"Please…" Rose mumbled before her eyes fluttered shut for the last time. Her body went eerily still and her mind stopped registering the world around her. The feelings of cold and pain and numbness faded into nothing.

Her mind retreated within itself, still silently praying for help. A few more minutes, and she would be gone forever.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

In which

(Written to: RainyMood)

Rose lurched into a sitting position, sucking in air like she would never get any again. Her panicked, swallow breaths sounded more like wheezes and her eyes were wide as she tried to process her new environment.

It wasn't the woods and it wasn't the restaurant. It was white, but it wasn't a hospital. It was lighter than the Bunker, and much cozier than Hell.

"Rose, love, breathe." Crowley's voice washed over her like an ocean wave over the sand, instantly filling her with a sense of security. She felt his strong hands on her arms and the bed she was resting on dip with his weight as he sat beside her.

Rose looked to him, working on slowing and evening her breaths. As she calmed herself, Crowley looked her over, then asked: "What happened?"

Rose blinked. She couldn't remember. Her gaze trailed downwards as she retraced her path. She had been at the Bunker...Crowley had been gone….she remembered being bored and going out to dinner with her brothers….she remembered being worried about her extended family, then-

"What happened?" Crowley repeated, marginally louder, and shook her a little.

Rose swallowed hard, her trance not yet broken. She remembered talking to Sam about the Mark of Cain...she remembered going to the bathroom...she remembered calling-

"What happened?!" Crowley practically roared.

Returning to her normal self, Rose snapped up to glare at her husband and shouted in return: "Give me a minute!"

Nostrils flaring, Rose closed her eyes. She let her head roll back as she remembered the man that took her, then stabbed her, and left her to die.

"It was - a demon tried to kill me." Rose at last answered.

"A demon?" Crowley's voice shook with rage.

Rose nodded. "He - he found me at the restaurant with Sam and Dean..then he took me to the woods somewhere and - and stabbed me. I tried to fight him off, but I left my weapons at the Bunker-"

"What about spells?" Crowley pressed.

"What about them?"

"Didn't you use any? He shouldn't have been able to kill you so easily!"

"I'm a hunter, Crowley!" Rose shouted. "I have been for my whole life! I'm still new to this witch shit! I panicked and I resorted to what I know best!"

"You could have been killed!"

"But I wasn't!"

"Only because I happened to standing next to that pigeon you called for help!"

Rose winced and a hand flew to her wounds. They were still there and still stung, but they were patched and healed for the most part.

Crowley took a deep breath of his own, trying to push away his anger. He hadn't meant to lash out at Rose. His anger at the situation wasn't something he wanted to take out on her.

"Sorry about that." He muttered. "There was only so much the angel and I could do. Whatever you were stabbed with was one hell of a blade."

Rose nodded absentmindedly. "How did you guys end up finding me?"

Crowley took her left hand in his own. He rubbed her engagement/wedding ring with his thumb. When he opened his mouth to answer, Rose did it for him.

"There's a tracking spell on the ring, isn't there?" Rose asked, tired, but somewhat amused.

"You know me so well." Crowley replied. Rose rolled her eyes, then laid back down. She now knew that she was in her bed at the cottage, and she felt safe and comfortable.

"How long have I been out?" Rose asked quietly, her energy fading already.

"31 and a half hours." Crowley ran a hand through her hair and along her face. Rose nodded into the pillow, letting her eyes flutter shut.

"Did you get Dad to Heaven?" She asked softly.

"It took much longer than I expected. You called just as the winged rats finally decided to take him." Crowley huffed.

"They wouldn't take him?" The hunter-turned-witch's face scrunched.

"You know what the Winchester reputation is like. They also took some time to gripe about extra work." Rose only nodded into the pillow again. Her father was safe and finally at peace - in Heaven where he belonged.

"Crowley?"

"Yes, love?"

"That chat you wanted to have….did it have anything to do with me not being queen anymore?" Rose coughed for a moment.

Rose couldn't see his face, but Crowley's brows instantly furrowed and he frowned somewhat. His head reeled back in shock, and he tightened his grip on his wife's hand.

"Now where on Earth did you get an idea like that?" Crowley bit back the anger swelling in his throat again.

"The demon - he said something about a rumor that I wasn't queen anymore." Rose replied quietly. She was drifting back into the embrace of sleep.

Now his curiosity was piqued. "What else did he say?"

Rose swallowed hard - not out of fear or worry, but because she was swallowing down the urge to cough again. She thought in silence for a moment, trying her best to remember. She was silent for several more seconds than Crowley was willing to wait. Assuming she was falling asleep, he gently shook her.

