Hello hello :)

Thanks again and always for the reviews, follow and favorite guys!

It's time to talk for our lovely duo!

Enjoy :)


PERMANENT


" There he is... there he is... there he is..."

Chloe saw Lucifer's car in the distance...heard the subtle purring of the engine before even spotting Lucifer himself.

An enormous tension attacked every muscular tissue that formed her body as she distinctly heard the door of his car slam. Her breathing accelerated significantly and parallel to the apprehension that was gaining her.

Ella continued to analyze with great care the body stretched at her feet, informing her of her discoveries and the possible deductions that might ensue. Chloe could hear her talking, seeing her move around the body... but nothing came to her brain imprisoned by a feeling of anxiety far more powerful than she had been experienced until then. All her attention was – in spite of herself – focused on the man who was getting closer and closer. Chloe stole a glance at Lucifer: he was quietly chatting with the officers in charge with scattering the civilians around the crime scene. A handshake here, a friendly smile there and Lucifer was allowed to pass the yellow safety wire, approaching a little more towards the young woman.

Also bringing in his wake a tide of uncertainties and fears.

" Calm down, Chloe! It's just Lucifer! "

Just Lucifer...

If only it was that simple. Chloe knelt near the body, pretending to inspect further a clue about the causes of death. This wasn't the case. She was just trying to hide her anxiety... to find a way out to...Lucifer.

To this famous night with him.

The detective rubbed her fingers together, the texture of the latex that covered them made this mechanical gesture more unpleasant than usual. Everything seemed unpleasant today. Her thoughts, her fleeting memories of their embrace... of his burning touch... of...

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment and let out a brief sigh, trying to expel by this simple breath all the images and sensations that persistently linger in her mind. No chance it'll work, od course. She would have liked it though. If only that night had never existed. Things so simple, so normal usually wouldn't be so... complicated in this warm morning.

She wasn't ready to face the consequences.

To face him. To face the harsh reality. Reality that screamed to her more and more distinctly that all this was only a wonderful dream. A wonderful utopia, which would never take shape. This reality cruelly crushed her slim hopes of seeing this night becoming something... something more important.

Chloe regretted having called him. She regretted bitterly. Why had she called him? Simply because she didn't want to have to answer other questions. About his strange absence at her side on this crime scene, he who was systematically here. Always ready to punish bad guys. They were a duo. For better and for worse.

And Chloe had the clear impression that the worst had just come.

Lucifer finally reached by her side, - his hands in his pockets – his usual playful smile proudly aroused. Chloe focused on the young woman's body lying at her feet, really seeking – this time – an interesting clue for the aftermath of the investigation. She deliberately avoided her partner's gaze and any bodily contact with him. The latter didn't come nearer, staying at a certain distance from the detective.

" Hello, Hello Ella! ", he greeted the coroner, still kneeling near the head of the victim. " You're a real morning lady, aren't you? "

" Hey, buddy! ", she greeted him in return while placing carefully some hair in a waterproof pouch.

" And good morning to you too, Detective...", he greeted her in a much more gentle tone.

Chloe didn't look at him. She felt her muscles stiffened more at the sound of his voice. At its particular intonation when he finally spoke to her. An intonation that briefly brought her mind back to last night. The detective instinctively clenched her fist and persisted in focusing her attention on the body.

" You're late, Lucifer...", she grumbled. " Another Brittany to comfort? "

The words were said before she could really realized their meaning. She immediately regretted her aggressive tone towards him. Chloe didn't know what was happening to her. All this internal tension, her uncertainties... all this sowed confusion in her mind and led her to react like this. She felt Lucifer stiffen beside her but didn't look directly at him. He moved slightly away and Chloe felt his eyes burning the back of her neck.

" You're getting warmer, Detective...", he replied in a cold, distant voice that she didn't know him – a voice that made her literally shiver with anxiety. " A Brittany who sneaked out just after the fun..."

Chloe could easily discern the message hidden behind this bravado. A hidden and painful message for the young woman. An implied accusation. A blame about he behavior. Blame which greatly offended her. She knew she had been wrong for her derogatory remark, but he couldn't decently be mad at her for protecting herself! For knowing him enough to act accordingly!

Ella uttered an outraged exclamation when she heard him. She shook her head in disgust and Chloe couldn't help but feeling that she was being judged... indirectly.

" Han, Dude! It sucks! Even coming from a woman! We tend to judge men a little too quickly in this situation, but I really don't see why women deserve more tolerance...", blathered the coroner by placing the sample pouches in her black suitcase.

" You think so, do you? I must say that...", add her partner always standing by her side.

