Fic: City Of Angels Fusion
Fic: City of Angels
Author: LMX
Fandom: Leverage/City Of Angels (FILM)
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Angel!Alec/Parker
Spoilers: None for Leverage, EVERYTHING FOR CITY OF ANGELS
Warnings: Language, Fusion: out of character characters
Author's Notes: I'm so glad this leverageland challenge is voted for an over because I *loved* this challenge but what I originally wrote was twice as long as the allowed word limit, and I've been itching to post the full version since I wrote it. This is a Leverage/City of Angels fusion, very close to the original film.
Formatting Notes: Italics are internal thought, as heard by the Angels. I have tried to separate characters by colour, this will look slighlty different on everyones' screens, so hopefully this works for you.
Super Notes: If you haven't watched City of Angels... I apologise hugely for this fic. (If you ever intend to watch it, watch it before you read this)
- -
Christ, his stats are all over the...
Where's Maggie?
She should be here.
Where is she?
Shit. Dear God. Dear...
I don't even know you any more.
"Sam?"
His eyes are closed, Nate. He's just sleeping.
Stop making everything into a fucking crisis...
What's that on the display. What does that mean?
Oh. Fuck. "Sam, please!?" Don't, Sam. Don't. Not now. Just please... "DOCTOR!"
"Sir? Sir, please move out of the way. Your wife is outside..."
I don't want her. Not ever again.
Sam, please. God. God, please.
Sam turned from where he was stood in the doorway and looked up into the tall man's eyes. He was dressed in dark clothes, matt against his dark skin. Smiling softly.
"Are you God?" he asked.
"No. My name is Alec," the man replied, and Sam nodded like that made the most sense.
"Where are we going?" he asked as Alec took his hand and started to lead him out of the room.
"Home," Alec replied, and Sam liked that idea.
"Can Daddy come?"
"No," Alec replied, and this time Sam did hesitate, looking back towards his room. His mommy was in the doorway, on her knees. Her face was wet.
"He won't understand," Sam realised sadly.
"He will, someday." Alec took his hand again and led him away from his mommy and daddy and his body on the hospital bed. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yes," Sam agreed.
Alec asked his favourite question. "What did you like best?"
"Crayons."
-
"He definitely knew what he liked. Crayons. He had a box and every one had a different smell."
"Excellent choice. What else?" Eliot always enjoyed Alec's stories. Alec saw the humans differently to the others. To him.
"In the elevator of the IYS Building a man touched a woman's bare skin by accident... but it made her turn and look at him in such a way..."
"And they...?" Eliot started.
"Yes. It was a good day." Alec was quiet for a moment. The song of the sunrise was brilliant and they both close their eyes. They stayed silent as it finished, a new day born. "Do you ever wonder what that would be like?" Alec asked finally.
"Touch?" Eliot replied. "No."
"Yes, you do," Alec contradicted.
"Occasionally. Yes," Eliot conceded to the truth easily.
"Touch," Alec breathed.
A new day started.
-
One point six metres, two handsprings, eighty four degree turn. Stop.
One. Breathe.
Two. Breathe.
Three. Breathe.
Roll. Roll. Stop. Breathe.
Hand into the jacket pocket, Titch and Roger for the lock. Jimmy them in, turn.
Breathe. Feel the tumbler. Hear the snick.
One more.
Just...
Maybe if I do it perfectly this time he'll take me home.
Parker's crazy. Parker doesn't get a home.
Shhh...
Open, pull out the contents. Don't sort it - wastes time. Just... inside the jacket with Titch and Roger already back in their leather carrying case.
Perfect.
Roll. Roll. Cartwheel. Three point six metres.
Ignore the cold, the heat sensors are off.
I bet it'd be warm in his house.
I bet...
Is that a Rembrandt?
Right brush strokes. Good light. Signature is clear.
Worth twelve grand at least.
Itchy fingers, Parker. Don't get greedy.
Alec watched the glee take over her face and wondered why it didn't take away the shadows in her eyes.
