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As much as Chloe truly did care about Lucifer, tuning him out had become somewhat second nature at this point. After all, if he had something of relative importance to say about the case, he would make sure he got her attention directly. Actually, if he had anything to say that he felt was important in any sense of the word, he would get her attention. Usually she found their definition of the word ‘important’ was vastly different, but since the man was convinced he had previously been an angel in a past life -or six years ago, the details were still a bit fuzzy- he seemed to believe everything that passed over his tongue was an earth shattering reality changer.
Had he been privy to her thoughts he most certainly would have had at least eight inappropriate quips about that.
Besides, half of the things Lucifer tended to blurt out at crime scenes were usually wildly inappropriate or just actual gibberish.
That being established, it was Pierce who’s flippant statement caught her attention.
“This hitting you with as many memories as it is me?”
Chloe’s eyes stayed glued to the cafeteria table in front of her. The tiny drops of dried blood left behind on the bench were telling a story she hadn’t yet figured out, and the flash of the crime scene photographer’s camera was beginning to give her a headache.
Somewhere behind her she could hear the Drill Sargent talking to Dan. He was saying everything they had already heard twice over. The cadet had been a good kid. A little brash and a little loud, but no one could think of any reason someone would have wanted him dead.
“Why would this bring back memories for me?” Lucifer asked as Chloe’s brow creased with the same question.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Pierce cross his arms and shrug. “You served. You telling me this isn’t what your mess looked like?”
Lucifer scoffed. There was something in his hands. It looked like an army promotion pamphlet. Where he had gotten one she had no idea. “I assure you, ours was very different.”
“You were in the army?”
Chloe’s voice was lost as Dan and Ella posed the same question at the same time as her, and she found herself abruptly sandwiched between them as all three stared Lucifer down.
Both Pierce and Lucifer blinked for a moment, caught in the proverbial headlights as their colleagues suddenly inserted themselves into a conversation that they obviously hadn’t been welcome to.
The cameraman lined up a few more shots, but Chloe didn’t see the flash go off again. Hanson narrowed his eyes at a different bench, as if it might hold some clues for the murder that had taken place across the room. Officer McCormick looked very serious as she draw what were obviously circles on her notepad.
Chloe resisted the urge to roll her eyes as her entire team tired and failed miserably to pretend they weren’t fascinated by every new detail of Lucifer’s life.
She wished she could say it was the first time.
She wished she could say she wasn’t the same.
Lucifer closed the pamphlet, looking very much like someone who was vastly uncomfortable and trying very hard to not appear so as he adjusted the end of his blazer. He opened his mouth twice before he cleared his throat and spoke. “Well…technically.” He cast a sideways glance at Pierce.
“Air force, right?” Pierce prompted, meeting Lucifer’s stare evenly.
Annoyance twisted at the corner of Lucifer’s mouth, but whatever rude retort he inevitably had planned died as quickly as he thought of it. He breathed out hard and broke off their staring contest. “I suppose that’s not…incorrect.”
“Really?” Dan and Ella asked at the same time with very conflicting levels of belief.
“They let you in the air force?” Dan asked, one eyebrow raised. He glanced at Pierce as if he was waiting for an inevitable punchline. “The United States Air Force took a man who calls himself Lucifer Morningstar?”
Lucifer rolled his eyes. “No, of course not-”
“RAF,” Pierce corrected before Lucifer could insult Dan further.
“You never told me you were in the military.” Chloe tried to make it a flat statement, an inquiry of curiosity and nothing else. There was no reason for her to be hurt by the revelation. It wasn’t like Lucifer owed her any sort of backstory from his life. It wasn’t like it stung that he had obviously shared something with Pierce before her.
Why had he shared something with Pierce before her?
Lucifer sighed, long and suffering. “Well, it’s hardly-” He met her eyes and stopped, mouth still open but curving down from annoyance into distress. Something in his face faltered, a dawning realization crossing so openly over his features that Chloe had to glance away.
The exchange was thankfully lost on the others, as Dan made a disbelieving sort of snort and Ella gasped again.
“I bet you looked adorable in your uniform.”
“I don’t believe it. Cadet Morningstar, reporting for duty. Probably three hours late and with a martini.”
“First of all, I look adorable in all outfits, Miss Lopez, and second of all that’s Captain Morningstar to you, Detective Douche.”
“You were a Captain?” Ella’s voice reached a pitch Chloe hadn’t thought her capable of as she bounced on her heels. “So you can fly a plane?”
“Yes!” Lucifer seemed to suddenly come alive at that, snapping his fingers as he pointed at her. “Yes, that I can do and I’m actually quite good at it.”
“How old were you when you joined?”
“Well…”
“Forget it, Miss Lopez,” Pierce interrupted again when Lucifer hesitated. “Captain Morningstar’s a steel trap when it comes to his military past.” He clasped a hand on Lucifer’s shoulder, which was quickly shaken off.
