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A new chapter for you :) Sorry for the wait...it takes time to translate ^^'

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WHETHER HE LIKES IT OR NOT

" Lucifer?... LUCIFER?! Damn it...! "

Chloe only heard the incessant tones in her ear. More than a tone, she heard a cry. A call for help. The young woman hung up quickly to recall Lucifer just as quickly to this number. She squeezed the blanket covering her body in her fingers, a clenching response to the more intense one in her chest. Her body and mind were tense, strained by anxiety and an almost unbearable hope. Painful. Chloe got immediately the voicemail. Whatever reason Lucifer had called her that night...had also led him to turn off his phone immediately afterwards. She hung up, clenching her teeth and sheets between her thin fingers.

She was divided between several emotions of an intensity hardly bearable. Fear, relief, anger... Everything blended in her head since this unexpected phone call. A hope that galvanized and simultaneously terrorized her. Terrorized by the fact that it's nothing but a fleeting hope...identical to the one she had experienced on her way to his penthouse that famous evening.

That famous night when her world had collapsed again...

This penthouse plunged into darkness...darkening, swallowing in the darkness their bonds. Their common future. A future that she had ardently desired. And that she thought desired by Lucifer. Was she wrong that much about him? Really? Was all this tragedy due to a misinterpretation of the signs by Chloe?

No.

She hadn't imagine all this. Impossible. She was certain. Lucifer wanted all this. If not more than she, much sooner than she. He had never hidden it, by the way. Then...what? Why had he run away like this?

Because it was a flight for the detective. An abandonment. Cowardice. Nothing led her to believe otherwise. She wanted to believe otherwise. But... How to believe in him again? How to understand without any explanation? Without any sign? Chloe wanted to understand... sincerely. She wanted a plausible explanation for his sudden disappearance. A valid reason... possibly forgivable. It was on this purpose that she had made all necessary effort to find him and bring him by the skin of his arse to Los Angeles.

A new defeat which had affected her for six long months. Significantly intensifying the pain of his absence. It was as if he had vanished beyond the borders of the city. Chloe had a slight hope at first, having easily spotted his car on the outskirts of L.A. A false trail. She should have known it. As he had suspected that she would pursue him relentlessly. Not a suspicion : a conviction that she would hunt him down. He knew her, as she had thought knowing him. Lucifer had abandoned his luxury corvette in a garage at the border, leaving behind him the last element capable of identifying him. The detective had also focused her research on her partner's pronounced likes for places and activities inciting lust. Las Vegas had appeared to her as an obvious stop on his flight.

And yet...

No sign of him there. Nothing. Not a trace of his typical and public exaggerations. He hadn't stayed at any hotel, nor rented a flashy car there. No one had recognized Lucifer anywhere – the young woman had provided a picture and description of the police's search systems, unique to the character -, nor in Las Vegas, Los Angeles or any other city in the state.

Chloe had to face it : Lucifer didn't wish to be found.

Not by her, at least.

Disappointed, destitute...the young woman had turned to her roommate, the latter having an inexplicable ability to fin anyone who didn't wish to. A gift that could have proved very useful in Lucifer...But... Once again...Only disappointment awaited her at the end of this track. A disappointment that also affected Mazekeen. She hadn't managed to find him on her own, whatever her techniques of investigation, techniques that Chloe didn't really want to know in detail. According to Maze, tracking Lucifer was... different. The detective couldn't well get out more. Information that wasn't really one and that had the knack for increasing by four the number of questions constantly torturing her brain. Questions accompanied with certainties, however.

Maze knew something.

She was convinced of it. Some embarrassed reactions and mimicry of the young woman couldn't deceive her. She knew the reason for Lucifer's precipitate departure, or at least a part of it. It was more than certain. She knew and didn't say anything to her, in spite of her incessant entreaties and harassments during these long months. Nothing had filtered from the mouth of her stubborn roommate. Why were these answers so difficult to provide?

Chloe only wanted to understand...

Why had he run away? What was he running away from? She? Why? What could she have done wrong? Had she said something or...?

These same questions swirled relentlessly in her mind. Day and night. Hour by hour. They remained there...unanswered. Devoid of a salutary understanding. She deserved answers. He owed it to her. He should had given her answers.

He should have stayed.

Chloe squeezed the mobile phone into her hands, rubbing the opaque screen with her thumb. Why had he called? After all this time... Why tonight? Was he okay? She knew it was him on the line. How... She wouldn't have been able to explain it. She knew it... that's all. An instinctive certitude, incontestable. He didn't need to talk... His silence spoke easily for him. It spoke much more than mere words. Chloe had felt in her the distress that gripped him... His uncertainties. He looked so...vulnerable on the line. Why? Chloe looked at her alarm clock on the black wooden bedside table. One quarter to one...

