A/N: I just want to remind everyone that this story is canon only up until episode 7 which is where I started plotting this story from. After that I'm picking and choosing what I wanted from the last six episodes if and only if they can somehow be worked into the overall narrative that I've already come up with.

Chapter 8

For a moment time seemed to stop as she hit the floor and the weight of the body on top of her made it hard to breathe. Then her training kicked in and she pushed through the haze that wanted to drown her. As she came back to herself she could hear someone screaming and knew it wasn't her. They weren't being shot and the screams of pain weren't coming from the body on top of her which meant only one thing.

"Maze we need him!" she gasped as loudly as she could and the sounds of pain lessened, "don't kill him!"

Then she looked down at her partner's still unmoving body and with a hiss she was able to roll him off of her. Her shoulder was bleeding but it looked like nothing more than a graze and he was hurt worse, he had to be. Ironically enough it was her left shoulder again, why was she always getting shot there? Maze came running over to them and she'd just started looking for a pulse and his wounds when Lucifer's eyes snapped open and he bolted upright with a gasp.

Both women jumped away from him with wide eyes and for a moment none of them moved, then she shook herself. He was hurt and in shock, he had to be, though she'd never heard of someone bolting up like that if they were shot in the back. She moved to look at his back, his shirt was riddled with holes but there was no blood and she began pulling his shirt out of his pants so that she could see his back. Quickly he grabbed her hands to stop her, a dazed look on his face.

"If you wanted me to take my clothes off -"

"Shut up," she snapped as she glared at him and tried to break his grip to no avail. "You've been shot!"

"Yes, but it would seem my immortality's returned," he said thoughtfully as he shifted his shoulders and then smirked at her, only to have his eyes darken as he caught sight of her shoulder. "You're hurt."

His eyes narrowed as he reached out to her shoulder and his fingers came away bloody. She hissed and pushed him away, "I got nicked, I'm fine."

"Fine people don't bleed. Mazikeen, get that medical kit thingie you purchased from the closet will you" he snapped and pushed himself to his feet. His assistant glared at the both of them before storming off in a huff. He snorted after her and then looked over at the man Maze had taken down. "Who do we have here?"

"No," she snapped jumping to her feet, an action she instantly regretted as her head spun.

It was shock she realized as her legs came out from under her but instead of hitting the hard floor she met warmth. She blinked hard as the world stopped spinning and realized she was moving. Lucifer was carrying her somewhere and she squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance as she was set down on something soft. It took her another moment to realize she was on his bed and he ripped the sleeve of her shirt like it was tissue paper to get at the wound.

"You owe me a shirt," she groused as her visions finally cleared completely and she tried to sit up straight again.

He just sighed and pushed her back down, "Lie down, can't have you blacking out because you've been shot now can I."

"The shooter isn't dead is he?" she asked as Lucifer moved back to the doorway and took a white box from Maze who glared at her before moving to stand guard over their still unmoving attacker again. "We can't kill him, we need to question him and it'll help with the case."

"He's alive," Lucifer frowned as if he was unhappy about it as he ripped open a gauze patch and held it against the wound. "Do you ever stop?"

"Mommy?" she heard her daughter call, she sounded frightened, and he pushed her back onto the bed when she tried to sit up again.

"Would you just stay, hold this against the wound," he snapped as he stood to walk over to her daughter. She pushed herself slowly into a sitting position and watched as he knelt down to talk to her quickly. Trixie pouted but turned back and headed down the stairs into the rest of condo after a few words from him. She frowned at that, Trixie was always very inquisitive, always asking questions about everything. How he got her to leave without question or argument was both impressive and annoying at the same time. When he turned around his eyes narrowed and he stalked over to her. "You're excessively stubborn."

"You're point?" She shrugged with one shoulder and pulled down the gauze to look at the still slowly bleeding wound. He made a frustrated sound as he grabbed a new one, as the first was almost bled through and placed it against the wound with a lot more pressure than she could have managed. "When did you become a doctor?"

"I read up on first aid after you shot me," he shrugged, "I thought it might come in handy to know now that I was mortal."

"Looks like it was a waste of time," she gestured at his back. "You're immortal again."

He frowned as he gazed almost unseeingly at her wound. Then he grabbed her hand and placed it against the wound again before he left the room. She was left feeling confused and was about to go after him when he returned with a wickedly sharp knife. He held it out to her free hand, handle first, "I want you to cut me."

