Behind These Wings

Forgotten Faces

Izzy woke up early, rising at five to enable her to go through the necessary procedures to make herself presentable. Having only snatched three hours of sleep she felt, the now familiar, grogginess clouding her brain but she knew that she couldn't afford to sleep for any longer even if she had been able to. Her morning routine, however lengthy, was designed with the aim to make her look as perfect as possible.

She worked hard to cover her flaws but she knew it was a pointless task. She would never be able to disguise her worst flaw of all, her personality. She tried to mask it, suppressing every indulgent thought that she had but she still couldn't prevent the occasional slip up and every time she made a mistake He was waiting for her.

Drew was about to walk out of their bedroom when he saw his wife stir. Early mornings were not a new thing to the Archangel as he refused to start work before he had eaten breakfast and regularly had to attend meetings at six. Izzy on the other hand, or at least the old Izzy it would seem, had always opposed even the concept of waking before ten. On countless occasions Drew had managed to complete his morning meetings and still have time to sneak back into bed before his wife woke up. However, since her return Drew had noticed that despite the short amount of sleep she that she got, Izzy would wake every morning at precisely five o'clock.

"Hey." Andrew said softly, not wanting to scare her as sleep was clearly fogging her brain but his efforts were futile as Izzy still flinched at the breach of the serene silence. With a sigh Drew sat on his side of the bed, giving up on tying his white satin tie that didn't seem to want to cooperate, and leant over to his wife.

"I've got a meeting in half an hour but I should be done by eight. Why don't you get some more sleep and I'll come and wake you afterwards?" Drew kept his voice quiet and calm whilst lowering his upper body as much as he could without creasing his pristine shirt so as to not appear to be looming over Izzy yet she still seemed to shrink away from him.

"It's ok; I'll get up now and deal with some of the complaints." Izzy's voice was soft and delicate, Drew found himself drowning in its beauty as he struggled to hold onto reality.

"Are you sure? That's never a pleasant task to deal with alone."

Really? I don't think you're really capable of coping with those complex problems alone, are you?

Izzy swallowed her snarky response to his obvious displeasure and silently counted to ten, begging for the patience to not give her husband a rude reply but it was an extremely difficult thing to achieve. It was clear that Drew doubted her capabilities. Why else would he question her offering to do one of the less pleasant jobs? But to not offer any resistance, to just give in, it went completely against Izzy's nature.

"You're right. I'll wait for you of course but I'll still get up now I think, I am already awake."

"Ok, did you want me to send up some breakfast?"

Fat.

Lazy.

"No, I'll go down and get something in a bit; it's too early at the moment." Frustrated at their dead end conversation Drew made a mental note to ask for something to be sent up in an hour anyway just in case Izzy 'forgot' to eat as she seemed to be developing a habit of doing recently.

"OK, I'll see you later sweetheart." Drew leaned in and pecked her on the forehead so fast that she didn't have time to move out of his way. A faint blush dusted her cheeks but her eyes were careful not to give anything away.

Drew used to be able to look into those emerald orbs and know exactly what she was thinking, now he wasn't sure that even God would be able to guess. Nevertheless he refused to be disheartened. Izzy may be able to barricade her eyes but she couldn't switch off her innate reactions. Her blush told him more than enough. Rising from the bed with a triumphant smile, Drew picked up his briefcase and with one final 'love you' to Izzy he walked out the door, undone tie forgotten.