Title: Tongues of Men and Angels
Rating: TA for implied?romance.
Summary: Glimpses of grace: the story of one brother and two sisters. Through the grace of God, all things are made new.A series of drabbles. Ish. Gabriel/OC. Ish.
Disclaimer: *obligatory insert*

Chapter XVIII: Trinity
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4: 11

"When we're done with the Grand Canyon, we're going north," Joy told him. "Will you come with us? I think we'll need you."

She humbled him with her honesty.

"What is north?" he asked, and she smiled faintly.

"Alaska," she confided. "Bethany doesn't know it yet, but by then it will be summer; we can get up there in time for good weather and whales and all the crap she wants to see."

He gauged her carefully. "This is good of you," he noted at last.

"She deserves it," Joy said simply. She smiled affectionately. "She saved us both, after all. She'll save anyone we come across, you know? Just you wait. And when we're done, she'll want to save even more."

They sat in silence for a moment, and Gabriel groped for words in the bright sunshine—though she couldn't tell by looking at him.

"Your sister is very heroic," he admitted at last. "But what is such a thing worth? This world has seen countless messengers, been saved countless times, and yet nothing changes. It remains the same festering sore. Heroism is lost—" on people like these, he almost said, but he imagined Joy would not appreciate the sentiment. Moreover, he found—with a growing sense of unease—that he was no longer certain of the truth of such a statement.

And as expected, Joy stared at him, her dark eyes shining and wide, perhaps shocked by his sudden bluntness. He conceded his perception of humans hadbeen changing lately—but it did not change the truth of the matter, nor the direction of his curious questioning. Heroism is lost. Still, the pain in Joy's gaze was more poignant than he had expected.

"You misunderstand," she said at last, slowly. "In fact, I'm starting to think you've been misunderstanding every single thing Beth has been telling you, everything she's been living."

He tilted his head and waited.

"You don't save the world—you don't save anyone because they're deserving," she said softly, "or because you think they will change. You only give them another chance. You only save them—because you can. Because a real hero doesn't know how to do anything else."

Word Count: 366
Completed: May 4th, 2011
Yay, word count!
Oh goodness, oh goodness. I am going through a rough time in my life right now, and every day I look forward to the comfort and kindness which so many of you offer through your very kind reviews. :) So yesterday afternoon, as a gift to all of you, I drew a quick sketch, which is view-able below (the link will be posted a few times within the following chapters, and will also be available on my author's page).

Simply copy & paste it into a browser address bar and remove the spaces. It's very rough, but it's a little sneak peek into Chapter 32, which is one of my favorites.

http :/ fyrefly-nyxa .deviantart .com /# /d3figm5

Thank you, thank you, all of you.

****This chapter's title is pretty self-explanatory, I think. Nevertheless: a literal translation would be that Christian faith (generally, with some exceptions) generally considers God as a relational entity in and of Godself, and manifests that through the assertion that there are "three in one", or three parts to the whole: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. These parts reflect God's inherent desire to be in connection (emotionally/spiritually), as well as three other characteristics: Creator, Redeemer, Pursuer.

This chapter was originally titled A Point of Clarification, based on Joy's "parting shot," but I liked the verse so much, and her initial request that Gabriel stay with them, that I decided to go with Trinity instead.