When Angels Fall

by Sherryl D. Hancock

  “How the hell did you do that back there?” she asked, still astounded by Skyler’s agility. She’d long suspected that Skyler was a lot tougher than she let on; the term ‘metal under tension’ came to mind.

  “You mean putting our little friend down?” Skyler asked, grinning.

  “Yeah, that,” Devin said, smiling at the phrase ‘putting our little friend down’.

  Skyler shrugged, “Experience.”

  “In the Army?” Devin asked.

  “In the Army, in life…” Skyler said.

  “You’ve had to defend yourself like that other times too?” Devin asked, shocked at the idea.

  “I told you, I’ve felt different my whole life, even when I was a kid. Other kids know when someone is different, so I had to learn how to fight early.”

  “Oh my God, Skyler…” Devin said.

  “It’s not a big deal,” Skyler said.

  “It’s not what a normal life is like,” Devin said, “That’s a really rough childhood.”

  “You have no idea,” Skyler said, her tone serious.

  Devin looked over at her, sensing there was more to what she was saying, but also sensing that it wasn’t the time to ask those questions, so she decided to change topics.

  “So, what about that ‘hot little number’ Acorn was referring to?”

  “Oh, Jesus,” Skyler said, laughing out loud.

  “Well?” Devin asked, grinning.

  “She’s an ex,” Skyler said.

  “Okay…” Devin said, her tone leading. When Skyler wasn’t forthcoming with any details she said, “Come on, you know all about one of my exes.”

  “That’s because she showed up!” Skyler said, laughing.

  “Well, what if this one showed up?” Devin asked.

  “Uh,” Skyler said, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “if that one shows up, I’d suggest you duck.”

  “What does that mean?” Devin asked, her eyes widening.

  “She’s rather, um, passionate.” Skyler said.

  “How passionate?” Devin asked.

  “Well, not boil your bunny, passionate, but definitely throwing things at your head when she’s pissed, passionate.”

  “Yikes!” Devin said, “She threw things at you?”

  “She cleared an entire coffee table of its contents once, throwing it at me.”

  “Did she hit you?”

  “Fortunately, part of the requirement of being a pilot is fast reaction time, so I ducked pretty well,” Skyler said, grinning.

  “So you guys fought?” Devin asked.

  “Oh yeah,” Skyler said, rolling her eyes.

  “About what?”

  “Everything,” Skyler said, but when Devin looked like she was waiting for more, she continued, “she was very jealous, so she was convinced I was cheating on her constantly.”

  “How long were you two together?”

  “All and all about three years.”

  “Wow!” Devin said, surprised by the length of time.

  “You gotta know that part of that time included an eighteen-month deployment to Iraq.”

  “Oh,” Devin said, nodding, “So you guys fought, and she threw things at you.”

  “Yeah,” Skyler said, nodding, “threw things, caused scenes, got into fights with other girls that she was convinced I was screwing behind her back.”

  Devin just looked back at her a moment, then shook her head.

  “What?” Skyler asked, having seen the look.

  “I’m just surprised,” Devin said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just wouldn’t think you’d put up with that kind of thing.” Devin said.

  Skyler grinned, her look considering, “Well, I used to,” she said, her tone telling Devin that this was something else that had changed since her time in Iraq.

  Devin nodded, not wanting to poke her too much on that subject, but needing to know one thing.

  “Did you love her?” she asked, surprised at how much the answer meant to her.

  Skyler hesitated for a long moment, then shook her head, “No, I didn’t. I mean, things with her were hot and passionate, but no, I didn’t love her.”

  Devin nodded, looking over at Skyler again. She realized she was relieved by what Skyler had said.

  “Was she in love with you?” Devin asked then.

  Skyler didn’t answer for a long moment, then she shrugged, “I guess you’d have to ask her that.”

  Devin looked over at Skyler, “Did she tell you that she was in love with you?”

  Skyler glanced at her, her look surprised, “Yeah, she did.”

  “But you didn’t believe her?” Devin asked.

