Chapter 4:
They walked outside of the lab and over to where Lucifer was standing next to two young men and a woman in a wheelchair.
"Dios Mio." Ella said with a gasp, "What happened to her?"
"She had an accident while practicing her gymnastic routine on the balance beam," Chloe answered her question.
"Dios Mio." Ella repeated again, "She does look a bit like Lucifer though."
"Yeah, she has his smile." Chloe grinned.
Once they arrived at where the others were Chloe made introductions between Ella, Jason, Tommy, and Kimberly.
"Ella is the one who is going to prove that you are really Lucifer's daughter." Chloe smiled
"Nice to meet you, Miss Lopez," Kim said
"Please call me Ella." Then to Kim's surprise, Ella knelled down and hugged her.
"Not even you can escape Miss Lopez' hugs, little angel," Lucifer said to Kim in a whisper.
Kim smiled brightly, "I don't mind hugs," she told Lucifer.
Before they hear Ella say, "you're right she does have his smile."
"Thank you for wanting to help me." Kim said to Ella, "You don't know what it means to me."
Kim's sincerity was so strong it left the young scientist speechless. "I am always happy to help your dad, honey," Ella said a little choked up.
"Thank you, Ella," said Kim as Lucifer smiles at this.
Once standing, Ella looked over towards Tommy and Jason," Do you always travel with such handsome company?"
"Oh no, normally there are more of them, these were just the ones that were available today," Kim said smugly with a giggle at her own joke. "Actually This is my boyfriend Tommy and my honorary big brother Jason."
"I see she has her father's humor as well." Ella laughed.
"How so?" Jason asked curiously.
"Well this one here, keeps trying to make me think he's the devil. Isn't that funny! " Ella laughed while she pointed toward Lucifer. The others looked at Lucifer before just kind of humoring her and fake chuckling, as Chloe rolled her eyes at all this.
"So how old are you all?" Ella asked curiously.
"We are all juniors in high school, so between 16 and 17."
"Too bad." Ella said and winked at the guys, "I'm going to get on this right away." and headed back into the lab.
"Was she flirting with me?" asked Jason.
"I think she was." Kim laughed at the look on Jason's face.
Jason blushed a bit.
"Okay, let's get going, it will take several hours for those tests to come in," Chloe said while shaking her head a bit.
"What are we going to do in the meantime?" Kim asked
"Well, since the three of you, didn't show up with very much I say we fix that, then the boys can fix up the place later. Since I know your dad is going to want to go with us," said Chloe.
"Of course I am coming with you. No better-guarding angel than the devil himself." Lucifer said
Kim smiled, "Okay, let's go!" and starts to roll forward without looking and suddenly hears an "OW!" She looked to see that she rolled over Dan's foot.
This made Lucifer burst into laughter.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, detective Esp... Esp... um Dan." said Kim. She hadn't done it on purpose.
Dan looked like he was about to swear but kept quiet. The frustration and the pain and everything were evident in his eyes, but before he could change his mind and still say something, Lucifer comes up and said, "Oh don't worry about Daniel, darling, he knows it was just an accident, no harm meant." While looking at him with an as dark glare as he could without shifting his eyes from their dark brown color to the devil red eyes.
Dan grunted and hobbled off. Never had he seen Lucifer with such angry eyes or looked at him so coldly before. Not even from the beginning of their time together.
This girl must mean a lot to him so he wasn't going to test how far Lucifer would go. Not this time.
"It really was an accident dad," Kim said a bit sadly. She never meant to drive over Dan's foot on purpose.
"I know it was my little angel. Don't worry about it, Detective Douch will survive. Now let's go shopping." Lucifer said before she rolled her towards the stairs.
"Alright! Sounds like fun." Kim smiled happily.
Just like before Lucifer took her out of her chair and carried her up the stairs. Leaving Jason and Tommy to care for the wheelchair.
It was a ten-minute drive towards the Los Angels shopping mall. Kim and Chloe are in the cruiser and the boys are in the other car. Something Lucifer didn't really like but he had no choice. So he was make do.
