Chapter Text
Lucifer left LA without a destination in mind and a year and a half later he still didn’t have one. He mostly just travelled around, stopping whenever something caught his interest. Sometimes he would stay there for a few weeks, sometimes for months. He had kept all of his investments and business interests as well as his main account, so he had more than enough money to live millennia that way. Occasionally, if he liked a place enough, he would buy a house there. Usually, he just rented. Always something with a garage to keep his trailer in and safe. When he was stopped, he unfolded the bookshelves and put them back to lining the walls, and aisles down the center. When he was travelling they were placed together in such a way that the books wouldn’t fall off. His artefacts all stayed boxed up at the back. The only things he actually removed from the trailer when he was settled somewhere were his wardrobe boxes.
Lucifer knew that travelling with as much cash as he had, plus the gold bricks, wasn’t exactly smart, so he wasn’t touching his accounts yet other than maintenance, trying to use all that up first. If he ever found a place to settle long term, he could always replenish his cash reserves once he had a safe. And he would, of course, keep a few of the gold bricks and all the jewelry and loose gems. Just in case of an economic collapse. Another reason he didn’t use his accounts was because he had a feeling that his traitorous ex-friends wouldn’t just let him go so easily and he wasn’t going to give them a trail to follow if he could help it. With any luck, by the time he ran out of cash they would have given up.
He was travelling up the east coast, heading to Canada. He’d skipped most of the inner parts of the country and just travelled down and around the coast, enjoying the ocean too much to go elsewhere. Aside from the Mexican border, he stayed close to it. He wasn’t much interested in checking out Mexico. Canada had potential though. Little did he know he wouldn’t end up getting that far. He had been travelling through a small town in Maine called Haven, not that he’d paid much attention to the name of the town. It was just another random backwater to him. Right up until he was driving down the street and suddenly felt a crushing pressure. It wasn’t enough to hurt him of course, but it was rather uncomfortable. And quite annoyingly, it broke all the windows of his beloved car.
He looked around trying to figure out what was going on and could tell that most of the people around him were already dead and beyond help, but then he saw a little girl heading towards the area. He was just about to go get her when someone beat him to it and pulled her away. It was only a few seconds after that when the pressure eased and the guy that saved the little girl, started checking on the other bodies as he talked on his phone. “Hey you okay?” he called out to Lucifer.
“Just fine, thank you,” Lucifer told him as he got out of the car and went to help checking the bodies, despite the fact that it was useless. He was rather baffled at how the man was taking it. There was no panic, no questions, no confusion. Just calm efficiency. As though such things happened all the time.
Once all the bodies were checked, Duke headed over to Lucifer. “You’re troubled?” he asked gently.
“Many things trouble me if that’s what you mean,” Lucifer said confusedly.
“No, that’s…I mean the troubles…you don’t know about them?” Duke asked just as confused and then noticed the travel trailer attached to the fancy car. “You’re not from around here.”
“Not hardly,” Lucifer huffed amusedly.
“Maybe you have family from around here? Generations ago?” Duke suggested.
“Most definitely not.”
“Then how…” they were interrupted before Duke could say anything else by Vince and Dave staggering up the street and even Lucifer could see that they had decompression sickness. “Listen, I’ve gotta get them to the decompression chamber, but will you stick around and talk to the detectives? They shouldn’t be long.”
“I would very much like to see someone about getting my car fixed first, but will a promise to go by the police station afterwards do for you?” Lucifer asked. He wanted more information about this whole thing anyway. He never was one to leave a mystery alone.
“Yeah, okay. That’s fine,” Duke said already rushing the newspapermen away. He did make note of the license plate of the car so that he could direct Nathan and Audrey towards him if needed. Saving Vince and Dave’s lives had to come first, so he didn’t have time to argue.
Lucifer got back in his car, glad to see that it was undamaged other than the glass, and headed back into town, looking for a mechanic. And of course this Podunk town didn’t have a windshield in stock for his beautiful classic. When they told him it would be three days to get one from the nearest big city, Lucifer pulled out a wad of cash and started negotiating. Once they finally agreed on a price, the owner of the establishment agreed to send one of his runners into the city to personally pick one up and it would be there by morning, and he could pick his car up the next afternoon.
