AN: Story's finished! I've never written a whole fic this quickly... lol. Well, anyway, just wanted to thank you guys. I love reading comments. It makes me so happy that you enjoy it, really. So, here's another chapter. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

III

Lilith sat in her office with her feet up on her desk again, slumped in her seat. An elbow remained propped on the arm of the chair and in her fingers she rested her lips, running her index finger along them repeatedly as she remembered The Garden.

The Beginning:

Within the tall walls, nestled in the heart of Eden, was Lilith.

The air was cool against her skin, never warm, never cold: always perfect.

The waterfall made a gentle sound and the spray it sent flying into the ether graced her body as she lay near the shoreline. Lilith stared into the gently swaying water. Her face stared back. It was a reflection, whether she knew the term or not, and it held her attention fiercely. Everything she did, it did in return. It was a wonder to her, how something could be exactly the same and yet not real.

She saw her sun-kissed face reflected back in the water, her fair, sunny hair as it flowed around her body, her bright blue eyes, and her smile. She saw her fingertips as she reached out to touch it, and heard its phantom laugh mimicking her own as her image undulated. It amused her, and she couldn't place why.

A sound drew her gaze from the water and to the other side of the pool. Adam emerged from the leaves, tall, beautiful, and perfect. She continued to marvel at his deeply-colored skin, and how it differed so much from her own. His body was firm and strong, and so alluring to see.

Adam never understood why she peered into the water as often as she did, and knew that if he wanted to find her, that was where he could. He would always shake his head at her in disappointment, a head shake that hurt her to see. Lilith had tried to explain more than once why she enjoyed it so, but he never cared to hear it.

As he had so many times previous, Adam noted what she was doing, shook his head, and retreated back into the forest. Lilith was left saddened by his clear rejection. She wished she could do something to change his thoughts of her, his disappointment, but she didn't know how.

With a final glance to herself, Lilith pushed away from the water's edge, and stood. She turned her back on the pool, saying to herself that she wouldn't visit again, and knowing it was a lie the moment she thought it.

As her feet carried her through the plush, soft, freshly-grown grass, movement caught her eye. Lilith looked to her left just as a large serpent slid into view. It glided down from the tree where it hid. With scales as black as night, a belly red like fire, and eyes a brilliant gold, she had been transfixed by the creature.

An animal so large should have frightened her. A creature such as the one that stared directly into her eyes should have sent Lilith scurrying away, but it didn't. She didn't know fear, not from man or beast. It was only a snake, and a beautiful one to be sure.

Lilith approached the reptile and noted the way its body clung to a low branch. It coiled and twisted, glided and swayed gently, but with strength. When she stood no more than an arm's reach away, its light pink, forked tongue slipped between nonexistent lips. It flicked at the air, tasting it, or sensing her, she didn't know.

Lilith reached forward. The snake didn't shy away. Instead, it allowed her to touch its head. She tenderly ran the tips of her fingers over its scales and marveled at how cold they felt.

"You're beautiful," she told the serpent without knowing whether or not it understood her.

It seemed to, though, and to her surprise slid from the tree. Its long body glided with ease down to the grass. It slithered around her in a wide circle, and still its body lingered within the tree until, finally, it was free.

Two circles it made before it rose up to look her in the eye. Lilith smiled wide. It was a curious creature, but she liked it, liked that it wasn't the same as the other snakes.

As before, Lilith reached forward and touched the reptile. She ran the flat of her hand over its head, down a portion of its back, and up once more to its chin. Curiosity plagued her before she knew the meaning behind the word. Everything in Eden was exciting and new, and it deserved to be examined.

When her hand once again circled its head, the serpent began to move. It started to climb her arm, slithering over her skin. A brief shock of fear touched her. If it chose, the snake could either eat her, or simply crush her beneath its massive frame. But, the result was neither. In fact, to her astonishment, its size decreased.

The higher it went, the smaller it became. Eventually, it was nothing more than a snake of six or so feet, a mere fraction of what it'd been before. It wrapped itself around her, using Lilith as a tree with its body circling her torso and its head near hers.

She marveled at the coolness of it and the way its muscles flexed against her skin to hold it in place. Even the way it slithered through her hair to rest its head upon her shoulder felt strange, but it made her smile.

