While Chloe was reading Christi her rights, Lucifer walked back into the other room. Something Chrisit had said made Lucifer want to know the truth. When Eric learned what she'd done, would he hate her? Lucifer wasn't sure why he wanted to know so badly but that hardly mattered.

"Eric," Lucifer said as he came to stand beside the man's bed. "Christi's been arrested for the murder of your father."

"No," Eric said at once.

"No, what?" Lucifer said. "No she didn't do it? Because, I assure you, she did."

"I need to see her," Eric said. To Lucifer's great surprise the immobile, critically injured man tried to get out of bed.

"Are you insane?" Lucifer asked, reaching forward to stop the foolishness. "You're barely breathing as it is. Don't make matters worse."

"Can't get any worse!" Eric exclaimed. "They'll take Christi away!"

"She killed your father," Lucifer reminded him.

"My father was a horrible man," Eric said. "If she killed him he probably did something to deserve it, and even if he didn't it doesn't change how I feel about her. Nothing could do that. I'd do anything for her."

"Right then," Lucifer said. "Well if you lay still I'll see what I can do."

"Really?" Eric asked, settling back down in bed. "You'd help me?"

"Apparently," Lucifer said with a sigh. What the hell was he doing? Crazy devil.

He turned and walked back to Chloe and asked if Christi could get a chance to talk to Eric before she was taken to jail.

"I suppose," Chloe said, but she was looking at him with the strangest expression.

"Yes, I know. Why do I care?" Lucifer snapped. "I'm not sure, so can we drop it?"

"Consider it dropped," Chloe said with a grin. Then she walked the handcuffed Christi over to her finance's bed.

"I'm so sorry Eric," Christi said through her tears.

"You don't have to be sorry," Eric told her. He could barely move but still tried to reach up his hand towards her. When that failed he asked her to come closer. She placed her forehead against his and then they were both making promises to each other. Lucifer watched as he promised to do everything he could to help her and if he failed he promised to wait for her no matter how long it took. Christi promised him her eternal love and loyalty. It was a touching scene. Lucifer couldn't quite figure out how it was making him feel. He wanted to make a joke about nausea but he couldn't bring himself to do it. The pain and love he was witnessing was simply insane to him. It was beyond him. The devil wasn't capable of such things. Even as a witness Lucifer felt lost. How could two separate beings care about each other this much? And if by some miracle they did, why did He see fit to separate them?

"I have to take her back to the station now," Chloe told them gently once all the words had been exchanged.

Christi nodded once, leaning down and kissing Eric before turning to follow the Detective.

Chloe had called backup. There was a squad car waiting outside to take Christi to the station. As the arresting officer Chloe went with them and Lucifer headed back to his corvette.

Walking into Lux, Lucifer saw all his passed out guests and was reminded that his home wouldn't be here much longer. Deciding he'd rather say goodbye on his own, Lucifer woke everyone up and sent them home. He poured himself a drink and went to sit at the piano.

After playing a few melancholy songs, Lucifer found himself in need of a change. Before he realized what was happening he was playing a love song on the piano. He wasn't sure how long he sat there, sometimes singing and sometimes just playing the keys. Until he'd come to live on earth, time had always felt rather meaningless to Lucifer. Thousands of years in heaven, kicked out, and then thousands of years in hell. Sure that's a lot of time but it was just that, time. It had no meaning without change and he hadn't changed at all in those years. During the last five years on earth however he'd changed. Every day brought a new challenge, a new mystery, a new excitement. To an immortal a few years should feel like mere seconds, but it seemed to be the opposite for him lately. Here on earth, with Chloe and his friends seconds were years and every moment meant something. Maybe that's what was so wonderful about mortals.

"Thought I'd find you here." It was Chloe's voice. Lucifer stopped playing and turned to see her walking down the stairs.

"Just saying goodbye to the place," Lucifer replied. "These walls have many stories to tell, but I shall find new walls to hold my stories."

"Maybe you won't have too," Chloe said. He turned to see her walking right up to him. She was holding a standard issue file folder. Opening the folder, she sat down beside him at the piano before she spoke. "Lux has been named a heritage site by Los Angeles county."

Lucifer didn't say a word. He just stared at the pages.

"I got the idea from your little history lesson," Chloe explained. "Didn't want to get your hopes up until I was sure it would work. I have a friend on the city council who pushed it through."

