PART ONE: An Unruly Kidnapping

CHAPTER 1: SOMETHING AS EQUALY DRAMATIC

There was a sharp pain in the back of his head and a gentle rocking beneath his body as he lay against the hard metal surface.

Dan was instantly confused, but the thousand warning flags that flashed in his mind allowed him to keep still. His breath was even, his eyes were closed. The perfect picture of sleep.

Okay. What had happened?

He recalled going with Chloe to the hospital so she could visit Linda. He had wanted to stay outside and think, take a deep breath and sort out his feelings on the whole ordeal, on Charlotte.

His thoughts were on her "amnesia". He was 95% sure the woman had faked the sudden, conveniently selective, condition. To remember absolutely nothing of her time working for the LAPD and even denying knowing her step-son? He could understand the rest, he knew she had used him, but denying Lucifer like that seemed almost cruel.

He had been thinking, but… someone had been there. He had seen Lucifer a ways off, talking on the phone as Dan himself leaned by the hospital's entrance. Then… then someone had assaulted the consultant.

The stranger had hit Lucifer so hard that Dan had been able to hear the crack of his skull from where he was. He ran… he had tried to stop the masked man, but he'd had Grade-A military training.

He couldn't remember much else.

Dan opened his eyes slowly, showing no other signs that he had woken up, the cop in him always front and center in dangerous situations.

He was in a dark truck, a few rays of yellow and orange light flickered from time to time from outside and voices chattered quietly from the front cabin.

He breathed in and out in a constant, soothing motion to calm his nerves. His arms were tied with a plastic zip behind his back; his shoulders already ached with the strain. As he began to sit up, slowly so no one would know, he noticed his feet were tied too. God, was he out of it.

He shook his head a little and his eyes landed on the other motionless body in the truck. Lucifer was as unconscious as he had been, his hair tousled and his clothes rumpled. A dark, ugly bruise was blooming underneath his black curls.

Dan winced in sympathy, it looked painful. His eyes traveled over his body to check for other wounds and was surprised to realize his companion was not bound like him, instead his arms lay by his head and his body was positioned almost in peaceful slumber.

He remembered something then, a sudden awareness he'd had at one point. He'd woken up groggy, the truck in motion and Lucifer's face close to his. Two men crouched by the Brit, one sticking a needle into his arm and pushing the plunger, then he had gotten out another one and repeated the action… and then another one… and another one.

"No, stop." He had slurred, trying to get up as one of the men picked up yet another syringe.

Dan remembered he'd been scared, fear gripping his heart, because whatever drug it was they were pumping into him was going to kill him. As much of a resilience as Lucifer had to narcotics and outrageous amounts of liquor, it was too much.

He'd blacked out again after a swift kick to the face from one of the kidnappers. Who knows how long it'd been since then, or where they were. or where they were headed. Who were these people? What did they want with Lucifer?

He sighed tiredly and shut his eyes tightly. With all the things the Consultant had his fingers into and his own damned luck, it was probably something as shady as the mob or something as equally dramatic.

God, Chloe was going to kill them.

CHAPTER 2: SO LIKE THE BASTARD

After several hours of driving, the sun blazing through the truck's cracks, Dan was beyond thirsty and his bladder had had an uncomfortable tightness to it for at least two hours now.

"How much longer?" Dan turned his attention to the people in the front cabin, it was the first time they had discussed something of relevance. That in itself told him they were used to this sort of work, it'd become natural to them.

"Few hours, don't you start now." Warned who Dan assumed was the driver.

"M' not. Geez." Whined the other.

The sound of a bag of chips being opened met Dan's ears, followed by loud crunching..

"Anyway, should we strip the bastard now?" Asked the copilot. "You know, just to be done with it and drop 'im."

"I suppose,." agreed the driver. "By the time we get there the sun'll be hot as hell."

The other man chuckled and Dan rolled his eyes, already expecting that.

"Hot as hell, get it? Because the man in the back's name is Lucifer?"

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny," snorted the driver.

Passing over a crater in the road, Dan banged his head on the wall. He bit his lip to hold in a moan of pain.

"What about our hitchhiker?" Asked the driver with a tired sigh.

"We can just dump him with the club owner, no big deal," said the copilot.

