Abril: I give special thanks to ProwlSIC for helping me look over this last chapter. The help was tremendously appreciated.

This last chapter goes out to all of you wonderful readers who stuck until the end. I hope you enjoy.

PART FIVE: Somtimes All You Need To Be Is Willing

CHAPTER 17: A TORTUROUS FOREVER

Dan stomped briskly across the uneven desert ground; anger, indignation, and humiliation pushed him forward and made him forget for a second he'd just insulted, screamed and commanded at a cosmic entity.

His right eye burned for a second and he quickly rubbed at it before his body got any funky ideas like letting out any damned tears. He rolled his eyes, crying, like a child.

He seriously needed to reevaluate how he handled things. How could he let his guard down like that? With the Devil of all people? The Devil? He even knew the guy, he was Lucifer Fucking Morningstar, he knew how he was with people, how he liked toying with them. He'd seen it happen and experienced it himself first hand.

"You are a sad little man, Dan Espinoza." He mumbled to himself once the anger shimmering beneath his skin began to wane. He sighed and rubbed at his face once more. It felt like he'd been doing that increasingly as of late.

"Who needs the bastard anyway?" He declared as he tread forward. Sometime soon a road of some kind had to show, he was certain of it.

So he walked and the sun went up. He kept walking, and the sun reached higher still.

Then Dan stumbled.

For a moment he stood there, surprised by the betrayal of his own feet. He stopped looking at the ground and lifted his face, realizing then how long he'd paused and how long he was taking to process things just now.

"Shit." He whispered when he regained his bearings and took the facts into account.

He'd not peed today. His reaction time was slower. And now that he was paying attention he could feel the beat of his heart speeding inside his chest.

"Shit, shit." Dan cursed under his breath again and looked around for a nopal, he found none. This was bad; the nopal was the only plant he knew for sure he could consume safely. If he didn't find something soon to even mildly hydrate himself with, he was going to be in so much trouble.

There was nothing he could really do but to keep going in the hopes of finding something, anything at all.

"Let's go." He said to himself as he made an effort to keep his head on his shoulders. He soldiered on for an indeterminate time, half an hour more, or maybe it was two hours more... he wasn't so sure. The sweltering heat blazing over his back made it feel more like a lifetime of walking if he was honest with himself; sometimes short of breath and dizzier than before.

"Ah-" Daniel stopped suddenly when his stomach cramped painfully. He took in a deep breath but it was like the air wasn't going in at all. His insides cramped again and again in quick succession until the Detective dropped to the floor and gagged but nothing came out. Then it did.

Dan vomited on the dry earth what he'd eaten and what little liquids he still had in him. He kept at it for what felt like a torturous forever until his face was tear streaked and the feeling of drowning was overpowering.

When he stopped his arms were weak and could barely hold him up as they trembled, his whole body shuddering.

"Shit." He said again, and sat back. "No, no, I don't need this right now, damn it." He covered his face furiously when his eyes began burning, he couldn't afford to cry, he didn't have the time, didn't have the water for it.

He wished so bad for the dull police station, for Trixie, for Chloe as well.

He choked back a quiet sob. He was so screwed.

CHAPTER 18: THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

These sort of things happened so often in his day to day life, it was a wonder they still had the power to cause him more of an impression than the usual shrug off he gave them.

Humans and him… words never were quite enough to express what he meant and vice versa. There was always something missing, something that lacked color or depth, it just left him and others floundering about with little to no understanding, or in the worst cases, with a huge misunderstanding.

This was different though, it didn't feel like something that could be shrugged off and moved on from. He wasn't as obtuse as people seemed to think, he understood that –somehow, someway- he'd hurt Daniel; he just didn't understand why his words had hurt the man.

Lucifer contemplated these things as he sat on the ground, flesh continuing to peel off slowly and annoyingly off his shoulders. He raised his wings above his head to ward off the inconvenience, even though he wasn't in any significant pain. It was more bothersome than nothing else.

He traced back his words and found nothing that could've hurt the Detective, he'd just stated his honest opinion on the fact. Was that enough? Were his thoughts just naturally hurtful to others? He didn't think so, he was always speaking his mind and no one was overly wounded by it. Well, except for… Daniel.

