Stolen Heaven part 6 How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? --Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams When Derek woke the next morning, he was bundled in his comforter and wrapped in the protective circle of someone's arms. He blinked sleepily and looked up into Philip's warm gaze. The memories of the nightmares were fading, but he was still struck by the irrational worry of what he might see when he looked in the mirror. "Philip?" he asked muzzily, "Is everything all right?" "B'sides you havin' nightmares until I came in, it looks tha' way," the priest answered, stroking Derek's sleep-mussed hair away from his face. "How d'you feel?" Derek snuggled closer for a moment, then stretched out and sat up. "Not too bad," he answered, surprised that he actually felt as rested as he did. "What time is it?" he suddenly asked, seeing the brightness of the sunshine through the curtains. "Is Rachel here yet?" "It's nearly 9:30," Philip answered, "and I think Rachel's on her way. She's bringin' Kat since it's a weekend..." "That's all right -- we'll find something to keep Kat busy while we discuss the problem. There's no reason to expose her to...some of the things involved in this," Derek said quietly. Philip nodded his agreement, then leaned close to kiss Derek. "I'll go t'my room an' get dressed. Meet you downstairs for breakfast," he murmured when they separated, "If I don't go now, we'll be even more late." He was pleased to see Derek smile in response. Once Philip left the room Derek stood, stripped off his pajama top and looked at himself in the large mirror, twisting around to try and get a good look at his back. When he saw no sign of wings or even scars where he had felt his flesh tearing when they had erupted, he thought _Dank Gott,_ nearly faint as relief flooded him. He stripped the rest of his pajamas off and padded to the bathroom, dealt with the call of nature, then started a hot shower running. He had been comfortably warm in Philip's arms, but now that he was standing he was beginning to feel a little chilled. Most likely, he reflected, it was nerves -- after all, the sun was still shining brightly and the temperature in the large house was kept fairly steady, to protect the books, artwork, and artifacts it housed. He finished his shower, dried and dressed quickly, layering a thick wool sweater over a t-shirt and dark cotton turtleneck. Finally beginning to warm slightly, he finished brushing his hair, then left his room and headed for the kitchen. "Good morning," Rachel said as he entered the sunny kitchen and headed straight for the coffee pot. He nodded his greeting to her absently, attention focused on the brewing coffee until he could finally fill a mug and sip at it carefully. When he turned back to Rachel, she was staring at her with her head cocked and an eyebrow raised. "Sorry, Rachel. Good morning," he said softly. "I -- needed something warm." He shrugged slightly, unable to explain himself further. "Has anyone talked to you yet?" "I talked to Alex on the phone -- she said you had some medical information for me to look at?" "Yes -- and we need to talk, although I think that--" He stopped abruptly as Kat skipped into the kitchen and placed her cereal bowl and spoon in the sink. "G'morning, Derek!" she chirped, plopping herself in the chair right next to Rachel. "Well, good morning, Kat," he said as brightly as he could. "How are you doing?" As the nine-year old launched into a description of her latest school projects, he glanced up at Rachel with a stricken look which he prayed she would interpret correctly. When Kat paused in her narrative, Derek smiled and said, "That sounds interesting, Kat. I'm glad you're enjoying history so much. You know we've got some interesting books in the library that you could look at." "Aww, I don't want to do schoolwork today, it's too nice outside!" Kat protested. She looked up at her mother and asked, "Do I have to?" Rachel shook her head and said, "No, you don't have to, Sweetheart. Do you want to go outside and go for a walk or something?" "Can Nick come out with me?" the girl asked. Derek met Rachel's gaze over Kat's head and nodded. "That might be a good idea, Kat," he said, thinking that it would be safer for Kat to play outside with someone. The island was fairly safe, but the thought of a nine-year-old girl playing outside, unsupervised, made him nervous. "Why don't I go see where he is?" "Okay," Kat agreed. "Maybe I'll look at the books later." A few minutes later, Nick and Derek returned to the