Long Time No See

Chloe Decker just wanted the fucking DePrinze case to be over. After Lucifer returned to Hell, she threw herself into her work, a classic Decker coping mechanism. She had begged the Lieutenant for as many cases as possible, she didn’t care how messy or how gruesome, she just needed something that wasn’t Trixie to distract her. With her work ethic, the Lieutenant was soon impressed. So she decided to challenge her favourite homicide detective by giving her a serial killing case from three years prior that never had proper closure, the infamous DePrinze case. While the eponymous killer was locked up in solitary confinement in Washington, DC, his accomplices had managed to orchestrate murders all over the country, including several in LA. While the perpetrators had all been found and arrested, it was the nature of the murders, and sophistication of the manipulation of security equipment that still remained a mystery. So Chloe had spent her recent days going back and forth between the crime scenes, and interrogating DePrinze’s accomplices at the LA Federal Prison.

Dan had become extremely protective of Chloe after Lucifer left. After what happened to Charlotte, his relationship with Lucifer was never quite the same, so when he heard that he’d abandoned Chloe without so much as a warning, he wouldn’t have any of it. The fact that he was her ex was beside the point, she was the mother of his child, and they had generally remained on amicable terms, seeing as they worked together. Despite Chloe’s insistence that Lucifer’s ‘emergency’ was important and not his fault, Dan had made sure to stick by her side, knowing her tendency to suppress her emotions. He knew that her increased workload and frequent over-timing was not just some career power-move, she was distracting herself from grief. She certainly seemed more enthusiastic this way though, so Dan let her be. But when she told him the Lieutenant had given her the LA leg of the DePrinze case, Dan insisted on helping her. He couldn’t bear the thought of Chloe visiting Federal on her own. He’d seen the files of the people locked up in there, it didn’t matter how courageous and resolute she was, he didn’t feel right letting her go alone.

She was getting nowhere, it appeared the accomplices weren’t going to talk, and being a humble cop, she had no authority to instigate enhanced interrogation techniques. Normally that wouldn’t stop her though, since she always had Lucifer by her side, who managed to crack witnesses without laying a hand on them (most of the time, at least). But Lucifer wasn’t here. The Lieutenant had suggested visiting DePrinze himself, and some of his other crime scenes, to see if there were any patterns, after all, he was the mastermind. So Chloe and Dan found themselves visiting the Federal Prison at Washington, DC. Maze had proven herself to be responsible and stable, despite her own heartbreak over Eve, as well as Lucifer’s departure, so she was watching over Trixie for the week. Chloe still called Linda and asked her to check in though. There was such a thing as too much knifeplay.

DePrinze was not easy to break. Astute and charming, he certainly didn’t fit the maniacal blood-thirsty type. But Chloe saw past those alluring hazel eyes and knew what kind of a monster he was. She had recently made a minor breakthrough, after looking at one of the DC crime scenes. When she confronted the killer about her evidence, he simply shook his head and laughed. 

“Do you think I was stupid enough to arrange every murder in the same way? I made sure each weapon was different, and hidden uniquely. I promise you, my men destroyed none of the evidence. You and your fellow officers are just pawns in my game of logic. You will never figure out how I managed to pull this off. And now, I have the satisfaction of watching LAPD’s so-called best homicide detective walk away from me with her tail between her legs.”

Chloe glared at him. She knew not to engage, it would just make her look overly emotional, and please him more. Dan squeezed her shoulder, as the guard walked in to tell them that time was up for today. Sighing through her nose, she stood up from the plastic chair and turned around, leaving the grim cell. Prison visits were always incredibly draining. But as she re-entered the harsh, fluorescently-lit corridor, she quickly seized Dan’s hand, halting them both suddenly.

She made eye contact with somebody that rang a very familiar bell.

It had been a few years, but she knew he couldn’t possibly still have a place in prison.

But as his eyebrows raised in response, and his mouth formed shapes that could only belong to her, Chloe’s blood ran cold as she found it to be true.

—

Tony Almeida had given up. He was in prison, but he had gotten the revenge he wanted, or most of it, at least. From what he’d heard, Renee Walker nearly finished Alan Wilson off. He wasn’t dead, but he’d been punished. So now he was ready to wait around for his death. Every day, he sat on the cold linoleum, trying to distract himself from the constant flashbacks. Michelle’s death. The feeing of fire in his nerves when Henderson injected him. The miserable hours following his revival, when he realised it hadn’t all been some fever dream, and that the love of his life really was dead. Watching the two planes fly into each other by his hand. Killing Emerson. Larry. Cara. Countless others. Trying to kill Alan Wilson only to be stopped by Jack. His hair had grown out, face sagged, scars healed. Other than the periodic rising and setting of the sun through his tiny cell window, looking at his appearance was the only indication of how much time had passed. Exercise was the only thing keeping from looking entirely like an old man.

