Chapter 14

In her office, Demona was going over proposed projects from her R and D Department. Angela was helping her, giving her opinions on the projects her mother asked them for. Several ideas she trashed without asking, for various reasons.

They had just finished going over a proposal for an electronics design that would put them into the already established market when the intercom beeped.

"Ms. Destine, there is a Detective Maza here to see your assistant. She claims it's an emergency."

Demona sighed, and looked at her daughter. "Does she know who you are?"

Angela shook her head. "Not to my knowledge."

"Can you…," she paused and restated her question. "Do you want to keep her from knowing?"

Her daughter nodded. "Don't worry mother, I will stay in character," she assured.

Demona nodded and pressed the intercom. "Send her in Candace."

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Elisa stepped through the door of the office. She shot a quick glare at Demona, but quickly schooled her features and turned to the other woman. Though she was startled by how similar to Demona's human form she was, Elisa didn't let it show. Besides, the woman had black hair, darker skin, and brown eyes. She'd say the woman was a human version of Angela, if she didn't know better. "Ms. Ann Nolava?"

"Yes," the woman responded.

"I'd like to talk to you for a moment…alone," she added, casting a glance at Demona.

Ann looked at Demona for a moment before speaking. "May I ask what this is about? I don't mean to be rude, but this is my first day here."

Elisa sighed, she'd rather not share this news in front of anyone, but it seemed she had no choice. "There was an incident at Nine-Tail Customs this morning," she said softly.

Her eyes widened as panic crossed her face. "Is Kat okay?" she asked.

The detective didn't fail to notice the worry on Demona's face as well when she answered. "She's fine, but her father has been rushed to Manhattan General. We don't know if he'll make it. I was asked to take you there, Kat needs someone with her."

Ms. Nolava looked over at Demona, who was standing from her desk.

"Go," Demona said. "I'll meet you at the hospital as soon as I can."

Elisa wanted to know why Demona would even be concerned about the Sergeant, his daughter, or Ms. Nolava, let alone say she'd meet Ann at the hospital, but now wasn't the time to ask questions.

Leading Ann to her car, Elisa couldn't help but think this day was turning out, not only to be long and stressful, but weird as well.

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Reaching the hospital, Angela didn't even wait for Elisa to exit the car, as she ran into the waiting room. She quickly spotted Kat sitting with Matt Bluestone and ran over.

Kat saw her approach, and quickly stood and embraced her in a tight hug. Angela could tell she had been crying, and as they embraced, she began crying once more. The gargess in disguise instantly began running her hand soothingly in her mate's hair. "I'm here Kat, I'm here."

"There was so much blood," Kat sobbed.

"Shh… Just relax," she tried to soothe. She wanted more than anything to assure Kat that everything would be all right, but she wouldn't lie to Kat. From what Elisa had explained on the way here, it was bad. "Come on, let's sit down."

Kat nodded absently, and Angela sat down, pulling her shaking mate down into her lap to hold her.

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It was forty-five minutes later that Demona walked into the waiting room. Before she had left Nightstone, she'd had to clear her schedule, and a few other things.

It didn't take her long to notice her daughter and Kat. Angela was holding the other woman, and Demona couldn't help but be worried. Rather than the vibrant, passionate woman she had met last night, she saw a frightened, worn-out girl. From the corner of her eye, she also noticed Maza and her partner talking quietly in a corner.

Angela looked up as she approached, and held up her hand in a quiet gesture.

Demona nodded, as she noticed that Kat had fallen asleep. "What happened?" she asked in a whisper."

"Kat and her father were supposed to have breakfast this morning," Angela explained in a whisper. "From what I could get out of her, Kat was up in her apartment, and Connor was in the shop waiting for her when someone drove by and shot the place up. Connor was shot multiple times, we haven't heard anything yet."

"That's good," Demona assured her daughter. At her daughter's confused look, she explained. "As long as the doctors haven't come to talk, they're working on Connor, which means he's still alive. And while it would be nice to hear how he's doing, in this case, no news is good news."

Angela nodded her understanding.

"I'm going to go speak to Maza. Have you told her anything?"

Angela shook her head. "No."

Demona smiled sadly at her daughter. "I'll be right back."

Walking towards the detectives, Demona interrupted their discussion. "Detectives."

Both officers looked at her. "What do you want Demona?" Elisa asked, coldly.

The redhead's eyes narrowed. "I want to know if there are any leads about what happened to Connor MacAulley."

"Why do you even care?" Elisa asked.

"I care, because that girl over there," she pointed at Angela and Kat, "worrying about whether her father will live or not, saved my daughter from Quarrymen."

Maza's eyes widened, but it was Bluestone who asked, "What?"

Demona sighed. "A few months ago, Angela was caught by some Quarrymen, they were betting her to death with their hammers. Kat showed up and threatened them, and they left, but Angela was still injured. She took Angela to her home and watched her until she turned to stone and healed. I owe that woman more than I can ever repay for that."

"Angela never said anything about it," Elisa said.

"Because she was worried Goliath would restrict her to the tower," Demona explained, having discussed this with both Angela and Kat when she met them.

Elisa's eyes narrowed. "Angela's been spending time with you?"

"Yes," but it was not Demona who spoke. While they were talking, Angela had slipped away from Kat's sleeping form and approached her mother and the detectives. Her answer drew the group's attention.

"Ann…," Demona began.

Angela smiled, "No Mother," she said, shocking the two detectives. "They need to know."

