Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Avalon
May 11, 1997 (approximately)

“What do you mean Queen Mab is free?!” Oberon roared. The palace’s throne room was empty of all but him, Titania, and the Weird Sisters. “How is this possible? Alexander is merely a child with diluted fae blood. His powers should be a mere fraction of what is required to open a way!”

“I do not know, husband,” Titania said coolly, though her emotions roiled beneath the surface. “It should not be possible, and yet, it has been done.”

Oberon staggered back and sat down heavily upon his throne.

“My mother is free,” he muttered with disbelief. “We must seek her at once and return her before—”

He was distracted from the rest of what he was going to say by the sight of Luna arching her back and rising a foot off the ground as a powerful pale green light emanated from her. Her voice rang out, filling the room, clear and loud as a bell. 

“The one who was queen, will ascend once more,
vengeance she seeks, her power to restore.
A battle will rage, and blood will be shed,
a war between races, thousands of dead.
One of great courage, of claw and wing,
the blade of sorrow, to save everything.
A child of the blood, a child of the heart,
a child of promise, turned from the dark.
The world at stake, the four will be key,
and great sacrifice, to ensure victory.”

After her final words, Luna gasped and collapsed into the concerned arms of her sisters.

“Was that a prophecy?” Oberon said urgently. “She hasn't done that in some time.”

“No, my Lord,” Seline said as she held onto the limp form of her sister. “This is the first time in nearly a millennium.”

“But what did it all mean?” Oberon asked as Luna and Seline tried to revive their unresponsive sister.

“I believe it was about your mother, ” Titania offered.

“Obviously,” Oberon said annoyed.

“I think it pertains to a final battle if Mab ever comes to power again.”

“Which must never happen,” Oberon barked. “Isn't there some mortal saying about prevention being worth more than a cure or some such?”

“An ounce of prevention—”

“I do not need to hear it, I need to implement it,” Oberon snapped, and he turned to the triplets. “I'll dispatch you three to find her. I cannot trust anyone else with this task.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Phoebe and Seline said in unison. Then they disappeared in a flash of light with their still unconscious sister carried between them.

Oberon looked pensively at his wife.

“Your grandson has created quite the disaster,” he growled.

“The sisters will find Mab soon, and I will also take up the search as well, my Lord. Between the four of us, we should have no trouble hunting her down. She is helpless, after all.” 

“Powerless, yes, but she is never helpless,” Oberon rebutted. “Even if we do capture her, we still have a problem.”

“What is that, husband?”

“Your grandson.”

“My Lord, he is a child.”

“Yes, a child with great promise…” Oberon said thoughtfully as he drummed his fingers on the arm of his throne.

“I do not think he acted alone. Puck and Goliath’s clan were involved,” Titania explained knowing full well that Oberon would react strongly to the utterance of those two names.

His long face screwed up into a look of immense distaste.

“What is it with that clan?” he growled with annoyance. “I have been too lenient on the lot of them.” 

She could practically see the gears in his mind turning, and though she had momentarily diverted his mind from her grandson, it had steered back. As troublesome as Goliath and his clan could be, she needed them to look after her daughter and grandson.

“I know that look, husband,” Titania said. “Please do not make any further decisions before I have a chance to speak with Puck and learn what exactly occurred. Alexander is my grandson.” 

“But he is of fae blood and therefore within my purview,” Oberon replied sternly.

Titania gave him a withering glance, and then softened her expression as she switched tactics. Oberon was far easier to control with honeyed words rather than strong arming him.

“My Lord,” Titania purred as she slid onto his lap. “You seem tense.”

“It has been a very trying day,” he grumbled.

She put her hands on both sides of his head and rubbed his temples for him, using a little of her own magic to soothe and calm him.

He sighed and melted into her ministrations.

“I will take care of this, my husband,” she said gently, her lips against his ear. “It was my progeny, I should bear the responsibility.”

“See that you do,” Oberon said pointedly. “I will leave you to it then.”

He smiled indulgently at her, and she smiled graciously at him in return.

And then his countenance fell once more. “I fear she will seek them out,” he said darkly.

“Who?”

“Our son and daughter.”

“She was banished before they were even born. She does not know of their existence or our falling out with them.”

“If she finds them...”

“I won’t let that happen,” Titania said sternly, with the power of a mother protecting her offspring.

“Does your other daughter know of them?”

“No, and I plan to keep it that way.”

“But our daughter lives in New York, does she not?”

“Currently, yes.”

“And you are not worried that—”

“There are nearly eight million people in the New York area alone. I am not worried about it,” Titania said dismissively.

Oberon looked dubiously at his wife.

“I wouldn’t underestimate our children, especially our daughter.”

Titania said nothing in reply as she knew deep down, he was right.

May 13, 1997
Castle Wyvern
Middle of the night

Owen was jarred out of a deep sleep by a feminine voice.

“We need to talk.”

He sat up and didn’t even bother to turn on the light or put on his glasses. He knew who was sitting on the foot of his bed, staring coldly and disapprovingly at him.

“Titania, my Lady,” Owen said groggily. “You know how Xanatos feels about your unannounced visits to the castle.”

“I am not intimidated by my son-in-law, and you forget your place,” Titania replied sharply.

She sat primly on the edge of the bed, one leg folded daintily over the other. She practically glimmered in the near darkness.

“What do you need of me, my Lady?” Owen said, his tone emotionless.

“It is a chore to speak with you like this, you know.”

“I don’t have any other choice. This is my semi-permanent persona for the foreseeable future.”

Titania sighed with annoyance.

“Oberon is irate over what you did. When we left you to teach my grandson, we did not think you would teach him things that are forbidden.”

“I did not teach him how to open a way. How could I? He figured it out on his own.”

Titania stared at him in disbelief.

“That is not possible.”

“Unfortunately, it is. Goliath brought his consort’s cat to the castle and Alex unintentionally sent him to the World Between.”

“And you had Alex bring the cat back?”

“I had to be sure,” Owen said quietly. “He’s an infant. He shouldn’t have been able to do it at all.”

“If you weren’t already banished, you would be now,” Titania snapped.

“My Lady, I—”

“Mab escaped.”

“What?” Owen said, his already pale face draining of all color.

“You unwittingly unleashed Queen Mab upon the world again when you saved...a cat.”

Owen groaned and put his head in his non-stone hand.

“Pandora’s Box has been opened once more, and the monsters have all fled. Only hope remains to us. You know what this means?”

“War,” Owen said quietly. “Again.”

“Let’s hope it does not come to that. Mab was stripped of her powers. It will take time for her to acquire them again, if she can, but she is crafty, I would not put it past her to do the impossible.” Titania sighed. “I knew we should have killed her outright. Oberon was too soft. Just because she’s his mother...”

Titania stared pensively off into the middle distance.

“What would you have me do, my Lady?”

Titania shook off whatever thoughts she was having. 

“Right now, it is not Mab who is my greatest concern. The Weird Sisters are searching for her. I imagine they will soon capture her, and we will banish her again to the World Between. My concern right now is Oberon, and what he intends to do about Alexander.”

“What is he planning?”

“I think he may try to steal Alexander again because of his power, and I do not want Alexander to be raised amongst...well, let’s just say I came to believe during my time amongst the mortals that the nurture aspect has more sway than the nature aspect when rearing offspring. Just look at how my other children have turned out…” she trailed off. “You need to ensure he is safe from my husband.”

“I made Goliath swear an oath to keep Alex safe from harm in exchange for the cat.”

“Have you now?” Titania thought it over for a moment. “That still leaves him vulnerable during the day.”

“I will keep a close eye on him.”

“Hmm…it will have to do. For now.”

“My Lady—”

Owen was suddenly alone. Titania had left, vanished entirely without a puff of smoke or fairy dust, and he realized just how incredibly annoying that was.

“Queen Mab?” Goliath asked Owen.

“Yes,” Owen said. He had approached the gargoyle leader on his tower just before dawn to tell him what Titania had revealed to him just a few hours prior.

Goliath folded his arms across his chest as his tail lashed at the floor pensively.

“I have heard this name before. Shakespeare mentioned her in his play Romeo and Juliet, but he made her seem fairly harmless. Why was she in the Shadow Realm?”

“Shakespeare gets some things right, and a lot of things wrong,” Owen explained. “She is Oberon’s mother and the former ruler of Avalon and The Third Race. She was,” Owen paled slightly, the only outward sign of emotion he gave, “cruel, vindictive, tyrannical. The years she ruled were dark ones. A few millennia ago, half the court, led by Oberon himself, rebelled against her, and a war was fought with Oberon coming out the victor. She was stripped of her power, imprisoned, and banished to the Shadow Realm.”

“And we set her free?”

“I suspect she piggy-backed on Cagney.”

“That flash of light…” Goliath contemplated.

“I assume so.”

“She has been stripped of her powers. So she is harmless, then?”

“Hardly,” Owen replied derisively. “There are certain abilities inherent in the fae that even Oberon could not take away, but mostly I fear that those who once aided her in the war will do so once more. She may be powerless, but she is not free of influence. She must be caught before she gains support.”

Goliath stroked his jaw thoughtfully.

“What do we do?”

“Nothing, for the time being. The Weird Sisters have already been sent to dispatch her, but you need to be ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“To fulfill your oath.”

Goliath exhaled loudly.

“I remember my promise,” he growled.

“Good. Now, I have things to attend to. Sleep well, Goliath.”

“Good day, Owen,” Goliath grumbled as the man left the tower.

Goliath had no issue protecting a child. All children were innocent no matter who their parents were, but Alexander was the son of two of his greatest nemeses and the grandson of the Queen of the Third Race. Some day he would be a grown man, and if he turned out anything like his parents or grandmother, his oath would be like a chain around his neck, weighing heavily upon him and tightening further and further until it choked him, and he absentmindedly rubbed the back of his neck at the thought.

May 13, 1997
Castle Wyvern
Evening

Breaking the news of Mab’s escape to his clan had not been easy for Goliath.

Mostly because he did not entirely understand what it meant for them, what effect it would have on them.

It could be nothing.

Or it could be absolutely devastating.

There had been a lot of questions, and he did not have any answers for them other than to be on guard, but not to worry overly much. He would inform them if there was any news.

But he worried.

He wished he could speak with Elisa about it, but she was still in Arizona. He had spoken with her the other night over the phone, and she had told him of everything that had occurred in Flagstaff. Her instincts about her great uncle had been spot on, which came as no surprise to him.

Her grandmother, who had been missing for decades, had been murdered by her father’s uncle, Joseph, and a Kachina named Crow Mother, had helped to bring the horrible event to light.

Elisa was supposed to be home by now, but she understandably remained in Arizona to assist her parents. Plans had to be made for the official interment of the remains, and a formal investigation was underway. She would return by the end of the week.

He had not told her anything yet of what had occurred with Cagney. She did not need the added burden, but he wished he could confide in her. He needed her wisdom, her reassurance. He needed her.

But he had to wait, and he walked aimlessly through the castle as he pondered his predicament.

“I hate this,” he heard a voice say from an adjacent room as he passed by.

It was Katana based on the soft Japanese accent. For a moment he thought she was addressing him, but then he heard Brooklyn's reply. The door was slightly ajar, and he could see nothing within, but he could hear them both clearly enough.

“I know you do. I do, too,” Brooklyn replied, his voice gentle as he spoke to his mate.

“It was easier when we hopped around in ancient history or even the future, now, knowing what we know, being here, being a part of it…it's hard.”

“I know, but you know we can't stop it, love,” Brooklyn replied.

“We're complicit in helping! He's going to die, and we were a part of what brings it about!”

Goliath paused in his tracks. He was trying to leave their conversation alone and give them privacy, but those words gave him pause.

Who was going to die?

“At least there's still time. It won't happen for many years.”

“But it’s still going to happen, Brooklyn,” Katana said mournfully. “And we know when, where, everything, and we can’t tell anyone!”

“What good would it do? It would only hurt them if they knew,” Brooklyn said. “I tried so many times to try and stop things from happening, but it never works.”

“I know, Brooklyn, I know. I just hate how helpless I feel,” Katana said, and Goliath could hear the deep sorrow within her voice.

“I know...I do too.”

There was a rustle of wings, presumably Brooklyn had pulled his mate in for a comforting embrace.

Goliath resumed walking, his mind racing with what he had overheard.

Chapter Text

May 21, 1997
Gramercy Park, Demona’s townhouse

“We've been over this before, there are exceptions, but humans as a majority will always lean towards violence and anarchy,” Demona said over her tea. Her appearance had improved over the past few months. Her figure had filled out again and she looked strong and healthy. Her skin was smooth and firm, and her hair was lustrous and vibrant once more.

Angela found herself envious of her mother’s red locks, though she realized the color would clash horribly with her skin tone if she had inherited it. She wondered if her visits had been part of why Demona looked better. She wasn’t entirely sure what led to her mother’s sickly appearance recently, whether it was knowledge of her father’s relationship with Elisa or her failed attempt to destroy all of humanity that drove her to poor health, but she was glad she was taking better care of herself.

“I think you're wrong, Mother. I think if humans got to know us—” Angela tried to respond.

“They'd want to destroy us faster!” Demona snarled. “They can't even get along with each other. They frequently despise anyone who looks different from them or happens to believe in a different god than they do. Their only advantage over us is that they breed prolifically. They would have eradicated themselves long ago if they were limited in their breeding the way we are.”

Angela set down her cup of tea and looked away.

“Perhaps it is time I returned home, Broadway will begin to wonder why I have not returned yet,” she said, using her mate as an excuse to leave the difficult conversation. Speaking to her mother about humans was like beating her head against a thick stone wall.

Demona saw through it and changed her strategy, desiring to keep her longer.

“Listen...I will try to be...open-minded for you. Can you think of anything that would prove me wrong?” she baited her.

“Actually...I think I can,” Angela said. “Come with me.”

Mother and daughter left the townhouse as Angela took her to a rough and rather derelict part of town. Angela alighted upon a roof and directed Demona to look down the alley behind a bakery that was about to open.

“I come here sometimes when I need to lift my spirits,” Angela said.

“You’ve been spending too much time with Broadway if a bakery is what cheers you up,” Demona grumbled.

“It’s not the bakery, Mother,” Angela replied. “Look.”

They watched as a rotund, middle-aged, man with more hair on his arms than on his head exited the back door with a cart full of fresh-baked bread. He loaded them onto a van, and then pulled out into the light early morning traffic.

“Come on,” Angela said as she leapt off of the building and followed after the van from above, Demona followed her. The van drove for a few blocks until it came to another rundown building.

It was a children's home, an orphanage.

The man unloaded the baked goods from the van as a woman walked out and met him at a side door. They greeted each other cheerfully, and the man and woman carried the bread inside.

“Mr. Stavros does this every day. Rain or shine,” Angela explained.

“What does he do exactly? Deliver bread? How is that heroic?” Demona said snidely.

“Broadway and I once stopped some thieves from robbing him early one morning. He’s one of the few humans who acknowledged what we did graciously. Since then, I’ve looked in on him from time to time, and I've seen what he does. All of those baked goods are made and delivered by him for free to the orphanage. On holidays he brings cookies or other treats, too. He does it out of the goodness of his heart because he wants those children to eat something made fresh, with quality ingredients...and love.”

“Hmm,” Demona mused. “Perhaps he has a good heart. He could also be doing it as a tax write off, and he also wouldn’t feel the need to feed those children if they were better taken care of like they should be. Do you not find it cruel that in a country that holds a massive amount of the world’s wealth, children go hungry?”

Angela looked away, her heart sinking. She had noticed that. It didn’t make sense to her that while some had so much, others suffered with so little. Why couldn’t they take care of each other?

“Gargoyles don’t have orphans, Angela. We take care of our kind, our children. Unlike humans.”

Angela’s wings slumped at her mother’s words.

“Come, it will be dawn soon, and I don’t want to be trapped as a human up on this roof.”

Angela dejectedly followed her mother as she cast one last look at the baker and the orphanage.

May 21, 1997
Elisa's Loft
Pre-dawn

Elisa entered her apartment after a long night and was relieved to find it dark and empty.

He hadn’t waited for her.

She sighed with relief and no small amount of guilt as she flipped on the lights.

Cagney greeted her, purring happily and rubbing up against her ankles. She picked him up and buried her face into his soft fur.

It was hard to think she had nearly lost him. 

That revelation, the one involving her grandmother, and the Shambahla revelation had rocked her hard, and she had thrown herself into her work tonight to forget about it, but it had only distracted her from her problems momentarily. Right now, she just didn't have the mental energy to deal with any of it.

She was locking up her gun when she heard the snap and rustle of wings outside, and for a moment she panicked that it was Goliath, but it was Broadway’s aquamarine hue she spied, and not the lavender of her mate. She waved at Broadway to come in.

“Hey, Elisa...sorry to bother you so late,” he said sheepishly as he opened the window and stepped in.

“Don’t worry about it. What’s up?” she asked.

Broadway held the end of his tail in his hands, and he twisted it nervously.

“Have you heard from Angela at all tonight?” he asked.

“No, sorry. Is everything alright?” Elisa pressed concerned.

“I can’t find her.”

Elisa paused. He and Angela were practically joined at the hip, honestly it was strange to see him here without her. If he didn't know where she was, no one would.

“What do you mean you can’t find her?” she said alarmed.

“She was supposed to return home hours ago, but she hasn’t yet, and I’m worried she’s in trouble.”

“Returned from where? What’s going on, B?” Elisa questioned, shortening his name to the single initial she used affectionately for him sometimes.

Broadway was silent for a moment as he gazed shamefully at the floor. When he finally spoke, his voice was very quiet and reluctant.

“Demona's place.”

“What?” Elisa said, shocked to hear that name.

“She's been visiting Demona once a week for the past two months.”

“Broadway! What the hell?!” Elisa said outraged. 

“I told her she shouldn't do it…but it's what Demona required…as payment,” he lamented.

“Payment for what?” Elisa asked, and she felt a cold hand down her spine, knowing and fearing what he would say next. She could feel it in her gut.

“To remove the spell on Goliath.”

Elisa closed her eyes and covered her mouth with her hands as what Broadway told her sunk in.

“Oh my god,” she breathed as she leaned back against her kitchen counter. “So, that's why it ended.”

“Angela confronted Demona and told her to put an end to it. She hoped she would do it if she asked because Demona cares for her, but Demona only did it when Angela promised to visit regularly. I’m so sorry, Elisa, I wanted to tell you before, Angela promised not to say a word about the deal, but I’m worried!”

“Shit! This is not good. She could be in danger, and when Goliath finds out...oh, god—he’s going to blow a gasket!” 

“I know! I went by Demona’s place already but no one was there. What do I do, Elisa?”

Elisa took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair as she got her head straight.

“Ok, we need to stay calm. The sun will be up soon, and you can't do anything else at this point other than go back to the castle. Maybe she made it back while you were gone. Call me and let me know one way or the other. I’ll take it from there, got it?” she instructed.

“Okay, Elisa,” Broadway replied anxiously.

