Author's Note: Hello dear readers, I'm back with this story, and now that my other one, Empty Sky, Empty Heart is over, I'll have more time for this one. Even though my job is taking a lot of my time lately, I hope to be able to post every two weeks from now on. At least that's my wish. We'll see if it's possible. We won't be seeing Lucifer yet in this chapter, but I promise we'll come back to him in the next to see how things turned out for him. But you'll get a few cues about it in this chapter nonetheless...

Thanks a lot to my Beta, Bebec, for going over this chapter so quickly. I adore you my friend!

And now, place to the story. Enjoy!


Chapter 16

Please Come Back to Me

To see Maze's devastation over realising her baby's fate drove Chloe into a real breakdown that night. She'd tried to hold it in, to be strong, and to keep hoping, but the events of the night first with her altercation with the Soul Eater then with her talk with Michael had left her particularly vulnerable emotionally, and the dam had simply broken.

Now, close to an hour after Maze's departure, Chloe was in her bed rolled up into a ball with her face still drenched in tears. She'd tried to remind herself that Azrael and Michael would talk to their Father and try to make Him change His mind about the threat that the existence of a Nephilim supposedly posed, but it was hard to be optimistic with every bad things she heard about God. So Chloe had passed the clear part of the last hour crying uncontrollably for the child that she might never have the chance to meet, while praying to Lucifer...

She'd assailed him without respite with mindless prayers, her mind repeating the same pleas over and over again.

Please Baby come back to me. I can't do this without you. I just can't. I need you. I love you, please come back to me.

She realized that she was pathetic and that for Lucifer her episode of depression would have lasted a lot longer than for her, actually close to a day if her calculations were correct. Considering that he heard anything that is. With the Hellmouth closed as it was, there was still no way to be sure. But she'd chosen to believe that he could. Her only consolation about her loss of control of tonight was knowing that at least not all of her rambling could have reached him. Still, enough of it might have, which would assuredly make him worry way more than what it was worth. She felt so sheepish to bother him that way while he obviously was going through a lot worse than she was. He certainly didn't need to hear her whine like that for hours.

Once she'd mostly regained her composure, she ended with one last prayer to Lucifer.

I'm sorry Baby. Don't worry about me, I'll be okay. Take care of yourself. I love you so much. Please, come back soon...

Her tears now dried out, she looked out in the faintly lit living room, where she could discern Michael sitting straight on the couch with his eyes closed and his hands joined in prayer against his lips. The hope that he might be praying to his Father on behalf of her baby contributed to calm her even more, and at last she was able to fall into another restless sleep.

Thursday came as a training day for everyone. Chloe had called off the crew working on the gym so she could start early with Doom's training. The hound's test to become a police dog being scheduled for the next day, Chloe had no intention of losing any time. They had to be ready and for that she wanted to go over everything one last time before tomorrow.

During the morning, Trixie pursued her training with Azrael, mainly to better master the exercises for Traveling safely that they'd already practised the day before. Also, the episode with the Soul Eater having made Azrael realize that Trixie could feel evil presences when she was Soul Travelling, the angel added some practice to help the child spot evil more efficiently. Doom had been more than happy to play hide and seek with Trixie in between his own training.

Then during the afternoon, to Trixie's greatest joy and excitement, she switched to the gym to start her combat training with Maze, now that she was feeling better. The gym got quite crowded, with Chloe still working there with Doom, Trixie practicing a few moves with her new faked scimitar in a corner, and Maze who was switching between showing the kid what to do and doing her own exercises with Amenadiel to better control her wings.

Maze's flight training was going well enough that Amenadiel was talking about taking her outside this weekend to practice actual flying in a secluded place. Trixie begged her mother to be allowed to go and watch the show, but Amenadiel quickly warned them that it wouldn't be such a good idea since he was planning to go in a place out of reach for humans and therefore possibly dangerous for a kid.

At the end of the day, once all training was finally over, Leslie, the interior designer came at the penthouse to get a hang of what Trixie wanted for her new bedroom. Chloe took the opportunity to add to Leslie's tasks the renovation of the master bedroom that had been prey to an unnatural fire the night before.

That evening, after Trixie went to bed with Doom and the celestials left for another night of hunting, Chloe changed into her best cocktail dress to go down to Lux to make an appearance. With Maze hunting every night, it mostly left her in charge of the club and she was doing her best to go down there every evening for at least a short moment and make sure that everything was in order. The management of the staff had already been part of Patrick's job before Lucifer's departure and he was doing quite well in that area. However, he wasn't the best for welcoming guests and doing small talk, which meant that she was the one having to do that part. If she had to do it alongside Lucifer, she wouldn't have minded that much, but to do it alone was excruciating. Yet she did her best to entertain her guests and make sure that they were enjoying their evening. The clients were starting to wonder when Lucifer would be back and were asking numerous questions on that topic. She remained evasive with her answers, assuring them that it was only temporary and that Lucifer was planning to come back shortly.

