Chapter 5
“Good morning, Detective,” Lucifer greeted as he approached her desk. “Feeling better?” he asked solicitously.
Chloe nodded, considering.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” She smiled at him, getting a genuine smile in return that was warmer than his usual mischief-laden grin. “Thanks, Lucifer.”
“You’re welcome, Detective.”
Actually, she did feel better. Her usual instinct when she’d been confronted with a particularly bad crime scene was to get drunk in solitude, but last night she hadn’t felt up to resisting Lucifer’s urging.
And he’d been right. Lux was comparatively peaceful in the middle of the week, and they’d been able to sit and talk without the blaring music or the interruptions that happened on weekend nights. And it had been… easy. The jealous, hurt Lucifer of the last few months had disappeared and by the end of the night, she’d felt like she’d gotten her Lucifer back. Her friend. The one she’d always been able to turn to. That she’d missed- and shouldn’t that have been a sign that there was something drastically wrong with her relationship with Pierce? That she’d missed Lucifer even when she was in Marcus’s company? She pushed the thought aside, unwilling to delve too deeply into that right now.
The arrival of Lois and Clark broke her train of thought; turning her attention back to the case, she picked the file up off her desk and greeted the two reporters.
***
Lois followed Chloe into the forensics lab and recoiled slightly from the early 90s pop music being played at high volume.
“Ella. Ella! Turn the music down!” Chloe yelled over the bombardment of sound.
The slightly built tech Lois recognised from the crime scene the day before spun on her heel towards them, flicking the off button on her stereo. Silence fell on the lab, to Lois’s relief.
“Hey! You must be Lois, right? I’m Ella.” Startled, Lois found herself on the receiving end of an unexpected hug. “Good to meet you.”
Lois’s eyes narrowed as she caught Chloe trying to hide a smile.
“What have you got, Ella?”
“So I dusted the knife for prints and got nada but… the width of the blade matches our second victim’s stab wound, and the hilt matches the imprint we found on our dead guy under UV light. But yeah, no DNA, no prints, nothing on the knife. Killer must have worn gloves.”
Chloe nodded, but Lois could tell from the furrow between her brows that it wasn’t entirely good news.
“And the brick Lucifer found?”
“Definite match for the dent in our first dead guy’s skull. It was his blood on the edge of it too.”
“Okay. Thanks, Ella.”
Chloe left the lab; Lois made as if to follow her but was stopped by the ebullient tech.
"So you and Clark, huh? Good job girl, he's a hottie! And so sweet too! He brought me coffee this morning and he doesn't even know me!" Ella bubbled aggressively at Lois, who took a startled half step back and blinked in surprise.
"What? No, we're just friends!" Lois hoped she wasn't blushing.
"Are you sure? I was sure, and I'm never wrong," Ella got a bit shifty-eyed for a moment, "Well, hardly ever... but anyway
wow! You two have chem-is-tree with a capital hubba! How can you keep your hands off that?!"
"Oh, um, I mean I guess Clark's ok looking, if you're into-"
don't think about his shoulders or his eyes or his chest or that damned towel,"-uh, corn-fed country boys." Lois stammered defensively, “Anyway he’s my partner and I don’t date coworkers. It’s a rule.”
“Huh. That’s a weird rule,” the forensic scientist commented. “I mean, where are you gonna meet someone except at work? Unless you go out all the time or something, and who has the time, am I right? Although, it’s gotta be easier in your job. At least you get to meet people you interview and stuff. All the people I meet in my job are usually dead, you know what I’m saying?”
Lois eyed the talkative forensics tech for a moment before finally managing to get a ‘goodbye’ in and escaping the lab, going in search of Clark and her temporary colleagues, finding them in the room they’d been using and entering in the middle of a discussion of the evidence.
Chloe was standing with her back to the door, leaning with her hands on the table as she studied the folder Ella had given her.
“We know Stephens was at that warehouse,” Lucifer pointed out.
