Special Delivery
"Krissy." Josephine smiles as she opens the door to see her old hunting partner and foster sister there. "I can't believe it!" She hugs her. "Where the hell have you been? I haven't heard from you in forever!"
"I know , right? you would not believe what I got mixed up in." Krissy looks back to Hara who's quietly talking to Miti on the side walk. "Do you mind if we come in? Miti, are you staying?"
"No, I need to go talk to Alex. Pray if you need me." The small indian woman shakes her head and gives the man a kiss on the cheek before vanishing.
"What the..." Josephine takes a step back.
"Oh, um, that was Amitiel. She an angel. So's Harahel. Hara, this is my sister Josephine. Jo, this is Hara." Krissy introduces them. "Is Aiden here?"
"No, he's still in class and has work after wards. Hi." Josephine warily holds out her hand as Hara runs up to the porch.
"Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you, Josephine. I'm Harahel. I'm a librarian." There's a refreshing lack of confusion at Krissy calling Jo her sister.
"Heaven's librarian." Krissy smiles proudly at Josephine as if informing her that her daughter made the honor roll. " He's a sweetie. His vessel is Saul. He's a proffessional gambler and amateur letch so you won't need to talk to him at all."
"W-what?" Jo looks at Hara a bit expanse. "Vessel?"
"It's kind of cool. I'll explain later. I actually sort of need to talk to you? About something kind of personal." Krissy looks at her nervously. The look on her face with her use of 'sort of' and 'kind of' indicate 'incredibly' and 'desperately' would be more accurate.
"no, yeah, sure, come in." Josephine steps back. Hara lets Krissy enter before him. "Are you in trouble?"
"Ha! In a manner of speaking." Krissy grimaces. "In almost every manner of speaking actually. Not in a supernatural way, though. I'm not trailing monsters in my wake, so don't worry about that."
"It is a little supernatural." Hara corrects her.
"I guess, if you want to split hairs." Krissy shrugs, and plops down on the couch slouching in a despondant way, propping her feet up on the coffee table Josephine clears her throat, nodding to the table. Krissy sighs and takes her feet down as Hara sits on the other end of the couch. "I'm pregnant." Krissy sighs, kicking her boots off. Jo almost misses the chair she's sitting down in at the announcement. "Yeah."
"You can put your feet in my lap if you want." Hara offers. Krissy shrugs and scootches down, putting her feet in his lap and a pillow under her head. "Do your feet hurt? I think I remember something about feet hurting during pregnancy. I'm not sure how to fix it. We're not supposed to mess with pregnant bodies too much. Only the specialists and only in a real emergency, but I could massage your feet?"
"Nah, I'm good. I don't think I'm far enough along for that. I'm just tired. It's been a hell of a day." She covers her eyes with her arm.
"Are... are you the father, then?" Josephine looks at the two. Hara's eyes widen at the suggestion.
"What?" Krissy lifts her arm again. "No! Good lord woman. Why would you ask that? You learn angels are real and immediately assume I'm fucking one? The hell, woman!"
"Don't 'the hell' me. you're pregnant with a supernatural element involved and you have your feet in the lap of an angel who just offered to massage them for you. what do you think I'd think?" Jo crosses her arms.
"Well, given I was a virgin the last time you saw me, maybe that it's the second coming or something? But noooo, you had to go straight to, she fucked an angel."
"Please stop saying that." Hara blushes.
"Technically a virgin, Krissy. And that's not how the second coming is supposed to go. At best it'd be the anti-christ." Jo retorts. Krissy just throws the other decorative pillow at her. "So yes, I assumed you got in on with an angel."
"If I had fathered a nephilim, I would be hunted down and destroyed, as would she and the baby. It's standard procedure since the flood." Harahel says gravely. "But only because most nephilim set them selves up as old gods and the pregnancy would kill her as would an abortion. Nephilim are creatures with the powers of an angel and the tenacity to survive of a human and in the parasitic state of a fetus, would drain the life force of the mother to sustain itself should any harm ever come to it. Mothers rarely survive the births regardless. I would never do that to someone I cared enough about to defy the will of heaven in order to share physical intimacy with."
"So you got a sperm donor?"
"I am not having sex with Harahel! He's just the sweetest most bestest little librarian of all time, and that's all." Krissy gently pats his arm with her foot. "I have a lover, thank you. I haven't told him yet because I haven't decided what to do about it."
"Well,"Josephine sits down across from them. "You don't have to do anything really. Haven't you heard about the fertility crisis? No one's been able to keep a pregnancy even if by some miracle they conceived in the first place."
