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.
Disclaimer: *obligatory insert*

Chapter XX: Ash Wednesday
…The Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being temptedby Satan.
He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Mark 1: 12-13

"She's very beautiful, isn't she?" Bethany asked, entering the cool, blue-shadowed bedroom. Gabriel stood in the corner, watching over Joy while she slept. The teenager's dreams were troubled tonight, fitful. He had brushed his calloused fingers against her brow once, intending to soothe her, but her reaction to his touch had been violent, panicked. Now he stood back, keeping vigil, silent and more helpless than he'd felt in a very long time.

He was loath to admit it, but this teenaged girl was becoming very dear to him. He was sure, in that moment, that he loved her more than he had his own brother—at least in the end.

He turned his meteor-bright gaze on Bethany, but she had eyes only for her sister. She reached out with one infinitely gentle finger, running it between Joy's brows and down to the tip of her nose. In her sleep, the teenager stirred, and the crease in her forehead smoothed at her older sister's touch. He marveled at the ease with which Bethany had quieted the girl, especially when his own ministrations had failed.

"Here," Bethany whispered reverently when he didn't answer. She pressed her palm gently to her sister's forehead, brushing back Joy's glossy hair. "This is where I find God."

Everything in him tightened at her hushed words.

"Her smile is sacred to me. There is nothing holier in my life than this girl, Gabriel, and whenever I doubt—whenever faith seems far—I only have to look to my sister to remember how much God loves me: how blessed I am that He put her in my life."

For a moment, he longed again for his own brother, and wondered if he had ever felt a fraction of the love for Michael that Bethany and Joy exuded, in every moment, for each other. A sense of loss pierced him, though he was uncertain that he'd ever had such a thing to lose.

Perhaps once, he thought. Before—

Watching the reverence with which she stroked her sister's brow, he could only remember dealing Michael's death-blow, the way it had felt—tragic but necessary—as the blade glided through. I would not have shown you such mercy.

"You asked once—what happened to her," she said softly in the darkness. "Do you remember?"

"Yes," he answered firmly, and waited.

"Last December," she said at last. "During the apocalypse—" She hesitated. "Do you remember how I said I couldn't survive losing her?" she asked, and her words spilled out in a rush. "And you asked what my wounds were—do you remember?"

So circuitous. "I do," he said only. There was a long, swollen silence, and he shifted restlessly, but didn't think she would continue. Then:

"—Gabriel?" Bethany asked quaveringly, and it sounded like a prayer in the darkness, something far more fragile than he'd grown to expect from her.

So he answered in kind, without even considering the ramifications. Turning to her directly, he took her hands in his own. "I am here," he assured her, his thunderous voice so gentle that it surprised even him.

Word Count: 518
Completed: May 7th, 2011
****According to Catholic (and many other Christian denomination) traditions, Ash Wednesdaysignifies the beginning of the Lenten season. It is 40 days long, intending to parallel the 40 days Jesus spend fasting in the desert, and the people who abide by this tradition generally sacrifice something during this season, a sort of symbolic fasting. Lent then concludes with the onset of the Tritium (Holy Thursday/The Last Supper, Good Friday/The Crucifixion, and Holy Saturday/Easter Eve). It is generally a somber time, to be followed by a full season of great and joyful celebration and feasting, where followers are not even supposed to kneel in church because of their pure ecstasy and elevation in the Lord. [c. Matthew 4]