Oh wow, I didn't expect this kind of response when I first posted this! Thanks to everyone that's reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. Hopefully this chapter lives up to the last one.

Chapter 2

An Angelic Hot Spot

Gabriel didn't know what was more surprising. That Lucifer had decided to drag him to a clothing store to replace the bloodstained ones he was wearing (Well, you can't expect to walk around like a murder victim, can you?) or that apparently Lucifer, the Devil, moonlighted as a police consultant in homicide. Lucifer claimed that it let him stretch his metaphorical wings (Ha!) and allowed him to see that punishment went to those most deserving, which sounded suspiciously like his own jaunts through the mortal world disguised as Loki and serving humans their just desserts. The only thing missing was a distinct lack of sweets and he snagged those as quickly as he could in the form of a pack of Twizzlers while Lucifer took him to the police station (I do have work to do, and you brother are in no condition to be left on your lonesome. Maze does have her own duties to perform as a bounty hunter, after all.).

He could have claimed that it shocked him more, except he recalled the look on Lucifer's face when he discovered that Gabriel had been stabbed to begin with. It all took on a surreal feeling as he couldn't recall his own brothers caring enough about him to want to find out what happened to him. No one had looked for him when he pulled his disappearing act from Heaven, after all.

It all left him feeling like the rug was going to be pulled from under his feet as he entered the station, dodging people coming in and out as the police went about their business. He looked around in interest, however, noting the way that people seemed to either gravitate toward Lucifer (mostly the women) or moved out of his way like his very presence commanded it. Gabriel could have chuckled at the sight if he wasn't sure that something was up and Lucifer was planning on betraying him the minute Gabriel let his guard down.

Lucifer seemed to know exactly where he was going, because he led Gabriel straight into the office spaces and made a beeline to one of the desks. The Devil grinned broadly as he approached it, and greeted the woman seated behind it with a hearty, "Detective!"

The woman, Gabriel noted, seemed like a slip of a woman with dark blond hair and blue eyes. Her sharp features softened into surprise as she looked up, her mouth falling into an 'o' shape as she spotted Lucifer. She didn't seem to notice Gabriel, which suited him just fine as he settled against a corner to watch, shoving his hands into his jeans. "Oh, L-lucifer. I um, I didn't expect that you'd be here."

"And why wouldn't I? We're both supposed to be back today, unless you forgot that the higher-ups requested you to take a leave, and well, it is dreadfully boring without your company." Lucifer took a seat and lounged back, setting the coffee he insisted on getting for her on her desk.

"No, I just…" She seemed to be stumbling to figure out a way to respond, finally settling on a, "With what happened, I thought you'd have vanished. What with the…" She waved vaguely to her head, causing Gabriel's eyebrows to shoot up.

"Well, you did request a bit of distance, which I did provide." Lucifer looked quizzically at the woman. "Unless you require more time? I don't doubt that you did get a frightful scare the last time we saw each other."

"No no, it's just…" She glanced back and spotted Gabriel. Her eyebrows raised and she looked back to Lucifer in exasperation. "Wow, really? Bringing another civilian into the precinct?"

"Ah, forgive me. I forgot to introduce the two of you." Lucifer actually stood and gestured to Gabriel. "My brother, Gabriel. I actually had thought that you could help us with a case. Gabriel, Detective Chloe Decker. She's my partner-in-crime in the LAPD."

Chloe's eyes seemed to bug out of her head as she scrambled up to extend a hand. "You're Lucifer's brother? Like, real brother? Gabriel? Wow, I um…" She seemed to be a bit scattered as she looked around her desk. "Sorry, I'm just… I didn't expect to meet another…"

Gabriel for his part took her hand and looked toward Lucifer in confusion. "What in Dad's name did you do to her, Luci? I mean, she looks like she's about to fly apart. Um, no offence," he added, directing it to the detective.

"None taken. He tends to do that to people." Chloe speared Lucifer with a look, and Gabriel snickered at the faux innocent look Lucifer gave back. "We just had this case recently and I had some pretty big revelations shown to me."

"Wait, he talks willingly about being the Devil?" Gabriel gave Lucifer a look. "Wow bro, that's not something you should advertise."

"Well it's not like she believed me until recently!" Lucifer waved a hand dismissively. "Every time I tried to tell her the truth, she assumed that I was insane."

Chloe turned her attention back to Gabriel. "And you're really-"

"Gabriel, yeah." Gabriel nodded slowly, fixing Lucifer with a look that clearly said 'Don't say a word!' He wasn't going to go around breaking people's brains with proof of the divine. That could get messy really fast. "Just ex-nay on the angel-yay. I don't wanna have that spread around."

"Have what spread around?"

Gabriel turned to see another man standing behind them eating a pudding cup. He looked about average, but judging from the badge at his belt and the fact he was wearing casual clothes suggested to Gabriel he was a detective too. "My relation to that guy." He smirked at Lucifer's incredulous look and he continued, ignoring the other angel for now. "Pretty sure Dad's still pissed at him and He doesn't want me anywhere near him so I'm trying to keep a low profile, if you know what I mean."

