Acceptable Risks
"You want me to have it, don't you." Krissy sits at the kitchen table as Harahel has fun washing the dishes by hand. It's just so obvious he's playing house. He's even wearing the frilly apron she bought Josephine as a joke.
"It's not really my say. At all. In any way. You have to do what's best for you."
"I know. But you want me to have this baby." she presses.
"I do. It's just that a little tiny Krissy sounds so cute and adorable even if it's a boy Krissy. And I could kiss it goodnight and hear it's prayers and watch over it as it sleeps so nothing bad happens and give it good dreams, when I learn to go in dreams, which I'm sure I can. There are books for everything, you know. Maybe I could even teach it to read. I could teach it enochian and kiss it's little wounds when it falls and hurts itself.."
"Booboos."Krissy corrects him with a smile. "On babies and small children, little wounds are called booboos."
"Why?" Hara looks confused. Krissy just shrugs. "Oh, well, I could kiss it's little booboos when it falls and actually make them better and not just its feelings, but I could do that too and love it and watch it grow..." He sighs. "But... it's okay. I probably wouldn't be able to do any of that even if you have the baby. you'd have to give it away most likely for it to be really safe. Though it will be a demi god so who knows who could take care of it properly and keep it safe, too. Or how it's powers could manifest. There's just so much to consider. But I still can't help wanting to hold a little baby with tiny chestnut curls just like yours or your eyes or smile. I never got to see you as a baby. It's really too bad beauty marks aren't hereditary because being able to see a little mini Krissy would just be even cuter."
"It's not as if it's my last chance to have a baby at all. Maybe later when I'm ready and if you're not sick of me. You could be it's godfather then."
"Or, maybe it's guardian angel?" He looks so hopeful. "I'll work really hard at being a better fighter by then so I can be a proper one."
"Of course." Krissy smiles. "And I think you'd be a fine guardian just as you are. But I don't know. I still don't know. I mean, if I could find a family that could keep it safe and be able to handle its powers and not turn it evil and into an apocalyptic menace..."
"I can ask Gabriel to assign it real guardian angels to make sure it doesn't get hurt or hurt anyone else. That was usually just for prophets but I don't see why making sure it grows right is a bad idea. Better than having to..." Hara stops and puts the last dish in the rack.
"I don't want to stop hunting until I have to. I mean, I shouldn't have to sacrifice dozens of other lives just for this one. Could... if you used me as a vessel, would that keep the baby safe?"
"Um, that's not a good idea." Hara says regretfully.
"Afraid of labor pains?" Krissy teases.
"No, afraid of engendering the developing fetus with my grace. You know, the whole, being hunted down and slaughtered, creating an abomination unto god and man thing. It's not certain it would happen since it wasn't at conception, but it's happened that way as well. When it doesn't the whole process is just halted for as long as the vessel is in use, like all other processes. A couple times, it resulted in a spontaneous abortion. We're not sure why. It's one of the reasons we don't use pregnant women as vessels." he apologizes. " I would love to use you as my vessel again. This is the prettiest thing Saul will let me wear." Hara tugs at the apron with a dejected sigh.
"Oh. Hmm." Krissy rests her head in her arms, on the kitchen table, and sighs.
"It's okay, Krissy. I'm here for you. Whatever you do." Hara goes over and bends down to hug her. "Uh-oh." Hara straightens up.
"What's wrong?"
"I think somebody's praying to me? I... I don't understand.." Hara frowns, sitting down at the chair next to Krissy.
"What are they saying?"
"Need help. They have the ribbon. Don't tell dad. and something about a new river and a gorge?" Hara frowns. "It's very odd. I can't hear it very well. It's stopped now."
"Do you know who it was?"
"Well, no. They didn't say their name.," He confesses.
"You don't just know who's talking to you?"
"Usually, but it wasn't human I don't think. I didn't even know not human things could pray."
"Really? A non human who knows your name and that you're an angel? It's probably Rhys, which explains the 'don't tell dad' part, but not the part about the ribbon." Krissy starts to think.
"He just added not to tell his brother and sister either. I think he's embarrassed."
"Definitely Rhys."
"What do we do? Who can we get to help if we can't tell his family?" Hara gives her a distressed look. Krissy just raises an eyebrow at him and takes out her phone. Hopefully, they finally have the cell connection taken care of in Neiflheim by now.
"Hey, Hel?" She smiles as Hel picks up.
"What are you doing? He said not to tell his siblings!" Hara looks at her astonished. Krissy just rolls her eyes.
"No, Claire's fine. Hara just got an SOS from your baby brother. Something about 'they have the ribbon'?" The string of norse curses make Hara blush, as Krissy holds the phone away from her ear until the goddess of the dead is finished. "Sure. I'll text you the address.... well, no. She's in the abyss running errands for death or something. I'll text her to meet us there. Right. Later." Krissy shakes her head. "Hel said not to get Bree involved either."
