Note: This chapter takes place after issue #5 "Bash."

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November 1, 1996
Early Morning
Elisa's Loft

Elisa dragged her bloody and bruised body home, but she wasn't sure how.

She remembered getting behind the wheel of her car, but she did not recall the entire drive over to her apartment, and that terrified her. She could have hurt herself or, even worse, someone else in her exhausted state.

She tried to hang up her jacket on the coat rack by the door, and after three tries, it finally made it on the hook. She looked down at her hands. Her body. She had tried to scrub Goliath's blood off of her earlier, but she had done a hasty job, and some of it had seeped into her joints, the cracks and folds of her skin, and her clothing where it had dried. She started to shake and she fell to her knees. Her heart was starting to race, and she was finding it harder to catch her breath.

She tried to stand up, but it felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest. Her heart was pounding so hard now that she could actually hear it, and there was a rushing in her ears like she had stuck her head in a river, like when she had been knocked off that dam, just a few days ago. She remembered the impact of hitting the water. The cold. Being unable to reach the surface for air.

Her chest felt tight.

She couldn't breathe.

She panicked for a moment before she remembered she was not underwater but safe in her home, and she forced herself to take a ragged, gasping breath of air.

She had survived, but she almost lost Goliath tonight.

He almost died.

He almost died.

He almost died.

Oh God!

Goliath had lost so much blood. Even with Dr. Sato there to help, it had been touch-and-go. He'd eventually lost consciousness, and by dawn, his pulse had grown so thready and weak that both the doctor and Elisa were unsure whether or not he would make it. She had sat by him all night, holding his hand, pleading with him over and over to stay with her, to not leave her.

She had never felt more relieved to see him turn to stone.

When she had broken up with him, she thought he would still be in her life as a friend, but the thought of him not being in her life at all…

She started to hyperventilate at the thought, and a ragged sob escaped her lips. She managed to get a few more shuddering breaths in and crawled over to the phone and dialed a number, hoping it wasn't too early.

"Hello?" her mother's voice said sleepily.

Tears flowed from Elisa's eyes, and she couldn't speak for a moment. She kept so much about her life away from her parents, from her mother especially, but right now the sound of her mother's voice threw her back to being a child who had fallen down and scraped her knee, and she wanted nothing more than to be soothed and comforted by her.

"Hello?" Diane asked again. "Who is this?"

"Mom?" Elisa whimpered into the phone, her voice breaking.

"Elisa, honey, is that you?" her mom replied instantly alert and concerned.

"Yeah, it's me," Elisa sobbed.

"What's wrong? What's happened?" Diane demanded, her voice rising with panic. She heard her father say something sleepily in the background. She could picture her mother sitting up in bed, her silk headscarf on, clutching her nightgown to her breast.

"I don't even know where to begin. Everything is just such a mess right now!" Elisa managed to say. She hiccuped into the phone as huge wracking sobs shook her.

"Hold tight, honey. I'm comin' over."

Elisa didn't even have the breath to protest. She ended the call and dropped the phone before she curled up into a ball on the floor.

...

...

Her mother found her like that, covered in blood and lying in a fetal position on the floor. She screamed, and picked up the phone to dial 911.

"It's not my blood, Mom," Elisa protested weakly.

"Good lord, Elisa! Whose blood is it then?! What on earth happened?!"

"He almost died," Elisa whimpered. "Oh, God, I broke his heart, and then he almost died!"

Elisa was starting to hyperventilate again.

Diane held her in her arms as she started to cry hysterically, and she stroked her hair as Elisa got her breathing under control. After a while she started to calm down, and her mother helped her to her feet.

"We should get you cleaned up," she said as she led her to her bathroom.

She got the shower running and offered to help, but Elisa insisted she would be ok, and while she got herself cleaned up, Diane made tea.

Elisa washed away Goliath's blood, and she scrubbed herself until she was nearly raw, but she felt much improved once she was clean and sitting in her white fluffy robe sipping chamomile tea.

"So, what happened last night?" Diane asked gently.

Elisa told her about the Halloween party, how Thailog had stabbed Goliath and nearly killed him, and then as if someone were taking a sledgehammer to her psyche, cracks formed and then the whole thing came tumbling down, and she unleashed a slew of struggles and events that had occurred recently in her life, starting with what happened with the Hunters.

"You fell off a dam?!" Diane shrieked.

"This is why I don't tell you these things, Mom, because I know you don't like it when I put myself in danger."

"Of course I don't!" Diane said angrily, almost hysterically. "You're my child! I gave birth to you! I spent years of my life actively keeping you alive, and now you're throwing yourself off of dams?!"

"I was knocked off."

"Whatever!" Diane said throwing up her hands.

"I can't just stand by and do nothing when my friends are in danger, Mom!" Elisa said defensively.

Diane sighed heavily.

