Chapter 3

I wake up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. I don't remember going to bed here. Or at all. What the hell is going on? I feel a shift in the bed next to me. I roll over to see Lucifer lying there, sleeping. Angels don't sleep. What the hell?
I roll out of bed quietly, trying not to wake the sleeping boy. I tiptoe up to the door, which creeks when I open it. Lucifer makes a small noise, but doesn't wake up. I breathe a quiet sigh of relief and walk out of the room. There's a short hallway, which I walk through in search of an exit. I pause at one of the doors and read the sign, which had the words "Macie's not home right now, leave a message after the beep" printed in messy pink letters on a white paper. I can't help but smile at how adorable that is. Wait, Macie's room? Why is Macie here? Macie's gone. She disappeared, didn't she? What is going on?
"Bailey?" a quiet voice says from behind me.
I whip around to see Lucifer standing in the doorway to his-our?-room. He rubs the sleep out of his eyes and asks, "What are you doing up so early?"
"Nightmare," I lie. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."
"It's fine," he assures me with a yawn. "Are you coming back to bed?"
"Um..." What am I supposed to say? I need to get out of here and back to my life.
I must take too long to answer, because he says, "Come on." He walks up to me and takes my hand gently, leading me back to our room. I lie down on the edge of the bed, as far as I can be without looking suspicious. I don't know what the hell is going on right now, but Lucifer and I aren't in the best of terms right now, and I'm not just going to forget about that. When he puts his arm around me, though, I find myself forgiving him, even though I know I shouldn't.

I wake up again much later to the sound of crying outside my room. I glance at Lucifer, but he's still sleeping, oblivious to the noise. I quietly get out of bed and walk outside my room, where the noise gets louder. I follow it to the end of the hall, where I find stairs. Lying at the bottom of them is a girl that I recognize immediately.
It's Macie.
I hurry down the stairs and kneel next to her. She looks up at me, her tears visible even in the dim light. I feel myself change into parent mode immediately.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" I ask.
Through the sobs, I manage to make out most of what she's saying. "I fell down the stairs and my leg hurts!"
"Where does it hurt?" I ask.
She gestures to one of her legs. Her knee is turning red, and her ankle is swelling up. I frown at he sight of it. I pick her up and carry her out to what appears to be a kitchen, sitting her down at the table. I hurry to the fridge and pull out an ice pack that appears to be meant for a lunch box. I wrap it in paper towels from the counter and hold it against her ankle. As soon as it touches, she cries out in pain and hits my arm away.
"What?" I ask immediately, worried.
"Don't touch it!"
"We have to ice it to keep the swelling down," I tell her.
"No no no no no!"
My frown deepens. What am I supposed to do? I don't know how to parent. I was a parent for a week, ten days ago. I don't know how to handle this!
"I'm going to get your dad, okay?" I say finally. She just nods. I dart up the stairs and push the door to our room open. I shake Lucifer awake urgently. "Hey, get up."
Lucifer groans at being woken up so early. "What?"
"Macie fell down the stairs and her ankle is swelling up and I don't know what to do Lucifer help I-"
"Alright," he interrupts, getting up immediately. Even in his tired state, he manages to get down the stairs before I can even get to the end of the hallway. By the time I'm in the kitchen, Lucifer is kneeling next to Macie, attempting to talk to her. "Are you okay, sweetie? Can I put ice on your ankle? I know it hurts, but you have to ice it, okay?" Lucifer attempts to ice her ankle, but she takes the ice from him and throws it across the room. "Okay, I guess you don't want ice, huh?"
"It hurts!" Macie whines. "Daddy, it hurts! Make it stop!"
"What do you want me to do?" Lucifer asks kindly. "Do you want to go to the ER?"
"I don't know!"
"I'm going to take that as a yes," Lucifer replies. "Come on." He sweeps Macie into his arms and carries her outside. I follow him to what I'm assuming is our car. He gently places her in one of the back seats before sitting in the driver's seat. I sit shotgun, nervously watching my crying daughter behind me.
A/N I don't really know where I'm going with this. Also, I don't hospital so... Time skip!
The three of us are sitting in a small room in the hospital. It's not so much a room as a small section of a larger room set off by curtains. Macie is lying in the hospital, fortunately no longer crying. She has some pain killers, but it wasn't fun to watch them put the IV in. She's sleeping now, though, and the pain can no longer bother her.
"How long does it take for them to check an X-ray?" Lucifer mutters to himself. I can see clearly how much this is affecting him, not being able to help his daughter with a simple touch. Angel Lucifer would never have to deal with this, and seeing it now is sort of unnerving. I've never seen him so stressed out before.
"I'm she it won't be much longer," I assure him.
Unfortunately, it takes another twenty minutes of uncomfortable silence for them to finally come back, only to tell us that she dislocated her foot. I didn't even know that was possible. (A/N For someone who wants to be a doctor when they grow up, I know nothing about medical stuff. Is this possible?)
We leave the hospital a few hours later, with Macie using crutches to go with the big boot on her foot. Fortunately, she figures out how they work fairly quickly, and she ends up moving faster than us walking back to the car.
"How are you feeling?" I ask her as she slides into the car. I take her crutches and place them in the trunk.
"Better, I guess," she replies. "Crutches are fun, so there's that."
I can't help but grin at that. This is the definition of a glass half full view on life. We ride home in silence, not having anything new to say after such a long time at the hospital. When we get home, I hand Macie her crutches and she hops out of the car. She speed crutches up to the door and waits for us to catch up.
"She's enjoying this way too much," Lucifer says to me, a small smile on his face.
"But it's adorable," I reply.
"Yeah, it's true," he agrees. "You know what else is adorable?"
"What?" I ask.
"You."
I laugh softly. "You're such a flirt."
"I won't deny that," he replies.