When Chloe came back at the penthouse, Azrael was watching a movie with a bowl of popcorn in her lap. Chloe released a deep sigh and sagged down onto the couch beside her, totally drained from her social obligations. She fished into the bowl to grab a few popcorns and tossed them into her mouth.

Her head now resting against the back of the couch, Chloe laid her arm over her tired eyes. "Lucifer was so good at taking care of everyone's little needs in his club, but this is so not me."

"I think you're doing great Chloe, everything considered, but maybe you're asking too much of yourself," offered Azrael understandingly.

Chloe shook her head, her eyes still closed. "Oh, I don't know. I would like to do much more actually. Maybe you're right though, maybe I'm pushing myself too much with Lux on top of everything else. But what else can I do? Lux is too important to Lucifer and by extension it also is to me now. I can't just stop taking care of it." She kept silent for a moment, trying to put her mind into order and failing. "There might be another way to do it," she conceded, "I'll have to give it some thoughts."

Chloe finally opened her eyes to give her friend a tired smile. "Thanks for being such a great listener. I'll really miss you when you'll be gone."

Azrael grimaced a bit at her words. "Actually, I was going to broach that subject. Since my wings seem to be mended now, I plan on leaving tomorrow, after one last session with Beatrice."

Chloe's face fell with deception. "Oh really? That soon?"

Azrael put a comforting hand over Chloe's leg. "Beatrice will be okay. She has improved remarkably quickly with her knew skills and I'm confident that it will be safe for her to Travel by her own if she wishes to do so, under some limitations of course. But you shouldn't worry. And I could drop by now and then to see how she does and to give her some more guidance."

"To say the truth, I'm not so worried about that. I know you trained her well. It's good to hear that you'll come visit though. I can assure you that I'll be as happy as Trixie to see you whenever you can stop by." Chloe squeezed the angel's hand warmly. "Actually, I was hoping you'd accept to come to Tribe's night tomorrow evening with the girls. I wasn't that thrilled by the idea of partying at first, but I think it could do us all some good to let go. Could you leave on Saturday morning instead?" she asked, hopeful.

Azrael hesitated only for a second before relenting. "I guess it can't do anymore harm to delay going back to work for another day."

Chloe beamed at her friend. "I'm so glad you can stay! It's gonna be a memorable night."

Chloe was relieved to be keeping her friend for one more day, yet she hoped it wouldn't cause any trouble for the angel to leave her work on standby longer than necessary.

"What happens to all those dead souls while you're not there to show them the road to Heaven or to Hell?" Chloe asked, suddenly curious, and even a little bit worried.

Azrael tossed some more popcorns into her mouth and chew on them before answering. "Usually, the vast majority of them will simply follow their paths without needing my intervention, be it to travel towards the light or darkness. But now and then, some won't accept their faith and will resist. It can happen as much to good souls as to bad ones. In those cases, if I'm not there to direct them they will become lost souls and wander the Earth possibly for eternity. It's much easier for me to catch them just after they died and are still close to their bodies than to track them down afterwards. Wandering souls can cause much troubles in some instances. That's why I usually insist to be there for as many deaths as possible. But I guess it could't be that bad to add a few more lost souls to those already out there."

Chloe stared at her with round eyes. "If you're sure...," she said uncertainly.

"I am, don't worry about that," assured The Angel of Death. "And Lucifer was right, I should live a little!"


That evening, Maze, Amenadiel, and Michael left Lux and travelled by celestial ways directly to the old abbey where the Hell's Doors had opened up less than a week ago. By their estimation, they suspected that there had to be some more demons in the vicinity of LA, but strangely they couldn't feel any last night even with the help of Doom and they still had to find any nests. Michael had a theory he wanted to put to the test that could explain why.

The angel had been wondering about the apparent coincidence wanting that the Hell's Doors opened up so close to the very city chosen as a residence by the Devil himself. His theory was that somehow, Lucifer may have been drawn to LA in the first place precisely because of the presence of the confluence of terrestrial, celestial, and hellish energies without his being even conscious of it. Michael thought that the demons recently escaped from Hell could also be drawn to this area for the same reason. If that was so, it was logical to think that the less sentient the demon was, the closer it would stay to the epicenter of the powers at play.

That's how they stumbled upon another Byakhee which was hiding in the remnants of the burnt abbey. Between the three of them, they had no difficulty putting it down. This time, they also found the nest of the insect-like creature along with four eggs and the remains of the golden retriever that had been caught by the other Byakhee that Michael had killed two nights ago. Maze disposed of the creature's carcass and of its eggs by sending them straight to Hell. They could only hope that no other hellish beasts would have the opportunity to reproduce, otherwise theit problem could grow exponentially.