The man looked between Lucifer and Gabriel, like he was trying to gauge how much of what Gabriel said was true, before he nodded. "I guess I can get that. Heck, I don't think I'd wanna admit I was related either." Sticking his spoon into the cup, he held out a hand. "Dan Espinoza. You two are brothers?"

Gabriel took it and sighed. "Yeah, unfortunately." Lucifer snorted in derision and Gabriel couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "Gabriel…" Crap, what was a good last name? He hadn't thought that far ahead. "Winchester." Oh, that was so much better. Hopefully he didn't run into those two yahoos while he was here. "Just flew in last night. Luci here's showing me around."

"A police precinct?" The question sounded dubious, and Gabriel shrugged. "That doesn't sound like a great way to start a tour of L.A."

"Well it is if I was showing him where I worked," Lucifer interjected. "Unless you think I should show him a crime scene, which would be much more appropriate."

"As much as I like having people around my desk and interrupting my morning," Chloe started, spearing all three males with a look, "I do have things to do. Like the mountain of paperwork that I have to go through that piled up over the last week."

"Decker!" A voice called out. "Another body just dropped!" A man stepped forward and deposited a file on her desk. "Figured you should take it since you're not busy." The man gave Lucifer and Gabriel a look, which Gabriel figured meant he was annoyed by their presence.

"On it." Chloe glared at all three men as she picked up the file. She watched the other man walk away before she turned her attention back to Lucifer, Gabriel, and Dan.

"Oh, perfect!" Lucifer smiled as he reached to take the folder, but Chloe deftly pulled it out of his reach. "What's on the docket today? Lover's spat turned deadly? Shady gangsters dropping some poor sod into the ocean in cement shoes? This seems like a perfect chance to show Gabriel what I do."

"He's staying." Chloe shot Lucifer a look as she opened the folder herself. "He's not LAPD and he doesn't belong at a crime scene. You might have clearance, but he doesn't."

"But we haven't even discussed the case we're working on!" Lucifer seemed to pout, which only caused Gabriel to stare at Lucifer in shock. Devil or not, but was he seriously acting like the world's oldest toddler?

"Wait, what case?" Dan looked between the three, frowning. "Did something else happen?"

"Of course something happened! My brother here was stabbed to death and we need to find out who did it." Lucifer wrapped an arm around Gabriel's shoulders as Gabriel looked heavenward.

"He was stabbed to death." Chloe's deadpan was enough to make Gabriel's estimation of her notch up a bit. "He looks pretty alive to me."

"Well, he's alright now, but he nearly bled to death in my club last night." Lucifer looked at Gabriel with a raised brow. "Well, come on. Show the detective the wound."

Gabriel snorted. "I am not stripping in the middle of a police station Luci." He crossed his arms, wondering exactly about whether Lucifer was actually this much of a kid or not. "Besides, I'm fine. I don't need anything investigated."

"Well, what was the point of bringing you down here then?" Lucifer looked affronted. "The perpetrator needs to be punished!"

Chloe sighed and grabbed Lucifer by the arm. "Excuse us." She dragged him away, leaving Gabriel and Dan standing there.

"Okay, is it just me or is Lucifer acting more like Lucifer than usual?" Dan looked toward Gabriel, frowning.

"Haven't a clue, man." To be honest, Gabriel wasn't sure what to expect from the other angel. Sure, his Lucifer was one of the biggest children in all of creation, but this was ridiculous. It was like this one seemed to think that his problems were bigger than everyone else's. Which, okay, yeah, that was pretty much his Lucifer too, but still…

Dan sighed, dumping his pudding cup and spoon in a nearby trash can before he went to grab up his jacket. "Come on then."

"Huh?"

Dan just gave him a look as he gestured toward where Chloe and Lucifer disappeared to. "No offence, but you're his brother and if I know Lucifer, leaving him here would lead to a disaster or something, and you have the same look."

Gabriel almost protested, but then pointed toward Dan with an exasperated look. "Okay, fair. You got me there." Then he looked at Dan curiously. "So where are we going?"

Chloe dragged Lucifer into the interrogation room, glad that there weren't any suspects currently held in it and certainly glad that nothing was being videotaped right now. She then turned toward the man (devil!) and crossed her arms. "Okay, what the heck is going on here?"

"Well, it's just what I said, Detective." Lucifer frowned. "My brother was stabbed, and I wish to find the one responsible for them to be punished."

"And you didn't think to call the police or something, I dunno, when he was stabbed?" Chloe looked at Lucifer in disbelief. "That's what normal people do, Lucifer."

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "Ah yes, and how would that conversation have gone, hm? 'Hello, operator, yes, I have a winged person here who's been stabbed. No, the wings are perfectly normal!'" Lucifer gave Chloe a look. "That conversation would have gone about as well as if I'd attended a 'Come to Jesus' meeting."

