Chapter One

He knew it was a mistake the second he walked into her corner of the precinct. To say things had been complicated this year was an understatement. He was the Devil, it wasn't like he had easy times, although, the five years of hedonism and drunken nights at Lux were far simpler and safer than the last few solving murders. He wasn't sure if that was his fault or Amenadiel's. They'd been in a holding pattern for those first five years, and then his brother got restless, pulled Malcolm from Hell and everything had spiraled from there with Mum and Cain. With Chloe finding out the truth. With both he and his brother beginning to understand how angels worked.

Or more accurately didn't quite.

Not that he'd ever been one to refrain from complaining about dear old Dad and his flaws but lazy design hadn't been on the list until the stupidity of self-actualization had been shoved in his face. And then made its way in burnt and bloody flesh down every inch of his body. Maybe not including that skillset in the angel model would have given them more of a sporting chance. Then again, this had never been an issue in the Silver City. He and Amenadiel weren't living typical lives, if such a thing could be said of Celestials. Oh and on that note, maybe that extra day could have been used on humans too, iron out some of their issues. With a seventh day under his belt, maybe Dad could have made them less fragile. His life would be less painful if the humans in his care weren't being shot at all the time or almost killed by fire and explosions.

Dear Dad, if you'd asked me about engineering…

Yeah, that would happen.

But he knew as he strode to the detective's desk that he'd misread the break he'd had. Three weeks ago his own epiphany-and what was the bloody point of such things if they only made life worse-had rendered him, well, incapacitated was the kind word for it. The honest one and thus the one he'd think to himself was monstrous. And even if the detective had shown strength after Kinley Lucifer hadn't known she'd had, even if she'd coaxed him back to at least the idea of some day forgiving himself, he could kid himself that it hadn't affected her too. And deeply.

After all, why hadn't she called him in to any case since the twin realtor murder?

Three weeks was the longest they'd gone without working together since they'd started, outside of her damned trip to Rome, and while the excuse of Charlie's birth could be a reason, they both know it wasn't really why he'd been benched.

The detective eyed him, her eyes blinking a bit too quickly and her posture stilted. He knew that look well. It had rankled him and set off warning bells during the beekeeper case. Chloe Decker might have been one of the best cops in Los Angeles, but she had the worst poker face he'd ever seen. She couldn't cover her distress if her immortal soul depended on it. Not that it did. Even if miracles clearly weren't allotted the fast pass to Heaven, he'd never allow her anywhere else.

"Don't be too surprised to see me," he said, trying for levity with his voice.

The detective sat up straighter and pushed her chair away from her desk. "This is a surprise."

Ah, there it was. That false brightness, and he could hear her "Everything's okay" echoing again in his head. There was no surer sign an apocalypse was on the horizon than Chloe being cheerful.

"It shouldn't be," he continued. "Seeing as how I am still on the payroll as a consultant. Even get the boring memos via the precinct email loop to prove it. Not that I read them, mind, but clearing them from an inbox does get tiresome. So," he said, perching on the edge of her desk with practiced aplomb-he did everything with practiced aplomb-Lucifer smirked at his ersatz partner. "Now, where do we start for a new case. It's Los Angeles, and in a city of four million people, you can't tell me no one's been snuffed out since Tuesday three weeks ago. So, I repeat, what do you have for me?"

Chloe sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Well, they were making progress if she were going from happy deflection to annoyance. "It's okay if you want to take off for uncle duties for a while."

Lucifer scoffed and crossed his arms more tightly over his chest. "First of all, Linda has her hands full trying to teach Maze and Amenadiel how human infants work. Something I have no experience with and no interest in learning. It might make you feel better that we never get anyone under eighteen in Hell. Dad's got his own rules and systems, but he's got clauses on what's fair based on baptism so bully for him. Honestly, I'd have had Maze and her legions bar the door to the infernal to children on principle, but it's about the one thing all Celestials agree on. So, even if the dear doctor has a great supernatural support team, I can't imagine teaching three is easier than just two."

"Babies aren't hard once you get the rhythm."