It was probably the man's own fault anyway, he lacked so much common sense that he was usually just jealous of how awesome Lucifer was.

No wait, that was wrong. What was Linda always telling him?

…

Blaming others for his shortcomings wasn't going to help him figure out things faster.

The angel huffed out in annoyance and rolled his eyes. It wasn't his fault. It couldn't be. The Douche was just petty about anything Lucifer related. He exhaled forcefully and closed his eyes in concentration.

"Now, what would Linda say?" He pondered aloud.

"Lucifer, you have to think outside the box. Often, problems that we blame on others can be solved by taking a step back and looking at our own actions." He mimicked her voice without much effort, making it sound whiny though that was probably just his own spin of the doctor.

"But that doesn't make sense, if I need to think 'outside the box' why would I even look at myself? Wouldn't that be thinking inside the box?" Puzzled, his lips curled into an irritated frown.

He flopped onto the ground and winced in pain slightly. The sensation of having his wings back was getting better, but it wasn't quite painless yet. Movement was still awkward and anything that he stretched too far would send spikes through his wings and down his spine. He sat back up again and began slowly rotating his shoulder blades, making sure every muscle got a bit of attention until he began to stretch the furthest regions little by little. As he did this, he kept thinking about the issue.

He went back to the conversation's beginning in his head, like Linda always told him, and thought about how it went and what action he'd made or thing he'd said that could've gone wrong.

Nothing seemed wrong though; the only thing 'wrong' in his memory was the steadily falling face of Daniel. What had been the exact moment that had happened?

He'd said "Daniel, come on. You can't honestly believe there is a divine plan for you. That's just dumb." And there'd been a confused frown on the others face "Let me make this plain, yeah. You don't matter, Daniel. You're not even a grain of salt in the ocean of the so called 'divine plan'. You're not important. And God doesn't care about you."

He felt the answer so close, if he could only think about it harder or in a different way. If he were Daniel and someone told him God didn't care about him…

Lucifer's eyes popped open with the realization. Perhaps if someone told him that now, he'd just scoff at them. It wasn't news to him. But if someone were to tell him so when he still believed in his dad…

You don't matter.

You're not important.

God doesn't care.

You. Are. Nothing.

Oh.

Oh.

Right then.

CHAPTER 19: FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS

The thing was… he wasn't very sure where Dan was. When the Detective had walked away and after his initial shock, Lucifer had turned the other way, ruffled feathers and all, and hurried wherever place was not taking him closer to the other man.

Lucifer grumbled a bit and looked at the sun.

"Say… I don't suppose you know where he went? Small chap I was with, handsome blue eyes?" He questioned.

A sudden flare of light hit him in the face and set a lock of his hair on fire.

"Oi! Bloody hell, careful!" He shouted as he patted down his hair urgently.

A sullen sensation reached him and enveloped him.

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine. Calm down, I know it was an accident." He mumbled, incapable of staying mad at one of his beauties.

The crestfallen feeling was replaced by a fervent fondness that made him chuckle.

"All right don't get all lovey dovey on me." He grumbled playfully. "Let's try again, do you know where the man went?" He asked the sun.

A few moments passed and nothing.

"Love?" He frowned at the sky.

A ray of light hit a little cactus a few feet from him, then another bush that was a ways away. Lucifer perked up.

"That's very helpful. I'm very proud of you." He added for good measure, he'd seen Chloe tell her spawn that when she'd done something correctly, even if it was rather simple.

A wave of fondness rushed over him, so powerful that it made him stumble to the ground.

"Good gracious," Lucifer wheezed, realizing he had to be more careful with what he said "Me too darling, just be more careful next time." He huffed and set to walk. He was setting things right one way or another.

A few hours later and with a couple more helpful little beams from the sun, he finally caught up with Daniel. The consultant took a deep breath and gathered himself, heading to the other.

"Daniel!" He called the other and hurried a bit after him.

"Oh, God." Mumbled the other, already rubbing a hand on his face.

"I know, I know, you don't want to see a single feather of mine, believe me I don't want to see them either, I'm the worst, get lost and all that jazz."

