In hindsight, Chloe should have spent more time weighing her options before asking Maze to drive Trixie to school that particular morning. Not that her roommate ever backed out of a favor before (she always held up her end of a bargain, regardless of whether or not said bargain was a disaster in the making), but Chloe must have been really out of it when she actually considered the bounty hunter as her first choice for kid-friendly transportation. In her defense, she wasn't expecting the precinct to call her up at 5 am and tell her that a new suspect on the Brenner case was just brought in for questioning, or that Ella apparently found a "ground-breaking" lead on the investigation that she absolutely had to check out right away.

And to think she went to sleep last night thinking she could make Hawaiian bread sandwiches for breakfast.

"So," she asked Maze, pulling on her jacket and grabbing her keys off the counter. "Will you do it? Take Trixie to school for me?"

The little human popped her head up from behind the couch where she was watching her morning cartoons, a toothy grin on her face. "Yeah, Maze, it'll be fun! You can bring your knives to scare off that mean girl, Patricia. She won't know what hit her."

"Trixie!" Chloe chided, eyes wide. "We already talked about this. One more trip to the principal's office and you'll be suspended."

Trixie only grumbled under her breath and crossed her arms before ducking back to watch her TV in peace. The detective brought a hand up to her head (when did sweet-toothed, angel-faced nine-year-olds become such a handful?)

Maze, in a surprising display of tact, only lightly snorted while polishing her knives instead of offering to get rid of the principal altogether (as per usual) or suggesting that Chloe loosen her granny panties (also as per usual). She set down the rag and swiveled around in her barstool to face her roommate. "Sorry, Decker. I would, but I already promised Lucifer that I'd help out his little human today."

The detective's eyebrows knitted together, voice lowering to a whisper (while Lucifer's daughter seemed nice enough – and that, in and of itself, was already a stretch – she didn't need Trixie latching on to her as a prospective new best friend anytime soon. There was something…off about the girl, like Dan had suggested, though she couldn't quite put a finger on it just yet). "Wait…you know about Sabrina?"

"Of course." The woman scoffed back. "I was literally standing next to Lucifer when she was born. So much blood and screaming and crying." She bit into the charred toast she made when she realized that Chloe wasn't about to start on those sandwiches anytime soon. "It was awesome."

(At that point, Chloe was beginning to put a timeline together in her head – call it a fine-tuned side effect of her day job. Now, Lucifer and Maze always claimed to have been together for quite some time, but she never really chalked it up to be almost two decades, maybe even more, if she was already close enough to witness the birth of his sixteen year old). "How long have you two known each other, exactly?"

"Since fire and brimstone, baby."

Chloe nodded her head, smacked her lips together. "Right." (She should have known better by now than to expect a straight answer from the so-called devil and his demon buddy). "So, all this time, you knew? And you didn't think to tell me? Come on, I thought we were friends."

Maze eyed her weirdly. "Well, it never really came up, did it? Besides, I have other friends too, but I don't go around telling them about your spawn."

The detective sighed, putting her hands up. "You know what, forget it." (This conversation was impossible, and she was going to be late for work. Besides, she promised Lucifer that she would only start asking the important questions when he was ready to answer them, and she meant it. If only he could be ready sooner, because the curiosity was just about to eat her alive.) "You're sure you can't drive Trixie? It will only take about thirty minutes, and the traffic won't be so bad if you leave now."

The bounty hunter shook her head. "No, thirty minutes is already cutting it too close, and I have a flight to catch."

"A flight? I thought you were gonna help Sabrina."

"Yeah, I am." Maze stood from her chair and wheeled out a luggage bag from behind the counter. A pretty hefty looking duffel was also placed on top of it, with a number of sharp edges and Mazikeen-brand weapons that shouldn't make their way past immigration peeking out from the slightly-open zipper. "I'm hunting down this jackass that tried to kill her. He's been on the run for a few weeks now, but I'll find that human scum. I always do."

"What?" Chloe couldn't help her mouth from falling slightly ajar. "Kill her? Maze, that's terrible. What happened?"

"Apparently, he's the high priest at their church, and basically threatened Sabrina's family with excommunication if she didn't go to his stupid boarding school. Then on her first week there, he sent his daughter and some psycho friends of hers to haze the girl and pressure her into hanging herself. Good thing the little princess knows not to take shit from anyone."

