Chloe released a deep, contented breath and rolled over, hugging her pillow in to cradle her head just right, and snuggling into the deliciously warm cocoon of the down comforter. Above her, a skylight filled the space with a beautifully soft glow.

Bliss.

She was just starting to doze when the sound of violently gushing water and a shout jerked her rudely awake.

"WHAT!"

Frenzied thumping, the hurried slap of wet feet, and generous dripping followed.

"FATHER!"

Chloe jerked up in the bed, staring in confused shock at the bathroom door on the far side of the room - the Cliff House bedroom, that was three times the size of her old one, with hardwood floors and a fireplace and more ridiculousness she was only just starting to get used to.

"Lucifer?!"

The events of the last few days rushed her, leaving her scrambling to understand what had happened.

Because hadn't they just been...?

She stared around herself.

What happened to the school?! How was she here?

And why hadn't Lucifer answered?

"Are you okay?!" she called.

When no immediate answer came, she jumped from the bed and ran to the door, her bare feet slapping on the cool polished floorboards.

There was a deep sigh from the other side.

"I am fine, Chloe."

She yanked it wide open, her heart thumping in her chest.

Revealing a very soggy Lucifer, his wings bedraggled and soaked through, his hair a shaggy, plastered mess, dripping in long streams onto the black and white tiled floor.

"That was very cold," he said.

Chloe snorted, and quickly covered her mouth.

"Lucifer, how did you..." The question trailed off as she pointed at him, then back and forth between them both. "Why are we..."

Shaking her head at herself because he looked so utterly miserable, she turned around to grab a towel from the heated rack on the wall.

There was a flash of light behind her and the soft hiss of steam.

She twisted back with a little jump.

And Lucifer stood before her, completely and utterly dry, his wings resplendent, his gaze soft, the glow just fading from his skin.

Chloe grinned. "You've never done that before."

He tilted his head with a soft smile.

"I have never had a shower quite that cold before."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Why did you? And why..." She gestured behind herself broadly, hoping to suggest everything strange as her mind reeled with the weirdness of the moment. "Weren't we in a school? How...?"

Lucifer stepped forward, stilling her words, and she smiled up at him as he closed the space.

His dark eyes traveled happily over her features, dipping to her smile and up. His hands, beautifully warm and so wonderfully familiar, circled her waist. Under his touch, her skin shivered, and she let out a happy sigh, looping her arms over his shoulders.

"What do you remember?" he asked, his eyes growing softer still, drifting to her lips.

"Mmm," she murmured, feeling little desire to talk.

But the question wormed its way in and would not let go.

"We were at the school, weren't we?" she asked, frowning.

"Yes," he breathed against the skin of her throat, as he dipped his head and kissed her there.

"We were..." she said, her words ending in a sigh, as his lips followed the curve of her throat to the soft dangling lobe of her ear and sucked there.

"Yes," he murmured, his breath hot against her cheek as his kisses grew ever nearer.

"But..." she said, and her mouth fell open, "then your Dad showed up!"

Lucifer made a small noise and dropped his head onto her shoulder.

"Yes," he said flatly.

Lifting then, he stared at her intently. "What do you remember of him?"

Mouth twisting, she negotiated the memory.

"He... wasn't happy. I think because we were about to have sex, in a school?"

She slapped a hand over her face. "That was really bad, I hope they didn't have any cameras around."

Lucifer grinned.

"And no, we can't check to see if they did," snapped, poking at his chest.

He laughed. "That was not why I was smiling."

Laying her hand against his chest, and tracing his skin in lazy circles, she smirked back. "Then why?"

"Because you were enjoying it at the time," he answered. "And had little care either way."

Giggling, she drew her arms over his shoulders again, threading her fingers through his wiry hair.

"That's true."

Closing his eyes, he made a soft sound of pleasure as her fingertips traveled up his scalp to the crown of his head.

And she drew him down for a kiss.

But the tears rushed her eyes again as their lips met.

"I thought I'd lost you," she mumbled, dropping her head from the kiss as the tears grew heavier.

His arms wrapped around her protectively, and he stroked her back, simply holding her close as she cried.

"It was awful," she mumbled against his chest as the tears lessened. "All of it."

His chin rested against the crown of her head.

"It was."

Her heart ached. "That boy... he... he was still mine, wasn't he?"

Lucifer sighed.

"Physically, yes, he was ours. But as you wisely told me earlier, he was not truly our child. The body was a shell, created and accelerated in growth by a disgruntled god."

Chloe listened, her eyes fixed almost angrily on one particular tile on the far wall.

"That's so damn weird," she whispered. "How did my life get so weird?"

Lucifer laughed.

She looked up.

