"OHMYSATANOHMYSATANOHMYSATANOHMYSATAN!" Charlie took in a massive gasp of air, making herself woozy with her own excitement. "SIR PENTIOUS IS ALIVE!"
Vaggie rubbed her girlfriend's shoulder, and laughed with just a tad bit of worry, "deep breathes, hun. You're gonna pass out." Everyone else had similar expressions of complete and utter shock. Excluding Alastor, who did nothing more than, maybe for a fraction of a second, lift his eyebrows.
"Holy shit... that crazy motherfucker, he actually did it..." Angel said, head in hands. "Holy fucking shit, I gotta tell Cherri!" Husk looked up, and nodded with a smile.
Alastor chipped in with his own completely unwanted input. "I do say, I am impressed. To imagine! This tacky little hotel... now, there's no real way to say Charlie was the reason, but stillll! Quite impressive!" Lucifer gave him an eye-roll.
Emily gulped. She had no idea what to say to her. She didn't know. She had absolutely no idea at all, now, weather he was alive or dead... and if he was... It was her fault. She didn't even known if her sister...
"Emily?" Charlie had worry painted all over her face. A sharp contrast to the gleeful look she had just a second ago. She moved to grab the angel's hands. "Are you okay? You're crying..."
She hadn't even realized she had been... "I... y-yes, I'm..." Emily was betrayed by a sob slipping out of her mouth without her consent. She squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could, but tears only kept falling down her face as she grit her teeth. She pulled away from Charlie's hands and stood, covering her face as she began to sob.
"Emily..." Charlie said, getting up to help but not knowing what to do... Emily started limping as fast as her legs could carry her out of the door.
"I-I'm sorry, I need to step out for a bit!" She sobbed out, perhaps louder than she intended to. Charlie just watched as she burst out the dining room door, concern deeply entrenched on her face. She sat down, fiddling with her hands in her lap. Vaggie tried to be a voice to calm her worry.
"She's... we know she's been through a lot, hun. Maybe she just needs some time to think..." Vaggie gently rubbed her girlfriends back as she took one of her fidgeting hands into hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Charlie didn't say anything in response. Her father gave her a worried look before standing up. "I think Imma go find her... maybe give her a little bit of a talk angel to angel." Charlie looked to him and gave a soft smile.
"That sounds like a good idea, dad." Charlie stood up and gave him a hug. "Thank you so much." Vaggie joined him in standing.
"I'll go too," she put a reassuring hand to her girlfriend's back again. Lucifer chuckled.
"Time for a little more, 'angelic solidarity,' Ma-" He stopped himself. "Vaggie. Wow, I have got to stop doing that..." Vaggie snirked and smiled at him.
"I guess so."
Charlie stepped back from her father, and smiled at Vaggie. "I think it's probably best if I sit this one out..." Vaggie nodded.
"Maybe just this time, sweetie." She kissed her on the cheek. "You'll be there for her when she needs it, I'm sure." Charlie gave a meek smile, before sitting back down, and watching as Vaggie and Lucifer left the dining room. She rested her elbow on the table and plopped her cheek on her hand, looking off toward nothing in particular.
Angel did his best to be reassuring. "I... I'm sure Vagina's right Charlie." Charlie rolled her eyes at him, but smiled, nonetheless.
"Thank you, Angel."
Emily was on the floor next to her bed, her face burried into her knees, struggling and failing to hold back the sobs that kept slipping past her lips as tears kept streaming down her face. She heard a knocking at her door.
"Ch-Charlie, I can't... I really can't talk right now... I'm sorry..." she spoke, trying to hide the shudder in her voice, and doing her best not to sound abrasive.
"It's not Charlie," a masculine voice said. Lucifer.
Emily thought for a moment. Then she sighed, lifting her head up just enough to wipe her eyes a little and look at the door. Of course, her face was still drenched, but it made her feel better to not be teary in company. She wasn't used to crying...up until just a month ago, she never had... until, after the court hearing... she fought with her sister...
She squeezed her eyes shut for a second, before looking back to the door. "Y-you can come in..."
Lucifer slowly opened the door, with a gentle smile. Behind him, Vaggie gave her own, with a gentle wave. "It okay if Vaggie also joins us?"
"T-that..." Emily paused and concidered in short pause, "Y-yeah, actually, I'm okay with that..."
"Only if you're sure, kiddo."
"I- I would... I mean, yes, I'd like her here," she smiled through her still trickling tears, before making un ungraceful snort, wiping her nose gently, and clearing her throat.
Lucifer sat beside her, and leant back against the bed. Vaggie sat on her other side.
