What's hiding in the shadows today is not one of the creatures that lurks around this time, waiting for dark. What's hiding in the shadows is not something that goes 'bump' in the night, but instead just a man. A man with sad lime green eyes and dark hair that passed his shoulder in choppy uneven layers but went no further. A man who dressed in all black with pants that sagged on his hips and a turtleneck that clung tightly to him. It was cold. Unbearably cold to most but freezing to the man who had absolutely no body fat on him whatsoever. Skin and bones, you could say.

He didn't walk- he sort of staggered. He wasn't drunk, he just wasn't able to walk properly. It was hardly noticable, but the slight stagger was there.

He looked up at the sunset, dragging a hand on one of the buildings he was passing. He started to sing something very softly, which was something he normally didn't do.

It was a pity, too... he had such a nice voice.

It was a chilly day, though not as bad as some of the days back in Britain. She was dressed appropriately for the weather as she walked down the side walk; a bulky navy blue sweatshirt with the words ‘King’s College London’ on the front and blue jeans that fit to her figure.

Several weeks had passed since her encounter with Chris and so there were no signs of bruising on her face anymore. No physical signs of the assault were there, but the emotional scar would never go away. She prayed every day that she wouldn’t run into him ever again or that he never finds out where she lives. Knowing that she ran into him at a bar caused her to never go near one ever again; too afraid that he might be there. What had she been thinking coming here and hoping to put him in jail? She couldn’t even face the man, let alone go talk to the police about it. And so she remained paranoid and constantly worried rather than attempting to deal with the situation.

Walking back through the worse side of the city had not been on her agenda either, but it was the quickest way to get from where she lived to the pharmacy to fill her prescription and get her medicine.

The sound of someone softly singing actually caused her to finally notice the man. She stopped as she got closer. Juliana noticed that he was having some difficulty walking.

”What are you singing?” It was rather interesting and he didn’t have a bad voice either.

Lucifer stopped as Juliana asked him what he was singing. Startled by not having heard her approach he looked over at her guardedly. She looked like someone he knew. She was pretty... pretty in an almost eerie way. Pretty in the way he was pretty. Pretty in the way that Chris and Jehovah were.

"Oh, just something..." Nothing, really. Just something his mother used to sing to him to try and soothe him.

"Sorry... was it bothering you...?"

She got the same eerie feeling as she finally looked at him completely. A rather blank stare crept upon her face for a moment, before she turned away as he spoke. It was even more odd that his voice sounded vaguely familiar. A lot like Chris, at least in his German accent.

”Oh. No it wasn’t. I was just interested. You have a nice singing voice.” Her own thick British accent coming forth as she spoke with a hint of Chris’s German one that he passed on to all his children. She continued staring at his eyes; those emerald eyes that she had as well. Why was she staring? She never did this. After a few seconds she turned her eyes away from his.

”Sorry for staring.”

"Thanks."

There was a hint of a smile on his pretty pink lips. "Don't apologize. A lot of people stare, though I take it you're not staring for the reason most do. You're staring because..." he paused for a minute to think this over. "I look like you. Or you look like me."

He brushed brown hair from his eyes.

"Eerie coincedence, you think?" Though he knew that wasn't the case. He'd already met two people in this city that looked like him.

"May I see your eyes?" A peculiar thing to ask, he knew.

”Nothing’s ever coincidence.” At least not in her opinion. And yes she had been staring because he looked similar to her in many features.

Her eyes were brought up to look at him again as he requested to see them. Those vivid emerald green eyes that she had inherited from Chris looking at him once again in the eyes.

Lucifer looked up carefully, scrutinizing. They looked like his and Jehovah's... and Chris'. Her hair was the same color.

"You have his eyes." Notice he didn't say 'my'.

His gaze drifted a little. "You have his hair. You're tall like him." Lucifer hated how tall he was. How he could just loom over him and make him scared. He was a bit scared of her, truth be told, and it probably showed in his eyes.

"What's your name? Did he hurt you...?" The last part was spoken so softly it might have gone unnoticed.

She did notice how he didn’t say ‘my’ eyes and it made her own eyes widen in fright. Who was this? Was he another brother that she didn’t know about? Chris had said that she had other brother’s.

He kept going on about how much she had in common with the man that she despised and she started to shake her head back in forth. This was /not/ a subject she liked to discuss at all or how much she had in common with the man she hated.

”Juliana.” She answered his first question, but his second was only greeted with another shake of her head.

”No, no, no. I’m /not/ talking about /that/. It’s none of your business. I don’t even know you.” Of course even if she did know him, it would take a lot of work to get any information out about what he did to her. She slowly started walking away from him.

