Chloe stumbles, shifts back, ready to run, to cry over her broken heart, to scream at that hellish creature staring at her next to Marcus's dead body. For a split second Trixie is all she can think about. It is natural for her, when she comes that close to death. Only this time it is not "Will I see my daughter again?" It's "I let that come near my daughter. I failed her." She stumbles again, forgetting about the staircase behind her. The creature very slowly raises its hand, not even that high, to inspect it, and seeing its true form, also makes a very deliberate step away from Chloe. There is a small shiver, which Chloe registers.

It moves. God, please, don't move, just don't even move. Freeze. Don't. I can't. I can't deal with anything else in the world changing right now.

She desperately needs the whole world to freeze for a few days, nothing changing, nothing moving. Just giving her time to attempt to comprehend what the Hell she is seeing. Unfortunately, this is LA, where such wishes are hardly granted.

– LAPD! – screams Dan somewhere in the distance. – Chloe, are you all right?!

There are footsteps echoing through the building, fast approaching.

– Chloe! – echoes Ella, frantically. – Lucifer!

She does not move, praying the world would just stop. The creature, it appears, moved further away from her. Why won't it just stay still! Is that too much to ask?! Don't. There is a very small part of her that she's carefully blocking out, that has a bad feeling about that thing crawling away – and, God, are those really bloodied feathers on the floor?! Is it.. he.. injured?! Can it be injured?

– Detective… I'm sorry. – says Lucifer's voice somewhere in the distance, and she cannot ignore the fact that it's the devilish creature's blistered lips moving in sync with those words. The voice hasn't changed even the slightest bit, and that is what finally shatters the already broken pieces of her heart. It's his voice, though hardly more than a desperate whisper.

Of course, this is the exact moment Dan runs in, gasps, and immediately points gun at the creature.

– Get away from her, you bastard, whatever you are!

– Douche. – Satan acknowledges with a small huff, but Dan is having none of it.

– Chloe! Did he hurt you?! Did it .. – he sees Marcus on the floor. - What in God's name happen here?!

The gun is shaking in his hand enough that trigger can go at any point.

– I'd not move a finger in His name, - quips Lucifer. - You may know by now.

Chloe closes her eyes for a second, trying even harder to not deal with anything. She can't. The man she almost married, the man she thought she loved, is lying dead on the floor. He also happens to be Cain, the world's first murderer. Whom she almost married. And, worse, whom she let near her daughter. And that's not even the worst of it.

Sirens are wailing in the distance, approaching.

– Are you all insane? – finally joins Ella, and she walks right between them all. – Daniel Idiot Espinoza, you lower that gun this second and take care of Chloe.

She looks in the direction of the creature, visibly shudders, then takes one deep breath in and approaches Lucifer with a look spelling "WHATEVER" loud and clear all over her face.

– We need to get you out of here. Can you walk?

– Get away from him! – cries Daniel, whom she ignores. Chloe is still in state of shock, unable to process the reality.

Lucifer looks at the new ally in complete disbelief.

– Why?

– Why what! – hisses Ella. – Why do we need to get you out? Cops are coming, and not everyone will be as happy to see you as we are!

– No, Miss Lopez, - he manages, voice still quiet, words barely audible. – Why are you not pointing your gun at me, as customary?

– I've seen ghosts since I was a kid, - she says simply. – You're a much smaller leap of faith for me. Now come ON, time to move!

– Feathers.. – he begins.

– Oh, I'll swap them later. - Ella actually smiles and almost looks like she's about to give Satan a Lopez hug regardless. – Evidence will go through me, remember?

He gives Chloe one more look, giving in to selfish, arrogant desire to see her, just to see her one more time before stepping out of her life forever. One last time. A small torn part of himself is begging the rest of him to stay, to ask for forgiveness again, and again, to at least ensure she's not broken, that she'll survive… The rest of him is in control, however, and he allows himself to be dragged out the back door.

That's how Chloe remembers her partner: a hellish creature, blood, blisters, burning eyes. How the Hell he manages to look like an abandoned puppy she has just kicked, she does not know. That's not what she meant, either, but saying anything, even as much as moving a finger is just too much effort. Not worth it. Would the world, please, just stop, she begs quietly, and, with great focus, the wall between her and the rest of the world, muffling every sound, grows stronger and stronger. By the time LAPD arrives at the scene, she's not responding to anything.