June 9, 1997
Labyrinth
9:00 p.m.
Diane had maybe overdone it, Elisa thought as she looked at the spread of food laid out on the table for Maggie's baby shower.
Everything was tiny. The sandwiches, the desserts in a pastel color theme, and the decor was like a baby store had vomited all over the small space.
"I think mom's going a bit nuts over the thought of a grandchild," Beth said to Elisa under her breath.
"Ya think?" Elisa replied.
They had decided to hold the baby shower in the evening that way Angela, Katana, and Delilah could attend. Coldfire had been invited as well, but she had graciously declined. Although she and Coldstone had returned to the clan, in many ways they kept to themselves and held the others at arm's length, not allowing themselves to get too close. She assumed it was some kind of defense mechanism. What happened to them couldn't be easy to cope with.
"Diane! You shouldn't have gone to so much trouble!" Maggie proclaimed as she entered the small space they used for their gathering. The lithe female carried her pregnancy well, but she was in the home stretch, and she was looking very uncomfortable at this point. Every time she moved she sighed as if pained, and it made Elisa reconsider any desire she had about baring a child herself.
She and Goliath had recently broached the prospect of raising a child together, and it was a topic that continued to come up casually from time to time.
As she watched Maggie, she felt a little envy that she and Talon had been able to conceive without any thought to it at all, but the feeling was drowned out by the fact that her future sister-in-law was facing a very tumultuous and uncertain time in her life.
If she were in Maggie's place, would she have gone through with the pregnancy?
She wasn't so sure she would.
It was an abstract thought, and virtually impossible, but if she and Goliath somehow found themselves in a similar situation what would they do?
It would be a miracle, to say the least, but she shuddered to think of the complications that would occur when they were two different species whose offspring developed in vastly different ways. Thankfully, that was something that could not occur naturally. They'd have to actively pursue something like that via science or magic, and neither of them wanted that...but sometimes...sometimes it still made her a little sad that she would never look down upon the face of their child and see a mixture of themselves reflected back.
"Elisa, would you mind helping with the food?" Diane asked her, knocking her out of her thoughts.
"Sure, Mom," Elisa said as she put on a smile and helped out.
...
...
Goliath arrived at the Maza home and let himself in through the back door rather than loiter in the backyard where he could potentially be seen by a neighbor. He found Peter and Talon already seated at the dining table.
"Hey, Goliath. Glad you could join us. Pull up a chair," Peter said jovially. "You know the rules of poker, right?"
"Aye," he replied as Peter dealt him a hand.
Goliath was a fair hand at poker. They'd often played card games as a clan when the weather was bad in the heart of winter, and they'd hunkered down in the clock tower instead of patrolling. He could often win against the trio, they all had pretty easy tells to read, and poker was essentially a game of reading other people and bluffing.
But against Elisa…that was a different story.
She could bluff better than any of them, and as he played against Peter and Talon, he learned where she had gotten it from.
Talon handed him a bottle of beer, and he took it graciously. He preferred whiskey and scotch to beer, but he wouldn't be impolite and turn his nose up at the offered drink.
They all glanced quietly at their cards. Goliath had never played poker with the two men, and he surreptitiously observed them, listening and watching for shifts in behavior as they played a few rounds. Peter beat them nearly every time, and more drinks were passed around.
They talked amiably for a while about nothing in particular until they started talking about the upcoming wedding, which led to Peter asking Goliath about gargoyle customs.
"Do gargoyles have any kind of wedding ceremonies?" he asked, not looking up from his cards.
"Not really," Goliath replied as he glanced up at him. "At least, my clan does not. There are courtship rituals, ways of impressing your female. Showing how fast or agile you are at gliding, hunting for her and bringing back a large fresh kill, that sort of thing, but we don't have weddings like humans do to formally legitimize a union."
"So, how did you court Elisa, then?" Talon asked. "Did you slap a giant deer carcass on her dining table?"
He laughed at his joke, but Goliath did recall a time when they were traveling around the world via Avalon, and they had arrived at a location with no nearby town for provisions, so he had gone hunting. He had proudly brought back a deer that he had caught and cleaned himself, privately hoping it would impress Elisa, and she had been, but she had also been slightly horrified when she realized he'd done it all with his bare hands.
