A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you for the interest so far in this fic! I hope you'll enjoy the second chapter as well! Also, yay! We got the trailer for 5B! What did you all think?
Chapter 2: Have We Met Before?
Chloe parked her cruiser at the crime scene. Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply through her nose, concentrating on the comforting feeling of her chest expanding and then deflating as she slowly exhaled.
Within the span of two weeks, her life had been knocked askew. She felt as though she were living in some alternate reality, like a bad sci-fi movie her mother would have starred in long ago.
Not only had she learned that God was real and that she was in love with the Devil, she also had to come to terms with the fact that somehow, she seemed to exist in a photograph that had been taken eighty-some years ago.
How was she, Chloe Decker—a nobody—supposed to deal with all of that?
One crazy celestial thing at a time, Decker; that's how.
She wasn't even sure Lucifer would be at the crime scene, given that she hadn't told him she was back. Still, as she climbed out of the cruiser, her heart raced with a nervous sort of anticipation at the possibility of seeing him again.
Dipping under the crime scene tape that cordoned off the area, she made her way over to the body, waving a friendly greeting to the officers she passed.
Her gait faltered when she noticed him, his back to her as he talked to Ella. She breathed deeply to steel herself and then determinedly approached them.
"Hey, sorry I'm late," she apologized. The words sounded mechanical and rehearsed to her ears. Purposefully, she kept her eyes trained on Ella, not ready to face Lucifer just yet. Would she still see him as her partner? Or would she only see the Devil?
"Decker!" Ella rushed forward to pull her into a hug.
"Detective…?" The smooth familiar sound of Lucifer's voice made her stomach flip, a conspicuous reminder of the feelings she still had for him.
"Oh my god!" Ella exclaimed. "How was the vacation? Where did you go? Why are you not more tanned?"
Chloe couldn't help but smile at her friend's enthusiasm even as she reached forward to peel Chloe's jacket away, trying to glimpse more of her pasty skin to check for tan lines.
"Listen, I'll catch you up on everything, I promise, but first, what's happening?" she asked, indicating to the dead body. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the flabbergasted expression on Lucifer's face as he stared at her.
"Yeah of course," Ella replied, turning back to the body. Chloe tried to focus on Ella's summary of what they knew so far, but Lucifer's wide-eyed gaze on her was distracting. She chanced a nervous glance at him before quickly returning her focus to Ella.
Even just that small glimpse of him caused a swirl of mixed emotions to surge up within her, emotions that she had no idea how to begin to untangle.
He looked good; impeccably put together as always, and the attraction she hated to admit she'd always felt for him made her heart beat faster in her chest. His unwavering attention on her and the look of utter bewilderment on his face was just so Lucifer that the familiarity of it nearly overwhelmed her.
He was the same person he'd always been, and she couldn't deny that she was happy to be near him again.
Yet Kinley's photo burned a hole in the back pocket of her jeans. Underneath all of the good feelings she felt from seeing him again, uncertainty—and okay, a dash of fear—lingered still, along with new feelings of hurt and betrayal. If he knew the story behind the photo, why had he kept it from her?
Maybe he didn't know anything about the photograph. Maybe he had no idea what she was doing in Nazi Germany. But that seemed like too large of a coincidence to be true.
She could have asked Kinley about the picture, could have tried to uncover what he knew about it, if he knew about it at all. From the few interactions she'd had with him, he didn't seem to be the type of person to beat around the bush—he'd been very direct with her right from the start—but he seemed entirely preoccupied with wanting to convince her of Lucifer's wickedness to be trustworthy. Ultimately, that was how she'd made the decision not to ask him about it.
The notion that Lucifer might know something about her that she didn't even know about herself left her feeling vulnerable and exposed. Suddenly, his gaze on her felt too intense, and she grabbed the first chance she could to put some distance between them, darting off to interview the victim's wife.
Of course, in typical Lucifer fashion, her partner did not take the hint.
"Lucifer, her husband was just murdered," Chloe reprimanded, pulling him aside after he'd interrupted her interview. Somehow, it helped, falling back into their roles. The normalcy of it grounded her. As long as she squashed the voice in her head that panicked, you're scolding the Devil, everything was good. Everything was okay.
"Are you…okay?" he asked carefully, scrutinizing her face.
She nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." And it wasn't a lie, she told herself, because being fine and being good were two different things.
"Where did you go?" he asked softly, curiously. His brow furrowed, and she could tell from the way his voice shook just a little that her disappearing act had hurt him.
"I took Trixie to Rome," she admitted. "We stayed with an old friend and it gave me time to process what I saw."
"And have you? Processed? Are you okay with what you saw?" he pressed.
Chloe's smile wavered. The fear of his devil face still lingered in her gut, but it didn't overwhelm her like it had at first. He gazed at her with such an intense focus she knew that if she lied, he'd see right through her. "I-"
Luckily, he interrupted her. "Detective…" and his voice sounded so desperate as he implored, "Are you okay with me?"
