The Beginning of the End

20. The Sting

The room fell silent at Chloe's realization. There were several minuscule nods as pieces of the chaotic puzzle fell into place for everyone else as they had for Chloe. Ella was the only one who still seemed wildly confused.

"Hold on! Wait, what?" The forensic scientist gaped, flailing her arms dramatically. "What kind of loco shit is that Decker?" She demanded.

Chloe sighed and calmly replied, "For some reason, when I'm around Lucifer, he becomes vulnerable or something. We don't know why, it just happens."

With eyes wide she followed up with, "Yeah, he told me something about how God might have, like, actually made you, like special." she paused to catch her breath while Chloe shifted uncomfortably in her place, "So what does this all have to do with Lilith?"

Chloe took a breath to respond, but Lucifer beat her to it.

"We think that she'll want to use the detective as leverage. Somehow, she knows that I'll do anything to save the detective if she makes a move against her." He scoffed and then continued, "I suppose it's because I already have." He shook his head in disappointment.

Then he finished more seriously, "My guess is that she'll kill me once she has the both of us in the same room and take control of Hell once and for all."

"Oh my God." Ella breathed as she slumped into the desk chair.

"Lilith is smart." Amenadiel interjected, "She'll know we've figured out her plan. Who's not to say she's already five steps ahead of us?"

"Agreed." Lucifer grumbled.

The room fell silent once again until Chloe spoke up.

"What if we give her what she wants?"

This was met by a cacophony of surprised gasps and angry protests.

Chloe waved her hands in front of her and exasperatedly spoke over her friends, "Wait, wait wait! Hold on, let me explain."

Once the room had quieted, she continued while pointing and gesturing around the group, "Ella's plan for a sting might just work. If she wants me, she'll find a way to get me whether we know her plan or not; just from what I'm hearing, she sounds absolutely ruthless. We can look through the database to find out where the most mysterious deaths have been and find a center to it; that's where Lilith is probably hiding. A lot of criminal organizations operate that way. We can set me up there with a team flanking me and wait to see what happens."

"No. Absolutely not!" Lucifer nearly shouted as he walked away from his spot at the bar. Chloe's eyes widened slightly, but she put up a determined wall to make him see sense. She wasn't opposed to arguing with Lucifer when it came to getting a job done.

"Lucifer, it's the only way we're going to get any kind of lead on this!" Chloe argued.

"No." He demanded again, only now he was within a short distance of her and used his height to tower over her, reminding her that he was more powerful than she was.

She steeled herself and was about to rebuttal when he continued, "I will not allow you to walk into the middle of a demon army when their plan will be to rip you apart until you are only a second away from death. No, Detective, we can come up with something better. Something that includes me getting to rip them to shreds first." His eyes were cold and darker than normal; this was an intimidation tactic he normally reserved for suspects. She had only been on the receiving end of it a couple of times. Chloe wasn't about to let him scare her though. She couldn't help but wonder if he had forgotten in his time away that they didn't operate like this? Not with each other.