"Whats your name darling?" Dead eyes blinked at the officer sitting across from her.
The girl was small, she couldn't have been older than six or seven years old.
"Who's blood is that on your clothes?" The officer's words seemed to awaken her limbs.
Her small fingers traced the dried blood splattered across her side soaking and hardening her cheek and hair. Blood flaked off and caked her otherwise clean hair.
"We tested it.' The officer paused, watching closely for a reaction, icy blue eyes focused somewhat, listening and waiting patiently for the kind woman to finish. 'It belongs to a woman named Annalise Marcella." The officer produced a picture from a paper folder and slid it in front of the small girl.
When the woman's hand retreated, the girl straightened enough to see over the steel table top. The picture depicted a woman beaming at the camera, a dimple on each cheek, milk chocolate hair done up in two messy buns and a pair of bright blue eyes.
"She's your mother isn't she?" The officer watched as the girl caressed the photo, tracing the outlines of a face she knew so well, forcing herself to commit her small, seemingly insignificant details to memory.
"You're name is Angelique Marcella and your father is here to get you.' Angelique's finger froze and for a moment a sudden rush of unrivalled joy grabbed at her heart. 'Oliver Johnson?" Angelique's heart stopped and the second the door of the interrogation room clicked open, alarm shot through her body.
A man appeared through the door with a wide welcoming smile on his face, the young girl slid off the steel chair that was a little to high for her and ran towards the man. The ginger haired man knelt down and opened his arms, Angelique ducked under his arm and darted out the door into the precinct.
Angelique ran around the first corner she could reach, then crawled under a desk, pulling the spinning chair in closer. A folder slid off the chair and it's contents scattered on her lap. The small girl scrambled to gather the papers, but froze as she took in the picture resting on her lap. That same wide grin and dimpled cheeks and a little girl with her arms and legs wrapped around the woman's neck and torso.
Angelique wrapped her arms around the photo and hugged it to her chest, her head falling forward as long awaited tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Angelique? My name is Detective Chloe Decker." Angelique sniffed and looked up from her lap, kneeling down where the chair once was.
Her voice was soft and kind and when Chloe offered her hand, Angelique took her hand and stood, only just reaching Chloe's hip. Angelique latched on to the blonde woman's pant leg, burring her head in Chloe's hip.
"Oh wonderful it's leaking. Small human,' Angelique turned her head, just enough to peek out from behind Chloe's leg, a man was kneeling and holding her gaze. 'What is it you desire most in this world?" Angelique blinked up at the impossibly tall man and turned away, again furrowing into the woman's side.
"Lucifer! She's not the one you need to interrogate." Lucifer straightened and leaned back, a disturbed look over took his charming features.
"She's exactly the one Detective. Look she obviously saw something." He gestured to the girl's clothes with a smug grin, then pocketed his hands.
The little girl watched him with dried tears staining her cheeks and two fists balled up in Chloe's pant leg.
"Lucifer-" "I want my Mommy.." Chloe's gaze darted down, Lucifer's eyes drifted down with lazy ease, each assessing the small girl with different levels of curiosity.
Lucifer regarded Angelique with a steady, inquisitive stare and she held it, Angelique took a step forward, one hand still clinging on to Chloe.
"I want my Mommy." Angelique repeated herself with a firmer tone and reached out, offering her free hand up to Lucifer, who's dark eyes darted up to Chloe, then back directly down.
Apparently sick of waiting, Angelique snatched his hand from his side and started walking, dragging both devil and detective around the corner and out of the office.
"Angelique" The young girl's steps faltered, her eyes trained up hesitantly, starting at the man's crusty joggers, then his brilliant red flannel shirt and not daring any further than his unshaven stubble.
Angelique refused to meet his eye and her head ducked down, her hair fell in clumps over her eyes as she shrunk in on herself. Backing up till Chloe's arm could no longer reach, Angelique relinquished her hold on Chloe but refused to release Lucifer. She vanishes behind impossibly long legs.
"Oliver." She trailed off meakly, her hand tightened around his pointer finger.
"Detective Chloe Decker, I'm on the Annalise Marcella case. You're the father?" As Oliver went to nod, Lucifer felt Angelique shake her head against the back of his knee.
Chloe caught the notion out the corner of her eye and pinned Oliver with a hard stare. He motioned with a shrug.
"Step father, I met Annie a few years ago and we've been together since." Angelique sniffed and felt her bottom lip tremble as Lucifer withdrew his hand hastily, slipping away easily due to Angelique's clamy hands.
Lucifer made a face at his hand and dragged it up and down his suit jacket to rid himself of either the young girl's sweat or the phantom feel of the overly clinging child's hold.
"Look no one's buying that load of rubbish, now come on. What is it you want? What is it you desire? Cause it's not that-' Lucifer turned, leaving Angelique in Olivier's line line of sight and gestured down next to him to the girl with a dismissive wave of his hand. 'Children are terrible little burdens the lot of them."
"I wanna take back what I did." It appeared as though Oliver was struggling to piece together words that came out breathy, like he'd struggled to keep them in.
"What did you do?' When Oliver remained silent, Lucifer advanced with a murderous gleam in his dark eyes. 'Come now!-We don't have all day." In saying this, Lucifer's accent was glaringly obvious.
Angelique's eyes watered, her hold on Lucifer tightening as he moved and as he moved, she followed, keeping as close as she could manage without tripping him.
Detective Decker said nothing, onlywatched and listened closely, judging for reactions.
The moment Lucifer had taken a step towards him, Oliver had taken two back. Oliver looked conflicted under the taller man's harsh gaze, physically fighting with himself to prevent words from tumbling out in a rush.
"I was a drunk and I hit her and one day I went to far. I hit Angie.' His words sounded strained and pathetic. 'I didn't mean to-she just got in the way." It was Chloe who advanced with handcuffs in tow, spinning Oliver around and securing them tighter than needed.
"I'm placing you under arrest Oliver Johnson for the suspected kidnapping of Annalise Marcella."
"What happened?" They'd sat down together, Angelique and Chloe at a Cafe down the street from the precinct.
"He cornered us, Mommy and Oliver started yelling. There was a bang and I hid." Angelique spoke in a small voice, reaching forward to snag her plastic cup off the table, watching the detective jot down notes off to the side.
Chloe glanced up from her notepad and caught the child's eye.
"Is there anything else you remember? Where you were? How long you hid?-Did you hear anything?" Angelique leaned forward and set her cup down heavily.
"We were around the corner from home-I don't remember how long I hid for.' She trailed off suddenly, her eyes falling down and wondering off as if something dark had clouded her thoughts. 'I don't wanna answer anymore questions-I wanna go home!" She snapped, scrunching up her nose and narrowing her eyes in a way that might have looked intimating had Angelique not been a five year old girl.
"I'm sorry Angelique. This must be very hard for you, but-" Chloe's phone dinged, stopping her mid sentence.
The detective sent Angelique a look as she answered, rising from the table and walking a few feetaway to talk without disturbing anyone.
"Decker." Angelique frowned as her throat began to ache and tears swell up, clouding her vision.
"I can't, I'm on a case right now-Oh, Annalise Marcella? You're sure?" The young girl huffed, swiping at her face to rid herself of the tears streaming down her cheeks.
She looked over at the detective and finding that Chloe was heavily immersed in her conversation. Angelique slipped down off her seat and sparing the detective one final look, vanished out the door.