"Well it's not like you haven't always told me the truth." Just not the whole truth, she didn't say. She glanced at him to see his reaction. Because Lucifer claimed he didn't lie, but he did omit. Her hand subconsciously skimmed over the photo that was tucked inside the back pocket of her jeans. "You know?" She tested him, but his face gave nothing away. "So, I think deep down I just… I always knew." She shrugged, finding it difficult to meet his eyes again.
There was a time she'd been so confident in her ability to read him, but at that very moment he felt like a stranger to her.
She heard Kinley's voice in her mind saying, The Devil has been manipulating human beings since the beginning of time.
Had she ever really known him at all?
"How does it make you feel?" he continued. "Afraid? Terrified? Do you want to yell at me? Punch me in the face? Run away again?"
She was terrified; terrified of all that she didn't know. The weight of it felt heavy in her chest, an anchor tied to her heart, sinking slowly deep into her guts.
She came to the devastating realization that things could never go back to the way they were before.
"I think I just want to get back to work," she managed around the lump that had formed in her throat.
"That's all?"
She swallowed, blinking back the tears that had begun to form in the corners of her eyes. She nodded swiftly and confirmed, "That's all."
And then she turned and hurried away before he could see the tear slip down her cheek.
In an attempt to keep her mind off her own celestial-sized problems, Chloe threw herself into the case.
Avoiding those problems was easier said than done, however, because now that she was in the know, Lucifer took every opportunity to involve her in his devilish shenanigans.
In the lab, he'd gotten a kick out of dramatically confessing his true identity to Ella, and then watching as she brushed it off as a method acting bit, as she always did. His eyes kept darting to Chloe, like they were in on the same joke—which she supposed they kind of were now. But it didn't feel like a joke to her.
It was an interesting work-around to his whole stance against lying—no doubt perfected over eons—because he told the truth knowing no one would believe him. It may not have been lying, what he did, but it was still a form of deception. And it hadn't been that long ago that she'd been the butt of the joke.
As they worked the case, he mentioned his true identity at every opportunity. It made her wonder if he was testing her. She'd been insistent that she was fine with who he was, but that wasn't exactly the truth, and she thought that maybe he had picked up on that. Every time he'd used his powers or made a comment about his devilish nature, he'd dissect her reaction as though he were looking for any sign of discomfort or fear in her facial features.
Her hunch was confirmed as—per usual—he projected his thoughts onto the case, pondering on how Lenore might have felt to find out her husband wasn't who she thought he was.
How do you think she felt in that moment? he'd asked, and she knew he wasn't asking about Lenore.
It made her realize that he felt just as uncertain about where they stood with one another as she did.
While his casual references to his devilish nature had made her uneasy at first, as they worked the case together, the less she saw the Devil and the more she saw her partner.
Lucifer using his desire mojo on Glenn Dobbs had given them insight into Bob's violent past. It was his keen observational skills that had led him to find the avocado honey amongst the Paradiso's cheese platter, and his charm made people trust him, made them willing to open up. She'd always valued his unique perspective of the world that made her look at her cases from angles she never would have considered without him. And it had been his super-human strength that ultimately had prevented US Marshall Reynolds from getting away.
The Devil helped her solve murders. He helped her bring people to justice. There was nothing nefarious about that. He used his strengths for good, not evil.
As Chloe made her way into Lux, the familiar melody of Radiohead's 'Creep' echoed through the empty club.
"If you've come for more money Mr. Said Out Bitch, now is not a good time," Lucifer called from his spot at the piano.
"Hey," she said with a smile, letting him know it was her and not Mr. Said Out Bitch, whoever that was.
She slid onto the piano bench beside him, remembering all the other times they'd sat together like this. Lucifer angled his body away from her. His eyes swept over her, clearly surprised by her presence, before he averted his gaze back to the piano keys in front of him.
After his insane display of power holding a vehicle in place, Lucifer had fled. She thought maybe it was because he'd lost control of his eyes and was worried about her reaction to seeing them again. But in that moment, she hadn't felt fear.
"Lucifer, about what I saw-"
"I've had literal eons to come to terms with what you saw," he said. He seemed to struggle to meet her eyes, his gaze darting nervously back and forth between her face and the piano keys. After a moment, he finally settled on her. "My monstrous side. I apologize, Detective. I didn't want you to have to see that side of me again. That face; those eyes… They're punishments and you've done nothing to deserve them."
"Lucifer, that's not-"
"But it's not all that I am," he pushed on. "At least I hope not. Either way, it's unfair of me to expect you to just accept it. I'm honestly not sure whether I'll be able to—if ever."
He reached for his whiskey where it sat atop the polished lid of his Steinway and took a gulp.
