A/N: Chapter 3 coming at ya!

As a side note, there will be no Debra (spelled Deborah in the books, but I prefer the shortened version) in love with Dexter. That was just dumb as fuck and was only set up as a way for her to discover Dexter because it never even went anywhere, thank god for that.

Illuminated in Darkness

Chapter 3: Settling In

"I forgot just how good the food was here," Lumen murmured as she nestled against Dexter's side. They were currently cuddled on the couch with some random movie playing in the background; neither one really paying much attention to it. It was late in the evening, and with Harrison in bed for the night, the two of them decided that it was prime time for some bonding time.

"Yeah, a lot of people eat out around Miami for that reason," Dexter said as he ran a gentle hand up and down Lumen's right arm. "It helps that a lot of it tends to be cheap, depending on where you go."

"Mmm," Lumen hummed in response. She softly grabbed his left hand and began to massage it. "I said this earlier, but I really missed this."

"Yeah," Dexter whispered. "Me too. And I missed you."

"Me too," Lumen said quietly. "Every day I was gone, all I could think about was you. You filled my thoughts nearly all day and night. It about drove me insane."

"Sorry about that," he said a bit sheepishly.

"No, don't be. I liked thinking about you, it just made it hard to do my job some days when all I could think of was what you were doing, how you were feeling, who you had killed, among other things," she said with a slight chuckle. "So, who have you killed, recently?"

"Recently? Two paramedics who would let patients die before harvesting their organs and other body parts to sell. The ER doctor was in on it, as he was the seller, but he was arrested which closed the case. I guess they never looked into who was getting those body parts," Dexter explained. "So I took care of them."

It felt so good to Dexter to finally have someone to talk to this stuff about again. Someone who completely understood who he was.

"The depths of evil in people's hearts never ceases to astound me," Lumen said with absolute disgust.

"You don't think people like us are... evil?" he asked with a furrowed brow. Lumen held his hand in hers as she leaned back to look Dexter in the eye.

"Of course not. Never did. Perhaps the law might see it that way, but me... I started thinking of us as the darkness that brings light to others' lives by ridding the world of true evil one life at a time. You should have seen some of the families of the assholes that I killed after they disappeared. I went back to see their reaction after about a week, needed to... Dexter, most of those families were almost celebrating over the fact that their murderous and abusive family member was gone. It's what kept me going and it's what made me realize that perhaps our type of darkness exists for a reason."

"So, kind of like Yin and Yang, then?"

"Yes. Without darkness, light can not exist, and without light, darkness can't exist. It's a delicate balance."

"Didn't think you believed in that kind of stuff," Dexter said with a small chuckle.

"There's a lot about me you don't know yet, and I don't know everything about you, either," Lumen said softly.

"Yeah, but we have time now to make up for that."

"Mmm, that we do." With that, Lumen leaned in and Dexter obliged. They kissed softly for a while before breaking apart, nuzzling their foreheads together soon after.

"I should probably go get my bags from my car, they have all my clothes and toiletries in them," Lumen said after a few minutes, and reluctantly extricated herself from Dexter's embrace.

"I'll help you," he said as he stood up from the couch.

"Oh, you don't have to, it's only a couple of bags. I left almost everything back in Minneapolis aside from some clothes, toiletries, and a few personal things."

"I insist," Dexter said and walked with her to her car.

"Wow, I forgot how pushy you could be sometimes," Lumen said with a laugh. Dexter simply ignored the small slight against him knowing it was true.

"Huh, this is a nice car," he said as they approached the white Camry. "I don't remember you having a Toyota Camry the last time you were here."

"I've always had it. I just left it with my parents when I came down here the first time since I flew down here instead of driving," she explained as she opened the trunk. "The car I was driving was a rental."

"Oh," he said as Lumen handed him two of her four bags. "So, what did you tell your parents about coming back here?" They began walking back to the apartment after Lumen grabbed the other two bags.

"That after spending a year in Minneapolis, I realized this is where I belonged the whole time. They weren't too happy with me moving away again, but they didn't try and stop me."

"Did they ever question why you had all those scars?" Dexter asked, curious.

"Nope. Never let them see them. I knew they would freak out and demand how I got them, so I was careful to never let them show." Dexter just hummed in understanding.

Soon they were back in the apartment.

"Here, let's put your stuff in the bedroom. You can put everything away later. Tomorrow, maybe. Uh, I'll probably have to get another dresser for you," Dexter said as he sat down the two bags he was carrying on his bed.

