's afraid and upset too."

Caleb had the decency to look ashamed as he gazed at the ground. He knew he had been wrong, but he didn't know how to express his anger and confusion. It was true that Andrew had helped him feel a little bit better, but he was still hurting a lot.

"I'm sorry." Caleb apologized, after a minute or two.

"I accept your apology. And I forgive you." Gloria told him, her tone softer than it had been before. She knelt down to his level and gave him an understanding look. "I know this is hard for you, Caleb. But you need to understand that it's hard on Brooke too. She was only trying to help."

Caleb sighed.

"I know. I was just afraid she was going to lose the money."

"I understand. But you still need to tell her you're sorry. Come on. Once you apologize, we can leave." With that, Gloria led Caleb around the back of the car and helped him into the seat beside his sister.

When Brooke glanced up and saw Caleb sitting next to her, she regarded him wearily.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"No, I'm the one who needs to say I'm sorry." Caleb told her, making Brooke look up at him in surprise. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I was just afraid you would lose the money."

"I know." Brooke said, giving Caleb a small smile. "I forgive you."

"Thanks." Caleb told her. He then glanced at Gloria and his smile grew.

"Can we go now, please?"

"Now how can I deny a request like that?" Gloria asked, half laughing. "We sure can, buddy." With that, Gloria started the car and they were off.

"This is a nice car." Caleb commented, noticing the red Cadillac for the first time.

"Thanks." Gloria said, smiling in the rear view mirror at the boy.

"Is it yours?" Brooke asked, her voice full of curiosity.

Gloria shook her head.

"No. It's my supervisor's."

"Wow!" The little girl gasped. "You have a supervisor? I thought you worked for God."

Gloria couldn't help but giggle. Brooke was cute.

"I do, honey. But angels have supervisors as well. Other more experienced angels to help them along the way. My supervisor's name is Monica. You might even be able to meet her."

"Monica must be really nice to let you borrow her car." Brooke commented, shaking her head, making her braid bounce up and down.

Gloria giggled.

"Yes, she is. I love her a lot."

The rest of the ride to the mall was made in silence. Brooke and Gloria sung along with the CD, but Caleb stayed silent. He usually didn't mind Brooke's singing. In fact, his little sister had a very pretty voice, but she had gotten the talent from their mother. So now whenever Brooke sung, it just reminded Caleb at what they were slowly losing.

When they reached the mall, Brooke was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Gloria giggled as she took her hand and led both children inside.

Once they reached the store, Brooke practically pulled Gloria towards the lay away counter.

But it wasn't Celeste who met them, but a man. He was of Hispanic descent and gave them a sincere smile.

"Hola mi Amiga!" He greeted, waving at Gloria.

"Hey, Rafael. What happened to Celeste?"

Rafael frowned as he regarded his best friend of the last four years.

"Well, she was..uh..relieved of her duties." Rafael explained, not knowing how else to say it. "She was misplacing too many things."

At the sound of the word "misplace" Gloria's heart started racing.

Beside her, Brooke frowned as she gazed up at the Hispanic angel with something of hope in her blue eyes.

Rafael gave her a smile and regarded the child warmly.

"And what can I do for you?"

Brooke hesitated for a minute. She turned to Gloria who gave her the okay.

"Go on, honey. Rafael is a friend of mine."

Brooke nodded and stepped forward.

"Hi, my name is Brooke. My brother and I left a pair of ballet shoes here until we had enough money for them. They were a present for our Mommy."

Rafael nodded. He went back behind the counter and started looking around the shelves that were reserved for lay away items.

After about five minutes, he returned. In his hand, to Gloria's relief, were the shoes.

"Are these it?" Rafael asked, handing the precious gift to Brooke.

The little girl nodded and grinned.

"Yes! Thank you! Thank you!" With that, Brooke gave Rafael a hug, which the Hispanic angel returned.

"Denada," he replied, then hastened to translate for the child. "You're welcome."

Brooke gave him a smile.

"It's okay. I know what you said. I learned Spanish from Dora! Adios!" With that, Brooke went back to Gloria's side.

Gloria giggled at Brooke's actions. The child was truly cute.

"All right you two, let's go pay for these shoes." Gloria told them, leading them over to the counter.