"Yeah, I think you've got it covered pretty well, so I don't see why you'd be here then." Dan kept walking on, not sparing the other a glance.

"Because-" Lucifer kept trying to stand in front of the other but the Detective kept skipping him. "Stop, will you? I'm trying to tell you something."

"Well I don't want to hear anything that has to crawl out of your mouth." He said with false cheeriness.

"Daniel, please stop. I want to apologize."

Dan stopped dead in his tracks and turned on his feet.

"You want to apologize?"

"Yes."

"You?"

"Yes."

"Lucifer Morningstar."

"Yes, yes. Me!" Grumbled the angel.

Dan looked at him weirdly.

"And I'm believing that you're being sincere about this because...?" the man raised an eyebrow as Lucifer took a deep breath and settled.

"I realize I'm not the best at understanding how emotions work but I did see that for whatever reason, what I said hurt you." He began.

The Detective scoffed and turned away again.

"No, no. Wait Daniel!" He turned the other around and held him by the shoulders in such a way that it wouldn't hurt him but he also wouldn't be able to escape his grip.

"Lucifer, let me go." Came the replay of barely reigned in fury when the realization settled in that he couldn't move.

"Listen to me first, please." And Dan stopped and looked at the intense gaze of the other, he sounded pleading, an edge of something desperate in his words.

Once again Dan's rage was tempered by a sudden burst of compassion for the other. And he had felt compassion for Morningstar before and it always ended with Lucifer making fun of him; it seemed there were some things he just couldn't help. He sighed out a terribly long sigh, ready to be made a fool again.

"I'm listening." He said unimpressed and Lucifer smiled charmingly "But, you have to let go of me."

"Oh! Of course, apologies." The Devil took his hands away and brushed a bit of invisible dirt off of Daniel's shoulders for good measure.

"Thank you." Dan took half a step back and sighed again, repeating "I'm listening."

"I… I know you think everything I say I do so to spite you or make fun and… that may be true sometimes," he added at the Detectives look "but, it's also true that I really don't understand much of the things you say or why you react to certain things the way you do…"

A hot breeze ruffled Lucifer's feathers, his efforts to come across as honest feeling almost astronomical to the being.

"After our little fight I sat down and thought of what I said to you and tried to figure out what I'd done wrong and I… think I understand now." He looked down for a moment, almost expecting the other to interrupt again or walk away but there was only quiet. "I… I'm sorry Daniel. The history that I have with my father… well it's simply not yours and the things I've experienced are by no means something you'll ever experience. No, wait that sounds wrong." He looked up at the sun and took another breath and tried again "If I were so much younger than I am now and someone were to tell me my father didn't really care about me I… I would be pretty heart broken, and angry, undoubtedly. I…" He was having a hard time finding the right words to mend this. "For whatever it's worth I don't think you're meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Not that there is a plan for you or anything but… you matter." Lucifer finished lamely.

They looked at each other for a moment, the human tiredly and the immortal with slumped shoulders.

"You're… very bad at this." Dan finally said.

"It's not like I have a lot of experience in the matter." Mumbled Lucifer, looking away.

"Lucifer I'm not mad because of what you said… well no, I actually am but… mostly I was angry because I thought you were playing with me again. I thought, 'Hey, this guy isn't so bad, I might even like him.' and then you said this and…." The Detective huffed "it just seemed to me like you'd waited for the perfect moment to strike me down as I opened to you."

"Well I didn't mean to hurt you Daniel, I just think my father doesn't care about anyone in general. Not you alone as an individual." Lucifer's wings twitched anxiously.

Dan sighed out and closed his eyes resignedly.

"Okay then. Apology accepted, I guess."

The angel's dark black eyes lit up immediately and his back straightened to his usual dignified pose.

"You do? Just like that?" Lucifer asked.

"Yeah." Dan nodded, smiling a bit in spite of himself "we had a bit of miscommunication, you're getting a hang of talking to people –despite being on earth for God knows how long- and from my part I'm still getting used to knowing all these heavenly and… hell-ish things are real. Just like you, it'll take me time. Sometimes I'm not going to react well to some stuff." Dan amended.

"Well in that case, I can answer all the questions you have to the best of my ability!" Lucifer smiled brightly, eager to please and make everything as it had been yesterday night and that morning.

