Author's note: Hello dear readers! I am deeply sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but I had a hard time at work lately and got hit by a big lack of inspiration on top of it. On a brighter side, know that the next chapter is already written and will be released in about a week.
Again, a big thank you to my wonderful Beta and friend, Bebec, for giving me advices on this chapter.
A little word here for a Guest who wrote me reviews on Stuck in Hell as well as on the present story, since I can't write back to you (you should sign in officially so writers could answer you directly). Thank you so much for your good words. It did help me recover my inspiration :)
And now, place to the story. Enjoy!
Chapter 7
Some More Troubles on the Horizon
Chloe rushed into her daughter's new room to find her sitting straight in bed, terror plastered all over her face. She ran to take her baby in her arms and shield her from whatever had driven her into such a panic.
"Mommy's here, Baby! You're ok!"
Doom jumped into bed beside them and nuzzled the side of Trixie's neck to give her some comfort too.
Trixie grabbed at both of them as she sobbed her fear away. She recovered quickly though and released them to look at her mother, still in an agitated state.
"Mommy! I saw Lucifer! He was going into battle and there was thousands of demons. It was terrifying!" She said in one go without taking a breath.
"Woah! Slow down baby. You can't have seen him, it's impossible because he's in Hell. It was certainly just a dream, Monkey. You must have fallen asleep, that's all."
Her poor baby was more traumatized than she'd guessed. Chloe didn't feel equipped to deal with such a trauma.
"That's just it, Mom, I was in Hell and I saw him. And he saw me too. It was real!" The little girl maintained with fervour.
"Baby..." Chloe shook her head softly. But what could she say to make her daughter see reason?
"What did you see exactly?" Asked Michael who was now standing in the doorway.
Trixie looked relieved to be taken seriously by someone.
The little girl tried to describe what she saw with as much details as she could. When she finished explaining the events, it was clear that her mother didn't believe a word of it.
Chloe stroked her daughter's hair soothingly. "Monkey, you've always had a lot of imagination. Besides...," and Chloe grimaced with a little smile at the corner of her mouth, "Lucifer would never shave his head and wear tattoos."
"Actually...," Michael countered, "Azrael told me that Lucifer had that kind of tattoos made during his early years in Hell. They're usually not visible with the way he wears his hair now a days, but they must still be there. And I'm afraid the place your daughter describes looks disturbingly like Hell."
"You can't be serious!?" Chloe turned back to Trixie to look her up and down. Noticing the child massaging her left wrist, she instantly took her hand to inspect the skin at its base, but there was nothing visible.
"It could still have been only a dream." But Chloe didn't sound so sure anymore. "Are you hurting, Monkey?"
Trixie nodded wordlessly, her lower lip trembling a little. Michael approached her to inspect her skin but found no sign of injuries either.
"So what do you think?" Chloe prompted the angel.
"I'm not sure. It's a bit confusing. Azrael might be able to shed some light on that, though. She is more versed into that kind of things. We'll have to wait for her to wake up before we get answers."
Chloe looked at her spooked little girl and sighed deeply. Yet another thing added on top of everything her daughter had to face. And a glimpse of Hell was far from a little thing even if it had just been a dream. She kissed the child's forehead lovingly and took her back into her arms. Sniffing as though she was trying not to cry, Trixie let herself be comforted.
Could what her daughter have seen been real? If part of it were true, then maybe everything was. Which would mean that Lucifer might be going to war. She also wondered what his wearing those tattoos again, after so long hiding them, could mean. Lucifer was not the same man he used to be at the beginning of his reign over Hell, so could this mean that he was already losing himself down there? That idea was almost as terrifying as thinking of him going into battle.
Now that she thought about it, Trixie said that Lucifer saw her too. Which meant that if everything really happened, he could be worrying sick as to what happened to her daughter.
While she kept rocking her baby in her arms, Chloe concentrated and sent a prayer to her lover, just in case.
«Trixie is fine, don't worry. Please, be careful! I love you!»
Chloe fought to keep the tears at bay, she needed to be strong for her baby. Not for the first time, she wondered if Trixie could someday get over all the terrible things she had witnessed. She knew Linda would do all she could to help, but would it be enough? Unfortunately, as good a doctor as she was, her friend could not do miracles. That thought brought up an unlikely idea...
Chloe straightened up to frame her daughter's face with her hands. Still obviously shaken, Trixie stared at her with teared up eyes.
"Sweetie, I can't begin to imagine everything you went through lately. No one should have had to experience that, a little girl like you even less. I want to help you, but aside from being there for you I'm not sure what I can do. Yet, there might be a way for you to forget..."
Her daughter looked back at her as if afraid to hear her idea. Chloe exposed her thoughts nonetheless.
