NINETEEN| HEAVENLY LIGHT
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THE NEWS ABOUT ZED was hard on Olivia. She could only imagine how heavy it weighed on the psychic. The more she thought about it, the more guilty she felt for feeling as if she couldn't handle it. It's not like she actually had to live with this potential tumor. Not like Zed would have too anyway. However, despite wanting to be there for her friend, the brunette wouldn't allow it. She insisted she was fine and that the blonde should head back home with Chas and catch up her current missing assignments for geometry. After putting up a good fight, she lost the battle after Zed claimed she wanted to be left alone to process it and decide whether or not she would go through with the procedure.
Olivia was shocked to find out from her father that she decided not to do the procedure. She couldn't ever picture herself choosing to turn down finding out if she had a tumor in her brain, but she respected the psychic choice nonetheless. Now, here she sat beside her father in this beautiful church. Zed knelt down in the aisle before them. Her beautiful green eyes closed peacefully as she aligned with her faith. But Olivia could still make out the nervous line that formed on her forehead, and her slightly furrowed brows. In the comfortable silence, a single thought popped up in her mind. Liv couldn't remember the last time she was in a church. She believed it could have been for her uncle Charlie's wedding when she was five years old.
"I want to tell you-well both of you-something about me that nobody knows." John broke the silence suddenly. "I wake up every morning, and for the first five minutes of the day, I imagine that everyone I care about is dead." Olivia sucked in a breath. It was extremely morbid, sad, but she expected it when it came from her father.
With his head bowed, he continued, "I lie there, and...I meditate on that. So that way when it inevitably happens, then, uh...it lessens the blow."
Zed had turned to face him. Her eyes full of intrigue. "Then what do you do?" She asked softly.
The warlock half-shrugged. "I spark a ciggy and fry an egg."
Zed chuckled as she shook her head. "So are you telling me I'm on that list now?"
John's mouth parted before Manny interrupted. "Why don't you just enjoy your time with them, John?" He said with a smirk.
"Oh my, god." Liv mumbled to herself as she stared at the angel. She had heard many stories of the mysterious angel, but she had yet to seem him with her own eyes. Now that she has seen him, she is a bit bummed now that she can no longer tease John about how odd it was that only he could see him. No more jokes about how John's creating a fake friend to prove that he is likable. What a shame.
John sighed. "You're up to your old tricks again. Manny's here."
"Yeah, we know." Olivia replied slowly.
John looked between the women who were practically gawking at the angel. "You can see him?"
Manny ignored the two Constantine's and turned to Zed. "You're...not having the surgery?"
"John taught me that...magic has its cost." Zed begun, and it took everything in Olivia not to quote Rumplestiltskin. "If that cost is pain, I'll take it."
"That's a brave decision."
John rolled his eyes. "Ooh, compliments as well. You have changed, angel."
"Maybe we should...." Olivia whispered to her father, and John nodded.
"Well, now he's your problem as well." John rose to his feet with his daughter following suit. Olivia watched with humorous eyes as John lit his cigarette with one of the prayer candles. "Guess we'll just leave you two to the almighty."
"You should get a better morning ritual." Olivia told John as they walked down the church steps. The sun rays so bright, she had to shield her eyes from the harsh but perfect warmth casted up on her face. "Manny was right at least about one thing."
John halted his movements with a sigh. "Liv-"
"Dad, you're gonna have to let people in at some point. Or at least one." She frowned. "I just want you to be happy."
John smiled slightly. "I appreciate that, but happiness....it's not meant for someone like me..."
Olivia sucked her teeth in annoyance. She hated when he put himself down even more when he called himself a bastard. "That's bullshit. You might not be the perfect man-hell no one is perfect-but you deserve happiness-"
"I ruin people. My own mother, Astra, Gary, hell even you-"
"Stop." Olivia cut him off angrily causing him to flinch at her unexpected harsh tone. "We're not gonna keep doing this, okay. We talked. I understand. I'm over being upset over this. This is our chance...our chance to get to know each other. Our chance to make up for the lost time."
She took a step toward him. John couldn't help but smile back when he saw the beautiful smile on her face. "I want to put everything behind us. I forgive you. So can you just please forgive yourself already, so we can move on." She laughed slightly as she gently shoved him back. But given his size he barely moved an inch. John grinned widely as he pulled his daughter into a tight hug, kissing her forehead softly.
"How do you like New Orleans?"
Olivia looked up at John with furrowed brows. Her arms still wrapped tightly around John's torso. "Huh? I mean, the art school I'm dying to go to is in New Orleans, but-"
"I've been thinking...maybe after this whole rising darkness thing is done...maybe we should move to New Orleans. You should know the area that you're gonna spend your college years, right?" Olivia beamed brightly at the idea of the two of them being a real family in New Orleans. She only just wished her mother could've been apart of it it.
"New Orleans."
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END OF PART ONE