Elisa opened her eyes, and found only darkness.

Was she awake? Or was she still in the mind of Nell?

A light slowly appeared to brighten the room. Elisa found herself laying on her stomach, her back a throbbing mass of pain.

Elisa couldn't contain a choked cry.

"There now, lass," a female's voice came from the darkness beyond her vision.

There was a pressure against her back, then a sudden cooling effect that was such a relief that Elisa wanted to sob. She didn't know what was going on, or why she was suddenly getting the full force of the 'Nell Middle Ages Experience', but she wanted off this ride.

"I want to go home now, please," Elisa begged whatever deities were listening.

"I'm sorry, lass," the female said. "If we'd been at the castle last night, things wouldna' have gotten that far."

Elisa frowned, turning her head to see who was speaking. Her eyes widened. It was a Gargoyle, and not one that she'd seen before.

With pink skin, a roundish pleasant face, and a full double layered brow ridge, her friendly voice matched her calming expression. Her grey hair was braided over one shoulder, giving her an older appearance than her voice had led Elisa to think she was.

"Och, sorry," She said, taking a small step back from the bed. "I didnae mean to scare ye."

"Gargoyle," Elisa said, her voice sounded hoarse, her throat sore from the screaming.

"Aye," The female said. In her hands was a bowl of some truly foul smelling brown paste, and as she continued to speak, she spread more of the numbing salve on Elisa's back.

'Gods,' Elisa thought, 'I don't know or care what's in that paste, just don't let her stop putting it on my back.'

"You know of Gargoyles, then?" The female asked.

"Mmmhmm," Elisa said, almost going limp with the relief of having the searing pain gone. "How long have I been here?"

The female frowned. "Not long," she said. "The elder and our leader had just returned to the castle soon after the captain had begun the whipping." The female flinched. "Our leader is a young, but a fair leader. He would hae ne'er stood for such a thing. I am sorry you had to endure it."

Elisa frowned. "Elder?" she said. Surely it couldn't be… "Hudson?"

The female cocked her head. "Who is this, Hud-son?" she asked, stumbling a little on the name.

"Never mind," Elisa said.

"And they call us the animals," came a familiar voice. "We would never do anything this vicious."

Elisa grit her teeth. Freaking Demona…

But this wasn't her Demona, Elisa realized. This was a younger Demona from before the Viking attack that would kill most of her clan.

Suddenly, Elisa had an idea of where… and when… she was. Now, how to get back.

"I want to go home," Elisa said again, the full force of her will behind those words.

-{- -{- -{- -{- -{-

"Tha mi airson a dhol dhachaigh"

Goliath's head rose at Elisa's quiet voice. He had risen as soon as the sun set, and came straight to her room. He had only just entered the room when her breathy voice met his ears.

"Elisa," He called out to her.

"Tha mi airson a dhol dhachaigh" she said again.

Goliath hit the button beside her bed that would alert the doctor.

A breathless Doctor James came running through the door. "What happened?" He demanded.

"Elisa spoke," Goliath said, willing her to do so again.

"What did she say?" He asked, approaching the bed.

"Tha mi airson a dhol dhachaigh," Goliath repeated. "She said 'I want to go home'."

The doctor looked at Goiath, and the gargoyle noticed how haggard he looked. "Have you slept?" Goliath asked.

The doctor shook his head. "There is a room full of people here who haven't slept more than a few hours over the last twenty four," he answered. "We are all running on an obscene amount of caffeine and willpower. The clan has a lot of friends, and they are currently pouring over all of the books and papers that came from Demona's house to try to help."

Goliath was stunned. He hadn't wanted to leave Elisa's side, so hadn't returned to the room with the books.

"Now that you're awake," The doctor said, rubbing a hand over his face, "Maybe you should go down and help them. I'm sure that you'd be more help than I am at the moment." He reached down and pressed a few buttons on his watch. "If you don't mind, I'm going to try to catch a nap in here, in case Elisa needs help I can be nearby, but if I don't get at least a little sleep, I'm not going to be much good to anyone."

"Rest," Goliath urged, vacating the oversized chair he'd been sitting in. "I will go see if I can be of some assistance to the others."

The doctor nodded, took the seat, laid his head against the back and was asleep before Goliath could leave the room.

Elisa wanted to come home, and he needed her there. He was going to do everything he could to make that happen.

Goliath made his way to the room that he'd last been in with Demona and the books. Quietly, he opened the door and stood in amazement at the scene.

Both Maria Chevez and Beth Maza were asleep, leaning against each other, their backs against a wall. Matt was thumbing through an old volume of text, absently stroking his wife's hair and she lay sleeping with her head on one of his thighs.

Margaret seemed to be the most awake of the humans, but that may be because of the gigantic thermos of coffee she had sitting beside her.

The clan, having just woken up, had taken over as a fresh pair of eyes. They seemed to have split into two groups; one group was dividing up books in a stack that had not been touched yet, but Goliath could make out the old Celtic and Gaelic writing. The other group was physically taking books out of the exhausted humans' hands, and urging them to rest.

Goliath felt his chest tighten at the show of support from both his clan, and their human friends.

"How fares Elisa?" Hudson asked quietly, attempting to be considerate to their sleeping human helpers.

Goliath frowned and shook his head. "I do not know," He said. As the clan gathered around their leader, Goliath told them what little he knew. He told them about her exhibiting a reaction to something painful the night before, and speaking in the old Scottish Gaelic of their homeland.

"That's weird," Beth Maza said, rubbing her eyes like a child who had just woken up from a nap. She approached the group now. "Elisa knows English, she can swear a bit in German thanks to an exchange student she made friends with in high school, and enough Spanish to get by. She was never good at learning languages."

Goliath nodded. "I believe this was more than just a sleep spell."

"We have been going through everything," Angela said frustrated. "I just don't know what else to do."

"We keep looking," Broadway said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes," Goliath nodded. He reached out to take a thick book from the table marked as being Latin. "We keep looking."

And with that, they broke apart and got back to work.