A longer one this time, but otherwise I would have to make a really short one...
I think this chapter is chocked-full of... well... a lot of things. :)

It have been six days since the plane landed and the two of them were back in the US. "What the hell is this?" Fiona asked herself as she stared into the mirror of a middle class motel bathroom. Crowley was gone for getting her car that still wasn't there – he'd probably be back three hours from then. "A danger to the public, that's what I am."
She diagnosed herself with madness – having a crush on a demon while being someone who's supposed to kill them. "It has to be madness" she said "I'm off my rocker – that's it." She sighed and went back into the living room "He drives me crazy." She muttered, a sad undertone in her voice, as she grabbed Crowley's empty glass from the table and poured some of the scotch into it for dinking it in one go.

As she heard the engine of her car outside the door she jumped up and ran to the door, while she did that she grabbed her still packed back. "Crowley!" she greeted as he came through the door, in the next moment he glared at her "I'm sorry, I really, really am" she whispered as he noticed he was standing in the middle of a devil's trap. It was just poured on the ground with water, so that it would vanish after a time. "I have to go, it's wrong, everything. Don't search me, please." Then she closed the door behind her.

"Bones, talisman, cloth…" she had to be fast "leather, string…" she bound all together, made a hex bag, so that Crowley wouldn't be able to find her. Then she drove away as fast as she could.
An hour later she parked in front of a hotel, decided to stay there. Before the windows and the door she made thick lines of salt, she didn't need a certain, probably pissed off, demons to suddenly appear, and the hex bags wouldn't keep him away for long.
She needed to stay away from him or it would end badly for everyone. Of course it was also a bad decision to work against the new devil.

Nine days later Fiona knelt on a graveyard, a few miles north of Nashville. She had tears in her eyes as she read the names of her parents and her siblings on the tombstones. Being in love with a demon made it hard to pray, knowing that God didn't cared for anything harder, so she quit that and just thought for a moment.
It has been exactly one year since they got killed by those demons. She still was supposed to hate every single one of them, but she couldn't hate Crowley. She placed the flowers on the ground and lightened the candles.
"Sorry" she whispered "I'm probably not the kind of daughter or sister you had wished for, but I can't do different." She stood up and turned around, going back to her car. She didn't notice him watching her.
Crowley stood hidden from her near the church.
There weren't many people, probably because the sun's place was taken by a full moon by now. Besides Fiona there was just a group of Satanists behind the church. Crowley laughed at them. They didn't notice him either, but these prayers and useless rituals were kinda amusing for a demon.
For a moment he considered if he should visit them and take a look at them, he could surely made a few deals. But considered that they would go to hell anyway – why should he?
He had way more important things to do, now that he was so close to be the one they prayed to.
Probably Crowley would already be what he wanted to be, the king of hell, but he was also busy with keeping an eye on Fiona.
It made him feeling like a girl as he admitted to himself that he cared about her.

Crying Fiona fell on the motel bed. Actually she didn't want to be alone at this time, but there was nobody she could call, no one would come. Maybe Crowley would, but he wasn't the kind of society she needed.

It has been twenty-eight days since she left Crowley standing in this devil's trap and she missed him. She missed him badly.
With her foot Fiona shoved the salt away, then drew the sigil on the table and lightened seven black candles. She put all the things she needed into a bowl and cut her her hand, wrapping a piece of cloth around it immediately. "Et ad congregandum eos coram me" she said and lightened a match which she also threw into the bowl.

"Next time: just call." Crowley looked around "At least we're down from our devil's-trap-trip." Fiona purred him a drink and reached it to him "Strange that this thing still works." He pointed at the sigil on the table.

"Why?" She frowned Crowley just grinned "Wait, you got it? You're the new king downstairs?"

"You hit the jackpot, darling. Now tell me, why am I here?"

At once Fiona's grin faded away and was replaced by a serious face. "I… I just…"

"You missed me." He finished and she nodded slightly.

"I… you know…" she shrugged. 'That sounds so damn stupid.' She thought. "You've been right, I do like you."

Crowley leaned against the wall next to him "I know."

"Right. I forget you know everything." She said ironical.

"Not quite that, just a lot."

Fiona looked to the ground.
'I can't say it.' Her heartbeat was faster than ever
'I can't.' she repeated in her head. It was so much easier just to kiss him, so very much easier, so she did.

Crowley chuckled "So what's the reason? My entertainment, or yours, or did you need to satisfy your desire for me?" He repeated her words from the plane.

