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“Tell me again about daddy?” Rory asked, brown eyes shining.
Chloe smiled, and prepared to regale her daughter with what Lucifer had once called their “greatest hits.”
“Okay, angel,” Chloe replied, as she tucked the six year old into her bed. “Do you want me to tell you about our first dance, again?”
Rory sighed dramatically. “No, that’s boooring!”
Chloe pressed her lips together to hide a smile. Sometimes she couldn’t believe their daughter had never met her father.
“Oh, so it’s boring now, huh?” Chloe replied dubiously.
“Mm-hm.”
Chloe settled against the headboard, next to her daughter, and thought.
“How about the time Lucifer rode a horse?”
The little girl rolled her eyes. “No! Tell me about the fighting!”
“Uh-huh. And the fighting is a good story to help you fall asleep?” Chloe asked dubiously.
The little girl nodded enthusiastically causing her dark curls to bounce.
Chloe wrapped her arm around her daughter, and pulled her close. She sighed.
“Oh, alright. Your daddy, Lucifer, was very brave, and very strong,” she began.
“Stronger than Aunty Maze?” Rory cut in, grinning knowingly.
Chloe chuckled. “Even stronger than Aunty Maze. But don’t tell her I said that.” Chloe tickled Rory’s side, and they both giggled.
“Your daddy and I stopped lots of bad guys together. One time, Lucifer picked a man up and held him to the ceiling.”
“The honey man?” Rory asked, having already begun to memorize case details from stories past.
Chloe smiled. “Good memory, kiddo.”
“Daddy got hurt, then stopped the car, then you held hands,” she supplied the details excitedly.
Chloe pressed a kiss to her crown. “We sure did.”
“Is that when you loved him?”
“I still love him, angel.”
“No, the first time you loved him,” Rory clarified.
“The first time I loved him…That’s a hard question to answer. I loved him as a friend for a long time before we became more.”
“But daddy loved you, didn’t he?” Rory asked slyly.
“Who told you that, you little weasel?”
Rory grinned broadly. “Aunty Maze. She said daddy fell ass over elbow for you from the first time you met.”
Chloe grimaced. “Well, mommy is going to have a talk with Aunty Maze later about appropriate language,” she muttered. “And I don’t want to hear my angel say that again,” she said more strongly.
Rory blanched, and nodded.
“But, yeah. I think she might be right. Lucifer was there for me from the moment we met. Your daddy saved me, that day. Did you know that?”
She nodded. “Tell me the story!” Rory enthused, bouncing slightly in place.
“I was trying to arrest Lucifer—“
“Daddy was a bad guy?!” she gasped. Chloe had left this detail out in earlier tellings.
Chloe chuckled. “No. He was breaking the rules, though.”
“Daddy always broke the rules,” the little girl said wearily.
Chloe tamped down a smile at her daughter’s exasperation.
“He did. You can ask your Uncle Amenadiel about that. Anyway, I was trying to arrest him, but he kept getting out of his handcuffs.”
Rory giggled. Chloe joined in, recalling his ridiculousness.
“When he finally got into my cruiser, we talked about the case we were both working on, and he convinced me to work with him to catch the bad guy. When we found him, I got shot, your daddy stopped him, and took me to the hospital. He got me flowers, and told me he’d see me again.”
“And you did!” Rory said.
“I did. Your daddy loved us so much, angel,” Chloe said.
“Where did he go, mommy?”
Chloe had been dreading this question. She knew one day, Rory would ask.
She took a deep breath. “Daddy and I were working an important case. He turned a corner ahead of me, and…disappeared.”
“Did he go to Heaven with Uncle Amenadiel?”
Chloe swallowed back tears. “No, baby.”
“Maybe we can ask Uncle Amenadiel to look for him,” Rory said, sounding concerned.
Chloe hummed, and smoothed the hair back from her daughter’s forehead.
“What you’re going to do right now is go to sleep,” Chloe said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
Chloe stood up, and began pulling the blankets up to her daughter’s chin.
“I bet daddy will be here when I turn ten,” Rory said confidently.
Chloe’s heart ached. “Why ten, sweetie?”
“Because I’ll be a big girl, then. I’ll be strong, and brave, just like him.”
