Then and Now

You'll be okay, old friend

Lucifer was, for quite possibly the first time in his life, speechless. He placed the cup of chamomile tea down in front of Michael, before taking a seat next to him on the couch. He couldn't wrap his head around how broken Michael looked. The boy had stopped crying for the most part, tears still clung to his eyelashes as he looked down at his hands. 

He had never expected to see his friend again, considering everything that had gone down before his move to Sacramento, and he had certainly never expected him to turn up like... this. He wanted to know what had happened, why he had come here, but the trembling boy still hadn't spoken a word. He just looked so lost, so broken. Lucifer didn't know how to help him.

The front door opens, slamming shut behind whoever had just enter, shattering the silence of the living room. 

"I'm home bitches!" Gabriel shouts, walking past the living room without looking in. Lucifer could hear him stomping up the stairs. "Helloooo?" There was a thump from above, and then Gabriel could be seen sliding down the banister. He falls off at the end, landing in a thump. Finally, he stands up and turns around.

"Samoose? What are you doing here?" Why wasn't Lucifer surprised to see that Gabriel only had eyes for Sam, failing to see the bleeding boy on the couch their mother had stopped trying to keep clean after the paintball incident of 2012.

Sam was giving Gabe a serious look, pointing at Michael. 

Gabriel, frowning, looked over at where Lucifer and Michael were sitting, his eyes widening in a way that Lucifer found mildly amusing. This was followed by; "Holy shit that's Michael."

Castiel smacked Gabriel over the head with a cushion. Lucifer rolls his eyes, ignoring the following grumbles from Gabriel as he looked back at Michael. Michael looked back at him, eyes telling more than he could in words. 

"What happened Mik- Michael?" Lucifer asks softly. Behind him, his brother's fighting ceases as they listen in.

Michael shrugs, looking down at his fingers. For a moment, it seemed as though he wasn't going to speak.
"He killed her." Michael's worn sounding voice cracked. He looks up at Lucifer, sadness filling his eyes. "I couldn't... couldn't save her."

Lucifer hesitates for a moment, wanting to comfort the boy who had seen horrific things, but not knowing how. He wasn't even sure how to respond to what Michael had just said.
"What are you talking about?"

"I have no one left, I barely... barely got out and now dad..." He trails off, shaking his head.

"Did your dad do something?"

"No," his voice was so quiet, Lucifer barely heard what he said. "But the cops... they arrested him... he didn't do it!" Michael's voice rises, panic seeping into his words. "He didn't do it, and now she's....she's... dead."

"What the hell is going on?" Everyone - apart from Michael who seemed to have crumpled in on himself - turned to see Chuck standing in the doorway. He looked at each of them in turn, a somewhat stern look on his face. 

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have come here..." Michael says quietly. "I just..."

Lucifer looks pleadingly to his father. "He's hurt, and I think something bad happened."

Chuck's sternness instantly morphs into worried parent mode. "Are you okay Michael?" He moved closer. "Where are your parents?"

Lucifer mused upon how funny it was (or rather, as funny as it could be in this situation) that no one was asking how Michael actually got here from all the way over in Sacramento. 

Michael's brows crease. "Dad... dad got put in... they took him into... into custody," he looks back at Lucifer briefly. Lucifer offers him a small, and what he hoped was comforting, smile. "They think he... he killed m-" Michael's voice, full of emotion, cuts off and tears trickle silently down his dirty cheeks.