From that moment on, the serpent was always near. If it wasn't lingering close by, then it was coiled around her body. It became her companion as she and Adam drifted further and further apart.

The Present:

Numerous moments coursed through her mind of her time in Eden, and her time with The Serpent Crowley. She hadn't known then that he was a Fallen. She wasn't in tune with Good or Evil back then and likely never would have known, but she couldn't say it mattered.

Crowley helped her when she was in Eden, helped her more than she could express, and now he was asking her to return the favor. It might have been over six-thousand years later, but she owed him, even if his help had turned her into the monster she was.

Lilith took a deep breath and sighed as she sat upright once more. Wiping a spilled tear from her cheek, she reached for her cell phone and dialed the number of a man who could possibly be useful.

Aziraphale and Crowley rode in silence for a portion of the drive back to the bookshop, a silence that was only broken when Aziraphale offered to send his own human operatives in search of the boy. Crowley, with his mind still occupied, found himself agreeing. While he trusted Lilith to do what she could, the more eyes they had searching for the Antichrist, the better.

"Then it's settled," Aziraphale said. "I'll contact my operatives, and you yours, and we'll task them both with searching for the boy."

"Hm," Crowley nodded.

There was another bought of silence in which Crowley was happy to disappear for the moment, until Aziraphale spoke once more.

"How…" He hesitated, which wasn't uncommon when he was about to ask something he deemed invasive, or sensitive. "How exactly do you and Lilith know one another?" He finally got the words out and Crowley's stomach dropped. "I mean, she recognized you as a serpent. I thought you'd only emerged in Eden after she fled."

"No," he said briskly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Aziraphale staring at him with a questioning gaze.

"You knew her before?"

Crowley tightened his hold on the Bentley's steering wheel, wringing it in his hand before he replied. "I'm the one who told her to leave," he muttered.

Aziraphale heard him anyway and the shock Crowley saw reflected back was instant.

"You didn't." He almost gasped the words, an impressive achievement.

"What?" Crowley's voice was higher than normal as he tried to sound nonchalant.

"You're the cause of all of that girl's… horrors?"

Crowley chewed on the inside of his cheek. He clenched his jaw over and over, rolling the muscles beneath the skin.

"She was better off."

"Does she see it that way?" Aziraphale asked a bit judgingly for Crowley's tastes.

"Hey!" He snapped back. "While you were busy with your little wall, I-I- saw what was really happening. Okay? And-and-and, Adam, alright, Adam wasn't as perfect as he seemed."

Crowley was stammering and he knew it. He was stuck somewhere between trying to defend his actions and the hell he put Lilith through, while trying to remain detached, but it was difficult. Eventually, he simply gave up and said something he hadn't meant to.

Under his breath, he replied, "I should've just told her to eat the bloody apple like I was meant to."

"Why didn't you?"

Crowley bit back a growl and his grip on the steering wheel tightened further, alongside the muscles in his shoulders. He refused to speak. He simply wouldn't do it anymore because he felt he'd already said too much, but Aziraphale didn't mind. He came to his own conclusions.

"You're fond of her," he said in a voice laced with equal bits awe and something that sound suspiciously like sweetness. "Aren't you?"

"Of course not." He growled.

"You are!" Aziraphale chimed.

Crowley shot him a glare, half-expecting to see mocking in his friend's face, but he didn't. All he saw was genuine glee.

"Oh, I knew you were capable of caring about the welfare of others, although…" His voice trailed away, likely as he remembered what followed Crowley's prompting of Lilith to run.

For Satan's sake, he thought to himself.

Thankfully, his reprieve from the situation came in the form of the bookshop lingering in the distance. Crowley quickly, and happily, swerved the body of his massive Bentley toward the curb, and threw it into park.

The two spoke briefly about their plan and the Mad American Woman's book, but their conversation ended shortly after. Aziraphale, always an odd creature in Crowley's mind, was suddenly even more so.

"Tiggity boo?" He muttered while the man in shades of white disappeared into his shop. "Alright… well, that was a thing."

With nothing further to do, Crowley slid back into his Bentley and set off toward his flat at breakneck speed.

