"How's Maze?" Lucifer enquired.
He hoped she hadn't resented the fact he hadn't taken her back down to Hell with him. But Maze had had ties to the others too and there was no point in making them both miserable.
Chloe smiled wryly.
"She runs Lux now with the occasional bounty hunting on the side. Eve came back in the year after you left and they've been together ever since."
"That's so?" Lucifer said with cautious interest.
Then he hesitated.
"Are they all right together?"
"They've both been happy," Chloe commented.
Which was the truth, she thought.
"That's good, Detective."
Chloe went on.
"Maze helped raise Charlie, taught him weapons training and self-defence as soon as he was old enough. Which is useful now that's he's a Detective."
Lucifer looked smug at that.
"How's Linda and my big brother?"
Chloe looked uneasy for a moment.
"Linda hasn't really aged a day since giving birth to Charlie; Amenadiel thinks that carrying a half-angel baby to term slowed down her aging process."
Or stopped it, was her unspoken thought.
"He wonders if she could easily live another century."
Lucifer tilted his head and stared at her.
"That could be awkward, Detective, people tend to notice that sort of thing. If I went back to work, people would notice I hadn't aged a day either in their eyes. Still good looking, though."
He lifted a hand to playfully smooth back his dark hair.
He thought about how spending more time on Earth than usual – both him and Amenadiel – had sent ripples through the lives of those they had become close to. Good, bad and awkward.
Chloe rolled her eyes though she was touched that he still thought of the LAPD as work after all these years.
Then she looked serious.
"You came back from Hell for me, but can you go back for longer visits?" she questioned.
Lucifer was quiet for a second.
"I could, Detective, if it was only for a short visit – and if I was careful who I ran into. Staying away too long from Hell had caused more chaos than I realised; the natives thought I had become weak. I hadn't."
There was a cold look in his dark eyes with those last words.
Then he smiled.
"How's Miss Lopez?" he said with more warmth.
"She's good," Chloe said diplomatically.
There was no need to mention the shock in Ella's eyes she had seen when the penny had dropped and Ella had realised that Lucifer hadn't just been an eccentric method actor after all.
"She went out for a long while with someone who organised sci-fi conventions… the amount of Klingon she used in casual conversation went way up," Chloe said ruefully.
"Oh, I can speak Klingon too, Detective since it's an actual language," Lucifer said happily.
"No, you can't. I didn't hear that at all," she scolded him.
Lucifer pouted.
He was glad though that the Detective had caught him up with those he still cared about.
"What would you like to do now, Detective?" he said gently.
Chloe looked at him with a considering look in her blue eyes.
"Can we have a look outside?" she said simply.
"Yes, Detective."
When they left Lux II, a thoughtful Agatos watched them go.
On walking outside of the building, Chloe half-expected to see the busy street of LA, the sounds and sight of traffic and people flowing past. Instead, there's just a large expanse of barren, grey ground and in the middle distance is the edges of where the vast, grey city of Hell starts. A gust of wind scattered dust and small stones along the ground and she thought she could hear the sound of distant sobbing that had been carried on the wind.
With a small shiver, Chloe looked up at the grey sky. She couldn't see a sun or some other light source, but there had to be one somewhere. Was there? She did feel regret at the thought of never standing under the blue sky ever again, or feeling the sun on her face at the beach. Could she blame the Devil though for walking the earth, if only to feel the suns warmth?
Another thing occurred to her as she took a few more experimental steps to test that the ground was firm (you had to be sure).
"Nothing grows here, does it?" she said in realisation.
"No, Detective," Lucifer replied and there was something ancient and sad in his voice.
Chloe saw swirls of ash falling through the air not too far away and then a gust of wind suddenly blew some on to her sleeve.
Lucifer noticed it too and his eyes glowed red for a second.
"No ash on the Detective!" he growled as if he was addressing someone.
To Chloe's surprise, the ash immediately vanished as if it had never been.
"Lucifer, what-" she began, feeling confused.
"I just spoke to Hell itself," he announced. "Told it off, too," he added indignantly.
Chloe blinked a few times.
"Are you telling me that Hell is sentient?" she hissed, looking nervously around.
"Yes, Detective, but think of it more as the grumpy old man who yells at kids to get off the lawn these days," he said reassuringly.
This didn't make Chloe feel better.
At that, a spatter of ash fell directly on Lucifer's head, speckling it with grey.
"Has it been watching everything I say and do?" she said with dawning horror, her blue eyes wide.
Lucifer shook his head quickly.
"No, I had told it to give us privacy," he said soberly.
His eyes then looked unfocussed for a moment before looking down at her carefully.
"It wants to be introduced to you, at your convenience, of course, Detective."
"It does?" Chloe said faintly.
"Yes, you're something new and unique here, Detective," he said gently.
"That's not quite helping, Lucifer," she pointed out waspishly.
"It wouldn't hurt you, Detective and I'd be right beside you the whole time," he said soberly.
"What would I even say?" she asked, dumbfounded.
"Just be yourself, darling," Lucifer said grandly.
Great, she thought and sighed. Things continued to get weirder here.
TBC
