Ariel

+1+

The hallway was so crowded and I felt like everyone was staring at me. Did they know I had broken Helios' rules twice ? Could they smell the alcohol on my breathe like Seraphina could ? I looked at the door to the dorms and back at the clock.

No one had noticed Seraphina and I were gone for nearly an hour. Sera and I drove back in complete silence. She said she had gone to Riverdale as a request from Helios, but something didn't feel right. I ran right up to my dorm as soon as we got back and found everyone in the hall.

Aria had gone into labor and Anne had made everyone leave the dorm except for two girls who had some experience helping birth human children. Calliope had begged to stay and comfort Aria, but I think she just wanted her name to come up if Helios asked who was there.

When I really thought about it (and maybe it was the alcohol ) the whole processed seemed so dramatic. Everyone was just so tense. It had been nearly four hours of waiting before there was a collective gasp as Calliope opened the door and stepped out.

“Oh, dear”, Calliope lurched to the back and sat down next to me. Everyone turned and crowded around us.

“Are you alright ? How’s Aria ? And the baby--”

“Good, I think”, she gulped, “It was so unpleasant, but beautiful. . . but still a bit gruesome ?”

She twisted her face a little, but I wished I had been there. If only because I was a little curious.

“Anyway”, Calliope said, “Aria is calling for you, Ariel"

“Me ?”

I moved easily through the crowd and to the door, the girls inside are disposing of towels and sheets. I glimpse Anne by Aria’s side. Anne looked a bit shaken up. I'd never seen her dressed so plainly in years, but I knew she’d endured a lot since Helios arrived and I was beaming at her elegance.

Aria on the other hand was in tears and I suddenly wanted to turn and runaway. I read in one of the birthing books this could happen and I could barley handle my own tears lately. I could hardly see anything in the tiny bundle she was holding.

“Ariel”, Aria called, "Please go and find Leon. . .I know you’ll  know where to find him. He's missed the whole thing and I . . . please.”

She gave me this knowing look. I quickly caught on that Aria thought I'd know where to find Leon. . .because I always knew where Searphina was.

“Yes”, I sad not wanting to upset a new mother, “Right away. I'll find him.”

I run down the stairs and out the dorm, it was pitch black outside. Inside Helio's mansion the so called "walking wounded" are trying to get their bearings. Whatever tussle they had been in, it was obvious that more than a few hadn't made it back.

I took the stairs to the second floor two at a time. For once Seraphina's door was open and I could hear her low whispers. I opened the door to see the balcony doors are wide open and her bed empty.

"Seraphina ?" I call

I scan the room and find her standing half in her closet pulling on a white cotton dress.

“What is this, Ariel ? Don’t just come in unannounced” she scolded me. I glared at her. How dare she talk to me after I drove her across the island. Well I drove her halfway.

“I’m--I was looking for--”

“Me ?”

Leon steps off the balcony and into the room. I narrowed my eyes at him and give Seraphina a disapproving look. She doesn't catch the look but Leon does.

“It's not what you think”, Leon speaks up.

“You missed it”, I said folding my arms, “Aria’s asking for you.”

He let out a breath and bows his head in shame.

“I'm sorry. I  didn't know. . . I just”

“Go to her Leon”, Seraphina said. “We can talk about this tomorrow.”

“I can’t just do that Seraphina. Something is wrong with Helios with SGI. How can I stand by and pretend to be happy to welcome a child into this ? Helios's is hiding something from all of us. He didn't tell us the Demons were armed like that. I know he knew... that's why he stayed behind. No to mention he's been going out on his own more. And why are we still in New York ? Helios has never stayed anywhere this long.”

"Those weapons are ours now. Paris Prince can't hurt us. Helios is only doing what's best."

"You don't know that.", Leon says

"I do.", Seraphina uses her rare soothing voice.

"Enough is enough with Helios. He's lost what we stood for. He needs to be dealt with."

Seraphina frowns.

“Don’t you think of crossing Helios, not now. You are vulnerable now. Aria needs you here… I need you here. That's why I took that bullet for you."

At that she put her hands on his forearms, as if to indicate here. . . with her. Leon slows his pacing and he touches her arm too.

:”You have a child”, she says, "Seraphim have a future and that child is the genesis of it. Go to her. To them"

“A future hiding behind Queen Anne’s gold gates ? Or hiding in war zones with an SGI logo slapped on our chest.”

“That’s to be seen”, she says, “Please, Leon. See your . . .”

"Daughter", I finish. Glad to see they still remembered I was there.

She puts a hand on his back and leads him out the room, I trail behind not sure I should let Seraphina anywhere near Aria.

