Chapter Text
Trixie and Rory only put up a little bit of a fight as Maze shoos them out of the house, promising she will call if anything changes. With the girls gone, Chloe readies herself to say her goodbyes to Maze, but instead, Maze shakes her head when she’s about to speak. Chloe stops and tilts her head in confusion.
Sensing Chloe’s unasked question, Maze smiles through her tears. “Hey don’t worry, I’ll still be around and I’ll bring Trix and the antichrist back here tomorrow.”
“Maze... I love you,” Chloe says as she softly rubs the back of Maze’s smooth hand.
“I fucking love you too, Decker. I’ll look you up next time I’m in the neighborhood,” She tells her and the demon bends down and kisses Chloe’s forehead. Chloe’s eyes follow Maze as she goes upstairs. Maze pauses on the steps and loudly yells into the dark room, “I’M GOING UPSTAIRS NOW OKAY SO YOU DON’T NEED TO HIDE ANYMORE. LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED ANY LUBE. I WILL BE BACK DOWN IN THE MORNING.”
Chloe rolls her eyes and a smile pulls at her lips. “Maze…” she doesn’t finish her sentence.
“What? Do you think I haven’t known about your sex vacations this whole time, Decker? We’ve all known. Well, except for Rory, obviously. Dude, even Ellen walked in on the two of you after Trix’s wedding,” Maze laughs at the memory and shakes her head as she goes upstairs.
Not even a second passes before she feels him take her hand in his as he sits beside her on her bed.
Lucifer brings her hand up to his lips to place a soft kiss on what she still thinks of as his ring. She meets his eyes with hers and sees that they are glassy with unshed tears.
“Darling, I’ve missed you,” Lucifer’s voice catches as he greets her. He places a kiss on her forehead and she closes her eyes at the feel of his lips. A tear escapes; she has missed him so much. These last few years, Rory has been especially protective of her mother, practically her shadow. It’s been more difficult than ever to find time for each other but Chloe would never deny either of her daughters, especially when Rory still needs her so much.
Lucifer brushes her hair out of her face. “How are you, my love?” His voice is laced with concern and more gentle than she remembers it ever being before.
Chloe smiles at him, wanting to make this easier for him. She had done as he had asked. She had lived her life fully. She had loved deeply, raised two amazing daughters, been a good friend, an aunt, and later, a grandmother. She had done it all while feeling the ever-present ache of his absence. The infrequent moments they had stolen through the decades had never been enough.
“Better now,” Chloe tells him. “Help this old lady up and be with me.”
Lucifer playfully scoffs at her statement, “Detective, I’ve still got few millennia on you. I hit my eighties when you lot were still swimming around like those little water bear things. Or maybe that was my seven hundred eighties? Whatever, it’s ancient history. Literally.”
After unhooking her from the machines once he was convinced it wouldn’t hurt her or that alarms weren’t about to summon Maze or Rory or an army of nurses to her bedside, Lucifer ever so gently slides an arm under her shoulders and another under her knees. As he stands with her in his arms, he carefully maneuvers them over to the couch and sits with her in his lap.
Chloe is small in his arms in a way that makes his heart feel like it’s in his throat. It hurts him to be confronted with the end of Chloe’s life, but hers was a life well-lived. This means he will finally get her back. He will get their daughter back.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. Promise,” Chloe’s words snap him out of his contemplation.
Lucifer smiles at her and bites down a little to try to hide the quiver in his lip. He pulls her into his chest, very aware of the need to be more tender with her than ever before. She doesn’t protest and rests her head against his chest.
“I love you, Chloe Decker. No rush, my love, but when we do see each other again, I am taking you to one of my favorite places in Heaven…. Just the three of us like it was that day,” his voice is nothing more than a soft murmur against her ear as she rests against him.
“Mhmm…love you,” Chloe sighs in agreement.
“Rest now, Detective. I’ll be here,” he promises. He reaches for the blanket beside him and drapes it over Chloe, ensuring that she is fully covered by its warmth. This is out of his control. He does his best to accept reality and the fate every human eventually faces. Miracle or not, Chloe will die.