kitchen and Nick smiled upon seeing Kat. "Hiya, Kiddo. I hear you want to go outside and see what trouble we can get into." Nick's eyes twinkled mischievously as he said this and Derek couldn't help smiling when Rachel said, "That's what you're supposed to *keep* her from doing, Nick." "Oh, yeah, that was it. Well, c'mon, Kiddo. I know this great tree we could climb..." As the two of them left the kitchen, Nick glanced back at Derek and mouthed "I'll take care of her." Derek nodded and mouthed "Thank you," back to him. Then he and Rachel were alone in the kitchen once again, with her studying him closely. "That serious, huh?" she asked. Derek nodded and looked down at his coffee, then answered, "Serious, and some potentially sensitive subject matter that I thought you'd probably want to control her exposure to." Rachel raised an eyebrow again and was about to ask him something when he said, "Why don't we get everyone else in the control room, and then I'll explain it." "I can hardly wait," Rachel answered, trying to control her curiosity. Rachel stood and paced back and forth between the computer consoles, tapping the fingers of one hand against the palm of the other and looking incredulously from Sloan to Derek and back again. "Now hold on," she said, her voice showing just the slightest edge of amusement, "I've seen proof that demons and things like that exist, but...you're expecting me to *believe* that the fallen angels mated with humans and that one of my own friends is a descendent of such a mating?" She spun to face Sloan and said, "You've *got* to be kidding!" "Now Rachel, I wouldn't kid about something like this," the older man began calmly. "I know it's a lot to take on faith. That's why we want you to look at the anomalies on the DNA maps -- maybe my expert in London is *wrong* -- maybe it's just extremely rare in humans..." "Please, Rachel," Derek said softly, "I... I *believe* it's true, but you might be able to find proof one way or the other." "I can prove it if it *is* something found in humans, but if I can't do that, I can't prove it comes from -- from *fallen angels*," she said, shaking her head. "How on earth would I prove that?" "True," Sloan said, hoping to calm her with his voice. "Okay, but you can at least look at it and see if you've ever seen anything like it, right?" "Well, yes, of course." She looked at Derek, seeing the uncertainty in his eyes, and let her hands fall to her sides. "Derek, I'm sorry... It's just -- it sounds *crazy*." He nodded, but she could see the hurt in his eyes now and instantly regretted her choice of words. "I know it does," he was saying as she tried to figure out how to apologize, "but then you know from personal experience that at least one fallen angel -- the *leader* of the Watchers -- truly does exist." _Ouch. Touche, Derek,_ she thought. _I deserved that one._ Aloud, she said, "You're right, I do. Okay, Mr. Sloan, would you mind terribly if I took the samples and did the analysis myself? While I'm waiting for it to finish, I'll look at the tests your expert has already run, but I'd like to do it entirely from scratch, to make sure nothing contaminated the samples." "That makes sense to me," Sloan answered, "Derek, do you mind donating a little blood to the cause?" "It wouldn't be the first time," Derek said, smiling humourlessly. As Rachel went to fetch the equipment, Derek stripped off his sweater and rolled up his sleeve so that he was ready when she returned. He glanced at Philip and Alex, who had sat by quietly once Rachel expressed her disbelief. "Well, that could have gone better," he murmured to them. "It'll be all right, Derek," Alex said. Philip nodded and said, "It's jus' difficult for her t'believe it. Even after all she's seen, she keeps tryin' to deny it..." "I know," Derek said softly. "I just wish *I* could." After drawing Derek's blood and promising Sloan that she would not lose the samples delivered from London House, Rachel locked herself in the Legacy's state-of-the-art lab with the strict instructions that the only thing she should be disturbed for was if Kat needed her. She warned the others that it could take a long time, especially with the age of the samples from London House, and to remember that she wasn't a geneticist. Derek nodded and told her he was still grateful for anything she could do, and again she saw the uncertainty that he was trying so hard to hide. "It'll be all right, Derek," she said softly, reaching up and gently smoothing his hair out of his face. "I'll do everything I can to figure this