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With the last of her strength, Chloe dragged herself onto the beach. Her fingers dug into the wet sand, grains creeping beneath her nails.
She spat out a mouthful of sea water and cursed soundly. The salty tang still coated her mouth and clung to her nostrils.
How the Hell had this mission gone south so fast?
The gash in her leg stung as she hauled herself further onto the sand, trying to get her body out of the water. Her wet clothes slowed down her movements with their extra weight, sticking to her like a second skin.
Had their suspect survived the boat crash? Or did he –
Another body flopped down next to her on the beach.
“I wasn’t having the best day up until ten minutes ago, but now it’s positively horrifying. My suit is just bloody ruined.”
Chloe lifted her head, feeling her arms tremble from holding her body up. They must have swam at least half a mile to the coast.
“Lucifer? Are you okay?”
He’d swam the entire distance beside her, slowing down his pace to keep an eye on her. Encouraging her when it seemed like they’d never reach the beach.
Like a guardian angel, she thought through the haze of her exhaustion.
Lucifer sat up, brushing clumps of sand off his soaked jacket. After a while he gave up and took the garment off. “I’ll live, Detective. But you won’t if we don’t do anything about that gash in your leg.”
For the first time since the boat had exploded, Chloe looked down at her body.
The gash ran from below her knee till just above her ankle. Thankfully, the scrap metal hadn’t hit any major arteries or veins. The cut wasn’t deep, but the salt water and sand increased the painful throb in her leg.
“I’ll live,” Chloe said, turning onto her back with a gritted moan. Another scar to add to her collection. “Nothing important was hit, I think.”
Lucifer crawled to her side – suddenly not caring if he got sand on his pants. He was still panting from their evening swim. He made to touch her leg but hesitated.
He searched her gaze, doubt clouding his dark eyes. His curls were plastered to his forehead. “May I?”
“To do what?”
Chloe frowned, then realized what he held in his other hand. It was his trusty drinking flask, which had somehow survived the entire trip – because of course it did.
Lucifer wriggled the flask to emphasize his point. A weak grin curled at his mouth. “Seems like drinking at work isn’t such a bad thing after all.”
It was going to hurt like hell, but night was falling and she didn’t know if anyone had spotted their flare. She reached a hand to her neck, and relief shot through her when she felt the necklace was still there.
“Do it.”
Lucifer unscrewed the cap with a practiced flick of his wrist. Then he poured exclusive Scottish whiskey all over the gaping wound.
Chloe hissed through her teeth as fire licked up the side of her leg. She could almost hear her flesh sizzling as the alcohol cleansed the wound, removing traces of sand and seaweed.
“There we go, Detective. Only the best for you.”
Lucifer put the flask in his waistcoat and gave her good leg an awkward pat. “Though you look like I should have offered you a sip first.”
The wind picked up around them, whistling high-pitched in her ears. Dark clouds gathered overhead as night started to fall, and the sloshing of the waves upon the sand seemed to get louder.
The tide is setting in.
As Lucifer turned away from her to mourn over his ruined suit, Chloe saw something that made her breathing stop.
A myriad of black-and-purple bruises ran from his shoulder all the way up his neck, visible on his skin from where his dress shirt had torn in the struggle with their suspect.
How had he managed to swim with those wounds? No one could be capable of managing to cross half a mile at sea, with the tide setting in, with such bruises.
"Lucifer," Chloe breathed, ignoring the chill that ran through her body. "Are you - are you okay?"
"What?" He followed her line of sight to his shoulder. "Oh, that. Nasty fellow whacked me in the back with something. But no worries, Detective. Your favorite consultant will survive nonetheless."
Chloe half-crawled, half-dragged herself the few feet towards Lucifer. She put a hand on his shoulder - her fingers were starting to get blue from the cold - and heard him inhale sharply.
"Something could be broken in there. Lucifer, how are you even still moving?"
Lucifer let a low chuckle. "Pure force of will, darling. Pure force of will." Then his gaze fell on her shivering frame and wounded leg, and the humor left his eyes. "We need to get you out of the wind."
Thoughts crawled around in her mind like snails. Yes, get warm and dry. Prevent hypothermia.
God, she'd learned all this at the academy. It should have been her second nature by now.