Since there were other things that needed to be done before the windshield arrived, including the removal of the door panels to get the broken glass that had fallen inside, Lucifer went ahead and left his car, walking next door to the car rental to get something for in the meantime. It was bad enough having to leave his baby in such hands, he wasn’t leaving his entire trailer even if he was inclined to use his other methods of travel. He curled up his nose at the options available for rent before just asking for their best car. It was still nowhere near his usual standards, but it would only be for a day.
During his conversation with the mechanic, he’d learned about ‘the troubles’ that were ‘destroying this town’. Normally he would have written such things off as local legends, but having seen one in person, he wasn’t so quick to dismiss it. It intrigued him and he decided that maybe he would stick around for a little while. Lend his assistance to the matter. If nothing else it would be more interesting than anything else he’d run across in his travels. Even if he hadn’t already promised to stop by the police station, he would have now. Surely humans who were used to dealing with the unexplainable already would be more open-minded about having ‘the devil’ among them.
When he stepped into the station he went to the desk. “Hello. I was present at the incident on Palmer St and it was suggested that I come here and speak with the detectives.”
“Yeah, I got this Stan,” Nathan said as he and Audrey/Lexi came in.
“I’ll keep working on the leads,” Audrey said, leaving Nathan to take the statement, knowing that he would come get her if it ended up being the troubled guy. In her experience they never came in on their own though. Not to mention the fact that judging by his fancy suit, he wasn’t from around here so wasn’t likely to be troubled anyway.
Nathan gestured Lucifer to follow him to the interrogation room and Lucifer winced at the sight of it and the memories it brought back, even if it was so much different from the ones he remembered. “Been in a lot of interrogation rooms?” Nathan asked casually, noticing the look and trying not to set the guy on edge just yet.
“I worked as a consultant with the LAPD for four years, so yes,” Lucifer chuckled, fully aware of what this detective was fishing for.
“Oh? What happened?” Nathan asked, much more relaxed now.
“A falling out with the detective I was partnered with,” Lucifer told him, ignoring the pang of hurt that just thinking about it brought up.
Nathan could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t going to get much more than that right now, so he dropped it and got back to business, offering the man a seat. “So, you mentioned that you were there for the incident earlier?”
“I was, yes. I was simply driving down the street when I felt the air pressure building up to suffocating levels, the glass in my car shattered, and the a few minutes later it was gone,” Lucifer told him.
“So you actually felt the pressure,” Nathan said, that alone being enough to knock him off the list of suspects even if it was a long shot anyway given the fact that he wasn’t from here. “And yet, everyone else in it died, and you seem to be just fine.”
“Well, yes. Because I’m immortal and invulnerable,” Lucifer admitted. “I’m sorry. I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself. Lucifer Morningstar.”
Nathan sucked in a sharp breath at the name, ignoring the outstretched hand. In any other situation he wouldn’t have believed the implication but there weren’t a whole lot of explanations for him surviving that kind of pressure and this was Haven, after all. The insane had a way of being true. “The devil?” Nathan asked nervously.
“Precisely,” Lucifer nodded noticing the nerves and completely understanding them. The offer of help should be enough to prove his good intentions though. Especially since he’d already mentioned he had a history of helping the police. “And I believe that I can be of some assistance with these ‘troubles’ you’re dealing with.”
“You think we’re dumb enough to get into bed with the literal devil?” Nathan scoffed. “Just because we’re small town folk doesn’t mean we’re stupid.”
“I see,” Lucifer said tightly. “So you’re not even willing to listen to my side of anything. You’re just going to believe the ridiculous stories that humans tell about things they couldn’t possibly understand.” He’d expected better from a town that had to find alternate explanations outside of human norms on a regular basis.
“Listen to the prince of lies?” Nathan rolled his eyes. “Again. Not stupid. Why don’t you just keep travelling and find somewhere else to peddle your influence. We have enough problems.”
“I do /not/ lie, detective. /Ever/. But very well. If my help isn’t wanted, I’ll be leaving tomorrow as soon as my car is fixed,” Lucifer said coldly. They could deal with their own problems then. As he walked out, he muttered under his breath, just loudly enough for Nathan to hear it, “Should have known better than to expect humans to be smart enough to open their eyes. Apparently, I’m always going to be humanity’s scapegoat.” His mood was particularly bad as he walked out of the station. If even these people couldn’t accept him what hope did he have of /ever/ finding what he was looking for.