Chapter 1

He landed hard, the thudding jolt of the sidewalk hurt and made him clench his teeth. Standing, he brushed at the jeans that he wore and the long trench coat that fell to about his knees.

"Why here?" he said, knowing the one he was talking to was listening.

"Because here is where you are needed."

The voice came from behind him and he spun, staring at the tiny girl in a very frilly little dress, tiny white gloves on her hands and black patent leather shoes on her feet.

David burst out laughing, flicking his finger at one of the big sausage style curls on the tyke's head. "Nice, do you do talking dogs as well?" he grinned.

"If I did, it would be to bite your ass," the little girl told him, a sweet smile upon her face.

"I expected burning bushes and plagues that would wipe out millions and you give me this?"

"Plagues can be boring," the girl said softly. "Mankind is too close to wiping itself out as it is, they don't need my help."

"Then why send me down here. Why now?"

"You're unhappy," the girl said. "When you're unhappy, you cause mischief and I'm trying to stop it this time. I have a plan for you, David Stewart. But first, you need this." She opened her small white purse with her gloved hands and pulled out a ticket. "When you finish, I will show you your next task," she said, holding up the ticket. David took it, not too surprised to see the girl disappear.

"A train ticket? You kick me out of heaven, throw me down to wade through this sorry lot we call humanity and you leave me with nothing more than a fucking train ticket?" He turned a complete circle, waiting for a response that wasn't coming. "What the hell," he growled, kicking at a small stone that sat on the sidewalk. "I might as well play along until he comes to his senses and let's me back in."

Going to the nearest store window, he checked out his reflection, smiling and then frowning. Brown eyes stared back at him, wide spaced with heavy lashes any woman would kill to have. A slender nose sat atop firm but full masculine lips. Evenly spaced white teeth peeped from between his lips as he smiled. He ran a hand through the dark hair that was a bit long and too shaggy for his liking, but he'd adjust. It wasn't as if he'd bent sent own here to get a fucking haircut.

Of course, knowing the deity that had so suddenly kicked him out of the pearly gates, you never knew. "God and his fucking sense of humor," he hissed, seeing a woman behind him in the reflection cover her mouth and move quickly away from him.

"Okay, train. I have to catch the train." He turned, taking off at a quick gait, his long legs eating up the ground. Soon he was in the train station and sitting on one of the benches staring at the disreputable people who called the place home. "Why do you have to hassle me so much when these people need help?" he hissed under his breath even though he knew the answer. Free will, it was something that He firmly believed in. But it didn't look like free will had done much for these people. It seemed as if their will had been stripped off them and now they sat day after day, never trying to do anything more than make it through that day.

He was so glad when his train was called that he almost danced his way down to the right track. "Thank God," he said, climbing onto the train. He handed the conductor his ticket and moved down the seats, finally taking one. But he didn't sit long. David had been put here for a reason and he had to find it. "Okay, God," he whispered, "bring it on."

He changed cars, stepping between them easily enough. The train sounded the loudest between the cars and he closed the door behind him quickly. Looking at the first seat, he saw a petite redhead, her eyes concentrating on the darkness outside the window.

"How could I be so stupid and gullible?" she whispered.

"It definitely is a human flaw," he said, waiting for her to look up at him. "Is this seat taken?" he waved his hand at the seat across from her.

"No," the woman said. She seemed to be trying to control her tears and not succeeding very well.

"Mind if I sit then?" he asked.

"If you're going to try and pick me up, then yes, I do mind. I've had it with men. I'm swearing off of them."

Her rage and hurt was very apparent, the red in her aura almost blaring at him. "Maybe it might help if you got some of it off your chest?" He asked, sitting own from her and crossing his long legs. "I'm David Stewart, by the way. He held his hand out and she took it as if she had no choice not to.

Kenna McEwen," she said then she started to hunt through her purse for a tissue.

He stuck his hand deep into his pocket and pulled out a clean white handkerchief. "Here," he said, holding it out to here.

She blew her nose and then wiped her eyes, stuffing the handkerchief into her pocket. "If you give me an address, I wash it and get it back to you."

