Who: Chloe, Trixie and Lucifer What: Chloe arrives in Madison Valley. When: Upon arrival Where: Starbucks Warnings: None Status: Completed
"I'm just going to file this in evidence lockup, and I'll be right back." Chloe informed Dan as she grabbed the sealed bag and made her way down the stairs. She pulled open the door and when she stepped through, she no longer appeared to be in the police department. "Okay, so, deep breath." She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, slowly exhaling as she opened her eyes. "Nope, this is absolutely not ha-"
She stopped and did a double take, noticing a very familiar face walking about. "Trixie?!" She called out, certain she was in the middle of a crazy dream. "Monkey, what are you doing, shouldn't you be in school?" Chloe questioned in concern, her mind switching between this being reality versus a dream. She glanced down at her hand and saw she was still holding the evidence bag with a busted cellphone inside. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?"
***
As she often did, Trixie was out wandering around town on her own. Today her destination was Gifts at Last because she wanted to find something for Lucifer. He’d been as sad as she was ever since her mom got sent home and she wanted to try and cheer him up. That seemed like the best place to find something that he might like since she couldn’t buy alcohol.
When she heard someone calling her name, she thought she was imagining it until she heard her nickname and she realized that it really was her mom. She rushed down the street and hugged her. “Mom! You’re back! I missed you.”
***
“What? I’m back?” Chloe reached down to pat her on the top of her head affectionately. After a minute or so had passed, she crouched down to become eye level with her daughter. “Trix, what’s going on?” She turned her head to look around, realizing it appeared they were in the middle of some city, which was definitely not LA.
Chloe reached out to brush her fingers through Trixie’s hair and gave her an affectionate smile. “Sweetie, I know this is-” It was hard to figure out a situation when you couldn’t even make sense of anything. “Why are you walking around by yourself?”
***
“I’m eleven, Mom,” Trixie said, rolling her eyes at the question. She was more than capable of walking around town by herself.
The rest of Chloe’s words finally sunk in and she realized that her mom didn’t remember being here before. Okay, that was going to make this a little harder. “This is Madison Valley,” she said. “It’s in Indiana. No one knows how we got here or why we’re here, but there’s all kinds of weird things. Lucifer and Maze are here. They’ve been taking care of me.” She’d have time to tell her mom about her other angel friends later. Hopefully she’d stick around longer this time.
***
“Excuse me?” Chloe looked at her daughter in disapproval, a stern expression on her face. “I don’t care that you’re eleven. You are still far too young to be walking around unsupervised.” She stood up straight and tucked the evidence bag into her pocket for the time being.
“Okay, well, that doesn’t make any sense. I think maybe you’re confused?” With her hand resting on Trixie’s shoulder, Chloe began to walk with her further into the town. “Wait, did you just say Lucifer, and Maze?” Why did she keep drifting back and forth between this being a dream and accepting it as reality?
“Lucifer and Maze, here, with you, taking care of you, but they just let you wander the streets alone? Monkey, it’s dangerous for you to be on your own. What if someone took you away and hurt you?”
***
Yep, this was going to be tough. “We’re in Indiana, not LA. It’s not the same,” Trixie said. “And I’m not confused. I’ve been here for a year and a half. You were here before, twice, but you left both times because the dome sucks.” She realized that she hadn’t explained the dome. “There’s an invisible dome over the town. We can’t leave. So no one can take me anywhere.” And if anyone tried to hurt her, there would be a legion of angels raining hellfire on them.
“But, yes, Lucifer and Maze trust me,” she said. “I have friends too! You can meet them. Lyra and Penny.”
***
“Trixie, it doesn’t matter that this is Indiana, and I don’t care if there’s an invisible dome. Someone could still hurt you.” Chloe exhaled tiredly and shook her head in disbelief. Trixie had been here for a year and a half while she herself had apparently come and gone twice? “You know what? Where is Lucifer then, or Maze? How could you have been here for so long when I dropped you off at school this morning, hmm?”
Her daughter had always had an overactive imagination and it was no surprise that she would come up with such an elaborate fantasy. But, if this was a fantasy world created by her daughter, how was she aware of her own presence? “It’s not about trusting you, Trix. It’s about not trusting everyone else in the world.” With each passing year her daughter only grew more stubborn and it was a little too much at times.
