Notes

Some more smut on archiveofourown - author goodgirl_astray

Getting to the ending. Trying to tie up the loose ends.

If you were wondering. I don't feel worthy of writing Supernatural level action. This whole fic is just a pretext for some Crowley x Naomi interaction, without in any way trying to guess what the new season will bring.

Disclaimer

Supernatural is a television series, created by Eric Kripke, produced by Kripke Enterprises, Wonderland Sound and Vision and Warner Bros. Television, distributed by Warner Bros. Television

End Game

Once they were back in their suite, they seemed to run out of words just as they were running out of time. Yet when he undressed her, he did it slowly, every move he made, every touch he bestowed on her had one essential purpose: to make her forget that their time together was drawing to an end. And make himself forget that very same thing.

He walked Naomi toward the vintage chaise longue. He guided her to kneel on it, with her back to him and her face toward the massive mirror. He needed to see as much of her as possible. And he wanted her to see herself coming. To see how beautiful she was. To see pleasure painted on her always serious face

He leaned over and ran his fingers along her back, tracing her spine, tracing beneath the shoulder blades, where her wings used to spring. He bent over and caressed her breasts, kissed her shoulder, her temple, and whispered in her ear his darkest secret.

"I love you."

She froze, for the briefest of moments and allowed his simple statement to sink in. The pain was turning into pleasure, but she kept crying as she experienced a different shade of dark pleasure. Pain shouldn't feel good. Being loved by a demon shouldn't make her happy. But words like "shouldn't" had no meaning in such moments.

Later, they were lying in bed, still refusing to admit that time was up. Reality was beginning to reasert itself.

"What did Gabriel tell you?" he asked, stroking her hair.

Naomi sighed before answering.

"That Michael might be gone forever."

"Any ideas why Lucifer hadn't made a move yet? Or has he made his move and we just can't see it?"

"He thinks that Lucifer is weakened, too, and our best chance is to trap him before he is fully restored."

"How?"

"You know how!" she said sharply.

He did. The thing Lucifer needed the most was the perfect host. Moose. And that put Naomi at the same point again, putting a human soul on the line. Having to accept that her other "son" was going to be the bait, and maybe the sacrifice to get rid of the devil. Crowley did not hate that outcome. Far from it. To end up having both Winchesters on his team – one inside Hell, keeping Lucifer bound into his body, and the other walking the Earth, having turned into Cain.

"It's going to be all right," he said, holding her a little tighter.

"That's what I told him. I spoke like I was his mother and wanted to make everything better. But I'm not. And I'm not sure I can fix... anything..."

"We'll find a way. We are Groot."

She held him more fiercely, and started laughing, shaking in his embrace. He felt her muscles distend, felt her relaxing in his arms and felt no guilt that he was planning to trap her at the same time as they were trying to trap Lucifer.

You, momentarily wingless angel, are my friend, he was tempted to say, but didn't. He enjoyed the weird feeling of strength given by her arms around him. They were indestructible together. Having the Winchesters and Naomi was the perfect outcome. Yeah, with such allies, he could take on Satan himself! He would have to, in any case, but the chances of winning were a lot better with her at his side.

Crowley took her to the Winchesters' bunker, and because no one needed to know that Naomi could enter at will, they knocked.

Castiel opened the door and didn't seem surprised to see her. Dean had obviously shared the news and also he was probably able to sense her approach. The look on the seraph's face was just about the right mixture of distrust and disgust. It was wonderful. Everyone Naomi had ever had an allegiance to seemed to be disappointed in her, pushing her further away from the light. To make everything perfect, Crowley was looking forward to Sam's reaction, and, with a bit of luck, to Michael's. Being reviled by her "son" and her "husband" would be so nice for him.

Crowley pretended to go look for his Knight of Hell, leaving Naomi and Castiel alone in the living room, but he veiled himself, curious to hear their conversation. He had a feeling that Castiel was too disgusted to communicate with Naomi like Gabriel had.

"I can smell Hell all over you," Castiel said as soon as they were alone.

Crowley couldn't tell if the angel meant anything about him in that statement. He waited for Naomi's answer, curious if she would lie to her former go-to seraph.

"Just as I can smell it all over you. It hangs on us after we descend."

"No one smelled that on me," Castiel said, distrust and disgust equally clear in his tone.

"No one else can recognize it. You can, because you've been there, too. It smells differently on us than on demons or humans."

She had that professorial tone of voice that never failed to arouse him. Crowley was sorry when the conversation was interrupted. He was sure he would learn interesting things. But Dean came in with Sam and Michael. Only because he was looking at her attentively Crowley was able to catch the micro expression. The slight softening in her features. The warmth in her eyes. That thing that looked a lot like love. She was with her human family. In a blink of an eye, all was gone. Cool, bureaucrat Naomi was all anyone could see.

"Alright you two, get to work," Dean said.

Crowley was amused to note that even with the enhanced demon senses, Dean couldn't pierce through his cloaking.

