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She was already having a bad day. Marcus had broken up with her out of left field the night before, and she was just… This case was difficult and taking a while, but it wasn’t too bad. She was just… she was out of it, so when Lucifer showed up and she’d told him to rest, she’d had enough. But then he’d said in a smaller voice after he’d raised his at her (at her, and she'd heard him yell at others but never, ever at her), like he was tired and stressed and felt maybe a little like she did, that he couldn’t sleep, she… well, she wanted to help.

(And he kept saying how he couldn’t sleep, he wouldn’t because “He won’t let me, Chloe, He won’t…” and the way he almost begged her for help, how he said her name like it was the most important word he would ever speak… that was… She knew he needed her help, her support, more than anything else. Especially right now…)

“Lucifer,” she told him, guiding his hands away from his hair and looking into his eyes. He looked stressed and more tired than she thought any person had ever been. “Come on, you’re coming home with me, okay?”

He just stared at her, like he couldn’t comprehend what she was saying, like he’d convinced himself there would be a fight between them, but she was tired, and she knew he was too. God, he looked like he was about to fall over at any moment. So, she led him to her car even though it was barely past four, and really, she thought that Marcus would understand her need for an early day especially after their break up. She took him home with her, relieving the babysitter and telling Trixie that Lucifer wasn’t feeling well. “He just needs to sleep, Monkey, he’s not sick, I promise,” she told her daughter.

Trixie, being the absolute angel that she always had been, hugged Lucifer gently around the waist, like she was afraid to knock him over. “I hope you feel better, Lucifer,” she told him as she let go.

Lucifer practically fell to his knees and looked Trixie in the eyes. His face was as serious as it had ever been. He placed a gentle kiss on her head, and with purpose, drew a cross on her forehead with his thumb over where he’d kissed her. “Beatrice Decker,” he said, soft and heavy at the same time, like he was… like she was important, not just to him, but… it reminded her of when he’d said her name earlier. “Thank you,” he whispered, and placed another kiss on her forehead, and Chloe had never seen him like that before. She told Trixie that if she needed them for anything they were going to be in her room and to come in without knocking (“…but be really quiet, okay, Monkey?”)

When he stood, she just grabbed his hand and led him into her room. His phone rang, and she was about to take it from him, when he answered it (seemingly fishing it out of thin air). “What?” he asked into the phone, and he set it on the bedside table on speaker. He took off his jacket with what seemed to be the maximum amount of trouble someone could have with a suit jacket.

“Luci,” Amenadiel’s voice sounded over the phone. “Did you feel that?”

Lucifer, who looked like he was trying to figure out what buttons were, just absentmindedly grumbled, “No, what?”

Chloe sighed and came up to him, undoing the buttons of his waistcoat for him. The lines in his face went slack, and he stared at her hands until Amenadiel said, loudly, “Luci, someone just blessed a child!”

And Chloe turned to look at the phone like he was crazy, but Lucifer just scoffed and rubbed at his eyes. “I know,” he said, mostly to her hair. “I did, but right now, Brother, I think I’m dying. I’ll talk to you later, Amenadiel…”

“You’re not dying,” Chloe told him. “He’s not dying,” she told the phone, “he’s exhausted. He’ll call you when he’s done sleeping, Amenadiel.” She didn’t bother saying goodbye before hanging up. She reached down and unbuckled his belt when she saw him just staring at it and watched him sort of squirm away from her hands like he forgot how buckles weren’t like shirts. He frowned down at his belt buckle and grabbed the wrong end but seemed to realize it wouldn’t work that way, but he couldn’t figure out the right way. He met her eyes, and she could tell that he was frustrated with his helplessness. “It’s okay,” she told him, gentler than he thought he deserved if the way his face wobbled told her anything. “Hey,” she said, and dragged his forehead down to hers, “hey…”

He shook his head and made a noise, small and upset, and it pulled at her heart. “I…” he started but he couldn’t finish, and his face wobbled again.

“Okay,” she whispered, “okay, just lie down. It’s okay…” He practically fell onto the bed and stared up at her like he didn’t know what to do, like he was lost, and she was the way home, but he just didn’t know how to get there.

She walked over to the other side of the bed and climbed over to sit against the headboard in the middle of the bed. She encouraged him to roll towards her and hesitantly, like he thought she might reprimand him for doing so, he slipped an arm under her legs and the other over them. He rested his forehead against her hip and took in a shaky breath. She carded her hand through his hair and she watched as his body relaxed a little. He wasn’t fully relaxed, he was overtired and probably felt like he couldn’t sleep, but she knew that if she could get him to relax, he’d fall asleep.

So, when she noticed him struggling with his leg, looking like he wanted to put it over something, she pulled a pillow from the head of the bed and told him to use that. His face turned red and he made that noise again, the small, soft, upset one but he did as she said. And he finally completely relaxed, laid out on his stomach with his leg over the pillow. She knew he wasn’t ready to fall asleep yet, but he was relaxing, and she wanted his brain to shut off, so she started scratching his back lightly through his shirt.

The shiver he had was almost violent, but it made him relax even more. “I can’t fall asleep,” he told her, sounding desperate but he didn’t move.

She sighed and said, “I’m here. You can sleep, I’m here…”

He whined in the back of his throat and buried his face in the fabric at her hip. “No, I…”

She hushed him again and told him she would watch him. She would make sure he was okay, that she would keep him here with her, she promised. It took an hour before he let sleep claim him. Chloe stayed with him a little longer, making sure he would stay asleep, but it seemed he was too tired to even move as she shifted out from under him. When she left the bed, his brow furrowed for a moment and he curled in on himself like he was missing her presence. She pressed a kiss to his forehead and sighed as she left the room.

Trixie was sitting at the table and smiling at her when she came downstairs. “Is Lucifer okay?” she asked in a loud whisper.

“He will be, baby,” Chloe told her. “He’s been… not sleeping, and I don’t exactly know why, but I know he was scared.” At the look on her daughter’s face, she rushed to explain, “He’s sleeping now, Monkey, so he’ll be back to normal soon.”

Trixie was frowning but she nodded. She helped her daughter with her homework, and they made dinner together, laughing quietly and making sure they didn’t make too much noise. Chloe had almost thought that the smell of food would bring Lucifer downstairs, but he must have been absolutely exhausted because the floor boards didn’t even creak. She had thought about going to check on him, but decided it was better to let him sleep.

That didn’t stop Trixie from casting worried glances towards the stairs, and when she asked, right before bed time, if they could pretty please go check on him because he’d been napping for a very long time, she couldn’t say no. So they checked on him. And he was fine, sleeping just as she left him. She coaxed her daughter into her own bed and as soon as Trixie was asleep, Chloe pulled up the evidence and notes she’d made for their case.

She didn’t know how long she sat studying it, trying to put it together, but when she finally looked up it was because of a loud pounding noise on the door. She jumped at the sound and made her way to the door, gun down by her side, safety off and ready to defend her family. The person pounding at the door started up again. She looked through the peephole in the door and saw that it was Marcus, which was confusing, but she opened the door a little bit to scold him. “Marcus, what the hell!” she whisper shouted. She wanted to be quiet just in case, by some miracle, her daughter was still asleep.

“Is he here?!” Marcus, and there really was on other word for it, accused. When she just raised an unimpressed brow at him he crossed his arms and asked, “Are you cheating on me with Lucifer?”

She took a moment to goggle at him and tried so very hard to have her brain catch up to his logic, and really, he was still being too loud. “Trixie is sleeping! And you broke up with me!” she whispered furiously. “And even if it was happening, and its not, you broke up with me! There’s no you for me to cheat on!”

She heard a noise behind her and turned, Lucifer was standing in front of Trixie’s now open door with the little girl clinging to his waist. He was absentmindedly smoothing her daughter’s hair back from where her face was buried in his side. He seemed like he was still half asleep and looked between the child and the man at the door. “You’re scared?” he asked Trixie. He was rubbing at his chest with his other hand, like he had an ache there. When she nodded, he rubbed at his forehead and looked up at the ceiling to scoff at someone up there.

“Why is he here?” Marcus almost growled.

Chloe looked away from Lucifer and her daughter, sighing heavily. “He’s my friend and he needed me,” she told him. She’d given up on whispering. And she was thoroughly done with this conversation.

“You need to leave,” Lucifer said suddenly. Everyone in the room turned to look at him, and when Marcus looked like he was about to say something, Lucifer cut him off abruptly. “You’re scaring my Child and annoying my Detective. You need to leave or I’m going to make you.”

Marcus sneered at him, but he left the apartment. And Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Lucifer,” she whispered to him.

He hummed absently in her direction and lifted Trixie into his arms. He swayed in place for a second, a long second, and then started walking towards the stairs. Chloe followed him up the stairs and smiled as he sat down on the edge of the bed and placed Trixie next to him.

