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They don’t really warn Lucifer.
Besides telling him as they get him down from where Amara has crucified him (and later Sam will try to figure out the why of that, on if the imagery mattered, if Amara knew exactly what she was doing when she hung Lucifer up like he was on the cross) that God had returned, that they were only saving him because he was going to help them defeat her, they don’t really warn Lucifer that God, that Chuck is going to be there when they return to the bunker. They’re kinda on a time limit, kinda running for their lives, that it slips Sam’s mind a little.
He doesn’t really think to tell Lucifer what to expect when they get there. He doesn’t think that it will really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Either Lucifer will help them defeat the Darkness or they will all cease to exist. These are the only two choices they have.
Sam never really gets to have a choice about anything except maybe what he will eat for breakfast or whatever plaid shirt he will wear that day and he’s mostly fine with it at this point. (God is here now. He doesn’t even have to make a choice. He can follow someone else who isn’t Dean and trust that it will end up working out.)
Anyway, it’s only in that second as they tumble from the Impala in a daze into the garage of the bunker that Sam thinks about it. That he goes, ah, God saved us (again) and that means that God is probably right out that door. He even reaches out a hand a little to grab for Castiel Lucifer, before he catches himself.
Lucifer doesn’t like to be touched unless he initiates it. He used to crush Sam’s hands in the cage for overreaching, used to press into Sam’s touch before he remembered himself. In fact, him leaning on Sam as Sam carried him out of the warehouse was the most they’ve touched since Lucifer had revealed that he was inside of Cas and surprisingly Sam’s skin hadn’t been crawling the entire time (maybe because of all the panic from them running from Amara and Metatron deciding to sacrifice himself).
Their last true touch had been in Rowena’s quasi-cage and even that had just been violence in the end.
He kinda wishes he had reached out now because Lucifer just stops when he sees God, leans against the frame of the door, and suddenly becomes impossibly smaller in the face of Chuck, who they all tower over. Sam is shocked (and worried for Lucifer, feels worry for the archangel that tortured him and drove him insane and also made him promises he couldn’t keep because Sam threw them both in the cage) because he never knew that Lucifer could look that small.
Metatron is dead and Lucifer goes small in the face of God, who just kinda stands there, staring at them with Chuck's sad face that hardens the moment he sees Lucifer inside of Castiel.
“You’ve changed,” God says (and a small part of Sam thinks back to five years ago when everyone was so certain that was impossible, that angels, eternal and focused were incapable of change and how Castiel proved that wrong every day). Sam thinks there might even be a little surprise in Chuck’s voice.
“You’ve changed,” Lucifer says back and the words are quiet, with none of the angel’s usual condescension or sarcasm. There’s fury there, sure, but it’s a childish fury, not the vindication that normally fueled the angel and not the cold fury of hell. It’s quiet anger from someone who is furious but knows that it’s pointless. Nothing is going to change, anyway.
It’s anger from a son at his father and one that Sam recognizes intimately. Recognizes it so suddenly that it shakes him down to his core.
‘We’re the same,’ Lucifer had told him once, a few times, and for just a second, Sam can kinda see it.
He still stops in his tracks as he looks between the two of them (Lucifer’s anger terrified him even before the Cage and Sam doesn’t think it’s something he’ll ever not be afraid of.)
Then God heals Lucifer and Lucifer becomes even angrier but also goes still and quiet. Sam can’t look away from what is clearly a train wreck in motion but then Dean is calling him and he turns away. If God and The Devil say anymore, he misses it.
When he and Dean get back, the two of them are on opposite sides of the room and Lucifer is distant, has shut off every emotion on his face and it makes him look like Cas in those early years. It makes him look like a statue, stone, untouchable, alien. He holds a book in his hand, but it’s clear he’s not reading. The knuckles of Cas’s hand are white but besides that, there is nothing else to pull from, no other emotion leaks out.
Even when the Devil finally speaks, asking just where the hell his father had been, Sam thinks he can hear more Cas than Lucifer in his voice (And Sam has never missed Cas more than in this moment, wants desperately to know what he thinks as his and Lucifer’s shared vessel looks upon God. Castiel had searched for years and, for the most part, God had always been right in front of them. it makes a piece of Sam livid.)
God tries to answer his son, they’re not good answers. Right off the bat, Chuck’s answers are full of excuses and it’s so clear that he hates having to respond to Lucifer in the first place, that he wishes he could just snap his fingers and his son would just go away.
It’s painfully human, too much really, and it’s not Chuck that realizes it as he grounds his teeth in frustration, it’s Lucifer, spinning his head around to look at them with red-rimmed eyes, baring his teeth in raw unrefined anger. The mind-reading never went both ways, but Sam doesn’t even need to be in Lucifer’s head to know that Lucifer is hating himself right now for showing what he perceives to be a weakness.
