A/N: Written to Sleeping at Last's "Already Gone."
"Detective?"
He sounds so innocently confused, so purely concerned about the threat that is making her breath hitch.
He even turns to check on the body laying directly behind him, but Marcus is still there motionless in a pool of his own blood.
"It's all true," she repeats. Is that her own heart she hears beating, rushing through her ears?
"Detective?" he says, fear sneaking into his accent, and they're trapped in the four words.
"Detective, it's all true."
How many times had he uttered those four words, but that had been different. Insignificant compared to the scarred, red flesh that stands before her.
"The other side of me is bad, monstrous even."
He takes a step forward, moving to protect her, still so very unaware that it's him she's reacting to, and she hates herself as she feels her legs move backward.
Such a simple motion.
She really only moves about a foot, maybe less.
But that's all it takes.
A solitary hand finds its way up to his cheek, to confirm what she can already see in his glowing red eyes he knows.
He's barely made contact when in a flash the charming brown eyes and perfect hair return.
But while this is the face she knows, the face she's trusted for years now, it is also unrecognizable.
He's gone entirely cold, expression as frozen as his body, in the way of a man who has been in this situation one too many times, and who already knows what comes next.
"I was afraid, afraid that you'd want me because you've only seen certain sides of me. That if you saw all of me, knew all of me, you would run away."
"How?" she doesn't even know what she's asking, but she can clearly see it wasn't the right thing.
He grows even colder, if that's possible.
"No you're not, not too me."
She supposes he had been holding on to some small hope that she may finally be the one to accept him, but he has always been impatient, and she's only human after all.
"Lucifer," she breathes out, fully aware that she has to say something, and it has to be right, because she can see her partner slipping away before her very eyes.
His entire focus envelopes her in that moment, she thinks he even stops breathing, and this is the only possible explanation for why neither of them notice the world's first murderer isn't quite as dead as he was moments before.
A searing sound, a terrible searing sound of tearing flesh, is her only warning before the tip of the ancient blade appears out the front of Lucifer's chest.
The cold is instantly replaced by red hot excruciating pain, so intense she can feel the flames licking at her across the room.
Instinctively, she places two bullets in her ex-fiance's forehead in one fluid motion, not caring that he was already dead the instant he used the last of his earthly energy to bring Lucifer down with him.
Lucifer is still standing there.
Looking at her with his head slightly cocked, not unlike a lost puppy who isn't quite sure what's happening.
"I must say this is an interesting turn of events," he sounds eerily fine with confusion clouding his features.
It's only when he goes down to his knees, more gracefully than she'd ever seen a stabbing victim, that her legs finally carry her across the space.
She falls to her own knees in front of him, her hands hovering everywhere but not quite touching, afraid to do more damage.
"What do I do?" she begs him, looking up to meet his gaze.
She expects him to say quite literally anything rather than the deep laugh he suddenly emits.
"Stop it!" she demands in horror, but he continues until it turns to coughing and warm red liquid lands on her cheek.
It's only then that he seems to remember she's there, as his shaky hand lands on her face, wiping it away.
"And here I was thinking I'd have to watch you grow wrinkly and saggy," as far as his taunts go, it's certainly not his best.
"Lucifer!" she grabs his shoulders frantically. "Tell me what to do!"
"Tell Detective Douche you took Pierce out in defense of your partner of course," he replies instantly.
"No!" and she can clearly hear how desperate she sounds. "How do I save you? You're… you're you! There must be something we can do!"
"I don't want to die."
Things are moving too fast, events no longer unfurling linearly, and she can't understand, simply cannot grasp all of it, so she clings to the one thing she knows to be true.
"You may think that's what you are, but I don't see you that way."
"There's nothing you can do Detective," he murmurs.
And as though he's accepted this, his body tips forward.
His muscle mass makes Lucifer so much heavier than she ever thought, and the impact of his dead weight sends her sprawling onto her back in her attempt to catch him.
"Lucifer!" she gasps, but when she's able to shuffle out from under him, she finds his eyes are still open.
They end up with Lucifer on his side, head in her lap.
But Chloe Decker has never been one to give up.
The realization hits her all at once, all of the people, or beings, that Lucifer had brought with him into her life.
But there's no time to dwell on that, she could break down in the shower tomorrow morning when all of this is over and he's safe in a hospital.