Chloe blinked before shaking her head. Nope, she was pretty sure she heard the word wings. "He has wings?"

Lucifer looked upward in exasperation. "Of course angels have wings. All of us do."

Chloe frowned. "Except you."

"I cut mine off, yes, but they grew back sadly." Lucifer shifted a bit like he was uncomfortable. "I haven't been rid of them since. They're like cockroaches."

"Wow." Score one more point for why Chloe needed time to process the fact that her partner was literally the Devil. She still was having trouble wrapping her mind around it, but hiding out at her house for a week while Dan watched Trixie apparently hadn't been enough time. "So lemme get this straight. Someone stabbed your brother and left him for dead in Lux?"

"Here's the kicker. He claims he's not my brother and is from some alternate reality." Lucifer shook his head. "Strange, really. The last time a rift opened to another reality was when I shoved my Mum into it."

Okay. This was officially too strange for her. She held up a hand and shook her head. "We'll try and figure it out later. Right now we have a case we need to get to."

"Ah yes, the one you were just handed." Lucifer rubbed his hands together, and Chloe had to remind herself that Lucifer wasn't human and didn't have the same ideas about why he shouldn't look pleased by the prospect of a dead body. "Care to take a wager about whether it was a mob hit or lover's spat?"

"Lucifer…" Chloe warned before she opened the door to leave the room.

The trip to the abandoned warehouse in San Pedro was filled with Lucifer speculating about the nature of the murder, and Chloe felt a headache growing. By the time they'd pulled up to the scene, he'd moved from the topic of the investigation to the possible suspects of his own investigation.

"-And I know that Gabriel believes that Michael stabbed him, but that's impossible. Michael hasn't left Heaven in millennia! Besides, he didn't mistake me for him, which would be impossible considering we're twins."

"Wait, you have a twin?" Chloe glanced over at Lucifer as they walked toward the scene. Dan looked like he was already talking to people while Ella was checking over the body.

"Yes, of course. We were born at the same time. I just happen to be much more charismatic and personable than he is."

Chloe rolled her eyes, though she couldn't stop the slight smile from her lips as she ducked under the police tape. Lucifer followed right behind her as she waved Dan over. "What have we got?"

Dan looked first from Chloe to Lucifer as he approached, looking like he was having problems trying to find the words. He shook his head and focused on Chloe instead, causing her to frown. "We have a white male in his late thirties, average size, with a gunshot wound. Also, I don't think Lucifer should take this case."

"What?" Lucifer looked toward Dan with an incredulous look. "Why not?"

"Lucifer, let me talk to Dan." She laid a hand on his arm, directing his attention to her.

"Your brother's over by my car. He hasn't been let near the scene either." Dan offered, and Chloe gave Dan a grateful look as Lucifer huffed in annoyance.

"Fine, but do tell me why I'm being barred from the case, all right?"

Lucifer passed through the tape again, and Chloe looked back toward Dan. "Okay, what's going on?"

Dan stepped aside, letting Chloe get a good look at the corpse. "This."

If Chloe hadn't seen for herself that Gabriel was very much alive less than an hour ago, she would have demanded to know how Lucifer's brother had been found shot. As it was, the body looked eerily similar to Gabriel, right down to the same hairstyle, hair color, and eye color. He wasn't wearing the same clothes though, instead dressed in a pair of khakis, jacket, and button down. He was on his side, sprawled with limbs akimbo, and dried blood had pooled around him. The air reeked, causing Chloe to repress the urge to gag.

Ella, who was busy looking over the body, glanced up and spotted Chloe. She gestured her over, and Chloe moved forward, knowing Dan was right behind her. "What happened?"

"By my estimates based on rate of decomposition, he's been dead about a week." Ella stated, looking over and pointing to each piece of evidence. "There's severe bloating and foaming around the mouth and nose consistent with the timeframe. However, from all appearances, this guy was shot in the back." She winced. "I wonder what kind of enemies this guy had that would shoot a guy in the back though."

Chloe glanced around. Who indeed? She thought back to Gabriel and Lucifer, not sure if either could answer that question, though she scanned to see exactly if she could figure out where the gunman was. "Any indication as to where the shooter was and what kind of firearm?"

"Pistol, about five feet away. We found casings right about here." Ella walked over to where small white circles were drawn, indicating where the casings were found. "I think the perp snuck up behind him and shot him three times. Ballistics is going to take the casings as well as the bullet fragments to figure out exactly what caliber."

Chloe looked toward Dan. "And you think it'd be a good idea if Lucifer wasn't involved?"

"Wait, what's wrong with Luce?" Ella stepped forward, then looked around for the flighty consultant. "Wait, does he know the vic?"

