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“So,” Trixie said, a mischievous expression on her face, “are you pregnant yet, Mom?”
Chloe nearly choked on her coffee. After having been exposed for all this time to Lucifer’s Luciferness, there wasn’t much a ten-year-old could come up with that could really make her lose her cool, but she had to admit that this one definitely came close.
Noticing her reaction and drawing her conclusions from it, Trixie gave her a long-suffering look. “Aw, come on, Mom. I was gone four whole weeks to Summer Camp. Plenty of alone time with Lucifer for you. I was so sure I’d be an expectant sister by now.”
“Well,” Chloe said, “alone time isn’t the only thing you need. It’s a big decision, you know. Something like that would affect a lot of lives. Yours, for instance.” She took in her daughter’s expectant little face. “Does that mean you’d be okay with it?”
“Are you kidding?” Trixie smiled her radiant smile that Chloe loved so much. “I’d love it! A little brother, a little sister, doesn’t matter, as long as Lucifer’s the father!”
Chloe smiled, unable to resist that enthusiasm despite her own misgivings, carefully cultivated though they were. Deep inside, she was absolutely in her daughter’s camp on this.
“Of course,” Trixie went on, “you’ll have to marry him first.”
Chloe’s smile widened. “Not really, but it would certainly be the traditional thing to do.”
“Well? When’s the date?”
“We don’t have one, yet.”
Trixie regaled her with another world-weary look. “Seriously, Mom? Did you get anything done while I was away? I want to be a bridesmaid! I told you months ago that I want Lucifer for my step-dad. And I want a little half-angel for my sibling. You love him, he loves you, so what’s the hold-up?”
Chloe smiled again. Oh, the innocence of youth. “We haven’t yet agreed on how we want to do it. Marriage doesn’t figure in a Celestial’s life, so we want to come up with something that will have meaning to Lucifer as well. Just going to church and having a normal service wouldn’t cut it for him.”
“That’s a good point,” Trixie agreed. “For him, it’s just a vow in front of his Dad. It’s not the same as it is for us.”
“Exactly.” She settled more comfortably into her corner of the couch, holding her arm out for her daughter to snuggle in, which she did readily. Chloe was glad that Trixie obviously wasn’t too old yet for that. “And there’s another thing. This is gonna sound funny, but there’s another reason we’re hesitating. We’re secretly neither of us sure that the other doesn’t deserve better.”
Trixie gave her an incredulous look. “That’s not funny, it’s silly, Mom. You were literally made for him. And he gets heart eyes whenever he looks at you. ”
“Is it silly, though? Lucifer’s the Devil, one of the most powerful beings in the cosmos, and I’m, well, me.”
Another look, this one uncomprehending. “So?”
“So, he could do much better. So much better. I’m afraid he’ll be… that he’ll get tired of little old me as soon as the novelty of being in love for the first time wears off.” Like what had happened with Dan, she didn’t add. “And Lucifer, he thinks that the Devil doesn’t deserve to be loved. He thinks that I’ll somehow wake up to find that I don’t love him and never did, because he’s the Devil, evil and unlovable.”
“But that’s not gonna happen,” Trixie said slowly.
“No. I do love him. I’ve told him, like, a hundred times. I just don’t seem to be able to get the message across.”
“Yeah, but it’s not gonna happen, what he thinks about you, right? So, what you’re thinking about him getting tired of you isn’t gonna happen, either, right?”
Chloe nodded. “Probably not, but that doesn’t make the thoughts stop. You can’t force your brain to be reasonable.”
“Hmm.” Trixie put on a thinking expression. “Have you talked about it?”
“Yes, of course.” In fact, Chloe had lost count of the number of times she’d tried to get it through Lucifer’s thick skull that her love was real, and that it wasn’t going to just die. “Knowing something in your mind isn’t the same as really feeling it in your heart, though.”
“I know all that, Mom, I’m almost eleven.”
Chloe hugged her close. “I know, Monkey.”
“But I want the two of you to catch a clue while I still have time to be a big sister. You know, before I find a boyfriend or a job, or both, and move out of here.”
