Discorporated Part 11

The first phone call that Crowley made after hanging up with Pepper was one to James.  He wanted to clear things up and make sure that he understood where they were.  He didn't want to do it over the phone, though.  He asked James to come over and set everything up in the back room of the library.  

"Hey."  James said as he came into the library.  Crowley had left the door unlocked.  

"Hi."  Crowley said with a smile.  When James came over and tried to give him a kiss, he stepped back a little bit and cleared his throat.  

"What's going on?"  James asked with a raised eyebrow.  

"I need to talk to you about something."  Crowley said, leading James back to the back room.  

"That's never good."  James sighed heavily and followed Crowley.  When he walked into the back room, Crowley was holding out a glass of wine.  

"It's a bit complicated.  And maybe a little hard to explain."  Crowley cleared his throat again.  

"Alright."  James said as he took the glass of wine and just stared at Crowley.  

"Do you want to sit?"  Crowley motioned to the couch.  

"No, I think I'll stand for this."  James replied before taking a drink of his wine.  

"Alright."  Crowley nodded.  He took a drink of his own wine before sitting down on the couch.  "Something has come up that I wasn't at all expecting."  

"Oh?"  James raised an eyebrow.  He just held the glass of wine in his hand as he went to lean back against Crowley's desk.  

"I told you about Aziraphale.  About what happened to him?"  

"Yes, you did."  James took another sip of his wine.  

"I didn't exactly tell you everything."  Crowley set his wineglass down.  "Aziraphale was turned into a ghost.  He's been haunting this library since just after the accident."  

"Okay."  James was a bit skeptical.  He could believe in demons and angels but for some reason ghosts were a bit of a stretch.  "What does this have to do with me?"  

"Well, after that week together, I thought that I should be honest with you.  I'd actually started giving myself permission to move on and then I was given a bit of information."  Crowley ran his fingers through his hair.  

"And what information is that?"  James was getting irritated with the run around.  

"There's a good possibility that Aziraphale could be brought back.  Azrael, the angel of death, knows of a way that he can get his body back."  Crowley picked up his glass of wine and took a drink.  James just stood there, staring at him for a long moment.  The glass in his hand was on the verge of breaking when he turned around to set it down on the desk behind him.  

"So that's it then?  We have that amazing week and now you're just....dumping me?  Because of some ghost?"  He kept his eyes on the desk, his hands flat against it.  

"James, I am sorry but I told you about Aziraphale.  About our history."  Crowley got to his feet.  

"Yes.  That you knew each other for six thousand years.  That you've loved him almost the whole time.  I understand.  It's just.....frustrating."  James replied.  

"Do you understand?  Really?"  Crowley asked as he moved forward.  

"Yes, of course.  How can I expect you to say no to having a second chance with your first love?"  James smiled at Crowley over his shoulder.  

"We can still be friends.  If you want.  I do enjoy talking to you.  And spending time with you."  Crowley smiled, putting a hand on James' shoulder.  

"Yes, of course."  James nodded.  "We can be friends."  He forced a smile.  While it was true that demons could pick up on negative emotions like anger the way angels could pick up on love, sometimes Crowley ignored the feelings.  He didn't realize exactly how much anger was rolling off of James because he didn't want to realize it.  

"I'm sorry about all this.  I knew that telling you over the phone would be very wrong, though."  Crowley nodded.  

"Yes.  You're right about that.  In person is definitely better."  James nodded.  "Could I at least get a goodbye hug?"  

"Of course."  Crowley nodded and held his arms out.  He had a smile on his face as James moved in to hug him.  James wrapped one arm around Crowley's shoulders, the other Crowley didn't see coming.  His smile faded almost immediately and his eyes went wide as there was suddenly a sharp pain in his torso.  James held onto him firmly.  

"You just think that you can play around with people's emotions.  You can string them along and make them think that everything is going great and then drop them like a bad habit when something better comes along."  He stepped back and pulled the letter opener out of Crowley as he did so.  Crowley hadn't seen him pick it up before turning to hug him.  James dropped the letter opener that was covered in Crowley's black blood.  

Crowley put a hand over the wound in his abdomen and fell to his knees.  His eyes were almost completely snakelike.  He just stared up at James with a question on his face.  One that he couldn't quite get out of his mouth.  James just watched him until he fell face first on the floor.  

"Now he doesn't need a body for you to be with him."  James gave Crowley a little kick on his way past.  He didn't even bother to run.  He just walked calmly, black blood covered hand in his pocket to hide it was he made his way to his car.  The library door was left standing open.  

"Zira......"  Crowley managed before finally losing consciousness on the floor in the back room of the library.