myLFF - Somebody's been reading Dante's Inferno - found the main point

by Kasjata

Alternate history. Deviates from the real history at the beginning of 4x01 The handcuffed Maze has her talk with Chloe at a different time and a different place and with instructions from Linda.

Somebody's been reading Dante's Inferno… and found the main point

Chloe Decker sighed, her shoulders dropped. At least Trixie was asleep now in a decent bed. The last few nights she and her daughter had slept on train benches in trains bringing them further away from LA… further away from him. It was now nine days since she saw his face. Nine nights in which she could hardly sleep, waking up every hour from nightmares. They had been in Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver and today in Minneapolis. Day before yesterday Trixie had enjoyed the Lakeside Park in Denver and they had visited the Valleyfair today, but her daughter started to ask where they were going and why she couldn't have her mobile. Chloe had her own phone and Trixie's phone powered down for nine days now, so he would not be able to trace them. But how far would she have to go to find undisturbed sleep? And how long before her money run out? The days were ok: a theme park with lots of people around felt safe, but the nights were dark and lonely.

The hotel phone next to her bed rang. She hesitated, but realizing the sound might wake Trixie, she picked up the phone and said: "Yes?"

"Reception, madam. I understand you're a policy detective."

"Yes. Why?"

"The woman in the room next to you, room 213, called us and said she needs your assistance immediately."

"How… How does she know about me?"

"I didn't ask, madam. It is a miss Jones."

Chloe sat with the phone in her hand for minutes without moving. Then she raised, took her gun out of her luggage and left the hotel room to enter the hallway. The door of the room next to her was ajar. Light fell out from the room into the corridor. With her gun raised and ready Chloe pushed the door and stepped aside. No reaction. She took a quick look at the room. All lights were on, at the far side of the room a woman was seated in a chair, her back to the door, hands cuffed behind the back of the chair. It was an office chair that could rotate.

"Police." No reaction. Chloe slowly stepped in and opened the door to the bathroom. Empty.

"There is no one else, Decker."

Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized the voice. "Maze?"

"It's me. I'm handcuffed to a chair as you can see and you have a gun pointing at me. So you have nothing to worry about, Decker. No dark corners, nothing is hiding for you."

Chloe thought that over. Trying to stay calm she asked: "What do you mean? Why should I worry?"

"I know that you know, you know. What I am."

"You're a demon," Chloe whispered.

"That's true. I have never denied it."

"We all thought it was a metaphor."

"You humans like to say that word. Using that word that makes Lucifer nauseous."

"Did Lucifer send you?"

Maze was still in the chair, her back to Chloe and without even looking over her shoulder. "No. He forbid me to search for you. He thought that a demon tracking you down while you're on the run for the devil might be too much. Linda also advised me not to go."

"Linda… Linda Martin? She knows what he is?"

"Yes. Some time already. I talked several nights with her on what to say to you, but in the end she advised not to try it."

Chloe thought back to all the times she had tried to talk with her roommate. She shook her head. She tried to let it sink in: the woman was a demon from hell, a real one, one of the devil's head torturers. And she had been her roommate for a year. And she was Trixie's best friend. She remembered her eight year old daughter sleeping in Maze' arms after Halloween and smiled for a second.

"Linda said I don't understand human emotions." Maze continued.

"No, you don't," Chloe agreed. "Why did you ignore her advise and Lucifer's order?"

"I might not understand most emotions, but I do understand fear and nightmares better than anyone else. I have been working with fear and nightmares for thousands of years. Your fear will not diminish while you flee and your nightmares become more intense each night you're alone in a hotel with no one to talk to."

That was true Chloe had to admit to herself. "Can you turn around so I can see your face?"

"Will that not frighten you?"

Chloe swallowed. "Will you show me such a face as I saw from Lucifer?"

"Of course not. Just my human look as you have seen for years. By the way my demon face doesn't even look like Lucifer's devil face."

"Then please, turn to me."

Maze rotated the chair to face Chloe. The beautiful demon woman smiled at her. "The best you can do is talk to me. Ask. You must have questions."

Chloe was confused. "You never wanted to talk yourself about any problem."

"No, I hate talking about emotions. But Linda said I should start with this sentence."

"Ah, doctor Martin. And then?"

"I should listen to your answer. Linda gave some examples and we did some role play to let me react on what you might say. After that Linda decided it made no sense I would try this."

"But you did."

"Yes. I care about you and I love your daughter. I want both of you to come back. Take some wine. I put a bottle and a glass on the bar."

Chloe filled the glass, took a zip and then asked: "What kind of things Linda told you to say?"

"Think of all the times he said nice things to you."

Less then two weeks ago they had kissed. It had been their second kiss ever, just after closing the Forest Clay case. He had attempted to tell her he was the devil. He had told her the truth and he had been so sweet, so kind. But she hadn't believed him. She thought back at their first kiss at the beach: you deserve someone as good as you, he had said. Because you're special and I'm not worth it, were his words. She felt tears welling up in her eyes.

"Did I say something that hurts you?" Maze asked.

"No, Maze. No."

"But you're crying."

