The Other Parent
By Princess Alexandria
has other stories that can't be posted here.
Email: princess_alex24@hotmail.com
Alternate Universe Fiction7 months and three weeks after conception
Demona stared down into the skylight and noticed the boxes already packed. Didn't that human understand anything about rest? Demona's eyes burned for a moment as she watched Elisa pulling a chair over to the kitchen cabinets to start pulling the dishes off the top shelf so that she could pack them. She could have easily went inside and insisted that Elisa let her take care of that, but the detective had been very vocal about not caring for Demona's coddling anymore. As if Demona was coddling the woman, she was just trying to make sure that Elisa didn't get hurt… didn't damage the hatchling.
Demona had lived outside of human society for her long life, but she'd seen many women and children die during childbirth. She'd seen many human females have to bury their offspring before the baby had taken its first breath, and most often it had been the woman's own labors that caused that. Live born creatures were all so fragile. Demona didn't want to lose them… the hatchling, she didn't want to lose the hatchling.
She sat down on the rooftop to watch, not really feeling like having a conversation. Elisa didn't like when she did that, but that was just too bad. Demona wasn't the detective's lap dog like Goliath. She didn't just bow before the woman's feet and do what she was told like some sort of pet. She'd just stay here and make sure Elisa didn't push herself too far. The detective had a habit of thinking she could do anything.
The gargoyle tilted her head and smiled at the detective when Elisa grinned wickedly and tossed a particularly ugly plate at the wall, watching it shatter with a smile of joy on her face. She actually chuckled at the fake look of dismay as it's twin hit the wall as well. Those plates must have plagued the detective's cupboards for a long time for Elisa to take such joy in their demise.
Elisa continued to pull the other plates down without tossing them to their doom, her moment of destructive playfulness over. Demona missed it. That look was so rare on Elisa, she'd been so serious since she found out about the pregnancy.
Dishes and glasses were packed away carefully, even though Elisa had mentioned that she wouldn't need them where she was going. Her brother was going to be getting them since he was getting a house soon. Demona sighed as she watched Elisa pack. This was bothering the detective far more than she let on. Elisa liked her independence, and living with the clan was going to be hard on her.
Demona smirked. Of course living with the clan would show Elisa all of Goliath's flaws. Somehow the gargoyle had managed to be on his best behavior around the detective, but he couldn't do it every night all night. If there had ever been a hope of those two getting together, this pregnancy and the subsequent overbearing and demanding attitude that Goliath was bound to exhibit would stop that. Elisa wasn't any more likely to care for Goliath's attitude than Demona had, and with a hatchling in her care already, Elisa may turn into a real wildcat if he pushed her. Demona hoped he pushed Elisa. The thought of her human taking Goliath down several pegs was so delicious. He always took the idea that the clan leader made decisions about the hatchlings too far. Then the clan didn't know which hatchling was theirs, but that tradition was dead now. Angela and the other two females were very aware of which egg they had laid, and Delilah was hers. The smirk faded from Demona's lips as her fist clenched. Delilah was hers, and god help the clan if they tried to keep her from this daughter!
Elisa stepped off the chair and Demona released a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding as the detective's feet hit firm ground. Safe.
The detective was a bit of a puzzle to Demona. Elisa had agreed to let her into her new daughter's life when the male she'd been mated to for years denied her right to be with Angela. Even beyond that, she'd heard that same detective talking to Goliath in Paris. She'd been stunned when Elisa and Goliath talked about Angela being her daughter. The idea that she had a daughter, and she was alive had filled Demona with joy while she hid in the shadows to listen in to the animated discussion between her ex-mate and Elisa. That joy had been tainted when Goliath refused to tell Angela about her. It turned to surprise when Elisa argued that Angela had a right to know, and that perhaps Angela should be introduced to Demona. Elisa gave the reasoning that if Demona knew Angela was her daughter, she wouldn't attack her. That was very insightful, because before she'd even set eyes on the young lavender female, Demona had loved her for merely existing. She would have stayed longer to listen to Elisa's very vocal protest to Goliath's decision to never tell, but the sun was going to rise and she needed to get out of range from MacBeth so that he wouldn't feel her pain.
Months later she'd managed to get a spy inside Xanatos Enterprises. He'd gotten several surveillance videos to her and she made sure that he hadn't viewed them. If he had, she would have killed him. He was untrustworthy, all humans were untrustworthy. She couldn't have him knowing that Angela lived there.
