D E T E C T I V E

@ofnightnurse​

“I am so very convinced you’re gonna follow through on that after I leave,” she laughed. She knew there was no chance in hell Chloe would leave work at work once their cafe catch up was done. Christine was no better so she really couldn’t judge her. They both used work as an excuse to not deal with their personal problems from time to time. “I’m pretty sure John and Clint are medical miracles. There’s no way they should’ve made it alive from some of the things they’ve done and yet they’re still breathing. Guess their guardian angels are working overtime,” she grinned. Her grin tempered slightly when Chloe’s expression fell. Lucifer wasn’t in town and she looked like she was hurt by his absence. “That’s strange that he’s gone away. All his family’s here. I ran into one of them at the hospital. Are they all...like that?”

Chloe chuckled, though it did have somewhat of a cynical tone. “Yeah...yeah...yeah..” It wasn’t harsh, or patronizing- just exhausted. 

“Their guardian angels.” Chloe repeated, no hint of emotion in her voice. She shook her head, widening her eyes a little before sipping her coffee again. “They certainly aren’t getting paid what they’re worth, that’s for sure.” She forced a smile. “Probably should unionize.” 

“Which one?” She wasn’t sure why she was so interested in which sibling Christine had met. Perhaps it was another way to distract herself from the direct subject of Lucifer. It was all just too much. Too soon. Too heavy. 

@zztophat​

“Honestly, there will one day come a time where he’s been kicked out of every pub in town and then we’re in trouble,” she laughed. then they actually had to deal with john. at least the drinking kept his boredom at bay. she was a little surprised when chloe chose the more magic option. zee took in a sharp breath and nodded. “it is a little bit off the beaten path,” she warned as she looped her arm around chloe’s. “if you’re sure you wanna dive head first into this world, oblivion is the place to go.” most of the patrons at oblivion were kind, but they were most certainly not all human. the mages were human passing, but the place was also filled with fae, metahumans, vampires, werewolves, and all sorts of otherworldly beings. “deep breath,” zee instructed. “for my next trick, i’m going to make us disappear,” she winked and whispered raeppasid. the exterior of the police station disappeared and a moment later they were standing outside of oblivion. she checked in on chloe to make sure she was okay. “we can turn back if it’s too much, too fast.” it wasn’t too late. they could still go for drinks at a very normal bar just two blocks away.

Chloe had second thoughts for a moment, especially seeing upon the surprise in Zee’s eyes. But this was a time, more than ever, to break free of her comfort zone. To abandon the reality that she’d known her whole life, and explore the magical side she’d been in denial about for far too long. When Chloe did something, she did it all the way. No dipping a toe in, no beating around the bush. It was now or never, and if she was going down this road, she’d need a guide.

Who better than Zee?

 “Mmm.....Mhm.” Chloe nodded, decisively. She did as the magician instructed and inhaled deeply- she knew all too well at this point, how much she’d need it.

“HOLY!” Chloe stumbled a little, disoriented from the rapid change of scenery. Clearing her throat, she steadied herself in body, AND in mind. She quickly put on her bravest face, and shook her head. “Nope. Nope I’m good. We’re doing this.”

@ofnightnurse​

Chloe was a workaholic even on her good days, but Christine could see that today she was just frazzled. “Hey,” she placed her hand over Chloe’s. “We leave work at work, remember?” she reminded her gently. Christine wasn’t always good at remembering to do the same for herself and she needed Chloe to occasionally check her in the same fashion. “Anyone ever tell you that for a cop you are a terrible liar? John Constantine comes to the hospital with more convincing stories than this,” she joked. Constantine was almost like a mutual patient between the police and hospital staff. If one didn’t have him in custody, the other certainly did. “What’s going on? Everything okay with you and your partner? I...haven’t seen him around in a while.”

“We leave work at work.” Chloe repeated unenthusiastically. “You’re right.” she nodded, glad that the exhaustion she was exuding could easily be explained away by work. It wasn’t a lie. Part of it was her job, but it was so....so much more than that.

Chloe almost spit out her coffee at Christine’s mention of John. “Oh, he tries it on you too, huh?” She shook her head, smiling. “I wonder where he shows up more often. Injured on your medical table, or in my drunk tank.” She instantly felt better. She had almost talked herself out of coming entirely, but was so glad she was here.

“Oh...” If she really was too tired to be a good liar, the way her face fell at the mention of Lucifer was probably all too obvious. “He....had to leave for a while...” Chloe took a long sip, averting her gaze.

Lux. His place. 

What the hell was she doing? She wasn’t ready for this. It was too soon. She couldn’t breathe. She needed to go. Now.

Turning around to leave, she was instead handed a champagne flute by a smiling server- and she wasn’t about to be rude. Ok. One drink. One drink and then leave, before anyone can recognize her. Before she sees.....

She smiled a little bit, under her mask. It hardly mattered, considering it hid her entire face. The only way she could even fathom attending this thing. She came here with the hope that she could find the courage to speak to Lucifer. To apologize for the way she’d acted. To propose the opportunity for them to make time to sit and talk and come up with some kind of.....solution. To start over maybe.

@mazikeenofmurders​

“Well, we better start working on that,” Maze pointed out with a grin. It didn’t matter to her whether Chloe wanted to talk or not. Either she’d get so drunk that she’d spew word vomit everywhere about how she felt or she’d get so drunk that she’d spew actual vomit everywhere. Maze wouldn’t clean up the vomit, but she’d be happy to hold Chloe’s hair back to make sure it didn’t end up in there. She had some decency. “Yeah, drink as much as you can as fast as you can, so it hits you all at once.” Admittedly, it was harder for Maze to get drunk than a human like Chloe, but she doubted that changed things much.

