Two days after his interrupted deal Crowley's thoughts recurred to his encounter with the sassy redhead.
It was seldom that someone had left him speechless and even more uncommon for him to leave that person unharmed and yet somewhere on this planet Donna Noble was still alive and kicking and terrorizing other people.
He couldn't forget about the incident, not even during a good glass of his favorite scotch or after trading a woman's soul for ten years as an actress, taking advantage of a loop hole, wherein she never said she doesn't want to become famous for starring in porn movies.
That is why he was sitting now at a table with his two most reliable staff members in his conference room.
Technically he was still in hiding after giving the Winchesters the Colt to kill Lucifer. A lot of demons saw it as a betrayal and wanted him dead, but they were to stupid to understand that he did it so save them all.
Lucifer was just another angel and like all of those dicks he doesn't give a rats ass about the demons. He'd probably even just kill them all after bringing down the Apocalypse.
The two crossroad demons at his table were the last ones he did trust enough to let them know about his whereabouts without fearing that one of them would sell him out. In fact they were the last crossroads demon who didn't went rogue and helped him to keep the business running as good as possible with only two associates.
"I want Donna Nobles soul!", he declared. "I want it in a nice wrapping on a silver tablet and I don't care what you'll have to do! Just be assured that you'll be rewarded far higher than your input has been."
"With all respect, Sir", the demon to his right said. Lydia was a beautiful blonde woman as most of his subordinates. It was a great advantage in making a kiss-deal if your customer was attracted to you.
"I researched Nobles background and I found her name in an old legend. It's called the song of the Ood and it says that the Doctor Donna brings salvation. This person is declared as the most important woman in the universe. She saved this whole planet and more!"
Pretty and smart, Crowley thought. That's why she was one of his best. Still he couldn't see her point.
"That makes her even more fun to have around."
"Why don't we just kill her?", Belphegor asked.
He was currently wearing the meat suit of a bonnie latina for the same reasons as Lydia was wearing that of the pretty blonde, but Crowley still found it confusing everytime he would occupy a female body.
"Didn't you listen to what I just said?", Lydia countered. "She's a hero! A saint! She would fly first class straight up into heaven."
"We'll have to be persuasive", the King of the crossroads interrupted their banter. "Find out more about her. I want to know her most inner secrets. Even saints have something they desire and as soon as we have the right leverage we can put her soul on a special place in our trophy cabinet."
The demons nodded dutifully and then disappeared to start on their new task.
Crowley got off his seat himself. He couldn't just sit around and wait for this pack of staghounds to come back with something useful. He had to make his own research. Determined he changed into a fresh suit, one of his favourites, and headed out.
It was Donna's first night in Jacksonville and she wanted to celebrate her arrival in Florida with a high priced dinner in a fancy restaurant.
She deserved it, she presumed, after surviving the encounter with two demons and what all.
Dressed in a dark blue sheath dress that showed off her cleavage just right, she walked up to the restaurants front desk.
"Donna Noble, I have a reservation."
"Uh, yes, Miss Noble. Your company already awaits you at your table."
"My company?", she asked confused but the concierge didn't explain further, just took her to a table in a far corner of the restaurant.
A man was already sitting there, nursing a whiskey and grinning like the Cheshire cat as he saw her approaching.
"It's you!", she proclaimed disbelieving as she recognized Crowley at the table-for-two.
"Donna, darling, have a seat!"
He stood up and pulled out a chair but she hesitated.
"Come on, don't be rude. I just want to talk."
"Alright, but you're gonna pay the check", she said as she sat reluctantly.
"So what do you want this time?"
He chuckled as he seated himself opposite of her.
"You look good."
"Oh, don't act so surprised."
"It was just a statement. Did you want to meet someone else here?"
"No, I just wanted to enjoy the evening alone. On my own. Without any demon."
"Yeah, I got the hint. So this is what a living legend does in her free time? Eating by herself?"
"I'm on my vacations."
"You need some rest after saving the universe, I understand."
"What are you talking about?" She was utterly confused by now, her eyebrows tightly knitted together.
"I'm talking about you and your great journey through space."
"This is my first time away from England , she stated, one hand massaging her temple, for her head had started aching with a painful throb.
"So you never lassoed earth and brought it back home to it's solar system?"
"You're talking rubbish!"
"And you're lying even though we both know the truth!"
"What would you like to drink?", the waitress interrupted them.
"Oi!", they screamed in union. "Can't you see we're in the middle of a discussion?", Donna scolded her.
"Didn't your parents teach you not to interrupt when the grown ups have a conversation?", Crowley agreed.
"Sir." A blonde woman was suddenly standing next to their table. "Can we have a word?"
"Can't it wait, Lydia?", Crowley growled now seriously aggravated.
"I'm afraid it can't. It's about your current project", she explained with a short glance towards Donna.
With a suppressed groan Crowley stood up and excused himself, then followed Lydia a few feet away from the table.
"Make it quick."
"She's a time bomb", the blonde demon declared. "She was part of an instantaneous biological meta crisis. Her mind was combined with that of a time lord. The transformation would have killed her if her memory hadn't been whipped away."
"So she saved the whole of reality but can't remember a thing?", Crowley asked stunned.
