"That was interesting," Trixie said awkwardly as they exited through the church doors and out into the sunny Los Angeles Sunday morning. She was walking next to her mom, who was deep in thought and feeling frustrated. This was the fourth church they had tried in two weeks, but with no answers that would help the predicament Chloe was dealing with. Another bust, for sure.
"Mom, are you okay?" her daughter questioned, voice carefully guarded. Chloe looked, surprised, to see that she was smiling up at her uncertainly. Her eyes showed true concern, almost an adult-like appearance that made Chloe mentally slap herself. Trixie didn't need to take care of her, not like the way she used to take care of herself and her mom back in the day.
"Of course, mon- I mean, Trixie," Chloe caught herself quickly, remembering her daughter had asked her to step away from the name recently. "I'm just disappointed we didn't find what I was looking for."
"What are you looking for?" Trixie asked curiously as they climbed into the car. Chloe glanced back at the church with a sigh, feeling burned out from the studying of the past couple weeks and the emotional turmoil it all was taking.
"I honestly don't know," she said softly. "I wanted to learn more about Heaven and Hell, but nothing here seems to fit what I thought."
Trixie seemed to contemplate this for a moment, and Chloe took the opportunity to turn the car on. Within moments, blissful air conditioning was bearing down from the car vents. The sun up above was oppressive in the cloudless morning sky, making the weather feel even warmer than it already did. She got the car in reverse and backed out of their parking spot.
It had been crazy to think she could find a solution in a church. She had steered far away from Catholicism after the last encounter she'd had with Roman Catholics, but she hadn't realized just how many different types of churches there were. There had been the Baptism service, which was very spiritual but members didn't seem to address Hell at all. The early morning non-denominational service provided excellent coffee and donuts (the latter to Trixie's delight), but the focus was all on Jesus and not on temptations or after death. The Methodist and most recently Lutheran worship services were very similar, with structured hymns and repeating verses. But upon her approach to the leaders of each church, asking about Heaven and Hell, none of them really seemed to have a truthful answer beyond personal thought. And of course, if she brought up Lucifer – the devil – they all had the same response: evil incarnate, tempting the world to sin, the cause of the downfall of humanity. That just didn't have the right ring to it.
Yes, it was definitely a crazy thought to think that a couple Mormons inspired her to check out churches. Her family had never really been church-going people, but the thoughts of good and bad, God and Devil, had always just been in the back of their minds. They celebrated Christmas and had occasionally attended Christmas services when she was young, but never had the subject been properly broached before.
"Are we going to another church?" Trixie's voice cut through the din of Chloe's mind, making a face. Chloe shook her head and smiled. Her daughter had endured enough in the name of research.
"No, I don't think so," she replied. "It's not what I'm looking for. Want to go for some early ice cream instead?"
"Yes!" Trixie exclaimed with glee, clapping her hands together. This reminded Chloe of the young family she had seen a few weeks prior, when she first met up with Amenadiel to begin her endeavor to pass notes to Lucifer. Her daughter wasn't necessarily a child anymore, but she still had the tendency to bring a smile to Chloe's face. Trixie was just amazing like that.
They pulled into a local favorite ice cream parlor, which was just opening its doors. It was nearly noon now, and this was the first place they were going to today that both seemed excited to see. Once inside the parlor, the smell of cool air and sweet treats wafted up to them. Chloe breathed in, temporarily indisposed by the smell. She didn't realize she had been craving ice cream.
They each ordered from the nice man behind the counter (a twist cone for Chloe, a chocolate shake ["small," Chloe chided gently when Trixie tried to point to the largest size that came with the extra metal can on the side] for Trixie), and took up residence at the bar counter. The stools swiveled, and Trixie occupied herself with testing the swivel for a few minutes, and Chloe occupied herself with her recent case closure.
While she had been distracted throughout the case, Chloe was happy they had caught the killer, a waitress at the Chinese restaurant where the body had been found. The waitress had confessed he had been hitting on her for weeks, going as far as to try and talk to her after she finished work. When he tried to approach her again, she had brought the now murder weapon. It was a classic case of stalking with repercussions, but it would still be one that would leave the waitress behind bars for awhile. Unfortunate, but murder was murder. She wondered absently if the dead man was in heaven or hell.
"Mom, is Lucifer the devil?" Trixie asked out of the blue. Chloe didn't realize she had been staring at the "Devil's Food Cake" flavored cake/ice cream combination on the board while she was thinking. There was a little pair of devil's horns next to this item. She blinked a couple times before looking down at her daughter, who was sitting straight and looking at her with a thoughtful expression.