-
"She's not the same as the others," Alec observed, with a frown. He was trying to work her out, Eliot knew. His brother - always trying to work things out. "They call her crazy, but her mind is... beautiful."
There was a fluttering smile around Alec's lips, and it looked alien. The emotion was unfamiliar. They weren't built for emotion. They were passive observers. There is a sword on Eliot's back he hasn't unsheathed for nearly a millennia.
"What happened next?" he asked. Something about his brother's smile was tugging at his own lips. He always watched people who smiled extra carefully - they did interesting things.
"Then she stole the painting." Alec's smile... it was blinding.
-
Oh God. I'm going down for this.
Maybe if I got Parker out of this city. Left her in a different state.
She's eighteen now, she can fend for herself.
It's only the warehouse that belongs to me.
I could...
God, she's so young.
"What were you thinking!?" Archie demanded, and Parker was wide-eyed and cowering.
Twelve grand. I was thinking...
It had been perfect! I made sure it was perfect.
"It's worth lots of money!" she pointed out. "We like money!"
"We like our freedom more, Parker!" Archie gestured wildly at the painting. "We can't fence that. It's worthless."
What if my family find out.
Maybe it would be easier.
I've always wanted to take her home.
But I can't if I'm in prison.
"I just wanted..."
I only wanted you to take me home.
Archie walked out of the door with an air of finality.
What if she takes it on to herself to fence it?
Then she gets caught with it.
She's an adult now, she won't point fingers and they won't investigate further.
Heat's off you.
I sicken me.
Archie Leach. You are disgusting.
I wish I could take her home.
Maybe she'd stop pulling stunts like this.
Parker watched him go. Didn't flinch when the door slammed behind him. Turned to brush her fingers over the frame of the painting.
I don't know what I've done wrong.
She sat down beside the painting, and Alec sat down in front of her, trying to watch her face. She wasn't visibly upset, but he could hear her turbulent thoughts. Hear as she de-constructed every moment of the theft.
Her eyes lifted and met his. He felt like he had taken a blow to the chest, breathless if he had been breathing. She held him there with the force of her gaze. Her mind quieted.
I'm tired. I should sleep. Where's Bunny?
And then she walked across the room to the incongruous bed in the middle of the open space, fell into the bed with her Bunny and was asleep.
-
"Have you ever been seen, Eliot?" Alec asked. The sound of the sunrise is calling.
"You're looking at me."
"No, not by me, and not by the dying or the delirious." Alec frowned. "Have you ever been seen... like you were a man?"
Eliot thought about it. "In a diner once, a blind woman turned to me all of a sudden... and asked me to pass her the mustard."
"But she was blind," Alec objected.
"But she knew I was there," Eliot countered.
Alec went quiet as the sun hit the horizon. Closed his eyes. He could feel Eliot's curiosity, bubbling. As the sun joined them for the day he explained; "That thief, in the warehouse... she looked right at me."
Eliot shook his head in gentle chastisement. "She didn't see you, Alec. She can't see you. No one can see you unless you want them to."
"And if I want her to?" Alec pressed.
Eliot's look turned sharp. Distrustful. "Why do you want her to?"
"To help her. She's so alone."
-
Rosslyn? Rosslyn is...
No. Rosslyn *isn't*. Rosslyn never was.
I'm going to kill her. I'm going to kill her.
That bitch. I don't even know her real name.
I loved her.
I loved her and she wasn't real.
I've got a gun.
I know where she sleeps.
I'm going to kill her.
Eliot stepped up behind the man, observing. Dominic fell into himself, weeping openly. The gun was useless in his hands as they fell to his sides.
I loved her.
I loved her and she isn't real.
The sobs woke the grifter in the bedroom and Alec watched as she gathered everything she could and ran.
Emergency bag in the airport, new passport.
Need to remember the name.
LA. Who's in LA?
Oh yes, Catherine.
I remember Catherine.
Goodbye Dominic. Rosslyn loved you very much.
I'm sorry it had to end this way.
Hello, I'm Catherine.
Eliot stepped up beside Alec, watched the newly re-made Catherine let herself out of the mansion.
