The Best Laid Plans.
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Lisa's garden.
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Crowley allowed himself a satisfied smirk as he turned away from Castiel; this had to be the easiest con he had ever had the pleasure to put into practice!
Yeah he had gotten all the crap, 'demons are foul abominations' , ' no angel would work with you' , 'get ye back to Hell' , yadda, yadda!
But Crowley had been human before being tortured to demon-hood, and even back then he had been a crafty little sod and a good judge of character; he still was!
He had seen the spark of interest in the angel's eyes, despite the harsh words.
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Angels, bless their holy little asses, never had to consort with humans except when occasionally sent on errands to Earth and though he knew that Castiel had been observing Earth for more than two thousand years, he hadn't yet grasped the complexities of Man; Crowley had!
Angels were easy to manipulate; the hard part was to get them engaged in conversation in the first place, just talking to demons made them prissy, but Crowley had served his apprenticeship as a crossroads demon, and a damn good one at that.
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He had known that he would find Castiel here; the demons he had sent out to search for him had reported back that the angel, regular as clockwork, took up position outside the home of the elder Winchester, silently watching as the human pottered about in the garden, never revealing himself.
As for the Winchesters, his spies had kept him up to date on them too. Dean had been living as an ordinary human since Sam had thrown himself into the Cage, seemingly embracing the urban life-style; girlfriend , kid , job; utterly boring but as far as Crowley was concerned, domestic Dean Winchester was just fine with him.
It kept him out of his hair, and then his fondness for this woman and her kid could come in handy one day as blackmail material.
Crowley had a healthy respect for the Winchesters. They might only be humans but they had died and been resurrected, visited Heaven, even stopped the Apocalypse, outwitting Michael and Lucifer.
They were worthy opponents and not to be underestimated.
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He almost felt sorry for the younger Winchester.
Even he felt a shiver run down his spine as he thought of what Sam must be going through in the Cage.
Lucifer was vindictive and very, very inventive, but it was thanks to the Winchesters that he had managed to snag the throne of Hell, so he felt a little in their debt.
There was a bit of a mystery here though; he knew Sam Winchester was in the Cage, it was situated in the deepest part of Hell but still visible to him, yet he had been informed by his spies that a human identical to Sam had been seen on Earth.
He wondered if Castiel knew anything about that? He stored the question away for later; there were more important problems to deal with first.
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Crowley was in the best of moods as he transported himself down to hell. He would let Castiel consider his offer for a few days and then get back to him. If the angel was interested, as Crowley's instinct told him he was, he'd find him in the same place as before, Dean's garden; if not he wouldn't. Simple as that!
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Yep, there he was; in all his trench-coated glory!
Crowley smiled as he saw Castiel standing in the exact same position as days before; maybe he had never moved at all, he probably had nowhere else to go anyway. He wasn't exactly Heaven's favorite son at the moment.
He would play on that fact; Angels were at their happiest in Heaven; that was their realm and if he could get Castiel to believe that bedding down with the King of Hell would get him back up there, then his plan would fall into place easy as pie.
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He would tempt Castiel with the mirage of getting rid of Raphael and ruling Heaven; encourage him that he would be a wiser king than his brother, and if things worked out as he hoped, Castiel would be in his debt and Crowley would add the vastness of Purgatory to his Kingdom.
Then who knows, he fantasized blissfully; once he got his hands on Purgatory, with God away on a permanent field-trip, it wasn't too outrageous to dream that he might manage to conquer Heaven too one day.
King of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, it had a nice ring to it. He would get a triple crown designed specially for the occasion.
But...one thing at a time, he chided himself as he slapped on his most sincere smile and approached Castiel.
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"Well now, Castiel. Give my offer any thought, did ya?" he asked.
The angel drew his eyes away from Dean and turned to Crowley. " I will listen to what you have to say, demon" he answered and Crowley felt a twist of triumph grip his gut. The angel was really going to fall for it.
"Well then, come on down to my office and I'll go over my plans with you; see if you like them," he invited servilely.
Castiel nodded his assent and the two disappeared down to the Infers.
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It had been even easier than he had thought; the offering of some of his own souls to teach Raphael a lesson had been accepted without much protest and Castiel seemed to be on-board with all the rest, puttting up just a token resistance.
What they needed now was info from monsters, the higher on the food chain, the better. Neither Crowley nor Castiel knew where the entrance to Purgatory was but he was sure that the Alpha monsters had to know that. Purgatory was where their souls went after death.
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He had one of the most experienced human hunters right here in Hell, Samuel Winchester, Dean's grandfather.
He could resurrect him to do the hunting work, all he needed was to discover what his most fervent desire was and promise to fulfill it if he followed orders.
The only problem was that Samuel was from an earlier generation, he would need someone more up to date to side-kick him, a genius hunter/researcher who knew how to use a computer. Someone like the younger Winchester; now was the time to find out about Sam.
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"My demons have told me that there is a look-alike of Sam Winchester walking the Earth. Do you know anything about that?" Crowley asked casually.
Castiel lowered his eyes. "That is the true Sam Winchester, not a look-alike."
"Oh really, " Crowley commented raising an eye brow. "Then why is Dean still moping about in that garden and why has Sam not run to him with open arms. If I remember rightly, those two like nothing better than to be stuck to one another like super glue. Then how did Sam manage to get out of the Cage?" he added. "I don't think Michael and Lucifer would have been too happy to let their chew-toy go."
Crowley was truly curious to hear Castiel's answer for he had recently checked and Sam's soul was still securely tied down in the Cage.
"Someone pulled him out." Castiel said ambiguously. "I don't know why he hasn't yet gone to find Dean. I was sure it was the first thing he would do."
"You wouldn't know who this someone was?" Crowley insisted. "It would take quite a lot to yank him out of Lucifer's clutches; at least the power of an angel and even he would have to be very motivated to take such a risk.. I think it might've been you Castiel," he finished off, almost teasingly.
Castiel remained silent but Crowley saw the truth written on his face.
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"Huh, " he snarked. " You gotta brush up on you lying skills, wing-man! So you pulled him out. Well I have to say you did a piss-poor job of it. I don't know what you pulled out but I can assure you that Sam's soul is still being nicely roasted by Lucifer."
"I see you're not surprised, Castiel." Crowley continued as the angel's face remained inexpressive.
Castiel sighed."I suspected that there was something wrong with him but I had hoped I was mistaken. There is no way I can go back for his soul now. Lucifer will be more watchful."
"Well, Sam's a great hunter; why not use him now that he's a soulless body. Without a conscience to hold him back, he'll be an unstoppable hunter and with his research skills will procure us a boatload of monsters."
"I have to say, Castiel that if Dean ever finds out you pulled out the lesser part of his little brother and left his soul in the Cage, he might just go down on your ass."
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Crowley smiled to himself, here was the perfect occasion to get Castiel even deeper in his debt.
"How about this? If it ever comes up, I'll take the blame for having pulled Sam out and we'll just play things by ear; Dean might never find out about his brother until after our little plan comes to fruition. What do you say?"
Castiel seemed relieved. "Yes," I... I might need Dean's help one day and..."
"Consider it done, partner. The big bad king of Hell will take this on too." Crowley said, his satisfaction level shooting up to its highest level, even if Castiel stared at him as if he was a piece of repugnant crap, but Crowley didn't care. Sticks and stones and all that!
His plan was going better than he had ever dreamed possible and the cherry on the cake was that there were no Winchesters to interfere in his brilliant project.
Life was good.
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The End