“The only evidence we have is circumstantial. The real killer could still be out there. Unless…”
“Unless what?” Clark put in.
“We found skin cells under Stephens’s fingernails, remember?” Chloe reminded them.
“Yes but we had nothing to compare them to.”
“Yeah, but what if they came from Cox?”
Lucifer’s face creased into a grin. “Oh! Well that would be the proof you need, wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Lois took a quick step to the side as Chloe turned towards the door, mentally rolling her eyes at the thought of going back to the domain of the overly eager tech. Clark said that
she babbled, but Lois was willing to bet she had nothing on Ella.
***
“Hey Ella?”
Chloe walked up and tapped the lab tech on the shoulder, gesturing for her to turn her music off for the second time that morning.
“The skin cells we found on Stephens. Is there any way you can see if they came from Cox?”
“Oh! You think your first bad guy scratched the second one? Hang on.”
She bounced over to the computer terminal, pulling up the forensic records for the case.
“I ran the DNA on the cells we found under Stephens’s nails when they first came in, but I didn’t get a hit on any of the databases.”
She clicked again, bringing up what Chloe recognised as DNA profiles before turning towards them.
“Looks like your hunch was right,” Ella told them. “The skin cells under Stephens’s nails definitely came from Cox.”
***
“Why would Stephens want to kill Cox? Over a 5 year old argument? It doesn’t make sense,” Chloe pondered.
“We’re missing something,” Clark put in.
“Bank records!” Lois exclaimed. “Look, we know Stephens was a killer for hire. If he went after Cox, someone must have paid him for it.”
“You’re right,” Chloe agreed, waking up her desktop computer. She searched through the digital evidence that had been gathered on Stephens, pulling up his bank records. “Look at this. There’s a two million dollar deposit into his account three days before Cox was killed.”
“Pocket change,” Lucifer commented, earning himself a speculative look from the other three people crowded around the computer.
“Can we trace who made the deposit?” Clark asked.
“No,” Chloe shook her head. “It’s a numbered account.”
“Oh, those come in handy if you’re trying to hide money from someone,” Lucifer mentioned knowingly. Chloe turned and pinned him with a stare. “So I’ve heard, Detective,” he continued defensively.
“Anyway. I’ll turn it over to the Financial Investigations Unit, maybe they’ll have more luck.”
***
“So that’s it?” Clark asked.
“Officially, yeah. If Stephens had lived, he’d be looking at a murder charge,” Chloe stated, frustratedly aware that they hadn’t uncovered the whole story.
“So who wanted Cox dead?” Lucifer asked.
“Well, Financial Investigations is looking into it, but numbered accounts are notoriously difficult to trace.” She paused, looking at the two reporters. “I’m sorry about your story.”
Lois nodded tightly in acknowledgment.
“We’ll get him eventually.” The little tic in Clark’s jaw spasmed as he spoke.
Chloe gathered up the paperwork, sliding it nearly back into the file. “So are you two heading back to Metropolis straight away?”
“Probably tomorrow,” Clark answered after exchanging glances with Lois.
Chloe nodded abstractedly, catching sight of the expression on Lucifer’s face.
“Hey. Are you okay?”
“That’s the first time we’ve failed,” he stated, his black brows drawn together in a scowl.
“We know who killed Cox and Stephens, Lucifer.”
“Yes, but we don’t know who’s responsible for their deaths, do we? Whoever ordered Cox’s murder is still out there.”
She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “We’ll find them, Lucifer. It’s just going to take some time.” She smiled at him. “We’ve never failed before, right?”
“Right,” he agreed before pulling away and striding towards the exit. Uneasily, she watched him go; she’d seen that expression on his face before, and it usually led to him ending up in yet another dangerous situation.
***
Clark noticed Lucifer leaving the building with a dark expression on his face and briefly wondered where the consultant was headed.
He understood Lucifer’s anger, however. He shared it.