“Are you still tired?” the little girl asked him. She yawned and then Lucifer yawned and then Chloe yawned, and Lucifer’s eyes snapped in her direction, like he was just noticing that she was there. He blinked at her, slowly, like he was lagging behind, and the he swung his leg up on the bed and fell backwards. Trixie giggled at him and climbed over his body to lie down in the middle of the bed. Chloe walked around to the other side of the bed and tried not to snort at the picture that her bed mates made. Lucifer was almost star fished across the whole bed, Trixie was tucked under his arm and it looked like the both of them were already asleep.

Lucifer was practically lying diagonally in the bed, one of his feet right where hers usually went. She decided that she was just going to deal or sleep on the couch, but this was her bed, so she decided to stay. At first she tried not to touch his leg with hers, but she couldn’t sleep with her leg like that, so she gave up and tried to tuck her feet under his leg. She gave up on that shortly after he almost growled loudly and hooked one of her ankles with his foot. She ended up with her feet resting on top of his leg (and really just that one change in the placement of her feet and she didn’t wake up at all that night, it was astounding).

Lucifer only woke the next morning to stare at them, make a whining noise until Chloe ran her hand through his hair a few times, and roll over onto his stomach to bury his face in a pillow. She could tell he wasn’t fully asleep by the time they left the room because Trixie placed a tiny kiss to his head and his lips quirked up the tiniest bit. She made Trixie some breakfast and went back into her room to dress and check on Lucifer. She left a note for him on the bedside table, letting him know she was taking Trixie to school and that if he woke he should get ready for work because they had a case to close, but it was okay if he wanted to sleep some more.

Not even an hour later, she got a call from Lucifer and he told her he’d be in as quick as he was able. To wait for him because he wouldn’t be long, he promised. And usually when he said that, he meant an hour or so, but this time it only meant about thirty minutes. Which was quite frankly amazing. He waltzed into the precinct like he would any other day, but he looked tired. Not as tired as he had been yesterday, but tired.

“Ready to solve the case, darling?” he asked her. The smile she gave him, was one part exasperated and the other part fond.

“Come on,” she told him, and brought him to the garage so they could snag a cruiser and be on their way. Their warrant had been processed and ready a few moments before he’d gotten there, and Marcus had tried to talk to her earlier, but she ignored him in favor of talking to Ella. If the forensic scientist had noticed her cold attitude towards their superior, she didn’t say anything about it.

Their man had killed to keep his job, and they arrested him together. It was something they rarely got to do anymore because Lucifer was always running off half cocked at the end of their cases.

Lucifer was absolutely exhausted by midday when the arrest was finally wrapped up. On the way back to the precinct, she caught him rubbing the middle of his forehead like he had a headache. In a fit of what she could only describe as madness, when they stopped at a red light, she reached over and carded her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck and gently stroked and massaged him there until he relaxed. She kept her hand there as she drove, only moving it away when he sagged against the passenger side window.

She knew she probably shouldn’t let him sleep, that he’d be just a little annoyed and if anyone saw she’d be in ‘trouble’ for not having back up. Mostly, she didn’t want Dan nagging her, but really, he knew she could take care of herself. And she knew Lucifer well enough that he’d wake quickly if she needed him.

So when they pulled into the precinct garage, she shook his shoulder and he sat up almost immediately and blinked adorably at her a few times before he realized where he was. He rubbed his face with both hands, and she laughed silently through her nose at how cute it was. And with a pang, she realized that she’d forgotten in the last few weeks how precious her partner was. How much she missed him and needed him, and, God, he really was just so precious sometimes, and suddenly, she remembered him with Trixie the night before. He was gentle and kind and so tired he had no clue what he was doing, but he was precious to her, to Chloe, probably always would be.

Before they could even really make it through the doors (right inside the doors really, just before the huge flight of stairs and Chloe didn’t want him to fall in his state so she had a tight grip on Lucifer’s arm, keeping him with her and also walking in a straight line), Marcus came over and grabbed her arm telling her they needed to talk. Before he could drag her very far, Lucifer’s hand shot out and grabbed the other man’s hand. Then, he threw the Lieutenant so hard that he flipped over in the air at least twice before he hit the ground.

She was impressed with the strength that Lucifer held, as always, it was unbelievable. But really how did he even get the leverage for a throw like that, and how fast did he move? She looked up at Lucifer, noticing that everyone else was staring at him, but he was just staring at her. “You alright, darling?” he asked, unfocused. “It looked like he grabbed you too tightly.”

“Uh… he did…” she told him because they never really lied to each other, except that one time and it was her fault then, and she promised herself to never lie to him again. His eyes darkened, and he looked like he was about to pounce on the man from the top of the stairs before she placed her hand on his stomach, (and wow, did that bring back memories…) and told him, “No, Lucifer, it’s okay. You already got him…”

Lucifer just nodded at her and yawned, blinking slowly as he stared at her. She smiled at him, not trying to encourage him, but unable to help thinking about how adorable he was, and yeah maybe he did just throw their boss down a very large flight of stairs, but he looked so rumpled and sleepy that she couldn’t help it. She ushered him around Marcus’s prone body, and really maybe he wasn’t all that okay, but two people had already gotten up to check on him and he’d waved them away, so he couldn’t be all that hurt either. She settled Lucifer in a chair by her desk and pulled out some paperwork to work on. She didn’t really want him leaving in this state, and she whispered that to him as he watched her hands separate the papers into piles.

“Hmm,” was the only response he gave, but he didn’t get up and closed his eyes and didn’t open them again until she lightly touched his shoulder hours later. He woke with a sharp breath that had her thinking that he hadn’t actually been sleeping.

She bit her lip. “I really don’t think you should be driving right now, Lucifer,” she told him. She rested her hand on his cheek, like she would’ve been comfortable doing before Candy, but now… it hurt just a little, but it felt so very right, especially when he whined and leaned into the contact. “Do you… do you want to come home with me again?” she asked in a whisper, almost afraid that she would be asked to drop him off at Lux. She wanted him with her, wanted him in her home, because yesterday he didn’t feel safe anywhere else, she could tell (his shoulders had dropped from around his ears as soon as he walked through the door of her apartment yesterday and that was just… she didn’t know why she and her little family made him calm and safe, but she’ll take it, she’ll take him, because he needs her and she needs him and maybe, just maybe they can take this time to heal their hurts too).

As soon he’d agreed, she ushered him up and back out towards her car. She had a few days off duty, and Dan was taking Trixie for the weekend, and she was determined to take care of him. Yes, she was angry at him and frustrated at his behavior, but she was going to make him sleep, and then she was going to make him talk to her, make him tell her what was wrong (she was going to ask him what she did to make him act like he didn’t want her, was going to ask him what she did wrong and then maybe they could fix it).

She was a little zoned out when his phone rang, and he jumped like he’d been zoned out too. Maybe he was just dozing, and it had woken him up. He put the phone on speaker, like he didn’t have the energy to hold it up to his ear. “’Lo?” he rumbled in the direction of the phone.

“Luci?” Amenadiel’s voice echoed slightly in the car and Lucifer waved a hand around his ears like there was something buzzing about him. “You never told me what you meant yesterday, brother,” Amenadiel said.

“What was yesterday?” Lucifer asked. He was rubbing the middle of his forehead again and frowning, like thinking was particularly difficult.

“Someone blessed a child, Luci, and you said it was you!” Amenadiel almost shouted, and Chloe had to hold herself back from telling him not to yell at Lucifer. This was a ridiculous conversation anyway.

“Hmm,” Lucifer hummed, almost absently. She chanced a glance at him and grinned. His face was slack, and he’d rested his head against the window. He was half asleep, trying his hardest to talk to his brother, because every few seconds he would forcefully open his eyes.

“Lucifer!” Amenadiel snapped almost like a commanding officer (but vicious and hateful and demanding respect), and Lucifer shot upright with a fist over his heart before he seemed to realize where he was and responded with a snarl.

“Do not use that tone with me, Amenadiel!” Lucifer almost growled. “Just because you can imitate Father, doesn’t mean you should, brother! Not for any reason! Never to me!”

“Luci, tell me what you meant yesterday,” Amenadiel demanded, ignoring his brother. That made Chloe frown; just from the imitation of their father it sounded like he was mean and spiteful. Chloe wanted to tell Amenadiel to apologize to Lucifer and she was about to when her partner spoke.

“It was Beatrice,” Lucifer replied, and he looked like he wanted to hang up but was too tired to lift his arm and from the way he squinted at the phone he looked like he wished the conversation was over.

There was silence for a minute and then Amenadiel sighed. “You know you have to keep your distance from her now don’t you?” he asked, like he was frustrated.

