Saving Eden

by CaligaSolus

Summary:

She did not know what to expect when Nina, her sister, had someone for her to meet about the rental flat above her club. If she had, it certainly wouldn’t have been a middle-aged red head man with a face tattoo, a permanent frown, and glasses that were way to dark for a dim lit room.

 

Or in other words, the Bentley got sick of Crowley sleeping inside them, so they dumped Crowley at Nina's Shop. Nina then takes him to her sister for a place to stay.

Chapter 1: Prologue

She did not know what to expect when Nina, her sister, had someone for her to meet about the rental flat above her club. If she had, it certainly wouldn’t have been a middle-aged red head man with a face tattoo, a permanent frown, and glasses that were way to dark for a dim lit room.

Nina practically pushed him in front of her. “Well here he is. He said he’s been working with plants since the 70s.”

“Well, personally kept them since then. Worked with them for longer than—gh” the man was cut short by an elbow jab.

There was an awkward pause.

“And this makes him a good candidate for the flat because….?”

“You said you had trouble keeping the plants alive and that you resorted to fake ones!” Nina was gesturing wildly to the fake plants everywhere.

It wasn’t a normal club. She knew that inheriting a club called Eden on the outskirts of Soho would be a piece of work, one that her sister Nina wanted no part of, but she didn’t factor the plants. She actually went to business school, with a minor in psychology, so she knew how to work with numbers and people. She was close to her grandmother who had owned the place before and helped her run the numbers. None of that prepared her for taking care of leafy green her grandmother covered the place in. One by one they died, and she had to replace them with fake plants. It was a weird idea anyway having plants in a dance club anyway, so she shrugged it off.

The man looked around the place with sarcastic interest. “Yeah…. These are fake. Welp. Sorry Nina. Guess I’ll just go back to the Bentley.” He twirled around with much more flair than she thought was necessary and started to walk out the door.

Nina caught his elbow. “Oh no you don’t. Don’t forget that car is the reason you are here to begin with.”

The man looked up at the ceiling with a groan and mumbled “She’s sick of me driving her pointlessly and won’t let me sleep in her anymore.”

“I’m sorry was that supposed to make sense?” the owner asked.

Nina sighed, “Listen. Ev, I know this is a weird request. This guy will work for you just so he has a place to crash at night.”

“Woah woah woah! He doesn’t have a job? Why would I rent to someone who can’t make a living?”

Nina pointed in my face, “Look you. I have never asked you for any help with my coffee shop. I know this is weird, but when have I ever vouched for anyone? He’s a good guy I promise.”

“Not either…” He mumbled.

“Shut it.” Nina retorted, she turned to the owner and sighed. “Ev, listen, just give him a week. If it’s not worth it, kick him out.”

The owner frowns thinking and finally looks at him. “You have a name?”

Nina spins and glares at him mouthing something she couldn’t see.

He sighs, “Yeah… it’s Crowley.”

The owner holds out a hand, “Mine’s Evelyne. People call me Eve or Ev though.”

He stares at her for a second. “Eve in Eden huh? A bit cliche.” He shook her hand anyway, it felt cold. “What am I going to do if I’m not keeping plants alive?”

Eve sighs, “You know how to bartend?”

He thinks for a minute, “I did briefly but it was… a different time.”

“Fine. You start tonight as my bar back. If you survive the work, you can sleep upstairs.” Eve hands him a menu, “You should start learning this.”

He looks at Nina who rolls her eyes and she says, “You’ll figure it out.”

He grabs the menu and looks it over mumbling something she couldn't hear.

“Great! Now that that’s settled, I’m leaving before it gets crowded.” Nina says as she walks out the door.

Eve shouts after her, “What? Don’t want to stay for the fun?”

Nina just flips her off and leaves.

Notes:

This was just an idea I had for a bit. I haven't written anything since I was a teen (on fanfiction.net) and I'm in my thirties.

I've been in this fandom for so long and I absolutely love third party observations of Crowley. Not sure where this is going, but I have some ideas.

Comments and Kudos are super appreciated!

Chapter 2: Dark and Stormy

Summary:

Rude Customer, and Crowley had some thoughts on Hozier.

Evelyne knew the night was going to be a slower one. No one came on a Wednesday night except the regulars and those who enjoyed Karaoke. It felt more like a common bar rather than a loud club all things considered. Crowley was holding his own making basic drinks for the tables, while she held the bar.

Tom, the one server, tried to make friendly conversation with Crowley, “It’s unlike Eve to bring in strays. How did you land this job?”

“My car kicked me out and sent me rolling to Nina’s job.” Crowley said while pouring a Guinness over a spoon.

Tom just nodded sagely, “Ah yes, Nina. The sister. That makes sense.”

Did it? Eve wasn’t sure if it did. Yes, Nina was her sister, and yes said sister never asks for help because she is fiercely independent. The car thing? Nope.

Tom was a good kid. Grad student making money on the side doing work in the club. He could only serve tables between 8pm and midnight, but that worked out since the kitchen closed at 11:30pm, and the dance floor opened up at the same time. He had short brown hair and was super chill. Customers loved Tom. It was hard not too.

Crowley handed Tom the drink and turned to Eve. “Listen, am I crashing here tonight? I’d like to move the plants from the Bentley before those get thrown to the street too.”

Eve looked at the clock at the wall, “It’s not even 10pm. We close at 1am on Wednesdays. Karaoke will start soon and that’s when the real pay starts up.”

He made a strange face that was between a grimace and an exaggerated frown.

“What?” Eve asked

“Can I get my plants inside? They can fit over there” He points towards the stage with the microphone.

“You mean where Karaoke will happen.”

“Sure, whatever, there is room there.”

Eve doesn’t know whether to warn him about the drunks knocking over plants, or to remind him of the lack of ability to keep plants alive in this place. But what harm can come from putting some small plants inside? Surely, they can’t be that big if they fit in a car?

“I guess that’s fine. Just be back before 10pm.”

He rushes out of the club whistling and shouting towards the street.

Eve sighs refilling the water of some frequent customers.

“Excuse me!”

She turns towards the voice.

“I’ve been standing here for ten minutes and haven’t been served yet.”

Eve knows this is a lie. He just walked up and yes he had to wait for Crowley to stop asking about his plants, but that wasn’t longer than 2 minutes. She puts on her best fake customer service smile, “I’m so sorry sir, what can I get you?”

“Mojito with top notch rum.”

She grimaces, “I’m afraid we don’t have any mint.”

“What kind of place is this? I used to get mojitos here before.”

Eve sighs, “Yes, when we had mint.” She remembers this guy now. He came before and raised a fuss at Tom for bringing a salad without enough olives in it. This was a club. Why would anyone go to a club to have a salad? Why do we even have salads, she thought. 

The door swung open and Crowley was there with a box filled with biggest house plants that she ever saw.

“I...” Eve tried to say but she couldn’t help but watch Crowley struggle to see where to put the plants down. He knocked over a chair that fell with a bang while trying to make it to the karaoke stage. Tom saw the commotion and rushed over to help.

“Listen, just get me a dark and stormy. But don’t overdue the lime juice!”

She tore her eyes away from the walking plant disaster and made him his drink.

Crowley was placing the plants with care and Eve swore she saw him shaking his finger at the leaves with some angered words. Something about spots? The plants took up the majority of the stage, but you could see the microphone so Eve couldn’t complain. The plants were quite beautiful. She was reminded about why Nina brought him there to begin with. Maybe he could bring some life to this club.

Crowley turned to Tom to thank him for his help before sauntering behind the bar again.

She was about to say something to him when. “You call this a drink!?”

She grimaces and takes a deep breath. She slowly turns to the man, “What seems to be the problem now, sir?”

“This just tastes like lime juice. There is barely any rum in here at all!”

Her eyes narrowed. She knows he watched her make the drink. She knows he saw her put the right amount of rum in there. “Listen here—”

“I’m sorry whats the problem?” Crowley interjects, putting himself between her and the bar while leaning up against it. “Don’t like the drink?”

“This missy didn’t have mint for a mojito and tried to undersell me by not giving me enough rum.” He was getting red faced now.

“Oooohhh that doesn’t sound like her. She runs a tight shift back here.” He said smiling at him, but there was something weird about it. He was enjoying this, but she couldn’t figure out why.

“I want to speak to the manager of this establishment.”

He laughed big and loud now. “You want to speak to the manager? That’s cute.” He turned to Eve speaking more softly, “Who is this twat? Anyone you care about?”

“No, he’s caused trouble before.” She could see that he was going to turn back to him, but she stopped him. “I can handle it.”

He looked at her clearly bummed but nodded letting her go talk to him. She hears him snap with his fingers as if he was listening to a tune that wasn’t there.

Eve puts her hands on the bar and looks at the guy. “I’m the owner. What do you want to say?”

His voice was a few octaves higher “I’m so sorry miss. I was mistaken. I forgot I don’t even like rum. Here, have a 50% tip. I’ll never come here again.” The man looked blanked faced. Nothing like the red-faced menace that was here before.

Eve was flabbergasted. “What?”

The man already turned to leave. She looked at the cash on the table. It was way too much.

“Huh that’s weird…”

She turned to see Crowley leaning on the bar with the biggest smirk on his face.

“For the record, it would probably be good of place covered in seemly fake plants to have some mint handy. It’s actually one of the easiest plants to keep alive. If it’s going to try to resemble Eden, it should have some fruit too.”

Eve’s eyes narrowed, “What you agree with him?”

His shoulders shrugged with his hands up in surrender, “No, no he was a twat. He got off way easier than he deserved.”

“What are you a hypnotist or something?” Even as Eve said this she knew it was bogus. But nothing made sense.

“Ehhhh…” He waved his hands in some dramatic gesture then mumbled “…something sure.”

Before Eve could question him further Tom waved her down, “Hey Boss, the Karaoke guy is here.”

Eve gave Crowley a look before talking to the guy in charge of setting up Karaoke.

Tom decided to talk to Crowley again. “So, you gonna sing?”

“On the job? No.” Crowley said cleaning the bar.

“What about off the job?”

Crowley looks at Tom, “No.”

Tom sighs, “Pity, could be funnnnn.” He drug it out the fun in a sing song way.

Crowley sighed pinching the brim of his nose. “Look. Kid, it’s been a rough…. Well, it’s been rough.” Crowley looks intently at the glass he’s cleaning. “I’m just looking for this place to be a distraction long enough for me to forget why I’m here to begin with. I tried sleeping it off and it didn’t work.”

“The car right?”

“Yeah, apparently when you sleep for more than three months straight in a car, it gets sick of it.” Crowley sighed, “But it’s not like my previous job is going give me my flat back so…”

“What was that job like?”

Crowley paused and smirked, “It was hell.”

Tom smiled with a big toothed grin, “Karaoke might help be the distraction.”

Crowley frowned “No.” The ticket machine went off, “I need to work. Go away.”

Eve came back, “Yes Tom, please go back to your tables, I had to ask them if they needed refills.”

“On it Boss!”

A customer made it to the mic, and the music started playing.  

 

Babe

There's something tragic about you

Something so magic about you

Don't you agree?

 

Eve rolls her eyes. They always pick this song. With the music starting, people start getting more eager to come in and drink.

Crowley doesn’t seem to mind the music and is focused on the work.

 

Babe

There's something lonesome about you

Something so wholesome about you

Get closer to me

No tired sighs, no rolling eyes, no irony

No 'who cares', no vacant stares, no time for me.

 

Crowley stops for a moment turning to the customer singing. “I think I’ve heard this one. Hozier right?”

“Yeah. You’ll get sick of the song eventually. It’s overplayed here.” Eve states.

“Good chap. Had some drinks with him back maybe a decade ago. A little to into the stuff he shouldn’t be.” Crowley stares at the singer. “This guy doesn’t do it justice.”

Eve looks at Crowley, “You know Hozier?”

Crowley shrugged with a whine, “ehhhh more just met him in passing. Had drinks and spilled to much info out about myself.”

 

Honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago

Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword

Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me I should know

I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door

 

Crowley dropped a glass on the floor with a curse.

Eve was quick to act, “It happens all the time, just go get the broom.”

Crowley stayed silent the rest of the night, but Eve could tell that his mind was swimming.

Notes:

Yeah, I couldn't stop myself from writing a real chapter. Comment if you want more of this. Next would be maggie and nina match making

Chapter 3: Blackberry Smash

Summary:

Crowley fills the club with plants, and the Bentley plays him a song against his will.

 

 

When Eve stopped by Nina’s shop for her caffeine to survive the night, she was surprised to see Crowley already there talking with a blond girl.

Nina was cleaning out her fridge when Eve walked up to the counter, “Well he survived the first night.”

Nina looked up, “Oh look who it is. No mint Ev?”

Eve shot a glare towards the red head who just smirked and waved his fingers at her in a flourished wave.

“It’s perfectly normal for a club to not even hold mint or make mojitos.” Eve said pointedly.

Nina cackled, “I’m just giving you shit. Large black coffee, dark roast?”

“Yep.”

Nina turns to pour her a cup. “Just have enough for you as I close shop.”

Eve looked at the red head again. She just noticed the plethora of plants behind him and shouted, “Oy, what are you doing with all of that.”

He paused and looked at the blond, “Her name is Maggie and I’m not doing anything. We don’t open till 6pm right?”

Nina handed her coffee and spoke to Eve, “The plants? He’s been collecting them from a local shop and gradually replacing the fake ones.”

Eve turned to Nina, “And you didn’t stop him? I thought he had no money?”

Nina scoffed, “I never said that. I said he didn’t have a job.”

Eve’s eyes narrowed, “There is something funny about that man.”

Nina frowned, “You don’t know the half of it.” Nina came out from behind the counter to flip the sign to closed. “Maggie, don’t you have a record shop to run?”

Maggie looked at Nina with the biggest smile, “Oh! I was going to help Crowley move the plants again.”

Eve looked at Crowley with wide eyes, “Again? How many times have you done this?”

Crowley didn’t answer, just sipped his drink.

Nina interjected, “Ok, well unless you are going to help me close up, I need you two to leave.”

Crowley looked pointedly at Maggie, but she was just staring at Nina smiling. He finally spoke up, “Eve can help me with the plants.”

Maggie jumped, “Oh right. Yes. Of course. I’ll just…”

“Help Nina with closing” offered Crowley.

“Yes that!”

Crowley gulped down the rest of his drink, “Right. Eve?” He reached down to a box full of plants.

Nina sighed, “Not this again. I see what you’re doing.”

Crowley shrugged and handed Eve the box, “Not sure what you mean.”

“Why did you see it necessary to get all of this.” Eve said grabbing all the plants. Did she smell mint?

Crowley grabbed the other box, “ngk… not sure what you mean.” He mumbled this time and briskly walked out the door to a black antique car that was already running.

“Listen you,” Crowley said to the car, “I get it. You are tired of me hanging around you and you miss.... him. But we have another short stop to the Club and I need you to behave.”

Eve frowned, “Does the car talk back?”

He put the box in the back and grabbed hers, “In her way.”

Eve supposed that it’s like boats where you feel like they have a personality of their own.

Crowley slid into the driver’s seat and looked at her, “Well, you getting in?”

 

Eve was not thrilled with the ride. Eve swore the car just started to play music on it’s own. She didn’t recognize the song but heard a soft guitar and a tambourine before Crowley growled and flicked it off. “Stop it…”

“I didn’t do that!” Eve protested.

“Not you.”

The music started again but midway through the song.

Sometimes I feel so sad

Crowley groaned and turned it off again. “Please car not now.”

Baby you just make me mad

The fight continued.

Linger on

Your pale blue eyes

He made a loud pitched whine and just pushed the petal to floor.  He drove like a menace but got to the club in a few minutes. He shut the car off and banged his fist on the wheel. “I know, ok I know!”

Eve sat in silence as he breathed heavily with his head against the wheel.

She gave him a few more seconds before speaking, “You good?”

He took a deep breath then spoke, “Nope. Let’s go.”  He got out of the car and reached back to the plants.

Eve got out of the car and tried to get a good look at him. “You ever think of going to a therapist?”

He looked at her with an apprehensive look and a dramatized eyebrow raise before handing her the box of plants and reaching back to grab the second.

She frowned but followed him into her club, and completely forgot what she was talking about.

The place smelled so fresh. All the fake plants were gone, and the place was turned into a garden.  You could barely see the walls with the number of plants covering the place. She half expected the floor to be covered in moss but was thankful it was still the old wooden floors.

“Is that a fruit tree?” She asked pointing to a tree in a large pot on the side of the club.

Crowley shrugged, “Yeah there are a few small ones. Got lemon. Got lime. You can’t fit an apple tree in here, but I got some apples in a basket on the bar.”

She walked to the middle of the dance floor and looked up. It had a net of plant vines with fairy lights. “How did you manage to do all of this within 12 hours?” She shook her head, “Wait, why did you do this within 12 hours?”

“Wut? You don’t like it?” He looked a bit dejected. “Wasn’t this place like this before?” He looked around as if he was trying to remember something.

“Did Nina tell you? I remember being young and it smelling this fresh when my grandmother first owned it. It felt magical.” Eve looked around, “I couldn’t have been any older than twelve though. Nina never let me live it down not bringing it back to it's former glory.”

“It’s easier than you think keeping plants looking their best.” His face grew dark to a deep anguished look and turned to the plants around him and shouted, “If they know what’s good for them! If I see any of you lot start to get spots or droop or any other sort of problem, you will know my wrath.”

Eve stood stunned at the outburst but didn’t question it.

He looked back at her with no malice, “So, I need a favor from you.”

“Me? Don’t I let you live here?”

He pointed at her, “Ah that’s a favor to Nina, not me.” He turned and walked to the bar. “No, I need you to call Nina at the right time tonight and get her to come here.”

Eve laughed, “Nina hates this place. Or rather, she hates the night life. There is no way she’ll come here.”

He groaned and sat on a bar stool with one foot on the other stool. “You can do better than that.” He spun around and nearly fell off the chair, “Oh! I got it. When I give you the signal, tell her I started a fight and you don’t know how to stop me.”

“What?! You are going to start a fight?”

He drummed his hands on the bar, “Maybe, probably not. Depends on if you call her.”

She walked up to him and jabbed a finger in his chest, “Listen you, I don’t know what you are up to, but I won’t have you making trouble.”

“Old habits die hard.” He said then snapped his fingers. He then pulled a piece of paper from inside his jacket. “Also, take a look at this new special drink menu.”

She snatched the paper out of his and gawked, “Blackberry smash? Fresh mango cooler? We don’t have the ingredients for these drinks.”

He sauntered to the bar and opened the fridge pulling out fresh juices and fruit with a big grin, “Oh, we do.”

Eve sighed but started working on setting the place up for tonight.

 

It was open jam night, which was a frequent local Soho favorite.

Notes:

Linger on Pale blue eyes by velvet underground was the song being played

Kudos and Comments yada yada <3

Chapter 4: Jack and Coke

Summary:

Crowley continues to scheme.

 

 

The place was packed and buzzing with new excitement.

Tom came in earlier and nearly dropped his bass at the sight of all the plants. He planned on joining the open jam night.

Crowley took to bartending much more easily with the fancy drinks. He somehow had time within the past twelve hours to buy new bar equipment and install it before opening again.

Eve couldn’t figure out how he did it. Or really how he had the audacity to do it either. She was the owner; shouldn’t she stop this blatant change without her permission? She figured if there were any changes she didn’t really approve of, she could toss him out.

The locals all seemed to recognize Crowley. She had been away for so long getting her degree that she had only recently been back regularly, but she did remember hearing about a strange guy driving an antique car through London. They treated him like a local cryptid which added more surprise to everything seeing him be a brazen bartender. She admitted the drinks tasted heavenly.

He had an easy time talking to people. In fact, he seemed to soak it up: the rush of taking all the orders, the small banter with the customers, the flair of making the drinks. Eve didn’t know what to make of it. If he was so good at this, why didn’t he work as a bartender before? They were making bank with the new fresh drinks and his charm had them lay on the tips.

What was his angle?

Mr. Arnold came in from holding a piece of a drum, “Eve, could you help me bring in the set?”

Eve sighed and called after Tom to help the instrument shop keeper bring in the full set of drums.

The bond hair girl (Maggie was it?), was making her way in as well. She had a simple navy blue shirt on with black pants and a red bandana tied up in a cute bow. “My goodness, this place is beautiful!” She looked around expectedly, “Is Nina here?”

Eve shook her head, “Nope, but I’m told a certain someone is going to try to get her here.”