Cox was dead. An untraceable payment had been made to his murderer. Clark would bet anything that Luthor was behind this; but as with so many other crimes Luthor had orchestrated, Clark had no proof. No real evidence tying Luthor to the deed.
He needed one break. One piece of concrete proof to bring Luthor down; and he needed to find it soon. It was painfully obvious that Lois had started to care for the crime boss.
Not for the first time, Clark considered telling Lois the truth about Superman. Was getting her away from Luthor worth the pain of knowing she only wanted him, Clark, because he was Superman? Or would telling her backfire completely and drive her into Luthor’s arms?
He couldn’t risk that.
***
Lucifer sat in unaccustomed silence on the couch.
Across from him, Linda Martin tilted her head, giving him the look that was usually followed by an unexpected insight.
“You look… troubled,” she observed.
“And why do you say that?” Lucifer deflected.
“Well, for starters we weren’t due for a session for another couple of days. And secondly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you silent for so long. You’re struggling with something.”
“Okay, fine. I met a man who is in a very similar situation to my own.” Lucifer began, unsure of why Clark’s appearance in Los Angeles had driven him to seek out his therapist.
“And what situation is that?” she asked.
“He’s similarly inhuman, in a manner of speaking, but his partner - whom he’s embarrassingly enamored of, really Linda, it’s painful to watch - has no idea!”
“She doesn’t believe him either?” Linda arched a brow at him.
“What? No. I mean, I don’t suppose she… you know he refuses to tell her? Isn’t that the damnedest thing you’ve ever heard? He’s invented an entire persona solely to hide the truth about himself from the entire world, including her!” Lucifer’s voice fairly dripped with disgust at the idea of such deliberate deception.
“He refuses? Why do you think that is?” the doctor probed.
“Apparently she has an equally embarrassing infatuation with his alter-ego, and he doesn’t trust her to see past all that flash to the man beneath.”
“It sounds to me like your situations are actually the opposite.”
“I’m sorry?” Lucifer crossed his arms and pressed himself back into the sofa cushions, putting a bit of distance between Linda and himself.
“Well, you say this friend of yours is afraid to tell his partner who he really is because he’s worried that she’ll only want to be with him because of his other side. Whereas you… you’re afraid to show Chloe who you think you really are because you’re afraid she’ll reject you if she knows you’re the Devil.” Linda resettled herself in her seat and turned a page in her notepad. “The truth is, both of your problems can be solved the same way. Telling these women in your lives the truth.”
She pinned Lucifer with her pointed stare. “You say you want Chloe to choose you. But without her knowing the whole truth about you, you’re asking her to choose someone who doesn’t really exist. You’re not just the Devil. And you’re not just Lucifer Morningstar. Both of those identities are part of you.”
“You think I should tell her.” Lucifer’s lips thinned as he pressed them together in displeasure.
“I can’t tell you what to do, but yes. I think you need to tell her.”
***
“It’s still pretty early,” Clark said as they walked out of the station to hail a cab. “Did you want to get a bite to eat before we head back to the hotel?”
Lois shrugged. “Sure, I could eat. What did you have in mind?”
“How about burgers? It seems like a shame to come all the way out here and not try In-N-Out at least once.”
“That’s fine.” Lois said disinterestedly as she brought her hand to her mouth and let out a piercing whistle. Clark winced as the echoes of her whistle died away and a cab swing in to the curb and stopped.
He opened the rear door of the cab for Lois, then slid in after her. “Excuse me,” he glanced at the driver’s ID clipped to the visor of the car, “Mr. Kozlov, is there an In-N-Out near the LAX LuthorSuites?” he asked the driver.
“Da, there is one on Sepulveda.”
“We’d like to go there, please.”
The driver nodded and pulled back out into the flow of traffic as Clark began to chat with him casually.
At least, that’s what Lois assumed they were doing. Since they weren’t speaking English, it was hard for her to be certain. She momentarily bristled at the idea that they might be discussing her, then forced herself to relax into the seat.