***
Trixie sighed. “Everyone here is nice,” she said. “You’ll see. Lucifer’s at our apartment. I dunno where Maze is. Maybe working?” She knew her mom didn’t believe her and even though it was a little disappointing, she kind of understood why. This place was weird.
“You know Lucifer’s an angel, right,” she said. “And Maze is a demon.” Maybe if she mentioned those things, her mom would believe her.
***
Chloe froze in place upon hearing Trixie refer to Lucifer and Maze as an angel and demon. "What? How did- no, of course no-" this was getting stranger by the second and she was trying not to play into it, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so.
"So, we're in Indiana, stuck under a dome, where we can't escape, you've been here a long time, Lucifer is looking after you and you know he's an angel and that Maze is a demon. Do you even go to school here?" Of course, of all the things to be concerned about, that was number one on her list.
***
“School hasn’t started yet for the new year,” Trixie said. “It’s still summer.”
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped out a text message to Lucifer. My mom’s back! Come meet us at Starbucks. She doesn’t believe me about anything about this place.
“But, yes, everything else you said is right. I just texted Lucifer to meet us at Starbucks,” she said. “It’s right up here.” Maybe caffeine would help her mom believe her.
***
Lucifer got the text and at first wasn’t sure what to think. Chloe had been here before, several times, and had crushed him by leaving. How did he know that this one wouldn’t just disappear in a couple of weeks? He thought for a moment of ignoring it, but he knew even as he had the thought that it was impossible. He couldn’t ignore Chloe. It wasn’t something he was even vaguely capable of doing.
So of course he made his way down to Starbucks, where he saw the two of them sitting at a table. He joined them, looking from Chloe to Trixie and back again, trying to look more amused than nervous about the meeting. Nervous? Of course he wasn’t nervous. What a ridiculous thing to even think...right?
“Detective,” he said by way of greeting. “You’re back.”
*** "Okay, fine, let's go to Starbucks, then." Maybe some coffee would help to set her mind at ease. Maybe she was just exhausted from not sleeping properly, or maybe, she was losing her mind. After grabbing a cup of coffee and something for Trixie, they took a seat at one of the tables to wait for Lucifer.
Chloe heard his voice and looked up at him with confusion. "Lucifer? I was never here before, I don't know why you two keep saying that, and I-" it wasn't until that moment it finally clicked. Lucifer was here, standing before her and not in Hell. She had been fully prepared to chew him out for letting Trixie walk around alone, but all that slipped her mind upon seeing him again.
"I really don't understand what is happening here." Chloe stated as she stood from the table and moved towards Lucifer. She reached out for him with hesitation, her fingers grazing over his jaw. "How can any of this be real?"
***
Trixie knew better than to push for anything with caffeine when they got to Starbucks, so she ordered a hot chocolate and a cookie. It wasn’t cake, but it would do. She was happy to have her mom here, even if she didn’t remember and wanted to treat her like a baby. Maybe Lucifer could talk some sense into her when he got here.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for him to arrive and Trixie grinned when she saw him and her mom together. It was so obvious they loved each other and were just dumb adults. “It’s magic, probably,” she said in response to Chloe’s question.
***
A shiver ran through him as she caressed his jaw, and for a brief moment he wished very much that Trixie wasn’t there. But she was, and he quickly cleared his throat and pulled back from her touch. He didn’t stop looking at her, though, his eyes taking her in like he hadn’t seen her in years. She was the most beautiful, most amazing woman he’d ever met in his life, and he didn’t know if he could handle her leaving again. Not that he said any of those words. Instead, he grinned lopsidedly.
“Magic, possibly. But very strong magic if it has me trapped here. And Castiel and Balthazar and the others.”
Angels, fallen or not, weren’t easy to contain.
*** When Lucifer pulled back, she did the same, taking another few steps back before him. She caught his gaze and looked away with a slight blush, wringing her hands together. “Magic?” Chloe repeated with a faint laugh and moved back to sit down at the table again. “Magic, magic is real, and...okay.” She nodded slowly, reaching for her coffee to take a long drink.
“I don’t have any idea who Castiel and Balthazar are, you’ve never mentioned them to me before. Siblings of yours, I imagine?” It was a lot of information to take in at once and with the way he was looking at her, it didn’t make it any easier. “I wouldn’t have thought you could be trapped anywhere, but, here we are, so…” she tossed her hands up with a laugh, clearly still in disbelief.
