When Elise entered the small office sometime later, he was still sitting there with his eyes closed, lost in thought. It didn't matter which way he looked at the problem; he always came to the same conclusion. The fact that he had only been back on his feet for a few hours after suffering a very serious breakdown didn't help. He didn't see the whole board; he was missing pieces. Elise put a hand on his shoulder, and he was pleasantly jolted out of his thoughts. She asked:
"Did it get a little clearer in your head?"
He stood up and took her in his arms for the first time, and she immediately snuggled up against him. He said softly:
"Not really, I'm missing something important, and I don't know what it is. And my brain seems to be only half functioning. I may be a Nephilim Red, but I too am vulnerable in some ways. Maybe not physically, but certainly in my mind. Everything that has happened to me lately, everything that is happening to me now. You completely blow me away, the girls. Everything is happening so fast. It's like a whirlpool in my brain, and I'm struggling to keep it all together. I'm going to need some time to recover."
"Maybe you shouldn't force your brain like that and let your subconscious do its work."
He nodded. She stood on her toes, and her lips sought his. At first, he was tense, a little reluctant. Then he let go, surrendering to her mercy, kissing her back, longing for more. A desire she returned. They both felt they needed it so incredibly, needed each other so immeasurably. For a moment they were so lost in their minds and the pink cloud they were floating on. They hadn't noticed that Sam and Jules had entered the room and giggled when they saw them kissing like that. He looked at them and said playfully:
"It's not nice girls to sneak up on people when they have very important things to discuss."
This brought a real roar of laughter from Elise, and the girls' faces lit up like sunshine. Elise said:
"The car, no, this huge beast, is delivered, love. I think we'd better go before the girls tear the place apart."
The Escalade was neatly parked in front of Clair's shop, and Maggie parked her car in front of hers. Clair approached the whole gang smiling, and he said:
"Dear Clair, we need more uniforms from you. These two beautiful young ladies will also be going to school on campus. You ladies know better than me what you need, so I'll just go sit in the daddy's corner, as Clair calls it."
He turned and walked to the lounge, humming. Elise and Maggie looked at each other and smiled. Happy to see their Antichrist climbing out of his slump. Maggie was relieved. Elise and the girls had made him find his purpose in life again. She knew there were a lot of Angels and, based on Rae Rae's stories, a lot of younger Demons who would be eternally grateful to Elise. She sat down next to him in the lounge and said playfully:
"So, Jon, if I understand correctly, Elise and Jules were not enough to stay. You just had to have a wife and four daughters."
He snorted and gazed at her, a twinkle in his eye.
"Maggie, what would I do without you?"
She laughed softly and said:
"You always know where to find me, My Lord, when you need me."
That sentence turned on a thousand-watt light bulb in his head. He sighed deeply. Maggie, who had seen the expression in his eyes change, asked:
"What is it, Jonathan?"
"I found one of the puzzle pieces I was missing. And it's my own damn fault."
Elise had joined them while the children were busy with Clair. She asked:
"What is your fault, Jon?"
"What I told you, Gummy Bear. After that last meeting and realizing the implications of my decision, I began to fall apart. After that, I broke down completely because you and Jules served as catalysts. Between that meeting and what happened at the hotel yesterday, I must have let my shield down completely. Probably more than a few times. As a result, I was no longer invisible to a giant bastard in Heaven."
Maggie asked:
"Who?"
"Fucking Uriel! He is the reason I removed myself from the Eye of Heaven and Hell years ago. His shitty little specialty is seeing patterns. He can see the paths a person might take and predict the most likely ones. He cannot manipulate me, but he can control things around me if he knows where I am. He can't force anyone to do anything against their will; no one can, except Grandpa and me, and we would never, ever do that. Free will is the highest good for us, sacred and untouchable. He can, however, nudge feelings that are already there. I think he nudged Sam's father. Either way, sooner or later the father would have acted on those urges with the same result as now. Only Elise and I probably wouldn't have been there to take care of the girls."
Elise looked at him seriously and asked:
"Okay, and what does that mean for the girls, for you and me?"