But all she could think was Lucifer with his bruised back, and how he'd swam all the way to the beach.
By your side, a voice in her mind added. He constantly adjusted his pace so he could keep an eye on you.
With a deep grunt, Lucifer hoisted himself upright. Sand clung to his pants and arms, but he didn't seem to care this time. He was entirely focused on her.
"Do you think you can stand on that leg?"
Chloe flexed her knee tentatively. White-hot pain shot up her leg, and she was unable to keep from grimacing.
The gesture wasn't lost on Lucifer. "I'll take that as a no."
"It's fine," she said, recovering her bravado. She waved him off. "The Coast Guard must have seen our flare. They'll be here soon."
"Be that as it may," Lucifer said, crouching down next to her, "that doesn't change the fact that you're looking more like a Smurf by the minute."
"You know the Smurfs?"
"I'm not a culture barbarian, Detective. I haven't been living under a rock the past decade."
Chloe snorted, then gritted her teeth as the movement caused another bolt of pain to shoot up her side. Lucifer carefully placed an arm under her knees, and another on her back.
"What are doing?" she asked wide-eyed, though she knew the answer.
But he couldn't. He was hurt -
"Carrying you," Lucifer said like it was the most normal thing in the world. He nodded toward the beach. "There's a rocky outcropping up ahead. Might provide us some shelter from the wind."
Chloe opened her mouth to say something but closed it again.
That was...sound thinking. Lucifer was being surprisingly rational in a survival situation.
"But what about your shoulders? I don't want to make your injury worse. What if by lifting me, you cause permanent damage to something?"
Lucifer huffed out a laugh and proceeded to settle his arms around her. The biting sea wind ruffled his damp curls. "I'm made out of tougher stuff than humans, Detective. By tomorrow morning, I'll be as good as new."
But you are human, she thought. Just like the rest of us. And just as vulnerable.
Right now wasn't the time to analyze Lucifer's trauma's and personality disorder. His reasoning was sound, and she knew him good enough that he wouldn't relent before she was out of the wind.
"Okay," Chloe said after a while, her teeth chattering. "But if it gets too much, just put me down, alright? I'll manage to drag myself to those rocks somehow."
"Not going to happen," Lucifer said, sliding an arm over her shoulder. And in one swift motion, he stood up with her in his arms. Like she weighed nothing. "I've got you."
Lucifer's pace slowed as they went uphill, and Chloe could make out the outline of the boulders in the growing dusk. She just hoped the wind didn't turn, or they'd have to move again.
Chloe turned her head towards Lucifer. Her face was just inches away from his, and his breathing was becoming more labored by the minute.
The look on his face was one of pure concentration. No witty jokes or remarks.
Just pure focus as he tried to navigate a way towards the edge of the beach without faltering or tripping on a stray rock.
Through her pain, fatigue and coldness, Chloe felt a warm glow of gratitude spread in her chest.
Lucifer was doing this without being asked to, without a moment of doubt. He was her partner, and he was going to make sure she was okay even if it was the last thing he did.
Memories rose from when Malcolm had shot him. The pool of scarlet growing and growing beneath his motionless body, losing more blood than any human could possibly survive.
Yeah, it shouldn't surprise her anymore that Lucifer survived impossible situations - seemingly out of spite or something else.
"Lucifer?" Her voice came out small from the cold and pain.
He stopped dead in his tracks, scanning her face for any kind of sign that something was wrong.
"Detective?"
Chloe briefly touched her trembling fingers to his cheek. "Thank you."
A smile curled at the corner of his mouth. "Always. I'd have flown us home, but you've seen the state my back is in. I doubt I'd make it far in this condition. "
"It's okay." Chloe smiled and shook her head. Lucifer and his weird metaphors. Somehow they'd become endearing instead of strange and off-putting.
Lucifer halted close to the rocky cliffs and gently lowered her to the ground. The coldness of the sand pierced through her wet clothes, sending her into another bout of shivers.
The second Lucifer felt her starting to shiver, he promptly picked her back up.
"No," he said resolutely, "that won't do. What's the point of sitting out the wind when you're still freezing to death?"