"That's complicated." Chloe looked toward Dan. "You go ahead and question who found the vic, and I'm going to get Lucifer and Gabriel." And hopefully waylay a potentially pissed off Satan, but Chloe wasn't going to say that to them.

She found them both where Dan said he'd left Gabriel, though it looked like Gabriel had started snacking on Twinkies. Where he got them, Chloe wasn't going to ask, though apparently they had attracted the attention of one of the police on the scene. As she got closer, she could hear what the three were saying.

"Well, maybe later we can play good cop, dirty cop. Perhaps use those handcuffs you have." Lucifer quipped, throwing a wink before he spotted Chloe. "Ah, and there's our cue. Detective! Over here!"

"What on Earth are you doing?" Chloe looked between Lucifer and the retreating cop. "You know what, nevermind, I don't want to know."

"All I was doing was entertaining her while she was asking some questions." Lucifer shoved his hands into his pockets. "Though she seemed curious to know how Gabriel here was up and about."

"That's what we need to talk to you about." Chloe inclined her head toward the scene. "Come on, you need to look at this, and don't start looking for trouble."

Lucifer shared a look with Gabriel before he followed, frowning. "What's going on? Has this something to do with the fact that Detective Douche wouldn't let me near the scene?"

"Where were you two last night?"

Gabriel finished off his Twinkie before he answered. "I was bleeding to death on his couch, and Lucifer had his therapist play doctor."

"Linda?"

Lucifer nodded. "Well, I couldn't very well patch him up myself." Chloe ducked back under the tape as Lucifer paused. "What aren't you saying?"

"I think you might know the victim." Chloe moved toward where Ella was still examining the scene and gestured for the two angels to follow.

She knew Lucifer spotted the body when he froze and Gabriel wasn't that far behind with a muttered, "Oh shit." Lucifer started forward immediately, leaving Gabriel frozen behind him and Chloe scrambling to catch up.

He stopped near the body, close enough to examine it before he stood and turned toward Chloe. "Have you caught them yet?"

"Lucifer-"

Lucifer's face twisted in anger. "Have you caught them yet?" He stabbed a finger down toward the body angrily. "That is my brother, Detective! This shouldn't be possible! He wasn't even in Los Angeles!"

"Lucifer." She hadn't realized that Gabriel had moved forward, his expression blank as he examined the body. He crouched down and let a hand hover a moment over the body before he retracted it with a grimace. Standing, he leveled a look that was as ancient as anything that she could imagine at his brother. "We need to make a call."

Lucifer's jaw tightened, but before he could do anything, Chloe interjected. "Lucifer, Gabriel, I know this is hard, but we need to get information on everything you know about your brother so we can help catch the person responsible."

"Oh wow, are you Lucifer's brother?" Ella stood from where she was examining the body and stripped off a glove to extend a hand to Gabriel as she looked between him and the body. "Ella Lopez. Are you the vic's twin?"

Gabriel looked startled for a moment before he nodded, shaking her hand. "Gabriel Winchester. I um, I wasn't expecting to see this when Detective Espinoza invited me to ride out with him."

"Yeah, I can see how you wouldn't expect it." Chloe was unsurprised when Ella first hugged Gabriel and then a startled Lucifer. "Hey, we'll be here to help you both out. No one has to deal with something like this alone. What was his name, anyway?"

"Jibra'il." When both Chloe and Ella looked at Gabriel, he shrugged. "We have a very religious dad."

Lucifer carefully extracted himself from Ella before he glanced toward Chloe. "I believe we need to go down to the station to give information for the investigation? Otherwise I would indulge in this hugging session."

"Got it." Ella gave Lucifer a firm pat on the shoulder before indulging herself in an extra hug to Gabriel. She then turned back to the crime scene, studying it carefully while Chloe diverted the brothers toward her car. Dan, she knew, could handle getting statements from the witnesses.

Lucifer's eyes narrowed but he allowed himself to be herded toward the car. When they reached it, he turned toward the detective with a scowl. "I don't need to be treated with kid gloves, Detective. I am perfectly capable of handling myself in a situation."

"In a situation? Lucifer, you looked like you were about to commit a murder." Chloe glared.

"No, what I want is to hunt down the pustule responsible for this and make them regret it for the rest of their miserable existence." Lucifer pulled out his phone, already beginning to dial.

"Luce, I hope you're calling that Amena-something brother, because we need him down here." Gabriel frowned, still looking slightly disturbed. Chloe was suddenly reminded that less than twelve hours ago, Gabriel had almost ended up in that same situation.

"No, I'm calling Maze. She can track the miscreant down for us and drag them back." Lucifer finished jabbing at his phone and tapped his foot impatiently. "Why don't you give him a prayer? I'm certain he'd come running if you did it."

"And how do I do that again?" Chloe sputtered, but Gabriel ignored her. "I don't know how to pray. All I ever had to do was think hard at a sibling and my message got through."

"Well you need to figure that out quick! Between your stabbing and now this, I daresay that you need a way to contact someone quickly – Ah, Maze, just the demon I needed to talk to."