"They don't need to see us."
-
"There was a girl last night," Alec smiled, and Eliot noticed that he'd been doing that a lot more in recent days. "She asked me if she could be an Angel."
"They all want wings," Eliot mused, and was surprised to find a matching grin on his own face.
"I never know what to say."
"Tell them the truth," Eliot observed pragmatically. "Angels aren't human. We were never human."
"What if I just make her a little pair of wings out of paper?" Alec asked.
"Tell her the truth."
"I told her," Alec sighed.
"How did she take it?"
"She said, 'What good would wings be if you couldn't feel wind on your face?'"
They both fell quiet as the sun rose over the horizon.
-
He's not coming back.
He's not coming back.
He's not coming back.
Just you and me now Bunny.
Back to how it was before.
I want him to...
"Who are you?" she asked the man stood in her warehouse, watching her with a serious look.
Who are you?
Who are you?
Get out, get out, get out...
Don't leave me here alone.
"I'm Alec." And he stayed a while. Until she fell asleep.
-
The grifter, Catherine, was staring at him. Alec thought briefly that he should stop projecting his desires onto the world around him. And then she smiled.
"Some things are true whether you believe them or not," she said. Alec looked around him. "Don't look away," she said. There was still nobody but him there for her to be talking to. "I can tell you the secret."
"What secret?" he said, because this was an odd experience.
"You choose."
"Choose?"
"Yes, choose. To fall to Earth," Catherine said, and to Alec it felt like sunset had come early, singing behind his ears. "You jump off a bridge. Leap out a window... You just make up your mind to do it and you do it. You wake up all smelly, and hurting from head to toe, and hungrier than you've ever been... only you have no idea what hunger is. It's confusing and painful, but very, very good."
"Human," Alec whispered. "You were...?" He couldn't even bring himself to express it. She had been one of them. She had been an Angel.
"Once," she nodded. "He gave them," Catherine gestured out of the window into the street, "The greatest gift in the universe. Do you honestly think He didn't give it to us too?"
"Which gift?" Alec pressed, feeling breathless though he didn't need to breathe.
"Free will," she said emphatically.
"Are there others?" Alec asked. "Others like you?"
"You see them, but most of the time you just walk on by. Nobody likes to think of the old life. What they gave up."
"Then why'd you do it?" Alec pleaded.
Catherine's eyes shone, and she smiled. "Why for love, of course."
-
"Why are you here?" Parker was tired, and hungry. But Archie always said she should wait for him. She was waiting for him. "Why are you doing this?" she asked as he sat down on the bed beside her.
"Because I'm in love with you," Alec answered simply, knowing in that moment that it's true.
In a moment that lasts forever, he leans forwards and brushes the edges of him against the edges of her. A kiss. She frowns at him, briefly. Then tugs him with her as she curls up in the bed.
"Just stay until I fall asleep."
-
"Geez, it's like a train station in here," Parker said, eyes on the shadow in the doorway.
"I wanted to see," the woman said, stepping through the door and into the warehouse on heels that sounded tall. "I wanted to remind myself what love looks like from your side."
"Get out of here, lady," Parker growled, but the woman just walked right up to her seat and sat down beside her.
"Alec loves you," the woman whispered to her, like it was a secret. "He knows no fear, no pain, no hunger. He hears music in the sunrise. But he'd give it all up, he loves you that much."
"I don't understand," Parker frowned.
"He can give up eternity and become one of us. It's up to you."
-
"Hey, buddy. You can't be in here." Voices from above, waking him. Shaking him. He opened his eyes.
Do you see me?
Do you see me?
"Can you see me?"
"We can see you."
He sat up, felt his head spin and reached up to touch his hairline. Tacky under his fingers. He'd fallen.
Why had he...
Is this blood?
"This is blood! Is it red?" Is it red? "What colour..."
He's confused.
He knows he's confused.
That's a start.
"What colour were the drugs you took?" the construction worker asked with a chuckle.
"Better get your butt out of here," his colleague added. "You got somewhere to go?"
Parker.