The musicians, amateur and well-seasoned alike, were almost done setting up and were messing with tuning and practicing, which meant things would calm down in a bit. People were enthralled by jam night, but the time right before? Loud and disorganized.

Maggie made her way to the bar, miraculously a seat was open. Eve was surprised given the rambunctiousness of the people by the bar.

“Maggie!” Crowley called, “Fancy seeing you here!”

Eve snorted. Subtle. So subtle. She was wondering what he was scheming, so she walked closer to the conversation. They had to talk loudly to be heard given the crowded state of the club.

“Yes well, Mr. Arnold insisted that tonight was going to be the night to come to Eden.” Maggie said looking over the drink menu.

“Did he now?” Eve asked her, she turned to the charming red head behind the counter, “Wonder where he got that idea?”

“Not sure what you mean. It’s open jam night here, everyone knows it’s the place to be.” Crowley spread  his hands wide showing the crowd. “Eve, could you cover the bar for a second? I need to uh…. Use the loo?” He definitely just came up with an excuse.

She still made her way to the bar with a focus on taking care of the orders. No food tonight, just drinks, so no kitchen staff to manage. Just the bar.

Crowley sauntered on the dance floor towards the musicians talking vibrantly about something. Tom seemed to be brimming with excitement as he ran to the back of the club seemingly on a mission. The skinny red head then turned to the bar with a deep frown as if looking for a particular victim.  He then started striking a conversation with a new customer, not a local.

Eve lost track of the scene as she had to muddle blackberries for his stupid drink menu. The drinks were fantastic, but they did take some attention to details rather than a beer or a jack and coke.

Eve slide a drink to the place where Maggie sat, just to see her getting up from the bar walking purposely to Crowley.

“What did you just say?” Crowley shouted suddenly.

She turned to look at him.

A guy with bleached blond hair, looking to be an educational type with a sweater vest looked frighted as the red head had his shirt in a knot keeping him from moving. “I just asked if you knew where Mr. Fell was? He wasn’t at the shop, and the person there just said he was away. Please get your hands off me!”

The customer was frightened, but Crowley seemed blinded by something.

Maggie rushed to Crowley’s side, “You can’t expect people not to ask, Mr. Crowley, everyone knows—” she grimaced, “knew that you two were a— ”

“Don’t.” Crowley interrupted with gritted teeth. Eve swore steam was rising from him.

Eve was now making her way towards the scene, “Hey, hey! Whats going on here?”

The customer was now trying to get out of his grip, but Crowley held strong as he spoke in a hushed tone to him, “You know, I knew one of you lot would ask something. He loved collecting people like trinkets, like his books, he considered you lot resources for getting more of his hoard of books. The selfish prick.” He spoke with a vicious and dangerous tone,

Eve put a hand on his shoulder, it was hot to touch. “What’s gotten into you!”

Maggie pulled Eve back, “You need to call Nina. She calmed him down once already from something like this.”

Eve looked at Maggie angered, “She knew he was like this? And she sent him to me?” Eve stormed to her phone to make a call.

Crowley however kept speaking, “But I know that you lot are more than trinkets. And I can use people’s perceptions to my advantage.” He pulled the guy closer, “You definitely picked the wrong place and time to ask me that.” He started whispering, “But I know that someone else would have asked eventually, and I’m savoring your fear.”

“Please, I’m sorry. I just figured you would know—”

“That’s right start pleading. Sell it harder for me.” It looked like he was soaking it in.

“Let the man go.” A different man, clearly a friend or lover, steps up to Crowley.

Crowley smiles dastardly at the man, “Make my day. Please try to stop me.” He glanced at the bar seeing Eve staring and gesturing to him with anger while on the phone, she gives one more shout before hanging up.

Crowley frowns, “Fun’s over.”

The man grabbed at Crowley but missed. Instead, he caught the blond that Crowley was terrorizing. Crowley seemed to release him in an instant shoving him to the other man.

“He’s gone, and don’t go looking for him.” Crowley told the blond in an exaggeratedly angered way, “And please spread the word that you shouldn’t go to me for info on that asshole.”

The two men looked at each other as Crowley briskly walked away to the stairs leading his flat still steaming.

Eve shouted something at Tom and followed the angered redhead.

 

His flat was dark. The windows were covered with black out curtains. Eve couldn't see a thing but swore he came in here. She fumble searched for the light switch and once the light was on, she noticed the entire kitchen counter covered in wine bottles. Some full. Some empty.

“I didn’t have time to organize stuff yet.” She heard his voice say in the bedroom.

She walked over and saw him pouring out a glass of red wine with another on the bed stand. She couldn’t help but notice that the bed had either not been touched or remade exactly how she left it.

He held out a glass to her. “Here, I should explain some stuff. We don’t have a lot of time. I’m sure Nina will come here with Muriel in toe.”

Eve’s eyes narrowed, “Should I add drinking on the job for reasons to kick you out?”

He twirled the wine in the glass and spoke in a calm voice, “I promise it’s worth it. Please, nothing of note happened down there. I actually held back.”

Eve looked at the wine for a second then took it. It tasted very good.

“Nina is going to come here with someone who has the power to banish me from this place.” Crowley stared at her with intent, “That will only work if you say I don’t live here and you want me gone. I know it was unprofessional down there, but someone needed to be an example. I can’t have people asking me about some selfish prick every time I show my face around here.”

She took another sip, “Should that make sense to me?”

“We don’t have time for details. I needed a sure way to get Nina here. I just figured this was the best way.”

Eve glared at him, “Why not just say the place looks like the bloody garden of Eden down there with all the plants and lights?”

He opened his mouth in protest but thought about that with a frown. “Oops…” He mumbled his voice a few octaves higher.

“What’s your obsession with getting Nina here anyway?” Eva drank a large gulp.

That caused him to smirk, “A pet project. Great distraction as it were.”

Eve sighed, “Look, you work well, and I don’t want to kick you out, but I can’t have you starting fights for whatever reason.”

Crowley’s head shifted towards the entrance of the building. “They’re here.” He gets his glass on the bed stand and raises his glass in a toasting fashion, “I won’t start fights if you don’t kick me out.”

Eve feels like she’s being manipulated but sighs, “I won’t kick you out if you don’t start fights. But I hold the right to do it later.” She clinked the glass.

He smiles, “Clever. Alright I’ll take it.” He chugs the rest of the drink. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Notes:

Can't imagine why he picked a blond haired scholar to pick on....

Love the idea that he schemes but also keeping up the tradition of self sabotage like the phone lines and M95 in season one. Though this time its emotionally.

👏 Kudos 👏 and 👏 comments 👏

Chapter 5: Scotch on the Rocks

Summary:

Crowley sings an Arctic Monkey's song, and tempts Muriel to eat an apple.

 

 

Eve went down first to get to Nina and the person Crowley called Muriel. She found them by the bar where Tom was doing his best to bartend, and Maggie was doing her best to explain the situation.

“Boss! Thank God,” Muriel looked towards him automatically, but Tom continued, “You know I can’t bartend well, especially with these drinks!”

“Yes, yes.” Eve said getting behind the bar and looking at the group of customers all looking for drink refills. Miraculously, they seemed too not be mad. “I got it handled now, go back to your jam night.”

“Ev! Where is the prick?” Nina shouted at her. “I brought back up.” She pointed to the brown-haired person. They were wearing tan capris with a tartan sweater vest and an oversized button-down white shirt.

“Hello! I’m Muriel. I’m told the demon Crowley is causing trouble!” They spoke with the most cheerful expression.

Maggie nervously laughed, “Ahhhh yes, he’s such a demon of a person. A human person that is.”

Nina rolled her eyes.

Eve was going to answer when they heard a voice over the speakers and a spotlight (did the club have a spotlight?) shown at the stage where they saw Crowley start to dramatically sing in the mic.

 

Get on your dancing shoes

 

The musicians seemed to pick up the song with ease with Tom playing the bass and Mr. Arnold playing the drums.

 

There's one thing on your miiiiiiiiind

 

Crowley pointed at the group of them.

 

Hoping they're looking for you
Sure you'll be rummaging through

 

The bar was entranced. No jam night should be this organized. Usually, it was just a simple beat and some random person noodling on their instrument.

 

Oh and the shit, shock, the horror
You've seen your future briiiiiiiide

 

Maggie blushed and looked at Nina.

 

Yeah, but it's oh so absurd
For you to say the first word
So you're waiting and waiting and

 

He shook his head at the mic and swung his hips and kicked his foot in the air, as someone on the electric guitar played loudly. It was as if they were a band.

 

The only reason that you caaaaame

 

He jumped off the stage. The mic was wireless? Wait, that’s not right. They never had a wireless mic?

 

So what you scared for?

 

He walked purposely to the bar, mic still in hand. The crowd parted ways for him.

 

Oh, don't you always do the same

 

He offered a hand to Maggie who looked from Nina to him.

 

It's what you there for, don't you know! The lights are flashing

 

Maggie took his hand, and he spun her to the dance floor. He was somehow able to keep the mic feedback from becoming a problem and could keep the singing without running out of breath despite all the movement.

 

Down in here toniiiiiiiiight

 

He held her hand doing a basic swing like dance while singing.

 

And some might exchange a glance
But keep pretending to dance

 

He looked back at the bar, as if selecting his next victim.

 

Don't act like it's not happening
As if it's impoliiiiiiiite

 

He settled on Muriel who was tapping her foot to the beat poorly.

 

To go and mention your name

 

He waved her over. They walked with a bounce towards the red-headed singer, obviously did not how to keep a beat.

 

Instead you'll just do the same
As they all do, and hope for the best

 

The beat picked up again and he seemed to try get Muriel to at least sway in tune. He turned his focus back to Maggie.

 

The only reason that you caaaaaaaame

 

He stood behind her and pointed back at the bar over her shoulder. Probably at Nina.

 

So what you scared for?

 

He gave her a light shove.

 

Well don't you always do the same. It's what you're there for but nooooo

 

He did a small twirl as the guitar went crazy again in a solo. Crowley walked up to the bar in a rush. “Eve! Get Nina on the dance floor.” He said with the mic pointed away from his mouth.

Eve looked towards Nina who looked overwhelmed. Maggie bounced over to her and offered her hand. “I don’t think I need too.”

He looked over and smiled as Nina took her hand. Crowley ran back to the stage hopping up to where the mic should have been.

 

Get on your dancing shoes

You sexy little swine

 

The dance floor had more people on it now.

 

Hoping they're looking for you
Sure you'll be rummaging through

 

He gave a bit of a pose before singing more bouncing up and down.

 

And I said the shit, shock, horror,

You've seen your future bride, yeah

 

Maggie twirled Nina around who was laughing at the craziness of it all.

 

Yeah, but it's oh so absurd
For you to say the first word
So you're waiting and waiting

 

The musicians finished the song off with a bang and then went into a gentler rhythm more suited for their typical jam night. More instruments played beyond the guitar, bass, and drums they heard.

Maggie and Nina settled into a basic sway in a slow-like dance as he grabbed Muriel off the dance floor towards the bar.

Eve could hear him talking to Muriel, “Man, you do not know how to dance do you.”

Muriel scoffed, “Oh of course I don’t. Everyone knows angels don’t dance.”

Crowley just looked at them for a second and turned to Eve but couldn’t quite keep his gaze in one place,
“I uh… need a drink. A strong one.” He started to breathe heavily as if something he was hiding was rising to the surface.

Eve threw her hands up, “You’re supposed to be working! You make the drinks for others!”

He gave a bit of a whine, “Can’t I just keep the plants alive for now?”

“Absolutely not, you want to sleep in the flat, you have to work.”

Muriel interjects, “Does this mean I don’t need to banish Crowley.”

Crowley gaze turned to the stairs in the back that led to the flat but spoke to Eve, “Look, I already made this place packed. You’ve made more tonight in sales then the past week, and no one wants a drink right now with the music playing.” He turned his gaze to her, “There is no reason for me to stay here unless you give me a drink, or want me to start a fight, or heck a fire.”

Eve listened and realized he was right. They made some crazy sales and somehow everyone was content with their current drink. She looked towards Maggie and Nina who were inching closer, “What about your distraction?”

Crowley already started to walk away to the stairs with is quickened breathe, “Apparently… it wasn’t good enough.”

“Wait!” Eve called out.

He paused, glancing over his shoulder.

She reaches up at the top shelf for some scotch and pours some in a glass with ice. “Scotch on the rocks?”

He sighs and turns to sit at the bar. Someone graciously gave up their seat for the show he gave a second ago. He starts drinking it and doesn’t stop till it’s gone. “Another and a mango cooler for this one.” He points at Muriel. “It’s time I teach this angel how we do things on earth.”

Eve raises an eyebrow but turns to make the drinks. She wasn’t sure what his deal was, but he suddenly looked like he should not be left alone. She worked briefly in the psychiatric ward as an intern when she was in undergrad. There was only one tense instance, but he reminded her of that time and didn’t want it to be repeated.

Like this club, he was a piece of work. Like this club though, he had a certain charm to him. It had only been 24 hours and he managed to make this club the most lively it’s been in decades.  She could let him have a drink to help pass the pain while keeping an eye on him.

She replaces his empty glass with a new one, and hands Muriel’s the fancy yellow drink.

“Oh I love yellow! Such a pretty color!” Muriel beams.

Crowley suddenly slams his head in his arms and screams. You really couldn’t tell with how loud it was from the musicians. Muriel jumps.

Eve raises an eyebrow at the outburst confirming her suspicions and looks to Muriel, “What are your pronouns, sweetie?”

“Pronouns?”

Crowley raises his head finally, “They go by they/them.” He reaches for the new glass and looks at the person next to him. “Let’s start you off slow. Eve, hand me one of those apples.” He points at the basket on the bar.

Muriel gulped as the red head looked intently at them. “I don’t know if I’m ready for…”

“It’s been well over a year now. Please indulge me.” Crowley interrupts and drinks slower this time.

Eve hands him an apple, and Crowley looks at her with a chuckle, “Well this is backwards.”

She raises an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

He grabs it, “Nevermind.” He looks at Muriel now with an intense stare. “Ok, you want to seem normal, yes?”

They nod.

“And you recognize that eating is normal, right?”

Muriel grimaces.

“And you know that the new things I had you try were enjoyable? Like the book?”

Muriel beams, “Oh yes, I love books!”

He holds out the apple staring intently at them. “Then here is your next new experience you’ll love.”

Muriel feels an unnatural pull towards the apple and hesitates, “Are you tempting me?”

“Yep.” Crowley states without hiding it. He gestures around, “But all these lot eat to live. I literally have no reason to trick you. I just want you to realize that earth is more than a shiny blue and green planet with people. There are many other wonders this place can give you.”

Muriel picks up the apple and feels the texture. Waxy and smooth. They smell it and instantly decide it was their favorite smell.  They hesitantly lick it. “It doesn’t taste like anything.”

He snaps his fingers under the table and pulls an apple from nowhere. “Like this.” He takes a big bite. Juice runs down his chin and he chews. He makes a satisfied moan.

Muriel makes a disgusted face.

He rolls his eyes and motions for them to take a bite.

Muriel hesitantly bites the apple with a satisfying crunch.  Their eyes look horrified at first.

“Chew it.” Crowley states taking another bite of his own apple.

Muriel slowly chews with a pained look. They think intently as the flavors flood their taste buds. Muriel’s eyes go wide as they looks at the apple with new found gusto and takes a greedy second bite, slurping down the juices.

A sinister grin grows on Crowley’s face, “It never gets old.” He downs his second drink waving Eve over for another.

Notes:

Andddd so the hinting of Angst begins. You can't be Crowley and go through what he did without hurting even if it's been over a year. 6000 years of pinning and getting rejected (or atleast what he sees as rejection) does not heal in a year.

Chapter 6: Pint of Water

Summary:

Crowley's distractions run out and starts to feel the emotions he buried.
Please read the tags. I know this story is going to feel like emotional whiplash.

 

Eve looked up at the clock (five minutes to close) and then at the bar (two “guests” remained). There was a plate with a pile of apple cores, grape stems, pits, seeds, and various other stains from fruits that Muriel ate. The red head spoke very little but really stared intensely at his compatriot next to him as said compatriot devoured an exorbitant amount of fruit like their life depended on it.  

Crowley ended up drinking the entire rest of the bottle of scotch Eve had (it was 3/4ths full) and he barely looked tipsy. He sat on the barstool with a strange posture that only remotely looked comfortable leaning his head against his hand, elbow on the bar, and with his other arm outstretched past the bar, whereas Muriel sat with perfect posture the entire time. They must have sat there for nearly three hours straight like this.

Eve cleared her throat.

Crowley finally tore his eyes from Muriel to look at her, “Closing time?” He mumbled. Maybe he was more sloshed than she realized. She was glad she asked for his keys after the 6^th refill of scotch. He had nowhere to go but upstairs.

“I got some things to clean up still but yeah I’m cutting you both off.” Eve said pouring hot water over the ice bucket to melt the rest of it. “Not that Muriel had much to drink and ate an entire fruit stand.”

Muriel had decided they did not like the Mango Cooler, which Crowley took as a hint that he should drink it instead.

Eve didn’t have prices for all this fruit Crowley had behind the bar, so she charged Muriel for virgin drinks instead. “Here is your final check.” She passed Muriel a piece of paper.

Muriel picked it up, her hands sticky from all the fruit juices and looked at Crowley.

He sighed, “Yeah, alright I got it.” He made a grab for it and pulled out a wad of cash. Once he saw the amount though he had a cackling fit, “You ate over $200 pounds of fruit alone?”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” They said finishing up a pair. “Is that bad? Have I done wrong?”

He waved them off, “No, no it’s fine. Don’t get your halo in a bunch…” He turned to Eve as if looking for his next distraction and pointed vaguely, “I bet you I can take more shots than you.”

Eve raised her eyebrows, “You sir, have had quite enough don’t you think?” Muriel was up licking the core of one of the apples. “And I think you had enough too!” She pulled the plate of remains away from Muriel.

“I guess I’ll just go back to the bookshop then.” Muriel hopped off the bar, “Goodbye Mr. Crowley! Thank you for the experience!”

He mumbled, “Don’t mention it…” He watched them go out the door with his gaze staying on the door deep in thought.

Eve looked at him as he ripped his eyes from the door and laid his head back on the bar in a deep sigh.

She asked him, “You heading upstairs then?”

He grimaced with pained expression, “No, I’ll never go back there. Not even if angel pleads for me to go with him.” He rolls his head back in the crevice of his arm and mumbles something she couldn’t hear.

She frowned then turned to the bar locking the liquor away. Even with all the wine available to him upstairs, she didn’t want the temptation to be there. “Was that supposed to make sense to me?”

He raised his head with a sigh, “No.” He looks at her like he’s about to say something.

“What?” She asked

“I just… can’t get over this.” He said like a broken man. “I tried to drive without stopping. I tried drinking myself to forget. I tried to sleep it off. I tried….” He trailed off thinking better of whatever he was going to say.  His eyes darted back and forth looking towards the door as if he was scheming for something else. He suddenly barked out a laugh, “Not like I can take my car anymore. The Bentley got sick of me and dumped me out like trash to Nina. Nina got sick of me instantly.”

Eve was going to protest that, but he interrupted her.

“Then for twenty-four hours I decided to actually try to distract myself with what I’m the best at.  Temptations, words, planning, fucking… plants.” He motioned to the place being covered head to toe in plants.  “But this fucking planet is cursed with remnants of him and I can’t stay distracted forever.”

He leaned his head back limp staring at the ceiling. His voice sounded broken, “Maybe… maybe it would have been better if… if everything ended back then at the fire. Anything is better than knowing he’s turning to a shell of my ang—” His throat burned from holding back everything. Distractions only work for a moment before the dam breaks down the wall of emotions being held back. He put his head in his arms and sobbed with wretched agony.

Eve quickly scurried around the bar and placed a hand on his back, “Hey, none of this now… It’s not so bad.”

He didn’t respond to her beyond raising his head. Tears were streaming behind those round dark sunglasses, while he started to heave in pain. She realized quickly that she was out of her depth with her words. She saw him start to wretch up what she assumed would be the copious amount of alcohol he consumed for the last three hours and moved quickly back to the bar to get a trashcan.

However, he didn’t turn his stomach inside out. His breathing was more labored as he clawed at his arms in a death grip, trying to ground himself in any sort of way.

Eve came back with a trash can and plopped it in front of him. She took a good look at him and recognized the symptoms of the panic attack he was having. She thought back at her time as an intern thinking of what to do when it came to her.

