'JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.'
In which an angel, a demon, and their adoptive daughter decide to stop Armageddon. Except it's days away, they've lost the antichrist, Heaven and Hell are both breathing down their necks, and th...
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Aziraphale and Crowley discover an abandoned infant.
***
"That is... Why would... Why in Her name is there a baby outside of my bookshop!?" Aziraphale spluttered. Beside him, Crowley shrugged, a 'why should I know?' sort of gesture.
The duo thought it best to get together from time to time, to discuss the arrangement, of course. (It had nothing to do whatsoever with enjoying each other's company. That would simply be unthinkable.) These clandestine meetings happened without any real pattern to them, so that Heaven and Hell did not catch on to the actions of their wayward employees. Today the pair had met up at the park, and after an hour and a half of talking while feeding the ducks, Aziraphale had suggested taking the conversation back to the bookshop. Crowley, who would never turn down a chance to spend more time with the angel, wholeheartedly agreed. He had driven them back, looking forward to the chance to drink and chat with Aziraphale while also taking shelter from the cold February air. (Crowley was a snake in many ways, after all, so he did not enjoy the cold weather.) Only as soon as they got out of the Bentley, the celestial pair had heard the piercing sound of a child's cries. A little concerned and very confused, they decided followed the cries to the back doorstep of Aziraphale's shop.
That was where they had found the baby, just an infant really, so new to the world. And that was also when their evening went off the rails, as they say.
They brought the child inside, of course, because while Aziraphale didn't have much experience with children - they confused him at times, and annoyed him at others, and while he was genuinely fond of their spirited ways, he had never seen the need to get closer to them - he would never leave one to freeze in the winter air. And neither would Crowley for that matter - he actually had quite the soft spot for children. Except, Crowley was a demon, and that wasn't the sort of thing a demon could freely admit.
"What do you think happened?" Aziraphale asked. He was sitting in one armchair, Crowley across from him in the other. The demon was holding the basket the baby had been left in, looking at the now sleeping infant wrapped up in a faded red blanket.
"The mother left it there, I suppose, while we were at the park," Crowley said. "I mean, this kid is a newborn, a day or two old at the most. No one is just leaving newborns on doorsteps by accident. No, the mother probably thought that a well regarded if eccentric shop owner like yourself would find the baby and then... And then... I don't know. She probably didn't know either. But really Aziraphale, she probably thought the child would be safe here, at the very least. Everyone in Soho knows that your shop is a safe sort of place. Even if you never open it."
"They do? Really? I'm quite certain I've been keeping my angelic presence discreet, so I don't see how the humans could have picked up on any oddities. Maybe they've simply gotten more perceptive through the years," Aziraphale mused to himself