-
The world from the top of a building always looked so much purer. Parker thought about Alec stood up here, watching the sunrise; thought about the diamonds in her pockets; and the way his eyes softened around the edges when he said her name.
She wasn't thinking about Archie any more. She would give him the diamonds and then maybe she wouldn't stay in the warehouse next time he told her to. She was bored of going hungry waiting for him.
Alec was going to fall for her. For her.
He was going to come home to her.
-
She had left the warehouse. He stood there for a moment, in front of the big door, bereft.
She's not here.
She was supposed to be here.
It took him time to get inside, but there was no one watching so he wasn't stopped. There were plans on the tables. Food on the side.
The plans told him that there was something to be stolen. He couldn't wait. He wouldn't wait for her.
He read the address, double-checked it.
He would find her there. He hurt and he was tired and he was hungrier than he could ever remember being. But he needed to be there with her.
He caught a bus. It was strange, but he worked it out eventually. No one looked at him, bloody and unkempt on the back seat. It felt more familiar than anything else so far.
This is the first step.
I'll learn everything for you.
I'm going to do everything for you.
-
There was an ambulance, right there at the foot of the building. He thought to look for one of his brothers, but before he could scan the crowd he saw a splay of blond hair.
There was a noise wrenched from him, and he was on his knees beside her without any thought. Her eyes opened and met his and he didn't want to think about how easy it was to love her. She could see him. He was there to be seen.
"Parker," he whispered. The medics were moving to one side.
"I'm scared," she said, but she didn't sound anything but angry, tired. "I screwed up. I wanted to show you everything."
"You will," he insisted, taking her hand. Feeling her touch. The heat of her palm. He had never touched before now. He leaned forwards, breathed her in. Hated the ugly tang of blood.
"You came all this way," her voice broke at the edges. "I'm sorry."
God, no, Parker!
To touch you... and to feel you.
To be able to hold your hand right now.
You know what that means?
Do you know how much I love you?
He could feel the other one now, at the edge of his perception. Listening. Watching. "Keep looking at me, okay?" he managed to say, through everything else clammouring in his mind. "Look right in my eyes."
"Someone's out there," Parker said, eyes drifting past him into the crowd.
"Don't look at them," Alec insisted. "Please, don't you look at them!"
Parker breathed a beat, eyes widening. "Is this what happens?" she asked softly.
"Yes," Alec choked out. "This is what happens."
Parker's eyes met his unwaveringly. "I'm not afraid," she said. "When they ask me... what I liked the best... I'll tell them... it was you."
-
"God!" He was screaming, hoarse and tense and furious. The sun was rising in the distance. He couldn't hear it sing. "I can't see you, but I know you're there."
"I'm sorry."
He sagged back against the wall. "Get out," he snarled. Eliot stared back at him, arms crossed over his chest. "Was it you?" he demanded, with some masochistic desire to know every detail. "Were you the one? Were you there?"
"No," Eliot replied, and he was so calm. Too calm. Alec wanted to tear the world apart, and then move on to Heaven to do the same.
"Why did He do this?"
"I don't know," Eliot answered flatly.
"Because her number was up?"
Eliot stepped forward, hands falling by his side. "What do you want me to say?"
"Am I being punished?"
"You know better than that. That's life. You're living now." Eliot hesitated, stepped back. "And one day... you'll be dying."
Alec fell against the wall's support, collapsed down to the ground. Held himself. There's no one here but him. No one to touch.
"What's it like?" Eliot asked, crouching at his side.
"What?" Alec replied, voice broken and hoarse.
Eliot glanced up, into the sun just newly over the horizon. "Warmth."
Alec waited a moment. Experienced. Discovered. "It's wonderful."
Eliot fell silent for a moment. "If you'd known this was going to happen..." he started, hesitated. "Would you have done it?" he finished.
"I would rather have had..." It hurts. It is an agony unknown. "One breath of her hair... one kiss of her mouth... one touch of her hand... than an eternity without it." Tears were falling, and Eliot was gone. "Just one."