"Juliana, wait. I'm sorry, I just..." You just what, Lucifer? It was probably another woman who had just looked like him. But she sounded so guarded about his murmured question it was hard to tell.

"Tell me if you're related to my father. That's all I ask."

He'd been so sure of himself before and now he only recoiled in pain at what he was asking. He leaned against the brick wall and let out a sigh.

"No, never mind... don't answer." She didn't have to.

She paused in mid step when he told her to wait. Body turned to look back at him. He seem rather conflicted as well when he asked to know her father and then tell her she didn’t have to answer. With a sigh she walked back to him.

”Who are you anyways? I told you my name, but you didn’t say yours.”

"Lucifer. Lucifer Valentine." You know, the practically crippled one. But no, she didn't know that. He didn't even know if she knew him, but if she was related to Chris she'd recognize the last name.

He was still leaning against that building. By this time he'd closed his eyes.

With his eyes closed he wouldn’t see that her eyes had just grown extremely wide. Yes she knew the last name and she actually took a few steps backwards at first, before stopping herself.

”You….your….” This was kind of hard to do while in a brief state of shock.

”Jehovah told me about you.” That would obviously ring a bell. Of course she hadn’t seen Jehovah since she was eight. But she still remembered him mentioning Lucifer at one point, but nothing else.

Lucifer opened his eyes to look at her now.

He looked sad. What had Jehovah said about him?

"Lucifer, demon child himself. Pleasure to meet you." He almost sounded sardonic.

"...you know Jehovah?"

”Demon child? I don’t remember that if he told me. All I remember was your name.” It was apparent that she hit some kind of nerve. She didn’t mean to.

”I haven’t seen him since I was eight.” Now she was leaning against the wall as well a few feet away from him. She hadn’t seen anyone that might be related to her until now, other than Chris for half of her life. He was the only one that knew about Christa as well for obvious reasons. Hopefully she could keep it that way to. After all she was way too young to have a nine year old daughter already wasn’t she? She wasn’t much older than Lucifer after all.

"..." He didn't really know what to say. He opened his mouth to say something but he couldn't find any words to say it.

"What about..." he swallowed but didn't say it. He was going to say 'Chris'. He shook his head.

"How old are you?"

What about what? That was what she planned to say until he continued with asking how old she was.

”Twenty three.” Twenty three and already a mother with a job and possibly going to have to get another job at the rate she was going. She had tried to avoid having to work two jobs, but it seemed like there wasn’t going to be any choice if she wanted to keep their new house. Either that or keep working long hours at her current job. Either way she wasn’t going to see Christa as much. Perhaps she should just look for a small apartment. It wasn’t like they needed that much space anyways right?

"That means you're three years older than me. Or even older." He had just turned twenty, after all.

"How did you end up in Bayfield? You don't sound like you're from around here." Plus Chris lives here. But he didn't say that last part.

Eyes turned away from him and towards the ground as he asked why she came here. That was a touchy subject. She thought it was right to come here in search for Chris; to put him away finally where he belongs. But that plan had gone to hell and now she really didn’t know why she was here. Every day she had to worry about running into him when before she didn’t. After all they had been clear across an ocean from one another.

”I don’t know why I’m here anymore. I shouldn’t have moved us here.” If she had the money to up and move back again she would. But she didn’t, so they were stuck.

"I'm sorry for asking. It's not my place to." Though he was wondering about the 'us' part. She had children or sisters?

"I figure you know, but this isn't the safest place to stay." Even so, this had become his home over the last year and few months.

He figured she would've moved by now if she could've.

"But again, not my place to say."

”I know.” Oh yes she knew this wasn’t the safest place to be. She’d already run into the reason why it wasn’t safe. Juli was still trying to get over the whole ordeal emotionally. It still had happened to recently for her to push it to the back of her mind like the rest of her life.

”Then why are you here? If it’s not safe.” Eyes finally turned back to look at him in the eyes

He nodded. "As long as you don't expect it to be easy." Then he shrugged/

"I figured you would ask that." He was looking her right in the eyes. It was strange, almost as if seeing a female form of his reflection.

"I'm here because I didn't think my home was safe. Because I had always feared that he'd come back to haunt me. So I moved around several places. Learned English. Came here without knowing Chris, and apparently several others of his family live here. Salem and Jehovah are the ones I know about."

Another shrug.

"I have a job here. I would leave, but... this is what I call home. I've learned to like it, no matter how hard this city can be. And I couldn't just leave my family behind. Or my... half-family..."

A faint smile.

”It hasn’t.” Been easy she means. Working long hours and in constant paranoia of Chris definitely didn’t do well for her health.

”Salem?” She didn’t know much about her relatives, other than Chris, Jehovah and then she only heard about Lucifer and his brothers. Foot kicked against pavement for a minute as she thought.