Clark may be an infuriating weirdo sometimes, but he doesn’t gossip, she reminded herself.
Russian though? Really, Smallville? She still felt bad occasionally about dismissing him so quickly as a hack hick from Nowheresville so soon after meeting him, but she was careful not to let on. It was enough that he knew she thought differently now without highlighting how wrong she knew she’d been.
She let the foreign babble taking place from the seat next to her wash over her and watched out the window as they drew closer to their destination, the flashy sights of downtown LA becoming more prosaic and businesslike as they got closer and closer to the airport. Clark’s voice really did sound good in Russian, sort of… growly and dark.
Kind of sexy, her inner voice whispered before she clamped down on it. None of that, thank you. He was her partner and her best friend, and that was plenty. She knew he would never betray her like Claude had, but still saw no reason to risk their friendship on anything… else. Besides, she had Lex. A woman with a boyfriend had no business evaluating anyone else’s possible appeal.
Lois shook herself out of her reverie as the cab pulled into the parking lot of the burger place and stopped, waiting for them to exit. She opened her door and got out, brushing herself off as Clark paid the driver with a final friendly-sounding burst of chatter.
“What was that all about?” she asked absently.
He grinned at her. “Alexei was telling me how long he’s been here, and what his family thinks of the adjustment to LA from Russia. His daughters…”
Lois tuned him out again.
Leave it to Clark to spend the entire ride getting some shmoopy American Tale story instead of anything interesting. She nodded and made the appropriate ‘uh huh’, ‘yeah?’ and ‘wow, really’ noises as they headed into the restaurant. Mr. Cab Driver From Russia had clearly fascinated Clark, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care that much about the life of a man who’d barely spoken to her and who she’d never see again. The AC fan in the restaurant kicked on loudly as Clark took a half-step around her and pushed the door open, holding it for her as she went through.
“Any idea what you want?” Clark asked. His eyes lit up like a little kid’s. “They have a whole secret menu online!”
She curled her lip a little. “No thanks, if it was any good they probably wouldn’t need to keep it a secret.” She stepped up to the counter, grateful that the early hour meant there wasn’t much of a crowd. After the day they’d had, standing in a long line was the last thing she wanted to do. “A burger and fries please, with a medium Diet Coke.” She paid and took her receipt, double checking the number on it as she glanced at Clark and indicated that she was going to find them a table.
He nodded and stepped up to the counter himself. “I'll have a double-double animal style, extra toast, with animal style fries and a large Neapolitan shake, please!" he chirped at the cashier.
Lois wrinkled her nose as she staked out a table by the window.
I swear, he’s such a child sometimes. She had no idea what he’d ordered, but ‘animal style’ sounded revolting. And a shake! Knowing Clark, whatever it was probably had about a million calories and was dripping with fat. It wasn’t fair that he could eat that way all the time and still look the way he looked. Her eyes involuntarily darted to where he stood at the counter waiting for their meals, measuring out the broad expanse of his shoulders and how well his suit coat fit him.
She jerked her eyes away and went over to the condiment station for a pile of napkins; ‘animal style’ sounded messy. She flushed lightly as her thoughts tried to veer off in an inappropriate direction again.
“
Order 192” a crackly voice called over the speakers.
Clark looked over his shoulder at her and she nodded to let him know that was her number, although
really? we’re the only people in the place who aren’t already eating - who else’s number would it be? He brought the tray over to their table with a smile. “Here you go!”
Lois mumbled her thanks, then went back to the condiment station for a straw while he went back to the counter for his own tray. She grabbed a straw for him while she was there, then headed back to her seat.
Clark joined her a few moments later, setting down his tray and shedding his jacket before sliding into his side of the booth.
She looked at his burger in dismay. She thought she was looking at his burger, anyway, what else could it be? Yup, there was some bun peeking out from all the… stuff. Both the burger and his fries were heaped with an obscene looking pile of grilled onions and pickles, and were positively oozing with a pale orange sauce.
