"Miss Lopez?" Lucifer slipped into the booth beside Ella. He watched her as she continued to stare down at her hands on the table. She'd clearly been crying. "What's happened?"

"Nothing. I'm fine," she insisted.

"Well now, we both know that's a lie," Lucifer shouted. Lux was particularly packed this evening. "Why don't we move upstairs. Easier to talk when we're not shouting at one another."

"I don't need to talk, I need to drink," Ella shot back.

"That's easier to do upstairs as well. All you can drink, all top shelf and no waiting for the bartender to notice your glass has emptied," he retorted. He stood and held his hand out to her. "You don't have to talk if you don't want to, we can just drink. I promise I will not pry. But I will listen if you change your mind."

"Fine," Ella almost sulked as she eased her way out of the booth. She didn't say anything as they took the elevator up to his penthouse. She kicked off her shoes and automatically crossed to the couch. She curled up on it and stared out at the skyline.

"What would you like?" Lucifer asked as he laid his jacket over one of the chairs in front of the bar.

"Doesn't matter as long as it's over hundred proof," Ella answered blankly.

Lucifer filled two glasses from one of the elaborately cut bottles before joining her. He then settled the bottle on the low table in front of the couch. He handed her one of the glasses and she drained it in one gulp. He refilled the glass five more times and she downed them as quickly. He filled it again, but this time gently touched her wrist before she could lift it.

"As a friend, I will ask you to remember that alcohol poisoning is not a pleasant experience. I'd rather not have to escort you to the hospital to have your stomach pumped," he said before taking his hand away.

"You said all I could drink and no talking," she shot. But part of her recognized the wisdom in what he was saying and she sipped this drink rather than knocking it back like a shot.

"That I did, and I am a devil of my word," he said. He returned the bottle to the table and picked up a book that Chloe had left there. It was one of those true crime books that he wondered why she read. Surely she got enough of this sort of thing at work. At any rate, he flipped it open and began reading a random page while periodically stealing glances at Ella under the guise of turning the page or shifting his posture.

It was nearly twenty minutes later when she finally spoke. "Are you ever going to tell me what your deal is?"

"My deal? In regard to what, Miss Lopez?" he asked her, though he had a feeling he knew what she was about to ask.

"The whole 'I'm the devil' thing." Ella sat her now empty glass on the table and shifted her posture so she was facing him directly. "Who are you? Really?"

"I have told you who I really am, Miss Lopez. I am Lucifer, the fallen angel who was cast into Hell for leading a rebellion against my father," he said it matter-of-factly.

"Fine, whatever, keep lying to me then. Why should you be different from any other person in my life?" Ella shook her head and closed her eyes as she laid her head against the back of the sofa. "I thought you meant it when you said you don't lie; stupid me."

"I don't lie, Miss Lopez, and I have certainly never lied to you." He set the book down now. "Would seeing my wings convince you?"

"Dude, I'm a cosplayer, I have wings. They're mechanical and hanging in a closet at my place."

Lucifer stood and smiled down at her. He turned his back to her so she could see that there was nothing there, then faced her and unfurled his wings. He shook them a little, it felt good to stretch them out once in a while.

"Nice. Who made them for you?" Ella asked.

"No one made them, they're real." Lucifer was realizing that Ella could be downright stubborn when she wanted to be. With a shrug of his shoulders his wings were tucked back away. Without a word he began unbuttoning his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Ella asked, clearly confused.

"Proving a point," he replied. He slipped his shirt off, turned his back to her, then dropped down to one knee facing away from her. "Touch my back, you'll see, there are no wires, no hidden mechanisms. Don't be shy."

Ella was drunk enough to throw caution to the wind. She shifted her position so she was facing in the same direction as he was and ran both hands over his back. He was telling the truth. There was nothing there but the smooth skin thinly covering the powerful muscles of his shoulders.

"Now, watch carefully," he told her. She instinctively pulled her hands back as his muscles shifted and tensed. Before her eyes, the stunning, pure white wings seemed to appear out of thin air. She reached out to touch where they seemed to grow straight out of the skin. There was no line separating wing from skin, nowhere for them to attach. They really were part of him. "I told you, Miss Lopez, I am Lucifer Morningstar, the fallen angel."

"Dios mío," Ella muttered without thinking as she automatically made the sign of the cross.