As it turned out, they also tracked down a few more demonic creatures in the area that night, which kept them quite busy until the early hours of the day. It also gave Maze the opportunity to shoot a few very good pictures with her cell phone. Apparently, Michael's theory was revealing to be quite sound.

Early on in their night of hunting, Maze's attention had been drawn to the presence of a few cars going around the countryside as if searching for something, or someone. She might not have noticed them if she had been traveling by car, but from up in the air in Amenadiel's arms, it soon became quite obvious that they were being tracked. They made sure to always stay out of sight of whoever those people were, yet they just couldn't get rid of them completely. Wherever they went, the cars just came back towards them if somehow always too late to witness them slaughtering the demons that they successfully tracked down. Their hypothesis was that the area might still be monitored by the FBI following the events having taken place at the abbey. Though it didn't explain how those agents, if that's what they were, could apparently follow their movements without even seeing them. And if they had still been monitoring the area, then how was it that they had not at least stumbled upon the Byakhee? They had no answers to offer for the moment.

They were planning to come back here this weekend to try and find a few more creatures since it was quite possible that there might still be a few left.


Chloe's Friday morning began horribly with her car refusing to start up on such an important day. After swearing at her broken car for a few minutes under the patient gaze of Doom, Chloe opted for borrowing Lucifer's red vintage Aston Martin. Well, it was actually also her Aston Martin now, wasn't it? Doom would just have to make the trip in the front. Lucifer's Corvette was still sitting in its usual place, but Chloe could never bring herself to use it. To her, it was Lucifer's and the simple sight of it was steering inside her way too many feelings to ever hope being able to drive it.

The time Chloe lost with her damn car was going to make her late for their test. So against her better judgement, she put her foot down on the accelerator to get there in time. If it hadn't been for her speeding, she might never have noticed the dark sedan following her that seemed to be matching its own speed to hers. She dismissed it at first, but then remembered with a cold shiver that demons could be out there, waiting for an opportunity to attack her.

She gave a quick glance at Doom who was sitting beside her, and wondered why he was looking so calm.

"Don't you feel anything strange around? A demonic presence maybe?" she suggested pointedly.

Doom lifted an eyebrow questioningly, seemingly at a loss as to why she might be asking that. He answered nonetheless with a shake of his head.

Most of the tension left her at the hound's reassurance. Still, it didn't mean that she wasn't right about that car. To be clear on the situation, Chloe kept her speed up and her eye on the intriguing car for a few miles, until it became increasingly evident that she was being tailed up. The guy was good, she had to give him that, but the fact that she was driving fast was forcing him to follow her from closer than he might like, thus revealing himself, which even gave her the chance to get a glimpse of the man's face.

That's when she recognised him.

She remembered seeing that guy at Lux the night before. His ordinary appearance would never have brought her attention to him if a waitress had not bumped into him and spilled a drink over his vest. But she'd noticed him. And now he was following her for God only knew why. Taking a last second opportunity, Chloe ran a red light, leaving her pursuer stuck behind another car.

A few more minutes of driving over the speed's limit without seeing the dark sedan again proved her that she'd lost him. She still had no idea what that man wanted with her. Whatever that might be, right now she had bigger problems to attend to. It would always be time later to investigate him and discover who he was.

She finally made it to the K9 headquarters right on time with even three minutes to spare. Taking a moment to compose herself, she then turned to Doom to give him her last instructions.

"Ok, now listen to me. Remember that all we want is to pass this test. No funny behaviour or outstanding manoeuvers that could attract unwanted attention. We want to stay under the radar. Understood?"

Doom nodded dutifully.

"And no nodding or shaking your head in front of people, remember? I'm not an expert, but I don't think this is a very doggish behaviour. Stick to our code," she reminded him.

Doom yelp once to answer «yes».

As it turned out, she couldn't have made a more remarkable entrance even if she'd wanted to. She spotted right away a small group of people with their dogs on the training field not too far from her, and the way they were all looking at her suggested that they were already waiting on her to start with the Test. On top of that, a vintage car like hers was certainly not something that could pass unnoticed among a group of men.

Chloe made sure to put a leash on Doom's collar before getting out of her car, guessing that all of her actions might already be under scrutiny in regard with the way she was handling her dog.

The condescending look those guys gave her was already making her cranky. Always attuned to her emotions, Doom visibly tensed at her reaction.

She reassured him quickly before he could turn into full defensive mode. "Relax Doomy, I know how to handle that kind of jerks."

Cringing internally at her less than ideal start, Chloe made her way towards the group. She noticed right away that the five men obviously also there for the test were all wearing K9 Unit t-shirts, a clear statement to their affiliation. She certainly stood out with her worn-out LAPD's t-shirt.