Is that Thousand-Island dressing? She thought,
on a burger? Yuck! And are those <u>two</u> patties!? His entire tray also reeked of mustard.
He grinned at her across the table, “See what you’re missing out on by sticking with that boring old menu?”
She shuddered delicately, “Yeah, it looks like I’m missing out on the chance to have my stomach pumped later!”
Clark took a large bite as she made a disgusted face and looked away. She cut her own burger in half with a plastic knife she’d grabbed when she was getting their straws and started to eat, trying to ignore what was happening on the other side of the table.
He swallowed and wiped his mouth with one of the napkins, “I’m surprised you’re not more adventurous, oh Takeout Queen.” He picked up the fork he’d grabbed on the way to their table and stirred all the goop into his fries.
Lois shook some extra salt over her plain fries and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m plenty adventurous, but adventure is for real food that you either order out to eat at home or eat in a restaurant with table service.” She said emphatically. “Burgers are burgers and don’t need to be buried under all that… glop.”
He forked up some adulterated fries and waved them at her. “Oh c’mon, just one little taste? Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
Her eyes widened slightly as her traitorous brain tried to cheer for taste-testing. “Absolutely not.”
Clark shrugged and ate the forkful himself, wondering what was going on in her head. “Suit yourself, but don’t say I never offered.”
Lois almost knocked her drink over as she picked it up and took a sip, reigning her imagination back in. She applied herself to her meal in workmanlike fashion, then wiped her mouth and hands when she was done and settled back into her seat to wait for her partner to finish. She pulled her tablet out of her bag while she waited, to work on her notes and see what kind of story they could pull together out of this mess. Lois just wasn’t sure their readers would care much about the murder of a small time hitman and gangster in LA and the murder of a former Metropolis resident who was
also a hoodlum and a crook.
She looked up when Clark cleared his throat.
“Working on the story?”
“Yeah, what there is of it. I can’t believe Perry sent us all the way out here for this wild goose chase!” she huffed.
“It’s not all Perry’s fault, Lois. Bobby thought there was something here too.” Clark shifted in his seat, unwilling to tell her that although Bobby
had given him a tip, it had been mostly his and Perry’s idea to get Lois out of Metropolis and away from Luthor for a few days.
Not that it seems to have helped, he thought morosely. Lois seemed to be just as hung up on the billionaire as ever.
“Yeah well, the great Bobby Bigmouth has finally struck out!” Lois said sourly.
“I dunno Lois, at least we found out who Mr. Cox was. Personally, I was starting to wonder if she ate him on their wedding night.” He grinned at her.
The corner of Lois’ mouth twitched as she fought a smile. Neither of them had actually met the woman in question yet, but lately she seemed to be a permanent fixture at Lex’s side during any remotely business-related function and neither of them cared for her.
“And speaking of Beverly Cox…” Clark ventured before Lois cut him off.
“Are you about to say something about Lex?” she asked in a warning tone.
“Well I… maybe.” Clark said defensively. “Lois, Beverly Cox works with him every day, and we’ve found all this information out about her ex-husband, and-”
Lois cut him off again. “I don’t care who her ex-husband was! Lots of women date conniving men”
like Claude, “and some even marry them, but that doesn’t make them guilty of anything but bad judgement!”
“Yes, but-”
“No! No buts! And anyway, even if she
was just as dirty as he was, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t turned over a new leaf since then, or that Lex has anything to do with it if she hasn’t!”
Clark raised his voice a little, trying one more time to get her to see reason. “Lo-is, c’mon! You have to admit-”
“No, I don’t, and I’m not going to! Clark, you’re being ridiculous! Is this where you tell me again that I don’t know him like you do?” She arched a sarcastic brow at her partner.
Clark clenched his jaw and pressed himself back into the booth, determined not to get into a public fight.
Lois hissed in exasperation. “I have to admit you’re right about that.”
