[ He stands by his statement. It was still rude. But maybe he'll let it slide for extenuating circumstances. Either way, Aziraphale will not bother to learn anything about answering machines. ]

Yes, yes, full steam ahead. [ Forget the powerpoint presentation. He wishes he had wine. ]

Now, Upstairs had left the line open for me to pop up and join in. Which I had no intention of doing if I could help it, obviously. Perfectly happy to leave it there for a bit and take care of things ourselves. Only some human burst in and started trying to exorcise me. Must have overheard something. Absolutely ridiculous. [ He's actually still offended enough about that after the fact that he stops pacing.

The fucking audacity, honestly. ] I wound up stepping into the transportation circle trying to keep him from stepping into the blasted thing. And, well.

[ Vague wiggly-fingered one-handed gesture?? Yes. The physical equivalent of one of Crowley's Wordless Sounds. ]

Upstairs I went. Gets you discorporated, when you haven't made the preparations to do it beforehand. So.. so there was nothing on Earth for you to find when you came looking for me. I couldn't even tell you what got the fire started in the first place. It happened sometime after.

[ Aziraphale doesn't sound like he thinks foul play from above or below factors in. As much as that's worth in the moment.

He's broadly grateful, he thinks, that he didn't see the shop burn. Didn't see it start to catch right before he was taken completely out of reach. After everything settled down later that night, it was hard enough just trying to process the loss hearing about it secondhand.

He can only imagine what it would've been like for Crowley. ]