”Well. If you can learn to like it, then I guess I can as well.” Voice tried to be confident, but her mind was telling her she really didn’t know if she could remain in this city forever.

"I know that much. Anyone does." Faint smile, almost a tight one.

"Salem, yes. She lives near these parts. As do I. She's nice, you'd like her." He looked down at her foot as it kicked and then back up again.

He nodded. "Just know that there will be surprises you won't like. And ones tat are actually nice." He had scars to prove his point of bad memories and... well, a new apartment to prove his point of good ones.

”Perhaps I’ll meet her someday then.” After all she’d run into two family members now. She almost let out a half hearted laugh at his next response.

”I’ve already had my fair share of bad surprises since moving here. I’ve yet to have any good ones.” Well, Viv healing her leg had been a blessing, but other than that there had been nothing really good in her opinion. Perhaps the fact that Chris hadn’t found Christa yet could go for good as well.

”Are you brother’s here as well?” She didn’t know what happened to them.

Lucifer pouted a little like a little kid. He'd always looked like a little kid, though. Sixteen at the most and definitely not twenty. He was short too, and the pouting suited his babyish face. "Meeting me wasn't any of the good ones? Meanie." He stuck out his tongue.

Lucifer, like this? Surely it was just not possible.

His face settled back to normal and he fiddled with the sleeve of his turtleneck shirt.

"You mean... Alec and Keith?" He frowned a little, shrugged. "No, they died a couple years back."

Sure know how to make her feel guilty eh?

”No I didn’t mean it like that. Yes, running into you was a good surprise. Interesting, but good.” She grew silent when he spoke of his brothers dying a few years back. Eyes returned to looking at the ground.

”Oh.” She wasn’t going to say she was sorry. It made her mad when people said it to her so it took everything in the world for her not to say it back to him. Juli never had siblings so she wasn’t sure what it was like. All she had was Christa and that, in her opinion, was enough.

”Was it hard on you?” Voice grew a little softer.

"No, it's okay. I was only teasing." He smiled a sort of half-smile that made his mouth look a bit crooked.

Lucifer shook his head. "It was hard to cope with, yeah, but hey... it happened a couple years ago. It doesn't hurt to bring the subject up anymore." Which wasn't exactly true, but he didn't want her feeling guilty.

"Do you have something to do?" He changed the subject.

She didn’t say anything further on the subject, taking the hint when he changed subjects. They really were alike in a lot of ways. Juli would change subjects as well or walk off when somebody started butting in on her life.

”Yeah. Sort of. I need to go pick up my daughter from school.” Would she regret telling Lucifer that she had a child? It only seemed right that she tell him a little of her life after asking so much of his.

"A daughter? Is that what you meant when you said 'us'?" Lucifer asked curiously.

"Would you mind if I tagged along, or is that a bit too much of something to ask?"

Lucifer was also curious about the 'school' part. That meant her daughter was older than three, four, or even five, since five is the age kids enter kindergarten and she said 'school' not kindergarten.

That meant she probably had her daughter at a young age...

”Yes.” She had let that slip, which was why she most likely ended up just going ahead and saying it. Eyes gazed at him again when he asked if he could tag along. How would she explain him to Chrissy? She could already tell a lot of questions would ensue. But she didn’t want to just let go of a family member she only just found either.

”I guess you can. But I warn you not to tell her how we are related. She doesn’t know anything about our life and I plan to keep it that way. I know she’ll probably ask questions. I’ll just say you’re a co worker or something.” It was apparent in her voice she was extremely protective of what her daughter did and did not know. She didn’t know about Chris and she didn’t know about the rest of her family and Juliana prayed that she would never have to know.

”I have a feeling though she’ll pick up on how much we look alike.” She sighed.

He nodded. "Of course. I understand completely. It's for the best she doesn't know, I understand." He wondered now if that was what Jehovah planned to do with Jocelyn. He probably would have. He was so damn... attached to her.

"Probably, but that's easily dismissed, right? A lot of people look alike." He'd only picked up on it because he'd seen two other people in this city who looked like him. Or three, if you count Jocelyn.

"If it gets to be too much, I'll leave."

”Thanks. If you do have to leave, I would like at least some way to get a hold of you again if that’s possible. It’s not every day that I meet a half brother.” She actually had a smile on her face at the moment. Probably the first smile she’s given to anyone besides Christa in a long time.

”It’s this way.” She started walking down the street again towards the school. It was about ten minutes later that they finally arrived in front of the school building. All the kids had already left.

”She’ll be out as soon as she see’s me.” Her hands were in the front pocket of her sweatshirt, fiddling with the bottle of pills that was her subscription. She needed them to keep her sane basically, from not having an anxiety attack. Juli could work herself up pretty quickly if she panics and the doctors finally put her on medicine to help it.

