"There is one thing I still don't understand."

"Only one? Looks to me like we're making progress then, doctor." He gave her a cocky grin.

"Why bother?"

"What?"

"Why bother trying to do the opposite of what your father's plan is?"

The grin vanished. "Well, I thought that would be rather obvious to you by now. He's an utter bastard, that's why."

"Yes, I got that, but you do not have any inside knowledge on what his plan is, do you?"

"I'm afraid I don't follow, doctor."

"If you do not know what the plan is, how do you know that whatever you're doing isn't exactly what he meant for you to do in the first place? How do you oppose something when you can never be sure what it is? For example, how do you know he didn't mean for you to find out about Chloe's origins? It sounds just like the type of twisted punishment you keep attributing to him: To dangle the possibility of happiness in front of your nose and to make you deny it to yourself."

Lucifer stared at her, mouth agape, a shocked expression on his face.

"So, why bother with his plan at all? Why not simply do whatever you want? Whatever makes you happy? After all, isn't that sort of your mission statement? Do whatever you desire? Why let your interpretation, which may or may not be accurate, of your father's wishes stand in the way of that?"

Lucifer continued staring at her for a couple more seconds, then he blinked and closed his mouth with a snap.

"You raise an interesting point of view, doctor."

"That's what I'm here for."

"So your suggestion would be to- just ignore him?"

"Essentially, yes. You keep trying to free yourself from your father's influence by doing what you think is the opposite of what he wants. But that just leads to you spending your time figuring out what he might have planned, what he might want for you. My advice would be to stop thinking about it entirely. Do what works for you, his plans be damned."

He spoke slowly, considering her words carefully. "I'll ... think about it. Thank you for your advice, doctor."

"You're welcome, Lucifer."

Lucifer left and Linda sighed. She usually avoided telling patients what to do like the plague. Her job was to guide them, to help them gain a deeper knowledge of the reasons behind their actions and reach conclusions on their own. However, with Lucifer that approach had always been less effective. He had a tendency to hear whatever fit in his current narrative. She was curious how this more direct approach would play out and hoped it would turn out to be beneficial for him. Time would tell.