"Lucifer, what is going on with you?" Chloe asked, throwing the case file in her hand down on the conference room table.

"I finally figured out who I am. That's all..." he replied, helping himself to a stiff drink.

"Someone who commits the crimes you've spent eons punishing?" When Lucifer gave her the silent treatment she continued. "Did Eve encourage you..."

"This has nothing to do with Eve. Careful, Detective. Jealousy doesn't become you," he said pointedly, his voice standing on the fence between something sounding human and something befitting the Devil.

"Leave that out of this."

"Very well. This is who I am Detective, I punish evil people. That man is evil and he still draws breath. He got off light," Lucifer said menacingly, eyes beginning to kindle.

"This was not right or just. There is a right way and a wrong way to punish people like this–"

"And what makes you an expert on which ways those are?" Lucifer asked forcefully, slamming his drink down on the table, leaning over like a bear hovering over its prey.

"The fact that I'm a police officer and I enforce the law."

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to? Once your flawed, loophole-ridden laws, systems of detention, investigation and justice have chewed up and spit these people out, or worse – allowed them to get off scott-free – these souls are thrown down at my feet for judgement and punishment. I am the final authority on right and wrong and have been for eons. For Julian, Tiernan and every last sordid soul in existence, the buck stops right here. How long have you been a police officer?" By the time he'd finished his eyes and the sockets around them no longer looked human.

Chloe found herself unsteady in the face of his assertion. She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath in and let it out. She turned her face to the side as a tear fell from one eye. It cut deep having something she'd dedicated so much of her time and life to torn to shreds like that. Even if he was right on the money. By the time she'd opened her eyes again he looked somewhat normal. "You're right. The system does one hell of a lot more harm than it should. And too much slips through unpunished. On this side of Hell, it's all we have. So, I am going to continue to abide by it. Enforce it. Because someone has to keeping trying to do the right thing. It's also true that, Right and Wrong around here, all comes down to you, in the end." Chloe checked herself and moved closer so as to be able to keep her voice low and still be clearly heard. "What you did to Julian wasn't about right and wrong. That wasn't some judiciously constructed hell loop. You acted on a whim. So right now, right and wrong is being determined by whims, rather than any form of due process. At some point, every officer in here has or will have to make... the same decision you're facing now. I have no business asking you to do one thing or the other. That choice is thoroughly yours to make. After what happened with Warden Smith, you know where I stand. If your choices put a case involving 'Lucifer Morningstar - Club Owner at Lux' on my desk, I will do my job – even if it tears me apart at the seams. So, until you decide, stay away from the Precinct. Stay away from the others. Stay away from me. It's safer that way," she said, finding sure footing again before the end. Looking away, she turned to leave. Her phone rang and she declined it when she took it out of her pocket. With things as they stood, she couldn't say anything else about the case around him.

"Come with me," she said moving to the conference room door and holding it open for him.

"If you keep me away from Tiernan, bad things will happen to good people. That will be on your conscience," Lucifer warned.

Her expression remained unchanged. "You're leaving. Now. And at least have the decency not to compromise anyone else by trying to sneak back in."

Lucifer knew there was nothing else to say. Once the door had closed behind them, she made a beeline for the security desk to have him turn in his clearance badge. Without so much as a word between them Chloe clandestinely walked him out of the building's rear exit. She wasn't so callous as to give him a walk of shame out the front door. He didn't so much as glance back. Chloe leaned back against the hallway wall, hugging the case file in her arms and hanging her head. Her actions were as harsh as they seemed but, they were also a three-way protective measure. It would insulate her from his actions. It would keep him away from any new cases that might inspire him to do something rash and it would keep his actions away from her scrutiny.

One might call it a head start.

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