It was a nice day [ineffable husbands fic]

The Explanation

Muriel paced around the back room of the bookshop while Aziraphale sat in the armchair. Maggie and Nina took up the love seat, Maggie clinging to Nina's hand, and Crowley was leaning some weight onto the desk in between the chairs.

"So heaven is planning the end of the world?" Nina asked after she believed the tense moment following the explanation had gone on long enough.
"Yep." Crowley answered.
"And I'm supposed to...?" Maggie began.
"I'm terribly sorry." Aziraphale confirmed.
"But I'm not ready for children and I'm certainly not prepared to have..." Maggie trailed off, at a loss for words.
"We have a plan." Crowley mentioned, "But it's sort of life changing and I'm not sure you'd be ready to make a decision like that yet. How long have we got, Aziraphale?"
Aziraphale glanced over as if he'd just noticed he was there, "oh, about a month, I'm afraid."
"What's the plan? If it'll save the world I'll do it." Maggie rushed.
Muriel stopped their pacing and turned to Maggie, "Wonderful! All you have to do is-"
"No no no, sunshine we're not breaking it to her like that." Crowley hushed quickly. Muriel's smile dropped and they glanced over at Maggie apologetically.
"Our plan is to pretty much have you get a surgery to ensure that you can't have children, and then tell heaven the surgery was performed by a demon so your body will be too unholy to carry a child anyways." Aziraphale informed Maggie gently, "Of course this is your choice and if you don't want that to happen then we'll find something else, I promise."
Nina glanced over at her wife. Maggie squeezed her hand before turning to Aziraphale, "give us a week to discuss it?" She asked.
Aziraphale nodded, and with that the couple left the shop to go to their apartment above Maggie's store.
Crowley sighed when the bell chimed, indicating they had left. "Well that's over with."
Muriel began their pacing again, "Oh, but what if they won't do it? I mean obviously she can say no but then what, do we have any backup plans?"
Crowley shook his head. "No backup plans but I do have a current plan."
Muriel glanced behind them at him, "what is it?"
"Alcohol, that's what we need right now." He sauntered off to the kitchenette in the bookshops flat and started digging around Aziraphale's wine storage- that was miraculously untouched and Crowley assumed that Muriel just didn't drink. They definitely didn't seem the type to- when he heard approaching footsteps.
"Crowley?" It was Aziraphale.
"Over here." Crowley grumbled.
Aziraphale was standing awkwardly in the entrance of the kitchenette when Crowley had found a good wine.
"I think we need to talk about what happened, you know." He sighed, "last time."
Crowley didn't look up at him, "I don't see why, you said it yourself, there's nothing more to say."
Aziraphale swallowed, "yes, yes I remember."
"Good glad we got that established." Crowley turned around and started getting a couple wine glasses and a mug for Muriel in case they didn't want wine and preferred hot cocoa.
Aziraphale watched in silence before bringing his hands up to his face. "Oh, Crowley! I didn't mean any of what I said. You had to know that!"
"You sounded like you meant it." Crowley growled, setting the glasses on the table next to the wine bottle a little harder than intended.
"No, no please believe me. I was given a choice and I couldn't refuse if I wanted to!" Aziraphale almost sobbed.
"Seemed to me like you had every option to tell the Metatron to fuck off, and you still chose to go back to heaven." Crowley pointed out, looking at Aziraphale for the first time since he came upstairs.
"I wasn't completely honest with you." Aziraphale whimpered softly.
"Lying? Seems a bit unfitting for an Angel." And oh how Aziraphale wished that sounded more teasing than it did, wished that Crowley was back to cracking jokes.
Wished that he was forgiven.
"The metatron didn't give me any good options. He said I could go to heaven and bring you if you agreed to be an Angel, and I told him I was sorry but didn't think I was fit for the job." Aziraphale began, Crowley rested his arm on the counter and propped his head up on his chin, a slightly interested look on his face.
"And then he told me my other option and I just... Crowley I couldn't stand the thought of it! At least the first option meant you would be unharmed!"
"What was the second option, Aziraphale?" Crowley prompted.
Aziraphale was silent for a moment, tears streaking down his face, before he swallowed, "He said that if I didn't become supreme archangel, then he would erase you from the book of life."
Crowley was stunned for a moment, but not for the reasons Aziraphale thought.
Aziraphale thought that Crowley might have been shocked by Aziraphale's choices but ultimately would understand.
And Crowley only confirmed what he already knew further.
1) He was being erased from the book of life
2) the metatron was the one who erased him because Aziraphale left his position in heaven.
Crowley wanted to be angry at Aziraphale, he really did, he was being erased and it was because of Aziraphale's actions.
But that's just it, isn't it? It wasn't Aziraphale's fault. He'd broken Crowley's heart because it meant keeping him safe, he didn't think twice about leaving heaven if it meant coming back to earth, it never occurred to him that the Metatron's threat was very much still in action.
After a few seconds of tense silence, Crowley gasped and doubled over on the counter, clenching his fist.
"Crowley!" Aziraphale gasped.
"M fine, Just need... just need to go to the bathroom." He pushed Aziraphale away and went off down the hall.
Once there, he looked at himself in the mirror, took off his glasses, and lifted his shirt.
It seemed like a part of his midsection was missing. Crowley studied himself in the mirror before trying to touch the area. He hissed in pain when his fingers glided over where the right side of his torso would be. He felt no flesh or corporation at all, but it hurt like... well it hurt a lot.
It seemed he only had about a month left in his life as well.