Now, Chloe couldn’t contain her amusement any longer. “Oh? Is there something I should know?”
“Nuh-uh,” Trixie said, back to looking exasperated. “Just pointing out that the clock’s ticking. The two of you better get a move on already.”
Chloe sketched a salute. “Yes, Ma’am,” she said, smiling.
“I think you should go,” Ella was saying to Lucifer just as Chloe joined them the next morning at their water hole aka the only professional coffee machine in the precinct. “I mean, come on. This is right up your alley.”
“What is?” Chloe put in.
Lucifer paused in the act of spiking his coffee, sighing deeply. “Another invite for one of those talk show things, my love. Third this month alone. I’ve been saying no.”
“Really?” She gave Satan a look of mock surprise. “Who are you, and what have you done with Lucifer Morningstar?”
“Very funny.”
“No, seriously. Saying no to an opportunity to flaunt yourself before an audience of millions? Doesn’t sound like you at all.” She pressed one of the specialty buttons of the machine for her coffee. “And why haven’t you mentioned all that? This is the first time I hear about it.”
He took a sip from his mug, his dark eyes fixed on her all the while. It gave him an air of mischievousness to overlay his baseline attractiveness. “I don’t seek worship; that’s Dad’s bag. Besides, this whole thing about me really being the Devil is getting out of control as it is.” He sighed again. “I hate to admit it, but maybe Amenadiel was right way back when, and I should have just kept my trap shut.”
“Oh?” Ella said.
Chloe frowned. “Something happen?”
Lucifer took out his flask again and added another generous amount of single malt to his coffee, now that there was more room in his mug. Clearly, this was a topic that required serious fortification. “Humans have been praying to me, inviting me to rituals, practically nonstop and all over the globe,” he said gloomily. “There’s one taking place in Santa Ana right now, and three on the East Coast, at least a dozen all over Europe, and a midnight séance in Perth, Australia. It’s quite annoying having to tune all that out.”
Chloe gaped at him. He had never mentioned anything.
He shrugged. “It used to happen occasionally, people praying to me, but now that I’ve gone public, this whole thing has assumed unprecedented proportions. Going live on national TV on a grand scale would only make it worse.”
“Oh,” Ella said again.
“Why haven’t you said anything?” Chloe wondered aloud.
He gave her his gentle smile. “I didn’t want to trouble you with something neither of us can change. Besides, it’s really my problem. I’m the only one affected, and it’s my fault it’s happening.”
Dan chose that moment to breeze by. “Did I just hear Lucifer admit to having made a mistake?”
That earned him a scowl. “You’re one to talk, Daniel.”
Dan merely grinned, turning to the coffee machine.
Much as Chloe would normally have loved to watch this play out, she had other things on her mind right now. Grabbing the Devil by one sleeve, she dragged him out of earshot of the impromptu congregation.
“Okay, Satan,” she said as soon as they were clear, “what else have you been keeping from me?”
“I haven’t told you about what happened last night at Lux yet,” he said immediately, and took a breath.
Used by now to his occasional literal-mindedness as she was, Chloe recognized the signs. To cut off what would otherwise have turned into a two-hour discourse on everything he had done, said, or seen last night, verbatim and possibly acted out, she said quickly, “I meant things like the talk show invites and the prayers. Things that have changed for you recently, like, become more frequent.”
He looked away briefly, then gave a sharp exhale. “Very well. I’ve had a couple of those street preachers come at me, essentially telling me to go to Hell.”
“‘A couple’”, Chloe repeated, giving him a skeptical look.
He nodded. “Maybe half a dozen.”
She continued to look at him, waiting.
“Seven, precisely,” he amended.
“Seven! Were they aggressive?” She remembered Williams, the street preacher who had physically attacked Lucifer a while ago.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
So, that was a yes, then. Alarmed, she said, “And you didn’t think it worth mentioning?”
He shrugged. “It’s a nuisance, nothing more.”
But Chloe also remembered the Dominicans, who had been more than just a nuisance to Lucifer. “It’s a pattern, Lucifer. Things are escalating. You’ve become the focus of a lot of attention, not all of it good.” She compressed her lips. “You should have told me.”
