graven images

Chloe and Lucifer met them completely by accident, the one time they weren't even investigating a crime – were just walking down Hollywood Boulevard, and a family of three went past the other way. Blonde mother in a red leather jacket, dark-haired father in a black one, and a teenage son running ahead, saying something about how they were going to Disneyland tomorrow and he had already planned it to the hilt. The mother shouted at him to wait, and as she was doing so, accidentally knocked into Lucifer, who looked smug, clearly considering it yet another successful case of any females in the area drawn to him like iron filings to a magnet. She turned to him to apologize, blinked, and said, "Sorry, do I know you from somewhere?"

"Your dreams?" Lucifer suggested. "I do have such a striking effect on women. I can imagine they were very enjoyable dreams, too."

"Hey." The woman's husband cleared his throat. Chloe couldn't help but notice that he was hardly about to be kicked out of bed for eating crackers himself. "Watch your mouth, mate."

"Killian, it's fine, he's just being – well, like you usually are." His wife rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said to Chloe, rather loudly, clearly recruiting her in the effort to disrupt the ambient levels of testosterone in the air. "It's our first trip out to L.A., he's a bit… well. It's new to him."

Chloe bit a smile. "It can be quite an experience," she agreed, liking the other woman instinctively for no reason she could put her finger on. "I'm Chloe Decker."

"Emma Swan." The women shook, even as the men were still aiming identically tall, dark, and handsome glares at each other. Noticing the badge on her belt, Emma looked surprised. "You're a cop?"

"Homicide detective, LAPD," Chloe said, rather awkwardly. It was always a bit like turning up dressed as an undertaker at a party; everyone wasn't sure whether or not to be alarmed by your presence, and you usually had the effect of killing the mood. "I'm actually, well, not on duty right now, though. We were just on our way home."

"I'm a sheriff," Emma said. "In – well, we're from a little town in Maine that I am sure you haven't heard of. It's the boonies, so I can imagine you deal with plenty of bigger things here. We have, um, some interesting problems, though. Special cases."

"Really?" Chloe doubted that. "Meth-addicted backwooders, that kind of thing?"

"Actually," Emma's husband said. "More like bloody hellbeasts and memory-erasing curses every two days. Bit of a pain in the arse."

"Bloody hellbeasts?" Lucifer, who until now had looked as utterly bored with the conversation as he did whenever nobody was naked, dead, or naked and dead, suddenly perked up. "What sort of hellbeasts? The hounds? Just give them a raw steak, they'll shut right up."

Emma blinked at him. "Excuse me? You are…?"

"Lucifer Morningstar, darling." He bent to press her hand to his lips in a kiss which caused Chloe to elbow him and Emma's husband to glare further. "Charmed."

"Lucifer?" Emma sounded amused. "So, you're the devil, then?"

Lucifer gawked at her, forgetting for once to be suave and urbane, and Chloe felt a twinge of something either defensiveness or surprise. The former, however, recovered himself first, and smiled broadly, clearly delighted to be taken at his word for a change. "Exactly."

"Well then, feels like home after all. This is my husband, Killian Jones. Probably better known as Captain Hook."

"Hey," Chloe said. She might not get Lucifer's insistence on his whole devil shtick, but she wasn't about to stand here and let them make fun of him to his face. "He's a little strange, all right, but that doesn't mean – "

Killian Jones coughed. "She doesn't mean to mock you, love. I – well, we just thought that all the people like us were in Storybrooke."

"People like us? Storybrooke?" Chloe was feeling distinctly as if someone had pulled the carpet out from under her. "What are you talking about?"

"People from stories." It was the teenage son, who had doubled back to see what was taking his parents so long. "We're in Storybrooke. That's our home. He is Captain Hook, and my grandparents are Snow White, Prince Charming, and Rumplestiltskin. My adoptive mother is the ex-Evil Queen, and my aunt is the Wicked Witch of the West. My girlfriend grew up in Camelot under King Arthur, but she came here in one of the curses." He paused. "Hi, my name's Henry, by the way."

"That's… uh… very interesting." Chloe stole a surreptitious look around to see if there were any easily grabbable psychiatric nurses nearby. "So Lucifer is supposed to, what, be there with the rest of you?"