Chloe opened her mouth to answer - teeth still chattering away - then closed it when Lucifer carefully lowered himself to the ground. She came to rest in his lap, leaning against his damp chest.
His heartbeat thundered in his chest - whether due to the effort or their close proximity, Chloe didn't know.
But he was warm, unnaturally so, and that was all she cared about at the moment.
"Lucifer?"
"Yes?" Lucifer's face was mere inches from hers, but it was difficult to see in the near complete darkness. "Am - am I hurting your shoulder like this?"
Lucifer's voice was soft in the dusk. "No, it's fine. Like a dream come true, actually, having you in my lap."
The words failed to convey their usual humor, and his tone sounded a lot like...longing. To be as close to her as they were before Vegas, and everything that followed.
Chloe snorted, which turned halfway into a cough. God, it was freezing. Winter nights were usually never this cold in Southern California.
"Do I need to fetch you my suit jacket? With a bit of searching, I'm sure I'll be able to find it."
"No, it's fine. It's soaked, anyway, and putting on more wet clothes would only cause hypothermia to set in more quickly."
She felt Lucifer stiffen against her at the mention of hypothermia. He rubbed his hands over her upper arms in an attempt to warm her up, then pulled her even closer against him.
Most of her blood must have been moving sluggishly from the cold, or Chloe's cheeks would have definetely been flushed. Thank God for nightfall.
The wind picked up around them, howling in their ears like a dying animal. Sand whipped by the gusts stung her eyes and cheeks, until she buried her face eventually in Lucifer's chest.
There. Problem solved.
And the solution was wearing a very nice cologne as well...
Get your head in the game, Decker. This is not the time to be thinking about such things.
But when was the right time, then? At three o'clock in the morning, when she became painfully aware of her lack of a love life?
Besides, she had nothing to do but wait.
Either the Guard would find them, or Dan and Ella had pinged their cell phone signal before it had gone dark.
Help was on the way. All they needed to do was stay put, or they'd just make the situation worse. Easy.
And then it started to rain.
"Bloody brilliant," Lucifer mumbled, his breath clouding in front of him. He cast a dark glance at the sky and growled. "Oh, you're having a field day with this, aren't you?"
"Tell him to change the weather," Chloe said, going with Lucifer's delusion. "It's miserable."
"Like the damn bastard would listen to me now. He hasn't responded to a single thing I said since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Why start now?"
"Right." The icy rain pelted her face, causing her to wince and involuntarily crawl closer against Lucifer. How was he so hot - in the literal sense of the word - was beyond her.
"Detective?"
"Mmm?" Chloe's eyes fluttered open. They stung, and felt sandy and like they weighed a million pounds. "What?"
"Don't fall asleep now. I may not possess as many survival skills as my some of my siblings do, but now isn't the best time for a nap."
Chloe pulled her eyes wide open in an effort to shake off some of her exhaustion. Lucifer's concerned gaze watched her every move like a hawk. A very protective hawk.
"I know, I know. I'm just - just -"
"Cold?"
Chloe nodded, putting her hands in her armpits. She couldn't see her fingers in the dark, but they must have been blue by now.
Lucifer absently rubbed his hands over her arms. "I know a way we can both stay warm. But you'll have to trust me on this one."
"If it involves getting naked and having sex on the beach, then no, thank you. I'll pass."
"I'm serious." Lucifer gently brushed some wet strands of her hair from her face. "It'll work, but I think it'll be a bit of a shock for you."
"How so?"
Lucifer's gaze found her, and even on the dark beach, she could see him clear as day. Like there was some inner light making him visible to her. “You’ll see. Just – just trust me on this one, okay? I would never harm you.”
"I know," Chloe said, a little confused. The urge to reassure him flared inside her. "I know you wouldn't do that. I trust you."
Lucifer carefully scanned her face for any lingering signs of hesitation. When he found none, he nodded slowly and cleared his throat. "Right. That's - that's good. I trust you, too. So, you're sure?"
A smile curled her lips despite the discomfort and freezing cold. Leave it to them to be awkward in a situation like this. "I'm sure. Now, why are you so nervous -"
Chloe didn't get to finish her sentence.
Huge, white wings bloomed from his back as Lucifer rolled his shoulders. The color of the feathers so pure it was almost luminescent in the dusk.
