"We're going to need some time here, boys." Crowley rolled his eyes towards the Winchesters.

Sam simply rolled his eyes, stuffed his hands in his pockets and left the room, but Dean pulled a sickened face, muttering under his breath, "Gross."

Crowley glared at him, raising his eyebrows, "Out. Now."

Alex continued to toy with the phone in her hand, her thumb twitching towards the call button now and again. All she had to do was press it, she didn't have to speak; a simple call would be enough of a signal for Meg…..

"Gimme." She looked up at him, disturbed from her thoughts by his abrupt command. He hadn't come any closer, but was simply staring back at her, his hand outstretched.

"Excuse me?" When he shook his head at her, as though she were some kind of simpleton, she shrugged her shoulders. "Gimme what? A hug? A slap in the face? What is it that you'd like?"

He nodded to the hand grasping the cell phone, "Gimme the phone, darlin'."

Alex looked down, noted that she hadn't yet pressed the call button. She could do it now, if only she could make herself press down on that little green symbol and ….then it was gone. She looked up to see Crowley standing directly in front of her, holding the phone in his hand. He looked at it, noted the number on the screen, and frowned. With a slight glance in her direction, he placed the phone on the floor and proceeded to stamp on it until it resembled a mechanical pancake; totally flat and totally useless. "Well, that settles that." She whispered to herself.

Crowley seemed pleased with himself. "You can thank me properly later. Couldn't have you all stressed out about whether or not to betray me, so I thought I'd do you a favour." He smiled at her, somewhat suggestively, and Alex wondered what he had in mind when he talked about her thanking him properly.

"How did you know?" She shook her head. She hadn't told anybody.

"You forget, my position may be a little…precarious, at the moment, but I know pretty much everything there is to know about what goes on in Hell, darlin'. And, a little birdie told me that you ended up on Alistair's table despite all my best efforts." He paused, looked at her and smiled again, "Sorry about that."

She widened her eyes, about to speak when he cut her off, "Obviously, Meg can be persuasive, and I realised that you might be a …tad angry with me and might decide to hand me over and regret it later. So…" he pointed to the phone on the floor. "Sorry about that, as well."

Alex shook her head at him, "Maybe you could show me how sorry you really are later on." She saw a smile slide on to his face, and she saw red. She pushed him, hard, in the chest, "A tad angry? A tad? You total and utter…dick!" He straightened his tie, but made no move to answer or push her back. "I have absolutely no idea where I stand with you. One minute you threaten to take me to Alistair, act like a total pig towards me when you're supposed to be my boss, oh, and lie to me about a potentially fairly dangerous thing you're about to do that could get you AND ME into trouble and the next you're plying me with alcohol, kissing me and then swooping to my rescue when I get kidnapped. Which, by the way, was your fault!" She stopped to take a breath and stared at him, surprised that he still had nothing to say. "So, Dean asked me earlier, 'what kind of a thing' I have going on with you, and to be honest I didn't know the answer. So, why don't you tell me?"

Crowley raised his eyebrows, "Not sure. Haven't had much chance to think about it. Been busy." He saw her raise her hands again and come towards him, "Ok, ok, so I suppose I like you….or something like that."

"You like me!? Are you kidding? If you like me, I seriously wouldn't want to be someone you hate. Try again."

Crowley glanced to the side, smirked, and looked back at her, "If you like I can show you how much I like you later on."

Alex shook her head, "Promises, promises." Slowly she moved toward the window, sitting on a rickety wooden chair by the wall, "That's great. You still can't give me a straight answer. I should have expected as much. All that bullshit you come out with, 'I'm a demon, blah, blah, I don't understand the difference between right and wrong anymore, blah, blah. It's all just an act isn't it? I'm not sure you know who you really are anymore, Crowley." She stood up to walk past him, stopping to place a hand on his chest as she passed. "You know what; I'd love you to show me how much you really like me later on. Thing is, I don't know whether there will be a later on. There might be someone else you've pissed off enough to want to kidnap and torture me." She began to walk towards the door.

"Wait." She turned and looked at him, "I didn't mean for this to happen." He stopped, considering what he'd just said, "Well, maybe there was a point when I thought it might happen and I wasn't bothered, but ….I was bothered when it did happen. I just…" he sighed, "I just like you! Bloody hell! Why are you making this so hard?"

Alex looked at the floor to hide the smile that crept across her face. She walked towards him, nodding, "Fine. That'll do, for now. So, what happens next?"

He narrowed his eyes, "Is that a 'where is this relationship going?' kind of question? Or, do you mean, literally, 'what do we do next'?" He paused, thinking, "And, if it is a 'what do we do next?' question, are you thinking about 'what do we do next sexually?' or is it, 'what do we do next right at this second?'"

Alex frowned, "Stop it."

"Sorry. Again." He held his hands up in surrender. He looked about the room, "Well, now you're here, there's no reason for us to stay in this hell-hole, forgive the choice of words, with Dumb and Dumber. We could just go."

"Sounds great." The final syllable had just left her lips when she found herself lifted off the floor, spun around and carried to another rickety wooden chair where she was unceremoniously plonked down and tied up. Crowley's protestations sounded mildly funny.

"What the bloody hell do you idiots think you're doing?"

Dean pointed at him accusingly, "You came here asking for help and in exchange you promised to help us with the horsemen. Now, she's back and that's great, and I bet you just can't wait to head off and set up another little love nest somewhere, but you still have to hold up your end of the deal."

Crowley glared at the Winchesters, "Y'know, you're right, there is a love nest that needs setting up fairly urgently, actually….."

The older brother closed his eyes, and shook his head, "Shut up. Unless you want me to be sick, just shut up."

Crowley nodded, "Ok boys, I can help you out, since you were so accommodating to my friend here…."

Dean smiled, "That's good then, cos' she's staying tied in this chair until we're done."

Alex tilted her head, smiling up at Crowley sweetly, "Later on, huh? Promises, promises…."