The gentle musical tone, gradually increasing in volume, finally grabbed Chloe's attention. With eyes barely open she fumbled to find her phone, quickly locating it in a crack of the couch cushions. She pushed the snooze button and rolled over. When she bumped into the back of the couch her eyes slowly opened in confusion. It took her a few minutes to remember how she ended up sleeping on the couch. Pushing herself up into a seated position, she smiled softly when she saw Trixie, still asleep, wrapped up in the grey faux blanket in the middle of the floor. The blanket that Trixie had formed an attachment with, a reminder of her friend the Devil.

Chloe was filled with joy when the sweet memory of the night before flashed in her mind. She looked around the room to see if Lucifer was still there, but she knew better. He had said that he could only be there for a few hours, before he had to go back. Chloe also knew that they both had a hard time saying goodbye, so he probably left after they'd fallen asleep, to spare them the pain of going through it again. She let out a long exhale, accepting that this was what her life would be like. Always wondering when he would come and go. The uncertainty of it all was bittersweet; longing for every moment with him to be meaningful.

She smiled as she recalled moments from the night before. Watching him interact with her child. Most of the time, it felt like she had two children to look after, as they bickered like siblings half the time. The other half, he was incredibly sweet with her. It was hard to picture him as the King of the Underworld, punishing the souls of the wicked, when he was gently comforting her daughter while playing Monopoly. Not to mention that pink glitter cat-ear headband that Trixie had insisted that he wear.

- Flashback -

"Why did Maze leave me?" Trixie's voice was heavy with disappointment. Over the years, the child had grown fond of demon and didn't quite understand why she had left so abruptly. Chloe recalled how devastated Trixie had been when she found out that the two people that she cared most besides her parents had left her.

"Maze didn't leave you, child." Lucifer offered a sympathetic hug. "She has been wanting me to take her home before she had even met you. She just needed…" Lucifer was struggling to find the right words to comfort the child. "She was…" Chloe could see that he was searching for the right words, to spare the child's feelings.

"Was she homesick?" Trixie finished the sentence for him. Homesickness was something she understood.

"Yes. She was homesick," Lucifer confirmed. "She… felt like there was something missing in her life," Lucifer looked up at Chloe who was sitting across the playing board as he spoke to the child, "here on Earth, and she believes that she can find it there. That's why she went back." Lucifer eyes met with the child's once more. "But I know for a fact that misses you. She tells me that often." He could see a little hopeful smile curl on Trixie's lips.

"Do you think she'll come back?" the child asked.

"I think she will be easily persuaded to come back with me for a visit." Lucifer flashed a cheeky smile. "Now, I believe it is my turn." Lucifer rolled the dice and moved the shoe six spaces, landing on Park Place with a hotel.

"Oh, and I believe that is mine," Trixie gloated, her hand outstretched. "Pay up."

"I've already mortgaged most of my properties; what more do you want from me?" Lucifer scoffed, riffling through his playing cards to find a way to pay the urchin.

"Well, I guess you shouldn't land on my properties for the fifth time in a row." The sass was strong with this child, even more so since the first time they'd played the game a few years ago. "Now, I'll take that fifteen hundred for the win!"

"This game is completely unrealistic. No realtor in the right mind would sell to an eight-year-old." Lucifer reluctantly mortgaged three more of his properties. Chloe handed him the money, which he begrudgingly handed to the child.

"Thank you," said Trixie mockingly as she started to count the money in her hand in front of the man's face. "And by the way, I'm twelve, and I just kicked your ass."

"Trixie," Chloe scolded as she tried to cover up her laughter that wanted to break through.

"What? He's the Devil. I'm sure he can handle it." Trixie rolled her eyes as she started to clean up the game, neatly piling up the fake money.

Chloe couldn't admit it, but Trixie was right. He probably deserved it too, after all the colourful names he had used for her. "That's not..." the Detective began, wanting to teach her daughter about respecting adults. Even if it was one of the oldest beings in the universe, who happened to act like a child most of the time.

"Well, why don't we play a real game, Spawn?" Lucifer interrupted the little mother-daughter exchange. "Poker. How much cash do you have?"

"Three hundred and eighty-four dollars," Trixie declared with excitement. "I've been saving my birthday money."

"Three hundred and eighty-four? That's it?" Lucifer scoffed with disappointment. "I guess it will have to do." Lucifer was helping the child pick up the pieces of the board game. Something Chloe had never seen him do up to now. Most of the time he sat back on the couch with a drink in hand, letting Chloe help her daughter.

