I am the Fallen

"It's a girl!" My mom exclaimed. I was a little sad; I wanted to give Shade a-Oh God not again.

"Twins?" I panted. "Really!?" I started screaming even louder, this sucks. I feel bad for all the girls out there. I also feel bad that I may have broke Shade's arm... This one came a little quicker, thank God. I was about ready to get down on my knees and pray it was finally over.

"A boy!" My mom cooed, as she cleaned them both off. "I've never heard of twins before have you Shade?"

"Only once or twice." He said. Then he turned to me and hugged me. I was so tired I couldn't even hug back. He placed a little peck on my lips.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I shouldn't have agreed."

"It's fine...names?" I barely managed to get out.

"I thought I'd let you." He grabbed them from my mom and handed them to me. I looked at them and I was amazed. They already looked about seven. I looked at the little girl first.

"Ella." I said instantly. She heard me talking in her direction and looked up at me. The first thing I noticed were her eyes. The left one was green and the right one was blue. Then I noticed her wings, one was white and the other black. Then I looked at the boy. He had a blue left eye and a green right eye. So if you set them next to each other their eyes went: Green, blue, blue, green. Then the wings went: white, black, black, white. I thought it was cool.

"Ell-ah!" She sounded out then cracked this heart-stopping smile at me. I hugged her and kissed her pale blonde hair.

"Laine." I heard Shade breathe, all of a sudden. He was looking at the boy.

"That sounds wonderful." I smiled at him. "Do you want to hold him?" Shade nodded and took him from me. He was trying to sound out his name as Ella had and it was funny.

"Llllll-aayy-nnn" He sounded out and jumped up and down once he got it.

"Good job!" Shade said and tried to give him a high five, but the little boy didn't get it. So Shade held his hand up and I took Laine's hand and hit it against Shades.

"Good job!" He said again. I looked back down at Ella. She had her hand up like Shades was. I gave her a high five.

"Good job." She copied Shade. I laughed and hugged her. Then I realized they didn't know how we are.

"See that man over there?" I asked her. She nodded. Her ability to comprehend what I was saying was amazing.

"He's Shade, your daddy." Shade was to absorbed with Laine that he didn't hear me tell her.

"Daddy!" She called loudly. He looked at her and waved. Then he turned to whisper something in Laine's ear. I couldn't make out what he said.

"Mommy!" Laine called towards me. Shade laughed. I chuckled a little too.

"Who dat?" Ella asked and she pointed at my mom.

"That is grandma." I told her. "She's my mommy."

"But she look different." Her speech had already improved so much I was amazed.

"She's a girl, and I'm a boy."

"But don't mommies got to be girls?" She turned to me.

"Not when you're an angel." I hugged her, she was so cute I couldn't get over it. When you don't have to go through the baby and toddler stage its actually much more fun to be a parent.

"Angel?" She asked. "What that?" She had started pronouncing 'that' right; I unfurreled my wings.

"Most angels are from heaven, but my mom had a baby with a human. Humans don't have wings, but angels do. See you have them too." She reached out to touch my white wings. Then she started trying to look at her back.

"I don't see them mommy!" Grammar learned...Check.

"Come on." I put her down. "Can you walk?" She looked at me funny. Like she had yet to learn what 'walk' was. I stood up and took a couple steps just to show her. She pushed herself into a standing position and mimicked my steps, only with a lot more wobble.

"That's it." I smiled warmly at her. "Come here." She, now with a little less of a wobble, walked over and grabbed my hand. I lead her to the mirror. I angled her sideways so she could see her wings in the mirror.

"See?" I asked her. She nodded, then she got this really weird look and her eyes kept darting from her wings in the mirror to mine. I didn't know what she wanted to know so I just stood there and watched her be confused. It was actually really hard to do. Then Shade walked over, his wings were extended as well.

"Oh!" Ella suddenly shouted.

"What Hun?" I kneeled down to her level and looked into her eyes.