"I think Azrael might be able to take away the memories of your kidnapping, and maybe even of that disturbing vision of Hell."
Chloe waited for a sign of what her daughter thought of that idea, but Trixie was keeping silent and looking utterly confused.
"I will respect your choice and support you whatever you choose, Monkey." She reassured her. "I just want you to feel better."
After a moment, Trixie tried to express her feelings. "I... I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind forgetting about a lot of it, but I don't want to forget about Lucifer... "
"You won't forget about him Sweetie!" Chloe pressed on.
Her little girl's voice was shaking. "Maybe not about him, but about him saving me yes, I would, and I don't wanna lose that memory, Mommy!" Big tears started running along her cheeks. "It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, him reaching out to me, wrapping his soul around me... I can't lose that!"
"Oh Sweetie!" Chloe brought her back against her heart. "You won't have to. We'll find another way for you to get through this. Linda can help you as she helped Lucifer with his own bad experiences."
Trixie nodded against her shoulder. "I think I'd like seeing her again."
"Okay Sweetie! We'll do just that then, starting tomorrow."
Chloe kept rocking her little baby until she fell asleep in her arms from pure exhaustion.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Daniel's memories of the last ten days or so were all foggy. Even if he couldn't remember actually making a pact with Vasariah, he could still remember what he did after that, even though it all felt more like a bad dream than anything. He could barely believe that he'd betrayed everyone he held dear. No wonder Chloe couldn't look at him anymore. Damn! He could hardly look at himself in a mirror.
And to think that Lucifer had to go back to Hell because of his actions... The Devil had been way nobler than Dan would ever be. Lucifer had told him once, when Dan had first learned about his true identity, that he would go back to Hell in a heartbeat if he thought it was for the best for Chloe. And he had held to his promise, saving more than just her by his action.
He knew it was probably selfish, but Daniel wanted to amend himself, starting by helping find those demons that had been released upon the world because of him. He was ready to go to great lengths to find information that would make a difference in this fight. That's why he had sniffed around the precinct as much as he could and questioned subtly the detectives in charge of the new murder cases or any strange ones that dropped during the day. He had a few good leads for Amenadiel and Maze to follow. He felt restless to tell them what he'd learned, but neither were answering their phones at the moment. They were probably still asleep after their night of hunting.
At the end of the afternoon, he finally yielded to the urge of calling Chloe to let her know of his findings as well as to tell her about the developments on his own case. Unfortunately, he suspected that she wouldn't be very happy to talk to him.
It took many rings for Chloe to answer him, but at last she did, with a tight voice.
"What is it Dan?"
He didn't let himself be deterred by her cold greeting and just said what he needed to.
"We got pulled out from the Twilight Club case. The FBI took it over."
"What?" She asked in disbelief. "That's more than unusual. Did they say why?"
"Not really, you know how that works. My best bet is that all the talks about creatures and the sighting of an angel might have to do with it. And don't forget about what happened at the abbey the day before. It's starting to make a lot of clues pointing to supernatural phenomenon."
Chloe sighed, disheartened. "You're probably right. It was only logical that the Feds would want to put their nose into this."
"And what's more, I think they got the additional help of a specialist. I saw an old priest with the FBI team. That can only mean that they're seriously considering the supernatural angle."
"That can't be good."
"Exactly my thought, but what can I do? At least, I had time to look at the footings from the Club's cameras before being pulled off the case. Turns out that there was only two active cameras, one at the entrance and the other one at the back door. I haven't spotted Maze nor Amenadiel on either of the footings, so there are no proof that they were even there. And there are no images of infernal beast either, not even on the internet. Looks like the survivors were just too busy escaping to even think of taking pictures or recording."
"That's good news, Dan."
"Yeah! There's at least that. I don't think I'll be able to get more Intel on that case from now on though. And my luck is that the new case I've been assigned to with Detective Murdock is as far from supernatural as can be. It's about the murder of two security guards whose armored truck got robbed. I'm heading there as we speak. Luckily, earlier I had time to find some new leads for Amenadiel and Maze. Two joggers were killed last night by what appears to be dogs or coyotes in the O'Neill Regional Park, in the Southern part of LA. Also, I heard about two very strange deaths having occurred in a rich neighborhood. Both persons, a man and a woman, were found dead in their respective houses, with no apparent cause of death. I'm not sure about those ones, but it sounds unnatural."
"You're right, it's worth looking into. Can you send me the details? We might not see each other tonight..." Chloe sounded hesitant.
"How so? What's going on, Chlo?"