"Nothing, I put a marker on you that makes you untouchable. Michael, Uriel, and the rest of those flying idiots know very well, archangel or not, that Grandpa's commandments are not to be trifled with, and Grandpa himself would not hesitate for a second to react if his commandments were violated in Heaven. If they did anything against the five of you despite the marker, Grandpa himself would wipe them out of existence. The rules and laws of Heaven are very clear. Not to mention what I would do to them and all of Heaven. Jeez, Rae Rae is right; I need to get my head out of my ass and start looking at the whole board. They are fucking challenging me, hoping that I will take the bait. I just don't see what they have to gain at this point. They seem to have lost their minds both above and below."
Elise smiled gently at him:
"And what are we going to do now, my dear Antichrist?"
He laughed:
"Nothing for a while, my little Wicked Witch of the West. For starters, I'm going to do for a while what Rae Rae said. Don't tell her I said that, or she'll rub it in for all eternity! She told me to do nothing for a while and help you, and that is what I am going to do. Just keep my head down and think. That's another thing I have to admit. This hasn't been my strong point in the past, with Heaven and Hell nagging at my head. Their nagging always made my temper get the better of me, and I got pissed off and stopped thinking. So I'm going to take a break for a while. We are going to enjoy the girls today, or rather, them being out of control, because all four of them desperately need it."
She sat down on his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and said:
"You see, love, you are not a something. You are a somebody, a very loving and precious somebody."
He lovingly kissed her on the mouth and then said:
"Thank you, Red, but it's going to be a while before I can really believe that. But with your help and the help of the girls, I'm sure I'll get there."
Now it was she who kissed him very passionately, after which they suddenly heard two small voices:
"Eewww"
They looked behind them, and there stood Jules and Samantha with a very mischievous look in their eyes. Equally mischievous, he said:
"You two get out of here; your mom and I have urgent business to discuss."
He then kissed Elise again, and the girls ran back to the twins, giggling. He had just put his lips to her mouth when she pulled back and looked at him with startled eyes. He asked:
"What is it, Red? Have you seen a ghost? I can assure you they're not real."
"Did you just say that to Jules and Samantha, your mom?"
He thought for a second or two:
"Apparently I did, yes."
Now she thought for a few seconds and got a soft smile on her face:
"Yes, that feels right, but then from today on you will also be a dad to all four of them.
He turned a little white around the nose and said quietly:
"Holy fuck. I was already shaking in my boots from one, and now suddenly there are four..."
This sentence elicited a hearty laugh from both Maggie and Elise.
When everything was settled with the uniforms and other clothing the girls would need on campus, they drove to the store Maggie had suggested. Arriving at their destination, Jonathan saw that Maggie had not exaggerated; this store was indeed huge. The girls took a shopping cart, and Jon's brow furrowed. He said:
"One cart for four? I think you'd better take two."
Hesitantly, the girls did as he said and entered the store. He looked around and found the electronics section.
"Elise, you take the girls ahead, and I'll take care of the laptop, Sam said. Girls, whatever you need, anything, just throw it in the cart, yeah."
They nodded in amazement, for there seemed to be no end to his generosity. After his girls were gone, he made a list in his head and stepped up to the counter. The first thing he asked was:
"Can you make another big delivery around 6:30? I don't care what the extra cost is; I want it delivered!"
The woman behind the counter nodded her head. The handsome young man reeked of money. She had sensed very well that his question was not so much a question as a task to be performed.
"Well, this is the address where it should go. Between 6:30 and 7:00. And this is what I need: five Acer laptops, five Acer tablets, six Canon printers including one box of paper per printer and extra cartridges three sets per printer, and five iPhones. I see you have subscriptions too, so five unlimited, please. I also need five data SIM cards for the tablets linked to the new numbers. Ten wireless headphones, five DVD players, and four plasma TVs. All top of the line! And then four Xboxes, four PlayStation 5s, and four Nintendo Switches. All the games you have for girls between ten and fourteen times two. All games for girls twelve and up times two. And then a bunch of games that girls and boys seem to like to play, also times two, please. The games should be separated into two piles."
She could only nod.
