Guardian

XX.

Her name was Angelia, but it would still be Angel for short. Angelia Nevaeh Mann. Nevaeh, being heaven spelled backwards as well, since she was their little angel sent from Heaven that tried to come into this world backwards instead of head first. Ian was right, it was easy to name her once she had arrived.

When Ian held her, though people say babies don't smile, she smiled at him. Ian smiled back and Krysta even thought she saw him wink at her.

"What's this? Flirting with another woman?" she teased.

"We're just having a moment," he said, "that will go on forever."

"Really? Glad I'm not the jealous type. But then I know what you gave up for me, so I'm not worried. You gave up so much for me, an angel's eternity for me."

"Every day with you is my cherished forever that will live with me and live on with me when I die."

He handed Angelia back to her mom and pulled from his pocket a box which he carefully opened and pulled out a bracelet with a few charms on it. One was a pair of wings, one appeared to be a flower resembling a gardenia, one was a charm saying baby girl and there was a cross.

"I'll add to this over the years that we spend together. Our forever."

Funny but suddenly she could smell gardenias as he put the bracelet around her wrist and fastened it. It still surprised her though it happened so often.

"Do you ever regret...?" she couldn't finish.

"I regret nothing. I have loved you and protected and cherished you your whole life. I've loved you forever, you just had to grow up to find me. I just kept you safe until you could."

"Sometimes, I feel like I was waiting for something too. I just didn't know it was you. I was always empty and alone. You filled me, made me whole."

"Krysta there is something I need to tell you about our little angel."

"She's okay, right?" she said, with sudden panic on her face. Especially after the long night that they had had.

"She's fine, she's perfect and she really is an angel or she will be someday."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"She's human, yes, but she's also a real angel," he said, trying to find the right words to try to explain.

"How do you know?" she asked him, still not really understanding.

"The birthmark, the wings. It's God's way of telling us that she is and always will be a guardian angel."

"She'll never die?" she asked.

"Not like we will. She will continue on to protect and serve God from Heaven and on Earth she will have endless love, patience and compassion for all. She will serve and protect and do it with love as I did," he said.

"Then when we die?"

"We will go to Heaven to live and a new kind of existence."

"But she won't?"

"Yes and no. She will visit or at times be in Heaven until she is needed Earth bound. To guard and protect means that she will be on Earth."

"So we will still see her in Heaven?" she asked.

"She will always be with us. Remember we will live on in Heaven."

"Will I be able to see my mom and grandpa in Heaven?" she asked.

"I bet they will be there to meet you when you arrive."

"Will they get to meet Angelia and you?" tears were streaming down on her face but they weren't sad tears.