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Trixie was running and she was afraid.
Her heart pounded in her chest. Her feet hit the hard, smooth ground beneath her. Her heavy breathing echoed off the far away walls. She halted and whirled around to make sense of her surroundings, confused by the tall metal shelving reaching towards the ceiling above her.
Officer Malcolm had picked her up from school and brought her here, to the room with the helicopter and the plane and the tall shelves filled with parts. Then Mommy showed up and told her to go and hide, and she had, even though she really didn't want to. The sound of her mother’s voice when she begged Trixie to hide had caused fear to spike through her tenfold. Her eyes roved the space in front of her. She was scared, really truly scared, in a way she never had been before. Malcolm had his own gun and both of mommy’s. Trixie was smart enough to know a bad situation when she was in one.
She rounded the large white item to the right of the room, putting it between herself and danger. She watched her mother open the trunk of the car, then watched with horror as Malcolm smiled and pointed the gun at her mother. Every ounce of her strength was poured into staying put and not running back to her. Trixie dug her fingernails into her palms. There was nothing she could do to keep her mother or herself safe. Cold dread spread through her tiny frame like ice cold tendrils. They were going to die here.
The paper airplane that soared between Malcolm and her mom didn't seem real. But it gave her mom enough of a distraction to run away and hide herself. Lucifer’s voice rang out through the room. Trixie sighed and her shoulders relaxed. Lucifer was here. He was mommy's partner. He would help them. She watched as he taunted the bad man, walking to stand right in front of him despite the gun. Trixie couldn’t make out the words, but Lucifer didn’t seem worried about the danger, just amused.
A flash and a loud bang reverberated through the room.
She’d seen enough TV to know what happened, and Lucifer fell to the floor clutching his stomach. Malcolm crouched down next to him and held his hand out. Lucifer reached out slowly for whatever he was holding before the other man pulled his arm away. With the dread inside her growing, she watched Lucifer gasp for breath as Malcolm stood again and walked away from him while calling for her mother.
Trixie knew she should run again, find a better place to hide, but the fear of being caught and shot too caused her feet to stay rooted to the spot. All she could focus on was Lucifer laying on the ground, a pool of blood spreading out wide underneath him. She thought she heard him call out for his dad, but she wasn’t sure between the sound of the shot ringing out and the pounding of her pulse in her ears. She watched as his jerking movements slowed and he went still. His eyes stayed open, staring at the ceiling.
With her hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs, her eyes overflowed. Huge, hot tears streamed down her face. But she couldn't look away, couldn't think about mommy, couldn't worry for herself. She couldn't look away from Lucifer. No, from his body.
Abruptly, Lucifer sat up with a gasp, and Trixie stared in shock as he took a few deep breaths. He was alive.
His head whipped around the hanger, searching for something. Trixie heard Malcolm, having grown tired of searching for her mom and unaware of Lucifer’s revival, begin calling out her name. She watched as Lucifer’s features set in anger and, almost like magic, two large white wings erupted into being behind him and his eyes blazed red.
Trixie’s eyes widened as she stared at his beautiful wings. She knew he could do something cool with his eyes, but she hadn’t realized he had wings. They were amazing. Long, wide, and almost blindingly bright. Somewhere in the back of her head she wondered if her mom could see from where she was hiding from Malcolm. Lucifer began scanning the room with his eyes. They almost skipped right over her before he focused on her intently and they switched back to brown. She was still crying, but the tears were not flowing as hard as before. The frown he was wearing deepened.
From one blink to the next, he was gone, appearing right next to her hiding spot with a quiet flutter and the soft rush of air being displaced. He placed a finger to his lips with a cheeky grin, patting her head and wiping away a stray tear on her cheek. She was about to launch herself at him and trap him in a hug, to make sure he was really next to her and not actually laying still on the ground, when she saw movement in the corner of her eye. She tensed for a moment, thinking it was Malcolm following the light coming from Lucifer’s wings to find them.
Instead she saw her mother sneaking toward her guns, trying to stay hidden from the man stalking her. Trixie looked back to Lucifer, fear flashing through her again. Lucifer was okay, but they were still in danger. He nodded at her, pointing wordlessly at the ground and then held up his hand mouthing, Stay here, urchin. She nodded back and he was gone.
She peeked out just in time to see him land next to Malcolm, then punch the man hard in the face.
Right as Malcolm spun to face Lucifer again, her mother popped up from the floor and four shots rang out, the bullets barely missing the edge of Lucifer's wing as they sailed into the other man’s chest. Lucifer didn’t even flinch.