"I'm sorry, what?" She stared at him dumbfounded and he scowled at her before grabbing her other hand to press it against the wound again. She must have dropped it without realizing she had.

He then let go of her hand so that he could pull the blade down his palm. She jumped to stop him but paused when she saw his unblemished skin. "Right, immortal again, so why are you doing this?"

"I want to test something, I need you to cut me," he said holding out the knife to her again. She glared, her mouth opened to yell at him and he held up a hand, "I'm not asking you to open a vein, just see if you can nick my finger."

Her eyes narrowed, "Again, why?"

He rolled his eyes, "I need to know if it will hurt me or if that was a strange one off warning from Dad."

She stared at the blade, hesitant, did she want to know? Then she looked back at him and realized he needed to know, for his own peace of mind and safety. If it was his father taking it away he needed to know it was possible because he'd clearly hadn't thought it was. However if it was her he had a right to know if she could be used as a weapon against him, if only to protect against the possibility. So she took the knife and pricked his finger. As the blood welled from the spot the blade would have dropped to the floor if he hadn't caught it. For a moment they stared at the droplet then quick as lightning he reached out put the fingers of his other hand against her wound and then stuck it in his mouth.

"Ah!" she cried in more horrified shock than actual pain and leaned away from him. She stared at him as he mulled over the blood he'd just sampled, unsure what to do with herself other than be completely disgusted. "EW! EW! EW! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Divine blood mixed with mortal," he said thoughtfully, his eyes unfocused, and then they cleared as they zeroed in on her. "The fucking bastard!"

"Lucifer-"

"Nephilim! You're a Nephilim!" he snapped as he ran his finger through his hair ignoring the blood on them. "At least my Father's version of one anyway. A second generation I'd wager considering how pure the divinity is and that your father raised you. Let me guess, your father never met your grandfather."

"I-you-I don't-" she made a lost sound and then rubbed her face, today was turning out to be an exceptionally strange day even by her standards. Then she jumped as a fresh piece of gauze was applied to her wound.

"I'm actually quite put out that I didn't think of it," he groused, looking annoyed as he replaced her hand and took a very definite step away from her. "It explains everything, right down to the fact that you're oblivious. The perfect little Trojan horse you are. I can't believe I didn't see it! To be fair I've never met one of your kind before, how could I have known?! The bloodlines have been so diluted you lot are hard to recognize in general and new lines are rarer still."

"Lucifer," she said as she grabbed his arm gently and he tensed which made her frown. She would have said that he looked scared of her but he wasn't frightened of anything. "You do realize you're not making any sense right? What the hell is a Nephilim?"

"Of course you don't bloody know," he snarled as he stormed away from her out onto the patio to glare at the sky. There was something dangerous about him and the air seemed darker. Like he was surrounded by a gauzy black haze and she paused as she moved to follow him. For the first time since she'd come to terms with who he was she was frightened of him on an instinctual level. He was dangerous but she shook herself, Lucifer was dangerous but not to her. She trusted him, "I bet you've found this hilarious huh? How dare you! How could you do this! She's innocent! She's one of yours! She doesn't deserve to be in the middle of this!"

"Lucifer!" She snapped as she abandoned her first aid to grab his shoulders and shake him, "Stop yelling at your Dad and tell me what's wrong!"

"What are you doing?" he snapped as he turned to her, "You need to stop that bleeding!"

She scoffed at him, "and you need to stop yelling at clouds like it's going to solve your problems!"

"I'm yelling at Him!" he snapped as he gestured at the expanse of sky above them.

"No, you're wasting your time!" she countered and then rubbed her forehead and sighed. "What's going on? What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing's wrong with you per se," he grumbled "The old Bastard's just been playing his games with the both of us!"

Her brow furrowed, "games, what games?"

"He pushed us together!" he said throwing his hands up in frustration. "You even said it then 'A little act of God took them out'. He knew what you were and He shoved you in my path! He knew!"

"And you said he didn't do things like that" she countered and the look he gave her was critical. "Well you did! Look, I still don't get it, what's going on?"

"You can kill me Chole!" he snarled and glared at the sky again "You can destroy this body!"

"...What?"

"You're his plan to get me back to Hell!" he was breathing hard now, his fist clenched at his sides. "Amenadiel talks a good game but the only member of the host strong enough to actually force me back is Michael. But, if we fight, that would trigger the apocalypse! So what does dear old Dad do? He puts his ready-made half angel in my path! You being half mortal, half divine negates my divine powers. You're his loophole!"

