I knew what I was getting into when I said your name

Take the Wheel

Dan's driving back into LA, hands cleaned with the wet wipes he keeps in the car, when he gets a call from Trixie's school.

The devil, thank God, doesn't seem to notice they're taking a detour until Dan's already pulled up at the school. Then Lucifer wrinkles his nose and asks why there are so many children around. Which, he wants to keep Lucifer happy, the thought of him deciding he's tired of this and changed his mind about their deal is enough to make Dan's heart stop in his chest, but he can't help but be relieved as well. Maybe the devil's not allowed to do anything to kids. He'd thought you only got a free pass until like, seven, that Trixie was on thin ice already, but maybe God's as nice as the devil is cruel and in truth it covers all the way to the end of elementary and there's nobody here Lucifer can touch.

"My daughter got into a fight so I have to pick her up early," Dan says. "They called."

They said she'd bit someone this time. Bit! That's - Dan's seen the kind of things that can happen to kids who act like this. Maybe in the eyes of God the children here are all too young to be accountable, but the eyes of man not even the kindergartners are too young.

But she's a police officer's daughter, and Penelope Decker's grandkid, so she still hasn't even been suspended.

He wonders if she'd do better with the Decker last name too. Maybe she'll do it herself when she's a teen, when she realizes there's nothing worthwhile her father gave her, or maybe it'll be Penelope who brings it up.

At least she has her grandmother. Dan doesn't know where he'd be without Penelope.

"Do I have to sit in the back?" Trixie says timidly when she sees Lucifer sitting on the passenger side.

"Oh, sweetie, no," Dan says. "I'm sorry, I just -" He doesn't know what to say to finish that, actually, how to describe what's happening. He says instead, "I came here in a hurry. You can sit on my lap, okay?"

"Okay."

It's not the most comfortable but it's certainly better than sitting in the back.

And Penelope, when he calls her, tells him not to worry, of course she can take Trixie early. She's always making lemonade from lemons. She already had a friend coming by later and says this just gives her more time to get Trixie ready to put her best face forward.

Trixie may behave more like feral cat these days with other kids but she's always an angel when it comes to impressing adults. It's all acting, she tells him proudly, and she's an actress. And he knows, every parent thinks their kid's amazing, that it'll be different for them, but if an actual successful actress thinks Trixie's got what it takes too...

He knows, he knows the sort of things that happen, but Penelope knows too, and she knows what she's doing. She's been through it all twice now, herself and with Chloe. He's grateful. It's safer than Trixie trying to follow in her mother's footsteps. He has nightmares about it, that she'll follow her mother like her mother followed her own father. He wonders, sometimes, if it was a chance shooting then either, or if her father was the same as she was, wasn't the sort could leave well enough alone. Imagines Trixie falling to the ground, terror and pain on her face as she chokes on her own blood. Just like Chloe.

When he brings Trixie in the door, part of him expects Penelope to finally know all that he's done. To snatch his daughter from his hand. Good men don't have the devil riding shotgun. But Lucifer the morning star truly has a smile that's bright enough to blind, and it turns out he's also friends with the man coming by.

Of course he knows the director. He'd know all of them, wouldn't he.

It's only when they're back in the car that the snake coiling in his guts finally wakes and sinks its fangs in.

When the devil says he's sure Dan's daughter will get the part. She's just the director's type.

"Such a shame, I don't think he's hers," Lucifer adds. "Poor man really has no luck finding someone interested back. He's always telling me..."

The car nearly runs into a tree. The devil yanks the wheel to the side and yells at him to do a better job driving.

He sits in the driver's seat as the car idles.

Dan didn't take the call. And he didn't hear it, not exactly. Just Dougie's side of the conversation, "Young lady, that's a very serious accusation."

He doesn't know what was said. And he lets his eyes slide past the tabloid headlines and he doesn't listen when the news comes on at the bar and he does not, not ever, ask.

And it, people make that stuff up sometimes. It happens. It...

If he says no to Penelope she'll take Trixie. If he was someone else, if she was someone else, it'd be easy. Father gets custody so long as he can bother to show up, he's seen it enough times. But he doesn't think he can even stand in front of a judge and get out the words I can take care of my daughter. Which is, that's hilarious isn't it, what's one more lie?

Penelope and her lawyers would rip him to pieces with the righteousness of lions.

Dan apologizes to the devil for his unprofessionalism. He gets the car off the curb and back into the street, and begins the drive toward 2Vile.

It would be different if Chloe was here. It will be different when Chloe is here.