Dan chuckled.

"That'd be nice." The Detective returned his smile. "For the record, it might be stupid of me but, I still choose to believe that God cares for us. There might not be a plan but… I choose to believe we aren't all just little specks floating through space."

"I… yeah." Lucifer nodded, understanding they had different opinions on the matter. He was going to try his hardest to accept it as well.

"And thank you." Dan added.

The consultant raised a questioning eyebrow

"For saying I'm not meaningless." His blue eyes twinkled with appreciation.

"You should know, " Lucifer said with his usual regal way of speaking, "I can't lie Daniel."

CHAPTER 20: OH, THAT CAN'T BE GOOD

The dawn was approaching. Lucifer looked at the sky and thought if they started walking right away, maybe the star could give them another pointer or two in the right direction before it set completely.

It was just then, when things were more or less settled between them and Lucifer felt like he'd finally done something right that he noticed.

Despite the heat and the long hours of walking, Dan looked oddly pale. His chest rose and fell in short, uneven breaths; he looked haggard. That in itself wasn't very surprising after the last few days they'd had in the Mojave, but still…

"You don't look so good Daniel." Lucifer commented without the usual condescending tone. Now that he was actually paying attention, the man looked awful in fact.

"I don't feel so good to be honest." The detective said without any of the energy he had displayed previously. He swayed in place for a moment, and decided to sit down, unbalanced.

Lucifer, now rather preoccupied, took a worried step forward, his wings twitching again with new found anxiety.

"What are you doing?" The consultant asked.

"I'm very tired, man." Huffed Dan heavily, as if speaking had become a chore to him "I need to rest for a bit. I think I'm…"

"Daniel?" Lucifer knelt in front of him and grabbed his shoulders when the other swayed again. The man's eyes seemed glazed over. "Oh, that can't be good."

"It's not." He gulped on a dry mouth "I'm gonna… lie down for a second." The detective said, pushing against Lucifer's hold in an attempt to reach the ground. "Just a second." His voice was very soft now.

Before the man could reach the ground the angel guided his head to his thighs. A strange knot of worry settled in Lucifer's throat, one he'd not felt often in his life on Earth. Humans were so fragile, and he didn't know what was wrong with Dan.

"Yeah, you do that." He said, shaken by how hardly present his companion had become.

"It's just going to be for a moment." Mumbled Dan, hazy blue eyes closing to the world, and just like that he'd fallen asleep.

Without knowing what to do -if he should move Dan or not- and with a massive lack of ideas, the angel sighed worriedly and brought forth his wings. He sheltered the man and himself from the unforgiving heat and waited. Waited for the sun to hide away, waited for an idea of what to do to strike him, waited for the Detective to wake up and just be alright again.

A while later, and after the Devil controlled his concern, he assessed his companions' condition. There was no doubt now that Daniel was severely dehydrated, and he suspected a hospital would be their first stop when they got back to Los Angeles.

"Wait right here Dainel, I'll be right back." Lucifer told his companion despite knowing he was not being heard.

Standing up and hesitating briefly, the winged man walked away. On his return, he brought as many tunas as his hands could carry and resolved to wake the human up. But it was a useless effort, Dan wouldn't stir.

The night came and transpired; Lucifer kept vigil over the exhausted Detective wondering what he should do, pondering again what would do harm and what wouldn't. The truth was, he didn't have any answers. So, he continued waiting, hoping Dan would wake up and tell him himself.

The stars kept him company, and he sang under his breath to fill the quiet of the night.

Dan shuffled, waking up to the melodic voice of the club owner. It was dark.

"What happened?" He croaked weakly.

"You fainted." Lucifer answered matter factly. "Here," the angel tried pushing him up, but Dan was no help so he let him be.

The immortal offered him a peeled tuna instead, and with a heavy sigh the human accepted. He ate in silence for a while, barely managing to keep things down with the sudden pains that assaulted his middle.

"Thanks." The detective said once he'd finished and some time had passed. He sighed, shutting his eyes tightly. "I'm so screwed."

"Ah, don't be such a downer, Daniel, tomorrow things will be better." Lucifer said with cheer that was just a little faked. "So… how bad is it?"