Like an angel.
Oh.
Oh. He was actually being serious about the entire wing-thing.
Before Chloe could formulate a proper thought, Lucifer's swept his wings around them, creating a feathery cocoon to protect them from the elements.
Rain thrummed on the feathers above them while the wind raged outside, but it couldn't reach them anymore. Her skin tingled in the sudden dry air, raw from the onslaught of waves and wind. The sudden silence in their cocoon was deafening.
"Detective?"
Lucifer's voice was so soft it could have been a whisper. The word was drenched with insecurity - a silent plea for her to listen.
For her to stay.
"Detective, are you alright?"
"You weren't kidding," Chloe breathed, half-laughing and half in awe. This day kept getting stranger and stranger. A knot formed in her chest. "So, you're - you're really the Devil? Like, the actual one?"
"I am," he rasped. It felt like he was holding his breath, or on the verge of tears. "Please. Please don't be afraid. Not you. Least of all you."
Surprised? Yes. Maybe even feeling a little stupid for not putting two and two together earlier.
But scared? Of Lucifer?
The person who always had her back when they went out on a homicide investigation, protecting her against bullets and all sorts of flying shrapnell?
Her consultant who’d stood by her during the Palmetto case, when she’d been the laughing stock of the entire precinct. When no one had believed her, or even deemed her worthy of being called a cop.
The man who had played Monopoly with Trixie, and gifted her the bullet with she’d shot him with as the most thoughtful gift she’d ever received?
That man?
He was one of the smartest, most incredible, infuriating, human people she’d ever known. And there was no way she could be afraid of him.
Not even a little.
“Detective?” Lucifer’s small voice pulled her from her thoughts. “I can leave if you want. I understand if you don’t want me –“
Chloe shook her head and placed a hand on his chest, right above his heart. She could feel his heartbeat racing through the layers of damp clothes. “Lucifer, I-“
“Detective Decker? Mr. Morningstar?”
The voice was slightly warped and staticky, like someone was speaking through a megaphone.
Or a boat, Chloe thought a beat later. The Coast Guard!
Lucifer had frozen when she’d put her hand on his heart, as if he couldn’t fathom anyone willingly touching him once they knew the truth. He kept staring at her hand, until the guard repeated his question.
“Detective Decker? Are you in there?”
Chloe tore her gaze away from her partner. “We’re here!’ she shouted, hoarsely.
That shook Lucifer out of his daze, and he quickly retracted his wings into nothing. The wind and rain assaulted them once more, but that was nothing compared to the huge boat light focused on them.
The familiar orange side of a US Coast Guard boat filled Chloe with relief. They’d found them. They were going to be okay.
Lucifer huffed out a laugh, staring at the boat in amazement. “They actually did it. How did they manage to see the flare in this weather?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe said. A vaguely familiar figure was jumping up and down on the deck in a bubblegum-pink raincoat, running from side to side to get a better look at them. She waved her arms excitedly in the pouring rain. “But I think Ella might have something to do with it.”
“Miss Lopez to the rescue.” Lucifer stiffened when he saw a crew pull up the beach in a smaller boat. One of them carried a first-aid kit. “You go first. They need to take care of your leg.”
Chloe nodded as the guards approached. Lucifer gently slid her off his lap and made to get up. Her hand shot out to grab his wrist.
Lucifer stopped and looked down, his face creased in confusion.
“Don’t go,” Chloe breathed. “Please. Stay.”
“You want me to stay? Even if I’m…me?”
“Do you still want to be my partner?”
“Yes,” Lucifer replied immediately, without hesitation. His eyes flickered between her and the guards, who were now within earshot. “I want to be your partner. More than anything.”
The guards had now reached her side, and were asking a myriad of questions and starting to check up on her vitals.
One of them helped her to her feet, but Chloe halted and looked back at Lucifer.
Standing there in the pouring rain, hair wind-ruffled and clothes sticking to his soaked body.
Yet despite his disheveled appearance, it was his eyes that caught her attention. They were positively sparkling.
With hope, she realized. He’s practically bursting with hope.
Chloe gifted him with a warm smile over her shoulder – a true smile. Her answering words only made his eyes burn brighter.
“Then you and I have a lot to talk about.”