" GUYS! " , Chloe shouted as she straightened up quickly, again surprised by her anger. " There's a body right here...Focus, please? "

They both turned towards her and Chloe had no choice but catch Lucifer's gaze. She plunged her gray irises into the darker ones of her partner. A brief glance quickly broke. A glance communicating nevertheless emotions that she didn't want to perceive. A look that also traced a new flood of inappropriate memories at that moment. Lucifer and Chloe had simultaneously turned their faces in another direction, striving to focus their attention anything else then the person near them.

Ella apologized promptly for this unfortunate digression:

" Yeah! Right...Sorry! So...Her name was...", she began as she quickly reread her scribbled notes on her notebook. " ...Christiane Collebroek. Multiple perforating wounds in the genitals...and another in the heart. It's this which has led to the death by quick exsanguination... The other wounds were made post-mortem, obviously, given the lack of blood around the intrusion points. "

Chloe nodded vaguely at her detailed forensic explanations, pensive. The numerous strokes in the belly suggested a crime of passion... violent and could indicate that the victim and the murderer knew each other. Lucifer let out a sort of disapproving whistle.

" Ouch... I guess she's literally heartbroken, isn't she? That must hurt a little bit, don't you think? " , he exclaimed, smiling and examining with a fresh eye the body in front of him.

Chloe really wanted to be kind of him or – at best – be respectful. Lucifer didn't help her at all. As always. The young woman rolled her eyes to his inappropriate comment, once again, an exasperated whistle passing through her lips.

" It is possible, Lucifer...It even killed her! Incredible but true! ", she got mad, glaring at Lucifer.

The latter turned to her again, the two partners sharing another look. And quickly ending this visual contact again. She couldn't look at him. Nor to speak to him normally. They always exchanged these kind of comments but the tone was distinctly different at that very moment. Harder. Colder. From her. Chloe felt miserable... terrible to reject him thus. Whatever his behavior. She just didn't know what to do. The words came inexorably out of her mouth, whether she mean them or not. She also felt this unpleasant awkwardness between them, but she didn't do anything against it. The coroner contented herself with scribbling other notes with a somewhat too forced application, discreetly staring at them from time to time.

" Point taken, Detective...", Lucifer murmured.

Chloe ventured to look at him briefly, a palpable guilt hugging her chest. Lucifer had his face turned towards the body, a thin smile on his lips. A smile she didn't know. There was no joy in it... no provocation specific to the character. Just some...sadness. Sadness that intensified the feeling of guilt that had assaulted the young woman for a few seconds. Her partner's face looked strangely tense. It lasted only a moment. A fleeting vision of vulnerability that quickly faded under his usual mask of confidence.

He turned to her again, without looking directly into her eyes, while pointing a hand toward the mutilated body.

" You know how much pain is new for me! It intrigues me... The sensations that physical pain entails... Bleed... I was never hurt before meeting you, Detective! It's quite normal as Lord of Hell that I'm interested in this kind of things! There's often and unfortunately a lack of imagination about torture after a few millennia...", he explained without any embarrassment.

Ella stopped scribbling in her notebook to glance at Lucifer.

" Dude... You don't have to play your character all the time, you know? ", she suggested, giving her suitcase to a trainee.

Lucifer let out an exasperated exclamation at her suggestion and put his hands in his pockets while turning to the coroner bustling to store her material.

" Okay, for the last time...I am not an actor, darling! ", he tried to explained to her.

Chloe watched as Ella and Lucifer argue about the more or less viable possibility that he might be the real Devil and not an actor strongly involved in his game. The forced intonation on the word "hurt" that he had used painfully echoed in her skull. Once more he sent her another message. A message that she didn't like it at all. A message that insinuated that she was the only one responsible for this deplorable situation. For this awkwardness between them. Chloe didn't accept this. She had good reasons to do so. More than him!

She had to put an end to this.

Once and for all.


Chloe rumbled through the stack of files in front of her and quickly read the information on the first page. She tried not to turn to Lucifer, who sat nonchalantly against the window of the Ella's laboratory. She felt his gaze on her, burning her a little more every second. Every moment a little more anchored in an unbearable silence for the young woman.

She sighed, annoyed by her lack of concentration and professionalism. She had a murder to solve, with our without Lucifer's help. She could do this. The detective straightened up on her seat while resting the open file in her hands on the light table, looking for the coroner. The latter analyzed in her part a sample found on the crime scene.

" Ella? ", she asked. " You have news about the victim's toxicology? "

Ella turned to her, vaguely shrugging her shoulders as she pulled out her protective gloves.

" Not yet, but I can check...", she suggested before throwing her gloves in a trash and getting out of the lab.

