Chapter Text
Chloe Decker, MD is not exactly the kind of person to get riled up easily. She is, after all, an intensive care doctor in Los Angeles which means, she’s seen a lot . She is also not entirely unfamiliar with moronic doctors who think they are God’s gift to humanity and misogyny is - not surprisingly - especially widespread among surgeons (it is still very much a men’s club after all) but despite all of this, she is pretty certain that Doctor Lucifer Morningstar is the worst of them all .
He is tall, British and was an immediate hit with all the nurses and doctors - female and male - as soon as he set foot in the hospital. And he is probably the most arrogant and insufferable person she has ever met in her life. He actually had the audacity to be shocked when she did not immediately fall at his feet the first time they met? Like that was just something so entirely outside the realm of possibility?
Unfortunately, that was not the last time they interacted. He’s the new cardio attending - because of course he is - which means that she has to work with him a lot more than she would like (her preference being zero). And, more than that, he seems to actively seek out their meetings. He is in the ICU a lot more than any other surgeon under the guise of checking up on his patients and he seems to enjoy riling her up. A lot.
So it’s not surprising that, when she walks into one of the rooms at the end of a terrible 24-hour shift, she finds him meddling with the sedation of one of his patients. Her sedation.
“Excuse me?” she asks, trying very hard to keep her voice calm. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He looks up from what he is doing at that, but of course does not stop fiddling with the infusion pump.
“Oh I was just optimizing some things,” he says jovially, not sounding the least bit ashamed at having been caught and she has to grit her teeth and clench her fist before she can use her hands for something like strangling him.
“Dr. Morningstar -“
He interrupts her immediately, a small smirk on his lips
“Darling, I’ve told you before, there’s really no need to be formal, please call me Lucifer.”
Or maybe she could stab him. There are enough sharp objects in this hospital.
Instead, she takes another deep breath. Tries to think of happy things like the fact that she is off the clock in ten minutes and can go home to her daughter and a Morningstar-free apartment. The jail time for stabbing him would really, really not be worth it.
“Dr. Morningstar,” she repeats instead. “I would prefer if you did your own job instead of mine. I can assure you I am quite good at this.”
She’s proud of herself for keeping her voice levelled, though she is also sure it does sound a little strained at the edges.
His smirk doesn’t drop at her words.
“Oh I know, dear,” he replies. “You are very good at what you do. But this is a very high-profile client. I was merely making sure everything is in order.”
She shoots him a dirty look at that but he just grins back at her in that way that has everyone else pretty much fling themselves into his arms.
Well she is not about to do that. But she is also tired and she really just wants to go home and sleep for like a year (or just 8 hours).
“So you are an intensive care doctor now, too?” she asks sarcastically.
“Oh no, I like to be much more hands on than that. But I have picked up a few things here and there. Plus the patient looked like they were in pain. Their blood pressure and heart rate went up and I figured you’d prefer if they weren’t. Makes for a better recovery and all that.”
He is right, of course, but he should have informed her instead of just fiddling with things himself. Contrary to what he thinks, even Lucifer Morningstar is not all-knowing and…she is too tired to get into this argument with him right now. The worst thing is he probably did it right. He is a cocky bastard but it’s unfortunately not entirely without reason. She is obviously not going to tell him that though. She’d never hear the end of it.
“Don’t you have hearts to fix?,” she says instead, fully aware of just how lame thar sounds. His grin widens at her words.
They both know he’s won this round.
“One day, you too will come around, Doctor,” he says simply, turning away from the patient.
“When Hell freezes over,” she merely retorts.
He merely cocks an eyebrow at that.
“I’m sure I could arrange that.”
It’s another one of those days that just won’t end. It should be enough that two of her patients coded today and that one of them did not make it. It should be enough that another patient threw up on her, instead of managing to hit the bin the nurse was helpfully holding right in front of him. It should be enough that there is a fifteen year old kid fighting for his life in her ICU right now because he decided to ride his bike to school. But of course it’s not. Instead, this day just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and it’s 9pm now and she can’t remember the last time she ate. It was probably not today.
It’s at this moment that a chocolate bar lands on the desk she’s currently resting her head on because she really, really just needs five minutes. And not just any chocolate bar, no, it’s a Kinder chocolate bar.
It’s enough to pull her from her thoughts and she straightens up immediately, half-expecting her superior to be there, ready to chew her out for not working for the 15th straight hour without so much as a coffee break. Astonishingly enough, she finds herself looking into the eyes of one Dr. Lucifer Morningstar, cardiothoracic surgeon extraordinaire and the man who has been getting on her every last nerve for the past three months instead. And because this day is apparently not done surprising her yet, he’s actually not wearing a smug smile for once, or making a jab at her for sleeping on the job. Instead he actually looks…concerned?
She can’t stop her eyebrows from rising slightly at the expression on his face as she slowly plucks the chocolate bar from her desk.
“Dr. Morningstar,” she greets him quietly, eyes still focused intently on his, looking for any sign that this is a prank (because let’s be honest, it’s not entirely far-fetched).
“Dr. Decker,” he replies with a nod, sounding very serious and absolutely unlike himself. “You looked like you could need it.”
There’s a small smile playing along the corner of his mouth now and she can’t help the mirroring one that appears ever so slowly on her own face and she knows it’s not a prank because even he is not that…well, asshole-y.
“Ummm…thank you,” she says, for lack of a better option. If she’s honest, she’s too stunned to come up with something better because Lucifer Morningstar is smiling at her and not being a dick and he brought her chocolate and not just that but her -
“It’s your favourite, isn’t it?” he enquires, voice more quiet and questioning than she has ever heard before.
She nods ever so slowly.
“It is,” she confirms, drawing out the words. “How did you…?”
His smile widens a bit, into something real that makes his face look surprisingly soft and she is pretty sure she’s entered the Twilight Zone. But there is no snarky comment to follow it up or a quip about how she should eat healthier and how she’s going to clog up her arteries and get a heart attack and he’ll have to save her.
Instead he just shrugs.
“We all have our secrets,” is all he replies.
“Goodnight, Dr. Decker.”
And then he’s gone and she’s left sitting there with her favourite chocolate bar in hand and a tiny smile on her face.
Yes, this day was garbage and yes, she’s pretty sure they’re going to be back to their old selves tomorrow, bickering and fighting but she’s also somehow quite certain that she got a glimpse of the real Lucifer tonight, the one that’s hidden beneath the arrogance and haughtiness and the stupid good looks.
And, well, he doesn’t seem so bad.