His eyes widened. “I’m sorry, my love, I didn’t want to trouble you with this. It’s really not significant. Things like this have been happening to me whenever I came topside practically since the advent of Christianity.” He grinned. “Well, except for the talk show thing, obviously. Although, that one orgy back in Rome when all the senators and governors from all over the empire were invited might qualify. On second thought, no it doesn’t. Not much talking involved. Plus, I paired off early with that hot young proconsul. The rest of them weren’t my type.”
He was trying to distract her with his Luciferness, and it was working. She felt her budding anger evaporate and transform into what it really was. “I’m just worried about you, Lucifer. I know you’re the Devil and can handle a lot, but this might turn serious. If nothing else, we’re partners. You shouldn’t face this alone.”
His eyes turned soft. He opened his mouth and closed it again.
She put her hand on his face. “You’re not alone anymore.”
He relaxed into her touch, closing his eyes.
Her damned phone chose that moment to interrupt. Sighing, she muttered an apology and pulled her hand away from his face to fish her phone out of her pocket and look at the display. “Huh.” Call from an unknown number. They had an active case; she was on duty. “I have to take this.”
Lucifer nodded, stepping back, composure restored.
“Decker.”
“Yes, hello, this is KLA4 FM, my name’s Angela. Do you have two minutes for me?”
“Depends. What’s this about?”
Lucifer leaned closer, no doubt listening in with supernatural hearing.
“Well,” Angela said, “we would really appreciate the opportunity to talk to the Devil’s Consort for the benefit of our listeners -”
Uh oh. “In that case, sorry, no,” Chloe interrupted her. “Have a nice day.” She ended the call, rolling her eyes.
Lucifer was grinning, but it wasn’t his usual devilish glee grin. “Did you just decline ‘an opportunity to flaunt yourself in front of millions’, my love?”
Chloe, recognizing her own words echoed back at her, elbowed him. “That’s my bag even less than yours, Luce.”
He nodded, conceding her point.
She sighed. “But I’m afraid we may have a problem.”
“It is one if it starts to involve you,” he agreed, changing his tune completely within the span of half a second. “You can’t be affected by this. By me. I’m sorry. I should have -”
Oh yeah, she knew those signs. “Lucifer,” she tried to head off the impending bout of self-reproach before it could descend into a full-blown panic about him ending up losing her over this. “It’s a problem, not the end of the world.” She caught his eyes. “We’re okay, Lucifer. We’ll deal with this. Together.”
He looked at her, mouth frozen open mid-rant, and exhaled noisily, but the insecurity in his eyes remained.
“You hear me? Together. Forever.”
He nodded, but there was still doubt in his eyes.
Okay. Time for her to distract him with her Chloe-ness. She hummed the refrain of Rick Astley’s song, deliberately messing up the tune.
It worked; he snorted in amusement, then gave her a lopsided smile. “My miracle.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “Yours. Remember that.”
His smile turned more genuine.
“Dumb Devil,” she whispered, and she would have pulled his head down to kiss him then and there, duty or no, if the movement she caught in the corner of her eye hadn’t alerted her to the presence of the coffee machine gang inching closer.
“Aw, you guys are so cute I’m gonna faint,” Ella crooned, while Dan, next to her, made gagging noises.
Later that day, their case solved - entirely mundane, for a change, and the suspect, realizing that the literal Devil was on his case, had caved like a house of cards before Lucifer had uttered a single word - they lay together on Chloe’s bed in her apartment, wearing what Chloe privately called their snuggling things, and doing exactly that.
“Open-air exchange of vows on the beach where we first kissed?” Chloe suggested, the fingers of one hand gently scratching the hot skin of one of Lucifer’s wings, soft downs brushing the back of her hand.
“Sounds good, but no priests,” the Devil said immediately. “I don’t want those pedophiles anywhere near the child.” His eyes were half-closed, and he was practically purring. Meanwhile, his hand on Chloe’s back kept up a steady up-and-down motion.
“No priests,” Chloe agreed, arching into the caress, “but not because of that. Not all of them are pedophiles, you know.” She ran her hand from his wing to that spot on his back between his shoulder blades.