His eyebrows went up.
She continued with saccharine sweetness. “You’ve been glaring at him in hallways and making nasty accusations, while I’ve been dating the man and actually getting to know him.
Clearly I don’t know him like
you do.”
“C’mon Lois, that’s not what I-” he tried again.
Lois gathered her things and slid out of the booth. “You know what Clark? I don’t care what you meant. Lex is a good person, a generous man, someone who really cares about me, and I’m tired of the constant attacks. I’m done here, and I just want to get back to the hotel and relax for a while before we have to catch our flight home tomorrow. Are you coming or not?”
Wordlessly, Clark slid out of the booth and put his jacket back on before following Lois out the door.
***
The ride back to LuthorSuites was tense, but by the time they’d gotten out of the cab and were in the elevator things felt like they were loosening a little.
Clark walked her to the doors of their adjacent rooms and shuffled awkwardly as she unlocked her suite.
“Lois?”
She gave him a sharp look. “Yes?”
“Lois, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you mad, I was just curious about what’s going on with Mrs. Cox”
and her relationship with Luthor, he was careful not to say.
Lois softened a little. “I know Clark, and I’m curious too, but you’ve got to let these ridiculous suspicions about Lex go, ok?” She pressed a little harder when he didn’t respond right away. “Please, for me?”
He sighed heavily, then nodded. “Fine, since you asked so nicely” he smiled at her and her lips curved to match, “I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”
“Fine, thank you. I wish you’d stop thinking all those horrible things about him, but if silence is the best offer I’m going to get then I’ll take it.”
“Lois?” he asked as she started to open her door.
“Yeah Clark?”
“Wanna watch a movie or play some cards or something to wind down before we have to start packing?”
Lois nibbled on her lower lip for a moment, hoping she wasn’t about to provoke another shouting match. She was tired, and not in the mood for Round Two in the hallway. “Maybe later, ok? I was going to call Lex and have a bubble bath.”
Clark’s shoulders slumped, though he tried to hide it. “Fine, call my room when you’re done and we can watch a movie if I’m still up. I’ll turn the ringer off if I go to bed before you’ve called.”
Lois nodded and slipped into her room, softly closing the door behind her.
Clark stood in the hall for a moment, watching her door and suppressing a mild urge to look through it before he entered his own room. He sat on the end of the bed and turned the TV on, lackadaisically flipping through the channels for something to watch to pass the time until she called. He was still scrolling through the channel guide when his super-hearing kicked in.
‘Oh hey Lex, it’s me’ he heard through the shared wall between their rooms and groaned. He tuned her out and focused his attention back on the screen.
‘Oh, nothing much, just wrapping things up so I can come home tomorrow. Yeah, I miss you too’ This was just great. He’d gotten so used to listening for Lois’ cries for help that now he didn’t seem to be able to tune her out when he needed to!
Well, there was no way he was going to sit here and listen to her get all lovey-dovey with Luthor. He’d just have to find somewhere else to be. Somewhere far enough away not to overhear anything he didn’t want to know. He turned off the ringer on his room phone, then walked over to the window and slid it open, grateful to be on a low enough floor that the windows weren’t sealed.
I wonder what Lucifer’s up to, he thought as he looked around for possible observers then flung himself out the window once he was satisfied that the coast was clear.
***
Lucifer drove away from his therapist’s office, his mind on anything but the streets of LA.
I think you need to tell her. Linda’s words kept running through his mind.
Telling Chloe. He’d tried so many times, and yet always shied away from giving her the proof he knew she needed before she’d believe him. And he knew why.
He’d shown his Devil face countless times, using it to instil terror and belief in the hearts of miscreants and unbelievers, taking satisfaction in the knowledge that that mortal had received the punishment they richly deserved. And while that wasn’t an option now, any other method he chose to prove his identity to the Detective would have the same effect.
Fear.
Could he really do that? Could he stand there and watch as terror flickered in her eyes? Terror…of him.
