The body collapsed back into Crowley's arms, who disappeared with it, the vessel was breathing heavily, not quite dead,
"Please," the human whispered and Crowley pulled out a knife, her eyes grew wide and hands started shaking before Crowley drove the blade into her heart, the girl in question he had found after a crossroads deal, so he got her soul anyway, even though Amriel had tricked her into saying yes by promising that her contract would be negated by housing an angel. He had found the baby a few weeks ago, recognising the familiar aura that angelic vessels possessed, he had been slightly wary, the father, a kind man called Art who wrote some quite good horror novels had separated from his wife and Crowley disliked the new boyfriend. A drunken gambler with a history of spousal abuse and affiliation with drugs, he hadn't liked the idea of Amriel growing up with him as her father-figure. Perhaps Crowley would pull a couple of strings and have the child placed in Art's care; it was the least he could do for her.
Crowley appeared back in the hospital and found himself in the hall between two rooms with delivering mothers inside, Crowley walked into the ward where his friend was being born.
The baby was red, sticky and disgusting, making its pitiful wailing noise but most definitely a girl,
"Hello, love," he smirked at the baby who looked directly at him and immediately stopped crying, "I told you this was a bad idea, look at you, you're all pasty and gross."
Another man walked into the room, and hugged Joanna, this wasn't the boyfriend, it was her brother, Kevin McBride,
"It's a girl," he said and looked at the baby in her arms, "Two girls, did you and Art have a name?"
"Aislin," Joanna answered, "What about you and Naomi?"
"Karin," Kevin said and Joanna smiled; it made Crowley sick, that was his best friend, an idiot if there ever was one,
"Bloody hell, Amriel," he hissed under his breath, the happy siblings couldn't see him, but he still couldn't hang around forever and this happy families crap was making him physically ill. "Don't do something stupid," he told the baby and walked out of the hospital room. In the ward across the hall, another mother was sobbing hysterically, not out of sorrow, but happiness, talking to a young looking nurse.
"I thought I had lost her," she wept and Crowley looked into the room, interested, "The doctors told us to say our goodbyes."
More than one miracle here today then, Crowley thought, one child brought back from what looked death and a vessel found for a fallen archangel. And the two girls were cousins. The other one, Karin, didn't feel human either, or not entirely human anyway, Crowley had no idea what it could possibly be. Something that had crawled into a human body like Amriel had? It was a possibility, he would have to watch this one as well, at least until he was sure that she posed no threat,
"You can relax now, Mrs McBride, you baby girl is healthy and stable," the nurse responded with a shrill happy sweetness in her voice that made Crowley want to gag, he was a demon, a demon who had just lost the only angel he could actually tolerate and a woman he had called his friend for as long as he could remember. Why should they be happy? He would have to spend years on the outskirts of her life, seeing her grow up as a regular mortal, knowing his luck she would probably become a hunter. At least Crowley would see to it that Aislin didn't have to grow up around that dick of a stepfather; he couldn't give her to the father now at any rate, not if he was going to see the cousins grow up together, but the asshole could get into an accident.
Speak of the devil, Crowley thought as he saw the man walking through the hospital corridors towards his girlfriend's room. Sighing, he reappeared without anyone noticing that a short man in an expensive black suit had just appeared out of thin air, it was the maternity ward afterwards, they were just all so excited about their screaming fleshy bags of goo that a little thing like that escaped their attention. Crowley then proceeded to not-so-accidentally run into the asshole boyfriend, Jarred Callaghan if Crowley wasn't mistaken.
"Hey, watch where you're going," he snarled and Crowley smirked at him, "You think something's funny?"
"Well, its one o'clock in the afternoon and your breath smells like alcohol and you're in a maternity ward, visiting your wife, girlfriend?"
"Girlfriend, she's having her douchebag ex-husband's baby," Jarred said and Crowley sighed,
"Okay, I am really not having a good day, so I'll make this brief, you are going to go into that room and leave your girlfriend and never see her or that child ever again," he said and Jarred clenched his fist,
"Oh, am I?" he asked threateningly, "You got a thing for my girl?"
"No, I simply care about the child," Crowley explained, "Go, have your women, drugs and alcohol, but don't you dare stay in that child's life."
"Why? Why do you care?" Jarred asked, pulling off his sunglasses to take a better look at Crowley, "What do you care if I'm a crappy father?"
"Let's just say I owe it to a very special lady that I happen to care about quite a bit," Crowley said, raising his voice to the point where people were beginning to notice them, "You don't want a kid, so why bother for Joanna? If you really loved her you would have been here for her and not drunk at one o'clock in the frigging afternoon, she isn't that remarkable looks wise, so just go, or you might just get yourself very hurt." Crowley's eyes flashed red to emphasise his point and Jarred jumped backward,
"Freak," he hissed, "Fine, have what you want, I don't care."
Jarred spun around and disappeared around the corner and a small sense of pride filled Crowley, I could always step in, he thought, Joanna is single and it would let me watch over Amriel's new vessel. Somehow, Crowley thought that Joanna might not appreciate being chatted up minutes after having a baby and it wasn't as if he wasn't busy. A crossroads demon's job never ended, if he were to explore the father's route, he would be a woefully absent one. Suddenly Crowley saw Art Hadley jogging briskly up the hallway and he intercepted that man as well,
"Just hear me out, the women in there is the love of your life and the mother of your child, you don't want to leave her, you want to stay and be a father," Art gawped at him and made a move to speak, "Don't talk, get in there, it's a girl, her name is Aislin,"
With that, Crowley walked away, disappearing as soon as he rounded the corner, What do I do now? Amriel was gone but at least Aislin would have a mother and father who loved her.She would remember him sooner or later, hopefully.