he grass stain was imperceptible. Lucifer bitched about it like a herd of corgis splashed through a mud lake and then rolled around on him. He nearly drove them to the club sans slacks. Chloe managed to keep him from taking his pants off in the parking lot, but only barely.

Lux was slow for a Saturday. Someone Lucifer didn't know played his piano on the club floor, but it wasn't off-limits to patrons during the day. There were enough people present that Chloe felt infinitely happy that he still had clothes on.

The bartender waved to them with a smile.

Up in the apartment, she detected a whiff of bacon smell from breakfast. The bed was made. Chloe wasn't sure what she wanted to find.

Lucifer offered to double check that she was still completely clean after this morning. Just in case. She swatted him away and sent him to his closet. Something in a familiar square plastic package sat out on the bar.

"Lucifer?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Are those cinnamon roll cupcakes?"

"Hmmmm?"

"Did you get them for me? These are my favorite!"

"Oh! Those monstrosities. No, Daniel brought them over last night. For you, as a matter of fact."

She blinked. "Wow. That was nice of him."

"If you say so."

She smiled to herself, popped the cover and pulled off a bite. "They're really good if you microwave them first."

Lucifer reappeared in a new three-piece, adjusting the coordinating pocket square.

"Did you have to change your shirt too?"

"Didn't go with this shade."

She pecked him on the cheek. "You are so metro it's scary. You wanna at least tell me whatever you told Dan last night so I can be in on the loop?"

She sensed his shields raise, metaphorically. "This and that. We talked about Dr. Linda some."

Oh, that made more sense. He praised her insights all the time. "Oh, are you still seeing her for therapy? Did you have some kind of breakthrough about your dad?" She tore off another chunk of the frosted cupcake and chewed.

He hedged, "Something like that. Daniel came into contact with something he shouldn't have."

Chloe nodded, "And it's related to your sessions? Is that why you can't tell me?"

Lucifer sighed. "I can tell you. I don't want to."

She flailed internally and composed herself. "Why not?"

He rolled his eyes. "That thing where I don't lie?"

She frowned. "So, you said something to Dan, and now he suddenly believes you are the Devil? Or did you get him to play along?" Chloe licked frosting off her fingers, thinking. "What does that have to do with your dad? Or does it help to have someone indulge you?"

Lucifer nodded. "I don't think Dan has recovered yet, but yes, he does believe me now. Mostly. I think he's still betting on 'alien.' Hopefully, by next weekend he'll have sorted out his poor brain. I think he'll be alright, but it might be too soon to tell."

"This better not have anything to do with me making you watch Star Trek. If you decide you're from the Klingon homeworld instead of being the Devil, the whole station will have to re-arrange their coping mechanisms." She finished off a cupcake. "Ella would love it though. She'd have someone else to speak Klingon with."

Lucifer eyed her sticky fingers, but brightened., "Oh that's right. Klingon got recognized as an official language sometime in the last decade, didn't it? Hang on." He held up a finger and pointed at a bottle of brandy. "HIq." He bounced on his heels, looking pleased. "Thanks, Detective, you're correct. I'll converse with Ella in Klingon next time I see her. Do you think she's fluent?"

"I have no idea."

"Well, I guess we'll find out then."

"You do make life more interesting."

"I try."

Chloe washed her hands in the sink. Lucifer relaxed. She dried her hands. "I'll make a deal with you."

"Excellent. My specialty."

"I'll try to take your Satan status more...legitimately, but sometime before the end of the year, you have to tell me who you were before you came to L.A."

Lucifer refilled his flask. "Why?"

She looked away, torn. "Because I can't have a real romantic relationship with a fictional character. If you want, I promise I won't call you anything other than "Lucifer," but I wish you'd tell me at least a little about your real past."

"Detective!"

"I've never known you as anyone other than 'Lucifer Morningstar.' That's okay. I just would like to know who you used to be."

"There are swaths of humans roaming the Internet who would disagree with your statement about romantic relationships with fictional characters. Which, by the way, Internet ought to be a thing in the afterlife. Quite inventive."

"So you're saying there's no WiFi in heaven?"

"Oh, I could ask Amenadiel. But I doubt they've instituted anything like it."

Chloe rubbed her face. "Maybe Dan is right on the alien theory. You have basically no history on the Internet before you came here."

Lucifer huffed. "You tried already, right?"

She bit her lip. "I did. When you first joined. I even paid for a package online for a face-matching service. They couldn't find an older photo of you. The best they did was finding mention of a guy who looked like you claiming to be "Lucifer Morningstar." but that happened, oddly enough, in L.A. but more than 30 years ago. No photo."