out." "Thank you, Rachel," he answered quietly, then she headed into the lab. The others settled down into their daily routine; Alex and Derek scanning the newspapers and online news services for any stories that may need their unique attention, Philip in the library pouring through the old books for any weapons they could use against the current problem, Nick and Kat occupying themselves outside until they wore themselves out and crashed in the living room for a nap, and Sloan joining Philip in the library after telephone calls to London House and his family. Around mid-afternoon, Philip heaved an aggravated sigh and leaned back in his chair, frustrated by the lack of information he had found so far. "Trouble?" Sloan asked, looking up from the old journal he was reading to see the priest slumped in his chair with his head tilted back. "Somewhere in th' back o'my mind there's somethin' I think could help us, but I can't find anythin' here and lookin' book-by-book would take weeks..." "You could wake Nick up and have him do a search on the internet -- or perhaps Alex could if you want to let him sleep the day away," Sloan said with a slight smile. "He'll need all of his energy to keep up with Katherine..." "She does like him, doesn' she," Philip murmured with a grin. "It's so funny to see him runnin' around out there like a kid..." Then he sobered and sat up, meeting Sloan's gaze, "I guess he didn't get much of a chance t'have fun *while* he was one." Sloan let that comment pass, knowing Philip was right. Jonathan had been his friend, but he couldn't deny the terrible way the man had treated his own wife and child. "Y'know," Philip began, "There might be somethin' in the university library, or maybe even at th' church...maybe I'll head out there and see what I c'n find." "Have Alex do a search of the university's online catalog first," Sloan suggested. "It'll save a little bit of time if you don't have to search yourself once you get there." Philip nodded, then stood and headed first for the kitchen to pick up some lunch fixings and bread in case anyone there wanted some food, then went to the Control room. Derek and Alex both looked up when he entered, smiling when they saw the tray of food. "Wow," Alex said with a broad grin, "Just in time, before we faint dead away. What *time* is it, anyway?" She checked her watch even as she asked, shaking her head as she realized how involved she had become in her work. "Derek, come on, you need to eat." Derek stood and stretched, then headed over to join them, catching the admiring look in Philip's eyes. "Now that I think of it, I *am* hungry," he said softly. "Did you come in here just to bring us food?" "Actually, no, but the rest can wait -- I realized neither of you had been out since breakf'st this mornin' and y'might be gettin' hungry. How 'bout Rachel? She could probably do with somethin', too." "I don't know, she said not to bother her," Alex reminded. "She's gone into obsessive doctor mode..." "Hmmn," Derek said around a mouthful of sandwich. After he swallowed, he elaborated, "She still needs to eat." He put a sandwich together for her and knocked on the door of the lab, then waited patiently until she finally opened the door. "Wha-- oh, Derek, *thank* you. My god, is it that late already?" she asked, taking the sandwich from him. "Did Kat get something to eat?" "I don't know," Derek answered, "I worked past lunch myself." "She's crashed out in the livin' room with Nick," Philip answered, "Both of 'em wore themselves out playin' outside this mornin'." "Can you make sure she eats?" Rachel asked, looking first at Derek, then over his shoulder at Alex and Philip. "No problem," Alex answered. "We'll even make sure it's something good for her." "Thanks -- I gotta get back to work," Rachel said, and retreated back into the room before Derek ever got a chance to ask her what progress she had made. When he heard the door lock again, he turned back to the others and shrugged. "Oh well -- at least she'll eat," Alex said with a smile. "So, what else did you want, Philip." "I was wonderin' if you could help me get to the university's library catalog," he explained, motioning towards the computers with his sandwich. "Sure -- not finding anything in the library here?" Philip shook his head and answered, "Nothin' more than th' usual exorcisms and such." Derek restrained a sigh, knowing that if there *was* anything they could use specifically against the fallen angels, it most likely would not be easy to find information on it. The Book of Enoch had been