Work Text:
When the future calls Rory back, it’s sudden and Lucifer barely has the time to process, let alone say goodbye before Rory is trying to eek out a promise. And yes, Lucifer want’s to help those in Hell, but he wants to stay even more.
Lucifer shakes his head. His voice cracks. “I’d miss your childhood, your life.”
“That’s just a blimp in our eternal existence! I know that now.”
“I-I can’t!”
“Please- please promise me. Give me your word.”
“I-I-“
And then Rory’s gone. If Rory had managed another, “please” or a singular, “dad,” Lucifer knows he would have given his word
He nearly collapses into Chloe’s arms when she hugs him.
“I don’t want to go,” Lucifer says.
“I don’t want you to either,” Chloe answers as she shifts so that they can meet each others’ gaze. “But if you don’t, what will happen to Rory?” She rubs her stomach, and Lucifer moves his hand over her flat stomach too. He can see the tiny soul there. It’s weak and fragile, but Lucifer has knows it’ll burn brightly just like his stars.
“Our Rory will be ok.”
“And future Rory?”
Lucifer hums, picking his words carefully. “If I don’t leave, I would only be changing the future for our Rory. There are… an infinite amount of universes out there. There are different universes for each decision we make… In future Rory’s universe I left, but I can choose not to.”
And wasn’t that what Chloe had been telling him to do this entire time? To simply just choose to stay? To stop running.
The arms around his waist tighten, and Chloe’s head fits perfectly under his chin. “Be selfish,” she says.
“Yeah?”
“Are you sure future Rory still exists somewhere out there.”
“She does exist. She will exist.”
“Then stay. You can commute.”
And he’s there. And he stays. And he gets to experience so many of Rory’s firsts.
Lucifer delights in all of these moments. Rory’s first word is neither mom nor dad, and her first steps are toward neither of her parents, but Lucifer can see how much love is in Trixie’s eyes when Rory squeals, “Trixie!” and the suspicious look on Chloe’s face when Rory’s second word is “mum” and her third is a butchered, “Detective!”
He cries for an hour when Rory’s fourth word is “daddy,” and then he couldn’t stop tearing up every time she said it. Then when Trixie presented him with those adoption papers, called him “Dad” for the first time, Lucifer didn’t even care that she took pictures and sent them to Maze.
His girls were perfect. He was filled with so much love for them that he could burst.
But of course, not everything is perfect. Sometimes his usual eight earth hours didn’t translate in Hell and he’d be missing for much longer than intended. Other-times, Lucifer had no one to blame but himself when he missed important events.
The first time Lucifer scolds Rory, he flees before she can argue back. The look of anger on her face was so like his own that Lucifer feared he wasn’t so different from his Father after all. That time he stayed in Hell for months. Buried himself in the problems of the deceased, because at least their problems seemed fixable. He likely would have stayed for longer too if it wasn’t for Michael, of all Angels, who yelled at him for kicking up the ash.
When Lucifer returned, he was met with lots of hugs and sticky fluids (not the fun kind) but couldn’t bring himself to complain as he enveloped his family in his wings.
“I’m sorry,” Rory mumbled.
“I love you,” Lucifer answered back, and then rolls his eyes at Chloe when their daughter wipes her snot onto his jacket. “I love you too,” he mouths at Chloe and regrets that he’s the reason her eyes are red rimmed.
She kisses him despite the, “ewww” that spews from both of their girls.
When the tears have finally stopped and the sniffles have led to stuffed noses, Lucifer changes into a clean robe before rejoining his family.
“You missed something,” Chloe teases and Lucifer looks down at himself. Expecting a glob of snot. There isn’t any so he raises a brow at Chloe who gives him a wide grin.
“Daddy! Daddy, I grew wings!”
Rory takes a running leap, red wings bursting forth and giving her the boost she needed to fly into his chest.
Lucifer sputters. Proud that her wings came in, but so disappointed that he’d missed it. He promises himself that he’ll do better.
Grooming weekends become a thing. The angels of the family get their wings preened while the humans get their hair done.
With red wings fluffy with baby down and not a bladed feather in sight, Lucifer knows Chloe is blaming herself for those bladed feathers that future-Rory had, but Lucifer can’t help but sigh in relief. He has no doubt that Rory will grow into the badass young lady she was in the future, bladed wings and all, but preening was a social thing and he wanted Chloe and Trixie to have the chance to preen Rory’s wings without the risk of cuts.
A year later, the first bladed feathers grow in during Rory’s first molt, and Lucifer takes over preening Rory’s wings while the girls do his and he can’t be any happier.
Through out the years, Lucifer gives Dan updates on all of their friends. Around the same time that Trixie gets her first boy friend - she’s a late bloomer, but then so was her mother - Ella marries Carol. Dan is positively giddy with that fact and argues that he was the one who brought them together, despite the fact it was Lucifer who really did the leg work.
Then before Lucifer knows it, Ella has twins of her own who spectacularly blows the celestial secret to Carol during Trixie’s wedding. One of the twins is the flower girl, the other the ring bearer, and Lucifer is walking Trixie down the aisle…
The less said about that incident the better. Ella’s twins got into as much trouble as Lucifer and… Michael.
Michael is a hard nut to crack.
Even when Chloe was on her death bed, sixty years later, and with the time difference between Hell and Earth, Michael was no closer to his redemption than he was when he’d lost his wings.
At least Lucifer could say that his relationship with Michael was slowly repairing itself.
That didn’t mean he was going to stay in Hell while Chloe was on her literal death bed. He’d already worked it out with Rae-Rae too. Lucifer would be the one who would fly his detective up.
Plus, he had a letter to send.
Which was how Lucifer found himself surrounded by two of the people he loved, writing a letter to the father of his-daughter-that-could-have-been.
“Where’s T?”
“She’s the president. You know she’s always busy,” Lucifer answered, and was shocked at the pure anger on Rory’s face.
And then a familiar wisp of silver enveloped Rory. And she was gone. Back to the past.
“Was that always meant to happen?” Chloe rasped from her bed.
“Detective you’re up!”
“Answer the question, Lucifer.”
“Perhaps, but I’m sure other-us can handle her. Now, are you comfortable? Do you need anymore pillows? A blanket? The doctor?”
“No. I’m fine. Don’t you have a letter to write?”
“Oh, I’m nearly done,” Lucifer looked back at the parchment, and signed it, ‘Sincerely, You.’
“Before you seal the envelope, add one of Rory’s feathers. I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.”
Lucifer huffed. “I will not.” But he did as he was told. Chloe always did tease him for hoarding all of Rory’s feathers. He could spare one.
Sticking the feather in, Lucifer lit the envelope using celestial flames, sending it off to another timeline.
“Well, that’s done.” Lucifer dusted his hands, when a familiar envelope fluttered onto Chloe’s blanketed legs.
They blinked at it for longer than necessary.
“Well, are you going to open it?”
“Yes. Of course.”
Dear Me,
Thank you.
Sincerely,
You
A pitch black feathered fluttered out.