Pierce’s face remained straight, but there was a twitch in his cheek that might have been as close as he ever came to a smile.
“But he obviously told you,” Chloe’s tone was already harsher than she wanted, more accusatory than it had any right to be and she mentally berated herself for the slip.
Get it together Decker.
“Military men always recognize each other.” Pierce cast a glance at Lucifer who responded with a glower. “No matter how long it’s been.”
“Lieutenant!” Someone called him back to the scene, a man in military uniform who Chloe thought might have been another Sargent beckoning him over.
Pierce nodded and then tilted his head at Lucifer, asking him to follow.
Lucifer let out an obvious breath of relief but only made it one step before Chloe intercepted. “Lucifer-”
“Sorry, Detective, can’t chat right now. Active crime scene and all, you know how it is.”
“You were a Captain in the Royal Air Force?” She hissed, not bothering to pretend not to be angry as Ella and Dan dropped back, pretending again not to listen.
Lucifer had the sense to look at least slightly chastised, eyes glancing around the tables, the ceiling, the Lieutenant, anywhere but at her. He shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“How is that complicated?”
“Sorry, Detective, gotta run. The job calls. Poor dead Cadet Jameson needs my help.” He sidestepped her, as he rambled, pushing the pamphlet into her hands as he passed.
“It’s Jacobson!”
“Right!”
Ella whistled low. “Wow. Our Lucifer, in the Air Force,” she whispered with a reverent sort of awe. “I can’t believe it.”
“I can’t believe he’s actually British,” Dan shook his head, already losing interest as his attention moved back to the blood splattered bench. “I owe Olsen ten bucks.”
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me,” Chloe breathed out, quiet enough that neither of her colleagues heard her as they shifted back into the job.
At least, she thought they had.
Ella elbowed gently, sliding her phone into view in a way that suggested that Ella thought she was being subtle.
“What am I looking at?” Chloe asked as she took the offered phone.
“RAF Captain uniform,” Ella stage whispered.
Chloe’s eyes snapped back down to the phone of their own violation. She took in the picture, every button and snap and the way it pulled in at the waist.
Unable to stop herself she looked back up at Lucifer. He was across the room now, his back to her as he listened to the Sargent, or most likely pretended to listen, with his hands in his pockets. She had all but desensitized herself to the suits he wore, didn’t even notice the fine fabric or any of the obviously tailored excentuations that he most likely wanted everyone to take notice of.
His regulation uniform had probably been less fitted anyway, bulkier and cheaper material. It was a stony grey, probably thick and rough to the touch. She bet he looked ridiculous in it. He had probably joined at a very young age as well, couldn’t have been older than twenty, all gangly limbs and height he hadn’t adapted to yet.
He had probably looked like a string bean stuffed into a wool sack.
There was probably nothing appealing about it.
Her eyes shifted back and forth between the picture and Lucifer again with a certain helplessness that she felt powerless to stop.
Three times she had seen him caught unawares in the rain, and three times she had seen the way his hair began to curl when the product he pretended he didn’t use began to wash out. She wondered if he had been allowed to use it in the RAF or if he had been forced to leave his hair natural. She wondered if the curls had stuck out underneath his cap, or if he had cut it too short for that.
An image came forward, unasked for and completely unwanted, of a younger Lucifer. Maybe it was before he started going by Lucifer, maybe he had been a little less cynical, a little less closed off. Maybe he had metals pinned to the breast of his jacket, earned for just the acts of bravery he had joined the RAF to preform. Maybe his long fingers wrapped around the controls of a plane and a few curls escaped from under his cap and maybe he gave her a knowing smirk over his shoulder.
“Detective-”
“I wonder if he still has the uniform.” Ella’s voice brought Chloe slamming back down to earth with a sharp intake of breath that was far too loud. For her part, Ella didn’t seem phased by Chloe’s departure from reality, if she had noticed it at all. She simply waggled her eyebrows once more before tucking her phone back into her pocket and moving back to the bench to inspect the splatter.
Chloe’s heart was beating too fast in her chest and her face burned hot with embarrassment at her own rogue imagination. She nearly put a hand to her face to try to cover whatever inevitably was happening there before quickly remembering her gloves and stopping herself with an awkward abortive gesture.
Across the room, Lucifer turned, just in time to catch her eye as she froze in place. He offered a quick flash of a smile before he turned back to the Sargent, gesturing wildly with his arms as he cut off whatever Pierce had been saying.
Chloe bit down gently on her lip as she closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and counted to three before opening them again.
“Right,” she whispered to herself as she readjusted her gloves.
Murder. Dead body. Case to solve. No time for…whatever that had been.
She followed after Ella, hovering close behind in case anything came to her. She had a job to do, and she intended to do it to the fullest extent of her abilities.
Later however, as she slipped into the front seat of her car, she wondered how much teasing she would be subjected to if she was brave enough to ask Lucifer if he did still have the uniform.
She wondered if it would be worth it if he did.