Two days before Christmas, and the squadroom of the 23rd precinct police station was a cacophony of sound. The telephones were ringing on many of the manned desks, signalling that the craziness of the holidays was fully upon them all.

Temperature extremes caused people to go a little crazy. The harsh heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter seemed to bring out the worst in people.

Deep in the heart of Manhattan, New York, the large red brick building housed New York's finest. It was five in the morning, and this particular station house within the NYPD was buzzing with activity. Those who were just ending their shift grumbled about the long hours of constant calls, and passing their advice to those who were just coming in for their shifts that day.

The consensus of which was a resounding "good luck". They'd already been through the madness of their own shifts, and all of them were looking forward to the time off between the bouts of insanity.

Among the bustling men and women in uniform, at a nondescript metal grey desk piled high with haphazardly stacked piles of papers, sat a female detective filling out the last of her paperwork for the night.

This woman was small, measuring at a whopping 5'4" tall, and model thin. With her raven black hair and dark complexion, she had the exotic appearance that mirrored her mixed Hopi Indian and African American heritage. Because of this wonderfully matched genetics, many an unfortunate soul had been fooled by her delicate appearance and lived to regret it.

Elisa Maza, a detective with the NYPD was no delicate flower. She was a black belt in karate, a highly ranked marksman and was known to be a real ball buster among her fellow officers.

More than one male rookie had come into the station and fancied himself in instant love with the small female. Some even decided to take it upon themselves to become a "protector" for her, following her around in order to "help".

It usually didn't take long for them to be put in their place, however. Elisa was no doormat, fragile doll or weakling. Treating her as such usually just pissed her off.

She had begun her career in the NYPD as a beat cop on the streets, and busted her butt in order to make it to where she was. She was amongst the youngest people in the NYPD to pass the test to become a detective in a mainly male dominated profession, and she made it no secret that she was right where she wanted to be and planned to stay there.

Signing her name to the bottom of the last report on her desk, the raven haired NYPD detective kicked her feet up onto the desk and reclined back in her chair. Sighing in contentment, she looked around the squad room and reveled in the sights and sounds around her.

Elisa loved her job. She was working her way steadily up to becoming one of the lead detectives within the NYPD, with one of the highest closed case file counts and resulting arrest records… Thanks to a little help from her friends.

The clan of Gargoyles, involuntarily moved from 100 year ago Scotland to modern day Manhattan in the United States of America, had taken on the task of looking out for those who lived and worked on the island.

Their protectorate, as they considered it.

They had befriended Elisa, though why they had taken to each other so quickly was some kind of miracle in itself. Humans had not treated the clan well in the past, but they had all seen something in Elisa that had seemed trustworthy enough to accept her into their family.

Elisa was still unsure what had drawn her to them, why she had instantly felt a connection and a need to take care of them, but had never regretted a single day. She had questioned her sanity a few times, but at those times, the doubt had been about herself.

Never them.

They shared a need to protect and serve, the policeman's motto. To help those in need and see that those who would harm or take advantage of anyone seen as weaker or easy targets were brought to justice.

The Gargoyle clan had told her that she had been born with the guardian instincts of a Gargoyle.

Elisa smiled now, remembering the proud expression on the clan's faces when Hudson had made that proclamation.

For a time, the clan had lived in the large historical clock tower that had once graced the top of the station. That had ended a little over five years ago. The station had been the target of an attempt to kill the clan of Gargoyles. There had been many injuries and some structural damage that had required over a year's worth or repairs. Luckily, the only causality that had come out of the attack had been the clock tower. As much as the citizens of Manhattan had protested the fact that the tower was not going to be rebuilt, the NYPD had made the decision to leave it off.

The Manhattan Gargoyle clan had found themselves homeless. Again.

A former enemy of the clan, David Xanatos, had come forward, offering them a place in their original ancestral home in Castle Wyvern atop the Xanatos Enterprises building.

She had known and worked beside the Manhattan Clan for almost nine years now.