He left for the castle, and Elisa unlocked her gun from its safe, loaded it, and started to make a mental list of things she would need to do. She'd enlist Matt's help, and possibly Morgan and Captain Chavez if there was need. She knew where Demona lived. She'd need a credible excuse to get a warrant, she couldn't just waltz in and ask for Angela, though she'd certainly try that first. Perhaps Broadway was wrong and Angela was still at her mother's place. It was a mansion, after all.

She was deep in thought, fantasizing about storming Demona's home and kicking down the door when Broadway finally called.

“Angela's back, everything's fine. She seems a little down, but I'll have to try and find out what happened tomorrow night. Thanks, Elisa!”

“Good,” Elisa breathed a sigh of relief. “We'll talk about this later, but sleep well Broadway.” 

“You, too, Elisa, uh…any way you could possibly not mention this to Goliath?” 

“Not a chance,” Elisa replied.

“Damn, well it was worth a shot. Angela's gonna kill me…bye Elisa.” 

“Bye, Broadway,” Elisa said and hung up the phone. She slumped over her counter, her head in her hands. This was just great. Now she had one more difficult thing to talk to Goliath about tomorrow.

Chapter Text

May 21, 1997
Elisa’s Loft
Early evening

When Goliath woke up that evening he winged his way over to Elisa’s loft, a place he viewed as a second home, a sanctuary from the castle, Xanatos, his clan, and the world outside. It was a place of refuge where he and Elisa spent time alone together, where it often felt like only the two of them existed. He was normally excited to be home with Elisa, but he felt nothing but unease as he made his way there.

Elisa was waiting for him, curled up on her sofa with Cagney on her lap. She stared off into nothing as she stroked his chin and cheeks, and he was purring so loudly Goliath could hear it just as soon as he opened the window.

Elisa looked up at him as he pushed the window open, and he was struck by how beautiful she was, the way he always was every time he saw her.

It had been weeks since they had been alone together. He had been celibate for two years when they mated for the first time, so a few weeks should have been a breeze compared to that, but he had grown accustomed to regular intimacy again, and he longed for her. He missed their connection, the strengthening of their bond, but as she looked back at him, he knew there would be no passionate words shared between them this night. At least, not ones of a loving nature.

Elisa had her confrontation face on. One he'd seen her wear into battle and when going up against hardened criminals.

That did not bode well for him.

But still, he tried to act normally, and he leaned down and kissed her in greeting.

Her mouth was hesitant against his.

“Elisa, I hope you plan to finally tell me what the problem is,” he said, unable to hide his exasperation.

Elisa cast her eyes downward toward her cat who rested contentedly on her lap.

“First we need to talk about Angela,” she said.

“Angela?” Goliath replied surprised. He had no idea why his daughter would be a cause for concern.

“What I’m about to tell you won’t be easy to hear. I’m going to need you to stay calm.”

“Just tell me,” Goliath said as he folded his arms over his chest.

Elisa hesitated and then told him.

“She’s been visiting Demona on the sly.”

“WHAT?!” Goliath roared, his wings extending out in anger.

“I asked you to stay calm. Flying off the handle isn’t going to help anyone here,” Elisa reprimanded him.

Goliath growled frustratedly, and then caped his wings around his shoulders once more.

“Why would she do this?” he asked once he’d calmed down enough to discuss the matter.

“Apparently she struck a deal with Demona to end her spell on you, when you lost the ability to understand English and you had the, uhm, loincloth malfunction.”

“So that’s why the spell ended,” he grumbled.

Elisa nodded.

“Her heart was in the right place, and I don’t want to be ungrateful, what she did took a lot of guts, but...she should have told us.”

“She should have,” Goliath agreed. “I will speak with her. This cannot continue. It will not continue.”

“Good luck with that,” Elisa sighed. “She’s as stubborn as you are.”

Goliath resisted the urge to roll his eyes at that and took a deep breath and exhaled instead.

“What else did you want to talk about?” he asked tentatively.

Elisa picked Cagney up off her lap and set him on the ground as she reluctantly got off the sofa and walked into the bedroom. She came back out a moment later with the dress he had seen her with yesterday. He looked at it curiously.

“I found this in my backpack after we finally returned from Avalon. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so I shoved it in the back of my closet and sort of forgot about it until I rediscovered it last night. Brooklyn told me it's from a place called Shambahla,” she said, her tone quiet and resigned as she held the neatly folded up dress out to him. “He's been there, apparently, and there’s also a clan of gargoyles who live there.”

“Shambahla? Why does this name keep coming up? And you say there are gargoyles there? Brooklyn’s been there?” Goliath said as he processed everything Elisa told him.

He took the offered dress from her and held it in his hands. There was something, some faint feeling he got when he brushed the pads of his fingers over it, some kind of sensory memory, but nothing he could articulate well. It was like he had touched this dress before, he knew how it felt to run his hands over it. It was an odd feeling…he had some sort of attachment to the dress he could not explain.

“You seemed to remember something about the place when Demona cast that spell on you, and then forgot about it again. According to Brooklyn, those who have been to Shambahla can’t remember it once they leave because of some kind of spell.”

“Sorcery...” Goliath grumbled. Why did all of his problems seem to stem from magic of one kind or another?

“And that dress fits me like it was made specifically for me,” Elisa added.

Goliath scowled, he could almost feel the shape of her in this dress which only puzzled him more. There was a span of lost time towards the end of their journey that they hadn’t been able to explain and chalked it up to some anomaly in the time discrepancy between the real world and Avalon. Perhaps Shambahla was why.

He glanced up from the dress and towards Elisa. She had a pensive look on her face. There was something she was holding back.

“Elisa...what is it?”

She was reluctant to tell him, things were already tense between them, and this wasn’t going to help.

“If you look on the inside of the dress, just beneath the collar on the back, there’s some embroidery,” she said.

Goliath checked and found some form of scrolling lettering that he could not read, sewn in golden thread. He ran his fingers over it.

“Do you know what it says?” he asked.

“It says…” Elisa paused. “It says I wore this dress on my wedding night.”

Goliath’s scowl had grown so deep at this point, Elisa wondered if the furrow between his brows would ever smooth out again.

“What does that mean?” he said even more perplexed.

“We were there...in Shambahla...together.”

Goliath looked at the dress again and back at her, and he thought about the strange moment when they had woken up on the skiff on their final trip back to Avalon.

He thought of the strong feelings he felt towards Elisa after that. The shift in his perception of her. He had loved her before, but when he had come to, he had felt unreasonably possessive towards her.

The way he had once felt towards Demona after they had…

He staggered and half fell, half sat on Elisa's sofa.

“By the dragon…”

He stared at the dress in his hands, utterly shocked.

Elisa sat down next to him and didn’t say anything. She didn’t know what to say.

For several moments they sat together in silence.

“We mated,” he said stunned.

“I don’t know for certain...but I think so.”

“Right before we returned to Avalon and faced Oberon for the first time, when we could not recall what happened after the encounter with Coldstone...I felt…” he trailed off as he was at a loss for words momentarily, “distraught and confused by the sudden intense change in my feelings towards you. You have no idea the inner turmoil I was going through. I was in anguish every time I looked at you and couldn’t tell you how I felt...couldn’t touch you...” he shook his head and closed his eyes like it physically hurt him to recall. “This is why gargoyles take mating so seriously. There is no such thing as a casual entanglement for us.”

He ran his talons through his hair.

Elisa looked at him sadly.

“I had no idea, Goliath...when I broke up with you, if I had known that…we had been together like that…” she said haltingly unable to explain her remorse. “I thought you were simply suffering from a broken heart, like I was...If I had known, I—oh, fuck!”

She brought her hands up to her face, covering her mouth in horror.

“What is it?” Goliath asked warily, expecting some new horror to be wrought upon them.

“I kissed Jason,” she blurted out. “I kissed him when I was already mated to you!”

“You didn’t know,” Goliath said reassuringly. They had already discussed the matter long ago. “Besides, you’re human, Elisa.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Elisa said, scowling at him.

“Humans don’t feel the same bond for their partners that gargoyles do. You couldn’t have known.”

“Excuse me?” Elisa said, taken aback. “First of all, humans can love their partners just as much as gargoyles, and second, I didn’t see you shouting from the rooftops that we’d gotten together.”

“Would you have listened if I had?” Goliath shot back.

Elisa folded her arms petulantly across her chest.

“You could have tried.”

“Every time I tried to tell you of my feelings, you shot me down or changed the subject, Elisa. Imagine if I had confronted you and told you of my suspicions, how would you have reacted? I wasn’t even sure of it myself!”

Elisa didn’t reply, but looked away sullenly. He was right. If he had told her that they had mated but she couldn’t remember it, she would have thought he was crazy.

“There’s no sense going back and forth about it now,” she sighed. “It’s all speculation anyway, and there’s something else we need to talk about.”

Goliath inhaled deeply and released it, sounding like a blacksmith’s bellows as he did.

“You want to finally talk about what happened to Cagney?”

Elisa nodded.

“I don't want to have this conversation...but we need to,” she replied.

He had been waiting for this. Elisa’s response when he had confessed to her what had happened had been uncharacteristically unemotional. She was grateful to have Cagney back, and she didn’t say much else about the matter at the time. He knew she needed time to process it considering she was already dealing with what happened in Arizona, but he was surprised by how long it had taken her to finally want to talk about it.

“I wish I could go back and do things differently,” Goliath admitted.

“Which part?” Elisa asked hesitantly. She looked at him, and her eyes were angry and hard.

“I should have double checked the window. That’s where all the trouble started.”

“That was a simple mistake, Goliath, I’m not holding you accountable for that, or even for taking Cagney to the castle. What happened to him was unfortunate, you couldn’t have foreseen any of what occurred.”

“Then what is troubling you, Elisa?”

“Aside from the fact that an evil fairy was set free? Nothing,” Elisa quipped.

“As much as I normally love your wit and sarcasm, I don’t think it’s helping the conversation much right now,” Goliath scolded.

Elisa paused. She wanted to lash out in frustration, but that was not how one handled conflict in a constructive way. She took a deep breath as she gathered her thoughts.

“Goliath, I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul, and I've never doubted your love for me, how unconditionally and completely you love me, but…your love frightens me sometimes.”

“Elisa...you know I would never hurt you,” he said appalled at the thought that he frightened her.

“Yes, but I think that’s part of the problem. You’d do everything within your power not to,” she lamented. “You had Alex—an infant—transfer souls with Lexington so that he could open up a portal to another world and inadvertently released a dangerous fairy queen from prison in the process...just to save my cat.”

Goliath shifted uncomfortably. “When you put it like that it does sound rather ridiculous,” he admitted.

“It was ridiculous and incredibly risky and irresponsible,” Elisa chided, refusing to let him off the hook for his behavior. “I love Cagney, and the thought of him trapped there breaks my heart, but—”

“Which is why I retrieved him, Elisa,” Goliath said as he took her hands in his and held them fervently. “I knew how much it would hurt you if I didn't. I can't stand to see you in pain.”

“And damn everyone else?” Elisa snapped.

The anger in her voice stunned him momentarily.

“You involved the clan, you endangered them,” she continued.

“I consulted with them first. They did it willingly,” Goliath argued defensively.

“Of course they helped willingly, Goliath!” Elisa all but shouted. “Do you not see the influence you have over them? You’re...you! The one who has seen them through unimaginable tragedy and battle after battle. They would follow you to hell and back again. They would all do anything for you!”

“Because I am their leader! They look to me to make the hard decisions, the tough calls, and carry the burden of it on my shoulders alone, and they do it willingly so that they don’t have to,” Goliath shot back.

Elisa glared stubbornly at him, but she was a little shocked by his words as he had never aired these feelings about leading the clan before, but she put that conversation aside for another night.

“I’ve tried to look past what happened because you did it with good intentions, you did it for me, but my happiness shouldn't come before the well being of everyone else,” Elisa argued.

Goliath clasped her hands tightly in his.

“But it does to me,” he said passionately.

“And that's the problem, Goliath. You would watch the world burn just to save me!” Elisa said exasperated. “That’s not love, it’s obsession!”

Goliath reeled back at her criticism. Did she really feel that way about his love for her?

“Look,” Elisa said as she gathered her thoughts after her outburst, “we see more danger and challenges than most couples do, and we have to accept the fact that someday…one of us may lose the fight for the greater good.”

“Elisa, I don’t know what I would do if I lost you,” Goliath said mournfully, he was still holding her hands and squeezing them so tightly, it was almost painful. “You are everything to me.”

“What about the clan? Your daughter? Do they not matter?”

“Of course they do,” Goliath replied indignantly.

“Your actions say otherwise, Goliath,” Elisa said quietly, resigned to say what she now knew she needed to as she pulled her hands out of his. “I'm not getting through to you...so I think...I think you need to take a step back and figure out what you would do if something did happen to me.”

Goliath stared at her, stunned by her words and their implications.

“Elisa…what are you saying?”

“We need some time apart.”

“Time apart?” Goliath repeated, filled with disbelief. “We have spent weeks apart already!”

“I know,” Elisa said sadly. "I don't want to do this, either."

"Then don't," Goliath growled.

Elisa said nothing in response, and he couldn’t understand how being apart would help the situation. All he knew was that his mate didn’t want to be around him, and that hurt deeply.

“How long?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Elisa said honestly as she put her arms around herself, and there were tears in her eyes.

“Elisa...you are my mate,” he pleaded. “You can’t just set me aside like a plaything when you are upset with me.”

“I just need time!” Elisa shouted angrily. “And so do you!”

They stared at each other for a tense moment as anger and pain filled up the void between them.

“We both need to get some clarity,” Elisa managed to say more calmly.

Goliath’s heart was aching, twisting, and burning in his chest. He waited to see if she would change her mind, to see if she regretted her decision, but she was resolute. He clenched his fists once, twice, his talons bit into his palm.

“As you wish,” he said acerbically.

He stood up and quietly left the apartment. As soon as he did, all the strength Elisa had summoned left her, and she crumpled. She lost her composure completely, and she buried her face in her hands and doubled over. For a moment no sound came out, and then the dam broke, and she let out a wracking sob. Cagney padded silently back over to her and curled up by her side.

When Angela and Broadway returned to the castle to get something to eat after their first patrol, Goliath was waiting for them. Angela was surprised by his appearance as he had gone to Elisa's, and that usually meant he would be gone the whole night. But Broadway knew what this was about. He thought he would have the whole night to talk to Angela about telling Elisa, so he'd put it off, and now he realized an ugly confrontation was coming. Elisa had told Goliath, and now Goliath was fuming. He looked absolutely livid in that cold, stony, silent way he got before the storm of his wrath hit.

They had just touched down upon the battlements when Goliath jumped right into it.

“You have been visiting Demona? Without telling me?” he seethed.

His voice was low and quiet, and Angela knew she was treading on dangerous ground. She was startled that he knew, but there was no sense in lying about it.

“Yes,” she admitted.

“And for nearly two months? Behind my back?!” Goliath roared.

“It was the price I paid for ending her spell on you,” Angela said as she folded her arms across her chest.

“I am aware of why you did it,” Goliath said angrily, “but I would never have allowed it if I had known.”

“I was thinking of you and Elisa! The two of you couldn't even talk to each other anymore!"

Goliath closed his eyes and tried to ignore the irony of the situation.

“Demona just wants to talk, that’s all, I swear,” Angela insisted naively.

“Talk?” Goliath said, opening his eyes. They were glowing softly despite the fact that he was trying to keep his anger in check. He was already emotionally keyed up before he started this conversation, and he felt his control slipping. “Have you asked Brooklyn what happens when Demona just wants to talk?”

“I...I don’t—” Angela stumbled. She’d heard the stories of course. Of Demona’s constant betrayals. The way she twisted things.

“Demona is manipulative. Her words are poison. You cannot trust her,” Goliath seethed. “I know this better than anyone.”

“I know that!” Angela spat back. “I know she’s not to be trusted, but she’s my mother!”

“You are a gargoyle,” Goliath growled in her face. “Blood means nothing to us. You think too much like a human!”

“Do you talk to Elisa like that?” Angela threw back.

Goliath’s face went dark. Red flags and warning signs were going up all over the place for Broadway, and he nervously put a hand on his mate’s shoulder.

“Angela, I don't think—” he started to say, but he was cut off.

“I forbid you from seeing her,” Goliath proclaimed, his voice was eerily flat and even.

“But that was the deal! What if she puts the spell back on you? Or worse?” Angela barreled on.

“I would rather be forced to learn a second language than have you poisoned and influenced by that witch!” Goliath roared.

“You cannot forbid me. I can do as I please!” Angela snapped back.

“Already I can tell she has had some influence over you. You’ve never been so insolent,” Goliath snarled.

“Why can you not trust me to make my own decisions? You treat me like a child!”

“That is because you act like a spoiled hatchling!”

“I guess that’s what happens when you leave humans to raise your children instead of doing it yourself like you’re supposed to!”

Angela knew she had gone too far that time. She saw the flash of pain in her father's eyes before he growled, turned away, and stalked off enraged.

Broadway had stayed out of the conversation after his initial attempt to intercede, but he spoke up now.

“That was a low blow, Angela,” he said quietly, gently reprimanding his mate.

Angela turned on him.

“I take it I have you to thank for tattling on me?”

“Angela...you were keeping a secret, a dangerous secret. Elisa knew something was up, and I couldn’t lie to her,” Broadway said, flinching at her words.

“Last time I checked, Elisa was mated to my father, not you!”

“That’s not fair. I was worried about you when you didn’t come back home on time yesterday, and you weren’t at Demona’s place when I looked for you.”

Angela huffed then she turned and stormed off away from her mate and in the opposite direction of her father.

Broadway mournfully watched her go and wondered again if he had done the right thing or not by telling Elisa.

May 23, 1997
23rd Precinct
Late evening

Elisa stared at the files in front of her. She’d gone over this case a dozen times now tonight, and each time her mind kept drifting, and none of the information stuck. She wasn’t in a good headspace. She hadn't been for a couple of days now.

“Hey...are you alright?” Matt asked from across their desks.

It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her, and she looked up at him.

“Yeah...I—I didn’t get much sleep today.”

“Is it because of what happened in Flagstaff earlier this month?”

“What? Oh...no,” Elisa said. “Not exactly.”

“What’s going on? Did you and G, have a disagreement or something?”

Elisa released a shaky breath.

“Yeah, we’re...taking a break from each other right now.”

“Oh. Shit,” Matt said quietly. Then he stood up, grabbed his overcoat, and put it on.

“Where are you going?” Elisa asked. They'd barely started their shift.

“We are going to take an early break. We can eat something really unhealthy and talk it out.”

Elisa smiled gratefully at her partner.

“Ok, there’s something I should probably tell you anyway. Something that happened while I was gone that you need to know about,” she said as she stood up and slipped into her jacket and followed Matt out.

“Holy fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“To get Cagney back?”

“Yeah.”

“I mean...that’s awfully romantic, in a weird way, but...fucking dangerous. God.”

“Glad it's not just me that sees that.”

