A/N: Not Destiel

If there was one thing that Jack took after Cas in, it was that they both sucked at taking care of electronics. 

Cas was constantly breaking his phones, whether it was in fights and cases, dropping them, forgetting they weren't waterproof, or he just lost them after a heated encounter with Dean. Whatever it was, Cas was terrible at keeping a phone for longer than a month, and Jack was the same way.

But he had been good with this one! The phone, some cheap off brand iPhone that Sam or Dean had probably stolen anyways, had lasted him a whole year. Sure, the screen was cracked and scratched to shit after a particularly rough wendigo case that involved him getting shoved through a wall, but other than that it had been in perfect condition.

Until.....

Well, until Jack, on a rare occasion, got left by himself and he went outside to try his hand at tree climbing, fell, and the phone completely shattered. 

His dads insisted that it was no big deal that he broke it, all of them having been through dozens of phones over the years. Dean had just pointed him in the direction of a box of older phones, telling him to find one that still worked and to use that until Cas broke another one and they went and got new ones.

Which brings us to now, with Jack sitting cross-legged on the floor, marveling at the old phones and chargers in the box and testing out a few to see if any still worked.

Some of the phones were newer- a couple cracked iPhone rip offs like he'd had- there was one in a bright blue case that he recognized as Maggie's. He knew hers worked, but Jack couldn't bring himself to use it. It got him wondering, though, who all the phones in the box had belonged to.

Because they had to have belonged to someone important to end up in the box. Sam and Dean didn't toss aside perfectly useful phones. Hell, there were six permanently plugged into the wall in the main room, labelled with "FBI" "CIA" "Health Department" and other aliases they needed.  And some of the phones were old too- well, at least, old by Jack's standards. Flip phones and slide phones were basically nonexistent nowadays.

Jack stopped on one of the phones, a charger still plugged into it. He plugged the other end into the wall, hoping it would be one that worked. It was an older, white touch screen phone, and for some reason there was a familiar feeling to it that he couldn't place. Like he'd seen it before, or maybe knew the person who had previously used it.

The screen lit up, and Jack frowned in extreme confusion as he took in the lock screen. It was a picture of smiling purple devil emoji, with a little crown on its head. Jack's frown deepened, worried that the phone might have belonged to Lucifer.

Thankfully, there was no password, so he opened it up, checking to see how it worked and who might be in the contacts already. He tilted his head as he scanned through the contact names, none of them making sense.

"DO NOT ANSWER," Jack read out loud. "Hellhound guy? That Bitch of a Witch? Moose?" He raised an eyebrow. "Not Moose?" On a whim, he called that one, and another phone in the box, one he already tried, started ringing.

Crowley, the caller ID on the other phone read.

Crowley, Jack's thoughts echoed. Who was Crowley? He had heard Sam, Dean, and Cas mention the name before, but he'd never really gotten around to asking who the guy was. But if this was Crowley's phone, well, then Jack knew better than to ask his address. 

But being a small child and a general good-natured snoop, Jack opened up the photos of Crowley's phone, thinking it would give him more insight into what the man had been like. But the first picture he saw raised more questions than it answered.

Dean? With Crowley? Hadn't Sam said Crowley had been a demon? If that was true, then why was Dean hanging out with him at a bar? And Dean looked happy, a thought had strangely made Jack sad. Cas and Sam were nowhere to be seen in the photo, so that meant it was probably taken at a time when they weren't getting alone. Jack hated when that happened, and even though he wanted to know all about his fathers pasts, the boys never wanted to talk about the times when they were angry at each other.

Which was.... well.... most of the time. 

But Jack wanted to know the story behind this photo. He wanted to know why Dean was comfortable enough with a demon to go drinking with him, and put his arm around him. He wanted to know what had been said that made them both smile so broadly. He wanted to know why they were wearing cowboy hats.

Jack scrolled though the rest of the photos until he stopped dead on another one.

"WHAT THE FUCK." He blurted out in shock.

"Language!" Sam called, appearing out of nowhere like he did every time Jack swore, despite the fact that both he and Dean swore on a daily basis.

But Jack couldn't help it. Not when he was looking at this picture.

Why was BOBBY KISSING A DEMON? 

Well, Jack supposed that answered one question he'd had about Crowley, but it raised about seven hundred more. He unplugged the phone and went looking for Dean. Seeing as the man was in Crowley's camera roll, Jack guessed he be the most likely to answer some questions about him.

"Dean?" He asked, knocking on his dad's bedroom door. He, unlike Sam, had learned very quickly that it was always, ALWAYS, a good idea to knock on Dean's door before you walked in.

"Yeah?" Dean replied, and Jack walked in. Dean looked up from the magazine he'd been reading and spotted the phone in Jack's hand. "Found one that works?"

"I think so," Jack admitted. "But I think this phone belonged to somebody you knew." He flipped back to the bar picture and handed it to Dean, who straightened up and nodded.

