Chapter Text
Just something that happened three weeks before
"...you could have known. I'm sure he did send you an e-mail," Lucifer said. His face revealed that he was bored with the whole issue.
Pierce turned to unlock his desktop computer. Lucifer looked at Pierce's fingers while the lieutenant typed his password. It started with 'Ab' and ended in '36'. Nine characters.
"He did send that mail, yes," Pierce said.
Chapter 1: Proof
"Headlights of a truck." Lucifer's voice let Chloe open her eyes and made her sit up straight. They were keeping an eye on a warehouse to help the Narcotics Department with a major case. That was: Chloe was assigned for this evening to that case and Lucifer had reluctantly offered to help her. "The truck turns left," Lucifer added.
"Yes. How late…"
"Five minutes to ten, detective. You have been sleeping for two hours."
"I did not."
Despite the darkness in the car she could see him look at her and raise his eyebrows. "Albanian…"
"Don't say it!"
"Or else?"
"Please, don't say it."
"Your wish is my command, detective."
They both smiled.
"You could have woken me up at half past nine. The truck they are looking for should have left the warehouse between eight and nine."
"Oh?"
"I told you."
"You mean as part of that long list of boring details you gave me? No idea."
"I will bring you to the Lux and then go home." Chloe started the car. "You didn't listen to the briefing at all."
"I did listen to the introduction: they come with the narcotics on a yacht, bring it by drones ashore and land these drones on that truck. After that introduction I just enjoyed your voice. Open question: how do they recognize the right truck?"
"What do you mean?"
"If that truck drives on a road in the midst of other traffic, how do they recognize it so they know on which truck to land the drone? If you look down from a hundred yards high – and in the night – it's not easy to pick the right one."
Chloe gave that a thought before admitting: "I don't know. The lieutenant didn't tell us." She avoided the name Pierce.
"Another open question: why is that lieutenant of you loaning detectives to Narcotics while Homicide has enough to do?"
"I don't know and Pierce is not my lieutenant." At least not any more, she thought. It was four days since she told Pierce she wouldn't marry him. It was a relief, but still hurt a little bit.
"He must have a reason but he didn't explain. Suspicious, detective."
She shrugged, didn't want to talk about Pierce and repeated: "I don't know."
Halfway through the drive he said: "Do you need to go home immediately? May I offer you a drink in the penthouse?"
"A drink that you will turn into a moment?"
"I promised you long time ago: no more moments, detective. You deserve someone as good as you…" His voice died away. He was silent for many minutes, while hiding his face in his hands.
"What is it, Lucifer?"
"When I saw you and Pierce… I was jealous. All the millennia before I met you I've never been, detective. You're the first person that makes me jealous."
She took a deep breath. She didn't know what to say. There hadn't been a trace of irony or spot in his voice. He was bloody serious and even then he stayed in character. Anyway she needed some time, he was moving too fast. She halted the car in front of the Lux and was about to say it would be better to not go with him to the penthouse, when her phone rang. She looked at the number and felt a shock go through her body. "Evelyn."
"Who?"
"The friend with whom my mother is on vacation." Evelyn was on a safari together with Penelope, Chloe's mother. Penelope had booked that safari within an hour after she heard her daughter's marriage was cancelled and had left the same day. For what reason would Evelyn call her? Chloe hesitated for a few seconds before answering the call.
"Yes?"
" Chloe, don't panic. Your mother is alive, but she had an accident."
"Where is she? How is she?"
Despite Evelyn's first words Chloe ended the call more or less in panic. "My mom is unconscious, wounded, in an ambulance in Tanzania," she summarized for Lucifer. "On the way to the AICC hospital in Arusha. There was no place for Evelyn in that ambulance. Mom is all alone in a foreign country and needs surgery."
"How badly is she wounded?"
"Evelyn didn't know. O, god. What can I do?" Chloe stammered. "I need to be with her. I want to be in that hospital when she wakes up from the surgery."
Lucifer already had his phone in one hand while the fingers from his other hand flashed over the screen. "Ten hours time difference between LA and Tanzania. Over there it's now twenty past eight on Wednesday morning. Shortest flight..." He swiped and scrolled. "Best I can find let us arrive Thursday evening, quarter past eight at Kilimanjaro International Airport. Customs, luggage, cab to that hospital. The earliest we can be in that hospital, is ten pm local time on Thursday, detective."
"We?"
"You will not travel that far alone while panic-struck."
"I can't ask you to come with me, Lucifer."
"You didn't ask it, I decided it."
"There is no flight that brings me… ok brings us there today?"
He slowly shook his head. She winced as in pain, but she understood. Her mother's air travel had lasted two full days and he couldn't do miracles. She had to control herself. Panic would help neither her mother nor herself.
"Come up to the penthouse," he said. He ordered one of his staff members to take care of the car and led her to the elevator. In the penthouse he used his laptop to check flights with more overview on a bigger screen but found none better. "Don't cry, detective. Your mother will be fine."
Chloe wiped some tears from her cheeks. "It feels so terrible I can't be there today. I need to be!"
He took a deep breath. With eyes down and fists clenched he stood in front of her. "How much will you trust me if you get proof, detective?"
"What do you mean?"
He looked up and took her hands. "You know I will never hurt you, do you? I never lied to you and I never will."
She had no idea why he said that, but nodded.
He opened Google Maps on the laptop. "This is the hospital. Here is… a golf course? Over there on the other side is an area with a lot of trees… Mm. From that point to the hospital is only a ten minutes walk I guess." He led her to the balcony, grabbed her shoulders and whispered: "I pray to my dad this will not be the end for us. Chloe, please, please, please, trust me." Two large white wings appeared behind him.
Chloe felt a shock going through her body. "Angel wings?" She couldn't say more.
"I can bring you there in ten minutes, detective. Is that what you want?"
She tried to breathe.
"Do you want to see your mother?"
She trembled, but managed to nod once. He took her in his arms and seconds later she saw LA down below. She was still shaking and had her arms cramped around his neck. The sky above LA was dark, but all at once the air around them changed into a thin silvery mist. Behind his wings she saw a dark sphere. He turned and she lost sight on the sphere.
Suddenly the sky shifted to blue with scattered clouds and he said: "Arusha. That building down there is the hospital. I'll try to land without being seen by too many witnesses." His tone was as if he was driving a car and was looking for a parking space. She didn't react; couldn't react. It was all true.
"I use that cloud as cover, will dive to the tree level and then slow down at the last moment. Don't be afraid, I know what I'm doing."
Chloe closed her eyes and tensed her arms. It was as if she made a deep dive with a rollercoaster. Then she felt ground under her feet and she opened her eyes. Lucifer looked at her. "Welcome in Arusha, detective. A ten minutes walk to the hospital. Shall we try to find Penelope?"
Her mother! She focused on her mother so she could ignore the proof she now had. "Yes, to mom."
He pointed to passing cars that were just visible through the trees. "To that road. There we turn right." When they had reached the road he said: "You must have questions, detective."
"First my mother." She forced herself to concentrate on her mom. That was, she tried to do so. She didn't look at him, but she realized it was all true. Angel wings. She couldn't fool herself: he was not just an angel – as if 'just an angel' walking next to you was not enough to freak out – he was the devil. He had told her over and over since they first met. She had never considered it to be true. He had asked her to trust him. In all stories the devil would drag her soul to hell. She didn't believe in hell. He had said he would never harm her. Would he take Trixie also to hell? But he had never lied to her and hurting Trixie would harm her. Or would he not see that?
"Detective." Lucifer pointed to the left. "Over there is the hospital."