“I know Goliath loves you like crazy, we all know that, but he made a bad call. He has a blind spot when it comes to you,” Matt said around a mouthful of hamburger.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

They ate quietly for a moment. The diner was nearly empty save for a few others. They had sat instinctively in a booth where they could see everyone in the diner as well as the door. Old habits.

Elisa sighed as she picked up a fry and dipped it in her chocolate shake.

“That’s disgusting,” Matt said.

“It’s really not,” Elisa said with a grin. “Just try it.”

She offered him the ice cream covered fry. He reluctantly took it and ate it.

“Ok...that’s actually kind of good,” he admitted.

“Am I being too hard on him? Do you think I did the right thing?” Elisa asked as she second guessed herself

He looked sympathetically at her.

“No. I don’t think you’re being too hard on him. What’s happening with Goliath is the dark side of love. He’s gotta figure out where the line is.”

Elisa nodded.

“I need him to figure it out, Matt. I can’t—” she paused and released a shaky breath. “I love him so much, and I’ve gotta figure out what I’m going to do if he can’t figure out what’s wrong with what he did.”

Matt nodded.

“I’m here for you, partner. Whatever happens.”

“I know. Thanks, Matt,” she said gratefully. “Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask...how did your date go the other night?”

Matt shrugged.

“It was...fine,” he said. “Nice enough guy, really good looking, but no real spark.”

“You still slept with him, though, didn’t you.”

“Of course I did! He was hot!”

Elisa laughed and kicked him softly under the table.

“Well, I’m glad one of us is getting laid right now.”

“Don’t worry, once you and Goliath get through this rough patch, you’ll be back to doin’ it like rabbits in no time,” Matt teased her.

Elisa rolled her eyes at him, but she knew he was just trying to cheer her up.

“I just want things to go back to the way they were before it got all...messy.”

“Life...love...it’s all messy, Elisa,” Matt said sagely.

Elisa groaned and propped her head up on her hand as she slumped against the table.

“Why can’t things ever be easy?”

“Because then it wouldn’t be any fun.”

“Yeah...I’m having loads of fun here,” Elisa said sarcastically, and Matt laughed softly at her expense.

Chapter Text

May 26, 1997
Chelsea, New York
Past midnight

Goliath patrolled Manhattan alone. He often preferred to be alone now. Ever since Elisa declared she needed time away from him. It had been five days, and though he’d gotten over the initial shock of it, he still couldn’t understand why she needed distance from him.

It made him worry that she was going to break up with him again.

Technically there was nothing keeping them together such as a legal marriage, something humans seemed to value to an irrational degree.

But mating for gargoyles was binding, more so than any piece of paper could be.

But she wasn't a gargoyle, he reminded himself. She was human.

He never would have mated with Elisa if he hadn’t thought she understood that.

He had explained it several times to her, and she had vowed that nothing would tear them apart again, but had she changed her mind?

It terrified him to think about.

If he lost Elisa, it would break him in a way he would never recover from. He barely managed to survive the end of his relationship with Demona, and that was in no small part because of Elisa.

She wouldn't end things with him, not over something like this, he told himself. It was unfathomable. He was just being paranoid and irrational.

When they had mated for the first time, at least...what he thought had been their first time, everything had suddenly seemed easier between them, practically effortless, but perhaps he had been deluding himself.

Why had things gotten so complicated between them again?

“Help!” a woman cried out.

Goliath was knocked out of his train of thought as he heard someone call for aid from the street below. He swooped in to get a closer look and spotted a woman struggling with a man over her purse.

A thief.

He tucked his wings in tighter and dove towards the street, only snapping them open when he got close enough to grab the mugger by the back of his jacket. He picked him up off his feet as he pulled back and flapped his wings a few times before touching down on the pavement. The man screamed in a rather unmasculine way and dropped the purse immediately.

The woman had the foresight to pick it up, but now she was cowering as Goliath approached.

“S-stay back!” she cried.

“I have the thief apprehended. Are you alright?” Goliath asked.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a gun.

It wasn’t a large gun, but Goliath recoiled, nonetheless.

“I said stay back!” she shouted, losing some of her fear now that she had a gun in her hands.

Goliath held his free hand up and took a step back. The thief wriggled out of his jacket and dropped a foot to the pavement and ran off into the night.

Goliath wanted to pursue the thief, but he stood still, afraid to move. The woman was clearly frightened, and he didn’t want her to accidentally pull the trigger.

“I’m backing up,” he said in as calm a tone as he could muster.

He took a cautious step back and then another, and then there was a loud crack as the gun went off.

Goliath jerked at the impact and dropped the thief’s jacket he still held onto.

Smoke curled out of the barrel of the gun as they stared at each other wide-eyed for several tense seconds. She seemed just as startled that the gun went off as he did.

Goliath clamped a hand over his left shoulder as blood began to trickle down his arm. The woman stared at the blood that seeped through his fingers, startled by its appearance.

“I...what?” she said confused, her voice quavering, and the gun shook in her trembling hands.

Goliath didn’t stick around any longer. He bolted towards the nearest alley out of line of sight and firing range, and climbed a building, ignoring the burning pain in his left shoulder as he did. He took off from the roof, leaving the woman behind to face the streets alone.

He went back to the castle. Blood was streaming down his arm at this point, dripping off his talons as he staggered in. He had nothing to staunch the bleeding with, and he left a trail of blood splatter from the battlements to the infirmary. He dug through a cabinet full of medical supplies, pulling out alcohol, a large bandage, and gauze. Then he sat down at an examination table and started to doctor himself. There was an entry wound about half an inch across, but no exit wound, which meant the bullet was still lodged inside his arm.

He growled as he poured alcohol over the wound and then his own hands before probing the wound with his talons. He broke out into a light sweat from the pain as he extracted the bullet that had lodged just under his clavicle.

He tossed the bloody bullet contemptuously onto the table and then pressed a bandage to the wound and began securing it to his shoulder with gauze, cursing humans and their instruments of destruction all the while.

Elisa and Matt responded to a call that wasn’t in their precinct, but the victim was claiming she had been attacked by a gargoyle, so as the head of the Gargoyle Task Force and the NYPD ambassador to the gargoyle clan, Matt and Elisa got tasked with dealing with it.

The woman had been mugged, she claimed. A man tried to steal her purse. Elisa and Matt got the description, but it was not likely that much would come of it. The description was fairly nondescript—white, brown hair and eyes, average height, average weight—and unless he got caught mugging someone again, and they were able to link him with fingerprints that they pulled from the purse, the case wasn’t likely to go anywhere.

What concerned Elisa the most was when she claimed that a gargoyle had taken advantage of the situation and had attacked her.

“So, the gargoyle grabbed the mugger first?” Matt asked, clarifying her previous statement.

“Yes,” the woman, Nicole Miller, replied. She was a white woman in her early thirties, single, a nurse at a hospital. She lived near Saint Vincent’s where she worked, and she was walking home late after her shift when she was attacked.

“I think it was because he was closest...I don’t know,” she said nervously and sipped the cup of coffee Matt had brought her.

“And then what happened?” Elisa pressed.

“Well...the mugger dropped my purse when the gargoyle attacked him—”

“How did the gargoyle attack the mugger exactly? Were they fighting?”

“Well...it was more like it picked him up. I’m not sure what it was going to do after that because I pulled my gun on it that I keep in my purse.”

“Didn’t the mugger have your purse?”

“Yeah, but he dropped it when the gargoyle grabbed him, and that’s when I got my gun out.”

“Do you have a permit for the gun?” Elisa asked.

“Yes. I’ve been mugged before. I use it for protection...like I did tonight.”

“What happened after you pulled your gun on the gargoyle?” Matt asked.

“It...it wouldn’t stop. I was worried it was going to attack me next!”

“What happened next?” Elisa pressed. She felt a stab of terror in her heart. There had been blood found at the scene, not a life-threatening amount, but it had been sent to a lab for analysis, and now, Elisa realized, that blood sample wasn’t going to come back as human.

“I fired at it! J-just to frighten it!” she said. “I wanted it to leave me alone!”

Elisa glanced at Matt, and she caught the brief frightened look on his face.

“I don't think it was badly hurt. I shot it in the shoulder, and it left after that.”

Elisa hated the way she kept referring to the gargoyle as “it.”

“The gargoyle left?” she asked.

“Yeah, it climbed a god damn building and flew away!” She took another sip of her coffee. “It was bad enough when I had to worry about being robbed or assaulted on my walks home, but now I have to worry about gargoyles, too?”

Elisa wanted to yell at the woman, to tell her the gargoyle was trying to help her, but she knew it would be no use, and she would be suspended or fired as a result.

“Can you describe what the gargoyle looked like?” Elisa asked.

“It was kind of this...purple color? And big. Really big!”

Goliath.

Elisa’s face went pale, and she had to turn away at that point to hide the emotion on her face.

This woman had shot her lover, her mate.

Elisa leaned over to Matt and whispered to him.

“I’m going to make a call,” she tried to say calmly.

Matt nodded, and Elisa left him to complete the interview.

She walked calmly through the precinct. It was an immense effort not to run, but she had to play it cool. She waved at a few officers she knew and then stepped out into the parking lot and got into her car. She rummaged around in the glove compartment until she found her communicator. She put the earpiece in her ear and spoke into the mic on the main channel the gargoyles used.

“Hey, guys. Who’s out tonight?”

There was static and then Lexington spoke up.

“Everyone except Hudson and Bronx. What’s up Elisa?” he asked.

“Is Goliath with you?” she said, trying not to sound panicked.

“He’s patrolling alone tonight. I haven’t seen him.”

“We just got a report in that a woman shot a gargoyle, and based on the description, it sounds like Goliath,” Elisa said, her voice trembling. She was no longer able to stay calm at this point.

“Goliath’s been shot?!” Broadway piped in.

“I don’t know for sure, and I don’t know how bad it is, but I need you guys to look for him. The incident occurred three blocks north of St. Vincent's in the Chelsea area.”

“I'm near the hospital, so I'll check that area first.” Broadway replied. 

“I'll head back to the castle and see if he's there,” Lexington added.

“I’ll meet you there,” Elisa replied.

She cranked her car's engine and peeled out of the parking lot.

Elisa barely waited for the Eyrie Building elevator doors to open wide enough for her to launch herself through them before she hit the ground running. She sprinted through the great hall and down through the corridors and halls to the infirmary. There were occasional dark rust-colored stains on the ground that spurred her on even faster when she saw them.

She burst through the infirmary door, breathing heavily, catching Lexington and Goliath mid argument, but they both stopped immediately at her sudden appearance. The bandaging Goliath had wrapped around his shoulder was already soaked through with blood, but he was standing and conscious.

“Elisa, glad you’re here. Maybe you can convince Goliath that we should call Dr. Sato,” Lexington said indignantly.

Goliath and Elisa looked at each other for a painfully long moment.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

“I’m alright,” he replied.

Lexington picked up on the tension and looked uncomfortably back and forth between them.

“I’ll, uh, leave you two alone for a minute,” he said and slunk out.

The silence in the room now was so sharp it grated on Goliath’s already frayed nerves.

“Elisa—” he began.

“I should call Dr. Sato for you.”

“I don’t need Dr. Sato,” he growled.

Elisa folded her arms over her chest.

“Did the bullet go clean through? Is it still lodged inside? What if there are fragments—”

Goliath held up the intact bullet from the table.

“I got it out. My life is in no danger, and the dawn will heal the damage it caused.”

Elisa sighed.

“Stubborn as usual,” she muttered.

He snorted.

“I am the stubborn one?” he said indignantly. “I haven’t seen or heard from you in five days, Elisa, and then you only show up when you hear I’ve been shot.”

“I showed up because I was worried. I still love you, you know,” Elisa threw back. “That hasn’t changed.”

“Then don’t shut me out!” Goliath pleaded. “Please. Elisa…I miss you.”

He took a step towards her, his arms open slightly to her in invitation.

“I miss you, too,” Elisa said, her chin trembling as she took a step back. What she really wanted to do was fling herself into his arms. “But I can’t do this yet. I just needed to make sure you were alright.”

Then she turned and fled from the infirmary.

Goliath reached a hand out after her, his mouth open as if to call for her before he closed his jaw with an audible snap of his teeth. A snarl of pain and anger ripped from his throat, and he slammed his right fist into the stainless steel table next to him, leaving a sizable dent in it.

Elisa drove back to the station and couldn’t stop the tears that left tracks down her face.

She had wanted so badly to push their fight aside, to forget everything that had happened, and put her arms around him. To comfort him.

He had only been helping a woman who was being mugged, and she had repaid him by shooting him. If she had been a better shot, he might not even be standing any longer.

He must be reeling after something like that.

She thought about turning around.

She wanted to turn around.

She nearly did.

But she kept driving, and she cursed loudly in frustration as she drove back to work.

Goliath sat alone in the library in the dark, brooding. No fire was going. No book lay open before him. He just sat with his head resting against a fist as he stared off into the dark. Not that he needed that much light to see clearly, he was a nocturnal being after all, a creature of the night, and he welcomed the darkness. He felt comfortable within it. Especially now when it felt almost like a comforting weight upon him.

“This looks more like female-trouble brooding, and not you-got-shot brooding,” Brooklyn said as he walked into the library, “or perhaps both.”

Goliath glanced up at his second and eyed him balefully.

“Trust me, I have been where you are,” Brooklyn continued as he sat down next to Goliath. “How's your shoulder?”

“It has been better,” Goliath grumbled. “I'm grateful it will be dawn soon.”

“It’s really a shit thing to shoot someone who is trying to help you,” Brooklyn commiserated.

Goliath grunted in agreement.

“Honestly, I am surprised it took this long for something like this to happen,” he grumbled.

Brooklyn nodded thoughtfully.

“How's your heart?”

“It wasn’t my heart that was shot, Brooklyn,” Goliath said incredulously.

“No...but it’s clearly been wounded.”

Goliath glared at him and then sighed. “It has been better as well,” he said finally.

Brooklyn stared into the cold hearth of the fireplace as well. The lines on his face appeared deeper. It was still strange and unsettling to Goliath. Brooklyn had always been like a younger brother, and now instead of twenty years younger, he was twenty years older than him. He often went to Brooklyn for advice these days instead of the other way around.

“Do things ever get better or are our efforts to secure peace with humans wasted?” Goliath asked.

Brooklyn turned towards him. His eyes heavy and sorrowful.

“There's not much I can say about the future, Goliath,” he replied.

“What use is this knowledge you've gained when you do not use it?” Goliath growled.

“I use it by keeping my trap shut,” Brooklyn snapped. “By not causing harm.”

“You and I both know the time stream is immutable. What harm can you do?” Goliath countered.

“Plenty,” Brooklyn replied bitterly.

“I overheard you talking to Katana several weeks ago, shortly after we released Queen Mab. She said someone was going to die. Who was she talking about?” he asked, confronting the former time dancer. 

Brooklyn's face went dark, and then it went blank.

“It's nothing you need to worry about,” he said.

He lies, Goliath thought to himself.

“What do you know, Brooklyn? Tell me,” Goliath growled.

“I will not torment you or anyone else with the knowledge I have. That is my burden to carry,” Brooklyn said passionately, his eyes hard as steel.

Goliath glared angrily at his second.

And then Brooklyn let out a sudden bark of laughter that startled him. 

“I forgot how young and stubborn you were, not to mention impatient.”

Goliath just barely managed to suppress a growl.

“There's not much I should tell you, Goliath, and if you were in my 'shoes' so to speak, I know you would do the same,” Brooklyn said gently. “But I will say this, because I know you know this already. You and Elisa,” he let out a low whistle, “you guys are endgame. When people talk about epic love, they talk about what you two have. You have some great challenges ahead of you, but you also have a lot of wonderful things to look forward to. So, you can have your pity party now while respecting Elisa’s need for time apart, but then you need to get up off your ass and do whatever you need to do to make it right with her.”

Brooklyn stood up and walked towards the door, but before he left he said one more thing.

“None of us should know the day of our death, Goliath. All I can tell you, all I can tell anyone, is to live your life to the fullest. Do not live with regrets…and never lose hope.”

And with that, Brooklyn left the library, leaving Goliath to stew angrily in his own thoughts.

In a private chamber in the palace on Avalon, Titania waved a hand dismissively before a mirror and the scene within Castle Wyvern rippled and reverted back to a reflection of the room she stood in.

“Morpheus,” Titania called out, and a few moments later a dark figure cloaked in sand and fog appeared behind her.

“Yes, my Lady?” he replied in a low raspy whisper.

Titania turned to face the Lord of Dreams.

“I am in need of your…talents,” she said with a sly grin.

Deep eyes glinted with mirth as a Cheshire smile spread across the face concealed by the shifting cloak.

“Whatever you desire, my Lady.”

After his conversation with Brooklyn, Goliath wandered pensively through the castle, scowling darkly as he marched through the vast network of hallways and corridors. He passed Hudson in the TV room on his way up to his tower, where he hoped the night air would help to clear his head, and he heard the early morning news playing as he passed.

“I was fending off a mugger, and then a gargoyle took advantage of the situation, and it tried to attack me!” a woman on the news claimed to a reporter. “I had to shoot it to get it to back off!”

Goliath recognized the woman on the TV, and a low threatening growl rumbled in his throat.

Hudson heard him and turned towards the door where he stood.

“Is everyone accounted for?” he asked in a panic. The woman had claimed she had shot one of them, after all. “Have they all come home?”

He took in Goliath’s bandaged shoulder as he glared coldly at the TV screen and realized who the victim had been.

"Lad..." he said, horrified.

“I'm fine, Hudson. She didn’t strike anything vital," Goliath replied dismissively.

“Oh, thank th’ dragon,” Hudson muttered as he relaxed back into his chair. “Ye shouldn’t have been out alone.”

“I do not wish to live my life in constant fear of humans,” he growled in retort.

Hudson cast him a wary glance as the news anchor continued his commentary on the woman’s story.

“...With these increasing attacks, it’s no wonder Quarrymen numbers have been rising,” he claimed.

Goliath snarled contemptuously and turned away in disgust.

“Maza, Bluestone, my office!”

Elisa and Matt looked up at each other and towards Captain Chavez. They were just finishing up the paperwork from their interview with Ms. Miller who claimed she had been attacked by a gargoyle.

They got up from their desks and entered the captain’s office.

“How credible are the claims that a woman was attacked by a gargoyle?” Maria asked.

Elisa shut the door and closed the blinds so no one could hear them speak or try to discern their conversation.

“The woman was being mugged by a human male, Goliath interceded and tried to apprehend the thief, but the woman shot him out of fear he was there to attack her as well.”

“Shit. I was worried about something like this,” Maria cursed. “I’m assuming Goliath is alright or you wouldn’t be here.”

“He’s shaken up...but he’s ok,” Elisa said. “She shot him in the shoulder. There shouldn’t be any permanent damage.”

“Good. I’m sorry he was shot, but I’m glad it wasn’t severe. Have the two of you seen the news?”

“We’ve both been a little busy. Why? What’s up?” Matt asked.