  “It’s not that,” Skyler said.

  “Then?” Devin asked.

  “I just think it’s easier for some people to be in love,” she said.

  Devin looked over at Skyler, “But that’s not you, is it?”

  “No,” Skyler replied.

  Devin let that word go straight to her heart. She was fairly sure that Skyler had no idea how much what she’d just said meant to her. She hugged the thought that even though Skyler didn’t love easily, Skyler loved her. It meant so much to her, it scared her that it did.

  That night back at the hotel, Devin relished their lovemaking even more. As they lay together afterwards, Devin shocked Skyler by saying, “What’s her name?”

  “What?” Skyler asked, her mind having been somewhere completely different.

  “The ex,” Devin said.

  Skyler chuckled, “Seriously?”

  “Yeah,” Devin said, turning her head to look at Skyler

  “Rose,” Skyler said.

  “Where does she live?”

  “LA,” Skyler said, narrowing her eyes at Devin, “don’t hack her.”

  Devin looked back at Skyler, the picture of innocence, even as a slow grin spread on her lips.

  Skyler shook her head, rolling her eyes. God help Rose, she thought. She knew that even without a last name, Devin could pull together enough to probably find the girl.

  Later night as they slept Skyler suddenly jerked upright, breathing heavily. Devin turned over to look at her.

  “Sky?” she queried tiredly.

  “It’s okay,” Skyler said, getting her breathing under control, “just a bad dream.”

  “You sure?” Devin asked, unable to really see Skyler’s face in the dim light of the room.

  “Yeah, babe, I’m fine.” Skyler said, leaning down to kiss her. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay,” Devin said, nodding.

  Skyler got out of bed, pulling on her jeans and a tank top.

  Outside the room, on the private patio, she lit a cigarette with shaking hands. She took deep drags on the cigarette trying to calm her nerves. The dream had been vivid and it had scared the hell out of her. After three cigarettes she finally felt calm enough to go back to bed. It took a while to fall asleep again, fortunately Devin didn’t wake when she came back into the room, she was grateful for that.

  Their last night in Vegas, they decided to try a gay club. The club was called Free Zone, it was low key and really mostly frequented by gay men, but for the most part exclusively lesbian clubs were non-existent. The fact that it was a club for men, primarily, was good as far as Devin, since she figured she’d have a lot less trouble keeping tabs on Skyler, less women hitting on her. She found out not too long after they’d gotten there that she was wrong, but for a completely different reason.

  They’d been at the bar for about a half an hour, when Devin saw Skyler freeze, her beer halfway to her lips. Her eyes were focused over Devin’s right shoulder, so Devin turned and looked to see if she could see what Skyler was focused on. It took a long minute to locate her in the melee of half-naked men all over the place, but when she saw the woman, she knew there was something there, because the woman was staring at Skyler as well.

  “Son of a…” Skyler muttered as the woman started toward them.

  “Who is th
at?” Devin started to ask, but the woman got over to them in that time.

  The woman was without a doubt one of the most beautiful women Devin had ever seen. She was Hispanic, with big dark eyes and a swing of thick silky looking black hair. The outfit she wore left little to the imagination and a lot of dark toned smooth skin was on display. Boy did the woman have a body! Devin never worried about her body, she knew hers was pretty decent, but suddenly she felt like a fat slob standing near this woman. Who is that? Devin thought in frustration.

  “Skyler,” the woman said, her accent thick.

  Skyler looked back at the woman, lifting the beer to her lips and taking a drink, “Rose.” She said finally.

  So that’s Rose?! Devin thought, thinking that Skyler didn’t slouch when it came to women, did she?

  Rose’s eyes narrowed at Skyler, but then moved to Devin quizzically.

  Devin caught the curl of Skyler’s lips, but then looked back at the woman who was visibly assessing her.

  “Rose, this is Devin,” Skyler put in, her tone even.

  “I see,” Rose said, with a spark of jealousy in her eyes instantly.

  “Easy…” Skyler said, her tone low, even as her eyes stared right into Rose’s eyes.