Chloe hugged her daughter tightly. “You’re already so strong and brave, angel. Daddy would be so proud of you.”
***
Chloe took a deep breath outside of her daughter’s bedroom. As Rory got older, this would only become more difficult. She made a mental note to check in with her Tribe. Though they didn’t know exact details about Lucifer’s reason for leaving, they’d always helped her to decompress after particularly difficult days.
Chloe grabbed the laundry basket of folded clothes and ascended the stairs to her bedroom.
“Hello, Detective,” Lucifer said through a smile.
Her stomach swooped. His chocolate brown eyes twinkled in the moonlight. He’d shed his suit jacket, and rolled his shirtsleeves up his forearms. She wanted to throw herself into his arms. Instead, she pulled the door closed, and locked it.
“Lucifer, you can’t be here,” she whispered fiercely.
“I know I’m a bit early, but I thought I’d receive a warmer welcome than that,” he replied, rising from the bed.
She pushed her hair back from her face, and closed her eyes. “Of course— of course I’m happy to see you, but Rory’s downstairs,” she said significantly.
He looked at the door sharply, tensing. “Right…”
She could see his gears turning, knew what was coming next before he said anything.
“Can I see her?” he asked.
She went to him, then, wrapped her arms around him, and swayed slightly at their embrace. After a moment, she leaned back in his arms, ran her fingers through his hair, and cupped his face.
“You know you can’t.”
“But she’s asleep. She won’t even know I’m here,” he protested weakly.
“It wouldn’t be enough, Lucifer. You know it wouldn’t be enough. You’d want to hold her, and talk to her. Remember what happened the last time you just wanted to see her.”
When Rory had first come home from the hospital, Lucifer hadn’t been able to restrain himself from coming. She’d woken up one night fearing she’d missed a feeding, only to find him rocking their daughter with a bottle, singing her a lullaby. The sight had simultaneously touched and broken her heart.
“Chloe,” he begged, pools gathering in his eyes.
She pressed a sweet kiss to the corner of his mouth. “We’ve already bent the rules enough. You promised. You don’t lie.”
He swallowed, and leaned into her. “Can we agree that’s my worst quality?”
She chuckled against him, swiped at his tears with her thumbs, and wrapped her arms around him. He held her close, and rested his cheek atop her head. She closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. The smoky smell of Hell had added a new note to his usual aftershave.
She pulled back, and looked at him curiously. “Why are you here, now? We agreed on this weekend. Mom’s taking Trix and Rory to the mountains.”
He slid his hands to her waist, and toyed idly with the hem of her shirt. “I know. I know. I just… I needed a break. I’ve been under a lot of stress at work. You wouldn’t believe the way these souls run from their problems. It’s exhausting.”
She laughed. “Right.”
“What?” he asked, ever oblivious.
She bit back her laughter, and carefully schooled her features to neutral. “Nothing.”
He quirked an eyebrow at her, and she squeezed his forearms. She sighed, feeling content.
“She asked about you, tonight,” she said, finally.
“She did?” he asked hopefully. Then he caught himself. “Of course she did. I’m fascinating,” he amended, affecting his normal cockiness.
Chloe bit her lip. “She wanted to know where you’d gone.” He tensed. “I had to tell her today. She’s six, Lucifer. I thought I had more time.”
“Does she hate me, already, then?” he asked quietly, avoiding her eyes.
“No. No, baby,” she said. She squeezed his arm, and cupped one of his cheeks. “She didn’t hate you. She was hurting. You helped her.”
“She did hate me, though. The same way I hated my Father. I loved him, too, but I hated him.”
“She wants to find you,” Chloe said, redirecting.
He smiled warmly. “That’s because she takes after her mother. An unsolved mystery doesn’t stand a chance with the Decker women around.”
She allowed herself a small smile.
“I hate lying to her,” she confessed.
“I know, darling.”
She leaned back into his embrace, and they stood together quietly contemplating their shared misery.
After a moment, Chloe shook herself. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Well,” he said smiling wickedly,” I can think of a few things, Lieutenant.”
She smirked, and shook her head. “I meant how are we going to hide you?” Sending him back to Hell seemed like overkill. Her mother would be picking the girls up the next day.
