Title: Lawyer, Angel, Demon, Regent
By: Orithain
Pairing: Crowley character study, Crowley/Dean UST
Rating: PG-13
Note: So I have a bit of a new obsession - Mark Sheppard. And if you don’t get it, all I can say is see the man in person. He’s charismatic, well-spoken, and hot too! So I started thinking about different characters he’s played and how it could actually fit canon to link them...
Disclaimers: No infringement is intended.
Summary: Crowley's been around a lot longer than anyone realizes.

Who or what is God? Now that is the question.

And it was one to which the being who sometimes called himself Benedict Valda, sometimes Crowley, once Fergus McLeod, and a very long time ago, Romo Lampkin, would have given very different answers at different times.

Thousands of years ago, the man he’d been born as, Romo Lampkin, had first believed in a pantheon of gods and later had come to accept the Cylons’ belief in a single, loving God. That had been where his troubles had started.

He’d been offered a chance to help guide humanity forward as the Cylons and humans became a single race whose heritage among the stars was forgotten, and at the time it had seemed a great and noble purpose. Unfortunately, humanity had a habit of ignoring guidance and insisting on making its own mistakes, over and over again, and Romo grew jaded as ages passed and civilizations rose and fell, never moving very far forward before repeating the same errors that had ended human and Cylon civilizations on other worlds.

Romo had turned his back on his charges, deciding that it was pointless to try to help them when they didn’t want his help, instead immersing himself in pleasure and depravity for long eons. When a new god had arisen, another that claimed to be the one, true God, Romo had been there to see it, and he was the one who whispered in an archangel’s ear that he didn’t need to follow orders, that he could take charge and be rid of the human vermin once and for all.

But even decadence grows boring after centuries, and there came a time when Romo Lampkin chose to live a human life, becoming Fergus Roderick McLeod, though he still enjoyed whatever he chose. He was amused when a demon, unaware of who and what he was, offered him a deal that led to him "becoming" a demon a decade later. If that demon had only known! It had afforded Romo with entertainment for years.

He reinvented himself as a crossroads demon, choosing a new name and working his way up through the ranks to become the king of the crossroads demons. Other demons called him "Lucky" for his advancements, having no idea just how old and powerful he really was, and he was distantly amused by it all.

Things began to change for Crowley, as he now called himself, in the twentieth century, a time that came to resemble the Colonies of his youth all too disturbingly, and he found himself spending more and more time away from Hell and demons and creating a human life for himself that was completely separate from the rest of his existence.

His life as Benedict Valda took some unexpected turns that led to him in a position of some authority in an organization intended to protect civilization, and much to his own surprise Crowley—or Valda—realized he’d actually come to care about humanity again.

Perhaps that was why, when he, as the demon Crowley, encountered Dean and Sam Winchester, he was moved to help them. From what he could tell, they’d been royally screwed, and if they didn’t get some help, they were going to end as badly as the Colonies had. There was also the fact that the whole Lucifer and Hell thing was at least partially his fault, so he arguably owed them something.

Besides, Dean Winchester was the hottest thing he’d seen since Lee Adama, who sadly hadn’t had the slightest interest in his own sex.

As Valda, Crowley allowed himself to be killed in a way that helped the Warehouse team, and if necessary, he’d come up with some artifact that had saved him if he felt the need to resurrect that life at a later date. Regardless, for now, he wanted to be able to concentrate on his life as Crowley and figure out how to help Dean Winchester.

He knew that what little progress he’d made in convincing Dean that he wasn’t a total prick had been negated by the situation with first Bobby’s soul and now Sam’s, but he was trying to work his way out of his existence as a demon and protect Dean from Sam, all at the same time, not that anyone would believe it.

But he would make it work.

He’d made the mistake of not going after what he wanted with Apollo back in the beginning; he wasn’t making the same mistake again.

Look out, Dean Winchester, he thought. I’m going to get you.

END

Next story in series - New Beginnings.