Chapter Text
Alastor had been busy these last few months helping Angel get established as an Overlord. It wasn’t like there was formal paperwork to fill out. It was a sense of power, a willingness to work with the other Overlords to keep Pentagram City running as smoothly as possible, and the allies and property to back up the claim.
With Valentino’s death, there was a vacuum in the entertainment district and, in Alastor’s opinion, Angel was the best one to fill that role. Velvette had already been keen to get him on board, and Rosie and Zestial had been easy sells on the idea too.
And so, piece by piece, they continued maneuvering the right deals in front of Angel. The right people, the right influence up until the opening of Angel’s movie. It had gone marvellously, not that he had watched the film himself, but the influence it had gained with King Lucifer and King Asmodeus in attendance had been the final piece of the puzzle.
Angel was still figuring out how his powers were manifesting, his magic wasn’t really shadowy like Alastor's own. It was a bit more flashy, a bit more suited to the work he did to do with the porn industry. It wasn’t like Valentino’s though, at first Angel had been horrified that it might be something like the old moth’s pheromones, but Alastor didn’t get that sense from Angel’s power.
“It’s not like his,” Alastor reassured his friend as they sat together in his and Lucifer’s lounge. “Your power is… gentle, for lack of a better word. Rather than forcing a reaction, it’s inviting one. I can sense it pushing on me, but it’s easy to ignore.”
“That’s good,” Angel said, relieved. “This is so fucking hard to get used to.”
Alastor knew that increasing power quickly was difficult to get used to. He’d had a major bump when he took ownership of Lucifer’s soul, but it had settled out and he was mostly used to it. Though he was still figuring out what he could do with the angelic magic.
“I understand. I’ve had large power jumps over the years, but nothing like the one that came with owning Lucifer’s soul.”
“Yeah, I bet that’s a fucking trip,” Angel said and sipped his cocktail. “Got any new fun shit you can do with it?”
“Oh, yes, and I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface. I can use his angelic healing, not well mind you but I can do it. What was most exciting was the knife.” He closed his eyes, reaching for the thread of angelic magic that he could touch and he gently pulled on it, forming it into a small dagger. “Useful in a pinch if I need to stab something and put it down permanently.”
“Holy shit,” Angel said.
“Literally,” Alastor said with a grin. “Although Lucifer told me it was ‘cute’, and then showed me the literal sword of light he can create that crackles. He’s a fucking show off.”
Angel laughed. “Ya knew he was a show off when you agreed to marry him.”
Alastor supposed that was true.
The door to the suite opened and Lucifer popped his head in, seeing them both he bounced into the room, closing the door quickly behind him. He looked like he was ready to burst about something.
“Hello love,” Alastor said with a frown at the way Lucifer was vibrating. He let the knife he was holding go, the magic dissolving back to Lucifer. “Everything alright?”
“Oh? Yeah - everything is great. Fine, actually. I just needed to let you know that I’m gonna be busy, because I’m gonna be with Charlie and Vaggie, because Charlie is in labour, and I’m part of the birth plan and everything, and fuck, my little girl is about to have a baby.”
Alastor’s eyes widened, as did Angel's.
“Oh shit!” Angel said excitedly.
“Is there anything we can do?” Alastor asked.
“No - no - we have it handled. I’ve sent a message to Heaven to ask Emily to hurry back. I’m gonna be in with her and Vaggie. I’ll text you with any updates, and let you know when you can all come visit. Don’t want to crowd her when she just gives birth, you know? Gotta give her a bit of time to bond and… and she’s upset because her mom isn’t here. But not with us, upset with Lilith for being a fucking bitch. But yeah - normal stuff.”
Lucifer opened the door again. “So keep your phones on you, I gotta go,” he said, and he hurried from the room just as quickly as he entered.
“Exciting stuff, glad it’s not me,” Angel said with amusement. “Come on, we should go to the staff lounge. You can bet that's where everyone will be until the baby gets here.”
“Oh, yes, I suppose.” Alastor stood and followed Angel from the room. He’d never been included in the ‘waiting family’ portion of childbirth before. Of course his aunts and cousins had all had babies while he was alive, and he’d sent gifts of congratulations, but he had never been in town when the child was actually inbound.
He had also dodged all requests of holding any babies, but he had a sinking feeling that he wouldn’t get away with that here.
“How long does labour take, do you know?” Alastor asked as they reached the staff lounge.
“I think it depends, and who fucking knows for Charlie? Half demon half angel, could be like… an hour or a hundred?”
“It won’t be a hundred,” Alastor said with a roll of his eyes, but Angel raised an eyebrow at him.
That was ridiculous, right?
~*~
Lucifer wasn’t sure what to expect being present with Charlie as she gave birth. Obviously he’d done it himself before, but giving birth and being present for someone else were two very different scenarios. She had gripped his and Vaggie’s hands tighter than vices, oscillating between swearing and calm as contractions came and went.