"Third." Again it was easier to stare holes into the cheap laminate than to look right at him, but as she risked a quick glance into his eyes he saw that she really meant it. "Being with you is awful, but being without you worse." He didn't answered and she glared at him "You laugh I kill you right now."

"You wouldn't."´

"I would" she pulled the knife out of her belt, held it up and put it back in its place. 'Maybe I would kill myself several days later, but I would.' She added in her head. Then he was gone. "Sure" she sighed and fell backwards on the bad. 'How could I be this stupid? How could I even think that he maybe could like me?' in the next moment she started silently sobbing into the pillow.

Somewhere else a random house exploded. "Bollox!" an upset Crowley yelled into the night. Bad enough he had those feelings towards a human, no, she had to return them. That couldn't work out. If anyone would find out… It would be fatal for both of them.
On the other hand… Now that he was the king he was able to protect her, there was a way to keep her save.

Fiona just poured in the third glass of Scotch as someone took the glass from her, drank it himself and kissed her. "You don't have a clue in what you got yourself involved to." Crowley said and Fiona swallowed.

"I don't care" she answered surely.

"Don't tell me I never warned you."

This night she fell asleep in his arms, cuddled up to him on the couch while he zapped through TV, stopping at a documentary about theories for the 'imminent apocalypse' involving aliens, several sects and other ridicules stuff.
He zapped on until he realized that there was nothing watchable and turned the device off.
Crowley started thinking about what had happened, that he was now involved into something like a relationship, for all that he had doubted this was possible not a long time ago. But being a demon doesn't mean having no feelings, at least for some of them.
It was sure for both of them they would keep it a secret. The King's girl, his weakness, et cetera. And a hunter being with a demon… Worse than any other thing he could imagine and probably the stuff for a new teen-novel.

Fiona opened her eyes at something around nine in the morning "This isn't real." She muttered.

"Good morning would be way more suitable, don't you think?"

Fiona frowned "This isn't real" she repeated. "You're not real, this is a dream." Crowley wanted to say something, but Fiona was faster "Or an illusion. A Djinn, that's it!" again the demon took breath "G-great. I'm gonna die. And go to hell. And –"

"Shut it!" he finally yelled and she was silent immediately "You see, it works. First: your fully conscious." Fiona opened her mouth "Second" he interrupted loudly "Even if you would die and go to hell there wouldn't be something bad about it."

"No, just torture and… and… torture… and… maybe torture. Not that bad." She scoffed, wild gesticulating.

"Not for you." Crowley gave a little laugh "Not since you're with the king of hell, darling"

"Am I? Seriously? No joke?" Fiona was so damn happy as Crowley held his hands up to show that none of his fingers were crossed. "Wow." She muttered "I have to be a lucky girl"

"Really lucky" the demon confirmed "I mean everyone would be jealous."

"Yeah, anyways, you're still a smug, annoying – "

"We've been through this uncountable times, remember? Smug, blah blah, annoying, blah, disgusting... After two minutes you run out of adjectives, so would you shut up?" Crowley interrupted, as always.

"I googled." She grinned "my list is longer than you may think and if you want me to shut up you need to make me, so long I –" He did how she told him, silenced her with a deep kiss, pushing her into the couch. "That would work for now." She grinned. Then her face became serious and she sat up.

Crowley frowned slightly "What?" he asked, but got no answer "W-what?" he repeated "Fiona!"

"I'm not sure about this" she answered, tried not to look at him "I'm totally unsure." She paused a moment "I know what you're thinking 'Stop with this gibble gabble 'bout feelings' but –"

"No."

Fiona gave a little saddish smile "Hear me out, okay? Anyways… I'm afraid. I mean… what I said is true, I have deep, deep feelings for you, I'm afraid – you know, this isn't a game."

"Never thought that way." He assured "I do really like you"

"That's not what I mean." Fiona stared an invisible hole into the floor, just wanted to jump into it. Three damn words, and they were so hard to say "I love you" she said quickly and wished even more the hole would be real. "I guess" she added silently, still avoiding his gaze.

Crowley was slightly amused. Not because he thought it was funny, there was just something really cute about her. "I know." He just said. "Let me say it like this…" He thought for a moment "… I do pretty much … feel the same for you, but don't expect me for saying it too often."

She saw that he felt really uncomfortable talking about feelings and such stuff, sure, he was the King of Hell, a damn powerful demon, the new devil… Anyway she wondered for what the 'pretty much' had been. So she asked.