"What makes you think I'm planning on staying here?" Lumen teased. She almost burst out laughing at the crestfallen look on Dexter's face. "Relax, Dexter, I'm just kidding. I don't plan on leaving."

"Good! I mean, uh, great. Just... here, let's get the stuff you need immediately out of your bags." Lumen loved how awkward Dexter could get. He was definitely socially inept, that much was certain.

"Find me some clean underwear and pajamas, while I root around for my toothpaste and such," she said with a playful smirk. Though she let out a sigh when he did not seem phased by the request.

"Sure." As he began to pull out the various items from the two bags he brought in, Dexter managed to pull out two items that made him look at Lumen in wonder. One of them was a familiar box that he had given her a year ago.

"Is this the box with the gloves I got you last year?"

"Of course. I never got rid of them, why would I? I kept the knife you bought me, too. They certainly came in handy multiple times," Lumen explained as she took the box from his hands and opened it, pulling out both the pair of black gloves and the small knife that he had bought her and held them up for Dexter to observe.

He could tell they had gotten quite a bit of use over the past twelve months.

"I just thought you would have gotten rid of them the first chance you got, considering the memories attached."

"That's exactly the reason I kept them. Plus, once I started getting back into the business, I had to use them." Lumen put them back in the box and sat it aside before grabbing the other item Dexter had managed to find- her roll of tools. He looked at them in awe.

"So, you really weren't kidding," he murmured as she unrolled the tools. "There's more than knives in there."

"Why would I have been kidding? And yes, I liked to get creative with my kills sometimes. A knife to the chest is something not every murderer deserves. Too quick for my tastes, at times," Lumen explained as she held up a long flathead screwdriver, gently caressing it.

Dexter could feel his heart speed up and his breath quicken as he observed Lumen with her tools.

'What is this I'm feeling? It's... completely foreign to me.'

"Wow, um, I guess you're right. I have used other tools myself before, and a chainsaw, but not often," Dexter said. Lumen looked at him in surprise at the admission.

"A chainsaw? Pretty brutal, I must say."

"Yes, well, I only used it on one man, and he was one of the men who murdered my mother. With a chainsaw," Dexter said, a hint of bitterness in his tone as he thought of Jimenez.

"Oh. Well, he certainly deserved it then, I'd say. An eye for eye and all that," Lumen said with a shrug and a scowl.

Shortly after, they both found what she needed for the night, and while she went into the bathroom to take a shower, Dexter put away her tools into his secret compartment of his trunk before moving the rest of her stuff into an empty corner of the room. It bothered him to no end, but he soothed himself in knowing that it would not stay there for too long. The rest of his apartment might be chaotic due to his son, but his bedroom typically remained neat and orderly. Just the way he liked it.

Half an hour later, both of them were showered, clean, and settling into bed.

The two faced each other as Dexter began running his fingers through her blonde hair, causing her to smile at the action. He ran his thumb over the scar on her forehead, the one Jordan Chase left on her when he kidnapped her at Emily Birch's house.

"This one will be Fighter," Dexter whispered.

"Hm?" Lumen hummed in question, her eyes already closed by that point from the soothing ministrations.

"Sorry, I just... I gave each of your scars a name to represent your will to survive what happened to you," he explained softly. "I never gave this one a name until now. I never mentioned it because I thought it was... corny."

"That's not corny at all, it's actually really sweet of you, Dexter. You'll have to tell me the other names soon, I want to know," Lumen mumbled sleepily.

"Sure," he said quietly, kissing her on the forehead as she drifted off into slumber. Dexter settled into his pillow before following her into dreamland.

END

A/N: Man, I planned for this to go into Dexter's high school reunion, but that will have to be next chapter. The lure of fluff was too much, lol.

So, I always wondered why they had Lumen leave in the first place, and my two guesses were: 1. They didn't want to pay Julia Stiles past season 5, and 2. They realized they made someone too perfect for Dexter, and well, you know these showrunners, Dexter isn't allowed to be happy. Well, no worries about that here, I assure you, lol. I'm all about happy endings. With Lumen here to keep his impulsive ass in order, it will be possible.

So you're probably also wondering if Debra will figure out who Dexter is in this (along with Lumen). Yes, eventually, but not for a long while, and definitely not the way the show did it. As for LaGuerta... She does not. She may be a political beast clawing her way to the top, but I don't think she deserved to die. Not that way, anyway. Completely undignified.