Eve spoke calmly while kneeling in front of him trying to get eye contact, or whatever could be considered eye contact with those pitch-black sunglasses, “Crowley, listen to me. Give me five things you can see.”

His eyes darted back and forth on the floor still wheezing. He didn’t seem to hear her or register what she said.

Eve tried again, “Work with me, yes? Five things you can see. It can be anything.”

“Floor.” He sputtered; he was shaking like a leaf.

“Good, what else?”

His eyes looked more in one spot rather than darting around and said, “My foot.”

“Three more.”

“Bar stool” He was still breathing heavily, but his hands stopped digging into his arm. They were bruised from the grip.

“Two.”

“Bin” He looked at the trash can.

“Last one.”

“Apple core.” His breathing slowed but was still labored. He seemed dazed.

Eve moved to sit on the bar stool. “Give me four things you can touch.”

His arms were still wrapped around himself as if he’d fall apart if he let go. “Shirt.”

Eve nodded and offered a hand. He didn’t grab it, but he touched the bar. “Wood.”

His breathing wasn’t labored anymore, and he looked around. “M’sorry…”

She frowned, “Don’t mention it. Three more.”

Crowley slowly sat up and groaned, “No, I’m fine.”

She would have laughed if she didn’t think he was about to collapse. “You aren’t.”

He sighed, “No, I’m not.”

“Do you think you can try to talk about it?” Eve asked gently.

He paused and took in her words as if considering it. But something sparked his memory with another flash of pain and his eyes darted to the door outside in anguish. He paused for a few more seconds contemplating his next move.

His grimace turned into a calm absolute. Crowley deliberately stood up and very slowly walked towards the door deep in thought.

She walked in front of him blocking his path, “Where are you going?”

He was looking past her to the outside and barely whispered in a calm but exhausted voice, “I… was thinking of going to church.”

Something in the way he said it sent chills down her. Like he gave up. Like he was going to a noose. She knew that religion could provide comfort to those in desperate need. It was sort of a proxy for therapy. What, with the higher power taking care of things and what not. But something told her he was lying, or at least not telling her the whole truth.

She spoke carefully, “It’s past 1:30am. Why don’t you go to your flat instead? You can go tomorrow, just make sure your back before 6pm. Friday night is typically packed, and I can’t make these fancy ass drinks as fast as you can.”

She must have said something to shake him out of it. He looked at her with a bit more of cognizant purpose. “Right. This place. Healthy distractions.” He took a deep sigh glanced outside and then looked at the stairs to go to his flat, “Yeah ok, it’d be rude to go out like that at this point. You win.”

He walked to the stairs a bit less strained, leaving Eve with her thoughts. Once he reached the top step and heard him unlock the door to his flat and closed it behind him, she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

She went back behind the bar and pulled out a pint glass. Her hands were shaking as she filled it up with water from the tap. She took another deep breath before chugging all the water down.

Something told her she needed to keep a closer eye on him.

She was proud of herself grabbing his keys when she did. It didn’t seem proper to let him drive anywhere. Eve reached into her pocket to pull out his keys since he was safe upstairs just to find they weren’t there. She frantically patted herself down when the realization hit her.

He had unlocked his door without asking her for his keys.

The son of a bitch stole them off her.

 

Notes:

You all ok? I know that this was super angsty, but poor Crowley has been through alot. He's been doing pretty well surviving and he has good support humans.

Here is a good fanfiction for those who want to see Crowley get some therapy: Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20177950/chapters/47807593

Kudos, Comments, and cries about poor Crowley keep me going.

Chapter 7: Large Black Coffee

Summary:

Eve tries to get some answers

The first thing Eve did when she woke up was to see if the outside security camera still showed the black antique car parked in its normal space. It hadn’t moved all night. Which meant that Crowley either was still in the flat or walked somewhere.

She made her way to Nina’s shop earlier than her usual time.

It’s time she talked to her dear sister about the man sleeping in Eden’s flat.

Nina looked exhausted when she got there, probably from the late-night dancing she did with Maggie in Eden. It was after the morning rush, so it was fairly slow for her.

Eve walked up, “We need to talk.”

Nina looked at her, “You’re here early. You always show up when I close. Large black coffee then?”

Eve looked around, “Can we sit and talk?”

Nina must have picked up on something because she asked, “Oh no, what did he do now? If this is about the fight last night, it seemed ok.”

“Is he bipolar?” Eve asked bluntly.

Nina head bounced back with the accusation before stating, “I don’t think he can be.”

Eve started gesturing wildly with her hands and speaking fast, “Cause in the past 36 hours I’ve known the man, he goes from quiet but normal, to replacing all fake plants and changing my menu seemly in a mania.”

Eve starts pacing still gesturing counting on her fingers, “He goes from scheming to starting fights to becoming a rockstar to force feeding someone fruit to a weeping mess to calmly talking about going to church to normal again.”

Nina looked at her alarmed, “Wait, wait, what was that last one?”

Eve stopped pacing and looked at her annoyed, “Him being normal? That is what you got out of—”

“No! He went to a church again?!” Nina started frantically running to her back office. “I told the Bentley to get me if it happened again! Those burns took –” she slammed the door behind her muffling her rant.

Eve was flabbergasted and quietly followed her to her office.

Nina was shaking trying to dial on her phone muttering to herself, “I swear to Christ if I have to drag him out again…”

“What is going on?” Eve asked, then continued her thoughts on the man, “I don’t mind doing you a favor and keeping him up there, but I think he needs some real therapeutic help.”

Nina had the phone to head ignoring her, “Come on you prick… pick up…” Her foot was tapping quickly while staring at the floor.

Eve plops herself on the office chair by the desk, “I take it you have his number. How close are you to this guy?” she spun in the chair mumbling to herself, “Please don’t tell me you know him from Lindsay.”

Nina didn’t seem to hear Eve, but her expression lit up, “Oh thank god.”

“Don’t bring her into it…” the voice mumbled.

Nina glared at the phone, “Where are you?”

The voice moaned and there was some movement and shuffling neither of them could place, “Flat above Eden, why?”

“Ev said you went to a church again.”

“Wut? No, I didn’t.” he protested.

Eve interrupted, “I said he was talking about it, not that he went. I said he could go today though.”

“No, he CAN NOT.” Nina with emphasis.

“Nina, I didn’t. Not going to.” the voice grumbled.

Eve sighed knowing Nina’s thoughts on religious establishments, “There is nothing wrong with it even if it’s not your scene, Nina.”

Nina looked at her alarmed, “You don’t understand. He cannot go there.”

There was a loud groan on the other end. “I’m gonna hang up.” he threatened.

“Listen you, I told you that you could bug me if you needed.” Nina glared at the phone, “I don’t want to drag you out of there again.”

“Yeah… I’m gonna hang up.” The tone clicked.

“Prick…” Nina tossed her phone on her desk.

They stood in silence.

Eve looked at the phone and spoke quietly, “Can someone please just tell me whats going on?”

Nina looked at her, “You’ll think I’m going mad.”

Eve rolled her eyes, “Yeah, well I’m going mad with all of this.”

Nina sat in the other chair and tapped her fingers on the desk. “Ok, I can try to explain some of it, but the rest is up to him. He’s pretty much an open book and doesn’t hide anything. The problem is nothing he says makes sense at first.”

Eve folded her hands in her lap, “Go on…”

Nina looks at the wall, “You know that old bookshop that never seems to be open when you want?”

Eve looks towards the door in the direction of said bookshop, “Yeah, I pass it all the time. It’s been there forever.”

Nina looks back at her, “The owner and Crowley had a thing, or sort of had a thing, it’s a bit complicated. They both are terrible at communication.”

Eve frowns, “Ok…”

“Well, here is the part that will be difficult to explain.” Nina thinks hard about her choice of words, “They used to both work at the same company—”

“The bookshop?” Eve raises her eyebrow. She found it hard to believe that Crowley would be a bookshop owner.

“No… the bookshop thing was a side gig.” Nina said strained, “Anyway, Crowley had a… falling out with the company and joined a rival one.”

“Ok…”

“But something happened, and they both retired from the companies. That was for a few years, but now the company Crowley hates reached out to Mr. Fell.”

“Mr. Fell?” The name rang a bell in Eve’s head, but she couldn’t place it.

“The bookshop owner. And they—”

Eve interrupted, “Which is not the company that reached out to Mr. Fell?”

“No! I told you! The bookshop was a side thing.” Nina said waving the thought off and continued.  “And they basically were going to make Mr. Fell the CEO of the company and told Mr. Fell that Crowley could join him.”

“Uh… huh.”

“Mr. Fell told Crowley the news, and Crowley was furious. Crowley wanted Mr. Fell to stay down here.”

“Down here?”

“Uhhh yeah… Cause Mr. Fell needed to relocate to… Norway…” Nina lied.

Eve stared at her sister, “This is a load of bollocks.”

Nina groaned, “I’m trying my best ok.”

“Why can’t you tell me the truth?”

“Because it sounds crazy!”

The siblings looked at each other with glares.

Eve spun in the chair again, “Fine, whatever. Do you suspect he has bipolar disorder?”

Nina shook her head, “No, but absolutely is cripplingly depressed. He just… is trying to power through it.”

Eve stopped spinning and stared at her, “He needs a therapist.”

Nina threw her hands up, “We all understand that but there is no way for a therapist to help him without thinking he’s insane.” Nina points at her, “He is a lot of things, but he’s not insane. At least clinically. I know you have a slight background in it.” Nina clapped her hands, “Maybe you could try giving him therapy.”

Eve threw her hands up, “I have a minor. A MINOR in psychology. Even if I had a bachelor’s degree, it’s not enough. You need to have clinical training to properly be a therapist.” She walked away from Nina almost outside the door then turned around.  She spoke with anger, “I tried some grounding techniques for him yesterday because he was having a panic attack. He basically decided to stop midway through and was going to drunkenly leave the club to go to a church.” Nina’s eyes looked alarmed, but Eve continued with a final conclusion. “I. am. not. Qualified!”

Nina paused at her words, “But you stopped him?”

“From being a drunken idiot in the streets? Yes!”

“No from leaving.”

Eve sighed and spun around, “I mean yeah. I reasoned that it was late, and he could go tomorrow and reminded him we open at 6pm.”

Nina wiped a hand over her face with a groan. “Well atleast the Bentley would have stopped him.”

Eve pointed at her, “That. Can you atleast explain to me that.”

Nina just stared at Eve then threw her hands up, “Sure. Have it your way. The car can think for itself. Plays music to speak, and right now it’s preventing Crowley from getting himself scorched on consecrated grounds or worse erased from existence.”

“The car?” Eve said, disbelieving her. She decided not to question the consecrated grounds or whatever. She didn’t know where to begin with that.  

Nina just walked past her, “Told you it sounds crazy. I got to get back to my shop.”

 

 

 

Eve left the coffee shop to her own club. When she got to the outside of the club, she saw the black antique car outside. Eve cautiously got close and looked inside. Didn’t look anything beyond a fancy leather interior. She stood for a second staring at it with her hands on her hips waiting for some sort of sign.

She got none.

She rolled her eyes and walked inside the club. She started walking to the bar when she heard a rustle towards the stage. She saw Crowley sprawled out with a spray bottle in his hand spinning it around his finger. He was staring up at the one plant he brought the first night he was here muttering to it.

She didn’t say anything and waited for him to acknowledge her.

He didn’t.

If she actually believed the car was sentient, she might have said ‘like car like owner’. She didn’t though because that would be crazy.

She huffed and strolled up to him, “So. What version of Crowley is it going to be today? Manic schemer? Depressed Alcoholic? Entertainer?”

He paused the spinning and turned to her, “Jaded demon who is just trying to take it one day at a time.”

“I don’t think you’re a demon.” Eve said quietly.

He looked to her with an annoyed look and ripped off his glasses, “Well you would be wrong mortal.”

The yellow slitted eyes stared into her brown ones. It surprised her, but logic took over, “Contacts are cute. Fits your aesthetic.”

He made a sound between a groan or a whine and put the glasses back on, “I really don’t want to convince you that I’m too old for you to comprehend. I like having a bed and don’t want to get kicked out.”

“Uh huh… What if I found you a nice institution where you could get the help you really need?” Eve said hesitantly.

He snarled, “You mean a nuthouse?”

“What about a therapist?” Eve tried again.

“Tried… didn’t get far.”

Eve was surprised at that. “Well sometimes it takes a bit to find the right one.”

“No amount of therapy is going to help, trust me. It’s not a compatibility thing.” He sighed, “Well it is, but not in the way...” He trailed off not finding the words he needed.

She didn’t want to press him further but changed tactics, “Could you at least give me some triggers I can avoid that might be able to help?”

He laughed at that one, “Oh that will be way too long and impossible for you to tip toe around.” He looked at her and took a deep breath. “I can appreciate what you are trying to do. Trust me when I say it’s not going to get better. Not in your lifetime, hell maybe not even in the earth’s lifetime.”

“Then what’s holding you together?”

He thought about that for a moment, “Probably spite. Maybe knowing that you lot don’t stand a chance if I’m gone…”

“You mean the Club.”

That surprised him like he didn’t think about that, “Well, I guess that too in the short term.” He stood up and strolled past her, “You won’t get anywhere probing me and I am trying not to think about it. Like I said. One day at a time.” He turned on his heel, “We got a few hours till open. What do we need to do oh great leader?” He spoke with sarcasm and flourish.

Notes:

You all ok?

I know this post was heavy hinting at stuff.

It'll all be ok... probably.

Kudos and comments <3 and have some hugs

Chapter 8: Strawberry Margarita on the Rocks

Summary:

Crowley protects a girl and Eve gets used to him calling himself a demon

The night was packed and went by in the blink of an eye. Word spread that Eden was transformed into a garden paradise with the crytid of Soho being the devilishly handsome and charming bartender. The DJ that Eve paid for was working the crowd up with heavy sounds of bass and techno focused beats. Apparently, someone was having their 21^st birthday in the club, and even though the drinking age was 18 in the UK, Eve made it be 21 after living in the States for so long.

It got her a lot of annoyed teens, but she didn’t care.

The lucky 21-year-old girl had a tiara on and a sash that said birthday girl on it. Her friends and her seemed like they were having the time of her life with all having matching drinks in their hands. Strawberry margaritas were apparently the special drink tonight. Eve didn’t pay much attention to them.

Crowley didn’t either until some guy, couldn’t have been older than thirty, asked for two drinks. “Strawberry margarita on the rocks and a lager on tap” He shouted to Crowley who dutifully made the drink. When he went to hand it off though he paused looking curiously at the man as if smelling his intention.

Eve was taking care of the other side of the bar helping customers when she noticed every single one of them was looking away from the dance floor.

Eve looked as well to see Crowley pushing his way from behind the bar to towards the group of girls standing at the high-top table where the man he just served just joined. The man passed the red drink to the birthday girl, but Crowley intercepted.

“Hey hey! No no…” He grabbed the drink from the girl, “Give me that.”

Crowley poked the with his finger in the man's chest who seemed stunned, “You are some evil asshole. You know that? And that’s saying something coming from me.”

The man was stammering some sort of confusion and the girls were all staring at him confused.

“Nuh uh, I know what you’re up to.” Crowley said and then slammed the drink down without stopping.

The guy was backing away from him now wide eyed.

Crowley shook his head and grimaced, “Ooooh yeah that roofied.” Crowley waved at the bouncer who came immediately to take the man away. He also snapped in the air looking at the man being dragged out of Eden.

The girls turned to him in concern and the one asked him, “Um… are you gonna be ok?”

Crowley just looked at her and smiled, “Aw nothing to worry your pretty head over. Takes a lot more to knock me out.” He turned and said leaving, “You girls watch out for yourselves now.”

He had a smug look on his face while he sauntered back to the bar picking work back up, washing the empty glass he drank from.

Eve reached him, “What was that about?”

“Guy was going to sexually assault the girl, couldn’t just watch.” Crowley started shaking the new margarita order that came in. “He slipped a tablet in her drink, so I grabbed it before she could drink.”

“And you DRANK IT?” Eve looked at him alarmed. She quickly poured out a glass of water and handed it to him. “Drink this now. I’m calling an ambulance.”

He handed the customer the drink he made, “What? No that would be crazy. Do I look roofied?” He gave a charming smile to the next person who came up to the bar tried to continue to work.

“Drink the water!” Eve insisted.

He talked to the customer and winked at them, “She worries too much.”

“Crowley!”

He turned to her, “Fine!” He toasted to her, then chugged the water, “There. Happy? Don’t bother with the ambulance. I’m fine.” He turned back to the customer.

“Did you report the guy?” she asked him frustrated.

He glanced at her with a sinister smile, “Oh, I did something alright.”

She didn’t know what that meant but she dropped the matter.

The rest of the night was uneventful but busy. The regulars kept complementing the new bartender and the green plant look. Eve kept a close eye on Crowley looking signs for being drugged but didn’t see much difference. It was hard to get a read on a guy who seemed to flip flop his moods, however his work ethic never changed. She concluded that either the drink was in fact not drugged, or he did not actually drink it.

 

-------------

Saturday night winded down and Eve made the announcement that it was the last call. She felt more relaxed. No fights, no strange happenings, just a normal busy night.

Crowley was cleaning up all the empty glasses left about all over the club and the DJ was packing up.

Eve walked up to Crowley handing him a glass of water. She never saw the man ever drink or eat anything except coffee (six shots of espresso Nina told her) and alcohol.

He looked at her and rolled his eyes but took it anyway, “You know this is unnecessary right?”

“People need water to live. Someone needs to keep you hydrated.”

“People. Not demons.” He said drinking it anyway to keep her calm.

“Yeah yeah, you are a big nasty demon, whatever.” She was used to this song and dance by now. She figured it was kind of like those people who pretended to be vampires with teeth extensions. He just found a persona that was easy for him to emulate and stuck with it. Probably was easier to hide his pain from whatever was going on. “Remember, we aren’t open on Sundays and Mondays, so don’t expect anyone to be here.”

He huffed, “Probably just going to sleep through till we open again.”

Eve sighed, “Yeah, the past week was kind of crazy. I’m just gonna chill at home too to recoup.”

He looked at her for a second and finally asked, “You ever go to St. James Park?”

Somehow, she didn’t see him liking that. It was such a quiet serene scene place and he seemed to feed off the hype of the Club. “What? You just sit and brood?”

He snorted, “Nah I feed the ducks and watch people.”

“Ahhh I see, you cause trouble.”

He shrugged, “Well, not much trouble to get into over there, but if the opportunity arises…”

She finished wiping down the beer taps putting the caps overtop. “What are you getting at?”

He frowned, “I dunno, want to meet me there tomorrow?”

She thought about it but ultimately said, “No, not really. Sunday is my rest day.”

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “You didn’t seem the religious type.”

She laughed, “Rest day from work. Just happens to be on a Sunday. No, I’m an atheist.”

“Thought so.” He sat on the bar stool.

“What does that mean?”

“Whatever you want it to mean.” He mumbled leaning on the bar, “Well, how about this. Let’s take shots. No work tomorrow, so no reason not to if you just gonna stay home anyway. Can be like a 20-question thing. I’ll ask you something. You ask me something. We get sloshed. Great time.”

Now this sounded more enticing. “Will you answer honestly?”

He gave an exaggerated roll of the eyes, “Yeah, but you won’t think so.” He laid his head on the bar in the most relaxed childish way.

She drummed her fingers on the counter. “Tempting…”

He gave her a look, “Promise I’m not.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes. She was getting used to these mannerisms he had about pretending to be an actual demon. She first thought he was self-deprecating, but he sometimes had a sense of pride behind it. “Sure, but we aren’t using the bar’s liquor. You got something other than wine up there?”

He sat up with a grin, “Yeah sure, what’s your favorite shot?”

“Honey Badger. But I’ll be fine with rum or something,”

“Honey Whiskey and Fireball.” He made a purposeful snap, “I like your style.”

She was getting used to the snapping too. It was like his good luck charm or something.

“Well miraculously I seem to have just that upstairs.” He stood up, and kicked the bar stool back in place, “Come on boss, lets get drunk.”

Notes:

Guess who figured out how to make chapter notes?

Anyone want to take bets on what he did to the guy?

Kudos and Comments keep me going!

Next chapter might be slightly angsty, but probably it'll mostly be Eve having everything fly over her head as she reasons through everything.

Chapter 9: Honey Badger Shot

Summary:

Crowley pushes Eve's buttons, and Eve snaps back with a gut punch.

