"Congratulations on another solve, Espinoza," Pierce announces and Dan just smiles, tells his superior he's just doing his job.
Ever since Lucifer's reassignment per Chloe's request, Dan gets the most cases assigned to him due to the consultant being first on the scene. It could be a huge coincidence or Lucifer is staging the crime scenes. Although they were never able to prove any of the speculations.
Or Pierce is trying to keep Chloe all to himself.
The devil, since being 'fired' by Chloe, only shows up in the precinct when required, but he mostly requests for Dan to contact him and meet at the crime scene.
No matter how much the detective drives Lucifer away, he keeps an eye on her in case Cain tries something. He had to be content with even a glimpse of her.
It takes one murder case for them to meet again somehow, Dan suddenly being called away and the club owner is forced to stay to question the suspect.
At the interrogation room, he remains on his feet to keep his distance from her. When she couldn't get any information, he steps in without a word, sits on the table in front of the culprit and asks away as he always does.
It doesn't take long for Lucifer to have the guy spilling his innermost desires and subsequently admitting the crime he had committed.
Lucifer doesn't spare Chloe a glance, he knows everything was caught on tape so he casually strides out of the interrogation room just as Dan showed up.
"What happened man?"
"All good. Wrap it up, Daniel. Call me if we have a new case," The club owner quickly answers and resumes his steps on his way out of the office.
Dan then enters the interrogation room where he sees Chloe writing something on the suspect's profile.
"Are we good here, Chlo?"
"Yeah, we are," She stands up and leaves, her ex-husband clueless on what transpired while he's gone.
"Hey Dan, what's up?" His ex-wife asks as she lets him in the apartment.
"You're not mad at me, are you?"
"Why would you think that?"
"I don't know, you keep on brushing me off these past few days, look, if you want Lucifer back, that's fine with me,"
"It's not like that, I just - - he's changed. He wouldn't even look at me," She's rambling and she knows it.
"Chloe, Lucifer may be a tad dickish often times but he's a decent guy. He respects you, therefore respects your wishes. You asked the Lieutenant to have him be my partner instead, remember? If you pay enough attention, you'll see he wasn't particularly happy about it and I'd be upset too if I were in his place. I'd probably ask to be in a different department or quit altogether and yet he didn't say anything. For someone with his reputation, that's saying something."
"Right," The blonde woman fidgets and Dan wonders why she's still denying her feelings for the consultant.
"Are you happy, Chloe?"
"Huh?" The question genuinely takes her by surprise. Is she happy with Pierce?
"Does the Lieutenant make you happy?"
And she still doesn't answer.
"I-,"
"You know you can tell me anything, right? We're friends."
"It's just, I don't know -"
Dan's phone vibrates and interrupts their conversation. He picks it up and it's Pierce, telling him of another case.
"Sorry, Chlo. I gotta go. We'll talk about this another time, okay?"
"Sure,"
Lucifer gets to the crime scene before Dan, his demeanor a bit somber than usual.
"You okay, man?" Detective Espinoza asks, to which Lucifer replies with a simple nod.
"Let's get this over with, shall we Daniel?"
"Okay,"
While the crime scene is being processed, Lucifer spots a man who is looking around, seemingly trying to find something. If the devil ever learned anything, amateur killers always go back to the place where the murder occurred.
Without delay, he quickly grabs the man and shoves him to the ground, while Daniel comes running.
"What's happening? Who is this?"
"I believe we caught our killer, Daniel."
And if Daniel ever learned anything, Lucifer almost always get it right. Heck, the last few weeks of being partners, and his solve rate shot up. Chloe really trained her the consultant well, he thought.
Dan isn't a meddler - but the situation is getting ridiculous. Why can't his ex-wife just tell Lucifer she's sorry for firing him and that she wants him back? Lucifer would most likely accept, and then Dan could go back to his normal life - something like that.
So Detective Espinoza set them up.
"Lucifer? What are you doing here?"
"I got a text from Daniel, asking to meet him,"
"That's what he told me, too,"
"Well, we've obviously been conned. In any case, I don't want to take much of your time. I'll get out of your hair," Lucifer starts to walk off, but Chloe grabs his forearms.
"Please," She pleads and the devil had to give in.
Chloe apologized and made him a promise that night - that she'll have him reinstated as her partner. He wasn't his usual talkative self, but he knew she was telling the truth.
Lucifer had to suppress a smirk at the thought of what Cain's reaction would be. The first murderer may have succeeded in driving a wedge between their partnership temporarily, but their connection couldn't simply be severed.
Although, even if the Detective didn't do these things, he would still watch over her.