Chapter 61

"Alright, listen up!" Chuck says loudly, getting everyone's attention immediately.

It's been three days since Jesus left, and things seem to have gotten back to normal. Michael and Jo are each other's best friend again, Gabriel and Kali have been fucking way too much, and Sam and Jess are back to having all their quality time.

"Okay, so —" Chuck begins, but cuts himself off when he looks around the room. "Where's Lucifer?"

"Your guess is as good as ours," Balthazar replies.

No one has seen him since Jesus left, and no one has been complaining about it.

Chuck snaps his fingers, and suddenly, Lucifer appears in the room. With as controlling as Chuck has been since he stuck them all here, it doesn't phase anyone, Lucifer included. He crosses his arms and leans against the wall, not even trying to fight whatever it is Chuck wants. He knows his father get his way with or without their cooperation.

"Much better," Chuck says with a smile. "Alright, now that you're all here, you guys are really boring."

"Well, I'm so sorry my life isn't interesting enough for you," Dean says sarcastically.

Chuck ignores that. "So I'm going to make it interesting. Basically, I'm locking you guys away again and figured I'd give you the heads up. And you can't just ignore each other the whole time. You know who you are."

He looks pointedly at Lucifer, who lets his eyes flare red just to watch Chuck jump slightly.

"Anyway, I don't really know what I'm doing with most of you, so any ideas?" Chuck asks. "What groups do you want? Anyone? Anyone at all."

Dean puts an arm around Castiel as if claiming him. Chuck nods in their direction, silently assuring them they'll be together. Sam takes Jess' hand, and while Chuck hesitates briefly, he gives them the okay as well. Gabriel gestures to Kali with his head, mostly because everyone else seems to want to respond silently, and while he sees no point in it, he's willing to go with the flow. Once again, Chuck nods in agreement. Meg pulls Charlie in by the waist, and the redhead tries not to giggle. Chuck smiles slightly at that and nods to then as well.

"That it?" Chuck asks.

"If you put me with anyone other than the Winchesters, my mom, Bobby, or Michael, I'm going to kill you," Jo tells him.

Chuck just grins and claps his hands together once. "Great. That's settled then. Have fun!"

And let the party begin.

~~

Lucifer expects to be paired with Jo again, because it seems to be Chuck's favorite pastime to force them together. Instead, he finds himself in... a bar? What the hell is going on? Is he finally free?

"You'll be back eventually," Chuck's voice says from behind him.

He turns around to see Chuck and Amara in a booth together. Looking around, he can see that the table of their booth is made of little monitors slightly larger than iPads, but the rest of the tables only have one screen each. He takes a few cautious steps towards them to see that each little screen shows a different room of the bunker. He looks at all the other booths to see each of the large monitors making up each table is one of the screens of the booth with his father and aunt.

"So, this is how you watch us?" Lucifer says, not bothering to hide how much he hates the idea.

"Basically," Chuck replies. Technically, they're usually in their little control center, but he decided to switch places for now. Maybe he and his sister will like it at his bar more.

"Why am I here?" Lucifer asks.

He shrugs. "Why not?"

Lucifer looks at him cautiously. What's he playing at?

"Hey," Chuck adds, "since you're here, want to watch?"

"Watch the bunker?"

He nods. "Yep."

Lucifer hesitates, then takes a seat opposite of the other two. Up close, he sees that it's not really separate screens, but one big touch screen table divided into different viewing areas for each room. It's hard to make out just what's going on when there are so many, but it's an interesting concept.

"Pick which ones you want to watch," Chuck offers. Seeing his son's confused expression, he clarifies by pressing the "X" in the corner of the screens showing empty rooms or hallways, and the remaining screens get larger to compensate for the lost space. "Or, if you want, you can watch one at a time. I know, it can be a bit much. Just pick a table."

Lucifer does just that, standing up again and walking around slowly, taking in each scene. There are really only three people he's interested in watching, and it doesn't take long to find one of them. He sits down at the booth and folds his hands in his lap. He can already tell this is going to be interesting.