The detective brought a hand up to her mouth (No wonder Sabrina was so troubled. Going through all that must have been a living nightmare). "God, Lucifer must be livid. I don't know what I'd do if anything like that were to happen to Trixie."

Maze scoffed. "Please, that's not even the worst of it. The shifty son of a bitch couldn't handle the fact that a sixteen-year-old girl was beating him at his own game and poisoned his whole church before fleeing like the coward he is." She grabbed her freshly-polished knives off the table and stuck them into the holsters on her leg. "He's not getting away with it, though. Once I'm done with him, he's going to hell in pieces that no demon would know to put back together."

Her phone was already ringing incessantly in her pocket (no doubt Ella calling to know if she was on her way), but Chloe chose to ignore it. She was onto something, something huge, and if she didn't get to the bottom of it, it might as well have been the biggest failure of her career.

"Now, hold on just a second." She dragged a hand through her hair and looked at her roommate incredulously. "Hazing a teenager almost to death, poisoning a whole congregation, Maze, those are felonies. That guy's a murderer! Why didn't you go to the police about this?"

"And what? You'll slap some cuffs on him and call it a day?" The bounty hunter chuckled, pulling on her own jacket and swiping her passport from the table. "Hate to break it to you, Decker, but a lot of powerful people want this guy dead, and he's never left them much of a trail to follow. I think you're a bit out of your league here."

"Maze, I'm a homicide detective."

The other woman only raised her brows, nonplussed. "Yeah, and ten of you couldn't get this guy within five meters of a police station. I'm sure of it. So good luck with that."

With one last smug smile, she turned on her heel and picked up the duffel bag, pulling the luggage behind her as she rounded back to the living room to hug Trixie goodbye. (The nine-year-old couldn't quite get why her best friend had to leave so long and so soon, but when Maze explained that she had to go help another little girl, all it took was an extra long fist bump and the promise to kick some serious ass, and the demon was sent on her way).

The detective trailed after her roommate in long strides, a worried disbelief about the whole thing painted plainly on her face. (If Maze was telling the truth – another stretch, come to think of it, but she had to take her for her word on this one – then this man was a danger to society, and he just ran off to God knows where. For all they knew, he could be in L.A., waiting for a chance to strike back at Sabrina.) "At least tell me that you're bringing him in when you catch him."

Maze was almost to the door, but she stopped walking and turned around to face Chloe. With a heavy sigh, the bounty hunter looked her right in the eye, trying to make her understand that her incessant goody-two-shoes route wasn't gonna work, at least not for her. "Unfortunately, Decker, you know that's not my decision to make."

(It was Lucifer's. Or maybe even Sabrina's. It really didn't matter. Either way, both seemed furious and unforgiving when given the chance, and whatever choice they made regarding this Faustus guy's punishment, it was going to end in hell one way or another, and Maze was completely fine with that).

"Well, it doesn't have to be like that. We have laws in place for this, and all his victims will get their justice-"

"I'll decide what justice is." The bounty hunter cut in, taking a step forward. It was a surprising shift in demeanor, and the malicious look in her stare would have easily scared any other human, but the detective only tilted up her chin, unflinching. Maze pursed her lips and exhaled sharply through her nose. "Look, I don't have time for this. Another second I waste here is another second that jackass stays one step ahead. So if you really want him to get what he deserves, you'll step aside and let me do my damn job."

Chloe crossed her arms and moved to stand squarely in front of the door. If her roommate's eyes were beginning to roll all the way back to kingdom come, or if the phone vibrating relentlessly in her back pocket was absolutely going to earn her an earful at the precinct, then she just had to see them as little sacrifices for the greater good.

(Numerous lives were at stake here, and she'd be damned before she let an erratic roommate or some shortsighted superiors get in the way of facing a homicidal maniac in court, putting him in chains, and sealing him off in prison: the only way it was meant to go. Not killing him, or severing him limb from limb, or whatever inhumane thing it was that Maze was planning to do. Otherwise, she'd be no different than any other murderer, herself).

"You said it yourself. The guy could be anywhere. How do you even know where to start?"

The demon effortlessly pushed her out of the way with a well-placed shove and yanked the door open before Chloe could even open her mouth in protest. "That's the thing. I don't." She stepped out into the sunlight, unfolding a pair of sunglasses that the detective didn't even notice was tucked into her jeans. "Gotta start somewhere, though. And I don't know, Scotland sounds like a good place as any."