"By meeting me, I believe," he said softly. "Although I have learned that the celestial has played a part your existence since before you were born."

Chloe's eyes widened. "What?!"

His smile slipped.

"Ah. Perhaps that was one of the things I was not meant to mention."

There was a large, vibrantly terrifying sound, one that shook the fabric of the world around her. She grasped at her ears with a cry.

Lucifer sighed.

"Yes, Father, I do remember our agreement."

Chloe looked around the space, her heart thundering. "What was that?! I heard that back at the school? Was that God's voice?"

Lucifer nodded with a soft smile. "I believe he forgets how loud he is." He lifted his gaze to the ceiling. "Or how very intrusive!"

She frowned at him, her skin still sparking in shock from the sound.

From everything.

"What did you mean 'not to mention'?" she asked. "What's this 'agreement' you've got with your Dad?"

"I cannot say."

Her mouth went dry. "But it's about me?"

Lucifer released a heavy breath and nodded.

"Yes."

"Seriously, what is it?" she asked, her voice rising.

His gaze fell from her own. "I agreed that I would not tell you. I am not happy that I was asked to do this."

She glared at him.

"Well, that's great!" she snapped, pulling herself from his embrace. "Now I know you're keeping something from me, on purpose, that involves the creator of everything, who's apparently been screwing around with my life since before I was born?! What am I supposed to do with that information?!"

Lucifer stared at her with eyes older than the Earth.

"Nothing," he said softly.

Jerking away from him, she stormed out of the bathroom, past the fireplace, and moved back to the bed to grab her PJs from under the pillow.

Her thoughts were scrambled.

She didn't know what to do or say about what she'd just learned.

And an awful thought slammed into her head as she was pulling on her top.

The sound of Lucifer's footsteps came across the floor behind her, as she turned, her face widening in fear.

"I am sorry, Chloe."

"Where's Trixie?"

His expression grew very quickly careful.

There was a long pause before he spoke.

"Where did you leave her last?" he asked, in an apparent attempt to be helpful, looking a little unsure about his choice of words.

Chloe shook her head at him, stared about herself for her phone, and looked past him down the hall leading to the living room.

"Monkey?!"

Something burbled melodically from the kitchen.

Her phone!

She rushed past Lucifer to the living room, flooded with sunlight from the floor to ceiling windows, and snatched her vibrating phone off the marbled kitchen counter.

Dan was calling?

"Hey, Dan," she said quickly, answering the call. "Uh..."

And it occurred to her, that the last time she'd seen Dan, he'd been totally okay leaving her cuffed to a hospital bed while thinking she was crazy.

"YOU SUCK!" she yelled, hanging up on him.

Then she stared down at her phone, and started stabbing the screen frantically to get back to her contacts.

"What am I doing?!"

He called again, and she took the call quickly, wincing against the screen. "Sorry, Dan, I was saying that to... the... um..." she flailed at the nearest object, "geranium!"

Wincing once more, she smacked the phone against her forehead.

Lucifer had just entered the room, now clothed in loose black pants, and stared at the plant and back as his brow raised in confusion.

Fire lit his eyes.

The geranium fell to ash.

He walked on into the sunlight.

"Oh my god!" Chloe shrieked, staring at the remains of the geranium, now a pile of ash in a pot. "My plant!"

"Chloe?! What's going on over there? Are you okay?!"

"I thought the plant did something wrong?" Lucifer said from across the room, turning as he stretched his incredible wings in the golden light. They grew even more brilliantly white, bouncing light throughout the entire space.

The sight snatched the thoughts from her mind, leaving her staring until Dan's insistent voice punched through.

"Chloe?! Where are you?!"

"Sorry, Dan, just a moment," and covering the bottom of the phone, she gestured at the once-geranium with her elbow. "How could it do anything wrong, Lucifer?! It's a plant! My mom gave me that plant! Yes, Dan? I'm at the Cliff House, yeah, I'm fine, I... um..."

What was she supposed to say? How could she explain that a god, posing as the Antichrist, had kidnapped her and Trixie from the hospital?

Wouldn't that just put her back in cuffs?!

When she looked up again, Lucifer had returned to the plant.

His hands hovered over the pot, and the space was filled with a beautiful glow. When it receded, a tiny green tendril poked up through the ash.

He smiled down at it.

"My apologies. The human I love is very stressed and I am being overtly protective."

Chloe's heart jumped in her chest and she stared at him with soft eyes for a moment, before Dan's voice punched through again.

"Do you have Trixie, Chloe?!"

Her eyes bulged down at the phone.

At least Dan remembered their daughter now - but if he didn't have Trixie, where was her baby?!

"I..." she mumbled, staring at nothing then, her mind locked in shock.