"You said you guess, than these words, I'm sure about that stuff." He shrugged.

"Actually I said first… 'these words' and then 'I guess'…" she chuckled to herself and kissed him again. He put his hand to her cheek and pulled her a little closer.

"I could get used to this" he said.

"You are, it's been your job." She remembered.

"Besides Singer you're the only one using tongue." Fiona wanted to ask if Bobby really did, but hold the question back as she realized that she didn't really wanted to know.
This time Crowley was the one who got serious at once and rolled his eyes "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm needed downstairs."

"Yeah, everyone wants you" she scoffed.

"I nearly heard the click in the brain of yours. So, have a nice one darling." Then he vanished and Fiona started a silent chuckling before she got up and went into the bathroom.

Around noon she drove into town for getting a few things she needed and to the closest church for new holy water.
Also she bought a few new clothes and went to eat something. It took her pretty long, nearly until 9 in the evening to do everything she wanted.
As she was back at the hotel she sat down on the couch and watched TV there was just a pretty bad horror movie, but she decided to watch it anyway. As a hunter it was pretty difficult to find a horror movie that wasn't bad, as a hunter your whole life is a horror movie. In general every movie about any supernatural things was bad. Mainly because a hunter knows that, for example, possessed people don't sprain like in a game of Twister, or that vampires don't sparkle. No, seriously, sparkling vampires? Fiona chuckled as that thought came into her mind.
Bored she rolled her eyes as the protagonist of the movie was attacked by ghosts while an iron pipe was right behind them. She was glad as her phone rang.

"Last shelter for lost souls" she picked up and got silence as a reaction.

"Uh… is… is this Fiona Blend?" An unsure voice asked. It has to belong to a young woman.

"Depends on who am I talking with" Fiona grinned slightly "So?"

"My name is Emily Paganetti. I… I need help." The young woman stumbled. "Quick."

"Uh… okay, sure, where did you get my number anyway?"

"A friend. So, can you help me or not?" the woman seemed afraid and of course Fiona would try to help. Emily asked for a meeting, as soon as possible, the drive would take around nine hours, so Fiona got all her things together and started driving. For Crowley she had left a message on the table, telling him where she was about to go and that he should check out.
Around 9am the red Firebird parked on front of a pretty big house in an upscale neighborhood in Oklahoma City. Fiona checked the address, but it was the right house, so she got out of the car and walked towards the white door. She rang and a few seconds later a woman, around her age, little bit taller than herself and dressed just like she had suggested as Fiona saw the house.

"Miss Blend?" the woman asked.

"Fiona." She corrected "I suggest you're Emily Pahanetti?"

"Right." The women confirmed "But please, come in." she went a step to the side, letting the hunter in. 'This woman isn't low of funds, that's for sure.' Fiona thought as she looked around. The floor seemed to be one of those that never get dirty 'course someone was cleaning it as soon as a crumb fell on it. The wall was painted in a cream color and the furniture were solely in a dark brown, probably everything hand made out of precious wood species.

"Wow, that's a really… nice house… inherited?" Fiona asked as she followed Emily into a huge living room.

"Uh… no" she answered "actually that's my problem."

A sneaking suspicion started to grow inside of Fiona. "Right… so, tell me, how can I help?"

"It's a time ago, actually it was around my 18th birthday." The sneaking suspicion started getting bigger "I always loved writing, but never got more than a few nice words from friends and my family for my work and –"

"Sorry to interrupt, but let me a guess: ten years ago you found out about people who made deals with demons, thought: 'what's my soul against ten years of writing', right?"

"Yes. First I thought there wouldn't be a grain of truth in this Robert Johnson story, but I tried it anyway. It really worked… now I'm writing scripts for Hollywood…" Fiona nodded silently "Tomorrow it's exactly ten years." Frowning they both looked at the clock. 9.15 am.

"Well…" Fiona didn't know how to say "I'm –"

"Please, you need to help me, please. I have a family, a son and a wonderful husband, they need me." Tears filled the eyes of Emily.

"I… will see what I can do." She stumbled "But to be honest it will be very hard. It's like this: I suggest you made this deal with a young woman?" Emily nodded "Right, it's just like everywhere else, they have a boss. Means to get you out of your deal we either have to convince him to release you, or… kill him." She didn't even want to think about killing Crowley, but she had to say something "I know this bastard, and both of it isn't really realistic, especially since he's the king of hell."

"You mean Lucifer?" Emily asked with a slight frown.

