Alexander looked at Linda, who seemed oblivious. He focused completely on her as if no one else existed at that moment. He took it as a good sign in her favor that she was unaware of any harm. She did not seem to see her mistake. Once that was remedied she could be invaluable in the future.
"Doctor Martin, let me ask you a few questions that way we might find out where your mistake lays. When Lucifer first came to you for therapy you fell for his mojo and you had sex a few times before you regained your balance as a therapist. That was not your fault but Lucifer's. Although he would never force anyone and would readily accept your decision to keep the relationship purely doctor-patient. What is his fault though is that he can adjust his mojo according to the situation. Unfortunately, he makes the same mistake over and over again by thinking with the wrong organ and thinking that sex is a solution for everything. Maybe someday he will learn that sex is a very pleasant side effect of a pure relationship. But how would you react if you heard this story from a colleague?"
"I would say that the therapist violated all the rules of ethics."
"Only the therapist? The patient's behavior can be swept under the rug without drawing conclusions? Perhaps let me rephrase the question; you hear from a colleague that she has a patient with possible delusions, talks in metaphors and pays for his sessions with sex without blinking an eye. A patient who seems to have no awareness that such behavior is inappropriate in our society but otherwise seems to get through life socially well. What would think now?"
"My opinion of the colleague would remain the same. Further without having seen the patient himself I would at least immediately think of a personality disorder and based on the metaphors possibly delusional. The sexual aspect I would possibly attribute to a traumatic experience in the patient's childhood."
Alexander nodded as he lit another cigarette:
"So that's it? No other possible diagnosis?"
"Nothing is certain with patients. But with the little knowledge I would have at that time in this scenario, I have to limit myself to this diagnosis."
"Okay doctor I can understand that, but back to Lucifer. A patient you have already had quite a few sessions with. Was this also your primary diagnosis for him?"
"Yes"
Linda had to admit and felt less and less comfortable with the direction in which this conversation was moving.
"Next question. After he showed you his other look, his other persona, the Devil, and you recovered from your shock sometime later, did you adjust your diagnosis?"
"Yes. I immediately deleted the delusion, of course. When you talk to the real Devil his stories about his family were of course about God and the Angels. The metaphors were suddenly real events or persons, as the Angels and the Demons here present, are proving to be real. But the traumatic experience he went through at the hands of mainly his father reinforces my diagnosis of a personality disorder."
"That's all? Doctor Linda I'm sorry to say. Either you need new glasses or you need a refresher course in your field or your powers of observation are inadequate for your profession!"
Linda looked at Alexander with a half-open mouth, a non-understanding expression in her eyes.
He decided to ignore her completely for a moment and made eye contact with Ella:
"Ella I am the first to admit that you are not a therapist. However, you do have a background in the sciences, you are more than well-read and you have very keen powers of observation. I guess you already suspect where this is going?"
Ella could only nod as she found no words for a moment a strange phenomenon in a speech waterfall.
"Tell me Ella, let that bright light you have in your soul shine for the rest of us present. For apparently you seem to be the only one who sees Lucifer as he really is."
Ella looked at Lucifer with tears in her eyes:
"I'm sorry Lu. If I had known I certainly would have intervened but I thought you were getting the right Therapy from Linda."
Lucifer looked confused at Ella. How could she care for him so much now that she knew who he really was. That barely an hour after learning the truth through Alexander, she wanted to assist the Devil in Alexander's plan whatever that might be. In a soft voice and a warm smile, Alexander spoke:
"No one blames you dear Ella. You are right, you thought Lucifer was in good hands with Doctor Martin. Can you list a few indicators that you noticed but that the doctor overlooked?"
Ella closed her eyes for a moment as if she was making a mental list before she began to speak:
"The most visible one is his clothes. Granted they are the best and most expensive on the market but the price does not matter. His reaction would be exactly the same if he were dressed by the Salvation Army."
Ella was interrupted by what appeared to be a shocked Lucifer at the idea of him in secondhand clothing:
"Miss Lopez..."
Lucifer got no further than that as Alexander looked at him sullenly with raised eyebrows. The latter very quickly decided to confine himself to listening again.
"Go on please Miss Lopez. I would like to tie him up and gag him but he would probably see that as a reward."