She was shocked at what the tapes showed her. Elisa was still arguing on her behalf. She had several tapes of Elisa standing up to Goliath and trying to get him to see reason, trying to get him to allow Angela to visit with Demona. Her heart ached when she also saw Elisa comforting her daughter after the clan had been telling the young female lies about Demona, and completely ignoring the fact that it was Goliath's blind trust in humans that had killed the clan. She'd watched with her jaw hanging open as Elisa told Angela that the clan was wrong about Demona, and that Demona wasn't a monster. Elisa told Angela that her mother was so much more than the clan was willing to see, and wouldn't listen to her when she tried to point that out. That Demona's hatred wasn't absolute and that her ability to love wasn't dead, that Demona loved Angela very much and the female should never doubt that.
Demona watched the detective in the kitchen carefully wrapping the dishes before putting them in the box and shook her head lightly from side to side. Elisa defied description. Demona had tried several times to find the detective's human failings, like they all had. She'd spied on the detective often ever since Goliath had chosen to save the human rather than his own mate, and she couldn't count the number of times she'd sat on this rooftop in the past few years trying to understand how this human could be so different from the rest of them.
The sound of wings traveled to her and Demona tensed as she looked up to see Angela smirking at her while she glided overhead. The young female continued on her patrol without stopping to talk but that look on Angela's face made Demona grimace. It's the same look Angela got every time she caught Demona here. Angela obviously thought that there was more to Demona's feelings than there were. Demona turned to stare into the kitchen again. She was just protecting what was hers. Elisa was so very careless with her safety. Delilah needed someone to watch out for her human mother.
8 months after conception
Demona glanced at the clock for the fifth time in the past hour, and almost growled at how slowly it was moving. She picked up her pen and started to sign all the forms that her secretary gave her. In spite of her impatience, she knew better than to sign without reading each one carefully. Carrie hadn't made any mistakes yet, but Demona wasn't willing to risk signing something that would come back to haunt her. The last paper on the pile surprised her.
She carried that paper out to the lobby to ask about it. "Carrie, you requested some time off during reports week." That was the week each month that Demona dedicated to meetings with her department heads and reading all the reports on how things were running. It was strictly forbidden for her secretary to request that week off and she knew it.
Carrie looked a little nervous as she looked up at Demona. "My ex-husband is taking a vacation and agreed to let me have my son for that week."
Demona went quiet as she heard more about Carrie's personal life than she had in the past five months that she worked here. She didn't even know that Carrie was a mother. She didn't care to know about her employees personal lives, she wanted them to leave that at home and not bother her with it. She stared at Carrie and could see the young woman flinch just a little. "I don't get to see Nathan very often. His father moved him to New Jersey and I couldn't leave New York."
"He just moved your son away from you without even considering this?" Demona found herself asking, rather than snapping that it wasn't her concern.
Carrie seemed to relax a little bit. She didn't have the deer in headlights look anymore. "We didn't split on the best of circumstances. He barely keeps the court ordered visitations. I hardly ever get to see Nathan at all. Just a weekend a month, and I have to go to New Jersey and stay at a hotel to do that. He probably figured moving that far away would keep me from being able to do that, or that I'd get tired of the drive." Carrie sighed and Demona leaned against the file cabinet.
"Fine, one week, but you need to find a replacement for the front desk." Her eyes narrowed. "A good replacement." She really shouldn't let Carrie have that time. She needed the woman here. Surely Carrie could find a babysitter for that time. She signed the request and handed it to Carrie.
"Thank you Ms. Destine." Carrie sounded so relieved. Demona just nodded and moved to go back to her desk to wait for Elisa. She'd spent the past week making the mansion look more kid friendly and was now going to show Elisa where she lived. She wanted Elisa to feel comfortable bringing Delilah to stay with Demona, to maybe let her have a week once in a while.
Elisa got there at a little before five. Demona was ready to leave and the drive to the mansion was quiet. Demona could see that Elisa was tired. "You've been working too hard packing and moving haven't you?" Demona glared at Elisa while they sat at the stoplight.
