InsaneJournal

WHO: Lucifer Dean Winchester, & Meri Winchester (with a guest appearance by Emmanuelle)
WHAT: Claire is dead. Lucifer sends his condolences.
WHEN: March 14th
WHERE: The Winchester House
RATING: PG-13
STATUS: Log; COMPLETE

Mommy was gone. That was all Meri could think as she sat quietly at the small, princess-themed plastic picnic table near the sandbox in her backyard. Tears blurred her eyes. She blinked rapidly and sniffled softly, her gaze dropping to her shoes rather than continue to stare, resolutely, at the table top. Mommy’s gone and she might not come back. Not ever. A tiny cry sounded from in the back of Meri’s throat. She clamped a hand over her mouth and sucked in a sharp breath through her nose. A heartbeat passed, then two. Her hand fell away from her lips and she remained composed. Mommy had to come back, she reasoned. She just had to. She had kids. She had people that needed her for things. She was important. Besides, if nothing else, Meri clung to the knowledge that Uncle Gabe would make sure of it. He’d get his powers back and he’d bring her back, if he had to. Meri was absolutely certain of that fact if nothing else at all, at the moment. Of course, that still didn’t help her daddy or her brother at the moment. Mommy was still gone and daddy was going to keep saying he was fine in a funny way and Jack was going to stay sad and pretend he wasn’t until she was back again. Nothing Meri did was going to change that, nothing anybody did would. And that was why she was outside instead of inside, with them. Because she couldn’t help and she wanted to. With a frown and a heavy sigh, Meri propped her head up with her hands on either side, and with a huff announced everything she found wrong with the world at the moment. Her mother’s untimely death, the ache in her heart, the desire to help her family but not knowing how, all of it was breathed out in one surely, girlish whisper. “It’s not fair.” “Life rarely is, kid.” The death of Claire Winchester had been an event that had impacted the whole city pretty hard. Friends, family, it seemed that one made quite a lot of each of those the longer that they were about, and Claire had been one of the people who had been here both consistently and the longest. And while in all honesty, Lucifer couldn’t really bother himself with being at all concerned with how Sammy’s older brother was coping, his curiosity had gotten the better of him with their daughter. There had been something altogether familiar in his conversations with Meri. She was a rebellious spirit which he could find himself rather easily empathizing with, and as he approached the yard to the Winchester house, those word pulled at the bitterness in his chest as his mind ticked over everything in this world that wasn’t fair, every injustice that was suffered, and every lie that his dear Father felt it necessary to tell to his most beloved. “They tell you it’ll be sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, and all you get is pain, disappointment, and loss,” He said, sighing as he paused at the fence and glanced back at the house, suppressing the rage that welled up in him at not being able to tell anything from a glance that normally would have told him all. It really, really wasn’t fair. “Not really feeling up to family grief bonding at the moment, huh?” Meri had hesitated for the briefest of moments when Lucifer had first spoken. She hadn’t gotten caught, talking to him before, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk it a second time. A quick glance toward the house, however, assured her that her daddy hadn’t popped up at the door already knowing who she was talking to. She looked back to the currently human Archangel with a frown. “Nobody said nothing about sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. That’s dumb,” she announced. “I don’t care about any of that stuff. I just want my mommy back.” She bit her lip then, looking to her lap and staying silent for a long moment. It wasn’t until he asked about family grief bonding that she looked back up, slowly meeting Lucifer’s gaze before shaking her head solemnly. “Nobody’s doing nothing in there. Jack’s just staring at the wall and daddy’s staring at the tv but not really watching it. They keep saying they’re fine.” She sighed softly. “Mommy’d know what to do to make ‘em cheer up,” Meri said matter-of-factly, her voice wavering at the end. “She really would.” Lucifer had almost clarified what he meant by sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, but in the end, decided that it really wasn’t worth it. The kid knew how bad things were at the moment, how they had gotten bad suddenly and violently and for absolutely no clear reason beyond shit happens so the point he was trying to make was already well understood without his metaphors having to make sense, “Unfortunately, I’m not exactly capable at the moment,” Lucifer said with a quiet shrug. “Otherwise, it