A short one this time, erased half of it. Sitting at home doesn't help. Hope you like it nonetheless. Take care!


The heat and the stench, even if it was winter, was almost unbearable. Ella searched for some tools while the decomposing body was feast for flies, maggots and larvae.

"Poor Rosalind!" she exclaimed. "We found you too late, but I swear we will find who did this to you!"

Unphased from everything Lucifer took a good look of the corpse and sniffed. "Two weeks, Miss López?"

"Good guess, buddy! What gave it away?" She retrieved a maggot and put it in a small container.

"Well, if you are to question me, the larvae and flesh flies did. They do not appear until a certain time of putrefaction. It's really just like any other meat left in the sun." He smiled at the tiny lab tech.

Chloe displayed a very disgusted expression. She preferred to look for clues away from the dead woman. Rosalind, like Rosalind Parks or Rosalind Franklin. She had probably been well over eighty. Why would she turn up in the desert like a mob victim that was supposed to disappear for good? A drug cartel wouldn't do that. If it was murder, and it certainly looked like it, it would have been much easier to kill her with an overdose of heart medication and that would point towards family or acquaintances. She tapped the index finger on her mouth, a reflex she always had when something was bothering her and searched the ground, her violet gloves in stark contrast to the yellowish soil. The detective saw something moving under a rock and turned it around, just before she shrieked out loud and tried to stamp the monstrosity of a scorpion. Lucifer was by her side in an instant and held her back.

"What the hell, Lucifer?" she snapped.

"What are you doing, Chloe!? Do you want to kill it? Why?" His eyes pierced her, and his voice became instantly accusatory.

"It's a bloody scorpion!"

"So? This single fact gives you the right to destroy its life?" He crouched besides the light-colored animal with a dark, slightly moving back. "Look, it's a female carrying her babies. What has she done to you? You moved her hiding spot where she felt safe. We are invading her habitat not the other way around."

"It's dangerous and it's hideous." A repulsed glare mixed with fear stared back at him.

"Just like me before I shower, right?" He retorted, deeply hurt, and let the scorpion climb on his hand where it barely fit. He studied the large, sand colored pincers and its hairy tail with its bent stinger with heightened interest.

Ella, now curious about the quarrel, came over.

"Oh, it's a Giant Hairy Desert Scorpion! The largest in North America. Wow! She was for sure looking for food to feed her offspring at night and there is a lot around Rosalind. Be careful, Lucifer. When she stings, it's as painful as a bee sting, and she will for sure protect her babies."

He squatted to let the arachnid carefully down, next to a larger rock, and the animal rushed away into hiding.

"Yeah, it's dangerous and hideous and therefore has no right to walk the Earth, right? It's over 400 million years of evolution, an adaptation to an environment full of enemies. It's not like she chose to look like that just for the fun of it." Lucifer stepped in front of Chloe, still looking deeply hurt, lashing out, and Chloe was taken by surprise of his sudden outburst.

"I am sorry. I wasn't thinking." Chloe exclaimed. Of course it was never going to be forgotten.

"No, you weren't. That's why we are experiencing another mass extinction. And that has been happening since the Ice Age. You humans are the reason mammoths and wool rhinos don't exist on this plane anymore. If you can eat it, you eat and eat until it is extinct, and if it's considered dangerous or ugly, it has no right to live either." He shoved his hands into his pockets before she could get a hold of one.

"Come on! Now you're exaggerating!" She crossed her arms. He was being a drama queen. Again.

"Guys, calm down!" Ella was surprised to see her friends so worked up because of a small animal. "I guess I will have the results as early as the 3rd of January. Here is Rosalind's ID. You can work with that in the meantime."

"Thank you, Ella!" Chloe took the ID as if it was the last straw to hold on. "I will head back to the precinct." She looked back at her upset partner. "It might take a while and we might need to make a detour."

Ella nodded. When Lucifer was upset it wasn't easy to calm him down. He would usually try to break something or take it out on somebody who wouldn't be Chloe. Something must have happened.

"What is going on?" the lab tech whispered.

"Too many things. We are both stressed out." The detective sighed before she headed to her car, following her tall partner who seemed to have a dark cloud hanging over him. She would need to apologize a lot, not that she could undo her behavior.

"I am really sorry!" she shouted holding her hands up in the air, knowing that public display of regret would probably work somewhat to smooth things over. "What can I do to make this right?"

"How about accepting everything that I am as a first step?" Lucifer's eyes flashed briefly.

"I am trying."

"I have been very patient, haven't I?"

"Yes, you have." There was no point arguing, she married the Devil and she still didn't want to see him as such. She simply couldn't bear it. She loved her partner, but not this 'devilish hotness' as he called it. She recoiled from it and obviously he had noticed her revulsion. "I know, it's not fair to you." What else could she say?

Lucifer looked out of the window while she drove back to the city and didn't utter a word for over an hour, completely out of character.

xxxxx

Trixie was waiting for Lucifer at LUX and overjoyed when her mother dropped him off. The club owner's mood changed instantly for the better when he passed the brass gates as she dragged him by the hand. The club was a sea of gold and black and he congratulated her wholeheartedly, not complaining about her clinging to his arm during her tour of the club.

"You really did well, urchin. This looks professional and will appeal to the adults later tonight. I can only hope your schoolmates will enjoy it."

"Sure they will. Look! The screens have some funny video loops, we have added some colorful umbrellas to the drinks."

"The colors are not from Bols, right?"

"No, Patrick and I experimented with food colorings. Don't they look cool?" Trixie eyed him to see his approval.

"They look like poison! I guess that was the idea. But what have you done to the piano?"

"I pulled it to the corner over there. Didn't want it to get sticky. I know how much you'd hate that."

"And what about the waiters?"

"They come in a black suit or dress. It was up to them, no uniform, but name tags. There is a buffet, so not really a need for more than three. Everything is family friendly, even the glasses are made of plastic, so no way they hurt each other." Trixie grinned, waiting for approval.

"Ah, thoughtful like your mother. Seems you have everything under control. Well done, urchin!"

He didn't like the plastic glasses, but it would be worse if a spawn cut itself, and they looked like acceptable high balls. His thoughts wandered to the Detective. Maybe he exaggerated a bit. He pulled out his iPhone and texted a couple of friendly devil and black heart emojis. She was punished enough with her guilty look on her face when he left the car. He would return to the routine of assimilation showing her his Devil eyes, wings or whatever, one by one.