Elisa opened her eyes and stared uncomprehendingly at the blinding white tiles of the clinic.
It was sad that she knew the ceiling pattern so well that she could identify where she was, but she was a bit of a "frequent flyer" here.
Elisa pushed herself up to a sitting position, letting out a groan as her muscles protested.
The door opened and a concerned Doctor James walked in.
"Hey doc," Elisa said on the tail end of the groan as she finally managed to a sitting position on the side of the bed.
"Hey, yourself," he answered. "How are you feeling?"
"Stiff and sore," Elisa said, "Like I just went a few extra rounds in karate class."
The doctor gave a thoughtful hum and slowly approached the bed.
"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but," Elisa gestured to the room, "it's never a good thing when I wake up in here."
The doctor grimaced, and sat on a small wheeled chair that had been in the corner. Using his legs, he scooted the chair to the bedside. "What do you remember?"
"Remember?" Elisa repeated, then frowned in concentration. "I went to bed, and… Liam and Nayeli woke me up… Goliath!" Elisa cried, jumping to her feet. "God, Goliath! The clan! Are they…" Elisa choked up, unable to finish the question.
"They're fine, Elisa," Doctor James said, holding his hands up as if to keep her from dashing from the room. "They're all fine. I promise you."
"But…" Elisa began.
"What do you remember?" He asked again.
Elisa took a breath to try to calm the racing of her heart. "Liam and Nayeli. They came and woke me up. They said Apate was here, so I went to find her. I found Alex…" She looked at the doctor for confirmation.
"Alexander is perfectly fine," he said with a nod. "Go on."
"Okay," Elisa said. "Okay. I found Alexander. He was hurt, unconscious. I closed the door to the room he was in to try to keep him hidden. In the courtyard, there was… shattered gargoyle pieces. Apate had…" One more breath, and Elisa sank back down on the bed. "It was a dream again, wasn't it?"
"Yes," the doctor said, getting to his feet. He approached Elisa, took her wrist and mentally recorded her pulse rate. He would do another check on her, he would insist on it even though he knew she'd bitch and moan about it. "You were spotted roaming the castle. It wouldn't have been so suspicious, but even though your eyes were open, you were unresponsive. Christopher found you first, called your name, then went to alert everyone that something was wrong. I joined the search about the time that they found you, standing against the wall of the top tower. Then you suddenly took off running, and practically leapt from the edge. Mr. Xanatos caught you around the waist, practically in mid-air, and hauled you back. After the last time, with the elevator incident," he clarified, as there were a lot of "last times" where Elisa was concerned, "I came prepared with my medical bag. When you began fighting us, I gave you a sedative and we brought you down here."
Elisa closed her eyes. "I am so sorry."
"No need to apologize to me," the doctor said, a mischievous gleam in his eyes, "However, you may want to extend that apology to Mr. Xanatos when you see him next."
Elisa frowned, "Why?" she asked slowly.
"You'll see," he said with a tired grin. "It's still a few hours before sunset. Would you like to stay here and get some more rest or…"
"I need to go to the castle," Elisa said, cutting the doctor off.
"…or would you like to go to the castle and finish sleeping off the sedative," he finished with a sigh.
Elisa paused. "Doc, I… I need to be able to sleep, to talk to Pandora, but if Apate is there as well…"
"I can give you sleeping medication," he said hesitantly. "The kind that will blank you out, leaves your mind free of dreams, or at least none that you will remember, but if you need to sleep…"
"Yeah," Elisa said. "Darned if I do and darned if I don't. It's almost over, though," she finished.
Doctor James nodded, began running Elisa through the standard testing, and fervently hoped that all of this was, indeed, almost over.