Chapter One: Dan Just Cancelled Christmas

A/N: Apologies for any OOCness you're about to receive and anything that doesn't make sense, which will probably be everything. In which Chloe finally believes that Lucifer is indeed the Devil after events that happen on Christmas. First fic in this amazing fandom, so don't be too harsh on me. Set sometime after S2E10. Disclaim: I don't own anything but my story and ideas.

Detective Chloe Decker wrapped her jacket tighter around herself on the rather breezy December morning. She walked back to her car from the cafe she'd just left, a steaming latte clutched in one hand. It felt strange, finally having a day off around the holidays. Apparently, cases were being solved faster than they were coming in. She hadn't had a serious case in the last three days! She figured she'd check in at the station anyway, just in case. Getting in her car and starting it, it only took a few minutes to get there. When she stepped out of the elevator, she paused and looked around in disbelief.

Wreaths of all sizes, a few mini Christmas trees, stockings, ornaments, fake snow, holly, garlands in different colors, a baby's cradle, crosses, a menorah, and things she couldn't even begin to describe were everywhere. It was astonishing and a bit unnerving at the same time.

"Detective Decker!" was followed by an enthusiastic embrace from a beaming Ella. "Like what I've done with the place?" she asked after letting go. Chloe surveyed the room once more.

"Yeah! It- *shifts her gaze* It looks great…" Chloe replied distractedly. Ella followed her gaze to a certain finely dressed man with dark hair, sharp eyes, and smile lines, who was leaning over a case file and circling things.

"He's been solvin' cases left and right. He hasn't stopped all week. It's why you've got the day off."

"Has he slept or gone home at all?" The newbie shrugged.

"I wouldn't know. He hasn't really talked to anyone lately, which is pretty weird. He hasn't even bothered Dan like he usually would."

"Chloe!" Dan walked over to his ex with a warm smile. "Isn't today your day off? Now that Lucifer's finally taking things seriously he might put you out of a job," he joked.

"Haha, Dan. How long has he been like this?" she asked worriedly. Don't get her wrong, she was glad that justice was being served this fast. However, a person doesn't bury themselves in work unless something was seriously wrong.

"Best I can tell? The last three days. But hey, he's not my partner." Concerned, she approached her partner, who suddenly stood up, making a sound of triumph, and laid the case file down on the desk. That's when he turned and found himself face to face with the blonde.

"Detective! Nice of you to drop by, but I've got this under control. Feel free to spend the day off with your spawn at home." She picked up the abandoned file and skimmed it briefly before looking back at him.

"What's going on with you, Lucifer?" He gave her a puzzled look that she could see right through.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Usually, whenever we're on a case, you're never serious unless it'll benefit you to be. You're only focused half the time and we never get things done this fast." He flashed her his usual hearty smirk.

"Are you complaining about me being productive? I'm basically doing your job for you and you're unhappy about it? I'll never understand you humans…" She was going to ignore that last comment.

"I'm not complaining, I'm concerned. When's the last time you went back to LUX, or slept for that matter?"

"Well, I don't necessarily need to sleep if that's what you're worried about. Though if it would make you feel better, three and a half days." She stared at him in shock before slapping him upside the head and, since it was Chloe, the blow actually hurt. "Ow!"

"I hope that hurt," she growled.

"What the bloody Hell was that for?"

"You don't get any sleep for three days and you're asking me why I'm mad?!" She raised her hand again before the Devil jumped out of the way, bumping into Ella, who he greeted kindly. "Are you even- I'm not even going to ask that."

"Human? I've tried to tell you that I'm-"

"The Devil, so you've said. *sighs* Go home, Lucifer. Let me handle this one." He smirked again.

"I've already solved it, but you're welcome to come along for the punishment." Lucifer started heading towards the elevator, making Chloe throw her hands up in frustration. Ella gave her an apologetic smile.

"He's in too deep. I don't know what else to tell ya." She replaced her earbuds and walked back into her lab. Before he could get a head start, Chloe sprinted to the elevator, catching the door just in time.

"Ah! Come to join me after all, Detective?"

"Shut up. *almost smiles* Who's our suspect?" Lucifer pressed the ground floor button.