She had been married to Goliath, the leader of the Gargoyle clan, for two years now. It had not been the smoothest relationship, they were two different species after all… But they truly loved each other, both of them had almost given their lives for the other so many times that they had lost count.

Even so, Elisa had balked at getting married when Goliath had first asked her. They had only recently found other clans of Gargoyles in the world, proving at last that the Manhattan clan was not the last of their kind, but their numbers were still pitifully small. Elisa felt that she would be cheating the clan of the chance to have more gargoyle children if she were to marry Goliath.

Once he had finally accepted the role of being a father to his daughter, Angela, Elisa realized what an amazing father he would be and that was something that she was not going to be able to do herself. He deserved that chance, to raise a child from the very beginning. A chance that he had missed out on with the Clan's last group of hatchlings.

Goliath had not agreed, and had made his thoughts loudly known. He wanted Elisa. He loved Elisa. Nothing else mattered to him.

The on again off again argument, combined with Elisa's own self doubts, had strained the couple's relationship so much that they had almost called it quits.

There was one night the argument came to a head. Harsh words and accusations had been tossed around, ending with Goliath storming off. Elisa had been terrified that she and Goliath were truly done at that point.

Beth, Elisa's sister, had taken Elisa out for a good, old-fashioned male bashing drinking binge.

Here it was, two years later, and Elisa still couldn't stand the smell of whiskey. She'd gotten her fill that night, and had not even been tempted to have so much as have a single beer after work.

Not.

Even.

Tempted.

What followed that night of drinking and male bashing had been something out of her worst nightmares. Elisa had been kidnapped by a longtime enemy of the Gargoyles, Jon Canmore.

The last of the Hunters.

Elisa had suffered a head wound, and had lost all memory of who she was. She had been gone for almost six months before she had been identified and brought back to her family.

Even after returning home, it had taken weeks for her memory to fully return, but eventually it had.

Once her identity had been returned to her, and her memories restored, Elisa had not only agreed to marry Goliath… again… she had insisted that it be done right away. It had been too close a call to her losing everything, and Elisa did not want to waste any more time.

They had been married on Christmas Eve, in the Great Hall of the Scottish castle that was the Clan's ancestral home, surrounded by trusted friends and family.

The story around the precinct was that Elisa married a businessman who travelled a lot for work, and when he was "in town", he worked nights to coincide with the timezones of his overseas dealings.

Only a handful of people had actually met the groom; among the trusted few were Elisa's partner, Matt, and Captain Maria Chavez.

She was happy to finally be married to the love of her life, but had still spent the first few months of married life still feeling a little guilty over the lack of children. Goliath had tried to ease her mind, but it was Angela who had ended up helping the most.

Angela and Broadway had their own mating ceremony only a few months after Goliath and Elisa, and Angela had become pregnant right away.

Much to the new couple's chagrin.

Angela carried the egg the normal time for a Gargoyle, and within 6 months the castle's rookery had their first egg in residence in over a hundred years. It had been a much anticipated and celebrated day for the clan.

Elisa learned that Gargoyle eggs normally take 10 years to hatch…

Then she joined in the absolute shock and awe when Angela's egg hatched in less than one year. Closer to a human's reproductive cycle than Gargoyle.

The best theory that could be made within the clan is that Angela's time on Avalon had perhaps had a little something to do with the rapid time between the egg being laid and hatched. Time flowed differently on Avalon, after all, and perhaps all of the clan's hatchlings would have the same speeded up "birthing" process.

Not only had the egg's hatching time taken everyone by surprise, but the twins that hatched from it made the clan's members almost pass out from shock. While Elisa liked to joke that she was exaggerating about the "passing out" part of it all, she was pretty sure that it was closer to the truth that any of the clan was willing to admit.

The boy was named Conner, and the girl Brenna. Conner resembled his father in everything except the hair. He had inherited Angela's full head of dark hair. Brenna was a mirror image of her mother, but had her father's aqua skin coloring.

They were a little over a year old now, and their poor parents had their hands full.