"Well," Dan rearranged himself so he was looking up "it's definitely not good but… I think I'm not gonna die yet." He joked, but the other just frowned at him. "It'll be better tomorrow." He threw Lucifer's previous words back at him.

Lucifer huffed, but said nothing more.

They ate a few more tunas and watched the sky in silence as it trailed lazily over them.

"She packed my bags last night pre-flight." The angel began singing again after a while. "Zero hour nine am. And I'm gonna be haa-aa-aigh as a kite by then." Dan looked at him a moment, "I miss the earth so much I miss my wife."

"It's lonely out in space," The detective sang along, and Lucifer looked down in surprise. "on such a timeless flight?" He continued uncertainly, not knowing if the immortal was okay with him joining in.

"And I think it's gonna be a long long time 'till touch down brings me round again to find." Lucifer smiled lightly and then looked back towards the sky.

"I'm not the man they think I am at home. Oh no no no I'm a rocket man." The devil sang as wonderfully as always, and Dan sang along softly.

Not long after, the man fell asleep, still weak and exhausted, as the stars tinkled up in the clear night.

EPILOGUE: HOME LAYS AHEAD

The next morning when Dan woke up, he seemed better. He was still tired and dizzy, but the heaviness wasn't so terrible that he couldn't find the strength to stay awake.

"Daniel! Joined the living once again, I see." Lucifer sounded awfully pleased by the fact, and it almost made the other chuckle.

"As much as I can." He said, and shoved the flustered part of himself that realized he'd slept all night with his head on top of Lucifer's thighs" . He stretched his back and looked around. "We really should get moving, now that it isn't so hot."

"Indeed. The sooner we can get you to a hospital, the better." The Devil commented, as he stood up and offered the other a hand.

"That too." Agreed Dan with a frustrated sigh.

"So, a little breaky before we start?" Lucifer clapped his hands with his usual cheerfulness back.

"Gee, I wonder what we could possibly have for breakfast today." He replied sarcastically.

Both men turned to look at a nopal, one not too far away.

"Ah, the specialty of the house it is." Lucifer grinned sharply, and they set on their way.

As the pair continued their trail down the dessert, Dan got weak again. It wasn't as bad as yesterday had been, but Lucifer had to offer a shoulder for the other to lean on from that moment on. Their pace was slowed as they walked ahead, and the sun had pointed them in roughly the same direction they'd originally taken but any signs of civilization had yet to show.

That is, until Dan looked up from the ground.

"Lucifer," He said, slack jawed for a hot second. "Lucifer, look!" he pointed gleefully at the horizon "It's a road! A road!" he shouted in elation.

"By dad, finally!" Huffed the devil with a joyous smile on his face as well. "Come now, I'm dying to go back to Los Angeles." Lucifer began their hobbling pace again, in a hurry to reach the first piece of good news they'd seen in what felt like ages.

"Me too, man." Dan patted his chest with his free arm.

They had a metaphorical spring in their step. Maybe it would take a while, but not too long, and a car or a truck or a bunch of leather clad bikers would cross the road. And then… well then home laid ahead.

"You and I deserve a few days in bed my very fine friend." Lucifer said.

Dan looked up and for a moment stared weirdly at the devil.

"What, too soon?" Asked the dark eyed with a neutral smile.

"No, I… I could do with a friend." And this last bit he said sure of his words.

Lucifer grinned. Daniel Espinoza. A friend. Who would've thought?

Abril: Honestly, I had no idea the sun was going to be pulling a bit of a deus-ex-machina here. It just took over.

GUYS THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ACCOMPANYING ME THROUGH THIS LONG ASS JOURNEY. I'm sorry for the terrible schedule but… I'm very bad at multichaptered fics. But we did it, we reached the end. I originally had a sequel planned but after this I don't think I can do that (to you AND me).

You guys have really been so sweet and patient with me so I appreciate it to the end of the world and back. All the support you gave me when I lost the files of the story, and through the story with your lovely comments, I am immensely grateful.

I hope you liked the ending of this story. I wish you all a very good day and a safe time in these uncertain days.

Song they sing is Rocket Man by Elton John.

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