  “You threatening me, Skyler?” Rose said, her tone sharp.

  “I’m warning you,” Skyler said, her face serious.

  Rose gave a short laugh, then looked at Devin again. “Good luck holding on to her,” Rose said, her tone snide.

  “Haven’t had any trouble so far,” Devin countered, her look assured.

  Skyler grinned at that, even as she pulled out a cigarette to light it.

  “Still smoking, I see,” Rose said, seeming to be happy to find another topic to move to.

  Skyler took a deep draw, then blew the smoke out toward Rose. Rose instantly narrowed her eyes, her stance changing slightly indicating an imminent attack.

  Skyler canted her head to the side, noting the stance, “Haven’t changed I see,” Skyler commented.

  “Neither have you!” Rose practically spat.

  Skyler didn’t respond, merely rocking back on her heels, her eyes on Roses. After a long moment, Rose relaxed her stance.

  “You deal with your shit yet?” Rose asked, her look changing to malicious.

  Skyler’s chin came up instantly, and that told Devin that this was a sore subject. Her look went to Skyler, and she could see the ice cold mask fall over her face. She didn’t answer Rose’s question.

  Rose gave a short laugh, her pretty face contorted in a nasty line. It was obvious she wanted to hurt Skyler in any way she could.

  “That’s what I figured,” Rose said, her tone sharp.

  With that, Rose gave Devin a dismissive look, then turned and walked away from them. Devin watched her go. Rose joined her friends out on the dance floor, launching into a very sexy style of dance, her look directed at Skyler the whole time.

  When Devin turned to look at Skyler, she could see that Skyler was still effected by what Rose had said. When she lifted the cigarette to her mouth again, Devin could see that her hand was shaking ever so slightly.

  “Was she actually referring to the crash?” Devin asked, her tone disbelieving.

  Skyler grimaced slightly and nodded, taking another deep draw off her cigarette.

  “Jesus…” Devin breathed, thinking that the woman had a lot of nerve.

  Rose had used the term ‘shit’, like the crash wasn’t that big of a deal. Devin wondered how much Rose really knew about the crash in Iraq. The idea that Rose thought it was something that Skyler should just get over, was insane to Devin. How could Rose not know that Skyler had been very damaged by whatever had happened. It was one thing to not know that much about it, and refer to it that way, but Rose didn’t seem to understand it at all.

  “Do you want to leave?” Devin asked Skyler after a few minutes.

  Skyler shook her head, “I’m okay,” she said.

  “What were the odds of her being here?” Devin asked, wondering at that.

  Skyler shrugged, grinning, “She’s like the Devil, you say her name and it conjures her up.”

  Devin laughed at that, “Did you two come here before?”

  “Yeah,” Skyler said, “once, for our birthdays.”

  “Birthdays?” Devin repeated.

  “She was born in the same month as me.”

  “Oh…” Devin said, nodding.

  An hour later, Devin went to the restroom. When she came out of the stall she wasn’t very surprised to see Rose standing at the sinks.

  Devin walked over to the sink, washing her hands and then drying them.

  “So, you think you can hold on to her, huh?” Rose said, her arms crossed over her chest.

  Devin turned to lean on the sink, facing Rose, “What makes you think I can’t?”

  “That chica has too much going on in her head,” Rose said, tapping her finger to her own head.

  “She’s been through a traumatic event,” Devin countered, her tone baffled.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” Rose said, waving Devin’s comment aside airily.

  “I honestly don’t think you do,” Devin said.

  “You think you know her better than me?” Rose asked, her tone sharpening.

  “In this case, yeah, I do.” Devin said

  Rose narrowed her eyes at Devin, her lips flattened into a hard line.

  “She’ll leave you, just like she did me, you wait and see.” Rose practically shrieked, then turned and huffed out of the bathroom.

  Devin watched her go, taken back by the vehemence and conviction the woman had spoken, part of her wondered if she was right. When Devin left the bathroom she found Skyler waiting for her.