"A nurse Allison Davis, guilty of first degree murder of seven people. Apparently, all blame had been directed at the good Dr. Ellsworth, and it all made sense. He was the one in charge of handling all the prescriptions and amounts. He was the one who personally administered the medicine while Ms. Davis watched. Every day the doctor wasn't in, however, she would handle the medicine, and that's when the patients started having horrible side-effects."

"Then why is the blame on the doctor?" The elevator doors opened and the two walked out of the station and into the parking lot.

"Well, when the doctor returned, everything went back to normal. Everyone assumed the side-effects were caused by a rookie nurse who didn't know what she was doing. About two weeks later-"

"Four died while three ended up in a coma after the doctor administered their medicine, the same day, ironically, the nurse called in sick."

"Exactly. Then, two days after that, the coma patients died as well. According to the autopsy reports, there was no poison in them, no illegal substances, and it wasn't an overdose. It didn't sit well with me, so I paid the doctor a visit."

"Let me guess," she interrupted, getting into her car, "You asked him what his deepest desires were."

"Predictable, yes? He told me that it was to find the "universal cure for all illnesses and cancer." How naive does that sound?"

"Almost as naive as you being Satan," she replied. He huffed before getting into the passenger's seat and closing the door.

"For the last time, I am the devil! We're going to Floyd Memorial Hospital by the way. So, I questioned him with my abilities further and he said that there'd been a new drug in development that would make medicines and antibiotics work twice as fast. He'd been the developer, but it hadn't quite been cleared yet. Our lovely nurse had called him the day before he came back, before the two weeks, and asked if she could add it to the medicines of the patients. He, of course, told her to go ahead, or so she said when she was first interviewed." Chloe started the car and pulled out of the lot, picking up where Lucifer left off.

"But, since they hadn't tested the new version and gotten it approved, they didn't know what the drug would do."

"And it was undetectable to every scanner, so it wouldn't show up in the autopsies if it did do something. Instead of accelerating the effects of the medicine-"

"It accelerated the progress of whatever was making them sick-"

"Practically killing them in essence. Exactly." He shot her a shit eating grin. "See what happens when we actually work together?"

"You mean when you work by yourself?"

"Well, no. I approached the case as I believed you would and then, when I didn't know what else to do, approached it my way. We did it together, just not directly or in the physical sense." The detective shook her head with a soft smile.

"You're unbelievable, you know that?"

" *returns smile* I do my best." The rest of the ride was spent in a comfortable silence, Chloe behind the wheel and Lucifer levitating his coin between his fingers. Neither knew this, but both were thinking the same thing: they'd missed this; the playful banter, solving cases, and administering a sort of punishment on those who deserve it was all a normalcy in their lives. The two chanced glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking, averting their eyes before the other could notice. Since their little moment back at LUX, things were different between them, in a good way. They always created a calm (Chloe) and joyful (you know who) atmosphere whenever they were in a room together. Lucifer felt the car roll to a stop.

"We're here. Try not to flirt with the suspect this time." The devil felt his ears burn red at the statement.

" *opens car door and gets out after putting away coin* That was once and I didn't know she was going to stab him!"

"Tell that to Amenadiel." A hairdresser accused of mixing some form of acid in her hair dye had stabbed his brother with a pair of steak knives (who knows why she had them)back before Amenadiel had fully fallen. A sister of theirs had returned to heaven in great amounts of pain from the salon and he felt the need to intervene.

"He forgave me. Besides, the wounds were gone the next day." The two walked into the hospital and headed for the front desk.

"Which I still don't understand by the way. No one heals that fast."

"Unless you're-"

"An angel or a demon, right. And he's your angel brother while Maze is your, what, you demon protector? Why is it so hard to open up to me?"

"It's *frustrated huff* It's complicated, Detective, and I've already opened up about things I wouldn't dare tell anyone else, yet you refuse to believe me."

"I can't believe your biblical family, life, just- everything," Chloe told him.

"Can't or won't?" he responded, turning to the redhead at the desk. "Hello there, dear. We're looking for a Ms. Allison Davis. She's the nurse under a Dr. Ellsworth?" She batted her bottle-green eyes at hi and nodded, examining his figure.

" *bites her lip* I don't know what you want with that ugly bitch when I'm right here, waiting for you." She had a panicked, wide eyed look on her face after realizing what she'd just said.