“Ms. Miller went on the news this morning stating that she had been attacked by a gargoyle.”

“Oh, for fuck sake,” Matt grumbled.

“Are you serious?” Elisa said dismayed. “Now everyone in Manhattan is going to think the gargoyles are out to get them!”

“The mayor is going to come down on the GTF and demand action,” Maria said. “I fear that he will come down on you two, specifically. We need to get ahead of this.”

“I could get an official statement from Goliath, if that would help at all,” Elisa offered.

“I don’t think it would help much. I think most people would think you made it up, unless he was brought in for official questioning,” Maria countered.

“You know if we brought him down to the station he would never walk out of here again. Habeas corpus doesn’t apply to gargoyles,” Elisa rebutted.

“What do we do, Cap?” Matt asked.

“We stall,” Maria replied.

Goliath crouched on the large decorative merlon he often perched on during the day, his chin on his fist. The horizon to the east glowed with the first light of pre-dawn. The sun would rise soon, and he was glad of it. His shoulder throbbed where he had been shot, but more than that his heart ached. It ached for Elisa, and it ached over the pain he felt for the treatment of his kind, for the treatment he had received personally in his life. Even his own name was an insult, comparing his size to a biblical monster. He felt the deep, aching pain of the prejudice, fear, and hatred his kind faced nightly. The weariness of it. The weight of it was crushing, and he was just so very tired of it all.

Why did everything have to be such a challenge?

Elisa’s voice echoed in his mind.

“It’s not going to be easy, us, I mean.”

It was the first thing she had said when they had recommitted their relationship, what felt like a lifetime ago, but it had only been a few months.

“...Nothing worth having ever is,” he had replied.

Goliath sighed. 

Elisa would hardly even speak to him right now. It was impossible to work through their problems like this. It made no sense to him.

It was enough to make him wish he had been born a man, free of the challenges that faced him as a gargoyle. As a leader.

Able to love Elisa freely without fear of persecution.

Able to marry her.

Have children with her.

To not have to spend his life fighting for his very right to exist in this world, night after night.

Sometimes the burden of it all felt too much to bear.

A light breeze picked up suddenly, carrying dust that coalesced into the rough shape of a man, dark and ephemeral, disappearing on the wind, just as quickly as they arrived, all without being noticed.

Goliath's eyes felt heavy and gritty, and he rubbed at them tiredly.

He was just...so tired.

So very tired.

Of everything.

And the sun rose and caught him gazing mournfully out over an ungrateful city that despised him and his kind so much.

Chapter Text

“Rise and shine, sleepy head!” Elisa’s voice called out, waking him.

Goliath groaned and opened his eyes. For a moment he was disoriented. He was flat on his back and looking up at the ceiling of Elisa’s bedroom, but he had been asleep on the tower...hadn’t he? He hadn’t been home to Elisa’s place in almost a week.

“What am I doing here?” he groaned.

Why did his voice sound different?

His head hurt abysmally, too, for some reason.

“Is that an existential question?” Elisa asked. Her tone was light and teasing, lacking the hurt and anger from their previous conversation.

“How did I get here? Why did I sleep in your bed?” Goliath grumbled. “I could damage it, not to mention the mess.”

Elisa opened the curtains wide, and bright light filtered through.

Goliath flinched and shielded his eyes before he blinked several times in shock.

Sunlight.

“What the hell…” he muttered as he sat up. He wasn’t one to curse normally, but there was a time and a place, and this was definitely one of those times.

Elisa stood before the window, her back to him, silhouetted by the bright light filtering through the glass. As she turned away from the window, she arched her back as if to stretch it and ran a hand lovingly over her stomach.

Her large, swollen stomach.

His jaw fell open, and he stared in shock and confusion, and then his mouth worked before his brain could.

“Elisa...why do you appear to be with child?” he blurted out, his brain still fuzzy from waking up. One did not comment on their mate’s body in such a way, after all, not unless they wanted a thorough tongue lashing.

“Because I am, last time I checked,” Elisa said puzzled, but mildly amused. “How hard did you go when you went out drinking with the guys last night?”

“I…what guys?” Goliath started to question the first part of Elisa’s statement and then switched gears to address the second part.

“Morgan and your other buddies from work?”

“Buddies?” Goliath said the word unfamiliarly. “From work?”

“You better get up, though, we’re supposed to have brunch with my parents in an hour.”

“Brunch?” he said, repeating another unfamiliar term.

He groaned and swung his feet out of the bed.

His rather small, flat, five-toed feet.

He looked at them stunned. Then he held up his hands. There were five digits instead of four, and they were not thick with heavy, menacing talons, but blunt with soft nails. His hands were a lighter shade on the palms, but he turned them over to see a deep brown hue, similar to Elisa’s.

He also wore a gold band on a significant finger on his left hand.

This was some kind of joke! Or perhaps he was still dreaming? Was that it? Was it just a vivid dream?

He threw off the covers and ran into Elisa’s bathroom. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, but it wasn’t his face he saw. The features were similar, but the same color of his hands covered his whole body, as far as he could tell. He was shirtless and wore a pair of light blue striped pajama pants, and he noticed Elisa was wearing the top half as she followed him into the bathroom. She turned on the shower and then proceeded to unbutton the shirt. It fell to the floor and she opened the glass door to the shower and stepped inside naked.

Goliath could only stare.

She was definitely pregnant.

Her breasts were heavier, fuller, and her stomach swelled on her otherwise lithe frame. She was curvy and fecund, and absolutely, glowingly, achingly beautiful. A longing and a pain so deep he had not realized he carried it, worked its way to the surface as he watched her, and he fought back tears that suddenly stung his eyes.

How was this possible?

His mind suddenly swam with horrible possibilities. Had she been hiding this from him somehow? He knew she visited Jason, the Hunter, on occasion. Had she…no. Elisa would never betray him like that, and Jason was paralyzed from the waist down and likely impotent.

Besides, he had just seen her last night, and she had definitely not been pregnant then.

It was all so unbelievable.

“Elisa…how did this happen?” he asked, his confusion making him distraught.

Elisa had her head under the water, but she heard him well enough.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

He gestured to her stomach. He couldn't get the words out.

Elisa looked at him like he had lost his mind.

“You know as well as I do that birth control doesn't always work,” she said as she poured shampoo into her palm and then lathered up her hair.

“Was it magic or—or science perhaps?” he stumbled frantically grasping for an explanation.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Elisa stopped mid scrub and stared at him. “It was the good ol’ fashioned way, but I suppose we used a little of our own magic to make it happen,” she said with a suggestive smile. “Honey, are you alright? You’re acting awfully weird this morning…”

Goliath stared at her dumbfounded for a while, and then he turned back to his reflection in the mirror.

He was human, or at least he appeared to be.

“Elisa…why do I look like this?” he said carefully.

“I know the barber took it a little closer than usual, but the haircut looks great, honestly,” Elisa said.

Goliath ran a hand through his short hair. It was only an inch or two in length on top and short cropped on the sides

“Is this some kind of joke? Fae mischief, perhaps? Puck!” Goliath called out. “PUCK! Show yourself!”

“What the hell is the matter with you? Are you still drunk?!” Elisa shouted back at him.

“Drunk? Elisa, I do not drink to inebriation, you know that,” he said.

Elisa gave him a dubious look. “If you say so…” she scoffed and went back to showering.

How could she be so flippant about this? How could she not realize something was horribly wrong?

Unless she was under a spell, too?

He needed to get to the bottom of this.

But the first task was brunch, whatever that was, with Elisa’s parents.

Elisa wore a light breezy dress that fell just past her knees, a sunny yellow he never would have imagined her in, but she looked rather fetching in it. He had stared at a closet full of menswear that he had no clue what to pair with what until Elisa, noticing his indecisiveness, insisted on a pair of gray slacks and a crisp fitted white button up shirt. It was very strange to wear clothing. He felt strangled, and wound up undoing a few of the top buttons.

The shoes were an entirely separate form of hell. They were awkward to walk in for him, and his toes felt trapped, confined. He couldn’t feel the ground beneath his feet, and it made him feel unsteady.

But Elisa seemed to appreciate the look.

“Mmm, you clean up nicely,” she said once he had finished dressing. She pressed herself against the front of him, as much as she could with her belly in the way, and slipped her arms up his chest and wrapped them around his neck before she pressed her mouth to his.

This should have felt familiar to him.

Her lips against his.

But she felt different in his arms.

Her gravid state certainly contributed to the difference, but she was taller...or rather, he was shorter now.

He didn’t have to lean down as far or lift her up in his arms to kiss her.

He didn’t have to worry about nicking her with his fangs, either.

It was easier, effortless.

Unlike much of their relationship lately.

“We better get going or we'll be late,” Elisa said as she reluctantly pulled away.

Goliath nodded and followed her out of the apartment, though he felt a great deal of unease as he did.

This wasn't how things worked normally.

He existed in the shadows, in near secrecy, not out in the open like this.

They took Elisa's car. At first he was worried she was going to make him drive—something he had never done before—when she handed him the keys, but then she took them back, stating that she was worried he might still be drunk from the night before, but he got the feeling she really didn’t like anyone else driving her car.

It was a classic, after all.

He didn't feel drunk in the slightest. Just out of sorts and very confused. It was actually quite difficult for him to become inebriated. Elisa acted like all of this was completely normal somehow, though he knew it wasn't.

Wasn't it?

She drove them to the restaurant, which was another experience altogether, having never been inside Elisa's car before. It was rather pointless when he could glide anywhere he wanted, until now, and it made him miss his wings. He felt like they should still be there, and it made his back feel disconcertingly light.

The restaurant was some quaint bistro in Greenwich Village. It wasn’t far from Elisa’s apartment which made him wonder why they didn’t just walk, until he remembered her condition.

He still couldn't wrap his head around that.

For now, he was trying to “go with the flow,” as Brooklyn would say, to play along with this farce until he could figure out what was going on.

And who was behind it.

They were seated at a table on the patio where Elisa’s parents were already waiting for them. He expected them to react to his human appearance, to be astonished and confused like he was, but they acted as if it were completely normal for him to be up and walking about in the daytime with a face and body that was not his own.

Diane hugged them both with her usual affection and enthusiasm, but when he went to shake Peter’s hand, the man pulled him in for a hug that completely threw him off guard.

Although Peter's treatment towards him was never hostile, he had always been cool and reserved; it was certainly not like this.

Goliath hugged him back and tried really hard not to feel awkward about it. He would have been content with the handshake.

“We still on for that Yankees game next Saturday?” Peter asked jovially as he clapped him on the back.

“Er, uh, Yankees?” Goliath stumbled.

“Don’t tell me you forgot?” Peter said incredulously.

“No, no...of course not,” he lied.

“Don’t worry, he’s planning on it, Dad. It’s all he’s talked about this past week,” Elisa said, and she started to pull out a chair for herself. Goliath instinctively lent her a hand so that she could lower herself safely down into it. He still didn’t know how it was possible that she was in the condition that she was, but it made his protective instincts kick into overdrive nonetheless.

He took a seat next to her and Peter sat down next to Diane who smiled approvingly at him before speaking to her daughter.

“How are you feeling, dear?” Diane asked Elisa sympathetically.

“Huge,” she laughed. “I don’t know how I could possibly get any bigger, and I still have a couple of months to go!”

“I remember that feeling,” Diane said wistfully.

“Have you guys had any luck yet finding a new place?” Peter asked.

Goliath felt like a fish out of water with this conversation. New place? New place for what?

“No, not yet,” Elisa sighed. “He wants to stay in Manhattan, but most listings in our price range are in the boroughs.”

“You can get by for a few months since the baby will be in your room with you anyway, but eventually you’re going to want your privacy back,” Diane said.

“I know, I hate to leave our apartment, though. We invested in it at the right time, and I know we’ll make a nice profit selling the place, but...we have so many memories there,” Elisa said glancing at him, “and I hate to leave.”

Goliath finally caught onto the discussion. They were looking for a new place to live. Elisa’s loft was a single bedroom dwelling. It was too small for a family. Something he had never considered before.

“I know sweetheart, but your family’s growing. You can’t stay there forever,” Diane said sympathetically.

“Maybe you should look further out, like Queens, you’d be closer to us,” Peter added.

“Oh, Peter, that reminds me! The house just down the street from us went up for sale! You two should look at it! It’s perfect, it even has a little picket fence!”

Elisa’s face brightened up at the suggestion, and Goliath honestly had no idea how to react.

This was all so strange. He felt so out of place. He looked around him suspiciously. They were sitting in a restaurant, surrounded by other humans, and no one paid him any mind. No one was screaming and running away shouting, “Monster!” Elisa’s parents didn’t react at all to him being human other than to be more at ease and accepting of him. He was having a baby with Elisa somehow, and they were trying to buy a new home.

“I need some air,” he blurted out.

“We’re sitting outside,” Elisa pointed out.

“I need to stretch my legs for a bit then,” he said, and he stood up from the table, nearly knocking over the water glasses in his haste.

Everyone looked at him like he had grown two heads. Now that was a look he was accustomed to.

“Okaaay,” Elisa replied. “If the waiter comes around what would you like me to order for you?”

“I don’t know...whatever you plan to order,” Goliath said dismissively, and then he quickly weaved through the tables and out onto the main sidewalk. He walked down to the corner of the block and leaned up against the facade of the building. There were throngs of people milling about, and traffic sped by completely oblivious to him. He felt invisible, completely unremarkable, and he realized for the first time how truly unsettling that was. His heart was racing, and he leaned forward, his hands braced against his thighs as he took several deep breaths to try and calm himself.

He didn’t understand what was happening.

Last he remembered it was dawn, and he had gone to sleep for the day.

He was dreaming.

That must be it.

This was all just an incredibly vivid dream. 

He watched as the cars zipped past. If this was a dream, he could step out in front of one of them and knock himself out of the dream and into another that was less unsettling.

But what if it wasn’t a dream?

Puck had gotten into his head once before.

But once he had realized it was a dream, it had ended.

Perhaps he just needed to do the same.

He walked up to the curb, took a deep breath, and then stepped out into traffic.

Chapter Text

There was a screech of tires and Goliath braced for impact, but nothing happened.

He turned and looked at the car that had stopped just a scant inch from him. It was some kind of nondescript but elegant black vehicle.

A door opened, and a man stepped out of the back seat of the car and out onto the street. He was an incredibly fit man in his early 40s with tan skin and dark hair on his head and face that had yet to show any gray. His perfectly tailored black suit screamed wealth and taste.

“What in the hell…you could have been hit! Are you alright?”

Goliath stared with his jaw slack.

Xanatos.

“I…I'm fine,” Goliath replied stunned.

“Good,” Xanatos said as he straightened his suit jacket, and the concerned look on his face slid into one of contempt. “You really should watch where you’re going. Were you trying to harm yourself or scam a few bucks by throwing yourself in front of an expensive car?”

Goliath tilted his head as he studied his former archnemesis.

“Xanatos, it’s me, Goliath,” he said, his tone pleading.

Xanatos sized him up with his calculating eyes.

“Goliath, is it?” he said mockingly.

Goliath seized the man’s arms out of desperation.

“Please tell me you recognize me even as a human!” he cried.

Xanatos roughly removed his hands from his arms with a swift practiced movement.

“As opposed to what?” he said angrily. By now Owen had stepped out of the driver’s seat and intervened.

“Is there a problem, sir?” he said coolly, addressing Goliath.

“Owen...Puck! You can help me! You’ve turned me into a human before, you can change me back!” Goliath said to the stiff aide-de-camp.

“Do I know you, sir?” Owen replied blandly.

The shock on Xanatos’s face was there briefly before it slid back into a cold scowl. By now other people, bystanders, were watching their interaction from the sidewalk and Xanatos eyed them warily.

“This man is clearly having some kind of psychotic episode,” Xanatos said loud enough to be heard. “Owen, could you safely escort him off the street?”

“Yes, sir,” he said stiffly and grabbed Goliath by the arm. His grasp was stronger than he expected.

“I don’t know who you are or how you know certain things, but I suggest you forget them before Mr. Xanatos has you buried,” Owen said quietly so only Goliath could hear him as he escorted him off the street, but Goliath ignored him.

“Wait! Xanatos! I—I don’t know what’s happened to me! Is everyone else alright? Is my clan safe?”

“Your clan?” Xanatos said, his brows knitting together. Goliath saw another flash of recognition.

“Lexington, Hudson, Angela!” Goliath shouted.

Xanatos’s face went blank.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“The other gargoyles!” Goliath growled in frustration.

He definitely saw something in Xanatos’s eyes then.

“Sir, I think you need to calm down. You’re not making any sense. Do you need us to call for an ambulance or the police? Someone to help you? You’re clearly not well—”

“I do not need medical help, I need my clan!” Goliath snapped.

He caught sight of something bright and sunny out of the corner of his eyes, and he turned his head to see Elisa standing on the sidewalk, her hand cradling her belly. She looked frightened and concerned.

“What's going on?” she said, her face drawn with worry, and then she noticed Xanatos and Owen, and her face turned from confusion to fury. Xanatos’s eyes quickly looked back and forth between them, and his eyes narrowed slightly with speculation.

Elisa grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

“Let’s go,” she ordered.

“Elisa! Wait! I need to know if my clan is alright! I need to know if the same thing that has happened to me has happened to them!”

He turned back towards the billionaire, but it was too late now. Xanatos had stepped back into his car, and Owen had gotten behind the steering wheel again. The car quickly pulled away from the side of the road and merged back into traffic. He watched them go with dismay.

“Your clan? What the hell are you talking about?” Elisa hissed.

“The other gargoyles! Elisa, please! You must know!” Goliath said frantically.

“Stop! You are sounding crazy! We’ll talk about this later at home, but not here!” she snapped, and she turned on her heel and walked away.

Goliath glared angrily after her, but then he reluctantly followed her back to the restaurant.

He and Elisa tried to act like nothing was amiss, but the Mazas picked up on the icy tension between the two of them. The rest of brunch was rather chilly and uncomfortable, and they didn’t linger when the check came around.

Elisa didn’t speak to him on the drive back to the apartment, but as soon as the door closed behind them, she confronted him. 

“What the fuck was that all about?” she said angrily.

By now Goliath was desperate. This was not how things were supposed to be.

“Elisa, this should not be possible,” he said, gesturing to himself. “And this,” he waved at her stomach, “certainly is not.”

“What are you saying?” Elisa said coldly.

“I am not capable of giving you a child.”

“Are you accusing me of cheating on you?!” Elisa’s face was flushed with indignation

“Of course not!” Goliath shouted back. 

“Then what are you talking about?!”

“Elisa, I am not human! I am a gargoyle! You know this!” Goliath cried.

“Oh, not this again,” Elisa sighed.

Goliath paused at her statement.

“What do you mean ‘again’?” he asked, zeroing in on that one word.

“We’ve been through this before...I’m sorry. I know things have been stressful with work, and moving, and the baby. I should have seen the warning signs.”

“Warning signs? Of what? What are you talking about?” Goliath asked, perplexed.