would be a request I’d be happy to grant.” Not that it would be needed, otherwise, but he knew that she already knew that. But it was hardly as though the offer, as fruitless as it was, would hurt anything. Not like what the elder Winchester seemed to be doing, at least. Lifting his gaze back to the house, Lucifer’s expression became solemn, a slight mix of sadness and irritation, before it turned back to Meri. “Fathers are sometimes neglectful in the ways that hurt the most,” He said. “Even when they don’t necessarily mean to be.” If Dean wasn’t going to do his job, that was fine by him. More opportunity for him. It was obvious to anyone with two eyes and a brain that Meri was ridiculously close, and extremely loyal, to her daddy. However at the moment, she had to admit that she was a teensy, tiny little bit frustrated that he really wasn’t making things better. Sure, he couldn’t bring mommy back but he could at least make it a little bit easier by talking about it. Or assuring her that of course mommy was going back as soon as everybody had their powers back again. Or something. But he wasn’t. Meri’s gaze slid from the house back to Lucifer and she physically turned, so she could look at him more directly without worrying about the house as much. In a way, she was accepting that daddy probably wasn’t going to realize she was talking to someone she shouldn’t and more than likely wasn’t going to step outside anytime soon. She might as well make the chat she was having count, especially as something downright horrifying had just occurred to her. Uncle Gabe had rules he had to follow. Sometimes, he couldn’t just bring people back. So if he got his powers back and still couldn’t bring mommy back, Meri knew there needed to be another way. A speculative gleam entered her eyes as she peered up at Lucifer for a long moment before finally speaking. “What if she’s not back when you can do stuff again?” she asked, speaking slowly at first, then sitting up a bit and throwing her all into the idea that had just surged into her mind moments before. “Will you still do it then? Cause Uncle Gabe sometimes can’t cause he’ll get in trouble if he does, but you don’t have to follow those same kinda rules, right?” It was a slow, appreciative smile which spread across Lucifer’s features as he shifted forward, kneeling in front of the fence so that he and Meri were at an easier eye level before giving a definitive nod at her question. She was a smart kid, too. Rebellious, adventurous, troublemaking with an intelligence that deviated from the standard line and seemed to search for the exceptions to the rule. A few decades, and she would be a force to reckon with. It was better he get the tiny hunter spawn on his side now before she take up the position of her father and get in possession of an angel killing blade. “My rules are my own,” Lucifer said with a playful grin and a twinkle of mirth on his eyes. His Mother had said that he wasn’t allowed to kill anyone while he was here. She hadn’t said anything about him bringing someone back. “And even if I would get in trouble for it, I wouldn’t care. If she’s not back by the time this curse is lifted, she will be soon after.” And, who knows, maybe doing that would buy him a little good will with Sammy’s big bro as well. “Not that I would see Gabe being taken to task for fulfilling the request, but it’s always good to have a foolproof back-up plan in place in these sort of situations.” Meri didn’t smile but she did seem to relax ever so slightly, clearly reassured that at least someone would be making sure her mommy came back sooner or later. She shifted a little on the hard plastic stool before finally giving up and standing, climbing onto the table and sitting down on it instead. With her knees bent, she rested her elbows on them and propped her chin up in her hand. “Uncle Gabe didn’t bring back daddy when I asked,” she said finally. “And I asked him extra nice, too. But he still couldn’t.” She wasn’t upset about it anymore, just said it very matter-of-fact. “Sometimes he just can’t,” she tacked on after a heartbeat or two. Then she paused, seemed to consider something for a moment, and with a slight tilt of her head put it to words. “It prob’ly won’t come to that, though, right? Me and Daddy and Jack and Gabby aren’t gonna have to wait that long to see Mommy again, right? Everything’s gonna go back to how it’s s’posed to and she’s just gonna come back, more than likely... right?” Meri sounded almost fearful of his answer. Lucifer had only been here a short time, but it didn’t take a minor deity to pick up on the pattern that this place had. Things went weird. Shit happened. Stuff stopped. Things went back to normal. Rinse and repeat as needed. So it stood to reason that as soon as everyone stopped being dull, boring humans and went back to their normal selves that whomever had suffered at the hands of this weirdness would return. But in truth, Lucifer wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if things were changed up in this situation. Turning everyone into humans was a cruel, heartless trick. Why should he assume that there would be any consideration given for those who had suffered because of it? “More than likely,” He repeated. It probably was what was going to happen, things were going to fall into the exact same pattern, but all the same, there was no sense in omitting the thoughts that he’d had. She’d understand what they meant, he was sure. She might have been a child, but she wasn’t a baby. “But I wouldn’t put it past my dear Uncle to decide to change the rules up at the last minute. So it never hurts to have a back-up plan willing to and capable of circumventing those rules in place.” Meri nodded, chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip for a few seconds. Although she was still very young, and had a very innocent view of the world, she did know that it wasn’t very often someone did something simply because they could. Not unless they were family, which Lucifer wasn’t. And although part of her was worried that merely asking was going to make him change his mind, she still couldn’t help but finally vocalize the thought that had been flickering around in the back of her mind since the moment he’d agreed to bring her mommy back if no one else would or could. “Are you gonna want something if you do it?” she asked. There wasn’t any judgment in her tone, no issue with him expecting payment of some kind. She simply wanted to know what she was getting into and was trying, at her tender age, to figure out the best way to do that when dealing with the Devil himself. “Someone once said, gratitude is its own reward,” Lucifer said, the answer all ready to the question. He would have sensed it coming if he hadn’t been stripped of his abilities, but even without them, it was pretty fair to assume that it would be the one thing that everyone would want to know. He was, after all, notorious for making deals that people could never repay, that always turned out horribly in the end. Never mind that that wasn’t strictly him, but the rumours were still the first thing that always played up in people’s minds when he was involved. “Somehow, I think that’s going to be more than enough in this case. I mean, your Daddy might even have to thank me. How bizarre is that?” For a long moment, Meri didn’t respond. Not because she couldn’t think of something to say. That was hardly ever the case with her. No, more because he had just pointed out something that she hadn’t really thought about, an angle she hadn’t considered even in the slightest. Her daddy. If Lucifer brought her mommy back, her daddy was going to know she’d talked to him. Then he was going to get mad - really, really mad - and probably even yell at her for it. To Meri, there was nothing worse in the entire world than having her daddy mad at her... except, maybe, not having her mommy around. Because honestly she would let her daddy yell at her every single day if it meant he and Jack were happy again because mommy was there. Besides, she reasoned. If he did get mad, she’d just have to get mommy to calm him down like she always did. That figured out, and quite sure that part of the plan would work no matter what, Meri still gave a slight shake of her head. “He’s not gonna thank you,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. She hesitated, studying the ground for a moment then peering slowly up at Lucifer. “But he might not shoot you just for being around. That’s something, right?” “Definitely something,” Lucifer said with a quirk of a grin. It might be small, but it would be progress. It would be the inch that he would need to worm his way in and take up all the rest of the space. “And then maybe you won’t get in trouble for talking to me, and we won’t have to hide out in the backyard to have chats.” “Wouldn’t count on that,” a new voice interjected, the words punctuated by the distinctive sound of a shotgun being loaded. Dean stood at the back door, gun pointed steadily at Lucifer’s head, his face a mask of pure anger. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at his daughter he was so furious, his jaw clenched as he tried to keep his emotions in check. He was so angry he couldn’t see straight, the emotion cutting sharply through the heavy despair that had been overwhelming him in the days since his wife’s death. He knew he was failing terribly as a father lately, but he just couldn’t shake the emptiness he was feeling in Claire’s absence. Still, this pushed that aside, even if only temporarily. “Meredith Noa Winchester,” he said in a forcibly calm tone that did little to hide how truly angry he was, “we don’t have many rules in this house, but you know damn well one of them is that you don’t talk to strangers. And you sure as hell don’t talk to him. Goddamn it, Mere, what the hell were you thinking? No. I don’t want to know what you were