The detective sighed. "No, I didn't push myself too hard. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Demona had to start driving, but she kept glancing over at Elisa when she could. "I left when the movers got there. I should have all of my stuff moved by the time I get back to the castle." Elisa sounded a bit defeated and Demona could bet on what kept the detective up all night. Elisa hated to depend on others, and this move was going against everything that she wanted for herself. She was asked to move into that castle several times, but hadn't because she liked her privacy and liked not owing Xanatos. This was a big bruise to her pride and Demona actually felt a little bad for Elisa. She was only doing this to keep their daughter safe. The detective was making large sacrifices to do that, and while Demona did feel some sympathy with that, knowing that Elisa was willing to protect Delilah and put their daughter's needs first made her feel better about having gotten this particular human pregnant. As if she would have let any other human touch her. Demona grimaced at the turn her thoughts had made. She tried to not think about that night. The moon had hit her harder than normal, and made her do something incredibly stupid. The idea that she'd mated… No, bred… with this human still stunned her.
Demona smirked when she noticed Elisa's eyes go a little wider as they drove up the driveway to the mansion. The detective had never seen Demona's home, and the gargoyle knew that it was impressive by human standards. That was foremost in her mind when purchasing it. It was fitting for a CEO of a large corporation.
Demona had shown Elisa the entire downstairs, and was now covering the upstairs part of the tour. She felt her heart pounding a little faster as she neared the last room on the tour. She glanced over at Elisa and noticed the detective admiring the paintings on the walls. "I bought a few things." Demona started as she pushed the door opened to reveal the other part of what she'd spent the last week doing. The walls were a soft pink, with various stuffed animals adorning the tables and dressers. Demona had seen the room before but started to look at it as if for the first time. She grimaced at the cutesy drapes and the Mickey Mouse mobile above the crib, suddenly feeling embarrassed for buying such things. She turned to glance at Elisa and noticed the detective's shock and pleased expression and decided that she hadn't done too badly after all. "For when she visits." Demona spoke softly while watching Elisa step into the room and pick up the stuffed dog laying in the crib in place of an actual hatchling.
"It's beautiful." Elisa's smile was so… Demona had to drag her eyes away from the detective to glance around the room again.
"Well, shall we go have dinner?" Demona felt the need to do something, to get away from Elisa's constant stare. "I ordered Chinese, but it needs to be reheated."
"Sounds good, but lead the way." Elisa set the dog back under the blanket. "This place is too huge, I'll get lost." Demona seriously doubted that. Elisa probably had the entire place memorized by now. The detective was pretty smart about knowing all the exits and potential danger spots of a place. She'd seen Elisa in action, and the human was a warrior at heart. A warrior learned her environments fast, to be better able to protect themselves.
After a pleasant dinner with conversation Demona was almost ready to invite Elisa over for the next night. She stopped herself. Elisa had unpacking to do, and she had to settle in with the clan. Their days of spontaneous visits were over. Demona knew that if she tried to stop by the castle she'd get shot out of the sky. It was ridiculous to visit so much with the human now anyhow. She was just spending so much time with Elisa so that Elisa didn't get hurt, but Angela would make sure nothing happened to the detective now. She was free to spend her evenings doing other things. That was a good thing. Her studies in magic had suffered in these past few months while she watched over the danger prone detective, and she really needed to get back to it. She also hadn't done any surprise evaluations of any of her departments, and couldn't let them think that she was getting soft.
The thought of magic made her think of something. "I'd like to teach Delilah magic when she's old enough." Demona started while watching Elisa's discomfort at the idea. Delilah was Demona's daughter too, and she had the right to teach her the skills she'd need to be able to survive. Demona's eyes narrowed as she waited for the human to dictate how she could and couldn't interact with her own daughter.
Elisa took a deep breath, "I'd like for her to have a choice in the matter. If she is old enough, and wants to know…" Elisa seemed really uncomfortable with the idea, but Demona was seeing that the human wasn't dismissing the idea right away like Goliath would have for Angela, like she assumed the detective would have done. "I know you wouldn't teach her anything that would put her in danger, but I'm still worried. I don't know anything about magic. I'm not really equipped to…"
Demona took pity on Elisa's fish out of water expression. "The first several years of training would just be learning Latin. I wouldn't start actual spells until she's old enough to understand magic isn't a toy."
"Oh, well good." Elisa slumped a little and Demona suddenly realized how tense that conversation made the detective. Perhaps the more serious conversations about raising Delilah could wait until the hatchling was born. Stress might be bad for an expectant mother.