She blinked at him as he went back to yelling at the sky. "I'm not going to kill you."

He rounded on her, "you won't have a choice!"

"Oh so free will doesn't exist?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"No, it- " he snapped and then took a deep breath through the his teeth. "Of course it does. What I'm saying is he's going to put you in a position where you don't really have one!"

Chloe eyed him, that seemed wrong, and she didn't mean in the moral sense though it was that too. No, it seemed wrong from a logistical perspective. If that was the plan then why hadn't she been forced to do it when they'd first met. Why would God allow them to get close? "Then why hasn't He pulled the trigger yet?"

Lucifer scoffed, "Because He wants to wait until it'll hurt me the most. To punish me for ever leaving in the first place."

"Why would I be punished then," she asked quietly and he looked at her, the anger in him abating at the look on her face. "Lucifer you're … you're my friend. What makes you think killing you wouldn't screw me up! Screw my daughter up! We're innocent in this! Do you really think your Dad would be that cruel?"

"Haven't read your old testament in a while have you?" he asked with a sad little quirk to his lips. In his eyes she'd could see pain and loneliness the likes of which she couldn't even imagine. "You and Beatrice befriended the cast out, the fallen one. That's enough justification for Him to hurt you."

"I don't believe that" she said softly as she remembered Father Frank and how he'd talked about God. In that moment a thought occurred to her, had he been a message? And not just to Lucifer but to her as well? Or better still, had his Father put her in his path not as a punishment, but as a communication of sorts? She remembered who he'd been when he met her versus who he was now. He was different, he'd changed, and she wondered if that had been the point. Maze had railed against her the day she'd reported him missing, complaining about how much he'd changed. Had his Father seen his potential for change in the years since he'd been topside or even before that?

She was a parent who loved her daughter totally but that didn't mean she wouldn't punish her if she did something wrong or that she loved her less because she had. After loving them, being a teacher was the biggest part of being a parent. Lucifer was the proverbial prodigal son and she highly doubted she and Father Frank were the first two times his Father had reached out to him since he'd been cast out. But knowing her friend he either didn't understand the message because God was apparently unhelpfully cryptic or he thought his Father was mocking him.

She squeezed his shoulder in a comforting gesture, "I think that you're so stuck in what happened back then that you can't see you're the only one still living there."

"Oh, so what, you suddenly come to the decision you believe and now you think you understand God so well?" he sneered at her, "Humans. I will never understand you sometimes. Your arrogance -"

"I never said I understood God, but I am I parent, I get that. Which is why I don't think you're being punished," She countered before he could stick his foot any further into his mouth. "And just so you know, I accepted who you were months ago this isn't a sudden thing."

He looked stunned by that and he looked away from her. Then he shook himself and glanced at her, "why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it's not a big deal to me, not once I got my head around the fact that my entire world order got flipped upside down." she said with a self-deprecating smile and he watched her like he didn't believe her. "Lucifer, what you are isn't as important as who. And who you are is a good person, my friend, and someone that I really care about."

"I'm not a good person," he said and the comments seemed almost reflexive to her.

"You sound like someone else I know," she folded her arms across her chest and he almost instantly moved forward to apply pressure to her wound again.

"Would you stop that? Do you want to bleed out?" he asked as he took the gauze from her and applied serious pressure again as he towed her back into the bedroom to sit her down again. Then he grabbed some more and started to clean the wound. For a moment they were silent and outside of her pained hisses the room was quiet. Cautiously he looked at her from under his lashes, "who do I remind you of?"

"He was a gang banger turned state's evidence," she said thoughtfully. "He used to pretend he was something he wasn't too."

He paused and looked at her, "what are you talking about?"

"Lucifer you're constantly telling me how 'wicked' you are but then you get so upset when people blame you for it." His eyes watched her, his face inches from hers. "Seems to me you became someone you didn't want to be or even really like to fit in with the only people you were allowed to be around."

He swallowed thickly as leaned into her, almost as if to kiss her, then pulled himself back and cleared his throat, "a bit presumptive of you to say don't you think? I'm thousands of years old my dear, you've known me for what, four months?"