Eva considered his living space brutalist. It was completely bare minus a ridiculous golden throne, a picture of the Mona Lisa, a coffee table, and a black leather couch. The coffee table had an absurdly sized Jack Daniels Honey and an even larger Fireball with two plan shot glasses sitting waiting for them.

Eve stared at the setup, “Am I supposed to believe you didn’t know my favorite shot before coming up here?” She wasn’t surprised that he schemed for her to come up, but she gave no hints about the shot.

Crowley flopped and sprawled out with his leg over the arm of the couch and his foot sitting on the edge of the coffee table. Bisexual disaster child came to Eve’s mind given the way he was sitting. Crowley spoke, “I’ve given up trying to get you to believe anything.”

Eve ignored him and pulled up her phone, “I have tinnitus from working in the club so long. You mind if we play music? You got a Bluetooth speaker?”

Crowley snapped and pointed at the bare boned kitchen, “Yep, sure over there.”

Eve found she paired with it instantly noting the name, “ ‘Edens Serpent’ huh? You think you’re so clever.”

She hit play on the last album she was listening to by Florence and the Machine and sat on the other side of the couch. Crowley was already pouring out the shots. Guitar, drums and chimes rang through the flat in a steady chill beat.

“You got a word for me to guess? Cause I got mine.” He said

She frowned, “No no. I want to ask you questions about you.”

His head tilted in a frown to match hers, “That’s not how you play 20 questions.” He held out a shot to her while holding his own.

“Tough shit, that’s what I want to do,” She toasted to him and took the shot. She enjoyed the soothing burn of the mixed whiskeys going down. “What was your childhood like.”

 

Don’t touch the sleeping pills they mess with my head

 

He just looked at her with an exaggerated raised eyebrow as the music played in the background, “I have absolutely no idea how to answer that.” He took the shot anyway, “I didn’t have a typical childhood, I guess. I have no memory of what you personally would maybe consider a childhood.” He started pouring another one, “Right to the jugular huh?”

“What kind of answer is that?” She wondered if he disassociated his childhood or had some sort of trauma making his memory hairy.

“Listen you asked. I can’t help you if I can’t answer it.” He handed her the shot glass, “What has you convinced God doesn’t exist.”

And, ahhhhh, my love remind me, what was it that I said?

 

Her head fell back, “Jesus, ok. Jugalar.”

“You started it.”

I can't help but pull the earth around me to make my bed

She took the shot savoring the flavor and grimaced, “I never saw a reason that this life isn't just random chance. Evolution seems like a reasonable explanation for why we are here.”

“Yeah, the pre-aged stuff seemed a bit of a mistake in hindsight.” He took the shot, “But there is nothing I love more is rejecting an omnipresent but silent divine being that expects obedience and no questions.”

“Plus, the fanbase sucks.” Eve added.

And, ah, my love remind me, what was it that I did?

He laughed at that, “Yeah, that was all on your lots own.” He poured another one, “It’s ironic and tragic as hell that the holier than thou humans are the ones minimizing her love.”

Did I drink too much? Am I losing touch?

Did I build a ship to wreck?

She didn’t understand most of what he said, but she was used to that at this point. She just looked at him, “Why does Nina not want you to go to church?”

To wreck,

He looked solemnly handing her the shot glass. She didn’t take it right away. He spoke more subdued, “I rather talk about the childhood that didn’t happen.”

To wreck

They both held their shots while Crowley looked toward the Bose Speaker playing the music, “I know you don’t think I’m truly a demon but let’s just pretend you do. Churches are consecrated grounds, and it burns me to be there. Not much damages this body, so the burns help distract me from internal emotional pain.” He looks at her, “Nina, specifically, gets more upset because holy water will destroy me.” He took the shot looking at her with a frown, “If you want me to talk more, you’ll have to keep drinking.”

To wreck

She took her shot this time struggling to keep her composure, “If we're going to keep drinking, I'm going to need water.”

His tone shifted as he cackled and got up dramatically jumping over the couch to the kitchen, “You only had three shots.”

Did I build this ship to wreck?

She glared at him over the couch back, “Yeah, with no chaser?”

He pulled a glass out from the cabinet above and filled it with tap water, “Do you need a lemon?” He asked mockingly.

She took the water, “We aren’t working and I’m not a customer. You wasted your question.” She drank some water. It tasted divine after the three shots. “I’ll give you a soft one, where did you learn to bartend.”

He flopped back on the couch, “If you are counting my sarcastic lemon question, then you have to take 2 shots right now.” He poured out two more handing them to you.

She gave him a reproachful look, “You’re taking them too right?”

He just looked at her and took two big gulps of fireball, despite Eve’s disgusted look of horror. He made an awfully tortured face but ultimately grinned at her, “There we are even.”

She took her one shot then with a slight pause she took the second with two giant gulps of water as a chaser, “We are going way too fast, right?”

Good God, under starless skies

We are lost,

He looked at her like he saw a ghost but stammered out, “You.. just asked another two questions.”

and into the breach, we got tossed

And the water is coming in fast

She looked at him confused and feeling the whiskey hitting her, “Bartending?”

And, ah, my love remind me, what was it that I said?

He shook himself out of it. “Right. Yes. There were two times with two different specializations. Worked at a vineyard in Italy around Tuscany and they had me serving drinks for a bit. The other was New York City.” He smiled at that, “Ooooooh that was a good time.”

I can't help but pull the earth around me to make my bed

She smiled at her own memory, “New York City is a wonderful bustling place.”

He switched bottles and took a swig of the honey whiskey, “Yes, but you haven’t seen it prohibition times. Serving at speakeasys was crazzzzy.” He hissed out the last bit.

She gives him a side eye, “Uh huh…”

And, ah, my love remind me, what was it that I did?

He looks at her, “Yeah yeah, you’re to logical for all that.” He starts to pour out another two shots, “You and Nina are so similar but so different. What gives?” he offers the shot.

She snorted but took the shot glass from him. “That’s your question?”

“Well, she managed to see the evidence and even when faced with certain doom, and she was calm enough to start working the next day. She has a lonesome exterior and is overly cautious.” He takes his shot with an exaggerated gasp. “Ahhhh there we go. Got the comfortable buzz.”

Eve takes another sip of her water, “What is your point?”

He sprawls out staring at the ceiling.

 Did I drink too much? Am I losing touch?

Did I build a ship to wreck?

“I don’t know. You are overly cautious but make an exception for family. You are definitely more about that night life than she is. But the bar. The bar is your safety net.” He raises his head to look at her, “You ever actually partake in the stuff that happens at the Club?”

“I’m working.”

To wreck,

He points with the empty shot glass, “Exactly, but you could if you wanted to. Like Nina, you are married to your work. Maggie has soft eyes for that girl, but that girl in question will not cut loose for a moment.”

to wreck,

Eve took her shot and made an undignified noise before addressing him, “Nina seemed to cut lose on Thursday.”

He quickly poured another shot, “Yeah after I threatened to start a fight.” He hands the shot glass to her filled with the golden liquor.

to wreck

She stares at the shot glass for a second before speaking, “We need to slow down.”

Did I build this ship to wreck?

He wiggles it in front of her, “See what I mean? You do not cut loose for a moment.”

She takes it in his hand, “No, you don’t get to accuse me of that. There is a difference between cutting loose and being an alcoholic.” She puts the shot on the table, “You sir are an alcoholic and I’m enabling you.”

To wreck,

He throws his head back, “Uggghhhhhh… you are naturally deflecting to an easy target.” He looks at her and rearranges his limbs to another absurd position. “You. Are. No. fun. You. Only. Work.” He enunciated each word in a mocking tone.

To wreck,

 “Why are you digging into like this? I love my work.”

He raises his eyebrow who clearly had beef about this, “Do you now?” He said this with deep disbelief. He looked at her like he was looking through her. Like he was deciding what part of her he was going to dig deeper into. Which scab was he going to pick at that held herself together, “Cause I think you crave giving in. I think, for once in your life, you want someone, anyone would take the reins and do something reckless.” He inched closer to her, “You want to rebel against the norm and do something that you might regret for the risk of something amazing. You’ve been in control so long…” He leans closer tilts down his glasses lower on his nose and stares in her eyes, “Don’t you want to… let go?”

Did I build this ship to wreck?

She’s breathing heavily now as her brown eyes look into his yellow ones. Her pulse was quickened which just fed her frustration of the topic. She tried to say something, but no words came out. She finally ripped her eyes from his intense gaze and looked at the shot glass with half fireball and half honey whiskey. The golden color looked more enticing than ever. She reached out and quickly took her shot in defiance, she grimaced and quickly chased it with a gulp of water.

He slipped the glasses back on and leaned over to pour another shot. “That, my dear, was a proper temptation.”

She glared at him, “I think it’s called manipulation.” She could feel the alcohol in her system making her face warm. It was either that or the anger.

He handed her another shot with a lazy shrug, “Work-a-holics are easy.” And he gave her an easy grin, “Atleast you latched on to the shot glass, I don’t know what I would have done if you would have come on to me or something.”

The next song on Florence and the machine album came on.

I was on a heavy tip

Try'na cross a canyon with a broken limb

Eve was mad that he would even suggest that she would do something like that. “We are co-workers, your boss really, and I’m your landlord technically. The power dynamics are off and I’m not interested.”

He put his hands up starting to laugh, “Clearly! Like I said I’m glad. Also you think you tip the power dynamics? Oh that is precious.” He couldn’t hold in the laugher anymore.

You were on the other side, like always

Wondering what to do with life

She was still fuming watching him cackle.  He seemingly he could tell. He had a stupidly large grin on his face as he spoke with his hands out gesturing, “Aww I’m sorry bout that, boss. To be fair you don’t believe this anyway so like don’t see what you’re on about.  Nothing against you. I just have a stupidly specific type.”

She drank the rest of her water and stomped to the sink with shot glass full of liquor in hand, “Ok pretty boy.”

He snickered, “Awww you think I’m pretty?”

Her eye twitched and she took the shot over the sink.

I'd already had a sip

So I'd reasoned I was drunk enough to deal with it

She filled up the glass with tap water and reached in the cabinet to pull a second glass filling that one as well. “Two can play this game.”

You were on the other side, like always

You could never make you mine

He blinked at her as she came around with a purposeful angry strut and slammed two glasses of water on the coffee table.

And with one kiss

She was still angry, and she knew she was going to be punching him in the gut.  However, he struck first with picking at her mental scabs. She’ll be damned if she didn’t know how to pick at his in return.

You inspired a fire of devotion that lasts for twenty years

She leaned up real close to him and spoke with quiet anger, “I think you just are upset that Nina and I care about our work more than our love lives. Why don’t you tell me where reckless abandon steered you wrong?”

 

What kind of man loves like this?

Notes:

This was fun to write. It probs has a bunch of grammar/spelling mistakes because I take the inspiration as it comes. I'll make small edits probably as I reread it a few more times.

Next chapter is gonna be interestinggggg

The two songs were "Ship to Wreck" and "What Kind of man". For the first one, I've never considered the line "I can't help but pull the earth around me to make my bed." more than a suicidal idealization, but with this chapter it felt more like taking the comforts of life on earth. Funny how writing does that. Tried to match the song lyrics to what was happening in the scene. It was difficult, but fun.

Comments and Kudos and see you next chapter!

Chapter 10: Honey Whiskey Straight from the Bottle

Summary:

Crowley's point of view as he's lost in his worst memories

Crowley looked at her with shock like she hit him with a bat. It wasn’t the first time a temptation or scheme backfired (the M95 rattled in his brain while driving a flaming Bentley). Somehow his body was reacting similarly to that moment, like he was teetering on burning up in a hellish fire clawing his way out of the despair of a world ending. To him, humans were so easy to push one way or another. You don’t outlive all of humanity without picking up mannerisms that were innate to all humans. However, Eve completely did a one eighty that he didn’t expect.

He did everything he could to keep from despair. He knew that this magnificent world with all these crazy creatures in an oasis in the middle of vast emptiness would have no fighting chance against heaven and hell if he gave up.

He also knew that there was no way of coming out of this unscathed. The rejected departure of the being who he put so much faith in mimicked the deep unrelenting pain of divinity being ripped away as he fell into the sulfur pits.

It hurt just the same.

However, unlike the first time writhing in agony, he made a life for himself on earth and had given himself a second pillar to hold on to. Humans were amazing creatures with such short lives but so full of potential. In such a short time, they built empires and burned them down. They created machines for connection, and to destroy each other. It was easy to see that free will was an amazing power to behold.

And he pushed one to her limits. Her willingness to keep in control of her emotions was now gone. He knew she was constantly monitoring herself around him and others. Only speaking to people in a certain way to keep the peace. She lied about her feelings constantly in front of customers and her staff. She kept everything bottled up so that she is seen as a responsible human. He is what he classified as a type of human called a work-a-holic. They were the easiest to push over the edge and do something reckless, because they always crave it but would never do so unless pushed.

And he pushed.

He did his best to forget the angel. It just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t possible for his actions to constantly be swayed with the reminder of what he lost. He knew that was why he was pushing Nina to start a relationship with Maggie. He knew that he saw himself as Maggie being put on the sidelines from the affections of Nina. He knew he saw Eve as someone who kept in control of herself much in the way Aziraphale did all those years together. It was like the idea of Aziraphale was gravity constantly pulling his mind, even when he tried not to.

And now he pushed that human to throw all of that in his face so he couldn’t use any small distractions to cloud his writhing agony of his loss of the other pillar he still held the pieces of.

She was in his face seeping in fury. It seems the control she let go was not replaced by righteous anger. Is that what she kept at bay? Unbridled rage? Aziraphale kept affection and love just out of reach from him. This was not going as planned, though he would never admit that he had no solid plan to begin with.

When did reckless abandon steer him wrong? He only had one memory in mind that he still replays constantly to see if he could have done something differently. He swears that Aziraphale pulled him closer even for a moment. Crowley always comes up with the same conclusion.

He slowly leaned away from her. He spoke deliberately and slowly knowing she had no idea of what happened, “I did the only thing I could because I had nothing left to lose.”

She didn’t back down, “Or is that what you just tell yourself?”

No. That couldn’t be it. What else could he have done? He knew he was going to lose him. It was the only chance he had left to feel that affection locked away behind his commitment to heaven’s ideals.

“You don’t have any idea of what you are talking about.” He finally stammered out. He couldn’t hear the music over the hum in his ears from thinking so hard about that moment. The last moment he had with him. His lips tingled.

She laughed mockingly, “Who’s fault is that? You don’t tell me anything about yourself.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Crowley told her a bunch of vague things that she clearly did not get nor wanted to get. The memory was so potent in him. Aziraphale pulled him closer. That happened. Right? He wasn’t making that up. He finally spoke to her, “Not my fault you don’t believe anything I say.”

He saw her take another shot, but it didn’t register. He was too focused on the memory, but it was getting to the worst part. The look of horror on Aziraphale’s face. The rejection. The forgiveness he didn’t want.

“Then prove to me you are what you claim to be. A demon.” Apparently, she was standing now pointing at him. The alcohol and reckless accusations he pushed on her gave her no filter she constantly held up.

Crowley was lost in his memories.

“I didn’t mean to fall…” his memory shifts to the other burning agony of being rejected. No forgiveness that time. “I just asked questions….” His memory before the fall is non-existent. He only remembered sobbing so pitifully about how he only asked questions. He remembered begging for forgiveness as he was forcefully pushed out of heaven with his divinity burned away, leaving his wings charred and broken as he fell towards the sulfur pits as fast as a falling star.

She wasn’t noticing his disassociation. Or she didn’t care. “You’re hiding behind vague statements. I don’t think you’re a demon. Just a pathetic person who can’t get a grip with reality.”

Reality. Right, that was long ago. He leaned into the comforting buzz of the alcohol. He focused his senses on the present. He looked at the furious human he pushed to have no filter, “Do you really want proof?”

She flopped on the couch and pointed at him, “There isn’t any. Demons don’t exist. I want to know what has you so depressed that you think you need to use vague interpretations of mythological religious figures to get these emotions out.”

He just looks at her. “Depression does not even begin to cover what I am feeling.” The memory threatens to resurface again, so he reaches for the honey whiskey again and takes a swig straight from the bottle. He focuses on the flavor being sweet but burns from the alcohol. He focuses on his body wanting to reject this poison he keeps digesting.

“You. Are. Deflecting. Again.” She spoke each word in emphasis like he did earlier. It was a mockery.

He throws his head back. He really doesn’t need another person to know his troubles with that angel. He was trying to get every human to forget how close they were. Eve seemed like someone he would be stuck with since the Bentley was sick of him and does not seem to get that the angel was never coming back. “Fine! Yeah ok. I’ll tell you.”

He braced himself for every invasive memory and began to speak. “You know the bookshop that’s across the street from Nina’s shop?”

Eve gave him the most surprised expression and exclaimed, “No fucking way, that story is real? Is the owner really in Norway?”

Crowley made a face in confusion, “Norway?”

Notes:

I know this is a short chapter. I am so busy with grad school and work that it was hard to get this chapter out. Going to be slow to update, but I have some great plans for where this will go.

Comments and Kudos!

Chapter 11: Bottle of Merlot

Summary:

Eve sees some proof, Crowley explains his stress and plans his next move.

Eve soon realized that his explanation was basically of what Nina explained but with way more detail and religious ideology. She still had the same reaction.

“This is a load of bollacks.”

Crowley groaned, “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Nina was right. It does sound crazy.”

The redhead gave her a pointed look, “What do you think happened then?”

Eve huffed, “I don’t deny that your stuffy best friend—”

“NOT a friend.” Crowley interrupted.

She looked at him with a glare, “Fine. Want to be lover, left you for some religious cult to become some high-ranking leader in it.”

“That is worse. And not a cult.” He took a swig of Fireball right from the bottle and mumbled, “Close enough approximation really.”

“And he wanted to convert you to whatever cult he was a part of.”

He points at her with the bottle of Fireball. “That is certainly an underestimation of what he wanted but sure, go with that.”

“It sounds like he wants to change it and wanted you to help.” Eve drank from the pint glass of water deciding she had enough to drink.

Crowley gives a deep sigh, “Yeah, I came to that conclusion too but its not gonna happen. Heaven will not change. It changes you. Only God herself can do anything about that place, and from what I’ve heard she’s been MIA and silent for multiple millennia.”

“You think God is a woman?”

He dramatically rolled his eyes, “God does not have a gender, genitalia, and is omnipresent. SHE goes by she.”

Eve changed the subject, “How did you get Nina to believe you and not think this is utter nonsense?”

Crowley laughed at that, “Oh a group of demons attacked the bookshop while Azira—ngk.” he grimaced as he tried to say his name, “While the being in question put all of the towns people in a thrall to do some ballroom dancing together.”

Eve looked disbelievingly at him, “That makes no fucking sense.”

Crowley shrugged, “You asked. Nina and Maggie fought the demons off though. Not exactly sure how, just know that… he blew up the ol halo to finish them off. Hard to deny that reality when it’s in your face. Ask Nina, I bet she’ll tell you how she did it.”

Eve looks at her phone. “No way I’m calling her this late.” Eve thinks a bit, “So you claim to be a demon that’s been here since the beginning.”

He spreads his arms in flourish, “The serpent himself. Yes.”

Eve rolls her eyes, “You don’t look like a snake.”

He crosses his legs, “Yeah, well I don’t really want to freak you out that much.”

Eve drums her fingers on his coffee table, “But you want me to believe you.”

Crowley shrugged, “I don’t really care what you believe. I’m just enjoying your ride of frustration.”

The exasperated women’s eye twitches as the anger swirls in her, “You know what I think. I think that man you avoid saying the name of actually still cared about you and believed you could make everything better. He feels just as rejected as you do.”

She normally wouldn’t push and keep the peace. But she was feeling angry and reckless. She had a side of her that wanted to speak freely, but never did.

Crowley stills at her words letting them sink in. He sits in silence with only the music from the speakers still playing in the background as the next song started.

And the air was filled with various storms and saints

Parading in the streets…

The sunglass wearing self-proclaimed demon spoke very slowly and softly as if he was telling himself a truth that could not be changed. “It doesn’t matter if that’s what he felt. He won’t be the same angel I knew anymore, and it was entirely his choice. I asked him to stay on earth. He said no. He went somewhere I cannot follow. Intentions don’t matter if he means to change heaven. That place will slowly whittle him away to a shell of an angel I knew and then I will have to face him and try to stop him from destroying this earth.”