"Yeah," He offered, nodding. "This was Crowley's phone."

"Who was Crowley?" Jack asked. "I hear you, Sam, and Cas mention him sometimes, but nobody ever told me who he was."

"Crowley was...." Dean paused. "Crowley was complicated." He handed the phone back. "He was a demon- the King of Hell, actually, although sometimes he would lose the throne and have to fight to get it back."

"So he was one of the Knights of Hell?"

"NO, no. He was just a regular crossroads demon who made his way up the ranks. King of the Crossroads, they called him." Dean half smiled. "And me and Sam, well, we kinda befriended him, if you could call it that."

"You look like you're friends." Jack commented, glancing at the picture.

"Well, in the beginning it was more like  'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. He was demon and we were hunted so we hated each other, but he needed us for his own personal gain and we needed the skills he provided. Eventually though, we just wore him down and we became friends. He went soft on us." The smile grew a little bigger. "Cas and him were not the best of friends, though, I suppose that's my fault."

"Why?"

"Uh," Dean rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Crowley and I had a complicated relationship."

"Oh." Jack said, realizing.

"That photo was actually taken when I was a demon," Dean explained.

"You were a DEMON?" Dean sighed. 

"It's a long story," he insisted. "Basically what happened is that I got the Mark of Cain, and when you die with the Mark, you turn into a demon. I died, Sam and Cas didn't know that's what happened, but Crowley did so he took me, honed me into a killer while Sam and Cas tried to track me down, and before I went too far off the track, Crowley and I got really close. Once the Mark got out of hand though, that friendship went a bit downhill. We patched things up later."

"I see."

"He was a good guy, Crowley." Dean admitted, and he stifled a laugh. "A few years ago it would have physically pained me to say that, but he was. He was reluctant family. Saved our asses more than a few times- hell, saved Cas's life. Died saving us.... He was stubborn and sarcastic, so you know he fit right in, and even though he was a demon, damn there are days when I miss him." His face dropped sadly. "Even been days when I prayed to whoever was listening to get him back. He should've been dead a thousand times over, but Crowley was slippery. Oh! He also owns the moon."

"The moon?"

"Yeah, found that out when we went to an auction. Weird times- I think he had a thing for Kevin."

"Who's Kevin?"

"....Geez, we really haven't told you shit about our lives, have we?"

"Not really."

"We'll fix that." Dean promised. "Any other Crowley related questions?"

"Yes," Jack confirmed, pulling up the Crobby kiss picture and showing it to Dean. "Explain." Dean started laughing.

"A LONG time ago," He started. "Bobby- not the one you know, but this universe's Bobby, the one that was a dad to me and Sam- made a deal with Crowley. It was stupid and we got him his soul back eventually, but it happened, and so, since you seal demon deals with a kiss, Sam asked if Bobby kissed Crowley. Bobby denied it, but then we found out Crowley took a picture of it. Bobby hated that, but I don't know.... Part of me thinks Crowley had a crush on the old man. Was always flirting with him after that... It uh.....It wasn't fun having to tell him when Bobby died." Dean stared at the wall, and Jack knew better than to ask. Bobby, even years later, was a tough person for Sam and Dean to talk about.

"How did Crowley die?" He asked, the last question on his mind.

"It was on the night you were born," Dean admitted quietly, and he shook his head, looking down at the floor. "And I'm sorry, Jack, but as much as I care about you, that was one of the worst nights of my life." 

"I understand," Jack whispered. His own mother had died that night. It wasn't among one of his personal favorite nights either.

"Sam and I were trying to trap Lucifer in the Apocalypse World- to get rid of him for good. Crowley knew a spell, so he and Sam put that together. But we didn't find out until the last minute that the final ingredient was a life.... Crowley killed himself so that we could escape, so that we could trap Lucifer... He died for us." Dean fell silent for a moment. "But of course, it didn't go as planned; Lucifer killed Cas and trapped himself with Mary in Apocalypse world, and Sam and I were left with you, thinking that everybody else we had was dead and gone."

"I'm sorry." 

"It's okay," Dean looked up and forced a smile. "It's...It's better now. There are deaths I've seen that I will never get over as long as I live, but I've come to terms with the ones that happened the night you were born. I'm still pissed that a part of me misses that demonic bastard, but I do. Some days I bet even hell does. He was a good man." He started laughing again. "And you would not BELIEVE what he sold his soul for in the first place."

"What?" Jack asked innocently, and Dean laughed harder.

"Sam and Cas would never forgive me if I told you."

"Tell me!!" 

So he did. And then he started telling more stories. The few happy ones he had. Sam and Cas joined them eventually, and the three of them recounted their lives to Jack. The good and the bad, because somebody had to hear it. Somebody had to pass their stories along. The stories of Crowley, yes, and the stories of all the others they had lost along the way. Somebody had to remember them, after all.