Lucifer sighed. "Linda's also rich-trust me, I pay her well enough and I'm far from her only client."

The tension in Chloe's shoulders eased. "Although I am sure you take up the most time."

"I'm the most interesting," he riposted. "So, there's a day nurse as well when needed. Point is, Charlie is safe as houses. Safer. The Silver City's greatest warrior and Hell's best torturer would unite in a minute to end anyone who so much ruffles a strand on my nephew's head. Or a feather for that matter."

Blue eyes widened at him. "He didn't?"

Part of Lucifer wanted to raise his chin and be difficult. His patience had been worn thin over the last three weeks, but the rest for once knew which hill he wanted to die on. Derailing their conversation now wouldn't get him back to active duty. Opting for the merciful approach, Lucifer quirked his lip, harnessing the full power of his smirk. "No, of course not. First Nephilim anyone's ever even heard of. If the kid gets wings is anyone's guess. For right now, he's still very human, take that as you will."

If Chloe had let out a breath then or seemed relieved, Lucifer would have stomped-not flounced, he was not a flouncer no matter what his big brother said-out then. Instead, she gave a brisk nod. "Alright, well, there's probably something to do at Lux."

"I have business managers and plenty of time to play when I want to on the floor. Been around eons, more or less learned the fine are of time management." He sighed again. "Well, I've been better at it at least since Eve and I broke up. Oh, and she's living at Che Linda too so best not to be there. But you've run out of excuses or other things to foist me off on…well I could go home and get an orgy going again. Always best to make the most out of a Wednesday afternoon, get a jump on the weekend."

Chloe drummed her nails on the cheap metal of her desk. "That's not…I didn't mean."

He stood and began to pace, an itchiness settling over his skin. "Detective, no matter what the good doctor has drilled into my head this year about lies of omission and Miss Lopez's long ago jab about compartmentalizing, I've never technically lied to you. I'd appreciate the same courtesy. If we're not…" his voice caught but he forced himself through anyway.

There had been a moment before Charlotte's death and her seeing his face, before Kinley's plot and the extent of his monstrosities…just this moment when a them was possible. They were past that. He couldn't even blame her. Bloody hell, after the last time they'd worked together and after all she'd seen, a view even he hadn't quite had on his malformed body, he couldn't even blame her. But they were work partners still and he hoped friends. Friends were open and honest or else what was the sodding point?

He started again. "If we're not 'okay' or if you don't want to work with me any longer after my devil problems, then I'd appreciate being told instead of being avoided. It's clumsy and beneath you. Besides, I'm not an idiot."

She stood then and set a hand on his shoulder. He barely kept himself from flinching. It mixed with the pity in her eyes told him exactly how much she wanted to blow him off. And that knowledge burned more in that moment than the fires of Hell ever had. "What happened made me scared for you, Lucifer. You need to think."

He pulled away and straightened the lapels of his Armani jacket. "I am thinking. We have the best close rate in the department, and I haven't had any problems since…since that night," he lowered his voice on that last part and leaned closer to her. "Do you want to bin all that for irrational fears?"

That was pushing the limits of the truth. He had slept better the last few weeks than when he'd feared he was the Angel of San Bernadino but that didn't mean he'd been sleeping well. Nightmares and his elaborate imagination were haunting him, and there was no guarantee his blasted subconscious wouldn't be his own undoing any time soon.

Chloe didn't speak for a while, just regarded him with her wide eyes. He'd loved those once, still did, but they'd been filled with some much confusion and fear this year. The piercing looks from her cut into them nowadays as often as they buoyed his spirits. "Are they?"

His jaw clenched. "I'm fine. It's not a flu or some recurring rash. I haven't been anything but porcelain white and creamy skin since the masquerade ball."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "And your mojo?"

"Perfectly normal as far as I know." Technically not a lie. Since the night he'd had dozens of patrons at Lux confessing to him en masse, he hadn't asked any human what they desired. It wasn't even a matter of what seemed safest, lest he start an accidental cult, but he just…Lucifer hadn't seen much of anyone outside of his family or the occasional drop in from Amenadiel to angst over fatherly issues, searching for advice from the universe's least likely source of parental knowledge. "I'm fine."