Reflexively, Lucifer stretched, wings and arms and legs straining briefly, and slumped back down bonelessly, going motionless except for his stroking hand, and Chloe threaded her fingers back into his plumage. “Good luck finding any good ones, my love,” he said softly, “but I’m glad you agree. Don’t need humans speaking for my Father. Any one of my siblings would be a better choice.” The wing Chloe wasn’t petting slowly descended to cover them both. “Well, except for Michael. Bloody traitor can stay the hell away.” His eyes drifted all the way shut.
Chloe would have shook her head in exasperation if she wasn’t too lazy for such movement right now. “I thought the two of you had made up,” she mumbled into his chest.
A dark eye blinked open. “We have, haven’t we,” he said, sounding incredulous. He blinked again. “Still hasn’t quite sunk in.” Another slow blink. “I’m on speaking terms with Dad, too. How ‘bout that.”
Smiling, she snuggled up to him to be able to kiss him. “That’s right. The almighty God and the Devil are reconciling their differences. The end of the world must be nigh.”
They both fell silent as the enormity of it sunk in.
Things change every two thousand years or so, Chloe had heard Michael say a while ago. Seemed like he had been right.
“You know,” Lucifer finally said, wrapping both arms and a wing around her to hold her close, “maybe I should grace one of those talk shows with my presence after all and tell everyone just that. Blow everyone’s minds. Maybe Dad can come, too.”
For some reason, that struck Chloe as incredibly funny. That poor host wouldn’t know what hit them. Giggling, she buried her face in Lucifer’s chest.
“What?” he said. She could hear the smile in his voice.
Still giggling uncontrollably, she merely shook her head, her nose brushing the soft fabric of his sweater.
Arms and wings tightened around her. “I love you so much,” the actual Devil sighed. “How can I keep resenting my Father when He created you? When He allowed this moment to happen to me?”
Still smiling, she raised her head to peer into his dark eyes. Life-changing event at twelve o'clock, she thought, heartbeat quickening. “Resentment is such a useless emotion,” she prompted him, trying to copy his accent and forcing her voice to remain steady. “Life’s too short. Even for an immortal.”
His eyes widened. “You’re right,” he said, proving to her that, despite his dorkiness and general Luciferness, he was older than the suns and planets, and had the wisdom to prove it. “Time to bury the hatchet and mend the biggest fence in history.” He looked at her, eyes serious. “With your permission, my love.”
She inclined her head, resisting the urge to do a fist-pump. “Sure.”
“Right.” He disentangled himself and stood next to the bed, wings folded on his back but still in sight, looking down at his comfy sweats and sighing resignedly. “Not quite what you’d call formal dress, but what the hell.”
Chloe snorted, but she, too, stood, just in case, pulling at her her own snuggly things and knowing exactly how Lucifer felt.
The Devil folded his hands and looked up. “So, Dad,” he said, “if You’ve got a moment, there’s something I need to say to You.”
Chloe copied him. “And there’s something I need to ask You,” she added.
For a long moment, nothing happened.
Don’t screw this up, God, Chloe thought fervently. This is a one-off. If You truly want to mend fences with Your son, don’t ignore him now.
“Well,” a familiar voice said from behind them, “don’t keep Me in suspense, then.”
Chloe turned to face Him as He was lounging on her bed, wondering why He seemed to favor this particular form.
“Hi, Dad,” Lucifer said. Chloe, who knew him well by now, could tell how much effort it cost him to sound as nonchalant as he did.
God crossed his legs, leaning back comfortably. “Hello, My Son. Hello, Daughter. What’s so urgent?”
Lucifer drew himself up to his full, impressive height, wings partially extended, head lowered. The majestic effect was only slightly hampered by his baggy, off-black sweats and tousled hair. “That difference of opinion we had a while ago?” he began. “You know, over the matter of free will for all Your children, not just the ones on the Earthly plane?”
“You mean the one that caused you to lead a rebellion against Me?” God interjected.
“And ended up with You casting me away? Yep,” Lucifer said. “That one.”
