"Why is it always you and your friends?" Gabriel sighed, crossing his arms and fixing his eyes on the demon sitting on the right side of the couch, eating a sandwich and not seeming to care an angel was there.

After the night Marcus distracted Mila, they hardly had a minute alone. The last couple days spent in Chicago were full of doctor visits and taking Stella to see as many sights as they could safely. Mila was ending the day sleeping in bed with Stella and Terry, leaving Marcus alone in the room where they shared a close moment. Mila also spent the first few nights home with Stella and Terry so they could take shifts to make sure Stella was okay after all the moving around and strain on her body. Marcus had hardly seen Mila and when he did, they weren't alone. They hadn't discussed what happened the night he distracted her. While Marcus was mildly irked, he was hoping the distance would make the angels stay out of it but that didn't work out so well given the fact one was standing in Katherine and Nex's living room.

Gabriel had been an angel a long time, already had to deal with one human-demon relationship with Kat and Nex's situation. It hadn't been much of an issue before since demons rarely cared to hang around humans and humans were normally too scared of demons to form an attachment. But it happened with Kat and Nex. Marcus helped their relationship, and now Marcus was the one forming an attachment to a human.

The three sat on Kat's couch. Katherine sat in the middle with her hands folded in her lap, smiling politely at the angel. Nex sat on one side, his feet propped on the coffee table, arm around Katherine, somewhat missing his ability to set things on fire. Gabriel looked awfully flammable today. Marcus continued eating his sandwich, more or less ignoring Gabriel's presence.

"You knew I would come, did you not?" Gabriel pressed, fixing his eyes on Marcus.

"What am? A mind reader?" Marcus asked, swallowing a bit of his sandwich. "Don't you have better things to do?"

"I do, which is why this is especially annoying," Gabriel clipped, narrowing his eyes at Marcus.

"Hey man, it's not my fault you're here," Marcus shrugged. "No one invited you. You came here all on your own."

"Because you are breaking rules and I'd rather nip it in the bud before it turns into something else," Gabriel snapped. "You cannot have relationships with humans."

"I did," Nex shrugged.

"Special circumstances that you are lucky worked out as well as they did," Gabriel said, giving him a side-eye. "Marcus, any romantic involvement with this human ends now. You must focus on your duty alone, not get sidetracked."

"You can't help who you fall in love with," Kat defended. "Wouldn't it be nice for you to see more demons with love in their hearts?"

"In love?" Nex scoffed. "More like in lust."

Marcus shrugged and nodded. He wasn't shy to admit Mila was attractive. Anyone with eyes could see that. She was simultaneously the most beautiful and the sexiest woman he'd ever laid eyes on, both in hell and on earth.

"Listen to me," Gabriel said, his voice getting deeper, booming across the entire house until the walls shook. Kat's eyes widened and Nex's eyebrows raised in surprise. Marcus continued eating his sandwich.

"This is your first warning, Marcus," Gabriel said. "You may focus on your duty while you're here, but-"

"All right then, Gabe," Marcus said, leaning forward and setting his sandwich on the table, clasping his hands together. "You tell me what you think the right thing to do is here. The human that summoned me wants me to kill her. She is a pure soul. Would you like me to go ahead and kill her?"

Gabriel hesitated and sighed. "Of course not, but you're a demon. You are well-trained in manipulation and deception so get her to change her mind. It is that simple. How many other people have you done this for?"

"None as stubborn as Mila," Marcus said honestly.

"A challenge you are not up to, then?" Gabriel asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you require assistance, do ask. I'd be happy to talk to her, or... Plant a seed that gets her to change her mind since it seems above your skill level."

"Go anywhere near her and I'll rip off your wings and shove them up your ass," Marcus growled, rising from the couch.

Gabriel groaned and rubbed his hands over his face, pacing back and forth as he muttered 'oh no' over and over again. Marcus frowned at the reaction and looked back at Nex who also seemed confused, but Katherine didn't. She smiled at Gabriel and Marcus both sympathetically and sighed, leaning back against the couch.

"What?" Marcus asked Kat, inclining his head to Gabriel.

"Oh nothing, he just realizes it is, in fact, love," Kat said, elbowing Nex in the side and sending him a glare, "not lust."

"It isn't," Marcus insisted, his eyes flashing red.

Katherine smiled sweetly and shrugged. "Okay."

Marcus hated when she did that. It was her way of subtly saying she was right but wasn't going to pointlessly argue with someone who wouldn't listen. The reason Marcus hated it was that Kat was almost never wrong.

"Marcus," Gabriel sighed, steepling his fingers. "I'm willing to do something to help you out. You are stuck here, you say you don't want to be..."

"I don't," Marcus said flatly.

"Good," Gabriel smiled. "Then I'll use my powers to substitute you with another demon."

"What?" Marcus frowned. "Someone else would kill her."

"Not if they're not allowed to," Gabriel said simply. "I will make sure they orders are clear. They are to deviate her original request and find a way around it. You are too blinded by your affection for this human, so let me bring in someone who isn't."

"Why wouldn't it make you happy that Marcus has found love?" Kat argued. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Katherine, demons corrupt. Whether or not you want to see it that way, whether or not you feel that way, it is the truth," Gabriel said. "If this woman is pure, staying with Marcus is a one-way ticket to hell for her."

"It wasn't for me," Kat said, narrowing her eyes.

"Again, your circumstances were different."

"Why can't his be?"

"Because he isn-" Gabriel stopped at the sound of crunching, slowly turning and looking over towards the kitchen where two more demons were seated on the kitchen island, eating popcorn and watching the argument with wide smiles. "Oh for heaven's sake, what now?"

"What what?" Armand asked, tossing a piece of popcorn in his mouth. "We came to see Kat hand your ass to you."

