Chapter 5: Revelations

Lance's eyes slowly opened a few minutes after everyone still conscious in the room helped to move both himself and Joey from the floor to the bed and placed cold washcloths on both their foreheads. The first thing Lance's mind registered was that he had fainted at the sight of the Lord Almighty. Before he could help himself, he moved his head and groaned at the lump that had begun to swell after he hit it on the floor just moments before.

"Ow! Oh, God! My head!"

"Yes? Is there something wrong with it? I thought I designed it pretty well!" came the bemused voice of the old man.

Justin struggled not to giggle, but failed miserably and ended up trying to muffle them by disguising them as coughs.

Gabriel looked over at Justin and grinned. "Don't worry about it. It's fairly common up there. You can just imagine what it's like if HE sneezes. It's an endless parade of angels shouting 'Bless yourself' all day long!"

Justin snorted again and God turned to Gabriel and smiled. "Now that was pretty funny! I admit!"

Lance looked up at God with the most solemn look he could muster. "God...." he squeaked, his normally low bass voice gone, suddenly replaced with a high squeaky one.

God turned back to Lance and smiled, "Lance, my son. Feelin' better?"

Lance nodded gingerly.

"Good to hear it! Wanna make sure you stay healthy til we figure this whole thing out, right?"

"Well...yeah, I guess. Oh God....What am I gonna do? I think I signed my soul over to the Devil..."

God nodded impassively. "Yes. He's a tricky one, Lucifer. That's what got him tossed out of Heaven. He was just a little too clever for his own good. Have faith, Lance. I know Patrick and Gabriel will set this to rights."

Lance nodded. "Yes, sir."

God turned to Gabriel and Patrick and sniffed suspiciously. "You will fix this, won't you, boys?"

Gabriel nodded. "We're on it. I've looked through the contract and see some big holes..."

God looked askance at Gabriel, "But not big enough, huh?"

Gabriel shook his head, "He's gonna call for arbitration. Unless something happens within the next thirty days..."

God nodded. "Well. That being the case. I suggest you and Patrick stay here with them throughout that time...and maybe figure out some other way to make this a win-win situation for both souls."

Gabriel's smile faded. "Stay here....as a mortal?"

God nodded and snapped his fingers. "I'll let you keep some of your powers. It'll be a good exercise for you."

Gabriel's face creased to a frown and he began to whine. "Thirty days of being mostly mortal....? Oh, God! No!"

God smiled and walked to the door, opening it as he stepped out of the room, "You know how to contact me if you need to. It goes without saying that I'm taking a real personal interest in this particular matter."

As the door shut, Patrick leaned over to Gabriel and hissed, "You just had to bring up the sneezing thing, didn't you?!?"

---

After a long discussion in Lance and Justin's old room, Patrick finally called the whole thing quits, insisting that everyone go to bed and get some sleep, and that things would look better in the morning. Justin pulled Mike aside and asked him if he would mind if Gabriel took the room that the company usually reserved for him, despite that he and JC had been sleeping together for some time. Mike nodded and Justin, after convincing Gabriel that although he was attractive naked, he needed to put some clothes on before he went out into the hall. Justin then lead him down to the unused hotel room, leaving Lance and Patrick together to talk some more.

Lance watched passively as Patrick tidied up the room.

"Are you mad at me? I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

Patrick stopped. "No. I'm not mad at you, Lance. You couldn't have known."

Lance pulled back the covers and climbed into the bed. "What am I gonna do?"

Patrick sighed and walked over to Lance's side of the bed, running his hand down the side of Lance's face, smiling lightly as the young man sighed at the contact. "Sleep." Patrick thought and felt a cool tingling push out of his hand and seconds later Lance had fallen into a deep, sound sleep.

"Now, to look over that contract." Patrick whispered as he got up off the bed and walked across the room to where the contract lay on the hotel desk.

---

"So..." Justin said, trying very hard to stare at Gabriel without looking like he was staring. "Ever been mortal before?"

Gabriel shook his head slightly, causing several locks of his golden hair to fall over his eyes. Justin watched fascinated as Gabriel fumed, tossing his head this way and that in an attempt to get the hair out of his eyes.

"Why don't you just pull it back into a ponytail?" Justin said, seeing that Gabriel was having no success in this endeavor.

Through one eye, Gabriel looked at Justin, "Do what?"

Justin snorted, covering it and making it sound like a cough. He then took a rubber band from the desk drawer and got onto the bed behind Gabriel. Gabriel sat motionless as Justin ran his hands through his long hair a few times before pulling most of the hair back and securing it into a ponytail. Gabriel gasped as he shook his head and felt the hair stay out of his eyes.

"Amazing!"

Justin smiled and pointed to a mirror. Gabriel walked over to the mirror and shook his head, fascinated by the ponytail he now sported.

Gabriel turned to Justin and smiled manaically. "OK. I've heard all about this since the dawn of man and have been dying to try it. But I think I need your help to do it correctly."

Justin smiled, getting up to grab a bottled water from the fridge. "OK. I'll help you out as much as possible. What do you wanna try?"

