Together with Ahmad, Firdaus drove through the portal - er, Bridge - between Heaven and Earth. It was the same one they'd taken to get here, when Josh had first brought them through a few weeks back. That weird, slightly-shimmery space under an overpass on a highway in Spellman, California. That space where the highway constructionists hadn't actually built a lane, as if they'd been aware of what lay under that bridge - lowercase "b" - and deliberately ensured nobody would cross over by accident.

And here Firdaus thought humans were supposed to be by and large unaware of the existence of the Bridges and the other dimensions. As would be pretty much all of those she knew, except if they really read between the lines on her fanfics. Particularly her Supergirl fanfics, in which she tended to make heavy use of the multiverse already. Ahmad, if he ever took the time to read those fics, would probably be the first to pick up on the hints. But would he say anything in public, like, in the comments? At least she kept her comments moderated already so she could head off any intrusiveness at the pass, as Americans would say.

Once through the Bridge and back to Earth, Firdaus plugged the navigation system back in. She'd removed it after going through to Heaven, on Ahmad's suggestion. He was worried another dimension's GPS-enabled system would trip some kind of alarm on the other side. She didn't know much about technology, but given what she'd seen now with Kristoff Scoville, she wouldn't have been at all surprised if Ahmad had really been on to something.

The nav system, though, was going to be all-important for getting back to the airport. Of the three major airports in the Bay Area, only one had flights to her home country, and of course it had to be the one that required her to drive back across the Bay all over again. How the hell did people live in this labyrinth? Even locals no doubt had a way of getting lost. Firdaus pitied all the poor taxi and Lyft drivers needing to devote so much of their brains to mapping out the sprawl. Uber drivers, though? They wouldn't have even bothered trying to learn. They'd let their bargain-basement nav systems do the work and get all their passengers lost. No wonder all the rideshare companies born in this part of the world had such crap reputations.

Even if this was one of those bad nav systems, though, it helped Firdaus drive her way back to SFO with no hassle. Here, in this dimension, there hadn't been nearly as much chaos as there'd been in Heaven, so the only problem she would have to deal with would be crowds of travelers this close to Christmas.

She just wished Ahmad would speak up a little more. He was so chatty and motormouthed most of the time that his current state of silence unnerved her deeply. At least he didn't have as far to go before heading home, he being fairly local and all, but what would he do from here? She wanted to know, and he wasn't responding to any attempted query on her part.

Then again, though, he hadn't been talking much since Josh's funeral. Hastily held though it was - and of course Elliot, being such a supposedly all-powerful God, was able to arrange it at the shortest notice - it was still a beautiful ceremony. Simple. Humble. Befitting the Son of God, even from a tradition to which she didn't adhere.

Still, though, she held faith that he would return someday.

A faith that she could see everyone else present had too. Even Elliot, though he looked reluctant to do so.

But especially Alex, who looked like he was hurting the most of all for Josh.

Bringing the car up to the airport driveway, Firdaus stopped briefly in the white zone. She looked over to Ahmad, who only now looked back just long enough to grasp her hand in a silent goodbye. She saw his tattoos peeking out from under his sleeve and considered potentially getting one herself if she ever came back to California. He offered decent rates too. Had a very high-standard kind of operation, from what he'd said.

Then she got out, careful not to step into the oncoming traffic as she went to the back and unloaded all her luggage to take home with her. As for Ahmad, he came around the front of the Escape - Elliot had promised to visit him sometime before New Year's to transfer ownership of the car to him, as some kind of mea culpa for the destruction of their initial rental car at Scoville's hands - and stepped into the driver's seat.

Travel may have been busy, but thankfully less so now that it was actually Christmas Day.

Firdaus allowed herself the briefest of smiles as she stepped into the line for her first flight. Unfortunately there were no direct flights back home from San Francisco, both due to distance and, likely, that SFO was just not quite busy enough a travel hub for her country's national airline. She would need two flights to get back home, but back home she would get. Maybe by the time she was there, her cat would finally be over the cold he'd been fighting when she left.

Maybe absence would have made Fluffy's heart grow fonder too.

As it had done hers.