Brooke and Caleb nodded in agreement.

Upon arriving at the counter, Caleb got his money out and stood just in front of his sister. He held his hands out for the shoes, but Brooke held firmly to them. She wanted to be the one to put them up on the counter.

"If you pay for them, then I get to hand them to the person working here." Brooke told him.

"Fair enough," Caleb agreed. He figured with the way he had treated Brooke earlier, he owed her something.

When it was the siblings' turn to pay, Brooke presented the shoes proudly to the person behind the counter.

It turned out to be Monica.

Gloria grinned at her supervisor and gave her a thumbs up.

Monica returned the smile, but then gazed at Caleb. She didn't have time to say anything, for at that moment, Brooke handed her the shoes.

"These are a present for our Mommy." Brooke told her, smiling from ear to ear.

"Aw, how sweet." Monica commented, sincerely. With that, Monica rang the shoes up. She even wrapped them in pretty pink paper for the children at no cost.

"Thank you," Brooke said, making Monica's heart melt.

"You're quite welcome, sweetheart." The Irish angel then turned her attention to Caleb.

The boy was patiently counting out the amount he needed, unaware of how impatient the people behind them were becoming.

After a minute or so, Brooke leaned over to Caleb and whispered, "Caleb, what's wrong?"

Caleb frowned, his stomach feeling like it was going to drop out from inside of him. He didn't have enough money. After all of this, he didn't' have enough.

"We..we…we don't have enough." He replied, disbelief at his own statement. "We don't have enough money."

Brooke shook her head as she felt tears come to her blue eyes. This couldn't be happening.

"What do you mean we don't have enough?" She asked on the verge of tears.

"Just what I said!" Caleb exclaimed, frustration in his tone. "We don't have enough! Some of the money must have fallen out when the bag dropped out of your coat!"

Gloria gave Caleb a look.

"Caleb…" Gloria cautioned. "It's not Brooke's fault. She was only trying to help."

Caleb shook his head.

"It is her fault! If she hadn't tried to HELP, then we would have the money! Thanks to her, Mom's Christmas is ruined!"

"I'm sorry!" Brooke shouted back before running off, the shoes still clutched in her hand.

"I'll be right back." Gloria told Monica and Caleb. Then to Caleb she said, "Don't move from this spot." With that, Gloria left to talk to Brooke.

Caleb sighed as he felt his own tears start to fall. This shopping trip had turned into a big mess. A big mess Caleb wasn't sure how to fix.

Before Monica could speak, a familiar voice from behind them beat her to it.

"How much are they?" He asked.

Monica gazed up and gasped when she saw who was standing there. Out of all the people she had expected to see, she did NOT expect it to be Jerry Thompson.

After Monica regained her composure, she checked the price again.

"Forty dollars." She stated. "The wee ones are only ten dollars short."

Jerry nodded. He gazed at Caleb before glancing back at Monica. He had remembered that the kids had wanted to buy a gift for their mother when they were with him. He had said no, thinking they just wanted to waste more of his time. But now, he had a feeling there was more to their story.

"Would you excuse me for a minute?" He asked Monica. He then turned to Caleb. "Come here, Caleb. Let's talk."

Caleb glanced at Monica for the okay and she nodded.

"Go on. He won't hurt you. I talked to him." She winked and Caleb realized in that instant that she too was an angel.

With only a little reluctance, Caleb followed Jerry Thompson to a nearby bench to talk.

Meanwhile, Gloria had caught up to Brooke. The little girl was sitting on a stool in the toy section, crying her heart out. She had her face buried in her hands and her sobs were heart wrenching.

"Brooke?" Gloria asked, being careful not to scare the little girl.

"Leave me alone!" Brooke shouted, tearfully.

"Brooke, I can't do that, sweetheart. I can't do that because you're upset and you need me. Come here, sweetheart." With that, Gloria held her arms out to the distraught little girl.

Brooke looked up at Gloria, her blue eyes full of tears. It only took a minute for Brooke to take Gloria up on her offer of comfort. She jumped off the chair and ran into Gloria's waiting arms, the tears still falling freely.