"I have a wing like yours and a wing like daddy's." She did these cute and over exaggerated hand gestures that I found adorable; hence the cute part of the sentence. Then I watched as her wings twitched a little. As if she was trying to move them. After a few minutes the action got a little less jerky and was smoother.

"Want to fly?" I asked her. She nodded vigorously. I took her little hand and mine and let her outside. We walked up to this little cliff. She stopped a few steps from the edge and wouldn't go any farther.

"What's wrong, Ella?" I kneeled down to her level.

"That looks scary." She said in this pouting voice, I found it adorable. How much this little girl had me wrapped around her finger was astounding. She could do anything and I would probably find it adorable and cute...

"Want me to do it first?" She nodded. I walked easily off the cliff, allowing my self to free-fall for a minute before I started flying. When I got back up to my daughter's level she looked terrified. As if she had just watched me commit suicide.

"See I'm fine." She still looked horrified. I looked over and saw Shade and Laine about to jump not to far away. Laine was ready to just go for it, it seemed that Shade was holding him back, but I knew he was just putting on a show because Laine didn't want to be embarrassed.

"You don't want your brother to beat you, do you?" I whispered to her. "He will think he is smarter than you. Which we both know isn't true." I joked. She took it seriously and edged up a little closer.

"Here take my hand. I'll hold on to you so you don't fall." She reached out and grabbed my hand as tight as her little hand could. Then she did something I didn't expect. She actually jumped. Good thing I held on to her because otherwise she would have plummeted into the ocean below.

"Mommy!" She screamed as she looked down and held onto my hand; her wings were beating about as frantically as her heart.

"You can do it, just flap you wings like mine." Her problem was that she was flapping her wings haphazardly and not beating them hard enough or in any sort of tempo. She took a few deep breaths and started making bigger strokes with her wings. They were still tiny compared to mine but she kept herself in the air and that's all that counts. I held on to her hand and we took a loop around the island, half way though I did the ol' teaching someone to ride the bike trick where you let go and they don't notice, and I let go of Ella's hands. At first she didn't notice, that is until she looked over at me and saw her hand wasn't in mine.

"Mommy!" She started panicking and losing air. "I'm gonna fall!"

"No you won't." I flew down a little just to make sure, as soon as I got to her level she clutched onto my hand. "You've been flying on your own for a while now. You just didn't notice!"

"Really?" She seemed shocked. "I thought you were holding me up!"

"I know you did, but I wasn't and look how well you did on your own!" She reluctantly let go of my hand and started flying on her own again. She was so happy, and I loved it, you looked over and there was this face of pure elation. Whoever she fell in love with was going to be lucky; she would be able to brighten anyone's mood.

When we made it back Shade and Laine were still on the ground.

"Want to go tease your brother?" I know, I know, I'm the parent I should not be provoking fighting between the two siblings, but I couldn't help it. She smiled the heart-stopping smile at me again and we flew down and hovered in front of them.

"What are you doing still on the ground?" She asked her brother.

"Because I want to be." He was obviously trying to cover up that he was scared. My poor, brave, little boy.

"Come on Shade, join us." I ushered him into the air.

"Yeah, daddy, come on." Ella called, some how managing to catch my drift before Shade did. Finally getting what I meant he leaped into the air next to us; leaving Laine on the ground all alone.

"Don't leave me!" He pouted.

"Do you want help?" Shade offered as I had. Then we went through everything I did with Ella and we were off. When I looked at them I couldn't help but smile. They looked so happy and it easily became contagious. I know most kids would think almost 18 to early to have a kid, but it was worth it. From now on I would have three people to brighten my life. It was like two little suns revolving around one big one. Even though Shade isn't always smiling, he still manages to make my days a lot better than they would have been without him.

Truth is, I love my life and all the people in it. And soon we would get the last two cracks in Shade's halo to be joined back together so we could go back to heaven, and take my mom, my son, and my daughter with us. Shade's son would have to make due with Luke; and I know he will make it happen, and they would both be meeting us in heaven.

I looked over at my family one more time to see their smiles from ear to ear, even Shade had the biggest smile I'd even seen on his face. I'll say it one more time; my life is perfect.

**End**