"So we are or we aren't?"
"Well, your archangel siblings kind of scare and worry me, so no. Not yet. Jo! You don't have any spare silver bullets lying around do you? We used all ours up in Georgia." Krissy gets to her feet and goes out back to the laundry room.
"Is that him?" Alex asks as Babe carries her down to a cage that seems to shrink as they near it or at least stays visually the same size. A young man is curled on the floor in the corner.
"Yep, that's her."
"Right, her. Sorry."
"Thats fine. Miqa thinks the whole gender thing is ridiculous anyways, so it doesn't really matter."
"Oh. Okay." Alex balances on the bars on top as Babe sets her down and attaches a tether to her.
"Now, I'm going to pull you up and out if I have to and remember, don't touch him. Hell fire is uncomfortable at best even this far away from direct flames, but adding Michael's heat to it makes it unbearable. Trust me." She shudders. "You remember the words?"
"Yes. I'm going to try and talk to him first though." Alex sits down and scoots over to the gap. It's wide enough to get several of her through at once. Though it radiates an odd sort of crushing force that makes her feel like her soul is being squished as she slides through. Unfortunately it's maybe twenty feet to the bottom and the tether only gets her about two thirds of the way to the bottom.
"Hold on. I think I can expand it more." But nothing happens. "Crap. Okay, I'm pulling you up and getting more rope."
"No, don't..." Alex squirms trying to get out of it as Babe starts to pull her back up. She succeeds but her shirt is caught in the knots and gets pulled off along with the makeshift harness.
"Oh for Dad's sake, Alex..."Babe sighs then looks at her and snickers. "Determined to loose that v-card I see." She comments on Alex's black lacy bra as she picks herself up off the solid and hot floor of the cage.
"It's laundry day." Alex blushes.
"The oddness of that being your last clean pair, aside, you didn't wash clothes at home before moving in to you apartment? You're a failure as a college student, little girl." Babe scolds her.
"Will you just throw down my damn shirt? Please?"
"I don't know. Depending on how close to his vessel she is right now, that might help bring her around." The angel whistles. Alex just crosses her arms and glares up at her until Babe relents and drops the shirt down.
"Thank you." Alex's irritation doesn't ebb as she puts her shirt back on and looks at the corner where a young man with light sandy brown hair is curled in on himself, completely unresponsive to any of what's been going on. Though a few fresh tears evaporate from his eyes almost as soon as they form.
"Michael?" She calls gently. There's no response. Alex walks closer and sits down beside him. Everything is irritating and warm. The closer she gets to him the more uncomfortable she feels. "Michael..." Alex lays down on the hot surface to look at him face to face, but he doesn't seem to see her.
"The cage was smaller last time. Or maybe we were just bigger." Babe muses, trying to lengthen the tether. "I think the cage is interfering in my abilities." She informs Alex who can't help but notice a few more tears forming at the edges of his eyes at the sound of his sisters voice.
"Michael.. Mi-kai-el."she corrects her pronunciation. "It's really Gabrielle you're hearing." There's the slightest flicker in his eyes. "Michael. It's okay. you're not alone anymore. I'm here. We're here. We've come to get you out." She reaches out to put her hand on his to comfort him, almost instinctively and barely keeps from crying out at the scorching agony. It's like putting a raw burn under hot water, but he actually seems to respond to her touch, moving his hand slightly, a flicker of recognition in her eyes. So she grits her teeth and holds on.
"Alex, what are you doing? Let go!" Babe calls.
"You're the one who was praying to me." She hears him say.
"Yes." Is all Alex can manage as she struggles to control her breathing. The burning pain creeps slowly up her arm. "We're here to get you out." A deep breath. "Can you stand?" Another deep controlled breath. "Do you have the strength?"
"They don't usually touch me." he looks down at her hand and lapses into silence again. Alex lets go of his hand as the pain causes her to violently empty her stomach. But even letting go doesn't make it go away. It just stops it from spreading any further.
"Alex! Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, Bree. I can hear you." Alex grits her teeth. As she sits, a wave of heat and irritation and guilt washes over her like heat from an opening oven. Every bad feeling she's ever felt, every bad thing she's ever done pushes at the edges of her mind as the pain radiates through her arm. Usually one will distract from the other, feelings from physical, physical from feelings, but here... here they both hit her awareness equally. Every face of every victim she led back to her family's lair starts to form before her eyes, angry, crying, accusing and she starts sobbing. She never had to imagine their pain. She'd felt it herself when her family fed on her when pickings were slim. But their fear. Their fear tears through her brain. No matter what they'd done, it didn't make what happened to them right. The pain she caused their families, their loved ones, even if it was less than the pain their own actions would have caused should it come to light, doesn't make it any less of a wrong to the innocents in their lives. Their victims were deprived of justice. They didn't receive any of their own. Targeting predators was the lesser of two evils but it was still an evil. Their crimes didn't excuse hers.