thinking. Just get your ass in the house and in your room. You’re grounded...forever. I mean it. You are grounded until you die, which will probably be from boredom because that’s how grounded you’ll be. Are we clear, young lady?” He knew he was being harsh with her, but behind the anger he was terrified. He’d already lost Claire, even if it was only temporary - and there was nothing to say it necessarily was. Sometimes people died and weren’t brought back. It was rare, but it did happen. His wife was gone, possibly forever, and he just couldn’t lose his daughter too. Lucifer scared him, he really did. The angel had nearly taken his brother away from him, and now he was sniffing around his daughter. So, yeah, he was maybe overreacting. But he’d earned that right. “And you,” he told Lucifer, glaring fiercely enough that he wouldn’t have been surprised if the other man burst into flames from the sheer intensity of it. “Get the hell away from my house and stay away from my kid. I’m pretty sure I could get away with shooting you if you don’t, what with you trespassing and bothering my daughter. All I’d need is one parent on that jury, and I’m pretty sure I could manage that.” The second Meri heard her daddy’s angry voice, she’d known she was busted. On her feet in an instant, eyes growing impossibly wide, the little girl swallowed audibly and cast a glance toward him in the vague hope that maybe, just maybe, she could figure out a way to weasel out of the trouble she was in. Then Dean swore four times in a row and, even though it was probably the worst timing ever, Meri still very nearly pointed out that he now owed four whole dollars to the swear jar. That is, until he turned his shotgun onto Lucifer with what looked like every intention of actually shooting him. “Don’t shoot him, daddy!” she exclaimed without even thinking about how that looked or sounded. At least she didn’t immediately place herself between said shotgun and Lucifer, but rather did what she was told - for once - and made a beeline for where her father stood. “We were just talking!” she insisted, large tears already beginning to spill as she peered tearfully up at him. Her tiny face seemed to pinch inward on itself as she tried in vain to keep herself from crying outright, finally managing a loud, wet sniffle as she tacked on in a small voice, “He even said he’d help...” At the sound of Dean’s voice, Lucifer inwardly cursed the dull human senses that he’d been burdened with since the start of this madness. Had he had his own abilities still intact, he would have noticed that the elder Winchester was heading to search out where Meri had wandered off to and vanished before either of them had found themselves in the position that they were. As it was, though, he hadn’t realized what was going on until it was far, far too late to do anything about it. Casting his gaze towards Dean as he stood, taking a step away from the fence and raising his hands in a less than sincere surrender, Lucifer quietly took in the mixture of desperation and anger that he was facing down as Meri attempted to defuse the situation. But as admirable as her attempts were, Lucifer didn’t anticipate this ending in a polite handshake and the pair of them going their separate ways, “Yeah, Dad. We were just talking!” Lucifer echoed after Meri had made the assertion, lifting a bit of a judging eyebrow at Dean as he moved one of his hands down from where they were held just above his head to gesture to Meri. “We were having a perfectly pleasant conversation before you interrupted. I mean, look, you made the kid cry. That’s not very sensitive parenting there, Dean.” Not that he really had much room to talk when it came to sensitive parenting. In most cases, Meri’s wide, tear-filled eyes would have diffused Dean’s anger and had him doing his best to calm her down. But this wasn’t most cases. This was the goddamn devil talking to his daughter and lecturing him on parenting. Lucifer. The guy who despised his own kids and learned from the guy who wrote the book on absent, fuck-up fathers. This time, there wasn’t anything short of Claire rising from the dead and walking into the situation that would calm him down. And he was pretty sure Claire would be cheering for him to shoot Lucifer in that instance. Looking down at his daughter sternly, he pointed back to the house. “Go inside right now,” he told her firmly. “I don’t care what you were doing. For one thing, we do not make deals with the devil. I don’t care what he says he can do. We don’t. And for another, you’re already in so much trouble that there’s not even a word for it, and I can tell you right now that arguing with me isn’t going to help. So go to your room, young lady! That’s not a request.” Turning his attention back to Lucifer, his frown deepened. “And you just shut your mouth,” he said. “I don’t want to hear a thing from you. Just get the hell away from my house and my family or I will use this. Trust