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Chloe stood outside of the gym, sipping her latte, and waiting for her partner. The hustle and bustle of beat cops around her, the ogling eyes of bystanders passing by, and the flashing lights of the squad cars made her mind drift off.
She had gotten into a rhythm lately…a boring rhythm. Wake up, get Trixie ready for school, go to the precinct, work, go home, make dinner, read for a few minutes, go to bed, repeat. Even Lucifer’s…Luciferness couldn’t get her out of it. She was in a rut and she knew it. The people around her knew it. Hell, even the book she read three pages at a time was beginning to gather dust. But the routine was safe. It was comfortable, like a warm bed on a Sunday morning.
“Good morning, Detective.”
Chloe came out of her own thoughts and looked at her partner. The exact opposite of safe and comfortable, Lucifer demanded change and excitement.
“Morning,” She greeted. “Ready?” She took a sip of her coffee and began walking towards the gym.
“Yes, what have we got?” Lucifer matched his strides with hers as they walked into the open space of the gym.
“26-year-old female. Witness identified her as Ariana Burns. Found this morning by a coworker.”
The body hung from brightly colored silk ribbons. Her waist was tied with bright pink silk. Around her neck, azure blue silk squeezed her throat. Matching the colors, Ariana’s lips were blue. Her eyes bulged with a look of terror cemented on her face. The body swayed back and forth.
“What a way to go, huh?” Ella perched on a ladder extending to the rood, examining the body. A rather difficult task as the dearly deceased kept swaying away from her.
Every death made Chloe’s heart break a little more. She yearned to forget about these poor people's deaths and just focus on her routine. Find the bad guy, go home, make dinner, read, sleep…
“So, it looks like an accident. Any reason to suggest otherwise?” Chloe asked, craning her neck up to look at the body and the surroundings.
“I overheard the witness say that she was uber careful all the time and that there’s no way this was an accident. Other than that, I won’t know more until we get the body back to the lab and start testing.” Ella called down to them.
“I do love these silk ropes,” Lucifer butted in. “I have a set in my penthouse. Lovely gymnast and I had some fun with them. You know you can-”
“Stop!” Chloe put her hand up to Lucifer’s face. “I don’t need to hear about your experience with silk ropes.”
“You know, I was thinking about taking a class on silk dancing. It’s supposed to be super fun! Like flying!” Ella smiled down at them.
“I can honestly tell you, it’s nothing like flying.” Lucifer rolled his eyes.
“Can we focus, guys? Dead body and all?”
Lucifer and Ella went silent. It happened more and more lately. She’d try to focus on the job at hand, people around her would get off track, and she’d be forced to refocus them.
“Where’s the witness?” Chloe pushed through the awkward silence.
“She’s in the main office.” Ella nodded and got back to examining the body.
Chloe walked over to the office, leaving Lucifer behind to do whatever it is he does. She opened the door and found a puffy-eyed girl staring off into the distance.
“Hi…” Chloe tried to get a response. “I’m Detective Decker.”
The girl didn’t move.
“Can you…can you tell me what happened?”
The girl shook her head slightly and fresh tears began to fall.
“I know this is hard. I’m so sorry for your loss… What’s your name?”
The girl wiped at her eyes. “Lily.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Lily. Can you tell me what you saw?”
“I came in to open up. I always come in an hour early so I can get a little bit of a workout in. I didn’t even notice her initially…I just…I turned on the lights and…” Lily’s lips began to quiver.
“It’s ok. Take your time.” Chloe put on her comforting voice. The one that showed she might care.
“She…she was just hanging there. I thought she was practicing at first. I called….I called out for her and she didn’t move. It wasn’t until I got closer that…”
Chloe waited patiently for Lily to continue. It wasn’t always easy to get someone to talk. It took time. She was just thankful Lucifer wasn’t there to make things worse.
“When I got closer, I saw the silk around her neck. I screamed. It’s all sort of a blur…”
“Did Ariana often practice alone?”
“Yea. She practices….practiced every night.”
“Is it normal to have a rope around her neck.”
“No!” Lily exclaimed, becoming more animated. “I mean…she knew what was safe and what wasn’t. We never put the ropes around our necks for this reason!”
Chloe nodded.
“Is there anyone that you can think of that would try to hurt her?”
“That’s just it! None of it makes sense! She was the best one of us. She was so helpful and sweet and talented. She’s the type of person that you want to hate but just can’t! She’s too good!” Lily started to cry harder.
Chloe wasn’t going to get much more out of her. Lily was quickly going into shock and Chloe had to make sure that there weren’t two deaths today.