Gargoyle talons were strong enough to rend steel and stone. Flesh yielded to them like paper.
Peter and Talon would not want to hear that, though.
"Of course not," Goliath replied. "Obviously, courting a human is very different."
"So, what was it then? How did you make Elisa think, this is the one for me?"
His tone was flippant as he spoke, but Goliath also detected a tone of bitterness. One that Peter picked up on as well as he glanced at his son, sending him a warning look to not reopen old wounds.
"My courtship of Elisa was not intentional at first," Goliath replied. "We were only friends for a long time. We fought side by side. Mutual trust was established. Our feelings for each other were something that evolved over time, and then when it became intentional, when we decided to give it a shot, it came down to a matter of time. Time spent together, sharing a meal, talking over a drink, reading to one another."
Peter nodded.
"That's how it was with Diane," he said.
"I thought you said it was love at first sight when you met Mom?" Talon asked.
"Oh, it was. For me," Peter said with a laugh. "When I first met Diane it was like a thunderbolt had struck me. She was beautiful, intelligent, and fierce as hell. I thought she was incredible...but I don't think the feeling was mutual for a while. I won her over eventually with my charm and good looks, though," Peter said, smiling smugly before he took a swig of his beer.
Goliath smiled at the way Peter lit up when he spoke of his wife.
Talon returned three of his cards to Peter, and he dealt him back three.
"So after two gargoyles court, or date, or…whatever," Peter said. "You just decide that's it and glide off into the moonlight?"
Talon chuckled as he looked at his cards.
"You make it sound so trite," Goliath replied, trying not to come off as too defensive, but he was unsure if he actually succeeded.
"When two gargoyles mate," he explained as he passed two cards across the table back to Peter who then dealt him back two. "A bond is formed that unites them for the rest of their lives, persisting even through death. Weddings are an unnecessary ritual when compared to that."
He pondered over the new cards: a five of spades and an eight of hearts. Useless with what he had already.
"I fold," he said as he put his cards down. He was beginning to feel agitated and that was making it harder for him to bluff his way through a bad hand.
"Whatcha got, Derek?" Peter asked.
Talon laid down his hand. Three of a kind.
Peter laid down his hand. A straight.
"God dammit," Talon muttered.
Peter shuffled the deck and dealt again.
"So this bond you spoke of…" Talon said, turning the focus back on what Goliath had said earlier. He had hoped Talon and Peter would want to move on from the topic of conversation, but that didn't appear to be happening.
"Are you bonded to my sister like that?"
Goliath felt like he'd been put under a spotlight, and then he remembered that Peter and Talon were both trained police officers. They were interrogating him whether they realized it or not, trying to press him for any information they could about his relationship with Elisa. Knowing how private his mate was, it was no surprise, but he doubted she would appreciate him divulging details of the intimate nature of their relationship.
Peter took a sip of his drink, his eyes not leaving his. Goliath couldn't lie to them about it just like he couldn't deny it when Nita had cornered him about it. They weren't naive. They just wanted him to admit it.
"Yes," Goliath said, not backing down.
Talon scratched his chin, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Does she know that?" he asked.
"Of course."
"Does it bother you that she's not bonded to you like you are to her?" Talon continued to press.
"No, it is miraculous enough to me that I have her love."
"This bond—or whatever—between gargoyles can't really mean for life, I mean, take you and your ex for example, what is her name again?" Peter asked.
"Demona," Talon offered.
"Yes, Demona."
Goliath made a sour expression at the mention of his former love's name, and he rubbed absentmindedly at the faint scar on the side of his face where her talons had scored his flesh during their last encounter.
"Unless...wait...are you still bonded to her?" Talon said incredulously, his tone dripping with disgust.
Peter narrowed his eyes at Goliath.
"That's a good question," he said.
"No, of course not!" Goliath corrected quickly. "Though the dissolution of my union with Demona was unusual for my kind, it is over, I assure you. I am no longer bonded to her."
