It had been almost three weeks since the whole almost getting murdered thing, and Lucifer was rather bored. Chloe had called him in on a couple cases, but they'd been so open and shut they'd hardly taken a day each. Lucifer much preferred the long complicated ones with twists and turns. They usually meant being at the precinct much more than the open and shut ones did. Up until now even when they didn't have a case and thus Chloe didn't call him in, Lucifer had found a way to spend time with her. Sometimes he got lucky, and other times he brought the case to her. Being away from her for so long gave him a rather odd empty feeling. Lucifer threw quite a few parties to try and fix it, and even had a wild night with a set of triplets, but the feeling still wouldn't go away.
"I just don't understand it," Lucifer said.
"I think it's rather obvious actually," Dr. Linda told him. "Just remember what's changed and go from there."
"I thought the point of coming to therapy was that you told me what's going on," Lucifer sighed. "Not me having to guess."
"The point is for me to help you recognize your emotions for what they are," Dr. Linda said. "But to do that you have to put in the work."
Lucifer never liked it when she did this, but somehow he always felt better after talking to Dr. Linda so he tried. "The thing that's changed is time with the Detective."
"Yes! Exactly," Dr. Linda said.
"But I knew that already," Lucifer said. "There aren't any cases, so she hasn't called me. Hence the party."
"But you said the party didn't help," Dr. Linda continued. "I think this all ties back into what we were talking about before, about how being alone and being lonely aren't the same."
"Ah but I have the answer to that question now, doctor," Lucifer said cheerfully. "The Detective and I are friends. She said so."
"That's good, Lucifer," Dr. Linda replied. "So then I ask you, what happens when we don't get to see our friends for a while."
"We force our company on them!" Lucifer said, suddenly understanding. "I could bother her at work. I'll bring coffee. That usually helps."
"No, that isn't what I meant," Dr. Linda said, as Lucifer was standing up. "I was going for more of an emotional awareness."
"As helpful as always, doctor," Lucifer said happily, as he closed the door behind him.
Right, first things first. Where was the nearest place he could buy a latte?
Just as he was looking up cafe's on his phone, it started to ring. Answering it, Lucifer felt that empty feeling slip away.
"Hey, you busy?" Chloe asked.
"Always, I do run a business you know," Lucifer said, grinning. "But I'm never too busy to help you, Detective."
"I have a case that I think might relate to you," Chloe said. "Can you come by the scene?"
"Does this mean I get to drive?" Lucifer laughed.
"With that attitude, I'll pick you up," Chloe replied. "Where are you?"
"Just leaving Dr. Linda's," Lucifer said, and he gave her the address.
"Perfect," Chloe said. "I'm in the area. See you in a few minutes." And she hung up the phone.
Twenty minutes later, he was in the passenger seat of Chloe's car on the way to an old theater. On the ride over Chloe filled him in on what she knew so far. The victim was a nineteen year old freshman in college, which the police had learned by finding her purse in a dumpster. Yikes. Lucifer didn't envy the officers who'd had to go digging for that evidence.
When Chloe parked the car, the first thing Lucifer noticed was the protesters outside the theater. They all had signs and were shouting 'Satan is here. God is near.'
"In what way does this case relate to me again, Detective?" Lucifer asked, confused by the protesters.
"Better to show you," Chloe replied.
Before they got past the yellow police tape, they were interrupted by that lying street preacher Lucifer had turned into a believer a while back.
"You," the preacher said in awe. Then he spoke louder, yelling 'evil is here' a couple times before joining the other protesters.
Lucifer turned to keep walking but found that the Detective hadn't moved. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"That man recognized you," Chloe said.
"Yeah, so?"
"So it almost seemed like he recognized you, recognized you," Chloe whispered.
"Oh, he did, Detective."
"How is that possible?" Chloe asked, still in a whisper.
"He's seen my face," Lucifer explained.
"How many mortals do you show that to, anyway?" Chloe asked.
"Usually liars, murders or the like," Lucifer said. "It's a fitting punishment, in most cases, for them."
