So I lied. I lied to Chloe, one of my parents' closest friends. I am not proud of myself, I swear to you I am not, but I really thought I did the right thing considering the conversation I overheard last night. Letting Chloe Decker know that my uncle was back in town would have been torture for her, or so I sincerely believed. Time would of course prove both me and my uncle wrong. We were kind of alike in that regard.

"So," said Chloe a bit confused after hearing me awkwardly trying to explain my partens' mysterious absence. "So your mother, Linda, has completely forgotten that we were going to catch a movie this evening. This after she has been pestering me about a 'girls night out' for the last six months?"

Yeah, putting it like that it did not at all sound like my mother, who usually remembered every tiny little detail like which socks I was wearing to school ("Change those right now," she often yelled at me if I tried to wear the same pair two days in a row) or if my dad in a soft moment promised five months before to do all the dishes on Christmas.

Like she had been reading my mind Chloe suddenly pushed passed me in the doorway and entered the house,

"There is something you are not telling me, Charlie," she said. "And don't you try to hide it, I know when something is up. I'm a cop, remember?"

She began searching the rooms on the ground floor like she thought my parents were hiding in there or something.

"Tell me the truth, Charlie," she said and looked at me sternly. "Is your mother still angry at me? For eating all the cake at your party I mean."

I tried to assure her that no, mum was not angry with her, but Chloe kept on going.

"Please, please tell her that I didn't mean to eat up the whole thing. I was just having a really bad day. I had just found out that they are going to do a reboot of Hot tub high school and wanted me to play the grandmother. The grandmother, can you believe it?"

"Hot tub high school?" I asked confused.

"Yeah, it is an old movie," Chloe shrugged. "But DON'T google it. Please, then your parents would never forgive me for sure."

She paced back and forth in our living room for another couple of minutes before she at last believed me when I said that my mother was not lurking in the shadows, waiting for her to be on her way.

"I'm sorry, Charlie," she said just before she departed. "I don't know what got in to me. I just had this feeling that something was up... Anyway, tell your mother to call me, would you?"

I saw her disappear down the street, wishing too late that I had told her the truth.

Barely five minutes after Chloe's departure my parents and Lucifer came crashing through the very same front door.

My uncle was in an excellent mood.

"Champagne for everyone," he demanded joyfully, his white teeth shining bright and his expensive suit hardly even ruffled.

My parents' expressions on the other hand were another story, bruises covering both their faces, clothes torn in a dozen different places. To my horror I even noticed splashes of blood on my father's shirt but since he is an angel and therefore can't be hurt I figured it has to be someone else's. Before I had the chance to say anything, however, my mother exclaimed:

"Oh, I had forgotten how fun that was!"

"Me too," my father agreed after which they both sniggerad like teenagers.

Lucifer who by this time had helped himself to the liquor cabinet, raised a glass saying:

"Another demon bites the dust, as my friend Freddie M. would have put it."

"Amen," my parents said unanimously, joining him with their own glasses in hand.

To get the full story out of them proved near impossible at this point so I just went with the celebration, no further questions asked. All too soon, however, it was time for my uncle to go back home.

"Hell awaits me" he said and drained the last of the liquor. "But trust me I will be back before you know it. And..." He pointed straight at me when he said this. "...on your next birthday, Charlie, I will be here in person, I promise. I am your godfather after all. A question, though, when is the suitable age to bring someone to a strip club for the first time? 14? 15?"

He barely had the time to duck before mum had a swing at him, her face flashing red with anger.

"Oh Luci, when will you ever learn?" dad groaned hiding his face in his palms.

They were all still bickering about it when suddenly the front door flew open anew and a breathless Chloe reentered the scene.

"Charlie, did I leave my car keys here..." she began but the words caught in her throat as her eyes first spotted mum and dad and then... Lucifer.

The room grew very, very still.

"Detective," my uncle breathed, utter panic gleaming in his eyes. There was no escape for him. Not now.

"You're back," Chloe said stunned. She shook her head disbelievingly. "When... For how long... Are you back for good or...?"

"I need... need to leave," my uncle stuttered. He swallowed. "Right now actually."

Chloe's eyes darkened. In three long strides she had crossed the living room floor to the place where he stood, her hands turned into fists. She began pounding him in the chest almost immediately.

"How dare you come back and not tell me? Not a word?! My god, Lucifer, it has been twelve years. Twelve..."

In shock I watched how my uncle did nothing to stop her ongoing assault. Rather he carefully put his arms around her and when she started to sobb the fight gradually transformed into a hug. By then the tears were streaming down my uncle's cheeks as well.

"Maybe we should give the two of them some privacy," my mother muttered but no sooner had she spoken the words before a sudden breeze swept through the room. I caught a short glimpse of angel wings spreading out and then they were gone, both Lucifer and Chloe.

They did not go far, however, landing just outside in our backyard. We continued watching them through the windows of course. My uncle and Chloe stood very closely together out on the patio, cheek against cheek, moving slightly from side to side like they were caught in a slow dance. High above them the stars glistened in the night sky, the soft light of the moon reflecting in the huge, white wings on my uncle's back.

And I finally knew that I had nothing to do with the sadness in Chloe Deckers eyes. Well, not more than say my parents or Mazikeen or anyone else that loosely reminded her of him; Lucifer, the man who had stolen her heart and brought it down to hell.