The detective dialed a new phone number and carried the device in her ear, tapping the blanket with her fingertips until someone picked it up. What finally happened after a dozen tones.

"Hello...", muttered a sleepy voice.

" Ella, this is Chloe. Are you still at the precinct? ", asked the latter, throwing the blankets back with an ample gesture.

" Unfortunately yes...", complained the coroner.

Chloe could easily see her yawning on the phone and slowly rub her obstinately closed eyes. She got out of bed and began to pace up and down while asking her colleague:

" I'll need some information as soon as possible! It's about Lucifer...", she specified slightly lower.

The simple utterance of this name soon made exhilarate the young woman on the line, the latter answering in a voice much more alert :

"Shoot ! I'm ready! "

" I would like you to plot the position of a cell phone. I give you the number...", said Chloe, scrolling the incoming calls on her phone.

She hung up a few minutes later, Ella having told her to do as quickly as possible to find the requested information, recalling her as soon as possible. She looked around, her gaze passing from her alarm clock to her unmade bed. What to do now? Wait wisely for the information while Lucifer could use this time to run away one more time? She couldn't stay in her room without doing anything. Not after this phone call. Not with that fire that was pulsing again in her chest. That burning hope. Almost uncomfortable.

No way.

The young woman walked quickly to the door of her room. She went out into the corridor plunged into the darkness at this late hour. Only her steps smothered by the carpet disturbed the nocturnal silence in the apartment. She crossed the corridor as quickly as possible – not wishing to awaken Trixie in the middle of the night – and stopped in front of a door. A door she still hesitated to cross. Not for fear of the person being there, but rather for fear of stumbling upon strange and potentially dangerous objects once inside. In eight months of co-location, Chloe hadn't entered Maze's room once. She hadn't really sought to enter it, preferring to remain in a comfortable doubt as to the arrangement of her private space. Better not be too curious for some things.

The detective stroked the handle with her palm before opening the door as silently as possible. She entered and turned again to the door to close it. Chloe turned around and discovered in amazement the inside of this room, which had hitherto been haloed with mysteries. She was quite surprised. Nothing suggested a room as much...banal. She was almost disappointed not to see a whole arsenal of terrifying knives and others white weapons proudly lined up against the walls of the room. Almost disappointed.

The bedroom was even decorated with a certain taste. In spite of the surrounding darkness, Chloe could appreciate the soothing lilac hues on the walls of the room, the latter disgusted with all disturbing weapons. A few paintings decorated the walls by the window, paintings by artists that she didn't know herself but which translated a real talent. She who expected to land in a room with the infernal pace found rather in the middle of a dream marshmallows. Everything was perfectly in its place, not an ounce of bad taste. She even seriously thought of asking for advice for the rest of the apartment. Who would have believe it? The Terrifying and Relentless Maze Bounty Hunter... A peerless decorator? Unlikely denominative. And yet... Expensive furniture, decorative objects perfectly adapted without forgetting an irreproachable cleanliness. Yeah... It was probably a dream. Or the effect of darkness...Yeah, it must have been that.

Chloe ceased to admire the disposition of the space to move gently towards her roommate's bed. The latter turned her back on her, sleeping deeply on the flank. She drew closer to Maze, stretching a hand to her shoulder to gently wake her up. An ineffectual attempt, since Mazekeen had turned to her – much too quickly for anyone of so little human nature -, placing the cold, dangerously sharp blade of a dagger to her throat, hidden under her pillow so far. The young brunette had moved in a blink of an eye, threatening Chloe of this blade with surgical precision. The detective stiffened and held back a scream of terror at the icy contact of the blade against her carotid artery. She who almost regretted the presence of knives in her crazy roommate's room. She'd thought too quickly. Much too fast. She swallowed, the blade pressing more against her neck at each swallowing, under Mazekeen's sharp eyes.

" Why are you in my room?! ", murmured the latter with her crazy hair and quite mad.

" Why do you have a knife under your pillow?! ", asked Chloe in turn, the knife still under her throat.

Maze moved back a few millimeters from the threatening blade of her throat without lowering her arm, squinting in the darkness. She scrutinized Chloe's face, divided between irritation and something else. It was better that Chloe didn't know the exact nature of this thing.

" My question is much more relevant than yours, Chloe! ", replied her roommate after a few seconds of silence.

" I highly doubt it... Would you have forgotten that there's an eight-year-old girl in this apartment?! ", Chloe reprimanded her, rather anxious with a knife under her throat. " What are you going to do?! Slaughtering her mother in the middle of the night and hiding the body in the garden?! "

Maze shrugged her shoulders, seeming to judge Chloe's words.

