I really put my soul into this one. I hope it's worth it.

Enjoy.

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Second chapter in the adventures and explorations of Genette Walker.

Gene stared at the mug of steaming cocoa that the strange bookshop/angel guy had had mysteriously ready for her when she finally stumbled into the room and sat down. For a full five minutes she just sat and stared at him over the top of the mug, waiting for her hands to stop shaking. It all felt so ... unreal, as if she were somehow dreaming or not really here.

Aziraphael watched the girl as she drank her cocoa. She didn't look like a witch, or anything else in fact. Except possibly an accountant or buisiness woman in the making. He could tell that she wasn't really taking this quite seriously, as if she thought that she might wake up any minute. He nodded to himself. Yes, about ten minutes should do it.

"SO, just who are you then?" Gene surprised herself with the question. She had wanted to ask it, but she hadn't meant to, so why had it just slipped out?

Aziraphael blinked and looked at her. Well, no harm in telling her, it's not as if she'll remember it anyway. "I'm ... Aziraphael."

"You're an angel."

Her prompt reply startled him somewhat. How did you come to that conclusion, he longed to ask her, but there would be no point. "Yes." He answered simply. Then, "You don't believe me, do you." Mutely, she shook her head. "Right then. Give me your address." Stuttering slightly she reeled off a long list of house numbers and directions. Aziraphael smiled at her. Okey, he thought, that should be all of it. He snapped his fingers.

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"Crowley? Are you there? Crowley? Crowley! Crowley, turn off that infernal machine and talk to me? Crowley? Crowley, answer the da - darned 'phone!"

"Hey, Azy! Wassup?"

"What? Crowley, don't mess me about! I need to talk to you."

"~sigh~ Okay, okay. What is it?"

"I need to borrow your car."

"Aziraphael, I've known you for over five thousand years now, and in all that time, you never learnt how to drive, let alone think to buy your own car. Can you think of any reason in Hell, Earth or Heaven why I would lend you mine?"

"Because I've got an unconcious young woman in the back of my shop."

There was a long period of silence before Crowley answered.

"Sorry about that Aziraphael. I'm okay now, I just sobered up. What did you say?"

"I said that you should let me borrow your car because I have an unconcious young woman in the back of my shop and I need to take her home."

" Yes, that's what I thought you said. I thought angels weren't allowed to do that sort of thing."

"What? What are you going on about now?"

"It's just that I seem to remember a certain unwritten, but duly enforced, rule that stated that angels weren't permitted to , uh, mix with humans. In that way."

"Huh? Crowley, I really don't - oh right."

"Now you understand what I'm going on about? Penny finally dropped, did it?"

"Oh for goodness sake, shut up Crowley! It's not like that at all! She just came into the shop and started asking strange questions and I'll explain it better when you get here, okay? And don't forget your car."

Aziraphael hung up.

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Back in her house, Gene jerked awake from a particularly strange and vivid dream. She didn't remember going to bed, but that wasn't exactly uncommon these days. No headache, but she suposed that was just a stroke of luck.

She sat up and opened her eyes. Her room was uncomonly tidy. Don't remember doing that, she thought. SHe climbed out of bed and moved to open her warderobe when something caught her eye.

SHe reached out towards the gleaming barely-there ethereal thing and was rewarded with a strange tentative light feathery touch brushing along her palm. She picked the feather up. It was white, a bright vivid and-this-is-why-I-only-use-Wacko-washing-powder kind of white, yet oddly thin. She held it up to the light and it seemed to glow silvery as the early morning light shone through. She absent mindedly brushed it along her upper lip and sniffed. It smelled oddly spicy, like a mixture of old leather and Old Spice. Strange. Maybe she really had - no, don't be stupid.

But still, angel or not, it was very pretty. She placed it very carefully inside a small box on her dressing table and left the room to go shower.

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Crowley grinned at Aziraphael as he got back into the car. "SO, you going to tell me who she is, then?"

"I don't really know. But I think we should keep an eye on her."

"Of course. Discretely, though."

"Yeah. Discretely." Aziraphael surrepticiously scratched his wings. It really itched where he'd pulled the feather out, but he had to leave her something, didn't he?

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Well, that was fun. Please, review and tell me what you think.

Oh, go on, you know you want to.