"Well, *glances at nametag* Janice, I'd love to see what you have to offer, but, unfortunately, I'm on duty and *blows out a breath* not available. Bloody Hell, I never thought I'd hear those words come out of my mouth." Chloe gave him a surprised look. He shot her a wink and turned back to the redhead. "So, you must hear things about Allison if you're the sly little fox I think you are. Tell me, What's the dirty little secret she's hiding?" Janice's face held that familiar expression of not being able to resist him.

"She… she did something to… that… I shouldn't say…"

"So you're protecting her then?"

"Ugh! No! I can't stand the little piece of-" She stopped herself before she could go on an angry tirade.

"Hmm… I didn't think so. Come on. You can tell me anything, darling. You know you want to." Chloe rolled her eyes, ignoring the slightest pang of jealousy she felt.

"Well, everyone was saying how… Allison was having an affair with the doctor."

"Oo, interesting! That I did not expect. Anything else?"

"Allison… She put something in the medicine. I overheard a call between her and Dr. Ellsworth. She said something like, "Let them be test subjects. I'm sure you got it right this time." He told her no, and she hung up angry. She took a bottle out of secure storage and added it to the medicines anyway. I decided to go in, lied about needing to get some penicillin for another doctor."

"And you didn't tell the police this when they pulled everyone for questions? Why?" Detective Decker inquired.

"I thought Allison would find out. She always seems to know and hear about everything that goes on around here."

"And so do you," the fallen angel observed. "Now, all we want is the room she's in." She typed a few things on her computer.

"Second floor, last door on the right, room 210. Are… Are you sure that's… all you want?" She asked coyly.

"Yes, we're very sure," Chloe interrupted, annoyed. Lucifer smirked and thanked her, heading towards the stairs.

"In case she knows we're here for her, and I have a feeling she does," he said. Chloe took the elevator, begrudgingly, while Lucifer made his way up the steps. On the second flight, he ran into a skittish blonde who yelped at the contact. "Well, Ms. Davis. I was just on my way up to see you." She gasped before brandishing a scalpel and sinking it deep into Lucifer's right howled in pain, because of course Chloe had to be here the one case he got hurt, as she sprinted past him and out the front doors. He extracted the medical tool from his thigh and chased her, unlocking the detective's car with keys he may or may not have pickpocketed from her. Starting it, he sped after the nurse, applying pressure to the stab wound until it started to heal.

"Meanwhile, Chloe was looking through the somewhat abandoned patient's room on the second floor. The room had apparently fallen into misuse a while back until Dr. Ellsworth asked to use it as an office of sorts. A desk surrounded by boxes of papers and manilla folders, filing cabinets, and bookshelves was pushed to one side while another similar, though not nearly as crowded, desk was pushed to the other. A lone hospital bed holding an unconscious patient resided in the back of the room, pushed as out of sight as possible within the space. The heart monitor beside it beeped steadily, quietly. Beside the more crowded desk stood a lab table. On top of it was a beaker that needed to be washed and a drip bottle filled with a somewhat clear blue-ish liquid.

"What in-?" she asked herself, examining the notebook beside the bottle. Messily scrawled formulas and equations littered each page she flipped through, each ending up next to the same word: failed. The second to last entry was listed as a success until she turned the page to see that he'd written decline in vitals, internal hemorrhaging, brain damage, NOT safe for patient use. The handwriting seemed rushed and the entry was dated a month ago. Beneath it was a small note in different handwriting. Last test. If it fails, project will be shut down. The date was the day the doctor had been arrested. Chloe looked from the drip bottle to the patient's IV bag and back. She quickly put two and two together, caught between two hard choices. On one hand, this drug could cure the patient since their vital signs had been recorded as increasing for the last few weeks. Then again, this is human experimentation and could be another failure. But if she disconnected the IV bag, the patient could die as well. Luckily, a text from Lucifer kept her from having to make that choice.

She bloody stabbed me! Hope you don't mind. I borrowed your car. I'll give it back, I promise. We're a few miles south in a back street neighborhood. Chloe patted down and emptied her pockets. When did he…? "Lucifer, I'm going to kill you," she muttered, grabbing the notebook and taking one last look at the patient. It felt wrong leaving them, but something told her to wait it out, so she listened. He flipped the lights back off and silently closed the door behind her, hoping her decision didn't lead to another death and that her partner wasn't bleeding out in her car in the middle of nowhere.