"Not part of the actual deal, man. We don't even know who that asshole is."

Dan held his breath and hoped the worst they would do was drop him wherever they were going to drop Lucifer. Worst case scenario, someone wanted the Consultant alive and no one needed Detective Espinoza's extra weight and he'd get a bullet to the head.

He sighed and tried calming his nerves again.

"Hey, if you don't have a better idea, let's just dump the guy 'n the same place." Complained the copilot as he munched his chips.

"Fine," huffed the other. "Let me pull over so you can get this done. Strip the other guy while you're at it. That'll be a fun surprise."

Chip guy sighed in exasperation as the truck parked, but got out without much complaining.

With quick, quiet movements, Dan laid back down and closed his eyes. He had to think this through carefully, take the best chance to escape. Now wasn't the moment, though, Lucifer was still unconscious and who knew how long he would be with the amount of stuff they pumped into him.

Oh, they were in so much trouble…

The doors opened and Dan felt the light of the sun hitting his face. He kept calm as his training kicked in.

"Damn, this guy is hot," whispered the man.

The detective heard him moving around, what sounded like shoes dropping and then more movement. He heard fabric shifting and flesh hitting the metal floor. Dan winced internally at what he thought must be the manhandling of the consultant.

Then there was a sudden rush of something, a popping sound, something big hitting the metal of the truck with incredible force, the shout of the copilot and the feeling of something soft pressing tightly against him.

Dan's eyes opened as he startled at the sight.

A bunch of pure white feathers were pressed right up to his nose. Slowly he began seeing the bigger picture; the feathers as a whole of something other- that something being a ginormous wing. He followed the appendage to the source and his heart stopped, the air escaping his lungs; the limb disappeared underneath Lucifer's naked back.

"Fuck!" He struggled to sit up and distance himself from the atrocity until his back collided with the corner wall and he couldn't get any further.

"Fuck!" He shouted again.

It was so like the bastard to sleep peacefully while Dan was losing his mind.

His attention was ripped from the suddenly six-limbed man in front of him by the angry, panicked shouting outside.

"I don't want to touch it!" the copilot exclaimed.

"We are getting rid of the freak! I don't care what you want and don't want! Get in the car!" Replied the diver.

"No! NO! Let's just leave it in the road!"

Dan didn't know what happened then, he became distracted by the impossible creature in front of him that blocked his way out- not that he could get out, tied as he was.

It was a strange thing, like the feathers had a magnetic pull to them. His breath stilled as his eyes were drawn to each individual vane.

Dan sighed out.

The wings they… they were beautiful.

When he broke out of his transfixed state, the truck was already moving, but wherever they were it wasn't the paved road anymore. Dan took a shaky breath in when he realized he'd lost time while enchanted by the… wings.

The two men in the cabin discussed something in furious whispers, sounding like they were losing their minds. Dan could relate.

He pressed himself harder against the corner and away from the thing in front of him, the thing that was Lucifer Morningstar, for heaven's sake.

"Heaven…" Dan whispered. "Oh God." A sudden, horrified realization of who was with him in the back of a truck being kidnapped came to him. "Fuck." He whispered with a chocked sob as fear filled him and he pressed harder against the metal.

The truck rocked them violently; it made the wings bumble around in its crammed state. Through his fear, Dan thought it looked painful, stuck in different angles as they tried to fall in a more natural position; like trying to shove a bird into a too small cage.

As his catholic childhood returned to him full force, Dan began mumbling a prayer under his breath, hoping against hope that the Devil would never wake up while he was there.

One can only dream.

CHAPTER 3: THE MOTHERFUCKING DEVIL'S IN DETAILS

The truck stopped. Quickly and efficiently, to the credit of the two men having the mental breakdowns of their lives, they opened the back and dragged the angel-man out by his feet. Dan, who was still pressed into the farthest corner of the truck, watched as they worked.

The kidnappers made no more effort than dragging the unconscious body a few feet away from the truck, the white feathers dragging through the dirt and rising to the opposite direction they were supposed to be in disarray. As if Lucifer were a leper, they let go of his feet and quickly scrambled away.

"Just dump him with the other!" Instructed the driver as he climbed back into the truck.