"Yeah, well, about that..."
"So if the storks are supposed to deliver souls to the wombs of expectant mothers, there must be some sort of bay or loading dock or something." Babe walks through the large warehouse stacked with cribs of baby shaped souls. A stork eyes Claire hopefully as she passes, almost as if contemplating the possibility of an immaculate conception.
"Don't even think about it." She narrows her gaze at it. It quickly looks away. "Alright. Don't see why you needed me here for this, though."
"I don't. I just missed my bestie." Babe hooks her arm into Claire's. "And I wanted to give the boys some time alone to talk."
"So Sam's doing the hunter school thing? Did Pluto.... er, Hades ever actually complete that fundraising task?"
"What fund raising task? Why would Hades be doing tasks? Isn't he dead?" Babe looks over at her.
"Later." Claire shakes her head.
"Okay. Sam is, but they're not discussing that quite yet. Actually, I... kind of proposed when we went to get Raph. Big daddy Dean probably has a few things to say about that."
"I'll bet. Especially as you're already married." Claire chides her. Babe looks surprised. "Sygn? Hel told me."
"Eh..." Babe waves her hand. "It's complicated. I'll take care of that. It's fine. We're past that."
"Have you set a date? Or are you in 'oh god I just proposed how long can I drag this out' mode?" Claire checks some doors but there's only storage rooms filled with cloth pouches. "How are the storks opening the doors for these?" She examines the handles. Babe just shrugs.
"And no, he won't until the whole wife thing is decisively taken care of. I mean, she's dead and divorcing me and I died twice and am a woman now so I can't be her husband, so it really shouldn't be an issue at all ,but I can see where he's coming from and I respect that. Best to be on the safe side when your lover's exwife is a pagan goddess. Ah, here we go." Babe taps a large corrugated metal wall and pushes it up to reveal a portal of sorts. A few laden storks are waiting by it, giving babe pleading looks.
"What's the problem? Why aren't they using it?" Claire looks for some sort of instruction manual or poster or something.
"S'up my feathered freinds? "Babe pats their heads. "What's the problem?" The stork walks over to the portal and tries to walk through but his head is all that gets in. The rest can't move forwards at all. It pulls back, and looks at her mournfully. "Huh." Babe sticks her head through breifly and sighs. "Crap." She pulls her head back. "It's the veil. which is too crowded for them to move through. I don't think there's anything we can do until Raph re opens heaven. And that won't be until Michael is out and can come to the abyss to get him personally."
"Too bad, they can't just pop in any and everywhere they need to like reapers can." Claire shakes her head.
"I know, right? Ooooo, yes." C'mon, lets go pay uncle a visit." Babe snaps her fingers and takes Claire back to Death's set of white wicker lawn furniture. Azrael and Death seem to be having some sort of disagreement, interrupted by their presence. Babe just sits down next to Claire and brings up a coronary, coma inducing spread of junk food on the table. "Don't mind us. Finish what you were doing. We can wait." Babe starts toasting a marshmallow over a small candle.
"You.." Azrael bristles. "You have a lot of nerve showing your face to me." Death just puts a hand on his angel's shoulder.
"Yeah, sorry about that, but you're back, so no harm done, right?" Babe smiles a smile that says she knows exactly what her sister thinks of that statement.
"No harm done? Do you have any idea what you have done to the natural order?"
"You know, it took me a while, but I finally figured out what you sound like when you blab on about the natural order. You sound like some clueless middle class yuppie who blathers on about how people are changing the earth or interfering with nature as if the earth wasn't changing all the damn time and has been forever, and as if they aren't part of nature themselves. The nature of existence itself is change, kitten. Always has been, always will be, and just because it hasn't been yet doesn't mean it never should be. now why don't you be a good little pussy cat and let the big boys talk, hmm?" Babe waves her away. Claire immediately punches her arm.
"Don't be a dick, Bree. Geez, you're the one who killed her, I don't know why you're so mad about any of this. Seriously, there's no need to be a bitch, here." Claire steals the browned crunchy shell from the outside of Babe's marshmallow when her freind gives her an irritated glance. "Ther eis such a thing as being a gracious winner, you ass." She pops it in her mouth. Billie gives a small smile at this.
"Azrael." Death firmly says her name. The angel looses her smile and takes a breath.
