Water was surrounding him. Pouring into his lungs. Forcing him to stay deep down in the darkness. But even with that, Crowley could scream.

"...calm down! It's just a dream!" a familiar voice appeared in the dreadful void, whose owner seemed to be shaking him by shoulders. "Can you hear me? It's a dream."

Crowley at last managed to open his eyes, only to immediately close them again. Suddenly everything was too bright and why was he feeling as if elephants decided to dance inside his head? Also, truth to be told, Crowley wasn't sure if he was glad to see Aziraphale after all that time.

"Where... am I?" the demon tried to look around.

"On 'Jonash'."

"Huh?"

"Angelic Royal Ship sailing on Earth, and this is my office."

The room was not big, but not small. A cosy space, in creamy and white colours. Moreover, instead of never-ending empty spaces, where archangels liked to lounge, Aziraphale's office had a desk, small library, a window with a view on the ocean and two chairs for visitors. Also, it had a settee, which was presently being occupied by a particular demon.

You could say that the cabin was just enough for one person and a guest.

Crowley had to leave. He waved his hand, hoping to teleport himself out of this vague predicament, then again and again.

"I'm afraid that it won't work." the angel told him from his chair, next to the demon. "We have a much better security now than before."

"Fuck..."

"Please don't try to stand up just yet, your body is still healing after that angelic stun gun. But after a few days of rest, you should be fine."

Great, not only was he stranded, but the demon could barely move. It would have probably taken him ages to just sit up, if not for the angel's help. What was worse, his former friend started to fuss over him, providing more pillows and putting a blanket around his shoulders.

"I don't need this right now." Crowley tried to push Aziraphale away. "You have access to the list of mortals, right?"

"Well, yes." the angel replied confused, when he sat down again.

"Check if Newt, Anathema and Maggie left the mortal realm."

"What?"

"NOW!"

The shout made him breathless for a long moment and he almost didn't notice Aziraphale's angry glare, but the angel was more upset with demon's careless than with the order. Thankfully, he didn't argue and took a tablet from his desk.

"Ms. Nut still has her LIVE card active," he said relieved. "Mr. Pulcifer as well. Maggie... I'm so sorry."

Crowley once again felt, as if he was underwater. What humans usually did in similar situations? Was it said that taking deep breaths could help in remaining calm? Maybe it did not work on demons, because inside he was exploding and his eyes were starting to sting.

"I lost my sunglasses." he said partly to himself, partly to Aziraphale, when checking that his main pocket was empty. "My spare ones as well. Miracle me new ones."

"But..."

"Do it now." Crowley knew that he snapped too harshly. Maggie was dear to the angel as well and he also was struggling to remain composed, but illogically the demon just needed... had to have his sunglasses.

"At least they are together." Crowley commented, when a dark glass was sheltering his eyes from the outside world at last.

"Who?"

"Maggie and Nina."

Aziraphale quickly wrote Nina's surname on the tablet, just to see her invalid LIVE card on the screen. Seconds later, the angel read that Nina rescued her friend during the early floods in London, but paid the ultimate price.

For good long minutes, Crowley only watched the heartbroken reaction, which at last appeared on the angel's face. It was clear that neither of them was expecting that last 24 hours would go like a painful roller-coaster. Shit, a day ago, the demon was just looking for a pub.

He took another breath and spoke:

"Now, tell me, what the fuck is going on."

"... what?"

"The flood!" in other life, he would have allowed Aziraphale to have some time to mourn, but presently he decided to take advantage of the broken companion to get as much information as possible.

"... it wasn't supposed to happen like that."

"A discovery of century! So what those angelic bastards really planned?"

"Don't call them like that!"

"Speak NOW!"

The shout caused another pain in his chest, but al least Aziraphale told him about the Second Coming, the end to eternal conflict between the good and evil, when at the end all was supposed to be better.

"Better?" the demon asked confused. "In which way?"

"It's debatable."

"Bullshit. You would massacre all the living, put them in their place in heaven or hell, and those who would end in hell would not even get a chance for a payroll."

"I know."

"Beside, not everyone who ends below is bad. Mozart is a nice guy, he just had... issues."