" No...not tonight... Besides, I like these sheets. Blood is very difficult to clean up! ", argued Maze.

" I would be sorry for staining your beautiful sheets with my blood, Maze...", muttered the detective sharply. " So... If you'd just lower this knife and put it away before Trixie could see it...! "

Mazekeen rolled her eyes before lowering the threatening knife away from Chloe and her throat. This last closed her eyes and let out a brief sight of relief, her whole body till then stretched to the icy sensation of the blade against her epidermis.

" It's a little late to worry...She's already seen it. She even rather good with a knife, this little one! ", Maze pointed out as she slid the dagger under her pillow.

Chloe stared at her without saying anything during a brief moment, gradually absorbing the words she had just heard and trying to make sense of them. A rationality. Her eight-years-old... daughter... knives... She opened her mouth, many admonitions threatening to get out at any moment. She closed her eyes, pressing her lips together, pointing a finger between her and Mazekeen. She had to calm down. Don't choke her by using her pillow. Even though the idea was terribly tempting: the perfect murder. There were no witnesses around,so... No! She had to focused on the most important thing, even if the idea of seeing her daughter juggling the terrifying knives of her roommate placed itself before the list of problems to be settled.

"We'll... see that... later...", said the detective very slowly, struggling with all her strength against this tempting desire to murder.

Maze sighed in turn loudly while slumping against her pillow with a surly face. She glared at the young woman, apparently irritated to be thus awakened in the middle of the night. It must be said that Chloe wasn't equally excited about threats with bladed weapons at such an advanced hour of the night. She would have preferred to avoid this type of inconvenience.

" And why not in the morning?! ", suggested her roommate in a dry tone, lightning bolts shooting out of her eyes towards Chloe. " You know... when people don't sleep! "

The detective pinched her lips more strongly than before. She drove once more the irrepressible urge to jump on Maze and stifle her with her pillow, deeply expiring the air of her lungs to calm down. She wasn't there for that. Still clutching her cell phone in her left hand, she showed it to Maze. This last gauged the device, puzzled. She frowned and stared at the young woman standing in front of her.

" Yes...I've already seen a cell phone, Chloe...Thanks and good night! ", she said in a flat voice before folding the blanket over her head, her whole body forming a domed mass beneath the sheet.

" He called...", merely murmured Chloe to the domed mass of her roommate.

This last didn't move, unfazed. She tried again, striving to be clearer :

" Lucifer called..."

That simple sentence succeeded in extirpating Maze from under the cover, alert and totally awake. She straightened up on her bed with a sharp gesture, sitting on it and clutching the detective's shoulders with both hands. She shook her like a plum tree while questioning her on the contents of the call :

" When?! Is he okay?! Why did he call you and not me?! Where is he?! What...?! "

"M... Ma... ze! St... op shak... ing me l... ike t...that! ", managed to more or less articulate Chloe between two violent jolts.

She obeyed, releasing her embrace around the young woman's shoulders and pulling back on her bed. Chloe rubbed her shoulders with one hand, bruised by Mazekeen's tenacious grasp. She was astonished as not feeling more dizzy than that, Maze having put considerable force into these incessant shakes. She sighed before answering as precisely as possible the previous questions of her roommate:

" He called barely ten minutes ago. I don't know if he's okay... He didn't say anything but I know it's him, Maze! I'm sure of it! I think he needs help. I don't know why he called me and not you, you'll ask him when we'll find him... because we will find him! I asked Ella to triangulate his position by his cell phone..."

She was interrupted in her tirade by an insistent vibration against her palm. Chloe picked up and carried the device to her ear, moving away from the bed and turning her back to Maze.

" Decker...", she said mechanically.

" Hi! This is Ella! I could triangulate his position. He's in... San Francisco! In a motel...the...Candy's! It's located north of the city, I send you the details on your phone! ", informed her colleague, much more awake than the previous call.

" Thank you so much, Ella. I'll be in touch! ", quickly thanked the detective before hanging up, turning to Maze.

This last was no longer in her bed, already standing and dressed near it. Mazekeen slipped on her leather jacket and grabbed her knife under the pillow to slip it into her black boot. A real spy. Or a hired killer. Chloe hesitated between both, truth to tell.

" I guess it means that you're coming with me? ", implied Chloe.

" Why are you still in pajamas ?! Hurry up! ", Maze said, grabbing other things in a drawer, which the detective didn't want to identify for the moment.