Katherine smiled and waved at Arda and Armand while Gabriel muttered a silent prayer and took a deep breath. All his time being alive, and his patience had never been tested so much.

"Don't stop on our account," Arda said, gesturing for them to continue. "I want to know what you were going to say."

"As do I," Marcus growled.

"I'm not trying to start a fight with you, Marcus," Gabriel said, holding his hands up in surrender. "But we both know why Nex and Katherine's circumstances were different."

Marcus did know why. Nex had sold his soul to save his sister's life and until that point, had been a regular church-attendant. His soul was a pure one sent to hell when it should've gone to heaven, but Marcus wasn't the same. Marcus killed lots of innocent people. He would've been in hell either way.

Marcus clenched his jaw and crossed his arms. "I'm not asking for shit from you, I'm not asking for it to be different. There's nothing between Mila and I except lust. I'm here until I change her mind, I don't see there a reason to be anyone else involved."

"There isn't, as long as there is no more intimacy," Gabriel said. "This is your job, Marcus. As with any other job, you must stay professional. The boundary you broke with Mila must be put back up, and you must stay out of her personal affairs unless it is directly related to your duty. I came here to ensure someone else didn't. You can hate me as much as you like, but you know this would've been handled a lot differently if my brother was the one to come," he said. Marcus was reluctant to admit he'd rather deal with Gabriel, but Uriel was a piece of work no one wanted to deal with. "I am here as a courtesy to you and to let you know your actions have not gone unnoticed and they will not go unpunished if you carry on like this."

"Oh, the first interesting thing you've said," Arda perked up. "Tell me angel, what kind of punishments does heaven know how to dish out? I'm very curious."

Gabriel's eyes snapped to Arda. She winked and smiled, spreading out her legs. His eyes widened and he looked away, heat flooding his face. He cleared his throat before speaking, tugging on the collar of his tunic. "Marcus, I trust we understand each other?"

"Of course," Marcus clipped. "But since you're here being a pain in my ass anyway, I have an angel question for you."

"He hasn't answered mine yet," Arda interjected. Gabriel hazarded another glance at her and she licked her lips, looking him up and down. "Go on, I'm waiting. Oh wait, I have another, are you a virgin?" She asked, making Gabriel's face flush. She smirked and leaned forward, the tight leather top she was sporting giving an even better view of her cleavage when she leaned forward. "I mean, you have to be, right?"

Gabriel took a deep breath and tore his eyes away from the female demon, focusing only on Marcus. "What is it?"

"Why would a little girl be able to see me if I'm invisible to everyone else?" Marcus asked.

"When you say little girl, you mean..."

"Six years old."

"Ah," Gabriel nodded, his expression shifting to one of sympathy. "She's sick or in danger?"

"Yes," Marcus frowned, wondering why Gabriel knew that. "She's sick with lymphoma."

"I see," Gabriel sighed. "I'm afraid the answer is unlikely to be one that will make you happy."

"Just spit it out already," Nex said, rolling his eyes.

"When young children pass away, a lot of them then go on to become guardian angels," Gabriel answered. "Since a mortal life is taken from them so early, we offer them an opportunity to still be close to their loved ones, to watch after them until they can be with them again," he explained. "We train them to watch over them, to guide them, to bring them to others that will help them on their mortal journey. It's a way to allow them to be close to their loved ones."

"What are you saying?" Marcus asked, his chest tightening. "That Mila's little sister will die? There's nothing we can do?"

"I don't know the situation specifically, I can look into it if you want me to, I'm only explaining to you why that happens," Gabriel said. "It's the only reason I know of that children see demons before passing when a demon is in hiding. It means she's already developing the senses she'll learn how to use after her soul passes out of the mortal realm. When someone believes they have a guardian angel, it usually is because they do, and it almost always means that they've lost someone young at some point in their life."

"Why even let children die?" Marcus snapped. "Shouldn't you be doing something about that instead of coming here to lecture me about my actions?"

"Everyone passes out of this realm at some point, Marcus," Gabriel said. "I don't know all the reasons things happen the way they do, and it isn't my place to ask. All I can tell you is no child is alone when they pass. There will be no fear because we take it away, no pain. We hold their hands, we guide their soul and we are with them every step of the way. They may seem scared as they get closer to the end, but one of us is always there. We calm them, we give them comfort. We guide them and lead them to heaven when their soul separates from their body. They do not go through it alone, none of them ever do."

"Mila's little sister, Stella, could see me when Mila couldn't, when no one should've been able to. So that means what? That nothing we do will help Stella?" Marcus asked. "The treatments don't matter, none of it matters, her fate is already sealed?"

"As I said, I don't know the specific circumstances," Gabriel said. "But if she is a sick, young child who can already see you, the implication is that her time on this mortal earth is coming to a close. I'm sorry," he said honestly. "But at least find peace in the fact that it won't hurt her, it won't be a terrifying thing, we will give her time to hug her loved ones and say goodbye. They may not see it, they may not feel it, but we always allow children to express love to the ones they want to watch over. It's the first seed of a guardian, and it will help her find them again once she is trained to be their guardian."

"That's bullshit," Marcus growled, his fists clenching. "And you're just fine with this? It doesn't bother you it will devastate her family?"

"Suffering always bothers me, Marcus, more deeply than you can even comprehend," Gabriel answered, a small shakiness in his voice no one in the room had ever heard from him before. "But it is not my place to change the course of things. My place is only to keep a balance in the world and provide love and comfort and compassion where I am able to."

"You're a fucking coward then," Marcus snapped, not bothering to hang around as he took to the air. He couldn't stand to be in that house with Gabriel, with any of them. All he could think about was the little girl that fell asleep with her head in his lap more than once on that trip to Chicago, and her sister who would break if Gabriel was right about Stella's fate.