“What about it?”
“Do You still insist on it?”
God smiled, and Chloe had to force herself to remain silent. “What do you think?” He said after a moment.
“I’m asking You.” Lucifer’s breathing was deepening, a sound that was intimately familiar to Chloe. “Because I can’t help noticing that we’ve more or less been doing things our way for a while now, and You didn’t smite anyone. Not a peep of disapproval. So I’m wondering….”
“Right.” God looked up at His favorite son, unimpressed by his show of strength. “You know, that eternal rivalry between you and your brother Michael?”
Lucifer frowned at the apparent non sequitur. “Yes...?”
“Turns out that -” He interrupted Himself, turning to Chloe. “Oh, I do apologize, My Daughter. Am I welcome in your home?”
This time, Chloe managed to keep her wits about her in the face of His kindly blue eyes. “Sure,” she said as casually as she could. “We did invite You.”
“Thank you.” He turned back to His son. “As I was saying, turns out that you’re much faster on the uptake than he is, so you can count that as a partial victory.”
Lucifer frowned. “Are You saying….?”
“I’m saying that you’re right, Son. You have free will; all of you. Have had it for a while, in fact.”
“Is that why You’ve been so conspicuous in Your absence?”
God smiled. “Well. I may have gone from overbearing to absentee, but that’s only because I wanted to let you all execute your free will. Whatever the litter of you do has long been on your conscience, which I’ve provided each of you with when I created you. All your choices are on you, including the choice to defy Me.” He smiled at Chloe. “Just like the humans.”
She sat down next to Him on the edge of the bed, marvelling at the fact that God Himself was in her humble home. This time, though, the realization didn’t nearly have the same impact as it had had before.
“Right,” Lucifer said. “In that case, I….” he trailed off. “Dad,” he tried again, “in case I ever found myself near the Gates, would I be welcome in Your home?”
God looked at him, smiling widely. “Of course! And high time you finally visited Me it is, too!” He patted the space on His other side in invitation.
Lucifer remained standing. “Well, You could have come visit me down in Hell once in an eternity, too, Dad,” he said, not quite sulking, but close enough.
“I know,” He sighed. “I know you have wanted Me to. I heard your prayers. But ask yourself, my Son, looking back on what you were like back then, would you have welcomed Me if I had?”
Chloe watched the Devil bite down on his immediate reply, watched his eyes assume a pensive look, watched the realization dawn. “No,” he finally said, truthful as ever. “You’re right, Dad. I wouldn’t have.”
“You’ve always had a spectacular temper. I suppose you get that from your Mother. I had to wait for your anger to cool, even knowing that I was hurting you. For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”
Stony-faced, Lucifer made no move to sit down.
Chloe, who knew an olive branch when she saw one, directed a good glare at him. “Luce. This is not how you bury a hatchet.”
He looked at her, and she could see his expression soften like it had so often before. “Right.” Shrugging his wings away, he sat down at his Father’s other side.
God, now seated between the two of them, gave Chloe an approving look before turning to His son. “What is it you wanted to tell Me, anyway?”
“I….” Lucifer began, then trailed off. “A question first, if You don’t mind,” he amended.
God smiled. “Just one?”
“Maybe two.”
“Ay Em Ay.”
That earned the Almighty a confused look from either side of him.
He shrugged. “Isn’t that what the kids are calling it these days? Ask Me anything.”
Lucifer snorted, but didn’t comment.
Chloe, who didn’t get the reference, merely smiled.
“So, Dad - Chloe and me. How much did You interfere?”
God hesitated. “You won’t like the answer to that one, My Son.”
“So, a lot.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Why?”
A Godly sigh. “I needed to make sure you find each other. Turns out I needn't have bothered. The two of you are kind of inevitable.”
Lucifer looked at Him. Chloe, peering across the Almighty, could see comprehension dawn on the Devil’s face. “One universe wasn’t enough?”
“Sort of.”
“I see.”
Chloe didn’t, but she’d quizz Lucifer about it afterwards. No need to get distracted by… whatever this was.
“So, her existence was deliberate?” He looked across at her. “Sorry, my love. I know you’re right there.”