Vaggie had known Emily... before she fell, that is. Well, that's to say, she didn't know her. But she knew of her. The bringer of joy, always happy, and cheerful, and smiles. Beautiful, and holy, and perfect. It was somewhat surreal... seeing such a beautiful woman who was literally always only ever joyous, ugly-crying. Perhaps against her better judgement, she placed a hand tentatively on her shoulder, and gave a soft squeeze. Emily didn't respond, but... she didn't pull away, either.
"Why the frown, little lady?" Lucifer said, in a genuine, but somewhat silly voice. In spite of herself, she smirked subtly at his behavior.
"I... just..." she took in a deep breath, gathering her thoughts.
"Take your time."
Emily let out a long exhale. "I- I just... I messed up..." She failed to hold in a sob. " I messed up, really bad a-and now-" Her words started to flow out more and more frantically. "Everyone I love might be in horrible danger and and heaven is in shambles and I might have ruined Ch-Charlie's dream, andIdon'tknowwhattodoandImissmysister, I-InevergottoapologizetoherandSirPentiousis- is, he'sprobably-"
"Woah, woah," Lucifer hushed, patting her shoulder. "Stop. Take a breath. In-" He demonstrated somewhat cartoonishly. "-And out." He exhaled, slow and long.
Emily smiled, sadly, but appreciating the support. "In..." She inhaled. "And out..." She exhaled. She did feel a little bit better.
"Atta girl." He smiled, "Now, let's start from the beggining."
Emily brothe in... and out... "O-okay... Well... I had been t-trying for the past month to see if there was any way I could reach out to my sister... I..." She swallowed a lump in her throat, and wiped one of her eyes. "I made a promise to Charlie. I- I promised her I'd figure something, I just..." She gestured her hand as if reaching for some thought, but when she couldn't grasp it, she let it fall to her side. "Anyway, Sera didn't wanna hear me... S-so, I... tried everything else I could think of... yhe archives, the council... I-I even tried talking directly to Adam, and he..." She paused. "Called me some things I'd really rather not repeat..."
Vaggie sneered out of the corner of her eye and grumbled. "Sounds like Adam..."
Emily nodded in agreement. "He's a jerk." She let out a glower that did not suit her. "A-anyway... I tried everything, anything I could think of, b-but, after the Adam thing... well, he told Sera, and we got in a big fight and she..." She grumbled. "Grounded me..."
Lucifer gave an incredulous loon. "... Aren't you a grown woman?" Emily sniffled.
"Ye-p," she said, popping the 'P'. "But she's never seen me as one..." She sighed. "After she grounded me... it was the first time I had ever cried before... I just..." She hugger herself. "I've... never felt so hopeless before..." She gave herself a squeeze. Vaggie gently did the same to her shoulder.
"I've felt that before." Vaggie gave her a kind look. "When... when Lute left me out at that dumpster..."
"Lute left you at a dumpster!?" Emily said, putting a hand to her chest with the most tragic expression. Even Lucifer raised his eyebrows, never having heard the full story.
"Nooo, no," Vaggie said. "Well... I mean, yes. but after she cut my eye out and ripped off my wings. Then Adam took my halo." She scratched the back of her head.
"Oh, Vaggie, that's just awful!" Emily gave her the sweetest look. Vaggie felt her face warm up... it felt like her heart was going to melt.
"I-" Vaggie shook of the feelings and cleared her throat. "It's been... a long time. But, my point was just... I know what it feels like. To be that level of, just... completely and utterly hopeless... a-and, you don' think there's anyhring else you can do." She gave a fragile smile. "But... then I found hope again. Her name was Charlie." Vaggie rubbed Emily's shoulder with her thumb. And Emily smiled. Emily was still fragile, and teary... but talking about it... it was helping.
She chuckled under her breath. "You two truly do have, just, the most romantic love story ever." She sighed, whistfully. "I wish I could have that, someday. It's kind of taboo for seraphims to... date people."
Vaggie rubbed her forearm. "Oh... I'm sure you'll find someone too, Emily. People as genuinely good-hearted as you are rare... especially down here." She chuckled lightly. "As well as people as pretty as you."
"I-" Emily felt a warmth in her cheeks. She looked away, and giggled nervously. "Th-thanks, Vaggie." Lucifer raised an eyebrow.
"Anywayyyy," he said, "so... what happened after that fight?"