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Elisa was shocked, and surprised. But suddenly the resemblance to Demona made sense. Ann Nolava was Angela, hell her last name was Avalon spelled backwards.

"Angela?" she asked.

The woman nodded, but her smile faded, and her face became grim, and angry, and Elisa couldn't help but see Demona in her features. "Yes, but there's a reason you need to know that I can do this now."

"But how?" Matt asked.

"That's not important," Ann, or rather Angela, told him. "What is important is this. Kat is…important to me. She is my best friend, and is closer to me than any of the clan. If her father dies, if she has to go through the pain of burying her last remaining parent because of this, you better find whoever did this quickly."

"Angela…?" Elisa tried to speak, but Angela continued.

"Because if you don't, I will," the dark-haired woman finished. "And I'll be out for revenge, not justice." Without waiting for the detective's response, Angela turned to walk back to Kat, leaving her mother and the two detectives alone.

"It would be best not to tell Goliath about her new form," Demona began. "We have a deal, she spends time with me, and I don't attack the clan or try and destroy humanity."

Elisa turned to look at the redhead, who was looking at her with her cool, emerald eyes.

"And if Angela goes after anyone in response to this, I'll be right beside her," the gargess is disguise added, before walking away to talk to the receptionist.

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Maria Chavez sat in her office, trying to decide what to do.

Maza had called her from the hospital with what was, so far, their only lead to who shot Sergeant MacAulley. And it made sense, in a way. She knew, in the first few weeks of existence, the Quarrymen had disrupted P.I.T. meetings, terrorizing those who opposed their anti-gargoyle agenda. And though they claimed otherwise, men in Quarrymen regalia still did on occasion.

The problem was that, with mask on, no one could ever be positively identified and the organization got off with mere warnings.

But if someone had actually stopped them from killing a gargoyle, she had no doubt the organization, or at least those involved in the act, would try retaliation.

She'd seen it before, and done for less.

And if Kat had been the target, Connor had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn't make the situation any better, but it did give her a pool of suspects, she just needed to narrow it down.

But how to do that?

Her phone rang once more, interrupting her thoughts. "Captain Chavez," she answered picking it up. "I'm sorry sir….Yes, but we've been busy. We just got the first major lead in what happened…Of course, I'll be sure and keep you posted….Kat's fine, she's at Manhattan General waiting for news on Sergeant MacAulley…..No sir, we haven't heard anything about his condition yet…..Thank you sir."

She hung up the phone and sighed. Now she had to make sure to keep the Commissioner updated, she'd forgotten he was one of the Sergeant's friends, and former partner/pupil.

This day just kept getting better.

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Dr. Jay Sato was exhausted.

Thirteen hours of surgery had utterly exhausted him, but as he looked through the window to the operating room, he stood straighter and took a deep breath. Many of his colleagues had scoffed when he took those acting classes, as well as his medical classes, in college, but he found them to be incredibly valuable in situations like this.

The last thing anyone needed to see was how difficult saving someone's life was.

And so, stepping into the waiting room, he looked, while still grim and serious, not like he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a few hours.

"Ms. MacAulley," he called softly, approaching the woman the receptionist had pointed out to him as the man's daughter.

The young woman looked up, and was instantly on her feet, along with another young woman who had her arm around the other's shoulder. Two detectives, one who had been a former patient, also approached.

"How is he?" Ms. MacAulley asked softly. The doctor could hear both the hope and fear in her voice as she asked the question.

He smiled slightly. "We removed six rounds from your father and have him in Critical Care, but he's alive."

The woman closed her eyes and tears of happiness fell down her face as she collapsed back into a chair out of relief, and he felt awful for what he had to say next.

"He is still in critical condition however, the next forty-eight hours are crucial. If he can survive that long, his chances increase dramatically."

"What are his chances now?" the other woman asked.

Sato sighed. "I'm not going to lie, but Mr. MacAulley has lost a lot of blood and suffered a lot of damage. We're doing our best, but his chances are low right now. Frankly, he's lucky to have even made it the hospital."

The gut-wrenching sob from the man's daughter made the doctor feel like the worst scum alive.

The other woman tried to console her. "Come on. There's nothing more we can do here," she said. "Mother said we can stay with her, the hospital will call her place if there is any news."

Sato watched sadly as the woman allowed herself to be led from the waiting room. Turning back to the detectives, he told them, "I'll have the bullets we pulled from Mr. MacAulley sent to the crime lab as soon as I can."

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Goliath roared as he threw the stone skin from his body. "ANGELA!" he called, looking around for his daughter.

He, and the rest of the clan, looked around in shock, wondering where she was. When she didn't appear after a few moments, Goliath ordered, "Look for her."

He needed to speak to her to find out if what he suspected was indeed true. It was one thing for his daughter to be late a few times, it was another if she had blatantly disobeyed his orders about staying away from Demona.

No matter that his former mate was her mother or not.

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Please Review and Checkout the Challenges in My Forums and the stories I have up for adoption, posted under the title Please Adopt Me!

I hope you enjoyed. And who expected Goliath's reaction to be so far off base, the thought that his daughter is a lesbian hasn't even crossed his mind because it is so inconceivable to him that a gargoyle could fall for the same sex. And as for why Demona's not still at the hospital when Sato comes out, it's thirteen hours later, as Puck's original spell is still in effect for her, she had to leave because sunset has either come or is approaching (I haven't kept a strict timeline so I'm not entirely sure).