(Untitled)

[dangeroushabits]

Date: April 14th, 2001
Status: Private (John, Loki, and Crowley)
Setting: Hospital Wing
Summary: Certain matters finally come to a head. No pun intended.

Comments

[leucemic_god]

It was an unfortunate coincidence that brought two visitors at once into Loki's room. Only moments after the rat had finally decided to come out and have a look at the food Ellie had layed out for him John knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Loki called out happily hoping to be able to show off his new friend.

The rat however jumped at the sound of the door opening. The box slammed down, the rat squeaked and shot off towards the door. A yelp followed by a terrible cracking sound.

"John!" Loki jumped out of bed and rushed to the human's side. "Are you okay?"

[anthony_crowley]

Crowley was leaving his room when the accident happened and he felt a twinge from his wristwatch that told him John was in some danger. Trying to pinpoint his direction, he heard Loki call the man's name, and was down the hall like a shot. Fortunately, he wasn't far from the hospital.

Upon arrival, he found the god hovering over a clearly injured man, blood flowing profusely into his eyes.

"What the fuck did you do to him!" he demanded of Loki, kneeling by his friend. Gently touching the wound, the edges sealed themselves together as the blood vanished.

"John," he said softly, looking surreptitiously into his eyes to see if they were bloodshot. "Focus, John. Now I want you to tell me something. Who's the Prime Minister right now?"

[leucemic_god]

Loki had only just reached John when another person arrived. He looked up hoping to see Anathema or, even better in this situation, Gabriel. Seeing Crowley instead was a shock.

Loki knew that he was in no condition to fight, but he also couldn't let that monster touch John.

"You murderer!" he yelled and threw himself at Crowley. Hopefully the not-god would be surprised enough that he could pull him away from John and perhaps Gabriel would hear the fight. Surely with Gabriel's help he'd be able to beat Crowley.

[dangeroushabits]

"Ow. Fuck. Ow," John said with feeling, pushing himself upright and forcing his eyes into focus. "Uh. Shit. Thatcher's brat. Wossname, Blair." He shook his head slightly and regretted it--it hadn't been that serious an injury (he'd cracked his skull often enough to know,) but it had hurt like blazes and shaken him up pretty thoroughly, and scalp wounds bled like nobody's business, even minor ones.

The meaning of Crowley's sharp question to the god filtered through just about the same time Loki yelled his own accusation and launched his attack. "Crowley, what're you--Loki!? Now hold on just a minute..." Christ, were those two ever going to give it a rest?

[anthony_crowley]

As a conditioned and totally uncontrollable response to being attacked, Crowley's claws extended instantly as he tried to move out of the way of the incoming threat. Unfortunately, he brought said threat with him, rolling over once or twice until they ended up on the floor, the demon pinning the god, sharp claws an inch from his stupid face.

When he spoke, his voice was calm but icy. "You've called me a murderer more times than I can take. Do you want me to prove it?" There was a first time for everything, after all...

[leucemic_god]

Yes, he'd done it! They were rolling away from John

[dangeroushabits]

"Now look, lads, there's really no call for..." John trailed off. They weren't paying him the slightest bit of attention. Unsurprising, really; Crowley and Loki each went inexplicably deaf when the other's name was mentioned in any kind of positive context, so why should they listen now? He couldn't even muster up any guilt for being the trigger this time. They'd never needed a good reason.

Damned if he was going to stand by and let Crowley filet somebody he and Ana and Bill were working so hard to save, though, even if Loki was running his mouth fit to practically invite it.

"Right. That is BLOODY WELL ENOUGH," he bellowed at the top of his lungs, almost startling himself with how effectively his own voice filled the small room.

[anthony_crowley]

"My sside doesn't do mercy," he hissed to Loki. At the man's yell, however, he was still.

"Enough, what, John?" Crowley snapped. "Enough times this idiot has continued to believe whatever the fuck he wanted to without any proof and then share those assumptions with others as if they were true? Enough times he's sent War to stalk me for months and then attempt to kill me? Enough times he's destroyed my relationships for nothing more than one sarcastic comment I made a year ago?"

He turned back to Loki, furious. "John and I have been mates for eleven years. You have no concept of what we've been through together. If you could pull your head out of your own arse for ten seconds, you'd see with your own fucking eyes that I healed him. Why the fuck would I want to hurt him? If he wants to hang around shite like you for pity's sake, that's his own lookout, but don't you dare try to dictate our friendship."