He shrugged. “I had planned for us to stay at one of my more remote properties over the weekend. That’s why I’m here, actually. I wanted to get your input before I made arrangements.”
“Nowhere too far. I don’t want to waste our time together traveling. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” she said, taking the opportunity to squeeze his ass.
He stood straighter, surprised. He grinned darkly. “That we do.”
She nuzzled along his jaw. “I miss you so much.”
“And I you,” he breathed into her hairline.
“How are we going to do this, Lucifer?” she asked quietly.
He wrapped her in his arms. “A wise woman once told me to remember we’re doing it for Rory.”
She clung to him. “Then why does it feel like we’re doing it to hurt her?”
He didn’t say anything for a while. She knew he agreed. He hadn’t wanted this arrangement, either. Rory had demanded it of them.
“As another Decker woman once told me, fate’s a bitch.”
Chloe chuckled. “She swore during bedtime tonight.”
“Oh, do tell,” he inquired leaning back with a wicked grin.
“She was repeating Maze,” Chloe reported.
He pulled a face. “Judging by her rather poor future fashion sense, I’d imagine that’s not the only thing she’ll be picking up from our Mazikeen.”
Chloe grinned. “Hey, I went through a Hot Topic phase, too, you know.”
“Yes, dear, but it didn’t last into your forties.”
“God, I keep forgetting about that. Must be nice.”
“You’re beautiful. Will always be beautiful,”
he assured her.
She shook her head, and leaned up to kiss him.
“Mommy!” Rory shrieked from downstairs.
They both jumped. Lucifer’s eyes went crimson. Chloe squeezed his arm.
“It’s a nightmare,” she assured him. “Trixie started having them around this age, too.”
He nodded, and let her slip from his embrace. She glanced at him over her shoulder.
“Don’t go anywhere.”
***
Tears streaked Rory’s plump little cheeks as she clung to her stuffed bear.
“I’m here, baby. I’m here,” Chloe soothed, crawling into bed with her.
“Mommy,” the little girl hugged her tightly, and wept into her collar bone.
“Shhhh. It’s okay. You’re safe,” Chloe whispered, rubbing her back.
“I know. But daddy,”’ she wibbled.
Chloe froze. “What about daddy?”
“He’s lost. We’ve gotta find him.”
Chloe thought she heard the stair creak outside the door. She bit her lip.
“Oh, angel,” Chloe breathed. “I’m sure, wherever Lucifer is, he’s safe.”
“Can we pray to Uncle Amenadiel? Just in case?”
“Sure, baby.”
***
Chloe pulled door gently closed behind her. Just as she’d suspected, Lucifer was on the stairs. He was staring at his shoes, white knuckling the handrail.
“I thought I told you not to go anywhere.”
He shook his head. “I needed to be sure everything was alright.”
She took his hand, and led him back up the stairs. When they were safely back in her room, she turned and hugged him tightly.
“I could make it go away,” he said sounding ragged. “We could change this. She could have both of us. We could find a way to—“
“No. No, Lucifer. We can’t. Think of all the good you’re doing down in Hell. All the souls you’ve saved.”
“Chloe,” he pleaded through tears.
“We know everything is going to work out. We know, Lucifer.”
“That doesn’t make it hurt any less.”
“No,” she agreed.
“She said she was happy, didn’t she?” he said after a moment. “Rory said she had a wonderful childhood.”
“She did,” Chloe said. “This is one bad moment, Lucifer. She was so happy earlier. She wanted to hear all about what a great fighter you were. How we met. When we fell in love. She doesn’t hate you. She wants to be just like you.”
“She’s never met me,” he said, sounding devastated.
“Not yet,” she said finally. “But I will do everything in my power to make sure she knows you.”
Chloe tilted his head down, and pressed feather-light kisses to his cheeks, his forehead, his nose. She stroked his face, and he shuddered against her.
“I love you, Lucifer Morningstar. I always will. And I know how much you love us both. I’ll never stop telling her that. Never.”
“I wish I could tell her myself,” he whispered, eyes downcast.
“You have. You will,” she affirmed, ducking to meet his eyes.
“Time travel,” he huffed petulantly.
“Time travel,” she agreed.
“Now,” she said, turning to lock her bedroom door. “I believe you had some ideas about what I could do with you?”
He grinned.