"I'm a cop Lucifer," she said, not at all put off by his dodging. She got the feeling that burying and dodging his emotions was how he stayed sane after he lost it all, if he could really be called sane on some levels. "Reading people, knowing them, it's my job and sometimes a matter of life and death for me. I've gotten very good at it and I have known you long enough."

"You're impossible! He scoffed as he pulled away from her completely. "You claim to know me but one moment you're telling me I'm being ridiculous and listing my sins and the next you tell me I'm a good person who's pretending to be someone they're not! I don't understand you! Which is it?"

"You're both," she said with a shrug and a quirk of her lips. "You are a good person, I've seen you be that enough to know it really is part of who you are. But you can also be a complete asshole. You're complicated, you're a complete and total mess, and I believe you can be better. Why's that so hard for you to understand?"

Lucifer stared at her his hands clenching and unclenching at his side, then he snorted, "How very fair of you, how 'just' if you will. Well, at least I know what virtue you are."

"Virtue?" she asked taken aback at the sudden turn.

"All my Father's Nephilim are attached to one of them," he said with shrug, his tone leading and eyes nearly begging her to ask him what he knew.

She eyed him for a moment, just long enough to let him know she knew he was changing the subject, and hummed. "Alright, I'll bite, what is all this Nephilim stuff."

"This Nephilim 'stuff' as you so crassly put it has influenced much of human history. Many of the greatest people in it have been His Nephilim, not that they knew it at the time, free will and all that. Though I have heard of the occasional normal person who's risen above the drudgery to become something great as well." he said like she'd understand him and yet she still looked confused. He huffed. "They're the children of Angels and humans."

Chloe snorted, "I'm sorry, they're what?"

"Part angelic, mortals with divine blood, whatever you want to call it," he said with a shrug, then he rubbed the back of his head looking more awkward than she'd ever seen him. He started and stopped several times then finally shook himself, "You see, when I fell, some of my younger siblings fell with me. They, ah, well they went wild with their new freedom, shocked even me, and several generations of part fallen angels and humans began running around. They caused a fair amount of trouble so Father planned the whole Noah incident to take care of the kids and had me seal my siblings in Hell."

"Are you talking about demons?" she asked slowly.

"Well, yes, it's what they became," he looked sad and he wouldn't meet her eye. This was an old guilt that rested on his shoulders about the fate of his younger siblings. That he felt responsible in some way for what befell them said a lot about him. "As a former Archangel and my Father's first I was able to mostly retain my head through everything but my younger siblings were made of lesser stuff. They lost themselves completely to the darkness, reveled in it really. It wasn't my intention but it happened."

"You revel in the darkness too Lucifer," she countered more as a qualifier than an accusation and he finally looked at her, eyes solemn.

"I'll not deny that," he muttered and then grabbed a roll of gauze to tie around her wound now that the flow of blood had slowed. "But I was never like them. When they fell they became utterly diabolical, no one was safe from their machinations. I controlled what I could but there was only one of me and more of them every day because they were creating creatures of their own. By the time Amenadiel came and told me Father wanted them sealed away, and how to do it, I did it gladly which should tell you how bad things got."

She nodded, that he would be willing do something his Father wanted, especially that close to his fall, did just that. "Alright so I'm...one of their kids?"

"Heaven's no!" he cried with narrowed eyes as if offended for her, one of his hands came up to cradle her cheek so he could angle her head and she couldn't look away. "No, no you are the exact opposite. After everything was settled my Father decided that humans needed a little more guidance so, because he didn't want to invalidate free will completely, he used my sibling's method against them. He created seven lesser angels to exemplify the seven virtues and sent them down to Earth. Each of them created seven bloodlines, he has an inordinate love for that number, to produce humans who exemplify those traits in the world. Though there must always be seven. Thus when a bloodline dies out, which can happen from time to time, the angel it was attached to must make another. Judging by who you are and how pure your blood is, I'd say Justice lost one and found your grandmother to have your father. "

Chloe blinked rapidly as he made the finishing touches on his surprisingly well done bandage. Everything about him projected calm and safety, to the point where it made her want to lay her head on his shoulder and just relax against him. A part of her realized he was doing it on purpose so that she wouldn't freak out and it frustrated her, "Are you trying to tell me that I'm part Justice Angel?"

He pursed his lips and his eyes turned curious, "The fact that you're taking this so well tells me you don't believe me."

