IT WAS GETTING late, yet the night wasn't as dark as Izzy had hoped for, but instead, the slow and steady sunset was illuminating the blush on her cheeks as she and Maze were walking down the street, with Thor in the lead, eager to explore the same bushes and trees he always did. The look of curiosity in Mazikeen's eye signified that she wasn't used to spending time with dogs, and it caused a small, fond smile on Isadora's lips, along with the relaxation that was eventually welcoming relief into her heart and wiping away the stress. Certainly, the conversation she was yet to have with Maze was quite the scary task to take on, but the silent evening with the perfectly painted orange canvas above them and Thor looking cute as ever, she felt undeniably calm.

          Then again, maybe it was the calm before the storm.

          "So, must be something real serious, huh?", Mazikeen smacked her lips together before looking over at Izzy with a bittersweet smile, and confused, the redhead returned the gaze. Chuckling, the demon continued, "I may not be up to date with this whole being human thing, but I recognize a it's not you it's me situation when I see one", taking a long stride as her fingers tangled together with each other, and sighing quietly at the words, Isadora felt guilty — it wasn't like she was going to end their blossoming friendship. She just... needed to step on the brakes a little bit.

          Shaking her head, Izzy offered a comforting smile at the woman. "No—well, yeah. It is me, but I don't want to stop seeing you. I just don't think I can handle waking up in strange bedrooms right now", she tried to form a sentence that made sense, laughing nervously. "I, uh, I haven't really dated anyone in a long time, so...", the deputy trailed off, and with that, Maze suddenly took a step further away from her, causing her shy smile to deepen into a frown. She wasn't really sure what she had said wrong, but with a snap of fingers, the air between them got colder and she knew something had changed.

          With a curt nod, Maze was already agreeing. "Yeah. No problem. Friends it is", she pursed her lips together with a quiet chuckle suffocating in her throat, and after that, she said nothing more. And neither did Izzy — unsure what could be said or done, so instead she tried to focus on Thor, who was trying to yank the leash towards a man cycling past them, always excited to meet new people.

          Frankly, the silence was unbearable, and the fuse in Izzy's mind came near to its end, about to blow up all her thoughts into one giant mess. However, fortunately, before that could happen, her phone rang in her pocket and clearing her throat in gratitude at the intervention to the awkward moment, Isadora dug it out quicker than would have been appropriate in terms of sneaky. "It's Dan", the cop muttered out loud, kind of to herself, kind of to Maze, who peeked at the screen as well, both of them surprised by this — of course, Dan and Izzy were already friends, but surely he had seen her leave with Mazikeen.

          "Dan?", Izzy greeted the man as if making sure it was really him there, and instead of a comfortable peace, her ear was invaded by blaring sirens and lots of worried voices, one of which belonged to Detective Espinoza himself. "Dan, you there?", the deputy was growing worried now, and Maze knitted her eyebrows together as well, puzzled by the troubled look on Isadora's face.

          "Izzy— hey, Izzy. There was, uh, an—an accident", he rambled, and on top of that, the line was starting to buzz and crack, making it hard for Izzy to hear everything. "Can you come to the hospital? I'll text you the address and the right room", Daniel continued in what sounded like slight panic, and it was quite enough to put Izzy on high alert as well. Quickly, she was already making a turn on her heel while pulling Thor in the new direction too, with Maze acting almost equally puppy-like and following behind the woman.

          "Yeah, yeah, of course, I'll be there as soon as I can. Dan, wait—who was in the accident?", Izzy tried to get through to the man once more, and his usually calm demeanor was evidently crumbling apart.

        "Chloe and Benjamin", he sighed out, "Chloe is—she's fine mostly, but Benji is... less fine", and with those words, Isadora's heart sank and the look on her face darkened, her entire soul suddenly devoured by shadows.

          Yeah, there was no doubt she needed to get to the hospital now.

—————

          THE ONE THING that remained positive about Izzy's previous lack of friends, was that she didn't have that many people to lose — of course, she had her parents and her dog, and her fair share of relatives, for example, her grandparents in Canada. But never before had she rushed down the hallways of a sickeningly white, bright hospital with the fluorescent lamps leading the way, her heart thudding in her chest and echoing in her ears as she searched for Dan. One of the nurses had guided her to the right room, and at the sight of a familiar man in his usual leather jacket, standing by the large window and gnawing on his knuckles, the deputy erupted into one last sprint.

         "Dan", she breathed out, and in a matter of seconds, the detective had twirled around and faced the woman with puffy eyes, making it evident he had shed more than enough tears for his brother, and that was enough to convince Izzy that he was in a grave need of a hug. Sighing sympathetically, she threw her arms around Dan, and he quickly sank into the embrace, letting his arms limply hang by his sides while his face rested against Isadora's shoulder. The silence between them was thick, but not awkward by any means, and it was only broken by a careful gasp when Izzy finally let go of Dan and looked through the window to find Benjamin lying on the bed, unconscious and connected to several tubes and machines. "What's the—uh, what happened to him?", she gulped in fear, glancing at Dan who pushed his hands deep into the pockets of his worn jeans and sadly looked over at his beaten little brother.

