Chapter Text
It was finally an office day. A delightful, proper office day. No peer-to-peers scheduled. The interns were nearly four months in, cruising nicely, and, more importantly, got along swimmingly with his residents. Medical license was up to date as of a month prior, so he had rest from all of the requisite CMEs that led up to renewal. Not a service week. Charting up to date. No reason to attend an M&M conference. It was a day for catching up on emails, reading medical journals, and generally breathing as he reclined on his office couch with AirPods in and white noise humming.
‘Oh good, you’re here,’ came a voice at the same moment the door opened.
Michael looked over the edge of the latest issue of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery to stare at his approaching twin. As he sat up, he realized his niece, who was wearing her school uniform and a backpack, was accompanying Lucifer. He looked at his watch: 1520. Glancing at the ceiling for a moment, he slowly dragged his finger in the air, trying to trace a line that made sense in a mental map of the Los Angeles area.
‘How did it make sense to pick Trixie up in Pasadena and come here instead of going home first?’ he asked as he removed his AirPods.
‘It didn’t,’ she replied flatly.
‘The later it gets, the worse traffic becomes,’ Lucifer replied, looking at Trixie pointedly. ‘If my intent is to speak to your uncle, it is prudent to get to UCLA expeditiously.’
‘You realize we have phones, right?’ Michael asked a bit judgmentally.
‘Last minute request. Urgent. Important.’
‘That couldn’t be texted?’
‘I need you to take Chloe on Saturday.’
‘Take…’ Michael started. ‘Your wife isn’t a child, Lucifer. I’d be more than happy to stay with her, visit her.’
‘Right,’ he replied. ‘Arrival at eleven, departure at three.’
‘What are you doing from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon that’s so important?’ Michael said as he started putting the visit for three days later in his phone.
‘Other way around.’
He looked up. ‘What?’
‘Eleven at night until three in the morning,’ he responded. ‘Three in the morning on Sunday.’
Trixie sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘Ella and Linda are taking him out. They do this every year.’
‘On Halloween,’ Michael stated a bit hesitantly.
‘Pater takes me trick-or-treating, usually with Mommy, then Dad gets me for second trick-or-treating and back to his apartment while Pater goes out with Ella and Linda, and Mommy has a night to herself,’ she explained then shrugged. ‘He just doesn’t want her alone this year even though she convinced him today that he can go with them and she’d be fine alone.’
‘Understandable,’ he responded then looked at Lucifer. ‘What do you do with Linda and Ella?’
‘Halloween things,’ he said a bit cryptically. ‘Yes or no on staying with Chloe?’
‘I mean, sure, yeah.’
‘Excellent.’
With that, Lucifer took Trixie’s hand and they left the office without another word. Michael tried to go back to his journal but quickly found himself annoyed that he wanted to know what the fuck Linda, Ella, and Lucifer did every Halloween. Focus was absolutely gone. Groaning, he tossed the journal on the coffee table and extricated his phone, making a group chat with Linda and Ella.
— Why did Lucifer just ask me to stay with Chloe on Saturday night? Trixie said the two of you have something to do with it.
Linda was the first to respond.
— It’s Halloween. We do Halloween things.
Ella kept blinking a dark grey bubble with ‘…’ The silence grew awkward until she finally sent a text.
— We hail Satan, obviously 😃! But no, we just get dressed up and hang out.
Michael threw his hands in the air.
— You just get dressed up like a million other adult Angelenos? That’s it? He’s being cryptic and Trixie’s annoyed because of that?
Ella responded quickly.
— Why is Trixie mad? We do this every year!
Linda continued.
— Wait, is Lucifer not taking her trick-or-treating? He acted like it was business as usual. I will absolutely cancel this if he’s ditching Trixie this year.
Ella again.
— No no no, he’s taking her, it’s just a +/- Chloe thing this time around. Maze and I helped with her costume over the weekend.
A pause, then an addendum from Ella.
— No canceling. It’s tradition. 😠
Michael groaned.
— I’m not getting any additional information, am I?
Ella replied with a simple ‘no ☺️’ while Linda was a little less brief.
— More fun to be surprised, right?
‘Right,’ he said out loud but quietly to the empty office before setting his phone face-down on the table, missing Ella’s final text until hours later.
— We actually do hail Satan though. Just wait.
He just didn't bother asking for clarification, giving in to their opacity.
