Behind These Wings

Disclosure

The day you find out that someone you love has died is a day that you never forget. You remember every detail. Every word spoken, every gesture expressed every breath you took within those fateful hours.

They call it a flashbulb memory, a specific moment in time that has been seared onto your brain never to be removed.

A branding.

You cling onto them as if, if you can recreate the moment well enough, it may just bring that person back.

"Sir." Ian stood in the door frame of Drew's study. He didn't wish to approach any further as he could barely believe that he had to deliver such news, to be close up to Drew's face when he received it would make it all the more terrible.

"Ian, great, I'm glad you're here, I needed to talk to you." Drew naïvely grinned at his friend but the smile quickly slipped away when he saw the look on Ian's face.

Pity.

"What is it? What's happened?" He questioned urgently selfishly praying, as it was natural to do, that no one he held close had been hurt.

Someone else, please, anyone else.

"There has been an attack." An odd sense of relief flooded through Drew's veins, attacks were rare but, at present, they were becoming increasingly common. Nonetheless, an attack was a problem he could deal with. There were protocols, people to contact, forms to fill out and angels to dispatch. Yes it was horrible but life went on, it had to go on. If it didn't then they had won.

"Fetch me the team then please, I will meet them in the courtyard but first I will tell Izzy where I'm going so that she doesn't worry. Is she in our bedroom?" Drew had stood, walked towards the door and reached for his coat from the stand there but he halted when Ian clasped his hand around his wrist.

"The attack took place in town. It was your brother's restaurant."

Drew froze.

He knew the statistics; he knew the number of angels that got hurt during these attacks and yet he still refused to believe it.

Anyone else.

"Izzy was there with him sir."

Collapsing back into a nearby chair Drew saw his whole world melt away.

His brain failed to comprehend the words leaving Ian's mouth. He could see his lips moving but he could only focus on one thing.

"Is she..?"

It was a question he would forever feel guilty for asking. How could he put the life of one loved one over the life of another? He should have asked if anyone was hurt, he should have been concerned for all involved but he wasn't. His mind had been completely consumed with thoughts of her. He wondered, on occasion, if he had asked after Aaron first, even asked after them both at once, whether the outcome would have been different. Was this God's way of showing him how important his brother was to him? Was it God's way of teaching him to be less selfish?

How could this possibly teach him anything?

How could this agony possibly have a purpose?

The words that followed would forever be scorched into his memory.

"She is ... missing Drew. We know she went in, we have multiple eyewitnesses, but she is not at the scene neither does anyone recall seeing her leave but they found... they found Aaron, Drew. He's dead."