Chloe raised a brow. "So that's it? All the countries in the world and you start in…Western Europe?" (Maybe she didn't have to worry that much after all. With Maze's haphazard plans and the sheer size of the United Kingdom she'd have to scour before setting her sights someplace else, the detective could get to him first before any more mass poisonings or Maze-induced butchering could take place).

The bounty hunter slipped the glasses on and smirked back at her roommate. She shrugged one shoulder with a practiced ease. "Call it a gut feeling."

(People always seemed to forget that her mother was the first witch. Like all the rest of the Lilim, there was little magic on earth that she wouldn't be able to track down. And Blackwood? Well, that guy left a trail filthier than his soul). She walked over to her car, throwing a hand over her shoulder to wave back at the detective.

"See you in a few days, Decker."

When Sabrina blinked her eyes open, she almost forgot where she was. The girl half-expected to see peeling floral wallpaper or the extremely fluffy quilt that Hilda made when she was seven, but when she was greeted by the sight of floor-to-ceiling windows and trendy furniture that tried so hard to look casual but obviously came straight out of a designer catalogue, it was fairly easy to get pulled back into the reality that yes, she was in L.A. And yes, she happened to live here now. With the devil. Who was actually her dad. And who seemed to have no interest in dragging her to hell with him this time around, much to her boyfriend-saving disappointment.

She sat up on the bed and dragged a hand through her sleep-mussed hair, the other one patting lazily at the empty space next to her in search of Salem (she knew she was dreaming again last night, just as she always did ever since those angels came to town, and her familiar usually curled up beside her when things got bad). To her surprise, though, he was nowhere under the pillows or tangled up in the sheets. Instead, a loud meow caught her attention and she found him standing vigil by the closed door (never locked, though; she's had enough of locked doors ever since the witch's cell), eyes alert and fur standing upright as if he hadn't slept at all.

"Oh no, Salem, did my nightmares keep you up again?" The witch frowned, pulling on her slippers and picking him up from the floor. She sighed as she petted him softly. "They were pretty terrible again, huh?"

The cat cuddled closer against her neck and answered back with a low purr. Sabrina knitted her brows at his response and pulled away to look at him square in the face. "What do you mean they weren't that bad last night? It's the same thing every time and they're always bad. You know that."

Salem ducked his head and murmured something against her wrist, and she ended up setting him back on the floor to give him a good staring-down. (For once, she just wished he'd spit out whatever he had to say instead of stringing her along in exhausting little circles, but no one could really expect demonic servants to be perfect, could they? Otherwise, they'd be bred behind pearly white gates instead of the deepest crevices of hell).

"No, Salem, I don't understand how dreams are magically wiped. If I did, then maybe I would have gotten rid of this problem a long time ago."

The demon shot back with another irritated meow and the witch rolled her eyes. "Well, I don't know how my father did it-" Sabrina closed her mouth mid-sentence when the reality of Salem's statement sunk in. She turned to the cat with furrowed brows, hands on her hips, as she tried to wrap her head around the thought.

"Are you saying…that Lucifer came in here last night while I was in the middle of my nightmare, and just…whispered it away?"

(It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, that was for sure. He was the actual devil, the source of all witchcraft she's ever known. If anyone was gonna tap into some ancient magic and apparently command the terror straight out of her mind, it might as well have been him. Still, Sabrina didn't want to believe it. Because believing in whatever Salem saw would mean believing that her father actually cared, and she didn't think she was ready for that thought just yet).

Salem made a little noise in agreement and Sabrina almost cursed under her breath (What game was her father playing at, rushing to her rescue, manipulating her dreams, tucking her into bed? If this was his way of making up for all the things he missed out on when she was younger, then it was too little, too late. At that point, there was only one way to win her over, and even that simple favor, he refused to do).

The girl shook her head. "Whatever. It doesn't change a thing."

If the demon had hands, now would have been the perfect time to bury his face in them. She turned around to make the bed, and the cat could only look on helplessly at his mistress's stubbornness. (He was on her side, always. And he knew what she's been through, how she's been hurt, but her father was really trying his best, and it was immensely frustrating how she refused to see it. If only she realized how easier things would be if she just opened her eyes for once and saw that Lucifer was on her side, too).

