Iris

9. Enemy Hormones

To say that Chloe was having a bad morning was an understatement.

She was now, officially, five months pregnant, - halfway through- and she has run out of clothes. Nothing, besides half of her pajamas, fits her.

Lucifer and Trixie, who had started eating breakfast without her downstairs, listened to her random grumblings and curses as she tried on different outfits in her room. They would look at each other every once in a while, quietly commenting on Chloe's outbursts, and even laughing at some of the creative curses she was coming up with.

Eventually, she waddled down the stairs, holding onto the railing for support. She hadn't found anything for work so she was still comfortably in a 2XL L.A.P.D. t-shirt and basketball shorts.

"That's it! I can't do it today!" She huffed as she slid into a breakfast stool next to Trixie. Lucifer placed a bowl of yogurt and fruit in front of her, which she was about to eat when she angrily grumbled, "This stool is so fu-freaking uncomfortable! Hurts my back so bad."

Lucifer and Trixie looked at each other with smirks, trying so hard not to laugh, as Chloe made her way to the table instead.

"Detective, I think you'll be all right in taking one day off of work." Lucifer assured her.

"Yeah Mommy. Maybe you and I can go shopping today! We haven't done anything since summer started." Trixie pointed out. It was early June now, and she had been out of school for about a week.

Chloe ran a hand through her messy hair and replied, "Trix, I would love to, but this greenhouse case is about to go cold. I've been working on it for over four months now and every good lead we get turns out to be a dead end. It's pi-...it's making me mad."

"Detective," Lucifer interrupted gently, "We've looked at this case from every bloody angle. You know how much it aggravates me that some human scum is about get off for this, but like you always say, if there's nothing more we can do-"

"First, don't swear in front of my daughter." Chloe interrupted and reminded him. Lucifer pressed his lips into a line, doing his best to hold his tongue. "Bloody" was nowhere near as bad as what the urchin had overheard mere minutes ago.

"Second, it's like you always say, there's something we haven't found yet! The answer is right in front of us and someone...needs to punished...or something?"

Trixie giggled as her mom's argument failed.

"Detective," Lucifer sat down next to her. She didn't even see him walk away from the kitchen. He placed a calm hand over hers, as it was balled up in a fist.

"For once, I can't even believe I'm saying this, but they will be punished...eventually even. Right now, we need to take care of you. If it will make you feel better with this greenhouse case, I can always cut certain corners to find what we need. You only need to say the words."

Chloe smiled and scoffed, shaking her head and completely ignoring the more twisted beginning of his sentence. Of course, he was always ready to cheat the system and do whatever it took to get what he wanted, but Chloe didn't operate like that.

"It's okay. Yeah Trix, let's go out today."

Trixie whooped in her stool and went to work quickly finishing her breakfast.

"I'll go call the station." Chloe said as she stood up from the table to grab her phone.

"Oh and Detective?" Lucifer called after her.

"Yeah?" She asked, turning around.

"On the subject of swearing in front of your offspring, I think she got quite the earful from you this morning."