"It would crush her."
He looked thoughtfully over to their table where the most important woman of the universe studied the menu, ignorant to her own significance.
"Thank you, Lydia", he said as he moved back towards Donna. "Let me know if you'll find out anything more important. Oh, and Lydia!"
He turned around to her.
You shouldn't tell anyone about this, okay? And I mean no one! We don't want the cavalry on our heels just because we want this angel to ditch her spot in heaven, right?
Lydia nodded her approval. I'll erase my witnesses immediately.
With the cold devotion of an office clerk who was told to make some copies she marched away.
"What was that about?", Donna asked as Crowley sat back down.
"Nothing of import. Just business."
"Demon business?", she dug deeper.
"You could say so, but let's not talk about that. You're on your vacations! Anything special you wanted to see?", he changed the topic.
Donna smiled conspiratorially, letting him know that she would ask again later, and they both fell into a lighthearted conversation.
Crowley filled Donna's fourth glass of wine.
Their dessert plates have long been removed and the restaurant was nearly empty.
"I shouldn't drink anymore", Donna slurred as she picked up her glass. "I'm drunk!"
"Aw, come on. You're on vacation, you're supposed to have some fun! Be reckless, make some stupid mistakes you can laugh about afterwards."
"Wait, are you trying to get me drunk so I'll sell you my soul?"
"What? No! No, that's not what I meant. Why would you think that? You really should give me some more credit. All I'm saying is that you should enjoy yourself, no matter what. You seem like a person who takes things into her own hands instead of waiting for her dreams to come true. Look at you, you just got a divorce and here you are, traveling the world like you wanted for so long."
"What can I say, I'm a twenty-first-century woman."
She took a sip from her glass, the wine tasting sweet on her tounge and dyeing her lips in a darker shape of red. When she looked back up, her eyes were glassy and her voice had a hint of melancholy in it.
"I'm not really living the dream. I just really wished that it had worked out between me and Shaun. I wanted the suburban life, you know. I wanted the house, the children, a dog and a picket fence. I was just naive enough to believe that Shaun would love me for the rest of our lives."
"Men, right? They always let you down."
"You know what? If there was one thing that I'd really wish for it would be for a really big dog who'd be trained to do what ever I want. And then I would tell him to play with Shaun's testicles like they were some chewing toy!"
Crowley laughed out loud at that while Donna went on regardless.
"I want him bleeding and begging for mercy. And I wish for the breast implants of his Starbucks-slut to implode! I want him to suffer as much as I suffered! You have no idea how embarrassing it had been to tell all of my family and friends about it. Everyone pitied me and they had this look on their faces like they knew all along that Donna couldn't keep a man for long. I want people to look at him the same way. I want them to pity him, thinking 'We knew he couldn't keep his balls together for long. Sooner or later some woman must have come along and cut them off!'"
Crowley was wiping the tears off his face by now, his other hand holding his stomach which started to hurt from laughter.
"You know all about hot-blooded revenge, I see", he said after calming himself down.
"Maybe I should hire you as a consultant."
"To screw with innocent people, chisel their soul out of them to torture it in hell? No, thank you. I don't think I could do that."
The demon raised a hand to his chest feigning to be offended.
"You really believe that's what I do? First of all, I don't torture any souls, I'm not getting my hands dirty on those. I'm a simple tradesman, all I do is to deal with them. What happens with them afterwards is none of my business. And for the record, none of my customers are ever really innocent."
For the first time since the two sat together Donna kept her mouth shut, lost in her own thoughts.
"It's not like I force them to give me their souls", Crowley broke the silence. "I mean, we're together in here for pretty long now and you're still perfectly fine."
"Except that I'm pissed like an old sailor!",
Donna announced under a fit of giggles that nearly threw her off her chair.
"I think we should call it a night", Crowley smiled to himself as he waved for the waitress.
He paid for the dinner, giving the waitress a ridiculous high tip, and then took Donnas arm to help her up and lead her out of the restaurant.
"Come on, big girl, I'll bring you home."
"I'm not a big girl," she complained slumping against his side. "I'm a lady!"
"And what a lady," he chuckled. "I've never seen a woman devour a steak that fast. It was quite impressing."
"Thank you." She tried to drop a curtsy and Crowley had to grab her by her shoulders to keep her from tripping over.
"Oi! Careful! Are you ready to set home? , he asked as he steadied her. "I wouldn't want you to barf out your belly on the way. This is my favourite suit after all."
She waved her hand.
"I'm fine."
"Okay, then let's go."
The feeling of being pushed around from every side crushed above Donna again and she lost her orientation of where was up and down. For a moment she thought she was going to be sick when finally it was over and her feet were back on solid ground.
She swayed a little, but Crowley's strong grip on her shoulders kept her standing.
Shaking him off, she took a look around. They were standing in her motel room, next to her bed.
Carefully she moved over and then let herself drop face first onto the mattress, feet dangling in the air.
Crowley sighed behind her before he stepped closer and repositioned her.
"Clean thoughts, chump!", she mumbled into the pillow and he couldn't fight the smile that creeped onto his face.
He took off her shoes and pulled a blanket over her already sleeping form.
"Sleep tight, Donna Noble" he whispered before he turned around and left.