Peter nodded, appeased.
"Well, at least you've chosen better this time," Talon added. "Demona is one crazy bitch."
"I've never had the pleasure, but I've heard things," Peter said as he took a pull from his bottle of beer.
"Pray you never do," Goliath replied, his tone cold.
"You know, after having spent extensive time around her when she was confined in the Labyrinth, I can't see what you saw in her, I mean, aside from the fact that she's a stone-cold fox," Talon joked.
Stone-cold fox? He'd have to ask Elisa about that phrase later.
"Demona is not the same gargoyle I knew all those years ago, and frankly…neither am I," Goliath replied.
"I suppose we've all had a crazy ex or two, huh?" Talon commiserated.
"Speak for yourself," Peter replied with an indignant snort. "Now, I'll admit I've sown my share of wild oats, but some of us don't have a dating history that's half the New York phone book."
Talon grinned smugly into his beer.
"I take it you never sowed any wild oats, huh?" Talon said in a way that Goliath knew he did not think that was something to brag about.
"No. Not in that way, at least," Goliath replied.
"So, you didn't fool around with other female gargoyles before you settled down?"
"No," Goliath said, shaking his head.
"Not even a little?"
"No."
"You're telling me, you've only been with two women in your entire life?"
"Yes," Goliath said firmly. "Though that's more than is typical for my kind."
"Huh. I don't know if that's impressive or sad," Talon said with a dismissive shrug.
Goliath couldn't help but feel defensive over Talon's invasive questions. Never before had the number of his intimate partners been so scrutinized. It wasn't a topic of concern for gargoyles. Was this what human men did at bachelor parties? Brag about their sexual conquests? It made him very uncomfortable.
"Considering he's involved with your sister, perhaps it's not such a bad thing that Goliath is biologically wired for monogamy," Peter pointed out.
"Yeah, I suppose," Talon acquiesced. "But Elisa's not a gargoyle. She's not bonded to you. Do you ever wonder if maybe she'll grow tired of you, and…find some other guy? She hasn't had any relationships that lasted long. Maybe there's a reason," Talon snarked.
"I can't say I agree with what you're insinuating about your sister, Derek," Peter chided.
"Elisa's sense of loyalty is one of the things that attracted me to her in the first place. I am not worried about her commitment to me," Goliath said defending his mate's honor.
"Come on. I'm just messin' with ya, Goliath," Talon said jocularly.
"Right. A joke," Goliath sneered, clearly unamused as he gave Talon a level look.
"If you two are done, could we get back to the game, please?" Peter said irritatedly.
"Sure," Talon said as he directed his attention back to his cards.
Goliath tossed back the last dregs of his beer. Sometimes he'd think his relationship with Talon was improving, and then he'd make some kind of casual dig like this that reminded him that he had not quite buried the hatchet, and he wondered if they would ever be on good terms and not just pretending to be.
Talon laid down his cards: a flush.
"Read 'em and weep, boys," Peter said as he laid out his hand: a four of a kind.
"Damn it," Talon said, as he tossed down his cards begrudgingly.
Goliath laid out his cards: a straight flush. It beat both Peter's and talon's hands.
"I'll be damned," Peter said. "This whole time, you seemed like you hardly had any idea what you were doing, and then you come swinging from the sidelines."
Goliath smiled a little smugly to himself.
...
...
"Oh, Elisa, you shouldn't have," Maggie proclaimed as she unwrapped Elisa's gift.
"It's the least I could do, honestly," Elisa replied genuinely.
It wasn't like she and Goliath were going to need a crib anytime soon, but she didn't say that part out loud.
Maggie paused and clutched her abdomen, a pained expression crossed her face.
"Maggie, are you alright?" Diane asked, concerned.
"I...I think it's just Braxton Hicks again," she said dismissively, and then she laughed. "And the baby is punching or kicking me right in the ribs!"
"Oh, God…Maggie...you're bleeding," Beth said, horrified.
"What?" Maggie said as she looked down, and there was a blossoming red stain between her legs. "No…" she said breathlessly. "No, no, no, no, no."