- -
And... the piece of music at the end of the film which will kill you dead if you're not already there. xx
Author: LMX
Fandom: Leverage/City Of Angels (FILM)
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Angel!Alec/Parker
Spoilers: None for Leverage, EVERYTHING FOR CITY OF ANGELS
Warnings: Language, Fusion: out of character characters
Author's Notes: I'm so glad this leverageland challenge is voted for an over because I *loved* this challenge but what I originally wrote was twice as long as the allowed word limit, and I've been itching to post the full version since I wrote it. This is a Leverage/City of Angels fusion, very close to the original film.
Formatting Notes: Italics are internal thought, as heard by the Angels. I have tried to separate characters by colour, this will look slighlty different on everyones' screens, so hopefully this works for you.
Super Notes: If you haven't watched City of Angels... I apologise hugely for this fic. (If you ever intend to watch it, watch it before you read this)
- -
Christ, his stats are all over the...
Where's Maggie?
She should be here.
Where is she?
Shit. Dear God. Dear...
I don't even know you any more.
"Sam?"
His eyes are closed, Nate. He's just sleeping.
Stop making everything into a fucking crisis...
What's that on the display. What does that mean?
Oh. Fuck. "Sam, please!?" Don't, Sam. Don't. Not now. Just please... "DOCTOR!"
"Sir? Sir, please move out of the way. Your wife is outside..."
I don't want her. Not ever again.
Sam, please. God. God, please.
Sam turned from where he was stood in the doorway and looked up into the tall man's eyes. He was dressed in dark clothes, matt against his dark skin. Smiling softly.
"Are you God?" he asked.
"No. My name is Alec," the man replied, and Sam nodded like that made the most sense.
"Where are we going?" he asked as Alec took his hand and started to lead him out of the room.
"Home," Alec replied, and Sam liked that idea.
"Can Daddy come?"
"No," Alec replied, and this time Sam did hesitate, looking back towards his room. His mommy was in the doorway, on her knees. Her face was wet.
"He won't understand," Sam realised sadly.
"He will, someday." Alec took his hand again and led him away from his mommy and daddy and his body on the hospital bed. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yes," Sam agreed.
Alec asked his favourite question. "What did you like best?"
"Crayons."
-
"He definitely knew what he liked. Crayons. He had a box and every one had a different smell."
"Excellent choice. What else?" Eliot always enjoyed Alec's stories. Alec saw the humans differently to the others. To him.
"In the elevator of the IYS Building a man touched a woman's bare skin by accident... but it made her turn and look at him in such a way..."
"And they...?" Eliot started.
"Yes. It was a good day." Alec was quiet for a moment. The song of the sunrise was brilliant and they both close their eyes. They stayed silent as it finished, a new day born. "Do you ever wonder what that would be like?" Alec asked finally.
"Touch?" Eliot replied. "No."
"Yes, you do," Alec contradicted.
"Occasionally. Yes," Eliot conceded to the truth easily.
"Touch," Alec breathed.
A new day started.
-
One point six metres, two handsprings, eighty four degree turn. Stop.
One. Breathe.
Two. Breathe.
Three. Breathe.
Roll. Roll. Stop. Breathe.
Hand into the jacket pocket, Titch and Roger for the lock. Jimmy them in, turn.
Breathe. Feel the tumbler. Hear the snick.
One more.
Just...
Maybe if I do it perfectly this time he'll take me home.
Parker's crazy. Parker doesn't get a home.
Shhh...
Open, pull out the contents. Don't sort it - wastes time. Just... inside the jacket with Titch and Roger already back in their leather carrying case.
Perfect.
Roll. Roll. Cartwheel. Three point six metres.
Ignore the cold, the heat sensors are off.
I bet it'd be warm in his house.
I bet...
Is that a Rembrandt?
Right brush strokes. Good light. Signature is clear.
Worth twelve grand at least.
Itchy fingers, Parker. Don't get greedy.
Alec watched the glee take over her face and wondered why it didn't take away the shadows in her eyes.
-
"She's not the same as the others," Alec observed, with a frown. He was trying to work her out, Eliot knew. His brother - always trying to work things out. "They call her crazy, but her mind is... beautiful."