—
Lucifer texted his brother on Friday to randomly throw out the schedule for Halloween without further explanation. Michael showed up prior to trick-or-treating, part one, having never experienced the activity before and willing as well as a bit quietly excited to try. Lucifer was sitting on the couch in his normal clothes checking over Trixie’s Mandarin homework when he walked in.
‘You’re not dressed up,’ he said as he sat down next to his brother.
‘It’s not nearing midnight,’ Lucifer responded lightly as he read down the page. ‘My costume is not intended for chaperoning a child. It is totes inappropes, as Miss Lopez would say.’
Aggravated, Michael reached out and took Lucifer’s upper arm in his hand, pushing him back and forth. ‘Why are you three being so weird about this?’
‘Because they know it annoys everyone,’ came Chloe’s voice as she and Trixie walked down the hallway. Trixie was dressed as… Maze? Where did they find so much leather clothing for a ten-year-old? He felt like the rumors of Ella Lopez and a penchant for cosplay creations contributed to this.
‘Uncle Michael!’ she screamed, running toward him. ‘Wear the same suit as Pater! Dress exactly the same.’
Lucifer snorted before setting the homework down and turning to her. ‘Is that what my little demon truly desires?’
She nodded vigorously. ‘Black suit with waistcoat, white shirt, red pocket square.’
‘Chelsea boots or Oxfords?’
She seemed legitimately pensive. ‘… boots.’
A half hour later, the twins exited the primary bedroom and walked to the living room. Lucifer, appreciative of all things Halloween, clearly thought it was hilarious while Michael seemed a bit bewildered. Regardless, after looking at Lucifer, he quickly crossed to the seat where he dropped his bag, retrieved his glasses case, and put the glasses on. They weren’t an exact match for Lucifer’s, but they were certainly close enough.
‘Apparently juvenile human twins are often dressed in the same clothing at the same time,’ Lucifer offered to Michael.
Michael looked patently tired of Lucifer’s antics. ‘Just a reminder that I’ve been on Earth longer than you and have had more constructive social interactions with humans to witness their antics.’
‘Pater,’ Trixie said, and he raised his eyebrows in question. ‘American accent, like Uncle Michael, whenever you speak to anyone.’
‘Oh, child, that is cruel,’ he replied before continuing in an impressive facsimile of his brother’s voice. ‘But, in the spirit of the holiday, I’ll humor you.’
Michael was suddenly very concerned about the potential of Lucifer actually pretending to be him, though he was equally talented at mimicking Lucifer’s accent, so perhaps it was a shared concern. Trixie looked ready to head out, but Lucifer walked to Chloe, placing his hands on her hips.
‘What are your thoughts on joining us?’ he asked carefully. Trixie said nothing, recognizing that her mother’s health was more important than a traipse around the neighborhood.
‘I think I can do it,’ she replied with a nod. ‘I was leaning toward no before Michael showed up, but if I don’t feel well, one of you can bring me home while the other stays with Trixie.’
Trixie suddenly brightened, running to her mom and hugging her tightly. ‘I’m so excited, Mommy!’
‘Let me change clothes, then we can head out.’
She was faster than Lucifer and Michael, returning just a few minutes later in jeans and a long-sleeved maternity top with ruching down both sides. The bag for her CADD pump was slung over her shoulder. It was the first time Michael had seen her out of a robe and pajamas for weeks, and he was surprised to see her visibly pregnant for the first time.
‘A little more real now,’ she said with a smile in response to his lingering look. ‘Sixteen weeks.’
Lucifer stepped to her and carefully laid a hand on her now rounded abdomen before kissing the top of her head. In return, she laid her hand atop his before turning her head, their lips meeting for a kiss.
Trixie sighed in response before shaking her bag demandingly. ‘Candy now, snog later.’
‘Such a nag,’ Lucifer said in Michael’s voice. ‘Very well, urchin, out we go.’
—
The trick-or-treating was primo in the wildly wealthy part of the city in which they now resided. The decor was incredible and most of the costumes seemingly professionally tailored. Trixie saw a couple of girls from her school who were creeped out by the detailed makeup Maze had painted and set on Trixie’s face earlier in the day, and they were confused by Trixie’s definition of what a demon looked like. They were of course entirely unaware that the man who stood in front of them, her stepfather, darling of the parent/teacher association, was the actual Devil, and her costume was spot-on for a member of the Lilim, specifically the one who sat at the right hand of Satan.