Lucifer’s anger is supposed to be larger than this. It’s justice and retribution. His sadness is an abyss and a tidal wave, his happiness is jubilation and his pride swells larger than the sun. Lucifer’s emotions are not supposed to be whatever this shifting human thing on his face is. He’s better than that, above that, so the angel snarls, and then he’s gone before they can stop him, Sam’s bedroom door slamming close.
“Sure,” John’s voice rings in Sam’s ears. “Run away, that’s all you do anyway,”
Dean, ever the older brother, tries to mediate, tries to make it clear that he’s on no one’s side but the one that will give him peace, and turns towards Chuck as Sam turns towards where Lucifer has gone.
This should scare the crap out of him, should send him running right back to the psych ward because it’s Lucifer. it’s Lucifer who stars in some of his most recurring nightmares, but unfortunately, there is something really relatable about Lucifer right now, and also the angel is in his room. Sam is going to have to say something to him sooner or later.
Dean comes with him to try to talk to Lucifer and they walk side by side. (They’re back in sync and have been ever since the mark came off of Dean. Sam will never apologize for it.) Lucifer only wants to talk to God, has already dismissed the rest of them from his mind. When Dean crosses his arms and kicks his foot out to thump against the door, Sam has a wild, fleeting thought of, 'I wonder if this is how Micheal would have looked like,'.
A part of Sam knows it makes Lucifer livid to even communicate with them like this, that he imagined confronting his father in either his true vessel (Sam) or in his true form. But God refuses to not be Chuck, refuses to make himself bigger than that tiny little writer guy in their kitchen and Lucifer cannot leave Cas’s body without risking a power decrease so a conversation that should probably be had in Enochian and take place among the stars will most likely be in English and take place in their bunker.
If Sam didn’t fear hate Lucifer so much, he might feel bad for the guy.
“He just wants an apology,” Dean says to God, yells really, can’t find it within himself to show God the respect that he thinks he deserves. It’s fair though. None of the celestial beings that they’re with have any actual sense of urgency, not God, who even after saving them kinda waved his hand and said, figure out a plan. Not Lucifer who cannot let bygones be bygones. Even from the way Dean describes how Amara speaks in every one of their conversations makes it sound like they all think they have all the time in the world to make their decisions.
Sam and Dean are human and they do not have the same leeway.
So Sam leaves Dean to try to convince Chuck to talk to the only of his firstborn children still alive and on Earth, his supposed favorite child, while Sam goes to stand outside of his door.
He doesn’t bother speaking. He knows Lucifer knows he’s there, the same way he knows the Archangel hasn’t left either. There’s a thrum between them, always has been. It led him to Detroit all those years ago, and right now it still vibrates, even with a door between them.
‘Lucifer’ He thinks as he rests his head against the door. (And no, he’s not praying, no matter how much it feels like he is, he’ll probably never pray again, not since he now knows that Chuck could hear him and chose not to respond and that Lucifer could respond instead.) ‘The last time you argued with him, you ended up in the cage. The world is about to end. Even if you got your apology now, would it matter?’
“Would it matter to you?” Sam opens his eyes and spins around when he hears Lucifer’s voice.
He’s not in the bunker's hall anymore, but it’s not the dark of the cage either. It’s a pale green clearing with flowers, a garden.
“Where are we?” Sam asks right away and he should reach for a weapon, call out to Dean. Presses down on the old faded scar on his hand. He’s not in the cage. This is real, this is happening. Lucifer is inside of Cas and they’re standing in a garden. Lucifer still flickers, and shifts from Cas to Nick to something that looks like himself before back to Cas.
“Neutral ground.” Lucifer taps his temple. Oh great, they were probably back in Sam’s head. “Don’t worry, I don’t think I can hurt you here either,” the Devil says dismissively as he walks closer to him. Sam feels no relief from the statement. “Tell me,” and he sounds curious. “Would an apology matter to you at this point?”
“An apology from who?” Sam asks, shouldn’t even be playing into this, should demand that Lucifer return them both back to reality. “My dad? I don’t need,” and he stops speaking when Lucifer raises an eyebrow.
“Putting aside that I know what John Winchester did to you,” and it’s such a loaded statement, has Sam rearing back at the connotations. “I want you to think bigger, buddy,”
“Imagine,” Lucifer says. “Here is the person most responsible for who you are, a person you can really blame for everything that’s ever gone wrong in your life.” It’s easy for Sam to imagine since he’s looking at that person for him. Lucifer’s lips quirked up as if he could hear the thought, but he continues anyway. “And you loved Him, more than anything.” Lucifer’s voice is so cold, devoid of any feeling, Castiel’s blue eyes are so distant, he’s not seeing Sam but looking somewhere else, past him.