God shrugged. “What can I say? I knew you were lonely down in Hell, and when I made you - you and your siblings -, I didn’t set out to make loners. I knew you’d cope with your fate, Lucifer - I made you strong enough for that -, but I also knew you were deeply, fundamentally unhappy. So, knowing you’d come up to Earth eventually, I did something about it. I created someone who would be able to give you what your mother and I had failed to.” He gave a lopsided smile. “Better late than never, right?”
Chloe took a moment to process this. It wasn’t new knowledge, but hearing it confirmed by the highest authority there was still put a new spin on things.
Her existence wasn’t random. She’d been created specifically for Lucifer, to be someone who would appeal to him because of her very nature. She had free will, she knew that, but still - it was hard not to feel manipulated, like Lucifer had felt manipulated when he learned about it.
Her ability to negate Lucifer’s invulnerability and charm power was clearly a part of that. They’d been over this again and again, and she’d come to terms with it repeatedly. Without it, they wouldn’t have found each other. Lucifer would still be lonely, and she wouldn’t even exist.
Still. “In what ways did You interfere?” Chloe dared ask Him.
The unassuming-looking man turned to face her. “I did nothing to nudge you, My Child. All your choices were entirely your own. I merely made sure you stayed alive until you met My recalcitrant son and he could take over that task.”
“How?” Chloe asked automatically, but the answer had already come to her. “That outbreak of influenza when I was small, right?” The doctors had said that her recovery had been miraculous, or so her mother had told her. She’d been putting that down to Mom’s flair for the dramatic, but now….
“Yes. I sent Raphael down to heal you. I doubt she recognized you, though.”
“Bloody human diseases,” Lucifer muttered, looking at her with his I-could-have-lost-you expression that she knew so well.
“As for you, though” God continued, turning back to the Devil, “when you’d been on Earth for five years, living in the same city as Chloe, almost but never quite meeting her several dozen times, I finally had enough of the near-misses and did some nudging. I sent the bus that killed Delilah’s assassin so you could question him and be set on your path of crime fighting. I sent one of the lesser angels in disguise into Beatrice’s school to make you follow her inside and meet the child, who could then see you for what you are. I sent Father Frank, who had died in that car crash, back into life for you to learn about human friendship.”
“What?”
“He did his job admirably, and when he was done, I called him back. He’s now in the Silver City, happily teaching everyone about human music.”
“You….” Lucifer trailed off and stood, towering over the slight avatar of his Father, radiating tension. “You put him in my path deliberately, and then allowed him to be killed? Do You have any idea how much it hurt -- what it did to me -- what it was like when he died?”
God looked up at him, smiling gently in the face of His son’s show of aggression. “Of course I do. That was the whole point. Humans were ‘fascinating, ridiculous creatures’ to you before that. You had to learn to care, so you could appreciate My work, and Chloe, and could become what you are now.” He smiled. “Excellent work, if I do so say Myself. You’re still upset, and it’s been years.”
Lucifer opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“That’s not how you do this,” Chloe found herself saying.
God turned to face her. “Hmm?”
She met His gaze. “That’s not how you teach your children how to care,” she said, holding on to her courage. “You don’t give them something and snatch it away again as soon as they become attached to it. That’s the exact way to teach them not to care. It makes them become callous.”
He returned her look with interest. “Then how would you have gone about it in, My Child?” He nodded in Lucifer’s direction, who was still looming within striking distance. “Imagine yourself in My place. You and your son have become estranged in the worst possible way. You haven’t talked in ages. Your son resents you. He suspects your machinations behind everything that happens to him, and he’s not always wrong, because you still love him and want what’s best for him. But you realize that you have made mistakes in the past, things that even you can’t take back because turning back time and changing history has all sorts of metaphysical consequences. You realize that he was too young for the job you gave him when you did. At the same time, you still have hope that your mistake didn’t damage him irrevocably. You know his potential, how great he can become, because you made him.”
His eyes strayed away from Chloe to look at something only He could see.