Chloe’s eyes snapped to Lucifer as he sat upright for the first time the whole trip home. This time he was growling when he said, “You’ll have to pry my corpse away from them if that’s what you think is going to happen, brother.” Amenadiel tried to interrupt but Lucifer shouted a very loud ‘no” and only settled when Chloe raised an unimpressed brow at him. Calmer, he replied, “I’m theirs, brother, and I will be theirs until they tell me they don’t want me any longer. You’ll have to kill me to get me to leave them-”

Chloe placed her hand on his arm and cut him off. “No one’s going to kill you, Lucifer, especially not your brother,” she told him, her voice soft and soothing. “Hang up the phone, okay? We’re almost home and I want to go upstairs as soon as we get there so you can catch up on some sleep.”

He nodded and told Amenadiel that they would talk later, and as soon as he hung up they pulled up outside of her apartment. She ushered him inside and he was accosted by Trixie as soon as he walked through the door. She watched as Lucifer sighed at the contact, and then to her surprise he stroked her hair away from her face. The little girl asked him if he was okay, and he told her he was still very tired. When she frowned at him, he patted her head and told her not to worry about him and he’d be fine as long as he could sleep.

Before Trixie could ask him any more questions Chloe sent her off to pack for her father’s house and sent Lucifer up to her room to sleep. She waited for Dan to pick up Trixie before she went upstairs to check on him. He was lying on his back staring at the ceiling when she entered, and when he caught sight of her, he relaxed. Hesitantly, he held a hand out to her, asking for her presence, or for her to keep him safe like she had the night before. She settled at his hip and smiled fondly as he yawned.

“Sleep, Lucifer,” she whispered to him as she stroked his forehead and he snuffled a few times before he fell asleep. She had no excuse not to join him, so she changed into her pajamas and slipped into the other side of the bed. She was only a little surprised when he immediately wrapped himself around her. It made her smile, the fact that her partner was a cuddler. It made him seem more human, more childlike. She sighed. He could be so adorable sometimes but then he could go and do something like throw a man down a flight of stairs for grabbing her. She kind of appreciated it, and he was practically delirious with no sleep, but he had also thrown someone down the stairs. She had no idea what to do with him, but she was tired, so she slept.

When she woke much later, the room dark and warmer than she’d been in a long time, it took her a moment to realize that Lucifer was still snuggled up to her. They had shifted in their sleep and he was curled around her from behind with his face buried so deep in her hair that she was surprised that he was still breathing. She was almost overwhelmingly thirsty, and when she slipped out of his arms to get a drink, he whined and flopped over onto his back. She looked back at him before she left the room and shook her head, he was ridiculous.

When she came back from getting her water and an unplanned snack, she walked in to see him staring at the door with a deep frown. As soon as he realized that she was there, his frown eased, and he reached for her, whining at how far away she was. She sighed at him and rolled her eyes. She did go to him though.

“I thought you left me…” he whispered into her neck when he’d unexpectedly pulled her down to lie next to him. She put her hands in his hair and he shuddered again like he wasn’t used to the contact, but she knew he was, knew that he slept around. She stayed there until he drifted off again, and this… this proved that they needed to talk. It was almost like he thought she didn’t care about him.

She spent awhile awake in his arms, stroking his brow and the line of his nose. She paid particular attention to his cheek bones and the bags under his eyes. His breath would hitch every now and then, but he was asleep, deeply as long as she stayed where she was. She let him stay there, and when she finally fell back to sleep, it was to him softly snuffling in her ear.

The next time she woke, he was staring at her. He was staring at her like she was extremely special to him and she wasn’t sure exactly what to do about that. So she just stared back and when she’d had enough of that, she placed her hand on his cheek and stroked it with her thumb. He closed his eyes and hummed at the contact. She smiled at him, because that was just adorable. She’d always thought he was adorable, especially when he let his walls down like he had them now.

“Lucifer,” she said, her voice gentle and a little rough from sleep. He hummed in response but didn’t open his eyes. She decided to start with something easy, “Are you hungry?” He opened his eyes and looked like he was about to say something when his stomach growled. She smiled at him like he was the cutest thing she’d ever seen. She chuckled and sat up bringing him with her. He followed her as she pulled him out of the bed and down the stairs.

When they reached the kitchen, Lucifer took over citing her kindness as something to be repaid. It wasn’t, it really wasn’t, but she let him make breakfast anyway. She watched him as he puttered around her kitchen. He was still exhausted but he was trying very hard not to show it. She was going to let him eat and then she was going to make him get back into her bed and sleep some more. Then… then she’s going to make him talk to her and get this, get them, sorted out. Which only terrified her a lot. She ate the eggs and bacon he put in front of her, and she noticed that his portion was significantly larger than hers and was glad. She had been worried that he hadn’t been taking care of himself and knowing Lucifer like she did, he’d probably had some… less than legal ways of keeping himself awake.

She watched him eat out of the corner of her eye and tried not to laugh as he scarfed everything down in record time. He sighed and sat back as she finished eating. He looked like he was content enough to stay there for as long as he could. Maybe… maybe talking now would be best for them…

“Lucifer…” Chloe started. His attention snapped to her and he gave her a gentle smile. “Lucifer, I think… I think we need to talk… about… Well, about a lot of things…but…” she took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. “But… we need to talk about us and our partnership…”

Lucifer looked down at the table when she said that. With an audible gulp, he gathered their plates and brought them to the sink. He looked like he was about to start washing them when she sighed and said his name as softly as she dared. His eyes snapped to hers again and he sighed with her. “Let’s sit on the couch, shall we?” he asked. And then he wanted to know if she wanted anything to drink. She shook her head, not wanting to let him stall any longer.

As soon as he sat next to her, she scooted closer and grabbed his hand. Their eyes met and she wanted him to see that she meant what she said, so she held his eyes as she spoke. “I just… I feel like there’s been this- this separation between us… I want it go away… I want… We used to be closer than this and I… I miss it, Lucifer, I miss it more than I thought possible…”

Lucifer’s lips curled up in a soft, sad smile. “I miss it too, darling,” he told her. “I… I don’t know what changed… We could try to get it back?”

“We could… but… That’s a bit like moving backwards instead of forwards,” she told him. He nodded and looked down at their hands. He caressed her fingers with his but seemed like he couldn’t find the words. “I want us to move forwards, Lucifer…” she said, ducking her head to catch his eye.

His eyes snapped back to hers and his fingers tightened around hers like he wanted that too but he was just too scared. He opened his mouth to speak, to hopefully tell her that he wanted that too, but then his phone rang from where it rested on the kitchen counter. She immediately dropped his hand, but he looked between her and his phone like he wanted to keep talking. So, when he let it ring out, she was only a little surprised. “Detective… Chloe…” he began but was interrupted when his phone started ringing again. He sighed in frustration and he ignored it again, letting it ring out once more. “I want that too, darling, but every time I try to tell you, show you who I really am-” His phone rang once more, and he looked like he wanted to get up and smash it.

“Just answer it, Lucifer,” she told him.

Impatiently, he answered (this time not putting it on speaker). “Mazikeen… No, I’m with the Detective...” his brow furrowed as he practically glided toward the couch. “Well, much in life is inconvenient, Maze…” he rolled his eyes in Chloe’s direction. His brow furrowed abruptly and he stopped mid-stride. “What do you mean ‘working for Pierce’?” he asked, growling lightly. “Why would you be-” his eyes widened. “You made me think my father was controlling me…?” he sounded confused, like he didn’t know what to think. “All because I wouldn’t take you back?” he almost growled. “Well done, Mazikeen…” he paused with a bitter chuckle. “You’ve earned yourself a permanent place on earth!” He hung up the phone with a flourish and looked like he wanted to fling his phone across the room.

“Lucifer?” Chloe asked. His gaze caught hers like he was surprised that she stayed. “Everything okay?” He just sighed heavily and sat himself back down. “What was that about?” she was almost afraid to ask. She didn’t want him to blow her off again.

He yawned and answered, seemingly with no hesitation, “Maze was the one making me think I was being controlled by my father, and now she’s working with Pierce…” He was rubbing at the center of his forehead again, like it pained him. He yawned again. “You’d think she’d be a bit more subtle about helping the Sinnerman, but that’s Maze for you, I suppose…”

“The Sinnerman?” Chloe asked, brow furrowing. She was hoping that that didn’t mean what it sounded like it meant.

He just hummed like he meant it, like it was true, and she was reminded suddenly, because she’d forgotten, that Lucifer never lied. Not really. He might circumvent the truth and omit things, but he never outright lied. “Lucifer, do you remember when you kidnapped the Sinnerman?” she asked him quietly.

“The fake Sinnerman?” he asked, and when she nodded, he did too.

“Were you really going to kill him?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

He sook his head and sighed. “Never… Chloe, never… I… tried to, but… I couldn’t… I’m not… I’m not- I’ve never killed a human,” he croaked out like he was scared and something was hurting him, something he’d done. She nodded and placed her hand on his arm and he took it immediately. “Pierce shot him to hide that he was the Sinnerman, and he… he doesn’t-” He lets out a frustrated breath, probably because he couldn’t find the right words. He yawned again and rubbed at his face.