"No, it's just," she sighed as she closed her eyes and sagged a little in her seat, almost without thinking he began stroking her cheek in a comforting gesture, "With everything that's happened it just figures is all."

"Yes," he said as he finished tending to her wound though he didn't pull away from her, "You lot tend to be trouble magnets. Though it does explain why we get along so well. You a personification of Justice and me the ultimate punisher of the guilty. I think it's a bit poetic no?"

"Sure," she snorted and then her eyebrows furrowed as a disturbing thought occurred to her. "This doesn't make me like your niece or something right?"

He started away from her and sputtered for a moment, "What? What are you - No! What the bloody hell made you think something like that?"

"Well you're an angel so…"

"Really, what do they teach you people nowadays," he scowled at her, "I'm an - I was an Archangel Chloe. That's a completely different...well I guess species of angel from the one that sired your father. To point a fact I can't even have children. That was a trait given to Seraphim of later generations. We're only family in the same sense that you and Rich are, even then not really. I was cast out several centuries before dear old Dad even thought of your granddad."

"Right," she grumbled and rubbed her face tiredly, her mind had officially reached complete capacity for the day. "I need a drink...no I need a bottle."

"Well I certainly won't object," he moved to touch her again but then pulled away, she frowned at that. She could see his hesitancy in his eyes now that what she was and what it meant was truly sinking in for him. "Has your shock passed or do you need another moment."

"I'm fine," she muttered as she stood slowly and he moved forward to help her but stopped himself again. A part of her was hurt that he was pulling away from her, but she had to remind herself that she'd done it too. In fact she'd sent him running to San Francisco, she had no right to be upset if he wasn't handling this well. She wasn't even really processing what it meant herself.

"What the fuck!" a familiar voice yelled from the elevator and she looked over to find Agent Sanchez held by Maze at knife point.

Shit.

"Maze that's Special Agent Sanchez, let him go!" she ordered as she bolted from the bedroom and dodged Lucifer when he made a grab for her as she stumbled. It was a good sign that he still cared enough to do it but she didn't have time to deal with his intermittent overprotectiveness. Though she did look to him for help, "Lucifer tell her to stop, we need his help."

Lucifer eyed her for a moment and then nodded, "Maze let the good agent go would you?"

"Fine," she growled and glared at the both of them as she went back to guarding the still unconscious hitman who'd been thrown onto a chair, his arms bound and a wound on his shoulder still bleeding slowly.

She saw Ramirez take it all in, including the destruction around the room, before he turned to her with a raised eyebrow over confused dark brown eyes, "the hell have you gotten me into Decker?"

"They had better surveillance on me than I thought," she sighed as she gestured to her wounded arm. Immediately he looked concerned and moved forward to look at it. "It'll hold until we can get the EMT's here."

"You call 911?" he asked with some surprise.

"Not yet and if I have my way not at all," Lucifer said from behind her and she would have jumped like Martin if she hadn't felt the heat from his body like a physical touch before he'd spoken. She didn't need to look back in order to see the glare he was leveling at the agent who was touching her. "Lucifer Morningstar and you would be?"

The look Martin gave her was curious and she rolled her eyes before shaking her head slightly. She and Lucifer were not dating, he was just being territorial even though five seconds ago it seemed like he wanted to be in another state. Her reaction only made her old friend look more curious and he took her partner's offered hand, "Special Agent Martin Ramirez, now Chloe, what's this case that just got you shot?"

Without further prompting she went over to her forgotten backpack and pulled out the file she'd made him, "I just received this by courier this morning. Kind of a 'in the event of my death send this to Chloe Decker' type of thing. It's everything Malcolm Graham was able to collect. Apparently there's a massive dirty cop ring in the LAPD, like organized crime or the mob level thing."

Martin stared at her with raised eyebrows and then opened the file. It took him less than five minutes to look back up at her with wide and awed eyes, "Do you have any idea what you have here?"

"No, not at all," she snarked as she gestured to her arm and he smirked in response.

"What kind of asinine question is that?" Lucifer snapped as he he glared from where they'd left him near the piano, "She wouldn't have called if she hadn't."

"Lucifer," she said as she leveled him a look and his eyes narrowed in challenge. She knew he was on edge because of what he'd learned about her but that didn't give him a right to lash out at her friend. "Sorry about him, he hasn't had enough alcohol today, it turns him into a five year old."

She heard him make an offended sound behind her but refused to turn around. Martin raised an eyebrow, "Are you two…?"

