Queen of Hell

Bullet in the Chest

Chloe placed her hands on her chest, attempting to quell the ache building at the sight of Linda's baby, little Charlie.

"Linda, he's so beautiful," she said, turning around to face her. "I'm sorry Lucifer couldn't be here for him."

The babe hiccuped in his crib as Chloe turned back toward him.

Linda narrowed her eyes at the back of the woman's head.

Chloe had been talking an awful lot lately, an awful hell of a lot, about the demon king, and it worried Linda that she wasn't taking his disappearance as well as she hoped everyone would think she either was - or should be.

That would be okay if Lucifer hadn't been gone for a year, and if Linda hadn't had her doubts about him coming back.

Linda came up from behind and placed a hand on chloe's slim shoulder, a soft shine taking over her eyes, mouth set in a smile.

"I'm sure uncle Lucifer would be ecstatic to have his nephew puke and poop all over his expensive suits," she said sarcastically.

They both shared a laugh, and, for Chloe, the giggle turned into a lump in her throat that turned into a tiny sob. The sob turned into tears running down her cheeks, and she stepped away from Linda to cover her face.

"Ugh, allergies," she sniffled.

Linda sighed. "Chloe, we both know better. You don't have any allergies."

"How do you know?" Now chloe's voice was hoarse and cracked and she was wiping her nose.

Linda padded over to the kitchen table and grabbed a tissue box. She pulled a few out and handed them to the now very small-looking woman standing in her living room.

"You know," she said, pulling more tissues out after Chloe had snatched the first few, "I think he would want to be here if he could, Chloe. And I also think you should realize that I have seen your medical record - no allergies listed." She cracked a grin.

"Yes." Chloe wiped her eyes, then scrubbed the snot from her top lip. "But doesn't that make it worse? Not the allergies.."

"Imagine if he had wanted to go back and rule hell. Imagine if he had given all of us up for the chance to be king of that place again." Linda handed her a few more tissues.

Chloe accepted them, tears now swelling down her cheeks and dripping from her chin into her collarbones. She held them to her eyes in an attempt to control the stream.

Linda was right about what she said, that would have been worse, but the thought that Luci wanted to be here with her, wanted to be present in his nephew's life, still made her chest hurt and her eyes glaze over with tears.

Chloe attempted to purse her lips and take a few deep breaths to stop the crying. It was so embarrassing to let Linda see her this way, it was so wrong to be crying in her living room about Lucifer when Linda had been so happy about chloe coming to see the babe.

She felt, truly, like she was replacing that deserved happiness with sorrow and it made her want to smack herself.

She needed to get a hold on her emotions, learn how to put on a face of indifference. Now that Lucifer was gone, it didn't matter how she felt, it mattered that the baby - that everyone - was safe from the hordes of hell. Her feelings were insignificant in the grand scheme of angels and demons, and here she was acting as if they were important.

She hated herself for it.

"I'm sorry Linda, I did come to see Charlie - to see you," Chloe told her, turning to her with a red face and swollen lips.