"I'm not going," Elisa argued in an angry whisper. "I can't leave Goliath."

"Elisa," Matt said, trying to remain calm in the face of the angry female. "You know that you have to go. Maria said that she's going to try to get you back in here before nightfall."

Elisa, dressed in clean clothes was standing with crossed arms and glaring at anyone who tried to come near her.

"I'm a detective. I know what I should and shouldn't touch." Elisa retorted. "I'll spend the day locked in my bedroom under lock and key if needed, but I'm not leaving. I have to be here at sunset, Matt," Her voice finally gave out under the stress and fear. "I have to be here," She ended on an almost whisper.

"I know that, Elisa," Matt said softly. "And we will try to get you back up here, one way or another."

Matt knew he only had a short time, minutes really, to convince Elisa to go quietly.

Her parents were outside ready to remove her from here by force if needed. Mat realized, after a brief conversation with them, that Elisa had been barely coherent on the phone, and hadn't gone into much detail.

Showing up to Elisa's apartment, swarming with police, the entryway covered in blood and a dead body in the living room had been a little much for her mom to take in. Peter, Elisa's dad, having been on the force himself, was usually a cool head in these situations, but being his daughter's home, he wasn't as collected as usual.

And both of them agreed that Elisa needed to get out of the condo until everything could be taken care of.

"Swear it," Elisa demanded.

"Elisa, please," Matt said. "you're my friend, and I would do anything to help you and the clan, but please don't make me give you a promise that I may not be able to keep."

Elisa swiped up the bag. "I'll go, but get me back up here, Matt."

Matt nodded, and she angrily left the room, the door slamming into the wall behind it.

Matt hung his head. Feeling the weight of guilt settle in his chest. He didn't know for certain that he had managed get Goliath's heart actually going again before sunrise, and had been second guessing himself since. Had he felt a heartbeat? Or had it just been wishful thinking?

What was going to happen if he was wrong, and Goliath didn't wake up after the sun set tonight?

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

Elisa loved her parents, she really did, but she just wanted to be left alone.

They had insisted on getting her out of the condo, and had even gone so far as to rent her a hotel room for the night so that she would have somewhere to stay that didn't have blood stains and bullet holes.

As if she cared about that today.

She had resisted, saying that she could go stay at the castle with Skyler and Liam, and they could go home. Her parents flat out said that they weren't going to fall for it.

They had been arguing since they had picked Elisa up from her home.

Elisa knew that it was mostly her. She was physically and mentally exhausted from the events of last night, and the fear of the unknown over Goliath.

Then they called in Beth, which honestly hadn't helped a bit.

She had finally sent her parents to the castle, leaving her alone at the hotel. They were going to take over care of Liam for a while, and give Skyler some relief. She wished she could go with them, but she didn't know if she would hold it together for their son.

If something did happen and goliath didn't wake… she didn't know how she was going to be able to tell Liam.

NO, Elisa screamed at herself. She fought that thought off. Goliath had to wake up…

Elisa tried to get some rest, but her brain wouldn't stop going through each and every scenario of what could, what did and what may still happen.

Multiple times.

She finally gave up on sleep. She wasn't going to get any sleep anyway. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Goliath on the ground. Sometimes in human form, most of the time it was in his natural form.

She felt like the walls were closing in on her.

Beth, having found it impossible to be in the room with Elisa, but afraid to leave her completely alone, had gone downstairs to rent the next door room. Elisa took advantage of that now, and pounded on the door. Beth opened it right away, leading Elisa to believe that she'd literally been sitting right beside it in case Elisa tried to make a break for it or something…

But, honestly, wasn't that what she was actually trying to do? Maybe Beth was onto something.

"I need to go for a run," Elisa said.

"Okay," Beth said. "I'll come with."

Elisa gave her sister a once over. She had come straight over from her day job working at the museum, and was still wearing her white button up shirt, black pencil skirt and dressy black flats.

Beth saw the look and glanced down at herself. "Okay, not like this." She looked Elisa in the face and set her jaw into a frustrated line. "Every time I'm put in charge of keeping an eye on you, you disappear. Would you be willing to give me twenty minutes to go find something to run in?"

Elisa rolled her eyes. "Go. I'll give you half an hour."

"Thanks," Beth said, and made a made dash for her purse and then out the door into the outer hall.

Great. Now her sister was going out to spend money so that she could "keep an eye" on her. Elisa wasn't suicidal, and she pitied the mugger who tried anything with her today.

Elisa sat on the small chair in the room, but almost immediately popped back up. It was half an hour. She could do this.

Elisa began rummaging through her bag. She hadn't been really thinking straight when she'd packed it. She had thrown in her college sweats that she normally only wore to work out in, a single pair of jeans, an old tee that had definitely seen better days, a single pair of socks, no underwear and some really dirty running shoes that she was pretty sure had already been in the bag when she'd packed it.

Elisa didn't care. It took too much energy to care.

She got into the sweat suit and laced herself into the running shoes.

There, that had burned… five minutes.

To hell with this, Elisa fumed. She'd apologize to Beth later, she thought. She wrote an apology letter to Beth and left it on her dresser where she'd see it and headed out.

Central Park was only a few blocks away.

Her goal was to run off her excess nerves. If that didn't happen, maybe she could run herself into complete and utter exhaustion so that she could sleep until sunset.

