Chloe stood up, grabbed him by the sleeve and manhandled him into an empty interrogation room.
"What. The. Hell. Do. You. Think. You're. Doing." She emphasised each word with a shove against his chest. He didn't even flinch. It was like trying to shove a boulder. He really was all muscle. What was she doing again? Right. "How dare you? I pour my heart out to you, and you vanish on me, and now you have the nerve to just show up and hey me?"
He looked at her, a fond half-smile on his face. "I missed you too, detective."
And there it was. He looked at her with those damnable sad puppy dog eyes, and she just couldn't stay mad at him. He was the devil, for God's sake. She knew he was the devil, and yet he was still able to pull that look on her.
"I need your help," he repeated, looking lost. Damn him.
She rubbed her hands over her eyes, her sudden anger fading already, leaving a numb tiredness behind. "With what?"
"I need your help with a case."
Chloe frowned. She couldn't have heard that right. "Somebody was murdered," she said, tilting her head to the side with a confused expression. "In hell?"
"Not exactly."
She made an impatient gesture with her hand, meaning for him to get out with it already.
"I may have- um, temporarily misplaced a handful of souls."
Chloe was getting more and more confused by the minute. "What? How do you misplace souls? Where did they go?"
"To earth, apparently. I need to find them."
Chloe nodded. Sure, why not. "Right. Is this a common occurrence? Are you on earth all the time collecting lost souls? Didn't you think this was something I might have wanted to know when you left?" She bit her tongue just in time before the word me slipped out.
Lucifer cleared his throat. "This is a first for me, actually. Never lost one of them before. I tried to track one of them down with Amenadiel's help, but we were unsuccessful. I find myself in need of your skills, detective, as well as access to the police database."
Chloe frowned. "Wouldn't Maze have been a better choice of partner? She knows the ins and outs of hell, and she's a bounty hunter. Seems like the perfect candidate to track down errant souls."
Lucifer stared at her. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. He'd been so sure he absolutely couldn't do without the detective's help, and yet this obvious solution had been sitting right there in front of him, and he'd just walked blindly past. He cleared his throat again, refusing to reexamine his motivation. He was here because he needed police resources, that was it. Nothing else to it. "I've already drawn Amenadiel into this. After everything that happened, I think Linda deserves better than me sending away her entire support team." There. That was a reasonable explanation. That was probably what he'd been thinking.
Chloe frowned but didn't comment on his shady reasoning. She sighed, rubbing her hand over her eyes. "How did they escape hell in the first place?"
"That is another part of the mystery that needs solving." He regarded her, delighted that she was actually considering it. "Please, detective. One last case together, for old times' sake?" He gave her a pleading look. "We really can't have former occupants of hell running around, telling stories. I mean, existential spoiler alert, right?" He smiled brightly, but Chloe didn't seem to find his jest particularly funny. He turned serious again immediately. "We've seen in the past that mortals who have been in hell can pose a grave threat. They can be ruthless, and completely without empathy, because they know exactly what fate has in store for them, and where they will eventually spend all of eternity. All I'm asking is your assistance in tracking them down, and then I'll be out of your hair again, I promise."
Chloe sighed again. She'd always had a problem with saying no to Lucifer. "How long is this going to take? I can't just disappear from work, you know."
A slow smile started spreading over his features. He realised that she wanted to say yes, they just needed to figure out the logistics. "I thought you'd collected a bunch of holiday days?"
"You expect me to spend my holidays tracking down people in order to throw them back into hell? Sounds like a fun, relaxing leisure activity indeed."
Lucifer could also think of a couple of leisure activities he'd rather be engaging in with the detective, but he bit his tongue. Those things were never going to happen, and it would be foolish to even let them into his mind. He had a sudden inspiration. "It doesn't have to be a leisure activity. I think it would be only fair to pay you for your consulting services."
Chloe frowned. "Are you serious?"
He nodded. "Why not? I'm asking for your professional advice on these matters, the least I can do is provide you with a reimbursement for your time." The pleading look was back, now supported by a hopeful smile, and she really didn't have it in her to turn him down.
"Fine."
He literally made a small jump of joy, and Chloe couldn't help but smile at his excitement. She had a feeling she might regret her decision later, when the time came to say goodbye to him once more, but that moment was hopefully far away. First, they would get to spend some time together. She tried not to get too excited at the prospect. It would only be temporary, after all.
"Excellent. When can we start?"
"I have a case that I need to wrap up first, and then I have to speak with the lieutenant. I have to see if I can make some arrangement."
Lucifer nodded eagerly, all excited puppy. "Need a hand with wrapping up your case? The sooner we can move on to my problems, the better."
Chloe shrugged. "Sure, why not. Do you have any information about your runaways that can help us to track them down?"
"Names, dates of birth, and the time and date of their passing."
"Okay, let's run that through the system while I get you up to speed with my current case."
They went back to Chloe's desk. She sat down, wondering how she'd let herself get roped into this celestial emergency. "Okay, give me the names."
Lucifer rattled down a list of, mostly confusing sounding, names.
"Yeah, I'll need some help with the spelling on those."
Lucifer leaned over, regarding her keyboard. "I think you're lacking quite a few symbols. For starters, I don't see a single rune on here."
Chloe groaned. "Lucifer, when exactly were these people born?"
"1964, 1899, 1631 and two in the 9th century, people weren't so fussy about exact dates back then."
Chloe stared at him, feeling a weirdly nostalgic sort of exasperation. This was exactly how she remembered working with Lucifer. "And what in the world made you think I would be able to find these people in the police database?"
He vaguely waved his hand around. "I don't know, it seems like you always just magically turn up the address of whoever we're looking for, I never gave it much thought."
Chloe sighed. It seemed to become a habit around Lucifer. "Okay, who's from 1964?"
"Peter Harrison. He gave an interview to a small news station in New York recently, mentioning quite a few details he should better have kept to himself."
"Let's start with him, then." She was just about to ask him for the exact date of birth when she spotted Ella approaching from the lab. Ella noticed Lucifer at her desk and froze. She gave Chloe a questioning look. Chloe just shrugged her shoulders in reply. Ella cautiously came closer, looking back and forth between Chloe and Lucifer.
"Hey stranger, where have you been?" Ella asked casually.
"Hell," Lucifer supplied distractedly, focussed on Chloe's screen.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
Lucifer looked up, meeting her eyes, a sad smile on his lips. "The place is actually not that bad, once you get used to it. The company leaves a lot to be desired, though," he said, throwing a quick glance in the detective's direction before looking at Ella again.
Ella hummed, ducking her head a little to the side, looking from one of them to the other. Then she handed Chloe the file she'd been carrying. "The results from the Pearson's case. The residue is definitely kaolin clay, as I thought."
"Thanks, Ella."
Ella looked back and forth between the two of them one last time, then she slowly walked away, back towards her lab.
Lucifer gave Chloe a bright smile that was all teeth and didn't reach his eyes. "We're off to arrest a murderous potter then?"
"Maybe," Chloe said. She stood up and grabbed her jacket.
"Delightful," he stated, still smiling brightly. She walked out, and he followed a step behind, wondering if he had made a huge mistake coming here, and if this was going to blow up in his face somehow.