"Shh, shh, it's okay, Brooke, it's okay. It's gonna be okay. I promise." Gloria soothed, praying she was telling Brooke the truth.

"No it won't!" Brooke cried. "It's all my fault! If I didn't put the bag in my pocket, we would have had the money!"

"No, sweetheart." Gloria insisted, rocking the child in her arms. "No. It's not your fault, Brooke. It's not. God doesn't blame you."

"Caleb does!" Brooke sobbed. "He hates me!"

"No, he doesn't, honey." Gloria insisted, her voice gentle, but full of confidence at the same time. "Caleb doesn't hate you. He's just mad and confused, but he doesn't blame you. He knows deep down in side that it wasn't your fault. I promise."

Brooke nodded. She let out another sob as she tried to calm down.

"My Mommy won't have a Christmas present anymore!" Brooke wailed, making Gloria's heart break right there.

"Yes she will." Gloria insisted. "She'll have a Christmas present. The best present ever."

"What do you mean?" Brooke asked, glancing up at Gloria in confusion.

"She'll spend Christmas with you and your brother. That's the best gift you could ever give her."

"But I wanted to give her the shoes too!" Brooke insisted, a few more tears falling from her eyes.

"I know you did, Brooke, I know. And I promise you, if God wants your mother to have them, He will help you give them to her."

"God would do that for us?" Brooke asked, disbelief in her voice.

"Yes He would. All you have to do is ask Him." Gloria told the little girl.

Brooke nodded. She flashed a small smile at Gloria as she took her hand.

"Will you pray with me Miss Gloria, please?"

"Aw, I sure will, kiddo. I sure will." With that, Gloria and Brooke began to pray, asking God what He wanted them to do as far as Kristen's Christmas present went.

After they were done praying, Gloria suggested that they go and see what Caleb was up to.

Brooke agreed and took Gloria's hand.

"Do you think that God will help us?" She asked, her eyes full of hope as she and Gloria walked back to where Caleb and Jerry were at.

Gloria grinned.

"I know He will." She said, smiling down at the little girl. "I know He will."

Little did Gloria and Brooke know what God had in store for both Kristen's Christmas gift, along with Brooke and her brother.

Meanwhile, Caleb was trying to explain his predicament to Jerry Thompson. He was a little hesitant to talk to him, since Jerry hadn't treated either of the Kissenger siblings well in the past.

But Monica's reassurance had given Caleb the confidence he needed to explain to Jerry what was going on.

"We wanted to buy the shoes for our Mom." Caleb explained, the tears starting to fall again. "She's sick and she's gonna go to Heaven soon. It was Brooke's idea to get her the gift, but since Brooke's little, I earned the money with my paper route. Then when it got to be too cold for me to do that, I took odd jobs here and there to earn the money."

Jerry nodded. He had heard enough. He knew what he had to do. Although he felt awkward doing it, he knew it had to be done. He had never done anything for anyone else besides his daughter before.

"Mom and Brooke took ballet together when Brooke was three until just six months ago when Mom got sick. They used to sing together in church too. I'm going to miss her, but I know Brooke is going to miss her a lot more than I will."

"You know she loves you both the same don't you?" A Hispanic male voice asked from just behind Caleb.

Caleb jumped as he turned around to see Rafael standing there. He was glowing the same way Gloria and Andrew had the night before.

"Ya-you're an angel too?" Caleb asked, not daring to believe that God would send this many angels to help his family.

Rafael nodded.

"Si, yes I am. Your mother loves you and your sister equally. She doesn't favor one over the other."

Caleb nodded.

"I know." He then turned his attention back to Jerry. "Brooke really had her heart set on buying our Mom those shoes. She really wants her to have them. It's too bad we probably won't be able to buy them."

Rafael shook his head.

"Don't give up hope so easily, mi amigo. God will give you what you need when you need it. All you have to do is keep the faith and let God handle the rest. He's got you covered." He winked at Caleb, who gave him a small smile.

As Caleb turned back to face Jerry, he glanced behind him to see that Rafael was gone.

Shaking his head, Caleb finished explaining to Jerry his worries over possibly not being able to buy the shoes.

"I can't believe I was so stupid!" Caleb berated himself. "I should have checked the price of the shoes before we left them here. Or at least I should have made sure I had enough money. I blamed Brooke, when it's really my fault."

