Right. I'm not sick any more except my dog is because she ate a candle -.- Halfway through a word sprint as well.

As it was midday, Will thought that it was an appropriate time for getting his commander's attention. At this time Crowley would have just finished his meal and would be joyfully headed back to his room completely unaware that Will was approaching him. They both turned the hallway that his office was on at the same time and Crowley, glad from the respite of paperwork called Will into his room laughingly.

"If I had known you were coming I would have cleaned up at least!" he said and walked over to his door. He reached it before the younger man and opened it up for him.

Inside the commander's room was something to say the least. Paperwork was piled upon the desk in many different piles according to where they had come from and their level of emergency. Starting from what would be Crowley's left when he sat down, there were things to be signed, important and often worrying things from the various 50 Rangers posted around fief, the less important Castle Araluen news, the general reports that the Rangers had to complete to do with their fiefs and then a generic crap pile which face it, everyone had. If it was a personal letter, Crowley would open those straight away as they were far in between.

On the floor next to the right hand side of the desk were things that had to go out. Once a day, Crowley would start at the bottom and give them all to the messenger who arrived at his office at a set time. A few times he would have to send one out, or even take it himself, but realistically, he knew that if it was that much of an issue there were other Rangers around him.

To the left of his office were many other doors, each housing a retired Ranger. Even when you had decided you were too old to continue there was still paperwork to be completed everyone joked. But in return, Crowley would reply, you can have a nice warm bed each night and a fire always lit by someone else.

When Will had entered the room Crowley casually motioned him over to the chair that was in front of his desk. Majority of the time it would act as a foot rest, the other times it was the catcher for when Crowley slid a notice off his desk in frustration. Now that he had a guest he made sure that the chair was empty and began to shove the paperwork onto the floor in its piles.

The next order of business, for any Ranger at any time was coffee, and the fire in the room had a kettle on it for that exact purpose. Crowley had placed the water on to boil before he left intending to make himself a cup, now he was thankful that he had placed enough water in it for at least two cups if not more. He made the coffee with a loving care and then placed one cup in front of Will whilst he had the other. He sighed appreciatively before looking at Will's untouched cup and frowning.

"There is no honey," he told him. Will nodded, uncharacteristically silent before taking a small sip and pushing it away. Coffee wouldn't calm his nerves for what he was able to do.

"How are you?" he asked hesitantly.

"Will. Don't beat about the bush," Crowley replied. He had lost his joking facade. If Will was completely serious then this wasn't going to be a joking matter. There was also the fact that he hadn't sent a message to become more paperwork, he had actually had ridden the whole way to the Castle Araluen. Yes, Will had just gone through a nasty break up from what he was hearing from Halt, but had it really affected him this greatly?

"I wish to hand in my silver oakleaf," WIll said.

Crowley's breath caught.

Will? Hand in his silver oakleaf? What was everything coming to? Perhaps the break up had been worse than first thought, Crowley thought bitterly. Either way he couldn't afford to lose someone of Will's calibre.

"No."

"You don't understand why I want to give it up. you haven't even heard my reasoning!" Will said beginning to get agitated.

"Doesn't matter. You are one of the best Rangers we have at the moment and I am not letting you throw all of that away because you were dumped," Crowley replied. he couldn't bear to look into the younger man's eyes anymore and picked up a report. He wasn't planning on reading it but the betrayal was just too strong. He knew what he was doing was the right thing, right?

"But she said she would get back with me if I do this. Perhaps she is just afraid of the the future! After a little while she would be less scared maybe and I could come back!"

"And if she doesn't change her mind and you don't end up coming back? What then Will? Have you even considered what would happen without you? How the corps would function without you?"

"Just as they had before me," Will replied shortly. Crowley shook his head.

"It doesn't work like that."

"Why not?"

"It just doesn't ok? If one of the best Rangers is seen to leave the corps at a young age with no real reasoning behind it then the confidence level present will drop below the ground!"

"But I have a reason, can't you see?!"

"Does anyone else aside from those really close to the two of you know what's happened?" Crowley questioned. Will paused for a moment to think and Crowley felt himself become victorious internally.

"Baron Arald," Will said. Crowley had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Of course the Baron would know! He was meant to be the one hosting the whole thing! He was the so called 'master of ceremonies' that Pauline had created to give the King when she had gotten married to Halt. The King was meant to be the one conducting the marriage, with Halt walking Alyss down the aisle and being Will's best man.

"That makes sense considering he was the host and if it was cancelled or postponed you would need to talk to him," Crowley said.

"All you asked for was someone who know about the events without being in my close circle of friends."