Chloe gave her a small smile. "Emotions, Maze." She took another zip from her wine. "Do you also want something to drink?"

"Won't be easy. My hands are cuffed, remember."

"Where are the keys?"

"No, no. The cuffs should stay to let you feel safe."

"It's ok, Maze. It's really ok. Where are the keys?"

"I presume you have them. These cuffs are from the LAPD. I took them from your drawer in LA. Will you really feel safe if we remove these handcuffs?"

"Yes, Maze. Really. But you didn't bring the keys? They were in that same drawer. I will call the receptions to see whether they have tools to force them."

"Save yourself the trouble," Maze said. The demon woman tensed her muscles and the steel of the cuffs snapped.

"And I was safe?" Chloe almost shouted.

Maze looked confused. "But I asked wether it was ok to remove the cuffs and you said yes. I assumed you meant that."

Chloe stared at the expression of puzzlement on Maze' face. Then she dropped the gun on the bar, hid her face in her hands and couldn't help it but started to laugh. Moments later she felt how Maze took her in the arms and softly kissed her. "We are sisters. From the same tribe, remember."

"But you are a demon. Lucifer is the devil. He bites off the heads of children."

"What? No way. Who told you such nonsense?"

"He will drag me and Trixie to hell."

Maze sighed. "Never. He will neither ever do you or Trixie any harm. He adores you."

"But he seduces people to take them to damnation."

"You have worked with him for years, Chloe. Did you ever see such thing? He pushes people to party, never to do evil."

Chloe thought that over and realized it was true.

"Did you figured out how he did support Charlotte? No? I thought so. She died for the first time in Hotel Gleam…" They had a second bottle of wine empty before Chloe fully understood Maze' story about the body of Charlotte and the two souls that had been in it.

"So Lucifer showed the real Charlotte the way to heaven," Chloe finally understood.

"Definitely. He gave every advise he could to prevent she would go to hell a second time."

"That is not how the articles I read on the web describe the devil," Chloe mused. "They all say he enlist souls."

Maze shook her head. "Chloe, the authors of your articles either never met Lucifer or might have had one brief encounter with him. You worked for years almost daily with him. You know him better than any of those nobodies who wrote all that nonsense. Thousand times better."

Chloe puzzled about these words, while Maze opened a third bottle.

"He didn't want to bring you home. I thought you were talking about our apartment."

Maze chuckled. "I asked him to bring me back to hell, but he refused. We had some issues. He can sometimes be very stubborn."

"Yes," Chloe reacted with wide opened eyes. "He can be." Although, now she knew what he was, she started to understand some issues they had. They sat in silence while Chloe replayed in her head many of the conversations she had had with Lucifer.

"That night Charlotte was murdered…" she said.

"Yes?"

Chloe shook her head. Thinking back at that evening they might have ended in bed together if that phone call hadn't come. Then she thought back at night he gave her her birthday gift, the bullet she had fired at him. It had been another precious moment in his arms. She smiled. "Maybe I should go back and talk with him." For the first time in nine days she didn't feel panic rising while she thought of Lucifer.

"Shall I book a flight back to LA for us?" Maze asked. Then she frowned and for the first time ever Maze looked worried. "Or… Do you think Trixie is still mad at me?"

"No, Maze. She asked daily when we will see you again. Let's go to sleep and…" She swallowed. Could she let her daughter be friends with a demon? She took a deep breath. "Let us surprise Trixie tomorrow morning. I will knock on your door when we go down for breakfast so you can join us. Then we will go back to LA with you."

"I will book three first class tickets."

"I can't afford first class."

Maze grinned. "Don't worry. I took a corporate credit card of the Lux with me. Lucifer doesn't know, but he is going to pay. And trust me, he wouldn't want anything less than first class for you and Trixie." She kissed Chloe. "Sleep well, my human sister."

"I think I will, my demon sister."

"I said 'human' not to emphasize the difference, but to point out that despite this difference we are friends."

Next morning Chloe woke up and realized she indeed had had a good night of sleep. While Trixie was taking a shower she powered up her phone and got almost 200 messages. Three messages from Lucifer: in the first two he asked her to meet him, in the third he said he would wait for her to contact him if ever. In the hallway on their way to breakfast Chloe stopped in front of room 213. "Shall we ask our neighbor to come with us?"

Trixie blinked her eyes. "But we don't know who stays here."

"Just knock on the door and we will find out."

"Maybe they are really annoying people, mammy."

"Let's see." Chloe knocked on the door herself.

Within a second the door opened and after a moment of surprise Trixie yelled: "Maze!"

Maze dropped to her knees and closed her arms around Trixie. "I'm sorry, Trix. I'm so sorry for saying…"

"I know, dummy."

Chloe looked at the two and noticed tears in Maze' eyes. After finally letting Trixie go, Maze hugged Chloe and whispered: "Are you still ok, human?"

"I am, demon. Thanks to you." They both laughed softly and then went for breakfast.

While waiting at the airport Maze took Trixie for some shopping to give Chloe time to call Linda Martin. A conversation that ended with a simple question Linda gave her to contemplate: "Do you want him in your life, now you know what he is?"