Elisa took his hands in hers.

“A couple of years ago, you had a mental break. Don’t you remember? You had to be hospitalized.”

“What?”

“You were claiming you were a gargoyle, and now you’re doing it again,” Elisa said dismayed.

“No, Elisa, you know I am a gargoyle.”

“If you are a gargoyle then why do you look human?”

“I do not know! That is what I am trying to figure out!”

“Or maybe, just maybe, you have always been human.”

“Elisa...I know what is real, and what is not, and this is definitely not!”

Elisa let go of his hands and walked over to the coffee table in the sunken living room. She picked up a large photo album and brought it back to him.

“Then explain this,” she said as she held it out to him.

Goliath opened the album and looked through the first few photos. They were formal photos of him and Elisa together. He was dressed in a black tux and she was in a white gown that was obviously a wedding dress. He flipped through several photos of them, of several more obviously posed images, some included Elisa’s family, while others were candid shots of them together exchanging vows in an outdoor venue, and a celebration later.

They looked deliriously happy.

“If you’re a gargoyle, then how are we married? How do we have a life together and nothing but photos of you as a human?”

He looked at Elisa skeptically.

“What happened to Derek, then? If things are as you say they are, then why is he not in the photos?”

“That’s not funny,” Elisa said coldly. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“I am not joking, Elisa.”

Elisa slammed the photo album shut.

“Fine. If you insist on living in a fantasy, I can’t help you. When you’re ready to get some help, come and talk to me,” Elisa said angrily, and she dropped the photo album onto the sofa before she stormed off into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

He approached the door and thought briefly about following her. He could hear her muffled cries behind the door, and he instantly felt regret about how he had handled the situation. Clearly whatever was going on, Elisa was part of the ruse. Some spell had been cast on her as well, no doubt, and he had done nothing constructive arguing with her, he had only distressed her.

Another part of him, a frightened part of him, wondered if she was right.

Had he been human all along, and he was having some kind of mental breakdown?

He went back to the photo album and picked it up. He flipped through the pages of prints, the photos of their supposed wedding. They looked like they hadn’t been taken that long ago.

There was another album on the coffee table, and he picked it up and looked through it.

It was filled with more photos of the two of them together. They all had time stamps from the past four years...but he had only been awake for the last two and a half. How was this possible?

There were a lot of photos of them together, laughing, touching, smiling. A few of them were of the two of them in police uniforms.

Was he a cop?

He looked at the albums and back at the bedroom door.

If this was a hoax, it was a very clever and skillfully crafted one. The question was why, though? What was the point of all of this? He needed more information, and it would probably be in his best interests to play along. Right now, Elisa was hurting because of him, and he needed to fix that.

He stood up and knocked on the door gently before entering. Elisa was curled up on the bed. She was no longer crying, but her face was still wet with tears.

“Elisa...I am sorry,” he said sincerely. “I do not know what has come over me.”

Elisa sniffled and wiped at her eyes as she sat up.

“It’s the stress. I knew you would struggle with the idea of moving, and you’ve been getting more stressed the closer we get to the baby’s due date. I should have seen it coming.”

“I feel...lost,” Goliath said honestly, as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know what is happening to me right now, I seem to have forgotten a lot of things. You said this happened before?”

Elisa nodded.

“A few years ago, not long after I made detective, you reported to the scene of a DV which turned out to be a murder suicide. A man killed his whole family. It triggered your PTSD, and you couldn’t sleep for days. You had a psychotic break as a result where you believed you had been living a life as a gargoyle in medieval Scotland. At first, doctors thought you were schizophrenic, but I knew that wasn’t right.”

“What happened after that?”

“Well, with therapy and medication to help you sleep, you were able to recover, but the therapy brought up a lot of repressed memories about your childhood you had to work through.”

“My childhood?”

“You’ve forgotten again?” Elisa said, taking his hand in hers. “Your whole family was killed when you were really little. Your parents...your brothers and sisters…you were the only survivor...and they never caught the person who did it. It’s why you became a cop.”

Goliath shook his head.

His family—his clan—had been slaughtered, but not like that.

“Would you indulge me if I asked a few questions, to try and fill in the gaps? I think it would help.”

“Of course. I love you, and I only want to help you,” Elisa said, squeezing his hand.

“How long have we been together?” he asked.

She tried to hide it, but he saw the hurt in her eyes.

“Three years,” she said. “Though we’ve known each other for five.”

That didn't match up with the timeline he remembered.

“How did we meet?”

“Really?”

“Please. I am trying to separate my real memories from false ones.”

This was true, but not the way Elisa probably thought. He was trying to figure out how things differed in their recollection.

Elisa sighed but nodded.

“We met just after I graduated from the academy. You had been on the force for five years when they partnered us up,” she smiled softly at the memory. “Our connection was instant...though we tried to deny it. We were a good team, and we knew if we started a relationship they would have to split us up.”

Goliath nodded, not because he agreed with the events, but to urge her to continue.

“We made it nearly two years, and then one night, well..." she laughed brightly and smiled at him. "We managed to keep it secret for a few months, and then I made detective, and we were split up anyway, so...we started dating openly. You proposed a year after, and we married last summer. Our first wedding anniversary is next month.”

“So, I am a police officer…” he muttered.

“I really think you should talk to your doctor. I’m worried.”

“No...I am alright, I am just getting my bearings straight, that is all.”

“Have you been taking your meds?”

“I...I don’t know,” Goliath hedged. He had no idea what she was talking about.

“I’ll remind you to take them, but I think you should probably give up alcohol, too. You haven’t been out drinking in a while, and they probably interacted with your meds which might explain why you had the setback.”

“That is probably wise,” he agreed, though he honestly had no idea what she was talking about. What medications? He hadn’t been drinking the night before, either. Last night he had been shot...right? He rolled his left shoulder, but he didn’t feel any pain.

Elisa had mentioned to him before that she thought he suffered from PTSD. The events at Wyvern with Hakon and Robbie, the Captain of the Guard, had triggered it last year. She had a degree in psychology, so he tended to defer to her expertise on the matter, though he hardly had any clue about what it all meant.

“If you have any more issues, though, I'm calling your doctor. If you're not careful, you could lose your job. You barely managed to keep it last time.”

“I will do whatever you ask of me, Elisa,” Goliath said sincerely.

Elisa sighed and leaned into him, he put his arm around her and held her.

He would go along with the charade. He would learn everything about his supposed life together with Elisa as a human so that he could pass and not cause any harm to his mate. She was an innocent in all of this, he had to shield her from whatever was happening. He would go along with it until he discovered the truth and made things right again.

The rest of the day they acted the way they normally did when they had a day off together. They cooked and talked, though he found himself constantly censuring what he had to say. Anything gargoyle related was taboo, obviously. 

When the sun went down he felt a rush of anxiety. His clan would be waking up now, and he was not with them. Who was leading them in his absence? Brooklyn, most likely. He would have to try and get in contact with him, but that might be a challenge if Xanatos did not remember or recognize him.

At the end of the day, they relaxed on the sofa and watched a movie together. Some classic noir film they had watched together before. Elisa didn’t even make it halfway through the movie before she fell asleep curled up against him.

He watched her breathing softly; she was very lightly snoring.

He thought about the day and how strange it had been. He brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen over her face, and then tenderly stroked her cheek as he studied her peacefully slumbering face.

His life may be completely upside down, but his love for her was one constant amongst the chaos. He would love her until the end of his days, which he sincerely hoped was not for a long time to come.

Elisa suddenly stirred, then she stretched and yawned.

“God, this pregnancy has wiped me out,” she mumbled.

“Perhaps you should get some rest,” Goliath said sympathetically.

“We should both get some rest,” Elisa pointed out. “It’s been a long day for both of us.”

Goliath nodded and then realized that he would be expected to sleep in the bed with her. They had made love and spent many hours in each other’s arms there, but he always left at dawn. He had never technically slept with Elisa.

He followed her to the bedroom and copied her nighttime rituals. Toothbrushing, which was awkward, he didn’t even attempt to floss. He put on a fresh pair of pajama pants, but Elisa seemed to have permanently acquired the top half. Even in his human form he was tall, well above six feet, and thickly muscled, and the shirt fell to midthigh on her, despite her pregnancy.

“Don’t forget,” Elisa reminded him as she pulled a bottle from a medicine cabinet, dumped out a single pill, and handed it to him.

“When you can’t sleep, everything falls apart,” she said gently.

Goliath nodded and took the pill with a glass of water before climbing into bed with Elisa. He was pretty wired and anxious from the day and soon came to feel grateful for the sleeping pill Elisa had given him. He’d never had to try and sleep before as it was an uncontrollable event for him. Elisa curled into him, resting her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her to him as he absentmindedly stroked her hair. After a while he began to feel groggy, and he quickly fell asleep with Elisa in his arms, hoping that when he woke up this would all have been just a dream.

Chapter Text

Goliath woke up with the sun the following morning, he was still very in tune with the rising and setting of the sun, and he was immensely disappointed that he was still human, but very conflicted that Elisa still appeared to be pregnant.

Unable to fall back asleep, he got up and fumbled about getting ready for the day, but quietly so as not to wake Elisa who was still sleeping.

The shower he was familiar with, and memories flooded him, of Elisa pressed up against the wall, crying out passionately as he took her, the spray of the water hitting him in the back pleasurably between his wings.

He reached behind his back and felt for his now absent wings. They were still gone, but his memories of past passionate encounters with Elisa were still vivid in his mind. He held onto them and used them to separate the now with what he still believed was reality.

Of course, his body also reacted to the memories of Elisa. He hadn’t paid much attention to his changed anatomy with everything that was going on, and his curiosity got the better of him now. He glanced down at himself. He had seen depictions of human male anatomy in art and some textbooks in the library, and though he was no great judge of men, what were considered impressive or desirable traits, he couldn't help but feel a little judgmental in comparison.

“Well...that is remarkably underwhelming,” he muttered to himself, and he banished any amorous thoughts from his mind as he finished up in the shower.

He dried off with a towel and wrapped it around his waist, reminding him a little bit of his absent loincloth, and studied his reflection in the mirror for a time. Would Elisa find this face more appealing than his real one? Everything about him seemed to be softer: his body, his hands, his teeth, his face and ears. His eye color was still dark, but like sable instead of onyx. He dragged a hand along the stubble on his jaw.

Humans were awfully hairy creatures compared to gargoyles.

He was not accustomed to so much hair upon his body. It was everywhere: his arms and legs, his chest and face. Not to mention...other places.

He knew this about humans, of course, but it was another thing entirely to be one and experience it first-hand. He knew Elisa spent a great deal of time—and discomfort—managing her own body hair, shaving or waxing it away, and he often wondered why she bothered.

He’d never had a beard before, and part of him wanted to grow it out like Hudson, especially since he’d never shaved his face before, but in all the photos he had seen of himself as a human, he was clean shaven. He didn’t want to arouse Elisa’s suspicions further, and changing his facial hair suddenly would certainly do that.

He set about removing the dark stubble on his face by first locating the shaving cream and razor, and then he lathered up the lower part of his face and very carefully dragged the sharp instrument against his skin. He nicked himself a few times, but as a whole he was not displeased with the result considering it was the first time he had done such a thing.

After getting dressed, he set about making breakfast. Elisa often just drank coffee and had a piece of toast for her first meal upon waking, unless she ate with the clan. But she was expecting and she needed to eat more. He wasn't a gourmand like Broadway, but his cooking was serviceable, or at least palatable. Elisa had taught him a lot over the years.

He was scrambling up some eggs when Elisa shuffled into the kitchen bleary eyed. Her hair was tousled and out of place—bedhead he believed he had heard it called before. She was pregnant and disheveled, but still beautiful. His heart swelled at the sight of her, and he smiled affectionately at her.

“How long have you been up?” she said groggily.

“Only a little while.”

“How are you feeling?” she asked suspiciously, and he knew what she wanted to hear.

“More like myself,” he lied. “I am sorry for worrying you yesterday.” 

“Sleep always helps,” Elisa said, comforted by his lie, and she gave him a quick kiss before deeply inhaling the aroma of his cooking. “Mmm, smells good. I’m starving! That’s part of what woke me up. That and the baby was kicking my bladder.”

Goliath chuckled softly.

He had washed some strawberries and was letting them drain in a colander. Elisa picked one up and popped it into her mouth.

“You know...there’s some bacon in the fridge,” she said around her mouthful.

“I am aware, but should you really—”

Elisa gave him a murderous look that made him stop talking immediately.

“Bacon it is,” he amended, and he got to work frying a few pieces up.

Over breakfast, Elisa had an announcement.

“Let's get out today,” she said. “We've been nesting too much. We should go out on a real date. In a few months we're going to really miss these days when we're up to our necks in dirty diapers.”

Goliath smiled at her over his cup of coffee. He normally didn’t drink coffee, but it’s what Elisa had handed him that morning while she stuck with a glass of orange juice. She always drank coffee before, but perhaps the stimulant wasn’t good for the baby.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked.

“I managed to get two tickets to the New York Shakespeare Festival.”

Goliath immediately perked up. He knew of the Shakespeare productions put on in Central Park during the summer. He had always desired to go, but could never get close enough to see them performed.

“Sara and Carl got tickets, but their kid has come down with the stomach flu, and they can’t go, so Sara asked if I could use them. Would you like to go?”

“Of course!” Goliath said enthusiastically.

He had no idea who Sara and Carl were, but obviously they were friends of Elisa.

“Great, we can do some shopping—we still need to get a crib—Oh! We could have a picnic in the park before the play!” she said, glowing with excitement.

Goliath smiled at her as she talked animatedly about what they would do together that day, and despite himself, he was growing rather excited about it as well.

Once Elisa had made herself ready for their outing, they left the loft. She wore another dress similar to the one she wore yesterday, but this one was light blue. It left her shoulders bare and swished alluringly around her when she moved. She seemed to favor dresses in her condition, and he could not blame her. Though she typically wore jeans before, they likely weren’t comfortable with a constantly expanding waistline. 

He worried Elisa would try and get him to drive again, but when he didn’t offer, she didn’t bother pressing the issue, and thankfully chose to drive again herself. They drove to a part of town that he was not familiar with, though honestly everything looked different from the ground rather than from above.

There were several boutiques in this area, including one that specialized in baby paraphernalia. Human babies were a lot more fragile than gargoyle hatchlings, and they apparently required a lot of things he would have deemed unnecessary.

But who was he to decide such matters?

Once inside they were greeted by a shop attendant. A perky young blond woman who likely did not have any children of her own at this point in her life, Goliath would have assumed.

He had to admit that it was still rather unsettling to be addressed so cheerfully by humans.

Elisa dismissed her request for help, and informed her they were just looking, which seemed to disappoint the shop employee.

She oohed and aahed over the various baby sundries, holding up clothing and other tiny items and commenting on how small and adorable they were.

It was a side of Elisa he had not seen before.

She was a fierce warrior, and incredibly loyal and brave, which were things that attracted him to her in the first place, but this was a softer aspect of her.

He knew she had wanted children.

It was one of the main reasons she had broken up with him before.

She had given up that dream in order to be with him, but somehow, miraculously, she was with child.

Their child.

Because no matter how it came into being, Elisa's child was his child, even if only in his heart. Blood relations did not matter to gargoyles.

He was a gargoyle still, after all.

Wasn’t he?

But if the child was truly his by blood...then he couldn't be...

"What are you having?” another store attendant asked them brightly as Elisa admired a crib set. This woman was a bit more matronly than the younger woman, with graying hair, and wrinkles around her eyes.

“A boy,” Elisa replied eagerly, and Goliath nearly knocked over a display of bottles that had been carefully stacked next to him in his surprise at the sudden and casual reveal.

He hadn’t heard her mention before what the sex of their child was.

They were having a boy.

A son.

He felt his eyes well with tears that he quickly blinked away. The gender mattered little to him, but he already had a daughter, and the thought of having a son as well, and with the woman he loved so very much...it was a joy that was nearly too much to bear.

The employee turned to him, and he quickly forced on what he hoped was a joyful smile to hide the rush of other emotions he was experiencing. Elisa would be upset if she thought he had forgotten they were having a son, as she would have surely told him before.

“What do you think?” the woman asked him.

“About having a son?” Goliath replied dazed. “I think it’s wonderful.”

The woman, her name tag said “Helen”, tittered at him.

“I meant about the crib,” she replied. “Though it’s always so charming when expectant father’s are so besotted.”

“Oh…I think the crib is fine.”

Elisa and Helen shared a look and a knowing laugh that made him feel like he wasn’t in on the joke.

Elisa settled on the crib, as well as a few other items, but when Goliath asked how they would get it back to the apartment in her car, she laughed at him.

Apparently the crib came disassembled and you were expected to assemble it on-site yourself, and to make matters worse, Elisa expected him to do it.

This came as a complete surprise and frustration to him.

He fumbled through it, cursing the thing to the deepest, darkest pit of hell or Hades, or whichever netherworld would have it, in the process, but he managed to put it together, and Elisa seemed very pleased with the result, which made it all worth it in the end.

It was late afternoon at this point, and as a reward for their successful day so far, they packed a picnic and took it to Central Park.

After they had feasted on the food they had brought with them, Goliath sprawled out upon the blanket. He closed his eyes and placed his hands behind his head. The temperature was perfect, and he basked in the warmth of the sun. He’d never felt anything like it. The way it felt on his face, how it warmed his skin and his whole body. He’d seen the sun before once, in Norway, but it was cold at the time of year they were there, and it had offered little warmth, and in his altered state brought on by the Eye of Odin, he didn’t recall it much.

But this…

This was bliss.

“I knew getting out of the house today would help. You’re starting to act more like yourself,” Elisa said as she ran her fingers through his hair.

He cracked open his eyes and looked up at her. The sun was behind her, and she was crowned with ethereal light that made her glow like some kind of goddess.

Jalapeña, she was beautiful.

He reached out and stroked her cheek. It was nice to not have to worry about his talons scratching her.

She leaned down and kissed him, and he wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss and wished they were alone.

What would it be like to make love to her as a human, he wondered?

To not have to worry so much about hurting her.

To fully let go.

She was pregnant, so he would have to be mindful of that, of course, but he knew how to from previous experience.

“Hey, save it for later. We’re in public,” Elisa said with a smile as she pulled back from him.

He smiled merrily at her and sat up so he could face her. He took one of her feet in his hands, slipped off the sandal she was wearing, and proceeded to rub her foot.

“Oh, god, that feels good…” she moaned nearly orgasmically as she closed her eyes and leaned back.

“We’re in public,” Goliath teased, throwing her own words back at her.

She grabbed a handful of grass and threw it at him. He managed to dodge some of it while laughing, and then resumed massaging her sore, tired feet.

It was late by the time they made it back to the apartment. Goliath was still buzzing from the excitement of actually seeing a Shakespeare play performed, and when Elisa kissed him goodnight in bed, he prolonged the kiss and drew it out.

“You're in a mood,” she said amused. “Though...it has been a while…”

“Are you up for it? I would not want to hurt you or the baby,” he said, looking for reassurance.

