Hello, guys! Okay, so here is another chapter. The last one this week. Let's all binge-watch S4 tomorrow. ;-)

Thank you so much to those of you who have followed, "favorited" and left feedback on this story. And to those of you who are sticking with it, thank you for reading. As always, thank you so much to ariaadagio and BelenP for their guidance and support as a betas.

Please be warned that, while there is nothing explicit, the story touches upon the issue of child abuse.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the chapter. I hope you enjoy it.


Some Soul Searching

The ruckus in the adjoining cells kept exacerbating the pounding inside Lucifer's brain. He closed his eyes and lay down on the long bench, left leg bent at the knee, right foot flat on the ground. The cold metal against his back was surprisingly soothing to his throbbing wings, itching to be freed from their ethereal realm. He was alone in the holding cell, kept separate from the rest. For his own protection, he'd been told by the freckled young cop who'd escorted him to his current quarters pending a bond hearing. He'd met the remark with a skeptical chuckle, which had made the youngster recite the many ways in which Lucifer was designated an "undesirable".

"Trust me, Mr. Morningstar," the cop had said without bothering to hide his disdain. "Your kind wouldn't be welcome amongst those men."

His kind.

Lucifer knew what kind of monster the kid was talking about. Though, as far as monsters went, he deserved far worse than to be thrown into the lion's den—a kitten's den by his standards, really. But the metaphor applied—. Guilt was a dire companion when there was no distraction to keep one's mind from wandering. Hell's cosmic joke on those who were tortured by their own conscience had proven as much for eons. The Devil knew the dynamic all too well.

But Lucifer's biggest discomfort stemmed from the skull-splitting headache. Breathing deeply did little to ease the agony. Loosening the second button of his shirt, he draped an arm over his eyes and let his mind sail adrift.

"Call me skeptical, but I don't see how you're gonna find a way out of this mess by just lyin' there, sulking."

The comment had been made in a quiet voice, yet it rose over all other noise on the busier-than-normal floor. Lucifer jolted awake, his eyes flashing open. He'd been so wrapped up in his own miserable thoughts, he'd failed to sense her presence. Sitting up on the bench, he frowned at his sister.

"Azrael?"

The Angel of Death waved at him from the other side of the cell.

"Don't you have anything better to do than wait for human justice?" she asked. "Far be it for me to comment on what your priorities ought to be, but shouldn't you, I dunno, get the hell outta here?"

Lucifer scoffed. "And go where, exactly? The last time I believed to have received a message from 'above' I ended up getting arrested for taking sexual advantage of a minor."

Azrael frowned. "What message?"

"The note! With the coordin—" Lucifer rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Never mind."

"Angels don't use written notes to send out messages, Lu!" she berated. "You ought to know better!"

He knew that much, but his desperation had made him reckless, and stupid. An easy prey.

"Are you here to make me feel even more foolish than I already do, or do you have a less annoying reason for taking time off from what I assume is a very busy apocalypse?"

A man shouted from one of the other cells. "Hey! Whatever you're on, share some with us, mate!"

"Dude feels lonely over there!" a muscled man with a heavy accent chimed-in.

A choir of laughter erupted almost immediately.

Lucifer stood up and kept his attention on Azrael, ignoring the jokes of those unable to see her.

"I've been wracking my brain for several weeks, but there seems to be no reversal to this mess," he admitted. "The truth is I'm out of ideas."

Azrael regarded him evenly. "You might be out of ideas, but not out of options. Come on! Do some soul searching!"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"I've already said too much," his sister said. "Just know that the answers have been withyou all along."

The door to the cellblock clanked open, and everyone's attention turned to the rookie cop as he came in, followed by the detective and Ms. Lopez. Lucifer remained bolted to the spot, a bit stunned by their visit. Ella's eyes widened the moment she spotted Azrael. She muttered a, "This is really not a good time" under her breath, as if Lucifer and Chloe weren't standing just a few feet away.

Azrael gave Ella a look that screamed, "Okay, fine! I'm outtie!" before sending one last glance towards her big brother. The Angel of Death then left as quietly as she had arrived.

Ella exhaled a sigh of relief. Chloe kept her head down, looking gloomy. The young cop stood tall, thumbs hooked on his belt by his holster.

"You have ten minutes," he told them, flaunting his meager authority. He threw a glance of disgust in Lucifer's direction, and then headed for the exit.

"Detective…" Lucifer said, exhaling.

He walked to the edge of the cell. Part of him wondered whether she might get spooked by his proximity. If she was, she didn't show it.

"How are you holding up?" Chloe asked, looking up at him for the first time.

Plenty of unasked questions seemed to float inside her mind, not least of which was probably: "How come you're stuck in a manmade cell when you're the goddamn Devil?" Not that she would be crazy enough to voice any of them with "the Breakfast Club from hell" two cells down, and devout Ms. Lopez standing right next to her.

"Fine," Lucifer replied. "The décor is a bit too minimalist for my taste, but the dungeon-motif works well enough."

Chloe forced out a smile. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear in that casual way that made Lucifer's insides turn to goo.

"We came as soon as we heard," Ella jumped in.

"You get a phone call, Lucifer," Chloe reproached. "You could've called me."

Lucifer narrowed his eyes, studying her for a long moment. "I wasn't sure you would've picked up. Besides…"

He bit back on his next remark, unwilling to dive into certain waters at the moment. But Chloe would have none of it.

"Besides what?"