Aziraphale raised his eyebrow. Fine, the musician liked to overuse the alcohol, drugs, company of farrier sex and... Well, the list was long... But he still loved his wife and children. He met the guy a few times in hell and then Mozart was always asking about the well being of his family. He stopped only when all of them died and thankfully went to heaven. The relief, which Crowley saw on Mozart's face, stirred an unknown feeling inside him, which hadn't wanted to vanish for few weeks.

"And Earth?" the devil questioned. "What do you plan to do with it? Are you destroying it too?"

"It would be put on hold."

Which could be an existence worse than hell itself. Never changing, never moving or stopping, a limbo, which could bring only madness, because no one could be sure if he was dead or still alive.

"What's wrong with you lot!? Was this your idea!?"

"For heaven's sake, NO! Never" Aziraphale jumped throwing his hands up. "It was never my intention to have it like that. I tired to stop it, make them see that there is more than just the war with hell. But... I failed. Miserably..."

"Was the flood your idea?"

"NO!... yes, I really don't know any more."

"What?!"

"Understand," Aziraphale sat down again and calmly started explaining the situation. "I had to stop the final project. Because if it was finalized, it could have been worse than what we have now. I encouraged to give humanity another chance and..."

"Let me guess, they stated that they got to many chances, but you insisted and then Michel, I am sure it was Michel, started to wonder if in the past they conducted a similar project. And viola, there actually was, on a smaller scale, but still there was."

"... to my defence, in the beginning they wanted to send another asteroid."

"Moron."

"I tried to help!"

"Oh, sure." Crowley sneered. "You just forget to give humans gills. But actually I shouldn't be surprised, even with all that time spent on Earth, you could never grasp a bigger picture,"

"At least I didn't run." the furious angel shouted back,"No, don't deny it. You may pretend that you don't care or say that Spanish Inquisition wasn't you doing, but we both know the truth. Why do you have to insist that you are not good?"

"I'm NOT!" Oh, hell, why it had to be so painful to move.

"Your last rescue mission speaks clear enough. You saved those people from the storm! A normal demon would have never done that."

"I was saving myself." he was sounding like an annoyed child, but he didn't care.

"Crowley," Aziraphale reached to touch his hand, but he stopped, when the demon flinched away. " It wasn't a first time when you did something like that."

"I'm not one of your mates." oh, if the look could kill, he would probably murder the angel a few times over. "I'm not one of them and I don't want to. Thus, there isn't any other option to be someone else."

"Yes..." he sighed, seeing that there was no point to discus the topic any longer." At least, I may assure you that no harm will come to you. You will just need to stay on the ship."

"Or you can just let me go."

"I'm afraid that it wouldn't be so easy."

"So, you would put me a cell?"

"Of course not. Other demons there wouldn't be a good company for you."

It was obvious that Aziraphale wasn't certain what exactly to do. Crowley was just glad that those missing devils weren't just evaporated and were somewhere on the ship. In overcrowded cells presumably.

"Just don't waste your breath and show me that cell."

"Seriously!? Why do you have to be so difficult?"

"I'm a demon, that's a part of my job."

"You are more than that."

"If I was, none of us would be here."

A new kind of pain showed itself on angels' face. The one, which actually made the demon to look away with shame.

"Crowley, I... I mean... I'm sorry that I hurt you. It was never my intention... But I could not reciprocate your feelings."

"It's not that."

"Huh?"

"You may not love me back. But that's fine. I would be sad, but in the end I would move on." he took a deep breathe." What I am not able to understand was... Why did you choose them over me?"

"Crowley, I'm an angel..."

"You are more than that." he insisted and somehow managed to lean over. "We created a third option. Something more than just being a devil or angel. Why haven't you chosen that?"

The pause was long, very long, so much that the devil though that he would never hear the answer.

"Because the system was broken." Aziraphale spoke resigned at last. "And I had to fix it. Help as many as I could."

Oh, his poor angel. Always thinking about others. Of course he would just do that. Wasn't it the reason why he fall in love with him in the beginning?

"Is it even possible?" Crowley asked gently.

"I have to try." a very tired angel said, with two many new wrinkles on the temple and a greyish hair above the ears.

"Do you have a plan?"

He shrugged. No, he didn't have. Typical.

"Do you need help?"

"Would you? Really?" Aziraphale blinked confused, but also with a glint of hope in eyes. "Even after all of that?"

"I can't leave you alone, Angel."

Crowley didn't know what exactly happened, but a second later his companion was hugging him as never before and the demon had a very strong feeling that somehow everything would be fine.