Emily sighed. The faint glimpse of an opportunity to try and fail yet again to compartmentalize by changing the subject flickering away. "W-well..." In. Out. "I had been grounded about a week... then... the extermination happened... During, Sera invited me to talk... it was... well..." She cringed. "Tense. But... it went okay... and..." She looked toward Vaggie, knowing this was a detail she particularly cared about. "Then... Sir Pentious appeared. Not at the gates. Right there, in front of Sera and I... I was so excited... he was so nice and friendly, but... Sera was..." Emily looked down sadly... "She was... either scared for him or of him... but... I want to think it was for him." Her facial expression indicated she, in fact, didn't think that.
The two other fallen angels listened silently. "It was so hard to convince her to let him join the rest of heaven... but... for some reason... she did... I-" Emily started to tear up again. She took in a shaky breath. "I think she just did it to make me happy... sh- she... I think she was sick of the fighting, too... I..." Emily sighed, then looked up to the ceiling as tears dripped down her face. She gestured emphatically. "I... I just... I love her!! Sh- she's my sister, I... want to... I want to think that she's better than what she did, b- but..." She curled back in on herself. "How do I forgive anyone who could condone... order for such mindless violence, and misery, a- and death!!!"
Emily aggresively wiped an arm across her eyes. "How..." Shudder. "How many innocent people are dead now, because of her... h- how..." Emily violently grabbed at her hair. "H-how many families has she broken... How m-many... how many children of parents woke up one morning only to find out there mothers and fathers where never coming home, I-!" Emily broke to sobs. Lucifer wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and Vaggie squeezed her forearm, where her hand had now gravitated to rest. Vaggie sniffled herself, somewhat to Emily's surprise, who poked an eye out from behind her knees.
"I..." Vaggie started, sighing. "Of course, I was an exterminator... I did... so many, just... disgusting things... I..." Vaggie looked to the side. "I can't say how to forgive her... because... I've never even been able to forgive myself..."
Emily looked at Vaggie with empathy. Then she smiled, still crying, still shaky in breath, but moving up to wrap her arms around a surprised Vaggie, and holding her gently. "Oh, Vaggie..." She backed off so she could see her face. "As far as I'm concerned, you've more than repented... you... you regret your actions deeply, you know what you did was wrong, and most important of all, you've done everything in your power to make up for your mistakes, in your own way... and that was by helping Charlie."
Vaggie wiped what tears were in her eye, then gave a meek chuckle. "You know, you're a lot like her. Charlie, I mean."
"Mmmmmm..." Emily scrunched her face up, then shrugged. "Honestly, I don't see it. But that is a wonderful compliment... I can't say I could think of too many other people I'd rather be compared to." Both girls gave a light chuckle. Lucifer smiled at the scene in front of him, and wiped his own eyes as he found them too to be growing teary.
Emily backed off from the hug, but decided to remain close to the other angelic woman. She sniffled, and cleared her throat. "After Sir Pentious's first day... something..." She started to break again... "H-happened..." she sobbed out. Vaggie grabbed her hand and squeezed it, and Lucifer put his hand to her shoulder.
She sobbed again. "L- Lute... she... found him... and... b-brought him to Sera... I walked in as they were arguing... she remembered him from the extermination, sh-she..." Emily was barely managing to push out her words, now, between the shudders and sobs forcing their way out of her mouth. "Th-there was so much blood... I- I couldn't even t-tell if he was... a-alive, or... Sera... tried to... she tried to get her to back down... convince her, m-maybe she was mistaken... and when that didn't work... well... she hadn't come alone... sh-she brought..." Emily sobbed again. Vaggie squeezed, and Lucifer gave her shoulder an assured rub. "It... it was the whole army... th-there... there was s-so much b-blood, I-..." Sob. "S-Sera... she tried to fight back, but... there was so many... I... I tried to h- help, and... I'm... I managed to get Lute down at my feet, I was so angry... But..." Emily shuddered all over. She had begun to shake like a leave. "I couldn't do... What I..."
She sobbed again. "She... W-well... she took advantage of me... because... I was too week... I... I just..." Emily broke down... she sobbed, and sobbed... she threw her head up and screamed, before coiling up into herself. "I- I miss my sister!! I... Sir Pentious... Because..." She dug her nails into her arm. "I was too... f-f-f...fucking WEAK!!!"
Lucifer grabbed Emily into a hug and she fell apart in his chest. Vaggie tenderly rubbed in between her shoulder blades. Even though she had to reach threw her hair to do so. They stayed like that for almost the next two whole hours, as Emily sobbed, and cried, and screamed at herself, and Vaggie and Lucifer desperately tried to fight against everything she said toward herself.
Emily heard them. But it was so hard for her to listen...