"We already met Hades," Killian Jones said grimly. "Lord of the Underworld. He did say there was one level down, the worst place anyone could end up. I'm assuming that's your jurisdiction?"

"You know Hades?" Lucifer looked stunned. "And you're still alive?"

"Well, rather." Killian coughed. "Long story. Has to do with Zeus."

"Excuse me?" Chloe was wondering if this was accidentally a highly colorized dream, and she had dozed off in the police cruiser. "Are you even speaking English?"

"Pampered smarmy git?" Killian said, ignoring her. "I thought the devil would be a bit more frightening, but then he isn't, isn't he?"

"Pampered smarmy git?" Lucifer looked even more stunned. "You can't possibly be talking about me."

"Changed my mind," Chloe said. "I like them."

"Hush, Detective, you're the infant in this situation. Well, Hades is a ginger, we know he's a spooky soulless bastard. Kept trying to hoard my souls as well, had to give him a very stern talking-to before I left, but since I'm here, I wouldn't be surprised if he's back to cocking things up again." Lucifer shrugged. "I suppose I don't even want to ask how that came about?"

"Not really," Killian Jones said. "Though that was only the third time I died."

"Only?" Chloe said faintly. Nobody paid any attention.

"Well," Emma broke in, clearly taking pity on her. "It got sorted out."

"Aye." Killian grinned. "Just too devilishly handsome for the world to be deprived of me."

Lucifer looked stung. "As we already established, I am the devil. I'm the only one allowed to say that."

"No, you're not, because I am, and it's a fact."

"No, I am." Lucifer folded his arms.

"No, you're not."

"No, I am."

"No, you're not!"

"No, I am!"

"Oh my God," Emma said. "I am so sorry."

Chloe bit her lip, forcing herself not to smile. When she actually did wake up, she wanted to remember this. "Apparently they're both five."

"Three hundred," Killian said indignantly.

"Countless millennia," Lucifer shot back.

"Yeah," Henry said, likewise biting a grin. "Think he has you beat on that one, Killian."

"Whose side are you on, lad?!"

Chloe raised an eyebrow further, even as she noted in surprise that as it would be strange for Henry to call his father by his first name, he was apparently his stepfather instead. It gave her a strange lurch, though why she couldn't have said. Just… Emma reminded her of herself, and God knew Killian and Lucifer could probably go on like this all day, but there was something very intrinsically alike about them as well. More than that, really, and it was unsettling. Not that it meant anything. She was probably still dreaming, anyway.

"Right, you two," Emma said. "Hate to break up the pissing contest, but we should get going. Again, I apologize profusely. As I said, he hasn't really been, you know, outside Storybrooke much."

"Me too." Chloe grabbed Lucifer by the arm, glaring significantly at him, and he immediately deflated by several degrees. "I hope you enjoy your trip."

As the three of them moved off, Lucifer still rather ruffled, he nonetheless didn't look away. Chloe considered briefly that it must have been the first time anyone had both accepted his claims of being the Devil at face value, then proceeded to treat him absolutely no differently because of it – no eye-rolling, no snickering, no asking who he really was or if he had fallen out of the delusions of grandeur tree and hit every branch on the way down. There was something about his face that was… lonely, almost sad, and it made her heart twinge again. "Hey," she said softly, shaking his arm. "Hey, Lucifer, it's all right, they're just… well, they were weird, frankly, and I don't quite get them, but I'm glad they believed you."

He looked at her with a wry smile, but didn't say anything. Then he pulled away from her touch and drew himself back together, closing himself off, shutting away whatever moment of vulnerability he had had, back to the smile, back to the charm, back to the mask, and she could not help but feel oddly bereft. "Well, Detective," he said. "Shall we?"

Chloe didn't think they'd cross paths again. They did that evening.

This time it was in Lux, and it was just Emma and Killian, Henry having apparently been safely disposed of at the hotel so the grownups could have a date night out. Emma was wearing a bombshell of a red dress, Killian a stylishly zipped vest and skinny jeans and eyeliner, indistinguishable from any other clubgoers as they danced and ground on the floor and at a break in the music, went to get drinks (rum for Killian, a Mai Tai for Emma) from Maze. It was then that Lucifer spotted them, and his jaw dropped. Then he was sidling over to them, whisking the drinks from Maze's hand and passing them along the bar. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Wh – oh. Hi." Emma glanced up at him, surprised and flushed, fanning herself. "You?"

