A/N: The battle is won and Lilith is in Hell...so what happens next? Phase III of the story: domestic shenanigans! I hope you loves enjoy, and I just want to thank you again for all the love and support you send my way XOXOX

Devil in the Details

The fight was over.

Magnus ran to Alec, tackling him in a hug that nearly knocked him down again. Clary wept in Jace's arms, running her hands all over him, convincing herself he was real as he soothed her. Simon busied himself with Helen, leading her to the couch so she didn't have to stand on her busted ankle. Everyone had someone. Everyone except -

"Miss Lightwood," came a deep, rich voice. "Are you alright?"

Izzy looked up to see Lucifer Morningstar, one hand extended to help her up like some kind of fairytale prince. Except this wasn't a fairytale. And though he had just saved her from the monster, that didn't mean they still didn't have problems.

Still, she took his hand and let him help her. It was strange to see him now, after so much time apart. So much had changed, and yet it was like no time had passed at all. The spark of electricity that had drawn them together that first, fateful night still made her fingertips tingle as she clutched to the thicker, more callused hands of the creature in front of her. He was so gentle with her, steadying her as she wobbled. She was still so weak, so tired and out of shape from her time in captivity.

"Are you alright?" he asked again, nothing but genuine concern lighting those dark, expressive eyes.

"Fine," she said with a nod, convincing herself to be so.

The truth was, she was far from fine. She had nearly died multiple times in the past hour. Multiple times she had held someone's hand and braced herself for the pain and nothingness of death. To see the Angel and move on with all those who fell before her.

Instead, she was alive. Alive in the rubble of Magnus's apartment, the place that was supposed to be a safety net. Her home. So much loss in so much time wore down her defenses. She wanted to cry. She wanted to collapse and never get up. But she couldn't. She had a child to take care of, a family to put back together.

Sirens in the distance let Izzy know that mundane authorities would be there soon, Clave agents not far behind, her own mother included. They would want to take her away again, her sentence still not served for the murder of Heidi - though something told her that her file would be mysteriously missing when they searched the remains of Aldertree's lab. Just more strings pulled in an insidious scheme to get her child.

And yet, through all the turmoil of her racing thoughts, Lucifer held her upright. Never pushing, never pressing, just watching her - waiting for her word on how to proceed next. Out of all the terrible things going on around her, out of all the terrors this world had thrown at her in the past few weeks, he was the least of them. In fact, Lucifer was no terror at all. No, Lucifer was...kind.

The Devil himself was kind.

"Izzy, get away from him."

The bubble shattered.

Izzy turned her head to see her brother standing side by side, still in a battle stance with their hands on their weapons. Clary gripped her stele tightly while Simon held up an honest to God cross - where did he even get one? - and Helen bared her teeth. An overreaction by a mile, but then she reminded herself that none of them knew Lucifer like she did. None of them knew the Devil could be kind.

"Jace - "

"Is that any way to thank me?" Lucifer asked, outraged. The ferocity of his tone made Jace flinch and stumble back. "I saved your life, you bloody ingrate!"

"You're the reason any of this happened in the first place!"

"Jace, that's enough," Magnus snapped, putting himself in the middle before another battle broke out. His presence got everyone to back down, or at least take their hands off their weapons. "You've been through a lot, but it's not Lucifer's fault. It's Lilith's, and she's gone now."

"Yes," Lucifer grumbled, flexing his free hand as if he could still feel the sting of Lilith's skin. "Effectively dealt with, no doubt ranting and raving to anyone who will listen from her prison in Edom."

"Why did Lilith come after us like that?" Izzy asked.

It was the one part of this whole ordeal that didn't make any sense. She understood why Aldertree would want her captured. She understood that maybe Lilith would be outraged if Jace had broken free of her spell. But why come after Izzy? Why did Lilith think she had claim over anything of Izzy's?

"It's all my fault," Jace lamented, all fight draining from him. "It's me she wanted. It's always been me."

"Never one to indulge in a pity party, but the former-lackey is right. Lilith needed him to resurrect her "son" and without him, well, her plans were dashed. Kaput. No more," Lucifer said with a shrug. He turned to Izzy, apology in his eyes. "She lashed out. Thought to take our child as collateral for the one she lost."