"Maze!" she gasps, and her hand shoots for her phone, but is intercepted by Lucifer's own.
"There's nothing Maze can do either, Detective," he speaks slowly as though trying not to agitate a frightened animal.
"You were gonna leave me."
"I could never do that."
"Amenadiel then," she pleads, but they both know his brother is out of reach.
"I guess I was never told to avoid humanity. It just seemed easier. And quite honestly, I never saw the point. Until recently."
"I've already had my fair share of second chances here, Detective" he coughs. "I suppose it's time."
"No!" she shouts, not even sure when her hands had found the gaping hole in him, red now spreading all over her. "You're a fighter Lucifer! You fight!"
His breaths are already becoming more ragged, pain splashed across his features.
"I'm afraid my fight is over," he practically whispers, and it's so damn dramatic that she wants to slap him.
But she's seen many a dying man, and despite her partner being all he is, he's going like all the rest. Whether she accepts it or not.
"Where will you go?" she forces herself to ask, voice cracking.
"Well, at least you'll get to see her, Detective. Eventually. In heaven. But I, well, she's gone somewhere I simply can't follow."
"Only one place I can," he admits, and genuine fear flashes in his eyes.
She pulls him in closer and prays that she could go instead, but then he's practically seizing with coughs, and blood is coming from so many different places, and he's trying to suck in air but it isn't coming.
"There's so many things I never got to say!" she gasps for air as though she could breathe for him.
Her tears blend with his red.
"Lucifer Morningstar, is that a stage name or something?"
His hand finds hers, and he squeezes so hard that she can feel his heartbeat as if it's her own.
He looks at her then, mouth trying to form a shape, until finally, he succeeds.
"Chloe," he breathes. And it contains every piece of them.
"I'm here," she smiles, just for him, but he's looking through her now.
And his eyes grow wide as he sees something she cannot.
"God-given I'm afraid."
His breath hitches as his look of pain is replaced by one of awe.
And he's looking up.
Not down.
Up.
"You know, you look familiar, have we met before?"
She smooths back his hair and places a lingering kiss on his forehead.
"How does she end up dying in a hailstorm of bullets and you get away without a scratch? I think that's interesting, don't you?"
His breathing slows as she begins to hum "Heart and Soul."
"Immortality, of course, do you spell that with one or two 'm's, I forget."
He suddenly looks truly peaceful, possibly for the first time she's ever seen.
And she's not sure where she finds the words, but she whispers "it's okay," and his eyes flutter shut.
"We're done here."
"Detective wait, somebody out there needs to be punished, we're not done here."
"Yeah, yeah we are."
And this is how Dan, Ella and the rest of the LAPD find them.
In the center of the bodies that she hates most in this world, Chloe sits calmly with Lucifer in her lap.
He's already going cold, so she holds him tightly to share her warmth.
The blood is everywhere. She's practically bathed in it at this point. But she doesn't care.
Because it's him.
She looks up when they enter, meets their eyes, gets to see the exact moment that Ella breaks.
Yet the young lab tech is the first to approach.
With tears already streaming down her face, she kneels down by Lucifer's feet and places a gentle hand on his calf.
"He likes to pretend he's an asshole, but Lucifer is the best of us," she says.
And Chloe nods.
Dan follows behind, not too consumed in his own grief to evade the horror of this moment.
"Are you hurt?" he asks, and Chloe waits for the man in her arms to spring up and declare the dumbest comment of the day award to Detective Douche.
He doesn't of course, so she just shakes her head.
Dan informs the crime scene unit to leave the two alone until everything else is handled, but all too soon the time comes.
She doesn't hear them approach her at first, so the officer places a hand on her shoulder.
"Detective?" he repeats.
"Hello Detective."
Her instinct is to scream and fight and never let them take him, but instead she allows Ella to take her by the arm and lead her out the door.
To her credit, the young woman doesn't question it when Chloe asks her to take her to LUX.
She drops her off with a promise to take good care of Trixie and not another word.
Chloe is feeling everything and nothing all at once as the elevator climbs, but when the doors open, she's met with a sudden sense of comfort.
Slipping off her shoes, she trudges over to Lucifer's bed, pulling off one of his silk blankets and wrapping herself in it.
She grabs a pillow as well and then approaches the piano.
Without a sound, she sits down on the bench, props her head on the pillow, and closes her eyes.
"Do you play?"