"How many Ranger's know?" Crowley asked. In a very entertaining turn of events all of the Ranger corps had been invited, and allowed to come, as long as they only stayed as long as the gathering would take, Crowley had told them. He wondered what the conversation between Will and Alyss had been like on that aspect.

"Two," Will said reluctantly.

"Halt and Gil?" Crowley doubled checked.

"You and Halt," Will admitted.

"My final answer is no. You need to see the reaction something like that is going to have before you fully considering leaving." Will opened his mouth to reply but closed it again. He shook his head sadly. He reached up and unclipped his silver oakleaf. He had hoped that maybe he would get his gold one whilst being here, but if leaving the silver one was the only way he could get out, then that was going to be it.

Crowley stood up, reached over his desk and covered Will's hands with his own.

"I said no!" he snapped angry.

Will looked at Crowley with adamant eyes. Why could he not understand what he was going through?

"Why won't you take it from me?" Will snapped.

"You are a perfectly fine servicing Ranger. One of the best we have in fact. How could I morally accept your self imposed dismissal when it would impact the kingdom more than your life. Face it, Will, we need you in the corps. If not to go on missions but to act as a role model for the younger apprentices coming up. Your work with them during the tactical training and testing during the gatherings is something I have never seen before and majority of the time, even though it is set by me using aspects of missions I have sent people on over the years, your ideas on how to solve the conundrums are things that never occurred to me.

"In what way then could I let you leave? How would this be beneficial to anyone or anything? Do you know how many peaceful relations Araluen had with other countries because of you? Do you know how many of these are still strong and standing to this day because of you? There is a reason why you bear the name 'Treaty'!" Towards the end of this Crowley was yelling at Will, both men standing face to face with each other.

"You of all people should know what I feel like," Will stated quietly. Crowley had never before seen this side of the normally fun-loving, energetic and happy young man before him. To be frank, it was scaring him more than any of Halt's moods.

"I do not have a woman," Crowley replied. He had now put aside that he knew Will. He was now treating him as though he was a completely different person Crowley had never known before and that his actions were completely unknown. He had fallen back onto the basic Ranger training to test the waters of the situations they were placed in.

"You live for few things. I live the same, you know that."

"Do I?"

"You live for the Ranger corps. Nearly your whole life is just devoted to that one aspect. I live for the corps and Alyss. Nothing else is worth more to me and if I have to quit one in order to keep the other then that is my decision and mine alone. I do not expect to be held up by a commander who should know all of this already but is still ignorant. How much of a Ranger are you anymore?"

Crowley ignored the purposeful jab at him and began to analyse what Will had just said. He knew that if he had responded straight away Will would have seen whatever he had said, even if it was supporting him, as a threat, so he took his time. It was true that he spent all of his energy on the corps. It would have been rare to find anyone for him to live his life with at his age, as well as adding to the fact that he was a Ranger, the odds halved again.

He had already known that Will's life consisted of the corps and Alyss, but there was another factor that he hadn't mentioned and Crowley seized upon this.

"What about your friends?" he said, as though he wasn't one. During his thinking time Crowley had allowed himself to take a breath, calm down and resume his seat.

"What about them?" Will replied shocked out of his battle plan for this meeting. Yes most of it had already gone out the window, as was expected, but this was something he hadn't counted on.

But you can't factor in every possible scenario.

"How do you think they are going to feel? After all they do look to you for advice as well and all of a sudden you are going to go and sulk in a random corner of the kingdom because you just got dumped by your fiancee. Can you imagine the stories that will circulate when you stop appearing in tales from overseas of great deeds, or when you even stop appearing on the streets full stop? Of course people at first will think you're dead but then what? If you manage to get Alyss back they will see you as a trophy husband. Someone who just casually gave away a life of privileges and other assorted high level duties because of a courier."

Will took a deep breath in. He held it for three seconds counted. Then he let it go.

"I don't care about public image, Crowley. I never have. So if you think of me as that being my whole life then you have really misunderstood me for quite a few years now. And to think that I was accepting missions who saw me as a whore for fame." Will laughed bitterly.

Crowley should have accepted defeat then and there if he had been smart about it. The use of a vicious word that he had never once heard Will ever say, even mutter under his breath, should have warned him away. Crowley realistically should have apologised then moved on with things, working behind the scenes on how to get Will back into the corps or at least playing an active role within it. Of course he didn't see the lurking danger, because after all, it was just Will, and he continued pushing.

"I have never seen you as such, but now I am starting to believe it could be the case. I don't understand why you can't get over it."