"Excellent, everything needs to be gift-wrapped. If you need to use extra manpower to get it done on time, no problem. Just charge a thousand dollars extra or whatever; it doesn't matter. Do you think you can know the final bill in thirty minutes or so? After all, it has to be a surprise for my girls.
"I have the price list here for all the electronics. I'll call my colleague for the games and the manager for the extra costs, so yes, you certainly can."
He looked at her name tag:
"Marry, you are a godsend!"
She blushed, but a moment later was completely speechless as he placed ten hundred-dollar bills on the counter:
"Have fun, Marry."
And humming, he went in search of his girls, as he had begun to call them, and that's just how it felt, just right. When he found them, they were standing in front of a display case of fountain pens. He heard Elise sigh, and he asked:
"Fountain Pen Lover Red?"
She was startled out of her daydream, not having seen him coming.
"I have dreamed of such a pen all my life, but this one will probably remain a dream because the one I love is so incredibly expensive."
He noted the name of the pen for later use. Then he looked at the shopping carts, which were still almost empty.
"Okay girls, what's going on? I expected your carts to be pretty full by now."
Jules said:
"First we wanted to look at the backpacks, but the coolest ones are so expensive."
He looked at her sternly:
"Bwitch, what have I said several times now? Everything you need, as long as you don't become a spoiled brat. And the same goes for all of you Hellions: everything you need."
Hand in hand with Samantha, she sprinted back to the backpacks, Hope and Fay following close behind. Elise and he followed quietly. Elise asked:
"How crazy are you going to make them?"
He got his smirk back on his face, and again it made her swoon.
"Ah, not so much. Imagine a whale with a sugar rush."
This elicited a bright laugh from her that gave him butterflies in his stomach. He doubted he would ever get enough of that laugh. No, he was sure he wanted to hear it forever. He lingered a moment to watch his girls go into a buying frenzy, then made his way back to the electronics to check out with a big smile on his face.
"Mary dear, unfortunately, I need one more item, BUT I want to take it with me immediately. Could you call a colleague in the fountain pen department and ask him to pack this Mont Blanc fountain pen and bring it here?"
It was the blue limited edition in honor of Emperor Joseph II, who reigned from 1765 to 1790 and was a patron of the arts. The pen was a work of art in itself.
"And could you get me a cup of coffee somewhere?"
"Absolutely, Mr. Drago."
She had just made the biggest sale of her young career and the biggest tip she had ever received. She'd be damned if she couldn't offer him a cup of coffee.
It was nearly four o'clock when the ladies returned with overflowing shopping carts. The two little ones chatted nonstop. Again he wondered how much air they could have in their lungs or if they needed to breathe at all with all that chatter. The ride back to their new home was spent in pleasant silence by Elise and Jonathan, while in the back of the Escalade it was cozy with the four girls. Both wore blissful smiles as they listened to the chatter. Arriving home, the girls hauled their loot into the spacious living room. It didn't take long for the floor to look like a war zone. Jon went to the kitchen and got Elise a glass of Chardonnay and himself a glass of orange juice with a very generous splash of vodka. The advantage of being Celestial was that you had to consume very obscene amounts of alcohol to get drunk. The downside was that it took very obscene amounts of alcohol to get drunk. On the couch, Elise was leaning against him, and he held her in a loving embrace. They talked pleasantly to each other, but he noticed that all four girls were sneaking glances at them from time to time. Eventually, Jon's curiosity became too much, and he asked amusedly:
"Okay, girls, we can really tell that you are watching us from time to time. Would any of you like to tell us why?"
The four hesitated and looked at each other a bit until Fay gathered her courage, blushed seriously, and said quietly:
"Elise and you are together, and Jules gets to call you Dad."
Both knew immediately where this conversation was going. Elise then said:
"Right, Fay."
The girl continued to speak nervously:
"You want us to live with you, and as Jon said this afternoon, we will start a new family together."
Both nodded and waited for the high word to come out.
"But if we are a new family, can we call you Mom and Dad like Jules? We never had a real mom and, well, you know, we need a real dad too."