[leucemic_god]

"Pity," Loki said putting on a suitably disappointed face. "And I was so hoping that you'd kill me before the cancer does."

"Kill you? War was merely going to rescue the hostage!" Loki protested. "That stupid toy of hers doesn't even kill in the first place."

"I won't stand by and watch you hurt John," he declared stubbornly ignoring Crowley's words. "Or Ezra. It's bad enough that you have a poor innocent kitty in your power." It might have sounded much better, if he hadn't been lying helplessly on the floor.

[dangeroushabits]

"Oh for fuck's sake. Enough of you two bickering like a pair of fucking schoolkids, that's what!" John snapped. Getting up and shrugging his trench back into place, he strode purposefully over to the pair. "Shaddup Loki, just fucking shut your mouth, all right? Get off him, Crowley, and put those things away. Christ, you could break him in half just looking at him the wrong way."

Hauling Loki up unceremoniously by his pajama collar, he gave him a small shake (that was a good bit more careful than it looked) and went on as he propelled the god back to his hospital bed, "Now you, listen up and listen good. Unless you've both been holding out on me, all Crowley's ever done to you is talk. You've been the aggressor every single time. How would you like it if somebody catnapped your pet, carjacked your prize possession, assaulted your dignity and wrecked your love life?" He snorted. "Shit, he's been a helluva lot more patient than I would in his place, I'd have kicked your arse for you a long time ago. He is not a threat to me

[anthony_crowley]

Crowley stiffly got up from the floor, retracted his claws, and set his hair and clothing to rights to give himself a few moments to compose himself

Sorry, had two very stressful days ...

[leucemic_god]

Being picked up and shaken only momentarily surprised Loki. In fact something about it felt very familiar. It gave him a slight headache, though. ... Or was that just his memories? http://community.livejournal.com/neutral_omens/72859.html... )

[anthony_crowley]

"Fine," he snapped. "I accept your counter. But my friends and property are only 'fair game' as long as they remain inside the hospital. When they are outside the hospital, you revert to leaving them alone unless they expressly state otherwise."

It would be fine if Loki upheld the bargain. Crowley would simply tell his friends the situation and then it would be up to them to decide what to do. As for the animals, that was easy, too. Chicago was the only one he could tolerate and vice versa.

The demon turned to John. "Happy, now?"

[dangeroushabits]

John (who would indeed turn Loki over to Adam if it came to that, because he knew perfectly well the boy wouldn't do worse than give him a stern talking-to) had listened to all this, arms folded and eyes narrowed, and nodded slowly.

"It'll do," he grunted. "Just to clarify, though--I'm not anybody's pet human. The only person who dictates who I do or don't hang around with is me." He raised his eyebrows expressively. The same applied to everybody else on Crowley's list, of course (minus the human bit,) but they could defend their own honor. "Now, since that's out of the way--not that anyone asked, but I tripped over a sodding rat on my way in here and hit my head on the way down. Nobody's fault but mine and the rodent's." He carried on quickly, knowing full well that it was no mystery how a rat could have got in there and not wanting it to start another round of arguments, "So I'm gonna go find the little bastard and corral him before he gives Anathema the vapors, and then see if this place has got any Pepto-Bismol, awright?

[leucemic_god]

Had Crowley really just agreed without any further stipulations? Well, thee had been the one about outside the hospital wing, but Loki wasn't expecting to ever get there again anyway, so that was fine.

"Agreed," he told Crowley gravely. Never let on when you're triumphant. Better leave the opposition with the impression that they forced you into all the concessions you were able to make. "If you can convince them tho stay out, I'll never even talk to them." Well, hopefully none of them would be at the reception when he left.

"Sorry about Ratty. We've been trying to re-capture him, but he's terribly shy." Should he be feeling guilty about it? It wasn't like he had any power to control the rat. "He didn't mean any harm, though. Don't hurt him."

[anthony_crowley]

"I'll go with you," said Crowley to John. He glanced at Loki. "I think we're done here. I've made my promise not to hurt the rat, should it be found."

The demon turned and followed John out the door, but steered him into another of the hospital's rooms before the man could begin his search for the rat, the Pepto, or Anathema. "And you're not doing jack shit until I check you over for real, pet human or not. That was a nasty crack and I want to make sure I didn't miss anything."