"He's gone, Leah." Crowley said quietly to the girl sitting next to them. The old man they had been tending to had finally died. Despite their best efforts, he was gone. Leah cried for a few minutes for her grandfather, the one who had raised her and taken care of her.
Crowley patted her on the back. 'I'm sorry. I really am."
Leah wiped her eyes. "He was going to pass. But..." she sighed. "Pain and loss. We have to deal with it. But...there's only so much death and destruction you can take before-"
"Before your boyfriend picks you up, gives you his love and tells you're the best damn person he's ever met." Crowley told her firmly.
Leah smiled through her tears. "Yeah. I suppose you're right." she placed a hand on her grandfather's own cold one. "We have a ritual in my tribe for these deaths." she explained. Then she spoke in a different voice, a more melodious one. "Guide this one to where the traveller never tires..."
At her funeral, Crowley wept and said the words himself. "Guide this one to where the traveller never tires..."
"Where the lover never leaves..."
"Where the lover never leaves..."
"Where the hungry never starve."
"Where the hungry never starve..."
"Guide this one, Gods, and he will be a companion and a friend as he was to me." Leah said.
"Guide this one, Gods, and she will be a companion and a friend as she was to me." Crowley said quietly, walking away from the gravestone.
Crowley held Leah close. "Don't ever make me say those words to you." he said, kissing her cheek. "I don't want to lose you."
Leah smiled. "I'm not planning on dying anytime soon."
"Technically this village is under my authority. You don't have my permission to die." he teased, holding her close.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
As Crowley walked out of the cemetery, he muttered "And I always will."