"Oh, no," Chloe spoke up with parental concern. "You are not teaching my daughter how to gamble."

"I wasn't going to teach her." Lucifer's brows furrowed. "I was going to take all of her money." He reached for a deck of playing cards that was sitting on the table and started shuffling them.

"Yeah, no. That it not going to happen, besides, it's… woah." Chloe glanced at her phone for the time. "It's almost one. It's time for bed. It is way past Trixie's bedtime, and mine." Chloe stood up and started picking up the empty glasses.

"But Mom…" Trixie whined. "I'm not tired. Can we please watch a movie? Please?" The child flashed her all too well rehearsed puppy dog eyes, which never failed her for getting her way.

"Monkey, I'm sure Lucifer doesn't want to watch a movie." Chloe walked into the kitchen with the dirty dishes.

"Now hold on, Detective. It has been a while since I've watched a movie," he called out. He got up from the floor and sat on the edge of the couch. "What movie did you have in mind?" His attention was on the child, who just smiled at him.

- End of Flashback -

Chloe pulled herself out of her memory when the alarm went off again. This time she turned it off. She stretched when she stood up from the couch. Quietly she made her way to the kitchen, not wanting to wake her sleeping child who'd stayed up way too late, and then possibly having to deal with a cranky daughter for the rest of the day. Chloe prepared the coffee pot; she knew she was going to need a good strong cup of coffee or two to get through the day. For a moment she wondered how she would be able to explain Lucifer's disappearance once more to the Lieutenant. While the coffee was brewing, she started to wash the dishes that had been left in the sink from the night before.

Chloe had barely made a dent in the dishes when she was startled by a loud noise coming from upstairs. Her heart raced, pounding against her chest when she realized that her gun was in the drawer of her nightstand by her bed. She quickly pulled a knife out of the wood block. With a long knife in hand, she looked across the room to make sure Trixie was okay before she crept up the stairs and into her bedroom. No one was there. She swapped the knife for her gun from the drawer and tiptoed to the closed door to her bathroom. Nervously, she turned the doorknob and kicked the door open, pointing the gun inside.

"Good mo..." The man turned, but upon being startled by the gun, he dropped the towel that was around his waist to raise his hands in the air. "Woah… whatever I did, I'm sorry!"

"Lucifer?" Chloe let out a sigh of relief before she smacked him with her free hand. "What the hell?" She realized immediately that was a poor choice of words. "I mean… I didn't… I thought you would be in… well." She was struggling to form words, flustered at the sight of the very handsome naked man in front of her. "I though you went back." She finally was able to form a coherent phrase.

"I did." Lucifer was amused by her stammering, and her glance downward didn't go unnoticed. Her face was turning beet red as her gaze lingered for a while before she realized what she was doing. He was pleased that even after many encounters similar to this, the Detective still blushed at the sight.

"You did?" Chloe's forced her attention back to his eyes. Her embarrassment went out the window when she realized that the man before her had already been to Hell and back in just a few hours. and he somehow seemed unfazed by it at all. Like it was a normal occurrence.

"Yes. I just stepped into the shower to wash the smell off. It didn't seem right to go to the precinct smelling like bile and ash." Lucifer picked up the towel and wrapped it back around his waist. "Though, I don't know how you call this," he motioned to the porcelain tub behind him, "a proper shower. I nearly died climbing out of this death trap." There was water all over the floor, and the shampoo bottle had fallen off the edge and onto the floor. Lucifer bent over to pick it up and put it back in its proper place.

"The precinct?" Realizing that the gun was still in her hands, Chloe placed it on the counter. She seemed to have missed his anecdote about the near mishap.

"Yes. Whilst you might be okay with lying to the Lieutenant, I'm not okay with being responsible for making you a liar. Even if I don't wish to speak to the man again, you made a promise, Detective, and I intend honor it." Lucifer let out a sigh before turned to the mirror. He ran his fingers through his wet hair. He turned back to Chloe when she didn't respond. "Are you all right Detective?"

"How long was it this time?" Chloe was still sidetracked with the thought that he had actually been back to Hell. She was curious about the passage of time for him. She still didn't grasp the whole concept, but she wanted to understand.

"How long was what?" he asked casually, retrieving his neatly folded trousers on the counter and started pulling them on.

"How long were you in…" she paused for a brief moment before she whispered, "Hell?"

"Oh? Umm." Lucifer paused for a beat. "A hundred years, give or take."