When we reach the dorm, the girls clear a path for Leon as he approaches, he’d taken a second to get as cleaned up as he can be in a gray shirt and shorts. Seraphina let's go of him at the door. He looks out of place in the frilly dormitory. It’s so strange seeing the sheepish look on his face as he takes the seat next to Aria.

“You're. . .here”, Aria's voice is barley a whisper. She looked so tired.

Leon looked unsure now aware of the judgmental and curious audience of women.

“I’m sorry”, he said to Aria, “I was just.. . scared. I want you to be safe. I want you both to be safe.”

She reaches over and clasp her hands in Leon.

“I feel safe now”

“I'm sorry", he says again.

"It's okay”, she is barley awake when she says it and half heartily points a finger at him, “But no more mistakes, daddy”

The girls closest to her laughs a small smile even breaks Leon’s lips as he take the baby from her. For a long moment his eyes never leave Aria.  He looks at her like she's the most astonishing thing in the world. If anything he'd forgotten the room full of people around him.

From my distance the baby looks like all the babies I’d see in the books; small, quiet and asleep. Tiny hands curled up, skin so new and clean it almost looks pale.

Everyone begins to lose interest and they filter off to sleep or to an early morning tea. There is a new sense of excitement and I frown seeing Helios had joined Seraphina at the door. He'd stopped to embrace her, his hands gently holding  the side of her face, her hands on his forearms.

"I almost lost you", Helios says catching and holding her gaze.

"I'm fine", she whispers to him, "I don't die that easily"

"They are going to pay for this. We are going to destroy them."

"I look forward to it."

They kiss in the doorway and it's a very rare scene of public affection between them. They slowly part and Helios makes his way to where Aria is. He kneels down next to her and gives Leon this fraternal smile that would look genuine on anyone else. Aria pretends to be asleep.

I see Helios shift his gaze from the bundle to just behind me. Seraphina is leaning against the door. They share a long look and Sera turns away, her hand over her mouth and heads down the stairs.

I follow her outside where she is expertly pulling herself together. Whatever strange emotion had come over her she was trying to hold it in. I think it was tears of joy, but Seraphina made a point of never crying. Not for happiness or sadness.

“Seraphina ?”, I say, “What's wrong. . . oh my goodness you really are in love with Leon”

“No”, she says pulling back her expression, “Heaven’s no. I just--they make a lovely family.”

“You know if you stopped taking the pill. . .”

“We are not talking about this.", she snaps

Fine. I switch subjects

"Are we going to talk about why we drove to Riverdale ? What was that all about ?"

"I told you it was for Helios.---why ? What did you see."

"Nothing, I was too scared," Seraphina. What's going on ?"

"What about you, Ariel ?" She says, "You've been drinking like a village idiot. I needed you tonight and you were too drunk to stand."

"Me ?", This is to funny, "Me ? I've needed you since I watched Hippolyta die for my mistakes and you just shut me out. I'm drunk all the fucking time, but you haven't noticed."

"Stop drinking." She practically orders me, "It's unbecoming."

"Stop lying to me."

"Ariel."

"Seraphina", I said  just to be obnoxious.

"You're acting like a child."

"You're lying Seraphina. You're lying about something. I know it."

She rolled her eyes and storms back into the mansion.

Sia told me to stop asking around about the baby’s wings. She said it was like asking about circumcision and it was best not to bring it up around the new parents. Sia was older than me and closer to Aria. I'd started having breakfast with her, she always looked so glamorusu with her willowy figure and short bob cut.

“It’s just personal you, know. Helios paid a doctor a lot of money to remove the wings. All very civilized and everything."

“A doctor ?” Who ?

“Remember, no questions. It’s rude. Aria's going through a lot."

I let the subject go.

Leon and Aria had decided to name the baby Tacmessa after some Amazon or something from Greek mythology. Aria said they did it to please Helios by giving her a strong name, but everyone just called her Tessa.

Tessa was praised by Helios. At first we were all shocked, assuming Helios would have wanted a boy. . . Aria later told me Leon told her Helios wanted to father the first son of the new generation, so he was very pleased with Tessa.

But, Tessa made life. . . difficult.

For such a small baby she cried a lot, and at any time of the day and night. Tessa had a very small nursery one door down that used to serve as a laundry room. Even with the doors closed her cries could be heard All. Night. Long.

Aria refused to move into Helio’s mansion, she said it was because she needed us to help her, but I knew it was because she didn't want to be around Seraphina. Leon didn’t fight her on it.

Leon spent all of his breaks with the pair no matter where they were. Aria asked him to take time off, but he said that would mean leaving Seraphina in charge of Titus. Which he apparently later joked would mean one of them would end up dead.