And I’m in the throes of it. Somewhere in the belly of the beast.

“He thinks that heaven can be changed.” Crowley’s face turned to something of anguish and spit words out dripping in venom, “Just like he thinks that he can change me back into something I never want to be.”

But you took your toll on me. So I gave myself over willingly.

He took two big gulps of the Honey whiskey this time. He paused slightly with a deep breath. His voice was trembling, “God—” he grimaced, “Satan—” he growled, “Somebody help me, I may need to fight him.”

Oh, you got a hold on me.

He moved his head to between his legs letting it hang loose, “Fuck, I don’t know if I can do it…”

I don’t know how I don’t just stand outside and scream. I am teaching myself how to be free.

Eve didn’t know what to make of this. “Do what?”

Crowley seemed to sway his head back and forth between his legs, “Protect earth alone, fight against an angel… no, a supreme archangel now… who has thousands of years of history on me, who knows I will falter against him. Who knows my weaknesses… who knows….” His words started to mumble together, and she lost track of his words. It seemed he was highly intoxicated at this point.

Eve didn’t know if she should give in to his delusions or try to straighten them out. He didn’t seem to be a danger to anyone but himself. Even in her angry state, she took pity on him. She reached out and grabbed the whiskey bottle from his hand. He gave a bit of a whine with his head still between his legs, but he didn’t really fight her. She got up with both bottles of whiskey in one hand, two pint glasses in the other and moved to the kitchen counter. She started filling the pint glasses with water again. “You know you don’t have to do anything alone right?”

The monument of a memory

You tear it down in your head

Don't make the mountain your enemy

Get out, get up there instead

He looked at her confused laying his head back against the couch so his vision of her was upside down as she stood in the kitchen, “I… who could possibly help…” He lifted his head so he was looking at the ceiling now.  “No your right… there are a few…” He gave a chuckle, “Not like I did much last time…”

She wasn’t following him in his thought pattern in the slightest, she handed him the glass of water, “Drink this. No more alcohol tonight.”

He rolls his eyes at her and snaps his finger dramatically. “Yeah, I don’t think you get to tell me what to do this time.” He reached for the coffee table and a bottle of Merlot was there already opened.

Eve jumps back in surprise spilling the water all over herself, “What the fuck??”

He snickers and snaps his fingers again. She was suddenly dry.

Eve drops the glass in her hand from the sudden change of being drenched to dry, and it shatters on the ground. She yells again “WHAT THE FUCK??”

Crowley snaps again cleaning up the broken glass. He relaxes as he drinks the Merlot right from the bottle “See? This is why I tried to keep you in the dark about this. Humans, especially ones like you, freak out when shown even the simplest of evidence.”

Eve was breathing heavily and slowly backing up, “I must… I must have drank…”

Crowley laughs, “Yeah sure rationalize it.”

Eve looked at him. Really looked at him trying to figure out what just happened. Yes, she drank a decent amount, but not to not understand what just happened.  A lapse in memory? A lapse in sanity? She knew that the wine wasn’t there. She would have grabbed it on her way to the kitchen to keep it away from him. She knew she spilled water all over herself. She also knew she suddenly became dry.

She spoke out loud, “Snapping… that’s what…”

Crowley shrugged, “Doesn’t have to be a snap, just easier that way.”

Eve frowned thinking hard. “I must be more tired than I thought. I think I’ll call it a night and go home.”

The redheaded self-proclaimed, possibly actual demon, just stared at her and mumbled out, “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” He took another drink of Merlot from the bottle, “Listen, meet me on Monday at Saint James Park. I’m sure you’ll have more questions.” He reached into in pocket pulling out his own phone, “I think I have some contacts that can meet me there too to help me.”

She regretted wanting to ask but she asked anyway. “Help with what?”

He was swiping on his phone, “Stop another potential Armageddon.”

Notes:

I have a Spotify playlist if anyone is interested.

I have some fun ideas of where this goes, but grad school and work is picking up so it'll be a bit of a gap between chapters. I tend to use writing this as a reward for getting work done so who knows.

Kudos and comments help motivate me for more. Never thought a story I would write would have so many people like it.

Chapter 12: Bottle of Water

Summary:

Eve encounters an unworldly being, an immortal, and some ducks

Eve walked through the entrance of St. James Park with care. Her past few nights of sleeping were full of restlessness and nightmares. Some of Crowley being as dangerous as he claimed to be, some of herself lashing out against friends and family and ruining her life. It was as if her dreams were warning her of things that could come, or that her body was just reacting to the newfound stress she had in her life.

It didn’t take her long to see the brooding redhead, but she was surprised to see a secondary character brooding next to him. She froze at the sight of the second character. There was something eerie about the man. He had a long black trench coat and deathly pale skin.

Ever since the night she hung out with Crowley and he revealed he was more than what he just looked like, she was jumpy about new encounters. How many other things did she not notice? Her whole world flipped.

Crowley seemed to be a bit unhappy with his conversation, his arms were crossed, and he was looking away from the second man he was with. Crowley’s eyes gazed over the pond until he saw her and gave a little wave. She started walking towards him, but Crowley held a finger up as if to tell her to wait. He started talking to the other man more animatedly.

“You waiting for your turn to talk to Crowley?”

She jumped with a loud yelp and looked to the man who spoke to her. He had medium brown hair and a brown leather jacket. “Woah! Sorry! Didn’t mean to startle you.”

She worked on slowing her breathing as she heard cackling up the hill. She looked to see Crowley pointing and laughing at her. “Prick…” she muttered.

“He is a bit of a bastard.” The man agreed, “My name is Robert, but my friends call me Hob.” He offers his hand.

She blinked at him but shook his hand. It’s warm. Normal. Her guard doesn’t lower, “How do you know Crowley?” she asks with suspicion.

He looks at her with an easy smile, “Ah, he helps me out every now and again. A better question is how you know him.”

She gives him a narrowed eyed look of suspicious, “He’s my bartender and my tenant.”

The man’s eyes warm and he smiles, “Oh you own a pub? I’m the owner of an inn close to Oxford University with a pub.”

“It’s actually a club called Eden. It’s close to here.”

The man smirks, “Ah I see.” He looks up and gives a little wave to the men, “That seems too high of a coincidence.”

She looks up at them to see the secondary character get more lively seeing Hob, “Do you know the other one?”

Hob smile brightens, “Yeah. He is a dear friend of mine.”

Eve takes a deep breath and finally speaks her mind, “So what’s your gimmick then.”

Hob looks at her with a frown, “Excuse me?”

She nods towards Crowley, “That one, has told me everything. Didn’t believe a word till he got drunk and snapped his way….” She trailed off shaking her head her breathing quickening, “Anyway, that other one in black seems like what Crowley says he is. You said you were a dear friend…” The eerie man looked right at her, and she swore his eyes were dark. Like a black hole swallowing her whole. She couldn’t look away as her breathing became labored,

Hob recognizes her panic and puts a hand on her shoulder. She flinches but tears her eyes away, “Hey, I’m 1000% human. Deep breath. Breath with me. Yeah?” He takes a deep breath in.

She mimics him.

They both breathe out together. He speaks, “It can be a bit unsettling to say the least when you first get a whiff of this supernatural stuff.”

She gives a nervous chuckle, “To say in the least…”

Hob looks at her with a calm and easy smile, “And don’t worry about those two up there. They both are harm—”

 

An extremely loud ring happened in her ears, and she flinched holding her ears in pain. Hob had a similar reaction looking up at them. “Aw fuck…” he gasped out.

She and Hob looked up towards the two figures to see that Crowley was on the ground holding his ears as well in the fetal position. The area around them seemed to shimmer and darken as dirt swirled around them.

YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ASK OF ME FALLEN ONE. LUCIFER MAY THREATEN MY REALM BUT THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE HEAVENS AND HELL IS NO CONCERN OF MINE.

A voice that was harsh and strong hit her in waves of terror. It was a deep and ancient power that shook her to her core. She didn’t quite hear the voice, more than just felt it echo through her brain as her eyes watered in pain and panic. Crowley seemed to put a hand up in surrender and tried to say something. Hob and Eve fell to the ground trying to block out the sound while wincing in pain. A scream was stuck in her throat like she just witnessed a horror she couldn’t comprehend.

OF COURSE EARTH IS A CONCERN. HOWEVER, I WILL NEVER GO AGAINST MY DEAR SISTER AND STOP HER FROM HER DUTY. KNOW YOUR PLACE FALLEN ONE.

Hob gave a pained shout, “Morpheus!”

The ringing and pain stop immediately.  “Hob. I have such deep regret that I hurt you.” A soft voice comes next to them suddenly. It is a deep voice that is somehow stuck to your skin, but it was pleasant that mirrored the calm early autumn weather.  The relaxing sound gave her an uncanny calm as she leaned away from the deep bass voice. She did not trust it at all. The eerie man offered his hand to Hob, who took it willingly.

“Jesus, man, you two never see eye to eye but you never lashed out like that.” Hob huffed as he was pulled on his feet again. He was clearly shaken but not debilitated.

Eve sobbed softly as the stress of everything flows out of her as she stayed kneeled on the ground. The shaking of her hands does not slow. Crowley hasn’t seemed to move yet either.

“He pushed a bit too hard on something I cannot provide.” His voice was still quiet as if it could erase the traumatic pain he just gave them. The man in black with pale skin looked at Eve and gently offered her a hand to help her up, “Crowley tells me you are providing him aid and he may have plagued you with nightmares.”

Eve looks at him and scrambles back a little saying nothing due to her throat feeling like it was closing. Fight or flight overtaking her senses causing her breathing to become erratic. She knew the terror that she felt was from the man offering her a hand.

Hob puts a hand on the other man’s shoulder, “You better let me handle this one. You frightened the wits out of her, and she was on a thread as it was.”

The man sighs but looks away, “I apologize. It’s been… stressful lately.” He glances at Hob then Eve, “You will rest soundly for a while as you adjust to your newfound knowledge.”

Hob chuckles, “It’s the least you could do.”

The man looks at hob with a smile, “Will you be available…”

Hob returns the smile, “Yes, I have a hotel I’m staying at while I’m in the London area. Drink later?”

The man’s eyes, she swore, twinkled with stars and galaxies. It was as if it was a window of the vast expanse of space. He spoke with much adoration towards Hob, “I’ll find you.”

A raven croaked on a tree nearby getting all their attention. Hob speaks, “Duty calls?”

Eve and Hob look back to see the man disappeared. The memory doesn’t and she does not calm. Hob plops back on the ground next to her, “It was my fault for saying those words. They aren’t harmless for sure, but they don’t want to harm us ‘civilians’. They like staying anonymous.”

Her eyes were stained with tears looking at him, “What… is your gimmick?” she croaked out.

He sighed with a groan, “Oh you aren’t going to like this…. I can’t die. I was born in 14^th century.”

She blinks at the man and gives a hysterical chuckle. Her heart was still beating out of her chest it seemed, but her breathing slowed. The fatigue was settling in from the extreme fright.

Hob grins at her, “But I’m normal otherwise. No scary power, no wings, no transformation.”

Crowley suddenly flopped next to the both of them causing Eve to flinch and give a little curse of fright, “Well that went down like a lead balloon.” He looked at her, “Yeah, can’t have been great for you even if you didn’t get the full brunt of his anger. Still, you are taking this way harder than Nina did.” Crowley accused.

Hob pushed Crowley’s shoulder, “Hey be kind to her. It ain’t easy on this side of things.”

Crowley snickered, “You need another alias? Birth Certificate? Hob-by boy?”

Hob shook his head, “No it’s much too early for that. I should be solid for another two decades or so.”

Crowley hummed, “No chance you can change Dream’s mind? You live here and don’t want to die, right?”

Hob looked up at the sky, “He is crazy protective of me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if something would happen, he would step in. Not like I want him to be mad at me either though.”

The demon laid on the grass and looked at the sky, “I’ll take what I can get. Eve, you hanging in there?”

Eve just glared at him, still curled up on the ground.

The demon snorted, “Listen, you have to admit me miracling a bottle of wine is way less scary than what Dream did. I could have, I don’t know, turned into a snake or something.”

Hob kicked Crowley lightly with his foot, “He said you pushed him. You know better than to poke a bear. Why didn’t you talk to me first anyway?”

Crowley sat up suddenly and angerly shouted at Hob, “I didn’t do shit! You think I can summon an endless like that?” He pokes Hob in the chest, “You are the reason he showed up. He is always showing up when you meet with me. He’s all like ‘what business do you have with Hob Gadling?’” Crowley is gesturing wildly looking out into the pond, “And I’m like, dude I’m just trying to figure some help or allies. By the way I heard Satan and you had a spat a few years back. Mind helping me out when heaven and hell try to destroy earth?”

“Wait what?” Hob says startled.

Crowley raises an eyebrow at him, “Our 6000 year timeline is up. They are going to try something again.”

Hob looks horrified, “Again? What do you mean?”

Crowley rolls his eyes, “Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t notice anything weird happen a few years ago.”

“Stuff weird happens all the time! What’s happening now.”

Crowley groans and throws his head back looking at the blue sky, “The angel is gone, so I have no good way to know what heaven is up to in regard to another plot to destroy earth.”

Hob blinked at Crowley, “Oh shit… are you…?”

The demon interrupts, “Save it.”

Hob stays silent. They watch the pond as ducks swim around. It’s peaceful.

Eve croaks breaking the silence, “Anyone have water?”

Crowley snorts and snaps his fingers causing Eve to flinch. He hands her a water bottle, “Boy you are not handling this well…” He speaks to Hob, “Do you have any contacts that would be helpful against an impending war between heaven and hell?”

Hob thinks, “I mean, I can’t imagine an exorcist would be good for you to meet, but I can pass that contact along.”

The demon groans, “Yeah, I’ve had issues in the past with one of those. I do not want to get stuck in hell at this point.” He looks at Eve, “Hey, boss, you sure you don’t want to take an extra day off the Club? You are really shaking like a leaf.”

She was shivering, but it wasn’t cold. She sat up to drink the water she was handed but found she couldn’t unscrew it.

Hob gently takes it from her, “It’ll take some time to adjust.” He unscrews it and hands it back.

Eve drinks slowly taking a deep breath, “We’ll see how I feel. Tuesday and Wednesday are our slower days so no big deal.”

Crowley shrugged off his jacket and threw it at her, “We made more money last week than you probably did in a while. Take off.”

She glared at him but took the jacket draping it over her shoulders. It smelled like old bourbon-soaked barrels and cinnamon. It did slow her breathing down and calm the shaking. “It’s your fault this all happened.”

He gave a smirk, “Technically, it’s Nina’s fault. You would still be blissfully unaware if she didn’t introduce us.” He moved his gaze back to the pond, “I’m going to need your help talking to an exorcist, so I don’t get banished.”

Hob frowned, “How soon do you think this could happen? This Armageddon?”

Crowley shrugged, “I have no idea. Could be soon, could be another few decades, could be a century.” Crowley snapped in the air miracling a bag of peas in his lap. “Honestly, I may just be paranoid. I just need to do something other than think of…” He trailed off.

Hob sighed, “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but where did he go.”

Crowley didn’t answer right away, instead he fought with the pea bag trying to open it. He struggled quite a bit with a groan and frustration.

Eve spoke instead in a soft voice, “Heaven. Got a promotion.”

Crowley continued to struggle. Hob grabbed it out of his hand. “Let me.” He pulled out a pocketknife poking a hole, handing it back to him.

The demon grumbled some thanks grabbing a handful of peas throwing it into the pond. The ducks swarmed immediately.

Hob looked towards the ducks, “Then it’s not hopeless right? I wasn’t that close to the guy, but from what I know he loved this place. He probably went to stop an attack on earth too.”

Crowley made a non-committed noise and spoke with grief, “He rejected me and left to go upstairs.”

Hob’s eyes softened but continued to look forward, “He sacrificed his comfort to save you and earth.”

The demon’s grip on the bag tightened as he spoke more angrily, “No! He wanted to change me to be an angel again. Reinstate me and work with him. He never cared about me, only an idea of what he thinks I am. I’m useful to him. That. Is. it.” He hissed out the last bit enunciating each word.

Hob looked at him confused, “Can that even happen? Reinstate a demon to angel?”

Crowley didn’t answer. He brought his knees up to his chest hugging them in brooding silence as he watched the ducks. You could feel his grief wafting off in waves. A small breeze came through shaking some loose leaves off the trees letting them softly fall on the ground. Hob gave up expecting an answer as his stomach growled.

“Well!” Hob moved to stand up offering a hand to Eve, “I’m famished. It’s been a while since I’ve visited London. Got a place we can eat?”

Eve took his hand with Crowley’s jacket still on her shoulders, “Depends on what you want. Crowley?”

He looked at her with a constant grieved frown, “I promise we’ll stop talking about that. You want to join?”

He huffed and spoke with a soft voice, “I think I want to sit here a bit longer. You two can go.” He threw some more peas out on the pond. “I’ll meet you both at Nina’s shop later. Don’t lose the jacket.”

Eve frowned, “You’ll be ok?”

Crowley shook his head, “No, but you just worry about yourself. I want to enjoy this warmth before winter and the ducks migrate. It’s about time for them to leave the area and I won’t see them till spring.”

With that Hob and Eve walk out of the park. Eve looks back to look at the demon smiling softly at a duck getting closer to him eating peas near his feet. It looked like he was speaking softly to it. She couldn’t believe such a sinister brooding creature could give so much care and feel warm joy from feeding ducks. She wrapped his jacket around herself taking in the sent again.

Perhaps he wasn’t as scary as her nightmares made it seem.

Notes:

Ohhhhh I've had this idea for a while. I wanted Eve to have something to compare to Crowley in terms of fear. I also had a head cannon that Hob & Crowley meet every half century or so to help Hob resettle where ever he wants with passports, birth certificates, whatever so he doesn't raise suspicion. Obviously, Dream does not approve of meeting a demon.

Anyway, I have a few more encounters for you all to enjoy as well as past characters.

I know this is a slow build, but I hope you all are enjoying it.
Kudos and Comments <3

Chapter 13: Chianti Classico Gran Selezione

Summary:

Eve enters the dreaming and meets Aziraphale who has an important message to relay to Crowley.

Eve found herself surrounded in such brilliant greenery. Her feet were in a river that was bright blue as if she was in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was calm in a soft flow as it the water pushed gently against her toes that felt as warm as a bath. The ground where she sat was covered in clover and bees dutifully pollinated the small flowers while ignoring her presence. She was naked but that didn’t alarm her. She was in the utmost peace and tranquility sitting staring out across the river to the other side filled with fruit trees and fantastical flowers she didn’t recognize.

              She looked to the sky and saw a wall surrounding this lush green paradise where an angel sat with a flaming sword. She wasn’t afraid still. She smiled and waved up to the angel who flew down to her. He had white hair matching the feathers of his wings and had a pleasant but tired smile. He had robes flowing behind him in a pattern that didn’t match the calm breeze that surrounded them. He looked utterly ethereal and gave her a tired smile. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Eve.”

              Her feet were playfully splashing in the sparkling water, “What do you mean?”

              He sighed, “Yes. Well. This isn’t the easiest place to have a conversation with reality being so fluid but it’s the best I could do given the circumstances.” She looked up at him as he looked at the fruit in the trees. “I was actually surprised to have Dream ask to see me. It’s not often an Endless asks to enter the realm of the heavenly hosts. I do have strict rules I need to obey being in his realm though. Nothing unpleasant during the dream. It seems he made you a promise.”

              She patted the ground next to her, “Well, why don’t we sit and chat then.” She was feeling free and relaxed. Her personality lost all of its bite and she was enjoying this pleasant sunlight hitting her face in a warm embrace.

              The angel looked puzzled but joined her dipping his feet in, “Oh my, the water does feel nice. It’s been so long since I’ve had sensory experiences. Heaven is quite dampening.”

              “Isn’t this heaven?” She asked the angel.

              He chuckled, “No, this is representing Eden.”  A bush grew suddenly next to them forming the juiciest and vibrant blueberries. “Dream is really pulling all of the works to help you through some unpleasantness you recently felt knowing about unearthly things.” He grabbed a berry and ate it. “Oh my LORD. This tastes divine.” He ate more with gusto. “It’s been so long.” The blueberries were incredibly sweet as the angel savored the flavor of the earth. Tears started to fall from his face.

              She laughed and ate one as well, “Are you sure it isn’t for you?”