XxX

For a rookie nurse, Allison Davis was pretty good at weaving through traffic and drifting around street corners. It made the devil wonder if she was into illegal street racing along with human experimentation. He knew the city though, taking a back street rarely driven over into the back of a neighborhood, cutting her off before she could get any further. She slammed down on her brakes, skidding to a halt just before crashing into a lamp post. She quickly leaped out of her car and made a break for it, going no more than a few steps before he stopped her in her tracks.

"Going somewhere?" he asked bitterly, dropping the scalpel and kicking it towards her. He turned and typed out a quick text to Chloe before discreetly putting it back in his phone, recording the conversation about to take place. "I believe we didn't finish our conversation earlier. She scrambled towards the scalpel and wielded it menacingly.

"I'm warning you, I'm not afraid to use this!" she yelled, looking like a crazed mad scientist, frizzy hair, lopsided glasses, and all, without the lab coat.

"Oh, by all means. *stands with arms out, inviting her* No one's stopping you. Now, why did you kill those patients? Was it because of a grudge? Was it something against the patients? Both?" She averted her eyes at that statement. "Oo. This just got more interesting! Now, look at me, darling," he said lowly. "What would you get out of all this? What did you desire that drove you to this?" As soon as he said the magic word, her face contorted in confusion before settling on a hurt, upset expression.

"I-I loved him. Damien- Dr. Ellsworth - he… He said he felt the same, but he was so consumed with caring for the patients that he basically ignored me! I never wanted him in jail accused of murder!" She froze, wide eyes and mouth about to continue talking. "I- I didn't mean to say that…"

"If there's anything I hate, it's a liar. You wanted him gone because he basically rejected you, didn't you? It reminds me of a friend of my own. Her ex cared more about his job than the wife he didn't deserve and their offspring. Such a shame…"

"He deserves it!" she suddenly shouted at him. "He deserves every second of rotting in that cell! He lied to me!"

"No. He was being truthful, but he didn't have his priorities straight. He deserves to be a free man-"

"What do you know?!" she shrieked shrilly, plunging the scalpel into his chest. He didn't even flinch or bat an eyelash, just stared in boredom and anger.

"I know much more than you think. Much more," he growled. She looked at him in terror and made the fatal mistake of staring into his eyes. Raging Hellfire and horrors beyond her darkest nightmares stared back. She stumbled backwards, muttering incoherently under her breath. What Lucifer could catch was, "No. No no no no no.", "Devil. Not real. Not real.", and, "I don't wanna go to Hell. Please. Please."

"Don't worry, sweetheart. You won't be heading down there. You'll be heading downtown. *pulls scalpel out of chest and watches stab wound slowly heal*" Pulling out his phone, he began texting Chloe about his success when a cruiser stopped a few houses down from them. He felt a slight sting in his chest where the scalpel had been moments before. Chloe, again. She honestly had the worst timing of anyone, human and immortal, he'd ever known. "Ah, Detective. I have a full confession *holds up phone* on here." He hit stop recording and threw it to her. She had a bewildered and slightly impressed look on her face after it finished playing. After getting his phone back, he said, "Case closed. *smiles gently* So, debriefing and then you can spend the day with your spawn, yes?" He held out her keys and she cautiously took them. She watched as another cruiser slowed to a stop and put Allison in their backseat, handcuffed.

"It- How do you do it? The weird desires thing, taking 6 bullets unprotected and standing up like it was nothing, solving this many cases on your own, dying and then coming back…" 'And every other baffling, unexplainable thing you've ever done,'

"I will continue to tell you the same answer until you believe me, Detective." She laughed exasperatedly, knowing where this was going.

"Say what you want, but you are not, and will never be, the devil," she insisted, getting into her car.

"You'll believe me one day. The day you do-"

"Will be the day I'm admitted to a psych ward. It's not going to happen, Lucifer."

"So you say. So, how are you and the spawn-"

"My spawn has a name."

" *sigh* How are you and Beatrice spending the holidays this year?" Chloe glanced at him, noticing his slightly negative tone.

