The Beauty is in the Flaw

Chapter 2

Lights flashed eerily across the horizon as the night wore on. Percy and Kyle were up on the roof, while Bob settled himself to make steaks, a morose and silent Sandra sitting at the bar in front of him. Jeep, Michael and the newcomer, Tessa, were working at boarding up the windows. She hadn't exactly been there long, but she had settled in as if she had been there from the beginning. The others eyed her warily. She and Michael knew each other, and quite obviously had a past of some sort, but that seemed to matter very little now. Most eyes, when not looking elsewhere, watched her, but she only watched Michael. They hadn't had a chance to talk privately yet, and she was waiting patiently for a quiet moment with him. She was gathering up more materials from the back when she heard Jeep come up behind her. She could feel his eyes on her, but she paid it no mind. Michael's appearance a moment later to gather more boards stole the boy's attention. It wasn't long before Jeep broke the silence.

"So what did you do? You know, before you came here?" Michael looked up, his eyes meeting Tessa's briefly before focusing on Jeep. It took him a moment to answer, walking closer.

"I was a soldier. I was a general in His army." He turned his attention back to the boards. Tessa watched Jeep process this and, swallowing slowly, prepare to ask another.

"Well, what changed? What made you leave?" Michael's gaze once again focused on the boy, this time refusing to look at the third person in the room.

"I was given an order I didn't believe in," Jeep couldn't take his eyes off the fallen angel, his mouth open in shock and confusion. Michael continued, still refusing to look at Tessa, who was now watching him with the same intensity that Jeep was. She hadn't heard that part.

"He lost faith. I didn't." Five succinct words, and he turned away from them both, carrying more boards out of the room. Jeep once again retreated to his thoughts, while Tessa continued to watch Michael's retreating back. It was another moment before Jeep spoke again.

"Well, how come you still have faith?" Tessa tensed, something that Michael noticed but Jeep didn't, "I mean, it seems like everything I have faith in causes me nothing but trouble." The bitterness in his tone was obvious. Michael leaned against the doorframe, considering the young man in front of him. Finally he dropped his gaze, thinking about his answer, an answer that Tessa almost believed wouldn't come. Michael's quiet words broke the silence, his gaze coming up again to rest on Jeep.

"When God chose your kind as the object of his love I was the first in all of Heaven to bow down before you," Tessa's gaze was once again drawn to Michael as he paused, "My love, my hope for mankind was no less than His. But I have watched you trample that gift." Jeep turned to face Michael completely, while Tessa's jaw clenched at his next words. She turned away form the angel, struggling to keep her emotions in check; something else that Michael didn't miss.

"I've watched you kill each other over race and greed, waging war over dust and rubble and the words in old books, slaughtering the innocent for the sins and whims of the guilty." Tessa took a ragged breath, fighting the angry tears that suddenly threatened to overcome her, her hands clenched into fists as memories washed over her. She hadn't expected them to be so powerful, but apparently, being here on Earth, gave those memories renewed strength.

"And yet, in the midst of all this darkness, I see some people who will not be bowed. I see some people who will not give up even when they know all hope is lost." She could hear him walking closer, hanging onto every word he said as though it was for her alone, and in a way it was. Just as they applied to Jeep, they applied to her. He continued to talk, his blue-eyed fixed on the boy in front of him, rather than the woman in the shadows.

"Some people, who realize that being lost is so close to being found. I see you, Jeep. Fifteen years old, your mother leaves you; your father withdraws from the world. And you spend the next five years of your young life helping him find his way home." Jeep watched the angel intently, his forehead creasing in disbelief at his words. "You love a woman who bears the child of another and you love her with no thought for yourself, even though you know she may never love you the way you love her." Tessa closed her eyes, wondering if Michael knew just how true those last dozen words were now, and not just for Jeep.