A/N: Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter up. I moved at the beginning of June and then got really busy at work so I had no time to write until recently.


Chapter 7

With workout clothes on, and her hair pulled up in a bun, Chloe moved quickly around the first floor of the house she'd let go over the last few stressful months. It was a rare day off and instead of spending it relaxing she was forced to spend it cleaning the house she borrowed from her mother. That wasn't to say she was a neat freak, but she did like things orderly and with a seven year old, and no free time, things tended to get out of control fast. It helped that it was Wednesday and Trixie would be home late because of her lesson. She smiled to herself as she moved to the medium sized upright piano that now graced the corner of their living room and began to dust it.

"What in the world is that?" Lucifer asked as he pointed to the electric keyboard she'd set up for Trixie on the coffee table.

Chloe glanced up from her computer as she saved the file they'd come here for, "It's a piano, you play them all the time."

"Firstly, that's a noise maker not a piano," he sneered in disgust as he kicked the table lightly. "Second, what in the world is something like that doing in your home, you said you didn't play?"

"Trixie's taking lessons," she shrugged as she closed her laptop. "She wanted them after seeing you play."

"She wants to play because I do?" he asked seemingly completely flabbergasted by the very idea.

Chloe raised an eyebrow at him, "Lucifer, she's eight and you're her hero. Of course she wants to play like you do."

"I'm her hero?" he frowned as if the idea was so foreign to him she might as well have been speaking another language. "What makes you say something like that?"

"Really," Chloe asked incredulously, "She's always insanely happy to see you, listens to you, and follows you around like a duckling when she can?"

"I thought that was what children did!" he exclaimed, staring at her with something like wonder in his eyes and she laughed. "It's not funny! What should I do?!"

She smiled at the memory as she moved the various knickknacks along the top of the instrument. It had been waiting for them in the living room two days later. When she'd complained about it, he'd simply called it a belated birthday present, nevermind that he'd already bought Trixie a bike, and wouldn't hear anything else about it. Then, of course, he'd invited himself over for dinner to hear her play. Chloe chuckled as she remembered the pained look on her partner's face as her daughter played through a childish nursery rhyme. To his credit, he lasted an entire song before he got up to sit next to her and help her through the next one. She'd been impressed, and so had he, when Trixie picked the song up quickly under his instruction. That's when her daughter had admitted it was hard for her to learn because her teacher could be mean but that she hadn't said anything because she wanted to learn. Chloe picked up a picture off the table beside the instrument. She'd taken it when she'd gone to pick her daughter up last week from her lesson, without his knowledge, and she smiled gently at it. When had the Devil become such an integral and comfortable part of her life?

"It worked Mommy," Trixie cheered after Lucifer left for the night, his promise given.

Chloe's brow furrowed, "What worked babe?"

"I knew if I did it bad but then good when he showed me, he'd want to teach me!" she said with a bright smile and Chloe stared, gobsmacked at her daughter.

"How could you know that?" she asked feeling lost, when had her innocent little girl turned into a con artist good enough to trick the Devil himself?

Trixie shrugged, "he likes it when people listen to him, it makes him feel special."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her front door and she frowned as she headed to it. She'd never been nervous about opening her door before but with everything going on she felt some caution as she moved toward it. It was the middle of the day, in the middle of the week and she hadn't made any online purchases recently. However, outside she found a normal delivery man and he held out a thick looking postal envelope for her.

"Delivery for Chloe Decker," he said and then shoved the envelope at her along with a machine to sign. She took them both and signed her name before glaring at the package.

The envelope had no return address and she looked up at him, "what is this?"

"Don't know," he shrugged and handed her a receipt, "We were just told to deliver it to this address. We're a courier service, not the police."

She frowned as she watched him walk back to his truck and then went back inside as she looked at the envelope again. Comfortingly enough it felt like nothing but paper and she opened the package to find a smaller envelope inside with three letters on top. That didn't mean there couldn't have been some kind of biological attack inside and she made sure to open it away from her; not that there was anything she could see. Curiously she picked up the first and felt her mouth slowly drop open as she read.

Detective Decker,

My husband told me everything before his death. He warned me that he didn't think the group was going to accept his retirement and that he had a security deposit box with information in it for you. After his death I waited a few weeks before looking at it and a friend sent this. I want nothing to do with it, please keep what's left of my family out of this.