"Well," she began slowly, "We were going to get together with Dan and do what we normally do: open presents, go out for dinner, spend the time together and just… try to be a family this year…"

With a questioning look, he inquired, "What do you mean this year?" She took a deep breath and shook her head as they pulled into the station's parking lot a few minutes later.

"A few years back, *gets out of car, followed by Lucifer* Dan left the house on Christmas after he got a call from the station about a case that… had incriminating evidence against his reputation, let's say. He stayed home long enough to see Trixie unwrap her fist present before leaving. He never came back that night to take bus out to dinner. *nods softly* He shows up the next morning saying that it was a false alarm and, after finding out who the evidence was really against, he went out for drinks with everyone left at the station. Of course, he took us out to dinner the next day, but we didn't talk. Heck, we could hardly look at each other."

"Well, there are reasons I address him as Detective Douche. Why not add another to the list, hmm?" They shared soft smiles with each other.

"What about you? I know that you and your family aren't on the best of terms at the moment, but do you get together on Christmas?" He gave her a disbelieving laugh.

"Oh, sure. Let's all just take the stairway to my personal Hell to celebrate the birthday of my least favorite brother. Let's have all the angels send death glares at me as soon as I make my presence known!" he finished loudly, taking a deep breath to compose himself, eyes briefly flashing crimson. "Forgive me for yelling, Detective. It's just a-"

"Sore subject. I get it. It's really personal. So… what, do you just host a Christmas party at LUX every year and drown yourself in women and wine?" They enter the elevator. "And you still have Maze and Amenadiel, right?"

"Heh. I suppose, if they aren't cuddling together by a fire and telling war stories that is." She raised an eyebrow.

"When did they get back together?"

"A tall tale for another time, Detective," he replied as they walked into the precinct to a standing ovation. Both were shocked and a bit overwhelmed, though only Lucifer was visibly showing that. "I'll allow you to take the applause then, shall I?" Lucifer said to her quietly, suddenly uncomfortable in the overjoyed atmosphere.

"What-? Lucifer! What am I supposed to do?" she asked frantically. He gave her an honestly unsure look before disappearing back into the elevator, figuring that Chloe could handle the debriefing. She made her way through the sea of officers to Dan, who looked genuinely impressed. "Okay, what's going on here?"

"What, you haven't heard? You and Lucifer just solved the last case. Our department has nothing to do at this point. This is why I told you to just head home and spend the day with Trixie."

"Speaking of Trixie, are we still going to spend Christmas together this year? She made you this… I don't even know how to describe it. She worked on it for weeks and she wants to see the look on your face when she gives it to you…" she trailed off, seeing the remorseful look on his face. "But you're not coming this year, are you?" Dan shook his head, not being able to meet Chloe's gaze.

"I told my parents that I would spend the holidays with them out of state, somewhere it actually snows, away from all of… *motions around him* This. LA, I mean. We've been planning for months." She had an indifferent look on her face, arms crossed and brows slightly creased.

"And it just occured to you to tell me this? A week before Christmas?" He tried to interrupt, but she cut him off. "No! I don't want to hear any of your excuses. Would you have even told me if i hadn't brought the subject up?" Her question was answered by silence. She nodded. "Typical, and yet I expected better from you."

"Chloe, it's not like that-"

"Then what's it like, Dan?! … Because it seems like you don't care about the rest of your family as much as you say you do." Angrily, she walked away, heading for the elevator and leaving a crestfallen dan behind. She almost stomped out into the parking lot, too busy seething to notice her partner leaning against her car.

"Was the celebration of… whatever… that bad?" She jumped and shot him a glare before apologizing.

"No, but *sigh* Dan just cancelled Christmas basically. He won't even be in California because he's going with his parents to God knows where." Lucifer grimaced at the mention of his father.

"What will the two of you do then?" Chloe shrugged, getting back into her car for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "You can't let Detective Douche ruin your holidays. I won't allow it!" She smiled at that.

"Hmm… Tell you what…" she began, motioning for him to get in.

A/N: So, how's it looking so far? An AO3 reader mentioned the show in a comment and I decided to watch some episodes. Instantly hooked. It's absolutely amazing. It's my first foray into the fandom, so I'm a bit skeptical, but… What do you guys think?