As they approached, the other dogs became increasingly aware of Dooms presence, or maybe it was his energy, because they suddenly started fidgeting nervously, giving a hard time to their handlers to contain them. The five German shepherds stayed wary even after seeing that the Hellhound wasn't making any threatening moves. Doom was an impressive figure compared to the other dogs, being at least a hand taller than any of them.

Chloe stopped in front of the only man with a clipboard in hands, Lieutenant Spencer, according to his tag, and stated her identity.

"Detective Chloe Decker, from Homicide. We're here for the Test."

Not even acknowledging her words, the officer in charge motioned behind her with a shake of his head. "Is that yours?" he asked instead.

Chloe followed his gaze to her car and sighed. "Yes. Is there a problem?"

"No, of course not. Nice car thought," he answered with a strange smirk.

She heard a chuckle among the group and a low comment that she failed to match with a face. "Might explain a lot...," it said, which elicited a burst of laughter among the rest of the men.

Spencer's next comment gave Chloe a clear understanding of what was actually going on.

"It's quite unusual for Homicide to send their own people to be tested, if not unheard of, really. Actually, it's the first time I personally see anyone attend the Test without having been trained here first. You must have some very good connections." He looked down on her, not even trying to mask his contempt anymore.

It was now clear what they were all thinking; she was a rich girl who probably got here only due to some connections with the highest level, allowing her to circumvent the normal way of things, and that officer had absolutely no intention of making it easy on her.

"Or maybe that's because we're good," she threw at him with an irritated tone. "Doom was trained outside town by the bests, he's gonna pass that test without a sweat."

The officer smirked, obviously doubting her words. "So what can do this wonderful dog of yours?" he asked cynically.

"Well, pretty much everything."

"Is that so?" It was clear that he was finding her answer funny.

Chloe didn't let herself be deterred by his condescending attitude and just stated the required skills. "All the basics, such as attack and defense, locating missing persons or crime scene evidences."

"What about narcotics or explosives?"

"Yes, he can do that too."

He rolled his eyes annoyingly and rephrased it slowly as if speaking to a child. "Which one of those?"

"Well, both."

He sighed exasperatedly. "A dog can't be trained for both narcotics and explosives. How do you expect to make the difference when your dog finds something enough to make sure that it is safe to open a bag or a door without being blown up or worse, without getting someone else killed?"

It took all of Chloe's self-control to keep her cool. "Well," she started with a challenging smile, "we got that code, one bark for «yes», two for «no». So I just have to ask him pointed questions to discover what we are up against. It's quite easy really. I hope I didn't get it the other way around. I couldn't find in the documents what the official codes were for those words."

The man looked at her as if she came from another planet. "Because there is no code for that. Dogs are not supposed to be able to say yes or no."

"Oh! First I hear of it." And she who thought that it would be better than for Doom to shake his head...

The officer suddenly narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "What about you? How long have you been training with that dog anyway?"

Chloe hesitated to answer truthfully, but figured that lying was probably not an option. "Three days...,"she admitted reluctantly.

All the men busted into laughter at hearing that.

Spencer didn't make exception. "You're kidding me, right?" he asked between a few chuckles. "It takes months to create a bound strong enough for both parties to trust and know each other enough to work efficiently. As good as this dog could be, you're deluding yourself if you think that you can reach the level of expectation needed to pass this test. You might as well turn around and go back to Homicide right now because no amount of money or contact will force me to let you pass."

Chloe was fuming. The condescending son of a bitch!

Reflecting perfectly her feelings, Doom started growling menacingly at him.

Spencer backed away a few feet. "Keep that beast in check will you!"

"Doom is doing exactly what I want him to do," she assured him off-handily with a satisfied little smile.

After a few seconds though, Chloe put a calming hand over Doom's head to bring him down. The hound stopped growling instantly, yet kept his wild eyes fixed dangerously on the officer to pass on a clear message.

Chloe took a few calming breathes and forced herself not to snap at the officer. "I'm not asking for any special treatment, only for you to judge us fairly like any other participant. If that's even something you're capable of," she challenged him.

The officer clenched his jaw and grimaced in frustration. "Fair enough!" he answered tightly.

Then he turned around and started walking towards the obstacle course that was visible a little farther in the field. He was quickly followed by the rest of the group.

Chloe watched them go and waited until they were out of ear shot to address Doom.

"Forget what I said about staying under the radar. We're gonna kick their asses!"


Author's Note: Well well! Looks like the K9 Unit is in for a surprise :) The next chapter will start with what's happening to Lucifer. Any idea if Chloe's payer could have entered into the equation...? Thank you so much for reading, and commenting. Your feedbacks always make my day :)