"A hundred years?" Chloe's voice was barely audible.

"It's really hard to gauge time, it's different there. We don't define it as days. There's no sun, so no sunsets to separate the days. It's just one long, endless grey night. Not like here. Unless you are in someone's Hell loop, but that is a mere illusion." His voice was distant as he stared off over her shoulder, like he was somewhere else. "I'm sorry, Detective. I didn't mean to upset you," he said after a moment, returning to Chloe's side when he noticed a single tear that rolled down her cheek. "I should know better then to share the grim circumstances of my loathsome home."

"No, it's just getting used to the fact that…" She tried her best to not release the floodgates when he called Hell his home. "I can't imagine..." a lump formed in her throat, "what it would be like. I go crazy after just a week without you, and here you're going to the place you hate most for hundreds of years at a time before coming back. I don't think I could ever do… I don't know…" More tears rolled down her face.

"Not to worry, a hundred years is nothing compared the millions of years spent there before my trip to L.A." Lucifer stepped forward, placing his hand on her cheek as he wiped a tear with his thumb.

"Oh, right." Chloe looked down at her bare feet as she bit her lower lip. "Do you even remember what happened last night?" She barely remembered what she had for dinner a few days ago, let alone a hundred years ago.

"Of course, Detective. One of the bittersweet perks of being immortal. Impeccable memory." He gave her a cheeky smile. "Though believe me, there are plenty of things I wish I could forget. Last night's game night with you and the urchin is not one of them, aside from the inconvenience of Rossy boy and being forced to watch three episodes of that High School Musical show thing, which was nothing compared to Hot Tub High School. Talk about torture, though some of the songs are now in rotation for some of our really tough nuts."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Chloe let out a chuckle, recalling Lucifer's disgusted face as he watched the show. "She's been obsessed with the show for a little while now." Her mind seemed to be jumping around in her head. "Umm, Lucifer, what about the…" Chloe hesitated for a moment, wondering if she was asking him too many questions, but he waited patiently. "What about the demons? Are they… contained?"

"For the time being." Lucifer answered vaguely before he walked over to his white dress shirt that hung on a hook and slipped it over his shoulders.

"What does that mean?" Chloe could hear the uncertainty in his voice. Lucifer opened his mouth to speak, but his lips closed just as quickly as they opened. He turned his back to her and faced the mirror, staring at his own reflection. "Lucifer, what does that mean?" she repeated; this time her voice was shaking.

"I'm…" The Devil hesitated. "I'm dealing with it. Nothing you need to worry about." He fiddled with the buttons on his shirt.

"Lucifer, you don't have go through this alone." She took a step forward when she noticed his body tense. His worried eyes stared back at her from the mirror. "I don't know much about what happens down there, but I want to know. I'm here for you."

"It's getting late, it's almost ten. We should get down to the precinct." Lucifer quickly changed the subject. He donned his black suit jacket that was hanging on a second hook. "I should probably leave so you can get ready." He attempted to walk past Chloe, but she blocked the doorway.

"Lucifer," Chloe searched for his eyes, but he was looking downward, avoiding her eye contact. "What's wrong?" Her soft voice begged for him to confide in her, even though part of her was scared of what he was protecting her from. She stepped forward, cupping his face with both hands. "Whatever it is, I can handle it," she added when he didn't speak right away.

"Of course, you can, my brave Detective." Lucifer let out a sigh, his glossed eyes finally finding hers. His fingers swept a stray hair back behind her ear. Chloe's hands had dropped from his face and landed on his chest. His heart was racing. "Please, just know that I am doing everything in my power to take back control. For us." Lucifer took her hands in his own and pulled her in close. "For this, you and I, to be possible." He kissed her on the forehead. "Right now, I just want to get to the precinct and get this unpleasantness over with. Yeah?"

"Yeah." Chloe warily nodded her head in agreement. She was still not convinced that everything was fine. She had no clue what transpired in Hell, and she knew that he would keep it from her to shield her from the horrors that happened there. But not knowing and letting her imagination take over was almost worse than knowing. However, she decided not to press the matter for the moment.

"Right." He flashed a weak smile. "Why don't I go make some breaky for the child and give you some time to get ready."

"Sure. Yeah." Chloe moved to the side, to make way for him to walk out of the bathroom, but not before he retrieved his socks and shoes. "I shouldn't be too long. Coffee should be ready."

"Lovely!"

Note: Chapter was Beta read by SailorChronos1! Thank You!