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"Stay here with Lucifer, monkey. I'll be back soon and then we'll stop for dinner on the way home at the diner."
"Okay, Mommy!" Trixie grinned up at her mother before settling back in her desk chair. She opened her book as Chloe turned back to her partner.
"Thank you, Lucifer. Dan got called out on that case, and I have to go over the forensics with Ella before I can leave…" She pushed some of the blonde hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. "I know you aren't big on hanging out with kids, but I appreciate you keeping an eye on her for me." She smiled up at him warmly and placed a hand on his arm.
Trixie watched from over the edge of her book as Lucifer tensed when her mom touched him. He eyed her warily before he relaxed again and smiled back at her. Trixie frowned slightly, noticing for the first time that it wasn't just her he tensed around.
"I dislike spending time with most children, but yours is…different, Detective." He glanced at Trixie again, but she was mostly still frowning at her book, so he didn't catch her eye. "I quite like the little urchin; she understands the value of a dollar, or rather, many dollars."
Her mom laughed, that genuine snorting laugh she had when she was really happy, and Trixie smiled behind the pages in front of her. She really liked how much her mom laughed like that around Lucifer.
"Okay, first, you and Maze need to stop giving my daughter money. Second, I'm glad you like her, she likes you too. Now, I'm going to talk to Ella. Please remember what you've learned about children." She gave him a firm look, but her eyes twinkled as she hid her smile.
Lucifer held up his hands in surrender and Trixie had to stifle a laugh at the actual Devil surrendering to her mom. He was supposed to be crazy powerful and strong. It was really funny.
"I will be on my best behavior, Detective, as will your offspring. There shall be no dishonoring of the Decker name on my watch." He held up three fingers, scout's honor style.
Her mom just rolled her eyes and turned back to blow her a kiss, which Trixie returned, then walked over to Ella's lab and closed the door behind her. Trixie watched Ella give her mom a hug, then look over at her and wave. She smiled back and mimicked the motion. She turned away as Lucifer sat in the chair next to her mom's desk.
He had his phone pulled out, seeming happy to sit in silence while her mom was gone, but something had been bugging her. She had been waiting forever to ask him about it and now was her chance. She placed her bookmark in her book and set it on the desk in front of her. Gathering her courage, she cleared her throat, causing Lucifer to look up at her.
"Why do you always call Mom the Detective?" He looked at her but didn't answer. His mouth was moving, like he was trying to form words, and his eyebrows were scrunched in. He looked confused, so maybe she needed to clarify.
"You know her name is Chloe, and a lot of people here just call her Decker. You always call my dad Dan or Daniel when you think I'm paying attention. Ella is Miss Lopez. Why do you always call her Detective?"
Lucifer was silent for another long minute, and Trixie figured he wasn't going to answer her, so she grabbed her book and opened it back up. She read for ten minutes—getting lost in her story about a clan of warrior cats—but when he finally spoke, he barely drew her attention he was speaking so quietly. He wasn't looking at her, but at the picture her mom kept on her desk. They had gone out for ice cream after Trixie lost her two front teeth, and she had insisted her mom take a picture and make a funny face. It was a fond memory.
"When we met, your mother and I, she was not very…well-liked by some people in the precinct." He grimaced at the memory, glancing at Ella's lab—where the two women were hunched close together over some evidence—and even though Trixie had questions about that, she chose to wait for another day. This was much more important.
"I knew how much she fought for the respect she deserved. It's better now…but, at first, I wanted to assert her capabilities as much as possible.” He glanced around the room at the people milling about and frowned, but he didn’t continue, much to Trixie’s frustration.
Usually, when she asked him questions he had lengthy and informative answers that sometimes went on and on, until she interrupted him and asked something else. But apparently talking about her mom seemed to make him thoughtful, almost too thoughtful to actually answer her. She sighed silently as he stared into the distance, seemingly lost in his thoughts again.
“You said 'at first' … What about now? It's been a few years and you still don’t call her Chloe.” He closed his eyes tight and shook his head slightly, making Trixie worry that he really wasn't going to answer her. After another long and silent moment, he spoke again.
“She is incredible, your mother, and I want her to remember that. I guess 'Detective' became more so a term of endearment, than anything else." He looked back at Trixie, meeting her eyes, his own wide and gleaming slightly.
Trixie didn't quite know what emotions his eyes were showing, but she had an idea. Maze said he was funny about feelings—well, she actually said he was shit when it came to feelings, which of course made Trixie giggle—so she knew it was a bad idea to push him. He would figure it out eventually.
"Okay!" She nodded and picked up her book again, settling back in the chair, letting Lucifer stare at her, before he shook his head with a chuckle and went back to his phone.
They sat in relative silence, waiting until her mom was done with Ella, and only broke that silence when Trixie fumbled over a word in her book and asked him for help. He helped her two more times before he grew curious and asked her about what she was reading. Trixie rattled off a summary, smiling and giggling as Lucifer asked questions.
Twenty minutes later, they were both bent over the book. Lucifer, having asked her to go back to the beginning, had rolled his chair up beside hers, and their shoulders were pressed together as they each held one half of the book between them. They chattered back and forth about the character names, oblivious to the movement in the precinct around them.
Neither one of them noticed Chloe approach the desk, a smile on her face. And if she pulled out her phone and took a picture of them, well, that was for her and the Tribe to know about.