John had entered the advanced stage of tired where he couldn't have slept even given the chance. Thoughts that would usually idle by were getting stuck and repeating at increasing speed until they were all he could focus on.

This is crazy.

His phone thankfully startled him and he answered clumsily.

'You certainly know how to make a comeback, a divine being for a companion? Only you,' he was surprised to hear Midnite's voice talking down to him.

'I don't remember giving you this number', he noted dryly.

'Nor I taking it, but this is no social call. I check in only to confirm that you are not going to be destroying The Balance before I have a chance to open tonight? If anyone were to achieve the feat, John..'

'I'm not destroying anything,' John said hotly. He bit his lip and forced himself to lower his voice, 'and just how do we know this is a divine being? Couldn't it be, something else? Something demonic?'

'How do we know? You are the one with the gift John not I, why do you question yourself?'

Oh I don't know Midnite, in case you decide to stop doing it for me? 'I'm not questioning myself I'm questioning it.'

'You once called it friend, would you believe the evidence of artefacts in place of what you already know?'

'I'm not going to risk it threatening The Balance,' John winced inwardly at how alien such a rebuttal sounded coming from him, but hoped it would appeal to the peace keeper.

'Very well, I would accept your presence this afternoon. You know, John, that I do not make a habit of such favours, but you find yourself in possession of a valuable bargaining treasure.'

With that ominous note he hung up, leaving John to ponder his words. What I already know..

He knew.. He knew how Chas looked when he was scared. He knew how he sounded when he was angry. More than anything he knew how he looked from the back seat of a cab, but those were all surface details. Underneath it all Chas was his apprentice. Chas was his link to the human world. Chas was the closest thing to a friend as he could name. He couldn't say how he felt about him, John didn't think in those terms.

I know I like it when he's wrong about something, 'cos watching him pout makes me smirk.

You know you like it more when he's right, 'cos he gets so intense he doesn't notice you watching.

You know him better than I do, so I'm strictly relying on psychic readings here.

Great, he was so tired he'd developed multiple personalities. He wondered if he should be concerned that the last one sounded like a woman.

'John, are you listening?'

Jesus, when did Angela sneak up on him?

He chose to bypass the phaseout entirely. 'What did you read?'

'He's different from most of the reads I've had, I'm guessing because he's not human.'

'What is he?'

Angela frowned at him, knowing she couldn't give the answer he wanted.

'He's, honest.' She answered carefully. 'Near as I can tell, he's telling the truth. I didn't detect any deception.'

John nodded.

Angela began to walk away, accustomed as she was to the brush-off from John, but something stopped her.

'I can tell you what I did sense; confusion, anxiety. He's lost, I don't think he knows what's going on much better than you do.'

This time John didn't even nod, and having said her piece Angela ducked out.

As she walked away she contemplated ways of tracking the situation. She knew it didn't strictly involve her but she was worried. Chas had seemed sweet, and if he was who he said then she felt for him. If not, she couldn't tell how John would react. Well, at a guess she'd say stoicism and she was sure she'd be right, but she knew this situation was affecting him more deeply than he'd like to let on, and she didn't need an unhinged exorcist on her hands. She wondered why he was so resistant to the idea when it was so clear he wanted Chas back, it was only in his weaker moments he didn't call him, 'it', the rest of the time the barrier was up. John and, 'it', anything to separate them.

Push away the one you're close to so you won't get hurt, a sentiment Angela lamented that she knew far too well.

Swallowed in her thoughts she made her way through the car park towards her hulking van.

Later she would wonder if she'd been more alert, she might have seen the demon half-breed crouching in wait behind it before it was too late.