Lucifer shifted slightly to one side and looked over his shoulder at her. "Really?" he asked.

"I'm so sorry, does that like, hurt you or something?" Ella asked, suddenly more nervous than she'd ever been in his presence.

"No, of course not, words are just words," he said as he stood. He tucked his wings away and put his shirt back on. "Well, come on then, make with the questions."

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. The look on her face was one he would have expected to see after she'd run over someone's puppy.

"Sorry for what, Miss Lopez?"

"I made you go to church with me! I'm so, so sorry Lucifer! If I had realized, I never would have insisted you come in with me."

"Just because I don't happen to agree with the version of my father that is presented in places of worship doesn't mean it does anything to me to enter one. On the contrary, I've been in many houses of worship of every faith that exists over the years. It doesn't hurt me or offend me to walk in or hear someone recite the Our Father. I might find the majority of it to be aggrandizing hogwash, but my ears don't bleed from listening to a sermon. If someone splashes me with holy water, my skin doesn't boil or burst into flame, it just gets wet." He settled onto the couch a few feet away from her. "I assure you, you did me no harm by requesting I accompany you."

"Can I ask you something weird?"

"Miss Lopez, you can ask me absolutely anything."

"What's with the feathery wings?" she asked bluntly. "I always thought the devil had leathery wings, kinda like a bat."

"You are partially correct. When I'm in this form, my true form, my wings remain angelic and feather-covered. When I assume my devil form, that's when the leather and talons come out."

"Can I see it? Your devil form, I mean."

"Yes, but not tonight. My devil face, and all that goes with it, can be very upsetting to witness," he remarked. "When the Detective first saw it, she left the continent for a month and plotted with a priest to banish me from the Earthly plane and send me back to Hell. Daniel shot me after seeing it." He leaned forward slightly and looked closely at her eyes. "I'd wager that with the amount of alcohol in your system at the moment, two things would happen; firstly, my devil form would seem even more grotesque and unsettling than usual. Secondly, by morning you'd likely believe it was all some strange dream triggered by the copious quantities of bourbon you've been consuming."

"Ugh, that's why I'm so horny all of a sudden," Ella muttered as she hung her head. "I should never drink bourbon. It makes me want to jump anyone with a pulse." She looked back up at him now. "You're really hot, by the way. Chloe's damn lucky she gets to bang you on the regular."

"Right, that settles it then; you are staying the night," Lucifer told her. "I'll not have you leaving and allowing your diminished inhibitions to cause you to make choices which you will invariably regret in the light of dawn."

"Do you always talk like you just walked out of a British romance novel set in the eighteenth-century?" Ella asked as she allowed her head to tilt so far to the side that it rested on her shoulder.

"Yes, I'm afraid I do," he smiled at her.

"My head feels like it's a hundred pounds," she muttered as her focus drifted off. "Like weight pounds, not the money with the weird squiggly 'L' with the line through it kinda pounds."

"Which means it is time for you to go to sleep, Miss Lopez." He stood and held his hands out to her. "May I?"

She took his hands and tried to stand, but only made it about halfway to an upright position before her legs crumpled and she slumped to the floor. "Screw it. Just let me sleep on the floor. That way I can't fall any further. Well, unless I somehow roll out to the balcony and fall off. Not that that would be any great loss. One more LA screwup taking a swan dive off a high-rise. I just hope Chloe doesn't have to investigate it. I'd hate for her to have to watch someone bag pieces of my brain off the sidewalk. Or is it a parking lot down there? Enh, splatter's splatter," she muttered. Eventually she looked up at him. "What were we talking about?"

"Getting you to bed," he said simply.

"Mmmm… Yes, let's make that happen," Ella purred as she tried to unbutton her t-shirt. "Aw man, I can't flash in this thing."

"Just as well, since you are going to bed alone," he told her. He was certain she'd be mortified if she remembered any of this in the morning. He wasn't sure what was gnawing at her, but he was more confident than before that he needed to ensure her safety for the night.

"But bed alone is no fun, I mean, not without toys anyway," Ella complained as he easily scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bedroom while her head bobbled about limply. Ella giggled. "I'm flying just like an angel!" Her eyes then grew wide and she slapped her hand over her mouth. "Wait, is that racist? Like racist against angels? I'm so sorry Luce, I'm not a racist person, I swear."