She took in a deep breath. The detective hadn't run or flinched; she'd not screamed. Nothing in her reaction matched that horrible day after Kinley's arrest. But her hesitation was lingering, and that couldn't be a good thing. "I can't, Lucifer. I can't let you back in the field. If you were…" she choked back a word that probably would have been human if she'd dared to say it. "If you were, uh, less you, I'd say the same thing. Any cop after trauma needs counseling. Linda's on maternity leave. You should just rest and try and get back into the normal Lux swing of things until you can see her in session. I'd should have been here to tell this same thing to Dan after Charlotte died. When it was Sullivan down the hall last Thanksgiving, I reminded him to take off and stick with it after he shot a perp. You need time."

"There wasn't any trauma." His voice rose on the end of that sentence, and he wasn't sure if he were asking or telling, if it had descended into begging Chloe for consideration. Maze, even after the history of their fractured and now repaired, familial relationship, would have laughed at him. The once and (probably) future Lord of Hell begging. But it was Chloe so of course he would. "I had an epiphany, realized I hated myself, and then thanks to you I know I want to forgive myself. Bob's your uncle and I'm just fine."

She shook her head. "You weren't fine, and you aren't fine." She stepped forward and then more forcefully into his personal space, making sure to set a hand on his shoulder. "I am worried for you."

"Or scared of me."

"For you, it's different. Let's say that we do go back to everything like before. What if we're chasing down a suspect and you sprout leathery wings?"

He looked away. Shame was a powerful thing, and while most of the time he could shove it away, after this past month, such an act wasn't possible. "You said it didn't bother you."

"Not me but then you have strangers on the street or CCTV or other officers who see. Then what?"

"They'd assume I'm the Devil. Not like I haven't been coy about it."

She withdrew her hand, and her eyes blazed in a way that would have impressed him. At least for a human. "And you damn well know no one believes it because it's insane without proof."

"No less true."

"Well, you go out and accidentally spread proof then what happens to you?"

"Invulnerable at least when a good distance from you. I can handle myself." He raised his chin higher just to defy her.

"And Charlie?" It's a low blow, and he assumes the detective had to have known that.

"Hell's best torturer and the strongest archangel protect him."

"You do something, and it gets out there and at best people hunt you, but worse, it ends up on your family's doorstep."

Unbidden, memories of awkwardly cradling his nephew in his arms at the hospital flashed through Lucifer's mind. He was so very small, and so far so utterly human. Fragile. Chloe wasn't wrong. Even if Charlie grew up to be a completely normal child, and that was unlikely no matter the state Amenadiel had been in at the time of his nephew's conception, no one would give him a pass if they figured out that he was part of the Devil's family.

"I won't let that happen."

"And that's not even the worst thing!" Chloe shouted. Several pairs of eyes across the station, including Dan's flashed to both of them. The detective shook her head, grabbed his arm, and he let her manhandle him to Ella's currently unoccupied lab space. Bully for lunch breaks. "What if it's something different?"

"I'd never hurt you or anyone for that matter."

"No but say it's something simple…that seems simple. You go into the interrogation room to question a suspect, do that desire mojo thing, and then you end up deviling out in front of the whole station."

"We are not calling it that because it's a one-off and also that's just stupid."

Chloe blinked furiously, and, for a moment, he thought she might tear up. "I'm here. You reveal yourself to a precinct of armed cops and then you get shot, and that's on me!"

He stilled and let the fight leak out of him. They weren't at a place where he could hug her, not now, and not after what he'd said to her over the bar at Lux. He wasn't even wrong about it. She wanted him to be better-and he did too-but she believed he could be. Lucifer didn't have the same faith and the thought of ever disappointing her was a bitterness in the back of his throat. Still, she needed comfort too. Clearly, his…no, not his and not anymore…the detective hadn't been sleeping either.

Reaching out, Lucifer squeezed her shoulder gently. "You've been avoiding me because you're worried about me?"