This last smiled softly at her roommate's admonitions. Now she was being yelled. But she couldn't blame her. She understood only too well the frenzy which had seized Mazekeen. A frenzy that was also rumbling in her since that call. His call. They had to move. Fast.

" Go waking up Trixie, please and WITHOUT knives or any other sharp object... thanks! ", she saw fit to specify.

Maze nodded, coming out quickly of her room and heading to the little one, leaving Chloe alone. This last quickly dialed a new number as new questions stifled every viable part of her mind.

What was he doing in San Francisco? Why there? Why had he stayed around Los Angeles? If he wanted to leave...Leaving the state was a much more effective maneuver. Had he been there all this time? So close... for the past six months. So close... and so far away. An observation that reminded her of this well-know quotation : "Out of sight... Out of mind". Was that their case? Was Chloe concerned near or far by this banal quotation? She wouldn't have been able to answer with certainty, herself not knowing exactly what she had experiences since those long months of absence. Everything was confused and extremely clear at once. She wouldn't have any answer on her own. And it was more than time to have some.

She waited for Dan to pick up, again pacing the roommate's room, imprecise whispers coming from the dark corridor. The hoarse and drowsy voice of her ex-husband finally sounded in her ear after a few seconds.

" Espinoza..."

" Dan, this is Chloe! ", she said quickly as she walked back to her room.

" Chloe? Do you know what time is it?! What's going on? Is Trixie okay? ", he almost immediately worried.

Chloe came to her room, closing the door behind her while reassuring Dan:

" She's perfectly fine, don't worry. I'm not calling you for that...I...I found him! "

There was a silence on the line. No questions. No request for clarification. Dan knew perfectly well who she was talking about. He knew her sufficiently to deduce the reason for this call and to understand its importance. He understood Chloe's need. Without any questioning at this subject. She rummaged in her wardrobe near the window looking for clothes to put on, pulling out black jeans and a sky blue sweater ragged at the bottom. She heard her ex-husband grow a slight sigh on the line as she released her jogging with a foot gesture, squirming on the spot.

" I'll be there in ten minutes...", he simply informed her.

Chloe stopped squirming in all directions to strengthen her grip around her phone. She was moved by the immediate reaction of her former spouse. By his immediate availability. She smiled softly before saying in a whisper :

" Thank you, Dan...Really..."

" I'm on my way...See you soon. ", he just said before hanging up.

The young woman threw her phone on the unmade bed and slipped her top as quickly as possible, bringing her blond hair back afterwards.

She must hasten. San Francisco...Six hours drive by car, if not more. They would be lucky if Lucifer would still be there. Very lucky. This was no longer the case for six months. She had nothing positive without him. She still doubted that seeing him again would include any... positive results. Not right away at least. All this didn't depend solely on her but on him. Both of them. Mazekeen stepped into her room – upset -as she quickly cropped her hair into a rough braid.

" Your daughter dresses much faster than you...And it's not a compliment! ", she remarked in a dull tone.

The detective didn't respond, looking in the drawer of her bedside table her gun and her holster. She hung it at her belt under Maze's wrathful look.

" Dan is on his way to pick up Trixie...", informed the young woman while storing her gun in her holster. " We've got a long drive ahead of us, Maze. It'll take us at least six hours to reach San Francisco..."

" Too long! He'll already be away and you know it! ", this last strongly interrupted her.

" What I also know is that I have no plane on hand! Do you?! ", the detective got mad by putting on her shoes.

Maze was silent for a few seconds, seeming to think at full speed while Chloe tried to tie these shoes as quickly as possible, a task made complicated by her constant nervousness and her desire to join Lucifer. She understood her roommate's frustration. She also wanted to get there as soon as possible. It wasn't possible. She watched Mazekeen rummaged through the pockets of her jacket ad take out her own cell phone. She dialed a number under the perplexed gaze at the detective.

" Who are you calling? ", this last asked her.

" Someone who has a plane on hand...Come on! We only have a few hours in front of us! ", said the young woman before going out of the room, leaving Chloe alone with new questions.

Who...of all her more or less suspicious contacts could have a plane at this hour and so quickly? Chloe sighed softly before going around the bed: dis she really want to know? No. There was only one thing she eagerly wished to know. An answer that no one else could give her except Lucifer. An answer she had been watching for six months. She picked up her beige trench coat on her desk chair and approached the door, grabbing the handle to close behind her.

They were finally going to have this conversation. A conversation postponed. A wait that had lasted too long.

They'll talk.

Whether he likes it or not.

To be continued...

I hope this chapter pleased you :)

Video suggestion : Lucifer & Chloe/ Until you come back home (Always108) for the spirit. XD I like it!

Next chapter soon!