It had been bad enough when he’d revealed his true face to Linda. Watching her go the emotional gamut from exasperated anger to fear/terror/loathing of him. He’d been worried that he’d lose Linda as a friend. How much worse would it be, facing the possibility of losing Chloe so… so irrevocably?
He parked the convertible in the garage under Lux, using the elevator to bypass the club and go straight to the penthouse, making a beeline to the bar to kill the pain that seized his chest every time he thought of losing the Detective.
“Lucifer?”
He spun, momentarily alarmed by the voice issuing from the darkness of the penthouse.
Clark stepped forward. “I’m sorry. Lois is on the phone to Luthor and I… I had to get out of there.”
Lucifer nodded, silently commiserating. It had only been a matter of weeks since he’d been doing the same thing.
“My escapes usually consist of alcohol and illicit drugs rather than breaking into another man’s home, but… to each their own.”
He poured a measure of whiskey into a glass and handed it to his unexpected visitor.
“You disappeared earlier,” Clark commented.
“Yes, I had an appointment with my therapist,” Lucifer responded absently.
“You have a therapist?” There was a note of amused surprise in the other man’s voice.
“Yes, I know, how very self-indulgent of me,” Lucifer snapped. “No, she helps me… see things differently.”
***
Lucifer lapsed into silence. Clark observed him curiously as he tossed back the contents of his glass and poured another drink.
This was a side he hadn’t seen of Lucifer before. Salacious glee, thoughtless mischievousness, furious anger… but not this dark, brooding silence. He shifted, unsure of what to make of this troubled version of the Prince of Darkness.
“Clark, have you ever considered telling Lois about Superman?”
Clark tensed at the sudden question, half expecting the taunting he’d been getting from Lucifer on the subject to quickly follow. But this was different. The fallen angel’s voice was sheared of its usual mocking tone.
“I’ve thought about it,” he answered cautiously.
“What’s stopping you? I mean, it seems to me like telling her would get you everything you desire. So why not just do it?”
“Because Superman isn’t who I am,” Clark replied simply.
***
“See, I don’t understand that,” Lucifer told him, puzzled. And he didn’t. This Kryptonian didn’t know how lucky he was. “If I could’ve just told-” He stopped himself, annoyed at how close he’d come to spilling his innermost feelings to a near-stranger.
He didn’t know how good he had it. All Clark had to do was tell his prickly partner the truth about who he was, and he’d have all the greatest desires of his heart on a silver platter. If Lucifer told the Detective the truth, he’d be left with nothing at all.
The Kryptonian was studying him. “You should tell Chloe how you feel.”
“Yes, well. That requires her to believe me about the other thing, and my hidden side is a lot less heroic than yours.” Lucifer’s mouth twisted in bitter disdain, suddenly resentful.
“Why?”
“Why what?” He wished the other man would leave him be; take his earnestness and his soft puppy dog eyes elsewhere and go fetch some helpless kitten out of a tree. LA was an enormous city, surely Clark wouldn’t have to go too far to locate some troubled feline.
“If Lucifer is who you really are-”
Lucifer cut him off, grimly amused at the other man’s naïveté. “The Devil is part of me too. I can’t ask her to accept me without knowing the truth.”
“You may be the Devil-” Clark stopped himself at the other man’s sharp look, then restarted, “Alright, so you
are the Devil. You seem to think that makes you a bad person, but I don’t believe that’s true.”
Lucifer scoffed, but Clark didn’t let him interrupt.
“No, I mean it. The things I’ve heard about you from Chloe and Ella, the way I’ve seen you use your abilities - Lucifer,
you saved Lois when I couldn’t. You’re a good person, you just need to believe it and that Chloe will see that along with the rest of it.”
“If only it were that simple.”
