Divided We Fall

Raphael's brothers Micheal and Gabriel weigh in on his choices. Will he be able to save Catherine?

“Gabriel! What have you done?”  Michael’s booming voice, so rarely raised, shook the very heavens.  “How could you encourage him to make such a foolish choice?  You know full well what fate lies in store for any who dare it!”  Glorious in his own wrath, he was an impressive force to behold.  That Gabriel remained unfazed by it only served to fan the flames of his anger. 

“It is as it must be, brother.  You have seen it as clearly as have I.  He’s loved her, Michael, all this time; even if he is not fully aware of it.  If he does not try to help her...”  Raphael would not have been able to forgive himself.  Gabriel’s voice was calm and firm, urging Michael to understand how dearly their brother would have suffered for it.

“You dare utter such blasphemy?  You would imply that an angel could love a woman in a human way?  Worse still are the consequences Raphael now faces.  Every single moment on earth holds some degree of affliction, some sort of pain.  You would stand idly by and let him choose such suffering?”

“No Michael, I would see him live.  There is an obvious connection between our brother and this Catherine.  I would have him see it through to the fullest of its potential.  Is that not the greatest gift our father can bestow upon us?  To be among the human children he adores; able to feel the full spectrum of the emotions he has gifted them with.”

“Listen to yourself, Gabriel, speaking of love when you know very well that we will have to follow him.  You know what will have to be done…”  They would also have to make the journey down to Earth.  They would find him and when they did he would have a choice to make.  Depending on his decision he would either be escorted home, or cast out of Heaven.  If the latter be his choice he would lose his Grace and join humanity, never to be an angel again.  There was simply no way to foresee what the outcome would be.

Far below, Raphael struggled to save the girl from the watery tomb that continued to try to pull them down into its depths.  They saw the moment when Raphael lost hope and gave in to despair.  This moment was not about saving Catherine’s life, it was a test of faith.  The question was not if she would live to see another morrow, or if he could pull her out of the water.  There was no possible way for him to do so. Catherine’s life was not in his hands.  The true question here was how far Raphael would go for her.  It seemed that he was about to prove that he was willing to give all of himself for her.

Gabriel sighed wearily as powerful legs stopped scissoring through the water and Raphael reached a palm up to cradle Catherine's head to his.  Together they began to drift down into the depths, Raphael cradling Catherine as she once had held Molly.  They were a tragically beautiful pair, as one man named Shakespeare had once described a pair of star crossed lovers.

There was a terrible, sad romance to the scene.  Raphael was so ready to give up the taste of humanity he’d only just been granted for the mere possibility of being allowed to follow Catherine in death.  He would stop at no end to be with this woman.  Only Michael remained unmoved as Raphael pressed his forehead to Catherine’s and embraced the grief that overtook him.  Beneath the angels watchful gaze the anguish became a palpable thing, stretching wider than the ocean itself.  A single teardrop fell from Gabriel’s lashes, one solitary droplet joining millions more becoming part of the tempest below.

“Why should he weep for her, Gabriel?  In moments she will ascend to join those she has loved and lost.  Where is the joy?  She is about to have all that she has mourned for.  No longer will she feel pain or fear or sadness.  No longer will she miss those who have left her that she has held so dear.  It is the way of things.  Raphael mourns as if it is an ultimate end, rather than a homecoming.” 

Why an angel would give up the perfection of Heaven for a traumatic and typically human event such as the one unfolding below them was far beyond Michael.  It was simply beyond his capacity of understanding; the tears wept for Catherine, or the ones Gabriel shed for both the tragic figures below.  To Michael, the great tragedy was the possible loss of their brother.

“He has been given a gift, Michael.  While caring for Catherine he has discovered human emotion.  Whatever the reason, he needs this woman.  We have all witnessed how important she is to all whose lives she has touched.  It would seem that somehow she has managed to touch Raphael as well.  He cannot bear to see the world lose such a kind and caring soul.” 