Emily had arrived quickly after Lucifer had sent word. The Seraphim of Joy was the official liaison between Heaven and Hell, and she had permission to come and go as she pleased, which was making communication between the realms much easier.
With Emily’s direction, Lucifer was able to pass healing magic into his daughter to help ease the pain she was in and, once she wasn’t as tense, things progressed quickly. Now he and Vaggie sat on either side of Charlie as she cradled his granddaughter in her arms, wrapped in the soft blanket that Marjorie had knitted for her. Emily was sitting at the foot of the bed, smiling from ear to ear.
“How can something so tiny be so painful?” Charlie asked, and she booped the baby on her little black nose. Lucifer grinned as Vaggie rested her head on Charlie’s shoulder, looking down at the baby.
“Just be glad they don’t come out with wings,” Vaggie said and Charlie winced.
“Or horns,” Lucifer added.
“Oh… ow,” Charlie said with a grimace. Emily gave a soft laugh at that.
“Angels aren’t ever born with wings,” Emily said. “And as far as I know, hellborn aren’t born with horns. I’ve seen a baby imp, no horns there.”
“Oh,” Charlie said, and she looked down at the baby in her arms. “Well it’s good to know if we have another I won’t need to worry about being poked by horns. And if we do have another, it won’t be for a looong time,” she added.
“Yeah, I think keeping an eye on one kid in our chaotic lives is going to be hard enough.”
Charlie nodded, she looked at Lucifer and asked curiously, “Would you have another baby?”
“Me? Oh - uh - I mean, I thought about it when I was still with Lilith. When we planned for you, we had talked about maybe having two or three, but it just never felt like we had enough time even for you, so another kid or two felt selfish. At least that was Lilith's reason. I would have had more, a bit late for that now.”
“Why is it a bit late?” Emily asked with a frown.
“Uh - because Lilith and I aren’t together any more,” Lucifer said. He was quite sure that was obvious.
“What does that have to do with anything? I assume Alastor has the correct anatomy without being modified to have a baby. Right?”
Lucifer’s eyes widened at that thought.
“Uh - what - he can’t have… Sinners can’t have kids, or we’d be overrun with them,” Lucifer said.
“Sinners can’t have kids with each other,” Emily said, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world to explain. “Lilith was technically a Sinner, the original Sinner demon, and she had a baby with you. You'd need a massive amount of angelic magic and, as an Archangel, you have plenty to spare.”
Lucifer was stunned to silence and he glanced beside him at Vaggie and Charlie, who both looked shocked at this idea as well, and then Charlie got an amused smile on her face.
“Aww, do you think they’d have little deer ears?”
Vaggie rubbed her face, shaking her head. “Let's not bring this up around Alastor, hm? There is enough going on today without bringing this idea up around him.”
“I did that thing again, didn't I?” Emily asked, and she looked a little chagrined. “Just assuming people know stuff.”
“It’s fine, Emily, I just hadn’t thought about it, and it’s not like I can accidentally get pregnant.”
“I mean, you can,” Vaggie said, and motioned to the accidental grandchild in Charlie’s arms.
“Yeah, only if we’re having sex with me sporting the correct equipment, and we haven’t done that because - you know what? This is way too much information about mine and Alastor’s sex life that you absolutely do not need to hear. Let's just say it’s not possible and leave it at that, okay?”
Charlie patted him on the hand. “It’s okay dad, just promise if you do, you’ll practice safe sex.”
Lucifer gaped, the hypocrisy of being lectured on safe sex when the product of an accidental pregnancy was sleeping contentedly in her arms was almost too much.
Emily grinned and she stood, shifting from the bottom of the bed. “I’ll go let everyone know the baby is here, and that mom and baby are doing okay. Do you want me to keep everyone away for the moment? Let you all have time as a family?”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Vaggie said.
“But could you tell Alastor to come up? He’s family too.”
Lucifer stopped being scandalised and he smiled at Alastor being referred to as family. Emily left the room and he looked at her. “He’s going to be surprised to be invited up.”
“I don’t see why, he’s grampa, and Vaggie and I wanted to tell you and Alastor her name first, might as well do it together. And after we’ve talked with Alastor, can we order something to eat? I’m starving.”
When Alastor appeared in the doorway with Emily, he walked in tentatively and he smiled brightly, spotting them on the bed. Lucifer watched the way Alastor’s eyes ran over Charlie, taking an inventory of how she looked before he walked forward.
“Are you sure you want me in here?”
“I’m sure,” Charlie said as she looked at Lucifer. “Dad, can you get up, let Alastor sit there for a second?”
