"Mommy!"

If there was one thing that could snap her out of stupor, it would be the voice of her daughter. Crying, desperate. Did someone hurt Trixie?! Chloe jerks awake, and on pure instinct reaches for her daughter and grabs her in a tight hug, taking in the surroundings. White walls, voices in the hallway, medical machinery beeping... It's a hospital, not even an ICU unit.

"Hey, Monkey." She hugs her daughter tighter. "Are you all right?"

Her brave girl makes a few sobs, holding on for dear life, and quickly starts wiggling to look her in the eyes. "It's not me who's in the hospital, Mommy! I was so worried!"

Another sob, a quieter one. Seeing that her mom is here and present, Trixie wipes her red eyes with a small fist (looks like she's out of tears), and manages a small smile. "Are you here-here, Mommy? I called and you did not answer! And I called again! And you were just lying there!"

"I'm sorry", Chloe says with passion. "How long was I out? What ha..."

She stops. Her brain has wired itself back up and knows exactly what happened.

Trixie quickly goes pale and waves a jerky hand in front of her. "Mommy, not again, please!"

Chloe takes in a couple of really good deep breaths, focusing on her dear child, and making sure she's not slipping away. Trixie needs here here and present, and that's the end of the story. No excuses. No timeouts. Being a mom is not something you can put on hold.

She manages a a really nice, long breath out. "Hey, sorry. I'm here. I won't leave you, baby, I promise. Speaking of... you were not here by yourself, were you?"

"Daddy's here", Trixies smiles. "Someone stopped him in the hallway, and I ran to see you! And you woke up! Mommy, were you in a coma? Are you better?"

"Yes, I am", Chloe says eagerly, even though she's not sure it's the full truth. "Just fainted, probably."

"Mommy..." bright eyes look at her with some well-deserved reproach. "Remember how we don't have to hide when we're sad, right?"

"Oh, Monkey", Chloe sighs. "I'm not sure. Say I learned something bad about someone".

She pauses. "Multiple someones, actually".

"Oh", Trixie sighs as well. "Can you tell me about it? You said when I'm said I can talk to you about it, right? And I really want to know, what happened!"

Chloe pauses, trying to figure out how to frame it for her child. Since she almost married Marcus (she can't call him Cain in her mind just yet) and introduced her to Trixie, she'll have to tell her daughter there won't be any more chocolate cake coming from that direction. Ever. And that's a more sane place to start processing things, anyway.

"Well, remember that guy that brought us chocolate cake?" she says. "Marcus."

"He's weird", Trixie says firmly. "But OK. Is he in trouble?"

Yes. With God, first. And then with a whole bunch of criminals...

"He was a bad cop", Chloe asserts. That much is true. "He had connections with criminals. We learned about it and he went missing. He is a dangerous person and I've let him near you, and for that I'm really, really sorry!" With that, she hugs her daughter again and flinches from a chest bruise.

"Did he hurt you?" worries Trixie. Her Mom did land in a hospital, after all! "Or are you really sad because you thought he was a good cop?"

"He..." pointed the gun at me, but there is no need to worry Trix. "I just have a bruise, Monkey, nothing serious. He was hurt more. But he won't hurt anyone anymore, I promise."

"OK." - Trixies says. She pauses. "Who's the other someone?"

The elephant in the room that wears Prada is now once again on top of Chloe's thoughts. She's not ready to tell her daughter that Lucifer is real, and...

God.

Maze.

Maze is a demon indeed.

A demon babysat my daughter on multiple occasions. And taught her to fight. And took her trick-or-treating.

Chloe giggles, then realizes she's still trying to avoid thinking about the elephant. Her vivid imagination immediately tries to put a trunk on Prada-clad Lucifer, and does not fail. She giggles again, pauses, recognizing a fast approaching hysterical breakdown, and starts breathing again, while rocking Trixie side to side. She sees Dan approaching in the hallway - his honest face lights up in relief, and she mimics "five more min", glancing at their amazing daughter. Dan nods.

"Say, I learned someone is really dangerous." Chloe begins. She has to explain to Trixie that the chocolate cake supply lines are drying up around the Decker household. No more late-night Monopoly either. That realization comes with a painful tug somewhere in her chest, worse than she'd like to admit.

"Like, your-job-dangerous?" Trixie asks.

Chloe pauses. That is actually a very good question. She can be killed in the line of duty almost any day. Her job is dangerous. Lucifer can probably end the Earth on any given day. Or drag anyone to Hell. Literally. Or make them go insane - just looking at that charred face long enough could do the trick.

However. Does he endanger her by being near? Has be pointed a gun at her at any point? (Something that Cain did. Cain - 0. Lucifer - 1.) She grudgingly admits that no, the Devil has never expressed any desire to harm her or Trixie. Quite the opposite, if anything, he appeared fond of the "spawn". He can just.. what can he do? She needs to figure that out.

Suddenly she remembers the abandoned puppy look. No, that still did not look like someone that would point a gun at her.

"Not like that", she admits. "Just like, say, you did not know, but, say, a friend in school comes from a family that owns guns and thinks it's a good idea to teach kids to shoot from an early age. And you did not know that about them!"

"But Mommy, you can shoot! And you do it to protect us all!" Trixie protests. "And Maze has been teaching me how to protect myself!"

All right, no peace-loving hippies here. Point taken. And, honestly, both Maze and Lucifer have mostly used their skills - that weird "desire" mojo thing that Devil does - for good.

"Yeah", Chloe says. "But, say, they have a really, really big gun at home. It's the size that scared me. And that I did not know about it."

"Is Lucifer in a lot of trouble?" Trixie asks in a small voice.

Chloe almost jumps. "Why would you think it's him?!"

"You would not get as upset over someone you are not friends with." Her daughter is honestly smart way passed her age. Chloe is almost saddened by that.

With that, five minutes are up and Dan walks into the room and hugs his family. Yeah, they are divorced, but they are still a family. And God knows (literally) they've been through a lot today. Chloe eyes Dan, very quickly signalling "Are you OK?" and he vaguely nods. He's processing the same news, however, he quietly whispers "Charlotte", looks up and manages a small sad smile. Guess she truly is in Heaven.

Her head starts spinning again. That is honestly too much.

"Hey, gang", she says, hugging them back. - "Let's all go home."

Chapter notes: common sense, courtesy of Beatrice Decker.

1) Feedback is LOVE, and I'm honestly overwhelmed, thank you guys so much! I have this whole thing planned in my head going to weird places, but I would not have continued, probably, otherwise. I'm completely not used to getting feedback ever in my native language.. this is weird and not deserved and, seriously, I love you all!

2) Mandatory apologies! Sorry, I'm a noob at , and also haven't written anything in English in a decade. Please, correct my grammar and punctuation as you see fit, that's how it will get better! Did I get the quotes right?

3) This whole thing is Chloe's POV so we'll be spared some of the angsty Lucifer for now. Also I don't like avoidance and dancing around, so next chapter come Chloe's done with it and marches on!

4) Also, HOORAY Lucifer is SAVED. Cheers!