Chloe was glad that he was telling the truth, had been telling the truth the whole time. She was glad that he was being this open with her, and knew it was because of his tiredness and because he wanted to fix the tension between them. “He doesn’t what, Lucifer?” she asked almost like she was afraid of the answer.

He sighed. “You won’t believe me, Chloe! You never do and every time I try to show you it gets taken away from me and it just…” he sighed, “it drives us further apart…”

“So it’s… biblical?” she asked. She was trying to meet him halfway, but she knew he could tell she wasn’t… all in. “Do you have something you could show me?” she asked. “Proof that it’s true?”

He twitched and wouldn’t look at her. “I… it’s not…” he started.

“It’s a yes or no question, Lucifer,” she told him. She just wanted answers.

He met her eyes for a brief moment, and she saw that he was afraid. “There is something I could show you… but, Chloe, darling, its not…” he sighed in frustration. “It’s not who I am, it’s who I used to be and I…”

“But it’ll prove that you’re telling the truth?” she asked. He nodded. “Then show me,” she said. He looked hesitant, like he was didn’t want to show her, but thought that he must. He needed a little more convincing. “Lucifer… If you don’t think I know who you are… you’re wrong. I know you, Lucifer… I know exactly who you are, and nothing, nothing at all, that you show me or tell me can change that, okay?” she placed her free hand on his cheek and he sighed contentedly as he closed his eyes. He nodded against her hand and then he stood. He looked from side to side and frowned. He moved a lamp and the coffee table out of the way before he moved back in front of her. He looked her in the eye and took a deep breath, then he closed his eyes and all she saw was white. Or well, she saw wings which… it explained so much. And he really had never lied to her, and that… that meant a lot to her. “It’s all true…” she whispered, more to herself than him.

“Yes,” he told her. He was standing very still like he was scared of what she was going to do. “I… Usually I have my Devil face, but… it seems like my Father’s taken that from me. I was going to show you before, but then I got kidnapped and, well… when I tried it was gone…” he almost whispered it like it was a confession, like it was something he did wrong.

She remembered being upset at him when he tried to show her that day in the lab, but she never meant for him to take it the way he had. Like he was doing something wrong by existing in the same space as her, finally showing her his true self. “I’m sorry for not listening to you when you told me the truth, Lucifer,” she told him holding out a hand to him. His brow furrowed but he somehow vanished his wings and then he grabbed her hand. She pulled him down on the couch with her and looked him in the eyes. “Now, you were saying about Pierce?” she asked.

He looked supremely confused as he answered her question, “He… he’s Cain, from the bible, and his deepest desire is to die and I was trying to help him until his brother got trapped in the body of that woman we had with us when we had to disarm that bomb.”

“The sheep lady was Abel from the bible?” Chloe asked. Lucifer cleared his throat but he nodded. “How did she- uh, he get here?” she asked.

“I was trying to help Pierce, so I popped down to Hell to… bring Abel back up, try and undo what Cain had done…” Lucifer sighed. “He ended up getting hit by a car… Wasn’t much help actually…”

Chloe just closed her eyes and ticked her head to the side trying to absorb that particular bit of information. She shook her head and focused on Lucifer who was yawning again. “Wait,” she started, “if he wants to die so badly, why did he try having a relationship with me?”

“Ah, well,” Lucifer sighed, “after Abel I decided to stop helping him… and he went to his next plan, I suppose.” When Chloe just raised her brow at him, he sighed again. “Since you make me vulnerable, he thought perhaps you’d do the same to him…”

“What does that mean?” she asked. “That I ‘make you vulnerable’?”

“Exactly that, Detective,” he told her. “I can be hurt when you’re around me.” He wouldn’t look at her, like he was… like it would make her push him away for his own safety and even though she kind of wanted to, she would miss him too much.

“Okay…” she was starting to get a headache. “Do you know why I make you vulnerable?” she hadn’t actually meant to ask, but it flew out of her mouth before she could stop it.

“You’re a literal miracle,” he yawned. “If you want to verify that just ask ‘Menadiel, because he was the one to bless your mother in the first place.” He yawned again and Chloe realized that he was definitely still exhausted and needed as much sleep as he could get (and she was nowhere near ready to even begin unpacking everything she just heard).

“Come on, Luce,” Chloe sighed. “Let’s get you back to bed, babe…”

“I quite like that; can you call me that more often?” he asked through another yawn.

“What ‘Luce’?” Chloe chuckled. He’d always hated when Ella would try to give him a nickname.

“No, that’s absolutely terrible,” he flopped back down on the bed and snagged her around the waist as she tried to leave the room. “You called me ‘babe’ and it made me tingle all over, bit like weed but much better…” He buried his face in her shoulder and took a deep breath. “You smell good,” he told her.

Chloe sighed and shook her head. She should probably also get him to shower at some point, but she was reluctant to let him out of her sight. She wanted to take care of him and this was the only way she knew how. She let him sleep for a while. There wasn’t really a way for her to get up, trapped under him, so she just stayed where she was. Lucifer was surprisingly still when he slept. She sort of expected him to be as restless as he was when he was awake. He was softer in sleep than he was when he was awake.

She thought about what he’d shown her in her living room. The wings and how he seemed ashamed of them or hated them because they didn’t fit his view of himself. He’d said that it was who he used to be and she wondered what he really saw himself as. She’d sort of seen the face he’d mentioned… the ‘Devil face’ he’d called it. The day she shot him, when she’d caught the reflection of it. It had scared her then, but then she hadn’t quite known him the way she did now, hadn’t felt for him the way she did now. She knew that now that she knew the truth, it changed nothing. She still loved him, and the only thing this changed is that she knew he wasn’t speaking in metaphors. She wanted to know what his ‘Devil face’ looked like because that was the way she was. She knew that in the bible, he’d been thrown from the heavens… perhaps he’d been burned on the way down like it said in the bible… She hated that he might think that he’s ugly, that he was a monster. She knew he wasn’t and wanted him to know that she didn’t think of him that way.

She didn’t know how to make him see that. She wanted to show him how she felt, how she saw him, but didn’t know how. She was more than a little terrified to let him know how she felt. She knew they had a lot to work out, and she didn’t know at all how he felt about her. She knew he felt something, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so hurt about her dating Pierce. She didn’t know what to do.

She fell into a light doze, and only woke when he did. He was hungry again and Chloe decided that they would order Thai food. Which Lucifer was all for. Whenever they ordered Thai, Lucifer always wanted something spicy and Chloe had always tried to order him something different every time because he always told her to surprise him. This time she ordered him the Yam Nua and she ordered herself some red curry chicken. She liked spicy but she didn’t want anything as spicy as Lucifer did. As they ate, they spoke to each other as they always did, kind and familiar and perhaps a little more intimate than normal because Lucifer was still tired. She felt a little closer to him now that she knew the truth, and she hoped he felt the same to her.

She suggested that he sleep some more but he told her he felt like he’d been sleeping too much. She let him cuddle up to her on the couch as she watched some mindless television. She should probably be cleaning or at the very least putting the dishes away, but she couldn’t bring herself to get up. So she stared at the television and let her thoughts flow. Lucifer’s attention was on the show and occasionally, she would have to stroke his hair when he started to yell at the contestants (and was it terrible that the Devil was adorable when he was trying to get the contestants of Chopped listen to him? She didn’t think so). But her thoughts were elsewhere.

She was thinking about the fact that Pierce had been trying to use her. If he was willing to do that, then what else had he done? She thought back to their first encounter with him. All of their interactions had become strained as he became more involved in their lives. Of course, Lucifer was always on her side no matter what (their encounter with the bomb was enough to prove that) and she knew that he always would be. The fact that most of his eccentricities made so much more sense now was besides the point. She had the feeling that he’d done much more than she knew (she remembered him telling her that one of them died the day of her poisoning and she knew for a fact it wasn’t her according to Dan when she’d asked him which left only one option and she wanted to find out). But the fact still remained that it looked like Pierce was trying his hardest to drive a wedge between them.

“Lucifer?” she said to get his attention. He hummed at her almost absently, but she knew she held his attention. “Do you know why Pierce has been trying to drive us apart?”

He was silent for a while, thinking it over like she had been. “He has, hasn’t he?” he sighed, frustrated and angry. “Perhaps he wants you attached to him…” he said. “It seemed like he was upset the other day that I was here… Like he had counted on us having a fight…”

“He accused me of cheating on him when he’d already broken up with me,” she told him. She ran a hand through his hair and smiled as he leaned into the caress.