He had just sat on the floor again, facing the door, exhausted from his workout. Tony noticed the door to DePrinze, the serial killer whose cell was adjacent to his, was opening. He saw a man and a woman walk out, definitely not guards, or at least not ones he’d seen before. The woman directly faced Tony, separated only by a heavyset door with a small, dirty window pane. Now getting a good look at her, Tony was dumbfounded to realise it was Chloe Decker, the LAPD cop who’d come to CTU not once, but twice.

“Chloe?”

—

Despite the orange jumpsuit, salt-and-pepper beard, and prominent wrinkles, the narrowed eyes identified the man in the cell to be Tony Almeida. He met her flabbergasted expression and immediately stood up to move to the door. The guard escorting the two detectives had noticed this, and moved to open it, albeit with some hesitation. But clearly the two knew each other. Chloe stepped towards the doorway as if she were approaching a chained-up tiger. Dan instinctively grabbed her arm, wondering why the Hell she was moving towards another inmate’s cell, but she resisted and broke free.

“Tony?”

Letting out a long sigh, Tony sat down on the slab of concrete he called a bed. He was slightly amused, after all, the last time he’d seen Chloe Decker was in a holding cell at LAPD. The first time she’d come to CTU with Lucifer on George Mason’s request, he remembered consoling her when she’d looked through the horror that was Nina Myers’ file. She was kind, stunningly beautiful, and pretty damn brave when she came back a second time, facing Nina Myers on her own. He wouldn’t have minded going for coffee with her on another day. But of course, Michelle happened, so that plan never even dreamt of coming to fruition, and besides, it had seemed Lucifer was already taken with her. The man standing next to her right now wasn’t him, maybe he was wrong? Or maybe they’d been together but couldn’t work it out? Who knew.

“Long time no see.”

“You know this guy?” Dan exclaimed, his voice trailed in pitch as he finished the sentence.

She had never forgotten her two engagements at CTU. The surroundings, the people she’d met, it was as clear as day in her mind. Tony Almeida stood out in particular. The first time they’d gone, he’d comforted her in a way nobody could quite manage in the months following Trixie’s kidnapping. Instead of trying to distract her or make her forget about it, he spoke about it with full conviction, he made it clear that it was horrible, and that she was strong for getting through it. They’d lost contact after that day, but a small part of her wanted to get to know him more. He wasn’t exactly unattractive. Then her heart leapt when he’d decided she was capable enough of returning, it was something of a career honour to have been nominated worthy of helping at CTU, even if Lucifer had done most of the work. By then, she and Pierce were together (what a great idea that turned out to be), and he had already married Michelle. She was intent on keeping in touch that time, but of course he’d been sentenced to prison. But she made sure to check in on Michelle for his sake. Michelle seemed to be doing just fine on her own though, and then she’d gotten a job in Seattle for Homeland Security, that was the last Chloe had heard from her.

“I-I don’t understand. I-I went to your trial. You were only supposed to serve seven months, in LA.” She could hardly believe what she was seeing. If he was in prison, it couldn’t have been for saving Michelle, so what exactly had he done now? Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been petty, this was Federal after all. And why Washington? Getting a closer look at him, she saw his hardened facial features, even his once genuine brown eyes looked indifferent, like his life had been drained from his body. “My God…” she barely whispered. “What happened, Tony?”

“Uh…Chloe, do you mind filling me in here?” Dan was still confused, and frankly scared.

Chloe turned towards him, Dan noticed moisture in her eyes. “He worked at CTU. I was asked to go with Lucifer a few times.”

“CTU? I thought CTU LA was disbanded?”

“This was before that.” Chloe was too caught up to try and explain her CTU visits to Dan, instead dismissing him to face Tony again.

“Well, Chloe, I suppose I owe you an explanation. But first of all, what exactly are you doing here?” Tony’s voice sounded grave. Chloe knew CTU agents tended to have a string of tragedy attached to their lives, she could only hold her breath waiting to hear what had happened to him.

“Dan and I are investigating what’s left of the DePrinze case in LA. The Lieutenant thought it would be good to try talking to him, so we’re here in DC for the week.”

His eyes widened. “You’re investigating DePrinze? Jesus. The guy’s insane.”

Dan raised an eyebrow, as if to say, ‘and you, his fellow inmate, aren’t?’