"He owns the place." Chloe followed him over, reminding herself that it was so Lucifer did not ostentatiously hit on a married woman in front of her husband and thus start a bar fight. Killian did appear to be missing a hand, so maybe he had adopted the Captain Hook persona the same way Lucifer had with the Devil business: a way to feel powerful, in control, mythical and unstoppable, rather than let the pain close over his head and drown him. Chloe hoped for his sake that he didn't try anything, as she had seen Lucifer do all sorts of things without explanation, flicking people aside with one hand as if they were no more than ants. "Lux. The club. It's his."

"Lux – oh. Light." It was Killian who spoke this time, raising his voice over the thumping bass. "Makes sense the one who was supposed to be the Lightbringer would use that name, doesn't it?"

Lucifer eyed him for a long moment. Then to Emma he said, "Does he have scars on his back?"

"What?" She blinked. "No, not that I've seen. Why?"

"He has a thing about suspecting people of being other angels sent to kill him," Chloe said, laying a restraining hand on Lucifer's arm. "Goes with the Devil territory, apparently."

"No. Trust me, I'm no bloody angel." Killian snorted mirthlessly. "I did fall out of heaven, though."

"What? You too?" Lucifer picked up the nearest drink, which was the rum, and tossed it back. "What the hell – are you some bloody bizarre version of me that I haven't met? My fetch? I swear, if someone else is running around pretending to be me again, I'll – "

"Lucifer! Easy! Jeez!" Chloe tightened her grip. "They're just here to vacation, all right?"

"Yes, well, this is all sounding a bit too uncanny for my taste," Lucifer growled, dark eyes flashing with a hint of that genuine terror he could inspire, when Chloe very well could believe that – if not the devil – he was something more than humans were usually accustomed to, the very manifestation of things that went bump in the night. "Forgive me for wanting to be sure."

"I'm not an angel," Killian repeated. "And I don't particularly want to kill you, unless you're a friend of the Dark One. Rumplestiltskin."

"Him? He's an arse. I'm the only true Prince of Darkness, and he's a bloody poser. Horrible skin problems, too."

"Well, then." Killian raised an eyebrow. "Think we're getting along after all."

Lucifer harrumphed, but once more consented to dial the open menace back, and the tense atmosphere eased somewhat. He whisked the rum bottle out of Maze's hand and poured a new tipple for Killian, apparently in apology for drinking his earlier. "You know, I am beginning to suspect we have quite a bit in common."

"Aside from the devilish handsomeness?"

"I will munificently choose to overlook the fact that I told you not to say that, and leap to the essence of the thing – which is yes, rather a lot." Lucifer eyed him consideringly. "Troubled relations with a distant father who abandoned you and stabbed you in the back?"

Killian looked startled. "How did you know?"

"Elder brother who's a complete self-righteous prat and always thinks he knows the best, makes decisions on your behalf and never asked you, had to fall off his pedestal and get his halo tarnished, but when it comes down to it, probably will end up fighting for you?"

Killian looked even more startled. "Wh – no, Liam did everything he could for me, I don't – but, well, that does sound – "

"Well," Emma said. "This is surprising."

"My turn to guess, then," Killian went on, as Lucifer blinked, clearly not expecting the tables to be turned so abruptly. "You and her – you'd die for her, mate. Might already have. As I said, it's been three times for me, so I'm guessing there's been a first for you?"

"What?" Chloe and Lucifer said in unison. "No."

Emma made a small strangled sound that caused them to look at her in confusion, as she coughed vigorously into her hand. "Sorry," she said. "I just, for a second there, I – "

"Flashed back to us, didn't you?" Killian raised an eyebrow. "Seem to recall you doing that whole song and dance to me, eh, Swan?"

Emma's cheeks went pink. "I just – I had to be careful, all right?"

"As does she, evidently, around a fellow dashing rapscallion such as this." Killian surveyed Chloe with barely suppressed amusement. "Speaking of similarities?"

"Yeah." Emma looked at him softly. "I noticed."