         "A dog ran into the street, and a car crashed into Chloe's. She had promised Benjamin a ride home after work. She survived with a few scratches and bruises and they're letting her home by the end of the night, but Ben... They don't know everything yet, but he has at least a concussion and a broken rib. He hasn't woken up yet", Daniel explained quietly, before letting out a bitter chuckle. "It's funny, he's always getting into trouble and breaking the law yet he's never hurt himself like this. A few heartbreaks here and there, and one time he flipped his middle finger into a wall so hard he cracked the bone, but never anything serious", he pursed his lips into a sad smile, "I could have easily lost him today."

           Immediately, Izzy placed her hand on Dan's shoulder. "It is scary, but he'll be okay, I'm sure of it. He's a fighter. And maybe he's a bit of a rebel, but it was just a random accident. No one to blame for those", she reassured, drawing soothing circles against the leather jacket with her palm.

           Smiling weakly, Dan nodded, "I know. Thanks, Iz."

          "Anytime. I'm gonna stay for a while, you won't have to sit alone. Besides, I don't think I could sit alone at home. And tomorrow, I'll drop by with some food, yeah?", the woman comforted, knowing that she needed to be there for him right now and that she needed the company too.

           Sitting helplessly at home was not an ideal way to spend the night, and no doubt sleeping was a far-fetched dream that wasn't going to come true any time soon, so might as well use the hours at the hospital — supporting Dan now that he needed it the most.

—————

           IT WAS HARD to focus on stuff like work, which seemed almost irrelevant compared to the fact that Benjamin was lying on a hospital bed, but once Isadora reminded herself that someone out there could have been suffering a fate worse than his, she suddenly felt more encouraged than ever to get sucked into another case. Not to mention Dan's absence — justified, of course, but bound to drown Izzy in more tasks than before. At least she had gotten to cry about the events of last night to Diane, who had more than patiently listened to her daughter's troubles, from her love life to almost losing the man she had unexpectedly grown so close with. The youngest Holt had always been sensitive like that, taking everything to heart even when she should have remained composed and cool. But perhaps pouring all that out resulted in her now being more focused.

          "Hey, Iz, come take a look at this", Ella's voice sounded throughout the dojo where the two of them had driven together to inspect the newest murder victim assigned to them. Following the scientist's instructions, Isadora was already stepping towards the corpse of a man, until she noticed Lucifer and Chloe arriving, side by side, as always. At the sight of the detective, Izzy couldn't help but let out a deep, deep sigh of relief and leap forward to pull her into a relieved, but gentle hug.

         "Oh, Chlo, I'm so glad you're okay!", the deputy shook her head, not letting go until Chloe wrapped her arms around Izzy as well and accepted the comforting embrace instead of fighting it. "How are you feeling?", the woman continued sympathetically, but Detective Decker wasn't allowed the luxury of responding when Lucifer had interjected in her place.

         "Ugh, don't ask. Just a freak accident, she says, no big deal. As if dear old Dad isn't truly behind this", the club owner rolled his eyes, clearly exasperated with the lack of understanding from Chloe's behalf. Once she actually noticed him, Izzy stepped toward Lucifer and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze while her lips pursed into a soft, sad smile.

          "I'm worried about Benny too. But he's a badass, he won't give up too easily", the redhead reminded, and as his lips slightly quirked up, Lucifer didn't seem like his usual, flirty self. In fact, it seemed like he had needed to hear those words too — to know that Benjamin would, indeed, be alright in the end. Frankly, it warmed Izzy's heart to notice how many people cared about the Espinoza.

          As Izzy had offered Lucifer the much-needed consolation, Ella and Chloe had already gotten started on the case, beginning from identifying the victim. And that was where Lucifer had interrupted, pointing out that the man who had bled out to his death was Wesley Cabot, apparently his favorite actor — Izzy didn't have the heart to tell him that she had no idea who the guy was — and suddenly, he was gushing about the ninja movies like a child at a candy store, and theorizing that the murderer had to be the villain from Body Bags 6. As she silently watched the situation unfold, an amused smile on her lips, Izzy couldn't help but wonder if that was what she was like when she talked about her favorite movies and characters — the answer was most likely yes.

           One attempted selfie with the dead body later, Lucifer was left behind with Ella, who still firmly believed him to be a method actor — fair enough, it made more sense than him actually being the Devil — while Chloe and Isadora briefly questioned the kid who had discovered the dead body. Of course, such a young, shaken person had no clue who had done it and why anyone would do it, and it was pretty obvious from the beginning that he had had nothing to do with the incident. That was why Izzy had radiated with sympathy, placing a supportive hand on his shoulder and smiling faintly. "It'll be okay, kiddo. Wasn't your fault", she promised, and as Chloe proceeded to explain the usual call-us-if-you-remember-anything speech, Isadora's eyes trailed away from the boy to Lucifer, who was suddenly rushing out of the building, concern painted all over his face as he strode down the street.

           "Huh", Izzy breathed out, "weird." Then again, Lucifer was always a quirky guy — but call it a cop's instinct, Izzy could tell something was off about him. Weird indeed. And she was going to get to the bottom of it.

»»»

hooo boy, did it take me over a month to update?? indeed it did, but now that school is ending, i'm hoping for more inspiration to write during the summer (:

this was kinda a filler chapter, and i lowkey think that all of them are lately, but i don't wanna give up so i'm going to try and add some action in the next chapters. the next one will also probably be very lucifer / izzy centric, but there's going to be some maze too, and BENJI, my poor son (': i forgot how much i put him through omg

thank you for 8k! ❤️