Gabriel understood.  He had seen first hand the drastic changes that had affected their brother.  He had been there when Michael chose to walk away.  Changes such as those that had affected Raphael had only manifested themselves in a select few before.  Every one of them other angels who had faced the choice to either take the fall and join humanity or forever wonder what might have been.  It was his belief that the pull to Earth, so similar to that of gravity, was a calling such as that of a preacher to the church.  As with all new life, an angel who leaves behind the heavens to become human is blessed. 

 “You speak as if he has committed a selfless act.  He turns his back on us, not for the world below us, but rather in sin.” Michael wallowed in his anger as a petulant child may have, seeing only what suited him.  “He lusts for this woman's life as much as she does her own death.  You would have me believe that selfish want could be a calling from our Father?”  The rage that burned within all the more potent when paired with the resentment he felt for having been put into a situation where anger was needed. 

“Believe what you must, Michael.  Hopefully in the end we shall all be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.”  The situation below them had turned quite sour.  Gabriel had begun to fear the end would come far too soon if the situation kept progressing as it was.  There was a boat nearby; a little fishing barge that might have equipment adequate enough to fish the pair out of the murky depths.  Surely a little nudge in the right direction was in order…

“He will come back, Gabriel.” Michael’s tone was final.  He would not deter from the righteous path he’d chosen.  “If he does not, I will fetch him home myself...” and stop at nothing to cast him out should he refuse.  It was Michael's duty, one he took quite seriously.  Gabriel was perfectly prepared to do whatever he must to slow his course until Raphael could have the chance to make up his mind.

***

Raphael welcomed the darkness but for the fact that he could no longer see the face which he still cradled to his breast.  The further down they drifted, the more surreal the entire situation became.  Catherine somehow found the strength to curl into his warmth, even as he began to shiver with the cold to which he should have been impervious.  What little comfort there was in the knowledge that she was still alive enough to do so was overshadowed by worry even now that their fate was sealed.  It saddened him that, chilled as he was, she was still colder; frozen as ice in his arms. 

 Such a disturbing and peculiar feeling, all that water entering his body.  So violently intrusive; as if his body knew how wrong it was to have the foreign substance force its way in. 

Just as his muscles began to slacken under the weight that was finality a great white light shone from somewhere far above them.  A light so bright that he was nearly blinded as he beheld it.  This was it.  Finally, this was the end.  Take us home, Father. Wherever that may have become.

To his surprise a net was cast into the water around them.  An unexpected twist that left him baffled. Raphael had been so certain the light was that of Heaven.  He watched, fascinated in a detached sort of way, as it floated ever so slowly down to them.  Rough hemp rope rubbed against his back, scratching uncomfortably at his skin as it enveloped them both.  Tumbling end over end it pulled them along pulling Raphael out of his reverie just enough to worry for Catherine’s safety.  He simply would not see her harmed any more than she had already done to herself. 

Reaching behind him with the one arm that did not hold her, he gripped a junction of weave in the rope and held fast.  The burn of it made his hand ache madly, but he held strong cocooning Catherine with his limbs to protect her as best he could.

The net closed in tightly, gripping them as a fist raising them above sea level.  The water fell away cathartically beneath them.  Then it seemed everything began to move too quickly. 

He didn’t know what to feel first.  Should he start with relief, as his lungs filled with air once more?  Perhaps he ought to consider the discomfort in his chest as he coughed uncontrollably while his body tried valiantly to expel the water it had taken in?  All manner of unfamiliar aches and pains burned across his body where the ropes had dug in.  The rough shouting of anxious men and the crash of water in large quantities all over the boat were inducing yet more pain in his head.  The terrible rolling sensation of the boat beneath them caused his heart and stomach to flip, start and stop in an unnerving manner.  Robbed of his ability to pick and choose his emotions at will all Raphael could do was sit tight and wait it out as he was overwhelmed with them all.