Mel

Chloe stared at the clinical message for a moment and felt truly bad for the woman. Mel had been Malcolm's biggest defender, which was only reasonable as his wife, and was the main reason so many people had attacked Chloe herself. Yet, it gave her no satisfaction to be proven right over the wreckage of what had been the poor woman's life. She couldn't even imagine how much it must have hurt to put so much trust and love into someone only to have them betray you so completely. She shook her head sadly as she picked up the next letter in the pile. This one was equally blunt, but then, Malcolm had never been one for eloquence.

Decker,

If you're reading this they either got tired of asking me back or that angel finally had enough and offed me. Shit, I'll be lucky to last the year and yeah you read that right, an angel. I know it sounds crazy but I was in hell when I died and this angel named Amenadiel brought me back so I could kill that partner of yours. After some research I figure I have a better chance of not going back by asking forgiveness and trying to making up for the shit I've done than I do adding another murder to the list. Anyway, if my wife did what I asked you should have all the information I got before I died.

Be careful,

Malcolm

P.S Shred this will you? I don't need people knowing I believe in angels and shit. There's another in the files that will work for evidence.

She looked at the third letter and realized that it was essentially the same as the first only this one left out the talk of angels and his family. In the second envelope she found a treasure trove of information everything from pictures to email and even a few SD cards that had video as well as more pictures on them when she plugged them into her laptop. She'd have to analyze the data as a whole later but for now she moved to the area she'd designated as her office. There she made four copies of everything, two to hand in, one for Lucifer and one for herself. Her copy she left in the safe in her room and the other three she threw in an old backpack before getting changed and almost tearing her desk apart looking for the business card she'd carelessly thrown in a drawer years ago.

The best and most frightening thing about being a cop who was looking for other dirty cops was that she knew what assets were at the disposal of her targets. It gave her a leg up when it came to avoiding their surveillance. That was why she was now driving to Lux in a car Lucifer had rented for her on a burner phone he'd bought trying to get into contact with her old friend in the bureau.

"Hello," she said politely when a receptionist answered the line. She'd already made sure he still worked in the city the day after Malcolm's death. "I'd like to be connected to Special Agent Martin Sánchez? Tell him it's Detective Chloe Decker of the LAPD."

It only took a few minutes before a confused man came on the line, "Chloe Decker? As in the blonde haired detective with a mean right hook? I thought you'd lost this number."

"And I'm surprised you remember me."

He laughed, "I'm not likely to forget the woman that saved my life."

"I didn't save your life Martin," she said with a snort, "You could have taken him, all I did was expediate the situation."

"Yeah sure, I totally could have won," he said with a laugh. "Now, not to seem ungrateful, but why are you calling me after all these years? Did you finally ditch that husband of yours? "

"I caught a corruption case," she said ignoring his flirting, all the laughter gone from her voice. "It's big Martin, really big. I thought you might be interested."

"What kind of corruption are we talkin' about?" he asked and she could hear the concern in his voice, he knew how dangerous cases like this were. From behind her she heard a car horn and she glanced in her rearview to see a red car two back from her beeping at the one in front of it. Normal traffic behavior in LA and she shook herself. She was getting paranoid.

"One I'll only tell you all about in person," she said as she turned down a side street shortcut. As she did she glanced back and watched as the blonde man in the red car yelled and flipped off the dark haired driver who'd been behind her before following her down the street. She rolled her eyes, "You know the club Lux right?"

"The one downtown that's supposedly run by the Devil himself," he asked with some incredulity. "Is your case about that? Because if so I'm not surprised."

"No," she said and snorted, "I work with the owner as a consultant, he's not as bad as his reputation would lead you to believe. His penthouse is a safe place we can talk, how soon can you get over there?"

"Come on, seriously, how big is this case," he asked thoughtfully and she heard some papers being shuffled around.

She bit her lip, he sounded busy, but this was important, "it'll tear the LAPD apart."

"I'll be there in an hour," he replied after a moments silence and they hung up with quick goodbyes.

She reached the club only a few minutes after and gave a quick word to the security guard Lucifer had hired after Malcolm's death about her friend coming. Then she headed upstairs and a smile spread across her lips as she stepped quietly into the condo to watch Trixie play through a song slowly, under Lucifer's watchful eye. As Chloe put down her bag on the counter her daughter hit a sour note and Lucifer stopped her to show her slowly how to do the section. She watched him intently and then repeated the action, playing it correctly this time. Then she started from the top of the page again and when she reached the end without another mistake Lucifer smiled and they high fived one another. Chloe smiled too and applauded to announce her presence.

"Mommy!" Trixie yelled as she bounded across the room and Chloe hugged her daughter as she looked up at her partner who shifted awkwardly.

"Why so early?" he asked as he fiddled with the sleeve of his jacket. "I wasn't expecting you for another half hour."

