I'm trying to write a new chapter at least each month! I believe my last one was in February, so here is my March entry! Enjoy!

*note, there is a POV shift from the last chapter but there are no time skips nor POV shifts in this specific chapter.*

Chapter 14: Hit List

Crowley and Meg somehow got through the hatch easily and I couldn't figure it out one bit because I kept bumping into the sides and almost slipping away from the ladder that was wobblier than anything I've ever seen. At one point my—Crowley's—tie got caught on some sort of metal poking out of the wall and it took me a moment to get it off, causing Meg and Crowley to holler at me as if I were doing this on purpose. I ignored them because I knew saying something wouldn't help, and then finally I got the tie off the small pipe or whatever it was. It was so dark and my flashlight was currently in my pocket so I couldn't entirely tell what was around me, either, which was equally as frustrating.

Finally I reached the bottom and I could see Meg and Crowley sneer at me, trying not to laugh. "What? What is it?" I asked, confused. They then looked at each other and back at me, with Meg finally starting to cackle and folding over. "What?!" I asked again, getting a bit annoyed that they weren't saying anything.

Crowley, who was able to keep his composure, grinned and pointed at me before saying, "You're bloody dirty as if you rolled around in the dirt, mate!" That was when he couldn't keep his laughter in and he and Meg both laughed against each other. Wow, are they serious? It couldn't be that bad!

"All right, all right, it's hilarious. I'm sure it's not that bad and you're just trying to make me get self-conscious. How about we focus on the goal here, huh? Also, shouldn't we be quiet?"

"Nah, we're alone," Meg answered after she stifled her giggles and seemed to calm down a bit, "We scoped the area briefly while you were, uh, busy up there. Didn't check your phone again while you were up there, did ya?" At her last comment, I felt my stomach jolt. My eyes darted towards Crowley and then back to her, hoping that he wouldn't think much of what she just said. However…

"Checking your phone while going down the hatch, huh? How important was it that it got you to collect dust?" Crowley spoke in a playful manner so I was hoping that he didn't find anything suspicious about it. If he did, he was hiding it well.

"People text me, you know. I may not hang around a lot of people but I still have friends," I retorted, trying to be as sassy as possible to distract him from what I was actually doing. I didn't want to spy on Crowley, and I wasn't planning on telling the Winchesters about him, but what we just came across… it's a big deal. A big kahuna mob boss that has a secret lair? This is something I would have to call in immediately! This whole double-agent crap was starting to get to me; I didn't realize just how complicated my life would be until that point.

My tactic seemed to work because they both just laughed and turned back to looking around the room. It was pitch black, so our flashlights were essential for finding out anything; I started searching the walls for some sort of light switch which I finally found after a few terrifying moments of what the heck did I just touch. I flipped it, and then there was a dim light filling the room after a few flickers. Once my eyes adjusted, I was finally able to scope the area: dark, dirty walls (I made a mental note that I'd have to wash my hands thoroughly since I had searched the walls with them) and a plain, black desk with a turned over chair. The room was relatively small, and there didn't seem to be anything quite interesting about it. Maybe that meant I didn't need to feel divided about whether I should or not call this in?

"Hey, look at this." Crowley's voice made me look over to where he and Meg were standing. At first it looked like they were staring at the wall, but as I got closer I noticed there was some sort of billboard with pictures on it—pictures of people, to be specific. "Recognize any of these faces?" he asked Meg, but all she did was stare in silence. Crowley then snapped his fingers to catch her attention: "He-llo? Earth to Megan?"

"It's Meg," she then responded rather quickly.

"Ah, I see, so you're just ignoring me. That's perfect. That's fine, guess we won't find Bela aftera—"

"Will you just shut the hell up?! I was thinking! You wanna know who these people are? They are people who left the group. They're people that were then ordered to be killed. You know, how I was supposed to be hadn't Lucifer butt in," she explained in an almost exasperated manner. She seemed extremely bothered by all this, which was completely understandable given her situation.

"Your picture is not here, though," I observed as I peeked past her head—I hadn't noticed how short she was until then. "That's a good thing, right?" She brought a hand up to her chin, seemingly lost in thought but then shrugged.