***
It seemed that her mom believed Lucifer, so that was a good thing. Trixie rolled her eyes as she watched them interact. They were so gross. “Cas and Balthazar are my friends too,” she said. “I like them.” And they doted on her nearly as much as Aziraphale & Crowley had, which she also liked.
“Can Mom live with us?” she asked, directing her question to Lucifer. She didn’t really want to move, especially in case her mom didn’t stick around again.
***
“Castiel and Balthazar are siblings of mine, yes. There are many siblings.” Far more than he wanted, to be honest, and the tone of his voice made that absolutely clear. He wished that there were none of them in Madison Valley, but his wishes weren’t taken into account when the sentient town brought people here.
He looked at Trixie, unsure how to answer at first. He’d gotten a bigger place when he’d taken Trixie in, so she could have her own bedroom, but there were still only two. He certainly wouldn’t mind if Chloe shared a room with him but he was fairly certain she wouldn’t be okay with that.
“Perhaps we should find a house, so that she can have her own room as well.”
***
“Right, a house, with my own bedroom.” Was she really going to be stuck there that long? Away from Dan, Ella, Los Angeles...if Trixie had been here for so long, how had she not been missing back home? Lucifer, at least, made more sense, given he had gone to Hell and hadn’t been in LA for a while now. What was he even trying to say with mentioning her bedroom? Maybe he was right, though. They weren’t an official couple, were they? Plus, living with him in the first place seemed awkward enough as it were. They hadn’t even slept together, nor had he ever officially said I love you. If Trixie was going to be there as well, separate bedrooms probably was the better idea.
“This is all just so…” Chloe was practical, she rationalized everything and this was something she couldn’t figure out, still. “Yes, I guess a house would be a good idea, but, I don’t even have any money?”
***
“You can sleep in my room until then,” Trixie said. “And someone will come and give you money. A whole thousand dollars.” She was eleven and that was a lot of money to her. “You’ll get a phone too. And an apartment, but you can stay with us.” That was better.
She grinned up at them after finishing her hot chocolate, unaware she had a mustache from her drink at the moment. “You guys want to be alone? I can go visit Lyra or Penny.”
***
They weren’t, were they? He loved her, but it was true that he’d never said it out loud and he didn’t know when he’d be able to do that. It wasn’t something he’d really ever thought of saying to anyone. It made you way more vulnerable than Lucifer ever wanted to be, but when he looked at Chloe…
Well.
“No,” he said to Trixie. “Why don’t we show your mother where we’re staying right now?”
*** Chloe hid her disappointment well, her lips pursed tightly, mind busy with multiple thoughts. After all this time, he didn’t want to be alone with her? Maybe he had found someone else, but, considering the way he had looked at her, that didn’t seem to be the case. There was a part of her that just wanted to scream at this point and she no longer believed it was a dream. No, this was much closer to something of a nightmare.
“Yes, I think you should definitely show me where you’re staying right now. While we’re on the way you can also explain to me why you think it’s okay to let Trixie wander around, unsupervised?” She questioned curtly, her demeanor taking a slight shift.
***
Trixie let out a loud, long sigh. “Because I’m eleven and this is Indiana and there’s nothing dangerous around,” she said. That wasn’t strictly true, but for the most part, the town was safe and Trixie liked being able to do what she wanted. She always let Lucifer and Maze know where she was and plenty of people in town knew her.
Hopefully Lucifer would back her up on this one. Of course, school was starting soon and it wouldn’t matter quite as much.
***
“Because it’s Madison Valley. It’s not Los Angeles, Detective. And people know that I’m her guardian. Do you think they’re going to risk pissing me off by messing with her?” He raised an eyebrow at her, knowing she knew exactly what he meant.
He had so much to say to her, but he wasn’t ready for that yet. Having Trixie there was giving him time to think things through and he needed that right now.