Chloe was not sure what exactly they meant, but she was also sure it was leading in a dangerous direction, especially as Lucifer was still not quite meeting her eyes after Killian's earlier comment about him being willing to die for her. That – well, that was just because he never would, obviously. If there was one thing someone like him could never do, it would be willing to give up everything, even his life, for someone else. Sure, Lucifer had taken three bullets for her just hours after they met, from that skeezy music producer who'd had Delilah killed, but… well, she didn't know how he'd survived that, but she did remember hitting the floor and saying she didn't want to die, and him crouched above her, and then whatever had happened… and seeing him get shot and very definitely not survive it, by Malcolm in the hangar… walking back, I died but I got better… and his odd evasiveness every time she tried to get a straight answer why…

This was very unsettling indeed, and she smiled instead. "Hey. Great song. Don't you two wanna dance?"

"Oh no, Detective," Lucifer said, with a slightly toothy grin. "We're conducting a science experiment here. In the interests of data, would you and your fellow fetching female officer of the law here note how much, exactly, you have in common?"

"What? Why?" Chloe was starting to feel slightly cornered. "Yes, we're both cops, and yes, we seem to have attracted the same sort of annoyingly handsome men with fantasy identities and daddy issues who like to – "

"Oh, you certainly attracted me," Lucifer said with a smirk. "And annoyingly handsome, am I? My land, I need a couch to faint on. But indeed. Continue."

Chloe gritted her teeth, looking at Emma for help. "That's probably it, isn't it?"

Emma smiled gently. "Not a great relationship with your parents? Trouble understanding them, letting them in, and it's been easier with your father than your mother?"

"My father's dead, but…" Chloe opened and shut her mouth. "With my mom, yeah."

"A past you want to get away from, probably some time on the wrong side of the tracks? Trust issues, sky-high walls? Never want to let anyone get close, because they'll let you down?"

"Oh, my," Lucifer said. "You're very good. Tell me, what does she really think about me?"

Emma raised an eyebrow. Ignoring him, she said to Chloe, still gently, "There was someone who hurt you, wasn't there? A guy you were with? Didn't trust you, didn't believe in you, didn't tell you the truth? Let you think all this time that you were the one in the wrong?"

"Detective Douche!" Lucifer exclaimed, as Chloe shot him a death glare. "I love this game!"

Chloe cringed. "I… well, that does sound like my ex-husband," she said lamely. "A lot, actually. We tried to work it out for Trixie – well, I tried, I thought he did, but he was just keeping everything from me, and…" She trailed off. "I don't think I can ever trust him again."

"Mine was named Neal," Emma said quietly. "I had to forgive him eventually, and I did. And Trixie… you have a daughter?"

"Yeah. She's eight." Chloe smiled wanly. "How old is Henry?"

"Thirteen. He… it's been a journey for me. I had to give him up when he was born, because of what Neal did to us, and, well…" Emma took a deep breath, then looked up again, expression slightly watery, but warm. "We've made a lot of progress. We're a family."

"Aye, love," Killian said gently. "That we are."

"Wait," Lucifer interrupted, frowning. "You like her child?"

"Henry? What? Of course I do! He's – he's like a son to me, and I… I've always wanted – "

"I take it back." Lucifer shuddered. "We have nothing in common after all."

"Oh, shut up." Chloe smacked him on the arm. "For some befuddling reason, Trixie likes you. I know your way of dealing with that is to treat her like a small dog, but you could at least try – "

"She likes me? Like daughter, like mother, then. I could give you a treat, you know. By which I mean me." Lucifer beamed at her. "I'm the treat."

"Oh my God." Chloe raised her eyes to the sparkling, revolving disco-ball heavens, as if imploring Him to do something about His renegade offspring with absolutely zero sense of shame or propriety. Not that God was the sort to be caught dead in a place like this, possibly literally. Very, decidedly unholy. "I still can't believe you sometimes."

Killian coughed. "Bloody hell, mate, does that line actually work?"

"I don't know," Emma said with a grin. "I seem to recall you saying some pretty similar things."

"I was never that unstylish."

"Sure, sure, Mr. 'Worried you'll find me even more irresistible after a few libations?' Whatever you say."