“You won't. I have faith in your ability to be…accommodating,” she said suggestively.

That was all the convincing he needed. He captured her lips with his mouth and kissed her hungrily. Elisa made a soft needful sound, the way she often did when he started to kiss her like this. It had an immediate effect on him, and he kissed her neck as he started to undo the buttons to her pajama top. He had several undone and had revealed a generous amount of her cleavage when he noticed something.

“What has happened to your scar?” he blurted out, and he wished immediately that he could reel it back in. Apparently all the blood from his brain had fled further south.

“My what?” Elisa asked, confused, and then her eyes grew wide, and her hands flew to her belly as she gasped, “Oh!”

“Are you alright?” Goliath asked, concerned. He had frozen in place at the sound of her exclamation, and he worried that he had somehow caused her distress.

“I’m fine,” Elisa said, her face beaming. “Here,” she took his hand and put it on her belly, and after a while he felt something strike against his palm.

“Was that—” he trailed off, and his eyes met hers.

Elisa nodded. A huge smile on her face.

Goliath splayed his large hand over her belly and held it there for a while until he felt it again.

“Ha!” he exclaimed joyously. “That is him?”

“That’s him. That’s our son,” Elisa affirmed.

“Our son,” Goliath repeated.

The baby kicked again, and he grinned broadly.

“He gets really active at night, unfortunately,” Elisa said with mild annoyance.

Gargoyles developed very slowly within their eggs, and when females were carrying them, there was no detectable movement as the embryo would be too small. This was a new experience for Goliath in more ways than one.

Elisa watched him, her eyes full of love, as he kept his hand on her stomach, feeling every kick, punch, and wiggle. The amorous moment between them was over, interrupted by the acrobatics of their son, and it was replaced by a warm, deeper bonding moment shared between expecting parents. Goliath was enamored, and he eventually fell asleep with his hand draped over her belly and the baby within.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Goliath awoke. It felt unnatural to sleep during the night instead of the day, and he found himself wide awake and restless. He had forgotten to take his medication the before falling asleep, and now he was unable to fall back asleep. He slipped out of bed, carefully so he didn't wake up Elisa, and padded quietly out to the living room. He slid open the window and stepped barefooted out onto the roof. He walked up to the ledge and leaned against it, looking down at the street below, and then up at the clouds and the moon above. He had an intense urge to jump, to spread his wings and glide amongst the gentle updrafts on such a lovely night, and he stood there near the edge for a moment, his arms outstretched and his eyes closed as he felt the wind against him.

But he did not have wings, and he was beginning to wonder if he ever had.

He felt his grasp on reality was slipping.

Life itself was a kind of magic, and earlier, when he had felt the baby kick, he had experienced such joy, he had felt the magic of that life. No spell could possibly mimic that. No dream could be this vivid.

But none of this was possible.

Because that would mean that he was human, that he had never been a gargoyle, and he had well and truly lost his mind.

But that could not be.

He was a gargoyle.

...wasn’t he?

He gripped the ledge tightly with his hands as if he were grasping desperately onto his own psyche.

I’m a gargoyle, he told himself, trying desperately to convince himself.

I’m a gargoyle.

I’m a gargoyle. 

I'm a gargoyle.

He repeated those three words over and over to himself until they blended together and no longer made any sense, and he sat down onto the ground, his back against the wall. He buried his head in his hands, his fingers clawed at his hair as he tried desperately to keep himself together.

He thought of the day he had shared with Elisa. How effortless it had been, how pleasant, and perfect.

How peaceful and virtually carefree.

This was the life he wanted, the life he desired, to be with Elisa, to be the partner and husband she needed, to have children, a family, with her.

To give her everything she desired. 

But what of his clan?

What of his daughter?

They could manage without him, right?

Even if his old life truly existed, he had no idea how he could get it back. For all he knew, he was stuck like this, and he may as well make the best of it.

He and Elisa could be happy together.

Brooklyn would be a far better leader than he anyway. He had twenty more years of experience under his belt than he did. He was in actuality his elder now, and wiser and more patient than him in a lot of ways.

Yes, they would be just fine without him and he could live the life with Elisa that he had so longed for.

His clan needed to know what happened to him, though. He would find a way to tell them, but that could be tricky considering Xanatos did not believe he was who he said he was.

That was a problem to be solved tomorrow, though, and he went back inside and crawled into bed next to Elisa. She muttered something unintelligible as he curled up against her, but sighed pleasantly as he held her close.

He fell asleep feeling more peace than he had in a long time.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Elisa shook Goliath awake.

“Get up. You’ll be late for work,” she ordered.

“Wait...what?” he muttered tiredly.

“You need to get ready for work.”

She was already dressed in some kind of maternity pantsuit and was pulling her thick hair back.

She didn’t wear suits normally, this was a vastly different look for her.

“Work...right…” he mumbled as he sat up in bed and rubbed his face tiredly. He hadn’t slept much the night before.

“Your uniform is hanging up in the closet.”

Goliath climbed out of bed and showered quickly before searching in the closet for the uniform Elisa spoke of.

His police uniform.

He eyed the badge and name tag warily. His name was printed as “G. Maza”

He had taken Elisa’s surname when they had married, apparently.

For a moment he thought about coming clean to Elisa and admit that he did not remember anything of their life together the way she recalled it, but he knew if he did it would distress her, and he did not want to put any more stress on her and the baby than he already had.

Being a police officer required training and knowledge of laws and regulations he did not have, or did not recall. He knew of some of the day-to-day work Elisa did from their conversations and the times they had worked together, unofficially, but the everyday minutia of this job, he had no knowledge of. How could he perform the necessary tasks that were required of him when he had no experience with it?

But Elisa saved him.

He was buttoning up his shirt when she came back into the bedroom.

“Please don’t be mad, but I took the liberty of calling Morgan and letting him know about your relapse this weekend.”

“Officer Morgan?”

“Is there any other Morgan?” Elisa said, puzzled.

“No...just clarifying.”

He really needed to stop thinking aloud.

“I figured since he was there when you first had your breakdown he would want to know if it happened again. He’ll know to expect that you’re a little...off, and he’ll help you get through your first few days back.”

Goliath nodded.

“That was thoughtful of you, thank you,” he replied genuinely.

Elisa beamed at him, relieved that he was not angry with her, and she left the bedroom again as she put together a quick breakfast.

“Hey, hun, could you grab my gun? It's in my bottom drawer!” Elisa called from the kitchen.

Goliath paused as he was tucking his shirt in.

Why wasn’t her gun in the lockbox where she normally stored it?

He carefully searched the drawer, looking for Elisa’s gun. Thankfully, it was resting on top, but it was fully loaded. Why would she leave her gun lying about and loaded like this? He picked up the gun carefully, the way Elisa had instructed him before, and as he did, he noticed something else lying amongst some of the other items she stored there.

It looked like a mask.

He picked it up, and nearly dropped the damned thing in his shock.

Three red claw marks crossed the face of it.

He stared at it, not believing what he was seeing.

What was Elisa doing with a Hunter’s Mask in her drawer?

He walked out of the bedroom dazed, the mask clenched in his hand.

“What is this?” he demanded as he held out the mask to her, his voice low with anger.

“Can we not do this now?” Elisa said annoyed as she took her gun from him and secured it in her shoulder holster before putting on her suit jacket.

She was annoyed—annoyed—that he would want answers to this?

Goliath ignored her request.

“Why do you have a Hunter's mask?” he growled.

“When Jason asked me to join, I thought about it, but I knew you'd be upset, and I turned him down. I kept the mask, just in case.”

“You would take up the hunt?” Goliath said horrified.

“You know how I feel about them,” Elisa snapped. “Honestly, if wasn't pregnant, I might be out there with the Hunters now.”

Goliath felt like he had been punched in the gut.

“Why?” he asked, unable to keep the horror and despair out of his voice. “Why would you ever consider such a thing?”

“How could you ask me that? After what happened to Derek!” Elisa said angrily. 

“Derek?” Goliath said, confused. What did her brother have to do with the Hunters?

“We don't have time for this. We have to leave now or we'll be late, and I can't afford another strike on my record right now when I'm about to go on maternity leave in a few weeks.”

“This conversation isn't over,” Goliath said angrily. 

Elisa rolled her eyes.

“Fine. Let's go,” she said as she picked up her keys. Then she grabbed a utility belt off a table by the door and thrust it at him.

“Here,” she said.

Goliath eyed the belt, it was the same belt he had seen other officers wear on duty. It must be his.

A gun was secured into it.

He reluctantly put on the belt, feeling like an imposter as he did.

Why did they leave their guns lying around like this? It was incredibly risky, and how she had been accidentally shot by Broadway in the first place.

But she no longer had the scar.

Had that never happened?

They drove together in silence to the precinct building. This morning was in stark contrast to the day they’d had before. The tension between them was on par, and perhaps worse, with how things had been between them after their conversation about Cagney and Queen Mab. He stared out the passenger window and watched the buildings pass by.

He was reeling over the discovery this morning.

Elisa, a Hunter.

Or at least she would be, if she had not fallen pregnant.

How could things have gone so wrong?

She pulled into the precinct parking lot, and as they did, he happened to glance up at the clocktower. He expected to see the new clock face that had been erected to replace the old one that had been destroyed in the Hunters’ attack last fall.

They had been repairing it, but they had updated it and changed the architecture of the building to comply with new building codes.

But it looked exactly the way it had before when his clan had lived there above the police station, completely intact and undamaged.

This wasn't right. 

Nothing was right. 

The baby.

The clocktower.

The Hunter’s mask.

Had the Hunters never attacked his home?

Had his clan never relocated to the castle?

Did they still live up there?

Had they ever lived up there?

Was this really his life?

He stood in the parking lot staring up at the clocktower like it was a massive piece of a puzzle he was trying to put together.

“Come on,” Elisa ordered, and feeling completely out of place and disconcerted, he followed her into the building.

He’d only been inside once before, when he and Elisa had been dodging the Quarrymen on that ill-fated first date. It had been vacant at the time while the extent of the damage was being assessed. It was quite odd to live above a building that you had never actually stepped foot into.

But now it was bustling with people and activity, and he felt like he was trespassing as he followed after Elisa. They took an elevator up a few floors, and Morgan met them as they stepped off.

“Hey, how ya doin', Mama?” he asked Elisa. 

“Oh, permanently exhausted, but I doubt that's going to get much better for a while,” Elisa quipped with a wry smile.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that, but let’s hope that’s not the case,” Morgan replied with a broad grin, and then he turned to him.

“How you doin’?” he said, and the question was loaded with double meaning.

“I am alright,” Goliath reassured his apparent partner.

Morgan looked him in the eye and gave him a brief nod as he tried to assess his condition.

“Well, we better hustle or we’ll miss roll call,” Morgan said as he walked in step with them.

Anytime Goliath was in a room full of humans he felt very out of place.

He shouldn’t be there. They would see right through him and know he wasn’t who he was pretending to be, but despite the fact he wished to flee, he followed Elisa and Morgan to the back where they each took a seat.

Captain Chavez walked in shortly after and took a stand at the front at a lectern where she opened a binder and began to address them. He tried to pay attention to what she was saying, but most of it went over his head as technical police jargon he didn’t understand.

A latecomer entered through the conference room door which drew everyone's attention including Goliath's, and he felt a surge of shock and confusion as Jason Canmore strolled into the room.

More shocking than seeing him was the fact he walked in unassisted. He just walked right in without the use of a wheelchair, and like he'd never been shot and paralyzed by his own brother.

He expected cries of alarm to ring out, Jason was supposed to be imprisoned at Rikers awaiting trial, but everyone ignored him except for Captain Chavez.

“Nice of you to join us, Conover,” she said unamused.

Conover?

That was Canmore’s alias.

How was he still going by that name?

He had tunnel vision as he watched the former Hunter walk casually and effortlessly towards them and take a seat right next to Elisa. He thought she would surely have something to say about that, but she, too, acted like it was completely normal.

“Hey, partner,” Jason said to her.

Partner?

What about Matt?

He glanced around for the lanky redhead, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Where have you been?” Elisa replied under her breath to the Hunter. That wasn’t exactly the response Goliath had been expecting.

“Sorry, I accidentally overslept. I had a busy night,” he replied sotto voce in a fake American accent.

“We’ll talk later,” Elisa replied.

What was going on? Why was Jason out free, not to mention walking? Why was Elisa so blasé about it?

He was keenly aware that Jason had very likely saved his life when his brother, Jon Canmore, had tried to kill him, but that didn't absolve him of his other crimes, and he glowered at Jason until the man noticed him staring and waved casually at him. Goliath's scowl only grew deeper.

“What's up with your husband this morning?” Jason said quietly to Elisa, though he heard that as well. Did people think he was hard of hearing and could not hear them speak about him?

“He hasn't been sleeping well either, just give him some space,” Elisa replied under her breath.

Jason shrugged and went back to attentively listening to Captain Chavez.

“And that brings us back to our main issue. The gargoyles have been picking up their activities lately. There has been a significant uptick in reported sightings in the last few days. They’re up to something. We need to remain vigilant,” she said.

Remain vigilant? This was the day shift, and his clan was asleep right now. They had nothing to be vigilant about!

“They are still enemy number one, so be alert and be safe.” 

Goliath frowned. Was this how Elisa's—his—precinct viewed them? As the enemy? But Chavez was a friend, or at least, she was aware of their true nature and knew now not to fear them.

Captain Chavez ended the meeting and Elisa turned to him. 

“I'll see you after shift,” she said. Then she hurriedly bustled out of the room with Jason. He was about to protest, he did not like the thought of Elisa being alone with the Hunter, even if he was trying to reform himself.

He had kissed Elisa, after all, and likely still harbored feelings for her.

He'd also nearly killed his daughter.

Before his thoughts had a chance to turn murderous, Morgan interceded.

“We should head out to our patrol unit,” he said.

Goliath turned to Morgan as he spoke to him, and then glanced back towards the door, but Elisa and Jason were gone.

He followed after his partner as they began their day. 

Just as Elisa had said, Morgan had made it easy on him. Everything they did, he took the lead, and Goliath followed his example. He even handled all of the reports, which they seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time doing.

By the end of their shift he was exhausted, but thankfully, Elisa arrived back at the station just a little after he and Morgan had clocked out.

“Make sure to actually get some rest tonight, Jason. Go easy on the moonlighting,” he overheard Elisa say to him as she hit him playfully across the chest with the back of her hand.

“Right. Like I’m going to take it easy while they’re still out there,” he replied. “See ya tomorrow, Elisa.”

Jason walked out of the station, though Goliath noticed he cast a surreptitious glance back at Elisa.

Goliath bristled. If that man laid a single hand inappropriately on her, he’d tear him limb from limb.

“Let’s get home. I’m beat,” Elisa said as she knuckled her lower back.

He nodded in agreement and rested his hand lightly on her back as he followed her out to the car.

They cooked and ate dinner together, but Elisa hardly spoke to him. He wanted to talk to her about the mask, the Hunters, and particularly Jason Canmore, but she seemed to be in a foul mood already.

“God, what I would give to be able to drink a glass of wine right now,” she muttered during dinner.

Goliath set down his fork, he had just been pushing his dinner around on his plate anyway, and it had grown cold.

“What happened?” he asked her, looking up across the table. “What would make you want to join up with the Hunters? You may as well go out and join the Quarrymen for that matter!”

Elisa gave him a disgusted look.

“The Quarrymen? No thank you. They're a little too reminiscent of another group that likes to run around in hoods,” she said distastefully.

Goliath certainly couldn't argue with that comparison.

“Why do you hate them so much?” he pleaded, desperately needing answers.

“You know the story. I’ve told you before.”

“Just…humor me.”

Elisa sighed.

“It didn’t start out bad…when I met them at Xanatos’s castle over two years ago, I was saved by the one who calls himself Brooklyn when I fell off the side, though he didn't go by that name at the time.”

That wasn’t what happened. He had caught her, not Brooklyn, Goliath thought. It was what started their friendship and was the catalyst to their whole life together.

“He seemed kind at first, as well as the others, but they’re led by a really horrible female—”

“A female?” Goliath interjected. “Do you mean Demona?” 

“So, you do remember? Yeah, she’s a real piece of work. Terrifying, really. When she took out the old one to secure her position, I thought they'd finally turn on her, but it only got worse.”

“‘Took out the old one’? You mean Hudson? Demona killed him?!” Goliath said, his whole body felt feverish and chilled at the news.

“Yeah, I guess they had some kind of power struggle, he was their leader before, and she even took out their dog—”

“Bronx?” Goliath said heart stricken.

“Yeah, hun, this is why it's so shocking to me when you have these moments where you think you're one of them! You’re a good, decent man, and I don’t know how you could think you’re like them! They’ve killed others, they’ve killed people, including my brother, and you want to be one of them?” Elisa said horrified.

“What?” Goliath felt like he was going to be sick.

“I will never forgive Xanatos for mutating my brother, and I'm still trying to get more proof that he was involved in the mutate program, but I will destroy the gargoyles for killing Derek just for the simple fact that they viewed him and the other mutates as abominations! They even did the same to their clones!”

“Oh, dragon, no…” Goliath said as he leaned into his hands.

This was all wrong.

His clan and Elisa at war with each other.

Talon and the clones, dead.

How had everything gone so badly?

“I’m tired. It’s been a long day,” Elisa said as she got up from the table with some effort. “I’m going to bed.”

She left him sitting there, staring mournfully out through the windows at the night sky.

This life had been everything he had wished for.

A relationship with Elisa that was out in the light instead of hidden, a family, a world that valued him instead of treated him like a monster.

But this wasn’t a dream come true…

It was a nightmare.

Chapter Text

The next day after roll call, Morgan excused himself after proclaiming he’d had too much coffee and needed to hit the restroom before they headed out.

While Goliath was waiting, two other officers strong-armed him into an adjacent interrogation room before he could so much as utter a word of protest.

“What is the meaning of this?” he said angrily as the two officers released him roughly.

And that was when he noticed David Xanatos sitting at the interrogation table. The two officers stepped out of the room, leaving him and Xanatos alone. Goliath glanced around quickly and noticed that the camera on the wall had been unplugged. No one was observing or recording this.

“What is going on here?” he demanded angrily.

“That's what I would like to know,” Xanatos said as he leaned forward with his fingers steepled together.

“Xanatos,” Goliath growled irritatedly. “What is happening? Where is my clan? Are they well?”

“That is precisely what I wished to ask you,” Xanatos replied.

“But they live with you,” Goliath replied.

“They used to. That is no longer the case.”

“After the Hunters revealed our existence, you took us in,” Goliath said confused. “You claimed the feud was over.”

“You have assumed incorrectly. Now...what I would like to know is how you know things even your wife is not aware of.”

“For instance?”

“You know or seemed to guess my assistant’s true nature. How?”

“I was there when Oberon tried to steal your son, and Owen revealed himself to be Puck. Do you not remember this?”

Xanatos had a remarkable poker face, but Goliath couldn’t believe he was able to say what came out of his mouth next without showing any kind of emotion.