“I did only serve seven months for treason, you’re not wrong there, Chloe. Things weren’t great after that, I was unemployed for a while, I started drinking, Michelle left me, which I don’t blame her for. Then through a few coincidences, we managed to make it work again.” She noticed his voice had started to waver. “We’d agreed that working at CTU was just too much of a toll on our relationship, Hell, our lives. So we left, started a private security company from home, God, we felt like newlyweds all over again.” He sounded wistful, before his tone became more hostile. “Then she fell pregnant, but one day, somebody up there decided I wasn’t allowed to be happy, and she was murdered in front of my eyes. Michelle’s death was a means to an end in an elaborate terrorist plot, and I couldn’t sit there and let him go unpunished. I tried to kill who I thought was responsible, he ended up nearly killing me with hyocine-pentothal. I was revived ten minutes later by another conspirator. I was given a second chance at life, and I did whatever it took, and I mean whatever it took, to uncover the mastermind. The more undercover I went, the more sickened I was when I realised how many government officials that I’d spent my whole damn life serving.” His voice raised, before he inhaled a sharp breath and calmed down. “Were involved. At that point, I stopped caring about doing the right thing. All I cared about was killing the person who took my wife and child away from me…”

Chloe and Dan listened intently. By the end, Chloe could barely keep it together, she hadn’t even realised she was holding her breath. There were so many emotions going through her head. Of course she was incredibly sorrowful for what had happened to him, his wife died in his arms after they’d made every possible choice to get themselves out of danger. More than that, she knew Michelle, and the trauma she’d been through individually, let alone with Tony. Chloe had no idea she’d been dead for several years. After all, government conspiracies don’t tend to make the LAPD bulletin. But hearing him describe what he’d done, the lengths he’d gone to to get revenge, she felt sick to her stomach. It seemed the compassion she saw in him was gone, as if it’d died with Michelle. He had become so fuelled by a desire for retribution, that he believed the ends justified the means. Tony had killed innocent people just so he could personally take down the man who took his wife from him. And now he was paying for it, in prison. She didn’t linger too long on the thought of death though, after all, thinking about death meant thinking about Heaven and Hell, which meant thinking about Lucifer.

Dan on the other hand, albeit the gaps in his knowledge, felt this man’s pain. After all, he’d lost Charlotte in the same way. Well, sort of. Pierce wasn’t exactly a terrorist, just a dick, but he killed Charlotte nonetheless. Dan wondered if it wasn’t for Pierce’s death soon after, if he would have seeked revenge in the same way. If he would have let grief drive him to that point. Charlotte wasn’t his pregnant wife of five years, but in the last few months, she’d made him feel happier than he’d been in what seemed like forever. He loved her. But still, Dan wasn’t going to just believe this man to be totally validated in his actions. In fact, Tony served as a reminder of the night he put Trixie in danger, through his desire to get back at Lucifer. He shuddered to think he shared similarities with this man.

Tony noticed the tears form in Chloe’s eyes. It was only from repetition of this story that he managed to keep it together himself. He cupped his hand over hers, clutching it. He looked at her directly, as a pair of sapphires stared back. There was apprehension, he could tell she wasn’t exactly accepting of what he’d done. He didn’t blame her either. 

“Look…Chloe, I know it’s not easy for you to see me like this. It’s confronting, I get it. But don’t worry about me. Everything was taken from me and I didn’t stop until I saw the men responsible dead. And now it’s time for me to serve my punishment. I don’t exactly have somewhere to call home, I know I’ll be spending the rest of my life here. But I’m okay with that.”

Chloe sniffled, knowing he was right. It’s not like being out of prison would serve him any better. And a criminal was a criminal, even if his motivations weren’t completely malicious. But what she saw in front of her would haunt her forever.

“I-I just can’t believe she’s gone. Tony, I-I’m so sorry.” Her voice broke.

“Hey. Wilson got the justice he deserved, it’s all over now.” He looked Chloe in the eyes, assuring her.

Dan, feeling awkward to interrupt whatever this moment was, interjected. “Uh Chloe, we should probably get going, Trixie’s probably wondering why we haven’t called her yet today.”

Shaking her head, Chloe refocused her attention to where it belongs. “Yep, you’re right. Sorry.” Turning to Tony one last time, she smiled weakly. “Well, I don’t think I’ll be coming back to visit DePrinze, interrogating him didn’t seem to work, so I guess I won’t be seeing you then.”

“Yeah, probably. By the way, uh, where’s Lucifer? I thought he normally worked with you, especially when it comes to this sort of thing. No offence or anything.” Tony gestured to Dan.

Dan scoffed, but Tony didn’t notice, because he was too occupied by the look of heartbreak on her face. Her lips pressed together, looking down at the floor. Chloe’s voice was melancholy, as if she were talking about someone who’d died. “He…he had an emergency to attend to, he probably won’t be back any time soon.”