Chloe glared, and she moved quickly, shoving Gabriel and Lucifer into the car while the both of them sputtered. Leveling a glare at the two of them, she gestured back toward the scene. "Look, I just found out about the fact that angels and God are real and oh yeah, I work with the Devil on cases, but right now, it seems like the problems with Heaven are trying to bleed into the regular world. That means that there's a murder case that I was assigned that looks like your brother was murdered, but oh look, he's still sitting here very much alive." She pressed her hands to her temples, fighting off the sensation of a headache forming. "Someone needs to tell me how exactly all of that is possible, or if it's just some normal person that got shot."

Gabriel raised his hand, and Chloe felt exasperated as she gestured for him to speak. "One, you have a really good mom voice, like wow, and two, that's a dead angel."

"And you'd know this how?"

"I might not have all my powers right now, but I do have some of my senses." Lucifer gave Gabriel an odd look, but the younger angel ignored him. "His wings. They might not have been visible, but there were like some sort of imprints left behind on the ground where he fell."

Chloe blinked, confused, while Lucifer shook his head. "There were no sign of his wings, and they'd be rather visible if they were out."

Chloe frowned, considering the fact that Lucifer had taken her on a wild goose chase to find some fake wings in a relics auction. "Wait, could the murderer have taken them off? I mean, Lucifer, you claimed you'd chopped yours off, so couldn't the same have happened here and the imprints are all that's left. Where were these imprints?"

Lucifer shook his head. "To chop my wings off requires hell-forged blades. Nothing else would affect them, and the only person that has access to those happens to be Maze."

Her mind helpfully supplied the image of Maze with a devil tail and horns before she shook her head. Focus Chloe, she reminded herself. She didn't need to think about how much her roommate, or probably former roommate, was a literal demon from hell.

She turned to look at Gabriel who was shaking his head at Lucifer. "Where I'm from, you can't separate an angel's wings from their grace. You destroy the grace, you destroy the wings, and then you get dead angels. Usually they leave actual physical evidence, shadows of wings burned into the surface behind them. This wasn't physical though, it was like, I dunno, more like a ripple behind the guy. It kind of resembled wings."

Lucifer's eyebrows quirked upward. "Wait, can you see mine too?"

"Only if I squint really hard. My senses are really messed up right now."

Chloe was suddenly reminded of something from early in their partnership. "Lucifer, doesn't your back have scars from cutting your wings off?"

"Yes, and it was a bloody experience." Lucifer frowned. "Well, that nixes the idea that the killer chopped them off. There would have been a mess of blood and feathers involved."

Gabriel snapped, and both Lucifer and Chloe looked over to him questioningly. The younger angel looked sheepish as he shrugged. "I uh, I thought maybe I could freeze time for a second while we figured out what was going on. There's an awful lot of people around to be talking about holy crap."

"Wait, did Mr. Paranoid there just try to smite something?" Everyone looked over to the phone still in Lucifer's hand which was still connected to his call to Maze.

"You put Maze on speakerphone?" Chloe rubbed her face. "Unbelievable…"

"Yes, well, we're going to need her expertise if we're going to track down my brother's killer." Lucifer looked completely unapologetic about it. "Did you catch all that Maze darling?"

"Yeah, I caught it." Maze sounded annoyed. "Just text me the address where the murder happened and I'll see if I can track the person down."

"On it."

Lucifer hung up and started texting while Chloe turned back to Gabriel. "Jibra'il? Really?"

"One, that is my name in Islam, and two, even if someone got curious as to looking up the meaning, it just means that Dad was really into the whole religion thing and decided to name twin kids after the same archangel, just different aspects." Gabriel shrugged. "I mean, it made sense."

"It kind of helps with one other thing too." Chloe glanced toward Lucifer. "People already think you're kind of nuts with the whole Lucifer thing, but if it's because your dad was really religious and raised you that way, then they'd suspect that's where it all came from."

"Now see?" Gabriel grinned and slapped Lucifer on the shoulder. "Not even been here a day, and I'm helping out."

The fact that he found himself back at the station didn't surprise Gabriel in the slightest. Neither did the fact that Lucifer had apparently disappeared with that Decker chick. What surprised him was that Espinoza had apparently taken the lead in questioning Gabriel about his 'twin's' murder. Dan had sat Gabriel in the interrogation room to ask questions, and Gabriel had just propped his feet up on the table and answered as much as he could without giving too much away.

"So you have no idea if Jibra'il had any enemies." Dan sat back, frowning as he studied Gabriel.

"Nope. Jibby didn't tell me anything about stuff like that. He was too busy working with Dad I guess to tell me anything." Gabriel shrugged. "We're kinda estranged. Haven't seen each other in a long time."

