Chapter 99

Sam walks into the library to find Lucifer sitting on the floor, his back against a wall. K9 is running around the room, trying to catch a tennis ball that keeps rolling away from him, doubtlessly Lucifer's doing.

"You fixed him," Sam observes, mostly just as a way to let Lucifer know he's here.

Lucifer keeps his gaze on the dog as he says, "'Fixed' implies that I just reconnected a wire. I think the word you're looking for is 'rebuilt.'"

Sam sighs, hating the coldness in the archangel's voice. The worst part is that he's actually right. Sam joins the angel on the floor, taking a seat next to him.

"If it's any consolation, I didn't want to," he says.

"I know," Lucifer replies. "But you did. And if you could go back in time, I know you'd do it again."

"But —"

"And I know you think I'm mad at you for destroying him," Lucifer continues. "And I know you think you can explain the problem away, and if I just understand why you did it, I wouldn't be mad. How am I doing so far?"

"That's pretty accurate," Sam admits. It doesn't sound as good when he says it that way.

"I figured. And you're wrong. I'm not upset with what you did. I rebuilt the guy with the snap of my fingers. It's not that hard. K9 doesn't remember a thing."

Sam nods to show he's listening. So far, this is going fine, but he can hear in Lucifer's voice that he's not done, and Sam isn't sure he wants to hear the rest of it.

"And I understand why Dean was mad. I shouldn't have been with Jack, and I didn't want to be with him, and if he asked the kid, he would agree that I barely said a word to him. I would appreciate you asking Jack that when Dean is around, for his sanity."

Sam nods again. "I'll do that."

"And," Lucifer continues, "I know why Dean wanted K9 gone. As far as Dean's concerned, K9 is basically a robotic hellhound, and he didn't want to risk having him around. All that makes sense, and I may not like it, but I respect it.

"But this is where I have the problem. You knew I liked this dog. I specifically asked you not to do anything to him — twice, if I remember correctly. But you didn't listen, just so Dean would be happy."

"Because —"

"Because you don't want him, or anyone else, to know about us," Lucifer finishes. "I know. And I've been trying to deal with that, but this was the last straw. I'm done hiding in the library all day, throwing tennis balls at a robot and annotating the freaking Bible, just so I don't get in your way.

"So here's how it's gonna go down. You're going to go back to where everyone else disappeared to — lunch, I'm guessing, 'cause of the time. You can use whatever bullshit excuse you want to so no one gets suspicious, or you can talk to Dean and tell him what's going on.

"When you get back to the war room, I'm officially rejoining the club. If you want to talk to me there, go for it. I will be more than happy to do that. If you want to stay with Dean, Castiel, and Gabriel, then ignore me, and I will not be offended, but I will never talk to you again. Are we clear?"

"So you're making me choose between you and Dean," Sam surmises. Just like Gabriel said.

"If I didn't, you would keep lying to him," Lucifer replies. "You're already not choosing Dean. Now you just gotta make it final. Now go. Eat something, mull it over, and get back to me. Or don't. Your call."

~~

"Hey, Sam, where'd you slip off to?" Dean ask, grinning. This pizza must have put him in a really good mood. Maybe now would be the time to tell him. But what are the odds he would stay in a good mood after that?

"Bathroom," Sam lies.

"For..." Dean glances at a clock. "Fifteen minutes?"

"He was talking to me for part of that," Gabriel explains. "Chill out, Deano. There's no need to interrogate the kid."

Dean looks between the two of them, obviously confused, but it's Castiel who mentions it.

"I thought you two weren't talking to each other."

Dean sends him a look, and Sam can only assume it was because Dean had mentioned but but told Castiel not to bring it up.

"You thought wrong," Gabriel replies. "You think I'm capable of not talking to people? I'm a social butterfly. I gotta talk to everyone."

Dean and Castiel seem to accept that easily. Castiel may be that oblivious, but Dean probably just doesn't want to deal with the tension, and is more than happy to have them back to being "friends."

Throughout the next ten minutes, Sam waits for an opportunity to tell Dean about Lucifer, but the opportunity never arises. Well, okay, it does. It does a lot. He just never takes advantage of it, because every time there's a pause in the conversation, he knows he should mention it, but he back out at the last minute every time.

He can't tell Dean. Everything has been going so well lately. There haven't been any fights; there's no drama; everyone has their group of friends, and everyone is content, if not genuinely happy here.

Everyone except Lucifer, and of course, Lucifer couldn't stand for that.