"Something came up," she nodded to the backpack and his eyes narrowed as he looked from her to Trixie.

"Poppet, why don't you go see what Maze is doing in the TV room," he offered as Trixie looked suspiciously between them. "Your mother and I need to talk, work things. Quite boring for little ears I'd imagine."

"OK," she cheered brightly before she ran off across the room only to disappear down the small staircase in the library section of the great room.

It perturbed her a little that her daughter was so familiar with her partner's condo that she knew where his TV room was when Chloe hadn't even realized he had one to begin with. To be perfectly honest she hadn't even realized there was more to his home than this room and the bedroom off of it. Which was ridiculous now that she thought about it, this room was not the size of the entire floor, not even half of it.

"Maze can watch her while we talk," he said moving over to the bar to pour them a drink. "They seem to have hit it off famously."

"Oh are you two talking again?" she asked curiously as she took the glass from him. A small part of her worried that her daughter was so willing and able to befriend the Devil and his demonic henchwoman.

"Not as such," he muttered his eyes growing darker, "but I still need her to run the club and, as I said, Beatrice has developed a fondness for her. Father only knows how or why. So, to what do I owe this call, or are you here for something a little more fun. I'm sure Maze could be persuaded to watch the little human for a while longer."

He smiled lasciviously at her and his eyes flickered playfully from his bedroom to her and back. She smiled flirtatiously back as she moved so that they were chest to chest and she watched as his lips part and eyes dilated at her actions. Very carefully she leaned up so that they were eye level, her heart beating a little faster than she'd care to admit and his eyes became hooded. Her mouth was inches from his and for a moment they both seemed frozen as something sparked between them. This hadn't been her intention. She'd just wanted to do her normal teasing and now she was in serious danger. Then he shifted as if getting ready to capture her in his arms and it snapped her out of the daze she'd fallen into.

"No," she said whispered and pulled away from him quickly to escape the potential cage of his arms.

That had been far too close and her heart was in her throat, if he'd caught her she'd have been a goner. Lucifer, who was just staring at her, seemed to have the same idea because his eyes narrowed and he started stalking toward her. That look made the hair on the back of her neck rise and she held out his file like a shield before her. "Malcolm's wife gave me this, apparently he was doing an investigation of his own."

Lucifer looked from the file to her eyes and back, his shoulders so stiff she could see him shaking slightly but finally he took a deep breath and snatched it from her, he looked angry. "Do that again Chloe, and I won't let you get away with it."

His voice was a deep rumbling sound and she blinked at him, "was that a threat?"

"It was a promise, as they say" he snapped as he finally looked away from her and flipped through the file with overly aggressive moves.

She bit her lip and knew she should feel insulted or scared but she didn't, she felt guilty. That had been a mistake. She was too affected by him now to play that game anymore and the worst part was that he knew it. At first it had been entertaining because he'd been arrogant and all he wanted was to get into her pants. Now there were emotions involved, they'd grown attached to each other. Playing with his attraction to her was suddenly less fun when she was in danger of pushing them past that careful line in the sand she'd drawn to protect the both of them. She also had a feeling that because of her teasing when she gave into him she wasn't going to get out of his bed for days or walk straight for a week. Then she paused, when had the idea of sleeping with him gone from never to when? Disconcerted, Chloe turned back to her pack for a distraction and saw Malcolm's letter, but the move was a mistake.

She should have known better than to turn her back on him after what she'd done.

She stiffened as she felt him move to stand behind her and he placed the file down on the counter with a small 'thwak' as his arms settled on either side of her. He wasn't touching her at any point but the heat radiating off of him was enough. Then he leaned down and spoke gently into her ear. His warm breath moved across the shell of her ear and made her shiver involuntarily, she could feel how smug he was about that. "Interesting read but not nearly fascinating enough to distract me from you."

"Trixie -"

"Is more than distracted in Maze's capable hands and I have plenty of guest rooms for her to choose from," he mumbled as his nose trailed slowly down her neck, though it still never touched her, "try again."

"I don't want -"

He made a tsking sound, "we both know that's a lie."

"An FBI agent will be here in less than an hour," she offered trying to control her breathing and to push down the heat she could feel rising in her. It wasn't a convincing act and he knew he'd gotten to her but it was enough to satisfy her pride that she didn't just turn around and kiss him like a large part of her wanted too.

He hummed, an exceptionally disappointed sound, and pulled away from her. He looked like he'd just been denied dessert and she flushed at her unintentional innuendo. She'd been around him too long. "Definitely not enough time for what I have in mind."

