After giving his debrief on Heven the soldier had been granted permission to spend an unspecified amount of time to pursue his own interests, as long as he reported in to Michael on occasion. And so he had taken Michael’s advice to heart. He spent a few weeks in the equivalent of a ‘Human’s 101’ refresher course before hunting London down. The first thing he did was get updated on human customs, both from the early 21st century as well as modern day habits. The second thing he did was speak to Dr. Suresh the younger and coerce her to divulge the location of London’s dwelling. It wasn’t even that hard, all he had to do was answer some questions about the Darkest timeline and his activities and she happily gave him the information he sought. She even told him what London’s favorite colors, flowers and food preferences were.
The more he learned, the more he felt he needed to know. She was fascinating, soft one second and defensive the next. Questioning the intelligence of all sentient creatures as she exulted in the most simple of past times. And then there was her absolute love of cooking, which she did rather well. On their sixth date, he took her to a restaurant in Belgium that specialized in Angelic cuisine. It wasn’t the best excursion they had together, but afterwards she began insisting that he help himself to whatever he wanted out of her kitchen if he got hungry. For their seventh outing they went scuba diving in the Caribbean, swimming with local wildlife and hunting for their dinner. He had never seen her so relaxed and one with herself as when she was free-diving, spear in hand patrolling the rocks as if she had been doing it her whole life.
They had gone to the Fields of Nephilim, on a planet covered in some of the most beautiful flowers in the known systems. Though the air was well within human range, he insisted she wear a filtration mask for her own safety. He also insisted that he carry her as they enjoyed the flowers. Every once in a while, he would launch himself into the air, circling slowly above the brilliantly colored meadows. They spent hours there as she coo’d and delighted over all the flora. Ezekiel might have waited until they had gotten back to the decontamination facility to inform her that the pollen of this planet would have put her to sleep and that all the plant life was exclusively carnivorous if not sentient. She had made him ‘pinky promise’ to bring her back one day to examine them again.