Stars In Our Hearts

Chapter Nine

Crowley and Aziraphale froze, their eyes darting back and forth from the girl's face to her right arm. It ended a few inches below her elbow, just above where the serpent had appeared on their daughter's wrist. "It-it can't be... Carina?" Crowley whispered, his voice full of the hope he didn't know he still had.

"Hi, Dad," she smiled, her eyes watering.

A sob clawed its way out from Aziraphale's lips as he surged forward to collect his daughter in his arms. Crowley followed close behind him, squeezing both of them into a tight hug. The trio cried for what felt like hours before they finally pulled apart. "It's you," Aziraphale sniffed.

"It's me, Papa," Carina placed her hand between her father's. "I know you probably don't believe it completely," she said. "But I can prove it." Carina pulled her hand back and turned her back to her parents. Pulling her hair aside, she revealed another snake imprinted on her skin, this one just behind her left ear. "When they took the other one, this one appeared. Thankfully they never noticed, or I might be missing a whole lot more than just my arm," she chuckled dryly.

"You're alive," Crowley breathed. His eyes widened. "You're alive and we stopped looking for you. We gave up." His gaze darted towards her. "We gave up when all this time you've been alive."

"Dad..." her face softened. "Dad, I don't blame you. You had to move on or die yourself. While I can't say that I've been there, I do know where you're coming from. I understand."

Aziraphale's eyes kept looking her over, trying to find any evidence of what else the archangels had done to his daughter. "Carina... do you... remember that last story you just told us?"

"Losing my arm?" She shook her head, "No. But Michael talked about it enough, I felt like I could remember. But that was a long time ago, so I don't think it really matters anymore–"

"Doessssn't matter? A long time ago? Thosssse are not exxxcussssesss!" Crowley stood up, hissing angrily. "The way that they treated you... and you jussst let them?" he was getting angrier by the minute. "You never onccce thought that ssssomething wasssn't right?"

"Crowley–!" Aziraphale stood as well, fully prepared to give the demon a hard talking-to.

"Papa, it's alright," Carina held out her hand for him to sit again. "I didn't know anything else," she explained. "They told me what they wanted me to know; that my name was Camael and that I was an archangel. I never had a reason to question them."

"Not even when they cut off your hand?"

"Dad, I don't remember that," Carina sighed. "And it is in the past. There's nothing that can be done about it now."

"When did you figure it out?" Aziraphale asked.

"That you were my parents?" She smiled. "I always knew the angels weren't telling me something. I could just never figure out what. And then I was sent to watch you two. I saw your mark right away," Carina looked towards Crowley as he slowly sat back down, nodding at his cheek. "And I recognized it. It was the same one that I have. I knew there must've been a connection. I will admit it took me another few decades to put together that I was "created" at the same time your daughter went missing. You know, I asked Gabriel once what happened to your child. He told me that you had killed her yourself, in horror of what you'd created. Or, you tried to kill her. The angels were able to save the child at the last minute and send her far away to live her days as an ordinary being." She looked at her lap. "That's why I came here. I wanted to know if it was true. If you really had gotten rid of her, well, me, because you were afraid of what you'd made." Her eyes shifted between her parents, "But I knew the moment you began your story that they had lied. I knew that you loved me more than anything else in this world."

Crowley had begun to cry again, "My little star, we love you more than this world." He reached forwards to tuck a piece of strawberry blonde hair behind his daughter's ear. "And we are going to make sure that you never forget it."