“No, because I don’t have a son.”

He had to be bluffing.

Surely he would never deny his own son.

“What about Alexander?" Goliath pressed.

“Alexander? I’m beginning to think you are as crazy as the rumors suggest. I guess that would explain why you haven't been able to rise above the position of patrol officer despite your years on the force,” Xanatos said, disappointed.

Goliath scowled. He was getting really tired of everyone questioning his sanity, even if he questioned it himself several times a day.

“You truly don't know where my clan is?” Goliath asked again.

“No, but I'd be willing to pay top dollar if you had that information, especially if it was credible.”

Goliath scoffed dismissively.

“I don't need your money, Xanatos. Nor would I sell out my clan.”

“Everyone has a price, Officer Maza. You have a child on the way...that must weigh heavily on you. Perhaps I could help you get a promotion, despite your history? I'm pretty close with the mayor.”

“But I don't know where they are! I was counting on you to know!” Goliath shouted, slamming his fists against the top of the table with frustration.

“Hmm, perhaps your wife knows something? She's had a real hard on for arresting them...and me, for that matter. Can’t say I mind all that much. Your wife’s a real knockout.”

“Does your wife know you speak of other women like that?” Goliath said with disgust.

“My wife?” Xanatos said, and there was a bit of warning in his voice. “I'm not married.”

“What of Fox, then?” 

“Fox?” Xanatos’s countenance darkened. “It’s true we were engaged briefly, but I’m sure you read the tabloids.”

“No, I do not waste my time with such drivel.”

“She died. Her heart gave out unexpectedly,” Xanatos said matter of factly, as if he were listing the ingredients on the back of a cereal box.

Goliath thought back to the time Fox had been possessed by the Eye of Odin. He had helped Xanatos save her life. If he hadn’t been there...

“The Eye of Odin,” Goliath said aloud.

“What did you say?” Xanatos said coldly.

“It’s what killed her, isn’t it?”

“How did you...no matter,” Xanatos shook his head. “Fox is of little consequence. Why settle when I have nothing but options?” he said smugly. “I can have a new model or actress every night of the week. I can have any woman I want, even your Elisa if I wanted her…ten minutes alone, and I bet I could have her bent over this table screaming out my name. Though I suppose she's damaged goods now. It's a shame, she was a real ten before she got knocked up.”

Goliath grabbed Xanatos and slammed him against the wall. 

“You will not speak of my wife like that,” Goliath growled, and he realized it was the first time he had called Elisa that. His wife.

“You know…you may want to get a paternity test when your child is born,” Xanatos choked out.

“What?”

“Don't you find it a bit suspicious that your wife got pregnant a month after her new partner showed up? Though, if your kid winds up with blue eyes you'll have your answer well enough.” 

Goliath slammed his head against the wall angrily before Xanatos brought both his arms up and then swiftly slammed them down into Goliath's in one fluid motion, removing them from his body before he sucker punched him right in the gut.

Goliath doubled over, the wind knocked out of him, and he gasped for breath.

“I could have your job for that,” Xanatos said as he rubbed the knuckles on his right hand, “but I'm not one to hold a grudge, so I'll cut you a deal, become one of my men on the inside, and I'll make sure you keep your job.”

“You want me...to be an informant?” Goliath wheezed.

“Your wife's partner is the Hunter, Jason Canmore, is he not?” 

“How did you—?”

“I run this city. I know things, but the one piece of information I need, I can't get. I made the mistake of underestimating the gargoyles’ leader. I think she's planning something big, something bad, and I can't let it happen. I need you to find out what your wife and her partner know and tell me, and I'll make sure you keep your job.”

“You clearly don't know me if you would think I'd ever work willingly for you and against Elisa and my clan, Xanatos,” Goliath spat.

“If you don't care about your own job, then think of your wife's.”

Goliath stared at him stunned.

“You're extorting me?” he said enraged.

“I'll give you a day to think about it,” Xanatos replied casually as he walked toward the door. He spoke as if they were making a run of the mill business deal, and perhaps in his world, he was. Goliath wanted to hit him back, but he knew it would do little good.

“If you change your mind, you can call my assistant.”

Then he walked out of the interrogation room like he owned the place while Goliath stood there for several minutes feeling dazed and despondent.

If Xanatos did not know where his clan was, how would he find them? And when he finally found them, how could he possibly turn them over to Xanatos? But if he didn’t...Elisa could lose her job. In his life before, she would have gladly given up her job to help them, but now...now she hated the gargoyles, their clan. She would no longer deem them worthy of a sacrifice like that.

What was he to do?

When Goliath finally left the interrogation room, Morgan was concerned and wondered where he had been. Goliath tried to brush him off, but when he insisted, he told him of his run in with Xanatos.

“Oh, shit, you’re on his radar? Man, you’ve got some major problems if he wants you on the take,” Morgan said.

“I am well aware of the perilous circumstances I find myself in,” Goliath replied.

“Rumor is, he’s bought out all of the higher brass,” Morgan said angrily. “God...fuck that rich asshole!”

"Indeed," Goliath growled.

“Between you and me, I’d have turned in my badge by now,” Morgan admitted, “but there are people in this city who need us, who need people like you and me who actually care and want to make a difference. To fight back. Crime in this city has skyrocketed in the last few years. The mean streets have only gotten meaner, and some days I go home, and I just want to pack it all in, move away to a small town and start over, but I was born and raised here...this is my town, and I won’t let men like Xanatos run me off.”

“You are absolutely right, Morgan,” Goliath said admiring the man even more. He was truly a good man...even if he had tried to date Elisa once.

Or perhaps that had never occurred, too?

It would take him a lifetime to untangle his past life with this one.

They went to work after that, and Goliath tried to set aside his second run-in with Xanatos, but it was hard not to worry about it. Morgan was sympathetic about his distraction, but he took him to task for it a few times.

The day before they had lucked out with easy calls. They never even had to make so much as an arrest, but just before their shift ended, they responded to a silent alarm at an office complex. They kept the siren off as they responded to the call so that they wouldn't alert any trespasser inside.

Morgan cleared the ground floors while Goliath searched the top floors. There were no signs of forced entry, and nothing seemed amiss, but for some reason Goliath felt a strong urge to check the roof.

The sun had gone down an hour ago, and night had settled in. Goliath couldn’t see as well in the dark now that he was human, and he had to use a flashlight when he stepped out onto the roof.

He saw movement and swept the beam around and came face to face with his second in command.

“Brooklyn,” Goliath said relieved at the sight of the russet gargoyle. “I am so glad I found you.”

Maybe now with Brooklyn’s help, he could set things right between his clan and Elisa!

Brooklyn had been fiddling with something, some kind of apparatus, but he turned swiftly away from his project, grabbed him roughly by the front of his shirt, and lifted him up off his feet. He put his muzzle up close to his and growled at him menacingly.

“How the fuck do you know my name?” he snarled.

Goliath was startled by the rough handling and the vitriol in his voice. Even if he didn’t recognize him, Brooklyn never would have treated anyone like this. Not even a human.

“Brooklyn please, it’s me...Goliath,” he choked out.

“Goliath? What the hell kind of name is that?” Brooklyn said mockingly.

“You don’t...you don’t know me?” Goliath said shocked.

“No. Why would I bother to know a human?”

This was wrong.

This was all wrong.

“Now, I’ll ask you again. How do you know my name?” Brooklyn demanded menacingly.

“Because I know you! We are friends. You are my second in command!”

“You’re a madman,” Brooklyn growled, and then he glanced at his badge.

“Maza? You related to that bitch, Elisa?”

“She is my wi—my mate, Brooklyn! Please! Why can you not remember me?”

Brooklyn tossed him roughly down, and Goliath couldn’t help but cry out in pain when he hit the ground hard.

“You should get out of here before I put you out of your misery,” Brooklyn growled.

This wasn’t the gargoyle Goliath knew. He was young again, the age he should be if he had never been whisked away by the Phoenix Gate, and he had both of his eyes still, but they were filled with hatred and a bitterness that even a nearly 80-year-old Brooklyn did not have.

“Brooklyn, we are clan! Family!” Goliath pleaded.

“You are not my clan, human.”

“I was your leader after Hudson stepped down!”

Brooklyn bore down on him, grabbing him roughly again, and shaking him.

“How do you know of Hudson?” he roared, and spittle showered his face at the ferocity of his words.

“I know all of you! Broadway, Lexington, Bronx, Angela!”

“You almost had me...I don’t know an Angela,” he replied coldly.

“What of your mate, Katana? Or your son, Nashville? You must remember them!”

“What are you talking about?” Brooklyn snarled. “I don’t have a mate. You are absolutely mad.”

“Please! You must remember!” Goliath pleaded.

And then his vision went black momentarily, and pain blossomed across his face as Brooklyn struck him with his fist. He tasted blood.

“I suggest you go home, human, and if I ever see you again, I'll kill you,” Brooklyn snarled viciously, his voice cold, and he leapt off the roof and glided off. Goliath watched him go, furious and hurt by Brooklyn’s treatment.

This was not the life he wanted.

Feeling defeated and forlorn, he stumbled down the stairs and ran into Morgan.

“What the hell happened to your face?” he said alarmed.

“Nothing...I tripped in the dark,” Goliath lied.

Morgan looked skeptical.

“Well, we’ve gotta go, have you been listening at all to dispatch? There are calls going out all over the city about reports of bomb threats. It’s turning into chaos out there!”

“What?” Goliath said horrified. He checked his radio and realized he'd forgotten to turn it on.

“We need to get back to the precinct. It’s gonna be a long night,” Morgan said wearily.

Together he and Morgan ran out to the squad car, and as they sped back towards the precinct they heard the call over dispatch.

There was a report of gargoyles called in.

All other units were busy with the bomb threats, and he heard Elisa call in that she and Jason were responding.

“What is she doing?” Goliath exclaimed. “She is seven months pregnant!”

If the others were anything like Brooklyn now, Elisa was heading straight into danger.

“We better get over there fast,” Morgan replied. He hit the lights and sirens, and they sped off towards the call.

They found Elisa’s car parked outside on the street, but she and Jason were nowhere to be seen.

They entered the building where the gargoyle sighting had been reported. They took an elevator most of the way up and climbed the short flight of stairs to the roof. Morgan rushed towards the door and opened it just as Goliath called out to him.

“Morgan, wait!”

A shot rang out and Morgan tumbled back. His eyes stared up blankly at him from the floor, a bullet hole right through his forehead.

Goliath stared at him with disbelief. He had come to like and respect Morgan a lot in the few days they had worked together. He couldn't understand how the man he had been working closely with the past two nights was now lying dead on the ground.

Why?

Why would he charge through like that? 

He knew better!

Why would he do that?

He had no time to mourn the dead as he heard Elisa cry out in dismay, and he forgot Morgan for the time being.

He took out his service revolver for the first time that he could recall and peered through the crack in the doorway.

Demona stood with her talons wrapped around Elisa's throat, and a gun pointed at the door towards him.

It looked like Elisa's gun. 

Jason Canmore lay face down on the ground a few yards away, blood pooled around him. Goliath was all but certain he was dead as well.

“I know you're there. I can hear you breathing,” Demona taunted him coldly. “Why don't you stop hiding like a coward behind the door and come out and face me.”

“Let Elisa go,” Goliath called through the door.

Elisa's eyes grew wide at the sound of his voice, but she said nothing, not with the threat of Demona’s talons pressed against her jugular.

“Come out…or I'll snap her neck,” Demona replied.

Goliath stepped over the fallen body of Morgan and through the door with his gun drawn. He kept it trained on Demona.

He looked around at the other gargoyles gathered there. Brooklyn, Lexington, and Broadway. Hudson and Bronx were absent, slain by Demona’s own hand.

Where was his daughter?

And then it hit him. If he was human, Angela would never have been conceived. He didn’t have a daughter. Angela had never existed.

And that realization crushed him.

None of his clan moved to help. They just stood there, arms folded casually across their chests as they gazed contemptuously at him.

How had things come to this?

How could they be so bitter and full of hatred?

There was only one answer to that question, and she was smiling sadistically at him.

“Let my wife go, Demona,” Goliath growled.

“Your wife?” Demona cackled, and she squeezed tightly on Elisa’s throat, causing her to gasp out in pain.

“Please!” Goliath begged. “Just let her go! I’ll take her place, just let her go!”

“You overestimate your value. This one has caused me and my clan too much grief to just let her go,” Demona replied coldly.

“I will shoot,” he bluffed. He wouldn't actually do it. He'd never fired a gun before, and even if he could hit her fatally, she would only be down momentarily because of her immortality, and he ran the risk of shooting Elisa instead.

Demona laughed at him.

“You could, but my clan will kill you both where you stand.”

He looked at the cold hard stares of the trio, and he knew she was right. This was not his clan. They had been changed, twisted into Demona's image under her influence.

“Tell you what...let’s play a game, shall we?” Demona replied.

Goliath stared her down through the sight of his gun.

“I'll give you a choice. Save the city…or save your wife and child.”

Demona pressed the gun against Elisa’s head, and she gasped at the sudden sensation of cold metal against her temple. 

“What?” Goliath said horrified. His blood turned to ice.

Demona held up a remote.

“My clan has spent the last month planting bombs throughout the entire city. All I have to do is press this button and Manhattan goes up in flames,” she said gleefully.

All of the reports of bombs throughout the city had not started tonight. They'd been planning this for some time.

It wasn't just Demona’s doing.

It was his clan’s doing.

“No,” Goliath lamented as he realized what was going to happen.

“Choose your wife and child...and I’ll blow up the city. Choose the city...and I’ll shoot your wife, and both she and the child will perish. You choose,” Demona explained like she was asking him to decide between two different desserts after dinner.

She pressed the gun harder against Elisa’s temple, and she cried out in fear.

“No!” Goliath shouted. “You can’t!”

“Choose,” Demona snarled cruelly. “You have ten seconds. Ten....nine…”

Goliath could only stare horrified.

He couldn’t choose. How could he? How could he possibly choose between his love and unborn child, and a city full of people who couldn't care less about whether he lived or died?

And how could he trust Demona to keep her word? Right now, she had everything she wanted. No matter what he chose, she would still kill Elisa and blow up the city.

“Eight...seven...six…”

But he had to choose.

And he knew then what he had to do…he had no other choice.

And he hated himself for it.

He looked at Elisa's face, so full of horror and dismay.

“Elisa, look at me,” he said firmly. “Look at me. Keep your eyes on me,” he said as tears coursed down his face. “Just look at me.”

Elisa gazed back at him. Her eyes wide with fear as she realized his choice.

“Goliath?” she whimpered as her own tears slid down her cheeks, and his heart shattered completely.

In the last three days, no one had called him by his name.

Why had no one said his name until now?

It was a name he felt a lot of conflicted feelings for, but he had grown accustomed to hearing it spoken with love from Elisa.

Now it was spoken with dismay.

“I love you,” he said, nearly choking on his own agony.

“Goliath, no, please,” Elisa begged tearfully. "I'm your wife. Please...save me. Save your son."

He wanted to be strong, but he lost it at those words, and his conviction wavered.

But this was the scenario Elisa had been so worried about before.

Before…

When was it?

Why had she worried about this?

It was before…

Before when?

And he remembered.

Elisa would never beg for her life over the lives of others.

Especially not for the city she had sworn to protect.

That was so fundamentally who she was at her core that this couldn't possibly be her.

“This isn’t real,” he said quietly.

It couldn't be.

Demona paused.

“What?” she said.

“This isn’t real!” Goliath roared, and his voice no longer sounded human.

But then the gun went off, and Elisa fell. His anguished roar split the night.

Chapter Text

“ELISA!!!” Goliath cried out in agony and rage.

He ran to her, to where she lay crumpled on the ground, but it was like he was running through water, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get closer, and the world dissolved into an unrecognizable landscape of mist and fog, and he couldn’t see Elisa anymore.

And then the mist coalesced into a shape, and the Queen of Avalon and the Third Race appeared before him.

“Titania…” he muttered, still reeling from the sudden change of scenery. “What is happening? WHERE IS ELISA?!” he raged.

“She is fine, Goliath. You have nothing to fear.”

“She killed her! Oh, damn her!” he wailed, ignoring Titania's words as he doubled over in grief and clutched at his head.

“It was all just a cleverly crafted dream, Goliath,” Titania said calmly.

“What?” Goliath said a little cravenly. “I was right? It wasn’t real?”

Logically, it made sense to him that it wasn’t real. Everything that had occurred recently clashed against everything he knew in his heart to be true...but it had felt so real.

He was a gargoyle.

He was not married to Elisa.

She could not be pregnant with their child.

“No, it was not real,” Titania confirmed.

He was hit with a wave of both relief that Elisa was not dead and horrible grief at the loss of the things his heart longed for, and he fell to his knees as he wept brokenly.

Titania waited patiently as he composed himself, but she offered no comfort or succor.

“Why would you do this to me?!” he shouted angrily, once he had recovered enough to speak again.

“Do not be ungrateful; I just gave you a gift.”

“A gift?!” Goliath seethed. “You call that a gift?! Why torture me with that—that fantasy?!”

“To teach you a lesson. You were on the verge of drastically altering who you are.”

“So, you made me choose between saving the city over Elisa and our unborn child?!” he roared.

“It wasn’t real, Goliath. Just a skillfully crafted illusion.”

“It was real to me. I felt that baby kick,” Goliath said, his voice cracking.

He could still feel the way it felt against his palm. The way it felt to bond with Elisa over their child...to grow attached to the life growing within his beloved. The idea of a family, of having it all.

“Ah,” Titania said ruefully. “Perhaps Morpheus went a tad overboard.”

“A tad?” he snarled as he balled his hands into fists.

“You needed to understand just how great your role is in the lives of those around you. You have a side of you that is dark just like everyone, you can be vindictive and obsessive, but you also have the ability to bring out the better natures of everyone around you. Without you, the real you, even someone as moral as Elisa could be tipped towards vengeance, and because of you, even Xanatos reformed...a little. Fox, my daughter would have perished, and my grandson would never have been born, a child who changed them both tremendously...who could change the world tremendously, but there is something far more important you need to understand.”

“And what is that?” Goliath asked scornfully.

“You not only need to fulfill your role as the leader of your clan, but it is imperative that you fulfill your role as Alex’s guardian. He must live to see his potential fully realized, and he will need you in his life to ensure that. You are the tipping point, Goliath, the one thing that will push him towards the better side of his nature.”

“You expect too much of me,” Goliath said as he pressed his face into his hands. “I am but one gargoyle, and you speak as if the fate of the world rests on my shoulders.”

“It is a burden, and it is unfair to put it upon you, I know...but you have those in your life who you can rely on, who will help bolster you in difficult times.”

“Elisa,” Goliath whispered her name. He ached to hold her in his arms.

“Yes,” Titania said, “among others, but her primarily. Do you understand now the important role you play in the lives of those around you? The influence you have?”

“I understand perfectly well how cruel you and your kind can be,” Goliath snarled. “Get out of my head.”