"I'll call the doctor!" Elisa said, and she ran to the phone.
...
...
"That's the phone, hold on, I'll be back in a minute," Peter said as he laid his cards face down on the table.
Talon eyed the cards, debating with himself whether or not to peek. He cast a glance at Goliath who was watching him carefully as if he knew what he was thinking.
"He always wins, I swear he cheats," Talon muttered defensively.
Goliath chucked slightly as he had wondered the same thing.
A moment later, Peter walked back into the room, his face drawn.
"Derek...it's Maggie."
...
...
Dr. Sato arrived ahead of Talon and Goliath, and he met a very frantic father-to-be outside of his chamber door.
"Maggie—" he began.
"She's not in labor," Dr. Sato said quickly. "But she's having fairly significant bleeding, enough to concern me."
"Is the baby alright?" Talon asked, his voice rising with panic.
"The baby is fine for now, I think, but the bleeding Maggie is having could be indicative of a serious problem: placental abruption, a blood clot...I can't say for sure without an ultrasound to verify. For now, I'm putting her on bed rest, and if the bleeding doesn't stop or it gets worse, I may need to do an emergency cesarean."
Goliath listened nearby with his arms folded across his chest, then he silently left without anyone but Elisa noticing.
He knew it was a risk, but he had to help somehow.
"Where are you going?" she asked him.
"To do something I should have done sooner. I'll be back shortly," he said cryptically.
Elisa, having a feeling she knew what he was up to, didn't even try to stand in his way.
...
...
Thirty minutes later, Goliath returned to the Labyrinth.
And he had an ultrasound with him.
"How did you—?" Dr. Sato said with astonishment.
"It is easier to ask forgiveness than it is permission sometimes. I will deal with Xanatos myself if and when he brings it up, but Maggie needs help now, and it is a waste for this machine to just sit in the castle infirmary collecting dust when it could help her."
"Thank you," Dr. Sato replied earnestly.
"I owe you much, Jay. My life...Elisa's life. This is the least I can do," Goliath said sincerely.
...
...
After sitting through an agonizingly silent period while Dr. Sato ran the ultrasound wand over Maggie's belly, they finally heard the distinct whooshing sound of a strong heartbeat, and then the baby kicked, and Maggie gasped as she both felt it and saw it on the monitor.
"Well, that's an immense relief," Dr. Sato said, and Maggie laughed through the tears that filled her eyes. Talon squoze her hand gently.
"Let's take a look at what else is going on," the doctor continued as he moved the wand around her belly. Talon and Maggie sat as patiently as possible as they waited for news of what was causing Maggie's bleeding.
"As far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with the baby aside from some distinct, but not surprising, skeletal abnormalities, like wings for instance," he said with a reassuring grin. "But I have a diagnosis for the bleeding. You have a condition called placenta previa. It's when the placenta partially or completely covers the cervix. The baby has dropped into position for birth, and I think the pressure of his head on the placenta against your cervix is what caused the bleeding."
"His?" Talon asked quietly, his tone almost reverent. "You said his head? The baby's a boy?"
"Oh...oh, god, I am sorry, I just blurted it out without asking first," Dr. Sato muttered, horrified by his unprofessional slip of the tongue.
"It's ok," Maggie said, and a smile spread across her face. "We're having a boy?"
"I believe so, honestly...it was hard to miss," Jay said with a laugh.
Talon held Maggie's hand tighter.
"We're having a son," he said to his fiancée.
For a moment, the danger and risks ahead of them with the impending birth of their child were set aside as they imagined their son.
But the good mood could not last long.
"You need to be prepared for the high likelihood that you will need a c-section," Dr. Sato informed them. "And you should probably be on bed rest for the remainder of your pregnancy to prevent further bleeding."
"What does that mean for the wedding?" Maggie asked.
"I'm hesitant to recommend you go on with it," Dr. Sato said regretfully.
"Maggie, I'm so sorry," Talon said as he watched her eyes well up with fresh tears. "I know it meant a lot to you that we were married before the baby arrived."
"Our baby is already going to be born a monster, I don't want him to be born a bastard, too!" she sobbed.