“Hey, you said you wanted to get black out drunk, right?” Maze asked, not sounding the least bit apologetic about it. She tapped the bottle. “Then this is the stuff you’ve got to drink. She took the bottle back from Chloe, drinking some more of it before passing it back. She could drink it like water. “Keep it going, Decker.”

Chloe made a face at Maze when she insisted she drink it heavily, and quickly. That definitely wasn’t going to happen. She would however, take a larger swig once she had it back again. If.....she got it back again. Honestly she wouldn’t hate it if she didn’t get the chance. Maybe this was a mistake, because she was already starting to feel it. She wasn’t drunk, not even buzzed, but she felt it. 

In fact....it was starting to grow on her. Maybe it tasted like lead- but the warmth made it worth it. She welcomed her next sip as though it were a hug.

“Hey Maze...” She started, coming up for air. “What does a demon do? do you have like....magic powers?”

@zztophat​

Zatanna could see that a lot of the fire and drive that usually occupied chloe’s eyes was tampered down somewhat. was it fear? guilt? zatanna wasn’t sure. she knew there had been a lot to absorb the past few days. “you looked like you could use it and honestly, i could too,” she laughed. there weren’t a lot of people who really understood and could relate to what was going on, but chloe could. much like zatanna had caught heaven’s eye, chole had caught hells.

she knew what club chloe wanted to avoid; that much didn’t need to be said. “you got it,” she grinned, linking her arm with the detective. “there’s a nice hole in the wall pub down the street. i think you might’ve actually picked john up from it like three weeks ago,” she laughed. john always got off pretty generously when chloe picked him up. one day zatanna was sure his luck would run out. “or,” she ventured to test the waters. “if you want to experience something a little different there’s a magic club called oblivion not too far from here either.” sometimes, the best way to navigate this world was to jump into it.

Chloe was relieved at how easygoing Zee was. That she picked up on her body language, read between the lines so well. Chloe didn’t want to talk about any of it, and yet at the same time- wanted to talk about nothing else. She had way too many feelings. Way too many opinions, and more than anything else, questions. She needed to understand, and Zatanna was impartial- just like Jesse and John. At least, mostly. She was the lady friend of Michael- and she certainly felt quite a bit of animosity there, personally. Sometimes. Others? Well, there was still a lot of digging that needed to be done in regards to her emotions pertaining to......all of them. 

“How could one possibly keep track?” There was sadness behind her green eyes, but Chloe smiled a little as she joked about John’s little escapades. “A magic club?” She wondered if Zee meant entertainment magic or.....the other kind. Hell, she needed something- anything to keep her mind occupied. Maybe she could use it. She raised a brow, considering a moment before voicing her opinion. “I think a little bit of oblivion, might be just the thing.”

I.....  How did you get this number?

@ofwarriors​

“Very well,” Michael nodded as she turned him in the direction of the station. He allowed her to lead the way and walked in silence. He could see she was still processing all of this. “For what it’s worth,” he began, “I am sorry.” He wasn’t sorry for forcing Lucifer’s hand. He was sure his brother would’ve done the same had someone on Michael’s side tried their hand at getting to Chloe or her daughter. Michael wouldn’t have allowed any of them to get that out of hand, but Heaven under his Father’s command had already done something much worse to Detective Decker. He wasn’t sure how much she knew yet, but he would let Lucifer be the one to tell her.

What the Archangel was sorry for was the way she’d found out about everything. He understood why Lucifer had done it. It’s not as if any of his siblings kept what they were a secret. He’d done it to open Chloe’s eyes to what he really was. She was still processing it, but the fact that she was trying to arrest Michael told her that she still cared about Lucifer even if she was afraid of him. The Archangel couldn’t be too sure how much of that was real and how much of it had been his Father’s blessing, but he wanted to believe that either way, Chloe would’ve chosen Lucifer. “My family is complicated and I’m sorry that you’ve been dragged into this. I know that it’s a lot to take in, but we aren’t bad people. We’re just trying to protect the people we care about and for better or for worse you’re one of those people. So, if you want to talk about what happened at Flanagan’s and what happened at Lux, let’s talk about it.”

She didn’t know what the words “I’m sorry” even meant. What exactly was he apologizing for? She really didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to open up that dialogue and have to hear all the details. To rehash the worst day of her entire life, save for the day her father was killed. To have to sift through all of.....that, and try to figure out just how she felt about it all. It was impossible to tell. It changed by the day. No. She wouldn’t engage. She wouldn’t acknowledge his words. 

Chloe didn’t make eye contact with anyone at the station. There were certainly enough pairs of them on her, and her unknown captive. She didn’t want to explain any of this to anyone. Not tonight. It seemed like they all got the memo, because no one questioned her as she led Michael to an interrogation room. 

But then they sat down, and he kept talking. Going a little deeper on just what it was he was sorry for. She was determined to keep things professional, even if this was an abuse of her rank and she knew that, deep down. But something had to be done. Some things, she’d learned, were bigger than her position at the police station. Some things, were life and death. Heaven, and hell. God, The devil, angels and demons. She was just a human being in a tangled supernatural web. She had no idea how she fit into it all. 

“Ok.” She steeled herself before diving in, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. “Why did you do it?” She interlaced her fingers, placing her hands on the table before her. Her voice was calm, stable. Not at all reflecting the way she was feeling inside. “What caused you to do that to him?” Green eyes unwavering as she stared him down.