"You're assuming I want to sleep with you," she tried again after clearing her throat and feeling more like herself.

"Darling," he sighed in an indulgent way as he gently but firmly gripped her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. "We both know where this is going and when it does, when you finally give into to this, I'm not planning on letting you go."

The weight of his words rested heavily on her and she got the feeling that he was talking about more than just sex. If he was serious about that, then she was in trouble. His views on relationships were the only thing holding her back from him. She wasn't someone who could share, especially not after being cheated on, and she refused to give her heart to someone who would break it in the end. Even he himself had said he never ended well, why should she take that risk? He'd been a playboy for millennia and she wasn't arrogant enough to think he'd changed that much for her. Whether it was a year or ten, he was going to get bored of her and then she'd be left alone, again. She'd rather they be friends with frustratingly powerful sexual tension than forever waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The moment was heavy between them and she looked away, "and you and I both know that would end in a fiery wreck."

"Oh," he narrowed his eyes in challenge as he moved further into her personal space, "And how do you figure that."

"I don't share," she said finally giving voice to the elephant in the room and he started, pulling away from her slightly. "And I don't do casual. Both are things you don't agree with and have shown you don't understand on more than one occasion."

"Yes but -"

"But nothing," she said not giving him a chance to work his silver tongue this time. He wanted an answer and she was tired of dancing around this, "We have two very different views on how relationships should work and that's fine, I'm not asking you to change. But I'm also not going to put myself in a situation I know is just going to end up hurting me. I'm not a masochist."

"You're so sure I'd hurt you?" he asked and she could see anger building in his eyes. "That I'd break a promise to you if I made it."

"No," she said and shook her head sadly. "I'm so sure that in a max five years you'd get bored of the monogamy thing and be completely miserable, so I'd break my heart letting you go. You're the one that said you never end well. You are who you are and that's fine but I'm not going to put myself in a position to be hurt."

"Who says I'd get bored?" he asked with narrowed eyes. "What if it's you who can't stand me in five years?"

She gave him a soft and indulgent look, "I already know that won't happen. It's you who has a habit of bailing on things when they get 'boring' or hard. You only think you can do the relationship thing because it's the shiny new toy in your life. I don't think you get that they can be hard and a lot of work sometimes, especially several years in."

He took an actual step back and wasn't able to hide the genuine hurt behind his emotionless mask, "I thought you trusted me? Believed in me?"

"As my best friend and with my life, yes, I trust you completely. And I do believe in you, I believe that you're a good person," she said as she placed a comforting hand on his arm, trying her best to soften the blow. He was always so strong and self-confident, yet with certain things, he was so fragile. "But Lucifer, you have never given me a reason to believe you could ever be a one woman man."

She saw his jaw clench and his eyes narrowed before he placed his fingertips gently on her cheek, "Is that your only reason for continuing to fight this?"

"My only reason?" she asked with some incredulity. "See you're acting like us having completely opposite views on relationships is a small problem."

"It's not as big as you think it is," he shrugged and a small smile curled his lips, "You're right, I don't see the sense in limiting yourself to just one person, mostly because I've never found anyone worth my undivided attention before. I'm an agent of change, I thrive on it but maybe I've been too stuck in my ways lately."

"I'm not your science experiment to test new relationship models on," she snapped and pulled away from him. Not that he let her.

"I wouldn't do that to you," he said as he pulled her back to him. "Chloe I can't promise you anything but I'm just willing to try. Are you? Can you honestly tell me any two people going into any kind of relationship know how they'll end? All I know is I want more and so do you."

She looked away from him then and he let her. She needed time and space to think this through and he knew it. That was when she noticed the letter from Malcolm again and realized it would be a perfect distraction.

"You're fighting because Maze told secrets to your brother right," she asked and he stiffened as the last of the arousal that'd consumed him was gone like she'd flipped a switch, "Did she happen to talk about me?"

His eyes turned dangerous, and she could see the way he was trying to keep himself calm, "I haven't the faintest, why?"

"Ah, well, Amenadiel is kind of a unique name," she said with a shrug as she handed him the letter Malcolm had written her, "I remembered it from the auction."

The very air around him began to grow visibly dark as he read and for a moment she was actually frightened by how livid he looked. "Lucifer -"

"MAZE!" He roared as he stormed away from her, his eyes a bright red, and she stumbled as the floor actually shook.