Malcolm slumped to the ground, dropping his gun. Lucifer walked to stand over him. He smiled, twirling a big coin between his fingers before he flicked it up in the air over Malcolm.
Malcolm stretched out for it desperately, but it disappeared in a flurry of sparks before he could reach it. His hands searched the ground around him and Lucifer crouched down beside him. He leaned in and said something to him, but Trixie was too far away and couldn’t hear. After a moment Malcolm slumped to the ground again as Lucifer smirked. Trixie sighed in relief. The danger was gone. The bad man was dead and she and her mom were safe. But for how long?
Her mother was standing behind Lucifer, her gun still in her hands and her mouth hanging wide open. She hadn't moved when Malcolm finally stilled. She just stood there staring wide eyed at Lucifer's wings.
At Lucifer, who was alive.
Trixie sped out from her hiding spot and launched herself at Lucifer's still crouching form with tears flowing anew from her eyes.
"I didn't… you were… you DIED!" She wailed freely into his suit as he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. He was shaking slightly, but he shushed her, rubbing her back and stroking her hair.
"I'm quite all right, Urchin. No need to fret! I'm good as new. See?" He eased her head off of his chest and fluttered his wings with a wide smile that didn't reach his eyes. Tears continued streaming down her face, but she nodded at him before finally sparing a glance at her mother. She was still staring, her eyes wider with fear as they flicked between her daughter and her partner.
"Mommy…" Trixie started slowly and Lucifer tensed slightly, as if just then remembering her mom was there and his wings were out. His arms loosened as he prepared to move away from her, but Trixie just gripped him tighter. "It's okay. We're okay."
Her mother took one step forward, then another and another, until she was standing just a few feet away. She didn't come any closer.
"He's always told us the truth, Mommy. Lucifer would never hurt us. You don't have to be afraid." She reached a small hand out to reassure her, but didn't make a move to get away from the angel clutching her to him.
"Trixie… He's the Devil." She didn't look at her partner now, only stared at her daughter with confusion painting her tear stained face.
"Not to me, Mommy. He saved us. He stood up for me to Janice… He's my friend." She looked at Lucifer and smiled while placing her other hand, the one not held out to her mom, on his cheek.
It seemed that was all it took to convince her mother. She holstered her gun and closed the last few steps to the pair crouched on the ground. Dropping to her knees, she took her daughter's hand and the little girl pulled her into their embrace as her mother began to sob.
"Thank you, Lucifer. For saving us from the bad guy." Her hand slipped from his face to his collar, clutching it tightly with her small fingers, and her eyes grew heavy. "And for coming back."
"I would storm the gates of Heaven or tear apart Hell to protect the two of you, urchin. Never doubt that." He hugged them tighter, and Trixie knew he wasn't lying.
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When Trixie's eyes opened, she was in her room, safely tucked into bed. Her pillow and face were soaked with tears. Her Malcolm nightmares. Though less frequent recently, they had taken many forms over the years. This wasn't the first time the dream had changed to include Lucifer with his wings and red eyes. She had never seen his wings, but Maze told her about them once, and ever since then they made frequent cameos in her dreams.
She dreamt about him many times after he left a few months ago. Sometimes he saved her or her mom, sometimes they were just spending time together again like they used to. Each one left her with an ache in her chest. She missed him, missed seeing her mother smile and laugh with life in her eyes.
Mom said he had to go back home. That he didn't have cell service or internet there, so she couldn't talk to him when she wanted to or just needed someone to talk to. But Trixie knew what Lucifer was. Knew who he was. She knew what Mom meant when she said home; that he had gone back to Hell and she would likely never see her friend again.
She began to cry again, in earnest, huge sobs racking her slender frame. She tried stifling the noise, hoping not to wake her mom. It didn't do any good, she had already heard her, because a moment later her door opened and her mother slipped into bed next to her.
She shushed her daughter quietly and stroked her hair. "It's okay, monkey. I'm here. Did you have a nightmare?"
"Sort of… Not really. It was Malcolm again bu- but…" Another sob racked through her and her mom wrapped her in her arms. "Lucifer saved us again, but it was different this time. He had glowing red eyes, and big white wings."
She felt her mother tense up. Trixie knew it was because she didn't want to admit that Lucifer was actually an angel and not just a magician.
"I miss him, Mommy. I miss him so much." She cried some more and clutched at her mother's back. Trixie could feel the shaky rise and fall of her mom's chest under her cheek and instantly regretted making her mom sad. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"I know you do, monkey. I… I miss him, too."
They stayed that way, wrapped in each others arms, until they both fell asleep again.