Titania narrowed her eyes.

“As you wish,” she said coldly. “But I shall leave you with a parting gift.”

“I don’t need any more of your gifts, Titania,” Goliath growled.

But Titania ignored his protests.

“There is an item in Shambahla that you will need. Something of great importance for the future if victory is to be achieved in the final battle yet to come. Your memories are concealed to you of that place, and you and others will have need of them.”

She snapped her fingers.

Goliath felt as if a veil had been removed from his eyes.

And he remembered.

He remembered everything.

Tenzin, Pema, Tsering...Elisa.

He staggered as it all came back to him.

Proclamations of love. Elisa's acceptance. Making love to her for the very first time.

“Titania...this is too much, I cannot…” he clutched his head as the memories flooded his mind and overwhelmed him.

But she was gone, the mist swirled around him, it surrounded him, its thickness nearly suffocating him, and then everything went dark.

Elisa sat up in her chair at her desk so quickly, she nearly toppled over.

“Oh my god!” she shouted.

Several curious faces turned or looked up in her direction.

“Elisa?” Matt asked, concerned by her reaction.

“Holy shit!” Elisa hissed under her breath as she clutched her head.

“Elisa? You’re freaking me out. What’s going on?” Matt pressed.

“I have to go, I have to go right now!” she said as she slipped into her jacket. “Can you cover for me?”

“Yeah, but, Elisa, what’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you later, Matt, but I just remembered something really important, and...I have to go.”

She bolted out of the bullpen without another word.

Matt was left sitting at his desk in bewilderment at his partner’s weird behavior, though honestly, he should be used to it by now. He shrugged and got back to work.

And then he remembered something, too. Elisa was his ride home tonight.

“Damn it,” he muttered.

Looked like he was taking a cab.

Chapter Text

Goliath awoke with a loud roar as he shed his stone skin. He flexed his wings, stretching them out, feeling relieved to have them back. He removed the bandage from his shoulder to find nothing but a faint mark where the bullet had struck him the night before. The faded scar was a relief. It grounded him and helped him to know that this was reality. He flexed his talons and lashed his tail. He felt like he could breathe again, he felt whole again.

Almost.

“Brooklyn!” Goliath called down to his second as his clan stretched and limbered up after a day of sleep. Brooklyn turned his face up towards him in acknowledgment that he had heard him.

“What’s up?” he called out.

Goliath practically beamed at the sight of him. His missing eye and his aging face. The sly almost cocky smile he always wore that made him look like he was ready to pull a harmless prank on someone at any given moment.

“I’ll be at Elisa’s tonight. I doubt I will be home before dawn.”

Brooklyn smiled subtly at him.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got things covered here,” he called back.

Goliath made a beeline to Elisa’s apartment, gliding as quickly as the winds would carry him. He reveled in the way it felt to be in the sky again, and he dived and weaved playfully in the updrafts as he made his way to her home. He only hoped she would be there, but when he arrived, it was dark and locked up. He entered anyway, planning to wait, but as soon as he opened the window and stepped inside, she ran through the door.

“Goliath!” she called out to him.

“Elisa,” he breathed her name, relieved to see she was in fact alive.

He held his arms open to her and she ran to him, and threw her arms and legs fiercely around him as he swept her up in a tight embrace. He held her to him, the Elisa he knew and loved.

Alive and vibrant.

The real Elisa, not the dream fabrication of her.

He had grown accustomed to her shape, feeling the swell of her belly pressed against him whenever he embraced her.

The way she felt in his arms now felt right, the way she was supposed to, but he still felt a tremendous loss over something he had never truly had to begin with, and he held her tightly as he tried to not lose control of his emotions.

“I remembered,” he said brokenly.

“I did, too,” Elisa replied, and neither of them felt the need to clarify further. They both knew.

“Are you alright?” Elisa asked him, picking up on his emotional distress. There was something else going on, more than just their memories of Shambahla being returned to them.

Goliath shook his head and just held her for a long time as he tried to recover from the emotional whiplash of the last few days.

But it hadn't been days.

It had only been one night.

Nothing that had occurred was real, and he clutched onto Elisa, the real Elisa, like she was the only thing keeping him together at the moment.

Elisa didn't know what to do to help him, but she felt as if he was drowning and fighting desperately to keep his head above water, so she did the one thing she could think of to anchor him. 

She kissed him.

Goliath made a startled sound that quickly turned into a needy groan as he kissed her back with a ferocity and lack of restraint that he had rarely exhibited before.

She began to strip out of her clothing when Goliath stopped her.

“Wait, we should talk.”

“We can talk later, okay? I think we both need this right now,” she said as she caressed his brow and ran her fingers through his hair, lovingly touching him the way another gargoyle would, and the relief he felt at that moment, of being seen and accepted for who he truly was, was a gift she gave him that she would never fully understand the sheer scope and gravity of.

He had thrown her humanity in her face a few times when he was angry, and he vowed to never do that again, not when she had always accepted him for who he was.

He carried her to the bedroom, and he took off the rest of her clothing and his own. He loved her with his hands, his mouth, and his body. He made love to her in his true form, as he was born, as he would always be, and as she loved and accepted him.

When tears managed to escape his eyes at the enormity of everything he was feeling, she did not dismiss or ignore them, but tenderly brushed them away.

His release at the end, carefully drawn out and timed so that they could find completion together, wrung him out both physically and emotionally in a way that felt like he had exposed his very soul to her.

She knew his flaws, she knew his mistakes and failures, and yet she loved him, and he loved her more than she would ever know or fully comprehend.

Afterwards, they lay together, and he slowly began to unravel the dream to her.

“That meddling bitch,” Elisa hissed when he had concluded.

“Although Titania's method was cruel, the point got across,” Goliath said, feeling emotionally numb over the retelling of it.

They lay close together, facing each other, a thin sheet was all that was between them as they spoke softly.

“I’m so sorry, Goliath, for what she put you through...for what I put you through,” Elisa said mournfully.

“You do not need to apologize to me, Elisa. You were not the one in the wrong. I was,” Goliath replied contritely. “And I understand now what you were trying to tell me before. There are some things in this world that are bigger than the two of us. I can’t lose sight of that.”

He put his hand against her cheek and gazed into her dark eyes.

“And I am sorry for the turmoil I caused you. I think I was afraid that if I did not do everything within my power to make you happy, that I could lose you...like I lost Demona.”

“You didn't lose Demona, Goliath. She lost you…besides...I’m not her,” she reassured him.

“I know that.”

“I’m not a homicidal maniac for one thing.”

Goliath laughed softly.

“Thank the stars,” he said.

Elisa put her hand over his.

“But more importantly, I actually love you. Truly, deeply, love you. I don’t know what things were like between you two before, but if she loved you even half as much as I love you, she never would have done the things she’s done,” Elisa said as she stroked a lock of his hair.

“I think that was one of the more painful realizations for me in regards to my relationship with her. I loved her far more than she ever loved me,” Goliath said, but then he reached out and caressed her hair in return. “But nowhere near as much as I love you, Elisa. You have changed me, shaped me, helped me to grow, to be better than I was before. You, Elisa Maza, are the love of my life, my soulmate, and I will spend whatever days I have granted to me loving you the best I can, but I will never jeopardize others again because of it,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tighter.

“God, I’ve missed you,” she sighed.

“You have no idea how much I have missed you,” Goliath replied as he pressed his brow to hers. Elisa tilted her head and pressed her mouth to his, and then they slowly made love again.

Afterwards, feeling deeply satisfied and pleasantly sleepy, they continued speaking openly as they discussed the dream some more.

“So, in this dream, when you were human...did you ever...take advantage of the situation?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did we ever have sex?”

“No...there were opportunities, but no.”

“Was it because I was pregnant?”

“No, that would not have deterred me so long as you felt up for it,” he said as he ran his hand over her stomach.

Her flat stomach.

He recalled the way she had looked when she was pregnant, and he felt a hollow pang in his chest.

“What was it like?” Elisa asked quietly.

He knew what she meant without asking. 

“Miraculous...heartbreaking,” Goliath whispered.

Elisa put her hand over his.

“You know...there are ways we could have a family,” she said. “Adoption...IVF.”

“Would you want that?”

“Would you?”

There was a tense pause, and for a moment, Elisa thought Goliath might turn her down.

“Yes,” he said, surprising her as he looked her in the eye, his tone sincere. “I would very much like to raise a child with you.”

Elisa didn’t dare speak for a moment.

“It’s not something we have to look into now. I’m enjoying the time we have together, just the two of us, but...I’m glad we’re on the same page,” she said and took his hand in hers.

Goliath leaned over and kissed her.

“We have time,” he said.

“But...not too much time.”

Goliath chuckled softly.

“When you are ready, Elisa, we’ll talk more about it.”

She sighed and curled into him.

“I just wish—”

“I know.”

Angela had avoided Broadway for days. Only speaking to him when she had to. He tried everything he could to get her to talk to him, to forgive him. He made her her favorite meal, he brought her flowers he collected himself, but she rebuffed him every time.

He knew he had done the right thing, but her avoidance hurt.

Then one night, he found her crying in the arboretum.

“Angela?” he said, worriedly. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed and threw herself into his arms.

“What is it? Please tell me,” he said as he put his arms and wings around her. It took her a minute to settle down and the hiccups to subside.

“I got my memories back...of Shambahla,” she said sorrowfully.

“You did? So you’ve actually been there? To that place Brooklyn said you’ve been to?”

Angela nodded.

“It’s a beautiful place, and the clan there is wonderful, but...I had a bad experience there.”

“A bad experience? What do you mean?” Broadway said as he cupped her face and gently forced her to look at him.

“A male named Norbu...he tried to coerce me into mating with him, and I had to defend myself to make him stop.”

“He tried to rape you?” Broadway said angrily.

“I’m not sure if he would have gone that far, but I feared it,” Angela replied.

“Do Goliath and Elisa know what happened?”

“Presumably, if they remember, too. I told them after it happened.”

Broadway huffed and pulled her into his arms.

“I’m so sorry. What an awful thing to remember,” he said comforting her. “No wonder you’re upset.”

“That’s not what I am so upset about,” she said sniffling.

“What is it then? Are you still upset that I told Elisa about your visits with Demona?”

“No, remembering Norbu made me realize just how awful I have treated you recently.”

“Ang—”

“I'm so sorry, Broadway. I know I have a bit of a temper, and I put you in a really tight spot. I made you keep secrets you shouldn't have, and then when you feared I was in trouble you went for help, and I punished you for it. You're always so kind and sweet to me, which is why I fell in love with you in the first place. I was being selfish. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Of course, Angela. I love you with all my heart.”

“I love you, too, Broadway,” she said as she nuzzled her brow against his.

They held each other for a while as they basked in their reconciliation.

“You know, I think this was our first fight,” Angela said.

“Huh...I think you're right,” Broadway replied with a light laugh.

Angela sighed, and snuggled up against him, feeling secure and content in his arms.

May 27, 1997
Elisa’s Loft
Evening

“Will you be here in the morning when I come home?” Elisa asked Goliath the next night before she left for work.

“Of course,” Goliath said as he gathered her up in his arms.

“You know…I've been thinking, now that we have our memories of Shambahla back, when exactly is our anniversary? I always thought it was Christmas, but maybe it's in June...or was it July? I don't know exactly what day it was that we—” 

“The second of July,” Goliath interrupted.

Elisa laughed lightly.

“Ok, so that was the first time we mated, but the first time we said I love you was Halloween.”

“Technically, that was also July second, and although Halloween was a memorable moment, I would rather forget the rest of that night.”

“Touché,” Elisa replied. “Hmm...the first time I kissed you was October 27th.”

“No, that was also July second.”

“Oh, damn it, you’re right! Well, after we broke up, we officially reconciled on the 4th of November.”

“Here's what I think,” Goliath began. “Everything started the night we met when you fell off the castle, and I caught you. That was October 5th. I say we use that as our anniversary....until you actually pick a date for our commitment ceremony.”

“Oh, I see what you did there,” Elisa said, narrowing her eyes at him. “Well, I've gotta get to work or I'll be late, and I've already made Matt cover a lot for me lately. I'll look at my calendar and figure out a date, okay?”

Goliath smiled and nodded before he kissed her goodbye. She was about to walk out the door when Goliath stopped her.

“Elisa, if you see Officer Morgan, could you tell him I said hello?”

Elisa smiled and nodded remembering Goliath's dream.

“I will,” she agreed, and then she left for work, and Goliath returned to his clan, excited to see them, and to be the leader they needed and deserved.

When Goliath returned to the castle before everyone could disperse for patrols, he called them together in the courtyard and apologized to them about his recent behavior. He didn't speak to them of the dream yet. It was hard enough relaying it to Elisa. He couldn’t make himself that vulnerable again right now, not until there was a little bit of distance between him and the dream and time for the edges of it to soften.

They were gracious in their forgiveness, as they always were.

Afterwards, he asked Angela if she would speak privately with him. She agreed and followed him up to the battlements.

“I take it you made things right with Elisa?” she asked him once they were alone.

“I have, and I think our relationship is even stronger now than it was before.”

“Good. I'm relieved to hear it.”

“Have you patched things up with your own mate?”

“Yes, we have worked things out as well.”

Goliath nodded, and there was an awkward pause between them before he spoke again.

“He was a good choice, you know. I think you have inherited both of your parents’ tempers, and Broadway is a lot more level headed. He’s gentle, and kind, too, and the world needs more kindness.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever said that before about Broadway, that I made a good choice when I chose him,” Angela said, surprised by his words.

“There are a lot of things I have been remiss to say aloud,” Goliath said regretfully.

They were silent for a time as they gazed out at the city. 

“My memories of Shambahla came back,” Angela admitted.

“As did mine and Elisa’s,” Goliath replied.

“That must have been difficult. Learning that you had been together and were forced to forget it,” she said sympathetically.

“It certainly threw us, but I am glad to have those memories back.”

Angela nodded and gazed out at the city.

“Are you alright?” Goliath asked her. “With the return of your memories, you must be feeling a little thrown as well. Particularly in regards to—”

“Norbu?” Angela finished for him. “Despite what happened, I am grateful to remember. I do not like holes in my memory.”

“I agree,” he replied sympathetically, and then he addressed the other elephant in the room.

“Angela, I am sorry for coming down so hard on you before about Demona. Although I still don’t like the idea of you visiting her, I should have handled it differently.”

“I’m sorry, too. I should have told you…and I also said things I shouldn’t have, things I'm ashamed of," Angela said, remorsefully.

“You only said what was true,” Goliath replied understandingly.

“Perhaps, but it wasn't the full truth. I know why you could not raise me and the others, and I threw it in your face to hurt you.”

“Only because I lost my temper first. I should have kept it in check. As your leader and your father, I should have set a better example.”

“Yes, but you've only been a father for, what, a year?” Angela said with a smile. Whenever she smiled like that, he saw her mother in her. The way she used to smile at him when they were both very young.

He wondered if seeing that smile would always break his heart, just a little.

“Two years ago, I thought you and your entire rookery were gone, and then suddenly, I had an adult daughter,” Goliath said with a light laugh. “I had looked forward to being a father, though my role as leader would have taken a vast amount of the hatchling care out of my hands. I mourn that I did not get that experience. To be thrust into the parenting role now has been a joy, but there has been a steep learning curve, to say the least.”

“It may not mean much, but I think you’re doing a great job as a father,” Angela said gently. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you that.”

Goliath smiled gratefully at her as he felt a swell of pride at the gargoyle his daughter had grown up to be.

“Things obviously did not work out between your mother and myself, but we at least got one thing right. You are the very best of me and Demona, and I will always be grateful to her for that at least, and that you came back into my life,” Goliath admitted. “I’m very proud of you.”

Angela’s chin quivered with sudden emotion, and she threw her arms around him. Goliath held her in return, his wings wrapping lightly around them.

“I won’t see Demona anymore,” Angela said quietly, her voice muffled. “I don’t know what she will do in retaliation, but I’ll stop visiting her.”

Goliath held her back so he could look her in the eye.

“Your visits may be of some advantage to the clan,” he said thoughtfully. “You may be able to keep an eye on her activities, but only if this is something you truly want to do. I will not ask it of you, you will not disappoint me either way, and if you feel unsafe at all, I ask you not to do it.”

“I don’t think she would ever hurt me,” Angela said honestly.

“I believe that as well. You are the only thing in this world she would not destroy, but she may try to sway you to her beliefs. She may find enjoyment from your visits, but I think bringing you to her side and way of thinking may be what she is truly after. However...as cunning as she may be, I also know you are cunning as well.”

“If I think anything is amiss, I will tell you.”

“Good, now...I believe I heard your mate say earlier that he was planning on making pancakes for breakfast…” Goliath said as he walked with his daughter towards the kitchen.

Elisa felt like she had a new lease on life. Her lover was more like himself again, a dress mystery had been solved, and memories had been restored.

But it all came crashing down when she was forced to sit in a meeting where ADA Margot Yale yelled at them for their inability to bring the violent gargoyle in that had been shot by Ms. Miller.

She and Matt sat stone-faced as she went off the rails for a while, threatening their jobs and their positions on the GTF until Captain Chavez stepped in.

“Maza, Bluestone...Ms. Miller is here to speak with you,” she said.

The two looked at each other and at Margot Yale.

“We’ll be back in a minute,” Matt said, unable to hide the glee in his voice at getting out of listening to her temper tantrum any longer.

Ms. Miller was waiting nervously in interrogation room 2.

“You wished to speak with us?” Matt said gently, using a calm neutral tone.

“I wish to amend my statement from the other night,” she said quietly. She sounded nervous.

“Oh?” Elisa said as she glanced at her partner. “Why? What’s going on?”

“I...I’ve had a chance to think about what happened, and...once the shock wore off…” she broke off as she looked like she was on the verge of tears. “I don’t think that gargoyle was trying to hurt me...I think he was trying to help me.”

“That’s a massive change in your statement, Ms. Miller. You know we could charge you with filing a false report?” Matt said.

“It wasn’t false! I just...I was so frightened, I’d never been that close to a gargoyle before, and he was so big and I was scared, and...I reacted badly. I was shocked that he spoke to me, and I couldn’t process what he said for a while.”

“What did he say to you?” Elisa asked.

“He asked me if I was alright,” she said mournfully. “He was holding back the thief, and he asked me if I was alright, and I yelled at him to back up...and he did...but then I shot him! Why did I do that? I’m a nurse! I’m supposed to help people, and I shot him!” she had tears in her eyes. “And then I went on the news and said all those things, and then I had some guy named Jon Castaway try and contact me. I found out he was the head of the Quarrymen movement, and I do not want to get tangled with that crowd! I figure, if they thought I had done a good thing...maybe it wasn’t a good thing. Anyway...I want to change my statement, if that’s possible.”

Matt looked at his partner who was trying really hard not to smile smugly.

“I think we can work that out, Ms. Miller,” he said gently.

Elisa really looked forward to informing Goliath about this later. After the last few months, it was nice to catch a break for once.