Chloe hesitated only for a few more seconds before confessing. "I just moved into Lucifer's penthouse with Trixie, Dan. I'm leaving you my apartment if you want it. It would mean greater stability for Trixie if you did. You could even ask Amenadiel to be roommate with you."
He snorted in self-deprecation. "Wow! That was fast. You really can't stand looking at me."
"It's not that Dan. I just need to be here."
"Yeah right. Maybe I should just request another partner so you could get rid of me at work too."
Chloe hesitated, considering seriously the idea. Dan had remained her official partner even after Lucifer came back from Vegas a little bit more than four months ago. Lucifer's stunt had made her weary to trust him completely at the time. Then, after she'd gotten romantically involved with him, things had unravelled too fast for her to even think about asking Lieutenant Monroe to change anything about their unusual trio. With Lucifer now gone, she needed Dan more than ever and couldn't think of adapting to a new partner, let alone work with someone who hadn't a clue about what was really going on in LA lately.
"I don't want that, Dan. You and me..., I'm not saying it will be easy, considering what recently happened, but we work well together. I'm sure we'll get through this somehow, given time."
"Ok then..." What else could he say really? "Since we're on the subject...," he thought now was as good a time as any to talk about it, "I plan on passing more time with Trixie. I'd like to have her with me half-part time from now on." Almost losing her daughter had made him reshape his life priorities, and there was nothing more important to him than his little girl.
A long silence answered him on the other side of the line. He could well imagine his ex's shock.
"Are you sure?" She finally asked shakily.
"Very! I want to be a real part of her life, not just someone she sees every two weekends."
"Okay... I'm sure Trixie will be thrilled to have her father all to herself more often." Chloe sounded everything but thrilled.
"I'm serious about this, Chlo. And I intend to do what I have to, to make it work."
"I believe you Dan. It's just... It might not be the right moment to change things right now. What with the dangers we're all in? It's already dangerous enough for you to live alone, and even if Amenadiel lived with you, he won't be there that much during the night until the situation is under control. Now that I'm really thinking about it, I'm even reconsidering leaving you alone. Letting Trixie go with you without protection is just unthinkable."
Dan had to admit that the present situation was not ideal. "You're right, we'll wait until things settle down before making any changes. In the meantime, don't worry about me. I'll take my dispositions to stay safe."
"Ok then, take care."
Chloe hanged up in a daze, feeling lost and confused. She hadn't seen that one coming, Dan wanting to take Trixie half of the time. Her worries about her daughter's safety was far from the only thing that bothered her with this idea. After losing Lucifer, it felt as if she was about to lose her baby too. The mere thought of not seeing her child for an entire week at a time seemed more than she could handle. She didn't think she was ready for that.
She got distracted from her disturbing thoughts by the ding of the elevator. Not a lot of people had the new code to get up to the penthouse, so it wasn't a surprise when she saw Maze stride inside as if she owned the place and make a bee line to the bar to poor herself a drink.
"You settling in fine, Decker?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Though there are still a few boxes I just stored out of sight until I decide what I wanna do with that stuff. And you, how is it going?"
Chloe yielded to the impulse of joining the demon at the bar and serve herself a drink too. She sure needed one right now. With a raised eyebrow, yet without commenting, Maze watched her pour a fair amount of scotch in a tumbler and take a long swallow.
The demon took a stool beside her human friend. "All set! I even had time to take a nap. That moving crew was surprisingly efficient. I'll still need to get the place cleaned up though. I don't think Lucifer thought of having that studio maintained since I left."
Maze saw a shadow pass over Chloe's gaze at the mention of Lucifer. So she quickly changed the subject to prevent her friend from sinking even deeper into that sad mood she was already in.
Maze explained having taken the liberty of calling someone who would start converting the third floor into a gym as early as tonight. They would have to bring down a few walls to begin with, but the setting of the place would make it easy to transform it into what they needed. All in all, the guy assured her that it could be done in only a few days.
Chloe looked pleased enough by the news, but it felt as if she was barely listening to her words. Maze soon discovered what had her friend so distracted when Chloe told her of Trixie's strange dream about Lucifer and Hell and everything the little one had witnessed.
By the time Chloe finished her story, Maze was gaping at her in disbelief. She had no idea how, but to her, it made absolutely no doubt that her little friend had gotten a glimpse of Hell and Lucifer. And what she'd seen... There was just too much there to process yet.
"Wait a minute! You're telling me Trixie was in Hell?"
Chloe looked down at the glass she was gripping tightly with both hands. "We don't know that for sure, Maze."
"Yeah right! One Hell of a realistic dream it was then." The demon countered cynically.