Leaving Chloe completely alone.

With Lucifer.

" Bad plan. Terrible plan. "

The detective hardly swallowed, embarrassed. To say the least. Lucifer's gaze on her neck seemed to gain strength, increasing her discomfort. She felt her body stiffen with apprehension. She took a deep breath to calm down – an action that obviously had no effect on her nerves – and opened another file on the table.

The silence lasted for a few more seconds, which seemed to las hours before Lucifer's deep voice sounded behind her:

" Bloody Hell! Enough of this! "

She heard him rise and approach her. Chloe had just time to close the file which had hitherto monopolized her to see a Lucifer particularly annoyed in front of her, his hands resting on the table.

" We have to stop this, Detective... We need to talk about what happened last night! "

Chloe was quite caught off guard by his direct reaction. She'd have believed they would continue to simulate a good understanding between them. Apparently not. Lucifer's eyes almost begged her, his jaw strongly contracted by the tension. A palpable tension in the air. Tension also palpable in her own body. Everything was only tension at this very moment. A tension accumulated since this morning, by both.

" Lucifer...", Chloe murmured, searching for words.

What could she say? How could she say this?

" Why did you leave without saying anything? ", he asked her point-blank. " Did I do something wrong or...? "

Chloe looked into Lucifer's. He looked so... frustrated... lost by the events. He almost implored her. Chloe wanted to reassure him. Tell him that everything was perfectly fine between them. That it would get better and better. What she wanted. Really. But that would never happened. They were too... different.

The detective stopped looking at him and stood up, mechanically arranging the files scattered in front of her, confused. Lucifer watched her without saying anything for a moment before letting out a disdainful exclamation. He walked away from the light table, a bad laugh taking him suddenly.

" You lost your tongue, Detective?... Well, what a shame! It seemed to work perfectly last night! ", he provoked her in a tingle tone.

Chloe's blood boiled in her veins. She turned quickly towards him and slapped him with all her strength. Lucifer's face leaned to the side, a red mark quickly dyeing his bruised cheek. Chloe gasped in surprise. Surprised by her own gesture. Surprised by the pain that gripped her heart. Lucifer was also surprised. He kept his head bent over, stunned and mechanically holding his hand to his cheek. The surprise that seized Chloe was soon replaced by an intense and dazzling anger. An anger that quickly took possession to her mouth, to her thoughts. Whether she likes it or no.

" You want to know why I left, Lucifer? ", she said with a horribly calm voice. " I wanted to give you some time to find a good excuse to not go further with me! Let's be practical! You're just a self-centered asshole... who's doing good in bed! Nothing more..."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Silence that allowed Chloe time to assimilate her own words said in anger. She'd have like to die right then for daring to tell him that. He didn't deserve this... The latter let his hand fall back against his side and looked into Chloe's eyes. All she saw there was a deep resignation, a resignation which frightened her.

God...What had she done?

The young woman stepped towards her partner but quickly stepped back, frightened by the wild gleam that now reflected in his irises. She hardly swallowed, an opaque knot clogging her throat.

" Lucifer...I...I'm so sor...", she stammered in a whimpering voice.

Lucifer raised a hand with a sharp movement, asking for silence. What she did, deeply hurt by the dramatic turn of the situation. She had never seen him so... dark. He had never looked at her like this. With this deep disappointment that was reflected in his entire body. Not even when he thought he had lost her trust the night Walter was found dead behind his counter. An observation that underscored the gravity of the current situation.

Chloe had gone too far. Well beyond the limits.

He lowered his arm and breathed with a lifeless voice:

" Spare me the lies, Detective... I hate liars...You shared your mind..."

They looked at each other for an eternity. Before Chloe could say anything else, - anything to fix this – Ella appeared near the threshold of the lab, her eyes focused on the file she had in her hands.

" So! Apparently...She would have ingested a strong psychotic a few hours before her death. It could be GHB but the lab needs more time to..."

The coroner's voice died as she finally looked up from her file and saw the two partners a little further down the room.

" Whoops! Sorry, guys! Maybe I should...hum...", the young woman apologized.

Lucifer finally stopped looking at Chloe and turned his face towards the coroner, a false smile on his lips. He advanced towards the exit without another look for the detective while reassuring Ella:

" It's all right... We've done here..."

Chloe couldn't move. She would have liked to run after him and beg his forgiveness. But nothing came. Not a gesture. Not a word. Only silence. And a huge void in her chest at the sight of Lucifer moving further away towards the exit of the precinct.

Moving further away from her.

A distance which seemed frightfully...

...Permanent.


To be continued with..." The sorrow"


let a little or huge review :) And until next time!