"I overstepped my bounds. I let my personal feelings influence my actions. I had no business attempting to kill you, stop you on your quest, or send the Winchesters to oblivion in the first place, much less refuse to honor claims as valid as your daughter's. According to my own set of standards and values, I was in the wrong."
"Fine. Just don't go after Sam again or according to my own values and standards, I'll be forced to fuck you up so badly you won't be able to fly for Days."
"I wasn't aware you had values or standards."
"What was that? All I heard was 'meow, meow, meow'."
"Bree, stop it." Claire tugs on a feather.
"Ow! You stop it!" Babe uncomfortably shifts her shoulders. "Hands off the tertials."
"You wished to speak to me, neice?" Death clears his throat.
"Right, yes. I was wondering, how you feel about expanding your market share." Babe snaps up a plate of fried dumplings. "Ableskiver?" Death silently walks over, and takes one.
"Wow, the greek god of death, huh?" Josephine takes the glass of soda from Harahel. "Thank you."
"Yep. He's... sweet. A little needy but he was there for me. He cares about me. Literally has the body of a greek god."
"Hopefully not like a greek statue." Josephine grins before taking a sip. Krissy laughs and shakes her head. "But, honestly, Kris? The guy kidnapped you and held you hostage. This kind of sounds more like stockholm syndrome than a real romantic relationship."
"No!. No. Its not a... a relationship.. we're just... It's not like we date. We just.. hook up." Krissy shrugs a bit uncomfortable, "Anyways, I have no idea what to do about this baby. I'm not raising a child in this life. I hated it. I won't do it. And we both know I'm not ready to settle down and join suburbia. I tried that, Jo. It's just not who I am. And even if Nat would be willing to raise it, what kind of life is that? Growing up underground in the land of the dead? No."
"So you're going to get an abortion?"
"I don't know. Maybe. I mean, if things were different, if I didn't know it had a soul, and there wasn't this whole fertility crisis in the first place, I would without hesitation."
"Then do it. It's not as if it's a new soul." Jo points out. "It's one that already lived."
"That's just it though. what if this soul was from a child, or a baby , or even an unexpected miscarriage or another abortion. I know it was in the empty, so it's unlikely, I guess. But it's this persons second chance. How often do you get a second chance?" Krissy puts her hands on her stomach, moving her feet so Hara can sit back down. "He could have been a ghost or a soul that became a demon who was killed or... or whatever the hell gets you tossed into the empty besides pissing off the reapers."
"Maybe he's supposed to be raised in this life then? Maybe he has things to make up for?"
"There's no... predestination. He just had the fastest stork. Like the egg was fertilized by the fastest sperm."
"Actually, the first ones to get there don't impregnate the egg. They work on breaking the shell, it's one of the later ones who actually get inside. You know like how the runner up on American Idol is almost always the successful... wait, I don't understand.. Saul what does a singing contest have to do with insemination?" Hara frowns.
"No, I get it. And that's... interesting. But we don't know anything about this baby. I don't know anything about babies, Jo."
"Who does? You know we're here for you, Kris." Josephine leans forwards taking her hand.
"Me, too. If you want to keep it, I can close the library for a while and take care of it when you're off hunting and I don't sleep so you won't have to wake up to change it's diapers. And I can bring it to you to nurse and..." Hara looks so adorably excited it almost makes Krissy want to keep it.
"Woah! Woah!" Saul takes back over, holdin out his hands. "Harahel, I'm sorry, but you can't just commit me to raising someone else's baby!"
"What just happened?" Josephine asks quietly, still looking at the man on the couch as his posture changes notably, relaxing slightly, though he's clearly more tense.
"Saul took over. Saul, this is Josephine, a former hunting partner of mine. She's retired. Jo, this is the gambling letch I told you about."
"Um, hi?"
"I'm a proffessional poker player, thank you and I'm not a letch."
"Please you patronize high end hookers."
"That doesn't make me a letch! That makes me selective with occaisionally large amounts of disposable income. I don't treat real women like whores, and that's what a letch does."
"Excuse me? Being a prostitute does not mean someone isn't a real woman." Krissy digs her heel into his thigh. He just shoves her feet off onto the floor.
"What but hiring them makes me less of a man? I travel. My lifestyle doesn't afford me attatchments or commitments. I like you, Krissy. Hara adores you, but I'm not raising your little demi-god. Even if it is a boy."
"I would never let you take care of my child. Especially if it's a boy." She retorts.
"So, is it hard?" Josephine smirks. The two just look over at her. "Having a love triangle with only two bodies in play?"