Chloe groaned. "How can you be so perceptive about everyone but yourself?"

He snorted in the most undignified manner. "Call that providence. I just…" No one worries about me. "It's kind of you, but still bloody annoying. I'm not an invalid, and I'm not a loose cannon, well no more than my usual style." He forced himself to smirk again, to try and be the partner he'd been and not the mess he was after a year from Hell. He slid a finger over the cool metal of Ella's table, letting the sensation ground him. "But I appreciate the concern, and loathe as I am to admit it, I can agree that for a while-even though it's overkill-not to chase down subjects." He shrugged. "For Charlie's sake."

Why did he have the sinking suspicion this would be far from the last time the detective or the universe for that matter would use his nephew as leverage over him?

"Good, see then reason. Go home to Lux and party it up. That should be safe enough."

"But," he cut in, tone sharper than he'd meant it to be. "I'm not going to be let go as a consultant. Worked too bloody hard to be here." Dad was he pathetic sometimes. "Let me come here, and do paperwork, sit in on updates and brainstorming over forensic stuff. You know, the boring parts."

"The parts you usually skip?"

"Better than being bored," he admitted. "Besides, in a couple more weeks, you'll see I'm right as rain and owe me a huge apology. 'Till then, you know I'm a devil of my word. I will do the most boring parts of precinct work and be on hand for interrogations if you need a bit more. You can make the call when I'm ready for full duty."

She considered him, eyes sharply focused and it didn't escape his notice how they trailed over his entire body. He'd had so many men and women over the years evaluate him, run their eyes over him. It had always been carnal before, but this was calculating.

Sighing, he slipped off his jacket and then undid his cufflinks. As if it would mollify her, he rolled up his sleeves and let her see his forearms. Holding his right hand up, Lucifer spoke again, "See, no burns, nothing red and hardly a claw in sight."

At that moment, he wasn't sure whom he was more mad at: his Father for how he'd designed all angels (and what kind of arsehole divine plan was that anyway?) or himself since it was his own seemingly insurmountable issues that had made him sprout all of it.

Enough to make a guy curse the name of a little half-brother he'd never met.

Chloe nodded and stopped herself short of touching his skin. He wasn't sure if she stopped because they were in a weird place where their relationship was so undefined again and she was being mindful of boundaries or because she was repulsed deep down. He didn't want to know. She offered him a tight smile. "So, paperwork?"

"Yes. I can do it, you know. I usually foisted it off on Maze or on the new GM for Lux, but I'm capable of it." He grinned, finding a rhythm in his usual bravado. "I'm not just a pretty face."

Chloe's slight smile fell immediately, and he realized the error of his words. His face. That was the whole crux of the problem, wasn't it? "I…that's good. If you can just do the easy stuff."

He just kept himself from correcting her, from spitting out that it was the "safe" choice she was championing. But he wanted this. Maybe it had been too many years in Hell, but he was a masochist now. If he were relegated to nothing more than fetching coffee and filing, he'd do that and not complain. Much. He'd do anything to be near to her and that, at some level, was probably a cosmic joke from Dear Old Dad too. When wasn't it? If Detective Chloe Decker wanted it, he'd do it. If it wasn't in his power, he'd make it so. And if the only way to stay close to her-to protect her-was to be her errand boy, then so be it.

"Then, I suppose we have an arrangement. Is there anything on the approved list I can start with today?"

"I've been organizing a few things, but I don't have an active case. Lucifer," she forced the smile more, and he needed Maze to teach her poker soon for his sake. He couldn't bear the brunt of her failed false hopes and brightness. It would have been kinder for her just to be blunt. The other way insulted both of them. "…take a break. Get ready for tomorrow, and I'll have a stack of everything to go through. Promise."

"And you won't fire me as a consultant?" he asked, his voice quiet. "Promise me that."

The detective hesitated, and it was enough to let him know he'd overplayed his hand. "I won't let anything bad happen to you. Not for my sake and not anymore. For right now, we play it by ear. Deal?"

He gave her a slight bow-flourish, always practice that extra flourish-and gave her a simple, "As you wish" before heading home.