“So you tear yourself to pieces, trying to fashion yourself into something that He will love back. You build monuments to Him, light stars in the sky, spawn forests as far and wide as the ocean and you do really try to understand these insects He’s so entranced by.” Lucifer lets out a breath (and maybe Chuck was on to something, maybe they needed to give him a second to cool off because it’s not fury speaking, it’s cool and analytical. This is Lucifer, as they met him six years ago. It’s Lucifer in the cage on a good day. Sam can do nothing but listen.)
“But no matter what you do, it is never enough. He made you wrong and you ruin everything of His that you touch.” The Devil turns on his heel, and runs a hand through Cas’s hair as he paces. “Rather than try to fix you or communicate with you, He casts you out, tries to humble you,” And fails goes unsaid. “Locks you into the cage after telling your own brother to kill you if you ever get out, and then He just leaves you down there for eons, languishing, alone.”
“I get it,” Sam says and Lucifer laughs (and Sam can’t remember Castiel ever sounding like that, all bitter and hacking).
“So you tell me Sammy, if that person came back, and it wasn’t for you or even your brother who gave everything for Him but for those errant insects that he originally threw you out for, would an apology matter to you?” and Lucifer’s mouth curls into a snarl. “Let’s go even one step bigger, shall we?” and Sam takes a step back when the Devil steps closer to him.
“If I apologized for everything I’ve ever done to you, whether you deserved it or not,” Sam is opening his mouth to respond, memories welling up in his head almost against his will, cage memories, before the cage memories, he didn't deserve any of that and he's about to say so just for the angel to plow right over him. “Would it matter?”
“I wouldn’t believe you,” Sam says, surprised at how steady his voice is. Lucifer claps and Sam flinches despite himself.
“Good boy,” he says. “So, following that logic, why would I believe a single thing Father says to me? Why would I even bother trying to talk to Him when He wouldn’t change a thing, when no matter how this story goes I still end up in the cage or he’ll finally kill me and I’ll be in the Empty? At least Amara will give me something new, something different to experience.”
“You don’t want the world to end, Lucifer,” Sam says, and he’s surprised by how sure he is. “I know you hate humans, but you helped make this earth. You’re too prideful to let it go to waste. Even when you were in me,” and Sam’s voice hardly shakes. “You only wanted to wipe out what you saw as the rot of humanity and leave the rest because you found it beautiful,”
“Maybe,” the Angel acquiesced, which makes Sam want to groan because it’s not a maybe. Sam has those memories, that’s a fact to him. He knows that about Lucifer, the possession went both ways. “But we both know that Father,” He doubts Lucifer will ever call him Chuck, “won’t rely on a maybe to protect his precious humanity, that he’s expecting me to just put it all aside but I,” and Lucifer cuts himself off, can’t even in this bring himself to admit that he can’t do something even when it’s just him and Sam. He mutters something in Enochian and Sam knows he used to be able to understand it, but when Cas took the hell trauma from him, he took that too. “I won’t.” Lucifer finally says.
“You could,” Sam says. “I would.” The words don’t surprise him. He doesn’t know exactly what he would say but, “Even after everything, if he was really attempting to try, I think I would at least hear him out.”
“John?” the Devil asks. “Or me?” Castiel’s form shifts for just a second. For just a second it’s Nick again, peering at him with that curious expression where it’s so clear that every word Sam says to him entertains him, that he adores hearing how Sam thinks because he really thinks Sam is just like him. Sam doesn’t flinch as he thinks of his response.
“I don’t know,” He says. “You’re never going to try to be better and Dad’s dead, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
The Devil tilts his head and seems to really be thinking about what he’s going to say next, seems to really be processing Sam's answer, and looks away from him.
“This is how it could have been, you know,” Lucifer gestures to the flowers around them. “You and me, a garden, quiet and peace for all our days,”
“You tried to kill Dean,” Sam says, and knowing what he would do for Dean now, which included dooming the rest of the world so his brother could breathe without the mark, it made jumping into hell almost look easy in comparison.
The Devil smiles, and it’s a Cas smile, small and seemingly genuine.
“I’ll remember that for next time.”
When Sam opens his eyes, he’s back in the hall and his door is open. He’s looking down on Lucifer, Cas’ mouth in a tight line.
“I will only go as far as Dad will,” he says and Sam can translate Lucifer easily by this point, knows that he’ll only talk to God if God will talk to him.
“And Amara?” Lucifer clenches his jaw.
“You know I can do what it takes to defeat Auntie, but don’t expect anything else from me.”
“And after?” Sam asks, and he knows he’s negotiating with the Devil, that deals with Lucifer have never gone his way, but the Archangel quirks his lips.
“Well, I guess that depends on what happens next, Sammy.” He says and Sam feels the Devil sweep cold appraising eyes over him. “Let's see if I can even make it through a conversation with Dad without wanting to kill myself.”
It takes exactly two minutes for the conversation between God and Lucifer to devolve. Sam doesn’t know why he thought it would go any differently. After all, he and John never lasted longer than a minute.