"No," her eyes narrowed in annoyance, "We're - "

"Sadly, no," Lucifer groused cutting her off and she finally turned around to find him lounging on his couch now. His eyes dark and watchful as he gazed at her, "Not for lack of trying on my part mind you, bit of a freak this one."

"Says the man who will sleep with anything with a pulse," she snapped back. He may have been in a mood but that didn't give him the right to be an ass. "Sorry, I have standards."

"Standards," Lucifer hissed as he stood with a grace that should have been impossible. "And what pray tell would those be, my dear?"

She snorted, "Like I'd tell you. You'd pretend to meet them just to sleep with me."

His eyes widened a fraction and she knew she'd hit a mark, one she wanted to unhit the second the words left her mouth. "I'd never be so duplicitous."

"I'm sorry, you're right," she said with a nod and then turned to look at Martin who was looking at her incredulously. "Back on track, what can you do with all that?"

"Arrest a lot of people but I'm guessing this isn't all of them," he frowned as he looked over a picture. "What are you willing to do?"

She shrugged, "what do you need?"

"You to be the police liaison would be best," he said with a smile. "It'd be nice to know I have someone I know I can trust at my back in the rat's nest."

"And you want to sleep with her, of course," Lucifer said matter of factly and they both froze. Then she spun to glare at him, and he shrugged, his face innocent though there was a darkness in his eyes she'd never seen before. "What? It's blatantly obvious he wants to screw you. Tell me Martin, do you think this is your way in? That she'll spread her legs for you if you do something to help her, I can tell you from experience it won't work."

She felt like she'd been slapped.

She knew he was upset about everything but that was no excuse to be a complete bastard. Right, he wasn't getting away with that but she also wasn't going to get into a fight with him now about it. Instead she pretended he hadn't even spoken as she turned back to Martin, "Do you want to take that and leave or do you want to get involved when I call the idiot in."

Martin, who was still looking at Lucifer with equal parts incredulity and disdain, looked at her, "I think it would be good to stay, see who does what, you got somewhere to hide this?"

"Don't know, Maze," she said turning to the demon who was startled to be addressed. "You got somewhere you hide things?"

"Of course we do, give them here" Lucifer scoffed and he made a reach for her backpack but she pulled it out of reach. Maze looked back and forth between them both, worried and somewhat entertained but said nothing. She didn't think the demon helper would go against her boss when he was already upset.

"Well do you?" she asked again and she saw him stiffen out of the corner of her eye. Then she shrugged, grabbed Martin's file as he gazed at her with amusement and walked back toward the kitchen. "Not a problem, I'll figure something out."

"Giving me the silent treatment is beneath you," he snapped as he grabbed her arm and spun her around in the kitchen.

She glared at the appendage until he let her go, then she glared at him. "I'm not your punching bag Lucifer. Whatever's got you pissed don't take it out on me. I may deal with that shit from Dan more than I should because of Trixie but I will not take it from you."

"What -"

"What you said out there was out of line and insulting not only to me but my friend who's going out on a limb for me," she said her voice level and hard, "I get it, you're pissed I am what I am and you're trying to get your head around it."

"You don't-"

"I don't know? Don't get it?" she narrowed her eyes. "Really because when I finally accepted what you were it was a struggle. So don't tell me I don't get finding out the friend you trust completely isn't who you thought they were because I do."

His eyes softened and he started and stopped before sighing deeply, "how did you get past it?"

"By realizing I cared about you more than it bothered me but if you're not there then fine. Take time but have more class than to take it out on me," she shoved everything she held into his stunned hands. "Hide these."

Then she left him standing in the middle of room staring after her. If he made the decision not to be around her anymore then she wasn't sure what she'd do. He'd become a central part of her life, she'd stupidly let him and now he had the power to really hurt her. Why had she done that? Right, she'd listened to her gut instead of her head. Reached out to the man who clearly needed someone to just be there for him, to believe in him. Now it wasn't just her but her daughter who was going to pay for that if her risk taking didn't pan out. Trixie was as invested in him as she was and that was her fault. She never should have encouraged that connection, shouldn't have trusted him like this. He was a runner, had been for millennia. Chloe took a deep breath as she walked back into the library to find Martin calling in the attack to his superiors and smiled weakly at him. Worrying wouldn't do anything for her, all she could do now was hope he cared about her as much as she cared about him.