Chapter Three - Ella

Ella stood in her lab, one earbud in, humming along to music as she worked. She was looking into some of the DNA evidence that had been left at a crime scene: it was a strange case regarding a young man who had been stabbed multiple times in the chest with a steak knife during a family reunion. The unusual part wasn't that a family reunion had resulted in a gruesome murder, but the fact that the victim had been injected with a lethal poison that would have killed him within hours if he hadn't been stabbed. Somebody must have really wanted this dude dead.

"Families can be rough, Max," Ella said with a dramatic sigh, addressing the unfortunate victim. "Believe me, I know. I grew up with brothers."

"Who are you talking to?" a voice behind her asked questioningly, and Ella jumped a foot into the air as she pulled the earbud out of her ear.

"Dan!" she exclaimed once she saw who it was. "You scared me!"

Dan laughed briefly. "Sorry." His face fell back into seriousness. "Ella, have you heard from Chloe recently?"

"I haven't seen her at all today," Ella said, searching Dan's face. "Why, is something wrong?"

Dan shifted his weight from one foot to the next, and Ella could tell that he was weighing his options. "Well… she called in sick today."

"Really?" asked Ella, not bothering to hide her incredulity. "When was the last time she did that?"

Dan forced his lips upward into a smile. "Well, you know Chloe… I don't know if she's missed a day from work in years."

"Well, good for her," Ella said with a smile that lit up the room. "I'm glad that she's learning that she doesn't have to be responsible for everything. Hey, maybe a group of us should go to her apartment and bring her some soup or something!"

"Yeah…" Dan said, scratching the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't resting on his hip. "I don't know if she really wants to be around anyone right now. She… kind of asked me to take Trixie early."

Ella's smile slid off her face instantly. "Oh. My. God. That's not a Chloe thing to do. We definitely need to visit her now."

Dan made another good attempt at a casual laugh. "No, no, I'm sure she doesn't want to be bothered. I just wanted to ask you if she's said anything to you about… anything."

Ella shook her head. "No, she hasn't mentioned anything… but if you don't think she wants us to bother her, then I guess I won't go check on her. Your call."

Dan smiled, a real one this time. "Thanks, Ella."

"No problem," she said cheerily, before giving him a swift hug.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and Ella could feel the awkwardness hanging in the air. For the first time in her life, Ella was at a loss for words as she stared into Dan's lips, imagining the feel of his on hers, his strong arms around her…

"Well, I should get back to work," she said in an unnaturally high voice, turning away from Dan as fast as she could. What was she doing? She knew that he manipulated her through her feelings for him, and he was the ex husband of one of her closest friends. This was literally the worst person she could have feelings for. Except maybe Lucifer: Ella saw the way that Chloe looked at him and knew that he was taken.

"Right," said Dan before turning and walking quickly out the lab.

Ella watched him walk off to his desk by the stairs before realizing that she was staring at him. She quickly turned back to her work, trying to focus on Max, the poor stabbed and poisoned victim. She popped her earbud back in and turned her music up, intent on no more distractions.

"Ooh… who was that?" a voice behind her asked.

For the second time, Ella jumped about a foot in the air, pulling her earbud out automatically and turning to face the talker.

"Rae-rae?" she asked, her mouth dropping open. Her childhood best friend was standing in her lab, looking the same as when she had last seen her mere months ago: a bite-sized young woman with a cute little bob, wide dark brown eyes, and round glasses, with her lips curved into a smile.

"Hi," Azrael said with a wave and a small smile. "How's my best friend doing?"

"Why are you back so soon?" Ella asked, crossing the room and giving Azrael a big, bone-crushing hug. "I didn't expect to see you for a while!"

"Are you disappointed?"

"No, of course not!" Ella said, releasing her friend and giving her a huge smile. "You just scared the crap out of me, that's all!"

"You were clearly occupied," Azrael observed.