***
Chloe picked up her daughter’s school project, frowning at the sight of the white feather that was sticking out from the bottom of the pages. Carefully she flicked to the page it was stuck to, intending to move it back into place and tape it down more securely. Her frown deepened as she realised the feather wasn’t loose as she’d assumed; it was enormous, far larger than any of the others they’d collected.
She turned to her daughter.
"Trixie, where did this big white feather in your bird project come from? I don't remember helping you gather it and I know we talked about hygiene and touching random feathers."
"I didn't find it Mom, Lucifer gave it to me."
"Did he say what kind of bird it was from?" Chloe queried, unsure if she’d seen a feather that big before. It definitely hadn’t come from any common bird species she could think of. Even the few species of eagle they got out here wouldn’t have feathers that size.
“I asked him and he told me it was one of his.”
“One of his. Did he say anything else?”
Trixie shook her head and went back to packing her bag. Chloe handed her the project to take with her, silently fuming. There was only one type of bird she could think of that would have feathers as large as the one Lucifer had given Trixie, and that made it illegal.
“Okay.” Chloe clamped down on her anger. She’d drop Trixie off for her sleepover, then go and talk to Lucifer. “Ready to go to Landa’s?”
***
Lucifer sat in the darkness after Clark left, idly swirling the amber fluid in his glass as he brooded.
No matter how he approached it, he couldn’t see how telling Chloe the truth wouldn’t end badly. His conversation with Clark had only served to make that even more clear. After all, if the Man of Steel- surely the biggest goody-two-shoes on the planet- couldn’t share his secret with the woman he loved, what hope was there for the Prince of Darkness? At least Clark was mostly human, the Kryptonians being one of his Father’s many experiments with how his pet project fared under different coloured suns. If he ever stopped this wilful self-denial and told Lois the truth, he had that in his favour.
Lucifer had no such thing.
He sighed heavily. As much as he hated to admit it, Linda was right. Chloe deserved the truth. He had to take the gamble and give it to her- even if he was on the losing side.
The question was, how did he go about it? He’d tried telling her so many times; but the Detective was pragmatic and sceptical. The only way she’d believe him would be if he offered her proof.
Something like injuring him was out of the question. Quite why she removed his invulnerability, he didn’t really know, although he suspected that her own miraculous origins played a part. Likewise, he couldn’t show her his Devil face.
He got up, refilling his drink at the bar and beginning to pace. Briefly he considered showing her the wings, and dismissed the idea just as quickly. They might be currently attached to him, but they weren’t part of him. He’d left that portion of his life behind when he’d burned the pair that had been stolen from him.
He sighed in exasperation. This would’ve been so much easier if she’d just tested his blood after the whole fiasco with Malcolm. He shuddered, remembering the way his blood had pooled on the floor after the rogue detective had shot him, point-blank. Chloe had had ample opportunity to test it- so why hadn’t she done it? Was she as afraid to get the truth as he was to give it?
***
Chloe burst into the penthouse, already in mid-shout as the elevator doors parted. “Dammit Lucifer, did you give Trixie a condor feather?! You’re aware that they’re endangered, right? And that it’s illegal for her to have one? You have to have all kinds of permits to have any part of an endangered animal, and I highly doubt that you bothered to get any of them!” Chloe fumed and got louder, “I’m trying to raise a responsible human being but it’s hard when you’re handing out illegal condor feathers like candy
which, by the way, I’d appreciate if you
also stopped giving my daughter all the damned time!” she sucked in a gasping breath, “Dammit Lucifer, there are fewer than 500 condors
in the entire world! Where the hell did you get it anyway??”
"IT'S NOT FROM A BLOODY CONDOR!!" Lucifer’s wings unfurled with a snap in a burst of sheer frustration after multiple attempts to get a word in edgewise, “...bollocks. Detective?”
Chloe stood there gaping at him, frozen in shock.
“Detective? You alright? Oh bloody hell, not you too.” He furled his wings and stepped toward her, then stopped as he realized. “Detec… Chloe, are you smiling?”
~*~
FDK goes
here.