"Lucifer, what I was going to say was what I saw," Chloe said, covering his bandaged hand with hers where it rested on the piano keys, "was my partner."
Disbelief and hope shone in his warm brown irises as he slowly met her eyes again. "Really?"
There was still so much she didn't know, so much she didn't understand, but for the first time since learning the truth, she felt a calming sense of certainty. Lucifer was her partner.
She nodded. "Really."
"Well then, um, problem solved, Detective," he said, a shy grin turning up the corners of his lips. "Because if you can accept me then that really is all that matters."
His laughter was so relieved, so happy, that any lingering doubt she might have had vanished with the melodic sound. For some reason, she was important to the Devil and he cared about what she thought of him.
"Are you hungry?" he asked suddenly. "I could make you one of those processed cheese sandwiches you like so much. Or we could order in…if you'd like to stay for a while?"
She smiled, warmth pooling in her stomach at his offer. She knew it wasn't a date, but she couldn't silence the little voice in her head that told her it was.
She had so many questions that needed answers, but for the moment, she let herself bask in the feeling of relief that came from overcoming that first hurdle. She was no longer afraid of him; they'd be able to remain partners…and maybe, one day, they could finally become something more than that.
"I'm starving actually," she proclaimed. "A grilled cheese sounds great."
"Splendid!" His joy that she'd agreed to stay was clear on his face.
"I have a lot of questions," she said as he stood.
"I'm all ears, Detective."
Chloe sat at the large kitchen island while Lucifer readied the ingredients for her so-called 'processed cheese sandwich.' She'd never been in his kitchen before—had somehow never even wondered if he had one—and it was just as extravagant as the rest of his penthouse.
She realized now that he must have been accumulating his wealth since the literal beginning of time. No wonder he was so well off and had no hesitations spending money on things she considered frivolous and unnecessary.
"You have questions?" he prompted over his shoulder as he set a pan on top of a burner and turned the knob to medium heat. His readiness to appease her curiosity put her at ease.
She watched as he scraped the butter knife against the edge of the pan, the pat of butter sliding down the heated surface.
The Devil could cook. And he was cooking for her. A little thrill ran up her spine at the thought.
"I read a lot about you when I visited the Vatican," she admitted sheepishly.
He huffed an amused chuckle. "Did you? And what did you learn from those insipid zealots? That I have horns and a tail?"
At his mirth, she couldn't help but feel silly for considering any of what she'd read to be true.
Still, curiosity got the best of her. Blushing as she remembered all of those naughty dreams she'd had that featured his "love handles," she asked, "Do you? Have horns?"
Disbelief crinkled his brow. "No!" he denied good-naturedly as if the allegation were bonkers. "You've seen my devil face, Detective. And I certainly don't have a tail."
"Right," she said, laughing a little at her own gullibility. She leaned across the granite top of the island. "What about Pierce?"
A questioning hum slipped past his lips in reply as he placed the sandwich into the sizzling pan.
She elaborated, "You killed him. Have you killed others?"
She couldn't help but think of the picture in Kinley's scrapbook of Lucifer standing next to Hitler.
He slowly turned away from the stove to face her. "No," he said, his shoulders sagging. It was obvious to Chloe that he was taken aback and hurt by her question. "Pierce—or as I tried to tell you at the time, Cain—was the first human I've ever killed. And truth be told, he wanted to die. Well, most of his immortal life, anyway."
Nodding, she sent him a small smile, hoping to convey that she believed him.
"What else?" he asked. "I can see that clever brain of yours working overtime."
Grabbing a spatula, he flipped her sandwich.
"Are you sure?"
"I assure you, Detective, nothing you ask will be something I haven't heard before."
"Okay," she said, powering through her hesitation. "What about Hell?"
"Oh, you want to know who's down there, do you?" He laughed, clearly enjoying the gossipy nature of the question he thought she was asking. "Well many may surprise you. Jim Morrison, for instance. Gary Coleman."
"No, no. Hell. What's it like down there?" she clarified. "All those people you tortured… Did you enjoy it?"
The delight faded from his features. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. Turning back to the stove, he checked her sandwich.
Finally, he turned back to her, his face an unreadable mask. "It was a job, Detective. Something I was forced to do."
Chloe nodded, chewing on her bottom lip. It was becoming clear to her that the Devil's reputation was the result of lies and slander and bias that had been spread for thousands of years—just like he'd said. She felt guilty for asking him questions that hurt him, but if she didn't ask, she knew she'd always wonder.
He scooped the sandwich onto a plate and slid it across the island to her. She tapped her finger against the ceramic edge, just to give her hands something to do.
"It seems the stuff I read by those—what did you call them? 'Insipid zealots?'" she chuckled, "was way off."