"Of course." He returned the smile and finally felt comfortable doing so. He felt comfortable because Juli at least trusted him enough to let him see her daughter. Lucifer did like kids, really.

He followed behind her, walking as fast and best as he could to catch up with her and not lose her. Damn these legs of his.

He was relieved when he was standing beside her as they waited. He offered a nod.

Christa had been in the front office, someones desk chair pulled to the window, leaning on the window seal and brooding. She didn't like being inside! She still didn't understand why mommy was punishing her and not letting her still be on the playground after school. But she remembered what her 'boyfriend' Blade had said when he'd walked her home three weeks ago. Some things just shouldn't be questioned. I don't ask my madre questions.

So she stopped asking.

Christa perked up when she saw her mommy standing on the side walk and hoped out of the chair, informed the assistant principal that her mom was here, picked up her book bag, the violin case sticking out of the top, and ran out the front. She was immediatly inflicted, of course, with the child-like curiosity when she saw the man standing beside her mom. As she got closer and closer, she did notice the similarities.

Most kids would notice. But Christa's smart. Kids notice, she notices and attempts to make a connection.

"Hi." She says it to the guy with her mom. Not the shy one in the least sort of way. "Mommy, guess what. Chris gave me a book with all kinds of music in it."

Poor Juli. Maybe even poor Lucifer. She doesn't mean her father Chris, their father Chris. She means the assistant principal. She'd read his name on his name plate. Christopher Maxwell. And despite that he insited being called Mr. Maxwell, when the other staff called him Chris, she started too. Poor Juli.

The little girl was small, being prematurely born, but looks strikingly like Chris and Juli...and Lucifer, Salem, Jocelyn, and Jehovah too. Her bright green eyes were conflicted by the pink tee shirt and pink, gray, black, plaid cleated skirt, and pink converse shoes she's wearing. Her hair is the only thing unlike the rest. It's blonde. Trust me, it'll darken in the future.

It took everything not to flinch at the name. Chris? Her heart sunk for a moment.

”Who’s Chris?” Please don’t be who she thinks it is. He couldn’t have found her. There was no way he could have right? Heart was racing faster until she knew for certain that it was another Chris. After all it was a popular name.

Lucifer said nothing about the name but it was actually something of a bother to hear. "Hi there. What's your name? Who's Chris?" Just gentle questions in a soft voice, accented by German.

He noticed the blond hair which was slightly abnormal to him. Maybe her father had blond hair. The eyes definitely belonged to Juli, though.

"Christa Alexia Forstner! What's your name?" She piped up happily, well, he had asked her name. She'd dropped her bag and was now pulling a book out of her bag. It wasn't in good condition at all and it had a sticker half peeled away that indicated it was once property of Bayfield Elementry School. As for Mom and the Stranger asking who Chris was: "He's the assistant Principal." Then she added grudginly, "he makes sure I don't go outside before you come to get me."

She was thinking now, holding the music book out to her mother. "Are you my daddy?"

She felt relieved to know it was the assistant principle.

”Well that’s good that he makes sure. I told you not to go outside from now on until I get you. He’s only doing what’s best.” Heart started to return to its normal heart beat. But it didn’t take long to get worked up again when she asked if Lucifer was her dad.

”No he’s not Chrissy. I told you not to ask about him.” It brought back bad images and she did not want Christa to ask about Chris or know he even exists.

Lucifer nodded at the girl's response. He had a feeling it wasn't the Chris he knew.

That set Lucifer strangely on edge. Was Christa's father abusive or did he leave or... what? What would make Juli tell her to not ask about her.

"Nope, sorry Christa. Not your father. My name's Lucifer. How old are you?" He thought it was almost kind of cute how she asked questions but didn't want to upset Juli in any way.

What's best? The child was lost on the logic of it.

"But I didn't do anything," she whined. Then frowned. "Sorry," she apolgized to her mother for whining.

"Sorry," she said grudingly again, for asking about dad. It was like the park. Why was she being punished to stay inside from the park when she used to be allowed to play on the park when she hadn't even done anything? Why wasn't she allowed to know her daddy when other people did? And she hadn't even done anything wrong.

"It's ok Mr. Lucifer. I just thought I was 'loud to ask about daddy if this was daddy. It doesn' matter. I don't need a daddy." Mommy was as good as two moms and two dads. "I'm nine," she could pass for seven. "How old are you? If your not my daddy then who are you? Are you my uncle?" She's never known even if she had an uncle or not. Did Mom have brothers?

Dad is so far out of the picture that she doesn't even think that he has brothers.