Previously: "I won't disappoint you." She promised. His eyes met hers, and she felt something pass between them in that moment. "See that you don't."

A Flaw in the Plan

Chapter 3

Closing the door behind herself, Celine closed her eyes and allowed herself to breathe. Seeing and interacting with Jude again had been emotionally draining, but despite that, she would not go and get some much deserved rest. If God truly had sent her back then she needed to seek guidance on the matter and ask her for a sign about what she wanted her to do. Since she was in the Vatican, there was no shortage of churches to choose from, and she managed to find one that was fairly quiet, allowing her to fully concentrate on her prayers without the distraction of people around her.

She wasn't sure how long she had been in the church, but her quiet contemplation was disrupted suddenly by the sound of a commotion outside the church. Several people immediately rushed in and fell face down in front of the altar, their prayers an incomprehensible mess of words. Celine went to comfort the nearest one, and soon realised that the news about the meteor had just been given. Now being the only rational person in the room, the attending priest having fallen into the same stupor as everyone else, Celine marched to the front of the room and shouted to get everyone's attention.

"I know the news is terrible," she began calmly, "but we have been given over a month in which to prepare for the end. There is time to say goodbye to the ones we love, to mend bridges with the ones we hate and to come to terms with what is going to happen. If you have families I suggest you go to them now, they will need your presence with them more than God needs you in this church." Although far from being sufficient to calm everyone down completely, her words were still enough to prompt many of them to get off the ground and leave to do as she said.

"Thank you, Sister, that was much needed." The attending priest managed to say to her, she smiled sadly at him and headed to leave as well. Her questions still had not been answered, which caused her no small amount of concern, but if God had a plan for her then it should be revealed soon enough. She was nearly at the door when it suddenly burst open again to allow Jude to enter. He looked around quickly before noticing her and breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Oh good, I found you. We need to get back, with this news every conman is going to be coming out of the woodwork to prey on people's fears. Our workload is going to be considerable for the next month."

"The messiah claims will no doubt begin soon." Celine added unthinkingly, causing Jude to look at her strangely.

"Fuck, I guess you're right."

"If it is the end times, we would expect prophesies of the second coming to come to pass." She hastily added, her earlier statement might seem innocuous now but could seem a little odd once her prediction came true and the Vatican appointed them to the position of investigating the false messiahs. He nodded acceptingly.

"We should get going, there are probably already several claims that mediums have predicted this event that we will need to respond to." With that he turned on his heels and promptly left the church, it took her a moment to realise that he expected to her to follow him and she had to nearly run to catch up, already enjoying the thought of reliving the time they had spent together.

They had been working together for a few days, disproving a few minor miracles, before Jude was summoned to speak with some of the more prominent cardinals. The work so far had gone even more smoothly than it had in the past, a feat attributed to Celine's memory of how the miracles had been disproved last time. It felt a little like cheating, but she knew Jude was impressed by how quickly and efficiently she had been working. His declaration at the interview that she was on probation had not been brought up again, and she was reasonably confident that he would not be firing her before they were assigned to investigate messiahs.

When Jude eventually returned from his meeting, she could see the tenseness in his shoulders that indicated he was not comfortable with the job they had been given. She let him explain the situation to her before trying to reassure him.

"I don't think God would be upset with you for subjecting the messiah to an interrogation, I think it is more likely that he would be impressed with your commitment to discovering the truth." Her knowledge of the future lent more confidence to her voice.

"Depends how easily offended he is."

"I think he has a thicker skin than you expect, he would have to in order to cope with the many modern depictions of himself."

"You seem remarkably calm about this mess." Jude noted, looking at her with new respect. She shrugged in response.

"You investigate canonisations for a living, who else would be better suited to scrutinise the candidates for the second coming? The chances of us actually encountering the messiah are very low, all we need to do is disprove the false claims. I have faith in you, and in our capability to perform this task to the best of our abilities."

Although she knew that investigating the messiahs would eventually lead to his death, Celine realised that at this point in time there was no way he would listen to her if she suggested that they leave the Vatican. Until God indicated otherwise, she had resolved to try to establish her bond with Jude at an earlier point, so that when the time came it would be easier to convince him to leave the priesthood, especially if she was pregnant, although explaining the time of conception might be more difficult- mid-thought, a sudden cold chill ran down Celine's spine as she realised that she had not felt the effects of morning sickness since she had been sent back in time. It had not occurred to her that a necessary consequence for the time she found herself in would be losing her baby. She suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of loss and guilt. When she had first found out that she was pregnant, she had seen it as some kind of ridiculous joke played on her. A consolation prize for Jude's murder. Her child had only existed for a brief amount of time, but she had barely given him or her any consideration, too overwhelmed by her own grief.

"Celine?"

"What?" She asked distractedly, looking up to see a concerned expression on his face.

"Are you okay? You zoned out."

"I'm fine." She would be. Her baby might not exist at the moment, but he or she would soon enough, and Celine vowed that when she became pregnant again, she would never think of the baby so offhandedly again, it wasn't their fault if she ended up alone, and they did not deserve her indifference.