“It’s ok. I’m going to have one of the EMTs come in and make sure you’re ok. Here’s my card. If you can think of anything else, let me know.” Chloe gave a half-hearted smile to the girl and walked out of the office.
She looked around the gym. The ceilings were high, at least 40 feet. Silk ropes hung all around in different colors. Carabiners, ropes, and harnesses were stacked over in a corner. The floor was squishy, a thick foam. All of these safety measures around the gym, and, if Ariana was as great as Lily said, she would have known her limits. This was looking more and more like a homicide.
Lucifer and Ella had their backs turned to her as she walked up. The body laid on a sheet of plastic and they were hunched over, speaking in hushed tones.
“It just seems like she could have a little more fun, you know?” Ella dusted the rope around Ariana’s neck for prints.
“Well, what do you suggest Ms. Lopez? The Detective can be quite stubborn.”
“I know. Maybe we could have a tribe night…get her out…get her moving again. She just seems so stagnant lately.”
Chloe stopped in her tracks and listened to her coworkers talk. Who were they to judge her? She had the best close rate in the department. She was good at her job. Trixie was doing well in school. It’s not like there was much free time for spontaneity. So, what if she had a routine? It worked. She was perfectly happy. Perfectly.
“I talked to the witness.”
Both Lucifer and Ella jumped a little at her voice.
“She’s pretty convinced someone did this to her. I am too.”
“I did find some blood under the fingernails. Signs of a struggle,” Ella confirmed.
“Ok. Get her back to the lab. We’ll start with her social media, phone, contacts, you know the drill.” Chloe showed no sign that she had overheard their discussion. Business as usual.
Lucifer and Chloe spent the rest of the day at the precinct, gathering up a list of potential suspects. Starting with the basics, they had the owner of the gym, friends, and some coworkers.
“We’ll start with the owner tomorrow morning. Meet you back at the gym at 8 am?” Chloe filled out some paperwork and reports while Lucifer played with his phone.
“Sounds like a plan, Detective.” He got up from his seat and made a move to leave but stopped and turned. “Have any plans for the evening?”
“Normal night.” Chloe wasn’t going to give him anything on her plans. Based on his earlier conversation, she was sure he’d run back to Ella just to gossip about her lack of a social agenda.
“Well…you’re always welcome at Lux.” Lucifer smoothed out his lapels and walked out of the precinct without another word.
Chloe slammed down her pen and sighed deeply. What did he care about her happiness? She was perfectly happy. Content. She was fulfilled in her work, she had a great kid. Everything’s fine. There is no need for anyone to worry about her, and there certainly wasn’t any reason for anyone to be talking about her behind her back.
With a few more reports filled out, Chloe set her task list up for the next day and headed home.
--
Chloe walked through her apartment door and heard laughing coming from her daughter’s room. Maze had picked her up from school that day.
“Honey, I’m home.” She called out. There was no answer, just more giggling. Chloe smiled to herself and walked up to her daughter’s bedroom. She stood out of sight and listened in.
“Will you take me to the zoo this weekend?” Trixie asked Maze.
“Why would I do that? I’m not your mother. Ask her.”
“Mommy’s been busy lately. I don’t think she’d have fun.”
“It would take a lot more than going to the zoo for your mom to have fun.”
“Exactly! Besides you could tell me all about when you were a zookeeper.”
“What if I teach you how to be a zookeeper instead?”
“Ooh! That would be fun!”
“We’ll start with the daggers. They’re the only ones that would fit in your small human hands.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. Besides the fact that she was going to have to have a conversation with Maze about appropriate babysitting activities, even her daughter noticed that she was quickly entering the dreaded world of spinsterhood. They were overreacting. It hadn’t been that long since she’d gone out. Chloe bit her bottom lip and tried to remember the last time she went out for a drink or a date or even to a movie that didn’t involve singing princesses and animals.
Fine. Decision made. She’d take Lucifer up on his offer and go have a drink. Standing a little straighter, she walked into Trixie’s room. Maze was sharpening one of her knives and Trixie was brushing her doll’s hair. Normal weeknight. Neither looked up when she entered.
“Can you watch Trixie for a little while longer?” Chloe asked.
Both Maze and Trixie stilled and looked at her in confusion.
“I…Lucifer invited me for a drink…I’ll be back in a bit.” Chloe squirmed under their stares.
Finally, Maze blinked out of her shock. “Yea. That’s fine. I’ll teach the little demon how to polish a blade.”