"What did the preacher do?"
"He lied," Lucifer explained. "Now come on Detective. I thought you had a murder scene to show me?"
"Right," Chloe said, then turned and kept walking. She led him up past the seats and onto the stage. The sheet covering the body was pulled away and Lucifer saw a young girl, pale in death. Unfortunate, though not related to him, but then they turned the body over and Lucifer understood. On the girl's back, written in cuts were the words 'Hail Lucifer'.
"This is sickening," Lucifer said. So much worse than the usual blame he got for human's bad decisions. This looked like a sacrifice, and worst of all it was directed at him!
"Satanist!" Lucifer snapped. "Misguided cult knobheads with frisbees in their earlobes."
Then a thought occurred to Lucifer, a terrible thought. What if the Detective blamed him for this too? A tightness developed in his chest, as if someone were clutching at his internal organs.
"This poor girl's death in no way relates to me," Lucifer told her as sincerely as he could.
His words were rather ruined then when the preacher returned yelling at the top of his voice that this was all Lucifer's fault. That he was the Devil, the king of all evil, the king of all lies. The whole thing made Lucifer wanna throw up. Maybe he needed to be more careful who he showed his face too, even if they deserved it.
While the other cops were getting the preacher back behind the yellow tape, Chloe turned to him.
"I know this isn't your fault Lucifer," Chloe said. "But think about it. What are the chances something like this happens in the exact same city in which the actual Devil lives?"
"I see your point, Detective," Lucifer said. "But there have been Satan worshipers throughout history that have managed to do horrible things all on their own when the Devil didn't walk the earth. This could still have nothing to do with me."
"Yeah I know, it's like being a celebrity. Even when you don't want it, people make shit up about you," Chloe replied.
"Yes. That's exactly right," Lucifer said, feeling the tightness in his chest disappear.
"Still, we have to be smart about this," she whispered.
Just then, Lucifer realized who had cleared away the preacher for them. Malcolm came over asking for praise.
"No need to thank me," Malcolm said. "Just wanted to do my part for the man of the hour." He was looking right at Lucifer and winking. Lucifer was appalled.
"Wink, with the porn stash sending the wrong message, I think," Lucifer said, pulling away slightly on instinct.
"This case isn't about Lucifer," Chloe told Malcolm. "He isn't the man of the hour."
"Well someone sure thinks he is," Malcolm said, pointing to the words on the dead girl's back.
Lucifer's would-be-murderer then lowered his voice so Chloe wouldn't hear and suggested he and Lucifer get a drink sometime or go play pool, like they were best buds. After that Malcolm walked away.
"I know I'm the Devil and everything, but that guy is starting to creep me out," Lucifer admitted to Chloe as she examined the body.
"You'd think the Devil would be used to tortured human souls," Chloe added quickly. "Aren't there a lot of them in hell?"
"Yes, but those particular souls have never pointed a gun at me," Lucifer said. "Or at least never when it could hurt."
Chloe chuckled slightly, but then added. "He does seem rather buddy buddy with you actually. I wonder..."
"What are you thinking, Detective?" Lucifer asked.
"Nothing," Chloe said. "Best we follow the evidence." Then she went on to explain about the victim's subdermal implants and bruising around the letters on her back.
Chloe tasked Dan with finding out where the victim had gotten her implants while Lucifer and Chloe went to meet the victim's father at the victim's apartment. Detective Douche didn't look like his normal chipper self. Lucifer couldn't help but wonder how that whole conversation had gone down, even if Chloe had told him the results of it.
As always, Lucifer sat on the passenger side of Chloe's car. No matter how much he tried to convince her that his car was far better she never gave in. Something about how it was unprofessional for a cop to arrive in such a fancy car.
"It would look like I take bribes," Chloe explained.
"Or just had Devilishly kind friends?" Lucifer pitched in but to no effect. It seemed he was doomed to forever be relegated to the passenger side.