A broad smile appeared on her face:
"Knowing Lucifer you are absolutely right Alex. Okay to continue. As I said, it's not about the price of his tailored suits. It is about his reaction when dirt gets on them. The personality disorder Linda stated as a diagnosis will no doubt be correct but that is one disorder on top of another. You can't do anything about the one on top if you don't address the primary one first. And I was just about to explain that with his attire. He hates it if there is even a speck of mud on his clothing or shoes. However, if you look a little more carefully you will see that Lucifer is always dressed to perfection. Everything has a place so even his cell phone, his flask, his money clip, his wallet, everything is always in its place, the same place never an exception. It goes so far that when one of the suits gets really dirty he gets visibly distressed, a little off his game and has that suit destroyed as if it cannot be cleaned. The real reason is that he just can't bring himself to wear that same suit again, even though it has been cleaned to perfection. The constant fiddling with his cuff-links is a second indicator. It practically only happens when he is in a conversation in which emotions play an important role. It never happens in Lux when he is engaged with his guests, it never happens at the station when he is flirting a little with anyone. It happens when he has to talk about or face real emotions with someone. He just can't deal with emotions because he can't understand or place them like other people. The constant organizing of Chloe's desk, Daniel's desk and even my lab are probably some kind of OCD but that would fit perfectly into my final diagnosis. It proves that for him everything has to have a place and items, any items or whose items have to be in that particular place. Just look around this penthouse. Knowing Lucifer, of course he will employ a well-paid crew to do the cleaning. You can just see and feel that Lucifer is responsible for the furnishings. Nowhere a speck of dust to be seen, the wall of bottles behind the bar is more orderly than those in the most luxurious bars or most exclusive country clubs. If something is out of place it makes him uncomfortable, to say the least, and must be returned to its place. Playing with objects while thinking deeply about a problem or a difficult issue during one of their cases indicates that his hands must always have something to do. The fact that he does not know how to handle hugs and everyone can attest to that if they have seen him with Trixie or me when we give him a hug. It was a great shock to Lucifer when a bunch of his bed partners for one night were brought in for questioning. The fact that one by one they stated that it was a fun night with incredible sex but that it meant absolutely nothing else was a great shock to him. This shows that he cannot make emotional contacts or very difficult. His idea of normal social contacts are sex and making deals. Being confronted with the fact that your world view means nothing to others was a shock to Lucifer."
Ella stopped for a moment and took a good sip of tequila herself:
"To us, his behavior sometimes comes across as adolescent at times, and Chloe in particular is annoyed to no end. She winds up that his behavior is not according to the rules and norms of society. That he cannot behave as a grown man should. However, it is a mechanism that allows Lucifer to control some situations. Chloe constantly condemns his way of life. The alcohol, the drugs, the sex, she thinks it is completely out of place. I don't think she has ever made herself one thought that running a successful business like Lux involves a lot of work, then he basically works for the LAPD for free. Not to mention that he has an investment portfolio that probably makes even Bill Gates sweat. Lucifer has two full-time jobs, helping her to keep her grades up but Chloe doesn't grant him his relaxation. And most of all, it's none of our business what he does in his free time!"
Sharply, Ella turned to Chloe now that the gloves were off anyway:
"Are you so opposed to his use of alcohol, drugs and his sex life? Then ask for a new partner! Oh, wait no one else wants to work with you? No not even now that the Palmetto case is neatly wrapped up and you got your vindication. No, you want to change him at all costs so that he becomes what you want him to be and he can continue to help keep your top grades up without irritating you. Everyone knows damn well that without Lucifer you'd be just another mediocre cop because you're not that special! And your stick up the ass way about rules and regulations just gets on peoples nerves especially if you bring those into a private setting."
Chloe was staring at her open-mouthed but didn't get a chance to utter a word because Ella was well on her way:
"Lucifer is my friend and you WERE my friend. I had wanted to call you on your behavior for a long time. The only thing that stopped me was that sometimes your relationship was better and then shit again and I thought that you felt something for each other that could become something. But also because I thought Lucifer was getting the right therapy from Linda and would eventually stand up for himself against you. After what I heard from Rae-Rae tonight, and I'm sure I don't know the end of it yet, that's definitely over, basta."
Ella turned to Linda:
"And you Linda have also witnessed it from time to time. Did you ever stand up for your patient? Even after you knew that Lucifer is really Lucifer from the Bible, he remained your patient. Just like me, you never confronted Chloe about her behavior. The difference between the two of us? You're the one with a doctor's degree here. You had a duty as his therapist to bring this up with your patient and you should have told him that this behavior should not be tolerated by him. That it was his own free choice how he lived his life. That he should not change under pressure from others. Not good Linda, not good!"