Lucifer was simply too stunned to speak. He didn't deserve her. He knew it, but he also knew he needed her. It was simple, yet utterly complicated. She was so selfless, so kind, so unaware of just how amazing she was. He would never be able to repay her for this. There was nothing he could ever do that would even the score.

"Lux is safe now," Chloe continued. "It can't be demolished for development. Though you will still have to buy it back from Bloom for far above market value." She chuckled and added, "But you can afford it."

"You saved my home," Lucifer said in a whisper, in awe of what she had done.

"And you helped Christi and Eric," Chloe said. "She thanked me, you know. Christi, that is. For letting her see Eric before we took her away. She said it meant more to her than I'd ever know."

Lucifer just shrugged. "They seemed like they needed a pre-arrest chat," he said.

"True, as always, but not the whole truth," Chloe told him. "So why'd you do it?"

There was a long pause as Lucifer considered how to reply. He could just say something off hand again, something true but not what she was asking or he could open up.

Lucifer looked down at the words on the page she'd handed him, words that meant he'd always have a home here. Then he looked up at Chloe, looked into her eyes and felt more than he had words for. He might not ever be able to repay her for this, but he could at least give her the answer she was asking for.

"People who can accept love should be together," Lucifer said gently. "People like Eric and Christi. The least I could do is give them their moment. She doesn't deserve the punishment she's facing. Dean Cooper's hatred and his hired tempter are to blame."

"And you would be the authority on the matter," Chloe laughed.

"Well actually I am," Lucifer replied seriously. "Or I was. I've been judge, jury, and punisher for mankind since before human laws were written. I punished the very first human to ever commit murder. When I ruled in hell my word was more than simple law. It was absolute."

Chloe didn't speak for a moment and Lucifer began to worry if he'd overshared. But then after a moment she spoke in a calm voice.

"And here on earth," she asked. "Who are you?"

"Here on earth I am your friend," Lucifer said. "Your partner."

"And?"

"And the devil on vacation," Lucifer chuckled.

"Vacations end, Lucifer," Chloe reminded him. "But you burnt your wings."

"That I did," Lucifer said. There was a long pause. Lucifer suspected Chloe was waiting for him to explain further, but he found he really didn't have anything else to say. He didn't want to dive deeper to try and figure it out either.

"As knowledgeable as usual then," Chloe finally broke the silence. "On that note I gotta go."

"Ah yes, of course," Lucifer said, turning back to his piano keys. "The Devil can't keep you."

She laughed slightly at this and then added, "I gotta get some sleep if I'm gonna get through that mountain of paperwork on my desk."

"Then I wish you pleasant dreams Detective," Lucifer replied. With that she got up and walked up the stairs and out of his club.

Lucifer turned back to his piano. He could keep playing the music, but the idea felt a little too personal all of a sudden. Instead he stood up, and turned to walk upstairs.

He'd spent the better part of the day trying to come to terms with the fact that Lux wouldn't be his anymore and now suddenly it was his forever. Because of Chloe.

The whole thing made him want to do something for her in return, but he hadn't a clue what that might be. There wasn't anything of equal value he could do, nothing even came close.

Up in his penthouse, Lucifer poured himself a drink and tried to think. What did Chloe want? He thought over conversations he'd had with her recently in his head, trying to come up with something. Then he realized Chloe wasn't the kind of person who wanted material things. Chloe valued deads more than items. It didn't matter if he'd once caught her looking at something in a shop window, because buying it wouldn't matter to Chloe. She responded to action.

And there was an action she'd been asking of him lately that he'd ignored. It was an easy decision to make once he made it solely based on the faith in the detective's advice rather than his own misgivings.

Lucifer called Maze and told her what he planned to do. She was skeptical but it seemed the detective had already done some work there too. Maze had already been half talked into the plan before Lucifer called.

"I really don't think I'd be up for this if Chloe didn't think it was a good idea," Maze told him once she'd arrived at the penthouse.

"I know the feeling," Lucifer replied.

Maze looked apprehensive but nodded all the same. Lucifer could understand why she felt that way. A part of him would be eternally grateful that Chloe had learned the truth before Lucifer had been too scared to reveal it. If he'd been in Maze's shoes right now, Lucifer doubted he'd be so brave, though he'd never tell her that.

Lucifer drove. It was a rather nice change from always sitting in the passenger seat with the detective. Once the car was parked they went inside. There was no one waiting outside the door. Lucifer checked the time and realized she'd be done with clients and about to leave for home at this time.