“Umm…no. Just make her some dinner and watch a movie.”
“Awe mom! No fun!”
“Be in bed by 9. No questions.” Chloe pointed between the two of them and walked down the hallway.
Yea, drinks. It’ll be fine. It’ll be fun. Just what she needs.
It turned out that drinks were the least of her problems. The new bouncer didn’t know her and it had been so long since she had gone to Lux that her name had mysteriously vanished from the approved guest list.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. You’re not on the list. I can’t let you in.”
“I know the owner!” Chloe’s stress level increased by the second.
“Look, if I let everyone in who said they knew the owner I wouldn’t be doing my job very well.”
“Just call him up. I promise he knows me. Chloe Decker.”
“I’m not going to call him. Again, if I called him for every person who-“
“Fine! I get it.” Chloe rolled her eyes in frustration and turned to walk away only to come face to face with a broad chest.
“Detective! What are you doing here?” Lucifer smiled down at her.
“I…I was…” Chloe stumbled back.
“Johnny, are you giving the Detective a hard time? She should be on the list.”
“Sorry, sir. She’s not.”
“Oh well, there must have been some mistake.” Lucifer wrapped his arm around Chloe’s waist and walked her through. “Make sure she is from now on or there will be Hell to pay.”
"Yes, sir.”
Lucifer guided Chloe into the club, her face the color of strawberries. The line of people waiting to get in grumbled behind her.
“So, Detective. You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here? Has there been another murder?”
Chloe internally kicked herself. Of course, that was his assumption. She never had any fun anymore so the only possible reason she showed up was because of her job.
“No.” She looked down at her feet. “I just…came for a drink.”
Lucifer’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Lovely! Well, right this way.” He led her to the bar and people magically parted for them.“Patrick!” Lucifer lent over the bar. “Make sure you give The Detective whatever she desires.”
Chloe smiled at the bartender.
“Hey, Chloe. It’s been a while.”
“Yea…”
“Pinot Grigio?”
“You know me so well.”
Lucifer drank from his whiskey tumbler as Patrick poured a glass of wine for Chloe.
“What should we toast to?” Lucifer asked.
Chloe picked up the wine glass and thought for a moment. “To new memories.”
“To new memories.” Lucifer’s eyes glittered in the darkly lit club, a sly smile on his face as he clinked his glass with hers.
“So…what’s new?” It had been so long since Chloe had met with Lucifer outside of work that she was feeling awkward.
“Well, I did have a rather interesting evening. There was a contortionist that could do this amazing thing with her-“
“I take that back. I don’t want to know.” Chloe grimaced and took another sip of her wine. The last thing she wanted to hear about was Lucifer’s conquests, a constant reminder of his overly adventurous life.
Lucifer smiled. “Right. Well, I do have to make the rounds, Darling. I’ll check on you a little later?”
He was asking for her permission to leave. She didn’t need a babysitter. “I’m fine, Lucifer. I’m a big girl.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yea, it’s fine. I’m probably just going to have one drink and then get out of here. Really.”
“Well, all right. Let me know if there’s anything you desire.” There was that sexy little smile again.
Chloe rolled her eyes and waved him away. She watched him as he sauntered through the club, shaking hands, raking his eyes up and down men and women alike, sipping from his glass. How did he do it? How did he have the confidence to just be the center of the room? She felt awkward enough as it was, sitting at a bar on a weeknight when she should be home, in her comfort blanket, eating dinner with Trixie.
“Hey, Patrick!” Chloe called. “Can I get a shot of tequila?”
Patrick raised his eyebrows. “Hell yea! Preference?”
Chloe smirked. It was the first time she had gotten even half a smile out in months. It almost felt weird on her face. “Top shelf. Lucifer’s buying.”
One shot turned into three, then four. By the fifth, her head was swimming and all the muscles in her body relaxed.
She had done this to herself. She had put herself in this routine. It just made sense at the time. She couldn’t seem to control all the bad that happened around her so she controlled what she could. Death and chaos were her job, so she tried to keep it out of everything else. No fun. No spontaneity. It led to death. It led to heartache and messiness.
“How are we doing, Detective?” Lucifer came up behind Chloe and whispered in her ear, his hand on the small of her back. Chloe flinched at the sudden accompaniment but quickly relaxed into his touch.
“I’m not…not borrrring, you know?” she drawled with a faux pout, or at least she thought it was.
“Oh is that so?” Lucifer gawked down at her and turned to the bartender. “How many?”
“That was her fifth.” Patrick dried a glass.