Dan realized they were talking about him, but before he had time to think he was face down on the hard ground. Soon, the only thing left from their captors was the dust left behind from their mad escapade, hopefully to someplace where they'd never have to see something like this again.

Dan breathed in and out through his mouth and felt the rising panic move from the base of his stomach to his heart and lungs.

He was alone, in the middle of the desert, with the motherfucking devil.

His first instinct was to follow the example of their perpetrators and make a mad dash from the body, but he was tied like a pig about to be slaughtered. He tried wiggling away, but with his hands behind his back it was an impossible task.

He held in a strangled cry. Someplace in the back of his mind he guessed he deserved this, he'd done so many bad things in his life it was just a matter of time for karma to come a knocking.

More like the actual devil in person.

"No need to panic. Everything's fine." Dan said to himself, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. "He's still out, you have time."

Like hell he was going to let the sucker catch him if he could avoid it.

He found a sharp enough rock after a few, shaky moments, and went to work.

He had done this before; he knew it was to break plastic ties, but he'd kind of forgotten how hard it was.

He worked his hands up and down, up and down and whined every time a painful spike ran through his shoulders and arms. Dan could feel the plastic splitting and he pulled his wrists apart for a few second's until the tie snapped.

The tie was stuck to his skin where it had been rubbed raw. He peeled the thing off and got to work on his feet.

He worked tirelessly, his body pumping with adrenaline, his eyes never leaving the slumped body a few feet from him. The not-man who had worked with him and his wife for so long now, who spent at least half of the time Dan did with his daughter. His daughter. This creature had wormed itself into the lives of Chloe and Trixie.

Half of him was scared shitless and the others half kept being pulled in by the radiance of the feathers. The fascination he had to them only fueled his fear more.

A few heart wrenching minutes later, the tie snapped, and Dan ran.

CHAPTER 4: KIND-OF-PROBABLY

The adrenaline lasted him about fifteen minutes that allowed him to run nonstop. Then his feet caught and the world shifted off its axis as he stumbled and fell.

He laid on the ground leaning on his forearms, heaving for breath, struggling to just… make sense of the world again.

His head was in disarray, he couldn't think about anything, couldn't rationalize what was happening in his life. His heart rattled madly inside his ribcage and it wasn't just because of his escape from the creature and into the dessert.

Dan was scared. Not because the frightening new information he had learned had settled in, but because something else had- something feral and instinctual. That fight or flight that everyone had in their veins. That which kicked in when the moment came. And when you couldn't fight your opponent you ran. You ran and hoped you were fast enough to escape before whatever was after you caught up.

The ground was rough beneath his palms, pebbly and dry.

In his eyes flashed big, muscled appendages covered in a soft material so white it hurt to look at it. In his mind's eye he was a child again, exploring his grandparents ranch. A bird had crashed into the kitchen window and when he had gone out to see, it's chest rising and falling, it's tawny wings perfect with disheveled feathers as a consequence of the collision.

He shook his head slightly at the memory and looked at the deserted land. He felt disheartened. He didn't know where he was or where to go. The closest thing to a sense of direction Dan had was that he knew where the sun set in LA and he could kind-of-probably follow its path to reach the city, but it was a big leap of faith he honestly couldn't take.

He had no water, no food, nothing at all. How far away was the city- or any civilization? Hours? Days?

Dan hid his face between his knees and placed his arms over his head, stifling a sob. He kept this position for a few minutes, the blazing sun burning his skin painfully as sweat rand down his neck.

He breathed. In… Out… In… Out…

Hot wind blew and ruffled his hair and clothes but alleviated the burning somewhat. Dan raised his head and looked with beady eyes back at his tracks.

A shiver ran through his body and behind his eyes flashed another image of the huge white wings.

Back there lay Lucifer, the real deal, a being that could probably destroy him on a whim. In the opposite direction was the desolate waste of the desert and if he was honest with himself, probably certain doom.

He closed his eyes and felt the fear that gripped at his heart squeeze a bit more. He lost his breath for a moment at the thought of the man.

Better the devil you know, though, right?

Dan stood up and dusted his jeans. He closed his eyes and with a shaky sigh he began his journey back to where he had started.

He was probably going to regret this…