Dan looked surprised. "You haven't talked to your own twin in years? Why'd you two become so distant?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I guess we had different ideas about what family meant. I mean, Lucifer fought with Dad and our brothers a lot, and I didn't want to see it so I left home. Jibra'il stayed." He was keeping it as close to the truth as he could without revealing anything. Someone really ought to give him an Emmy for his performance. "I knew that he still worked with Dad, being his messenger and everything, but the person that probably knows more about it all would be Ames."

"Amenadiel?" Dan blinked. "Well, if he's been in more recent, we'll look into it." He then looked curious. "What about the purported stabbing? You and Lucifer seemed to believe that you were attacked. Do you think they're related?"

Gabriel hadn't thought of that. To be honest, he didn't think that the perpetrator and Michael were the same. Especially since both happened in different realities. "I really doubt that. I know who stabbed me, and I doubt that he's in L.A."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

This was why Gabriel wished that Lucifer hadn't said anything. His fingers twitched, but he refused to let them go anywhere near his chest. Instead, he gave Dan a smirk. "Honestly? I don't think you'd believe me."

Dan frowned. "Why is that?"

"Trust me, it's really out there."

The detective crossed his arms. "Try me."

Gabriel snorted. "Well, you asked for it. I was stabbed by my brother, but instead of dying in a bright ball of light, I somehow ended up in the bathroom of Lux with giant wings coming out of my back. I managed to tuck those away and stumble downstairs where I ran into Luci."

Dan stared for a moment. "Um…"

"Hey, you asked for it." Gabriel shrugged. "I told ya you wouldn't believe it."

Dan looked exasperated. "Gabriel, this is a serious investigation. If the crimes are related, we could find both your brother's killer and the person responsible for your attack and bring them to justice."

"Except they're not. Trust me." Gabriel sighed, leaning forward to rub his face with his hands. "I am taking this seriously, but I seriously doubt that Michael had anything to do with Jibra'il's death."

"Michael? You have a brother named Michael?"

Gabriel cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "Didn't I mention before that Dad is really religious? Because he is. Really religious."

"Gabriel, I don't think you understand. This was a violent crime committed against you." Dan sighed. "Whether you wanted to press charges or not, the fact is it happened and you're not denying it. We have to follow up on cases like that."

And this was why Gabriel was annoyed by the fact that his grace was so depleted. If it wasn't, he wouldn't have the wound anymore. Well, except he was stabbed by an archangel's blade. That had to take more time to heal. Why wasn't he dead, anyway?

Dan did give him an out, even if he didn't realize it, and Gabriel could almost hear Lucifer's protests as he opened his mouth. "Well now I am. Denying it. It never happened."

"Oh my God, you're being as bad as Lucifer," Dan groaned. "Were you stabbed last night?"

Gabriel bit back a retort that if his Dad really had anything to do with it, he never would have been stabbed. Instead, he gave the detective his best grin and crossed his arms, still mindful of his midsection. "No, I was not stabbed last night."

Dan gave Gabriel a look as he seemed to think before he stood. "All right, fine. I get it." He started gathering the papers in front of him before he reached for a pen. His hand knocked clumsily against it and it skittered across and over the edge of the table, right next to Gabriel. "Uh, can you get that for me?"

Oh, that was dirty. Gabriel gave the detective the dirtiest glare he could while he didn't move a muscle to reach for the pen. "Nope."

"No you won't, or no you can't?" Dan gave him a challenging look and Gabriel gritted his teeth together. Dangit.

"I won't." Gabriel started trying to stare the detective down. Wow, way to go from an okay guy to a complete asshole.

"Now see, here's the thing. I know Lucifer, and I know one thing he hates more than anything." Dan gave the pen a glance and looked back toward Gabriel. "He hates lying. He's a jerk, he cooks up crazy stories about his family and everything, but he doesn't lie. Not to Chloe. If he says you were stabbed, then you were." He then gave Gabriel a triumphant look. "Now, if you weren't stabbed, you'd have no problem picking that pen up."

Gabriel glared some more, aware he was pretty much trapped. He then very deliberately reached down to grab the pen. However, a sharp pain shot through his midsection and he toppled sideways out of the chair, clutching at the wound. "Shit!"

Dan was already around the table and looking Gabriel over. "You could have just said you were stabbed."

"Yeah, well, I'm a stubborn bastard that way." Gabriel hissed, trying to raise himself up off the floor and failing. "Besides, you could have gotten your own damn pen."

"Got you to admit it, though." Dan eased Gabriel up and leaned him against the table. "Lemme take a look."

"Considering you went through all that trouble to find out I was stabbed, sure, why not?" Gabriel sighed and closed his eyes as he felt Dan open his shirt and pull away the bandage. A hiss from Dan was all he needed to confirm it looked pretty bad. "So what's the verdict, doc?"

"Well, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure you should have died from this." Gabriel opened his eyes a crack to see Dan peering at the stab wound. "It looks like it's been treated, but we still need to document it."

"Yeah, sure, document away."

