[fic] [Forwarddated April 5th] Happy Birthday, Lola.
Today is Lola’s fifteenth birthday. But she doesn’t feel very happy about it like normally would. She knows she’s one year closer to getting her wings, but she’s sad she’s not in Chicago. Well, she is - just a different one.
She was out one day, heading to the public library to get some more story books when she was rifted for a second time. And she found herself in another Chicago. This one was so different from the one she’d spent so many months in. She’d wandered for days, trying to work out what was going on and how to get back when she was picked up by police. They guessed she was a runaway, and with no family or parents to speak of, the authorities had no choice but to place her into the care of social services.
It didn’t take long for her work out that this place was different. When she asked about angels and demons and Wanderers, the social workers thought she was just confused or there was something wrong with her. They put it down to some kind of over-imaginative mind and after a few days, Lola stopped asking questions.
This Chicago was unlike both her home world and the Chicago she’d originally found herself in. Angels and demons were unheard of in this world. They just didn’t exist. And there was no one else who’d fallen through the Rift like her. There was no one with superpowers, there was just nothing. All of her friends weren’t here either. She knew in this world, that she was very much alone.
And as the days passed, she grew sad and lonely. She missed her friends. And part of her was worried she’d never be able to go back again. There would be no more cheeseburgers with Dean, no more conversations with Castiel and there would be no more fighting monsters and doing good things with David either. She wouldn’t be able to talk to Iris about their dreams, about how she knew in her heart Iris’ wings would be fixed and the day she’d get her wings would mean they could both be angels. They could both be the people she’d always be. She would never do those things again. She would stuck here without everyone she’d come to care about.
And what would she do in this place as an angel? They’d be scared of her, call her some kind of freak. And what would she become? How would she quench the thirst of her Calling as an Archangel if there were no demons to fight? What would she do if she couldn’t find a Ward if she became a Guardian Angel? She would be redundant in this world. She’d have to hide away because she’d live for too long. She might become a First? What would she do then? She’d be so terribly lonely and somewhere along the line - she’d end up falling.
The other kids call on her as she sits in her room, reading. They take her by the hand and drag her excitedly downstairs, singing ‘Happy Birthday’. There’s cake waiting for her on the dining room table, covered in candles.
“Make a wish!”
Lola stares at them all for a few moments before she does so. She wishes to be back in Chicago, back with her friends. She doesn’t want to be in this world forever. At least in the other Chicago, she could belong.
“What did you wish for?”
“Don’t be silly, she can’t say or it won’t come true!”
“I will not ever tell,” Lola says quietly with a small smile and a nod.
“Happy Birthday, Lola,” Siobhan, her social worker, says happily giving her a small kitten plush toy.
Lola would have rather wanted more bullets for the rifle she’d left behind her in her room in Kashtta, but she smiles anyway and says thank you. And as she looks back down at the cake, she hopes her wish will come true.