I'm just milking the quote, unquote suspense for all its worth, aren't I? *evil*

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Stirring his mug of hot chocolate, Aziraphale listened as Crowley's pre-recorded voice finished and the beep sounded off. Three seconds went by with nothing but complete silence. Frowning, the angel stared at the black machine whose tape wheels were whirling, recording the silence.

*That's odd. Usually people left a message or hung up, didn't they?*

Aziraphale distinctly remembered that part of the crash tutorial regarding answering machines Crowley had given him a few days ago. Two more seconds passed and the person on the other line had yet to say anything or hang up. Reaching over, Aziraphale took up his phone. "Hello?" he said into the receiver and heard his voice come out of the answering machine in stereo. In the slightly flustered manner of someone who was very uncomfortable using modern machinery, Aziraphale wincingly pressed the answering machine's stop button. The wheels stopped rolling but the phone line remained open.

"Hello?" Aziraphale repeated into the receiver. Straining his hearing, he could make out the faint sound of rain. "Hello? Is someone there?" he inquired. Not being a stranger to prank calls, the angel knew this wasn't someone just having a go at his phone line. Usually by now there would sounds of someone's muffled laughter or someone asking him the usual dull prank call question. "Who is this?" The angel's frown deepened as waited a few more seconds in his own silence to see if the other person would hang up. The line remained open.

"Crowley?" Aziraphale tried, thinking of the only person who would be calling him not regarding a book purchase. "Is that you? Are you playing a joke or something? Crowley?" The usually comforting sound of rain falling was beginning to make Aziraphale nervous. "Crowley, if this is you, it isn't funny!" Silence.

The angel was close to hanging up when he finally heard something else mixing into the rain falling.

"Excuse me?" inquired a woman's voice. "Sir? Are you alright?"

"Hello?" Aziraphale spoke into the phone, relieved that someone was around on the other end. "Hello? Miss?"

"Sir? You're getting soaked." The voice sounded further away now.

Realizing that whoever the new arrival was, she wasn't talking to him, Aziraphale spoke at a louder volume into the receiver. "Miss? Miss, please pick up the phone. Hello? Miss! The phone!" he shouted.

"What the-? Oh." There was the sound of some rustling and clicking. A car horn that the angel recognized as the Bentley's suddenly went off and Aziraphale heard the woman let out a startled exclamation. "Hello?" spoke the woman, her voice now clear on the other line.

"Hello, miss? Can you hear me?" asked Aziraphale, hoping to cast some light on the matter.

"Of course I can hear you. I've got the phone right up to my ear," replied the stranger. "Do you know anyone who owns a Bentley?" she asked now. "Because he's lying on the sidewalk, getting drenched."

"Lying on the—what?"

"I can't get him to wake up," said the woman, sounding more annoyed than concerned. "I wouldn't worry, he's breathing. But he's liable to catch his death of cold lying around in the rain."

"Can you try again? Try and wake him up?" asked Aziraphale, worryingly. He knew Crowley liked napping but surely the demon would know better than to fall asleep in the rain. And his body had obviously not been killed, according to the woman. He could hear some shuffling sounds and the muffled sound of the complying woman's voice attempting to rouse Crowley.

Pulling the phone closer to her mouth, she spoke, sounding a notch more concerned now. "You know..I think I best call for an ambulance. He's not looking all that well."

"No, wait!" Aziraphale ordered. "Wait..wait..just let me...." his voice trailed off as his fingers tightened their grip on his phone. He had a rather unpleasant sensation dissipating throughout his body. Something that reminded him of the way he felt during the near apocalypse. "Let me think," he said, almost to himself.

"Sir?"

"Wait...wait..can you wait there? Where are you? I'll come straightaway."

Automatically, the woman listed off the street Aziraphale recognized as where Crowley's flat was located. "I really think I should send for--"

"No, I'm coming! I'm coming!" interrupted the angel urgently, already groping behind him to yank his coat that had been slung over the back of the chair. "Tell him I'm coming."

Dropping the receiver back on the cradle, Aziraphale didn't even realize that for the first time since the invention of the phone, he had hung up on someone. Rushing towards the door, the angel barely remembered to gesture the lights off as he hurried out. The rain was now coming down in blankets.

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Insert usual plea for feedback here.