Chloe turned her gaze away from an angry Ella, Linda looked at the ground and Lucifer was clearly confused. He did not understand why it was Ella with her belief in his father who was making such a passionate defense for him. Until he suddenly saw that the crucifix around her neck was gone. Alexander let Ella's words sink in for a few seconds and asked:
"If you were a therapist Ella what would your diagnosis be for Lucifer?"
"There are of course a whole bunch more signs than those I have listed. But if Lucifer were a human I would say he has a mild but very obvious visible form of autism supplemented by a personality disorder due to where he grew up with a boulder of a PTSD problem on top of that."
Alexander immediately objected:
"Angels, twist or turn it, Lucifer is an Angel, they don't get sick. They are born disease-free. Autism is a congenital disorder. Then how do you explain that diagnosis?"
Ella was nodding so enthusiastically that her ponytail happily hopped up and down:
"I said if he were a human being. However, Rae-Rae told me a few things in the little time we could talk but it explained the diagnosis perfectly."
"What do you mean?"
"Well Lucifer, as the Lightbringer, must be older that the universe because he personally hung the stars. Mankind in its present form, let's say the time when we started building to live together as groups instead of wandering around, maybe 10000 years. It is plausible that Lucifer was banished to Hell around or shortly before that time. Every so often he could take a few days, at most a week or two vacation on Earth before Amenadiel dragged him back to Hell, dragged him back to that terrible place."
Ella stopped for a moment and looked at Amenadiel punitive and said sharply:
"Not cool dude, no bueno, that's not how you treat a brother, never!"
Alexander smiled almost imperceptibly. This little Latina was capable of getting people and Angels under her thumb with words alone. Ella continued undisturbed:
"A sporadic visit among people of a few days every few decades is not nearly enough to develop socially. Especially not when values and norms are changing so rapidly among us humans. Being gay or lesbian is pretty much the most normal thing in the world today. Fifty years ago? Then people would probably have fallen backwards at the idea of a love parade. Hell, in some places they are even put to death to this day just because they are gay. For us humans, not much seems to change quickly but we live in our time. For Lucifer? Every time he came to Earth the standards and values were probably slightly different from the last time. So how can one evolve socially? The one thing that always stayed the same every time he was on Earth? People fell in bunches for his mojo and that is exactly what he came to associate with typically acceptable human behavior. Yes the autism diagnosis does not literally apply because Lucifer is an Angel but the similarities are too obvious to ignore. As for personality disorder and PTSD it seems rather logical to me after what his father and Amenadiel have done to him over millennia. Since these are not physical disorders, it could perfectly well be that an Angel with Lucifer's past suffers from both. I would even go further and say that I don't think there is any Angel in Heaven that is free of both. Their father is a bastard who threw his Lightbringer and then his own wife into Hell simply because they disagreed with him? So if I ever have a son and he disagrees with me then it is okay for me to send him to Sing Sing for life? Or if my husband disagrees with me then it is okay for me to lock him in an ultra-secure prison where there is no escape for the rest of his life? If we humans, as we are expected of the Church, are to follow the example of God, then there will be many more prisons to be built on Earth. No, I do not want to meet that God then I prefer Hell and Lucifer's company to Him."
Alexander's more serious look reappeared on his face as he had slowly moved behind Ella and gently squeezed her shoulder with a hand for a moment. He looked at Doctor Martin who looked a little pale.
"Doctor Martin, from the expression on your face I think I can assume that Miss Lopez has hit the nail on the head?"
Linda could only nod.
"And doctor, how do we treat autism patients who can function in society?"
"You treat them from their point of view and not that of society. If you tell them what society expects of them they will not understand. You have to explain to them why a certain behavior is or is not acceptable. And you do this by using examples they know or can understand."
"And did you do this doctor?"
Linda lowered her head and said:
"No, I have been completely wrong here with my diagnosis and therefore treatment."
The features on Alexander's face softened again:
"As I said doctor, you are the least guilty of all the others of Lucifer's group present here. Doctor may I give you a tip for the future, at least if there is a future in a few days? If someone knocks on your door and says hi I am the brother or sister of Lucifer and he sent me for a chat? Just throw out all the standard interpretations."