Chapter Text
“It’s true. It’s all true” Chloe mumbles. Well of course it's true, her inner voice interjected. When has he ever lied. To anyone. About anything. Some Detective you are. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to laugh, cry or scream. The world turned fuzzy and unreal. Is this what it feels like when you’re about to feint? She’d never fainted in her life. She wasn’t about to start now! Chloe dug deep, clawed her way out of her shock. Someone was talking to her? Lucifer? What was he saying? She focused on Lucifer, refocusing on the here and now like a diver breaking the surface of the ocean.
Lucifer’s familiar face swam back into focus. Smooth skin, stubbed jaw, styled hair, perfect suit. Or almost perfect. Was that blood? Wait, something was wrong. Was he sweating? And his posture was all wrong. His expression was pleading and ….frightened? His stance screamed desperation and the need to flee. Why…? Get your shit together Decker, her inner voice prompted, He’s gonna run.
“Please Chloe, say something. ” Lucifer pleaded, feet seemingly frozen in place, arms halfway extended towards her, “I’m still me. I would never hurt you! Do you want me to leave? Do you need me to stay? Please, tell me what to do.”
Chloe took a deep breath and tried to speak. Her voice came out weak and thready, “Don’t go. Don’t go. Need you...” Then her legs betrayed her and she fell onto the steps. He was next to her immediately.
“Easy. Deep breaths.” His hand rubbed soothing circles on her back. “Head down Detective.” He tried to guide her head between her knees. She turned into him instead, grabbing his suit with both hands.
“Don’t you dare run away!” She demanded in a stronger voice. Already feeling steadier. This was Lucifer. Her partner. Her best friend. The guy who played Monopoly with her daughter, watched movies with Dan, gleefully annoyed his brother Amenadiel. The guy who had, Oh God, had literately died for her. She hears his voice after she killed Malcolm, “I got better”. The guy who had been warning her about Pierce for months. She was such an ass. She had been so cruel to him. Wait, Pierce...Cain, that was true too. One crisis at a time Chloe, her inner voice prompted as her world tilted on its axis again, You can apologize when you're not about to pass out.
Lucifer pulls her into his embrace. “Okay, okay. No need to damage the Prada, Detective. You’re wish is, as always, my command.” Chloe sighed a little in relief. Crisis averted. No immediate fleeing then. “Does my Devil Face really not bother you? You’re not afraid of me now?”
“Not of you, you big dork.” Chloe responses a little wetly with tears of shock, relief, and yes, fear. “I have never believed in all that God bullshit. All the stories. They contradict themselves. Sometimes in the same sentence. Its ridiculous. Now suddenly, some version of all that is true. I don’t know what it all means and that scares me.” She took a deep breath, slowly settling. She lifted her head from his chest with a sudden thought, “Does it hurt?”
Lucifer let her pull away to look down at her, “What?” he asked in complete confusion.
“Your other face. Does it still hurt? You look like a burn victim.” she replied.
He smiled down at her in wonder, brushed her hair behind her ears and cupped her face. “No, you beautiful thing, you. It hasn’t really hurt for a long time. Sometimes the scares ache in the cold, but nothing that really bothers me anymore.”
She gave him a watery smile, “No wonder your Penthouse is always so warm.”
He chuckled at her, “Indeed. Don’t even get me started about snow.” She chuckled back as he shivered dramatically, They just sat there, breathing, until Chloe started to hear sirens and remembered they were in the middle of a very confusing crime scene.
“Oh, shit. Um, we need to figure out how to explain this.” Chloe stood to better survey what she had to work with. Chunks of stone, shards of glass, bullet casings, so many bullet casings, and unconscious men littered the room. Not to mention a dead police Lieutenant. Feathers? Feathers and blood. Bloody feathers, “Lucifer!” she exclaimed, “They shot you!, Your wings...oh god, you have wings…” Chloe stopped as she started to slide back toward shock. Nope. Nope. Not gonna happen. Focus!! She closed her eyes and took a deep breath using her diaphragm. Just breath. Think it through. “Okay, we can do this. Feathers first, story second. We don’t have a lot of time.” She glanced at Lucifer, then stopped and looked closer. He was staring at her with a mixture of what looked like awe, wonder and....pride? “What?”