Dan ended up taking him to the local hospital, where Gabriel had to endure an exam to make sure that the stitches were properly placed (they were) and that the wound hadn't penetrated anything major. Lucifer had been notified that Lux had become a crime scene (which had happened before, who knew?) and that his 'brother' was being checked over to see the extent of the injuries he'd received. The doctors had been baffled as to the extent of the injury and how Gabriel had managed to walk away from it. Gabriel didn't tell them that he was divine, and instead let them believe that he'd been really lucky. Pictures were taken, and by the end of it, Gabriel felt much like an angelic pincushion. The only thing he could think was that he was glad that it was over when they finally released him.

Dan had ended up staying with him so that he had a ride back to the station. He'd ended up asking him more questions about what happened. Gabriel gave a description about the vessel that Michael had used, hoping that there wasn't some guy that looked just like that in the current reality he found himself in. Nevertheless, the detective told him that they'd look into the stabbing and whether or not it was connected to his 'twin's' murder.

They exited the room with Dan heading over to the nurse's station to get any last-minute information and Gabriel stretching as much as his wound would let him. He still had yet to contact that Amenadiel guy, and he wondered how different the first-born angel of this world was different from his own oldest brother. Letting his arms drop to the sides, he sighed, wondering exactly how he was supposed to do this when a slight throbbing in his head started coupled with whispers. Grinding his teeth together, he pressed the heels of his hands against his temples and closed his eyes tightly. "Son of a-"

Remiel's been tasked with cleaning up the mess in the courtyard-

Oh please, like you have any idea where souls are supposed to go-

Father's been awfully quiet lately-

Is there still no word from-

Amenadiel, you had better get your feathery arse-

Why isn't he-

Gabriel-

Is he-

"Gabriel!"

Gabriel's eyes snapped open with a gasp and he found himself staring at the floor. Curiously, there seemed to be some spots of red on it, and confused, he reached a finger down to check. Another spot of red appeared, this time on his hand, when he realized that it was blood and it was coming from him. A hand found his shoulder and his head shot up, the sick feeling returning with a vengeance. That's when he realized that he apparently had drawn a crowd and Espinoza was right beside him, holding out a tissue as he knelt. That led to the realization that Gabriel was also on his knees. He spied Chloe and Lucifer nearby, Chloe apparently holding someone back as Lucifer had his hands together like he was…

Praying. Oh. That's what Lucifer meant when he said he had to pray to Amenadiel. Vaguely he recalled hearing his voice amongst the cacophony in his head, and he took a shaky breath as he took the tissue from Dan.

Bringing it to his face, he started wiping at it, finding that his nose was bleeding and pinching it to stop the flow. Gabriel eyed Dan as he did so, wincing as he realized that Dan must have seen what happened and rushed to check on him. "Um, thanks. I'm fine now, you can let go of… me…"

Dan didn't seem to even notice that Gabriel had taken the tissue, nor had he even blinked. Gabriel rolled his eyes as he realized that time must have frozen. "Oh great, nice to see my powers are on a time delay."

"You aren't doing this. I am." Gabriel glanced to his other side to spot some tall, bald black man with frigging wings standing in a set of robes. "Hello Gabriel. It's been a while."

"I'd say that it has been, except we've never met before." Gabriel's eyes narrowed as he stood carefully, ducking out of Dan's hand.

"Amenadiel, this is the house guest I was telling you about." Lucifer strode forward as he gestured. "Gabriel, this is my rather obnoxious brother Amenadiel. Amenadiel, meet Gabriel, supposedly of another reality."

"I'd say it's nice to know you, but right now my head feels like someone took a jackhammer to it." Gabriel winced, taking the tissue away to examine it before putting it back to his nose.

"I can imagine." Amenadiel glanced over Gabriel's shoulder. "Do your wings always come out when this happens?"

Gabriel glanced behind himself and groaned. There they were, sitting as innocently as they could, folded against his back. He concentrated on forcing them back, rolling his eyes as he did so. "So you're Amenadiel. I take it you're gonna play babysitter to me?"

"Actually I came down because Luci asked me to." Amenadiel looked toward Lucifer. "You said something about problems?"

"Yes I did." Lucifer gestured toward the humans surrounding them. "It appears I found our brother, brother. He's currently being brought to the coroner's office for an autopsy."

"What?"

"The detective was put on a case to investigate a murder. Apparently Gabriel was shot to death and left in some filthy warehouse." Lucifer's eyes trailed over to Gabriel. "Right now this Gabriel is claiming that ours is his twin brother named Jibra'il."

Amenadiel groaned. "Let me guess, you want me to go and retrieve his body?"

"Not right now, no." Lucifer stated, shoving his hands in his pockets. "The humans would find it suspicious if their corpse suddenly vanished on them."

"So we wait for them to do the autopsy and then make the body disappear?"

"Along with all samples they might take, yes." Lucifer glanced back toward Chloe. "The detective might not like the idea of evidence disappearing, but right now we don't exactly have an option."

