Iris

8. A Little Loiterer Practices Yoga

Now that Chloe was fifteen weeks pregnant, the pregnancy wasn't so easy to hide. Her bump had started to really swell around the ten week mark. Most of her female coworkers caught on right away, mostly gossiping and drawing conclusions among each other, as women do, and not asking Chloe directly. Her male coworkers took a little bit more time in figuring out that Chloe was not just putting on weight but having a baby. They were worse gossips than the women, however, cause the men were too chicken to say too much about "girl stuff".

All of this put Chloe on edge, but sadly, she was used to the staring-and-whispering kind of treatment. She was still the only female detective in their district and she has a track record of breaking the rules, especially when it came to male coworkers, even though she never planned on any of it.

When she had been pregnant with Trixie, the majority of the pregnancy was exciting and her coworkers were happy for her and Dan. Sure, it got annoying toward the end because people wanted her to take it easy, take some time off before the baby came, but Chloe Decker does not take it easy for any reason.

This time around was different because this latest scandal, which is what most were calling it, came post-Palmetto Street, post-being-engaged-to-her-boss, and post-boss's-mysterious-murder. This is the latest drama since she and Lucifer made their relationship official less than six months ago. They had a bit of a rocky start after his return from Hell, so getting around to certain things took them more time than either of them cared for. 

Lucifer didn't seem to catch on to all of the unwanted attention Chloe was receiving. She didn't want too sound whiny by complaining to him about something she has been dealing with for nearly twenty years, even though it still really bothered her; he would do anything in his power to stop it and that frightened her the most. She just wanted some sense of normalcy at the work place, and if that meant shutting up and taking it while fellow police officers called her a whore or a gold digger, then so be it.

What burned her the most about all of this was what was being said about Lucifer (which he didn't seem to know about). Sure, it was impossible for her to catch people's entire conversations, but she caught a damn good amount of them. People made comments about how many siblings Chloe's baby might have, given Lucifer's promiscuous lifestyle, or going as far as commenting on permanence: Will he stick around like he has for all this time, or will L.A.'s most notorious playboy run away from a domesticated life? Her third and "favorite" question was, "Oh man, I could barely plan one wedding, much less three. I assume she and Lucifer'll get married now, right? Wonder what she's just not getting when it comes to a permanent relationship?" The answer came quickly bursting out of Chloe one day, while Lucifer was at Lux. She exploded at the officer in question, "I don't know Camilla! Maybe it's the fact that I seem to be the only person on the planet who knows how to mind their own god damn business!"

That one she slightly regretted. She blamed it on the hormones. It felt good to get it off her chest either way though.

It seemed that only other person besides her in the precinct that held nothing but good thoughts about the new baby was Ella. Chloe had nearly forgotten about her when they were deciding who to tell and when. Ella took care of Chloe the day she found out she was pregnant, and Ella was definitely not stupid; she knew what the symptoms were. She hadn't pushed for information, but went on like things were mostly okay.

Chloe and Lucifer decided to tell Ella together the day they told Trixie. She did most of the talking while Lucifer loomed a step behind her hesitantly.

The conversation went something like this:

"Ella, we have something we want to tell you." Chloe started with a smile.