Talon flinched.
"He isn't any of those things, Maggie. He's our son," he said gently, but firmly.
Maggie was on the verge of losing it. Tears left streaks down her cheeks, matting her fur, and her fingers crackled with electricity.
"I know…I know…I didn't mean it," Maggie sobbed. "I'm just upset and hormonal and scared."
"I will give you two a minute," Dr. Sato said, and he quietly left the room to give them privacy.
"I just don't understand why things can't go right for a change!" Maggie lamented.
"We can still get married, Maggie. Ignore what Dr. Sato said. I'll marry you lying in a bed if I must! I'll do it tomorrow! We have the license, Father Byrne will be here tomorrow anyways for his weekly visit, and I know my family would be here in a heartbeat if we told them. We can make it work."
Maggie leaned into Talon, their hands clasped together.
"I'm just so tired, Derek," she said on a sob, "and scared."
"Don't worry, Maggie. I've got you. I've always got you," he said, comforting her.
...
...
Shari slipped from the Labyrinth and made a very late night call to a disgruntled scientist who had been sleeping. "If you plan to extract Maggie from the Labyrinth, you better do it soon. It sounds like there are complications," Shari said into the pay phone on the street.
"It's taken a lot longer than I anticipated to construct the proper facilities we need, but they're ready for mother and child. Is the extraction team ready?" Sevarius asked.
"Yes," Shari replied.
"Then we'll do it tomorrow."
"I'll make sure everything is ready."
Then she hung up and left to prepare for the next day.
...
...
After some discussion with the rest of the family, it was agreed that the wedding would go on.
They would forgo celebrating afterwards, and Peter would "walk" Maggie down the aisle with the aid of a wheelchair. It had been a very long night full of preparations for the next day, and it was nearly dawn by the time Goliath took Elisa home.
"I'll meet you at the Labyrinth tomorrow evening?" Goliath said to Elisa as he set her down on the roof of her building
"Yeah, I'm glad they've found a way to accommodate Maggie's condition," Elisa replied as he held her in his arms, reluctant to let her go. It was pleasantly cool, and he just wished the dawn could wait a while, and they could put off their separation a little longer.
"It cannot be easy, all they are dealing with, the fear and uncertainty...I know some of what they are going through," Goliath said sympathetically.
Elisa tilted her head to the side.
"What do you mean?"
Goliath looked away momentarily as he conjured up memories he long tried to banish, then he looked back at her.
"There are things from my past I try not to dwell on, but at times, they come up, reminders of my life before...with Demona. I do not like to talk of my life with her when I am with you," he replied.
Elisa put her hands comfortingly on his chest.
"I am not a fan of Demona, but I am of you," she said with a soft smile. "You shared a life together with her, years that are a part of you, part of the gargoyle I love. If you don't want to talk about it with me for your own sake, that's fine, but if you don't want to discuss it because you're worried it will hurt my feelings somehow, then you don't need to worry. I'm a lot tougher and more secure in my relationship with you than that."
Goliath considered her words for a moment, then he inhaled deeply and began to tell her of a night long ago.
"Although egg laying is a lot less complicated than childbirth, it is not without its perils. When Demona was delivering the egg that was Angela...there was a complication. Egg bound is the term we use for when the egg is unable to pass. She was losing too much blood, and we feared she wouldn't make it to dawn. It was suggested that we break the egg to save her life, a tragic but sometimes necessary procedure when this happens, but Demona would not allow it. Eventually the egg came, but it was a near thing. It was a very harrowing experience. There are few times in my life I have felt such helplessness, the night I stood vigil outside your hospital room when you had been shot, being one of them."
Elisa gently ran her fingers through the ends of a lock of his hair in a way she knew was comforting to him.
"I'm sorry," she said sympathetically.
"It's in the past," Goliath said, shaking his head. "Though there are times...when I consider the amount of death and destruction she has caused over the centuries, a part of me...an ashamed part of me, wishes that she had perished that night. The world would have been better off."
"That's a fairly understandable way to feel, Goliath," Elisa said compassionately as she put her hand on his cheek.