He headed for the archway Trixie had disappeared through and down the small flight of stairs to a small hall. It opened up into a kitchen that at a glance she could tell a chef would kill for but it was the fact that two of the walls were made of solid glass that really caught her attention. For a moment she was shocked still by the view and then she ran after her partner as he stalked through another archway and into another large room. This one had a TV that was almost the size of one of the walls and this one too had a wall made completely of glass only this glass was tinted to keep light out.

When they entered Maze was already standing near the entrance and Trixie watched with wide eyes from her place on one of the many sleek but comfortable looking black leather couches placed around the room.

"What is this," he snarled as he shoved the message into his assistant's hands. "How did he know to do this Maze."

She read through the letter quickly and her brows furrowed, "I didn't tell him anything about your pet detective. All I did was mention you were seeing the shrink. He must have gotten it from her."

"Which he wouldn't have had if you hadn't betrayed me," he hissed and Chloe was shocked to see Maze actually cower before her partner. In that moment she was painfully aware of the fact that Lucifer was the Devil and what he was capable of. She glanced at her daughter only to find her watching with wide eyes, her fingers in her ears. Chloe was brought back to all the times her daughter had done that when she and Dan fought and now she was watching another pair of adults she was close to fighting. What must that be doing to her daughter's sense of how relationships worked?

That thought spurred her into action and she stepped in between the two feuding friends. "Lucifer, enough, whether he decided to come after me because of your shrink or because he's following you and realized I was your friend, it doesn't matter. What matters is he's screwing around with my life!"

Lucifer was still breathing hard and those dark eyes focused on her but she refused to quail under his angry gaze. She may accept that he was the Devil now but that didn't mean she was going to let him steamroll over her. It wasn't who she was and deep down she more than trusted he would never hurt her or her daughter if she stood up to him.

"Then maybe I should have a little chat with him," he said through his teeth as he tried and failed to master himself.

"Later, we have someone coming to talk to us and I'd rather you not have an angelic smackdown before that," she said taking on a soothing tone to her voice and his shoulders sagged as a great amount of the tension in his body left him. Then his eyebrows furrowed and he tilted his head as he searched her eyes as if looking for something.

"There's someone on their way up to see you," Maze said suddenly and she turned back to look at his demonic secretary who was looking at her phone.

"See," she said looking back at him with a smile, "no time for brawling."

He grabbed her arm as she passed him and towed her back, "Why did you call it that?"

"What?"

"Angelic Smackdown," he said with some confusion, "Why that?"

Chloe bit her lip, well, she might as well. It was bound to happen sometime and the knowledge might help to bring him down from the angry place he was stuck in. She didn't need him biting Martin's head off when he eventually got here. She couldn't afford to send the Agent running, "because he's an angel and so are you, so angelic smackdown seemed appropriate."

She shrugged and he let her go, then she fought to keep her face straight at the look on his. He looked like she'd just ripped the rug out from under him. "You believe me?"

"That you're the Devil?" she shrugged with a smirk, "Yeah, I do."

Then she turned away from him, leaving him staring wide eyed after her, and walked quickly back to the main room to meet Sánchez. If there was a happy little smile on her face because she'd been able to leave the Devil completely speechless she didn't care. She'd come to the decision weeks ago that she wasn't going to tell him she knew. If she made it a big deal then he'd take it as one. Instead she'd decided to just stop acting like he was delusional. She knew eventually he'd noticed something and she hope if she treated it like it was no big deal then he would follow suit. Though she quickly realized she'd underestimated how much it meant to him as he caught up to her as she left the library and grabbed her arm to spin her around.

"What the bloody hell do you mean 'yeah, I do'," he asked, doing a horrible impression as he repeated her words back to her.

She looked from his hand on her arm and back to his eyes, "it means exactly what you think it does. I believe you're the Devil. I mean, it was getting a little ridiculous that I was denying what was right in front of me, even if I could shoot you."

"And you're alright with that?" he asked and he seemed like he was trying to control his face by keeping it neutral, "It doesn't bother you that -"

The elevator doors opened and a dark haired man she didn't know but recognized somehow walked out of it. Lucifer was still talking to her but the hair on the back of her neck stood up as her mind flew through her memories trying to place him and, just as she finally did, he raised a gun. He'd been the driver in the car behind her, the one the driver in the red car had been yelling at, the one she now realized had been following her. Everything happened so quickly after that all she could later remember were fragments.

...Lucifer's worried face following her gaze and seeing their attacker...

...The gun going off and being bodily hauled to the ground but not quick enough as a burning pain erupted in her shoulder...

...The body on top of her shaking as bullets were pumped into it and the abrupt end to it all when a scream of pain came from a voice she didn't know...

They knew.