              He stiffened wiping his eyes, “Perhaps.” He turned to her with a bunch of berries in his hands, “I suppose I don’t have a lot of time and I have no idea when I will get another opportunity like this.”

              She blinked at him but said nothing. It was hard for her to focus given how wonderful everything felt. It was as if her mind was constantly shifting from one pleasant feeling to the next. She never felt so relaxed and safe in her life. Her brain felt like a quiet mush not letting her think in any sense of logic. Cognitive thinking didn’t seem like something she would want to do here anyway.

              He finally spoke with conviction. It seemed he was having just as much trouble focusing as herself, “I need you to relay information to Crowley.”

              A figure appeared in shifting smoke behind the angel, and she smiled, “Why don’t you tell him yourself.” She hopped off off the bank into the water with a splash. She could easily touch the bottom of the river preventing her from floating along. The water glowed as she touched it in some strange bioluminescence. She giggled like a child as she splashed around looking towards the two figures.

              Crowley appeared behind him in an all-black suit with a red tie. He had a wide brim hat on. He bent down slowly taking off his sunglasses revealing a smile and brilliant golden eyes and spoke purposefully to the angelic being, “Hello, angel.”

              The angel looked at him and the angel’s face lit up with such joy but quickly contorted into a face of grief.  He choked off a sob before speaking “No no no, this isn’t the real him. I know him. Even as a dream I know this isn’t him.” He turned away from the demon trembling while looking at Eve desperate to get information out, “Please listen. I’m trapped in Heaven, and I can only approve of people coming and going to earth. I can’t go on my own volition. Crowley cannot summon me, Heaven will know, but someone else can.”

              Eve started floating on her back staring at the sky it was light out but still filled with stars. She swore she could see nebula and galaxy’s swirling brilliantly in colors she never thought was possible with her naked eye. It was beautiful. She finally spoke to him, “We are trying to get a hold of an exorcist but how do we summon angels? I’ve only heard of summoning demons.” She gave a short laugh, “Not that I’ve ever believed or tried. You know. Heard from movies and such.”

              Before he could respond, he got distracted by Crowley placing a gentle hand on his face, “I’ve missed you, angel.” He was gentler than Eve had ever seen out of that demon. Even with the ducks today… yesterday? Time didn’t make sense to her at the moment.

              The angel struggled to stay focused, “Demons and angels are practically the same… I wish I knew that before…” He gently grabbed the demon’s hand in his own savoring it’s warmth and touch, “It feels so real… I understand why you sleep so much, my dear.”

              Crowley just smiled and sat next to him speaking with the gentlest tone, “Sleep is a wonderful luxury. Wish you did it more on Earth.”

              That snapped the angel out of the trance remembering his circumstances, “Yes. Quite.” He snapped in the air but when nothing happened, he settled with throwing a berry at Eve. She laughed but sat up from staring at the stars. He spoke with purpose, trying to stay focused. “Please I’m trying to focus and tell you. You can use a feather and an offering to summon me, just like a demon. Do not let Crowley do anything with the summoning. Heaven will block me from coming to earth if he has any involvement in setting it up.” He looked at his wings and saw a feather come loose. He gently pulled it out and held it out to Eve. “Take this with you.”

              Eve reached out to take from his hand, but it disappeared in her hand.

              Both the angel and her were appalled but were distracted by a croak from the tree. They both turned to see a raven with a pearly white feather in their beak.

              The angel relaxed, “Right. I’m not familiar with how things work in this realm.”

              The demon snapped his fingers and there was a table with a bottle of Chianti Classico Gran Selezione, and pastries from a French restaurant that Eve recognized to be in Soho near Nina’s work. “Angel, please, let’s catch up. It’s been so long.” He stood up and offered a hand to the white robbed angel who immediately grabbed it.

The angel seemed to have tears quietly streaming down his face. “Oh Crowley, how can you ever forgive me for what I’ve done.”

Crowley led him to the table still holding his hand and gave him the brightest smile, “You just wanted to protect everyone, how could I ever fault you for that.”

              Eve seemed to be skeptical of this Crowley, “Yeah…. That isn’t what he would say. Am I dreaming?”

              The angel laughed looking at her, “Oh yes dear. But you being in the garden of Eden didn’t tip you off? Or me?” He looked at Crowley, “He does have a distinct personality and I know he must be furious at me. Dream must be trying to give me a gift as well.”

              She got out of the water as she watched the demon led the angel to the table. The robes melted away to a cream-colored suit with a bowtie with his wings fading away in a sparkling light. They both sat across from each other as Crowley poured out a generous amount of wine in both of their glasses. She sat on the clover nearby watching speaking to the angel, “So you’re the one he talked about. He couldn’t say your name. Mr. Fell right?”

              The angel couldn’t pull his gaze from Crowley but answered her, “It’s Aziraphale. I was only Mr. Fell in the bookshop.” He spoke so sincerely to the demon as his voice sounded strained, “I’m so sorry dear. I should have stayed with you, but I had to leave. I wanted you to come with me, but you couldn’t get past reinstatement. I can’t fault you, but it would have been easier not being alone up there. I’m so terribly selfish and really a rubbish angel.”

              Crowley held a pastry in his hand, “None of that, try this.”

              Aziraphale huffed, “I know I should relish this gift but … I can’t help but want to go back to the conversation I replay…” Crowley pushed the pastry to his face where he finally took a bit. “Oh, dear me that is so good.”

              “You can’t deny yourself happiness, angel. You can’t change your choices either. How will you save the earth if you don’t take care of yourself? Just forget for a moment. Enjoy this while you have time. Give into your dreams.” Crowley purred to his angel while sliding the wine glass towards him. He spoke with such a low sultry voice that she heard one time when tempting her before when she mentioned she loved work. It didn’t have the bite of accusation or mockery behind it though. It was so soft and caring. Comforting. Gentle. It was a pleading with such a loving tone that she didn’t recognize him at all.

              Eve could not help but feel weird about seeing Crowley in this way. The bastard she knew was hidden away from this coddling version of himself. “I’ve never seen him this kind.”

              Aziraphale took the glass of wine and smiled, “This is actually very similar to how it was for those blessed few years we had together without heaven or hell watching closely.” He took a sip and made a delighted sound with a sigh of relief, “Oh, you have no idea, dear, how long it’s been.”

Crowley to draw circles on the back of Aziraphale’s hand. The touch was feather light, but it was all Aziraphale could focus on as the wine swirled in his mouth giving him a fake haze of alcohol. It wasn’t real, he knew this, but he couldn’t help but lean into it as if it were. It had been so long since he had any sensory information. It felt like torture in the beginning, but eventually it dimmed into a painful emptiness that he felt everywhere. His depression took over knowing the choices he made in heaven would only delay the ineffable. He had to try though because earth was their home, their own little Eden. He nearly gave up on the dream of getting out. The constant feeling of the vast emptiness inside of himself had eaten him up to feel nothing.  Each suggestion he put in; they took away another earthly sense. A grave trade as he tried to make Heaven a place worthy of his beloved who he never stopped thinking about.

Yes. He thought he gave up on his dream of going back to earth with the shackles of heaven being so tight around him, but he got an alert from the front gates that an Endless requested his presence. A strange and rare occurrence. However, not one that anyone in Heaven could ignore. It raised no alerts to the Metatron as they talked about matters concerning a certain demon and a lady who was going to have dreams of Eden. An invitation to the dreaming could not be ignored by heaven. They had to oblige. 

              And he did. He had no idea of the vibrancy of the dreaming. Or the warped reality that seemed to flow around them in a haze of comfort. He slept a few times on earth, but it never came to anything substantial compared to reality. Compared to heaven, this dream world was well…. Like a dream. He knew Crowley slept constantly. Aziraphale wondered what his dreams were.

Eve rolled on her back to stare at the stars in the daytime again leaving the angel to indulge the dream realm without watchful eyes.  She still spoke to him, “It’s been a bit over a year, right?”

              Aziraphale made a non-committed sound, “Time doesn’t flow normally in Heaven. It feels… like decades since I’ve tasted this good of wine.”

              Crowley spoke again, “We had this before, remember?”

              Aziraphale smiled brightly at the dressed up red head, “Yes, it was in Tuscany, and I was so surprised to see you working at that vineyard serving the most delicious wine. Dear me, when was that? 1902? It was summer.”

              Crowley drank some of his own lounging back in his normal form of sprawled out, but he never moved his hand away from the angel, “1904 and it was August. It was your favorite, so I kept some in the wine cellar of the shop for times when you were feeling sad. Felt appropriate to bring some now.”

              “Well… you always knew me best.” The angel looked fondly over at the demon before taking another sip of wine. He glanced over at Eve trying to keep a grip in the haze of non-reality, “You’ve been keeping him company then?”

              She rolled her eyes, “I’ve known him for a week. Can’t say I’ve kept him that much company. He’s a handful, let me tell you.” A butterfly flew over and landed on her knee. There seemed to be a trail of light following into the orchard behind her. She was curious where it went to. She slowly stood up with her attention being drawn away as she delved deeper into the dream.

              The angel did his best to turn his attention to her to talk, but Crowley leaned in close to him putting his whole focus on the angel. He put a gentle hand on Aziraphale’s face, “Don’t give up on me, angel. You can’t give up on your own happiness. I can’t stand being apart from you.  You must promise me you’ll keep trying to find a way home.”

              Aziraphale stammered but couldn’t respond. Tears were flowing from his face as the weight of everything came crashing on him.

              Crowley moved closer to brush his lips against the angel’s cheek speaking in a fervent whisper, “Please….”

              The angel turned to the demon and sobbed on his shoulder. “I tried so hard to change Heaven. Each time I make any progress, a piece of myself gets taken away.”

              The demon wrapped his arms around his sobbing angel. Releasing his own black wings to surround them. The wings looked like they had stars inside of them. As if they were at the before beginning. He spoke to the angel, “You can’t give up yet. You’ve survived so much now. You have brilliant ideas and I’ll know you’ll think of something.”

              The sobs didn’t let up as the angel took in the bourbon and cinnamon scent of his dearest demon. He feared he would never get to smell it again, “What if there is nothing left of me by the time I get there? What if I’m too damaged for you to love me? What if there will never be nightingales singing?”

              Crowley gave a soft kiss on the fluffy white hair of the angel, “It will all work out. You will figure out a way to stop the second coming. You don’t have to do it alone.”

              Aziraphale looked up with him with pleading blue eyes, “How so?”

              Crowley leaned closer but left room for Aziraphale to back off, “I’m going to get you summoned to earth. To your home. To your Eden. We’ll figure it out together.”

              The angel pushed the last bit to feel the lips he’d been dreaming about since he left earth.

Notes:

Yes, it has been while since I've updated. Grad school be crazy.
Aziraphale finally showed up. Kind of. Note, Crowley is definitely different in Aziraphale's dreams and is not the real Crowley. Let's see his reaction in the waking world next chapter. Also, yes it is the 1942 outfit crowley is wearing.

Comments and Kudos!

Chapter 14: Carmel Macchiato

Summary:

Eve continues to baffle Crowley, and Crowley meets a famous exorcist

              Eve woke up with a satisfied sigh. The sunlight was filtered in her room in a warm glow despite the outside being a bit more chilled in the autumn weather. She had the most wonderful dream filled with gardens, water, an angel... She lazily rolled over to look at her phone to see a few messages were unread.

              Some tapping was heard on her bedroom window. She looked over and saw a huge black bird outside her window.

              She looked confused as it tapped on her window more with a long pearly white feather in it’s beak.

              “Ah fuck….”

 

 

              Crowley could smell it in the air. Something divine was on earth.  He was super in tune with anything hellish or ethereal that happened anywhere near him. He wondered if Muriel did something, but deep down he knew this particular divine scent by heart. He grimaced as he got in the Bentley, racing to the bookshop like a moth to a flame, not letting any light turn red to slow his drive. He hated that he couldn’t stay away. He couldn’t move on with his life. As if he didn’t need another reason to be rejected by that angel. He was already working himself up thinking about being rejected for the umpteenth time.

              But Crowley was ultimately an optimist. It could be something else. His angel may have returned to stay.

              He was closer to the bookshop while living in the flat above Eden rather than in Mayfair, yet he still avoided the place knowing that it wouldn’t do him any good having those last memories that haunted him pop up.

 

The show must go on

The show must go on, yeah

Inside my heart is breaking

My makeup may be flaking

But my smile, still, stays on

 

              He left the Bentley to play it’s music but he growled as it played.  He swerved around some pedestrians walking on the crosswalk and screeched to a halt in his normal parking spot. He was surprised to see Eve going up the steps and froze when he saw what was in her hand.

             

 

              Eve purposely walked up the steps of the bookshop with a single goal in mind. She turned to the roar of the antique vehicle and hid the feather behind her.

              “Shit.” She cursed, knowing that he saw.

              He got out and just stared at her for a second with his jaw locked tight grinding his teeth.

              People walked the sidewalk ignoring their standoff.

              “Give me that.” He finally spat out.

              She shook her head, “No. It’s mine. Its… from a goose.”

              He strutted up to her in her face fury clear as day on his face, “I can smell it. So…” He looked up and down the bookshop starting to steam, “He showed up huh?” He walked past her and kicked the bookstore’s door hard in anger. “Couldn’t bother to see me during whatever stroll on earth. Or he didn’t dare show his face to me again.” He spit out the last bit with as much venom he could muster.

              She sighed, “He was never on earth.”

              He got right in her face again pointing at the feather. She could see her own reflection off his sunglasses completely undisturbed by his outburst, “Then how the fuck did you get that?”

              She thought for a second, “A bird gave it to me.”

              He just looked at her with a scathing glare and was about to say something when he was interrupted.

              Muriel came to the door, “So sorry, but we are closed.” She saw the furious demon and Eve had a standoff, “Oh hello! Stop by for a visit?”

              Eve smiled and said “Yes!”

              Crowley at the same time, “Absolutely not!”

              Eve strolled forward but Crowley caught her elbow he spoke a bit more subdued. She noticed his hand was shaking slightly, “What are you playing at Eve? You just got into this two days ago and you were devastated. What changed?”

              She yanked her arm away and angrily spat back at him, “I had a pleasant dream where you weren’t a dick.”

              She saw the look of shock on his face and saw he whispered, “Dream…”

              Before he could say anything else she walked into the bookshop and slammed the door shut on his face.  She took a deep breath as she turned to Muriel, “Hello, could you take me to the wine cellar?”

              Muriel blinked at her, “There is a wine cellar?”

              Crowley slammed the door open suddenly and started to talk fast, “Ok. Ok fine. I’m listening. What happened last night? Cause I know something happened. I didn’t sense h-him last night and I know I would have if he came to earth. But I saw the feather and assumed I just slept through it. I figured he wants nothing to do with me.” He strolled in gesturing wildly with his hands looking at the floor pacing like a caged animal. “Which makes ssssense right? Why would he associate with m-me? A demon. He wanted me to be an be reinstated and I refussssed so he…” He started hissing his words as he looked up at the ceiling, breathing faster. “Cause I talked to Dream yesssterday and I talked about my concccerns. So maybe, just maybe he talked to…” He was in the middle of the foyer looking at the shop seemingly lost in thought and stopped talking.

              Eve just looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “You want me to answer or are you just gonna rant to yourself?”

              He frowned and looked around, “Muriel, does heaven watch this place?”

              They pleasantly spoke, “Oh no, heaven has much better things to do than watch a bookshop.”

              Crowley didn’t look convinced, “Yeahhhhh… I ain’t buying it.” He looked at Eve, “Can it for now. We’ll talk at Nina’s, but why are you here?”

              Muriel spoke up, “She said something about a wine cellar.”

              Crowley’s eyebrows came together in astonishment and turned to Eve, “How do you know about the wine cellar.”

              Eve was about to speak then paused, “I plead the 5^th.”

              Crowley rolled his eyes, “We are not in the states.” He strolled to the back room and pulled a bookcase forward revealing a staircase. “Well, come on then.”

             She followed him but let him go first. It was dusty and full of cobwebs from the lack of anyone being down here for over a year.

              Crowley ran down and automatically picked some bottles up and held them in his arms. “Anything particular you are looking for?”

              “Some fancy old wine from that Tuscany vineyard you worked at in August 1904.”

              The red-headed demon nearly dropped the bottles he was holding, “How the hell you know about that?” He started walking to a weird corner.

              “Told you. Had a dream.”

              “No no no, you don’t understand how the dreaming works.” He started feeling around the wall in front of him until he heard a click. “I spent years in that place and figured out some engineering mechanics of it. It’s quite brilliant actually. It can’t create memories from nothing, but it can exaggerate imagery from a single person’s dreams to satisfy a person’s self-conscious needs which are usually hidden. And I didn’t tell Az—” he gulped, “him about this.” The panel shifted to reveal three cases of old bottles, but two bottles were missing. The demon smiled fondly, “That bastard… He knew all along…”

              Eve started to reach in to grab one, but Crowley smacked her hand, “Now these bottles are important and I was saving them. You can’t get this particular batch anymore. Why on earth do you need this?”

              Eve just looked at him, “We can talk about it at Nina’s, but I promise it’s important.”

              He made a face, but he looked livelier than she had ever seen him. Hope. It was hope.

              She grabbed one and promptly turned to go back upstairs where Muriel was looking down appalled that there was a section of the bookshop she hadn’t explored yet. Her phone buzzed as she looked down at it.

             

              I’m sitting in the coffee shop with the mild mannered brown-haired immortal. Where are you? - JC

             

              She started typing back when Crowley looked over her shoulder. “You meeting Hob and someone?”

              Eve hid her phone, “Not here. Boy, you are nosey for someone who was freaking out moments ago quite convinced of something sinister.”

              He wiped a hand over his face with a grimace looking around the bookshop fondly. He started to mutter stuff under his breath but she couldn’t quite hear.

              She chose to ignore him and walked past Muriel, “Thanks for letting me in.”              

              “Oh, it’s not a problem at all, please visit again!” They said cheerfully.

              Eve pulled open the door and left with it swinging behind her walking briskly to the coffee shop.

              Crowley had to run to catch up to her, catching the door with his foot before it slammed in his face again. “Ok we are out. What happened?” He walked to the Bentley placing the wine bottles he stole in the backseat, before trotting after her to keep up.

              She took a deep breath before strolling to Nina’s shop, “I had a dream about Eden and Aziraphale. I thought it was all nonsense until a raven left this feather at my window.” She pulled a crumbled-up paper out from her pocket with hap hazard written notes. “I quickly tried to recall everything. Luckily, I remembered the important bits.”

              Crowley snatched the paper from her hand before she could pull it away and read it as they entered the coffee shop.

 

        Angel – Azeerafell? trapped in heaven

        Can be summoned like a demon

        Need feather and offering

        Weird expensive wine from Tuscany in August 1902 1904 in bookshop wine cellar.

        Crowley was creepy kind. Did not trust.

             

              He snorted and was going to speak when the women sitting at the table inside the shop quickly got up but was stopped by Hob. The woman had a tan trench coat covering a black turtleneck and black pants with silver jewelry accents. Eve and Crowley watched Hob try to calm her reaction. “No, it’s fine. He’s cool. Do not, for fucks sake, send him to hell.”

              The woman already had a crucifix out pointed at him. “Demons are not good friends and cause trouble at the best and destroy lives at worst. Whats your deal chump?”

              Eve smirked, “She has a point. You aren’t a good friend and cause trouble.”

              Crowley gave her the side glance and then grimaced at the exorcist in an annoyed tone, “I don’t get why people use a cross to deter demons. I mean the poor bloke was crucified and you want to use that to remember him? Could use anything. I don’t know a triangle for the trinity?” He walked up and offered a hand, “Johanna Constantine I assume? Had a run in with your ancestor way back. Must have something tied with your blood cause you all look alike.” He sighed deeply when she didn’t take the handshake but raised her eyebrow at him, “Yeah, ok I get it.”

              “I see my reputation proceeds me.” She said with a smug grin. Before he could pull away, she nudged the back of the hand with her crucifix slightly which caused a sizzle as if it were a hot plate.

              “Motherfucker!” He cursed spinning away holding his hand. “What? You get God herself to bless that? I swear you Constantines are all the same. Act first, talk later.”

              Hob muttered under his breath pulling her to a seat, “Your one to talk.”

              Crowley gave a mean glare towards Hob, still holding his hand. He looked at the damage and found that a few blisters were forming.

              Eve just stood there watching the whole thing unfold while holding the old wine bottle in her hand. “Are… you ok?”