"But if she had perished…I would not have met you," Goliath said tenderly as he put his hand over hers.
The thing he held most dear in his life, the love he shared with Elisa, had been born out of the worst thing to happen to him. Sometimes it was hard for him to reconcile the two. Without Demona's betrayal, the massacre, and the spell that made him and his clan sleep for a millennium, he never would have known Elisa, and he never would have fallen in love with her. A love that was so vast and deep and all-consuming, that it left him awed at times.
Elisa seemed to read his thoughts, and she stood on the tip of her toes, tilting her face up to his, and he leaned down and kissed her. For a time, Goliath pushed all other thoughts aside and focused solely on how good her mouth, her lips and tongue, felt against his.
"I should go," he said, reluctantly parting as the unstoppable dawn crept closer.
Elisa stroked his hair with a suggestive look in her eyes.
"Or...you could come in."
After some reconsidering, Beth had decided to stay at her parents after all, and was no longer a presence to be concerned about, but morning was not long off.
"It will be dawn soon," Goliath pointed out.
"Then we'll just have to be quick won't we."
Elisa stepped away from him and walked into her apartment where she proceeded to strip off her clothing piece by piece as she made her way back towards her bedroom, leaving a trail of clothing like breadcrumbs to follow her.
Goliath didn't need any more convincing than that, and he quickly followed her, completely disregarding the time.
Elisa had stripped off the last article of clothing by the time he caught up to her. He had just the one article of clothing which he eagerly doffed long before her bedroom. She was facing away from him, so he caught her hand in his and gently turned her around and took her in his arms. His mouth found hers once more, and she released a pleased little sigh.
There was something to be said about the way humans preferred to make love, Goliath thought. For gargoyles, mating was often done on the wing while gliding. Chest to back, tails entwined for stability and security, riding the currents in waves to enhance the pleasure. That wasn't to say mating on the ground was unusual, but it was still often from behind, not face to face. When he made love to Elisa, she preferred facing him, and he was quite shocked with how intense it was to look her in the eye while mating the first time. Now he was accustomed to it, thrilled by it, really. He enjoyed the added intimacy and the ability to watch her facial expressions when he touched her.
He backed her up against the bed and she fell back on top of it as soon as the backs of her knees hit the mattress. He moved on top of her, and she eagerly embraced him, pulling him down to her, kissing him hungrily as he positioned himself between her legs. She drew up her knees alongside him and let her legs fall open, inviting him, and he eagerly accepted.
She sighed in that breathy pleased way of hers that he loved so much as he joined their flesh, and he reveled in the wet heat of her embrace.
"Gods," Goliath groaned, still finding amazement and awe in their union.
They quickly found their rhythm, moving together. Elisa's hands delved into his hair, roughly dragging her fingers along his scalp, trailing her hands through the strands before making her way to his wings.
Goliath sucked in a sharp breath through his clenched teeth at her touch. His mouth found her breast, and this time, it was Elisa who gasped, and then the gasp turned into a needy moan.
"You feel so good," she sighed as she moved her hands down his back to his hips and the base of his tail, feeling his muscles flexing beneath her hands. His tail wrapped around her leg, undulating against her, the tip sliding up her thigh until it reached the bud of nerves at her center and caressed it.
She lost herself in the sensation of him moving within her. He was a force of nature, like making love to a storm or a mountain, she mused. Her own personal mountain she loved to conquer over and over and over again.
The sweet ache between her thighs and low in her abdomen was building. That delicious tension before her nerves exploded in a riot of sensation and her body contracted in waves of pleasure.
"I'm close…" Elisa groaned, and she arched her back. She gripped Goliath's wings roughly, eliciting an erotic snarl from him.
And then he suddenly withdrew from her with a growl of frustration. The sudden absence of his weight and body heat made her gasp in shock. He rolled quickly off the side of the bed, landing on all fours, then he looked up at her, his eyes blazing white with lust before the light suddenly died as he turned to stone.
Elisa stared at him in confusion for several seconds before she noticed sunlight peeking through her bedroom window.
"Oh."
She groaned with frustration and fell back onto the bed.
"Fuck."