Chloe leaned on Lucifer most of the time, but it initially felt like more of an affection and relief of being included situation than one rooted in illness. Trixie occasionally grumbled that she was messing up the celestial twins’ creep factor by splitting them instead of letting go of her husband and walking apart, but she wasn’t as demanding of Chloe as she was of Lucifer and Michael. After about an hour, Chloe began to slump into Lucifer more to the point that he was tempted to go home immediately. Thankfully, the time for Dan’s pickup and Trixie’s second round of trick-or-treating began to grow nigh and they headed home.
Chloe crashed on the couch when they got back, Michael sitting across from her and checking his work email on his phone. Lucifer helped Trixie pack and even touched up her Maze makeup before Dan arrived. He was one of the circle who could take advantage of their open door policy, so he typed in the front door code, popped up the stairs, and sat on the couch with Chloe as Lucifer and Trixie finished up.
‘How’s it going, Chlo?’
‘It’s going,’ she said with a fair amount of exhaustion. ‘I’m really good at pushing myself too hard, much to Lucifer’s chagrin.’
‘Looks like you have some visible proof of your effort now at least.’
‘Yeah,’ she said, fondly rubbing her belly. ‘I can’t remember when I showed with Trixie.’
‘Later than this, I think. We were able to be pretty lowkey about it at work for a really long time.’
‘The books say that the mother shows earlier in subsequent pregnancies,’ Lucifer said matter-of-factly as he and Trixie walked into the living room. ‘But who knows what combination it could be. Second pregnancy? Divinity? Weight loss everywhere else?’
‘Still losing weight?’ Dan said with concern.
She nodded with a sigh. ‘Still nauseous, still vomiting, still not eating well.’
‘We’re working on it,’ said Michael without looking up from his phone. ‘We’ll find a way to fix it.’
Lucifer looked at his brother but said nothing. Trixie let go of Lucifer’s hand and ran around to her dad.
‘Let’s get going, second candy won’t collect itself!’
‘Are you a Hobbit? Second candy,’ Lucifer grumbled as he collected her rolling bag from the top of the stairs. ‘I’ll come down with you. Kiss your Mum goodbye, yes?’
Trixie nodded, stepping forward to kiss Chloe’s cheek then on the most rounded part of her belly. ‘Love you, Mommy! I’ll see you on Friday!’
‘Have a good week at school, monkey,’ Chloe replied with a smile.
At the car, Lucifer put Trixie’s bag in the trunk while Dan buckled her in. After the door was closed, he stepped away from the car a bit with Lucifer.
‘I checked her Mandarin homework, so no need to do that,’ Lucifer said smoothly, grinning.
Dan rolled his eyes before looking at Lucifer seriously. ‘Is Chloe okay?’
‘Yeah,’ he replied a bit neutrally. ‘Michael’s right: we are working on it. It just feels like success remains out of our reach. None of the doctors act like she’s in imminent danger, but they’re also disappointed that she’s at best stable instead of improving. The general feeling is that she’s going to end up hospitalized for an extended period at some unknown time in the future.’
He nodded. ‘How are you holding up?’
Lucifer seemed taken aback by the question despite the great improvements in his relationship with Dan over the last year or so, and he gaped before speaking. ‘I have a lot of support.’
Dan shifted and sighed, placing his hands on his hips. ‘Lucifer. How are you doing?’
‘I see Linda, take my medications,’ he replied. ‘Everyone seems to agree that I’m well.’
Something in Dan’s expression told Lucifer that he knew he wasn’t getting the whole truth, but he let it slide.
‘Well, I’m here for both of you, whether it’s extra Trixie time or school pickup or whatever. Just let me know.’
‘Appreciated,’ he said, watching Dan get in the car. As they drove off, he walked back to the door.
On the way up the stairs, he looked at his watch and picked up the pace. He wasn’t even to the living room before Chloe called from the couch.
‘Better get a move on if you want to be properly costumed before Linda and Ella get here.’
‘Already on it!’ he practically yelled as he sped past them to the primary bedroom.
Michael’s eyes flicked up to the clock on his phone. ‘Exactly when are they getting here?’
‘Usually around like ten.’
‘It’s seven.’
‘Yep,’ she replied simply before retrieving her own phone and (doom) scrolling.