Killian looked miffed, Lucifer looked smug (so, in other words, his usual expression) and Emma glanced at Chloe with that same grin, which Chloe returned before she could stop herself. This was getting more ridiculously unsettling than it had any right to be, and looking at the two of them amiably bickering about, well, the exact same things she and Lucifer bickered about, along with all the similarities they had already catalogued… no, it wasn't looking into their future or anything, of course not. She would never be as ridiculous as to marry him, of course not. That would indicate that she was in love with him in the first place, or that he was in love with her, and that was even more ridiculous. Of course not. Totally crazy. Definitely not the same thing.

Not at all.

The third time they met was a few days later, after Emma, Killian, and Henry had been to Disneyland and Killian was voluminously horrified at their grossly inaccurate and insulting depiction of Captain Hook (totally different, of course, from Lucifer bitching and whining about how the world got the Devil completely wrong). The two of them dropped by Lux in the daytime, clearly hoping to catch Lucifer and Chloe in a quiet moment, and they were there (it was work-related, they had a lot to go over, it was legit). Lucifer insisted that they come up to his penthouse, swooped Killian off to the balcony to commiserate about their misunderstood natures, and Chloe found herself sitting next to Emma on the sofa. Once Emma glanced over to be sure the boys were deep in conversation, she said, "You like him, don't you?"

"Him? Lucifer?" As if there was really anyone else they could be discussing. "We … we work well together, and I… I can trust him, that's all."

"Which isn't easy for you to do," Emma said, continuing that unnerving habit of seemingly being the voice in her head. "With anyone. He's probably the only one you really let your guard down with. Take off your armor."

Chloe bit her tongue. "How did you…"

"How do you think?" Emma looked at her with that same gentle expression.

"All right, we're scarily alike, and they – " Chloe glanced over at the chinwag – "seem to be getting along as well, after their rocky start. I just…"

"I know because it feels like talking to myself," Emma said. "Trust me. I did everything you're doing, and then some. I pushed him away and I kept him at arm's length and I tested him and I tested him, and every time he backed away, I – "

"Had to go make sure he hadn't actually left." Chloe bit her tongue again, harder, wishing she could take back the words the instant they were out of her mouth, but feeling oddly and impossibly relieved to have finally said it at last. "Didn't like it when he was anywhere else. When he didn't tell me everything. Because I… I never wanted him to actually stop."

"Yes." Emma reached out to put a hand on hers. "And I know exactly where you are. I just… it's not my place to tell you how to live your life, but when I finally did open up, when I took a chance and let Killian in – I haven't regretted it. Not once, not for a day. There's been pain, there's been turmoil, there's been loss and grief and death, but we're still here, and that means more to me than I can ever say. If the day comes, I… I want you to think about doing the same."

Chloe opened and then shut her mouth. "He thinks he's the devil," she said lamely. "That's not exactly a foundation for a solid relationship."

"I didn't ever imagine myself marrying Captain Hook, I can assure you."

"So you think he actually is?"

"Oh, he actually is." Emma's smile turned wry. "It's all true. All of it. All the stories. The other worlds. I've been to some of them myself, including the underworld – which was where we met Hades. I was just like you. I didn't believe in anything. I was closed off. No magic, nothing like that, nothing that couldn't be explained. But there's more than that. I have absolutely no reason to doubt that your Lucifer is exactly who he says, and that there's probably a twist, that the stories have it wrong. Peter Pan is my son's great-grandfather, and he's insane. Bo Peep is a dangerous warlord who racketeered my dad, Prince Charming, when he was growing up as a shepherd in fairytale land. Elsa from Frozen turned out to be my best friend." She snorted, but her face was soft. "I know I probably sound insane, but… it's true."

"Yeah," Chloe said, even more faintly. "Yeah, a bit. Elsa from Frozen? Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Oh God. Don't let Trixie hear that she's real. She'd have a heart attack and die." Chloe scrubbed her hands over her face. "I can't believe I'm buying into this."

"It takes time," Emma said. "But if I can, I know you can too."

"All right. Well." Chloe shook her head like a dog. "I… I suppose I'll give it a try."

Emma smiled at her, with such brilliance that it was as if a second sun had come out from behind a cloud, and cast dazzling diamonds over the water. "Well," she said. "Good."

"So," Killian said, sipping his rum and leaning on the balcony wall. "You died for her, didn't you?"