"No, no, Lucifer's well… it's a long story. Fact is he's pretty much one of the subtlest guys I know…" the writer looked at the ground "I will do my best" Fiona repeated.

Half an hour later Fiona came out of the house and walked back to her car. "Nice speech, love" a voice behind her piped up.

"Always." Fiona answered without turning around "You know that the piping-up-out-of-thin-air-thing starts getting old?" she added. Ignoring her statement Crowley opened the driver's door and held it open for Fiona "Becoming a true gentleman, are we?"

"Always been one." He answered now from right next to her. "I think you know you don't even have to ask if I take the deal back?"

"Sure." Fiona put the key into the ignition lock but didn't start the Pontiac. "But as a formality I will do it anyway, so, would you please take the deal back, Crowley?"

"Stop pleading. And don't even start with asking to quit deals." He knew that if he would indulge this one time she'd know how to get him to do everything she wanted – or at least a lot. "Deals – my business. Hunting – your business. I don't intervene in your hunting you don't do in my deals and everything's fine."

"As long as we don't talk about politics…" Fiona sighed "Anyway, how is it going in hell?" now she started the engine and drove to the next place where she could get something to eat.

"It's chaos." Crowley growled "These stupid demons are bitching around and asking stupid questions and they just don't get what they have in me."

Fiona's smile dropped "Oh, I'm sure they will understand soon enough, love" she talked like to a child that just lost its favorite cuddly toy. "They're just still used to the old rules, you know?"

"Shut up."

"Oh, how nice you are" Fiona stopped at a bakery "You wait here?"

"No." Crowley stood outside the car as she got out and rolled her eyes at him.

"Sometimes I think I should just… just… well… I don't quite know, but I will surely find something."

"May I propose something?" Without waiting for an answer the demon talked on "Two choices: first: just shut up. Second…" he grabbed the woman by her shoulder and pressed a kiss on her lips "this."

"Awww" Fiona grinned "I know you could be cute, I always knew it!"

"What the hell are you talking about" Crowley screwed his face.

"See, just right now you are" she giggled and went inside the bakery. At the sight of the long line she sighed "Beautiful." She muttered "Waiting."

"You say it" an elderly lady who stood in front of them answered "If you ask me there is nothing worse than this…"

"Yeah, it's hell." As Fiona turned her head back to Crowley he showed a bright grin. "What's so funny?"

"Waiting in line's hell, huh?"

"You know how I mean it, we already talked about this."

"Right now, what's the worst thing you can imagine?" he asked on.

"I dunno, listen to you forever?" Fiona answered annoyed.

"Oh, sweetheart, we both know you're lying again" as an answer she just screwed her face and sighed annoyed "I love you too, darling."

Shocked her head spun around "What did you just say? Repeat it."

"I said…" Crowley thought about what he said, realized that it were exactly those three words he haven't brought himself to say "…It doesn't matter. So, now say: what's the worst thing you can imagine?"

"Standing in line until all eternity." She muttered, thinking of what Crowley had said. Then on the other hand grinned again.
In his head Crowley imagined the new appearance of hell, his hell, anyway there was also this thought about repeating the words, but that was scrapped quickly.

After half an eternity Fiona could finally get something to eat.
"Take a shower." Crowley said as they went back to the car. Fiona frowned "You stink of incense."

"Sorry I needed to do my job, but maybe it helps you if I say you stink of sulfur?" Fiona rolled her eyes at him "But for your highness I will – as soon as I've found an acceptable motel." Then she looked out of the window next to her "This deal… Pahanetti… could you –"

"No." he interrupted harshly.

"Please" she bagged and looked back at him with big eyes.

"You can ask me for anything" he explained "as long as you keep out of my deals."

She sighed. "If I would offer you my soul…" Fiona started in a thoughtful voice "…would you take it?"

"No" he said again. "It would already be mine if I would."

"Of course" Fiona nodded with an ironical expression.

"Don't underestimate me, ducky. I could sell a deal to everyone." Sure of himself the demon – aka king of hell – leaned back into the seat and grinned.

"Do I want to know who your… business partners are – besides me?" she stopped at a traffic light and raised an eyebrow at him.

Crowley just gave one chuckle "I know for a fact that you do, but sorry, business secrets. Plus: it's not my department anymore."

"Right, your Majesty."

Okay, I'm outing myself: I love those lines. And Rashelle Fear's reviews, if there sould be anyone else out there reading this: It would be amazing to hear your opinions too :))