"Three of us," Naomi said and with a vague gesture in his direction ripped off his veil.

All except Michael and Naomi startled at his sudden appearance.

"I was eavesdropping. So sue me!" he said in his customary tone, that of a lovable rogue.

It took them a while to come up with something that had a chance of working. No one was happy with the solution that, once again, Sam was supposed to be placed in Lucifer's path.

It was little surprise that the final decision came to the Winchesters and Castiel. They closed themselves into another room, leaving Crowley, Naomi and Michael in the living room. Naomi wasn't taking this part of the proceedings very well and left the room. Crowley was wondering where she was when Michael spoke, from Adam's body, for the first time. Crowley had a sense of the immense power coiled in the ephemeral human body – an image of the huge bug in an Edgar suit from the first Men in Black movie came to Crowley's mind.

"I wasn't there when Sam was conceived. Naomi wanted the second boy to be protected, too, but my presence was not necessary. Even if he was to be Lucifer's vessel, she considered that her influence would give the child a better fighting chance. Actually, even the first time, it wasn't me she took as lover," Michael said.

Crowley raised an eyebrow. It was strange enough that Michael would address him at all, but to share such information... was most suspicious. Not to mention that it didn't make sense. Why would he deny that he had been Naomi's lover? Well, if the term lovers could apply for what Michael and Naomi were. Jealously, Crowley decided that it did apply. But Michael surprised him even more with the next words.

"It was always about John. She acted like his remote guardian angel ever since Henry Winchester disappeared. She has known this bunker for a long time. Naomi was part of the team that had to figure out what happened to the Men of Letters and with Abaddon. She questioned John when he was four. And in all the years after that, she watched over him. I think she started hating me when I forbade her to save John. It was such an oddity... Watching her grow attached to this human. Watching her want to protect him and Mary when Azazel had them in his sights. When Mary made the deal to bring John from the dead... Naomi became obsessed with watching over this family. When I finally understood why, it didn't matter any more."

"Why?" asked Crowley.

Michael looked at him with an intensity that made him uncomfortable. As if the archangel could see straight to the core of his being. And if he could see Crowley's darkest secrets, he would see the secret that reigned over all of them. That he needed Naomi's love for him to be real.

"Of all the beings in these worlds, you should be able to make an educated guess."

Crowley felt like rolling his eyes and saying something offensive. But, since that would guarantee an end to the confession like tone of the conversation, he just said:

"Nothing springs to mind at the moment."

He was disgusted by the blandness of his statement. So out of character!

"Come on! Don't be modest. It's the same reason the two of you are connected."

"What?" the word came out before Crowley could clamp his mouth shut.

The wheels started turning. He wanted to smack the serene smile off Michael/Adam's face.

"She's the one who got his soul out of hell."

Crowley thought about that time. When Devil's gates were open. He wasn't in charge then. John was in Alaistar's care. And despite Alaistar's efforts, John hadn't broken down. He had not been the righteous man to shed blood in Hell. He didn't break the first seal. Lilith had been seething at the time about Alaistar's lack of success. And what was even more incredible – he had gotten out of Hell. Just walked out. And up.

"I didn't have to go deep after him," Naomi said.

He hadn't heard her approach. She sat next to him, not next to Michael, Crowley noted, but her words were meant for the both of them.

"John fought his way to the gate. Since he was a little boy I taught him to never stop fighting. Never lose faith. Never allow darkness inside. I worked on his mind like a hacker. I didn't allow him to remember me. He didn't even know I existed. He came from a line of men who had been fighting evil for millennia. It was like talking to Adam again."

Adam? This being he had thought to know was talking about the first human being as he would talk about his first hell hound. A first pet. Or maybe not. Maybe it was that almost love which was the most an angel could feel about the creations they were meant to protect.

Until a stronger bond appeared.

"Let me get this straight. You had a connection with John Winchester because you got his soul out of hell?"

Naomi didn't answer. In her awkward silence, Michael answered for her.

"Worry not, demon. She only gave John a hand to get out. Their connection was shallow compared to the one you two share. She put everything she is on the line to recover your soul."

Crowley turned his face from Naomi to Michael, who kept talking.

"Castiel can sense only the stench of Hell over her. I see more clearly. I also see your soul yearning for her grace. That's why she's hiding her grace more and more. That's why she lives like a human and desperately keeps up the pretence that she's dead. To protect you."

"What?" Crowley heard himself ask the same stupid sounding, sass lacking question.

"You would be drawn to her grace. Your soul, dark and twisted as it is, would ruin your mind. Like... a magnet next to a watch."

"Naomi?" Crowley asked.

She looked at him. Embarrassment was painted all over her face.

"It's true," she said. "This bond is artificial. It shouldn't affect your choices."

Fuck that! Crowley was about to exclaim and tell her that the bond had bloody well affected his decision for years when Michael spoke again, to Naomi this time.

"One question remains to be settled. Are you fallen into darkness, little sister?"

The story about Naomi's presence in John's life is in my other story "Lived".