Love You to Hell and Back | Lucifer | Deckerstar |

Chapter 10: Bloody Helpless

Lucifer's facial expression dropped from loving to hurt in a split-second when Chloe seemed to have chocked on her own words.

"Detective? I'm pretty sure this is the part where you say you love me too, and we seal it with a kiss that leaves both of us breathless." Lucifer tried to joke, but when nothing but silence followed, his heart dropped. "Or the part where... you don't say it back and I end up looking like a total fool. Of course." He exhaled, before tipping his head back and looking skyward with a pained, cynical smirk.

When he finally turned his head to look at her, he froze. Chloe really was choking. Her body shot upwards as she coughed spasmodically, her frame stiffening with every breath.  She was trying to hold it in, raising her hand in an 'I'm fine' way, but the way her face paled said otherwise.  Chloe's eyes widened when she realized she was coughing up blood, splattering it across Lucifer's white sheets.

The metallic taste was unwelcome in her mouth, making her cringe as her body convulsed again and again.

Chloe sprung off the bed and rushed to the bathroom, wrapped in the blood-stained duvet she pulled off the bed and leaving behind a shocked and naked Lucifer. Without second thought, he followed, gathering his boxers as he went.

In the bathroom, Chloe's body kept convulsing, each spasm more painful to her chest than the other. She stood in front of the mirror and looked at her own reflection in disbelief. Blood was now trickling from both her nose and mouth, and the bitter taste of it on her tongue was nauseating.

"Detective?" Lucifer called and knocked on the door, his voice laced with worry and fright. When his hand went to turn the doorknob, he realized she'd locked the door behind her.

Inside, Chloe's coughing seemed to die down gradually. She dipped her face to rinse the blood off under the tap water, welcoming its coolness on her heated skin, dried up with the towel hanging by the sink and unlocked the door. She took a deep breath and walked out, recollecting herself. When the door opened, Lucifer was right behind it, staring at her with genuine concern in his widened eyes.

"Detective..."

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Chloe reassured and walked past him casually, as if she wasn't coughing up splatters of blood just seconds ago. Lucifer stood there, frozen for a second, until he heard a loud thump behind him. His head snapped back in a heartbeat, only to see Chloe lying in a heap on the floor. Unconscious.

The rest seemed like a blur. Throwing on his own clothes, picking her up with the duvet still wrapped around her naked body, considering taking his car only to realize his wings would take them to the nearest hospital faster.

Soon enough, they were airborne. Lucifer pressed Chloe to him as he soared through the city. The lights flicked on around them as the sky slowly darkened above their heads, and droplets of water descended from the clouds. But Lucifer couldn't care less about the rain or the faint rolls of thunder somewhere in the distance. His attention was fully concentrated on getting help.

After what seemed like eternity but was really only minutes of flying, Lucifer lowered down to the ground less than half a block away from the hospital, deciding he didn't want all of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center seeing his wings. He ran the rest of the way, making sure to keep Chloe's limp and unconscious body as still and stable as he could.

"Help! Somebody help!" He yelled frantically as he reached the hospital doors. He caught the attention of numerous medical workers, and within minutes Chloe was being treated in one of the emergency rooms, lying still as ever in a lone bed with people dressed in blue and white coats fussing around her. Tubes of all sorts were being connected to her body, and the only sounds ringing in Lucifer's ears were the doctor's orders and the distant beeping of the electrocardiogram machine.