For a very long moment, Mother and son stared at one another in silent tableau. Unconsciously, Rowena felt her back straighten. She cleared her face of any tears or distress and pulled her face into a smiling mask almost at once.

"Fergus… I didn't hear you get up."

But Crowley wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. How could he explain the feelings fighting for control of him? Looking at his mother's face made him want to vomit. It was a combination of revulsion, horrified fascination, confusion, guilt, anger, and sorrow. That horrifying cocktail of feelings swept through him, coloring his thoughts and words. When he finally spoke, it was in shock.

"Mummy, what happened to you?"

The way he phrased the question made her think it was a three year old child asking it, and her demeanor softened notably.

"Mummy just had a bad day. Please don't worry about me, dearie. I'll be perfectly fine, I promise you. A little healing spell and I'll be right as rain.

"Did he do this to you?"

"It was my fault." She found herself saying. "I provoked him, and I paid the price." She said, rubbing her arm unconsciously.

Even as she said the words she was surprised at how deeply she felt them. It was just like when they had been involved as a couple all those centuries ago. Somehow everything had always been her fault, and she had always taken it that way at the time. He had been in complete control of her. But when he had gone and she had begun to discover magic and the true strength inside of herself, she began to realize that it wasn't her fault at all. It was his. He couldn't control his anger. He lashed out at her to cover his faults. He belittled her into feeling like she was nothing to build himself up. The realization had freed her, and she had been able to move on from being that scared little girl who smelled of filth and death.

But then today had happened. Today had robbed her of three hundred years of progress and sent her back to square one, all because she resorted back to her cowardly ways when he began to hold her hostage. She could not put her shame into words.

Crowley looked at his mother, appraising her up and down. She was covered in so many bruises that he thought she might be able to call them a new dress if she had half a mind to. It sickened him to his core to see her so weakened. A voice inside of him kept saying that he should kill the bastard now and just get it over with, but his rational side kept telling him that that was much too easy. He grew upset very quickly when he heard his mother's comment.

"You think all this is your fault?" He asked in a soft monotone. He had to be sure of what he had heard.

He did not miss her almost imperceptible nod.

Rage, full and undiluted swept through his body. He gave his mother a smoking glare, and didn't miss the way she flinched under his imperious gaze. He took a breath to steady himself.

"Mummy, this isn't your fault at all." At that, her head snapped up. She eyed him warily. "He's the jackass with all of the problems and he took it out on you. Don't listen to a word he says. It isn't worth your time. I promise you." She smiled a little at that.

"You sound so grown up." She said, smiling. The smile faded when she thought of what she'd had to go through to save him. He didn't miss the change in her demeanor, but thought she was having a flashback of some sort.

"It's alright. I'll protect you."

She smiled a bitter, rueful smile, and he was suddenly imbued with the knowledge that something more had happened here.

"Mummy? What aren't you telling me?"

"It's nothing, dear."

"Just tell me." He sighed, exasperated. Rowena looked away from her son.

"When you regressed he threatened you to get me to comply."

It took Crowley a few moments to absorb her words. When they finally set in he was speechless. His mother had sacrificed everything for him. And what could he give her in return? Empty promises and platitudes? No. No more. He may have been a liar when he made promises to the demons to return Hell to it's former glory, but this was a promise that he would keep. He would not let himself be used for his mother's torment.

It was time to make him pay.

Rowena saw the fire light in her son's eyes, and it sparked something inside of her. A way of thinking that she had abandoned too easily in her youth. She had made excuses for his behavior long enough. No more. Crowley held a hand out to her.

"I won't let him get away with this, Mummy. I promise that he will never hurt you again."

"Fergus, you know better than to make promises you can't keep."

"I intend to keep this one."

"How?"

A devilish grin swept across his face. "Because we're going to kill him. Together."

Rowena looked up in surprise at that. The words almost made her want to laugh and ask her son if he was serious, but she could tell by the look on his face and the tenseness in his muscles that he was indeed completely serious so she held back a laugh. She knew if anyone could break Angus into a million pieces before helping him to meet his untimely end, it was her little boy. She smiled, and it made her son grin even more until he looked like the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland. After all, what else did she have to lose? She reached out to him and looped her arm through his and began leading him out of the bathroom.

"You've got yourself a deal."

The impish grin only widened from there. "Perfect."