"She was my fiancee!" Will yelled. That was Crowley's second warning. Will had never yelled at any Ranger in anger like that before no matter how annoyed he was at their stupidity. There were other rangers who did so, some more often than necessary causing them to be given warnings about, but this…

"Get. Over. It." Crowley growled. He was starting to get fed up now, causing rash decisions.

"She is my everything. The love of my life. She is the only person I have ever looked at like that. She is my closest friend since earlier than I can remember," Will growled back.

"She is nothing in comparison to the kingdom," Crowley taunted.

"She is more than any kingdom to me," Will said callous. He basically tore the silver oakleaf from his neck and slammed it down on Crowley's desk.

The noises from inside the room had started to attract attention from those Rangers who had the offices next to Crowley, namely his close circle of advisors. At the loud slam four of them had ran out of their rooms and into Crowleys. The were shocked to see him and Will face to face in a heated stare off.

"Take it back," Crowley growled. He sounded like Halt when he was annoyed, Will noted sidetracked for a second.

"No!" he spat. Crowley growled again. The other Rangers saw that whilst this was perhaps not the situation they had thought it was, someone attacking their commander, it was dangerous all the same. Two of them walked forwards and grabbed Will's arms, pulling him back gently but forcefully and the other two walked beside Crowley, ready to grab him if he made a sudden move to suggest that he would go over his table to get at Will.

"I refuse to accept this," Crowley said, conscious of the fact that the two people around him were the only reason why he hadn't attacked Will in order to knock some sense into the boy.

"Talk it out to each other," said Michael. He was one of the ones holding Will back and sensed that something major had happened. He was right when he saw the false inviting smile on Crowley's face.

"Go on then. Tell these honest men here how you plan on betraying them. Tell them how you refused to continue serving the kingdom," Crowley pushed.

At this the tensions in the room rose. Were they really holding a Ranger who had turned into a traitor of the kingdom? The famous Will Treaty went rogue?

"I wish to resign from my position in the corps," Will said. "I am not a traitor to the kingdom or anything like that. A personal issue has occurred and Crowley is refusing to allow me to go and attempt to resolve it."

"You took an oath to serve the kingdom through thick and then though," Michael said looking at both of the frustrated Rangers in front of him. Will was silent at this.

"Personally I would give it to him," Harrison said. The others nodded. If it was something this major to upset Will then it was an important thing to him and he deserved the time to fix it.

"Couldn't you just ask for time off?" one of the advisors suggested.

"No," Will replied shortly.

"Fine. Piss off then," Crowley said and sat down. His hand shot out and grabbed the silver pendant in front of him and placed it in one of his pockets. He was sure that Will would be wanting it back later.

The advisors slowly let go of Will who nodded to them all a goodbye then walked out to their rooms. Even though it appeared that the problem was resolved they were going to make sure that they kept an ear out for any more trouble. If it did happen one of them would write to Halt to ask him to come and put his ex-apprentice in order.

Will looked at Crowley with a blank, even, stare. In return Crowley stood up again and reached out with his hand to shake Will's.

"It was nice knowing you then," he said. It was a carefully calculated moved. It suggested that he didn't want anything more to do with Will now that he was out of the corps or any sort of command position. Will breathed in heavily at the connotations then nodded. He accepted the handshake civilly before walking out of the door. He got halfway down the corridor again when he was called back.

"Will!" Crowley called out as he jumped up from behind his desk. He ran to the door hoping to catch the younger Ranger in time. No matter how angry either of them had been at the other's actions it wasn't right for them to part like they had, especially if it were truly to be the last time they talked to each other. Thankfully Will had stopped in the middle of the hallway and had turned back to face him.

"Yes?" he asked. He noticed that Crowley didn't have any of his gear on him and guessed that he was called back for another reason.

"Have it your way," Crowley yelled then pegged something shiny at him. Instinctively Will snapped his arm out to catch it. For a moment he allowed it to dig into his hand, relishing the difference in pain to what he was normally feeling these days.

Ever so slowly he turned his hand over and opened it. The gold oakleaf stood out strongly against his pale, wet, cold skin. The pristine nature of the pendant was a strange notion to him as his own silver oakleaf, the one he had just willingly, not so willingly, handed in had multiple scratches on it from years of wear. Every now and then it had even had a blade bounce off it, bearing those marks the deepest. He knew that occasionally a Ranger had to even ask for a new one as their current ones became too tattered to use.

But this was new.

And it was his.

Of his own regretful decisions.

Can I get a review for chapter 9? One review for the whole however many chapters it actually ended up because Halt and Will's bond is just too cute then Crowley and Will fighting is something I had never considered before but now that I write it is really fun and interesting. And because this chapter excluding the ANs is longer than 3000 words?

Just 1 tiny review?

Please?

3

Aly