"Oh yeah-" Ella turned back to the evidence she was inspecting. "I'm working on a homicide case, and you'll never believed what happened to this poor dude at his family - "

"I'm not talking about the case," Azrael said with another one of her small smiles, looking towards the desk where Dan was sitting at his computer. "Your mind is clearly… elsewhere."

Ella turned away to try to hide the blush creeping up on her cheeks. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Come on, Ella! You can tell me anything!" Azrael exclaimed.

Ella smiled in spite of herself. "There's really not much to say…"

Azrael snorted. "With you telling it there is."

Ella rolled her eyes. "He's just someone I work with, Rae-rae. There's absolutely nada between us. End of story."

Azrael took a couple of steps closer to Ella. "Come on, Ella, it's been forever since you've dated."

Ella felt the blush rising higher up on her face. "I know, I know, but a girl doesn't need a man to be happy. I'm perfectly fine on my own."

"Of course you are, but that doesn't mean you have to force yourself away from him. Someone I once knew used to always say, 'If you desire something, take it.' Maybe you could take his advice."

The phrase stirred something in Ella's memory, but she pushed the nagging feeling away as she thought about what her ghost friend was saying. "That's actually not bad advice, Rae-rae. Maybe I will go for it. It has been a while since I dated, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to get back into the game… thanks for the advice!"

"No problem," Azrael said briefly. "And I guess now, do you think you could give me some advice too?"

"Yeah, of course I can, silly!" Ella said. "Anytime for my bestest friend. Do you need help with some ghost drama?"

Azrael forced a laugh. "No, no, it's nothing big like that. I just wanted to talk about my brother… I know you have a lot of brothers, and you seem to be a good sister to them."

Ella smiled. "Ah, well, I don't know if I'd say that… but yeah, family's really important to me and I would be happy to help you."

Azrael sat down on a chair. "Okay, well… my brother and I used to be really close, but then we hadn't spoken to each other for a few thousand-" Azrael caught herself. "A few thousand minutes, which is probably a couple years."

"Okay…" said Ella.

"And he's in a spot of trouble now, to say the least, and I want to help him. Or at least talk to him. He's in real pain right now."

"Go talk to him then!" Ella said. "Even if you haven't seen each other in a few years, I'm sure he'd be glad to hear from you."

"But the problem is, my Dad… he probably wouldn't approve of me visiting him," Azrael explained awkwardly. "The two of them kind of have a feud, and I don't want to get caught in the middle. And I think my brother is still mad at me, because I didn't help him the first time he was in this situation."

Ella hugged her friend yet again. "Don't worry, Rae-rae. He can't stay mad forever - he'll forgive you if you go to him, apologize, give him a big hug, and offer to help him. And for your father, you should go talk to him! Convince him to forgive your brother and end the feud. Family is more important than anger or hate."

"That's… good advice, actually," said Azrael. "I'm scared, though. I haven't talked to my father in a long time."

"Maybe you need to get the whole family together again," said Ella. "With your mother, and other siblings, your father, and your brother. Like a family reunion. It should hopefully go better than poor Max's."

Azrael laughed softly. "That would be disastrous. But if it would help Lu…"

"Is Lou your brother?" Ella asked.

Azrael nodded, but she looked extremely uncomfortable, and started to figet with her hands that were folded in her lap. Ella couldn't help but feel suspicious: what if her friend was hiding something again? But she shoved those feelings as far down as they would go, trying to have some faith in her friend. "It's short for... Louis."

"Aaah," said Ella. "One of my uncle's name is Louis, and oh boy, he is - "

"Do you think that it will work?" Azrael interuppted, her hands still fidgeting as she started to tap her leg. "Talking to my brother and father? Getting the whole family together?"

"Relax, Rae-rae!" Ella said with another bright smile. "It isn't like you to worry so much. Everything's going to be perfectly fine. Just remember that family is more important than anything."

Azrael nodded slowly. "It's just that my family is… extremely dysfunctional."

"I'm sure they can't be that bad," Ella laughed. "Everybody sometimes thinks they're family's crazy."

Azrael smiled. "You have no idea."