"But she has so many children."

"I told you before, demons are a possessive bunch."

"Not that she gives a shit about her other children," the demon woman piped up, spitting out a tooth over the balcony. Her face was completely human now, the decayed part hidden away under an impressive glamor. "We're more like nuisances to her. Only taught us pain. Best thing she ever did was abandon us."

"Yes, yes Maze. You have mommy issues, we get it."

Lucifer rolled his eyes, and Izzy had the sense he had heard this story a dozen times. It would have been funny had the story not come from a highly volatile demon.

"I thought the command was for all demons to go back to Hell," Jace sneered.

"I'm not just any demon, Nephilim," Maze hissed, pushing herself into Jace's personal space just to make him squirm. She spat the word Nephilim like it was something filthy, like it was a curse. "I'm the only one willing to put up with Lucifer's tired ass."

"I put up with plenty in my day," Magnus quipped from his spot by the bar, one of the only places spared in the battle. He held a bottle of something amber out towards the woman and she took it with gusto. She didn't even bother grabbing a glass, flicking the cap off the bottle and raising it to her lip.

"Cheers to that kid." the demon woman knocked the bottle back and swallowed down multiple gulps. When she pulled the bottle back, she jerked her head towards Jace. "So, you've been tapping that?"

"God no," Magnus choked on his own drink, and Jace took three steps away from the warlock. As if on cue, Alec stepped in at Magnus's side. Magnus placed a hand on Alec's arm, proud. "This is my boyfriend, Alexander. Alexander, this is my aunt, Mazikeen of the Lilim. She taught me everything I know about how to survive in this world."

"The three f's: fighting, feeding, and fucking," Maze said, knocking back another multiple swallows of whiskey. When she turned around and got a good look at Alec, she grimaced. "Him? Really? I taught you better."

Alec looked gobsmacked. Magnus's face fell, disappointed but not surprised. He patted Alec consolingly on the arm.

"Unfortunately that's as good as she's going to get."

"I'm gonna take a look around the block, make sure Mom and the rest of the family actually followed directions," Maze said, sauntering towards the door. "Don't wait up for me. I'll find my own way back to LA."

"Are you sure?" Lucifer asked, skeptical.

"I've got a few bounties to pick up on the way. You'd only slow me down."

That was that. Maze left through the hole that used to be the front foyer, leaving the rest of them behind to pick up the pieces.

The surrealism of the moment lent a strange sense of humor. Izzy felt like laughing, like crying. It was the hormones, she told herself, the adrenaline coursing through her veins and keeping her alive. It was the surrealism of seeing Magnus pour himself a drink and people telling jokes and Jace regaining his cocky confidence. It was the realization that all they could do now was return to normal.

Except how could anything go back to normal?

"We need to return the bodies to their families so they can be reburied," Alec sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't even know where to start."

"Let the Clave handle that," Magnus insisted. "You're not Head of Institute anymore. You could throw your mother under the bus. Have her talk her way out of things."

What? Alec wasn't Head of Institute anymore? How much had she missed? She had only been gone a few weeks. Izzy was shocked, staring hard at her brother, willing him to make eye contact long enough for her so he would finally stop hiding things because he thought she couldn't handle them.

"Even if I let Mom handle it, how do we even come up with an explanation that doesn't send all of us back to the Gard?"

Alec had a good point, and no one really had an answer. Defiling the honorable dead was as good as murdering them for the first time. They were all surrounded by a dozen war crimes, and Izzy had enough on her ledger. She didn't need a body count higher than one.

"This place is a mess," Simon commented, kicking at some cement only he was strong enough to move. "Who knew that zombies could create so much damage?"

"Didn't you watch a whole show about them slow-motion eating people?" Clary asked, elbowing Simon in the ribs as she passed him by. Something he couldn't do back to her with her own ribs wrapped in bandaging.

"Hey, The Walking Dead is a piece of art, but completely fiction."

"Is that the one with the poisonous mushroom people?" Helen asked.

"No, that's The Last of Us, which is really a cool narrative because it focuses on a parasite that you can find in real life - "

"Enough with the nerdy babble," Jace cut Simon off before he could spiral too far. "We just fought real zombies. Safe to say, they're nothing like those mundie shows."