Was her daughter still at the school!?

Oh my god

"Momma?"

The soft patter of footsteps followed the voice, and her daughter stepped out of the hall and into the living room, rubbing her eyes. She was wearing the pink top and jeans Chloe had seen her in last, on the stage, when...

...when...

...why was that bit fuzzy?

"Mom?" Trixie said, looking around herself in confusion, her eyes puffy. "How'd we get home?"

Lucifer clapped at Trixie twice, very slowly.

When Chloe's gaze snapped to him in shock, he pointed at the plant and clapped once more.

"I am very happy your geranium has pulled through."

Frowning at him, Chloe rushed forward to embrace her daughter, who'd just turned back from mouthing something she didn't quite catch at Lucifer.

Trixie grabbed her tightly. "Mom, you're okay?!"

Tears flooded her eyes as Chloe held her not-so-small baby tight. "Oh, monkey, I'm wonderful. You're here now, and everything is perfect."

"This will be harder than I thought," Lucifer said quietly, before walking away again. His voice followed soon after, answering the phone as Chloe basked in how good everything felt with Trixie back in her arms.

"Dan? ...Yes, I suppose I have returned from my trip home. Trixie is here. Do not worry. Also, I am sorry about your head."

There was another small pause.

"Ah, you do not remember that? Then I retract my apology for what you do not remember me doing to your head. Next time, do not be stupid enough to point a gun at mine. Goodbye."

A mangled, tinny voice followed sharply, before the phone was replaced on the kitchen counter.

"Promising," Lucifer murmured, before walking away.

With a worried smile, Chloe pulled her daughter back and stared into Trixie's puffy eyes.

Had she been crying?

"Monkey, do you remember what happened at the school?"

Her daughter shrugged, and rubbed her eyes again. "A little? Everything is kind of blurry."

Chloe brushed her daughter's cheek reassuringly. "Yeah, for me too. Try not to dwell too hard on it right now, okay? If you remember anything that scares you, or makes you feel bad, you'll let me know, yeah? We'll face it together."

Trixie nodded with a small smile. "I will, mom. Is Dad okay?"

She smiled. "Yeah, monkey, Dad is fine. He was really worried about you, but he's okay now."

Her daughter's smile grew. "That's good." Her gaze slipped away to where Lucifer had gone and quickly darted back. "I'm glad we're home, mom."

And she dived forward to give Chloe another big hug.

"Oh, Trixie, me too."

She held her daughter for a long time, eyes closed, feeling a wonderful sense of peace.

"I love you, monkey."

"I love you too, mom," her daughter whispered, squeezing her tight. "More than you'll ever know."

Chloe stared over her daughter's shoulder, her brow furrowing slightly.

Trixie had never spoken to her like that before.

Was it the shock of what had happened?

Or was she just growing up?

Trixie pulled away with a grin, easing her concern, and walked to the fridge.

"Can I have rest of the chocolate cake in here?" she asked, pulling the door open and smiling hopefully.

Smirking, Chloe stood, and leaned over the counter with a little laugh.

"What do you think?"

Trixie grinned again. "That I can have the rest of the chocolate cake?"

Chloe shook her head. "No, you can't have the rest of the chocolate cake."

"Aww," Trixie sighed, slowly closing the door.

Chloe grinned.

"But we can."

Her daughter yanked it open again, grinning from ear to ear. "Yay!"

The cake was plonked on the counter, the lid ripped off, and mother and daughter dived in.

"Lucifer?" Chloe called, feeling a little guilty for how she'd reacted before. "Did you want some cake?"

He walked back from the windows slowly, frowning.

"What's wrong?" Chloe asked. She reached for him. "Hey, I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"You were confused and scared, Chloe. I understand," he murmured, shaking his head. "That is not what is troubling me. I have remembered a terrible mistake. I must rectify it, immediately."

Turning from the counter, her heart sinking in her chest, Chloe stood to grasp his hand. "You're leaving? But... I only just... found you again..." She weaved her fingers through his own. "Where do you have to go?"

His gaze lifted, soft and warm. Pressing in, cradling her cheek, he closed his lips against hers and kissed her.

"I will be back as soon as I can. I promise."

"What happened, Lucifer?" she asked, searching his eyes. "What did you do?"

His expression grew stricken.

"I have hurt my oldest friend."

With a rush of his great wings, he was gone.

Hi everyone! :) Sorry for the wait. These chapters will be a few days apart I think, until the fic is done. Not too many chapters to go... theoretically. XD

Hmmmm, I WONDER where we're going next? ;)

Thanks for reading. Hope you'll leave a comment if you have the inclination. :)

Hope everyone is doing well too. The sunshine is lovely here today - wish I could package it and send it to you all.