Even with her back to him as she fluffed the pillows, Sabrina could practically feel Salem's eyes boring into the base of her skull in his usual exasperated, judgmental fashion. "Stop giving me that look. It's off-putting." She called out, still focused on pulling the sheets in place. The cat grumbled something truly off-putting under his breath, but still turned his head and did as he was told.

By the time Sabrina had finished, her signature black headband was fixed onto her head and a new book was grabbed from the growing pile on her nightstand (Lucifer's library was beginning to gather dust, and she liked to think she was doing him a favor by checking out a few of the more untouched materials). She picked the cat up gracelessly from the floor, much to his annoyance at the sudden disturbance, and opened the door.

"You can sulk all you want, but that's probably just the hunger taking over." She rolled her eyes as her feet padded to the empty kitchen. It was still relatively dark with the curtains drawn, but Sabrina easily found her way to the light switch without much fuss. Salem found it a bit disconcerting how she was able to memorize the house so quickly given the precious few minutes she had to explore last night.

The girl turned back to her demon with a wicked grin once the bulbs flickered on and cast the whole room in an early morning glow. "Now, I don't know about you, but I think I saw a stash of pop tarts around here yesterday, and I am absolutely starving."

Chloe ended up driving Trixie to school herself, even if it meant turning up half an hour late to the precinct. Ella didn't mind waiting, and was understanding almost to a fault (like always), and the perp was still in his holding cell by the time the detective got to him for interrogation (as if he had anywhere else to go). All in all, the morning hadn't turned out as bad as she expected, though it did nothing to stop the worried knot sitting at the pit of her stomach, or the way her mind circled back over and over again to her roommate's latest bounty, no matter how many times she told herself Maze had it under control.

Truth be told, she was bothered (Who wouldn't be, though? Murderous priests running loose wasn't exactly the sort of thing to take lightly). And much like everything else that bothered her, she wouldn't rest until she knew it was taken care of.

"Hey, Dan." She walked up to her ex-husband's desk, jaw set and eyes hardened, and he just knew she meant business. "You can get in touch with some precincts in Massachusetts, right?"

(Usually, when Chloe asked for a favor, she would rest her hip against the edge of the table, or flash that warm, inviting smile that won him over the first time he met her. This Chloe, though, the one who stood with lips pursed and forehead creased, fingers clutched tightly around the case file he recognized from the park altercation the other day, she was someone different. She wasn't Mom Chloe, who read their kid bedtime stories at night, or Actress Chloe, who liked spending time undercover even if she'd never admit it. She was the Chloe who brought in criminals and took down syndicates and deserved her badge more than anyone else at the precinct. Dan, for one, would never stand in her way).

The man set his hand gripper down and sat up straighter in his chair. "Yeah, sure. Why do you ask?"

Chloe tried brushing it away with a shrug of her shoulder, but Dan was sure she wouldn't bring it up unless it was something important. "It's probably nothing, but I think I've got a case that involves a local. Try and see if they've got record of any recent suspicious activities in Salem."

"Salem? As in witch county, Salem?"

She nodded her head. "Exactly. And I know it's already a pretty small place to begin with, but try to narrow it down further to one particular town. If this case is as big as I think it is, we might have to look into it ourselves."

The other detective was pretty sure that any illegal activity over in Massachusetts was well out of LAPD jurisdiction, but if Chloe said it was big enough to concern them, then he would just have to trust her. "Well, which town do you have in mind?"

Chloe gave Sabrina's file another once-over as soon as Maze left that morning, and she knew where she had to start. She made a promise to Lucifer that she'd stop looking into his daughter unless he told her it was alright, but if this was essentially for the girl's safety and the well-being of everyone else in the hometown she left behind, then he'd have to understand, right? (Still, it did nothing to quiet the voice at the back of her mind that said her partner wasn't the type who easily understood; and what he couldn't understand, he couldn't forgive. She didn't know what she'd do to herself if it ever came to that).

The detective closed her eyes and shook the thought away. It didn't matter. A life was a life, and each one deserved their justice. Her dad's death taught her that. And she'd make sure this homicidal maniac learned it too, as soon as she was done with him.

"Greendale." She said, voice steady. "There's something going on in Greendale."