(Untitled)

[anthony_crowley]

Date: January 24, 2001
Status: Private (Crowley, Gabriel, Belial, Adam)
Setting: Hospital
Summary: Crowley returns

Comments

[dontcallmegabby]

"If it is a game Lucifer is playing, then it is a dangerous one," Gabriel said, his voice terse; the words felt thick and raw, as though they were being dragged from his throat by some other will than his own. He could look at neither demon as he spoke, and kept his gaze downcast. "I know you think you can handle the others, but if he is determined..." And he could say no more on that, because that was one eventuality the angel would not - could not - consider. Belial would be safe. If that meant they had to be apart, then so be it. Given the danger inherent in their situation, it was not as though the thought that they would be separated had never occurred to Gabriel. The reality proved more painful than he had ever expected, his harbored fears spilling out into the light with searing suddenness; but Gabriel knew he could never ask Belial to endanger himself for his sake.

"Crowley's right," he continued softly. "He knows where you are. There is already one Crown here, and if he should send the others... fending off three of Lucifer's most powerful would leave even Adam weary. You cannot stay here. You have to run, and you," he said, glancing cautiously up at Crowley, "can tell him Belial's gone. Tell him I kept you from following, if it will help, that I delayed you here, and you lost the trail. Play his game, and he won't have to know what you've done."

He was struck by the stark, sickening image of the sight of Crowley, bloody and beaten, slumped over on the hospital floor. He couldn't fathom what they would do to either demon if they were caught in this.

He turned back to Belial, chancing a glance up into the other's eyes; they were beautiful, dark and shining, and in their beauty seemed to burn. "I would go with you if I could," he said, his voice so weak now that it was barely above a whisper. His hands gripped Belial's tightly, clinging to what little time they would have left. "I care nothing for the danger to myself if I should, but they could find me all too easily. I would draw them right to you..." He drew Belial closer, kissing him softly, endowing each touch with all that he could not find the words to say; and despite their present company, he gazed into Belial's eyes as though he could see nothing else.

"Just be safe," he whispered, "wherever you are."

[lordofthesouth]

In these last precious moments before he knew he had overstayed his luck, Belial drew Gabriel close, saving in his mind a picture of the angel's wonderful warmth. "I'll come back to you. I love you," he reaffirmed, voice shaking with the strength of his emotion.

He took a deep breath, pained, and stepped away from Gabriel, freeing himself of the temptation to stay and let the bastard come for him. He would fight and fight, but there was more than his own well being at stake if his battleground would be the Manor, and with all his centuries of existing beneath Lucifer's foul reign, he knew that bravery rarely got you anywhere.

Speaking quickly, his voice was like ice, jagged and sharp, "Listen, Crowley. This is what will happen: you'll follow me, and if you find me, I'll fight you. I won't kill you--he wouldn't have sent you on this whipping boy errand if he knew I'd kill you--but I'll make my presence known. He wants this to hurt both of us. All of us. That's his game. But I suggest you find me before he discovers that you're dragging your heels behind me, because what I'll have to do is far, far kinder than what he will do."

He stepped back into the shadows and was gone, running through darkness, away from everything he'd ever loved, and his tears burned.

[anthony_crowley]

Irritable, exhausted, hurt, frustrated at being the bearer of bad news, and not pleased to be the reason that one of his best allies was walking out the door indefinitely, Crowley snapped, "I know what I'm doing, damn it. Don't you dare condescend to me."

He'd been about to say more when Adam, displaying his unique brand of perfect timing, stepped inside.

[dontcallmegabby]

"That's all you have to say, is it?" Gabriel hissed, and his voice was ragged with a degree of disgust and animosity which he had had little cause to address the Serpent with before; had little cause now, in fact, and the angel knew that. He knew, rationally, that it wasn't Crowley's fault his world had just been so startlingly rendered. But his every limb ached, his eyes stinging with tears, as though he had just been plunged painfully into depths far too deep for his form to survive. And with no recourse against the Morningstar for all that had just come to pass, Hell's field agent seemed a convenient enough target. "All this, demon, all that's just happened, and you're worried about your precious pride being tarnished?"

He turned his back on the demon abruptly, forcing himself to stop. It was an unfair assessment, and furthermore, he was taking out his frustration on a demon who had quite possibly just risked his own existence to save Belial's. But it was too much to swallow in the space of too few breaths, and Gabriel couldn't decipher the mess of emotions that made the words sting in his throat.

But though he knew he should, he was saved from having to recant the words by the Antichrist's auspicious entrance.

Adam already knew everything that had happened, Gabriel was sure; in fact, Adam might know more about it than any one of them. But Gabriel couldn't bear to see the knowledge, the sympathy in the boy's eyes. He didn't want it. He felt far too vulnerable under the Antichrist's gaze as it was, and he wouldn't stand to have Adam see right through him to the pain that gnawed at his heart, not in this moment. So he nodded as Adam entered, with only the briefest of gazes in his direction, and, knowing Crowley would be looked after now better than the angel could currently manage, he left without another word to either of them.

[average_adam]

Adam's face was as impassive as he could keep it, his eyes neutral, but his heart ached for everyone involved in this little drama: Gabriel, Belial, Crowley, John, even Lucifer, lost as he was on his sea of madness and searching for the one being that presumably brought him joy. But compassion was never in the Antichrist's job description, thank Someone. Adam had always believed Jesus had had the harder task in that capacity. All Adam had to do was do, not feel, so he did.

After watching the archangel go, he approached Crowley's bed. "You wanted to see me?"

Crowley nodded and they bent their heads together in urgent conversation.