              The redhead spat at her, “Do I look bloody ok? That fucking hurt.” He glared at Johanna. “I get it. You run into some demons making a muck of the planet and you send them away back to hell just like your whole family did from matriarch to matriarch. It’s your job. Well, I don’t have a job. I’m retired! I don’t work for hell anymore.”

              “You can’t retire from being a demon.” Johanna said sitting down but had the crucifix handy. She had a satisfied smile on her face watching the demon cradle his hand.

              Nina walks over holding a tray filled with five cups of coffee and looks at the Demon cradling your hand, “YOU DICK! Did you go to a church again?”

              Crowley groans very loudly and spoke very quietly through gritted teeth looking at the ceiling, “I swear to someone I’m gonna pop.” He looked at Eve, “I’m only here to hear about Eve’s encounter last night.” He turned to look at Nina, “This exorcist just tapped me with the most blessed object I’ve come across in a while, and I was close to an ethereal being for 6000 years which is about as blessed as you get. No, I didn’t and won’t go back to a bloody. Fucking. church.”

              Nina plopped the coffee in front of everyone. “Well then, no need to get tetchy about it. Large black roast for Eve and the nice-looking lass here. Carmel macchiato for the gent and six shots of espresso for the overdramatic dickwad.” She folded the tray under her arm, “I still have some of that herb mix from the last time. Need me to bandage that up?”

              Crowley looked at Eve, “You need to tell me first. I… I need to know if he’s ok.”

              Eve sighed, “He’s trapped in Heaven. And—”

              Crowley waved his hand in a circular motion to move on, “Yes, I read that from the note. How was he though? I knew once he got up there, they wouldn’t let him go back down to earth.”

              “He was crying a lot. He was talking about sensory experiences being taken away or dampened? I wasn’t really paying attention.”

              “Not paying atten—” Crowley growled staring at the ceiling again like he was looking for answers before taking a deep breath, “Fine. Whatever. So, we have to summon him back to earth? Then what? How long can he stay? Anything about another Armageddon?”

              Eve looked away from the distressed demon. She was not used to him being this focused on something, “He didn’t say. Just that he was trapped.”

              Crowley’s face went through a few fazes as if he was trying to decide how he felt about the whole thing. “He had to know that would happen. I told him to stay on earth.” He looked out the window towards the bookshop, “I swear…” he paused and then muttered to himself, “I didn’t have a way to get to him before though, so I suppose….” He looked at the exorcist. “Can you summon an angel?”

              Johanna was sipping her coffee not letting her eyes leave the demon for a second, “Why would I do that?”

              He looked at her as if trying to find the piece of information that would help him achieve his goal, “I don’t know, information on the impending end of the world?”

              “You don’t care about that.” Constantine accused.

              The demon slammed his burnt hand on the table and spoke with anger, “I bloody well do. I helped stop the last one. I live here.”

              Hob tried to speak, “I think she means—”

              “Shut up.” The exorcist stated while the demon said at the same time, “Shove off.”

              Hob just rolled his eyes he muttered drinking his caramel drink, “Why am I even here…?”

              Nina grabbed the demon’s wrist and pulled it closer so she could see the damage, “Don’t slam my tables. Do you want that ointment?”

              Crowley yanked his hand away, “Fine! Yes!” He turned to Eve pointing at her, “I’m helping with this. I have words for that supreme archangel.”

              Eve rolled her eyes, “Yeah yeah, we know you miss him. You can’t help set up the summoning. It’ll set off alarms in heaven and he won’t be able to come down. He can only approve of people coming in and going. He needs to be summoned so he can leave.”

              Nina shoved the demon’s shoulder, “Come with me to the back room. I still have some bandages and what not.”

              The demon quickly grabbed his six shots of espresso and muttered to himself, “I don’t miss that asshole… He rejected me. Just got to…”

              The main group watched the pair go. Eve flopped in a seat with a large sigh, “Ok, now that he’s gone—"

              “You two aren’t worried about that asshole?” Constantine interrupted, keeping an eye on the two as they walked away then took a long sip of her coffee.

              Hob and Eve blinked, “No.” they said in unison.

              “And you want to summon the supreme archangel, Gabriel?” She said with a raised eyebrow.

              Hob spoke up, “No that’s the former supreme archangel. There has been a change of hands.”

              “How do you know this?” Johanna asked Hob, surprised.

              He just shrugged.

              “Well, it is possible to summon an angel, but we need a feather from their wing and that is ridiculously rare.”

              Eve pulled the feather from her back jeans pocket and waved it in front of her face.

              “You just keep that in your back pocket then. Just got archangel feathers like that?” She gave a large sigh, “Yeah ok, this couldn’t get any weirder and that’s saying something with my job.” She took a deep breath. “Fine. My price is final.”

              Eve snorted, “I’ll make the demon pay.”

              Johanna shook her head, “No good. You said that demon shows up in heaven’s books. He can’t have any part of this.”

              Hob waved his hand, “I’ll cover it. It’s fine.”

              Johanna thought about it, “It’ll take some time for me to get the right ruins for the circle since it isn’t Gabriel. Who is the angel then?”

              Hob spoke again, “Aziraphale, principality and guardian of the eastern gate.”

              “Of Eden?” She took a long drink of her coffee, “My my, things just keep getting more interesting.” She looked towards Eve. “You, love, how you get that feather?”

              Eve blushed for a moment but shook it off, “He gave it to me in a dream. Raven passed it along.”

              The exorcist leaned back and crossed her legs, “Ahhh it’s all coming together. Hob, your endless friend connected this lovely lass with that angel.” She took another sip of the coffee, “Damn this is good coffee.” She placed her cup down, “So the angel will come willingly, but heaven can’t suspect anything. That means we have to prepare like he won’t come willingly.” She drummed her fingers on the table, “We should probably set up in the oldest church around here. All Hallows-by-the-Tower will do nicely.”

              “Won’t that mean Crowley can’t see him?” Eve said with a frown.

              Johanna smirked, “Yeah, but heaven will be more likely to let him through. It’s common knowledge that demons can’t get on consecrated grounds.”

              Hob grimaced, “I know Crowley. That will not let that stop him.”

              She barked out a laugh, “Come now. Is he going to burn himself to shreds just to say hi to an angel?” she waved her hand out, “We can keep a door open or something.”

              The immortal took a drink of his coffee and looked at her with a stern look, “That demon would nearly destroy himself for a chance to see that angel again. He maybe hiding behind that snark and bastardly demeaner, but when push comes to shove if that angel is in danger, he’d do anything to stop it.”

              Johanna just gave him a side glance, “How much danger can an angel get in heaven?”

              Hob had a deep and sad sigh, “Enough danger that Dream decided to skip out on me last night.”

Notes:

Things are starting to fall together now.

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Chapter 15: A cup of tea

Summary:

A glimpse into Aziraphale's time in heaven when he hears Eve pray a song for his comfort.

This song inspired this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vfz4qL9suk

Aziraphale didn’t have a schedule in the earthly sense. He had a cycle of duties he constantly churned around. It was part of the that responsibilities as the supreme archangel. He had no idea if this was actually what Gabriel did when he was in office. In fact, he knew there was at least one aspect he was certain they didn’t make Gabriel partake in.

The reprogramming.

Since he spent so much time on earth, he felt nauseated up in heaven. It felt dizzying and confusing for someone used to the vibrancy and chaotic nature of earth. There was a constant hum of ethereal energy that those who stayed in heaven didn’t even notice, but for Aziraphale it was always on his mind. It was maddening. The hum increased in noise and slowly faded away like slow waves washing on a beach. It was supposed to bring comfort to those in Heaven.

For Aziraphale, it just served as a reminder that he didn’t feel like he belonged up there.

Michael was the one to suggest (more accurately it was a demand) that after certain amount of paperwork competed, he would stand outside the globe of earth and examine the mortal pains. It was supposed to make him feel sorry that they stayed on earth and that he needed them to come to their ‘home’ in heaven. It was supposed to motivate him to make more progress the plan for the Messiah's decent to earth and his overarching role of instrumenting the second coming.

Mostly it just caused Aziraphale more grief.

He couldn’t hear them, as their prayers were to go to God. He could see them go through tragedy, pain, misery, despair. It was rare that a grateful person gave their thanks, or what he assumed. The context surrounding the silent scene was the only way he actually knew. His 6000 years on earth gave him the ability to extrapolate what was happening. The archangels who occasionally watched could do no such thing. They only saw the hurt and wished to stop it.

Aziraphale watched a boy hide in his closet clutching a rainbow flag rocking himself back and forth as his father searched for him holding a belt.  He watched a mother clutch her dead child in misery with smoke and flames surrounding her from a war. He watched a man looking at another with such love but the man was hooked up with an IV in a hospital motionless. He watched and watched and watched.

The supreme archangel couldn’t place how long it had been since leaving earth because time was non-existent in heaven. However, it felt forever since his indulgent dream he had when Dream of the Endless invited him. He was right that heaven didn’t budge when he left for the dreaming and heaven didn't questioned him when he came back. The Endless were not to be trifled with.

Aziraphale felt as if he was slipping away into nothingness with no hopes before he entered the Dreaming. His senses were given back to him in a flash and earthly delights, though in warped reality, were such a pleasant break from the monotonous white heavens. He dreamed so much of going back to earth though it dwindled to a dim fantasy, and he was sure that Dream knew. He didn’t know what brought the Endless to the pearly heavenly gates requesting his presence. Dream was always aloof and never gave his real intentions, so the invitation didn’t feel unwarranted. Heaven had visited human dreams in the past to give gifts of prophecy, glimpses of God’s plan, and other instances of saintly gifts.

It had been some time since heaven did this, but Dream insisted it was time he intervened with Heavenly insights. Dream stated a woman named Eve needed to meet with him about a certain demon stationed on earth.

Aziraphale knew of only one demon stationed on earth.

After mentioning Eve, he watched her from heaven using the globe. She was fiery, logical, and had a sense of responsibility instilled in her from a young age. He looked at her records and saw no sign of sainthood, but he didn’t expect any. He did see that a certain demon was with her drinking. He ached seeing Crowley so miserable. Sometimes he saw the demon look up at Aziraphale, or rather just looking upwards towards the heavens. The angel knew that there was no way for Crowley to know he was looking back down.

Aziraphale lost most of his senses making changes to heaven and meddling in the plans that heaven claimed to have. He gave up his sense of taste first to extend the time for the second coming. He gave up his color vision for suggesting that the second coming be sent down as a child to be raised by human parents. He lost his sense of touch in the form of textures for suggesting that he should go down to heaven to scout out a suitable family. He lost his sense of smell for suggesting that he should personally deliver the child to a family. They refused to get rid of his sense of pain or hearing. He needed that to complete his job as supreme archangel, or so they said. They were running out of things to take away from him.

They eventually just made a blanket statement he was not to leave heaven at all unless his duties were called by another. That’s how he left to the dreaming. The Metatron threatened to take memories next if he kept dwelling on going to earth.

He hoped that his message would make it to Crowley, but it was hard to tell. Time moved strangely in Heaven and information from the globe didn’t come sequentially.  He was currently observing the misery of earth when he heard a voice in his head.

“Um hello? I want to speak to Aziraphale Supreme Archangel of Heaven?”

He blinked and looked around and saw no one looking at him. Angels moved wordlessly in different directions taking care of the duties. He looked back at the globe.

“I was told by Johanna that it might be possible to send a prayer up if I specified it was for you instead of God. Damn, I feel ridiculous.”

Aziraphale looked closer at the globe and concentrated on the voice to see Eve. Clothed, of course, compared to her attire in the Dreaming. She was sitting in a church pew looking up. An old church. He recognized it as the All Hallows-by-the-Tower which was more of a museum than church at this point. She had jeans and a black blouse on. Her hair was similar to Nina’s but tied back into a loose ponytail with a few braids hanging loosely.

“Anyway, I talked to Hob, and he said that it had to be serious that you and I met. I’m sorry I didn’t really pay attention to you.”

Aziraphale thought back to the dreaming and didn’t think of a reason why she was apologizing.

“I remembered how sad you were, and Crowley told me you enjoyed music back when you were on earth. Nothing modern but I had a song that you might relate to.” She paused, thinking about something before speaking again. “Crowley won’t talk about you unless drunk and it’s hard to follow his train of thought when he’s like that. When sober he just… curses you and mumbles a lot of being rejected.”

If Aziraphale could cry, he would. Instead, he just wallows in the emotion of it all. It was something he was familiar with: the painful emotional response. That must be the reason why they kept the sense of pain.

She takes a deep sigh, “He misses you though. I can tell. Everyone can tell. He’s just hurt is all.” She shakes her head, “This isn’t about him though. I’m not sure if prayers are monitored or whatever but know that I did listen to you, and we are working on it. I wanted to give you a little bit of peace up there by offering a song, like you would if you believed in God and offering praises and what not.” She folded her arms looking around “I feel so dumb, but no one is here so….” She trailed off taking a big breath.

Aziraphale watched confused then she started to sing which echoed all through the church in beautiful acoustics.

“I'm in the rafters looking down” She sang in a pleasant tone. “It's cold up here. Between walls of stone, I made my home.”

The angel listened, thinking about the last time he heard any song. For being heaven, there really weren’t as many celestial harmonies as he previously thought, even though he and Crowley joked about it.

“And the air hangs heavy with the incense, feathers fall from pigeons cooing in the tower.”

He only had the memories of what incense smelled like and the sounds of pigeons. It was easier thinking about it with the song she sang quietly. The spicy smoke-like smell that he remembered from certian churches. Pigeons making home in any place where humans habituated while moving about looking for scraps of food.

“I rarely go down there, the view's just so beautiful from here and I can see everybody at their worst points.” She paused repeating, “At their worst points.”

Aziraphale thought of the boy hiding from his father and the mother begging for help.

She picks up in the tune getting more confident in her singing, “I'm not a sadist, I enjoy just being able to be witness of the loneliness and be a higher power in case there isn't one.” She repeated again, “In case there isn't one.”

God hadn’t talked to him once joining heaven again. He hadn’t heard from her since he gave away the sword. He assumed she was sick of him, but after coming to heaven, he realized no one had heard from her. He wondered where she was and if she was as absent as he expected.

“I'm not a higher power, I just live in the ceiling 'cause I'm lonely on the fringes, and it gives my life some meaning in the exile.” She takes a breath, “In my exile.”

He doesn’t know if he would take back going up to heaven to be supreme archangel. He feels like he is attempting to stop a damn filled with water from breaking in pushing back the second coming. But if he didn’t come up here to begin with, then earth would be gone. He feels so lonely being earth’s only protector exiled from his home.

“The grey light filters through roof slabs and the flagstones glow bright from the stained glass a hundred feet below.” She sings more letting her voice reverberate through the church.

He thinks about the bookshop and when the light comes through the windows how warm and inviting it felt. How it felt to sit in his chair leaning back with a cup of tea watching the steam rise swirling in the daylight.

“As I tiptoe creaking over prayers pleading with their maker crying with the choir.”

The angel wishes he could actually hear the prayers of those pleading. They weren’t for him though. It was probably a mercy that he couldn’t.

“I'm not immune to the sincerity below me. Makes me feel, it makes me holy, but the tears I understand that I do not belong.” She repeated sadly, “No, I do not belong.”

He looks around the heavens around him in their vacant white infinity so unlike earth’s vibrant colors. He hates watching earth and knowing he can do nothing to help. How can they be so detached?

“Watching the figures, all the saints, but mostly sinners come and go and some are desperate, but the others have the sense that they do belong.” She sings so pleasantly. It was a song he had never heard before. He mostly listened to instrumentals around the age of enlightenment, but there was something so calming about this song. She continues, “And I do not belong.”

The blinding white landscape makes him feel like a foreigner, even though he’s been here quite a while since he ascended to his position of power. If he’s an angel that doesn’t belong in heaven, then what kind of angel does that make him? He watches her as she looks up towards him, but he knows she can’t know if he’s actually there.

“Some only turn towards the heavens when the end is feeling desperate, have the overwhelming feeling that there's nobody who's looking down.” She repeats, “At least I'm looking down.”

He thinks how watching earth was supposed reprogram him to make him feel like he doesn’t belong to earth anymore, watching the humans suffering and be motivated to end earth to end their suffering. It does the opposite at this moment. He only yearns to be back even though he knows it would be difficult to handle everything. The bad and the good as it were. It would be better to suffer on earth than suffer in heaven.

You could at least feel other things down there.

He continued to listen to her sing as he watched all of humanities suffering, feeling all sorts of grief but also determination to push forward a bit longer.

 

Eve wasn’t sure what overcame her during her reconnaissance of the church. There was a back door that didn’t lock proper (she filed that away for the angel summoning in the future) and she walked around until she found the main opening. The shape of the room and the way everything echoed felt like you were connected to a higher power, even though Crowley told her that God didn’t meddle with people anymore.

She never took anything he said seriously. He was more biased than most of everyone she met.

But she did think about the over grieved angel so desperate to get information to Crowley and plea about being trapped in what she assumed was paradise. She asked Johanna if there was an easier way to talk to the angel, and there wasn’t. She thought that if you directed a prayer to the angel rather than God then you could relay a message, but it would only be one way.

She was listening to music on shuffle and a song came up that she loved. It reminded her of the angel and she wondered if he could get homesick. If some songs from earth would ease the pain a bit, then maybe she could send a prayer in the form of some earthly music.

She had no way of knowing if it worked, but her voice sounded so pleasant echoing in the empty church. She prayed, she supposed, that there was at least one angel she was singing to was looking down.   

Notes:

Short update. I'm enjoying writing this.

Next chapter will be the summoning and boy it will be a ride.

Comments and Kudos!

Chapter 16: Summoning a Supreme Archangel

Summary:

They attempt to summon Aziraphale without involving Crowley.

       Eve tasked Nina and Maggie to keep Crowley busy during the summoning. It took some expert mental gymnastics to convince him that:

1. The summoning was going to occur during the full moon at the end of the month. (A fact that Johnanna said was super important. It wasn’t.)
2. It was going to happen in St. James Park. (Because it needed to be somewhere familiar to the angel. It didn’t.)
3. They absolutely would let him know and let him be nearby when it happened. (They weren’t.)

       None of these things were true. However, it was the only way to keep him in the dark. If he was involved in summoning an angel in a church, it would be both extremely painful for him and would completely put heaven’s guard up in pulling Aziraphale back to being trapped. If all went well, the supreme archangel would stay on earth and Crowley would be too distracted to be mad at them for lying.

       Crowley was currently sleeping in Eden’s flat while Nina and Maggie camped out in the club making sure he didn’t leave. She kept her phone in her pocket at full blast in case that changed.

       Hob warned that this was a terrible plan but agreed to it since he couldn’t think of anything better to guarantee their success. Johnanna used chalk to etch specific runes in a circle reading her notes from her book. She was hunched over at the head of the church right next to the altar focusing very carefully to make sure she didn’t mess up the chalk circle.

       It was an intricate pattern with three pieces of offerings in a triangle and the feather in the center. One of the offerings was the Chianti Classico Gran Selezione bottle of wine, another was pastries from the French restaurant near the bookshop, and finally the last offering was a tartan bowtie. Johanna was very skeptical about these offerings at first (she was used to blood of the lamb, a wafer for the body, and something to represent the soul), but after she did more research on the angel, she was satisfied that it would work.

       It wasn’t as if the angel wasn’t going to come willingly, but with heaven’s watchful eye, they had to make sure he wouldn’t get summoned back. Constantine was adamant about using this the old church to make the threshold stronger sealing the angel inside the circle trapping them. She pulled out some ropes that she hung in a net that were blessed in some human way by witches to keep safe from specifically ethereal tampering. She even put some extra occult wards on the doors to keep a certain demon out if he came to be too much trouble.

       Johnanna Constantine was quite proud of her handy work as she stood up double checking the runes. “Ok folks, almost show time.”

       Hob nodded keeping a stack of papers ready, and a recorder to make sure every piece of information from the angel could be gathered. There was no guarantee that they could keep the angel on earth, so they needed to make sure every detail was being recorded.  Hob stated he was very good at shorthand writing given that he was a professor of history, and of course, he had over six centuries of practice. Eve was going to be the primary person asking questions to the angel as Johnanna needed to concentrate to make sure the circle stayed stable, and Heaven didn’t try to take the angel back.

     They had three scenarios of how this would go down. One, the summoning failed all together and no angel was rescued. They should still have the feather and try again another time. Second, the summoning worked, and their group was successful in keeping the angel on earth. Third, the summoning worked but heaven manages to pull the angel back into heaven.