Jaw clenched, he broke eye contact, finding the boring concrete floor oddly fascinating all of a sudden. "I wasn't sure you'd believe me."

Chloe huffed out an incredulous scoff. "That's ridiculous!"

"Is it?" Lucifer met her eyes again, head cocked.

The underlying implication was suffocating.

"That's not fair," Chloe shot back. "This is not the same."

"No. I suppose it's not," he murmured.

A cloying silence stretched between them, heavy and uncomfortable.

"Oookay," Ella spoke. "As much as I love your weird brand of UST, we don't really have time for slow burns right now. We've done some digging on the first alleged victim; it appears she has..."

The cell walls appeared to close in on Lucifer as he tried to listen to Ms. Lopez, but the ringing inside his ears made it hard to concentrate on what she was saying. His head felt like an overinflated balloon, the pressure causing his skull to throb and his eyes to water. Rubbing his temples barely managed to ease the discomfort. He swallowed hard several times, only catching some loose words here and there: "evidence"… "emails"… "extortion."

It was Chloe who first realized something was wrong.

"Lucifer?"

Her voice was laced with alarm. She sounded just like his detective, impossible as it was to see her through the nebulous web of his vision. A slash of pain cut through Lucifer's brain, and his knees buckled. He collapsed with a grunt, unconsciously curling into a fetal position. He thought he'd heard Ms. Lopez say she was going to get help. Chloe kept calling his name, but it sounded distant and foreign. A chorus of indistinct voices rose from the adjacent cells, some mocking, others inquisitive. The fluorescent lights overhead flickered several times, buzzing in and out like an angry wasp, then went dark. Not even the emergency lights came on as the place was swallowed by total darkness, all shouting silenced momentarily mild shock.

The roar of the crowd turned into cheers when the power came back on a few seconds later.

Panting, Lucifer struggled into a sitting position, running a trembling hand through his hair, and then stood up with difficulty.

"Are… are you okay?" Chloe's voice was heavy with concern.

"I'm…" Lucifer gulped down a lie. "I don't know."

That vague response was all he managed to choke out as he stumbled towards her. He blinked several times, holding onto the bars for support, and was surprised to feel the warmth of her fingers on his. He glanced up, desperately trying to focus. Gradually, Chloe's face appeared slightly less blurred through the barrier that separated them. She was staring back at him, eyes wide. But she didn't look concerned. More like… shaken. And then it hit him. The pain had caused his eyes to turn into incandescent coals—red and glowing and bloody terrifying to those humans with the slightest sense of self preservation.

Bloody hell!

Lucifer willed his devil side dormant, his eyes cooling down to obsidian as the headache subsided somewhat. Chloe hadn't stepped away. She was still beside him, and that was a good sign. A soft thumb brushed his fingers lightly. A sign of comfort. Lucifer let out a sigh of relief.

"You're…" she stammered. "You're bleeding."

Lucifer ran a shaky finger over his upper lip. He studied the crimson stain with a frown, unfamiliar with the sight of his own blood in the absence of external trauma.

Bloody hell! What the…?

"This has never…" he gritted, then let out a tired chuckle as realization dawned on him. "The Devil's kryptonite looks ravishing in a pantsuit."

Chloe kept regarding him as if he had just suffered a concussion. "The Devil's what?"

Lucifer smiled at her weakly. "Don't worry about it," he mumbled, leaning against the cool bars. His head was spinning as he wiped off the blood with his purple handkerchief.

"You should go straight home after the hearing," Chloe suggested. "It shouldn't be too long, now. We've put in a good word with the judge." She bit her lower lip, studying him quietly for a few seconds. "I suppose a hospital is out of the question."

Her assessment wasn't entirely accurate. He'd been treated by paramedics before. Human treatments worked on him as long as she was around. The moment she stepped away, things might get a bit more interesting, though. Given all the detective had to digest in recent weeks, informing her of her status as "his personal Achilles' Heel" might be a tad ill advised.

"I'll be fine," he said through a plastic smile.

Chloe returned an equally reserved smile.

"I wanted to thank you again for taking care of Trixie the other night," she said. "I was really worried about her. I should've checked with you sooner, I just… Anyway, thank you."

"You don't need to thank me, detective."

"I think I do," she insisted. "Before we left, you told Trixie to be open with me." Chloe searched Lucifer's eyes, but he remained unreadable. "The thing is, she still hasn't told me about what."

"That's unfortunate," Lucifer said quietly. "I was sure she would talk to you about it the night you came to pick her up."

"Talk to me about what?" Chloe held onto the bars that separated them. "Please, Lucifer! I need to know!"

Lucifer lowered his head, the devil within desperate to burst out at the memory.

"She looked into my eyes, detective," he finally said. "More importantly, I looked into hers." He hadn't been prying. Trixie's transparency had shocked him. The child was pure light. Her innocence had felt like a punch in the gut. "I'm not talking as your partner right now, or even as your… friend." Lucifer regarded her with longing. "Allow me, as the Devil, to offer you a piece of advice." Chloe was looking up at him, her anxiety evident in the blue depths of her eyes. "Keep your spawn away from Penelope's new acquaintance," Lucifer told her. "She's not safe."

Chloe opened her mouth a couple of times to say something, but thoughts didn't seem to translate into words. "Bill?" she finally blurted. "But he's been so—"

"Not he," Lucifer dismissed right away. "The young one."

The color drained from Chloe's face.

"The shadow…" she muttered.

[To Be Continued…]


See you guys next week! :-)