Chapter Text
"Lucifer. This is your daughter. Charlotte."
Emily held out her hands to her older brother. In her hands was a tiny blond baby with pale skin like his and the same rosy cheeks as him. Lucifer stared dumbstruck at the little baby before raising his arms to take her. Emily gently arranged the baby in his arms.
"Remember to support her head. She's still very little!" Emily says softly but firmly.
Lucifer did as he was told. Once baby Charlotte was resting comfortably in his arms did it finally dawned on him.
'I'm a dad.' He was a dad! This baby was his! This was his daughter! His little girl!
He stared at his baby with total awe. He thought he heard a quick snapping sound from a camera, but he was too wrapped up in the presence of his precious daughter.
Lucifer smiled his jagged smile and gently stroked his daughter's head. The baby creased her brow in irritation before opening her eyes to look upon this new person before her. Her new but limited vision made out a pale white and yellow shape. When Lucifer brought her closer to look at her eyes, baby Charlotte was finally able to see his face.
She instinctively tried to reach out but only managed to twitch her arms with her weak muscles. Lucifer saw her arms move and cradled her in one arm so he could take her tiny hand into his. When her tiny fingers curled around his one large finger, warmth bloomed in his chest. This had to be what love truly feels like!
"I'm your daddy, baby. Can you say 'dada'?"
Emily spoke, "I think she's too small to talk just yet."
"Oh okay. Don't worry baby. I'll teach you how to talk when you're older. Maybe you'll even learn to sing."
Emily smiled as Lucifer talked to the infant. Said infant only stared at the man who talked to her so freely.
"She's so pretty Emily. Is she really gonna live with us?" Lucifer asked hopefully.
"That's right Luci. She's going to live with us forever and ever! It's going to be me, you, Charlotte, and…Sera." Lucifer didn't notice how Emily trailed off at the mention of their oldest sister and eldest sibling. His world was only his beautiful baby daughter.
Suddenly, baby Charlotte clenched her little fists and began to cry. Lucifer was taken aback, but tried to calm his crying daughter.
"No no no. Don't cry, baby. I'm here. It's okay."
Lucifer tried his best to soothe her but she continued to cry. Lucifer tried rocking her but it only seemed to make her cry harder. His head started to pound from the noise but he still tried rocking her in a vain attempt to calm her.
Emily saw Lucifer struggling and attempted to take her from him, but he suddenly glared at Emily when her hand brushed against Charlotte's blond hair. Emily was quite shocked to see such a look on her normally sweet-natured big brother. Lucifer realized what he had done and instantly looked apologetically at Emily.
"I-I'm sorry Emily." Lucifer didn't mean to, but the thought of someone taking his baby away was severely upsetting to him.
Emily only smiled and said, "Try holding her head to your chest. I'll help you."
Emily gently picked up the crying baby and lay her on her belly against Lucifer's chest. Once Charlotte's head lay on Lucifer's breast, her tiny ear heard the gentle beating of his heart. Her crying slowly calmed into whimpers until she was finally quiet and lulling into dreamland to the sound of her father's heartbeat. Amazed, Lucifer looked to Emily.
"Look! She's sleeping!" He whispered. Emily smiled and took another picture with her camera. Lucifer rested his cheek on her wispy blond hair and rocked himself along with his baby.
"What's her name again?"
"It's Charlotte. Sera chose it"
"Char-lit?"
Emily giggled. "No silly pants. Char-lotte."
Lucifer tried to say it right, but some words were hard for him. Even his own baby's name it seems.
"Charrr-Lee?"
"No Luci. That's not it either." But then Emily thought of something. "How 'bout we make that her nickname?"
"Char-Lee?"
"Yes. But put it altogether." Emily imitated by using her hands to push two invisible objects together.
Lucifer looked down at his child and said,
"Charlie."
Lucifer kept repeating the name like a mantra until it finally stuck in his head.
Gently, he moved Charlie backwards from his chest into his hands so he could look upon her again. Charlie was undisturbed by this movement and continued to sleep. Her breathing came in small soft snores. Each breath reassured Lucifer that this was no dream.
She was real. In his hands. She was a warm, soft, living, breathing being in his almost shaking hands.
When her brow creased again and she began to whimper, Lucifer was quick to try and calm her.
"Shhh. It's okay. Daddy's here." He stroked her cheek and combed his fingers through her blond tuft of hair. "Daddy's got you." Her face relaxed and her whimpering ceased. Lucifer smiled and placed a gentle kiss on her rosy cheek.
Emily wanted to cry at such a tender scene, not just because it was a touching moment between father and daughter, but because of the reality of their situation.
Lucifer was a disabled teenager who fathered a child with a sexual predator and will never truly be a proper parent to his own daughter. Lucifer could hardly care for himself, let alone be able to care for a helpless baby.
Their older sister Sera will be doing the bulk of the work when it comes to raising Charlie.
Emily loved Sera, but she didn't agree to this arrangement very enthusiastically. It was one thing to look after your late-in-life youngest siblings after your parents retire(one of them being developmentally disabled) but to care for them AND your special brother's newborn daughter.
Sera had to put her business executive career on hold and basically demoted herself so she would be home more often to help raise the child AND care for her disabled brother who had to be pulled out of his special boarding school to assuage their parents' distrust of outside caregivers.
Their other brothers and sisters loved Lucifer but had different lives that had moved them in all different directions across the United States. Asmodeus was a fashion designer. Beelzebub was a world-class chef. Staan(sometimes jokingly called Satan)was the head of his own farming produce company. Mammon ran his own law firm. Belphegor was the head of medicine at her hospital. Levi and Athan were twin bioengineers. Their siblings were successful in every way but were unable to rearrange their lives for both Lucifer and Charlie.
Emily herself was only 13. She was used to caring for Lucifer, but she couldn't care for a baby by herself. It wasn't any secret that Sera resented their youngest brother, but when it came to Charlie, she almost seemed ecstatic at the idea of caring for a baby. She only just managed to sneak Charlie away from Sera so Lucifer could meet her properly. If Sera had it her way, Lucifer would have nothing to do with Charlie.
Poor ignorant Lucifer only knew Charlie in this moment in time.