“I did say give her anything she wants.”
Chloe ignored the men and continued on her drunken speech. “There’s nothing wrong with being consiss-consstant.” The world started to spin and Chloe squinted her eyes.
“Not at all, Detective. Why don’t we get you someplace more comfortable, hmmm?”
“No!” Her voice took on an even whinier tone and her sober self briefly chastised her childish behavior. “I don’t need to be comfffort-ted. I need fun!”
“Right. You know where’s fun? My penthouse. Let’s go.” Lucifer offered in an unusually soft manner, talking to her as if she was a child.
Lucifer wrapped his arm around Chloe for the second time that evening and helped her off the bar stool. She stumbled into him, unable to walk, and he easily scooped her up in his arms.
“Hey! The ground was there befffooore. Isss being mean to me. You should kick it.” Chloe leaned her head into Lucifer’s chest.
Lucifer laughed. “I’ll beat up the world for you, Darling.” He carried her to the elevator and the doors opened on command.
The long ride up to his apartment didn’t phase Lucifer at all. He held Chloe in his arms with grace and ease.
“Where are we going?” Chloe mumbled.
“To my flat.”
“Why?”
“Because there is no way I’m letting you leave, not like this.”
“So I’m just some Betty or Brittnee or…b..Betty to you? Is that it?” Chloe still had her eyes closed.
“Far from it.” Lucifer entered his apartment and walked over to the couch. Laying her down, he took off her shoes and wrapped her in one of the many throws he had laying around. “There. Nice and comfy.”
Chloe’s eyes shot open and she sat up ripping the blanket off of her. “Noooo! I don’t want to be comfy anymore. I want to be exciting! I want to be the fun friend! I wanna…I wanna…breathe fire! Like a dragon…..Roar!” Chloe put on a funny little show with her hands and her teeth, snarling like what she thought was a dragon but really she looked like a kitten.
“Darling...” Lucifer pushed Chloe back down on the couch. “Let’s breathe fire tomorrow. For now…just rest…”
“Fine. You’re no fun. I’mmm the fun one now.” Chloe laid her head back on the couch and within seconds, was snoring.
The light. It was shining in Chloe’s eyes. She groaned and rolled over. The noise underneath her wasn’t the normal rustling of her bed. She squinted her eyes open and peered out into Lucifer’s apartment.
“Good morning, Detective.” Lucifer sat in the chair opposite her, sipping his espresso.
All Chloe could muster was a groan as she sat up.
“How are we feeling this morning?”
Chloe did a mental check of her body, aside from a small headache, she felt relatively fine.
“Better than I deserve. What happened?”
“Tell me something Detective. Why is it that whenever you come over for a social, you end up drunk on my couch?”
“Oh don’t look so smug. What happened?” She repeated.
“Why don’t you tell me what you remember and I’ll fill in the details.”
Chloe thought back to the previous night. “I remember the fourth shot of tequila…”
“Yes, top shelf! Probably why you’re not feeling so terrible. So you don’t remember dancing on the bar and flashing everyone in the club then?” Lucifer asked with a straight face.
“WHAT?” Chloe immediately checked for her clothes, they were all in place.
Lucifer smirked. Chloe narrowed her eyes at him and threw the pillow she had been sleeping on at his head.
“Hey! Not very nice!” Lucifer easily ducked out of the pillow’s path. Chloe pouted. His smile softened and he gazed at her.
“What?” Chloe asked a little more gruffly than intended.
“Nothing. It’s just…your hair.”
“Oh, God. I must look like a feral cat.” Chloe reached for her head and tried to smooth out the tangles and knots.
“No!” Lucifer held his hand out to her. “Leave it…you’re perfect.”
For the first time in a long time, Chloe saw the way he looked at her. No innuendos, no sexual desire in his eyes, just…something. Something she wasn’t prepared to decipher this early in the morning, hungover, and without coffee.
“Coffee?” Chloe asked, rustling around trying to do something.
Lucifer pointed next to her and there on the side table was a steaming mug of coffee and two little white pills.
“Don’t worry. It’s just aspirin.” Lucifer stood. “If you’d like you can shower here. I can have some clothes brought up for you. Whatever you need.” He looked down at his phone. “We best be getting off soon though. The gym opens soon.”
“Right. The case.” Chloe swallowed the small pills and drank heavily from her cup. After a quick shower in Lucifer’s bathroom that was bigger than her kitchen, Chloe felt like herself again and ready to face the day. Since she had driven to Lux, they hopped in her car and made their way to the gym, bright and early. On the way, they called Ella for any new details.
