Title: Looking in Back Doors Crying
Author: Demelza Watt
Email: stonelight81@hotmail.com
Disclaimers: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company.  No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorised by the copyright holder.  All original characters are the property of the author.
Summary: Owen's asked to fire one of Xanatos' employees on Thanksgiving Evening… first chapter of many to come.
Author's Notes: This is the first of many parts for 'Looking in Back Doors Crying'. The full fic falls under the following overall summary: Owen falls in love with a marked woman who's on the run for her life during Thanksgiving… with his help, will they be able to stop the killer and find out who ordered the hit?
Rated: G

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Thanksgiving Evening
1996 – Not long since the Hunter's Moon
The Kitchen, of Castle Wyvern

There was much Owen had to do for the evening come, prepare a great banquet for the Gargoyles and a personal get together for Mr and Mrs Xanatos, and their guests this Thanksgiving. The tall blonde let out a sigh, apron wrapped around his thin waist, he slipped his glasses firmer up the bridge of his nose and continued with the small pile of dishes in front of him.

He washed, then dried each of the dishes separately, it seemed strange that he do it the long way, but he wanted to put off the daunting task of all those preparations.

Once the dishes had been done and stacked away in the cupboards, Owen removed the apron and continued out of the Kitchen, through the halls and down to his small office on the same level as Mr Xanatos'. When he reached his office, there was a small yellow post-it note stuck to the front of his computer monitor, 'Write memo to Sabrina Lloyd, re: services no longer required.' signed by David Xanatos.

Owen took the note in between his strong fingers and looked down at it through his glasses, it was the fifteenth such note this month to employees telling them their services were no longer required and they needed to look for employment elsewhere. He could have thought of more tactful ways to fire someone than a heartless memo. But that was David Xanatos for you. He slumped down in his comfy arm-chair and stared intently at the note, he wondered who she was, this Sabrina Lloyd, and what services in Mr Xanatos' employ she had worked.

Tapping his finger on the space-key on the keyboard, the dark monitor lit up, having come out of Stand By, as Owen had left it when he left his office earlier. He brought up the Employee Database, typed in Ms Lloyd's name in the 'Employee Name' field and waited for a response. He knew the process would take a while, as the number of employees recorded in the database was up in the thousands.

After a moment, the page appeared, showing a 240x240 pixel picture of Ms Lloyd. She was a beautiful woman, in her early thirties, yet she looked like she was still in her mid twenties. Her skin was fair, her eyes emerald green, and she wore light make up in this picture, and it showed her cheekbones ever slightly with such elegance. He moved his eyes from her picture, looking at her personal file.

Sabrina Lloyd was born in July of 1966, making her having only this year turned Thirty. She was the daughter of Mark A. Brogden, an employee of David Xanatos some two years prior, until his sudden and very much unexplained death had taken him from this world. She was an only child, having lost her mother when she was born, and was thus raised by her single father until he married a widow himself, Elizabeth Burrows, a twenty-seven year old model from England who inherited all of his assets after his untimely death.

Sabrina had married Charlie Lloyd at age nineteen, and had remained unhappily married since, as it had been a marriage of convenience, they stayed together only because his parents wanted him to marry an American girl, during which time he had an affair with his childhood sweetheart, name unmentioned. He died two weeks prior to today's date in an incident involving the Quarrymen.

Owen couldn't send her a memo, not after all that she had been through. And not at this time of year… it was far too impersonal. He would go see her himself, and even though he hated it, tell her himself.

……to be continued in the next part……
Due out on or before December 19th 2001

email me… stonelight81@hotmail.com if you have any comments, questions, or feedback… or want to be notified as soon as the next chapter is out.