Remarkably a moment of clarity pushes outward. If her, in her short life with her human mistakes can cause her so much pain, how much must Michael be suffering from eons of his. And he's all alone. Alex moves slowly back over and takes his hand again. The pain doesn't matter. It can't matter.
"Michael... it's okay." She pulls herself closer. "It's okay, We forgive you. Just come out and everything will be okay." Alex takes a breath and embraces him, "It's okay." Its all she can manage before passing out from the pure agony of the flames, demonic and divine, waging war within her very being.
"Are you sure you should go?" Josephine asks as Krissy raids their supplies. "You haven't even seen Aiden yet."
"Yes. I'm sure. Rhys helped us out in Georgia and we owe him. Besides if a werewolf cult has The Wolf That Ends the World, I doubt it's because they want a few autographs. Where the hell is Claire?" She checks her phone again.
"I'm going with you." Josephine goes to get a bag.
"No, no that's okay. I know someone I can call to help out with this." Krissy wrinkles her nose and dials. "Hey, Joe?"
"Joe?"Josephine widens her eyes. " 'Technically did not take your virginity' Joe?" Krissy nods. "I find it really weird that you fooled around with someone with my name."
"He's a white toeheaded mysogynistic asshole. Trust me, there was no confusion." She goes back to the phone. " Yeah, you heard me... As much fun as that sounds, no I did not just call to insult you. I called because there's a problem. Remember our naked wolfy friend? He's in trouble. We have to go find him and Claire's off running errands in the abyss and I thought maybe you'd want to.. want to team up." Krissy grits her teeth as she asks. "Yeah, actually. Hara's still with me. Is that okay? Okay, text me your address. We'll be there soon.... Um... okay, I guess." She sighs and waits
. "What?"
"He's sending me a picture of the hotel."
"I bet you anything he's not." Jo crosses her arms. Sure enough the picture sent in no way has the outside of the hotel in it in any way. Krissy just sighs and deletes the picture.
"Just text me the goddamn address.... yeah, sure it was... asshole." Krissy turns the phone off.
"Impressive though." Jo comments.
"Not really, he just has really scrawny thighs." Krissy puts it away. "Alright, Hara. New rule, you're not allowed to be male anymore."
"Okay?" Hara frowns at the statement. "Saul. I'm sure he did not send her a picture of his genitals. He's a hunter and a pro..." Hara stops as he notice Jo and Krissy give each other dry looks. "Really?"
"No, let him stay a boy." Jo smacks Krissy's arm with the back of her hand. "We need more sweet boys like that. Lets just make Joe be a toad."
"Being a pervert is no reason to deprive someone of their humanity." Harahel says sternly.
"Jo!" They hear a whisper and turns to see Aiden climb in the laundry room window.
"What on earth are you doing?"
"Shhh. There's... something at the side of the house. A huge redheaded man with a beard just flew down in a wagon drawn by goats! We have to get... oh, Krissy, hi... we have to get out of here until we find out what it is." He pulls her towards the window.
"Does he have a huge war hammer?" Krissy asks. Aiden looks at her and nods slowly. "Relax, it's our ride.C'mon Hara. I can't believe she sent Thor. Was Yuri busy? I really wanted to use the bifrost. I'm not sure about how my stomach will handle a flying wagon especially with the smell of goat." Krissy grumbles and puts her weapons away as there's a booming knock on the door. Aiden just stares at her. "Bye, Jo. Thanks for hte talk. Hi, Aiden. Bye, Aiden. Sorry, I couldn't stay. I'll be back though."
"Bye, angel." Jo smiles and hugs her.
"Bye, Josephine. I was nice meeting you." Hara responds. Jo just grins and nods.
"Call if you need us, okay, sweetie?"
"What the hell is going on?" Aiden demands in an angry whisper.
"I'll make certain she does." Hara reassures her. "Oh, and Saul says bye and.. I'm not saying that. I don't think she cares what you think of it. It's rude making personal remarks like that. Yes, even if it's a compliment." He argues with his vessel as he trails after Krissy.
"Who is that?" Aiden exclaims. "And who is he talking to?"
"It's okay, honey. I'll explain later." Josephine pats his chest and kisses his cheek. "Help me put this stuff away, and tell me about your day."
"Now, don't say anything about my... condition." Krissy whispers to Harahel as the wagon lands down by the hotel. "At all. To anyone ever again unless I tell you to. Understand?"
"No. I don't."
"Well, do it anyways."