~~

"Mommy!" Macie calls to me from the living room a few days later. "Osric got a new cat! Can we go visit him?"
"Did he say we could?" I ask.
"No, but he's Osric. He won't mind."
I find myself agreeing. I help Macie to her crutches, which are laying a few feet away from her. She takes them gratefully and gets up. Together, we find Lucifer, who's working on something work-related on his laptop. I still don't know what he does for a living, but I can't ask. I feel like that would be a bit strange, considering we're dating and have a daughter. I feel like I should at least pretend to know.
"Daddy! We're going to visit Osric's new cat!" Macie tells him.
"Osric got another cat?" Lucifer repeats incredulously. "He gets one, like, every week. He's got to have a hundred by now."
Macie giggles. "No, Daddy. He fosters them!"
"Oh, silly me," Lucifer replies, just to humor the little girl. He already knew that. I know he did.
"Do you want to come with?" I ask him.
"I've got to finish something up," he tells me. "But you guys have fun. Tell Osric I say hi."
"Bye, Daddy!" Macie says before rushing out the door. I laugh at her enthusiasm and follow her. Osric only lives a few houses away, so we walk there. Macie complains that it hurts her arms, but I know she's milking it. She's walked farther at once with those crutches.
Macie rings the doorbell a bunch of times, until I finally have to tell her to stop. We wait a few seconds, until the door is opened and Osric stands there.
"Hey, guys!" he greets us with a smile. "What are you doing here?"
"I saw your kitten in Snapchat!" Macie tells him. "I want to meet her!"
"Him," Osric corrects her. "Well, come in. I'll go find him." He lets us inside before disappearing to find his kitten. He returns about a minute later with a small cat in his arms. He looks familiar. But where...?
"This is Jace," Osric introduces us. "Isn't he adorable?"
"I love him!" Macie squeals. "Can I hold him?"
"Sure." Osric hands her the kitten, who snuggled against her lovingly. Macie leans her crutches against the wall before she takes the animal.
In the middle of Macie and Jace's love fest, there's a knock on the door. Osric excuses himself and slips away. I hear the sound of the door open.
"Jensen! Hey, what are you doing here?" Osric asks.
"Bailey, you here?" Jensen asks loudly. He steps into view, and his relief is clear when he sees me. "Oh, thank god. Hey, Bailey. Hate to burst your bubble right now, but-"
"None of this us real?" I fill in. "No dip, Sherlock."
"You know it's not real?" he repeats in surprise.
I nod. "Mm-hmm."
"Then what are you still doing here?"
I shrug. "I'm just sort of chilling."
"But you're dying!" he tells me. "You're dying out there!"
"Yeah, but if I remember correctly, I'll live my whole life in here," I remind him. "So, really, I'm not losing anything."
"Why would you want to live here?" Jensen asks in disbelief.
"It's a whole lot better than my life out there," I tell him. "I mean, here, I've got Macie and Lucifer back. Out there, I don't have either."
"What are you talking about?" Jensen asks. "Lucifer's here."
"Yeah, but I don't have him," I reply. "He wants nothing to do with me, and I don't really care anymore. I don't want to go back to the bunker, or to him."
"No, I mean he's here," Jensen repeats. "Like, he's in here with us. We weren't sure where to look for you, so we split up, but it's only a matter of time until he shows up."
"I'm already here."
Sure enough, Lucifer is standing in the doorway to the room, looking almost sad. I don't understand why, though. Even if he did overhear what I said, I don't see why he'd care. He's the one that didn't want to see me, not the other way around.
"Look, guys, I'm flattered that you're here to save me and stuff, but I'd really appreciate it if you just... Didn't, okay? Bye!"
"We can't just leave you to die," Jensen protests.
"So you'd rather take me from real happiness?" I retort.
"That's the problem! It's not real happiness!" Jensen tells me.
"Yes, it is! It's not a real world, but it's real happiness!"
"What's so good about this world that you'd rather stay here than come with us?" Jensen asks.
"Mommy, what's going on?"
At the sound of that little voice, Lucifer's head snaps in that direction. His eyes go wide when he sees Macie run towards me, Jace still in her hands. I can clearly see the understanding on his face when she appears.
"Macie," he breathes.
Macie looks up at him. "Daddy! I thought you were working! Look, look! It's Osric's foster kitten, Jace!"
"Macie, how about you go take Jace to the kitchen and play with him on the counter?" I suggest. "That way you guys can be closer to the same height."
"Oh, good idea!" Macie replies. She limps away quickly, but I stop her.
"Hey, where are your crutches?" I ask.
"Osric took them for me," she tells me. "So I didn't drop Jace." With that, she walks out of the room.
"What happened to her foot?" Lucifer asks.
"She fell down the stairs," I inform him.
"It doesn't matter," Jensen breaks in. "It's not real. Come on, we're taking you back."
"I'll pass, thanks," I reply.
"I could kill you right now," Jensen says. "That would get you out of here."
"Seriously, guys, leave," I say.
"We can't do that, Bailey," Jensen replies. "Sorry."
I don't have time to respond before I feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I look down to see a blade in my gut, Jensen holding the other end. I fall to the floor in pain that won't go away. I clutch my stomach, willing the pain to stop. And suddenly, it does.

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