Lucifer extracted himself from her side and he saw the unsure expression on Alastor’s face, so Lucifer gripped his arm and just guided him to sit with Charlie. He heard Alastor take a deep breath and he looked down at the baby in her arms for a second, before looking back up at Charlie.
“How are you feeling, my dear?”
“I’m fine,” Charlie said, as Lucifer took up a space at the bottom of the bed where Emily had been sitting earlier. “Everything went smoothly, it was painful, but worth it.”
“Well that’s good.” Alastor looked down at the baby again and he flicked his wrist, summoning a small wrapped package. “I got you a present, little one. I’m afraid one of your mothers is going to need to open it for you.” He handed the gift over to Vaggie.
“You didn’t need to do that,” Charlie said with a small smile.
“It’s nothing much, just a book I thought she might like when she’s a bit older.”
Lucifer watched Vaggie open the gift and she looked down at the book, fingers ghosting over the clearly old tome. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” she read off. “Looks old,” she said, looking up at Alastor.
“It’s from my personal collection, it was a favorite of mine when I was a boy. My mama used to read it to me, and a child who is read to is one who is well educated.” He looked down at the baby and grinned, “And no grandchild of mine is going to be uneducated.”
“Alastor, that is very sweet,” Charlie said. “Thank you.”
And Lucifer knew it wasn’t just sweet. He’d asked Alastor once how much his books had cost, and most of the ones from Earth that he had were in the thousands of dollars on the black market, sometimes more. He would need to make sure Charlie and Vaggie knew just how much that book meant to Alastor later, when his fiance wasn’t around.
Vaggie set the book on the bedside table and Charlie took a deep breath.
“So, I suppose we should do a formal introduction, hm?” Charlie asked with a smile.
“I suppose you better,” Lucifer said grinning. He knew she and Vaggie had been going over lists of names for months at this point, but neither of them had let slip any of their choices. It wasn’t like Charlie or Vaggie had any family names to worry about.
“Dad, Alastor, we’d like you to meet Princess Rowan Marjorie Morningstar,” Charlie said and Lucifer felt his heart skip. He watched as Charlie had her eyes on Alastor as she told them the name.
Alastor’s eyes widened and he looked from Rowan up to Charlie.
“After my mama?” he asked quietly.
Charlie nodded. “Marjorie complained that you hadn’t given her any granddaughters to pass her name to as a middle name. I thought it was a lovely tradition, and you’re family, Alastor. This is your granddaughter, Marjorie’s great-granddaughter.”
Lucifer could see that Alastor was overwhelmed, but Charlie was perceptive. She handed Rowan off to Vaggie and she turned, hugging Alastor tightly. Alastor closed his eyes and rested his cheek on top of Charlie’s head, hugging her back.
And if they saw tears falling from Alastor’s eyes, no one mentioned it.
“My dear Charlie, thank you. That is… my mama is going to be thrilled.” He took a deep breath, wiping his eyes, and whispered softly, “As am I.”
“I’m not calling you dad, though,” Charlie added and Alastor gave a soft huff of laughter.
“No, I wouldn’t expect you to. ‘Alastor’ is just fine.” He pulled back and then pulled out his phone. “I should put the little one’s birthday into my calendar, I suppose. Rosie told me I should use the calendar on the phone more often. I told her I have a perfectly good paper calendar in my office.”
“Your paper calendar is from the 50’s and you just use it as wall decor,” Lucifer pointed out.
“Yes, but the dates all stay the same, don’t they?” Alastor glanced down at his phone and Lucifer saw an almost imperceptible shift in Alastor’s mood. Charlie and Vaggie didn’t seem to pick up on it, but he saw the twitch in his partner’s eye.
“If Rowan’s birthday is the 28th of September this year, it will be the same next year. The day might change, but the date is the more important part.” He typed in something to his phone before setting it aside again. He smiled a bit, slightly strained, but only to Lucifer. “But I can see where it would be useful sometimes, I suppose.”
Lucifer smiled a bit, he wasn’t going to bring up whatever was on Alastor’s phone to shift his mood, not right now while they were celebrating. He’d talk to him later, and if it was something important, he would let Lucifer know.
Charlie yawned and Lucifer pat her on the leg. “We should go, my little apple pie. Let you rest and get something to eat. If you need anything, call us, okay?”
“We will,” Vaggie said, and Alastor gave Charlie a final kiss on the forehead before he got up. He took Lucifer’s outstretched hand and, bidding the girls a good rest, they left the room.
Once they were a few steps down the hall Lucifer asked, “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” Alastor answered, all too quickly, twirling his cane in his hand. “Everything is fine… can we have dinner in our room, though? It’s been quite the day.”
Alastor wasn’t wrong, it had been a busy day, but he knew when Alastor was deflecting.
He wrapped his arm around Alastor’s waist and walked with him back towards their room.
Whatever was bothering him, he would talk about it when he was ready.