***
“Because it’s Madison Valley, right, I know.” Chloe scoffed in disbelief, not buying any of it for a single second. “I don’t care if we were on Sesame Street, I would still not let you go around unsupervised. You have no idea what other people are capable of, Trixie. And you, Lucifer, you can’t predict anything, you can only punish the guilty. Which means that Trixie could still get hurt and I really don’t care what the two of you think, I am your mother, Trixie. You are still a child and now that I’m here you will not be permitted to wander about like a homeless child. Do you understand me?” It all came out in one hurried breath, her frustration only growing between the two of them, emotions flaring a bit out of control.
“I still don’t know what this place is, or how you were still back home in Los Angeles, where I literally just came from, but, even if there is another version of you out there, I will not let something happen to this one. To you, or any version of Trixie.”
***
“Okay,” Trixie said. She knew when it was time to listen to her mother. Besides, she was pretty sure that once Chloe settled in more, she wouldn’t care as much if Trixie wandered off on her own. For now, she’d play along.
She threw away her trash and waited for them to join her by the door so they could take her back to their apartment. Honestly, she was so happy to have her mom back, that it wasn’t much of a hardship to listen to her.
***
Lucifer felt duly chastened, although he still thought he was right in this matter. Sure, he couldn’t predict the future, but people didn’t want to risk facing the punishment he was very practiced in doling out. He’d learned, though, not to get in between a mother and his child, so he just nodded.
“As you say, Detective.”
He thought he’d done a pretty good job taking care of her all these months. After all, she was still alive.
He stood after Trixie did, tossing his cup in the trash.
“Shall we, then?”
*** “Yes, we shall indeed.” Chloe stood from the table and followed behind the two, cup in hand as she exited. Detective. He hadn’t once addressed her as Chloe, but she really shouldn’t have expected anything different. None of it felt like the way they had left it, but then again, nothing between them had ever gone right before, why should that change now? “You know, it’s probably just easier if I get my own place, with Trixie. That way you don’t have to leave wherever it is you’re staying now. There’s no reason for you to be inconvenienced like that.”
Her hands wrapped around her cup, an excuse to avoid making any contact with Lucifer. “Thank you, though, for looking after her in my absence. Even if you did let her wander on her own.”
***
Trixie turned and folded her arms across her chest, determined not to move until they resolved this issue. “No,” she said. “I want to stay with Lucifer. What if you leave again? He’s taken good care of me! He even makes me eat vegetables.” Occasionally. And often on pizza. But those were details that didn’t matter.
It would be much easier for her to get them together if they all lived in the same place.
***
He’d messed things up, somehow. It was probably his reticence, which was because of his terrible fear of her leaving him again. It had broken his heart the other times it had happened; a heart that he hadn’t even known he’d had until it was paining him. He gave her a brief pleading look until his attention was drawn back to Trixie.
“You need to be with your mother,” he said softly. He loved having her around, although he wouldn’t admit it outright, but she was Chloe’s offspring. Not his.
*** “You’re right, he has taken mostly good care of you, and I appreciate that. But, I’m sure Lucifer was only being kind by letting you stay with him. At least he didn’t leave you to live on your own.” Why was she acting this way? Maybe she was just tired, tired of it all, the whole song and dance between them was exhausting and she hadn’t been sleeping all that well back at home.
Chloe dropped her gaze to the ground briefly and then looked back at Trixie. “We can talk about it later, alright, Monkey? I’m just...I’ve been working a lot lately and I’m tired, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
***
Why were grownups so dumb? “Fine,” Trixie said. “But we’re talking about it cause I want to live with both of you.” And she wasn’t going to let them out of that easily.
She slipped her hand into Lucifer’s as they started walking towards the apartment building. No matter what else might happen, she loved him and was going to make sure he knew it. Trixie knew that her mom loved him too, but she apparently didn’t want to show it right now. That was fine. She’d figure out how to make them.
*** She wasn't too surprised that Trixie was being so stubborn about the situation, but she clearly didn't see things the same way. When her daughter reached out to take Lucifer's hand she couldn't help but smile and she paused behind them just to watch them walking side by side, being completely adorable.
Chloe picked up the pace to catch up and moved to walk on the other side of Trixie. "I never thought I would see the day when the two of you walked side by side down the street."
***
Up ahead, Lucifer noticed the welcoming committee coming towards them, and sighed dramatically.
“Well, I suppose you should talk to them. They’ll give you your debit card and a room key, and such. Trixie and I will wait until you’re finished.”
And then they could go to the apartment and see where to take things from there.