He blinked at her and stood, fixing his jacket, “Sorry Detective. You just amaze me. You’re right. Thinking later, clean up first.” They split the room without even speaking, dividing the task. When they were all gathered, Lucifer reached for the batch she carried, “Give it here Detective.”
“Okay, What can we do with them?” she asked.
“Not a problem. Follow me.” he replied walking toward the broken windows. He paused at the edge and focused on the feathers in his hands. Seconds later, they whooshed into flames and ash, disappearing into the breeze.
“Huh. Neat trick.” Chloe murmured. “Okay, next, I need to call Ella and Dan and tell them we’re okay. I am sure they are panicking at the moment. We can tell the truth up to when Marcus shot me. Can you handle the rest?”
“Well, yes, I suppose. What about the knife? It’s Mazikeen’s. We can’t just leave it in human hands.” he replied.
“We can get it from evidence later. Can you find someone to make a copy?” she asked.
“Hmm, yes. I believe I can. Your right. No matter where it is, Maze can find it so it doesn’t even matter if this goes Federal. Yes. I can make that happen.”
“Good. Okay. Where did you end up while I was unconscious?” she asked as she moved to the last position she remembered being in. “Stand behind me.”
“Right.” Lucifer stood a little further back then she remembered, repositioning her a bit to get into the right spot. “Okay, right there. Marcus shoots, you fall and I catch you.” He held out his arms, indicating she should “fall”. Chloe looked forward and let herself fall backwards, trusting Lucifer to catch her. He cradles her as he folds down onto his knees. “Then I unfurled my wings to protect you. I’ll say all I saw was white after you had been shot and that everyone went crazy right after. I took you to safety, Hmmm, what about behind this pillar here?”
Chloe sat up to look at the pillar. It was riddled with bullets but mostly intact. “Okay, Pull me over” Grinning, Lucifer complied, hooking his arms under hers and scooting backwards with her practically in his lap to huddle behind the pillar. “Then what?”
Lucifer stood to survey the area, speaking as he retraced his movements, “So, with some editing, Marcus recovered somewhat from his wound. Oh Detective,” he paused to look down at her with glee and admiration, “you managed to hit him, even with a hurried shot. Well done!” then back to his story, “Marcus began to come towards me. He really was quite determined to kill me. We fought. He pulled a knife. I got the upper hand.” He paused, then froze, “I killed him. By Father. What did I do!?” Lucifer started to panic. Staring at Pierce’s body, eyes wide, breath shallow. “I was so angry. How dare he threaten you. You! You who saw good in everyone! Who tried to love him!” He began to pant in rage and fear, “He was going to kill you!” He spun to face her, “It wasn’t my intention! I swear! It just happened in the moment!” He spun back around to look at Pierce’s body. “I killed a human….”
“Lucifer!” Chloe called from her position on the floor. He didn’t respond, continuing to stare at the body. She tried again, “Lucifer, look at me.” He twitched slightly, but continued to stare. She got up soundlessly, desperate not to startle him. When she reached his side, she reached for his hand, “Lucifer, look at me,” she whispered as she gently took his hand. When he didn’t immediately respond, she held him more firmly and stepped between him and the body. “It was self-defense Lucifer. He could have killed you with that knife, and you know it. Then he would have sent his goons out to find me. And they would have. They would have found me, and they would have killed me too.”
“My fathers rule, it’s forbidden.” Lucifer whispered, tearing his gaze from the body to focus on Chloe. “HE’s going to come for me, or send someone….” he faltered, looking into her eyes. “I don’t know what to do.” he whispered.
She squeezed his hand again and hugged his arm to her chest, looking directly into his eyes. Those expressive, sad, desperate eyes. “We’ll deal with that if and when it happens. As far as human law is concerned, this was self-defense. You didn’t have a choice.” Lucifer closed his eyes, took a deep breath He lowered his forehead to hers and nodded.
