Lucifer couldn't go back.

How could he face the detective when he knew it was all a scam, a farce, a trick of smoke and mirrors orchestrated by his ever-meddling father? Even his mum had gotten in on the action. He had been used. And if that wasn't bad enough, he fell for it! If he had to admit it to himself, their betrayal hurt….a little.

Dear Dad! All of these feelings… they were so new…..this constant ache in his chest. He had no idea what it was. He wished more than ever that Dr. Linda was here to help him get a handle on things. When he first resigned himself to the fact that he would have to leave, to just get away from it all, it felt like a fairly good idea. Now, sitting in this ridiculously opulent hotel room alone, he wasn't so sure.

He missed the detective. Her straight-laced ways, her silly little laugh, the way she saw the best in him no matter what. He also missed Beatrice, Maze, Dr. Linda, even his over-bearing brother. If he was forced, he could even say that he had grown fond of Detective Dou.. um, Daniel and the little, slightly strange, Ella. Damn it all to Hell, even his mother kept creeping uninvited into his thoughts!

She had gone back to Hell for him. Yes, yes, but she had to have some nefarious ulterior motive. She had uninhibitedly admitted to him while down there that she had been manipulating him all along to get back at Father. Why would the little 'sacrifice' of rescuing him from Hell be any different? At least he had let go of some of the guilt concerning Uriel, but freeing himself completely of that would still be a long time coming.

Enough! This train of thought was getting him nowhere. Still, his mind, or dare he say, his heart, whispered, what about Chloe? What about her!? She was put here by his father! Someone to confuse him and make him vulnerable in the worst possible, human way!

So what if just seeing her face made him feel like a man worthy of love and respect instead of a monster that can only hurt. Who cares if she is the most selfless, stubborn, intelligent, beautiful and enchanting person he had ever met. It didn't matter that when their lips met he felt something he had never felt before. When she pressed her lips to his it had felt like his body was being infused with an electrical current that went from her, straight into him, engulfing his heart and then shooting right down to his…Nope! There would be no going back. He would come up with a new life somewhere else, possibly a new face (no matter how loathe he was to let this one go), and forget they all ever existed.

And so help him Dad, if his father jerked him around anymore, he would personally make a trip up to Heaven to straighten that out once and for all. And if he missed certain persons, then he would just have to pull up his big boy, Prada pants and get on with it. No matter how impossibly hard that seemed…

Yep, he kept telling himself, definitely never going back…..

Chloe couldn't believe it.

He had left. Just. Left. No goodbye. No Sorry, Detective. This place has become such a bore, along with you, and it's time for this devil to move along. He really was an ass! A pig-headed, careless, all-consuming, charming, and horribly-missed ass. No, she would not cry. Not her. So he doesn't care about her like she cares about him. So he doesn't long to be by her side like she does his. So what if he doesn't have this constant ache in his chest that won't go away and can't even really be made sense of. Fine! She didn't need him. He was always rushing head-first into everything….making a mess of her orderly investigations.

She did have to admit that he was fairly good at ferreting out the bad guy. He would have made a pretty good cop if he wasn't so…Lucifer. And they did work great together. And he did come to her aid without having to be asked. And his kisses did make her ache for…NOPE, NOPE, NOPE! He chose this. He is the one that left. She wasn't even important enough to leave a note for. So, the HELL with the devil….she would be just fine without him!

Yea….just fine without him….