"What?" Krissy and Saul just look at her in horror. "No! What's wrong with you? I'm pregnant with another man's child and just... no!"
"I am not attracted to.. oh, shut up, Hara." Saul snaps as the angel apparently interrupts him. "I'm not... well, beyond that... Really." Saul looks over at Krissy with a grin.
"What the hell is he saying to you?"
"Just that our bodies elicit similar chemical reactions when in proximity to each other. I had no idea you felt that way about us."
"Hara. There's more to sexual attraction than physical chemistry. At best we'd end up fighting and trying to murder each other devolving into a violent passionate hate banging that would make things very awkward for everyone involved, including you. Do don't encourage him."
"Jesus, Krissy." Josephine covers her eyes. "You can't say things like that to heaven's librarian!"
"She has a point though." Saul puts his feet up on the coffee table. Krissy immediately kicks them off. "Especially with you using one of our respective bodies as your vessel at any given time. It could get really weird, really fast." Saul shakes his head, then laughs. "You also have a point. Are you trying to hook us up? Ensure a future of little vessels for you and your siblings?" From the amused yet chagrined look on his face Hara's response is not a pleased one. Josephine just looks a tKrissy, more bewildered than ever.
"Pretend he's talking on a cell phone ear piece or something." Krissy shrugs.
"I have never been happier to be retired. Seriously." The former hunter shakes her head and drinks her soda.
"And you have to tell the father, Krissy. It's his baby too. He should have a say in this decision too." Saul adds from nowhere. Krissy just glares at him. "No, look, I mean it. Father's have rights, too."
"Unless that includes the right to carry this thing his damn self, there are limits." Krissy retorts, then considers. "Hmmm. Maybe I could talk to Gabriel about that. That seems like something she could help with." Krissy taps her chin. "I mean she did turn me into a ferret. Was I a pregnant ferret?" She wonders aloud.
"Who's Gabrielle?"
"That's not even close to an appropriate task for either my reapers or myself." Death shakes his head. "Next you'll suggest I become an obstetrician."
"Oh, come on." Babe pleads. "Don't you ever get bored doing the same old thing all the time?"
"No." Death looks at the fruit leather tacos with bunchacrunch 'meat' and orange yellow and green gummy worms for 'cheese and lettuce' Claire is assembling.
"Don't forget tomatoes." Babe snaps up some swedish fish.
"Right." Claire grabs it and the whipped cream. "Actually it's not as far fetched as it sounds." She hands one to Death, and Babe, then adds one ot the pile of treats Billy hasn't touched. "Not when you look at the actual most basic definition of what it is you do."
"Oh? And what is it I do?" Death asks, giving the diabetic primer a breif once over before taking a bite.
"You transition the essence of sentient beings from one plane of existence to another, across the veil. What we're asking is simply for you to look into assisting, temporarily at least, the transition of the essence of sentient beings from one plane of existence to another." Claire points out and takes a bite of her own.
"Exactly." Babe pats the hunter's head. "Look, I understand that ressurrections aren't something you can toss around willy nilly. Death is neccessary for change and growth and progress. For healing. Not just for humanity as a whole but for individuals as well. What we're talking about is reincarnation. Recycling. what better for nature and it's order than recycling?" Babe points out before giving in and tackling her own sugar taco.
"You both make very good points." Death dabs the whipped cream from his nose with his kercheif as Claire points it out to him, discovering her own in the process.
"Please, this lazy irresponsible thing is just trying to shove of her responsibilities onto you." Billie glares at Babe who smacks her a kiss. Death just gives his niece a serious look challenging her to dispute the assertion.
"Look, I am ruling Heaven, trying to talk some sense into my supernatural family so they don't get hunted down and murdered, and I can't handle doing this too. Besides, Billie's done a hell of job in your absence. It's not like she can't handle the added responsibility from your attention being divided." Babe points out.
"In case you were unaware, I've lost almost a third of my reapers to your daughter and her barbarian horde."
"Nordic warriors. And no, I was not unaware. Haven't you ever wondered, Uncle? Thought about what it would be like to try something even a little different? Even just for a little while? Haven't your children? Haven't you, Billie?" The angel of death just looks away, not answering in a way that speaks clearer than anything she could have said.
"Reincarnation is not our domain." She says after a moment. Death just looks at his adjutant, silently thinking as he does so.
"It's no one's domain. Not yet."
"Assisting the transition of the essence of sentient beings from one plain of existence to another is as much our domain as anyone's, I should think." he says slowly. "Don't you agree, my angel?"