Author's Note: Whew! The majority of this one just rolled right out, so I figured I wouldn't keep you lovely folks waiting. Oooohh, I'm so excited to write more! *happydance* :D

Water filled Audrey's lungs and trickled from the corner of her slack lips, stealing Gabriel's attention from the sketch in his hand. She lay with her head in the crook of his elbow, and her shoulders nestled into his lap as he sat upon the wooden floorboards of the chamber opposite Jenny's.

Panic flooded him with adrenaline as he flipped her over, expelling the fluid from her airway. She coughed and retched as she came to, gasping in a frenzy to repay the debt of oxygen to her body.

"Audrey," he breathed anxiously, scrambling to manoeuvre her so that she leaned over his knee, her forehead resting against the palm of his hand.

When her chest was drained if its obstruction, Gabriel lifted her into his embrace, securing her cheek firmly against his collarbone as a wave of dizziness overcame her. She grasped tightly at the soft, familiar cotton of his tunic and fought to synchronise her hysterical breaths with his slower, though admittedly still elevated example.

"I thought you'd... gone for good," she managed, swallowing between wheezes in an attempt to pace herself.

"I've made many horrific mistakes," he answered, his arms an unyielding shelter of safety, "but that will never be one of them."

Gabriel kept her fixed to his chest as her breathing slowly moderated and the spots dancing across her vision disappeared.

"What on Earth –" he began, but his mind made the jump before his mouth had even finished posing the question; "Lucifer." The growl escaped him like smoke from the fire of fury that suddenly roared within him.

He pulled her back by her shoulders to look at her and she winced. Instead, he slid his arms around her back, glancing down in confusion at her upper arms. They were blemished by a set of purpling finger marks on either side. A muscle twitched in Gabriel's jaw as he regarded them, before his glare fell upon her frightened face and softened in sympathy.

"You summoned him into your mind." It wasn't a question. "Do you have any idea how lucky you are to be alive?"

He raised both his hands and swept her hair back over her ears, then returned to stroke soft trails over her forehead, cheeks, nose, ears and lips.

"I just wanted to talk to him," she reasoned quietly, closing her eyes beneath his tender touches.

"He could have killed you," Gabriel chided, sternly, but not unkind.

"I didn't know."

Audrey captured his fingers as they mapped out her features and pressed her lips to each of the tips. He watched, mesmerised, and widened his knees as she rose to her own. Placing his hands over the corners of her jaw, she leaned across to his now equal height and revered his full, parted lips with a kiss. He saw it coming this time, and responded with an enthusiasm she hadn't anticipated.

Gabriel's fingertips brushed over the silky-smooth skin behind her ears as he returned the gentleness she'd shown him thus far, before tracing her lower lip with his tongue. Fast learner, Audrey thought with a small, wry smile against his eager mouth as she deepened the kiss. She could still taste the salty tang of seawater, which wasn't unpleasant in combination with the hints of citrus beneath it – presumably from one of the oranges they had brought back from the store – and a sweet, unique warmth that was all his own.

Moving her hands from his, she let them sink to rest her fingers atop his thighs: an unconscious attempt to steady herself as the innocence of his fervour drew her body in closer, melding her against the flat, firm planes of his torso. He ran his touch delicately down her neck, earning him a shivering whisper of appreciation upon his keen lips.

"Amor," Gabriel sighed, feeling the quickening of her pulse under his fingertips.

She retreated abruptly and he followed a little, somewhat dazedly, before looking up at her in confusion. Her expression was a mild mix of shock and fear, and his first thought was that perhaps he should have held onto his confession a bit longer.

"That's... what Lucifer called me," she explicated.

A deep furrow appeared between Gabriel's brows as he kneeled up, and a dizzying rush surged through Audrey's veins as something brushed close against her, making it difficult to think clearly.

"Why would Lucifer call you..." he wondered aloud, oblivious to her thorough lack of attention; "Love... This has something to do with the prophecy," he construed.

"The key approaches in the form of love," she delivered absently, "and its nurturers shall be rewarded." When she saw his stunned gape, she shrugged and added, "He told me it."

"He told you the prophecy?" Gabriel exclaimed, her surreptitious glance downward eluding his notice.

"I guess he... rightly assumed I'd be too stupid to figure it out?"

Much to her disappointment, he sank back down to his heels, frowning in concentration.

"The key approaches in the form of love," he repeated; "The key... If that means what it seems to, maybe I was wrong..." Audrey watched him speculate: Maybe he does want her dead, he worried. But why wouldn't he have done it already? And if the prophecies aren't coming from Hell, then where are they coming from?

His contemplation allowed Audrey silence enough to try to pick up where they left off, and she began to trail her fingertips along the tops of his thighs, but that notion was immediately cut off by a light knock at the door. She dropped her head back in exasperation before turning to sit between his knees with her back to him, partly in the hope that the intruder would be none the wiser, but mostly just to be close to him again.

As the door swung open, the first thing through it was a set of four heavy paws and an affectionate tongue that bounded straight for Audrey's cheek. She laughed and wrapped her arms around Samson's huge, sandy shoulders in a hug to stop him slobbering on her further. He looked up at Gabriel indifferently, who reached slowly to pet his head, but drew his hand back again when Samson gave a short grumble that clearly said, Don't even think about it.

Jenny and Eli followed him in with sheepish grins over their familiar's unceremonious greeting, and went to sit side-by-side on the floor with Audrey and Gabriel.