"No, it's not racist, Miss Lopez," he assured her with a quiet chuckle that he was becoming more and more certain she'd have no recollection of. He laid her on the bed and covered her with a blanket before placing the garbage can directly beside the bed. He had a feeling that when her body decided it was time to evict the Michter's she'd been downing like water, not to mention whatever she'd consumed downstairs, she wouldn't have much time to make it to the washroom. He put a large bottle of water on the nightstand before brushing her bangs from her face and whispering "Sleep well, dear girl."

"Why aren't you getting in bed too? You should totally be taking advantage of how wasted I am. I mean, I know I sound all drunk and sloppy, but I'm really good in the sack, even when I'm hammered," Ella muttered groggily.

"Miss Lopez," he said softly as he sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand in his. "I have no doubt that your sexual prowess would be more than capable of making even me blush. However, you are extremely important to me and I would never risk losing your friendship in the interest of inebriated intercourse." He smiled down at her now. "You are a truly beautiful soul, Ella Lopez. Myself and all of those around you are lucky to have you in our lives." He squeezed her hand gently as he saw tears welling in her eyes. "Now, you desperately need rest. Get some sleep, we can talk in the morning, if you'd like."

"You're a good man, Lucifer Morningstar," Ella murmured, already drifting into unconsciousness.

He went down to the main room of the penthouse and poured himself another glass from the crystal bottle before stepping out onto the balcony. He leaned on the railing as he looked across the lights of the city. He was still lost in thought about the strange things Ella had been saying when he heard the elevator ding and sensed Chloe.

"I'm surprised you're not downstairs," Chloe commented as she crossed the room to join him on the balcony.

"I was, earlier. Until I spotted Miss Lopez attempting to drown her sorrows and brought her up here where I could keep an eye on her and what she was consuming," he explained. "She wouldn't tell me what was troubling her, but it was blatantly evident that there is something upsetting her."

"What makes you say that?" Chloe asked as she sat in one of the chairs.

He turned and came to sit on the arm of the chair she'd settled in and began absently running his hand through her hair, playing with strands from her ponytail. "Well, the fact that she sat in silence for nearly twenty minutes was the first indication that something is abhorrently wrong, then there was a rather unsettling comment that she made." His eyes narrowed as he thought about the statement. "She suggested that I allow her to sleep on the floor, which of course was preposterous. But then she remarked that if she were to roll off the balcony in her sleep it would be no great loss as it would be, and I quote, 'one more LA screwup taking a swan dive off a high-rise'."

"What?" Chloe looked up at him in confusion. "That definitely doesn't sound like Ella."

"Agreed. I'm quite worried about her, actually." His forehead creased as he wondered what could have upset her so badly. "She also made a comment about me lying to her like everyone else in her life, so clearly she feels as though someone she trusts has been deceiving her. I should warn you, she may or may not remember that I showed her my wings."

"I've seen her get pretty drunk and she usually remembers what happened the next day so she will probably remember you sprouting wings," Chloe observed.

"Well, hopefully her memory is selective then," Lucifer grinned. "She was drinking bourbon…"

"Oh no! Did she hook up with some rando downstairs?" Chloe asked.

"No, but she did tell me that I'm really hot and said that you are, in her words, lucky that you get to bang me on the regular. I believe she also intended on flashing me and tried to persuade me to get into bed with her," he told her. "Nothing of the sort happened, I assure you."

"One, I know you wouldn't betray me by doing anything with her or anyone else. Two, I know even if you and I weren't together, you would absolutely never take advantage of Ella like that," Chloe told him. She knew to the core of her being it was the truth too. Despite his voracious sexual appetite and extensive number of previous partners, she trusted him completely. She also knew how important Ella was to him; the bond that they'd developed over the years was very much a brother-sister type of connection. He had more than once been tempted to go after her exes and show them exactly who was watching out for her. He would never do anything to take advantage of Ella.

"You know me so well," he smiled down at her. "What say we light a fire, curl up on the sofa and you can tell me all about your evening while I cop a feel or twenty," he suggested.

"I love the way your mind works," Chloe giggled as she looked up at him. Tomorrow they would figure out what was up with Ella. Tonight she wanted nothing more than to lose herself to the gorgeous devil at her side.