"No," he said quickly. "That's okay. I have a drawer full of them." Not exactly the truth but she didn't need to know his problems. She seemed to have her own. "It's one of those Christmas gifts that you get every year from your Aunt of your Grandma. Half of them are still in the package," he grinned. "So, Kenna McEwen, what has your Irish up?"

"I just found my fiancé with another woman," she said, though it came out half growled. "Nadia," she spat the name as if it tasted bad in her mouth. "How could he have done this to me?"

David closed his eyes and read her mind, seeing what she'd seen that had sent her running out of the house and onto this train to a Godforsaken place like Michigan. "Did you find them in bed together?" he asked softly, already knowing the answer.

"No, they were in the Salon," she said. "She was sitting on his lap and his hand was on her leg. Her lipstick was on his mouth."

"So all he did was kiss her?"

"That was enough, don't you think?" she snarled. "Don't tell me you're on his side."

I don't know either of you well enough to take sides, Kenna," David said, leaning forward and pulling his overcoat around him more. "But I do think you should have stayed and let him have a chance to explain. There could have been circumstances that you know nothing about," he said.

"What circumstances?" she asked. "You tell me what circumstances that could have put her sitting on his lap with her lipstick on his mouth. Give me one good circumstance, Mr. Stewart."

"Does his mother like you or even approve of you and your relationship?" he asked the upset girl.

"N-No," she said, pulling out his hanky once more to dry the new tears that seemed to never stop leaking out her eyes.

"Then do you think she and this Nadia could have set up this whole thing to get rid of you?"

"That doesn't explain why he was just sitting there and why he didn't come after me when I left?"

David smiled, she was beginning to calm down and think about what he was saying, maybe he was sent to help her find the truth. "Did you see his eyes?" he asked.

"No, I was a little distracted by the red lipstick on his lips. What o his eyes have anything to do with this?" Her brows lifted and a line appeared between them as she thought about what he was saying.

"Maybe, and I do just mean maybe, someone spiked his drink with something." David said softly, hoping this wouldn't start her going again with the tears. Crying women drove him nuts.

"Who would do something like that? I can't see his mother being apart of that even if she hates me. She still loves her son very much. Nicky would disown her if she even thought to be a part of something like that."

"Well, what about what's her name, ahhh, Nadia? Would she do it to Nicky?" Come on girl, he thought, put two and two together and for once get four.

"I-I don't know. Our first meeting didn't go too well. She brushed me off as being inconsequential and I told her to keep her manicure claws off of my fiancé. I should have torn her hair out," she snarled.

"Can you think of any other reason that Nicky would allow her to touch him like that? You can't think he'd do that to you on purpose," David said. He sat forward and took her hands in his. "This all comes down to a matter of trust, Kenna. Do you trust this Nicky? Can you trust him enough to let him explain and give him a chance to tell you his side?"

Her hands were cold and he warmed them with his while she thought. He broke into her thoughts, asking the only question that really mattered. "Do you trust him?"

"Yes," she said, "but..."

"No, no buts," he said. "You need to hold onto that trust for him and not lose hope." He stood, giving her hands one last squeeze before letting them go. "You'll be okay now?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, sniffling. "Thank you."

"You're more than welcome, Kenna. He looked into her pretty green eyes, staring deeply. Her soul was barren and he allowed a little of his own to warm hers, knowing that a barren soul was lost for hope or anything else. He smiled one last time before pulling away from her and turning to head down the aisle. He'd barely taken two steps when he fell and warm water surrounded him. He coughed, finding the bottom of the swimming pool with his feet and standing up.

"Dammit, this isn't funny," he growled, looking around to find the one responsible for this.

She was sitting on the side of the pool, about twenty-two with a rack just made for a man's hands. "Nice," he said, staring up and down at the deity. A tiny bikini covered what was necessary and made the suit just this side of indecent. "You know, you keep coming to find me looking like that, I might get to like this thing you seem to think I have to do."

She was blonde, he noted now that he could tear his gaze from her rack. "You handled that admirably," she said in a voice that sounded like smoke and soft jazz.

"Thanks," David said. "But you didn't give me this dunking just to tell me that."

"I thought you might want to see what you helped do, just by a few kind words to a stranger," she rose and he groaned, a part of his anatomy that hadn't been used since his death standing up and taking notice.