He knew that the fever had hit its peak when the fledgling woke in the middle of the night, eyes fluttering open, dulled from the fever and she looked about the room with wide eyes before they slowly settled on him in his chair at her side. He set his book down gently, looking up to her as their eyes settled on each other, and she laid there as still as was possible.

"Luci?"

He nodded, setting the book aside on the table next to him, and leaned forward to rub a finger over her nose tenderly, "I'm here, little one."

"You're here?"

The Morningstar frowned lightly, "There is no other place that I'd be, then right here."

"But you….you were kicked out…Michael…he broke your wings…..and…..and he chained you…..and….and pushed you into the darkness….we watched it." His little fledgling sat up in bed as much as she could "Did he….Did he let you come…come back 'cause….'cause I'm sick?"

Lucifer realized what was wrong almost immediately, she was over come by her fever in its height and had fallen into a memory that had already come to pass. Still stuck in a time that had long since left them.

"Yes. He let me come back because you were very sick."

She smiled a dazed smile, reaching her hands out for him, and he was more than ready to oblige her request, lifting her out of the blankets and into his arms instead. She curled around him tightly, burrowing in as though he would leave her if he did not, and he feared that part of the little fledgling believed it. So he let her cling as tightly as she needed, swaying his hips slightly, while he rubbed at her back soothingly.

Akeelah pressed her warm forehead against his neck, speaking into the cool skin softly "I missed…..missed you so…..so much Luci…please….please don't leave…..leave again."

"I promise I won't. Michael let me come back to stay. I'm not leaving again."

He turned at the soft tap on the doorframe, meeting his older brothers eyes over the fledglings damp curls, giving him a look in an attempt to relieve the pain he could see in his eyes, but it would be something his brother would keep to himself for a long time to come.

"He's so cold….cold now Luci…It's scary."

The Morningstar tried to convey with his eyes just how untrue her words were, but even he knew, that there had been a time where his brother had thrived in those subzero temperatures with him, he had allowed himself to grow so cold to the world around him. Michael had changed the most out of them all and they couldn't expect the ones who had witnessed it to let it go. Not completely.

"I know, little one, but he's warmer now."

"I miss..him being…warm."

He watched as his brothers world came crashing around him, the heartbreak in his eyes cutting him just as deeply as the fever induced ramblings cut into him. Lucifer stared at his heartbroken brother, trying to think of what he could do to help them both, and then it came to him.

"But you still love him, right, little one."

"Always….love him."

She woke the next morning, sticky from sweat, and still warm from the broken fever, cuddled in between two bodies. The fledgling sat up slowly, rubbing at her cheek lightly, to look between the two sleeping archangels. She wasn't sure when the oldest one had gotten there, but she was happy he had come, and she smiled as she cuddled back down into his side.