Rose cleared her throat. "He said that - that his loyalties lay with the King and that he was following orders."

While Crowley ground his jaw and kept a vice grip on her hand, Rose peeled her eyes open and propped herself up on her elbows.

"Crowley?" He looked up to meet Rose's eyes. "Tell me it wasn't you."

"Well of course it wasn't me! Don't be daft!" Crowley shot back instantly. Then his voice raised and his face began to turn red. "Why the hell would I send a demon to kill you?! If I wanted you dead - which I don't - I would just do it myself!"

Rose threw herself back onto the pillow. "I'm not saying I think it was you. I don't. But after what he said, you can't really blame me for making sure."

Crowley huffed. She was right. Again. If he were in her place, he would have done exactly the same thing. Well, he might not have been so straightforward about it.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Rose asked softly, her eyes closed again.

"It can wait, love." Crowley replied. He loosened his grip on her hand, intending to go. Rose brought her other hand across her body to hold onto his retreating extremity.

"I'm pretty sure I'm on house arrest, so I'll have plenty of time to rest. You, however, have work to do, so you won't be around the whole time. May as well just tell me now." Rose spoke with an even tone.

"If you insist." Crowley sighed and readjusted himself into a more comfortable position. "It's about your time as a demon."

"What about it?" Rose peeled open an eye to watch her husband.

"You nearly destroyed Hell." Crowley both reprimanded and chuckled. The extent to which that statement was true was far from amusing, but somehow the statement was amusing to hear falling out of his own mouth.

"Straight to the point then, alright." Rose mumbled. "I mean I know I was reckless and killed a lot of dickbags, but I didn't think I was that bad."

"It wasn't just physical destruction. You almost caused the downfall of Hell." The demon elaborated, his voice reaching the higher pitches he only hit when he was distressed.

Rose propped herself up again, pushing to sit all the up. "How the fuck did I do that?!"

"To begin with there was the demon-slaughtering. You killed at least a third of the demons in Hell. Then you hijacked crossroads and killed the clients instead of making deals. Half of the deals you went to collect on ended up killing every person even remotely related to the terms of the deal!"

"What do you mean?" Rose interjected.

"For example, there was a man who made a deal to bring his dead family back to life. Not only did you kill him to collect his soul, you killed his family too!"

Rose cringed. She had repressed most of her time as a demon, but Crowley's words were jarring those memories open. All the moments of bloodlust and sadistic joy flooded her mind, racing past her mind's eye like a film strip.

"Then there was-"

"Stop." Rose barked, her eyes squeezed shut. It was then that Crowley noticed her demeanor. She was hunched, her arms folded over her. Her eyes were shut so tightly that her eyelids were beginning to turn white. But above all, he noticed the pins and needles beginning in his hand.

"Flower, are you alright?" He placed his free hand on her cheek. She instantly reeled away from it, as if frightened.

"I'm sorry. I - I didn't - it wasn't me…" Rose mumbled. Had she been any quieter, Crowley wouldn't have caught a word she said.

"I know." He replied just as softly.

Rose took a great sniff, then a great breath, and loosened her death grip on his hand. "So what was the point of telling me all that?"

"Hmm?" Crowley raised his brows.

"You wouldn't have told me all that just to send me on a guilt trip. So what is it?" Rose asked again.

"I think -" Crowley knew he was probably about to get smacked, but this was something he had to do. "I think until everything is back to status quo-"

"You want me to keep out of Hell business." Rose finished for him, less eloquently than he had been going for.

"Not entirely. But I do need to know what's going on, so everythi-"

"Everything has to be approved by you."

"Would you let me finish?" Crowley retorted. Rose watched him with raised brows, impatiently awaiting his next words. "I've been at this a bit longer than you. I only need to make sure that everything is running smoothly."

"In case you've forgotten, you wouldn't be running Hell as well as you do without me. Your first month as King nearly got you killed. Without me, not only would you be a shit king, you would be dead." Rose scoffed. "When you get stuck, you come to me for help. I know more about running Hell than you would like to believe. I was a fucking demon when I did all that shit. Now I'm human again, and I know what I'm doing."

"I know, but -"

"No buts! There is no 'but' there! Either you recognize that I know how to run Hell or you don't. You made me Queen for a reason, and I'm pretty sure that reason wasn't for me to be some shitty piece of arm candy to show off and fuck when you get bored!" Rose shouted, her eyes wide and nostrils flaring.

Crowley watched her rage with an odd mixture of worry, guilt, and love. That was the Rose he fell in love with. The Rose that wasn't afraid to put him in his place when he was wrong. The Rose that was headstrong, stubborn, and clever.