removed from the 'official' books of the Bible a long time ago, and was often not even considered a valid part of the Apocrypha. Very few other texts held much information on the Watchers, the Nephilim, or any of their other offspring or variations, and the ones that did were difficult to obtain, let alone decipher. "We might actually do better to search in some of the original Judaic texts that the Old Testament is based on," he suggested. Philip nodded, but answered, "I'm gonna check the university library and the church first, though. Might even be able to contact some th' folks back in Ireland and see if they know anythin'." "That's a thought," Alex said. "Or maybe the Vatican itself?" "It'd take some doin'," Philip said softly, "Mos' likely they'd want t'know *why* first." "I'd really prefer if you don't have to tell them," Derek said softly, "Although if it comes down to that, you have my permission to tell them whatever you need to." Philip met his gaze and nodded, whispered, "Thanks, Derek. I'll try t'avoid it if I can." Alex returned to her seat in front of the computer and said, "Okay, let's see what the university library's got for us first," and started typing away. Philip eventually headed off for the university library and his church, armed with a print-out of possible leads. Nick offered to accompany him, but Philip had looked him in the eye and said, "I'm a big boy now, Nick. I think I can handle th'librarians by m'self." Derek had chuckled as Alex looked up from her work and exaggeratedly shushed the two of them, and Nick wished his friend luck. The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent in various passtimes, including some movie-watching by Nick and Kat, who had argued for a chance to see Disney's "Fantasia". Alex joined them sometime later, and Derek found them all in the living room, eating popcorn and watching Zeus hurl thunderbolts at fleeing centaurs. "Have you seen William?" he asked, looking around and not finding the Legacy leader anywhere. "I think he's in your office," Nick answered. "Some call from London for him." "Thank you." He was about to head off to his office when Rachel entered the room, her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail and lab safety-glasses hanging around her neck. "Mom! Are you done? You can watch the centaurs with us!" Kat said, sitting up and smiling. "Soon, Kitty-Kat -- I have to talk to Derek and his boss first, okay Honey?" Rachel said, looking at Derek pointedly. "I think he's in my office, Rachel," Derek said, "Come with me." They walked to Derek's office, where he tapped on the door with his knuckles, then opened it before there was any answer. "Okay, Richard, I'll get back there as quickly as possible, see what you can do until I arrive," Sloan was saying into the phone, tapping a pen on the table in an irritated manner while he looked up at the interruption. "Yes, I'll call the airport in five minutes and get them to prepare the jet. Good luck." When he hung up the phone, he asked, "Do you have any news? I've got to get back to London as soon as I can -- a situation has come up and they want me there to run things." Derek looked at him and asked, "Is it serious?" "I think so -- some ghost is running around literally scaring people to death in one of the museums," Sloan answered quickly. "So?" Rachel cleared her throat and said, "I ran the test on Derek's blood twice, and what I could of the test on the other two samples..." She shook her head and looked from one to the other and continued, "I found the same thing your test results showed -- some anomaly in the DNA sequence that just usually *isn't* there. I have *no* idea what it does or where it comes from--" She paused, looking Derek in the eye and smiling slightly, "--and you'd better not let the researchers at the Human Genome Project get a hold of you -- but...I've *never* seen this before." "Anything even similar?" Sloan asked, taking a small notepad out of a pocket and looking up the airport's number while they talked. "This doesn't exactly bolster my side of the argument," Rachel admitted, "but the last time I saw anything even *close* to this was when we tested Lucas." "Lucas?" Sloan asked sharply, looking up from the notepad to study Rachel closely, "You mean the demon that posed as Derek's son?" "Yes," she answered, catching Derek's look of resignation out of the corner of her eye and smiling apologetically in return. "So I guess it does -- *slightly* -- support your theory." "Well, thank you, Rachel -- at least we know we've checked out