In the airplane Chloe thought that over and upon arrival in LA she had made up her mind. "I'll bring Trixie to my mother and then will search for Lucifer."

Maze nodded. "I will track him down and let you know where he is."

"Don't tell him I'm back."

Chloe delivered Trixie at her mothers house and managed to escape all questions her mother tried to ask. Meanwhile she got an app from Maze telling her Lucifer was in the Lux playing the piano. Half an hour later she stood on top of the stairs in the Lux and looked down at the empty dance floor below. Lucifer was playing as Maze had texted while Maze was sitting at the bar. Maze looked up to Chloe and smiled. The music stopped. Lucifer picked up his phone and checked the screen. "You're looking at your phone every ten minutes," Maze said.

"The detective had her phone powered off for more than a week, but this morning she turned it on. My messages were delivered. I'm hoping on a reaction."

Chloe was slowly descending the stairs. Every now and than Maze looked up to her, but Lucifer had his back turned to the stairs and didn't notice her.

"What reaction do you expect?"

"Anything would be better than this silence. Even if she tells my I'm a monster and she doesn't want to see me anymore. She was on her phone at 1:44 pm, only six minutes ago."

Chloe was now two or three steps behind him. Maze got up from the barstool and walked over to her. Lucifer's eyes followed Maze and he only saw Chloe when Maze was almost with her. "Detective?"

"He is all yours, human," Maze said.

"Thank you, demon." After they exchanged two small kisses, Maze left. Meanwhile Lucifer stared at her, his mouth half open. Chloe sat down on the piano stool next to him and said: "Hi."

"Detective, thank you for coming. I am really sorry for what happened, I really didn't want to frighten you."

"I know. I don't blame you for that. You always told me the truth and it was me that never believed you." She briefly touched his hand. "I wish I had talked with you instead of fleeing for you." For a moment they sat in silence.

"I'm so happy you're back, but are you sure you can handle this? Me."

"If I'm honest to myself, I'm still a bit stressed… But tomorrow I must go to work again and with any new case I want my partner with me. You."

"I will be there."

"Because I remember what I felt for you just before we heard Charlotte was killed and I want us to reach that point again."

He nodded and smiled gently. "So do I. Do you want something to drink?"

"I want something to eat. I was too nervous to eat much on the plane."

After ordering two hamburger with fries he proposed: "Shall we move to the penthouse and there wait for the delivery?" In the elevator he said: "You must have questions."

"Many… but the one that I need to have answered…" she hesitated. "Or the two..."

"Please ask, detective."

"All those people you tortured. Did you enjoy it?" She didn't dare to look at him.

"No. It was a job, detective." He sighed. "Something I was force to do."

"You killed Pierce…"

"Cain," he corrected softly while they entered the penthouse.

"What was he? Number nine million? Do you keep track?"

"Cain was the first human I ever killed and only because he endangered you!"

She studied his face. Her questions seemed to hurt him. "Thank you," she said and she put her arm in his arm.

"Was that important for you?"

She nodded. "I did read all I could find about you on the web, from Satanism to Dante. But nothing I found, seems to be right."

"Satanists are idiots and Dante?" Lucifer snorted. "Every word that guy wrote, was a lie. He never visited hell. Well, not during his life I mean," he added with a grin. After he filled two glasses with wine, they sat down on the couch. Over the rim of his glass he looked at her and suddenly said: "Maze?"

"What about Maze?" Chloe asked and smiled.

"She was not surprised to see you and when she called you human… you called her demon."

"That's what we are and I think we will say it more often." Chloe's smile became bigger when she saw his confusion. "She is the reason I'm back. She found me yesterday and we talked all evening."

Chloe looked at her phone. "Half past nine."

"You can sleep here," Lucifer said. "Then we can continue our conversation tomorrow during breakfast." Immediately after that he added: "I will sleep on the couch. You will be safe, detective."

After talking for more than seven hours there was no need for him to say she was safe: she now accepted he was the devil. But he was also the man she trusted, the man she had chosen as partner and above all he was the man she wanted in her life. "I stay."

He found her a nightdress; she didn't ask which of his ex bed partners had left it. Ten minutes past ten she had showered and was laying in his bed. He was in the living room on the couch. After ten more minutes she had made her decision and said: "Lucifer?"

"Detective?" He appeared in the opening between the living room and the bedroom.

"Didn't you forget something?"

He walked towards her and sat on the edge of the bed. "Did I forget something? Please give me a hint."

"Don't I deserve a good night kiss?"

He laughed and bent over to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around him to keep him where he was. "Remember when we first met you said you wanted to play in general? Shall we play that all Dante wrote is true?"

"What…?" He clearly had no idea where she was heading. She began to unbutton his shirt.

"Detective?"

"Do you know where and how in hell Dante described the devil? You."

"In the middle of the hell captured in a thick layer of ice." He still seemed to have no idea.

"Exactly," she whispered. "Ice in the middle of the hell, Lucifer, must mean hell freezes over."

His widening smile proved he finally understood. He whispered back: "Dante just became my favorite author, detective," just before his lips found her lips and is his hand touched her thigh.