She's sweet and innocent
too beautiful to leave alone
Draw you near to her
and crush you like she's made of stone
It's a war that we're heading for
and it starts here tonight
Wipe you clean like a memory
Put up a fight

( Trouble On The Horizon )

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: MIRACLES
Words: 712

Rick frowned thoughtfully as he stared at the piece of paper in his hands, turning it first one way then another. “I’ll admit...this is odd, and kinda disturbing, but I don’t understand exactly what has you so up in arms, old man.”

“It’s really quite simple, Rick.” Alva bit off quietly, taking the sheet from him. “This is a sign that something much larger and far darker may be afoot.”

Moving across the tiny office, Alva reached up slightly to pin the sheet to the whiteboard mounted on the wall. It was fairly innocuous on its own: a simple piece of green construction paper, the kind most often found in schoolrooms. The difference with this one was the message it bore.

Words that had appeared spontaneously during a fifth grade lesson that morning...words that had no place in a child’s classroom.

IT TEARS ME UP TO TEAR YOU DOWN

“This is more likely than not a sign from an angry spirit.” Alva went on, trying very hard not to let the icy fist of fear close over his heart. “And, as we all know, there ought not to be any angry spirits within the city limits of Stars Hollow.”

Rick’s features registered surprise, then understanding a moment later. “Jesus....I didn’t even think about that. My God...but I thought those magickal...things, the protections...I thought they were rock solid?”

“They were...are.” Alva replied, folding his arms as he faced the board. “So there are one of two possible explanations...either those wards are fading, which isn’t likely given the power that was poured into them...or that there’s something out there that’s managed to breach them.”

He was aware of Rick moving up alongside him to look at the scrap of paper, and for the first time Alva could feel Rick’s tension...not as a presence, but in its reality. He felt the concern, the fear, the cold finger of apprehension sliding down his spine.

For the first time, Alva was worried for more than his project...his supernatural utopia, perfectly preserved and ripe for research and study. Now, he was worried for his family...as a man and a father, he was afraid that the darkest corners of the world had risen up to invade his new home and claim those he loved.

“Well,” Rick sighed, folding his own arms to mirror Alva, “I guess this means we just got our first real case...right, Boss?”

A moment passed before Alva sighed and nodded. “Yes...I just hope we can solve it before something other than a piece of paper is torn apart.”

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: Miracles
Words: 440

Nothing. Not a blessed thing. That’s what they’d find...that’s what they *did* find. All that was left was a sick bloke in his wheelchair, cut off from the world by a deadly and debilitating disease.

It happened shortly after Paul signed on with Sodalitas Quaerito...we crossed paths with a man in the medical profession. He was a leading expert and medical researcher well-versed on the subject of Sakovsky’s Syndrome. Unbeknownst to us at the time, he had a daughter that died of the disease. One of his patients showed a rather miraculous level of improvement, but ultimately it turned out that a demon had taken possession of the poor man.

I locked myself in a room with him...one Sherwood Nicholls, although at the time it wasn’t Sherwood I was dealing with. There’s an apocalypse on the horizon, and I was face to face with a demon...I don’t know that he served any sort of master, or if that master was, in fact, the Devil. But darkness wanted to win this battle...and in the face of that demon, executing his machinations through the ravaged body of a sick, innocent man, I saw the heart of that darkness I was fighting.

I stood against my greatest enemy then...and though he offered me a world of temptation in just a few words, scored wounds in my soul that had yet to heal...I did what had to be done.

[locked from Lorelai and Rory]

It was no easy thing watching Sherwood, essentially, die. And it’s not something I’m proud of...knowing how far I can and will go. It’s not a side of myself I let show often, and it’s not a side I *ever* let show around...well, around my new family. Lorelai’s due any day now, and all I can think as of late...

I never want my wife and children to see my *truest* face.

[/locked]

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: Miracles
Words: 321

“...speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

Alva felt his breath catch...just for an instant, as he listened to the deafening silence of the small crowd gathered around the gazebo in the heart of Star’s Hollow.

The minister smiled. “Then, by the power vested in me by the state of Connecticut, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Alva grinned, watching as Rick moved forward and lifted Evelyn’s veil...then deftly pulled her close, dipped her, and kissed her soundly for the whole town to see. Off to the side, Alex rolled his eyes, covering his face with the ring pillow he’d been carrying.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Rick O’Connell on the renewal of their vows!” the minister announced, eliciting a roar of applause and whistling from the people of Star’s Hollow.

From his place at Rick’s side, serving as best man, Alva applauded the couple enthusiastically. He thought it was rather fitting that the displaced archaeologists renew their vows in the present as a way to celebrate their wedding anniversary...a new start in a new time, as it were.

Gazing across the way, he watched Lorelai cheer the happy couple, standing at her own place as matron of honor. She was due in just a few weeks, but she was still a vision that made his heart ache and his stomach clench with a love and desire he’d never known in his lifetime. In just about a year, his life had grown, blossomed, and been turned inside out in ways he never thought possible...ways he never dreamed he could ever want.