There was a fluttering smile around Alec's lips, and it looked alien. The emotion was unfamiliar. They weren't built for emotion. They were passive observers. There is a sword on Eliot's back he hasn't unsheathed for nearly a millennia.
"What happened next?" he asked. Something about his brother's smile was tugging at his own lips. He always watched people who smiled extra carefully - they did interesting things.
"Then she stole the painting." Alec's smile... it was blinding.
-
Oh God. I'm going down for this.
Maybe if I got Parker out of this city. Left her in a different state.
She's eighteen now, she can fend for herself.
It's only the warehouse that belongs to me.
I could...
God, she's so young.
"What were you thinking!?" Archie demanded, and Parker was wide-eyed and cowering.
Twelve grand. I was thinking...
It had been perfect! I made sure it was perfect.
"It's worth lots of money!" she pointed out. "We like money!"
"We like our freedom more, Parker!" Archie gestured wildly at the painting. "We can't fence that. It's worthless."
What if my family find out.
Maybe it would be easier.
I've always wanted to take her home.
But I can't if I'm in prison.
"I just wanted..."
I only wanted you to take me home.
Archie walked out of the door with an air of finality.
What if she takes it on to herself to fence it?
Then she gets caught with it.
She's an adult now, she won't point fingers and they won't investigate further.
Heat's off you.
I sicken me.
Archie Leach. You are disgusting.
I wish I could take her home.
Maybe she'd stop pulling stunts like this.
Parker watched him go. Didn't flinch when the door slammed behind him. Turned to brush her fingers over the frame of the painting.
I don't know what I've done wrong.
She sat down beside the painting, and Alec sat down in front of her, trying to watch her face. She wasn't visibly upset, but he could hear her turbulent thoughts. Hear as she de-constructed every moment of the theft.
Her eyes lifted and met his. He felt like he had taken a blow to the chest, breathless if he had been breathing. She held him there with the force of her gaze. Her mind quieted.
I'm tired. I should sleep. Where's Bunny?
And then she walked across the room to the incongruous bed in the middle of the open space, fell into the bed with her Bunny and was asleep.
-
"Have you ever been seen, Eliot?" Alec asked. The sound of the sunrise is calling.
"You're looking at me."
"No, not by me, and not by the dying or the delirious." Alec frowned. "Have you ever been seen... like you were a man?"
Eliot thought about it. "In a diner once, a blind woman turned to me all of a sudden... and asked me to pass her the mustard."
"But she was blind," Alec objected.
"But she knew I was there," Eliot countered.
Alec went quiet as the sun hit the horizon. Closed his eyes. He could feel Eliot's curiosity, bubbling. As the sun joined them for the day he explained; "That thief, in the warehouse... she looked right at me."
Eliot shook his head in gentle chastisement. "She didn't see you, Alec. She can't see you. No one can see you unless you want them to."
"And if I want her to?" Alec pressed.
Eliot's look turned sharp. Distrustful. "Why do you want her to?"
"To help her. She's so alone."
-
Rosslyn? Rosslyn is...
No. Rosslyn *isn't*. Rosslyn never was.
I'm going to kill her. I'm going to kill her.
That bitch. I don't even know her real name.
I loved her.
I loved her and she wasn't real.
I've got a gun.
I know where she sleeps.
I'm going to kill her.
Eliot stepped up behind the man, observing. Dominic fell into himself, weeping openly. The gun was useless in his hands as they fell to his sides.
I loved her.
I loved her and she isn't real.
The sobs woke the grifter in the bedroom and Alec watched as she gathered everything she could and ran.
Emergency bag in the airport, new passport.
Need to remember the name.
LA. Who's in LA?
Oh yes, Catherine.
I remember Catherine.
Goodbye Dominic. Rosslyn loved you very much.
I'm sorry it had to end this way.
Hello, I'm Catherine.
Eliot stepped up beside Alec, watched the newly re-made Catherine let herself out of the mansion.
"They don't need to see us."