Alone once more, Crowley, whether he wanted to or not, began to think of Lilith again. There were times throughout history where he had regretted his part. It wasn't her fleeing Eden that bothered him. He always thought that was rather smart and something that should have been done sooner. What he did regret, however, was what happened to her afterward. He'd underestimated God's wrath, and poor little Lilith, so innocent and rife with humanity, suffered greatly for it.

Time meant nothing in The Garden because, while it had been invented, God hadn't put it into motion yet. She still had a great deal of things She wished to do, plans and schematics for the rest of life on Earth, and something as simple as Time would only serve to complicate things. The sun still rose and set, though nothing changed. The progression of Time wasn't real. As a result, months or years had passed without truly passing.

Crowley had spent an untold period on Lilith's shoulder, or wrapped around an arm, or slithering nearby. Often, he told himself he'd whisper to her soon, that he'd tell her to eat the Forbidden Apple, but he never did. Soon had become his mantra.

But the longer he remained, the more he saw.

Adam didn't like him, nor was he fond of Lilith's adventures throughout The Garden. He expected her to remain home, which was a cave in the side of a cliff beside the waterfalls, all day. There was no point to it, no reason the demon snake could see, but it was expected nonetheless, and when Adam would inevitably find them elsewhere, a fight would ensue.

Adam may not have liked Crowley much, but Crowley didn't like him, either.

More and more, the contention between them grew, and Crowley saw her wither. He pitied her, really, because she didn't understand. Lilith didn't understand why it was so wrong for her to explore when Adam did the same.

Because I am the man, Adam would say, and you are the woman.

Why should it matter? Lilith would counter. We were made together, made as equals at the same time. Why should you be allowed freedom while I must remain at home?

Adam's argument was always the same and it wore on Crowley's nerves.

I am the man.

As though it mattered.

Crowley didn't know what prompted his involvement. He couldn't remember if it was his loathing of Adam, or if that –somehow- through their time together, he'd grown protective of Lilith. He'd like to believe it was the former, but they had spent what equated to months together, so he couldn't be certain.

Whatever the true reason, Crowley could no longer hold his forked tongue, and whispered in her ear.

There is a world beyond Eden, he told her. There is a world where you don't have to bow to someone else. No one will be your superior. And then, likely due to pride or some other sinful emotion, he added, You have no superior.

She had been apprehensive and frightened, things one would expect from someone in a world so new, but he saw the change when it happened.

When Adam and Lilith would lie together, Crowley gladly left the pair to their own devices. He had no interest in playing the voyeur, but he never truly went far.

On the night it happened, he heard Lilith shouting from within their cave. A ball of Hellfire roiled in his gut when she demanded that Adam get off her. He bellowed back that they were meant to lie together to bear God's children, but she was unwilling. Her only concession would be if Adam allowed her to be on top.

Such an odd thing to argue about, really, but Crowley understood her reasoning when she said it. It, once again, came down to them being equal. She didn't understand why he was always the one in a position of power and dominance. When he repeated what had become his catchphrase, Lilith stormed out. That was her final straw and what drove her to leave Eden.

Crowley experienced a strange pang when she left, or perhaps it was simply the sad look in her eyes when he refused to follow. He couldn't go with her. He had orders to stay in Eden and cause further havoc. She seemed betrayed and it had been then he realized that she still thought he was only a snake. She had no idea he was a demon.

The thought to reveal himself came, but vanished just as quickly. What would be the point? Instead, he slithered over to a cloak that had appeared from nowhere. Lilith took the dark fabric, wrapped it around herself, and disappeared through a hole in the wall that had appeared just as suddenly. She was gone within seconds, it seemed.

He shifted into his demonic form, expanding his body into its original shape as he stood at the hole. Crowley watched her disappear into the distance, growing smaller and smaller, with his brows pulled together. Lilith had been kind to him, sweet, and possibly even loving. She might have not known he was a demon, but she'd shown Crowley the first bit of genuine affection he'd experienced since he fell.

He'd miss her, as much as a demon could muster the emotion, but he had no idea what he'd set into motion. He had no idea how such a simple thing would change the poor girl into something so evil that she would become synonymous with the act.

"I'd've let her be on top." He mumbled to himself as he continued to speed through London at an unreasonable speed.