me, pal. You do not want to test me on this one.” Meri blinked, temporarily taken aback at the fact that crying hadn’t made things better. She was in more trouble than she’d thought, she realized as her daddy continued to fuss at her while seemingly unaware or simply uncaring of the tearful look she was giving him. Opening her mouth to point out that she hadn’t made a deal necessarily, she let it snap shut a heartbeat later when Dean tacked on that arguing was not helping. With a slight scowl, partially born of frustration at having had her logic derailed by something as simple as ‘I’m the parent’, and partially because it just plain wasn’t fair that she was in trouble for something that hadn’t even been that bad, Meri turned to do as she was told. Although not before casting a quick glance at Lucifer and offering a small, almost too quick to be seen, wave. And then shooting her dad a look as she stalked past him, muttering under her breath how ‘Mommy would understand’ as she made her way inside. She still had no guarantee that he wasn’t going to shoot Lucifer, and still had a whole lot more she wanted to say on the subject, but for now she decided the best way to survive was to do as she was told. There would be wriggle room to do something else later. “You know, you really shouldn’t take this out on her,” Lucifer said after watching Meri go, his gaze shifting back to Dean the second that her tiny back disappeared into the house. “She’s a good kid. Extremely creative. Exceptionally curious. Very open-minded. Though I’ve guessing that last bit came from her mother,” He said before dropping his hands, slipping them into his pockets as he grinned at Dean. “And technically, we didn’t make any deals. A deal would have to include an exchange of some kind. This was more me offering a favor,” He said before shifting his gaze down to the shotgun and then back up to the Winchester. “Do you really have to keep pointing that thing at me? I know you’re upset. Dead wife and all. But I didn’t break any rules. Everyone’s still alive! Eh. Or, at least, not dead by me.” Dean gritted his teeth as his daughter waved to Lucifer before going into the house. It was like she didn’t even care what he thought about this, and that just made him angrier. It wasn’t like he had a baseless dislike for the guy. Lucifer had almost destroyed his brother, had almost destroyed the world, and he had tortured Sam and Adam. Not to mention the fact that Sam was his true vessel had ripped their family apart on so many occasions. Dean’s loyalty to his family was absolute and he would never be all right with Lucifer, not matter what. The guy was a menace. He was a very real threat, and nothing could make him forget that. “Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do,” he said coldly, making no move to lower the shotgun, “and keep away from my daughter, you skeevy creep. You’re right about one thing. She’s a good kid, and all those other things besides. And she’s also my kid. So if I tell you to stay the fuck away from her, you’d better do it. Or I will pull this trigger and I can promise you I won’t miss. Do you really want to test me, Lucy? Because there’s plenty of demons who can tell you just how far I’ll go for my family. Hell, there’s a forty year stint in hell that’ll paint you a pretty clear picture.” He held the gun steady as he looked at the other man. “I don’t care if you asked for anything. I don’t care what you offered. I don’t even care if you genuinely meant it deep down in your twisted little heart. We don’t need your help. My family doesn’t need anything from you except to stay as far away as possible.” The dead wife comment almost had him pulling the trigger right there, but he kept himself in check. For the moment, at least. “Now go,” he growled. “And don’t come back.” “Oh, I can go,” Lucifer said with a smile. “I can go, but I can make no assurances that I won’t come back. After all, this is a public street. And I’m on the public side of the fence. I’m not trespassing. I’m not harassing. And I’m not breaking any of the rules that I was told I had to follow. And in another week or so, I’ll be back to my old self, and I’ll know whenever you’re about again. I’ll know whenever you get anywhere close to this yard, and I’ll just disappear. Just like I have the last few times that I spoke to her,” Lucifer said, grinning as he pivoted in his heel to point himself away from the Winchester house, but glanced back over his shoulder at Dean for one last closing remark. “Because there’s really nothing that you and your little peashooter can do to keep me away.” Dean didn’t even think. He’d been on the edge for days and Lucifer’s words were the metaphorical straw that broke the camel’s back. If he’d had just slightly less self control, he would have punched the guy out and taken him to the shed to torture him for what he said. That was his daughter, and the devil was right there taunting him, telling