"I don't really know. Maybe. We should check out the desk." She then squeezed past Crowley and me over to the dusty piece of furniture that didn't have anything atop it. She started shuffling through papers within the drawers in search of something—whether for something specific or not, I had no idea. That was when Crowley came up to me asking if we could talk in private for a moment to which Meg quipped that it would be difficult to do so due to the room being slightly larger than the size of a cubicle. He, of course, rolled his eyes and didn't respond to her. Crowley gestured to the farthest corner away from Meg, leading me with his arm around the back of my shoulders. Had this been way back when we first met, I would have felt uncomfortable, but right at that moment it almost felt comforting in a way. I was confused by this thought that went through my mind and I quickly dismissed it for he then started talking to me quietly about something a bit more important than that.

"Hey, are you doing okay?" he inquired in an almost worried manner, "You've been… off lately. Did you hear anything from the skyscraper and bowlegs?" Sam and Dean I assumed is what he meant, and that made my insides twist and turn. I tried not to show it in my face but took advantage of previous circumstances of mine as an excuse, hoping it would be good enough for him.

"It's just the after effects of being hung over, I'm sure," I answered in a slightly graveled tone—on purpose, yes, but I needed to act the part to make it believable, or at least halfway believable, because he didn't entirely seem to buy it. I could tell since his eyes squinted slightly and his eyebrows rose as he kept his eyes on me. I shifted my weight uncomfortably in the silence that was settling between us, unsure of what else I should do. "Sam and Dean have been telling me that nothing's been going on. They've got no leads or anything. That's good news, right? Don't worry about it; we're fine." What I told him was completely true. Yes, I omitted the fact that they wanted me to keep an eye on Crowley, but I also wasn't telling them anything about what was going on, so there was no need to inform him about that detail, right? It seemed logical enough to me. Besides, my last sentence changed his demeanor entirely from stiff and concerned to relaxed and calm. He then smiled at me.

"Oh, good. That is most certainly good news. Just let me know if any of that changes, all right, m'dear?" He then patted me on the shoulder, gripping it tightly in the sort of way good friends do when they are trying to be emotionally helpful in one way or another. I didn't entirely understand, but all I knew was that his hand on my shoulder was warm through the shirt of his that I was wearing and it made me feel better almost immediately. It was strange, certainly, but before I could think about any internal conflicts Meg yelled out to the both of us.

"Eureka!" she hollered with excitement, pulling out a file of some sort and skimming through it. I looked at Crowley who nodded at me and we both headed back over to our other partner-in-crime. Once we were close enough, she waved the file around in front of our faces, flapping it against Crowley's nose purposefully—to which he shouted indignantly, "Stop that at once!"—before opening it up and explaining what it was that she was so ecstatic about.

"All right, boys: listen up! Here we've got a blueprint. Not just any blueprint. It's Lucifer's new abode. It has to be! Why else would this be here? It has been scribbled all over but from what I gather, it looks like they've taken a modern approach. Ole Loosey Goosey seems to have joined the club crowd," she explained quickly.

"Go on…?" Crowley was watching her curiously, crossing his arms as he awaited her to continue speaking. She smirked and smacked the file closed in a rather dramatic manner, dropping it down on the desk with a loud thwump.

"That, my dear friend, means that he's moved completely underground—underneath a dance club, to be exact. What better place to be other than somewhere there are always people? It's genius!" Meg seemed a bit too into this whole thing, but then again this meant that we were getting one step closer to Bela, which was a great thing.

"I should call this in—" I started, but then Crowley placed his hand atop my head, which startled me and caused me to trail off my sentence. I looked over at him and he scrunched up his face in a sort of uncertain way. Did he not think it was a good idea to do?

"How about we take matters into our own hands, Cassie? No need to get your folks involved, yes?"

"No, I don't think that's a good idea. I've already withheld a lot of information from them. I can't afford to keep risking my job like this; I have to call it in," I argued firmly, removing his hand from my head with a frown. He seemed a tad bit surprised with my sudden sternness—that reaction made me feel a bit satisfied, I'm not going to lie. "I'll wait until we're gone and out of here, but I'll have to call it in. I'm going to. It won't interrupt our plans, I promise. Remember, if we have the police force on our side, we'll find her faster. Fair enough?" Surprisingly enough for me, Crowley contemplated my words and nodded in agreement. Well, that was weird.

Meg was obviously getting impatient with all the chatter and stalling because she was now set on a mission, the path was just cleared, and the destination was now in her sights. "Are you boys ready to get into the club scene?" she asked with a wriggle of her eyebrows and a wide grin.