“Okay.” His voice was so small but he seemed to take comfort from her conviction.
She took a minute to collect herself and for him to calm down before speaking again. “Call Dan and Ella. Tell them what happened. I am going to go lay down behind that pillar. Come with me. You can be my pillow while we wait for backup to arrive.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his forehead. He opened his eyes, blinking back tears and visibly collected himself.
Looking straight up, he took a deep breath, then looked down at her, “You’re incredible, you know that?”
“You’re pretty great yourself.” she replied with a shy smile. “Come on. Make your call.” She squeezed his hand again, then turned to move back to the pillar. He let her go with a shy smile of his own, pulling his phone from his inside jacket pocket.
The phone rang exactly once, “Jesus Lucifer!” Dan sputtered, “Thank God you’re alive! It’s a trap!”
“ Wrong Deity," he responded in reflex, " and yes Daniel, we know. We walked right into it. There was an altercation. The Detective was shot, fortunately her vest caught the bullet. She seems to be alright. He had his goons open fire on us. I can’t explain how we survived.” Lucifer paused, tilting his head, “I can hear sirens.”
“Are you okay?” Dan asked after a second to digest.
“I am. Pierce not so much. He came at me with a knife. I had to defend myself.” Lucifer paused, putting his hand over his eyes, shaking slightly with reaction and apprehension. “I am afraid he’s dead. I don’t think you can get here before the others. I need to see to Chloe.”
“He’s dead? What… no, no, doesn’t matter now. They might try to arrest you Lucifer. Don’t say anything. Don’t fight them. No matter how rude or aggressive they get. Let them take Chloe to the hospital if they have to. Ella and I will meet you at the station.” Dan paused. “On second thought, don’t let them separate you. Have Chloe cause a scene or something. We still don’t know who we can trust, but with the amount of backup on the way, they can’t all be corrupt”
Lucifer paused, took another deep breath, “Your probably right. I forgot for a minute. Wait, why have Chloe make a scene. I will have you know I can be very demanding myself.”
Dan chucked, “Yes, yes. We have all seen Drama Queen Lucifer.” Dan grinned as he spoke over a sputtering Lucifer, “Problem is, we are all used to you being “demanding”, and most of us ignore it now. Chloe making a scene just doesn’t happen. That will make an impact. Everyone will pay attention to her loosing her shit. Can you just restrain yourself?”
“Yes, I believe I can.” Lucifer sighed, looking over towards Chloe without really seeing, “I will strive to behave myself. I am going to send you text message with the number of a very good defense attorney. She owes me a favor. If this goes the way I think it will, we may all need her services in the near future
“Okay, yeah. Good plan”, Dan replied. “I will call her. Hey Lucifer,” Dan paused. “I know how you can get. Remember, your freedom, possibly your lives, and Chloe’s career depend on you keeping your temper.”
“Yes, yes Daniel” Lucifer replied a little annoyed as he made his way to Chloe, pulling her reclining form into his lap. “I can behave.” Chloe snorted, “I can!” he responded, looking down at her.
“Sure.” Dan replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “I am going to hold you to that.” he continued more seriously. “Stay safe.” he added before ending the call.
Chloe snuggled into Lucifer’s lap, pulling on half remembered acting lessons as she prepared to, sort of, lie to her colleges. She winced as the movement pulled on her bruising collarbone. “Are you all right?” Lucifer asked her, “Am I hurting you?”
“Just sore. It’s fine.” she replied. “I may take a little nap here. It will look more natural if I am disoriented when they get here. Honestly, I am flagging a little so it won’t really be a lie. Just remember, I am okay.”
“Yes Detective.” Lucifer replied with a sad little smile. “Stay. Good Devil.”
Chloe smiled back. Then, on impulse she reached up and ruffled his hair. When he gave her a confused look, she smiled wider, “You look to perfect. Plus, I have been dying to do that for a while.” He scoffed as she drifted off with his smile filling her mind. He was wrong. She wasn’t really incredible, but they were.