AN: Another One Shot Fic...enjoy

He looked like such a sad boy. The way he sat there on the bus. Alone. An empty seat resting beside him. Friends of his would come and go in the seat but he never seemed to be able to keep that seat filled for an entire portion of the trip. He'd laugh and smile, and be a happy boy. But somewhere deep inside he wasn't very happy. She could tell.

She sat there on a cloud, or rather in the farther back portions of the bus. Her glittering wings folded back inside to hide the form she knew was truest to her. She'd watch him. He'd laugh and smile, and she'd see the hidden frown and sob dying to be released. She'd tag along behind him. watching out for the younger one. Protecting him, loving him without him knowing. She'd say a few words, and she'd play nice with his friends. She'd adjust his shiny new badge on his black zip up. She'd call him Sheriff. Sheriff Sampson.

"Me and you" she said as they walked around the tired old building.

" What?" he said confused.

" Me and you, we are sitting on the way home together" she said glowing, "we'll have a heart to heart"

"Okay?" he muttered confused slightly. He focused more surely on her but never caught the glimpse of her wings twitching underneath her clever disguise. He never seemed to notice the halo glowing crooked over her head.

They found themselves separated from the group and wandered to the bus. He smiled sometimes, but she could tell something was eating him from the inside. She could tell he had a broken heart. She fell down in the seat beside him and they sat in silence. They watched the bus fill up, but never said a word. Attendance was taken, and still silence lingered. He'd spin his head around, lean forward over the seat, and strike up a conversation with his friends in front and behind him. She watched him carefully and flipped through her sketchbook. She'd ignore the quick sketches of the young man beside her and find herself doodling on a blank page. And she remembered how she got into the mess, or rather how she found herself drawn to his special mission, for this special charge.

"Wow...that's hot" he said simply.

"Why thank you Sheriff" she said putting on a fake southern accent as she looked up from her sketch book and turned around to notice the lovely Sheriff Sampson leaning over the back of her seat staring intently at her sketchbook. He'd become completely engrossed in one of the doodles inparticular. In which a young boy was having his heart crushed by a cute little girl. It had drawn him in.

" Can you draw me one?" he asked pleadingly.

" Maybe later" she said, her eyes sparkling with delight.

She tore the freshly drawn page from her sketchbook and dropped it gently in his lap. Sheriff Sampson's eyes lit up, he lifted the paper to his eyes, and they gazed over every inked line, dot, and crosshatch. From her seat, she could feel his heart lifting. "Thanks" he muttered, smiling.

"So when are we having this heart to heart?" She asked. She heard him sigh deeply and his shoulder's sunk as she wished to know why he seemed so sad. He rolled head in her direction and his smile dropped into a frown as she beckoned him with a smile. She shifted her position in her seat, sitting Indian style facing Sheriff Sampson. Silence sat between them, a cushioning layer of pure golden silence even though everywhere else on the bus people seemed to chatter away.

“What do you want to talk about?” he asked.

She stared straight into his eyes, and answered truthfully, “ I dunno” She thought back to when she had first asked him for the simple heart to heart.

She adjusted her wings underneath her disguise. They were starting to bug her. Being a guardian angel had their perks and their downs. Right now, having wings that didn’t fit comfortable under her human mask was a downer. She adjusted her sweatshirt and flattened her wings. Then she heard that voice. Her attention perked up and she noticed him gleaning through the crowd. She pushed through the crowd and jumped straight at him. The frustrating bumbles of annoying human hair flying in her face as she tried to grasp his attention. She bumped hips with him and sent him stumbling a few steps away. “ Hey” she muttered perkily. Sheriff Sampson just seemed to smile slightly and then continue to mope around, although no one else seemed to notice his continually broken heart.

“ Why so emo?” she asked, after first consoling her pop culture dictionary.

He shrugged, “ girl stuff.”

“ I figured as much”

“ Oh did you?”

“ Maybe just a little bit” she said smiling, trying to cheer him up a bit, “ what’s wrong, don’t be blue” she said, trying to encourage him to let the past heartbreak stay in the past, with slight hints but not quite saying it aloud.

“ long story” he muttered.

“ and we have a whole bus ride home” she answered slyly.

He smiled nervously. He didn’t quite feel like spilling his guts; especially to his guardian angel in disguise, although he didn’t know it.

“Girl troubles” she said, “ spill.”

And he spilled. He spilled a five month long dilemma that broke his heart into a thousand pieces. After that, as his heart started to mend he tumbled into heartache all over again. She could feel him shifting in his seat uncomfortably. And when it was done, she realized things were just as bad for him, as they had been for her, when she last walked on terra firma without the wings attached to her back.

The rest of the trip home was spent exchanging poems and watching Sheriff Sampson doodle away on loose pieces of notebook paper. Silence and constant chattering from other passengers on the bus drowned out all the sound. She drowned out the silence and found herself watching him as she drifted off into a sleep that lasted a good few minutes. She sat up once again and found herself leaning her head on Sheriff Sampson’s shoulder.

“Should I pull out the thorn?” he asked.

“ huh?” she asked, still trying to wake up.

“ the thorn in my side, should I pull it out now and get it over with?” he asked referring to the newest lovely lady his eyes had fallen on.

“ yes...do it” she said waking up quickly and sitting on her knees.

He smiled, but quickly started to hyperventilate. She wasn’t sure whether it was his nerves or if he were happy, or if he were scared. She grabbed a bottle of water and threw it at him, and he drank it. And he continued to hyperventilate as she calmed him down. He slipped on his sunglasses, but a tear was still caught in her sight.

“it’s alright,” she said, “ you don’t have to do it now”

And she was right. He didn’t have to do it then and there. Because he would do it a little bit farther down the road. And she’s watch from her cloud as a smile grew on his face and in his heart. And now he was smiling all the time.