It was an awkward, silent drive to the mall for them. Lucifer still didn't trust Tommy. He was still way too perfect for his taste but then again he always saw the bad side of humanity. So maybe he wasn't being fair. If his girl saw something good in him, maybe there was. Still, he was going to stay alert for a while for both of them, really, but mostly on Tommy.
His biggest problem was his honesty. He would like to talk to the boys but what if he found out that he was right? He didn't want to break his girl's heart. The fact that they gave up their lives to leave with her to make sure she was safe was to their credit, but he was still not sure he could control himself if he broke her heart.
They all stopped at the big mall. The boys took the chair out of the cruizer while Lucifer helped Kim out of the car.
"Are you and the boys getting to know each other?" Kim asked curiously.
"I can only promise to do my very best, my sweet angel. Being the devil doesn't make that easier." He admitted.
"You see a lot of darkness, so it's hard to see the light sometimes," she responded as he carried her to the chair.
"It just blinds when it comes to people I care about my little angel." Lucifer sighed deeply.
"It's okay, you'll warm up to them in time." She told him with a smile. At that moment he could see why she drew people around her. She was such a bright light you couldn't help but get sucked in.
"You really are the Lightbringer's daughter." Chloe said who had seen the brightness too, "You practically radiate light."
"Pink light I'm sure." Kim smiled and winked at her boys.
"Darling, remember money is not a problem. Just tell me what you like." Lucifer said the moment they entered the mall.
"Okay, I will," Kim said with a smile. She already figured that he wouldn't accept any other answer, so it was better this way. Chloe had warned her in the car that no matter if she said no or not, Lucifer would do his own thing.
"Be ready for a wave of pink." Jason joked at this.
They stopped at the one store where Kim sees an outfit she likes. They went in and Kim said to Chloe "you're going to have to help me try some things on."
"Sure Kim, I understand." Chloe smiled.
Kim rolled through the store and found a large armload of things to try on before she and Chloe head into the changing room, not surprisingly most of it was in different shades of pink.
Chloe helped Kim with every piece of clothes before Kim showed every piece to the waiting men. She looked great in just about all of them. Chloe was a big help when it came to bottoms or any time Kim had to get out of the chair to put something on.
She took most of it and they even got something for the guys that showed up with just the clothes on their backs.
Kim hadn't looked this happy since the accident, she was a bit sad though for some stuff that she had left behind.
"What's on your mind, angel?" Lucifer asked her, sensing the flickering sadness through the joy.
"This has been a great day, and I loved all you have done for me. I am very grateful for it, I really am. I'm just thinking of a few special things I had to leave behind that I'll never see again. Mostly the pictures of my friends, the rest of our little group, and of my mother as well as the stuffed dog I had since I was a little girl." Kim said between a few bites.
"Why don't I go and get it for you, my little angel, I am back and forth in a matter of minutes," Lucifer said with a smile. He didn't like to use his wings to fly but for his daughter, he would make an exception.
Her face brightened as she said, "Really?"
"The devil doesn't lie, my angel, it's a point of pride for me," Lucifer answered her.
"Thank you!" She said while she leaned over to hug him. So full of joy that she does seem to shimmer from it at least in his eyes.
"Just tell me where to find everything," Lucifer said softly.
"Okay, well let me get a pen and piece of paper and I can write it down," Kim said happily.
Chloe gave her a notepad and pen, something she always carried with her.
Kim excitedly wrote down where the items should be since she knew she didn't take them to the Campbell's family house. She filled up a full page of the notebook in her small but flourished handwriting and gave it to him.
"Thank you dad for everything this, today, and just everything." Kim smiled.
"No thanks are necessary, my angel. I will leave the moment that we arrive at the penthouse." Lucifer replied.
"Okay," she said.
Lucifer saw how much his acceptance meant to her, he couldn't even imagine not accepting her.
So after they finished eating and hit a few more stores, they head out. Lux wasn't that far from the mall. So it didn't take long to get home. It did take a few minutes to unpack the cars and get everything and everyone upstairs.
