Notes: A gift in order to express my gratitude for a chapter's subplot inspiration as well as because yearning lend me an ear a few days ago.
This is something small that I wrote after completing the sixth chapter of Alis Grave Nil. I just had to thank the person who had the patience to hear my crazy thoughts and make me see things a different way.
This is a drabble which I hope to not surpass the 1500 words but be warned that it will be a bit cheesy.
60 Seconds of Silence
The small brown envelope mocked him from the edge of his desk. He had agreed on this, gave a signed consent to be precise. For security reasons, he had enforced the hospital to have an audio and video surveillance in Chloe's room at all times. A cop in a hospital was the least safe place to be aside from being behind bars.
"He left..." The broken disbelief in her voice was nothing next to the lost look in her bloodshot blue eyes.
"Did you call him?" The last time he had seen Lucifer he had shown no intention of leaving her side before he knew she would never pass the threshold as he had told him.
"337 times" He would have expected her to bow her head in shame or at least embarrassment but her eyes never left his, her cheeks never flushed and the agonised bewilderment was still lashing widely in her blue depths.
"Since when?"
"Since he left the hospital and then I never saw or heard from him again... You said he saved me, Dan." She clasped her hands together and for the first time bowed her head to hide her face behind her loose hair.
"What made him leave?" He would never have thought Chloe could sound so small and insecure over a man.
She was always so level-headed during their relationship which made him wonder how much accountable was Lucifer's charm on what he was witnessing or if their unique ever-growing relationship had affected her in such a way.
"The hospital sent me some footage. I invoked the basic officer down procedure for 24/7 surveillance. But they also sent me a note..." Opening the envelope he took out the yellow post-it and passed it to Chloe's clammy hands.
"E8 109? I was in 209." This was not just the surveillance from her room.
"E8 109 was directly underneath yours. There was an interhospital investigation done after Lucifer's brother created a havoc while you were on a near code blue alert."
Lucifer had told him that he fairly wouldn't want to know how he got the formula. This was the reason why he had refrained from watching the footage alone.
With shaking hands, she ripped the envelope freeing the Dvd's square case inside. Without waiting for his permission she opened the disk drive of his PC tower and when the disk appeared on the screen, she clicked on the single video file.
The grey screen was divided in two marking one of them as 109 and the other one, where she was laying sleeping, 209.
Two nurses in scrubs entered 109 and started setting up the room. Nothing was out of the ordinary until their faces came to a clear view on the camera.
"Is that...?" Dan's question died in astonishment on how many people had teamed together that day to get the formula.
"Maze and Doctor Linda Martin, Lucifer's therapist."
The door of 209 opened and Lucifer got in. Taking off his jacket and cufflinks he rolled his sleeves up and proceeded on unbuttoning his shirt. Hurriedly he hopped on the bed and gestured Maze and Linda to come closer.
"They had a trio? That was his brilliant idea?" He knew that Lucifer had several unconventional ideas but having sex in the same hospital Chloe slowly withered was too crude even for him, the self-proclaimed Devil.
Elevated by two pillows Lucifer nervously followed the hands of the two women. Chloe's fisted her hands bracing herself for watching him in action. Despite on which undetermined point they were in their relationship at the time, this was a devastating blow.
"Chloe they are hooking him up." A short disagreement followed on the screen before Lucifer fell back on the pillows looking upwards in exasperation.
At his look of honest surprise, she remembered his unmarred by worry face. This was her partner, her Lucifer raising an eyebrow in something he couldn't understand or something that had shaken his gentle sensibilities.
Tapping the bed with his right hand she caught a glimpse of his ring and wondered what the new round of quarrelling was all about. Was he luring them in bed over a weird fascination on how fast his heart would beat under their ministrations? She would have closed the video and trust every doubt she ever had. How could a womaniser ever settle?
An icepack and a bunch of needles appeared from 's sports bag only for Lucifer to get a swing of what she knew was a pricey whisky from his favourite silver flask. Passing it to Maze she took a large gulp as well and she reached behind for the-
"What are you doing?" She whispered at the sight of Maze rubbing the defibrillator handles together.
Lucifer unflinching was looking directly at her through the camera non-wiser that he was being recorded. His eyes did not betray any fear or reservation just surrendered determination. His final nodding showed some nervousness but then Maze took a step back. She couldn't do it. What were they thinking?
Believing that was the end the scene she exhaled the breath she had been holding for way too long and turned to Dan.