His smile was a melancholy little thing, but she could tell he appreciated the sentiment and her attempt to lighten the mood. He rapped his knuckles softly on the granite countertop and asked, "Would you like to move to the living room to eat?"
He led her out to the main area of the penthouse, gesturing for her to take a seat at the coffee table. As she settled, he darted over to the bar to grab a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. He smiled as he sat across from her, the tension from their earlier conversation evaporating as she smiled back.
It was funny to see him so casual, sitting on the floor of all places. She expected him to grumble about getting dust on his trousers, but as he gazed at her from across the table, he only looked happy.
Her stomach flipped. She made him happy.
"Detective, there is something I'd like to say to you," he said, his voice soft as he poured them each a glass.
She looked at him curiously, waiting for him to elaborate.
"Whilst I realize that knowing the truth about me may not be easy for you, I am glad that there are no more secrets between us now."
But there are, she couldn't help but think.
She hadn't planned to ask him about the photograph that night; she wasn't even sure she was ready to know what it meant. After all, she'd only just come to terms with the knowledge that her partner was the Devil.
"And if you ever have any more questions I shall be happy to answer any and all of them. I've always been honest with you, Detective. And I always will be."
He looked so sincere as he said those words… Maybe he had always been honest with her. Maybe he didn't know about the photograph. Maybe Kinley had photoshopped the whole thing and she'd end up looking like a fool for even considering that it could be real.
Something in her gut told her that wasn't the case, though.
"Detective?" He questioned, seeming to notice the conflicting emotions on her face.
"That's just it…" Her heart pounded nervously. "I don't know if you have been completely honest with me."
His brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
She swallowed. "You've been to earth before, haven't you?"
"Yes," he admitted easily, looking confused by the abrupt change in the direction of their conversation.
"Did you interact with people on your previous visits?"
"Of course," he replied through a small chuckle, but his eyes narrowed inquisitively.
"Like…Hitler?"
"Yes, but… Wait. How do you know that?"
"I found something in Rome." Her voice wavered with emotion as she leaned forward so that she could pull the photograph from her back pocket. Her hand shook as she held it out, placing it flat on the coffee table in front of him. "Is that me?" she whispered.
He stared down at the picture, his lips turning up into a small smile as he touched a finger to her face in the photograph. He seemed lost in a thought, or maybe a memory.
"Is it me?" she asked again.
He tore his eyes from the photo to meet her watery blue ones. "Yes."
She inhaled sharply, her body jerking back from him in surprise. She'd obviously wondered, expected it even, but to hear it confirmed was something else. "But…how?"
"Detective…" Lucifer began, his eyes shifting anxiously. His behavior only served to amplify her own growing anxiety. Her heart continued to thud persistently as her breathing quickened. "Chloe. I don't know how to tell you this." His nervous gaze settled on her then, and he sent her a tentative smile. "That day we met, back on Delilah's case… That wasn't the first time we'd met one another."
"What?" she breathed through a shaky exhale, her brow furrowing as she tried to make sense of what he was saying.
"We've known each other before," he tried again. "For you, in another lifetime."
Her lower lip trembled. "You mean, like, reincarnation?"
Lucifer shrugged. "Not quite, I don't think. But something like that, yes."
"So you're saying I was alive during World War II?" Disbelief laced her tone. "And we knew each other then?"
He nodded. "And many times before then."
Chloe's eyes widened as she gasped. "Many times…? Oh, wow."
"Chloe-" He lifted his hand to reach for hers, but she stood abruptly.
"I think I just… Wow, this is a lot." She huffed a mirthless chuckle and paced between the sofa and the coffee table. "I mean I thought something like this maybe when I saw the picture, but to hear that it's actually true? That I've lived before? Many times?"
Suddenly, a memory from the first night she'd met Lucifer flashed into her mind.
You look familiar. Have we met before?
Her stomach churned. He'd known all along. She felt like she was going to be sick. "Why didn't you tell me?"
He gave her a look as he stood. "You wouldn't have believed me."
She shook her head. Out of all the many emotions currently swirling inside her, anger had won out. "Yeah, well I didn't believe that you were the Devil either and you never hesitated to tell me that. Over and over again."
"It's complicated," he tried to explain, his voice pleading as he took a step towards her. "I don't fully understand it."
Shaking her head, she backed away from him. "I can't do this right now," she said, her voice breaking. She couldn't hear anything else about it. It was too much. "I don't even know what to think or how to even begin to wrap my head around this."
"Let me help you."
She bit her bottom lip. "I can't," she mouthed, her voice lost. She knew if she tried to say more, she'd break down and she refused to do that here in front of him.
Lucifer's crestfallen face, blurry from the tears that filled her eyes, was the last thing she saw before the elevator doors closed and blocked him from her view.
A/N: I'd love to hear your thoughts if you feel like leaving a review! As always, critique is welcome as long as it's constructive! :)
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