She swept her hair back into a ponytail with a rubber band, courtesy of the front desk attendant.

Once her hair was out of her face, she began jogging towards the park. She kept a slow but steady pace while on the streets, but once she got to the park, she let herself go.

Central park is an area of roughly 840 acres. It is two and a half miles long, and around half a mile wide. Running a full loop around Central Park, depending on which paths you take, is just a little over 6.1 miles.

Elisa crossed Central Park West, and hopped on the 6 mile track just behind the famed Tavern on the Green. She knew this loop well, as it was her favorite… and the longest.

Once on the trail, she turned south and opened up to let herself run. She wove through and past groups of slower runners, and probably got a lot of angry looks and gestures, but she didn't care. She'd always been a natural athlete outdoors. It was the indoor workouts that she hated. Give her an open stretch of road or a jogging path, and she would run for hours with no complaints.

In no time at all, she reached the southwestern corner and rounded the curve that would eventually take her back North again. She passed the zoo, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was approaching the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir when she started slowing down a little. Not so much to conserve the energy, but to draw it out a bit.

There was still so much daylight left when what lay ahead was still so uncertain.

Elisa had already completed most of the trail, and was passing the Glen Span Arch when she heard Beth's voice from ahead of her.

"Damn it, Elisa," Beth panted, running up to Elisa then switching directions to try to keep pace with her crazy athletic older sister. "How did I know you wouldn't wait for me? Why would I believe you?"

"I couldn't Beth," Elisa said breathily. "I couldn't sit anymore."

"I get that," Beth said, panting a little. "I just wish you would have waited for me."

They jogged together for a bit, making it just past the softball field area in the center of the Great Lawn before Beth begged her sister to stop.

Elisa nodded, slowing to a walk. Thanks to her all out running at the beginning, she was worn out a little earlier than normal.

"Thank you," Beth breathed.

The sisters walked in silence for a few minutes, until Elisa realized where they were.

There, on the edge of Turtle Pond, raising before them was Belvedere Castle. Elisa felt her breath hitch, her chest felt tight and she felt what little control she'd been holding on to start to slip from her grasp.

"Elisa?" Betha asked, seeing her sister's expression. "Elisa, what's wrong?"

Elisa gasped, before she let out a burst of hysteria-tinged laughter. Elisa walked to the very edge of the water and stared at the beautiful castle. Belvedere Castle had been the site of many nights alone with Goliath. It was where he had asked her to marry him, and where they had spent so much time together with their son.

Why had she thought this was a good idea?

Elisa turned to walk away, but her legs gave out and she ended up on her knees in the soft grass.

"Elisa!" Beth knelt beside her.

Elisa reached out and hugged her sister and let it go. She started crying in heaving sobs, her cries muffled by her sister's sweatshirt.

Beth sat there, and held Elisa. She couldn't imagine what her sister was going through, and was surprised she had held on for so long.

Even strong people broke sometimes, even people like Elisa who seemed almost bulletproof.

They had gotten a lot of attention, but as a few good samaritans started toward the pair, Beth would wave them away with a sad smile.

Elisa finally fell silent, but still clung to her sister. Except for the strength of Elisa's hold on her, Beth would have thought she'd fallen asleep.

"I can't lose him, Beth," Elisa's soft voice met Beth's ears.

Beth jerked. "What?"

Elisa slowly sat up and wiped her face clear with her sleeves. "I can't lose Goliath, Beth. I'm not sure I'd survive that."

Beth looked at Elisa in shock. "What makes you think you'll lose him?"

Elisa's watery gaze met her sister's. "Things are a little more… more serious than what I told mom and dad."

"Elisa," Beth pushed. "Talk to me. What do you mean more seriously? Mom told me that Goliath had been shot. What's more serious than that?"

Elisa pulled back enough to hug her own knees to her chest. In halting words, she told Beth what she hadn't been able to tell their mother. About the stalker, Goliath being in human form to protect her, the threat against their son, and the real reason that Liam had spent so much time at the castle lately.

Beth was stunned. Sure, she knew that Elisa didn't tell them everything, in the same way that their father hadn't when he was on the force. There had to be a line of separation between home life and being on the job. If you carried it around with you all the time, it would break you down.

But this wasn't just job stuff.

"Oh, Elisa," Beth sighed. "I wish I knew what to say." She slung an arm around her sister and got them both to their feet. "Let's go back to the hotel, shower and change."

Elisa sighed. "Why?"

Beth turned and wiped a stray tear from her sister's face. "Because," She said haughtily, "You, sister dear, reek. You are sweaty, gross, red faced and starting to smell a little. Your eyes are swollen and your nose is runny. And," She smiled encouragingly, "We both know that Goliath would hate to see you like this when he wakes up."

Elisa blinked at Beth. So many people around her, the ones who knew the truth about she and Goliath's situation, had avoided mentioning any kind of certainty of Goliath waking up. To finally hear someone else say it, like they believed it, helped ease some of the pressure in her chest.

Elisa nodded, "Thank you."

"What are sisters for?" Beth asked, her head tilted to the side. "Next time, though," She gave Elisa's arm a pinch, "Wait for me, okay?"

Elisa rubbed her arm where she'd been pinched. "Okay, Beth."

Together, arm in arm, the sisters made their way back to the jogging path, and made their way back to the hotel.