Jerry shook his head. But it wasn't he who spoke next.

"It's not your fault, Caleb. And it's not Brooke's fault either."

Caleb looked up to see Gloria and Brooke approaching them.

"How can you say that? I'm the one who didn't check if we had enough money. And I'm the one who didn't' check to see if we lost some of it when it fell on the ground. If I had checked, we would have had enough to buy the shoes for Mom."

Gloria shook her head.

"It's not your fault." Gloria repeated. "It isn't. God doesn't blame you."

"I don't blame you either." Brooke said, sincerely. She came over and gave her brother a hug.

Caleb was taken aback by his sister's actions, but he hugged back nonetheless.

"But what about the shoes?" He asked, his tone lost and confused.

Jerry cleared his throat uncertainly. He gazed from the children to the shoes in Brooke's hand, then back at the children again. His gaze finally landed on Gloria, who just smiled at him.

"Go on. Do it. God wants you to do this. This is your chance to keep your promise to Serenity and to God. God has placed this opportunity in front of you for a reason. This is your time to give back. Your time is now. God's timing is perfect. Trust Him and follow His call. God is calling you to do this. Go on. Don't be afraid to answer His call. He will help you." Gloria smiled at Jerry, knowing it was his choice and his choice alone.

Jerry thought for a few minutes. He closed his eyes and prayed right then and there. And even though he was praying silently, he knew God heard him all the same.

After Jerry was done praying, he smiled. He knew what God wanted him to do. He was going to take Gloria's advice and follow God's call.

"Come on you guys," Jerry said, beckoning to the two children. "Let's go get your Mom her gift." He smiled as he said this, making Brooke smile from ear to ear.

"You mean it? You're really going to help us?" Caleb asked, not daring to believe it.

Jerry nodded.

"Yes." He said, leading the way to the counter.

"thank you." Brooke said, her voice full of emotion. "Thank you."

The two children were so engrossed in the fact that their mother was going to have her Christmas present, they weren't even aware that Gloria disappeared from their sight.

It was only when Brooke turned around once they had reached the counter, did she notice Gloria was gone.

"Where did Miss Gloria go?" Brooke asked, her voice full of confusion.

Caleb smiled as he realized where Gloria had gone.

"I guess she went back home." He told his sister.

Brooke nodded. She frowned slightly at this. She had really liked Gloria a lot.

"Do you think we'll see her again?" Brooke asked, her voice hopeful.

Caleb shrugged.

"I don't know. But I have a feeling that if we keep the faith, then we'll definitely see Gloria again." With that, Caleb handed Monica the money he had been counting earlier. HE gave her an apologetic look, but the Irish angel didn't seem mad at all.

"You're still ten dollars short, I'm afraid." Monica said, giving the two children a sympathetic look.

"Here you go." Jerry said, handing Monica the remaining ten dollars. "Don't worry about it."

Monica smiled up at the man she had helped two days before. As she took the money, she felt a few tears fall from her eyes. She lifted her eyes to Heaven above and whispered, "Thank you, Father. Thank you."

The Irish angel gave the package to Brooke and smiled as she watched the children and Jerry leave.

Almost immediately after the three Humans had left, Tess and Gloria appeared beside Monica.

"Well done, Gloria, well done." Monica praised her case worker, giving Gloria a hug.

"Yes, Gloria, you did a good job." Tess told her, embracing her little angel as well. "And so did you, angel girl." Tess said, turning her attention to Monica. "I'm proud of you both."

Gloria grinned.

"Thanks, Tess."

Monica nodded in agreement.

Tess turned serious just then.

"I wish I could tell you that this assignment is over and will have a happy ending. But honestly, the assignment is far from over and the ending will be far from happy." Tess sighed at the conclusion of her statement.

"We're done, right?" Gloria asked, not sure what Tess was getting at.

Tess nodded.

"Yes, little angel. You and Monica are finished." Tess replied. "But I still have work to do."

"And Andrew…" Monica said, her voice trailing off at the look on Tess's face.

"Andrew still has a job to do." Tess finished, gazing Heavenward for strength and guidance. They needed the latter now more than ever…