"What do you mean?" she asked carefully. Was this something she wanted to fully expose to her? She knew Trixie had handled many bad things, going all the way back to when she had been kidnapped by Malcolm.
"As in, the actual devil," Trixie pressed. "His name is Lucifer. I don't think he's crazy, but that's the only other choice."
"Well, what do you think?" Chloe questioned. Trixie let out a smile, her eyes shining.
"I think he is," she announced. "When I first met him, he scared that bully. Do you remember? How did he do that by only looking at her? It just makes sense. But I don't think he's a bad guy, like all these church people think. He seems pretty cool. I like him."
Chloe chuckled to herself, beaming down at her daughter.
"Then yes," she said after some thought. "Lucifer is the devil. But I agree with you," she dropped her voice down to a whisper as the man behind the counter, name tag reading "Randy," approached with their ice cream treats, "Lucifer is not a bad guy."
They were a couple bites into their ice creams when Trixie spoke again.
"Is Lucifer in Hell? Is that why he's gone?" Her question was so simple but held a lot of weight. This one Chloe didn't mind answering, after swallowing both physically and emotionally.
"Yes," she replied, dabbing her chin with a napkin to catch the escaping melted ice cream. "Lucifer had to go back to Hell. He had a job to do, after all."
"What a stupid job," her daughter muttered, ice cream all over her face. She looked put out. "I think he was much better helping you solve crimes. He seemed really happy! And he really liked you."
"Do you think?" Chloe mused with a small smile. Trixie nodded fervently.
"Does he get to come and visit?"
"No, I don't think he does."
They finished their ice cream treats in silence, Chloe glancing down at Trixie in curiosity. Her daughter seemed to take these kind of things really well. Did she get that from her, or from Dan? She wasn't sure. She knew her response to finding out the truth had been much bigger, but Dan would probably take things even harder if he ever found out. She wished she could involve him, though. He had a unique way of looking at things, at tackling the research, that would really come in handy in a situation like this.
"Do you want to talk about the fight?" she questioned as they climbed back in the car and headed for home. She had been avoiding the subject and Trixie had kept to herself since the incident over a week prior. It probably wasn't healthy for them to avoid it, especially if Chloe didn't want it repeated. Trixie sighed, buckling and looking at her knees.
"Somebody was making fun of me," she admitted, setting her face in determination. "But I was totally justified. All I did was push him. He fell down and skinned his knee and called the teacher on me."
"Well, you need to be careful," Chloe warned. "Getting into fights, even justified ones, might get you in bigger trouble than just with your dad and me. Sometimes people can make fun of us, but we just have to take what they say, thank them, and move on."
Trixie made another face.
"Thank them?" she asked, unsure. "I don't think we're supposed to be thanking them for saying rude things."
"But it'll throw them off, right?" Chloe winked. Trixie smiled again.
"Yeah, I guess," she said with a laugh.
"So this kid was making fun of you. How?"
Trixie sighed and looked out the window. Chloe waited patiently, turning into a busy intersection and heading back towards home.
"He said I had bad parents," she said quietly, hiding her face from Chloe again. "Because you're not together. He said having more than one daddy was weird."
"But you don't –" Chloe caught onto what she was saying and stopped. She remembered Lucifer dropping Trixie off at school a few times. Is this what the bully had meant? It was clear that's what Trixie thought.
"I'm sorry, monkey," she said before she could stop herself from referring to the pet name Trixie had decided wasn't hers anymore. Trixie didn't seem to mind in this moment. She kept looking out the window, while Chloe thought to herself about the implications of Lucifer being in Trixie's life for so long having an impact on the rest of her life.
After they got home, Chloe found herself sitting at the counter, teeth chewing thoughtfully on the ballpoint pen in her hand as she stared at the blank sheets of paper in front of her. It was time for another note to Lucifer, but she didn't know what to say. Trixie sat at the table across the room, working on her homework. Music played in the background, softly so as not to distract either. It seemed they were both distracted, though, which became prevalent to Chloe when her daughter snuck up behind her and looked over her shoulder.
"What're you writing?" she questioned. Chloe jumped. Trixie grinned sheepishly.
"Uh, a note…to Lucifer," she admitted. Trixie grinned even wider, eyes lighting up.
"Can I write him a note, too?" she asked excitedly. Chloe thought for a moment and then smiled at her daughter, handing over an extra sheet of paper.
"I think that's an excellent idea," she replied. "Let's both write him a letter."