Elisa sighed. Knowing that she'd never have a child with Goliath and actually accepting it were different things. She was sure that it would come in time, but…

Realistically, her lifestyle did not really allow for children. She worked overnight hours, and prefered the overnight shifts. She was a police officer, a detective but still helping on regular calls if needed, and was the child of a police officer herself.

She remembered the nights when the news would report on an officer being injured or killed, and wondering frantically if her father was going to be coming home. She did not want to put a child through that.

Elisa sighed again. She kept making excuses on how she wouldn't be a good mother, but if she and Goliath somehow managed to have a child she would hold onto the little one as if her life depended on it. She wasn't sure that she would be good at the whole motherhood thing, but sometimes…

Elisa physically shook her head. She had spent so much time on the topic lately, and she wasn't even sure why anymore. She had known going into it that children were an impossibility, and lingering thoughts on the topic was starting to frustrate her, but the harder she tried to not think about it, the more it happened.

As it was, this was her last night of work before having a full paid week's vacation. She'd been notified a month ago that she needed to use a week of her built up PTO or lose it. Elisa made the decision to take the week of her anniversary off, and was looking at a week of rest, relaxation and time to spend with Goliath.

Getting to her feet, determined to not let her brain drift off in the direction it had been going, she gathered all of the night's reports and carried them towards the filing department. They would be scanned into their computer database for future reference, the physical copies would disappear into the vast basement room that Elisa pictured to be much like the warehouse from Indiana Jones where the Ark was stored.

She'd never actually been down there since the rebuilding and remodeling had been completed the night that the Canmore siblings had blown up the clock tower, but she figured it was just rows and rows of files and boxes.

Not her department, thank the Gods.

Despite the noise surrounding her, she clearly heard the Captain's voice call out over the din.

"Maza," the brisk female voice called.

Elisa turned to face the small hispanic woman who inspired both admiration and respect, with a healthy dose of fear mixed in there, somewhere...

"My office," Captain Maria Chevez ordered, looking vaguely irritated.

Tossing the reports into the rapidly filling inbox of the filing clerk's desk, Elisa wondered what had happened. Maria was one of the most levelheaded people that Elisa had ever met, so for Maria to show even a hint of something other than her professional, no-nonsense face, meant that something had gone sideways.

"Great," Elisa muttered. One hour from clocking out, and it looked as if she was going to get held up. She might not be able to get home in time to see Goliath before the sun rose.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time. With any luck, Goliath might still be around to help with whatever was going on.

Elisa walked into the Captain's office, shutting the door softly behind her.

"Maza," Maria greeted the detective. "Have a seat. I'll try to be brief."

Elisa nodded and sat in one of the dark brown leather covered chairs.

"Elisa," Maria said, somewhat apologetically, "I know that you were probably hoping to get out of here on time, but we just had an assistance request from the 19th precinct station. They have a number of their people down with food poisoning."

"Seriously?" Elisa chuckled, raising an eyebrow at her family friend and godmother. "Food poisoning?"

Maria looked disgusted. "Their station decided to have a catered Christmas party, and more than half of their people came down with food poisoning from a bad batch of chicken."

"Ungh." Elisa cringed, "I really hope you got the name of the caterer."

"I did," Maria huffed. "And we will be avoiding them at all costs in the future. In the meantime, there is a situation that has come up that they need a detective for. It appears to be a young woman who died of an overdose. They do have a detective on scene, but it is the only one they have. He is fresh out of the academy and still technically on probation, so they need someone there who has been on the job longer. He might miss something that you wouldn't. Their guys will handle the paperwork for it, unless you find something that points towards anything other than self inflicted, then you'll have to make a report of your own."

Elisa sighed. She didn't want to run late, but she didn't want to leave her fellow officers in need… especially when vital clues could be lost or missed if foul play were involved.

"Fine," Elisa said. "I can head that way now."

"You do that," Maria said. "When you are finished, call me, and I can clock you out for the night."

Elisa smiled. "Thanks, Maria."

"Give Goliath my best, and you enjoy your week off."

Elisa nodded her thanks, heading out of the office and towards the employee parking lot.