Saphira shrugged and shook her head, letting her gaze fall back to the nearly full coffee cup. "I'm not sure what I can do at this point. We can't afford a doctor; and besides, you *know* what'll happen if Es wakes up in a hospital bed. And to be honest, I'm not sure how her heavenly body would react to all those earthly drugs being pumped into her system."

"So you're saying we do nothing?" Amber asked, her voice tight, but not quite accusing.

"I'm saying if you've got any viable ideas, I'm all ears, because I'm at a complete loss here." Saphira's voice was angry and her eyes were filled with tears. Coral tapped Amber on the shoulder before she could open her mouth to speak and jerked her head towards the corner. They squeezed Saphira's hand in support, then moved to the secluded spot where they could talk privately and still keep an eye on Saphira whose stare never wavered from her mug.

"What, Coral?" Amber ground out, needing to vent her frustration and knowing Coral was her only feasible target at the moment. Coral just held her eyes, understanding Amber's position and wanting to give her the outlet for her anger that she required. "C'mon," she pleaded when Coral was silent for a long moment. "Tell me you've got an idea."

"Oh, I've got an idea all right, but you're not going to like it."

Amber blew out a frustrated breath. "I've felt that way about a huge chunk of this assignment. Spill."

"I think this might be His way of moving things along."

"Excuse me?" Amber frowned hard. "You're telling me you think the Father may have worsened Es' illness? Because we're not moving fast enough?" she fumed. "I'm pretty sure if that idea occurs to Saphira, we won't have to do anything at all - she'll take matters into her own hands and force them together if she has to!"

"Will you shut up and listen to me for a minute?!" Coral huffed. "How do we know it hasn't been His strength... His will that has kept Es from relapsing all this time?" She met Amber's eyes steadily. "Amber, you *know* how sick Es was and how weak the sickness made her. Do you really think she recovered that quickly on her own?"

Amber snorted. "I wouldn't say she recovered at all. And I certainly wouldn't classify it as fast!"

Coral rolled her eyes. "Step back a minute and remember just how ill she was, Amber. She shouldn't have recovered at all. She should have died."

"Don't say that!" Amber growled, casting a worried glance towards Saphira. "Do you know the consequences we all would have suffered if she had?"

"All too well," Coral agreed calmly. "It's one reason I think He might be involving Himself in this now."

"Well, if that's true... why not simply involve Himself from the beginning? Or why bother to involve any of us at all? Why not simply put them together Himself?"

"You know He can't do that with humanity - not since He gave them free will to choose. As for the rest, I don't know," Coral replied, shaking her head. "I can't claim to begin to know how He thinks. But in a very twisted way, it makes perfect sense." She paused. "What better way to force both Brianna's and Charisma's hands than to let them witness and experience the aftermath of a broken soul bond?"

"And us? What about what we'll have to go through? What about what Saphira will suffer?"

"Collateral damage," Coral said succinctly, then shrugged. "I really don't know, Amber. It's just a theory."

"Unfortunately, I think it's also very possibly the truth. Is there anything we can do?"

"Aside from be there for the fallout and do our best support to Saphira?" Coral shook her head. "Not that I know of."

"This sucks," Amber grumbled.

"Yes, it does. I think we should probably talk to Ruby about it."

Amber blew out a breath and nodded. "Agreed. And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime, we take it one day at a time. Isn't that Es' first rule?"

Amber smirked. "One of them, at any rate."

"In the meantime, you can both kindly remember that I am an Angel of Vengeance and I can hear every word you're whispering to one another," Saphira said flatly from the table without looking up. Coral and Amber exchanged nervous looks, then crossed back over to Saphira's side.

"I'm sorry, Saphira," Coral responded softly. "It was just a thought. That doesn't mean there's any merit to it."

"Unfortunately, much like Amber, I think it has more than merit. I think it is probably the truth."

"So what do you want to do?"

Saphira looked up at Amber, her blue eyes now raging with the flames of vengeance and anger. "I'm fairly confident my wants don't figure into His plans. I don't think there is anything we can do, not if He's suddenly decided to put His hand in the mix. But I will tell you this," she said, rising to her feet and allowing her heavenly nature to come to the fore. She flexed her wings and caressed her sword. "If anything happens to Es, He'll get His reaction. There's a reason the saying goes, 'Hell hath no fury'," she stated unequivocally, then turned and made her way back to Esmeralda's side to keep watch.

Coral and Amber traded anxious glances. "This could get ugly," was Coral's comment.

Amber snorted. "I'm sure it already has. The real question is how bad is it going to get before we hit rock bottom." She sighed and started clearing away their few dishes. "C'mon. We've still got things to do and Saphira's going to have to be told what happened last night. Until Es is better, she's in charge."

Coral frowned. "How do you figure? Aren't you usually Es' second?"

"Yes, but they are mates. That comes before anything else in my book. Don't worry - I'll be keeping an eye on things as well. But as far as I'm concerned, officially Saphira is in charge until Es comes back."

"And if she doesn't?"

"May God have mercy on all of us."

************

"You know what they think, Es?" Saphira asked the still figure on the bed as she prowled around the room. "They think He kept you alive; they think He is letting you die now. But that's not true, is it? None of it is true. You're alive because of your own tenacity and strength of will. And you're not gonna die for those very same reasons, right?"

