Dan

For someone who did a bit of improv every now and then and had basically no other commitments outside work and seeing his daughter, Detective Daniel Espinoza was hard to track down. After two days of trying to pin him down on his own, he finally got hold of the perfect way to chat to him without anyone else around.

He cornered him at work, by his desk and stayed there until he would talk to him privately. It really was the only way. And he had promised to not impersonate him again like he had at an attempt to find someone else to be, during a freak-out over hurting everyone he cared about.

Still, Dan was kind of pissed off with him for cornering him like this and it wasn't the best way to do things, but he really wanted this conversation to remain private. So, he took him to the one place he knew was safe to talk. Ella's lab.

Ella already knew, after all, what he was going to say.

"What do you want, Lucifer? I'm going to go home if you don't hurry up and tell me."

"No! Wait. It's just...hard to talk about."

Dan rolled his eyes at him. "Well, unless an apology is in there somewhere, I don't care."

"But it is! I am apologising. For my behaviour in the recent past at least. I have been really tightly wound lately and I have been taking it out on everyone, including you. And yeah, you don't deserve that. You're a decent enough human being even with being a douche."

Dan crossed his arms and glared at the douche comment, but raised an eyebrow, knowing the apology wasn't what he wanted to say.

"Yes, I know, it's not much, but it is an apology. I've been dealing with some heavy emotional crap in my life and I didn't mean to take it out on anyone. Doctor Linda thinks it's because I feel safer with others now..."

Holding up a hand, the other man frowned and looked confused. At least he no longer looked like he was going to pick a fight. "Safer?'

He nodded. "Yeah. With my mum coming back into my life, everything has been majorly disrupted. You know I was terrified of her killing me to begin with. And then I kept thinking she was the killer on all our cases. You think my mum was a ray of sunshine if I kept thinking her a killer?"

Dan blinked and the frown deepened. 'I remember those times. Took a while before you settled back into letting things be as they are instead of a mom related incident. Until you went off the rails. What happened there?"

"My brother died. In my arms. That's not the important part here though. I'm trying to tell you that my mum is not a good person and was even worse with me than she is to anyone else. And as far as I know she hasn't killed anyone since her return."

Dan stared at him. "You're worrying about telling me about your abusive mom when your brother died in your arms? You are one strange man."

"Not a man per se, but thank you. And yes, he left me quite...untethered. It was really hard to get through the past few months without going completely mad, but the worst of that is over for the time being. Still having really bad days though."

"Shit, Lucifer, why didn't you say something? You were supposed to have two weeks mourning period from working here."

He blinked. "I did have the two weeks. It started a few weeks late, but I did get it. I wasn't exactly fit to do much of anything. But once Doctor Linda got over her freak out over me, she's been a really big help."

"Yeah, never thought I'd say this, but at least I know therapy is working for you."

He shrugged. "It has been a help. Especially with emotions. My mum really screwed me up with emotions. As Ella put it, I don't know how to emotion properly. Which is true. My reactions come off as all wrong."

"Yeah I think everyone here at the precinct has already figured that out. Well, I don't know why you told me, but I won't tell anyone else."

Frowning, Lucifer got up from where he was once again leaning on Ella's desk. "I thought we were friends now, or becoming friends. Doctor Linda said I should apologise and explain why to the people I'm closest to and, like it or not, that does include you. It's not like I have many people I can even consider friends. Plenty of people I play with but not actual friends. And all those are here at the police station, not at Lux."

"So...can I ask about how she treated you wrong?"

"Emotionally. I mean, last time it happened she turned everyone who cared about me so completely against me, she got me thrown out for asking a question. Anything I said was wrong, everything I did was bad. Nothing I said in my defence was ever believed. I became known for lying, even though I never lie."

"Wow. Good thing you're already in therapy or I'd suggest it."

And that was just such a Dan thing to say that instead of making him feel bad, it instead relaxed him. It's not like anything he had just said was a lie. "Yes. Like I am sure you already figured out, it's where I got my complex of hating myself so strongly. Like you said, I got issues. But I really don't think I'd be able to go through all that again, and she's already starting her tricks up again. Except this time I'm not some dumb kid or stupid teen. I'm fully grown and can see what she is doing to a certain extent, but I am still partially blind to it, because...well, she's my mum. I love her."

Dan walked up to him and clapped him on the shoulder. "That's a lot to deal with. Alright, I get my part in this. And unless you do something really stupid, I'll stick with you."

He nodded. "Just make sure whatever you're accusing me of is something I actually did myself. If you didn't see me do it in person, suspect I didn't first. Don't listen to rumour. Go by what you know about me."

Dan nodded his head, looked to the door and gave him a look he couldn't identify. "Look, I got to go now. But it was nice talking to you. Good luck with the therapy and all. If anyone needs it here, it's you."

He nodded and let he detective walk out the room, leaving him alone, until he heard Ella's voice behind him.

"Finally got him cornered, huh?"

He jumped slightly and spun around. "Yes. Not as dickish as I was expecting, but he will stick to his guns. And, by the way, he has a nice set of guns on him. Damn, his body is fit."

Ella laughed and patted his shoulder. "Good luck with the other two."

He grimaced and nodded, knowing he'd need it. Thankfully, he had already set himself up as a babysitter for the weekend while Chloe and Dan go to a work conference. Maze was on a job right now and Beatrice wouldn't want to be left with a babysitter she doesn't care about.

He had the whole week ahead of him to get used to what he would say to an impressionable and intriguing young girl about the kind of abuse he went through.