“For lack of a better plan, you stop interfering, withdraw your influence altogether. Time passes. Finally, you see your chance. Your son is about to rebel again, to leave his post and all the misery connected with it behind and enjoy himself. So, you wish to let him know that it’s okay. It’s time for a change.”
Chloe looked at Lucifer, who had stopped looking angry.
“You know you can’t confront him directly. It’s much too early for that. You have to be very careful and hands-off, which isn’t your strong suit. You also realize that he’s not yet ready to be happy. He’s still too proud, too aloof, and the job you gave him has left its mark on him. He has buried some of his emotions so deeply and for so long that they’ve become alien to him. You want nothing more than to heal him, to reawaken the young angel in him that you know is still there. So you send the strongest and most subtle force for the job - love.”
Lucifer blinked. His eyes found Chloe’s.
“Your son scoffs at the concept of love, though. You realize you have to belatedly teach him all the things humanity learns so easily and so quickly, otherwise he won’t grow, won’t benefit, won’t heal.” God looked back at Chloe. “You were a Me-sent in this, My Child. And no, I didn’t change who you would have become had your mother been able to bear children. All I did was make your birth possible and render some of Lucifer’s powers ineffective in your proximity, so you could really get to know him. I left all your natural characteristics intact.”
He fell silent, and for a minute, no one said anything.
Chloe remembered His question. “Couldn’t You have sent someone else, someone who would have remained Lucifer’s friend, instead of choosing someone who would so soon leave him again?”
“Oh, I did that,” God said. “Several times, during the ages. My son had sex with them, but he never felt anything approaching friendship for any of them. So I decided I needed someone who would know beforehand who he really is. Someone who would care for Lucifer for who and what he really is. Frank was a good man, and he had the necessary background and temperament.”
Lucifer snorted and shook his head. “If I had known all this a year ago, I would have stormed Heaven to personally sock You one or five hundred, Dad,” he said.
God nodded. “I know. And what’s different now?”
“You really want to hear me say it, don’t You,” Lucifer sighed. “Very well. It’s what I asked You here to tell You, anyway.” He took a breath. “Dad, I…. I’ve decided I’m done resenting You. I’m in love, and the funny thing is that there’s no more room in my heart for hate now. I can’t even stay mad at You for Your manipulations. After all, they made me end up here.” He looked at the walls of Chloe’s bedroom and at her. “And I can’t be mad at You for that.”
Chloe nodded at him, smiling. Finally.
“See, Dad, my Consort approves,” Lucifer promptly quipped.
“Then it’s good,” God said, smiling. “A good thing. Thank you, My Son. I am proud of you.”
“.... Really?” There was such stark hope in Lucifer’s voice that Chloe’s heart ached for him.
“I do not lie,” the Almighty said. “One thing we have in common.” He turned to Chloe. “You have a question for Me, Child?”
“Uh….” She shook herself. What with all this epicness happening, she’d completely forgotten what she’d wanted to ask Him. “I, uh, I wanted to ask You…” for the hand of Your son in marriage, she mentally finished the thought, and stalled.
One, it sounded so incredibly clichéd. Two, what with everything that had been said here about free will, it almost sounded like an insult. Three, how dared she?
“I wanted to ask You,” she started again, “if Lucifer and I decided to marry, would You officiate? Or whatever is appropriate?” She could hear Lucifer’s gasp, but this wasn’t the time to look away from His eyes.
God smiled widely. “I’d give this an Hallelujah, but that would be praising Me, and this is all down to you and him, so… I’ll just say, of course I will. Provided there’s booze.”
Lucifer snorted. “That one’s as certain as death and taxes, Dad. Booze, and Devil’s Food Cake.”
“Good.” The Almighty stood. “Just give me a prayer when you’re ready, then, My Children.” With that, He vanished.
Chloe and Lucifer were left to stare at one another.
“Well, my love,” Lucifer said into the silence, “it seems that the end of the world truly is nigh.” He sounded as shell-shocked as she felt.
Giving his head a small shake, he got up, straightened his black sweats, and got down on one knee. “It also looks like we’re buying you a ring. If you’ll have me, Chloe Jane Decker.”
That was when Chloe learned what crying with happiness feels like.