-
"There was a girl last night," Alec smiled, and Eliot noticed that he'd been doing that a lot more in recent days. "She asked me if she could be an Angel."
"They all want wings," Eliot mused, and was surprised to find a matching grin on his own face.
"I never know what to say."
"Tell them the truth," Eliot observed pragmatically. "Angels aren't human. We were never human."
"What if I just make her a little pair of wings out of paper?" Alec asked.
"Tell her the truth."
"I told her," Alec sighed.
"How did she take it?"
"She said, 'What good would wings be if you couldn't feel wind on your face?'"
They both fell quiet as the sun rose over the horizon.
-
He's not coming back.
He's not coming back.
He's not coming back.
Just you and me now Bunny.
Back to how it was before.
I want him to...
"Who are you?" she asked the man stood in her warehouse, watching her with a serious look.
Who are you?
Who are you?
Get out, get out, get out...
Don't leave me here alone.
"I'm Alec." And he stayed a while. Until she fell asleep.
-
The grifter, Catherine, was staring at him. Alec thought briefly that he should stop projecting his desires onto the world around him. And then she smiled.
"Some things are true whether you believe them or not," she said. Alec looked around him. "Don't look away," she said. There was still nobody but him there for her to be talking to. "I can tell you the secret."
"What secret?" he said, because this was an odd experience.
"You choose."
"Choose?"
"Yes, choose. To fall to Earth," Catherine said, and to Alec it felt like sunset had come early, singing behind his ears. "You jump off a bridge. Leap out a window... You just make up your mind to do it and you do it. You wake up all smelly, and hurting from head to toe, and hungrier than you've ever been... only you have no idea what hunger is. It's confusing and painful, but very, very good."
"Human," Alec whispered. "You were...?" He couldn't even bring himself to express it. She had been one of them. She had been an Angel.
"Once," she nodded. "He gave them," Catherine gestured out of the window into the street, "The greatest gift in the universe. Do you honestly think He didn't give it to us too?"
"Which gift?" Alec pressed, feeling breathless though he didn't need to breathe.
"Free will," she said emphatically.
"Are there others?" Alec asked. "Others like you?"
"You see them, but most of the time you just walk on by. Nobody likes to think of the old life. What they gave up."
"Then why'd you do it?" Alec pleaded.
Catherine's eyes shone, and she smiled. "Why for love, of course."
-
"Why are you here?" Parker was tired, and hungry. But Archie always said she should wait for him. She was waiting for him. "Why are you doing this?" she asked as he sat down on the bed beside her.
"Because I'm in love with you," Alec answered simply, knowing in that moment that it's true.
In a moment that lasts forever, he leans forwards and brushes the edges of him against the edges of her. A kiss. She frowns at him, briefly. Then tugs him with her as she curls up in the bed.
"Just stay until I fall asleep."
-
"Geez, it's like a train station in here," Parker said, eyes on the shadow in the doorway.
"I wanted to see," the woman said, stepping through the door and into the warehouse on heels that sounded tall. "I wanted to remind myself what love looks like from your side."
"Get out of here, lady," Parker growled, but the woman just walked right up to her seat and sat down beside her.
"Alec loves you," the woman whispered to her, like it was a secret. "He knows no fear, no pain, no hunger. He hears music in the sunrise. But he'd give it all up, he loves you that much."
"I don't understand," Parker frowned.
"He can give up eternity and become one of us. It's up to you."
-
"Hey, buddy. You can't be in here." Voices from above, waking him. Shaking him. He opened his eyes.
Do you see me?
Do you see me?
"Can you see me?"
"We can see you."
He sat up, felt his head spin and reached up to touch his hairline. Tacky under his fingers. He'd fallen.
Why had he...
Is this blood?
"This is blood! Is it red?" Is it red? "What colour..."
He's confused.
He knows he's confused.
That's a start.
"What colour were the drugs you took?" the construction worker asked with a chuckle.
"Better get your butt out of here," his colleague added. "You got somewhere to go?"
Parker.