“He must’ve thought you’d take him back,” he said. “Or perhaps Maze had called him and told him that she couldn’t find me at my penthouse and he was so distracted by that that he’d forgotten about your break up…”

Chloe nodded to herself. “That could be true. We obviously left together, so it wouldn’t be hard to figure out. I didn’t realize he was so manipulating.” She sighed and rested her head against his. “Is this why you’re always running around like crazy? There are these weird connections to Biblical shit and people are manipulating everything around you?”

“Hmm, yes, it’s exhausting, isn’t it?” he asked. “Last year it was my mother in Charlotte Richards’s body and this year it’s the world’s first murderer… Life on Earth certainly isn’t dull.” He sighed again, or tried to, because it turned into a huge yawn, which made Chloe yawn too. “Perhaps we should turn in for the night, Detective?”

She huffed out an amused breath (because really, what other reaction could she have to that bit of information) but allowed him to pull her up the stairs and into her room. She watched as he made himself comfortable and then pulled at her hand to remind her to get ready for bed. She dressed for bed in the bathroom and she smiled at the welcoming picture he made in her bed. She’d almost gotten used to him here in her room with her. She let him curl around her as she settled and she’d almost forgotten what it was like to be held by someone that knew her almost as well as she knew herself. She felt his arms tighten around her and smiled, glad that he seemed as attached to her as she was to him. The last thing she knew before falling asleep, was Lucifer pressing a kiss to the back of her head.

The next morning, she woke to Lucifer slipping out of the bed. When she shifted, he hushed her and told her that he was just going to start breakfast and she could come down when he’d finished making the coffee. With a sigh, she decided that she should shower instead of languishing around for a little while longer. She hurried through her shower, wanting to be around Lucifer, especially after this weekend. She felt closer to him than she ever really had, and she didn’t want it to end. As she walked down the stairs, she smiled as she thought of their casual intimacy of the past. She wanted to get back to that.

He was by the stove when she caught sight of him. The smell of coffee was strong in the room as the machine beeped and he turned, her favorite mug in hand, and poured a cup. She slid onto a stool at the kitchen bar and he grinned at her. “Here you are, darling,” he said soft as could be as he placed the mug in front of her. She smiled at him as she took a sip. It was perfect as it always was (she remembered long nights going over paperwork and leads, and sometimes, very rarely, he would stay to help, and every time he took her mug to refill it, it would always be absolutely perfect and she… those were her favorite nights…).

They ate quietly, and when Chloe stretched and asked Lucifer if he wanted a lift back to his car, he just shook his head and told her he had an appointment with Linda in a little over an hour. He walked her to her door and placed a kiss to her cheek as she left. That was new, and she liked it, liked it more than she thought she would and she wanted it to keep happening.

She got to the precinct, and she was in a good mood, so much so that Ella came up to her and told her that she was looking great. “You and Pierce did the do, huh?” she asked, eyebrows raised and nudging her in the side with a smirk.

Chloe laughed a little. “No, Ella, he broke up with me a few days ago,” she said. When Ella frowned and told her that she was sorry, starting to talk about how they needed to go and get drunk immediately, Chloe cut her off. “It’s okay,” she shrugged. “He wasn’t that great of a boyfriend… it was like he only cared about me when he wanted to…”

Ella frowned. “That’s not great…” she sighed. “Does that happen to have anything to do with the fact that Lucifer threw him down the stairs the other day?”

Chloe’s face went a little red. “He grabbed me and Lucifer just kind of reacted. I don’t think that he was actually awake…” she sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

“That’s right! Lucifer hasn’t been sleeping,” Ella sighed. “How’s he doing, anyway?”

“He’s okay,” Chloe shrugged. “I took him home with me over the weekend and he slept there, so we’ll see how he is today. He said he had an appointment with Linda today, so he’ll be in later.”

“Oh, you spent the weekend with Lucifer!” Ella nudged her again in the side. “That’s why you’re in such a good mood! What did you guys do all weekend?!”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “He slept and we talked. Nothing really happened,” Chloe started shifting the files around on her desk to avoid looking at Ella. Ella made a high-pitched squeak and jumped up and down. Someone cleared their throat behind them, and they both turned to see Dan raising a brow at them. “Hey, Dan!” Chloe said trying to get everyone’s attention off of her.

Dan took pity on her and started asking Ella about Trixie’s science fair project. Chloe sighed in relief and started on some paperwork that she’d let build up during the last case. It was slow going, but it passed the time until she got a call from dispatch about a new body. She was just about to text Lucifer, when he popped up in front of her desk with a to-go cup of coffee and a smile. She grinned goofily at him for a moment before she remembered that they had a case now. “Uh, we have a case!” she said suddenly, and just a little too loud for the space between them.

“Right,” he said, his smile became just a little more fond at her awkwardness. “Lead on, Detective,” he said gently and behind him she caught sight of Ella clutching her hands over her heart like she was watching a sweet moment in a romantic comedy. He slipped the coffee into her hand as she walked past him and settled her hand at the small of her back. She hid her smile behind the coffee cup as she took a sip. This was exactly like they used to be but somehow it was so much better. She was so glad that he’d shown her the truth and she hadn’t been completely sure what they would be like at work, but this… this was perfect.

She drove them to the crime scene in comfortable silence, and when they got there, Lucifer was as gentlemanly as he’d always been. He held doors open for her and always had a hand at her back, keeping perfect time with her stride. A few times she caught Ella snapping pictures of them, but she ignored it because it wasn’t really affecting the forensic scientist’s work. Lucifer on the other hand was looking at Ella like she had two heads.

“Miss Lopez, why are you taking pictures of us and not the crime scene? And why aren’t you getting my good side?” he asked her gesturing to the side opposite the one her camera was pointing at.

“Lucifer, every side is your good side,” Ella said rolling her eyes. Lucifer looked extremely pleased at that and sidled up to her asking to see the photos of them she’d taken and why she’d taken them. Ella’s cheeks pinked a little and she muttered something about the two of them being adorable.

Before Chloe could stop them, she was interrupted by a uniformed officer informing her that the victim’s partner had arrived home. She swung around to see Lucifer staring at something on the camera with an expression of absolute awe and squished in on Lucifer’s other side to see what it was. It was a picture of them from behind. She and Lucifer were looking at each other like they… like they adored one another. “Miss Lopez,” Lucifer started a little rough, and he had to clear his throat before he continued, “if you could send me a copy of this, I’d greatly appreciate it…”

Ella agreed immediately and Chloe took the chance to pull him away. “Lucifer, the victim’s boyfriend is here, we should go talk to him,” she said. Immediately, his attention snapped to her and he motioned for her to lead the way out of the room. As they walked out of the room, Chloe heard the camera go off once more and she rolled her eyes with a chuckle.

The man they saw in the living room looked devastated. He only looked up when Chloe called his name. “Mr. Garfield?” she said gently.

His gaze shot to the two of them and his eyes filled with tears. “He’s gone, isn’t he?” his voice was raw and shaky. Chloe barely nodded before the man was breaking down. Chloe felt for the man. Losing a loved one was never easy and the pain was always there. They had to wait until the man had calmed down before talking to him. “Andre was my whole world,” James Garfield told them. He had tears trailing down his cheeks like he wasn’t aware that he was still crying. “I just… I can’t imagine life without him and… who could’ve done this? He was just… he only wanted to make the world a better place!”

“How was he doing that?” Lucifer asked, surprisingly soft and understanding, like he’d had someone taken from his as well.

“He was a social worker,” James told them. He sobbed once before he pulled himself together again. “He loved his job. He was so good at it… he loved kids and they loved him… We were going to adopt one day, after we got married…” He looked like he was going to start crying in earnest again. “He, uh… he was always so serious at work, but when he came home he was… he was… I just knew he cared, you know?”

Chloe thanked him and they walked out of their crime scene a little more subdued than when they had arrived. They were quiet on their way to the precinct, until Lucifer asked her what their next step was. “I think we need to talk to his co-workers,” Chloe said. “James Garfield couldn’t really give us anything…”

“No, he really couldn’t,” Lucifer agreed with a heavy sigh. “I imagine I’d be a bit like that if I lost y- someone I cared about…”

Chloe’s eyes shot to him, as he caught himself. She knew what he had wanted to say, what he’d been implying by telling her that. She reached for him and he reached for her. They met in the middle and Lucifer brought her hand up to his mouth to place a gentle kiss to her fingers before settling her hand over his heart for a moment. He let her hand slip away from his grasp and she settled it on his leg because she couldn’t bring herself to stop touching him after he’d told her that. “Me too, Lucifer,” she whispered, “me too.” His hand settling over hers felt like benediction and she wished more than anything that in that moment she wasn’t driving so she could see the expression on his face.

They got to Andre Williams’s work and had talked to as many employees as they could. There were a few whose stories didn’t quite add up, but it ended up being an office affair. They had to look at another angle. “Perhaps one of the parents of the children he was helping decided to kill him?” Lucifer suggested as they gathered all the personal things from the dead man’s office as evidence. “Sometimes they want to keep their punching bags close…”

“That’s definitely something we need to look into,” Chloe sighed. “Extended family, too. On both sides.”