"Far more aggressive than dead people aught to be," Clary commented grimly.

"You don't think this had anything to do with Aldertree, do you?" Helen asked, looking for signs in places where there weren't any. Izzy couldn't blame her; her entire world had been called into question. But that didn't mean that every terrible thing was Aldertree's - or her own - fault.

"Demonic possession. Simple skin walking. The demon takes hold of the body of the recently deceased," Lucifer explained, putting Helen's fears to rest. "It's forbidden. I forbade it many centuries ago. Back in the day of witch hunts and heretics, walking around in the skin of dead men tended to draw unwanted attention. Lilith must have told them I would make an exception. She was wrong."

"I didn't even know that was possible."

"Oh, there's much your kind don't know about what's possible."

Lucifer wasn't trying to be condescending, but that's how Izzy heard it. Like she was a child who wouldn't possibly understand the complexities of the celestial. A mindless follower. It rubbed Izzy just as poorly as Alec hiding he'd lost power of the Institute.

"Poor Nephilim," Lucifer tutted, pulling out his flask, taking a sip and wandering over to one of the bodies. "I recognize this one. The Detective and I stumbled upon him a few weeks ago. Isn't this the one I sent you to look at, Magnus?"

"No, he's over there." Magnus pointed to a body with a butcher knife sticking out of the sternum.

"Many of these dead are from my neck of the woods," Lucifer said, grimacing. "I know a man at the LA Institute. He owes me a favor or two. Cleaning this mess up is just the kind of thing he's good at."

Izzy didn't know to whom Lucifer referred. The thought of him having friends in the LA Institute was so strange that it made her brain short circuit, but she didn't have the energy to question it. Lucifer Morningstar was so very different from the narrative assigned to him that he could say he had a passion for ballet and volunteered at food shelters on weekends and she would believe him.

"Why would you do that?" Alec asked, suspicion in his tone. He didn't want to trust Lucifer. Izzy couldn't blame him. Prejudice was hard to break.

"Because, as hard as it is for you tiny minds to comprehend, I do care what happens to you." The confession felt ripped from him, as if Lucifer would rather swallow his tongue rather than admit he had feelings. "Magnus is family. And Isabelle...Isabelle is family as well. What happens to you will affect us all, and personally I prefer to remain unhindered by the red tape of serial murder."

"See, Lucifer is not such a bad guy after all," Magnus said to Alec, teasing with the added bite of an 'I told you so'.

Everything seemed settled. Except it wasn't. They were still standing in the middle of a battle zone with wounds and injuries that needed tending to. Someone had to testify that Aldertree was up to no good. Someone had to check in with the Clave to make sure the explosion at the Gard hadn't taken down the rest of Alicante with it.

Sirens grew louder, as did the confused screams from the mundanes down in the city below. They had no idea what had happened, why a prominent high rise had decided to shake and come apart at the seams. There was no telling how many people had been hurt. There was no telling how the mundanes would react to such a blatantly supernatural happening in the middle of the city.

Most importantly, and most selfishly, Izzy had nowhere to go.

Her home was in ruins at her feet. Smoke and dust clouded up with each step. No doubt the room Magnus prepared for her was buried under plaster and cement. Everything she had brought with her was ruined. Once again, Izzy had nothing.

"I have an idea, actually," Lucifer said, as if reading her mind. "I propose that Miss Lightwood stay with me for the remainder of the pregnancy. It's clear that Nephilim will stop at no length to hurt you, and Lilith is far too strong an enemy to keep at bay for long. She will be back, and every one of you here will be in danger. At least, if Isabelle was with me, she would be under my direct protection where the risk of any demonic or angelic interference would be at a minimum."

His proposition shocked her. She didn't know what to say, how to react to such a selfless gesture from a creature known for his selfishness.

"What happened to wanting not to be involved?" Izzy asked, confused.

"Circumstances have changed, wouldn't you agree?"

Yes, circumstances had changed, but never had Izzy anticipated this as the solution. She had skimmed her mental list of friends and acquaintances, tried to figure out which ones she could impose upon without asking too much. Simon had been an option, as had Maia or Catarina. Never Lucifer.