 The net was quickly pulled away and someone took Catherine from his arms. He tried to protest, fearing that in their separation he would no longer be able to protect her but his voice would not come.  As if reading his mind, the salt roughened voices of several human men spoke to gently to him from places he could not see.  “It’s all right, lad.  We’ve got you now.  Everything will be all right.”  He recognized the voice but was too dazed to be able to place it.  Not that it mattered.  All of his waning energy was being spent on simply staying conscious long enough to find out what had come of Catherine. 

They were carried somewhere very small and mercifully dry, set side by side and inspected for injury.  Raphael watched as someone placed a strange clear mask over Catherine’s nose and mouth.  His gaze drifted to her torso, looking for the steady rise and fall of breath that would tell him she’d somehow managed to survive.  Something the men called paddles were put to her skin and made her body convulse.  Once, twice and again a third time he felt his own heart stop, pitifully, as he realized what this must mean.  He'd observed this sort of death before, but had never understood how traumatic it was not only to the dying but also to those who survived them.

Frantic now in his grief, his hands grabbed desperately for some sort of purchase.  His fingers found the round metal railings on either side of the bedding he lay on and gripped it tightly.  The loss was a live thing, angry and hopeless, that he could feel deep in his gut clawing desperately inside of him seeking a way to escape.  It came out a feral howl through clenched teeth that wracked his body as violently as the convulsions had Catherine’s only moments before. 

There was cheering all around that he could not understand.  Joy was not an appropriate reaction to the loss of a life.  How could these people possibly feel such misplaced emotion while facing such tragedy?  How awful a place had the Earth become, that complete strangers would cheer the death of a good woman? 

Rage gripped him as he'd never felt it before.  Not one to anger easily, or in fact at all, the angel began entertaining the notion of vengeance on these wretched men.  A notion he would gladly have acted upon, were it not for the large callused hand that rested itself on his shoulder.

“She’s alive, lad.” The rough voice spoke in his ear. “She’s barely breathing, but alive all the same.  The Coast Guard’s on it’s way to take you both to a hospital.  Shouldn’t be too much longer now.  It’ll be all right.  You’ll see.”  There was no reason to trust this man, and yet Raphael relaxed under his touch. 

Turning his head back toward where Catherine lay he was amazed to see the labored rise and fall of her chest as her overtaxed lungs worked to bring in and let out the oxygen her body needed.  She was alive! She was breathing when he’d been so sure she never would again.  The urge to fight melted away as quickly as it had come upon him. 

Something small and ever so cold was placed in his hand.  When he looked down he was surprised to see Catherine’s hand slowly regaining its pinkish hue within his own.  Oh. He was thinking in single syllables now, unable to process much more.   

Amid a renewed flurry of activity and bright colors he felt an awful sharp pain in his forearm, followed by a disturbingly hot fluid rush that burned right into his body.  I brought with it a horrible weighted feeling that bore down on him quickly and inevitably, frightening in its intensity.  At once so similar and yet so completely unlike his experience in the ocean, he had never felt anything quite like it before. Nor the loss of physical and mental control that seemed to come with it. 

As his entire body tensed, it also became hyper aware of the steadying hand that had never left his shoulder.  “Don’t fight it lad.” The accompanying voice warned kindly as Raphael’s eyes closed of their own accord. “Let it come.  Your body needs the rest.”  Such useless words, for he couldn’t have fought the sensations no matter how desperately he wanted to.  Darkness was upon him, helped along by the potent medication being injected into his arm.

Much later that same night the ship’s crew would talk about the man in the weird costume. The one with the wings glued to his back that looked so real who would not let go of the woman’s hand even in sleep.

Reviews

[Seren]

Okay, so, you know I love this already, right? ^_^ And I gotta say, out of the three chapters so far, I think this one is my fave. Angels + Ocean = EPIC win. I'm still loving that junction of rope, the strangeness of sleep to an angel, the howl, the hallowe'en costume! :D Everything. KEEP IT COMING, maestro, I want to hear that Amazing Grace! ^_^