“I hadn’t considered that,” Lucifer said with a furrowed brow. “Sometimes I forget how close minded some humans can be…”

They headed back to the precinct, and once there they made their way through the list of family they had. Chloe sighed when she realized that they were going to have to talk to James Garfield again. It had been emotionally draining the first time, and she couldn’t imagine talking to him again. She knew it would be difficult for both her and Lucifer because the more they looked into Andre Williams’s life, the more his demeanor and personality seemed to mirror hers. It was a little strange, and it seemed to upset Lucifer whenever Dan or Ella would compare her to Andre. Chloe was getting increasingly upset as well, but because everything they found out about James Garfield was reminding her of Lucifer. His comment earlier was especially upsetting to her now that they were finding more out about the man.

Finally, they decided to call it a day and Chloe couldn’t imagine letting Lucifer out of her sight. When she asked him, shy and soft and so very scared that he would tell her no, if he’d like to come over to hers for dinner at the very least. He’d agreed on the condition that he drive and that she let him cook her and ‘the Spawn’ dinner as a thank you for inviting him over. She agreed with a small smile and let her lead him out of the precinct (and she noticed Pierce glaring at Lucifer like was wanted to kill him, or hurt him, and if she tucked herself closer into his side because of it, she didn’t think he minded).

When they arrived at Chloe’s apartment, Lucifer was immediately attacked by Trixie (and she hadn’t attacked him like that in about a year, so that was strange). She squeezed him around the waist until he patted her head, and then he immediately escaped into the kitchen like he usually would to get away from the little girl with sticky hands. Trixie sat next to her mother at the kitchen bar and spoke happily to her mother about her day until Lucifer asked, “Spawn, why are you feeling… strange whenever you mention ‘recess’?”

Trixie blushed and looked down and Chloe was on immediate alert. She hadn’t caught anything strange in Trixie’s expression, so how did Lucifer know… “There was… Jeremy Stevens was bothering me again…” her daughter said.

“What kind of bothering?” Lucifer asked, and when she looked up, surprised at the ferocity in his voice, she saw that he was trying very hard not to lose control before he heard the whole story.

“He’s just a bully,” Trixie shrugged, but she wouldn’t look at either of them. “I stopped him from bullying some younger kids a few days ago, but now he keeps trying to bully me.”

Lucifer growled but stopped after Chloe raised her brows at him. “Tell the teacher next time, okay, Monkey? Especially if he bothers you again, but don’t be afraid to defend yourself if you need to,” she told her daughter. Trixie just smiled and hugged her before saying she was going to go play in her room for a little while. As soon at the little girl was out of earshot, Chloe turned to Lucifer and asked, “What was that?” When Lucifer just raised a brow at her, she glared at him until he answered.

“You heard me and Amenadiel on the phone the other day, darling,” he said, and it took her a moment to remember.

She gaped at him for a long moment. “You blessed my daughter?” she asked somewhat awed, but mostly just… she could barely comprehend it. He nodded at her but wouldn’t look her in the eye. “Lucifer,” she said gently, “I’m not mad, and I… I don’t quite understand it but how did you…”

“An… an angel can feel… if they’ve blessed someone, they can feel strong emotions of the one’s they’ve blessed,” he said. “It’s what woke me that first night I was here…” His brow furrowed and he blinked a few times. “She was terrified and it… it was… it didn’t feel right…”

Chloe remembered how he stood in front of her daughter like a shield and scooped her up like he was moving on autopilot. She remembered how he’d made Pierce leave with a just a look and then she remembered how the other man had looked at them as they’d left earlier. She wasn’t sure how she had ever trusted him, and now that she knew the truth about him, that he was Cain and the Sinnerman, she was wary of him. She was fine with the fact that Lucifer had blessed her daughter, that he was somehow protecting her when she couldn’t. It helped, because Chloe knew the world was a dangerous place and she just wanted her daughter to be safe.

Once dinner was eaten and pictures were colored, it was Trixie’s bedtime. As Chloe tucked her in, she asked, “Is Lucifer going to come home with you every day now? Because it’s okay if he is…”

Chloe chuckled and told her, “Just for now, Monkey. Lucifer still needs to catch up on his sleep and our case… Well, someone who… one of the people involved reminds me of Lucifer and I…”

“You just wanna keep him close for a little bit?” Trixie supplied, ever the cheeky little helper especially when Lucifer was involved.

Chloe’s smile grew softer. “That’s exactly it, baby. Now get some sleep, okay?”

They said their goodnights and as soon as she closed her daughter’s door, she saw Lucifer standing by the mantle staring at some pictures she’d put up of her and Maze and Trixie and even Lucifer. She walked up to him and leaned into his side as he stared at the picture of the three of them from their game night. It had been taken after Trixie had managed to get Chloe to paint a unicorn on his face. At Chloe’s request, Lucifer had taken her phone and took a selfie of the three of them showcasing their face paint. It had quickly became one of Chloe’s favorite pictures so she’d had to have it printed for the mantle.

She tugged him away from the mantle and pulled him onto the couch with her. She wouldn’t normally sit as close to him as she was in this moment, but the fact that their victim and his partner were so similar to the both of them made her want him near her. She was unsure about her closeness to him until he pulled her to him and rested his chin on her head. They sat in silence for a while until Chloe started yawning and Lucifer urged her up so she could go to bed. He tried to leave her at the bedroom door but she took his hand in hers before he could slip away.

“Could you… will you stay with me again tonight?” she asked him. She kept her eyes on his hand in hers as she asked, terrified that he would say no (and if he ever could, if he’d ever been able to, it certainly wouldn’t be now). So he allowed her to pull him into the bedroom and Chloe watched as he took off his suit jacket, waistcoat, belt, and shoes before he laid down on what she’d come to think of as his side of the bed.

They laid next to each other in silence for a long moment, before Chloe gathered her courage and slid closer to him. She settled her head onto his shoulder and snuggled closer him. His arm went around her and pulled her closer to him. Her other arm went around his waist and she sighed as she settled deeper in the curve of his shoulder. She needed a little bit of comfort and she wanted it from him, especially with the way their case was going already and the similarities between them and their victims. Because James Garfield was as much a victim as Andre Williams had been.

“You alright, darling?” Lucifer asked after a quiet moment between them.

She squeezed him tighter for a moment and nodded against his shoulder. “Just…thinking about our victim… His boyfriend…” she whispered.

“Andre is… quite… quite similar to you,” he told her. His arm tightened around her waist almost like it was involuntary.

“I just… I hope James Garfield will be okay…” she said. “Losing someone is… it’s hard to come back from…” At that, Lucifer turned onto his side and pulled her as close as he possibly could, burying his face in her hair. He took a deep breath and Chloe buried her face in his chest, taking in the smell of his cologne and him and… it was one of the best comforts she’d ever experienced. It wasn’t one she allowed herself often, but she felt she needed it now. They stayed like that until they fell asleep, and the last thing Chloe remembered before waking the next morning was taking a deep breath in and feeling like she was home.

She woke the next morning in Lucifer’s arms and slipped out of them as her alarm started to go off. Lucifer’s eyes snapped open as she clicked off the alarm. He sat up and stretched, yawning loudly and Chloe had to hide a fond smile behind a yawn of her own.

“Come on, sleeping beauty,” Chloe said as Lucifer laid back down and tried to snuggle back into the pillows. He groaned at her, but he sat up and slipped out of bed. Chloe watched as he put on his waistcoat, belt, and shoes and rubbed at his face like he wasn’t quite awake.

“If I’m going to keep sleeping here, Detective, I think that perhaps I ought to keep a few suits in your closet. Wrinkly shirts aren’t really flattering,” he was pulling at the sleeves of his shirt, trying to smooth it out.

Chloe rolled her eyes and gathered her outfit for the day since it seemed he had no interest in leaving the room while she changed. Not that she’d asked him to, but she thought that maybe it was implied. But then she thought about it, and wondered if maybe angels, celestial beings, had a different view on privacy as humans did. “Lucifer?” she asked through the bathroom door, suddenly needing to know the answer.

“Yes, darling?” Lucifer answered, sounding like he was near the dresser, probably rooting through one of her drawers. She hoped against hope that it wasn’t her underwear drawer.

“Stop looking through my dresser, and do celestials have different body language than humans?” she asked.

Lucifer sighed like he was disappointed, probably because she’d caught him doing exactly what she’d thought he was. “It’s not much different than human body language. Less touching, of course,” he sighed.