They saw that the three girls had watery eyes and that Jules and Sam were holding each other. Elise said:
"Girls, if you want to, you can certainly do that. Jon and I would love nothing more than to have all four of you as our daughters. If you want us to be your mom and dad, we would be honored."
She had not yet spoken, or the girls had just buried them. It seemed almost immediately that there was some sort of role division among the girls. Jules and Fay had flown into Jon's arms and Samantha and Hope into Elise's. The four of them lay in silence with Jon and Elise for a while when the doorbell rang. Jon had to fight back a grin and said:
"Elise, will you go see who it is? I'm going to start dinner. I'm expecting a guest to join us later."
She didn't understand but went to the front door anyway. A minute later she called:
"Jon, there are two men here who say they have an order for you."
"Oh yes, just have them put it in the living room and give these nice people a nice tip, will you, honey?"
The five girls watched uncomprehendingly as one package after another, large and small, was brought in. The pile grew larger and larger. Elise gave them a generous tip, as Jon had requested. He stood whistling in the kitchen and dining area that he had just transformed with a snap of his fingers. Now it was an environment where he would be very happy to unleash his cooking skills. This meant changing not only the kitchen itself but also the furniture, a large walnut dining table and matching chairs, as well as matching cabinets. The furniture may have been old, but it seemed to fit perfectly with the ultra-modern kitchen he had just manifested. Yes, he was a food snob, and he had no problem admitting it, let alone indulging his guests. Those who were used to it were mostly members of his groups. Yes, he considered them family, but this was different. This was his family, his daughters, and his wife. Elise and the girls came into the kitchen and looked at him. He felt their eyes burning into his back, and it took a damned effort not to burst out laughing. Without turning around, he said:
"Ladies, if you don't open anything, you'll never know what's inside..."
That sentence was like a starting gun, and the girls sprinted back into the living room. Elise joined him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her head against his back.
"Is this the second part of making them crazy as a cuckoo clock?"
"Yep. But I think there is something in between there for you too, Red. But of course, if you don't want it, I can always send it back."
This earned him a gentle and loving pat on the shoulder. She wanted to turn around to go back to the living room. Nonchalantly he said:
"Can you put the plates on the table first, honey? They are in the cupboard behind you at the bottom."
She walked over to the cabinet and opened it. To her surprise, she saw a package on the plates with her name on it. She picked it up and opened it carefully. When she saw the pen of her dreams, she gasped. She ran to him and practically jumped into his arms. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and he said:
"Why wait for your dream when you can just grab it?"
That was enough to reward him with a kiss that made his toes curl. Then he proceeded with the food, whistling softly as he heard excited cries in the living room. As they opened package after package, his girls' excitement grew with each discovery, and their excitement grew bigger and bigger. Until it seemed, the limit had been reached. They stormed into the kitchen and practically attacked him with hugs. Tears of joy ran down their cheeks. Their thanks kept coming and he had to stop them:
"You are four beautiful, but above all, good girls, and I have done you a favor, for you and for your mother."
After a minute or two, he said with a smile:
"Enough, or my flesh will burn. Get out of here and don't come back until I call you."
Elise came back up to stand against him:
"As I said, Jonathan, you are a good man."
Jonathan was setting the table for seven when his guest arrived. Now that he had decided to never take off his signet ring again to protect his girls, he knew immediately who it was. Without looking up from what he was doing, he said:
"Rae Rae, I hope you are hungry because you will probably appreciate this."
Only then did he turn and look at her with a twinkle in his eye. She stepped toward him so he could give her a firm hug. He stood there for a moment with the angel in his arms, his eyes closed. The girls and Elise had gone into the kitchen off the dining area and remained silent at Elise's command. They knew immediately that their father needed this moment. When he opened his eyes, he said:
"Girls, don't stand there waiting; come over here and say hello to my little sister. This is Azrael, but she prefers Rae Rae."
The tough angel in the tight leather looked at the girls and suddenly turned into a marshmallow. It turned into a round of exuberant hugs, and Jon couldn't be happier. When it was Elise's turn, the angel said:
"You see, I was right; you really are handy to have around.
This elicited a hearty laugh from Elise.