As for Seraphina, Helios had been less the subtle about his plans for her. Every time I went to sneak into her room to steal her dwindling supply of vodka, he was always sleeping in her bed. Sometimes I could sneak in and out with just enough time to refill my water bottles while they were sleeping.  Sometimes she'd be there reading in a chair and we'd make cautions small talk while Helios slept shirtless in her bed.

At first I thought constantly seeing him was really distasteful. For as long as Seraphina and Hippolyta had snuck off together I'd never once caught them in a compromising position. Seraphina was being careless.

What was even stranger was that sometimes while he slept, she would be outside on her balcony staring into nothingness. Staring out in to the late November evenings and sing herself to sleep.

+++

Paris

"Careful", I say

After determining I was too short Seraphina carefully steps onto the chair and runs her hand on the ceiling fan. She takes in a breathe slightly and touches her side.  Her cut-off shirt reveals the old scars cut into hard muscle from when Isobel had stabbed her when they first met, the bullet she had taken for Isobel and the now week old wound still bandaged.

If I ever needed proof she was invincible.

I hear her fingers land on something on the ceiling fan and she pulls the object down. I take her other hand and help her off the chair. She hands me a tiny plastic object with a small lens.

I'd spent the last week trying to get things at St. Lilith's back in order. Whatever happened to the men who didn't come back, they were never heard from again.

Helios knew about the warehouse. He knew about the pending attack. The question was how ?

The answer was right in my hand.

"Damn. It's a camera. . .", I tell her.

"Who put it there", Seraphina squints at it.

I look up at the ceiling fan where the camera had been mounted. I turn and walk in front of the fan.

"Shit."

"What ?"

"Seraphina, I conduct most of my business in my office, that's where we have all our meetings.   Whoever put this camera on the fan wasn't spying on my meetings. . . the camera was pointed towards my bed."

At this we both looked at each other without saying anything.

"You should check your room too, Sera."

She nods

"Whoever put this camera here knows about us." I say

"So what are they waiting for ? If Helios knows about us I should be dead"

"Leverage ?", I suggest, "I don't know."

I drop the camera and step on it.

"Let's keep this camera between you and me for now. Who knows who we can trust."

Seraphina takes a step back from me as my bedroom door opens and Callum comes in followed by the others. Seraphina and I automatically shift our body language to a more hostile one. Which is difficult since this is the first time I've seen her since she was shot. . . since she said she loved me.

After a long personal debate I had made the difficult choice of granting amnesty to Callum, Dante and Jona for locking me away. I didn't have time to make more enemies or hold grudges. When you set 14 people down to eternal rest in the course of two months you start doing things you don't want to. You start forgiving things you don't want to.

I stand up straight and face them. Things had been tense between my little circle and it was very clearly Callum and Jona versus Me and Lysander with poor Ashe in between. Damien was neutrally ambivalent, but sided with whoever had the upper hand.

"Paris. . . .", Callum holds his head up, his fist clenched tight, "I. . . I . . .l  look I'm sorry. You know my cousin was in one of the shops Helios destroyed. If Jona had been killed you would have done the same thing. You know it. We were family"

"I understand Callum. Now we start again. All of us together.", It's partially true but I still want to slap him every time I see him and Callum never let that murderous look leave his eye when he looked at me. We were stronger together though.

Callum clenches his fist tighter and looks up at Seraphina.

"What is she doing here ? A lot of good you did us, sweetheart"

"I warned you about the attack", she says unmoved "And you let someone shoot me."

"I didn't let anyone shoot you", Callum retorted, "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. What about the 6 hostages ? Do you know where they are. "

"No", she answers, "I was to busy bleeding out in medical."

"Useless, bitch", he murmurs.

"I'm doing my best.", she shifted her weight revealing the leather hunter's knife holster on her hip

"It's been a week. Helios must have tell you something when you spread your knees for him--"

"Callum. ", I cut him off.

"Give me time", Seraphina says decidedly ignoring Callum's comment.

"She has to give us something.", Callum jumps back in, "Or she's useless to us."

Sera narrows her eyes at Callum, as if she can tell if he's trustworthy or not.

"I can give you the money you need to start over. Make a new supply of bullets.", She says looking at me.

"How", Ashe joins in. He's listening to this very carefully, "Are you forgetting we're broke. Your boss took all our money."                                                        

"Helios' line of work pays well. He keeps all of his financial accounts on a computer. I'm sure money can be rearranged somehow."

"Do you even know how to use a computer", Ashe raises and eyebrow, "I thought Angels were Luddites."

"I also doubt you know anything about money", Callum added

Sera moves to stand behind me and puts her hands on my shoulders, her nails digging into my shoulder

"I don't have to know anything. . . I just need a really good accountant."