“Hey Ella, have you got anything for me?”
“Based on her body temperature, she died somewhere between 10 pm and 4 am two nights ago. We found some dried blood underneath her nails. We’re testing it now. It won’t come back for a few days though. She had some scratches on her forearms. Definitely looks like there was a struggle.”
“Great, anything else?”
“Not yet.”
“Thanks.” Chloe hung up the phone.
“So what are you thinking?” Lucifer asked.
“Someone had a grudge against her. It would have to be someone who knew how to do the silk dancing. It couldn’t just be anyone.” Chloe parked the car in front of the building and walked into the gym.
“Good morning, we’re looking for the owner.” Chloe showed her badge to a man strapping himself into a harness.
“Yea, that’s me. I’m Ron Simpson.”
“Detective Chloe Decker. This is my partner Mr. Morningstar. We’d like to ask you some questions.”
“Right. Ariana. We’re all pretty shocked about what happened yesterday.”
He didn’t look too shocked to Chloe. He looked a little nervous actually. The buzz of a lead vibrated in the back of her brain.
“You were Ariana’s boss. How was your relationship?”
“Great!” Ron shifted his eyes between the two. “She was my best dancer. Everyone loved her.”
“Can you tell me where you were two nights ago?”
“I was at home with my wife.”
“Can she verify that statement?”
“Of course.” Ron visibly relaxed a little.
“Is there anyone you can think of that would have a grudge against Ariana? Anyone she was fighting with?”
“No. Like I said, we all loved her. She was a great instructor in the classes, she was my most valuable employee.”
“Are any of her coworkers here today? We’d like to speak with them.” Chloe took some notes in her notepad and absent-mindedly looked around.
“Yea, Cindy’s here. I’ll go get her.” Ron unhooked himself from the rope and walked away.
“You know,” Chloe turned to Lucifer, “it’s bothering me that Ariana didn’t have a harness on. If Lily was telling the truth, she would have had one for safety.”
“Maybe the killer knew that and it’s got prints all over it?” Lucifer looked bored.
“Yea…”
“Hi, I’m Cindy. Ron said you wanted to talk with me?”
“Yea, I’m Detective Decker. This is Mr. Morningstar. What can you tell us about Ariana?”
“You’ve probably heard it all. She was a great person.”
“Can you tell me where you were two nights ago, between 10 pm and 4 am?”
“I went to a party, then I went home.”
“Anyone that can verify that?”
“Yea, my friends.”
“Ok, we’ll check it out. Do you know anyone that would have wanted to hurt Ariana? Boyfriend? Jealous ex?”
“Well…a couple of days ago I saw her fighting with her girlfriend, Jessica. They were whispering and I don’t know what it was about, but they didn’t look happy.”
Cindy shifted her eyes back and looked at Ron.
“Do you know where Jessica lives?”
“Yea, her and Ariana lived together, over on the east side. I’ll get the address.”
“That’s ok. We’ve got it. Here’s my card. If you can think of anything else, please let me know. And don’t leave town, we may have some additional questions.”
Back in the car and on their way to Ariana’s apartment, Chloe’s mind was buzzing.
“Did you see the way Ron acted? He seemed nervous.”
“And Cindy kept glancing back at him while she was talking,” Lucifer added.
“Yea…he’s not telling us everything and neither is she.”
“Maybe the girlfriend knows.”
At Ariana’s apartment, a young woman answered the door. “Hi, I’m Detective Decker. This is my partner Mr. Morningstar. Are you Jessica?”
The brunette girl nodded and began to sob.
“Can we come in?” Chloe asked. She wasn’t sure the girl heard her over her own crying, but Jessica left the door open and shuffled over to a couch in the living room, plopping herself down.
Chloe and Lucifer walked in and looked around. It was a normal apartment, clean, it didn’t look like anything was missing.
“I’m sorry for your loss Jessica.” Chloe looked down at the girl blowing her nose. “Can you account for your whereabouts two nights ago?”
Jessica looked at up at Chloe with tear filled eyes. “You think I did this?”
“We’re just covering all of our bases.”
“I would never hurt her. I love her. I was…I was going to propose on her birthday.”
“Someone told us you had been fighting recently. What was that about?”
Jessica shook her head. “Her stupid boss. He was doing everything he could to prevent her from leaving.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ariana and I were going to open up our own Silk Dancing gym on this side of town. We just got approved for the loan. When Ariana told Ron about it, he tried to threaten her into staying. She’s such a loyal employee, she didn’t want to let him down.”