But here it was...this woman carrying his child. This woman he was going to marry.

And as they stood at another couple’s renewal of their marriage vows, Alva had found himself silently reciting those vows along with Rick as he watched Lorelai. Already, he was making his promises...he was ready for this. And that notion scared him a little. How had he never known this about himself, that he could want such a simple life so badly?

Maybe it was the blending of worlds...a wife and a child as well as the pursuit of truth. He didn’t have to give one up to gain the other...not when he found the combination that just *fit.*

And as Rick and Evelyn walked back down the aisle, arm in arm, Alva imagined himself in Rick’s shoes, and Lorelai in Evie’s.

It was going to be a long few weeks to wait until the baby was born...and Alva couldn’t wait to marry the girl of his dreams.

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: Miracles
Words: 442

And all the roads that lead to you were winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
I don't know how

“Keep it simple.”

Alva snorted softly, still staring at the notepad in front of him. “Bugger you. This is one occasion where I won’t get away with simple. No man can.”

Luke sighed in aggravation, a state that seemed to be a permanent one for him. “Look, Keel, I’m telling you right now: if you two are writing your vows, Lorelai will joke, jibe, and strike right through hers. She won’t know what to say, so she’ll just say what she feels. If you try to dress it up, you’re just going to make her feel guilty.”

“Excuse me, but I couldn’t help overhearing,” a sultry female voice interjected as Miss Patty stepped up to the counter with a dazzling smile at Alva, “but are you writing your own vows for the wedding?”

Alva glanced up finally, smiling at Miss Patty in return as he took her hand and kissed it gallantly. “Indeed you did, dearest Patricia.”

Patty preened at Alva’s attentions...just as she did when she got pretty much any special attention. “Such a charmer...ooh, you’re lucky Lorelai snatched you up first, or I’d be tempted to risk another marriage myself.”

Alva chuckled as he released her hand. “Thank you...you truly flatter me.”

Patty chuckled again, then shook herself a bit. “Look at you, distracting me...I overheard you two talking and I have to agree with Luke, honey. If you and Lorelai are writing your own vows, just...write what you’d say. Just listening to you talk in that *accent* is pure poetry, Alva, and if you just tell her what’s in your heart? She’ll be absolutely touched.”

“Who’d have thought we’d agree on something...me and Taylor’s second in command?” Luke deadpanned, earning him a humored look from Patty.

Alva could only smile at the both of them, then look down at his otherwise blank notepad. To write what he felt...the easiest, and the hardest thing he’d ever done. Everything about his relationship with Lorelai had been a study in contradictions...difficult and inevitable, sweet and painful, peaceful and tempestuous at turns. What they had was so complicated...but so blissfully simple at the same time.

And with that in mind, Alva took a sip of the tea Luke had just brought him, slipped his pen from his jacket pocket, and began to write.

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: Miracles
Words: 391

( Key On Table )

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: Miracles
Words: 733

((NOTE: Takes place shortly after this post by needmycoffee.))

The pain in her stare is drawing me shapes
oh, so fair.
The pain in her stare is making me wish I was there
with something to declare.

“Lorelai, honestly...it’s nothing. ‘Tis but a scratch and all that.”

She’d appreciated the Monty Python reference, but let him have it for the bruised jaw he’d earned himself the day after arriving in town for what was becoming his customary weekend stay.

It started that night, simply enough. When Lorelai showed up at the Dragonfly that evening, she was feeling low...Alva could tell. He hadn’t know her very long, but he’d learned enough of her witticisms and humor to decipher the subtext in her jokes and gibes that she’d seen something unpleasant...and it had to do with her former fiancee and the woman he was now seeing.

Alva probably shouldn’t have taken that opportunity to go down to the diner and introduce himself...but her pain bothered him. A great deal.

“My name is Alva Keel...I’m currently dating your former fiancee.”

Alva had *almost* expected it when Luke punched him, not even bothering to come out from behind the counter to do it.

Alva was damn sure Luke hadn’t expected *him* to punch back, splitting his lip before grabbing him by the front of his filthy flannel shirt and nearly hauling him over the counter.

“You never get to do that again. You don’t get to protect her anymore...not when you’re hurting her so badly.”

There might have been more, but the look in Luke’s eyes shifted, albeit subtly. It was a softening...an understanding of the reality he was now living in.

“You English people like tea, right? I got some herbal, if you want...”

After that complimentary cup of tea, he’d left the diner and even shook Luke’s hand...he’d come for a little payback on Lorelai’s behalf, and walked away with a new respect for the man she had almost married...perhaps, in the long run, he’d even made himself a friend of Luke Danes.

Alva had taken up a mantle that night...the mantle of the one who would take care of her. Changing water bottles, doing repairs, listening to rants and tirades, and being available for Rory as needed.

The Gilmore girls were a hardy, independent duo...but when they stumbled, it was Alva’s job to catch them now. And he just prayed to God he was worthy of the task.

Muse: Alva Keel
Fandom: Miracles
Words: 416