They arrived at the apartment, and Chloe started interviewing the father. It didn't really get interesting, however, until they found the secret door, but Lucifer got over being interested very quickly when they saw what was behind the door. The last place the Devil wanted to be was in a creepy secret evil devil worshiping room. The Detective did manage to find a name which turned into a lead when Dan called in to tell her who had done the girl's implants.
Chloe gathered the evidence she felt was relevant, and together they went back to the precinct to go over it. Lucifer ended up reading the devil worship book they'd found, which to his surprise wasn't total and complete drible. It even had a chapter on sex.
"Come over here," Chloe's voice made him look up. Lucifer walked over and stood behind her. "Maybe you can make something out of these, because I am out of ideas."
One look at the victim's subdermal implant and Lucifer knew exactly what they said.
"Oh bloody hell," Lucifer sighed and he reached forward to rearrange the letters. "Filii hircus. It's latin. It means 'children of the goat.' Why do they always associate me with goats? I don't even like their cheese!"
"Putting your issues aside here," Chloe told him calmly. "Since when do you speak latin?"
"I speak every language, Detective," Lucifer explained. "But that isn't the point. Goats! I mean honestly. Who even likes goats?"
"What do you mean, every language?" she asked.
"I mean I speak every language," Lucifer replied. "What about that is so confusing for you?"
"There are a lot of languages," Chloe reminded him.
"Yes, and the Devil can speak them all," Lucifer answered.
"Is that what you did with all that time then?" Chloe asked. "Study?"
"Not really, no," Lucifer said. "I just can. I hear a language and I understand it and I can say it back."
"What? Just like that?" Chloe asked. Lucifer nodded. "Okay so does that work with the written word then too?"
"My, my, you are full of questions today," Lucifer chuckled. "I thought we had a murder to solve?"
"Right," Chloe said, turning back to the computer. It didn't take her long to find the devil worshiping cult they were looking for. Those evil bastards were even charging admission!
"Yes, that latin word worked as the password," Chloe said. "We have an address."
"Lead the way, Detective," Lucifer said, gesturing for her to go first.
As they were walking to her car, Chloe's curiosity struck again.
"But Latin isn't a spoken language," Chloe mused. "So if it's only verbally that you can speak everything then you wouldn't have been able to figure out Filii hircus since it's written down?"
Lucifer sighed. "Sound reasoning as always, Detective, but you forgot one simple fact. I can remember when Latin was a spoken language." Lucifer pointed to himself and added, "Very old. Remember?"
"Right," Chloe said slowly. "Sorry it's just hard to imagine."
"I don't mind answering your questions, Detective," Lucifer said. "It's just you always ask things I never expect. Don't you want to know who's in hell? Or what heaven looks like or something like that?"
Chloe just shrugged. "You speaking every language on earth merely on instinct is far more interesting to me."
Lucifer should have expected such an answer. It was, after all, what made the Detective so special. She was different from any mortal he'd ever met before.
Apart from Chloe's slow driving, the ride was uneventful. The building she parked in front of was rather grand, with a curved overhang in front of a covered entry area and that was before you even got to the front door.
Chloe knocked on the door and a tall guy in a black robe answered.
"Filii hircus," Chloe told him in a whisper.
"Today is private," the robed guy said.
Chloe reached for her badge, but Lucifer had a better idea. This was a Satan club, right? What better way to get in than to be himself. Lucifer held out his hand to stop Chloe. She looked at him suspiciously, but followed his lead letting her jacket fall covering her badge.
"You need to leave," the robed guy said again. "As I said, a private event today."
"The Devil does love to crash a party," Lucifer said, letting his eyes flash red for just a fraction of a second. "Especially if it's his own."
The robed man screamed like a little girl, ran away and left the door wide open.
Chloe promptly hit him in the shoulder. "Ouch!" Lucifer whined. "What was that for? I got us in didn't I?"
"You have to be more careful who you show that to," Chloe hissed. "Remember the preacher."
"Yeah yeah, alright," Lucifer sighed, feeling like he'd done something wrong.