She stepped out of the bathroom and had the thought that maybe she had been touching him too much. “Is it… did you want me to stop touching you so much? I know you’re not really comfortable with it…”

Lucifer’s eyes shot up to hers, almost like he was surprised that she noticed. “No!” he said a little loud and a little sudden. He cleared his throat. “No… you don’t have to stop…” he told her softly, “I don’t… you don’t have to stop…”

Chloe’s whole stance softened and she smiled at him. She pulled him out of the room and let him follow her down the stairs. She asked him if he wanted her to give him a ride to Lux so he could change clothes and this time he accepted. She woke Trixie and had Lucifer make them some breakfast, which was just scrambled eggs but damn if they weren’t the best scrambled eggs she’d ever had. She dropped her daughter off at school and then Lucifer off at Lux. He’d tried to entice her up to his penthouse to wait for him to get ready, but she could tell he didn’t really mean it, so she said she wanted to get a start on the case.

When she got to the precinct, Ella told her that they looked through the computers and she might have found something, but she would know more in an hour. So, instead of working with anything new, she started looking through the evidence they gathered yesterday, trying to find another angle to follow if Ella’s ‘something’ might actually be nothing.

Lucifer showed up at her desk just as Ella did with a stack of papers. “Emails! Threatening ones! From one of Andre’s… well, one of his case’s biological parents… Poor kid…” Ella sighed. “You might need to talk to them and the guardian, or well, I guess they’re not really the guardian anymore… Not if the case file is correct…”

“Oh? What does the case file say?” Lucifer asked, grabbing the first few emails from Ella mostly for something to do with his hands.

“Poor kid’s been abused,” Ella sighed.

Lucifer’s eyes snapped up to hers, “By the one sending threatening emails?”

“Yeah, and after then too, it looks like,” Ella sighed again. “It makes you want to scoop up every kid in the system and keep ‘em doesn’t it?”

“Thanks, Ella,” Chloe said softly. She knew that Lucifer hated anyone hurting innocent people and children, though he was uncomfortable around them, were always innocent. She turned back to Lucifer and saw him, his jaw clenched and eyes darker than usual. “You okay, Lucifer?” she asked laying a hand on his arm.

His eyes shot to hers and she was shocked at the raw anger she saw there. “I’m fine, Detective. I’d say we have an absolute scum bag to visit today, don’t you?” he asked, his voice deceptively polite.

“We do,” she agreed, “but we have to find them first.”

They decided to go straight to the source to get the information that they needed. The social security office was as busy as could be, but the supervisor was more than happy to give them what they needed when Lucifer turned up his charms. They were given the files containing the information they needed and to he surprise, Lucifer also asked to talk to the child.

They had her in a waiting room and there was another social worker in the room with her. The little girl was Trixie’s age and Chloe had to take a moment to gather herself when she saw her. She was supposed to be happy and carefree and confident, but instead… she looked scared and insecure and it broke her heart just a little. She was about to say something when Lucifer beat her to it. “You’re called Abbey, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” the little girl replied.

“You can call me, Lucifer, child. This is the Detective,” Lucifer said motioning to her. She was going to introduce herself but he kept talking. “Now, I’d like to know about your parents and-”

“Lucifer!” Chloe cut him off. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, clearly not understanding that she was scolding him for being too direct.

“You…” the little girl started, but when they turned to her she trailed off. Chloe gave her an encouraging look. “Are… are you the devil?”

“Yes,” Lucifer answered simply, and Chole had to stop herself from goggling at him. She knew the truth, so conversations like this (as mind boggling as they were) … they made more sense to her now. The social worker met Chloe’s eyes worriedly and Chloe smiled reassuringly. Lucifer was mostly harmless, especially around children.

“And you punish bad people?” Abbey asked quietly, like she thought she’d get in trouble for asking.

“Yes, I do,” Lucifer said.

“My parents are bad people… Are you going to punish them?” she asked, tears gathering in hers eyes.

“If they deserve it,” Lucifer told her. The little girl nodded and started fidgeting with her hands in her lap. “Child,” he called to get her attention. “I… my parents… my Father… well, He was a bit like yours…”

Abbey looked at Lucifer in shock, mirroring Chloe’s expression. “He hurt you?” the little girl asked, glancing upwards.

Lucifer just stared at her for a long moment and then Chloe interrupted, knowing Lucifer wouldn’t answer the little girl. “Do you remember Andre Williams?” she asked softly, kneeling to talk to the little girl.

“Yes,” the little girl said and her eyes filled with tears. “My… My daddy called him the day before yesterday while I was in his office. He was so loud I could hear him over the phone, but Mr. Andre told him I couldn’t go back there and…” Here she paused and sniffled, tears running down her face. “Mr. Andre was… he said he wanted to adopt me… He and Mr. James are really nice…”

Chloe looked up at Lucifer and he nodded at her to let her know that he was on the same page as her. They needed to find this little girl’s father because now he was their prime suspect. Chloe thanked the little girl and the social worker, but the little girl slipped forwards to wrap her arms around Lucifer’s waist. Lucifer looked like he was about to start panicking, but the little girl let him go almost immediately. She didn’t say a word to him, just gave him a small sad smile and walked away from them with the social worker.

“Let’s go find Robert Madison,” Chloe said, and took Lucifer’s hand to pull herself to her feet.

They went to the address on file for the man, who had a long history of assault and violence, and they knocked on the door. A woman opened the door, she looked small and fearful and Chloe bit her lip to stop herself from rushing in the door and beating the man inside to a pulp. She knew she might have to stop Lucifer from doing so. “Mrs. Madison?” Chloe asked quietly.

When the woman nodded, Chloe opened her mouth only to be interrupted by their suspect shouting from inside the house, “Who the fuck’s at the door?!”

Chloe watched as Lucifer’s lips lifted in a snarl, but he didn’t make a sound. Chloe placed a hand on his wrist and asked if they could come in, and she flashed her badge at the woman, who immediately stepped aside. They stepped into the living room where the man was sitting. He glared at them and asked, “What the hell do you want?”

“Are you Robert Madison?” Chloe asked. When the man answered in the affirmative, Chloe continued. “Do you know an Andre Williams?”

“That bitch-ass who was trying to take my daughter from me?” the man asked. “What about him?”

“What do you mean ‘was’?” Lucifer asked with a raised brow. Chloe had caught that too, and she had gone on high alert.

The man seemed to realize that they’d never really told him who they were and that Chloe had a badge strapped to her belt. He bolted from the chair, but didn’t get very far as Lucifer darted forward, much faster than a human ever could and held him in the air by the throat. “I don’t care much for humans who abuse their children,” Lucifer told the man sounding bored. “They’re worse than murderers in my book.” Here she saw Lucifer smirk at the other man. “And it is my Book, you know…”

“Lucifer,” she cautioned. She saw his head tick in her direction, but he still held the man aloft.

“But you, you’re both,” Lucifer sounded absolutely pleased with the prospect. “I wonder what your loop would be like… Your daughter killing you over and over? Or perhaps Andre Williams taking her from you again and again?” The man tried to pry Lucifer’s hand off his throat to no avail. “Either way, you’ll come to me in the end,” and Chloe didn’t see what Lucifer did, but the man started begging to confess, that yes he’d done both. He’d abused his child and killed the man trying to adopt her.

They called another unit to come an collect the man who was now sniveling in the corner with Chloe’s handcuff on and his wrists behind his back. She knew he always followed her lead but sometimes she was afraid that he’d do what he wanted. She thought that perhaps sometimes it would be okay, like when dealing with, say Cain from the bible, but for criminals… she preferred the human justice system.

After they had finished searching the house (not for the murder weapon, because he’d used his bare hands), Chloe led Lucifer out to the car and they rode to the precinct in comfortable silence. Chloe was thinking, had been thinking about it since she heard Lucifer say it, she’d just put in on the back burner, but Chloe was thinking about Pierce being the Sinnerman.

“Lucifer, what are we going to do about Pierce?” Chloe asked.

“How do you mean?” he asked, straightening the lines of his suit and fiddling with his cufflinks. She rolled her eyes at how he always had to look his best (but she did appreciate that he made the effort).

“Well, he’s the Sinnerman, the head of a crime syndicate, and he’s… We need to stop him,” she told him.

Lucifer sighed and shrugged. “He can’t die, Detective, what exactly are we supposed to do?” Chloe frowned as he continued, “He’d outlive any jail sentence and then he’d have to explain to them why he isn’t dying. An organization as big as his could be run from inside a prison. Our options are lacking, my darling.”

Chloe frowned. She knew he was right but… “There has to be something we could do…” she sighed. “He has to be punished somehow.”

“Technically he is being punished. Dear old Dad put that curse on him for killing his brother, really, it shouldn’t have been that way. Cain says he doesn’t feel guilt for anything he’s done in his extremely long life and I find that difficult to believe,” Lucifer sighed. “Unless he’s a sociopath or something of the like, they don’t feel much in the way of guilt, and I had barely ever seen that many of them in Hell unless they’re brought down physically and left at the gates.”

“So unless his soul is physically brought down to Hell, he’s going to heaven?” Chloe frowned.

