Chloe decided that enough was enough. It had been exactly a week since she'd been released from hospital, a week since she had driven over to Lucifer's penthouse to find all of its contents covered up and him gone. Vanished.
'Stop behaving like a lovesick teenager and start behaving like a detective, damn it!' she whispered to herself as she stepped out of the shower. She was still quite weak from the poisoning ordeal and slept long hours despite her heartbreak. However, Lucifer would not leave her alone in her sleep. All she dreamed about was him. They were all kinds of dreams, the two of them solving cases together, sharing a meal (they still had to get to the end of a meal together in real life!), dreams of intimate and crazily sexy moments together and then there were dreams in which she relived scenes from the past: how she had once nearly believed his crazy story that he was immortal and shot him, how distraught he had been after Father Frank's death, the night they had danced away together when he thought he would lose Lux…
'Are you OK in there, Chloe?' Maze asked through the bathroom door. Ever since Chloe had returned home, Maze had been thoughtful in everything she did around the house. When Dan was on shift, Maze would pick up Trixie from school and she had even started cooking. Mind you, the food was nearly inedible but Chloe appreciated the effort. She had believed Maze when she'd told her that she didn't know where Lucifer had gone. She could see that Maze was missing him, too.
'Yes, Maze. Thank you. I'll be out in a minute' said Chloe as she started getting dressed. For the first time since the poisoning, she also put some foundation on her face and retraced her eyebrows. A touch of mascara and she felt like she was starting to look a bit more like her old self.
When Chloe sat down at the island in the kitchen, Maze gave her an approving smile and pushed a plate towards her. The slices of toast on it were not burnt today - a first!
'You look better, mommy' Trixie piped up and Chloe turned to give her daughter a long hug.
'Thank you, monkey. I feel better. Perhaps Maze could take you to school so I can do a few things that have been bugging me?' Chloe shot Maze a quick glance and Maze nodded in agreement.
As soon as Maze and Trixie had left the house, Chloe turned on her laptop and pulled out her phone.
'Thinking hat on, detective' she said as she took a deep breath. She was scared what she would find but she needed more information. She needed to know.
Forty-five minutes later, she knew that Lucifer had deactivated the SIM card on his mobile phone about two hours after she had last seen him and that his number had not been active since. So there was no GPS signal to follow that could give her a clue as to where he had gone. That was not what she had expected. She had expected him to act rashly and leave a breadcrumb trail for her to follow.
She felt despair taking over her insides but then, all of a sudden, she forced herself to remember their last conversation. He had looked at her with concern and affection, of that she was sure, but he had been vague in his words. In fact, he had not agreed that they should continue where they had left of and he had not said that they would talk later when she had suggested that. Lucifer, who was so vocal about everything, had been quiet and non-committal. Why?
He had been holding her hand when she woke up and those hazel eyes of his said so much more than words. But he had said she should concentrate on getting better and then had disappeared. If he had not explained himself it meant that he thought she would not understand - just as he had told her when he had tried to get himself killed in an attempt to get punishment for something that he felt guilty for but would not share with her - and that he thought it was best for her not to know what was going on in his life.
'Damn you, Lucifer! And here I was thinking that you were finally going to let me in!' Chloe said out loud into the empty apartment. She had foolishly thought she she had all the time in the world to make him understand that she was truly there for him and that she wanted to know everything that went on in his life. Everything behind this persona he had created for himself. She really wanted to know him.
And then: 'Did you know? Did you know all this bloody time?' he had asked her in a voice filled with anger and despair that fateful night as he had stormed into her bathroom to find her shaking with fear at the realization that she had been poisoned. In her panic, she hadn't registered his words or the tone in which he had said them. She had been so relieved that he was there, that she didn't have to face her certain death alone… But now she remembered the urgency, the hurt in his voice. What could have upset him so?
'Idiot! You've been looking for an answer in the wrong place!' she scolded herself as she picked up her phone again.
Lucifer had been happy, happier than she'd ever seen him before, when they had said goodbye on the Pasadena campus. He had agreed to pick her up from her place later as Trixie was staying with Dan that night so that they could finally go on a proper date together and he had given her a shy smile when she pulled him back into another kiss the moment he turned to leave. And less than two hours later he had been devastated by something that he thought she had had some part in.
Where had he gone in the meantime? And what had changed such a mood swing?
Within less than half an hour, Chloe had the GPS data she needed: the place he had gone before coming to her house.
It was not quite 11am when Chloe pulled up outside the shabby looking bar. 'Hm, not Lucifer's favourite place' she thought to herself. She had to wait about ten minutes before a woman in her fifties with pink hair opened up and had to wait a few seconds before her eyes adjusted to the lack of light inside. What had Lucifer wanted here?
She asked the woman behind the bar about Lucifer as someone as well turned out as him would probably turn a few heads but she hadn't been working that night. And she didn't know who had worked that night. The owner usually came in after 2pm so she would have to wait for him to get that information.
Chloe was on her way out of the bar - she was certainly not going to spend three hours waiting for the owner in there - when she noticed the pictures on the wall. Most of them were fifteen years old or even older, judging from the fashion depicted. And it looked like this place had once been quite trendy as Chloe recognized some major TV stars from her childhood and adolescence and a few minor cinema stars, as well. And then she recognized her mother. Her mother's blond-reddish hair, to be exact.
'What a coincidence' she thought, smiling to herself. As she took one more step to see the picture better the smile on her face disappeared in an instant. That black man sitting opposite her mother… He looked a lot like… No, he looked exactly like… It had to be! But it couldn't be!
Chloe turned to see where the bar tender had gone but she had disappeared into the back room. Without a further thought, Chloe grabbed the picture and stormed out into the bright sunlight.
She sat in her car, stunned, the photo trembling in her hand. The man sitting opposite her mother looked like Amenadiel. And he looked exactly the same now as he had done 35 years ago. How was that possible?
'You know exactly how that is possible' a voice whispered in Chloe's head. 'You know because Lucifer has been telling you the truth from the start. You stubborn idiot. No wonder he doesn't trust you to understand what's going on in his life. No wonder he left.'
"Detective mode, detective mode' she mumbled to herself as she fumbled for her phone.
'Hi, Laura. Yes, it's me again. Just one more question: were there any calls or texts to that number I had you investigate on the night in question?'
The few moments until Laura had the information seemed like an eternity to Chloe.
'OK, give me the number…. Hm, ok…. Ok'
Chloe stopped taking notes halfway through the phone number. She knew the number all to well.
She thanked Laura and let her head sink onto the steering wheel. It looked like she had to have a serious word with her roommate. Who apparently had not been kidding when she had said to her that she had been forged in the depths of hell to serve her master for all eternity.
'It's gonna be one hell of an interesting talk' Chloe thought as she started the engine, her hands still trembling with the monumental size of the revelation she had just experience. Then she started chuckling at her wording: hell, indeed!