But she had to say, the idea was...tempting.

"You can't seriously be thinking about this, Iz," Jace said.

"What happened to staying with us?" Alec asked, slightly betrayed.

"A pregnant woman cannot stay in an active construction zone," Magnus said, taking a look around with despair in his eyes. "The damage to the apartment will take weeks, if not months to fix."

"Can't you just - " Alec wiggled his fingers around, mimicking the way Magnus performed spells.

"These are genuine Italian granite," Magnus admonished, stroking the railing of his balcony as one might a beloved pet. "I will not have it said that Magnus Bane takes the cheap way out. No. My home will be built back right, no expense spared."

"Lucifer's right," Izzy interjected before the boyfriends could begin arguing over contractors and paint colors. "Aldertree was just one man on a mission, but what if he told others? What if he had people dedicated to completing his mission. I won't be taken back there again, and I won't let my baby be used as some kind of weapon against the Downworld."

"My penthouse is more than big enough to accommodate any of your needs," Lucifer said. From what Izzy could remember, Lucifer's apartment was lavish, oversized with plenty of space for them both to exist without getting in the way of one another. Izzy wouldn't want for anything, living in the lap of such luxury. "Of course, the choice is yours."

Choices. So many choices. On one shoulder, she had the angel telling her that this was a bad idea, that she was walking into a deal with the Devil. There was no telling what he may require in return. On the other shoulder, she had Lucifer offering a safe haven, his hand extended like an olive branch.

Sirens picked up in volume and magnitude. They were right underneath them now, circling the building. In the next few minutes, officers would get out and start climbing the stairs.

"Quickly, Miss Lightwood. We are running out of time."

Izzy looked at the faces of her friends and family. The people she cared about most and those who were quickly becoming dearer. Jace looked torn between snatching her back and letting her go, Alec much the same. Clary bit down on her bottom lip, eyes shining with conflict. Simon looked resigned, as did Helen, and Izzy knew they would back her up no matter what decision she made. Only Magnus looked entirely supportive, nodding his head in silent encouragement.

Then, she looked back to Lucifer. To the lines drawn taut on his face and the silent fears held deep in his eyes. He didn't say it outright, but Izzy could see how much he feared her coming to harm. How much he wanted to protect her and the child. There was a deep attachment there, even if he wouldn't admit it.

In the end, there was only one choice she could make.

"I'll go with you."

"Izzy," Alec called out, pleading for her to reconsider.

"It's not like I'm getting locked away again," she tried to joke, thought it was too soon for anyone to find it funny. "I'm just a portal away. You can visit any time."

Izzy looked to Lucifer, who nodded quickly in assent. "Of course. You are all welcome at Chez Morningstar."

It was Clary who broke from the group first to wrap Izzy in a tight, crushing hug. The girl whom Izzy loved like a sister now cried into her shoulder, the emotions of the day finally catching up with her. Clary had risked so much, sacrificed so much in order to free Izzy from the Gard. Izzy would forever be grateful, forever in Clary's debt.

When they parted, Jace and Alec were next in line for hugs. She pulled her brothers close, and while none of them were the teary type, she could not ignore the misty quality to Jace's expression, the hallowed fear in Alec's eyes. She wished she could offer her brothers more solace, more promises that this was not like the last time and that she would be protected and safe. But they had all been through enough to know that such things could never be promised.

For a vampire, Simon gave the warmest hug. It was strange to be in his arms and feel nothing but a platonic love, like he had solidified his place as another brother. Helen gave Izzy a brief salute, grateful in her own way. Izzy hoped the next time they met, it would be on more stable grounds. Magnus was the last to embrace Izzy, wishing her well and promising to visit in a few days with whatever he could salvage from the wreckage.

All goodbyes complete, it was time for Magnus to create the portal.

Lucifer offered to fly Izzy back to LA in his arms, but after the physical toll the day wrought on her exhausted frame, she opted for the more direct approach. Lucifer did not contest her choice, stepping aside and letting his nephew work his magic. The portal swirled to life in shimmering gold. On the other side laid Izzy's new life.

She took Lucifer's hand in hers, holding tight as the magic washed over her. This time, it felt like a promise.