She did know how to run Hell. She wasn't the same person that had nearly destroyed it. She was right - he wouldn't be King without her. It was Rose that had provided him with the new layout for Hell. It was Rose that had taught him how Hell could be run with diplomacy. It was Rose that had given him dozens of new ways to bring in more souls than ever. It was Rose that had given him ways to advertise crossroad deals. And most importantly, it was Rose that patched him up whenever he got in a scuffle.

Upon his revelation, Crowley looked away in equal parts guilt and acceptance. "You're right. I don't know what I was thinking."

Rose sighed, expelling her rage. She didn't like her rage anymore - it brought back unpleasant feelings and flashes of memories. But now thanks to Crowley's 'chat,' she couldn't get the flashes to go away.

Rose tucked her legs in to spin them past Crowley and over the edge of the bed. Throwing the lush blankets aside, Rose shoved herself off from the bed.

"Rose, lay back down." Crowley spoke with such exhaustion that one might think he had run two marathons and been awake for 8 days.

"I'm fine." Rose brushed off his supportive hand and staggered to the door. She took a moment to rest along the doorframe before pulling the wooden door open, and Crowley seized that moment to jump to his feet and attempt to usher his wife back to bed.

"Flower, you're not healed enough to be on your feet. Whatever it is you need, I'll get it for you." He tried again, placing a hand on either side of her hips. Rose brushed him off again.

"Crowley, I'm fine. I've dealt with shit like this for my whole life. I don't need to be babied." Rose growled then pulled the door open. When she left the bedroom, she made a point of slamming the door behind her.

While Rose stomped off no doubt to find Gavin and probably call her brothers, Crowley returned to the bed and fell upon it, allowing his weight to sink into the mattress. He sighed and let his eyes droop shut. He was exhausted in every possible extent of the word. Being a demon, he didn't wear down as easily as humans, but it still happened more than he cared to admit - especially after all that cure nonsense.

Why had he even allowed Rocky and Bullwinkle to attempt curing him? It certainly wasn't for them - not for their forgiveness - and it certainly wasn't for the sake of the world. No, even with all the new and confusing emotions swirling through his mind, he was still selfish. It was a particularly defining trait of his. Though all the human blood and feelings left his mind focused on one thing and one thing alone: Rose.

When he screamed about how he wanted to be loved - how he deserved to be loved - he thought of Rose. When he asked Moose about where to begin to earn forgiveness, he thought of Rose. He had done so many horrible things in his life, both as a human and a demon. He had never put much thought into it before that day, but in that moment, he was consumed with worry that Rose would never love him - that Rose would never forgive him.

Now he had learned that that wasn't the case. Rose was still an ethical human being, but she had such a characteristic way of loving him despite all of his cruelty. She didn't look past it, she embraced it. He might even go so far as to say she loved that about him.

As Crowley let all those memories and thoughts overwhelm him for what seemed to be the millionth time, he realized that he had screwed up. It wasn't the lying that Rose detested. In truth, it was being treated like she was incompetent. He had let Rowena get inside his head and now he would be lucky if Rose were to forgive him anytime soon.

He would deal with Rowena soon enough. For now, he had bigger problems to worry about. His queen was not being treated as such, and her life was in danger. Not only that, but he was beginning to worry that his own life was in danger because it was essentially his fault Sam and Dean's sister had almost died.

He sighed again. There was too much to worry about, but he would have to start somewhere. And somehow he would have to earn Rose's forgiveness again.

Hello lovelies! I hope you all are doing well!

First off, a HUGE thank you to the wonderful Fallenlily366 and Kagalei for the feedback! Every notification makes me smile and want to write more! Also, I don't remember if I thanked the lovely Savily or not yet. If I did, thanks again! If I didn't, thank you so so much!

Second, that story I mentioned a million times earlier? The Dean/OC one that I've been planning for months? I finally posted the first little bit! It is called 'The Angel Of Music' in case you're interested.

Third and most importantly: the option for Rose and Crowley to have a child only has one vote so far! One against, and zero in favor of them having a child. Don't worry, there is still time. IF I were to do anything involving a child, it would most likely not happen during the events of Season 10. However, I would love to hear from all y'all about it!

Last but not least, you all should go check out the lovely 3's stories! She is a wonderful writer with amazing ideas and not enough love! She's currently writing a pretty great Supernatural fic called 'Spitting Fire' that you should go read (but you might want to read part one: 'Small World'). Please leave some encouraging words for her and follow/favorite! I want her to know just how great a writer she is!

As always, my box is open for anything! I do not own Supernatural, but I do own Marian Rose Winchester and anything that isn't canon and/or widely accepted by the fandom.