The Angel put an arm around his waist, laid her head on his shoulder. “We did good today,” she said.

“Yeah.” He inclined his head to touch hers.

“What’s wrong?” the Angel asked.

Uncharacteristically, Ray sighed. He was in a mood that the Angel had rarely seen in the years they’d been together.

“I don’t like this,” Ray said. “You know I want to go with you, but the agency ain’t going to run itself. I can’t pick up and go when I want to anymore. Not that I really want to this time around.”

The serious tone in his voice disturbed her. “Why not?”

“I’ve been everywhere—including that freaking alien dimension back when we first met—and I’ve seen lots of weird shit go down. Thought I’d seen damn near everything, but now, I’m not so sure.” He turned to face her and put his hands on her narrow waist. She entwined hers and rested them on the back of his neck. His intense green eyes, almost on a level with her own, were shadowed with an uncertainty that the Angel had never seen before. “It smells bad to me. You’re going into a totally uncertain situation and I ain’t too sure that Sir Galahad is the guy who should be leading you into this particular crapsack. But what can I do?”

“Don’t worry, Billy. The Lord will watch over me.”

“He damned well better,” Ray said, “and I’ll be waiting in the wings in case he fucks up. You just call me and I’ll be there. Screw SCARE.”

“Billy,” she whispered. She put a gloved finger against his lips. “Don’t blaspheme.”

Then they were kissing, pressed hard against each other, holding each other tighter than normal people could. It was, the Angel thought, simply heaven. She wanted this moment to last forever.

“Get a room, you two.”

They broke off the kiss and turned their heads, Billy wearing the scowl that meant he was really annoyed. Bubbles was standing in the open entrance to the lounge. She was beautiful, the Angel thought, taller than her and slim as, well, a model. Graceful and elfin, like all those lovely blondes in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.

“I always seem to be interrupting you two, don’t I?”

“You don’t have to enjoy it so much,” Ray growled.

Bubbles wiped the little smile off her face. “Sorry guys. I don’t, really. Klaus sent me to find you, Sheeba. We’re heading out to the airport.” She turned to go, stopped, and looked again at them, the grin back on her lips. “I guess you have time to say good-bye one more time.”

She turned and walked away.

“Not the way I’d like to,” Ray said in a low voice.

“I know what you mean.”