So I'm trying to decide if I'm going to post this as a weekly or fortnightly story, but all I know is it will become a more regular occurrence, and when I'm really productive two a week! YAY! I'm also writing a few more fanfics to post, so they're taking up quite a bit of my time. I will try to be on time though, I promise. I'm thinking Sundays? Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter, quite a lot of Crowley!
Somewhere in Texas, 2014, 6pm, beside the Impala
Castiel could feel the cold steel on his throat as soon as he materialised beside the car. Crowley's short frame was tall enough to the get the blade to his throat, but any higher and he wouldn't have been able to deliver on the promise that the knife was making. Cas went to step sideways but Crowley turned him back smoothly, and Cas noticed the three other demons surrounding him.
"Ah, ah, ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you, Twinkle Toes. You see, I quite like you, and I really wouldn't want to mess up that gorgeous face of yours, but I really need to speak to Sam and Dean. You got their number?"
Castiel shook his head and Crowley dug the knife in slightly. He felt it break the skin and a tiny drop of blood began forming beneath the blade. One of the demons licked her lips unconsciously.
"Wrong answer." The King of Hell glowered and Cas swallowed carefully.
"No, I know where they are. They're in France. I'm just not quite sure when."
"Sorry, what?" Crowley spat. He stared at the angel, "Have you gone off your rocker again?"
"No, the boys were taken by a man in a blue box to France, but the box travels in time, so they could be anywhere in history. Also there was a girl, an attractive one I think, and Sherlock Holmes and John Watson were there." Castiel stated in the matter-of-fact way that he was accustomed to. Crowley shook his head in astonishment.
"You're mental. You've finally cracked it, haven't ya? Again."
"No!" Cas was aggravated; he needed to get back to his friends, "the man, his name was The Doctor and the girl was Clara, and he had a blue box!"
"Wait. Doctor?" Crowley felt something twitch in his head. Something from when the body he inhabited was human, something he'd supposedly long since erased; but maybe he couldn't erase something like that. Way back in the 60s, just before Crowley had taken over, the human had met someone in a blue box, with a female companion and his name had been… "Doctor you said? Really? Interesting." A curious expression replaced the anger, "take me to 'em."
"I can't. I don't know where they are."
"Well then find out, and then take me to 'em." He leant against the car.
Castiel closed his eyes and focussed, trying to pinpoint either of the brothers, but it wasn't working, so he switched his efforts to The Doctor instead – he was an anomaly – the most easily found target to latch onto. There! A green pulsating light that buzzed through the vortex – his screwdriver. Castiel grabbed Crowley and the demons jumped forwards but it was too late; the two men disappeared.
Somewhere in France, 1944, 10am
A feather-like gust of wind ruffled the still air around them and Sam and Dean jumped up in shock.
"Hello boys!" Crowley grinned wolfishly, still holding the sharp blade to Castiel's throat.
"Let him go!" Dean growled.
"Oh don't get your knickers in a twist, I'm not going to hurt him, I just needed to find you." He slipped the knife down and it disappeared into his jacket.
Clara stared around her and realised that at least four of them were wearing trenchcoats. What is it about those jackets that somehow make everyone in this room more attractive? she thought, Maybe I should get Dean a trenchcoat. She caught herself looking sideways at him and decided that she liked his leather one better and then she inwardly berated herself for staring.
Once the knife was tucked away, Dean relaxed more and Castiel stepped away from the King of Hell who drew himself up to his full height – still barely reaching Watson's level, let alone anyone else's.
"As I was saying; hello Moose, Squirrel and friends, I am simply here to do a bit of a meet and greet, and then ask for a favour from these two lovely gentlemen. Oh, and who is this?" He walked towards Clara and kissed her hand, staring up at her saucily as she quietened, at least partially out of fear. Dean grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him back violently.
"Don't even think about it Crowley. What do you want?"
Crowley laughed at him and extracted himself from Dean's grip, "I want to ask a favour. There's a rogue demon in my midst and he's possessed the body of a well-known politician. A very well-known one, in fact. I'm not saying that he's quite high up in the White House, but I am implying it, very heavily, so if you could take that hint and run with it… Moose? Anyone?"
Sherlock sighed, "Yes, we get it."
