Epilogue

Chloe awoke to the tempting smell of fresh roasted coffee. Her mouth felt dry and her stomach complained loudly with a low rumble of hunger. The leather cushion pressed against her face felt too hot and sticky, not comfortable at all.

She missed her bed.

"If I had any supplies in I'd rustle you something up." Lucifer cheerfully called out, he was stood over by the bar, still draped in his dressing gown, tending to two tall coffee mugs.

Chloe twisted around to peer at him, holding a hand over her mouth as she yawned widely. The conversations from the previous day crowded for her attention but one vivid thought flew high above all the rest.

O-kay... so he's the Devil...

She cast about for her coat as her heart gave a sideways lurch.

"Leaving so soon?" Lucifer paused mid-stir, arching a brow in her direction.

"I need to go..." Chloe muttered, in the cold light of day the revelation of his identity felt ridiculous. "I... uh... Trixie needs me... I need to go." she shrugged on her coat and cast about for her keys. what she needed was a little fresh air, a little normality. Where were the damn keys? She threw her hands up irritably and muttered "life goes on... you know?"

She really did have things that she needed to do.

"Ah of course, you wouldn't want to trust Douche with the spawn for too long, wise choice." Lucifer smiled, not bothered in the least by her sudden rush to leave. Last night she had stayed and this morning she was talking to him as if nothing had really changed. It was the best outcome he could ever have hoped for.

He shuffled out from behind the bar and handed her a cup. "For the road Detective?" He limped past her and perched on the arm of the sofa. He glanced down at his foot thoughtfully. His celestial healing was quite shy around the detective and he hadn't expected the pain to linger so annoyingly. What he needed was a little time alone to just heal properly and get back to his old self. "I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"What?" Chloe blinked.

Lucifer shrugged "Well, I'll see you at work."

Chloe just peered at him with blank confusion.

"Work Detective" He leant back slightly and calmly snatched up her keys from between two cushions on the sofa. "You just said, life goes on? and so too does death I presume?"

He planted the keys into her open palm as she stared at him for a long silent beat.

"I expect it won't take long for the next crime to rear it's ugly head hm?" He sounded almost gleeful at the prospect. "I'll see you on the next case Detective, it's what we do."

Chloe felt dazed at the idea of work. But she had been right, life did go on. It had to. "Yeah, sure... of course... I really should go." She took a gulp of the coffee and it scalded her tongue, the scour of heat going some way to waking her up.

The Devil and the Detective? Is that what they were now?

She shook her head at the idea and blinked as she handed him back the cup, turning swiftly for the elevator.

O-kay... she could do this, couldn't she?

After all, life would go on anyway, whether she was ready for it or not.

.

.

.

A/N: The end. I hope you enjoyed the story! I'm really pleased to have gotten to the point where I can call this complete. I always wanted to get to the point where Chloe knew everything and she had navigated her way through the worst of the shocks.

I've got a follow-on piece in mind, where we see the fallout from the revelations on a broader scale as Chloe and Lucifer have to deal with how the truth affects some of the other people that they know too. How their interactions might change and there is even the thin ghost of a crime plot. So stay tuned.

Thank you for sticking with me this far ;)