“Oh…well I’m sorry to hear that. You guys were a good team together.”

The corners of her lips upturned. “Yeah….yeah we were. Anyways, we really should be going.”

—

Chloe and Dan got in the car, as the slam of the door filled the otherwise silent parking lot. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other after Chloe said goodbye to Tony.

“So….CTU, huh? You and Tony?” Dan started, possibly a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Yeah. CTU.” She narrowed her eyes at him. As much as Chloe appreciated Dan looking out for her, he could definitely be too overprotective at times. Then again, when your ex-wife talks with a federal prisoner like old chums, there’s bound to be a few questions. “I guess I should just explain then, since you’re so intent on knowing. Apparently word had gotten around the agencies that Lucifer was good at interrogating suspects without laying a hand on them. So the Lieutenant got a call from the CTU director asking for us to help, and we went.”

“How come you never told me?” He was slightly offended.

“This was during those few months you were demoted after Malcolm. I guess it never came up, I didn’t really want to talk about it.” She defended herself.

“Why? What happened?”

“There was a prisoner. Her name was Nina Myers. She was a former CTU agent, who’d been caught actually helping terrorists. Nina killed an agent’s wife right after she and her daughter had been taken hostage, among other things. This was just a few weeks after Malcolm kidnapped Trixie, I could barely finish reading the file, I didn’t know how I was going to face her. Tony was another agent there, he comforted me, and made me realise I still wasn’t really over it. So Lucifer went in alone, did his thing, and she was willing to talk after that.” Chloe explained.

“Okay…but you said you went a couple of times. Why the Hell did you go back there if it ate you up like that?”

“I didn’t really have much of a choice. A few years later, I got a call from Tony at like three in the morning. Apparently it was urgent. He just said Lucifer and I were needed.”

“Right…Tony called you because of Lucifer, and not because he was hitting on you.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Yes, Dan. Because the suspect was Nina Myers, again. And for the record, he was married at this point. Need I remind you, we aren’t?”

Dan didn’t meet her gaze, he’d overstepped his boundary. She was right.

“Anyway. It turns out Nina had slimed her way into an immunity agreement, but CTU found her, needed more intel. This time I wanted to be the one to start, I had to let myself talk to her, so I could finally push past everything. I-I ended up losing control and pointing my gun at her.” Chloe’s voice broke, as Dan’s eyebrows raised.

He scoffed, “You did what? You, the most level-headed woman I know, did that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I snapped. It was unprofessional, I know. But Lucifer finished her off anyway, then we went home a few hours later.”

“Okay, so that explains the CTU visits, and why you didn’t talk about them. But then you said something about being on trial for treason.” Dan cocked his head to the side.

“That same day, one of the terrorists involved kidnapped Michelle, who was another agent and Tony’s wife. He forced Tony to choose between her and releasing another vial of a deadly virus, which would have killed thousands of people. He panicked and complied to save Michelle, but luckily CTU intercepted and caught the guy anyways. But because of his choice, he was arrested for treason. I was so angry, I had to know what was going to happen to him. So I went to his trial, and they managed to whittle his prison sentence down. I was relieved, but so worried for Michelle, after everything she’d been through herself that day. But she was so brave, it seemed she had everything under control, tried to keep in touch, but that was the last I’d heard from her.” It was then Chloe realised just how much of an impact CTU had had on her. How she hadn’t forgotten a single detail. How she could still replay those memories in her mind as if they happened yesterday.

“Then Michelle was killed, Tony went on a vengeance rampage, and now he’s in prison for life. Jesus. Poor guy. I mean, okay, he went too far, but…still.” Seeing the full picture, Dan thought about how grateful he was to have his own child alive. That divorce aside, Chloe, a woman he once loved, was alive. 

“Yeah…” She stared out the window, at the dusk sky-line of DC, as Dan drove them home.

—

And so, Tony Almeida never saw Chloe Decker again. She was just another person long forgotten. Another connection abandoned. 

About seven months later, he heard that the notorious DePrinze case had finally been solved. It turns out many of the weapons were hidden in plain sight. Pens with thin blades instead of ink cartridges. Hidden compartments in books. Even a cupboard handle was a curved knife in disguise. Chloe Decker had been the one to spot these patterns. Tony couldn’t help but feel proud when he saw photos of her shaking the governor’s hand. Lucifer wasn’t by her side though, she was just on her own. Seems she’d gotten the job done herself.

Chloe Decker had become a figment of the past.

But little did Tony know, that Lucifer Morningstar would be a very significant part of his future.