"Okay." Hara meekly looks down. "Be careful, though."
"Always." Krissy smiles and walks over to room 24C, rapidly knocking on the door. "Housekeeping!" she pitches her voice high. Thor takes care of the goats.
"Krissy." Joe opens the door a crack. "Who's the behemoth behind you?" he nods to Thor who's walking up to them.
"That's Thor. He's here to help us rescue his nephew." She explains.
"My brother's still a pig, so..." Thor's explanation fails to explain anything, but Joe isn't inclined to argue with a large man weilding a war hammer.
"O-okay."
"Are you going to let us in?" Krissy taps her foot.
"Yes, right." The door closes breifly, then opens again. "Come on in."
"Alright. Hara's figured out that he's probably in a coal mining town here in Appalachia, somewhere along the new river gorge. Now, we really only have to find a way to get close to him and cut the ribbon. Fortunately along with a hello kitty skull and panty set, I've been given a dagger that'll kill anything, though it'll only work a few times. So, cutting him loose won't be a problem." Krissy plops down on the unmussed bed, kicking her shoes off.
"I fail to see how it won't be a problem. it's a large pack." Joe eyes Thor warily..."Is... is that Mjolner?"
"No." Thor scowls at his hammer before putting it down. "I have not yet been able to find it. My blood brother stole it to keep me from attending Baldur and Kali's conference with the pagan dieties way back when. Unfortunately the scavanger hunt he sent me on led to a dead end and, as he had been killed in that same conference, I was unable to beat him mercilessly until he got it back for me. I've as of yet been unable to track it down. But Heimdall still refuses to let me use the bifrost regardless."
"The.. beef roast?"
"As soon as I do find it I'm beating him senseless with it." Thor ignores the confused hunter.
"That's not actually possible." Harahel says meekly. "Only an archangel blade can actually injure Gabriel that way. Or her older siblings."
"Nonsense. I've done it dozens of times." Thor snorts. "Besides it's imbued with the power of thunder and lightening."
"Gabriel is the wind and sky brought to life through divine grace. Unless it's ground to cloud lightening, it wouldn't do anything. Maybe tickle, I'm not sure. I'm sorry."Hara apologizes.
"That tricksy veslingr. By the hangnail on Odin's left pinky toe, I should have let that damn eagle bash him into the mountain until it fell down, the faker." Thor starts to grumble in old norse, and heads to the bathroom.
"So... what exact... Krissy?" Joe looks over to Krissy who's fallen asleep. He moves over to jostle her awake but Harahel grabs his hand with surprising strength.
"Let her sleep."
"Alright." Joe rubs his sore hand when Hara lets go, and just sits on his bed watching as the angel folds the comforter over her and dims the lights. "You're suprisingly strong."
"Not especially. I'm a very small, weak angel in truth. As close to you'd come to being a 'runt'. Some suggested that our father simply ran out of material by the time he got to me, but that makes no sense as I'm the eldest in our batch. I don't usually remind them of that as it just means they'd think of a new way to tease me about it. I'm sorry I couldn't save Eddie. It was very fast and... I fell." he confesses. "My balance is off without my wings. It's made me especially clumsy. And they broke his neck..."
"Hey, no, don't worry about it." Joe waves it off.
"You were obviously close. You still have his jacket in your closet, after all."
"What? No, I just liked the jacket. I didn't really even like him. Trust me. It's fine. No hard feelings. So, uh, how long have you known Krissy?" Joe rubs the back of his neck, looking at the sleeping hunter.
"Long enough to know that she wouldn't appreciate being sent pictures of someone's genitals unasked for." Hara steps in his line of sight, crossing his arms.
"Okay, that was an accident. I swear." Joe can't keep the smile off his face. It's the one from court TV that Krissy labled the 'liar's smirk' which tells Hara he's lying.
"Neither of us is that stupid. you will behave with respect and decorum and not cause her any undue stress with unwanted advances or..." Hara struggles to think of a suitable threat he'd feel comfortable doing.
"Or...?" Joe raises an eyebrow, the smirk still on his face.
"Or... I will tell my sister Gabriel and let her decide on an appropriate action." Hara states firmly. Joe just gives an amused yet derisive laugh at this.
"Really? That's your threat? That you'll tell your sister? Oh, no."
"Yes."
"Angel." Thor comes back out of the restroom, toweling off his hands. "Don't you think that's a bit disproportionately harsh for a little flirting?"
"No." Hara gives Joe a hard look. Joe considers being worried but how bad can any sister of this little celestial librarian be. Isn't Gabriel just a messenger?
"I'm hungry." Thor claps Joe on the back. " Come. Hunter Show me the nearest restaurant."
"Sure..." Joe slowly gets to his feet. "We'll be back soon."