Lucifer considered this for a moment. “Unless my little sister met his soul before he completely popped off and dragged him down to hell, yes.”

“Little sister?”

“Yes. Angel of Death. She’s called Azrael, but I used to call her Rae-Rae when we lived in the Silver City…” he sighed like he was remembering something, but she couldn’t tell if he thought it was pleasant. “She used to follow me around and talk my ear off… I’d let her, of course… She was the only one up there that I could ever really tolerate for any length of time…”

“Even Amenadiel?” Chloe asked. “You two seem to get along now…”

“We barely speak to each other unless something’s happening, but we do get along better now,” Lucifer stretched as they got out of the car. “He’s always been one of the worst brothers I’ve ever had, but he is my brother. Although his angry face is hilarious… You know, Detective, you should be there when I tell him you’re in the know. It’ll be a laugh!”

Chloe rolled her eyes and didn’t bother responding as he continued to try to convince her to “come get a front row seat to the ‘Angry Amenadiel’ show”. She’d forgotten how annoying he was sometimes, and though this wasn’t actively annoying, she was exasperated with him. She let him talk until it was time to go get their confession. His smile when she told him it was time was extremely predatory, and as always, she suppressed a shiver. Sometimes, she really loved watching him work. Loved it even more when they could work together like this. And now that she knew the truth it was even better.

She didn’t know quite how his desire mojo worked, but now that she had a reason other than ‘it just does’ she’s slightly mystified by it. But at the same time they had this kind of thing down pat, so she wasn’t perhaps quite as impressed as she thought she should be. He asked the man what he desired, and it wasn’t surprising. He wanted his daughter and if he couldn’t have her, no one else would. Unsurprisingly, the man cooperated when he saw that it was Lucifer helping her (she’d heard that he’d been belligerent as soon as they’d pulled away from his home and when Lucifer was out of sight).

Chloe felt the need to call the social worker that was now handling Abbey Madison’s case. She also called James Garfield and informed him what they had found. Uncharacteristically, Lucifer had stuck around after their police work was done and stood next to her as she called both of the people she needed to call. She was glad for the support, and more than once, she leaned into his side and the hand he had placed on her back, when she had sighed heavily before picking up the phone.

She hung up with James Garfield and blinked a few times to clear the tears from her eyes, but she was unsuccessful. “Come here, darling,” Lucifer had sighed when she looked up at him. James Garfield was… He was too much like Lucifer and it just pulled at her heartstrings. So when Lucifer pulled on her arm just a little, she shot up into his arms and hugged him tightly for a moment while he rubbed her back. She pulled away not even a moment later, and like she had yesterday, she saw Pierce staring at them, at Lucifer like he was going to kill him.

She and Lucifer said goodbye to each other in the parking garage, but reluctantly. She didn’t really want to leave him, but knew that if she didn’t let him go tonight, she would never be able to, and yes, they were on their way to fixing things, but… Did he care for her like she did for him? Was there… was there a chance for them? So she let him go and she worried the whole way home. Trixie even noticed and she had asked where Lucifer was as she’d walked in the door. She convinced herself not to call him until Trixie was asleep, but before she could dial, her phone lit up with a text from him.

Can I call you?

Instead of replying by text she settled herself into bed as she held the phone up to her ear. “Hello, Detective,” he greeted her, and she was surprised that there was no background noise.

“Hey, Lucifer,” she replied softly, exactly like she would if he were lying next to her. “What’s up?”

“Nothing, I just…” here, he sighed. “How’s the little urchin, hmm?”

“Good; sleeping,” Chloe chuckled. “A little disappointed that you didn’t come home with me today, though.” And she had to stop herself from telling him that she was disappointed that he didn’t come home with her, that she didn’t ask him to.

“Well, I did tell you she had good taste,” he offered, with what she imagined to be a smirk.

“What are you doing right now?” she asked him, more than a little curious at the lack of background noise. He’d usually be in his club at this time of night

“Ooh, darling, I didn’t know that this would be that kind of phone call,” he said, and this time she knew he was smirking, could hear it in his voice.

She rolled her eyes. “Lucifer…”

“I’m in bed, my darling Detective,” he told her. “Are you sure this isn’t that kind of phone call?”

“I just wanted to know why it was so quiet there,” she told him. “Usually when you call me around now it’s really noisy.”

“Hmm,” his voice came through the phone. “Are you… are you in bed?”

“Yeah,” she almost whispered. “But this isn’t that kind of call, Lucifer…”

“It could be…” he told her, quietly like he was afraid being too loud would break the moment in two.

“Lucifer, why did you want to call me?” she asked, just as quietly.

There was silence over the line for a long moment, until she heard him sigh, “I just… I wanted to talk to you. It felt…”

“Like it wasn’t…” she sighed, trying to sort out her thoughts. “I don’t think I would’ve been able to fall asleep until I talked to you…”

“Yes, that’s exactly what if felt like,” he whispered.

“Lucifer?”

“Yes, Chloe?”

“Do you think…are we… Could we ever…”

“Could we ever what, darling?”

“Be like what we were before you went to Vegas?” she whispered, and she tried her best not to tear up.

Lucifer sighed. “I… Chloe, you don’t… I want that more than anything, darling, but you don’t… You haven’t seen, you don’t know how monstrous I can be… my Devil face…”

“Oh, Lucifer,” Chloe said letting a single tear fall. “I don’t need to see your Devil face to know who you really are…”

She heard Lucifer sigh, and there was a long pause. “You don’t know what I’ve done, Chloe,” his voice was raw and fragile.

“Then tell me, Lucifer,” Chloe almost begged him. “You can tell me anything, okay? I won’t… It won’t change anything…”

“If only that were true, darling…” he whispered to her. If she closed her eyes it felt like he was right next to her.

“It’s true, Lucifer… Do you trust me?” she asked him with tears silently streaming down her face.

“Of course I do,” he said. It was with so much conviction and emotion that she let out a tiny sob and then another when he hushed her. “Don’t cry, my darling… The Devil doesn’t need your tears tonight. Or any night for that matter…”

“Lucifer…” she sniffled.

“Do you remember your car accident? And how I said it wasn’t an accident and you didn’t believe me?” he sighed. She told him she did, and she waited as long as she could. Just before she was about to call out to him, he started again, “It was my brother, Uriel, he was altering patterns around you… to… to kill you…” He let out what sounded like a breathy sob and pushed forward as she tried to soothe him. “He was- was going to kill you and Mum and I… I had to stop him, Chloe, I had to!” it sounded like he was begging her to listen, to for give him. “I killed him… my own brother…”

“Oh, babe,” she said, her voice thick with tears. “I’m so sorry… You should’ve never had to make that choice…” She heard him sob once, and it broke her heart. “Lucifer… can you… I need you here with me, can you come over? As quickly as you can, please?”

Not even a moment later he was before her, the only indication he’d used his wings was the displacement of air in the room. She threw her phone to the bed and was in his arms before she even thought about it. She let him hold her as tightly as he wanted, and hushed him as he sobbed into her shoulder, telling him over and over that it was okay, that he’d done the right thing.

“How can you say that?” he asked her when he’d stopped crying so hard. He still had tears streaming down his face and it pulled at her heartstrings. She hated seeing the one’s she loved in pain.

“Lucifer, am I a bad person?” she asked him.

“No!” he told her furiously. “How could you even think that? Detective, you’re… you’re one of the best people I’ve ever known…”

“I’ve killed people to protect the one’s I love Lucifer,” she told him, cradling his face in her hands. “I killed Malcom to protect you and Trixie and before I became a detective I killed a man who had a little held captive in a car…” She wiped away some of his tears as they slid down his face. “Does that make a monster, Lucifer?” she asked in a desperate whisper.

“No, never,” he clutched her tighter to him.

“Then why would it make you one?” she sniffled and wiped the tears from his cheeks again. He shook his head and rested his forehead against hers. She knew he wanted to believe her, that he could if he let himself, so she pressed a kiss to his forehead, soft and gentle and everything she hoped he needed. He sobbed once more and buried his head in her shoulder as she hushed him again. “You’re not a monster, Lucifer,” she told him furiously, needing him to believe her.

He nodded against her, and she held him tighter, glad that he’d heard her.

“Do you want to stay?” she whispered.

He pulled away and nodded again, his breath hitching on every other inhale.

“Okay,” Chloe gave him a small, fond smile. “Go wash your face and come to bed, okay?” She watched him hurry into the bathroom with a sigh, just now realizing that he was only wearing black, silk pajama pants. She shook her head and settled herself in bed, knowing he was going to try and collect himself while he was watching his face, and he might be a while.

A few moments later, Lucifer emerged from the bathroom and snuggled up to her in bed, his arms around her and his face buried in her hair. She threaded a hand through his hair and started rubbing his back with her other hand. She hoped that he would actually believe her one day.