  “Everything okay?” Skyler asked, having seen Rose storm out of the bathroom.

  “Sure,” Devin said, grinning, “were you coming to my rescue?”

  Skyler grinned, “Only if I needed to.”

  “I think I’m done with the club now,” Devin said, sighing.

  “Let’s go,” Skyler said.

  Their last night in Vegas was spent in the hotel bar, having drinks and eating appetizers. There was no drama, no exes, no men hitting on them. When they made it to their room they made love until the wee hours of the morning and the next day left Vegas behind.

  CHAPTER 6

  The months that followed the trip to Vegas were busy for both Devin and Skyler, but they saw each other as often as they could. There were moments when Skyler would pull away from Devin, and Devin made a point of letting Skyler do that when she needed to be alone. Often she would try to talk to Skyler about whatever had happened that had caused the distance between them, but to no avail. Most of the time the fight would end with Devin backing off and Skyler eventually coming around and apologizing.

  Three months after they’d gone to Vegas, Devin got a surprising phone call. She was at work, and her cell phone rang. Looking at the display she was surprised to see that the person calling was Amy, a person who was in the Marines with Sarah.

  Picking up the call she said, “Hello?”

  “Hi Devin,” Amy said, her voice sounding serious.

  “Hi, Amy,” Devin said, “How are you?”

  “I’m okay,” Amy said, “but I wanted to call you about Sarah.”

  “Okay…” Devin said, letting her voice trail off to indicate her caution.

  “I’m sorry,” Amy said, sounding like she really was, “but I thought you should know about this.”

  “Okay,” Devin repeated.

  “It’s about Sarah,” Amy said then, “I know you two are kind of on the outs, but I thought you should know that she tried to kill herself last night.”

  “Holy shit,” Devin said, surprised in spite of herself.

  “Yeah, that’s what I said,” Amy said.

  “What did she do?” Devin asked still in shock.

  Sarah had always been very self-assured, even if she hadn’t been willing to be herself when it came to being gay
. Devin had always attributed that to the fact that Sarah’s father was a hard core Marine and that there was little chance of him accepting that his daughter was gay. For Sarah to feel so low as to give in to the idea of taking her own life, it wasn’t something that Devin would have believed possible.

  “She took a half a bottle of pain killers,” Amy said, “She claims that she wasn’t trying to kill herself, but who takes like twenty Norco accidentally?”

  “No one,” Devin said.

  “And I hate to tell you this, but I really think it had everything to do with you.”

  “Me?” Devin exclaimed, “Why? I haven’t even seen her in months.”

  “That’s the thing,” Amy said, “I really think she had it in her head that the only thing keeping you two apart was the fact that she wasn’t out. So when she came out, she figured she’d get you back.”

  “Well, I moved on,” Devin said, her tone defensive.

  “I know,” Amy said, “I just don’t think she could handle it.”

  Devin took a deep breath, blowing it out in dismay.

  “So why are you telling me this?” Devin asked, sounding resigned.

  Amy shrugged on her end, “I guess I thought you should know.”

  “Because she tried to kill herself over me?” Devin asked.

  “Because she’s lying to herself and everyone else about it, and I’m worried about her.” Amy countered.

  Devin nodded, taking that statement in. Amy was Sarah’s best friend, and if she was worried about Sarah, she probably had good reason to be worried. It put Devin in a difficult spot though and she wasn’t sure there was a lot she could do for Sarah at that point.

  “I don’t know what or if I can do anything at this point.” Devin said, her tone softer.

  “I understand,” Amy said, knowing that Devin’s current girlfriend may not want Devin interacting or helping an ex-girlfriend. Emotional connections were always dangerous territory in the ex-girlfriend department; it didn’t take much to ruin a current relationship. Women tended to overthink things when it came to emotional connections, and lesbians were no different in that area.

  Later that night Skyler and Devin were in Skyler’s car, going to dinner when Devin brought up the phone call.

  “So I got a call today,” Devin said, her tone purposely casual.