The Doctor, Watson, Clara, Dean and Sam all nodded but Castiel shook his head, confusion all over his face. Crowley just rolled his eyes at the angel and looked at Sherlock.
"Are you Mr Holmes then? Really?"
Sherlock nodded silently but the Doctor couldn't resist.
"Sherlock and John here live in an alternate reality to mine, and a different one to yours as well, but there are holes bleeding through into other universes, and the hole in Sherlock's just happened to bleed through to all the others, and so many of the other parallel universes have Arthur Conan-Doyle's compelling murder mysteries. Just like Sam and Dean's lives bled into my universe and created the show Supernatural which is all about their adventures. Weirdly, the actors look exactly like you. Parallel displacement of identity I suppose." He beamed around at them and then he finally looked down at Crowley's face long enough to really see it, "Oh dear." He said.
"What's wrong Doctor?" Clara asked.
"Canton. I'm so, so, sorry. No really, I am, I'm sorry, when did this happen?" He asked, tugging at his jacket with one hand and scanning the demon with his screwdriver, "Oh."
"What?" Clara asked again.
"Nice to see you again old chap." Crowley bowed.
"What!?" Clara's question had gone from a direct one to a yell at the universe.
"I'm with her, what is going on?" Sam asked and Dean's arm crawled back towards his gun, the trust he'd built with the Doctor over the past few hours suddenly evaporating.
The Doctor looked up to find everyone staring at him in shock and Crowley started laughing manically before going behind the counter of the café. He stepped gingerly over the unconscious Frenchman and grabbed the hidden bottle of liquor from underneath the till. Dean looked over and Crowley waved it around. Dean blinked and Crowley grinned, pouring three glasses of alcohol and returning to the group. He gave one to Dean and was about to hand the other to Sam when Clara snatched it from his fingers.
"Sorry mate, you're gonna have to hold on," she said to Sam and swung the liquid into her throat. The Doctor gaped at her and she shrugged, "Sometimes I need something stronger than tea, something wrong with that?"
Sam walked over to get his own alcohol and everyone just continued to stare uncertainly at the Doctor.
"Ah. Yes, well, before I met you Clara, I was in America around the time of the moon landing, when Nixon was president and I met a man named Canton Everett Delaware the Third. He was brilliant, really clever, and River and Amelia loved him, but she was pregnant at the time, coincidentally with River, while River was cooking up a plan to kill me, well, not the River I was with, but another one, from a different time… I've lost you." He stated and everyone stared vacantly at him except Crowley who was staring at the bottom of his glass recalling the memories. He looked up at the mention of the Doctor's old companions.
"Amelia! That's the ginger one, right? What did you call her? The Legs?" He smirked.
Clara bristled. She liked to believe she was the only one that the Doctor fully trusted, and of course realistically she knew that it wasn't true; she'd heard the Doctor mention Amelia and River and countless others before and she knew who they were to him, but the fact that he'd shared a past with this short, angry man, just made her uncomfortable.
"Yeah, that's the one, The Legs, The Nose and Mrs Robinson. They were fun, I liked them. But I like your new one too." He glanced at Clara with a glint in his eye and Dean and the Doctor both shifted slightly forwards protectively, "Oh," Crowley frowned in the Winchester's direction, "You might have to compete for her Dean. I think she might be taken."
Dean and the Doctor glanced at each other and they both glared back at the demon, hiding sheepish guilt beneath their expressions. Clara tried to suppress her mirth but it spilled out through her eyes and Watson chuckled beside her merrily and the two of them dissolved into giggles. Sherlock rolled his eyes at them. Meanwhile Sam and Dean were just realising the name of the person Crowley was using.
"Canton Everett Delaware… the THIRD?!" There were three people with that ridiculous name?" Sam started cackling at this thought and Dean followed suit, tears of laughter threatening to stream down his face.
"Careful there Moose, you might snap an antler," Crowley snarled and the knife reappeared in his arm, "Now are you buffoons going to keep laughing at the name of gentleman I killed to inhabit this body or are you going to take this threat seriously like proper adults?"
Everyone quietened. The Doctor shook his head, "He was a good man." His voice was very soft and Clara knew instantly that he was angry. And when the Doctor was angry, big things happened so she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Dean saw this and though it didn't show on his face, he was a little hurt.