Even so, she still took advantage of the open unguarded door. When they went inside they found something that seemed like a wake but very quickly turned into a very disturbing satan worship session. Lucifer couldn't stand it and ended up jumping in to give them a lecture. He had to draw the line somewhere and this was really the worst thing he'd seen in years. Humans never did listen though. He tried to tell them murder wasn't what he stood for and yet they all cheered.
At least his outburst drew out the person they needed to speak to. Lucifer saw Chloe follow the leader into the backroom. He followed behind and pulled the desire from the man's mind, which it turned out was not to be here at all. They guy didn't even believe in the shit he was saying. They left with knowledge of a missing knife that matched the cuts on the victim's back and a account for the victim's boyfriend, which to Lucifer meant more time in the passenger side of Chloe's car and some tedious waiting around for a warrant.
"You know you could just go home?" Chloe reminded him. They were back at the precinct now with very little to do while they waited on the judge.
"But that's boring, Detective," Lucifer said.
"There is really nothing to do while we wait," Chloe continued.
"How about a game of cards?" Lucifer offered.
"I have work to do," Chloe sighed. "I'm not going to play cards with you."
"Spoil sport," Lucifer grumbled.
"As I said you should probably go home," Chloe told him. "I'll call when we know something."
"But I don't want to go home," Lucifer said, honestly.
"Then just don't get in my way while I do paperwork," Chloe said with a sigh.
Lucifer pulled a chair over beside Chloe's desk and sat down. She'd moved the paperclips; there was, however, a pen. Lucifer picked it up and started clicking it, open and closed open and closed, open and closed, open and closed, open an-
"Stop!" Chloe said. Suddenly her hand came out of nowhere to wrap itself around both Lucifer's hand and the pen. Her hand moved away quickly, taking the pen with it, but Lucifer hardly cared. She'd touched his skin. She didn't usually do that, and he was always so careful not to get too close, not to scare her.
"And now you're staring at me," Chloe said, exasperatedly. "Great. How am I supposed to get any work done like this?"
"Sorry, Detective," Lucifer said, looking away. He felt sure he'd done something wrong somehow, though he had no clue what. "I'll go, like you asked."
"No, it's okay," Chloe sighed. "You can stay. Just stop clicking that pen."
"Will do, Detective," Lucifer said, smiling. He hadn't wanted to leave, but if he couldn't click the pen what was there to do?
Lucifer looked down at his hand, the one she'd touched. It was eerie how the skin she'd touched seemed to tingle. Between that and Chloe being immune to his charms, Lucifer was starting to wonder if she was even really human.
"Are you sure you aren't an angel?" Lucifer asked her. "Or maybe angel adjacent? Nephilim? You must be something more than human."
"Nope, just a boring ordinary person here trying to do her boring ordinary work despite the Devil's presence," Chloe grumbled.
"I would never call you boring or ordinary, Detective," Lucifer said. "The paperwork on the other hand is truly torturous. Did you know there are actually people in hell being punished for eternity with the very task you are doing right now?"
"In that case you might be good at it," Chloe said, holding out a pile of papers to him. "Here put these in alphabetical order.
"I said souls in hell were tortured with filing," Lucifer replied, leaning away from the papers. "Never said the King took part."
Deciding it was best to give the now fuming Detective some time to calm down, Lucifer walked away from her desk and wandered around the precinct. He made small talk with some other cops around the area until even that grew tiresome. There was just no one here who could hold his attention like the Detective. Lucifer somehow ended up in the lunch area where he laid waste to the precinct fridge. The pudding in particular was quite good, butterscotch flavour.
By the time he made his way back to the Detective's desk, Chloe was done with her paperwork and heading home.
"I can drop you off," Chloe told him as she collected her keys.
"No need," Lucifer said. "I'll just tag along."
"What? To my house?" Chloe asked. "Why?"
"Well you never know when you'll get a call about that name," Lucifer said.
"Making less sense than usual today I see," Chloe sighed. "Alright have it your way." And she started walking towards the door. Lucifer followed behind and was grinning as he got into her car. He liked getting his way.
