Chapter 2

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Charlie's breath shuddered with worry as she continued to feel her father shaking with erratic breaths while holding onto her. Her hands slowly rose from her sides to place them on her father's back. She was a bit hesitant, not sure if she could do it. She was scared if it would help calm him down or not. In the end, she made the choice to gently place her hands on his smaller quivering form and gave him gentle pats. Charlie felt him flinch at first before exhaling a breath as he relaxed a bit.

"Dad, I'm here. Everything is okay." Charlie assured him.

"I'll keep you safe. I'll protect you, my dear Charlie." Lucifer mumbled while silently crying.

Charlie smiled at her father's words.

"I know, Dad. I know you will. And I'll protect you too." Charlie vowed in a soft whisper to her heart and to him.

She wasn't sure if her dad heard her because all she heard from him next was more of his agitated weeping.

Charlie felt her heart tickle with sadness and sympathy. This view of her father, the great king of Hell, looking so susceptible to torment made her realize that all those years of viewing him as this harsh, unreachable, and heartless entity were not at all true. He had been absent and neglectful for most of her life, but seeing him here right now made her know he was trying to make up for those wrongs. Lucifer cared for her. His actions spoke the truth to her.

A sprout of doubt made Charlie wonder at that moment: how can her father have even said that she was a failure of a child? She never heard the words with her own ears or directly in her own father's voice. In fact, it came from her mother, Lilith. Charlie remembered how her mother had put it out to her in a gentle way, how she said that her father implied it, and how she quickly attached a few more words that told Charlie not to dwell on it too much. However, the implication had already done irreparable emotional damage to Charlie. She was never close with her father. She had tried to, but it was like there had been this wall that blocked him from her reach. There were doors that kept him locked in and her locked out. A pull that carried her away from him despite her heart wanting to hear more of his stories and tales. The less they interacted as she grew up the more they drifted further apart as the years passed. Charlie never wanted to bother him, but she still talked to him when he was the one who initiated it first. She took his calls and fulfilled the requests he had for her. She followed through it all dutifully, scared shitless of messing things up in fear her father would lash out at her with crueler words the moment she fucked up.Charlie just realized that all the fear she had attached to him had clouded her judgment. Only then did it somehow register in her mind that all those times that Lucifer set out to contact her for boredom or for whatever little things he so suddenly requested were his own ways of checking on her and making sure she was just doing fine. He had started to slowly inch himself back into her life after he and Lilith finally seperated. Charlie had an unwanted thought creep in her mind. The thought was there, but she didn't want to acknowledge it. She pushed it to the back of her head not wanting to believe she could think of something like that. There was just no way that....Charlie stopped there. This was her conjecture for now. The entire picture has yet to be painted. She snapped back to reality and realized she was still in her father's room, the two of them still in a tight embrace. Lucifer's soft cries still reaching her ears.

"I'm here, Dad. It's okay. I'm here." Charlie whispered in a soothing voice to ease whatever pertubation he had going on in his head.

Whatever nightmare had haunted Lucifer's dreams, it surely must have been so horrific that it had trapped him well enough to be pushed to this state. It has really confounded Charlie to see him like this.

Charlie then thought of an idea that would help get him calm, and that's when she started to hum a soft melody. Her gentle, sweet voice filled the room with a song that came from her heart. Lucifer stayed silent, listening quietly to her singing. They stayed on the bed, hugging each other, with Charlie continuously doing her best to comfort her father. When the song reached its end, Charlie realized how her father had finally stopped shaking; his labored breathing had at last returned to normal. Lucifer had fallen asleep while still clinging to his daughter. Charlie chuckled softly, seeing as how her dad looked like he was the child and not the parent between the two of them.

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