Lily let out a breath of air she hadn't known she was holding when Carmen's arms wrapped around her and the soft voice of her friend gently asking what was wrong. She swallowed hard as the tears came full force now. She didn't even know what she was going to tell Carmen.
'Oh, by the way. I think I might have a son.'
'Yeah, every single angelic being is going to try to hunt him down.'
'And it's my fault.'
'I don't even rem-'
She let out a shuddering sigh after a few minutes of hanging onto Carmen and then gently pushed the Skylark away to look at her.
"I think I have a very... very large problem, Carmen." She began, her brows furrowed. She motioned for Carmen to go back into her office before walking in that direction herself, pulling Carmen with her by hand.
Once inside, she pulled out the picture and the number and handed them to Carmen.
"I just happen to see this picture fall out of a student's wallet. That..." She paused, her heart tightening.
"That woman... I think it's me b-but... I don't remember any o-of it..." She explained before burying her head in her hands, tears returning to her.
Carmen dutifully followed the angel back into her office. She took the picture and looked at it as Lily shakily explained herself.
The skylark looked over the picture for a long time and had to admit that the girl in the picture did look remarkably similar to the pink-haired angel in front of her.
"Now Lily," she spoke, trying to be as comforting as possible.
"That has to be a coincidence, right? I mean...I'd imagine you'd remember something like this...wouldn't you?""Well, yes... But Carmen. You know that I can see auras. I always have. And over the years, I've gotten much, much better at it." She began, slowly regaining her composure.
"In every person's core is a twisted aura, two separate auras which represent their parents." She continued, watching Carmen for her reaction.
"That child has half of my aura in that twist. The other half... I don't recognize it but that other half is definitely mine." She finished. Lily walked over to one of the chairs in the office and sat down with a 'fwop' sound as air escaped the fake leather cushion.
Carmen stood still as Lily sat down. She was attempting to find a rationalization for the image and the aura that would make sense.
It was not going well.
"But...that's not p-" she started to say. She stopped because she remembered something. She remembered...that Lily didn't remember.
"...oh."The skylark tried to look as if she was taking it in stride, but failed spectacularly. Nonetheless, she knew what needed to be done.
She walked over to where Lily was sitting and sat on the chair's thick, leather-covered arm, placing one arm on the angel's shoulder.
She could only think of something generally encouraging to say.
"Well...whatever you need to do, I'll be here for you." She gave Lily a meek smile.
Lily let out a frustrated sigh and threw her hands in the air as she leaned back against the chair.
"You're no help at all!" She shouted, half joking. She let out a soft snort and sent Carmen a soft smile.
"I'll figure it out. What I need is a how to book on parenting for Angels. They don't sell those, yanno?" She told her, chuckling at herself.
What was the use of crying at this point? She'd had her moment and she'd probably have another with Carmen later that night. She needed to get herself together and figure out how the hell she was going to deal with this.
"My main concern is the boy. He seemed about as offput by it all as I was and there's also the matter of his nature and that demon attached to him." Lily began, mostly talking to herself at this point.
"It doesn't look very strong but it's not a pushover either and it's linked very tightly to Edric..." She continued.
"And he's a freaking nephilim." She groaned, leaning forward to throw her head into her lap.
"Carmen, it's not too late to just run away and live together on a deserted island, right?" She asked, not moving.
"Well," Carmen began, sighing as she started to pace around the room.
"Your main concern may be the boy, but my main concern is you. You can hide it all you want, but I know you rather well, Lily. And I know when you're distressed. And who can blame you?"She sighed again at Lily's last question.
"In a world with no responsibilities...perhaps."After a pause, the skylark continued.
"I think you just need...time. I know it sounds cliche, but..." she flipped her hair distressingly.
"I suppose if you talked to the boy about it it might ease the shock after a while. But...I'm not exactly the authority on family, you know. I can only do so much."At this point she had arrived back to the chair Lily was slumped in and sat back down on the chair leg.
"So just let me know what you need," she said, managing to give a small grin.
"The problem is that I don't know what I need. I think..." Lily thought for a moment, sitting pensively. She knew Carmen was right about time but she knew the situation required more time than they really had to give it. His existance had proved to bring only more stress into her life.
"I guess I just need to have a chat with him to let him know that I'm going to try, but I need time. And... Would you go with me? You don't need to be next to me, but just knowing you're around would help me a lot..." She asked, looking up at Carmen.
Carmen gave the angel a warm smile.
"Of course, dear," she replied.
"You know I would do that even if you didn't ask me to."A gentle knock could be heard on Carmen's door as a sing-song voice rang out,
"Ooooh, laaadies!" Maria pryed the door open and poked her head in to see Carmen... AND Lily. Two for one. A wicked grin grew on her face as she eyed them.
"I've come to whisk you away to the assembly with me. I've got some plaaans." She explained, still grinning.