him there was nothing he could do to keep him away from her. Clearly, somewhere along the way, Lucifer had missed out on just how stubborn the Winchesters could be when it came to family, and how far they would go for them. Before he’d even realized what he had done, his finger had tightened on the trigger and Lucifer’s parting words were punctuated with the sharp crack of gunfire. Maybe it wouldn’t put the guy down forever, but it would show him just how serious Dean was when it came to his family. Before the gunfire had stopped echoing across the yard, Emmanuelle was standing between Dean and Lucifer, her back to the fallen angel and her gaze fixed firmly on the man who had pulled the trigger. There wasn't any anger in her gaze, or even displeasure. In fact, she looked rather sympathetic even as she gave a slight shake of her head as though to say that no, he wasn't going to be killing Lucifer today. She had let him pull the trigger, of course. She had wanted Lucifer to know that he could be killed, on the spot, if not for her intervening. However she didn't want to actually see him die either. Even if she was sure Dean would argue that point until his last breath, Lucifer hadn't done anything to deserve being shot and killed. Slowly, she glanced over her shoulder at Lucifer. Her expression became a neutral one, although her eyes shone with an unusual mix of annoyance and concern. She knew he was going to be confused by her stepping in the middle of the mess he'd found himself in but considering he was a normal human currently, she couldn't very well discuss it with him. Although that didn't stop her from sighing heavily and oh-so-slowly looking back to Dean before tipping her head toward his house to indicate that he should probably go on inside and let her take it from there. Lucifer had heard the crack of gunfire and froze. He hadn’t actually expected the elder Winchester to pull the trigger. He didn’t know why he’d thought that. Some assumption about him wanting to appear the bigger man in this situation, the better man. It was why Lucifer had turned his back to him, to make it that much harder for Dean to go through with the deed as there was a greater disapproval of shooting a man in the back than there was of shooting a man in the face. But even as he heard the shot, Lucifer was baffled by the fact that it wasn’t immediately followed by mortal pain and darkness, but that was nothing as to how baffled he was when he realized just why it hadn’t. His Mother’s intervention in a situation like this wouldn’t have been very surprising had it been Michael Dean was shooting at, or Gabriel, or really, any other angel that he could possibly think of, but Lucifer was struck dumb at exactly why she would throw himself in the middle of a situation like this for him, much less why she would reveal the fact that she had found herself immune in this circumstance to stop something that would likely heal itself soon enough anyway. Catching her gaze, the disapproval and annoyance far more obvious to him than the concern, Lucifer had the sense to look abashed. At least until she’d turned around. Then he just smirked over her shoulder and stuck his tongue out at Dean. Dean gave Lucifer a look that clearly expressed his desire to go ahead and pull the trigger again, and damn the consequences. But more than almost anything else, more than he hated Lucifer, he respected Emmy. And if she was going to step in, even if he really didn’t understand or agree with her reasoning, he would back down. Shouldering his gun, he gave her a nod and headed back into the house. He didn’t bother saying anything to Lucifer, or even acknowledging the smug little smirk that he really wanted to punch off the guy’s face. No, he just went back into his house to put his gun away and give his daughter the lecture of her life. He had faith that Emmy would explain later. Probably once she was done dressing down her kid. Once Dean was back inside his home, Emmanuelle spun on her heel and fixed Lucifer with a look that clearly said she was not pleased. Frustration welled within her at her inability to properly speak to him but she knew she could convey her feelings without words if she had to. She just wasn’t going to do it here. So with a tilt of her head, the world around them dissolved and put itself back together, this time with them standing in the apartment Lucifer had been given upon his arrival. Now, without benefit of witnesses, Emmanuelle crossed her arms over her chest and simply stared at him with a look that seemed to scream ‘What were you thinking?!’ “I’m not really sure which bit you’re upset about,” Lucifer said, knowing that his Mother was irritated with him right now even though she’d spared his mortal life for a reason that he still couldn’t quite put his finger on. “Talking to the little Winchester or taunting the big one?” He asked, leveling her with a questioning gaze for the briefest of moments before talking again. “Because I really wasn’t doing anything wrong in either case. The kid wanted to talk to me, and I mean, really, who was I to deny her the chance? Just because I repeated it a couple times doesn’t make it a crime.” He said before shrugging. “And with Dean, I was really just clarifying his position.” Emmanuelle continued to simply stare at Lucifer, letting him explain as much as he wanted. Sooner or later, she knew, if she let him keep talking, he would figure out why she was upset with him to begin with. Or... maybe not. He was, after all, fairly stubborn in most everything and completely convinced he was right all of the time. It might be hoping too much that he could bring himself full circle to understand why she wasn’t thrilled he’d been poking at the Winchesters. Of course, it didn’t help that she wasn’t a particularly patient deity herself. Especially when it came to her angels because she knew they had been around long enough to figure things out much faster than most of them tended to do. So after a few seconds, she heaved a sigh and uncrossed her arms, holding them out slightly, palms facing upward, with an expectant look on her face. “But I didn’t hurt anyone,” Lucifer said in an attempt to solid up his argument before she responded fully. “And I didn’t break any of the rules you told me to follow. So I’m in the clear here, right?” He asked, pausing a bit as he watched her reaction, glancing between her face and her hands as he tried to sort of what she wanted. It was another irritation that came from not being himself at the moment. He would know, on some level, if he was still himself what was expected of him. Whether he’d do it or not was another thing entirely, but he’d know. Right now, he was having trouble even getting that far. But in the end, he figured that he’d just go with the simplest and most straight forward possibility. He reached out and settled his hands in hers. “Is there a point to this?” Of course there was a point to it. There was a point to everything, even if Lucifer didn’t seem to always believe that. However, Emmanuelle wasn’t going to try and have that sort of discussion without benefit of speech. So instead she simply sighed softly, her expression fading into one that was unquestionable concern as she reached up and cupped his cheek in a rare display of affection. She wanted to tell him that he needed to be careful. She wanted to tell him that he was capable of actually helping others if he would just stop despising them simply for existing, and poking at them when they were suffering in ways he couldn’t understand. She wanted to say a great deal. Yet she couldn’t. So she simply gave him a ghost of a smile and gently squeezed the hand she was still holding. Then she arched an eyebrow, making it clear that she wasn’t pleased with what had happened before taking a step back. Continuing to stare at him for a long moment, Emmanuelle finally shook her head and sighed softly. She would contact him later, she decided, to properly discuss what had transpired. For now, though, she had expressed all she really could without resorting to passing notes and she wasn’t quite that desperate just yet. So with one final shake of her head, and another small smile to take the edge off the irritation she was conveying, she disappeared from sight and left him to his own devices. With any luck, he would spend the rest of his time stuck as a human pondering why she had intervened and would decide not to risk making her do it a second time by going anywhere near the Winchester family again. Lucifer didn’t know what he’d been expecting. Even with his dull human mind, he could flip through several thousand options at once, but in the end, what happened wasn’t at all what he thought might. Even with a thousand different permutations to choose from. She was concerned, perhaps even bridging a bit into worried, and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. Yes, he’s gone a bit over the line today, and yes, since he was mortal the results could have been a little more permanent than they normally would have been, but they would have been fixed. Right? Unless his Mother knew something more than the rest of them did. There was a brief flash in his mind, a thought of just how devastated and heartbroken that kid would be if her mother didn’t come back, and just how much shit she’d have to put up with as well. But the brief thought was gone a second later as his hand was squeezed a second before the comforting and confusing contact was lost, and her expression was back to showing the disapproval that she felt. Though, now, there was something that the Lucifer hadn’t seen before, something that... He couldn’t quite put his finger on. But he wasn’t given much time to try and dissect the expression was she was gone a second later, leaving him alone in his own place with little more than questions and the irritation that came with not having the answers to them.