"Wait here for me, my angel. Chloe will keep you safe. I will be back as soon as possible." Lucifer said. He was about to walk off when Kim stopped him, "Don't worry, Chloe will get help from the boys, they are both black belts in Karate."
Lucifer nodded before leaving his daughter in the hands of his girlfriend and the boys. This was the moment to trust them. He walked towards the balcony and shrugged his shoulder to unfurl his wings before taking off towards Angel Grove.
A pale blue Chevy pulled up to the Angel Grove hospital. Out stepped a man with dirty blond hair and brown eyes in a three-piece business suit carrying a manila envelope with the important paperwork.
He straightened his tie and walked in ready to strike out at his ex by taking their child from her. Not believing for a moment the lie she told him about not being the father. He walked up to the information desk at the front lobby and asked, "Excuse me, can you tell me what floor Kimberly Hart's room is on?"
"I am sorry sir but Miss Hart isn't in the hospital anymore." The lady said after she looked it up on her computer.
"What do you mean she is not in the hospital anymore?" Mr. Hart asked confused and angry.
"She was discharged this morning," the woman said.
"Who was she released to?" he asked, getting more and more angry.
"Her mother Caroline Dumas," the woman answered.
"Thank you," said Mr. Hart before he left. Once outside and back in his car, he started to throw a fit and unleash a verbal wave of negativity about his ex beating him to the punch and being sneaky and what he'll do to her once he finds her.
He quickly started the car and pulled out of his parking spot and was heading to the house in town.
Lucifer arrived at a quaint little two-story brick house with a black roof with blue shutters. with a little yard with a small garden in the backyard.
"What a nice little house, but my angel deserves better," Lucifer said to no one in particular.
He looked up and saw the window on the second floor that had pink curtains and overlooked the street and knew that was his girl's room.
He went to the front of the door and like all other locks the door opened with only a touch. No lock could keep the devil out.
He walked in and locked it behind him. Just in case someone saw him walk up to the house.
The house was quaint and modest. He could tell that her mother tried to make it a good place for her.
The stairs were in the small hallway. He didn't have to search long to find Kim's room.
He opened the door and walked in and saw the walls were light pink as were most of the other things in various shades.
He quickly found the items that she mentioned. As he looked around he realized he could learn quite a bit about her just from this space.
He saw medals and trophies on one shelf, along with a picture of her doing a split on the beam in a pink leotard.
In the room, he saw pictures she drew when she was younger, books she liked to read, the music she liked to listen to, and even movies she enjoyed. He even found something that looked like a diary that he flipped through before sticking it in the bag. His journey of discovery into his daughter was interrupted when headlights washed over the room through the window. He crept over to the window and saw a car pull into the driveway. A man got out of the car and started to look around then marched up to the front door and started pounding on it while shouting, " OPEN UP CAROLINE! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, DON'T TRY TO PRETEND YOU'RE NOT. YOU CAN'T HIDE HER, YOU BETTER HAND HER OVER TO ME RIGHT NOW!"
The banging continued as well as a great deal of swearing. It stopped for a moment, it sounded like the man was trying to force his way into the house by kicking the door in. After quite a few moments the door still held firm and the man gave up.
The sound picked up on the back door for several moments, before ceasing entirely and hearing the car start and the lights wash through the window once more before they disappear down the street along with the sound of the engine.
"No wonder she ran from him." ``Lucifer said to himself.
He spent several more minutes in the room poking through his girl's things and grabbing a few extra things like a jewelry box filled with trinkets, among other things. before getting ready to leave before someone with a badge showed up. After all that ruckus he knows one will. Just before he was about to leave the room his phone rang. He pulled it out and answered "something wrong, love?"
"The results are in, babe," Chloe said on the other side of the phone.
"That's great, I'll be right back," he answered.
"Hurry, I ordered pizza and Ella should be here soon with the results."
"See you soon, love" Lucifer hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. He heads out of the room and out into the backyard locking the door behind him, unfurling his wings he took off for home.
TBC