-
The world from the top of a building always looked so much purer. Parker thought about Alec stood up here, watching the sunrise; thought about the diamonds in her pockets; and the way his eyes softened around the edges when he said her name.
She wasn't thinking about Archie any more. She would give him the diamonds and then maybe she wouldn't stay in the warehouse next time he told her to. She was bored of going hungry waiting for him.
Alec was going to fall for her. For her.
He was going to come home to her.
-
She had left the warehouse. He stood there for a moment, in front of the big door, bereft.
She's not here.
She was supposed to be here.
It took him time to get inside, but there was no one watching so he wasn't stopped. There were plans on the tables. Food on the side.
The plans told him that there was something to be stolen. He couldn't wait. He wouldn't wait for her.
He read the address, double-checked it.
He would find her there. He hurt and he was tired and he was hungrier than he could ever remember being. But he needed to be there with her.
He caught a bus. It was strange, but he worked it out eventually. No one looked at him, bloody and unkempt on the back seat. It felt more familiar than anything else so far.
This is the first step.
I'll learn everything for you.
I'm going to do everything for you.
-
There was an ambulance, right there at the foot of the building. He thought to look for one of his brothers, but before he could scan the crowd he saw a splay of blond hair.
There was a noise wrenched from him, and he was on his knees beside her without any thought. Her eyes opened and met his and he didn't want to think about how easy it was to love her. She could see him. He was there to be seen.
"Parker," he whispered. The medics were moving to one side.
"I'm scared," she said, but she didn't sound anything but angry, tired. "I screwed up. I wanted to show you everything."
"You will," he insisted, taking her hand. Feeling her touch. The heat of her palm. He had never touched before now. He leaned forwards, breathed her in. Hated the ugly tang of blood.
"You came all this way," her voice broke at the edges. "I'm sorry."
God, no, Parker!
To touch you... and to feel you.
To be able to hold your hand right now.
You know what that means?
Do you know how much I love you?
He could feel the other one now, at the edge of his perception. Listening. Watching. "Keep looking at me, okay?" he managed to say, through everything else clammouring in his mind. "Look right in my eyes."
"Someone's out there," Parker said, eyes drifting past him into the crowd.
"Don't look at them," Alec insisted. "Please, don't you look at them!"
Parker breathed a beat, eyes widening. "Is this what happens?" she asked softly.
"Yes," Alec choked out. "This is what happens."
Parker's eyes met his unwaveringly. "I'm not afraid," she said. "When they ask me... what I liked the best... I'll tell them... it was you."
-
"God!" He was screaming, hoarse and tense and furious. The sun was rising in the distance. He couldn't hear it sing. "I can't see you, but I know you're there."
"I'm sorry."
He sagged back against the wall. "Get out," he snarled. Eliot stared back at him, arms crossed over his chest. "Was it you?" he demanded, with some masochistic desire to know every detail. "Were you the one? Were you there?"
"No," Eliot replied, and he was so calm. Too calm. Alec wanted to tear the world apart, and then move on to Heaven to do the same.
"Why did He do this?"
"I don't know," Eliot answered flatly.
"Because her number was up?"
Eliot stepped forward, hands falling by his side. "What do you want me to say?"
"Am I being punished?"
"You know better than that. That's life. You're living now." Eliot hesitated, stepped back. "And one day... you'll be dying."
Alec fell against the wall's support, collapsed down to the ground. Held himself. There's no one here but him. No one to touch.
"What's it like?" Eliot asked, crouching at his side.
"What?" Alec replied, voice broken and hoarse.
Eliot glanced up, into the sun just newly over the horizon. "Warmth."
Alec waited a moment. Experienced. Discovered. "It's wonderful."
Eliot fell silent for a moment. "If you'd known this was going to happen..." he started, hesitated. "Would you have done it?" he finished.
"I would rather have had..." It hurts. It is an agony unknown. "One breath of her hair... one kiss of her mouth... one touch of her hand... than an eternity without it." Tears were falling, and Eliot was gone. "Just one."
- -
And... the piece of music at the end of the film which will kill you dead if you're not already there. xx
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