as much as we can," Sloan answered. "Derek, I'm sorry I have to run out on you, especially now, but my own House needs my attention, and it's a long flight back." "You could always use the video link," Derek suggested, "although that won't help in the field. So I guess we'll hear from you when everything is sorted out in London?" "Yes -- as soon as I can, I'm going to come back and see how things are going here -- I know we still have some matters to discuss," Sloan said firmly. He turned his attention back to the phone, calling the airport to ready the Legacy jet for takeoff within the hour, while Derek and Rachel left the office. Twenty minutes later, Sloan was on his way to the airport in the San Francisco House's helicopter. He had taken Nick aside and told him he planned to return as soon as he could in order to discuss unfinished business with Derek, and that he expected Nick to keep an eye on Derek in case things should turn bad before his return. He also requested that they send him word if anyone managed to turn up something they could use. Nick had promised that they would, even if he had to sneak the information away from Derek when his precept was asleep -- then he broke into a broad grin and added, "Kidding..." to which Sloan told him it might have to come to that anyway, considering how Derek was with paperwork. Once Sloan was gone everyone settled back into various tasks in the living room, Rachel joining the group watching movies while Derek leafed through a pile of books he'd pulled from the library. He stood up at one point and asked, "Does anyone want coffee or hot chocolate or anything?" Alex smiled and said, "I could do with some tea," then stood to join him as the rest of them chimed in for hot chocolate. "I'll help you, Derek." "Thanks," he said with a slight smile as they headed for the kitchen. Once they were out of the living room, Alex looked at Derek and asked, "Are you okay? You still seem a little shaky..." "I just -- I'm fine, really, it's just so much so suddenly... I keep feeling as if I'll wake up any moment and find out it's just been another nightmare," he answered, meeting her gaze and forcing a smile. "The Precept always has to be strong, huh? C'mon, Teach, I can tell you're scared, and I don't blame you," Alex said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here, okay?" He ducked his gaze, swallowing convulsively, then looked up again and said, "Thanks. I -- I am afraid, but I'm afraid that now that I know about it, I might lose control and hurt all of you. I don't want to hurt my friends, and I don't want to do anything that could hurt the Legacy... William thinks that I won't endanger anyone, but how does he really know? Has anyone he knows ever dealt with this kind of thing before? No, of course not!" "But he knows you, Derek. He knows you're a good man and knows that you won't hurt your friends," Alex reassured him. She squeezed his shoulder and then let him go to start boiling water for the tea and hot chocolate. "There is good and evil in everyone, Alex," Derek said softly. "How do I know that this knowledge won't tip the balance within me?" "Do you want it to?" she asked. "No, of course not!" "Then I know you won't let it. After all," she paused, reaching up into a cabinet to get mugs and a tray to carry them on, "you're the man who shot himself rather than hurt Nick or me when you were possessed by part of a fallen angel." As he brought the tin of cocoa over to her, she turned and said, "I just don't want to see you doing anything that drastic if something goes wrong this time, okay?" A sudden feeling of dread swept over her as she saw his hand go limp and his eyes stare off into the middle distance. The cocoa began to slip from his grasp and she reached out to grab it, knowing from experience that he'd been hit by the Sight. Images flashed through his mind: searching for books among the stacks, reaching up to a high shelf for one volume that seemed to be just out of reach, then a sudden pain about his throat and darkness descending over him. Flashes of a brief struggle cut short by a sharp pain in his shoulder, and then warmth flowing through him, dragging him down into cottony greyness... Derek groaned and his knees buckled. Alex caught him in her arms just in time to have his eyes once more fix on her -- and to hear him gasp, "Philip!" --==**==-- To be continued in part 7 Poltergeist: The Legacy is (c) 1997 MGM/UA and Trilogy Entertainment. This story is not intended to infringe on these copyrights. Stolen Heaven (c) 1997 Penemuel