"Idiot!" He hissed at the screen making her turn back in time to see Lucifer spasm and fall limply backwards on the bed.
"It must be a mistake! I saw him, he was fine!" Frantically she reached her phone for call numbered 338.
The passing time was counted by the white numbers at the far right of the screen. Both women were standing there their eyes glued on the clock she knew it was hanged next to the hidden camera.
1, 2, 3, 4...-57, 58, 59, 60 seconds of silence in both ends.
There was no reply from the other side of the phone. There was no action taken on the screen before the sixty seconds were up.
Linda's hand on his neck told her what she already knew. Lucifer's body had no pulse. For these 60 seconds, he had been dead.
With the defibrillator at hand Linda was prompted by Maze and set the pads on his chest. One time, a second, a third. Something was wrong. This was obviously planned and everything had gone wrong.
She could see the cracking composure from the doctor's face and the panic in Maze's face. That was what scared her. Linda was always calm, Maze fearless. They were losing him.
The beeping reverted her attention in room 209 where sound could be heard from the speakers.
"I gave a video and audio surveillance permission for your room as protocol dictates." He admitted ripping his eyes from the spasming Chloe on the screen and Trixie's fearful posture around all the incoming nurses in the room.
"How? Legally...-" They weren't spouses anymore he couldn't enforce that order even as a detective.
"Lucifer sweet-talked the security after I told him the peril of an officer in a hospital." He would never know why Lucifer had left as he did but certainly it was not because he did not care about Chloe.
The door in room 109 opened again and Charlotte Richards walked in taking both women inside by surprise effectively ending their heated discussion. This time Maze showed no hesitation to electrocute Charlotte who dropped down to the floor. There was no apparent sympathy or remorse from the two women in scrub or the one who was currently watching the scene. There was something gleeful over that scene as it was equally horrifying.
In 209 the security had been called and Amenadial stood his ground not allowing them to remove her from the room. At the same time, Linda attempted to revive Lucifer once more. The seconds were ticking, his body shook with every effort.
Less than sixty seconds passed after Charlotte's 'death' when Lucifer finally drew a painful breath. He blinked several times and in his attempt to get out of bed he fell on the floor where a few feet away Linda was reviving Charlotte.
With shaky feet and constantly holding anything, he could reach for support Chloe saw him getting in her room a few minutes later. Breathless and relieved at the same time he set a hand on Amenadial's shoulder. From his brother's expression, she knew that he had known on what had occurred downstairs.
"Beads of sweat brother?" The worried voice asked a still shaking Lucifer who rushed at her side.
Ignoring Amenadial he brushed his right hand over her forehead and placed a light kiss on her tremoring eyelids.
"Don't you dare leave now. Hell is one thing but Heaven?" His ability to whisper gave away to a booming throaty voice. Every word appeared to be struggling to get out of his throat.
"What are you bloody expecting now? An invitation?" Lucifer's cracked words urged the female doctor to take action and prepare her to be moved to the ICU.
Lucifer fell exhausted on the nearby chair watching her being wheeled away. Swearing he searched his pant's pockets. Taking the cue Amenadial handed him the room's phone.
The screen went black as Lucifer eyes closed waiting for the other side of the line to answer.
"He called me and we had the antidote administered about an hour later." He had never questioned his gruff voice or the soft mewling sounds between his heavy exhales. He had just assumed everything and nothing at the same time.
"Dan... How did he get the formula?" The question lingered between them but chased all common sense over the reply away.
"He told me not to question him and for once that's what I'm going to do Chloe." Dan had made his peace with not knowing but Chloe was still not ready for that. She never would be.
"Are you okay with that? Does it feel right?" She questioned still not willing to believe the reasons of how Lucifer could have got the formula or why he had left so abruptly.
"How do you feel about that? About everything?" Taking the disc out from the PC, he put in the case and handed it to her.
You didn't die, after all. That makes one of us.
She always thought he would end up killing her, she had never imagined she would be the reason for him to die, even for 60 seconds.
"I feel... a little unsteady."
The End
End Notes:
1) E8 109 is indeed the room placate is shown as the room underneath Chloe's room from which I could only read the number 209. Yes, I'm still a huge fan of the small details.
2) As a certificated AED RC rescuer, I was disappointed how Lucifer would not remove his ring for the process. Metals of any kind literally burn you and in the case of rings, they come right off flying across the room. As such, I had to improvise...
3) This was not supposed to be perfect but just giving form to a *what if* idea I had a few days ago.
4) Code Blue: Heart or Respiration Stops