The trolley wheel squealed and ground itself to infinity as Michael pushed it into the supermarket, glancing around at all of the unseemly items staring him in the face and begging him to purchase them. He pushed forward, knowing that unless he bought supplies for his trip he would never survive out in the mountains by himself, and what better way to do it than pick it all up from the supermarket before he left?

It wasn’t like he was going far anyway. The peak district was north, it was mid-summer and what better excuse than a summer holiday to drag yourself half way up a mountain to a cabin and hole yourself up there for a few weeks to relax? No one knew where he was headed and no one knew that he was going alone. They knew he was going on holiday and when he would be back, and that was all Michael wanted to share about the entire adventure. He was, of course, sworn to call Terry every night to make sure everything was fine and that Annabel the second hadn’t reared her ugly head.

Michael scoffed as he began loading his trolley with the items he thought he’d need. It had been nearly four years since the blessed event in America and they still hadn’t managed to trust him entirely alone. This was a big step for all the Pythons, even Michael, and it was far too late in coming.

He pushed around the market with all the enthusiasm of someone facing death row, and was constantly distracted by the sunlight beaming in through the windows at the front of the store. It was so beautiful and warm and sunny outside. It chased the cobwebs away quite satisfactorily and he grinned as he neared the end of his shop and pushed forwards to the checkout.

Outside again he put all of his things into the boot of the car, where there was room, throwing a bag of goodies for the journey next to the road map on the front passenger seat.

After shutting the boot he leant on the car and shut his eyes, soaking up the sun and feeling the freshness of the summer wind flow through him. He smiled and before he realised it he had been stood there a good twenty minutes, just watching the flow of people in and out of the market, trolleys full, kids screaming, or smiling, bags swinging and keys jangling as they all loaded their cars.

He sighed and jangled his own car keys in his hand before grabbing his trolley and wheeling it around.

It wasn’t until a figure appeared over him that he realised he had been knocked over.

The sun disappeared as the person leant over him and he looked up at the woman before him with a choking gasp as she looked into his face and checked him over, making sure nothing was hurt. Her trolley lay collapsed nearby and his had flown off God-knows where when they had collided.

“My angel,” Michael choked as the figure over him felt his pulse and looked about her for assistance.

He sat up abruptly and she fell back onto the pavement herself and Michael saw her for the first time since their accident. Her hair was longer, darker, wavier than he remembered her, her eyes lighter, her skin tanned, her dimples deeper and her figure thinner but fuller at the same time. He looked at her dumbfounded as she looked at him and gasped herself, seemingly only realising who it was for the first time herself.

And so they sat there, staring at each other in confusion and amazement, neither moving nor saying a word, and neither looking away from the other.

Michael felt the tears on his face as he looked at her and saw those on her face as she looked at him. He knew he had found his angel in that very moment. His angel had been real all along. His angel had been stored in his mind all this time and he had only found out, as the sun blotted behind her head and haloed her in magnificent sunshine as he lay looking up at her.

“You saved me.” He said. It was all he could think of to say and he crept a little closer to her as finally she looked down at her hands and continued crying.

“You saved my life.” He said again and looked her over. She was wearing a sleeveless summer dress and the scars on her arms, although faded, were still visible. He ran a finger over one on her forearm and she looked up at him, jerking her head up and shuddering under his touch.

“Chelsea, you saved my life. You’re my angel,” he said and then couldn’t think of anything else to do but wrap his arms around her and hold her as she cried and put her arms around him.

“Why didn’t you stay?” he asked when she began to wipe her eyes and cast about her for the trolleys.

She looked at him with wide eyes and looked down at her hands again. “I thought it best if I left you.” She said and caught his disappointed glance. “Michael I’m scarred, permanently. The crow bar did its job on me.” She said and watched as the guilt fell onto his face.

She touched his arm and then his face with the old familiar way that he longed for so much that he knew he was still in love with her.

“It was never your fault Michael. I knew what I was doing when I entered that building. I knew what I was in for.” She turned from him and looked over the car lot. “I did it for you.”

Michael put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re still as beautiful as ever.” He said in a husky voice, and she turned her head slightly.

“You wouldn’t say that if you could see all the scars. I’ve tried to hide them, tried plastic surgery, but they would have to physically replace about 80% of the skin of my torso to do it any justice, and in the end I’d rather live with them than the pain of all of that.”

Michael crept around to face her and stood in front of her, holding her shoulders in his hands. “You are more beautiful now than ever I saw you.”

She looked into his face and knew he wasn’t lying. He touched the scars on her arms and the one reaching from the opening of her dress to under her chin, watching her eyes as he did so and showing in them no fear.

“These will remind me always of how much you love me,” he said. “I will never forget what my angel means to me and I will never leave her again.”

Chelsea looked up at him and felt the touch of his hand on her skin and she knew that he was promising himself to her as he once done before. She took his hand in hers and it was too much for either of them to deny anymore as she leapt into his arms and he kissed her with such passion, such energy, such tenderness, such love, that they both felt charged and electrified when they finally broke away.

Michael pushed her hair from her face and touched her chin and kissed her mouth with so much release that he felt like he could conquer the world.

Chelsea touched the face of her true love with one hand and ran it through his wavy locks, letting him kiss her and kissing him right back.

When finally they broke away Michael looked down at his angel and smiled happily, knowing that he was never going to part from her again.

“We have so much catching up to do,” Chelsea said softly, and glanced down at her hands. “I don’t know where to begin.”

Michael nodded. He was eager to start right away, but wanted no one but themselves to hear it all until they were both ready. He looked down at his car and an idea came to him and he grabbed her hands excitedly.

“Come to the peak district with me. For a few weeks or a few days it doesn’t matter. I want you all to myself and I can’t bear to share you. I want to know everything and we can get to know one another again.”

Chelsea felt her excited heart skip a beat and she looked apprehensive. “I don’t know if I can just drop everything.” She said and glanced at his disappointed but continually eager face.”

“You can leave whenever you need, or you want.” He said and could see her caving in to the idea before his eyes. “We’ll get your stuff and head off. No one need know anything.”

She glanced up at him and nodded slowly, knowing that this was a huge step and the start of possibly something that would last her whole life long.

Opening the car door for her Michael clambered in beside her and smiled happily as he started the ignition. He was about to pull out and away when Chelsea demanded stop and he looked at her in amazement and incredulity, as well as apprehension and terror that she might demand to be left alone.

She turned to him with misty eyes and almost laughed through her tears. “Do you know,” she said softly, “that this is where we first met?”

He looked about him and laughed outright. It was ironic that after all this time the one thing drawing them together was a supermarket.

He leant towards her and kissed her tenderly. “The best day of my life,” he said and she wiped her eyes and kissed him again.

Leaning forward as he drove out of the parking lot Chelsea couldn’t help feeling like an adventure was about to begin, and as she picked up the map and flicked through it, Michael glanced over at her and smiled, knowing that from now on his life would be complete.

A brief recollection of his home came to him and it suddenly occurred to him that he had known what was missing there all along. And she was sat in the car next to him as he drove onwards, heading ever closer to their new life together. He truly couldn’t believe it. It had happened so quickly, while he was shopping.

THE END