“Do you have anything to back that up?”
Jessica nodded. “Yea, he text her. He said he’d sue her if she left.”
“Why would he do that?”
“People didn’t take those classes because of the nice gym or the location. They took them because of Ariana. She was an amazing instructor. If she left, so would Ron’s business.”
Chloe looked at Lucifer, a knowing glance. “Where were you two nights ago?”
“I was with Ariana’s parents. I was asking them for…for…” Jessica began to cry again.
She didn’t have to finish the sentence, Chloe understood what Jessica was saying. “If you think of anything else, please give me a call.”
Lucifer trailed behind Chloe as she left. Getting to the car, she whipped out her phone and called Ella.
“Hey Ella, I need you to pull Ariana’s texts. See if there’s anything strange. We’re on our way now.”
“I’ll have them for you when you get here.”
“Thanks.”
“So your spidey senses were right again, Detective.”
“Yea looks like we have the motive. Ron didn’t want to lose his cash cow.”
“Shall we go arrest him then? Punish the guilty?”
“We need evidence, Lucifer. You know that. Hopefully, Ella can pull something from Ariana’s phone.”
As promised, when they got to the precinct, Ella had printed out Ariana’s text messages over the last two weeks.
“Geez, this girl liked to text.” Chloe picked up the stack of paper.
“Yea, over 2000 exchanges.”
“Well, better get to work. Let’s start with the owner, see if anything comes up.”
It took much less time than anyone thought to find what they were looking for.
Chloe perked up. “Look at this!” She handed a sheet over to Lucifer.
Ron: You can’t leave me.
Ariana: I’m giving you a one month’s notice Ron. It’s nothing personal
Ron: No! I’ll sue
Ariana: Sue me for what? Quitting my job?
Ron: Fine. I’ll kill you then.
Ariana: Ha.ha. Very funny. Look, it’s just time for me to go out on my own. You’ve been great, but it’s something I have to do.
Ron: It’s harder than you think. You’ll fail.
Ariana: Thanks for the support.
“He literally says it right there!” Lucifer gawked. “Stupid human.”
Chloe nodded in agreement. “Let’s head back to the gym. Get our guy.”
It wasn’t hard to get Ron to confess. Lucifer did his desire thing and it all came flooding out.
“I wanted to be the best and she was going to ruin it!” Ron had confessed. Cindy stood behind him and watched.
“I knew he did it. I just couldn’t prove it.” Cindy said.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Chloe probed.
“I didn’t want to believe it. She was so free, so happy, so...full of life. Everyone loved her.”
Once Ron had been processed at the precinct, Chloe was left to finish up the paperwork. Of course, Lucifer was the least helpful when it came to the administrative side of the job, and she watched him. He flitted around from person to person, smiling and flirting. She saw Ella in her lab, bouncing around to whatever music was blaring through the room. She even looked at Dan, content eating his pudding. Life moved on.
Another murderer apprehended, another case solved, and Chloe should have been happy about it, but there was a hole in her chest. Ariana, this beautiful woman, had been killed. Not because she was the best at her job, but because she was taking a risk in her life. She was pursuing her passions and that got her murdered. One side of Chloe’s brain was begging to go home, to go back to her safe space, to make dinner for her daughter and to read a few pages of her book. The other side reminded her that no one was safe from death and chaos and pain. The people around her still managed to go out, build relationships, smile, have fun.
Chloe let out a large sigh and threw her pen on her desk. Biting her lip, she contemplated her choices. She could continue her life as is, it was easy.
Or...she could take the risk. She could get out of the nest she had built for herself and change .
Without saying a word to anyone around her, Chloe picked up her bag and left the precinct. She wasn’t sure where she was going or what she was going to do, but she needed the space to think.
Driving around LA wasn’t the best way to get perspective. The traffic was too heavy for her to drift into her mind, but she found herself back at the silk dancing gym, unsure of how she had led herself there.
Walking into the brightly lit building, she heard music blaring and laughter. In front of her, Cindy taught a class of what looked like new dancers. They were all harnessed in and flailing about. Chloe smirked at herself.
“Detective!” Cindy smiled through heavy breaths as she hung from the front of the room. “Do you have any more questions?”
“No! I just…”
Cindy smiled, a knowing smile. The smile that said I’ve been where you are. “Would you like to join?”
Chloe almost said no, but stopped herself. “Is it dangerous?”
“It wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t.”
Chloe kicked off her shoes and stepped onto the foam floor. A genuine smile crossed her face for the first time in weeks.