     Two out of the three were better than the one. But there would be no chance of summoning the angel back down to earth again if Heaven deemed that the mortals were working to try to help the angel escape.

     Johnanna started lighting the candles on the outside of the circle channeling some kind of energy while chanting in a whisper. The electricity shut off immediately while the candle flames grew causing the shadows to flicker over the stone walls and glass panes. The runes glowed slightly and seemed to shimmer as an afterimage hovering in space above. A sphere of light encircles each of the offerings and a small breeze twisted around the circle causing Constantine’s hair to fan out. Her eyes are closed in concentration as she stands at the head of the triangle with her arms outstretched.

     A powerful sound that pierces through the air like lighting occurs in the church into the circle burning the feather instantly in a strikingly white flame. In its place a brilliant white light in a column to the ceiling with an angel at its center standing comfortably on the ground. Luminous glowing blue eyes look out at the scenery as they go from the person who summoned them and turning to Hob and Eve. His hair was wispy blond, and he work a dove grey suit that was tailored to him. With the column of light surrounding him, the air shimmered with specks of colored light that moved in a small swirl around the angel.

     She had never seen anything more beautiful.

     Her phone immediately plays her ringtone on full blast, and she frantically presses the volume button down.

Hob curses and mutters, “I told you all.” He presses the clock setting a stopwatch. Crowley was already on the way.

The angel smiles softly, “You did it.” He cracks his neck to the side and stretches his arms. “Oh, this feels heavenly.” He snickers to himself at the irony.

     Eve stammers for a second but finally speaks, “It’s nice to properly meet you Aziraphale.”

     He looks at her sadly, “Yes, I promise to be less distracted this time.” He glances at the woman behind him and Hob who has a pen in hand ready to write. “I heard your song by the way, Eve. Just want to get that out before business.”

     Eve nods, “What can you tell us about the second coming?”

     He sighs grimly, “The messiah will be born a boy on the seventh month of the seventh day of the 27^th year in this second millennia. He will be born naturally to a family who has experience with a child with power. The Youngs in Tadfield.”

     Hob franticly wrote all this down. Eve had no idea what any of this meant but she hoped to pass the information along.

     The angel pulled at his grey suit in anxiousness, “At the age of 13, he will have the power to call down the heavenly hosts and start Armageddon again.  However, it will be the final judgement. He will be able to call who he deems worthy to stay in Heaven and earth will be the battlegrounds for heaven and hell. This will result in the deaths of countless and earth to be a wasteland not capable of holding life.”

     Eve was shaking, “How can we stop that?”

     The light flickered and Aziraphale looked up with a frown, “That is up for the messiah to decide if the world is worth keeping around and that earth is good just like She declared when the earth was originally made.”

     The light somehow got brighter, and Constantine cursed, kicking a lever she had holding the net in place. It fell just above the angel’s head. He carefully touched it and it glowed gold. “Ah, I see. You are going to try to keep me here.”

     Eve looked at him confused, “Didn’t you want to stay on earth?”

     He had a grim smile and spoke with such grief, “Of course, but it will never happen again. Heaven will come for me whether it’s 30 seconds, 30 minutes or thirty years.” He gave a shaky sigh, “They will never stop being the sword above my head.” He spoke with resigned weariness.

     The stopwatch made a chime. Hob briefly spoke, “Eve, we need to get as much information as we can. A certain someone will be here soon.”

     “You can’t give up hope. You belong here.” Eve said taking a step closer to the circle.

     “Oh child, I wish that were true. I don’t belong anywhere anymore.” Aziraphale looked at her with his brilliant blue eyes. He looked as if this was a fact. “I’ve given too much away. All I can do is try to keep the earth safe. That is all I have left in me.”

     She grimaced and his resolve, “What about a certain someone. Isn’t worth trying for him?” They were careful not to mention his name. They knew as soon as they did, Heaven would start their pull.

     He looked at her confused at the mention, “I… he doesn’t want to help me. I’ve rejected him too many times to side with heaven. My last chance for heaven to let us be together was destroyed when he refused to join me and be reinstated. He gave up on me.”

     A terrible infernal sound that was a mix between cross between a scream, growl, and hiss occurred happened outside the church as well as a loud crashing sound. They all looked towards it. It sounded like a wounded animal crashing into stone. It sounded angry, desperate, and determined.

     “He’s here! He can’t get past the wards by the door.” Constantine walked to the other side of the circle holding her crucifix out. “I’ll try to hold both, but I can’t—"

     A huge crash came through the window as Crowley with his black wings came flailing in tumbling towards the floor. Glass scattered all over the ground towards the entrance of the church. He rolls three times on the ground with steam sizzling his body from the consecrated ground before hitting a pew stopping his momentum. His clothes are partially shredded from the glass, but he still manages to choke out in a loud shout, “ANGEL!”

     Aziraphale sobs seeing him but is cut off by a golden rope coming from the brilliant light above threading through the net attaching to the crown of his head. The action caused a glowing around that crown that seemed to be his halo.

     “He came in through fucking the window?” Johnanna yells in disbelief. She then ignores the demon and moves to the net, “Hob! Hold it down.”

     Hob abandons the paper and makes a dive for the other side of the circle using his whole weight to pull the net down.

     The angel was getting pulled to heaven from the crown of his head, but the net of rope was holding him on the ground. Even with everything holding him, ripping him in two directions, he still manages to croak out miserably, “Crowley…”

     Eve runs to Crowley who is sizzling on the ground and tries to pull him to his feet, “Jesus, Crowley, you just couldn’t stay away huh?”

     The burning demon ignores her while locking his fully yellow serpentine eyes with the brilliant blue. His chest heaving breathing with effort and shouts purposely, “You want to stay?”

     Another gold rope grabs the supreme archangel’s torso and feet dragging him heavenward. The blessed rope is holding him down to the church but is starting to fray. “I don’t deserve it” he cries out.

    Crowley raises up to his feet pushing Eve aside, “I didn’t ask if you deserve it. Do you want to stay?” He’s already starting to sprint down the aisle. Each step closer burns him a bit more as the heavenly light hits him.

     “I want to stay on earth!” Aziraphale sobs, he reaches a hand towards Crowley. The rope is nearly burned apart, and he got heaved to the heavens in a stronger pull.

     Crowley starts flapping his wings leaping in the air reaching his hand out towards the angel. The ropes burn to shreds, and the angel gets pulled rapidly towards heaven. The summoning circle’s runes start to turn a shade of light blue as the edges start to flake away from the intense pull.

     The angel cries out as he’s nearly through the portal to heaven, his hand still outstretched towards the demon. Crowley reaches out with his own hand, his wings spread flapping desperately trying to get closer to the angel. His fingers briefly graze Aziraphale’s hand, and a sonic wave of force sweeps out explosively. Eve, and the rest of the group shield their eyes and get pushed back.

     The demon manages to force his way by breaking through the seal of heaven.

     Crowley is now in the portal split between earth and heaven. His feet and the rest of the body were dangling on earth, while only one arm and face stayed stubbornly in heaven. His eyes burn from the light shining on him from heaven. His arm and face continue to sizzle and blister since he wasn’t invited to the realm of the heavenly hosts; in fact, he shouldn’t have the power to even get there. His fingers that grazed Aziraphale’s in the brief embrace are strangely unharmed.

     The supreme archangel is being pulled back away from the demon by Michael and Uriel. Michael seemed to be whispering into Aziraphale’s ears, but the angel was inconsolable continuing to struggle to get to the demon.

     “ANGEL! I WILL BRING YOU BACK! I SWEAR ON EARTH I WILL GET YOU HOME. LISTEN TO ME!” Crowley’s face blisters as he shouts.

     “How did you manage to get up here?” A voice behind him speaks amused.

     Crowley is focused on the Aziraphale trying desperately to crawl closer to him, “I PROMISE YOU ANGEL—”

     The Metatron kicks him in the back of the head and Crowley tumbles back down to the church’s floors. The portal closes with a thunderclap. It is dark as Crowley loses consciousness severely burned from heaven and the church.

     There was no way to summon the angel back to earth.

Notes:

We are almost done this story arch. There will be a part 2 with some filler stories, and a part 3 to close the story as a whole. Kind of crazy where the story went, but here we are.

Comments and Kudos!

Don't be surprised as I take a bit of a break to fix up this fics misspellings and what not. After I write the last chapter of course.

Chapter 17: Epilogue

Summary:

New people arrive to give a hint of a second chance of getting Aziraphale back

              Eve, Hob, and Johnanna work quickly to get the demon out of the church. He was battered, beaten, and covered in severe burns. A smell of ozone seemed to waft off him that burned Eve’s nose. As soon as they step outside the church, the Bentley comes screeching to a halt at the curb with Nina and Maggie riding inside.

              “We got here as soon as we could!” Maggie shouted to them. “We thought between the Bentley and us we could keep him. He just flew away as soon as he realized the Bentley wasn’t moving. I had no idea that he could fly!”

              Nina grimaced looking at the charred demon, “Ah shit, this is even worse than before.” She opened the back door to the care.

              Crowley was, thankfully, unconscious and his wings went away as soon as he fell from the portal to heaven. He had cuts all over him from smashing through the window and rolling on the ground. His one leg was bent in a weird direction from falling as high up as he was. The worst were the burns though. Any exposed skin showed massive burns and skin pealing back and bubbling from blisters. The only part that was unscathed were his fingers that brushed against the angel he was trying to save. It seemed that the skin gradually healed at a snail’s pace from his fingers. Right now, the healing was extended to another finger.

              Though it was difficult, between the exorcist crew and the shop crew, they got the demon back to Eden in the Bentley.

              For once, the Bentley was silent.

              Eve was surprised to see a couple waiting at the entrance of Eden. The woman looked shrewd with her round glasses; she was holding a book in her arms like her life depended on it. She wore all dark colors in layers. The man looked more nervous than anything else, but he had a hand on her shoulder while holding an old leather bag in his other hand.

              Eve spoke up, “We’re closed today but we might be open on Wednesday.”

              The woman moved forward speaking, “In the eve of autumn, a serpent will return to Eden. Broken from the fall and joined by those who have the means of saving Eden. Beware, the end will occur if ye do not act.”

              “What?” Eve asked bewildered.

              Johnanna got out of her car, which followed the Bentley back to Eden. Hob was quick to get out to help Maggie and Nina with the burnt demon.

              Johnanna was looking towards the riddle maker woman. “Anathema?”

              “Constantine. This makes sense.” The woman’s face looks determined as she looks towards the unconscious redhead.

              Eve scrambled with her keys opening her club, “Great the exorcist knows the riddle woman.”

              “Occultist and Witch.” Anathema stepped towards the demon, “I did not realize he would be the serpent of Eden, but I knew it would be a demon. Figures.”

              “Anathema was the one who gave me the blessed net.” Johnanna stated to Eve, Maggie and Nina. “I thought you gave up the family tradition of prophecy translations?”

              The witch had a deep sigh, “Seems Agnus foresaw me not wanting to continue, and sent me another book.”

              It was difficult to move him given the amount of burns he had all over but particularly over one arm and his face. Hob held most of his weight while Nina and Maggie grabbed his feet.

              Eve held the door waving the group to go inside to help the demon. “This is a great reunion and all but we need to help Crowley. Nina, do you have anything to help him like before?”

              Before Nina could respond, “I brought it with me. I knew a demon would be burned by heaven. He should have the news we need to stop the next Armageddon.” Anathema spoke up and followed the group in, “Newt, can you give me the bag?”

              The man stammered but grabbed the bag and they all went inside.

 

 

              It was already a few weeks after the summoning and Crowley was still not awake. They took turns among the various mortals (and one immortal) watching him and taking care of his burn wounds under instruction from Anathema. At this point his whole arm and part of his torso were healed from whatever combination of miracles both he and Aziraphale did to open the portal to heaven. They reset his leg to be straight again with a splint, thanks to Hob who had some medical knowledge from his time in various wars. Hob also tended to the cuts from the glass, while Anathema focused on the divine burns.

              Right now, Eve was tending the bar in Eden while karaoke was playing. It was a calm night, which was good cause Eve was busy thinking about everything that had happened in the past month. The angel was still stuck in heaven, and the second coming was still going to happen, though it would be two decades before the end would happen. She had no idea what to do with the information, but the witch, Anathema knew where the new messiah was going to be born after looking at Hob’s notes.

              Right now, the only goal was to get Crowley awake. Then, it was to make a plan to stop the end of the world. Or universe. Existence? Eve wasn’t quite sure what the stakes were anymore.

              Newt, the one who was in a relationship with the witch, was sitting at the bar drinking a virgin mango cooler. Constantine was sitting next to him sprawled out with a whiskey on the rocks swirling it slowly. Anathema and Hob were upstairs keeping an eye on Crowley in the flat above Eden.

              “Love, your lost in thought.” Johnanna spoke pointedly to her.

              Eve blinked at her and put the glass she was polishing down, “I’m just at a loss at what to do. None of this was even real to me before.”

              The exorcist stretched, “Ah, knowing is better though. End of the world stuff you get used to.” She took a sip of her drink. “Normally you don’t get two decades to plan.”

              “What about Aziraphale?”

              Newt spoke up, “Anathema seems to think we can get him back by talking to Adam.” He then sipped his drink through a straw.

              “Who’s that?” Eve asked

              “The antichrist.” He sipped his drink through the straw till empty

              Both the women looked at him and the exorcist snorted, “Anathema never ceases to surprise me. You are lucky to have her, boy.”

              Newt blushes and continues to sip his now empty drink.

              Eve sighs, “I feel bad for him stuck up there.”

              “The demon?” Johnanna asks, looking up the stairway towards the flat.

              “No, the angel.”

              She made a non-committed sound, “Time is weird up there. It ebbs and flows differently from the steady progression on earth. It’s difficult to say how it will affect him or what the effects of whatever they are doing to him will hold.”

              “You’ve been?” Eve asks confused, as if you could just visit heaven whenever you wanted.

              “To heaven?” The exorcist shrugs, “Very briefly. Before I was resuscitated.”

              “How did you know about the time thing?”

              “Ehhhh…” she drug out waving her hand in the air, “I was up there for what felt like a day, but you don’t last all day mostly dead on earth. They told me it was close to 10 seconds of death or whatever.”

              There was a break between songs for karaoke, but Eve was barely listening. She didn’t know how much more new information she could take before her brain burst.

              There was suddenly a large thud upstairs and all three of them looked upwards.

              Eve automatically started to run towards the stairs when the door burst open. She heard Hob and Anathema shout protests and a redhead demon stood panting at the top of the stairs. He had bandages all over his face and limped down the stairs trying to avoid pointing weight on his splinted leg.  The immortal and witch quickly follow.

              “Crowley! Be reasonable! You aren’t in any shape to be moving” Hob was following him down. The demon ignored him and continued to wince down the stairs at a quickened pace.

              Anathema stayed at the top of the stairs with her arms crossed shaking her head, “Let him go, Hob.”

              Crowley made it down the stairs and pushed past Eve. He was panting from the effort of moving, clearly in immense pain. His eyes uncovered and darting around never settling in one place. He was wearing oversized comfy shirt and pants, but the pants were strapped to show the splint on his leg that he shouldn’t have been walking on.

              Eve placed a hand on his shoulder gently, “Talk to me, Crowley. What cannot wait?”

              He paused but did not look towards her, “There is no telling what he’s going through up there. They were playing the recording of Aziraphale’s summoning. He said he heard your song. I need to give him hope. Please, Eve.”

              Eve lifted her hand to let him go.

              He hobbled to the stage snapping lightly towards the karaoke machine. When he got to the microphone, he spoke into it but not to the club patrons. He just looked upward towards the heavens.

              The song started up with a soft guitar.

              “Angel…” He spoke softly into the mic, “I’m sorry I haven’t spoken to you yet. I was knocked out for however long, but I’m doing ok.  Beat up and a bit burned, but nothing that will be permanent. Don’t give up on me up there, ok? I’ll get you out.” He chuckled, “I can’t even tell if you can hear this but that’s how prayers go huh? I know time is fucked up there but each week I’ll sing you a song, ok? You’ll get some semblance of how time is moving down here. I know you’ll call it all bebop or what not but…” He trailed off.

              “Anway, remember when I was in Dublin for a bit? I got drunk with an artist who was super into proper heaven and hell history. I told that man more things about us than anyone, and he made these detailed songs. You would have liked him. Not like you did for Oscar Wild but—" He saw that it was time to sing, “Oh shit. I gotta start.”

              The redhead had all of his weight on his good leg and had both hands clutching the mic like it might fly away if he didn’t hold on. He sang with more feeling than Eve had ever seen out of him. She wondered for a moment if she was actually dreaming again.  His voice sounded tired but smooth.

 

              You know the distance never made a difference to me

              I swam a lake of fire, I'd have walked across the floor of any sea

              Ignored the vastness between all that can be seen

              And all that we believe

              So I thought you were like an angel to me

 

              Eve went back to the bar where Anathema and Hob sat watching the demon pour his heart out more than any of them had seen. “Was it completely necessary for him to do this via karaoke in front of everyone for Aziraphale to hear?” she asks them

              “Nope.” Johanna stated with a smirk.

              “Why did he force himself—” Eve frowned watching him wince shifting his weight to his bad leg slightly.

              Hob laughed, “He’s just kind of like that.” He paused looking fondly over at the demon, “He just has soft eyes for that angel. Always has, even if he tries to play it off as not a big deal. Now that he got a whiff that Aziraphale doesn’t want to be up there, he’ll do everything he can to rescue him.”

              Anathama put a hand on Newts shoulder before sitting down opening up the book she keeps with her, “Well, there isn’t much he can do for now. All we can do is talk to Adam and see if he can pull the archangel down to earth. I’m pretty sure we have to wait for the new messiah to be born.” She flips to a page reading it intently, “From what I understand, with both the antichrist and second coming, the former principality will be summoned back to earth.”

              “Usually the prophecies ain’t that straight forward, witch.” Constantine leaned forward to look at Anathema past Newt.

              “I’m paraphrasing.” She said without lifting her head from the book.

 

              It ain't the being alone

              It ain't the empty home, baby

              You know I'm good on my own

              Sha la la, baby

              You know, it's more the being unknown

              So much of the living, love, is the being unknown

             

              Eve was not used to seeing Crowley out in public without his glasses. Though it was difficult for anyone to see anything with him looking upward the way he was. It was as if everyone in the club wasn’t even there, and it was just him singing to the heavens.

              Hob spoke, “So, now that he’s up and moving, I think I’m free to go back to Oxford. Should I stop back for winter break when the fall semester is done?”

              Eve shrugged, “That’s up to you bud. I have a club to run, so I’ll be here.”

              Johnanna punched Hob in the shoulder, “It was good to see you despite the circumstances. You should absolutely come by in December. I got a few jobs here in London, so I’ll be around for a bit.”

              He snorted, “You just like me because I can pay you.”

              She toasted to him with her drink, “True, but you bring interesting company too.”

              Eve looked towards Newt since Anathema was focused completely on her book. “Are you both staying for a while?”

              Newt looked at Anathema but answered her, “I’m pretty sure we need to stick around a bit longer. We need to head back to Tadfield in the summer to prepare.”

              “Prepare for what?”

              Anathema answered without lifting her head, “The next phase of the prophecy.”

              Crowley started singing loudly at the bridge of the song causing all of them to look his way.

 

              Do you know, I could break beneath the weight

              Of the goodness, love, I still carry for you

              That I'd walk so far just to take

              The injury of finally knowing you

              It ain't the being alone

              It ain't the empty home, baby

              You know I'm good on my own

              Sha la la, baby

              You know, it's more the being unknown

              And there are some people, love, who are better unknown

 

              Once he finished his song, he took a deep breath closing his eyes, “You are the only one who could possibly know me, angel. Hang in there. We’ll get you home.”

Notes:

Song that Crowley sings is Unknown/Nth by Hozier

Thank you all for taking the time to read this! I have plans for short one-offs and then a second and third story. Grad school is kicking my ass but I have a long winter break where I hope to write for fun after the holidays.

If you need another story (which btw is WAY better than mine I think) Please read this:

Are We Meant To Read the Footnotes?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/48956668/chapters/123508330

Notes:

This was just an idea I had for a bit. I haven't written anything since I was a teen (on fanfiction.net) and I'm in my thirties.

I've been in this fandom for so long and I absolutely love third party observations of Crowley. Not sure where this is going, but I have some ideas.

Comments and Kudos are super appreciated!