"You know I am just going home to Trixie, right?" Chloe said as she drove. "There will probably be a bedtime story and other boring things you won't care about."
"Do you not want me to tag along then?"
"I just don't understand why you want to tag along," Chloe replied.
"Me neither," Lucier said cheerfully. Chloe rolled her eyes at him, but didn't argue the point further.
When they arrived at Chloe's house, Lucifer stood a little away as she greeted, paid and dismissed Trixie's after school sitter.
"Lucifer!" Trixie said the moment she saw him. He then found himself being hugged quite fiercely by the little urchin.
"Yes hello child," Lucifer said, awkwardly. He never really knew what to do when Trixie attacked him like this. Neither food nor toys had so far worked to get her off him.
"Let go of him now, monkey," Chloe said, coming to collect the child off Lucifer's leg.
"Mom, was it bring your partner home from work day?" Trixie asked as she let go of him.
"Something like that," Chloe told her with a chuckle. "Did you get your homework done yet?"
"Got stuck," Trixie said.
"Well why don't we get it unstuck together," Chloe replied, smiling at her offspring, and then the two of them sat down at the dining room table to work on it.
Lucifer never knew how to be around Trixie, or any child for that matter. It's not like there were many in hell. Sure, maybe once or twice over the millennia a serial killer started young and got killed young, ending up in hell, but they hardly counted as children. Trixie was a happy, kind child, and most unusual of all she liked the Devil. Lucifer had yet to see Trixie without being forced into a hug. Even if he could hardly admit it to himself, Lucifer rather liked that Trixie accepted him so easily.
Chloe got the call they'd been waiting for just after Trixie went to bed.
"It could still take us a while to find him even now that we have his name so you should probably head home," Chloe told Lucifer once she'd gotten off the phone.
"Oh no not until this human stain has been brought to justice," Lucifer said.
"Fine, just don't wake up Trixie," Chloe said. "I'll be upstairs."
The first thing Lucifer thought of was to wake up Trixie, but he didn't on the grounds of not wanting any more involuntary hugs this evening than he'd already endured. Lucifer did open her bedroom door though and take a look at the little urchin. She seemed peaceful. Lucifer envied her. His life was anything but peaceful since he'd met the Detective. In fact, it made almost no sense. Why did he still want to be here? Sure, he hadn't seen Chloe that much over the last three weeks, but why did that mean he wanted to hover?
Lucifer looked up when he heard footsteps and saw the Detective coming back down the stairs. She had her phone in hand when she told him they'd found the victim's boyfriend, which meant another ride in the passenger side of Chloe's car.
Went on a serious writing binge yesterday aka spent the hours of 7am to 12pm typing while forgetting to have breakfast. I just got so wrapped up in writing the season finale episode I couldn't stop! Which means I now have chapter 21 almost finished... so yeah still way more ahead then usual. Chapters will be coming at you as fast as my editor sends them to me! I am trying not to overwhelm her though so maybe a few days between chapters for a while.
Since in this version Lucifer doesn't yet know Chloe is why he's bleeding, he hasn't become suspicious of her yet which rather changed the dynamic of the first part of this episode quite a bit I think. Please review/comment and let me know what you think! As always I love to read my readers thoughts.
Sneak Peek Chapter 18
"Oh this does sound exciting," Lucifer piped in. Chloe rolled her eyes. For a guy who was suddenly as killable as a human he sure wasn't scared of much!
"I still think you're wrong," Dan said. "But we'll do it your way." And with that he turned to leave. Chloe called out to him to take her car rather than get a ride so it wouldn't look like she was here. Dan agreed and then disappeared behind the elevator doors.
"Don't mind him," Lucifer said cheerfully. "I believe you, Detective."
"Yeah and Dan would believe me too if I could explain any of this celestial shit to him," Chloe sighed.
"Do you want him to be a believer too?" Lucifer asked. He didn't sound too thrilled about the idea, but Chloe sensed he'd do it if she asked him to.