Movie Night

By Jaymiel

**Flaming
Feather**

"Would you slow down for just a minute?" the frustrated Mercurian shouted.

If there is one way to get a Cherub’s attention, it is to show distress. Jaymiel stopped rummaging about her Cathedral to face Francis. "I’m sorry," she said contritely. "I don't mean to ignore you. But I’m ­"

"Busy," Francis sighed. "I know. Comes with the job, I expect." Jaymiel nodded. "But even the Commander of the Host takes time off every now and then, you know. Come on, you need a break."

"Right now? But I have to ­"

"You have to relax," the Mercurian insisted. "Don't you have any competent Servitors?"

"Of course!" the Archangel replied indignantly. "You've met most of them! How can you ­"

"So why don't you let them show you how competent they are by taking care of the emergency du jour?" Francis asked, a slight smile playing around his mouth.

Jaymiel raised a paw and opened her mouth, but nothing came out. "Oh, all right," she grumbled, dropping the paw and lumbering over to Francis. "What did you have in mind, beloved?"

Francis paused dramatically before declaring, "Movie night!"

She looked at him askance. "A movie? I hate to sit still for that drek. It had better be a good one."

"Oh, it is," he assured her. "I think you'll like it."

And she did like it. Francis had selected a light-hearted science fiction comedy. But rather than laughing and relaxing, as he had intended, the Archangel got ever more intense and excited.

"That's us!" she exclaimed halfway through the picture. "A Mending team, practically! This is great!" By the time the credits were rolling, she was pacing the room. "What a great concept... protecting humanity from what they can't handle, and cleaning up anything they do manage to see! Protecting... hm, think I should get Zadkiel in on this?"

Francis looked at her dubiously. "In on what? You're not..."

"Sure! If I can pry some artifacts out of Jean, equip some Soldiers... cuts down the disturbance. We could base out of a Tether... use old Earth hands as backup for the others, and keep less, ah, discreet but useful celestials on call in the Tether, out of sight. It could work!"

"Jaymiel, it was a movie."

"So? I like the idea. Tell you what, make us reservations at that nice café in Paris. I'll ask Zadkiel to come by and pitch it to her. If she thinks it's too outrageous, I'll drop it."

"Fair," Francis admitted. "Table for three, coming up."

Jaymiel gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks!" she chirped, before flitting off to make arrangements with Protection.




They made an odd trio at the café. Francis, with typical Mercurian good sense, was wearing stylish European casuals. Zadkiel wore the uniform of the local gendarmes, as she usually did. Jaymiel looked like she had just crawled out from under a transmission, as she usually did.

"So, what do you think?" the younger Archangel enthused.

Zadkiel tapped her finger on the table. "No one's going to like the idea of either of us keeping tabs on their Servitors all the time. I'm not sure I like it, honestly. Smells too much like The Game."

Jaymiel paused. "Uh... hm, that's true. I didn’t look at it that way. Well, we wouldn’t have to do that, then. The movie was just for inspiration, after all. Monitoring demonic activities, then? Surely everyone would have to admit that'd be useful?"

"Ye-es," Protection answered slowly. "But don't expect field agents to actually file reports with you, if they’re not Mending. Honestly: can you see one of Gabriel's pausing long enough in the chase to file paperwork?"

"Um... no." Jaymiel dropped her gaze into her café au lait, disappointed. "But it would be so much more efficient if they did..."

Zadkiel gave her a friendly pat on the shoulders. "I'm not arguing. But this is reality. Hey... if there were only one right way to do things, I'm sure God would’ve said something by now," she smiled. "Work with who you can, and let the loose cannons do their thing."

"It's the 'loose cannons' that cause me the most headaches," Jaymiel grumbled.

"Well, tell you what," Zadkiel said. "I think the idea does have some merit. It has style, if nothing else, and sometimes a certain style is all you need to get volunteers knocking down your door. Given our realities, I think Protection's role would be limited - the sorts of monitoring we'd need to do to prevent obvious celestial activity isn't going to go over well with anyone. I'll see if I can get some interested parties to do what they can, though, and send them your way. But it's an excellent paradigm for Mending."

"You think so?" Jaymiel asked, disappointment fading.

Zadkiel nodded. "Sure. You're all about containment. If your cleanup squads can pass for mysterious government men rather than Soldiers and angels, all the better. There are enough human conspiracy theories out there that are so totally wrong... let the curious run down those paths, and thus keep out of the Truth about the War."

"Oh, thank you!" Jaymiel exclaimed, spontaneously giving the ancient Archangel a hug. "I'll get right on it. I'll start it as a group of Soldiers, I think... maybe one day, I'll have the resources to create a minor Choir to assist them..."

Zadkiel covered a smile; Jaymiel’s mind was already obviously far away from Paris. "Well, thank you for lunch," she said amiably. "It sounds like you have plenty of planning to do, so I'll let you get to it." Mending nodded absently, recovering long enough to shake Protection’s hand before she left. Then she started shuffling back towards Notre Dame, still mumbling to herself.

Francis, respectfully silent while the Archangels discussed matters, sighed and took care of the check. He sometimes wondered, if Bronwen would talk, if he and she would find anything in common. The care and feeding of Archangels... He hurried after Jaymiel, smiling despite himself. As unlikely as it seemed, he rather enjoyed the idea of forming an actual team of Men in Black.

**Flaming
Feather**

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