"Morning," Jenny smiled, leaning against Eli as his arm came around her shoulders; "Did you sleep well?" Her question was for Audrey, who hesitated in her response.

"Waking up was better," she skirted carefully.

"I'll bet," Jenny agreed and nodded towards Gabriel; "This one's been watching over you all night, I see." The archangel gave her a sardonic smile as he rubbed his tired eyes. "He got back a little after nightfall, not long after you went to sleep. He was so worried he'd really upset you."

Almost as a confirmation of her words, Gabriel pressed a kiss to the top of Audrey's head, earning him approving smiles all round – save for Samson, of course, who blinked uninterestedly and laid his warm chin across Audrey's knee.

Jenny noticed her sketch, forgotten on the floor, and reached to pick it up. One corner lay in the puddle of seawater, which she paused over in bewilderment.

"Long story," Audrey began. She recounted her dream aloud, to which Gabriel listened intently, too, if a little enviously that she'd called upon Lucifer and not him.

By the time she reached Lucifer's question, however, it became painfully apparent why she'd done so. He wrapped his arms around her, ashamed at his part in the images that haunted her. I led the army of Heaven against her, he tormented himself. I might as well have done the deeds myself.

As Audrey omitted the part about Gabriel's sensitivity to the coals and told of Lucifer's temper, he raised his hands to cover the bruises on her arms, warming them with his gift of healing. It calmed her significantly, enabling her to conclude with the story's terrifying ending. Jenny and Eli stared in horror at the puddle on the floor.

"Before I started blaming myself, though, he seemed quite content just to hug me while I cried. He's not as bad as I expected."

"Don't be fooled," Gabriel warned, but Audrey turned to look over her shoulder at him.

"You weren't there," she defended, a little tersely. "He was sympathetic; it was like... he understood, how it feels to be categorised as bad... as if he knew from personal experience." Gabriel opened his mouth to speak, but she cut across him. "And when he kidnapped me, he told me that he didn't fall from grace... that he was pushed."

Sorrow marred Gabriel's features as he recalled the day Lucifer was condemned, two millennia ago.

"Lucifer was punished justly for his crimes," he affirmed, as much for his own sake as hers.

"What if you're wrong?" Audrey challenged quietly. The room was silent as he wavered slightly, remembering how the coals hadn't burned his brother.

"There's no way we could be," he replied uncertainly. "I saw it myself."

"What did he do?" The question came from Eli this time, who ran his fingers absently through Jenny's chestnut hair as his wrist rested on her opposite shoulder.

"He accepted power from Satan – the darkness that attacked you –" Gabriel explained to Audrey, touching her face, "and with it, he sought to overthrow the Lord."

"And what did he have to say in his defence?" Audrey asked.

Gabriel stared at her, utterly caught off guard. The hasty way he averted his gaze said it all.

"You can't be serious," Audrey admonished. "God damned him to Hell and never even gave him a chance to explain himself?"

Anger fizzed in her chest, not over the injustice of Lucifer's sentence, but the sting of betrayal: that the God so many put their faith and trust in could be so cold and still call Himself merciful.

"There was no..." ...need, Gabriel finished in his head, taking heed of the flicker of fire in her eyes, "It wasn't my decision. I admit it never even occurred to me that he could be innocent after watching him do it myself, but the Lord was so heartbroken... Lucifer was one of us – His five beloved archangels; my brother. Nothing could have stopped God's verdict."

For the first time, Audrey saw precisely what Lucifer meant to Gabriel, and how what happened had hurt him; he'd obviously had to tell God what he saw, therefore he'd essentially been the one to send him to his fate. He might put on a show of contempt for God's sake, she thought, but they're still brothers, no matter what. In the wake of her own loss, her heart ached for him, and she reached out to slot her fingers between his.

"I still think there's more to this than meets the eye," she confessed, running her thumb over his. "There's a lot of angel still left in him."

Jenny and Eli looked on as he surveyed her face, a pensive look upon his own as he fought to decide how he felt about her opinion. Observant or naïve? He wondered to himself, weighing up the arguments. The coals don't burn him; he kept the Apocalypse victims' souls safe until they were accepted into the Lord's kingdom; his crime was uncharacteristic and we didn't give him a chance to put forth his reasons; he always sends fragments of Light back to Heaven; for some reason, she seems to trust him, despite how he's treated her thus far... that's got to count for something.

Everyone in Heaven, he knew, believed that Lucifer sent back the occasional good piece of a soul because it hurt him just to look at it – that it was somehow damaging to such a monstrous creature. Gabriel could honestly say he'd never believed that, though he couldn't say exactly why.

He thought about the prophecy; the key approaches in the form of love, he recited in his head, looking down at the sketch Jenny had set in front of her to dry. Even upside down, he could make out the countless keys hanging from the tree's curtain of swaying branches. Regardless of its true meaning, Lucifer would assume 'the key' means the answer. He's afraid. It's all starting to make sense now, he realised; He's been hassling Audrey because he thinks she's the 'love' it speaks of – the object of my love – but he can't bring himself to do anything about it: she's right. There's a lot of angel still left in him.

Finally coming to a decision, he slid his fingers from between hers and wrapped his arms around her from behind again, resting his lips upon her glowing, tawny head. She shone brighter now than ever before, and he took it as encouragement.

"What are you doing?" she asked softly, looking down at his arms as she raised her hands to cover them.

"Praying," he answered. Audrey sighed in resignation.

Lord, please send to me the remainder of my brothers, your devoted Archangels. I am in need of their assistance.