"Oh, yes, there you go, that was me too. Wasn't a permanent relocation then, just taking an occasional holiday for my amusements."

She would chew her lips off if she kept biting them. "You've turned down the LAPD's offer to make you an official consultant and give you a contract salary per case. You've turned it down twice. I know you make money running this club, but it can't hurt to have the extra income security."

Lucifer stashed the flask away and straightened his cuffs. "Well, let's just say it would impact my tax filings negatively."

"Okay, fine. But do we have a deal?"

"It's not my fault you don't believe me."

"Isn't it?"

He shuffled. "We should get moving on your case."

"Lucifer."

"Telling you about my past isn't going to be very convincing if you don't believe I'm the Devil."

More internal flailing. "How about later tonight? Maybe Dan can come over, and we can talk together?"

He smiled. "I can think of plenty of things we can do together."

She flushed. "You don't have to start with 'everything.' Just one thing. Tell me one thing tonight that you haven't told me before about your past, okay?"

"One thing it is."

Claire opened the door and smiled sadly. "Hey." Her hair back and not looking like she'd slept well. She wasn't wearing makeup.

Chloe and Lucifer stepped in. "You okay?"

"Yeah.. no. I'm on my way out to stay with a friend. I can't stay with the house basically empty. I keep expecting to see someone and they aren't here. They won't be." She had a packed bag under one arm.

"I'm sorry about the timing, but can we ask you a few questions before you go? And do you mind if we poke around inside?"

"Sure, I can leave in a few minutes." She let them in. "Can I get you a drink?"

She cut off Lucifer. "No, thank you. We wanted to get a look at files that might not be publicly available?"

She eyed them with uncertainty. "I don't know if they're mine to give access to."

"We're looking into a theory that there might be a person or persons who didn't do well in a tryout and might be unhappy about it."

Claire blinked. "Oh! Uhm. Maybe? They didn't keep my tape, so I doubt they kept anyone else's. But I bet I can find the list of previous applicants."

Lucifer up at the ceiling again. "I don't suppose that's on all the time?"

"No, but the security cameras are."

"Okay, maybe we can match up applicants to faces and see if they came back around the house to snoop."

Claire looked confused. "Oh, the tryouts didn't happen here. But the business was run out of the back office. This way."

Lucifer resembled a gopher popping up at everything they passed on the walk to the back. "Is this where you keep your costume closet? I think I know that sparkly red number. Is that a new camera location? Who does your sound during the shoot? Do you have an editing bay here or off-site?"

Claire tiredly waved them on. "Yes, that's where they kept costumes. Not a new camera, the sound guy only comes in on shoot days, and I do the editing in the same back office here."

The editing room at the end of the hall opened with glass paned french doors that had a lock on them. The walls were layered with soundproofing foam on most of the available flat surfaces. Headsets, multiple flat screens with camera identifiers, and a few computers made up a sophisticated work station. A soundboard with sliders sat to one side, with scattered sticky-notes on several surfaces. The cameras were on, but none showed the editing bay itself.

The Detective was impressed. "What's going to happen to all this equipment?"

"I don't know. The guys that owned the company are gone, Maybe the investors or the people who advertise on our site will get involved."

"Can you get us copies of the lists you mentioned here, or are those off-site?"

She opened a cabinet. "One sec."

Lucifer patted a computer lovingly. "Perhaps a copy of the most recent show?"

Chloe glared over her shoulder at Lucifer. "Claire, when we came here the other day, you said you were a roommate?"

She winced. "I don't officially live here yet. I moved out here for the gig, and I don't actually have a place of my own yet. Luckily I have a friend in the area. I guess I won't be getting a place."

"I hope you don't mind not leaving the state in the next few weeks? We might need you to come in to help identify suspects or verify information."

"I'd really rather not stick around. I don't have a job anymore, or a place."

Lucifer perked up. "Oh, you know what?"

Chloe stopped him. "No. You are not going to offer your apartment for another case suspect slash informant slash insider slash anything."

"Detective! I have a few guest bedrooms between my flat and the club floor."

"Is that what you were going to offer?"

"Well. I am now."

Claire warily shifted her bag and her blue eyes. "Your flat?"

"Apartment. You could be accessible to the police, and you won't have to worry about rent or inconveniencing your friend."

"I appreciate the offer, but-"

"Excellent. Come over later to Lux and someone on my staff will show you around."

Chloe hauled him off by the elbow. Again. "Lucifer. Really?"

"What's wrong? The lady needs a place to stay to ensure she's available for the case, and I have places to stay."

"What about tonight?"

"The guest bedrooms are out of the way. She won't be a bother at all."