Silence was its own answer and Saphira's shoulders visibly slumped. Carefully, she lowered herself to the bed and took one of Esmeralda's limp hands in hers. "C'mon, Es... I can't do this without you. We both know who the strong one in this relationship is and if anything happens to you...."

Saphira broke off and sighed, looking at their twined hands. Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Es, we can't do this without you. I don't have a clue what to do and yet they're all going to look to me to fill in for you until you're better. So if you don't get better like... right now, it's likely to be a horrible mess by the time you get back to straighten things out."

A knock on the door made Saphira growl and glare at it. Then she realized she hadn't spoken to Amber or Coral about their nights with Charisma and Brianna. She lifted Esmeralda's hand to her lips and brushed a kiss over the back of her hand.

"All right," she conceded. "If you're gonna be lazy and lie about in the bed all morning, I need to go take care of things. You stay here and get your beauty sleep, though if you ask me, you couldn't get any more beautiful than you already are. However, I expect no complaints out of you when you wake up and have to fix the cluster this assignment will be by then."

Another knock made Saphira growl louder and she gave Esmeralda another kiss before placing Esmeralda's hand back by her side. Then Saphira moved to the door and opened it, glaring at Amber for a long moment. Then she stepped out of the bedroom and closed the door silently behind her, motioning Amber away from the bedroom. They went into the tiny living room and found Coral waiting for them. Saphira gestured Amber to a seat.

"What can I do for you, ladies?" she asked, her voice still husky.

"You need to know what happened last night. Until Es gets better...."

Saphira held up her hand. "Tell me," she commanded.


Chapter XXVIII

"Turq called me as soon as she got the call from Opal, so I was waiting at the house when Charisma and Adam arrived home. The house was otherwise empty when they got there of course because Kent is still in the City and Ame was here recovering," Amber reminded Saphira and waited for her to nod. "Charisma walked into the house holding Adam's hand, smiling as he chattered on about his day. I think she enjoyed sharing that with him. From what I have been given to understand, she misses a lot of interaction with Adam because of her job."

Saphira nodded. "Es has indicated much the same thing to me. But Charisma seems unable to compromise and is unwilling to give up her career."

Amber shrugged. "I don't know. I rarely get to see them together. Adam is usually sleeping by the time I get there and of course Ame takes care of him during the day. I don't think she sees them together much either."

Saphira waved her hand. "It doesn't matter right now. Tell me what happened last night."

"As I said, Adam was chattering on about his day; he even had his mother chuckling at one point. I never did figure out what it was all about, but Charisma was smiling pretty big at one point. Of course, the smile became a pained grimace when he enthusiastically spoke of his time with Brianna. He really was pretty smitten with her, you know."

"It's the green eyes," Saphira offered with a sad smile.

"She'll be all right, Phira. He won't let anything happen to Es; He needs her."

"Not nearly as much as I do," Saphira muttered. Then she turned her attention back to Amber. "So what happened next?"

"It was weird. I mean... don't get me wrong - the whole situation was weird for me. Very different from what I am used to, but this next bit was just peculiar," holding up her hand for a little tolerance when Saphira glared at her impatiently.

"Charisma didn't hush him or try to change the subject - she listened to him while she fed him some dinner and while she bathed him and got him ready for bed. This was precious - she let him tell her a story and he told her the Three Pigs, I think. Doesn't matter really, though it was pretty cute. Charisma stayed with him until he fell asleep - it didn't take very long, especially when you consider the kind of day he'd had.

Charisma remained in his room for a little while just staring at him. Occasionally, she'd brush his hair back, but mostly she simply watched him breathing. She doesn't usually do that - she comes in and checks on him if he's already in bed... tucks him in, kisses him goodnight... that sort of thing. But she never lingers for any length of time."

"All right... so then what?"

"Charisma wandered around aimlessly, like she couldn't settle down to anything. That's very unusual because she's generally tightly focused, even with all the multi-tasking she does. Finally, she went back into the kitchen and fixed herself a sandwich. She took a long time eating it, then she picked up the phone. She dialed a number, but hung up before it could connect. She actually did it twice more before shaking her head in frustration and slapping it on the table."

"Could you see who she called?"

Amber nodded. "Her parents. It was weird. Her hands were actually shaking and she clenched them together beneath her chin for a long time before she picked up the phone again. She studied it a long moment - like it could tell her the meaning of life - then went back to grab her purse from the hall. She took her cell out and rolled her eyes at it when it vibrated in her hand. She'd missed quite a few messages from her colleagues."

"I take it that wasn't why she wanted her cell phone?"

"No. She scrolled through her contacts and then dialed Kent."

"Excuse me?" Saphira inquired as she straightened in her chair. "You mean she doesn't know his number by heart? Or have him on speed dial?"

"I guess not, because she looked him up and dialed it into the household receiver one digit at a time."

"What happened?"

Amber shook her head. "Not much, actually. They were kind of like strangers talking to each other. Kent was apparently pretty stunned to hear from her. She's never called him before just to talk. It's always been because she needed something."

"How long did the call last?" Coral asked, her question reminding the others of her presence. Amber took a deep breath and released it as she thought.