"Do you think we missed her?" Maze asked. Lucifer shook his head. He could see the light still on in her office. There was light coming in from under her door.

He walked forward and knocked on the door.

"Mr. Nelson, I really can't extend our session today," Doctor Martin's voice came from the other side of the door. "I'm sorry but if you book in again next week I-"

"We aren't Nelson," Maze said sharply through the closed door.

There was silence for only a moment and then the door opened to reveal Doctor Linda Martin looking a bit tired.

"Oh, hey Maze," she said. "I wasn't expecting to see you." She turned to him and added, "And Lucifer. This is a surprise indeed."

"The surprises are just getting started," Maze said gruffly as she pushed past Dr. Martin and into the room. "Sit."

"It's late, I'm tired," Linda began. "And I really don't appreciate being ordered about in my own office."

"Don't mind Maze, doctor," Lucifer offered. "She's just nervous."

"I am not," Maze snapped.

"See? Nervous," Lucifer added.

Dr. Martin gave a resigned sigh, like she knew she wasn't getting out of here until they got an hour's free therapy from her.

"Don't look so resigned," Lucifer scoffed. "This really won't take long." Lucifer planned to make some metaphor about ripping off a band aid before revealing his face and promptly leaving, but Maze cut him off.

"First, I want to ask you something," Maze said. "I know you've been talking to Chloe. She thinks you have a right to know, but it has to come from you. There is something we think you want to see. Something that will forever change the way you see the world. Do you want to see it?"

Linda seemed to think about that for a moment. "So I'm right in thinking that whatever this is Chloe already knows?"

Maze nodded.

"This is what she meant by taking on a burden," Linda continued.

Lucifer felt like a knife was being twisted into his gut. Hearing her say it so calmly didn't help, but this was proof. Proof that Chloe believed knowing the devil was a burden. He was a burden on her. Lucifer didn't like this new feeling. He wasn't sure he'd ever felt like this before, but he knew exactly what it was, which surprised him. Guilt.

"Probably," Maze said, uncertainly.

"Well show me then," Linda replied, with a hint of frustration. "No more of this beating around the bloody bush!"

Lucifer revealed his true face. He couldn't feel the change in his appearance but he could see it in the doctor's eyes as she gazed at him.

It was what Chloe wanted, but for the life of him Lucifer hadn't a clue why. If Chloe thought it such a burden why would she want to burden another? But Lucifer trusted her. In fact, he trusted Chloe more than he trusted himself at the moment, and he owed her this. He owed her everything.

Dr. Martin stood perfectly still for what felt like an eternity but was in reality probably only a few minutes.

"Well say something," Maze exclaimed. Her voice sounded strange. He'd know Maze for thousands of years and yet he didn't recognize the emotion in her voice. That was until he realized she sounded scared. He so rarely witnessed Mazikeen being scared, Lucifer was hardly able to identify the emotion on her face.

"It's-" Linda began slowly. "It's all true." Her voice wasn't much more than a whisper.

Lucifer half listened as Maze talked to a very stunned looking Linda. He listened to her explain that even if they were a demon and the devil they were still the same people she'd known for the last year or more. Maze was gentler than he knew her capable of being as she explained to Linda that there was nothing to fear.

Suddenly feeling like a third wheel, Lucifer stood a step back. Maze seemed to have this matter well in hand. She didn't need him there.

"You are still my friend," Maze was saying as Lucifer backed away. "No matter where I came from."

"You come from hell!" Linda exclaimed. She looked a bit panicked, but she was overall taking this far better than Lucifer had expected.

"And you're from Jersey," Maze said with a chuckle.

"I told you that in confidence!" Linda snapped.

Despite Linda's obvious alarm there was a softer atmosphere to their exchange now. Lucifer sensed that it would all be fine. He decided to leave the fallout in Mazikeen's surprisingly capable hands. Who knew a demon could act so soulfully? He certainly hadn't expected it. Then again if the devil could care so for a human why couldn't a demon make a friend?

What did you think about my changes? I thought about leaving Dr Martin out of the loop for quite a bit longer but she's just too much fun to have around, plus I want this story to focus on the change in Lucifer and Chloe's romantic relationship and Dr Martin is very useful in that department.

Sneak Peek Chapter 44

...coming just as soon as I write it...