Gabriel smiled widely as Justin took a big gulp of water from the bottle he had retrieved from the fridge. "Sex."

Justin throat seized and he choked, spraying the sexy angel with the water he had taken into his mouth.

"Sex?!!?" Justin croaked, handing Gabriel a towel to wipe the water off himself as he used a second one to wipe his face and chest.

Gabriel smiled and nodded vigorously. "Yeah. In fact, I've heard talk of little else besides sex amongst all the mortals that I've ever taken watch over."

Justin's eyes boggled. "OK. Do you want me to explain the mechanics of sex, or what?"

Gabriel looked at him and shrugged. "Um....yeah...or you can show me...or do we need a female for that?"

Justin squirmed. "Uh....well....that kinda depends on what kind of sex you want to...."

Gabriel sniffed, inhaling as he thought about it. "Well...let's just do what Patrick does."

Justin nodded and sat down on the bed beside Gabriel. "Well...it normally starts with a kiss."

---

JC sat on the side of the bed, staring at his lover Mike, whose face was a mixture of distress and renewed sorrow.

"So he's alive now....what does that make us.....we were together when he was alive last time....and now he's....back." Mike said, wringing his hand in distress.

JC took Mike's hands into his own and smiled. "It makes you old friends, ex-boyfriends, if that makes you feel better. He's back because Lance wished him back. We're together now, at least, I think we're together."

Mike looked into JC's blue eyes and smiled, "Of course we're together still. I've gotten quite attached to you."

JC grinned. "Are you now? How attached can you get?"

Mike giggled. "Take off your clothes and I'll show you."

---

Lance stirred several hours later, opening his eyes and looking across the room where a young man sat, pouring over a piece of paper. It took Lance a few moments to realize who it was and that what had happened was some really bizarre bad dream. Lance sat up and padded over to the desk and sat down in the extra chair beside Patrick.

"Hey. Why are you still up?"

Patrick looked up and smiled at Lance. "Just looking over the contract...seeing if there's something I might have missed."

Lance nodded. "It's late. It'll still be there tomorrow."

Patrick smiled. "I'm an angel I don't really need to.." Patrick began to say sleep, but was interrupted as a large yawn issued forth from his mouth. "Well...I guess I do need to sleep. That'll take some getting used to again."

Patrick took Lance's hand into his own and together they walked back to the bed and got into it. As Lance leaned over to kiss Patrick, a loud banging on the door interrupted him.

"Just a minute" Lance called out, getting out of bed and walking over to the door. He opened it and in ran a very naked Gabriel.

"Patrick! Oh wow, man! I totally understand the whole mortal preoccupation with sex thing now."

Patrick smiled at the naked blond angel and watched as he paced the room frenetically. Lance, closed the door and sat back down on the bed.

"You didn't understand it before? You'd never uh.....done it before?" Lance asked.

Gabriel shook his head. "No...I had Justin show me...and man...it's...wow...it's amazing!"

Patrick and Lance began to blush. "How was...um...where is he?" Lance inquired.

"He passed out about 20 minutes ago. I made him show me quite a few times...just to make sure I understood it."

Lance began to snort. "How many times?"

Gabriel tilted his head to the side, in thought, and then replied. "Five or six. He's been teaching me for the past four or five hours. He said he was kinda sore the last time, so I thought I'd come over here and talk to Patrick about it for awhile."

Lance's snort turned into a low giggle and Patrick, still blushing, elbowed Lance in the ribs, causing him to nearly fall off the bed.

Lance recovered a few minutes later and got up. "Um...I'm gonna go check on Justin. You guys talk...bond....um...do whatever it is you angel-type guys do."

Lance chuckled as he walked down the hall and used his master key card to open Justin's door. Justin rolled off the side of the bed opposite the door and groaned. "Gaaaabriel....No more! No more! You got the concept....You nailed it, OK?!?"

Lance stifled the laughter that threatened to burst from inside him and set his face in a small smile.

"Hey there Jus...I hear you're giving out Sex-Ed. lessions."

Justin groaned, getting back up onto the bed, and burying his face into his pillow as he lay on his stomach. "No more. I don't think I'll even think of sex with anyone for a month! Oh man! Gabriel's an animal...Jeez...I thought I was doing him a favor, the next thing I know he's tossin' my salad for four hours straight. I haven't gotten off so many times since that time I was dating Britney and you ground up viagra and put it into all my water bottles. Jeez...I really know what she felt like...sore!"

Lance put his hand over his mouth, unsure of whether he could continue to stifle his mirth at his friend's distress.

"Lance? Be an angel...er...nnnoo....be a doll...and go get me some ice? I'm gonna put together a makeshift ice pack for my ass...I am SO sore!"

Lance's eyes widened and he grabbed the ice bucket and tore out of the room to the ice machine, pausing only to check that the door had closed before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

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Author's Note: If this story made absolutely no sense to you, you may need to read the first two stories that lead up to this one. "Gifts Of Love" and "A Boyband Christmas Carol"

-Billy Burrew