Amenadiel nodded before turning toward Gabriel. "What about you? Do I take you back to the Silver City?"

"Nu uh." Gabriel shook his head. "I haven't been back to Heaven in millennia. Not going to go back to someone else's Heaven."

"You… haven't been in Heaven for millennia?" Amenadiel stared, mouth agape, at Gabriel. "Why?"

Gabriel huffed. "Can we just say that it's a long story?"

"But-"

"Brother, if Gabriel doesn't want to go to Heaven, I'd say he has the right to say no, don't you?" Lucifer smirked. "I mean, you wouldn't want to see another rebellion because you dragged him back against his will."

Amenadiel glared at Lucifer. "If I get orders to bring him back, I will."

"Yo, person you're arguing about right here fellas." Gabriel fixed a hard look at both of the other angels. "Besides, I've got my own problem right now."

"Ah yes, being used by Dad as an angelic hot spot would put a crimp in anyone's day, wouldn't it?" Lucifer gestured toward Gabriel as he stared at Amenadiel. "So, if you would be so kind as to make it so that he doesn't have episodes of debilitating pain…"

"Debilitating pain? Lucifer, he shouldn't have any pain." Amenadiel gave Lucifer an incredulous look before turning toward Gabriel. "You're the Messenger."

"Something must be broken then since I keep ending up getting hit with headaches and nosebleeds." Gabriel snorted. He removed the tissue from his nose, glad to see that the blood had finally stopped. "I dunno how your Gabe managed it, but they keep knocking me on my butt."

Amenadiel shook his head. "You don't understand. Unless Father decided to gift it to someone else, if you weren't our Gabriel, you shouldn't be getting any of this."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. "So what you're saying is that supposedly my entire existence, every memory, is wrong?"

"I wouldn't say wrong-"

"Oh come now," Lucifer stated, strolling forward to stand between the two. "Are you going to tell me that dear old Dad somehow managed to do a reboot on Gabriel but give him the wrong operating system? Especially one where you don't exist, I'm completely evil, and Michael tried to murder him? I hate to say it brother, but you and I both know Father doesn't work that way."

"Lucifer, you were just complaining that Father took away your devil face and gave you back your wings! How would you understand the way our Father works if you keep blaming him for your problems?"

"Can I say something?" Gabriel began, managing to put his wings away again and looking from one brother to the other. "You two can keep arguing all you want, but it doesn't change the problem. You say that your Dad did this to me. Why? Why on Earth would He make me forget my entire existence and replace it with another one?" Gabriel snorted. "Usually the best explanation is the simplest one. You know, the KISS rule?"

Amenadiel frowned. "Kiss rule?"

"That would be Keep It Simple, Stupid." Lucifer looked between the two again. "So you'll help with removing the issues down here?"

"I'll help." Amenadiel looked exasperated. He glanced toward Gabriel and gestured at Espinoza. "You might want to…"

"Gotcha." Gabriel went back to the position he was in before time stopped but looked at Amenadiel curiously. "Your Dad's still in Heaven, right?"

Amenadiel nodded. "He is."

"Any way He can get me back to where I belong?"

Amenadiel shook his head. "I don't know. You'd have to ask Him yourself."

"Wonderful." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "All right, let's get this show on the road."

Mazikeen frowned as she dialed Lucifer's number, looking first to the building where Gabriel's body had been and then to the body at her feet. This whole case was weird, she decided. Who went around killing angels? If that wasn't enough, the second body seemed weird too.

"Ah, hello Maze. How's the hunt going?"

Maze kicked at the body again, her face twisted in annoyance. "There's a second body here. Right near the water. Hidden pretty well, too."

"And this is pertinent because…?"

"Found a gun on him." Maze looked at the murder weapon with narrowed eyes. "Not sure if it's the same one, but it looks like it could be. Also, freakiest thing about this body is how he died."

She could hear Lucifer's curiosity build as he hummed to himself. "And what would be so interesting about how he died?"

"Broken neck." Maze crouched down to take another look, making sure she didn't touch the body at all. "Thing is, no marks around his neck. It's like his neck broke on its own."

"That is interesting." Lucifer paused, and Maze could hear him thinking. "I'll call the detective then. You get ahold of the police so that they can take care of the corpse."

"There's one other problem." Maze stood back up and brushed her pants off with one hand.

"Just one?"

"Oh yeah." She paced around, trying to see if she could find something despite having looked through the area carefully. "Trail went cold. Whatever happened to this meatbag left nothing for me to follow."

"Well, that can't be right." Lucifer sounded annoyed. "There has to be something to follow this piece of garbage by. Are you sure that you've searched the whole area? Perhaps there's other evidence."

"Well, if there is, it's not here." Maze looked back toward the body, her expression hardening. "Whatever killed this guy made sure there was nothing to follow, and the only way I can figure that makes sense is if it's not from around here."