Maze stood up abruptly and strode towards Trixie's room to go check on her friend's condition, closely followed by Chloe. She didn't like hearing that the child had been complaining about an invisible wound. She wanted to see for herself. Beatrice was still sound asleep, all cuddled against Doom. A careful visual check confirmed that there was nothing to be seen over Trixie's wrist. However, the skin where the child claimed to have been grabbed by a demon felt strangely hot to the touch. It could still be nothing out of the ordinary. So she decided not telling Decker about her suspicions, yet. Better wait until she was sure before freaking her friend out. And as Chloe pointed out once they came back into the living room, it would take Azrael to bring everything into light. They could only wait and see now.
After that, they joined Michael on the couch to watch the news while they waited for the deliveries they ordered for dinner. Before the news program started, Chloe quickly brought them up to date with what Dan had just told her.
The main story to be covered on the news that evening was of unsurprisingly the Twilight Club Massacre. One of the wounded that had been in critical condition had died during the day, bringing the death count to nine people so far. At last, for the first time since the events, the FBI agent in charge of the case had made a statement to the press. The official explanation was that it had been perpetrated by costumed religious zealots. The agent refused to answer the reporters as to why the Feds had taken control of the case. At one point during the report, Chloe spotted in the background the image of an old man wearing a trench coat buttoned up to his neck.
"That guy has to be the priest Dan was talking about." She pointed out.
Both Maze and Michael leant forward to look more closely at the man, but the image changed quickly back to the reporter.
All of a sudden, Maze jumped up in agitation. "Rewind it, Decker! I have to see that priest again."
Chloe grabbed the remote and did as she was asked in silence. The way Maze was acting all tense didn't bode well.
"There! Pause it." The demon ordered.
Almost holding her breathe, Chloe glanced back a few times between the frozen image of the possible priest and her friend.
After long seconds, Maze snarled in recollection. "I'll be damned!"
"You know him?" Exclaimed Chloe.
"Unfortunately I do. Lucifer and I bumped into him back in the 70s while we were trying to catch a few demons escapees here in LA. That's when Lucifer first fell in love with the city actually. Back then, it came to our attention that a few demons had been summoned here on Earth by a powerful witch. So we both came up to resolve the situation, assisted by a couple of Hellhounds.
"Father Amantini was only a young priest at the time, but he was already very strong in his faith, and very resourceful too. Turned out that he caught two of the demons in question all by himself, and sent them back to Hell with some incantations. He even tried to catch me! If you believe it. He had no chance to succeed there really." She snorted at the preposterous idea. "He did catch Lucifer though." She added with a smile.
Chloe's jaw dropped in disbelief, while Michael jumped out of the couch with the shock of the new.
"What? Not only is a priest aware of the existence of demons, but he also met the Devil himself?"
Maze looked back at Michael with annoyance. "Meeting might be a big word. Amantini had set a trap for celestial beings and Lucifer was stupid enough to get caught in it. I'm not even sure he really realised who Lucifer was before I rescued him. They may have had time to talk a little though, you know Lucifer and his propensity to tell high and loud who he is. At the least, the priest must have understood that he wasn't a demon since his incantations didn't succeed to send him to Hell. So maybe he knows that he caught the Devil himself after all. I never really gave it any thought before, to say the truth. Anyways, after that setback, we pursued tracking the three remaining demons, sent them where they belonged, then indulged ourselves in a day of earthly pleasures before going back to Hell ourselves. End of story."
Michael was not ready to let it at that. "And what about the witch who can call demons at will? You didn't give it any thoughts either I suppose?"
Maze narrowed her eyes at him and growled in warning at his condescending tone. Michael didn't even flinch.
"Of course we took care of the old hag. Lucifer put the fear of the Devil in her, which sent her straight into an asylum where she finished her days. She finally descended into Hell not so long ago when she died, where she is still receiving a well-deserved punishment for her sins."
As if oblivious to Maze's angry tone, Michael only smiled slightly at the demon. Chloe could feel the tick tension between the two celestial beings. It reminded her of the fact that angels and demons were supposed to be natural enemies and that Maze had all the reasons in the world to hate Lucifer's brother. It was probably only a question of time before those two got themselves into an all-out confrontation, for a reason or another. It obviously wouldn't take them much to get there.
Chloe tried to keep her tone calm. "Just remember we're on the same side here, guys."
Michael and Maze kept looking at each other tensely for a few second before breaking eye contact, to Chloe's great relief.
She only hoped that those two could find a way to get along. Now was certainly not the time for them to have dissentions between their own ranks. With the Feds most probably aware of what they really were up against, now that they were working with a supernatural specialist, things were promising to become complicated enough.
Author's note: Next chapter will be entirely dedicated to Lucifer and to what is happening down there. I hope you liked this chapter, please let me know of your thoughts or ideas. Love you all!