"Well…obviously you survived," she acquiesced begrudgingly. "Have you seen a doctor?"

"No, but I'm fine."

"God, you're just like your father," Diane mumbled as she sipped her tea.

Elisa shrugged one shoulder, a gesture her father often made as well, and it almost made Diane smile if it didn't also infuriate her.

"So, what happened after that?" she prodded.

Elisa explained the rest of the events. Her parents, along with every other New Yorker, were aware of the 23rd precinct bombing and the fight at the cathedral, but no one knew the whole truth. So, she explained about Demona, the virus, and Goliath putting himself and the rest of the gargoyle race in harm's way in order to protect all of humanity.

"Lord in Heaven," Diane muttered. "To think we all came so close...Thank God for Goliath's quick thinking. He's a very brave soul."

"Yeah…he's pretty incredible," Elisa said quietly.

Diane observed her warily as a strong sense of foreboding fell upon her. For a moment she debated not saying anything. If she didn't, they could keep on pretending that everything was normal…or at least as normal as things ever got for Elisa, but she couldn't leave it alone. She was her daughter, after all.

"When we were in Africa…I sensed a very strong bond between you and Goliath. Your father expressed as much after spending time with you in Arizona…" She put her hand over Elisa's. "You're in love with him. Aren't you."

Elisa met her mother's gaze. She had the most beautiful gray eyes that conveyed her mood. They were soft and serene when happy, but as dangerous as a thunderstorm when provoked. Right now, they were the color of an overcast sea and just as sorrowful. She looked away, unable to meet her mother's gaze anymore, and she nodded.

The cat was out of the bag now.

Diane sighed heavily.

"Does he know?" she asked gently.

Elisa nodded again.

"After everything that happened with the Hunters, I finally told him how I felt…and I kissed him," Elisa admitted.

Diane released a long slow breath.

"And he loves you, that much is obvious," Diane responded, her tone bittersweet. "But what did you mean earlier when you said you had broken his heart?"

"When did I say that?" Elisa asked confused.

"When I first got here. You said you almost lost him and that you had broken his heart. I wasn't sure who you were talking about at the time, but you were talking about Goliath, weren't you?"

"I…I broke up with him…earlier tonight. I had…doubts. I thought we couldn't make it work because being with him would require sacrifices I didn't think I could make."

"Like having a family of your own?" Diane said gently.

"Yeah, among other things, but that was a big one."

"What about Goliath? How did he take it?"

"Not well. I hurt him pretty deeply."

"I'm sure he would understand eventually, honey, all things considered."

Elisa shook her head emphatically.

"Love for him is…well, it's all or nothing. When Goliath's relationship with Demona ended, it was hard on him. Really hard. It doesn't matter that ending it was valid and warranted, gargoyles don't divorce. It's not really a concept to them. They mate for life, and even if their mate dies…that's it, they usually don't take another one. So even after everything he had been through, Goliath fell in love again…with me. A human. It's not just unheard of, it's a god damn miracle!"

"So, what does that mean for you now?" Diane asked warily.

"It means, that when I thought I was watching him die, I realized that everything else, marriage, a house in the 'burbs, and kids…none of that matters if it means I have to live my life without him. I love him, Mom. I love him more than anything."

Diane gripped Elisa's hands tightly as if to drive her point home and looked her directly in the eye.

"But is love enough?" she asked.

"He's the world to me," Elisa said with quiet certainty. "It'll have to be."

But Diane soldiered on.

"What kind of life can you even hope to have together? You would have to keep your relationship with him secret, and what about—" Diane lowered her voice to a near whisper. "intimacy? My word, I don't know how it would even be possible!"

Elisa blushed. She had thought about it. A lot. But she really did not want to talk about it with her mother.

"I don't know," she said dismissively. "But I trust Goliath with my life, Mom. He would never hurt me."

Diane sighed and then laughed lightly.

"I knew it would take a rare man indeed to make you want to settle down. Never would have guessed he wouldn't actually be a man."

Elisa laughed, and Diane reached out and cupped her daughter's cheek tenderly.

"You've always marched to the beat of your own drum, and I realize you have to live your life the way you see fit. My hope is that you do not come to regret the sacrifices a relationship with Goliath will require and come to resent him for it, but so long as you are happy, then I will try to be happy for you."

Elisa wrapped her arms around her mother.

"Thanks, Mom," she said.

"I love you, Elisa. Nothing will ever change that."

"I love you, too."

They held each other for a while. Diane reveled in the fact that her daughter confided in her for once, and Elisa was just relieved that revealing her relationship to her mother had not caused the woman to have a heart attack.

"This isn't something I can keep from your father, you know. I shouldn't keep it from him. You need to tell him, too, and the sooner the better," Diane said eventually.

Elisa cringed.

"You wouldn't want to do it for me, would you?" she said hopefully.

"Not on your life," Diane scoffed.

"Damn."