Lucifer knows this is the last time he will ever be with her on Earth. Though he longs to be reunited with Chloe for eternity, he mourns for this chapter of her life, of both of their lives. This was where they had met, where they had sought justice together, where they had fallen in love, where they had conceived their daughter, and where they both had known the deep love of their family and friends. He can take her all throughout Hell and Heaven, but as a soul, she would not be able to return to Earth in any meaningful way.
As she falls asleep in his arms, her uneven breaths make him grip her a little tighter as though he’s trying to anchor her to this plane of existence. They’ve discussed her death often enough throughout the years that the thought of it doesn’t pain him as intensely as it once might have. As the years accumulated for her, so did the aches and pains of age. Chloe had always dismissed his concerns whenever he would fret over her during his visits. It felt morbid and wrong to him after dying to save her life all of those times, but only recently did he finally begin to let himself long for a time where she would be relieved of these mortal burdens.
Lucifer holds his Detective as she rests, enjoying the feeling of her body in his arms for the last time.
Chloe waits.
Her mind feels still. She feels whole and ready. This is nothing like how it was nearly half a century ago. The pain and trauma of that day have long since healed. She has led a life full of love and friendship and meaning. She has worked hard at being a decent person and helping her daughters to grow into the amazing women they were always meant to be.
As the years ticked on, she felt the flow of time differently. She remembered those early years, laced with unparalleled joy and pain. Time heals all wounds and hers were no different. She lets out a deep breath and relaxes onto the soft bed beneath her. She has said her goodbyes and she is ready. She feels her body slow and lets what resembles a deep sleep finally overtake her.
Having already experienced this journey once before, the tug on her soul is familiar, as is the strange sensation of existing outside of her body. She is aware of herself as two separate entities in that moment. She sees herself, peaceful in her state of rest. Nothing like the blood and trauma and gore and war from the time before.
She feels a brief, yet deep wave of grief for her physical body. It had given her two perfect daughters, felt the love of her family and friends, and allowed her to seek justice for others. She looks away from herself for the first time and notices that unlike that day at the Coliseum, the Angel of Death had not come for her.
Her surroundings slip away. She is separate from herself. She is no longer tethered. She feels as though she is in a dream, and yet knows she is not.
Chloe blinks and almost staggers against the brightness surrounding her. The void she finds herself in is new and unlike anything from before. It’s so big and empty and for a moment experiences a crisis of faith she hasn’t ever had to experience during her lifetime.
Where is she?
Why is she alone?
The questions barely have time to form in her head before she is joined by God Himself.
Chloe can feel her humanity delight in His presence, having reached the promised life everlasting. Her awareness of herself begins to return. Her soul finally sees not just God, but her friend, her family.
The afternoon Chloe spent with Amenadiel a few days ago was filled with laughter, tears, and love as they reminisced, but she knows this moment now with Him to be something altogether different. Still, Amenadiel greets her with the biggest smile and gently takes her hand in His.
When He asks if she’s ready to go home, she feels the magnitude of the unprecedented choice she is being offered. But it’s a choice she made a long time ago.
This is her reward.
Chloe’s sense of self falters momentarily before she finds herself deep in the bowels of Hell for the first time in forty years. Amenadiel leads her through the corridors and brings her to a familiar door. With an ease she hasn’t felt in years, Chloe throws her arms around Amenadiel’s neck in a fierce hug. He takes her tightly in his arms and makes her promise to visit and bring his brother and niece along with her.
She sniffles and nods in agreement to his request. After Chloe releases Amenadiel, he is simply gone. She is alone, but not for long.
Summoning all of her courage, she knocks.
When the door opens, a wave of peace washes over her. A week has passed since he came to see her one last time and she fell asleep in his arms. Seeing him stand before her and knowing she is actually here with him, the ground finally feels steady beneath her feet and she feels real . There are tears in his eyes as he takes her in and she can feel her eyes sting with tears as well.
“Hello, Detective,” Lucifer says with the most familiar smile on his face. He greets her as though it’s decades ago and they’ve been apart for only a few hours.
Chloe knows her line. She can see the promise of eternity stretch before them; they’re together again. She smiles at him and tries not to let her voice tremble as she speaks for the first time since she left her body on Earth.
“I thought you could use a partner,” she tells him before stepping forward. Lucifer takes her in his arms as they kiss.