Prologue

So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?"

(Hebrews 13:6, NIV)

.

Then…

.

"Lucifer! Look! I got a phone! Mommy got me a phone! Now I can snapchat with my friends!" The offspring was bouncing up and down excitedly, waving something lime green in Lucifer's face.

"Detective! It seems like you have seen sense after all!", said Lucifer with an appreciating smirk – after having dodged the erratically moving electronic device and moved out of Trixie's reach.

"Can I have your number?", asked Trixie.

"Whatever for, child?", Lucifer asked back, wearing a genuinely bewildered expression.

"Trixie, honey, maybe Lucifer doesn't want to give out his number", Chloe suggested carefully, although privately she thought he could quit being a clueless dick for once and simply give out his number.

"For when I need to call you?", Trixie told Lucifer, speaking very slowly. "You're my friend and you're mommy's partner, so I should have your number for when I'm in trouble. Maze, I need your number too!" She beamed at the demon.

"Well, duh!", said Maze, took the phone from Trixie's hands and immediately typed it in. "And if you're in trouble, Trix, you call me. Not this useless idiot" She jerked a thumb towards Lucifer. "Got it?"

"I beg your pardon?", said Lucifer, sounding mortally offended but both Trixie and Maze ignored him.

"Well, duh! But what if you're out bounty hunting and can't come?", asked Trixie. Maze conceded this with a nod and a fair-enough expression.

"Oh, give me that! The Devil isn't useless!", interjected Lucifer gruffly, grabbed the phone and swiftly typed in his number.

He missed the smug grin and wink Maze gave Trixie before she retreated to her room. Chloe simply shook her head but couldn't entirely hide her smile.

Lucifer had finished with Trixie's phone and handed it back to the girl. It had taken fairly long, considering he had presumably just typed in a number, perhaps called himself, and Chloe made a mental note to make sure he hadn't included any inappropriate social media contacts. That was, any social media contacts of his at all.

"Though if you were in real trouble you'd probably not be able to use your phone anyway, that's the trouble with trouble", said Lucifer, fiddling with his cufflinks for the umpteenth time today.

The little girl looked at him apprehensively.

"What do I do then?", Trixie wanted to know, before Chloe could tell Lucifer not to scare her daughter.

Lucifer put his hands in his pockets and looked at the ceiling, pondering the question.

"Well, I suppose you could always pray to me", he speculated.

"Does that work?" Trixie frowned at him.

"Of course it does. I used to be an angel, I can be prayed to. Can't answer though, because you are not. Three guesses as to who came up with this moronic system", he said and rolled his eyes.

Chloe rolled her eyes too, albeit for a very different reason.

"Trixie, this is not-", she began but her daughter wasn't listening.

"So if I'm in trouble and I think about you really, really hard, you'll hear me?", she asked.

"Yes, that is literally what I just said, child, aren't you listening?", said Lucifer somewhat gruffly.

"And you'll come save me?", said Trixie timidly.

Lucifer opened his mouth to say 'no' on principle, then shut it again and actually thought about the answer.

"I suppose I would, child", he answered finally, to his own surprise.