"It was not by choice, I assure you." Lucifer took a drag on his cigarette, gazing down at the scurrying maze of Los Angeles below. "That scurrilous parasite Malcolm shot me, and I… well, long and boring stories aside, I only bleed when Detective Decker is around, which she was. I couldn't protect her, he was going to kill her, and I… I did the only thing I could."

"Traded your life for hers," Killian completed. "Thought so."

Lucifer shot a shifty look over his shoulder. "Oy, hush it, would you? She doesn't know."

"Ah." Killian considered, then took another sip. "I wouldn't tell Emma that I'd traded my ship to get back to her – several curses ago, I'm not sure how many. The same reasons as you, I expect. She rather had to know about the dying, I'm afraid. It happened in front of her the first two times. She had to kill me herself, the third."

Lucifer flinched. "Bloody hell, and people think I'm cruel. Whatever fate is in charge of your life makes me look like Betty bloody Crocker making cupcakes."

"It was unavoidable. I'd… fallen. Given into the darkness." Killian's face was inward-looking, introspective. "Too much a part of me to fight it, when I was struggling to get away from it for so long and was tied to it instead."

"Oh?" Lucifer looked at him for a long moment. "But you overcame it."

"Aye," Killian said softly. "For her. Nothing else in the world mattered, but that she was safe."

Lucifer tapped the ashes off his cigarette and took a long drag. Then another one. Then another one, until it was burned down to a stump, he flicked it off the balcony, and straightaway lit another one. "Fell out of heaven, did you say?"

"Rather differently from you, I think." Killian grinned sadly. "Mine was returning to my old life. Yours was losing it."

"Touché." Lucifer grinned back, without humor. He wasn't exactly sure how to articulate just what he was feeling, his odd desire for the other man not to go, to talk with him more, to talk with him for days. Is this what it is, having a friend? Considering what had happened with Father Frank, and what Killian had already said about his propensity for dying, it made him look nervously around for some sort of convenient lethal contraption. He didn't want that, not again, not now. "Your father was terrible too, you said?"

"Sold my brother and me into slavery," Killian said. "Hard to do much worse."

"My father sold me into slavery as well. Made me a torturer. Threw me out of my home. I…" Lucifer had to take a moment to compose himself. "I… well, you know, this is unexpected for me, but I feel… at ease with you. Nobody believes me about this Devil business, not even the detective, and it… it's been good. To talk, I mean. With you understanding."

"I'm familiar with it, aye." Killian looked at him gently. "The last thing I'd do is judge you, mate. I've been plenty bloody awful myself. Likely worse."

"No, I don't think so." Lucifer tossed back his own rum. "If you do find yourself back in Los Angeles, well, my door is always open. I'd not mind seeing you again." He paused, then corrected himself. "I mean. I'd very much like it."

Killian smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder, and Lucifer, startled, glanced up to meet his eyes. "Make you a bargain. You tell Chloe what you did, or at least think about it, and I'll try to persuade Emma to come back. Even if I do have to suffer that hideous abortion sullying my good name at the theme park again. Henry's never going to stop laughing, I'm afraid."

"That's why children are terrible little fiends who can't be trusted," Lucifer muttered. "I knew I was right to regard them so dimly."

Killian looked up at him. "There aren't any children in hell, are there? Or very, very, very few. You don't know any, and that's why you've no idea how to manage them. They're innocent. They don't end up with you. No wonder you can't relate."

Lucifer opened and shut his mouth, feeling slightly stunned – and oddly, impossibly, quite heartbroken. "I never thought of that."

"Aye, well. If the little lass likes you, perhaps you can give it a try, eh? For Chloe's sake."

"I still don't see why she has to hug me every time. It's quite disconcerting."

Killian grinned crookedly. "Trust me."

"Well, anyway," Lucifer said hastily. "More rum?"

"Think I'm good for now, mate." Killian clapped him on the shoulder, and then they clasped hands. "I'll see you again."

Lucifer hesitated. He felt that strange thing happening again, that softness, that oddness, that change. Almost as if he was something he hadn't been in thousands and thousands of years – grateful. Almost as if he could barely stand it. Almost as if, in some small part of him, he could see the light that was his name, that was his birthright, and he was not afraid.

"Yes," he said hoarsely. His voice was not quite as strong as normal, and he swallowed hard. Looked at his graven image, and clasped back. "Yes, you will."